Chapter 15

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Chapter 15: Resurrection Overture (XV)

{cw: misgendering, brief mention of violent transmisogyny}

“Good afternoon.”

When the exhausted Qi Leren dragged his heavy feet out of the basement, he saw at a glance the Illusionist sitting at the round table playing cards with Chen Baiqi and Sissi. The silver chips were piled high in front of him. Sissi looked unlucky and looked aggrieved. The Illusionist, who had won the game and was in a good mood, greeted Qi Leren with a smile.

Obviously, Qi Leren didn’t want to see him—ever since he’d witnessed this crossdresser peeing in the men’s room, he would see the Illusionist here with Chen Baiqi every other day. He was keen on changing his style every time he was a woman, and he often looked different, which directly led Qi Leren to be vigilant when he met strange women here in Chen Baiqi’s home, because sometimes the Illusionist would play tricks on him.

Once, when he’d heard the Illusionist’s voice coming from the front hall, Qi Leren had gone to another door without hesitation, but when he’d pushed open the ordinary hall door, he found that there was a T-rex more than ten meters tall outside, roaring ferociously at him! Amidst the earth-shattering roar, Qi Leren, who screamed in front of the T-rex, was really scared ! he would wet himselfHowever, the initiator laughed wildly and proudly discussed with Chen Baiqi how important fear education was to exercise players’ psychological quality.

Qi Leren was fed up! One day he would rip off this person’s clothes in public and throw his chest pad in front of stunned passers-by!

“Do you want to play cards together?” invited the Illusionist.

“I do not,” Qi Leren refused.

“Come on, let’s play together, maybe you can win,” the Illusionist said.

“Yes gege, let’s play cards together,” Sissi also said.

If you play cards, you can stop training, right? The idea of slacking off welled up in Qi Leren’s mind. He swallowed saliva and suddenly found himself unable to get rid of this attractive idea.

It seemed like he had been lucky recently. Maybe he could have a try.

So he secretly took a look at Chen Baiqi, and she shrugged her shoulders casually.

“Well, I’ll play too,” Qi Leren acquiesced and sat down at the round table. “What card game are you playing?”

“Bullfighting, no technical components, it depends on luck.”

Qi Leren felt that this was simple, so he rubbed his hands confidently: “What are you betting with?”

“With the NPC’s currency, you can exchange it for remaining survival time. I’ll lend some to you first.” Chen Baiqi pushed a stack of chips made of exquisite silver coins, which were usually used by humans in the Nightmare World.

“Then let’s continue.” The Illusionist shuffled the cards skillfully and gave the three people a wink.

……

……

……

The initial expectation was shattered in the face of cruel reality. The first round had no cows, but Qi Leren could comfort himself. This was just an accident. The second one, the third one, the fourth one… Qi Leren finally recognized reality and gave birth to the realistic feeling of “Hehe, it is still E level luck”.

In just ten minutes, Qi Leren, who had lost all his chips and owed Chen Baiqi seventy-two silver coins, looked at these rotten cards in his hands and found that they were rubbish. It was rubbish. The cows couldn’t gather together, so he had to kneel again!

When he looked up and found that all three people were looking at him curiously, the expression written on their faces all saying: I really want to know how bad your hand can be.

“I quit.” As soon as Qi Leren threw down the cards, he collapsed on the chair and choked. “I’m going to train.”

Chen Baiqi smiled. “It seems that you’ve had enough rest both physically and mentally. Practice for one hour today.”

On his way to the basement, the traumatized Qi Leren suddenly realized that he was paying off the debt of seventy-two silver coins by training himself for an hour?

Behind him came the cheerful voice of the Illusionist: “Oh, I won a lot today.”

Sissi was also very happy: “I lost a lot, but Qi Leren lost some to me, so it evened out.”

Chen Baiqi was also very happy: “I didn’t lose or win with the cards, but I earned 72 silver from Qi Leren.”

While Qi Leren, who had become the only loser: Was I set up???

&&&

When Qi Leren came home that day, Du Yue happened to be there. Recently, this young man often brought his own ingredients to Dr. Lu for a meal. Dr. Lu liked him very much, and Qi Leren was familiar with him. It felt good to hear the news of his novel interactions every other time. Today, the young man who was suspected to be a leading character didn’t live up to his expectations.

“I didn’t want to go out today. I always encounter things when I go out. I avoided it for half a day.” Du Yue is also helpless about his constitution for becoming involved in accidents. “But in the afternoon I remembered that there was nothing to eat at home, so I went out.”

“Then you met wonderful people again,” Dr. Lu said.

“Yes, but today’s adventure was a bit strange. When I went to the market, I was caught by a cat, a very fat calico cat, that came up to me and started meowing. I saw a collar on its neck with an address written on it and I thought someone must have lost their pet.” Du Yue scratched his hair and continued, “There was nothing special anyway, so I thought I’d bring the cat back. As a result I went to the address, but no one came to open the door, so I went to the window to have a look. Looking in from the window, there was a kitchen. The kitchen utensils are neatly placed on the island counter. Only a cutting board was set down, and an octopus was half-cut. The room was quiet and there was no sound…”

Dr. Lu rubbed his arm: “I feel like I’m listening to a horror story.”

The same was true of Qi Leren. Du Yue’s wording was normal, but it seemed that he had a talent for telling horror stories. Whatever came from his mouth had an unsettling vibe.

Du Yue smiled in embarrassment: “More strange things are yet to come. The octopus was only half-cut, and it still looked fresh. I thought the owner should be in the house and called to them from the window. There was no answer, but the cat I was holding jumped up and jumped in through the open window, biting the half-cut octopus and coming back to me. I saw a card stuffed in the octopus’s body that was the size of a supermarket membership card. This is it.”

Saying this, Du Yue put the card on the table and said, “Don’t touch it yet, I received a task after touching it.”

Dr. Lu and Qi Leren were curious: “What task?”

“A C-level difficulty copy task, the number of players is limited to three, and the task’s name is ‘Star Death Reality Show’. No matter how many people have joined, the task will start in three days. Is C-level difficult? I’ve only done D-level tasks before,” Du Yue asked in distress.

“It’s okay, too. We’ve experienced B-level.” Dr. Lu caught Qi Leren’s eye. The original “Castle Cry” task was disturbed by the Devil’s power and was raised from D to B. At the thought that the Devil of Fraud had been helping them do the task by their side, Dr. Lu couldn’t help shivering from fright.

“If you have a copy task for three people, I suggest you find two people you’re familiar with to go with. Do you still have contact with your partners from your Novice Village?” Qi Leren asked.

Du Yue shook his head in frustration: “My Novice Village was very difficult. In the end, only I and one other player survived, but I haven’t seen her since.”

Qi Leren and Dr. Lu looked at each other.

Dr. Lu: Sign up?

Qi Leren: What about you?

Dr. Lu: I’ll sign up.

Qi Leren: Can you do it?

Dr. Lu: After all, he said C, it should be okay.

Qi Leren: I’ll sign up. I still owe him a favor, and you don’t need to train when you do tasks!

The idea of escaping from training could no longer be restrained. At the thought of having a legitimate reason to escape for a few days, Qi Leren was as excited as a primary school student who would be going on a spring outing tomorrow, full of joy and excitement.

Dr. Lu and Qi Leren, who finished their eye contact, nodded together.

Dr. Lu smiled and said, “Xiao-Yue, it may be a little hard for us to watch you try your first C-level task alone…”

Du Yue looked at them eagerly: “It is quite hard.”

Qi Leren kept smiling: “Let us take you.”

“Thank you very much! I wanted to invite you, but I wasn’t too shy… ” Du Yue’s face was reddish, but it didn’t look obvious because of the colour of his skin. “Thank you! Thank you both!”

Once they’d agreed to do the task together, they directly touched the octopus card.

[Player Qi Leren has triggered the task: Star Death Reality Show. The countdown to the start of the task is 68:32:24. Players can receive the task by touching the task item. The remaining number of participants is 0/3.]

Qi Leren had a big heart so it was a foregone conclusion that he would ask to join, and it gave him a reprieve for two days! Long live escaping from training, long live, long live!

“By the way, what’s your skill card? We can study your specialties according to your skill card,” Qi Leren asked.

“Oh, my skill is called [Protagonist Halo].” Du Yue put the skill card in front of the two men. When Qi Leren and Dr. Lu looked intently, there was an impulse to beat up this newcomer.

[Protagonist Halo (binding skill card): When you use this skill card, you instantly become the center of attention, the protagonist of the story, and the fearless saviour! You, with the frightening aura of a king, can easily move people’s hearts, but you can always keep your last breath when you are beaten by a powerful enemy, because the enemy can’t help but explain his motives and modus operandi to you (although there may not be enough time). This skill lasts for one minute, with a cooldown time of three hours. During the start of the skill, persuasiveness increases by 20% and some people’s IQ decreases by 20%. You will not die if attacked. After all, you are the protagonist of this one minute.]

Qi Leren felt that his own personal setup was more and more like a mentor who taught all his cheats to the protagonist, trained the protagonist, and finally died in front of the protagonist after sending him a wave of assists.

He really couldn’t say how bitter his heart was.

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Editor’s Notes: So ends the first arc! A certain someone will be showing up next chapter, who could it be? :)

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