Chapter 47: The Young Vampire in the Ancient Castle 20

Yu Deng opened his eyes wide, staring at the heart-shaping skeleton not far away, temporarily unsure of how to react.

He had accidentally kicked off a few of its bones just a moment ago...

Yu Deng and the skeleton stared at each other with wide eyes. After a few seconds, Yu Deng tentatively said, "Hello?"

The skeleton stopped making the heart shape and waved at Yu Deng.

It had been dead for a very, very long time, and its human consciousness and memories were almost completely dissipated, so it had no idea why it was making a heart shape for this little vampire.

Yet, strangely enough, as it looked at Yu Deng, it couldn't summon even the slightest urge to attack.

Yu Deng turned his head and said to Qin Jun, "Look, Qin Jun, it doesn't seem to want to attack me at all."

Qin Jun wiped the tear tracks from Yu Deng's cheeks and agreed with him, "Baby is right."

More than just not wanting to attack, it was downright enthusiastic.

Still clutching the sleeve of Qin Jun's robe, Yu Deng cautiously took two steps toward the skeleton. "Um, do you know how to get out of this room?"

The skeleton was stumped by the question. It looked around the room's environment and shook its skull.

Yu Deng let out an "oh," his thick, curled eyelashes drooping, unable to hide his disappointment.

Qin Jun recalled the mischievous style of the instance, formed a small guess, and asked the skeleton, "Is there any wish you want to fulfill?"

The skeleton fell into deep thought, then suddenly had a realization. Subconsciously, it clenched a bony hand into a fist and struck its other palm, only to knock off another bone.

The skeleton fell silent. "..." Oh, right, it forgot it was just a pile of bones now.

It awkwardly picked up the bone, held up a single finger bone and shook it, performed a few page-turning and writing motions, then held up two fingers and repeated the actions. Afterward, it shaded its eyes with its hand and peered into the distance.

Yu Deng: "?" This was a bit too abstract.

Yu Deng tried hard to decipher what the skeleton was trying to convey: "You want to write? Draw? Look into the distance?"

The skeleton silently waved its hand. Yu Deng knitted his brows, racking his brain to think.

[The baby deep in thought is so cute...]
[No laughing at the baby, our baby is thinking very hard!]
[Inability to communicate is such a hassle, look at how anxious it made our baby.]
[This skeleton bro is so cooperative, hahaha. I reasonably suspect it was knocked unconscious by my wife's beauty.]

After rattling off several possibilities, Yu Deng finally gave up and guessed casually, "It couldn't possibly be that you lost your diary."

The skeleton nodded vigorously.

[Ding. Side quest triggered: Special Game - The Skeleton's Commission.
Please find the skeleton's missing diary within the time limit.]

Yu Deng: "?!" He had just thrown that out as a random guess, and it really was a diary?

Beside him, Qin Jun also heard the instance's broadcast. Looking somewhat surprised, a trace of a smile colored his voice, "Baby is so smart."

Who would have thought that one day, he would actually be led by an NPC to complete a quest.

With a hint of pride, Yu Deng raised his chin. "Of course."

With a quest objective, their operational efficiency immediately increased. The two began searching the room, trying to find the diary dropped by the skeleton.

The skeleton itself stood foolishly to the side for a moment, then eagerly trotted after Yu Deng to help with the search.

Ten minutes later, every bookcase and drawer in the room had been ransacked, but the two of them couldn't find a single trace of the diary.

Only the wardrobe that had concealed the skeleton remained unsearched. Judging by the current situation, it was probably in there.

"Have you ever looked for your diary inside the wardrobe?" Yu Deng glanced sideways at the skeleton. "Still, why were you sleeping in a wardrobe..."

The skeleton didn't know how to reply and merely shook its head. It had indeed spent a very long time in that wardrobe space, but now it was just a skeleton and could no longer understand magical objects, let alone use them.

The wardrobe door was pushed open. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary cabinet with a few clothes hanging messily inside.

Gathering his courage, Yu Deng took the lead and stepped inside vigilantly.

The skeleton raised its stiff bones to follow inside, only to see the male werewolf glance at it, step right behind the little vampire, and very smoothly shut the wardrobe door.

The skeleton stood outside the wardrobe and scratched its skull. "???"

Was something not quite right?

Wait, wasn't the inside its territory? Sure, it didn't want to attack the little vampire, but why was it left outside?!

...

After the wardrobe door closed again, the space inside underwent a change. Yu Deng looked around and found that there was a whole world inside. It was about one-third the size of the room, with a small kerosene lamp burning in the center.

Inopportunely, Yu Deng thought that the magical world was truly wonderful for maximizing space utilization.

He raised his head and saw many elliptical, ball-like objects hanging from the rack at the top. At a rough glance, there were at least seventy or eighty of them. Their surfaces were a dull greyish color, swaying gently in the dim light, which looked rather eerie.

Yu Deng's hand clutching Qin Jun's sleeve trembled, and the next second, it was firmly grasped by the man.

"Don't be afraid, we're safe for now." Qin Jun's muscles tensed slightly as he said to Yu Deng, "Its diary is probably hidden inside one of those things."

Yu Deng's little wings fluttered a few times as he slowly flew up a little distance to observe for a few seconds. "I can't tell if there's anything else inside."

"It's fine."

After offering this soothing reassurance, the man wrapped his arms around the fluttering little vampire in mid-air and set him down on the empty ground behind him.

Yu Deng tilted his head in confusion, only to watch Qin Jun pull out a short blade and swiftly slice open one of the ellipses.

A wriggling chunk of something suddenly tumbled out, making Yu Deng's hair stand on end. But before he could even feel disgusted, that chunk was cleanly chopped into pieces by Qin Jun, leaving no movement at all.

In a mere five minutes, Qin Jun sliced open six or seven ellipses. The items falling out included, but were not limited to, some bizarre creatures, corroded and tattered iron equipment, and one that was completely empty.

[Oh, I get it. The process of finding the diary is basically opening blind boxes, right?]
[Spot on. The dropped items can be good or bad, and anyone with bad luck will just keep pulling low-level mobs.]
[Never expected to escape blind boxes even when broadcasting on the Infinite Channel... Blind boxes are a bad civilization!]

Watching Qin Jun's crisp and efficient movements, Yu Deng was awestruck and slightly dazed. "System... were we actually allowed to do quests like this?"

[Yes, players in the infinite world are generally divided into those who clear stages through wit and those who solve problems with brute force.]

Clearly, Qin Jun had chosen the route of violent resolution.

Yu Deng finally witnessed how a top-tier player handled quests. When Qin Jun turned back to confirm his safety, Yu Deng offered a sincere compliment in a soft voice, "You're amazing."

"...Cough, it's alright."

Praised like this by the person in his heart, a smile surfaced in the man's eyes, and the tips of his ears turned an unnoticeable shade of red.

He really ought to let all those other men hear the little vampire praising him.

Encouraged by Yu Deng's praise, Qin Jun sped up his actions, quickly clearing away a large patch of the ellipses that hid strange odds and ends.

Yet, Qin Jun's luck was genuinely rather poor. Much like that game night when he triggered a magic array the moment he entered the game, now that he wanted to find the diary, he had cleared all the way to the very last one without finding it.

Flapping his wings, Yu Deng laboriously dispatched a randomly flying unidentified creature and began reflecting on whether it might have been better for him to choose which ellipse to open.

[This Qin Jun has decent strength. Several creepy creatures just dropped out; a player with lower capability probably couldn't have handled it.]
[I'm guessing that according to the normal game flow, Skeleton Bro was supposed to come in and increase the difficulty by causing trouble or stopping them, but the baby's charm was simply too strong, turning him into one of their own.]
[Still, Bad Dog's luck is atrocious!! I feel like I'm looking at myself hitting hard pity when pulling for cards...]

"This is the last one. It doesn't give off a very good feeling." Qin Jun flicked the grime off his short blade and reminded Yu Deng, "Baby, stand further back."

"Oh, oh." Yu Deng hurriedly scurried into the corner.

Qin Jun lightened his movements slightly and sliced open the final ellipse. A few seconds later, the entire ellipse exploded, scattering a large spray of sharp enchanted stone fragments.

Reflexively, Qin Jun lunged forward to shield Yu Deng with his body while deploying a defensive item. The item blocked most of the shards, but Qin Jun's shoulder was still slashed with a deep gash.

Yu Deng was kept completely safe and sound.

"...Qin Jun!"

Stunned for two seconds, Yu Deng grabbed onto the man's shoulder and saw the bone-deep wound.

Qin Jun glanced dismissively at his shoulder. "It's nothing. Werewolves have great physical constitutions."

If he had a healing item, it would probably recover quickly, but unfortunately, those had been used up on the fourth night's game.

Yu Deng pressed his lips together and remained silent.

Although this guy had annoyed him when they first met, Yu Deng wasn't a particularly vengeful person, let alone now that Qin Jun had been injured while protecting him.

Yu Deng remembered that he seemed to have several healing potions left in his personal space.

But if he took the potion out directly, wouldn't Qin Jun figure out he was a player?

Yu Deng wrestled with the dilemma for a moment before an idea flashed in his mind.

Right, he could feed it to Qin Jun secretly like that.

Taking advantage of the moment Qin Jun turned around to look for the diary, Yu Deng fished out a bottle of low-level healing potion and took a sip into his mouth.

"Baby, come take a—" Qin Jun's words abruptly cut off.

The little vampire had leaned in close and unexpectedly kissed him of his own accord.

Warm lips pressed against his, and whether it was saliva or potion liquid, it was exchanged between their lip cavities, their breaths intertwining.

Qin Jun's breathing abruptly deepened. Catching the young vampire in his arms, he kissed him back eagerly and passionately, his wolf tail whipping up afterimages.

Yu Deng only wanted to feed Qin Jun a mouthful of medicine; he hadn't wanted to make out. Annoyed, he pushed against Qin Jun and broke free from his embrace.

Finishing the kiss, the little vampire stood with misty eyes, raised his chin, and perfunctorily explained his previous action.

"A reward for you."

Qin Jun's Adam's apple bobbed. The fleeting sense of strangeness in his mind was cast aside, and he didn't even notice that the wound on his shoulder was slowly healing. His heart was completely filled with the fact that the little vampire had actively kissed him.

Lying on the ground was a yellowed notebook with a large smiley face drawn on the cover—clearly the skeleton's diary.

Picking it up, Qin Jun placed it before Yu Deng like a dog presenting a tribute, his wolf tail raised high. "Found it."

Yu Deng let out an "mm," his delicate fingertips gently flipping open the diary's pages.

This diary recorded various entries intermittently. Most of the early entries were records of daily training, but because too much time had passed, some of the handwriting was blurry.

The ink on the last four or five pages was lighter, making the contents barely legible.