Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 45: The First Night

The Mirror Erosion Swamp collapsed, and the area around them became a little brighter with the moving light source tremblingly floating. Limbless human skin balloons lay stiffly on the ground; their pale skin tinged black from the Erosion Swamp, forming a strange sea of corpses.

Shu Jun knelt by the Erosion Swamp and supported his almost naked body with his greatsword. The fragments of the Erosion Swamp’s brain slowly reassembled, and viscous erosion clumps coalesced and slid over his cheeks, neck, and chest. Unlike the human skin balloons around him, his slightly dull skin and gray-white hair became particularly noticeable, seeming to be the only living things in the world.

But that wasn’t all.

A peculiar web-like erosion hung from Shu Jun’s back, spider-webbing between his back and the ground. The Erosion Swamp on the ground submerged his calves and wrapped around his ankles. Coupled with Shu Jun’s handsome face, it created a scene of strange beauty.

Zhu Yanchen thought he was hallucinating—as if the concept of “natural disaster” had turned into the person in front of him.

There was only one thing out of place.

Seeing Zhu Yanchen approach, Shu Jun smiled. His spirit didn’t seem sober, but there was no malice in his smile, which was so pure that it was shocking. He reached out and pressed his hand against Zhu Yanchen’s chest, and the connecting flesh turned into a branding iron.

“Long time no see,” he said.

Then Shu Jun’s entire body went limp. Zhu Yanchen caught him in his arms in time, holding him tightly. Shu Jun’s breathing was even, and his eyes were tightly closed, probably due to physical exhaustion after the outburst.

Zhu Yanchen sat firmly on the ground, hugging the person in his arms tightly, and stopped moving. The surrounding Erosion Swamp squeezed out into a circle, avoiding him like he was a snake or scorpion*.

*Idiom used to describe someone who’s particularly unpleasant or harmful to be around, as if they were dangerous like venomous snakes or scorpions.

The wind gradually picked up around them. The swamp was bubbling as the human skin balloons’ popping echoed continuously. Monday lay on one side as it muttered intermittently, letting out a few unkind words. Zhu Yanchen tightly wrapped the coat on Shu Jun’s back and closed his eyes.

“Sleep,” he whispered to Shu Jun. “I’ll be right here waiting for you.”

Shu Jun sighed lightly.

He was completely exhausted, and his spirit was shattered. His eyelids were as heavy as if they were hung with two lead weights, and he couldn’t even tell if he was asleep. He tried to control his limbs but couldn’t even move his fingers. His thoughts became even more muddled, and the fear of losing control over his body gradually gripped him.

Fortunately, his legs were cold, and Zhu Yanchen’s embrace was scorching hot. Being held tightly by Zhu Yanchen finally brought some peace of mind in the midst of his uncontrollable panic.

Half asleep and half awake, he finally felt that the battle was over. The Mirror Erosion Swamp left them with more mysteries, but at least one thing was clear—

This time, Shu Jun didn’t need to search for memories in his dreams. During the battle, his head throbbed, and memories rushed back to him. As for the dream he had before, Shu Jun remembered the follow-up.

“Then I’ll call you A’Yan,” he said to the lost child sixteen years ago on that night.

Immediately, he realized that the child in front of him looked familiar—he seemed to have seen an NPC with a similar appearance before.

“Have we met before? During the mission to save Yu Jin, I remember you were on the NPC side. It’s me, Shu Jun, S-001 in <Erosion>!” Shu Jun asked directly.

At that time, he was wearing a protective mask, so it was normal for the other person not to recognize him. Although they were not part of <Erosion>, this child was probably just a facial model for an NPC, so asking an extra question wouldn’t hurt. Shu Jun never suppressed his curiosity.

The child named “Smoke” stared blankly, and his gaze towards Shu Jun gradually became complex. After a while, he said, “I remember you. But I’m not an NPC. That was… That was a role-playing experience level.”

As he said this, Smoke kept twisting his fingers, as if struggling with something.

“As I thought. It’s really you!”

Shu Jun was instantly happy. Although he hadn’t heard of any experience levels, he assumed it was a new game mode for rich people and decided not to worry about it. “Where do you live? I’ll take you home. Can I find you to play in the future? You were really cool that time!”

Smoke’s ears turned red. He struggled for a while and replied in a low voice, “Thank you.”

After a few seconds of silence, he raised his head and looked at Shu Jun seriously. “My place is a bit far. I need to take a car, so you can’t send me.”

“Really? There are no buses at this time. Why don’t I take you to the nearby management office—”

“No.” Smoke’s refusal was quite firm this time.

“You can’t go home, and you don’t want to go to the management office for the night, but I can’t have you sleep outside.” Shu Jun scratched his head. “Why don’t you come to my place…”

“Can I stay at your place for a night?” At the same time, the other person asked tentatively.

“I was just about to ask that. Of course you can!” Shu Jun’s eyes curved. “By the way, you’re so far from home and don’t seem lost. Did you run away from home?”

Smoke shook his head but didn’t explain. He bit his lip and changed the topic. “I… I just don’t want to stay at the management office overnight. And even if I’m sent back, I can only be alone.”

After speaking, he looked a little pleading, like an injured little animal.

With Yu Jin’s mission, Shu Jun already had a great impression of Smoke. Moreover, children were easily attracted to people with good looks. Although at that time Shu Jun considered himself a “mature man” of eleven years old, he still couldn’t escape from the other’s gaze.

Moreover, he understood what it was like to live alone.

“Come on, follow me.” Shu Jun stopped asking. He grabbed Smoke’s hand and led him towards his home, feeling quite happy—everyone liked to communicate through voice or video, but this was his first time entertaining someone of the same age at home.

Shu Jun’s place was a one-bedroom and one-living-room apartment; not too big or too small, and quite clean and comfortable. The kitchen was semi-separated, and the refrigerator contained simple foods with a long shelf life. The hot water in the bathroom never ran out, and the view outside the window was quite pleasant.

After bringing Smoke into the house, Shu Jun opened the refrigerator and took out some milk to heat up. “You can use my communicator. If it’s not convenient, I can also help you contact your family or the management office. Oh, A’Yan, do you want sugar in your milk?”

After finally having a guest, Shu Jun could now play the role of host. When he finished heating up the milk, he happily turned on all the lights in the house and started up the communicator.

Smoke held the hot milk in both hands and stared at the communicator for a while.

“It’s okay.” After a while, Smoke didn’t touch the screen in front of him, and his voice was still low. “I can explain it to them when I go back tomorrow.”

Shu Jun’s gaze suddenly became sharp. He understood that this kid must have had a conflict with his family, and he ran too far away, and was now embarrassed to ask for a ride back. Anyway, his crime had already become history, and the city was very safe, so Smoke probably just wanted to take advantage of the situation and have some fun.

He understood. He understood too well.

“Okay, no need to contact them then. Anyway, I have blankets and pillows at my place.” Shu Jun gulped down the milk and slammed the cup on the table. “Let’s play!”

Smoke sipped the milk with a confused expression on his face.

“What do you usually play with your friends?” Shu Jun started up the augmented reality, and a large number of game icons appeared in the living room. “Not to brag, but I have all kinds of games here.”

“…I don’t know.”

“Ah?” This answer was quite strange. How could someone not know what games they usually play?

“I don’t really play games usually. Um, at home, there are only adults…”

In other words, he didn’t have many friends. Shu Jun couldn’t help but sigh. No wonder he had conflicts with his family. Compared to that, he himself was much freer.

“This is Virtual Combat. I love this one! The only downside is that it requires a lot of physical activity, and if you play too late, you won’t be able to sleep. This one here is chess, but I find it a bit boring. This one is Monster Shooter. Oh, right, do you want to play a shooter?” Shu Jun’s eyes lit up.

Last time, this person was very interested in his gun, and it was clear he hadn’t played much.

Sure enough, Smoke eagerly responded, clumsily jumping off the chair without even wiping the milk off his mouth. Shu Jun could tell that Smoke’s movements weren’t very coordinated. Not to mention formal training, he didn’t even seem to have done much regular exercise.

No wonder he was so thin and weak.

‘What a shame,’ Shu Jun thought. If Smoke was a reserve member of a combat team, he would have been able to block that attack last time. Although his actions were very cool, his physical fitness was really holding him back. Shu Jun rubbed Smoke’s arm a few times, looking rather regretful.

Smoke froze. “…”

Shu Jun then walked around Smoke a few times as his thoughts raced. This person usually didn’t have contact with people his own age, so it wasn’t surprising that he lacked confidence. Perhaps he had a falling out with those child NPCs because of his poor social skills. Since Smoke had taken the initiative to ask to stay overnight, they could at least be considered half-friends.

Even if it was just half, he would do his best to be that half.

A sense of responsibility suddenly arose in Shu Jun’s heart as he handed the controller to Smoke. “Don’t worry if you haven’t played before. I’ll teach you step by step.”

The game started. With the influence of augmented reality, the living room floor turned into a small outpost, and hideous mutant beasts charged at them from the ground and sky.

The two controllers turned into flashing guns.

Shu Jun took the lead. “This is a small game developed based on <Erosion> and the details are similar. Look, the gun needs to be loaded like this… Yes, yes! Is it really your first time using a gun?”

Smoke almost blushed at his praise and looked down.

“Your shooting posture should be like this. Pay attention to the movement of your shoulder. The controller will simulate recoil, so be careful not to hurt yourself.” Shu Jun helped him adjust his posture. “Don’t be nervous. It’s just a game. Okay, three, two, one, fire!”

A mutant beast with an abnormally long arm was shot down and struggled for a while at their feet before disappearing in a burst of light.

Shu Jun had the idea of helping Smoke build confidence, so he purposely led him to shoot down one of the monsters during the tutorial. Although it was just a game, it felt very real. Smoke stared at the gun in his hand, his hand shaking a little.

“It’s your first time. It’s normal to be nervous. It’s okay. It’s not real—”

Before he could finish speaking, Smoke fired again.

For a beginner, Smoke’s accuracy was quite shocking. The monsters moved very fast and weren’t friendly targets. However, even if Smoke failed to get a headshot, he did manage to hit the target without missing a beat.

And he was becoming more and more accurate.

Unable to resist, Shu Jun looked at Smoke’s face—at this moment, Smoke was particularly focused, with no trace of restraint or timidity. His jet-black eyes seemed to be on fire. He seemed rooted to the ground, not even budging when monsters spewed blood and charged at him.

As expected of his friend. Shu Jun thought to himself and became more convinced of his ability to judge people.

After observing for a while, Shu Jun withdrew his gaze from Smoke’s face and instead focused on his body movements, afraid he might accidentally hurt his shoulder. He wasn’t surprised by Smoke’s frightening progress—Shu Jun was also quite talented in combat, and now he found it endearing in Smoke.

Once he confirmed that Smoke had mastered the correct posture, the two started to compete in shooting games.

“You know, you can unlock more small props in this game later on. But they’re all just small weapons with no special features.” Shu Jun introduced while playing. “When I join a team, I’ll definitely choose a super-cool big gun.”

“…These are good enough for me.” Smoke murmured. “I don’t need anything else.”

“Huh? You’re too simple,” Shu Jun exclaimed.

“…”

They had fun playing, but Smoke’s stamina was limited. After an hour, his arms became too weak to lift, so they had to stop. It was Shu Jun who noticed Smoke was covered in sweat and trembling, and suggested they stop.

“My score is much worse than yours…”

“It’s your first time playing. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Besides, the scores aren’t that different.”

“That’s because you let me.”

“I didn’t let you.”

“You did.”

“If we played too long, your shoulder would definitely get injured.” Seeing Smoke’s determined face, Shu Jun pinched his arm and changed the subject. He figured out that Smoke was someone who loved to focus on details. “Let’s play something else. It’s boring to play just one game.”

“Something else?”

“Yeah, even though I prefer fighting games—if we’re talking about multiplayer strategy games, then it’s this one… but I’m not good at it.” Shu Jun brought over two cans of cold drinks and spoke in a quieter voice.

Smoke wiped the sweat off his face with a towel and looked at him curiously.

Shu Jun grinned and started another game.

The desolate horizon turned back into the wall, and the cracked ground of the outpost turned back into the floor. In front of them was a sand table about two square meters in size, and even small black clouds floated above it.

“This is also a mini-game from <Erosion>, which tests your tactical ability. The rules and controls are very simple. Just eliminate the monsters in the field.”

There were countless strategy games, and Shu Jun chose the one he was worst at. Both of them started on equal footing, which was more beneficial for Smoke to discard unnecessary feelings of inferiority.

‘Plus, the games under <Erosion> have the coolest effects,’ Shu Jun thought solemnly.

“Let’s play together. It can have two commanders.”

Smoke hesitated for a moment. “My mom doesn’t let me touch this kind of stuff…”

Are there really such strange parents? Shu Jun was momentarily confused. He had only heard of parents forbidding pure casual games, but tactical games were officially recommended by the school. Parents should be happy if their child shows interest in them.

“You’ve come out by yourself. What are you afraid of? It’s not like you’re doing anything bad, and nobody will know if we don’t tell anyone.”

Smoke was still hesitant. “I actually like this kind of stuff, but my mom got really angry last time when she caught me secretly reading tactical books.”

“Parents aren’t always right.” Shu Jun poked at the little monster on the sand table and spoke seriously. “It’s just tactical planning. It won’t take your money, it won’t teach you bad things, and it won’t get in the way of your work. Maybe your mom has her reasons, but playing for an hour won’t hurt anyone.”

After some persuasion, Smoke agreed. Ten minutes later, Shu Jun discovered that this game could indeed bring confidence to Smoke, and it worked surprisingly well. Unlike the shooting game they played earlier, Shu Jun could deeply feel Smoke’s strength this time.

Smoke took only eight minutes to familiarize himself with the game controls and another two minutes to break through the level. His score was recorded under Shu Jun’s account, and Shu Jun’s level ranking shot up from over 3,000 to top 100.

This was even counting the first eight minutes.

Shu Jun blushed with embarrassment and quietly turned off the score upload.

The school had tested them, and Shu Jun was particularly good at handling predetermined battles. Once the situation became too large and complex, he began to go wild with ideas. As a result, his overall command score had always been low.

This tactical game, however, tested complex situations and command skills. Every time he saw it, his head would hurt. Who would have thought that he would bring back a monster—was Smoke’s mom afraid of scaring others?

What a waste! 

This person was clearly so strong, but still restrained!

Shu Jun rolled up his sleeves and said aggrievedly, “Did you see your score? Did you see it? If you hadn’t spent so long getting familiar with the level just now, you could have taken first place. My god, I don’t even know what you’re doing with your head down all the time. If I could achieve such results…”

As he spoke, his eyes began to feel sore. “I’m not convinced! Let’s keep going—”

An hour later, Shu Jun ran into the bathroom and sniffled for a full three minutes. As an eleven-year-old mature young man, he wouldn’t normally be so unrestrained, but his mentality was just too broken. He didn’t know if Smoke had regained his confidence, but his own confidence was almost gone.

Smoke passed a high-difficulty level on his first try, as easily as tying his shoes. Shu Jun had struggled for a long time, and his tactical score only made up a fraction of Smoke’s. Even without the tactical score, Shu Jun was still an excellent student, so he had never experienced such a blow.

Even if he counted the tactical score, no one else in the school was as savage as this guy, right?

With him crying like this, it would be hard for Smoke to think that he deliberately let him win. With tears in his eyes, Shu Jun tried to save face.

“I’m sorry, I… I didn’t mean to win so much. I controlled myself…”

“What are you saying?!” Shu Jun hiccupped. “Listen to yourself!”

Unable to persuade him, Smoke was at a loss. “Your tactics are really good, and there are many angles that I didn’t think of, but they are a bit… scattered. As long as you make a little change, the effect will be just as good as mine.”

Seeing Shu Jun wiping his nose and tears, Smoke started to stutter anxiously.

“Really?” Shu Jun wiped his nose hard.

“Really, I can show you the changes.”

Shu Jun immediately stopped crying. “Tell me.”

Smoke didn’t expect this person to change his mood so quickly and froze on the spot.

“It was me who couldn’t control my emotions.” Shu Jun tore a piece of paper. “After all, I’m older than you, so I shouldn’t be like this… By the way, how old are you?”

“Twelve.”

“…” A tear slowly fell from the corner of Shu Jun’s eye. So he was actually the younger one.

“Wuuu.” He sniffed again, sadly. “Brother, please tell me how to improve my tactics from earlier?”

Smoke: “…”

Smoke: “…How about we analyze it?”

Shu Jun’s sadness came and went quickly. The two kids played and chattered until dawn, and Shu Jun satisfactorily took notes. On the other hand, Smoke’s expression and movements became more natural, and even a smile appeared on his face.

“Can you come play with me in the future?” Shu Jun made room for Smoke on the bed. “Or I can come play with you?”

“I… I’ll talk to my family when I go home tomorrow.” Smoke grabbed the edge of the blanket tightly. “It should be okay. Anyway, I’ve been alone at night. If it’s not okay, I can come out by myself.”

“Okay.” Shu Jun yawned. “We made a promise, okay?”

Smoke hesitated for a moment, carefully reached out his hand, and shook Shu Jun’s hand.

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

Shu Jun slept soundly that night, and when he woke up the next morning, he found that he had used Smoke as a pillow—his octopus-like arms wrapped around the rolled-up Smoke like a cushion. Smoke frowned slightly, but his breathing was still steady.

Shu Jun carefully released his grip and got out of bed. He sent a message to the manager that he didn’t need breakfast, and then started to cook enough noodles for two people—he actually cried in front of Smoke last night, so he had to quickly restore his mature and reliable image.

Although Smoke was older than him by a year, this age gap could be completely ignored—he was taller than Smoke, after all.

…And now that he thought about it, he did get half of a super cool friend.

No, they had so much fun playing together; they should be considered “real friends” now, right?

How great.

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The author has something to say:

In the real world, children should not wander around alone at night! There is no crime in the virtual world, but there is in the real world.

—————

Shu Ge, 16 years ago: When I grow up, I want to have a super cool weapon!

Monday: ?

Shu Ge: ?

—————

Shu Ge, 16 years ago: Although A’Yan is older than me, he is skinny and shorter than me… Spiritually, that makes me the big brother. I have to take care of this introverted friend…

Marshal: ?

Shu Ge: ??????

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Kinky Thoughts:

Wow I just died of sweetness. They are so cute!!! I love childhood sweethearts!

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