“Yee-yaa! So master’s taking a bath… Oh la la! I love baths best — I want a bath too!”
The clear voice suddenly sounding in his ears sent a jolt through Ye Tianxie; he nearly leapt straight out of the bathtub… The door was plainly locked up tight, without the slightest gap; there was no way Guoguo could have gotten in, and even if she had, he ought to have noticed… yet that voice was unmistakably right at his ear.
Under Ye Tianxie’s exaggerated expression, Guoguo drifted lightly over in front of him. She’d only just managed to finish off that lollipop, and only then discovered her master was gone; following his scent, she’d found her way here, and had her strong craving for a bath stirred up.
“Oh la la! Bath time!” Guoguo’s hand brushed lightly over her own body, and all at once Ye Tianxie’s vision blurred, and then his eyes went wide to their very limit in an instant… What appeared before him was a slip of a snow-white, tender figure. The little dress on Guoguo’s body had vanished, revealing a delicate body like snow and jade, hair black as night spilling over snowy shoulders that set off skin so lustrously white it dazzled the eye. Her body was as glossy as snow-jade, so tender one couldn’t bear to touch it. Utterly petite, with tender snow-skin and jade-bones, yet pure and lovely beyond anything of this mortal world, without the slightest blemish, untouched by the faintest speck of filth.
“Whoaa!” With a cheer that seemed to come from beyond the heavens, Guoguo lowered her body and sank it into the water, kicking up a splash as tiny as she was. Only then did Ye Tianxie wake from his daze, and instinctively he clapped a hand over his nose.
“Guoguo, who said you could come in?!” Ye Tianxie secretly pinched himself, straining to tilt his gaze aside and scatter his attention. Beneath Guoguo’s innocent, pure-lovely exterior was hidden such a flawless body. Before this tiniest of little things, he’d very nearly lost control.
“Because… I wanted a bath too.” Guoguo poked her head out of the water and said with a giggle.
“Girls can’t bathe together with men!”
“Oh la? Why not?” Guoguo’s face was full of curious puzzlement.
“…” Ye Tianxie was stumped for the longest time, utterly unable to think of how to answer. Why? Was he supposed to tell her that men and women shouldn’t be so familiar? If she could grasp an explanation like that, she wouldn’t be Guoguo.
“Oh la? Master, you’re acting so strange. Huh? What’s this long, big thing… how strange, why don’t I have one? Huh? It’s really hot here, and it’s getting a little bigger too…”
“Don’t touch!!”
“Wah… master’s so fierce… I’m gonna touch anyway… huh-huh-huh-huh-huh? It seems to be getting bigger and bigger!”
“@!#$%…”
……
……
“Whoaa! So this is master’s bed? So soft, so comfy — even comfier than sleeping on flower petals.” Guoguo lay on the bed in utter ease, blissfully savoring a softness she’d never felt before, shifting her pose from time to time — face-up, on all fours, on her side, or rolling this way and that on the bed — her ethereal laughter carrying on until she drifted off into a very sweet, lazy sleep.
Ye Tianxie had no urge to sleep for a long time, glancing now and then at Guoguo, already off in dreamland beside his pillow. Even in sleep, her manner was still so endearing that he couldn’t help an impulse to kiss this little thing.
Who was she, where had she come from, and what secrets lay hidden within her… He didn’t know. All he knew was that his life would change completely starting today. He, who had gradually begun growing used to solitude, now — caught off guard — had someone to keep him company… someone who’d give him headaches, but whom he didn’t reject in the slightest.
The next day, when Ye Tianxie woke, the sun was already high, and beside his pillow, Guoguo was still fast asleep. She wasn’t well-behaved while sleeping — over the course of the night she’d unconsciously grabbed Ye Tianxie awake three times in a row, and her sleeping posture right now was the height of unseemliness, her two snow-white arms flung out flat and her tender legs splayed wide open… Ye Tianxie watched her quietly for a while, then softened his footsteps and left the bedroom.
Bolting down his breakfast whole, Ye Tianxie sat down on the sofa, pressed a finger to the wristband on his left hand, and issued the command to enter the World of Fate with his mind.
As Ye Tianxie’s eyes closed, the jet-black ornament at his chest once again bizarrely vanished, and at the same moment, Guoguo, sleeping soundly in the bedroom, slowly faded away from there too.
In the World of Fate, the spot where Ye Tianxie appeared was beside the item shop where he’d logged out yesterday. Glancing at the still-crowded throng around him, Ye Tianxie moved off toward the blacksmith shop.
“Level 5 full-Strength Warrior LFG for Little Green Snake!”
“…Big brother, spare a little sister a Steamed Bun, please, I’m about to starve to death.”
“Selling top-quality Apples, two copper cheaper than the shop… limited quantity, come buy quick!”
After entering the World of Fate, the human body settled into a most relaxed state, and the brain entered a half-sleep state as well, so being in Fate, while it couldn’t truly replace sleep, could substantially cut down on sleep time. And for energetic young people, staying online 24 hours a day without logging out wouldn’t leave them feeling tired.
When Ye Tianxie had logged out last night, his level had already risen to 4, and over the course of this one night, the average player level had also reached 4, with a great many players having already reached 5.
The novice village’s recovery potions weren’t expensive: the Minor Recovery Potion that instantly restored 100 HP sold at the item shop for 2 copper, the one that instantly restored 200 HP for 5 copper, and the one that instantly restored 400 HP for 1 silver. But what had countless players grumbling in complaint was that the food-type consumables for lowering Hunger were absurdly expensive — at least, for novices these days who were nearly too poor to afford potions.
A Steamed Bun that lowered Hunger by 30 cost a full 5 silver (the market price for a steamed bun these days is about fifty cents, right? Hm?)! An Apple that lowered Hunger by 10 likewise cost 5 silver. The difference was merely that the former was dry, hard, and hard to swallow, while the latter was crisp, fragrant, and sweet. And because food was relatively expensive, novice players killed by monsters weren’t all that many, but those who starved to death came in wave after wave, and the novice village thus saw a great many people begging for food. For this same reason, at the novice stage it was basically impossible to save up too much money… those coins, one by one, weren’t even enough just to buy food.
Arriving at the blacksmith shop, blacksmith old Wang spotted him at a glance, a smile surfacing on his once-quiet face. “Warmhearted brave one, I’ve waited a long while for you. Here — this ring belongs to you. I’ve finally succeeded in giving it stronger mysterious power.”
A silver ring was placed in Ye Tianxie’s hand. Its shape hadn’t changed at all from yesterday, but it had plainly shed some of its age and gained a bit of eye-catching metallic color. And when Ye Tianxie faintly caught the slight yellow glow on its surface, his heart gave an excited, wild thump… The ring that had been a faint blue glow yesterday was now giving off a yellow light… this was unmistakably the glow of a Bronze-grade item!
(End of Chapter 29)