Chapter 59: The Little Campus Belle of Ghost High School 1

The arrogant, rebellious teenager, who stood over six feet tall, was currently sitting in front of the delicate little beauty. He obediently sprawled across the other's lap, looking up as he made his request.

He was showing weakness, one might even say he was playing the pitiful card, attempting to win Yu Deng's sympathy and attention through this method.

Hearing this, Yu Deng lowered his gaze to meet his eyes for a few seconds, reached out to straighten the crooked bowtie, and did not agree: "I won't help you every time."

He whispered softly, "Bandaging you is so tiring. Your muscles were tense the whole time, and your arm kept moving. It took me forever to adjust the angle of the bandage just so it wouldn't cut off the circulation in your arm."

Cheng Xiao gazed at Yu Deng, listening to him speak almost without blinking.

Only then did he realize that the little widow in the instance didn't talk much, but in a safe environment, he would mutter on and on for quite a long time.

...Extraordinarily cute.

After finishing his murmur, Yu Deng poked Cheng Xiao's shoulder with his fingertip, as light as a kitten's paw pad scratching gently.

Completely oblivious to how fervent Cheng Xiao's gaze was, Yu Deng advised him: "Besides, I'm not going to stay with you every single second. You definitely have to learn how to bandage yourself."

"......Okay." Cheng Xiao's heart softened, and he replied in a somewhat husky voice, "I know."

Yu Deng patted the top of Cheng Xiao's head and casually praised, "Such a good boy."

"Oh right, what was it you said earlier about wanting to show me some props and clues?" Remembering why he had come over, Yu Deng asked.

Cheng Xiao finally stopped sprawling across Yu Deng's lap.

The teenager rummaged through his personal space for a few moments, pulling out three or four props, emptying his entire inventory without reservation. He eagerly introduced them: "Look, Little Mom, this is an offensive prop I obtained in the mansion."

That was a sharp dagger.

Yu Deng looked at it for a few moments and found it somewhat familiar. After struggling to recall for a good while, he remembered that when Cheng Xiao and his adoptive father were fighting back then, this was the exact dagger Cheng Xiao had used.

To think it was a prop that could be brought out of the instance, and its lethality looked so high... He didn't have any weapon-type props like this yet!

With a trace of envy, Yu Deng touched the hilt of the dagger.

"And then there's this ledger. It's a bit of a chicken rib; its effect is that it can randomly grant a small amount of money within instances." After finishing his introduction, Cheng Xiao said, "Little Mom, did you know that the mansion instance we went to together has been completely closed?"

Yu Deng blinked with a guilty conscience, tweaked his sleeve, and stammered, "Um... I heard a little bit about it."

There was no way he could say that the mansion had been burned down by his late husband, and that as an accomplice, he had even been penalized with one hundred thousand points, sigh.

Vaguely, he said, "I heard the instance was damaged a bit too severely, so they shut it down."

A look of deep thought flashed across Cheng Xiao's eyes. He knew that players with special identities and missions like Yu Deng must be hiding secrets, but he didn't probe or press further.

He wanted to wait for his pretty little mom to tell him personally.

"And this is a prop obtained from another instance." Setting aside the previous topic, Cheng Xiao picked up two small pendants. "This one is a team-up prop, and the other is a contact prop."

Surprised, Yu Deng took the pink heart-shaped pendant: "This can form a team?"

"Yes, an A-rank prop that allows you to designate any friend to form a team with."

Taking the opportunity, Cheng Xiao said, "Little Mom, I haven't added your contact information yet, and I couldn't find you even when I wanted to. Can I add you?"

Hesitating for a moment, Yu Deng ultimately agreed to the friend request. Once added, he did not forget to admonish him.

"You are not allowed to give my contact info to anyone else."

"Of course not," Cheng Xiao answered decisively.

Are you kidding? How out of his mind would he have to be to pass the contact information of his beloved to someone else?

Having added Yu Deng as a friend, the lingering sense of insecurity in Cheng Xiao's heart finally faded a little bit.

Yu Deng was a bit curious: "By the way, how many instances have you been through?"

"Not many," Cheng Xiao gave a light cough. "Ever since I came out of that mansion instance, I've been lingering in the Player Center, trying to see if I could find Little Mom. So I've only cleared two instances since then."

As a result, he hadn't found the person at the time, but he had listened to a head full of rumors.

Thinking of this, Cheng Xiao found it somewhat amusing.

"Those people were all saying that Little Mom is a ruthless character who can lift tripods and kill without blinking an eye."

Yu Deng blinked innocently: "I didn't say that."

"Right, it's all rumors spread by them." Cheng Xiao cooperatively agreed with Yu Deng's words, and further pushed his request, "Well, since we're companions who have cleared an instance together, can I invite Little Mom to team up with me in the next instance?"

Yu Deng didn't agree immediately: "Um, we'll see."

...

Cheng Xiao very much wanted to have Yu Deng stay, but the small single room provided to primary players was indeed a bit too shabby to presentable.

After cajoling Yu Deng for a long time, he finally got Yu Deng to agree to use the team-up prop with him, and with deep satisfaction, he sent him back to the intermediate player residential area.

Of course, before parting, Yu Deng was coaxed into giving another kiss.

Standing in front of the glass window, Yu Deng watched Cheng Xiao's figure leave, his gaze lingering on the street further away.

A sudden, immense wave of loneliness surged into his heart.

There were rolling buildings here, orderly streets, and millions of people living here, making it feel just like a real city. But in reality, this was merely a temporary resting place for unlucky souls who had fallen into the infinite worlds.

This was not home.

The sense of disparity filled Yu Deng's emotions; he droopingly withdrew his gaze and asked, "Tong Tong, I forgot to ask... do I... do I still have a chance to return to my real home?"

"......I'm sorry, I cannot answer you," System 01 said softly. "However, once the host upgrades to a special-class player, perhaps you will know."

"Alright."

He had only just reached intermediate player status now, so that was still a long way off.

For the next few days, Yu Deng basically stayed inside his room without going out. His daily routine consisted of browsing the forums and chatting with Cheng Xiao.

Prompted by the system, he simply reviewed his previous instance, but this review once again failed to yield any effective clearance experience; instead, he only managed to count how many times he had been kissed.

System 01 watched silently as its host did the counting and couldn't help asking: "Why are you willing to kiss them?"

That's right, why indeed? Clearly, the mouth would hurt afterwards.

"Because..." Yu Deng was stumped by the question, pondering for a few seconds before saying, "Didn't Wen Luo help me clean up the juice and resolve my fever? And Ande is my prey. Ronald is my guide... He said guides are allowed to kiss during the embrace."

Faced with the system's inquiry, Yu Deng felt a subtle sense of a guilty conscience.

It seemed those men had all taken the initiative to kiss him, but... but the kisses were actually quite comfortable...

System 01 looked at its blockhead host, seemed to let out a sigh, and said, "Then the rest of them had no reason at all, right?"

Yu Deng was stunned for a few seconds before the realization dawned on him: "Oh, yeah." He resolved to turn over a new leaf: "Next time I meet ones like that without any reason, I won't let them just kiss me casually!"

System 01 remained noncommittal to this.

Aside from conducting his invalid review, Yu Deng also got a sudden burst of inspiration and made a trip to the training hall, attempting to improve his combat skills.

There were many training halls in the Player Center, distributed across every level zone. Under the system's navigation, Yu Deng headed to the nearest one.

Upon reaching the entrance, Yu Deng discovered that the training hall was actually a massive building containing thousands of single training rooms and a small section for dual training areas.

"The dual training area in the training hall is the only place in the Player Center where brawling is permitted," System 01 introduced to Yu Deng. "Some players with grudges will make appointments to single each other out in the training hall, and they need to sign liability agreements before the duel."

"Is that so..." Yu Deng glanced toward the dual training area and, seeing a few fierce-looking individuals, hurriedly swiped five thousand points and slipped into an unoccupied single training room.

On the walls of the training room, various weapons were hung neatly in rows.

There were even guns!

No wonder this place charged five thousand points an hour; items like these were not something ordinary people could casually lay eyes on.

Cautiously, Yu Deng took down a gun and, following the prompts of the guidance robot nearby, aimed at the target and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A whole magazine of bullets hit the ceiling.

In disbelief, Yu Deng thought: "?" This was highly unreasonable.

Filled with doubt, he emptied the rest of the magazine, and his best score was hitting the target right next to it. Unconvinced, he tried other models of guns one by one, only to find the results were practically identical.

Fine, ranged weapons perhaps weren't very suitable for him. Doubting his life a little bit, Yu Deng ultimately decided to return to the most unpretentious and simple technique: training in hand-to-hand combat.

Then, within five minutes, Yu Deng was once again chased around and beaten by the lowest-difficulty AI sparring partner, leading him to bail out in disarray and stop the training.

Looking at his aggrieved host, System 01 comforted him: "It's alright, Host. You look good, and you have plenty of skills and props. If you're truly unsuited for combat, you don't have to force yourself to train."

Cajoled into feeling better, Yu Deng said, "Alright, I won't train anymore. No more challenging myself."

...

A few days passed in a flash, and soon it was the final day of staying in the Player Center. Reluctant to enter an instance, Yu Deng dawdled until the very last half hour before being teleported in.

Cheng Xiao had already contacted him ahead of time and used the team-up prop.

A pale pink light flashed, half-bright before fading out. Familiar dizziness and darkness enveloped Yu Deng; he closed his eyes and waited for the new instance to appear.

[Instance data optimization in progress... Parameters loading...]

[Ding. Welcome, player Yu Deng, to the B-rank instance "Guihuai High School".]

[Guihuai High School is the finest high school in the city, boasting a beautiful environment, complete facilities, and a strong faculty. More than half of its students are admitted to top universities every year, making it the best high school in the minds of parents.]

[Yet no one knows that behind these glorious achievements, layers of suspicion shroud the school.]

Huh? An instance about a high school campus?

Dizzily, Yu Deng opened his eyes and observed his surroundings.

He was currently sitting at a desk, atop which a few brand-new textbooks were scattered in disarray. His deskmate was a very tall boy with refined and handsome features, but a cold expression; he hadn't looked at Yu Deng even once from the beginning to the end.

The surrounding classmates were all dressed in blue-and-white school uniforms, sitting quietly at their desks with their heads lowered. The ceiling fan above their heads creaked and whirred, and the air was somewhat stuffy, mixed with various scents that smelled rather unpleasant.

Without a doubt, this was a classroom.

Yu Deng remained dazed for a moment before a crucial question struck him: "This is a campus... Tong Tong, won't my name be known by a lot of people here?"

There had to be a class roster or something in the classroom; wouldn't his disguise be blown?!