Three people sat in the corner, quietly chewing on their flatbread.
Xiao Cheng’s hideout was smaller than Tian Tian had imagined—a very old, run-down convenience store, now completely emptied of goods, with only a few bare shelves remaining.
“Sis, if you don’t mind, you can rest here tonight. There are some wooden planks in the inner room that we used as beds before,” Xiao Cheng said, then quickly added, “Not together, though. We set up partitions, so the spaces are separate.”
“I…” Tian Tian smiled bitterly. “I don’t mind. Right now, I don’t even know where else to go.”
Xiao Cheng swallowed the flatbread in his mouth and nodded. “I know that feeling—being lost about the future, with 3,600 ‘Daos’ still out of reach, and teammates not being as good as you hoped.”
“Not exactly.” Tian Tian shook her head. “Maybe fools have foolish luck. The people around me have been decent.”
“Really?” Xiao Cheng raised an eyebrow helplessly. “Not me… I’m about to start moving soon. There’s not much time left, and I have to awaken my ‘Echo’ as fast as possible.”
“Hmm…” Tian Tian didn’t know how to respond. After thinking for a moment, she asked, “Is your ‘Echo’ ability very powerful?”
“My ‘Echo’ is useless.” Xiao Cheng shook his head. “If I can ‘Echo’ before tonight, I can at least give you a good dream.”
“A good dream…?”
“Yeah.” He gave a bitter smile. “Even so, I don’t have a choice. I ‘Echo’ just to preserve my memories. No matter how dangerous things get, I have to activate my ‘Dreamwalk’.”
“‘Dreamwalk’…” Tian Tian repeated the name, as if she now understood his struggle.
“If only my ability was as strong as yours, Sis.” Xiao Cheng sighed. “Being able to create things out of thin air—that’s useful no matter how you look at it. Way better than my ‘Dreamwalk’…”
Tian Tian didn’t know how to comfort him, given that her ‘Craft’ ability also had its limitations.
In fact, she envied Yun Yao’s ‘Strong Luck’ more.
“So how do you ‘Echo’?” she asked. “You helped me once—is there anything I can do for you?”
“My ‘Echo’ is both difficult and not,” Xiao Cheng replied, wiping his hands on his pants after finishing the flatbread. “As long as I go through a ‘brainstorm,’ there’s a chance I’ll achieve it.”
Tian Tian nodded, recalling the knowledge Yun Yao and the others had shared with her—that different ‘Zodiacs’ here corresponded to different types of games.
“So it’s about using your brain?” she asked. “I’m not too familiar—which ‘Zodiac’ represents ‘intelligence’?”
“The one that mainly represents intelligence…” Xiao Cheng shook his head. “It’s the ‘Monkey.’ But the problem is, ‘Human Monkey’ games might be too easy, while ‘Earth Monkey’ games are too hard… I don’t know which to choose.”
“Then just go for it.” Tian Tian answered without hesitation. “No matter how much you think about it here, you won’t find the answer.”
“Huh…?”
“Start with ‘Human Monkey.’ If you ‘Echo,’ great. If not, then you only have ‘Earth Monkey’ left.”
“That… makes sense.” Xiao Cheng scratched his head with a laugh. “I was overcomplicating it.”
“So when are you planning to go?” Tian Tian asked.
“There’s a ‘Human Monkey’ near the hideout. I’ll head there soon.”
Xiao Cheng stood up and walked behind the counter. He bent down, lifted several floorboards, and pulled out a small cloth pouch from the hole.
Opening it, he checked inside, and a trace of joy flashed across his face. “Great, the ‘capital’ is still here. I can use these ‘Daos’ to take on the Monkeys.”
“You have that many ‘Daos’?” Tian Tian craned her neck to look. “Showing them to us like this—aren’t you afraid we might steal them?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Xiao Cheng shook his head. “They were all stolen or taken by force anyway. Barely any of them were earned honestly. If you take them, consider it karma.”
He grabbed a handful of ‘Daos’ from the pouch, stuffed them into his pocket, and then returned the pouch under the floorboards.
“I’m coming too!” Zheng Yingxiong declared. “Taking me will definitely help.”
“Huh…?” Xiao Cheng hesitated. Even though he was only going for a Human-level game, bringing such a young kid along was troublesome. “Little bro, maybe you should rest here?”
“No, I’ll protect you.” Zheng Yingxiong insisted. “Even if I can’t help much, I can still smell people’s scents.”
Seeing the boy’s determination, Xiao Cheng’s expression grew conflicted.
“Do you need me to come too?” Tian Tian asked. “If it’s a game where you have to die to pass, I can be the one to die.”
“Huh…?” Xiao Cheng was stunned. “Sis, do you really not want to live? I’m going for a Human-level game—it shouldn’t be lethal.”
“I don’t mind.” Tian Tian smiled. “I feel like even if I don’t die now, I’ll eventually die in some corner somewhere. Rather than dying for nothing, I’d rather it mean something.”
“This…” Xiao Cheng lowered his head in thought, then said, “Sis, I thought about it—you can come with me. A lot of games require a certain number of players. But I won’t let you die.”
“Really?” Tian Tian chuckled helplessly. “It’s fine if I do.”
“You still have this little brother to take care of.” Xiao Cheng pointed at Zheng Yingxiong. “So stop talking about dying so easily. Besides, if I have to protect you, it might force me to think harder. That’d be good for me too.”
Tian Tian turned to look at Zheng Yingxiong, who still wore that innocent but resolute expression. Before she could speak, he spoke first.
“Sister, you don’t need to take care of me. I’ll protect you,” he said.
“Ah…”
Every time she looked at Zheng Yingxiong, Tian Tian felt something deep inside her soften. The boy was endearing, but she couldn’t fathom what he’d been through—his whole worldview was so warped. How could a child come up with such strange ideas on his own?
After a moment of thought, she turned back to Xiao Cheng. “Then let’s all go together. Xiao Cheng, I’ll take care of Hero. We won’t cause you any trouble.”
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