After an unknown period, Yan slowly began to stir.
Before he could even open his eyes, Qing Bai’s impatient voice reached his ears.
“Honestly! When is this guy going to wake up?”
“Sister Qing Bai, let’s not disturb Yan.”
This time, it was Tian Jiu’s gentle voice.
She was softly persuading Qing Bai, evidently not wanting to wake him.
“Let’s just grind some nearby small monsters for a bit to level up.”
“Hmph! I’d like to see how long this guy plans to sleep!”
Qing Bai said, and then the sound of her sitting down nearby followed.
It seemed she intended to wait there until he woke up.
‘Interesting. Maybe I should roll over and keep sleeping, just to tease them?’
Yan thought, naturally rolling over.
He still kept his eyes closed, intending to continue feigning sleep, only to find his hand, due to the movement of rolling over, had naturally landed on something soft.
“What is this?”
With his eyes still closed, Yan suspiciously gave it a squeeze.
“Oh!”
From above came Alice’s delicate yelp.
Yan quickly sensed something amiss, and immediately released his hand.
“Alice, what’s wrong?”
It was Tian Jiu’s questioning voice.
“N-nothing.”
Yan heard Alice’s flustered, evasive voice from above his head, and a sigh of relief escaped his heart.
‘Huh? Wait? Above?’
Yan opened his eyes.
What greeted his eyes were Alice’s smooth thighs, her blue dress disheveled by his roll, and the faint glimpse of ‘spring scenery’ (TL Note: A euphemism for exposed skin, typically referring to cleavage or thighs) subtly revealed beneath the skirt.
‘Could this be… a lap pillow?’
Yan quickly realized the current situation.
‘Then my hand?’
Yan looked closely; his hand was resting on the upper part of Alice’s thigh, still in a grasping posture.
“Yan, you’re awake?”
Yan looked up, and saw Alice’s not-so-friendly smile on her lowered face.
‘What had he just done!? Assaulted a game administrator AI!?’
Yan instantly shot upright, and began to apologize.
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s alright. You haven’t been asleep for long, Yan.”
‘Huh?’
Alice smiled with narrowed eyes, seemingly with no intention of mentioning his earlier inappropriate action.
Yan looked at Alice with grateful eyes, and silently pleaded for her forgiveness.
“Rather than apologizing to me, you should apologize to Tian Jiu and Miss Qing Bai instead. They’ve been waiting for you for quite some time.”
“Oh, really…”
Yan turned his head to look at the two beside him.
Qing Bai, sitting on the ground, wore a sulky expression.
Beside her stood Tian Jiu, her face a wry smile, seemingly blaming herself for not stopping Qing Bai and thus waking Yan.
“My apologies, both of you, I fell asleep.”
Yan spoke with sincerity.
“Hmph.”
Qing Bai turned her head away, apparently unwilling to accept his apology.
“It’s… it’s fine. We just finished clearing the Black Dragon, so not much time was wasted.”
Tian Jiu waved her hands frantically, and said.
“Did you get it? [Magic Ring].”
“Hmph.”
Qing Bai reluctantly let out a hmph, but still extended her left hand.
“Here.”
Her fair, delicate hand was quite small, seeming as though Yan’s hand could easily envelop it.
She spread her five fingers, gesturing to Yan, a black ring adorning her slender index finger.
“Oh wow, you got it, that’s great.”
Yan genuinely felt happy for her.
“Of course, with this young lady on the job, getting a dropped ring is a simple matter.”
Qing Bai withdrew her left hand, and said with a proud tilt of her head.
“Actually, the process was quite difficult.”
Alice covered her mouth and chuckled.
“Alice! Don’t expose me! Ugh…”
Qing Bai’s slightly embarrassed wail was ignored by everyone.
“We had to kill it five or six times before just one ring dropped. It was truly lucky it dropped the first time.”
Tian Jiu smiled wearily.
“But we finally got it! This young lady can now transform into an Agile Spirit Mage!”
Having obtained the ring, Qing Bai seemed quite pleased.
“Still, you should max out Agility before putting points into Spirit Magic. Right now, increasing your cast speed offers a much greater benefit than increasing mana regeneration.”
Yan reminded her with a smile.
“Of course this young lady knows such trivial matters. I don’t need you to teach me.”
“Huh, wait a minute, the drop rate for special equipment from this kind of wild boss isn’t that low. It should drop one after about two kills.”
Alice tilted her head in confusion, as if realizing something wasn’t quite right.
‘Wait a minute…’
Yan suddenly had a bad feeling.
‘Could it be…’
He quickly checked his inventory.
Looking at the three black rings, shimmering with a gentle luster, in his inventory, Yan’s smile gradually stiffened.
“Ah! Isn’t Yan still in your party? Maybe it dropped into his inventory?”
Alice seemed to suddenly “realize” something, and pointed at Yan with a smile.
“Heh… heheh…”
Yan’s mouth twitched, as he met Alice’s mischievous gaze, and the faint, wicked smirk playing on her lips.
‘This guy must have realized it much earlier!’
‘Bringing it up at this moment, she must definitely be getting back at me for my earlier inappropriate behavior!’
‘Absolutely!’
“Yan~~~”
The smile on Qing Bai’s face gradually turned terrifying.
Even the kind Tian Jiu puffed out her cheeks, and glared at Yan indignantly.
‘It seemed clearing the Black Dragon had utterly exhausted both of them…’
“Yes, yes, I was wrong… It did indeed drop into my inventory.”
Yan clasped his hands together, raised them high above his head, and pleaded for their forgiveness.
“How many pieces?”
Yan’s sincere attitude made much of the anger in their hearts subside.
Qing Bai crossed her arms over her chest, and asked, trying to calm herself.
“About…”
Yan, however, felt no sense of having escaped a calamity.
He lowered his head and spoke weakly.
“Three pieces?”
He finally confessed.
“Yan!!!!”
That day, Qing Bai’s furious roars and Yan’s miserable cries echoed throughout the entire Spirit Plant Valley, leading some players who happened to pass by the valley to believe it was some kind of supernatural event, and they eagerly started discussions on the forums.
Consequently, the rumors grew increasingly outlandish, and Spirit Plant Valley earned a new nickname: “Wailing Valley.”
This incident also became one of the Ten Great Supernatural Events of the new server in ‘Companion Gods,’ (TL Note: The name of the game, ‘伴生神界’ can be translated as ‘Companion Gods’ or ‘Symbiotic Divine Realm’) but these were all just anecdotes.
Currently, Yan could only face Qing Bai, who had switched to area-of-effect attack mode, unleashing a relentless barrage of magic, and flee with miserable cries.
****
“I’ll forgive you, seeing as Yan is treating me to cake.”
Tian Jiu sat across from Yan, stuffing a piece of cake into her mouth, her cheeks bulging, and then revealed a blissful expression.
‘This little one is easily appeased.’
Yan thought, smiling as he shifted his gaze to Qing Bai, who was seated beside Tian Jiu.
“Hmph.”
Qing Bai shot him a glare, her cheeks still puffed out, seemingly still a bit angry.
Yet her body was quite honest, skillfully cutting a piece of the grape tart before her and bringing it to her mouth.
As the sweet, rich flavor slowly melted in her mouth, the expression on her face softened, no longer showing anger, as she focused on savoring her favorite dessert.
‘This counts as… forgiving me, right?’
Yan slowly let out a breath of relief, picked up the Blue Mountain coffee beside him, and took a sip.
The unique aroma permeated his mouth.
“Mmm~”
A happy, drawn-out sound reached Yan’s ears.
He turned his head to see Alice holding up her fork, savoring the grape tart she had just eaten.
“This one tastes delicious too.”
“Hey, hey, you’re an AI in this game, why do you look like you’ve never seen the world?”
Yan chuckled.
Her willingness to taste the cake he offered proved that Alice had also forgiven his earlier inappropriate behavior, finally allowing him to relax.
“I don’t have a habit of eating, so I haven’t really tried these desserts.”
Alice pouted, a hint of grievance in her expression.
“In that case, I’ll let you try them all sometime in the future.”
Yan was amused by Alice’s reaction, and said with a laugh.
“Really?”
Alice’s face lit up with a happy smile.
“You promised, okay? Yan can’t go back on your word now.”
“Mhm.”
Yan nodded with a smile.
“Be careful, I might eat you out of house and home, Yan~”
Alice playfully winked, threatening him.
“That would be quite troublesome for me…”
Yan said with a wry smile.
Qing Bai picked up the cup of black tea beside her, and took a sip.
“This game’s black tea is surprisingly good, isn’t it?”
She remarked with a slight surprise.
Up until now, just like her ID “Qing Bai wants to drink cola,” she had only ever drunk cola in this game, but this time, Yan had ordered the black tea for her.
Alice chuckled.
“To receive such affirmation from Miss, it seems the designer responsible for the black tea put in a lot of effort.”
“Hmph.”
Qing Bai glanced at Yan, then closed her eyes.
“Considering you’ve let this young lady taste something good, I’ll let you off the hook this time. But if there’s a next time…”
“No, no, there won won’t be a next time.”
Yan quickly interjected.
“Hmph, that’s more like it.”
“Mhm! This tastes good too!”
Tian Jiu held a warm cup of milk tea with both hands, and praised it continuously after taking a sip.
“Pfft, then order another cup. It’s on me.”
Looking at the adorable Tian Jiu, Yan couldn’t help but laugh as he spoke.
“Anyway, it’s not in real life, so there’s no need to worry about calories or anything.”
“Really!?”
Tian Jiu’s eyes sparkled with excitement; she was truly a little foodie.
“Then I’ll order another cup!”
“I want one too.”
“Me too…”
….
Yan’s wallet was crying… just kidding, he still had hundreds of billions of divine coins from the old server, and eating wouldn’t cost him much.
“Yes, yes, at your command, ladies.”
He reluctantly ordered the drinks or desserts everyone requested.
Taking advantage of this break, he pulled up his attribute panel.
The last time he allocated attributes was before the first area boss, when he was level 16.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of making a mistake like Qing Bai; rather, his attributes were already so abnormal that there had been no need to allocate points, so he had simply forgotten.
Yan looked at his attribute panel.
—-
STR (Strength): 1000 (Attack Specialization) (Max Strength)
INT (Intelligence): 1
SPD (Agility): 353
DEX (Dexterity): 1
VIT (Vitality): 500 (Health Specialization)
Available Points: 171
—-
Ah, is it enough already? 500 points for Swiftness Specialization.
Yan was a bit surprised, but upon closer thought, this game gives 9 attribute points per level, plus points from various achievements, big and small, so he gained about 10 attribute points per level.
He was currently level 34, and factoring in the 100 Agility points he had from the old server and the 100 attribute points given for creating the account, if all these were put into Agility, it would indeed exceed five hundred.
Well, in that case, let’s begin.
The third specialization attribute… Agility Specialization!