Damn it Her First Adventure Failed, All Because of Su Qi

What does "willing to cooperate with the investigation" even mean?

Could he have been hiding in his room all this time doing something illegal?

Liu Yuan studied Su Qi carefully.

At the same time, Su Qi was also sizing her up.

Only then did he realize that the person standing at the door was Liu Yuan, not the law enforcement officers he had imagined.

Awkwardly lowering his hand, the two stared at each other for a long moment before he finally spoke up: "What's up?"

No one visits without a reason.

Unless… was this some kind of night raid scenario?

Nah, that was just the delusion of someone who’d keeled over from playing too many galgames.

"Su Qi, I'm going to sleep."

Su Qi: ???

What’s going on?

Did she take the wrong meds?

Too much stress, lost her mind?

If she wants to sleep, just sleep—why’s she reporting it to him?

Su Qi reached out and touched Liu Yuan’s forehead: "Normal temperature. Doesn’t feel like a fever."

Liu Yuan: (╬◣д◢)

No, no, can’t lose my temper.

To be fair, she was the one who knocked on his door late at night for no good reason.

But this [Daily Adventure] quest was just… beyond words.

Aside from that older brother she knew online, Su Qi was the only other guy she had any positive feelings toward, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected that the quest would land on him.

"What are you even doing in your room?"

Though baffled, Su Qi answered anyway: "I was guiding someone…"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized how ambiguous they sounded and quickly corrected himself: "Wait, no—I was persuading someone to turn away from evil."

But to Liu Yuan, it just sounded like a weak excuse.

Liu Yuan: ???

Now that she thought about it, she’d heard some guys liked to… inspect their "weapons" late at night, maybe fire off a few rounds to prevent rust from disuse.

Was Su Qi really one of those guys?

Kind of pitiful, honestly—twenty-four years old and still no girlfriend.

"Then keep it down. I’m trying to sleep."

"I have school tomorrow."

With that, she closed the door for him, leaving Su Qi utterly confused.

What noise could he possibly be making?

The sound of typing?

Huh?

Was the soundproofing in this old place really that bad?

Fine, then.

He could just lie in bed and chat on his phone instead.

[Phoenix: So what are you trying to say? That I should just give up on revenge?]

Su Qi sighed and started typing rapidly.

Just his luck to get tangled up in this mess.

[I Want Sleep: Violence won’t solve anything—it’ll only make things worse. Have you considered resolving this through the Great Xia Law?]

[Phoenix: Great Xia Law? Pfft. You really think the law cares about this kind of thing?]

Su Qi frowned, feeling a pang of helplessness.

She wasn’t entirely wrong.

Family disputes like this were notoriously hard to settle legally.

Not to disparage the Great Xia Law, but the saying "even an honest official can’t judge domestic cases" had existed since ancient times for a reason.

[I Want Sleep: If you resort to extreme measures, the only one who’ll get hurt is you.]

[Phoenix: I don’t care.]

Su Qi felt a wave of frustration.

This kind of stubborn mindset wouldn’t change overnight, no matter how much he reasoned with her.

[I Want Sleep: Even if you don’t care about yourself, what about the people who care about you? Your friends, other family members, even your future self—they’ll all be affected by your decision.]

[Phoenix: No one cares about me.]

That left Su Qi truly speechless.

He wasn’t some professional therapist for troubled girls.

At best, he could "appeal to reason and move with emotion."

But if neither worked, he was out of ideas for now.

[I Want Sleep: How about we meet in person? Some things are hard to explain over text.]

[Phoenix: Hah… the woman who gave birth to me forbids me from meeting strangers.]

Seriously?

That was suffocatingly strict.

No wonder this girl, "Phoenix," was entertaining such a rebellious thought as matricide.

Before Su Qi could organize his next response, he noticed the username had changed.

[This account has been deactivated.]

Clicking into the profile, he was met with an unnatural blankness—not a joke name change, but an actual account deletion.

Su Qi exhaled deeply.

Well, fine. They weren’t close anyway, and he’d already tried his best.

Even if she really did kill "the woman who gave birth to her" someday, it wouldn’t have anything to do with him.

The chat logs were proof enough.

——

Back in her own room, Liu Yuan admired her equipment stats with satisfaction.

[Attributes]

[Strength +9]

[Agility +9]

[Magic +8]

The feeling of growing stronger every day was intoxicating.

The only downside was that [Daily Adventure] seemed to demand actual "adventures."

Thankfully, she’d managed to twist those embarrassing lines into normal conversation—otherwise, she’d have missed out on that sweet +1 to all stats.

As they say, good things come in pairs.

Right then, the older brother she’d been waiting for finally finished whatever he was doing.

[I Want Sleep: Goodnight, Little Iris. Sweet dreams.]

Liu Yuan lay in bed, staring at the "Goodnight" on her screen.

She set her phone aside, closed her eyes, and smiled faintly.

Time to sleep!

Now, even while sleeping, she’d automatically cultivate…

In three months, she’d be terrifyingly strong. And then—

And then—

She was definitely going to beat Su Qi up!

Aaaaah!!!!

[Promotion Adventure: Ensure the target character does not look at this equipment for more than five seconds at a time for seven consecutive days. (Failed)]

[Reason for failure: Target character stared at equipment for 16.12 seconds.]

[Please wait patiently for the next Promotion Adventure.]

When did that happen?!

After she knocked on his door?

How did he even manage that?

Why hadn’t she noticed at all?!

Dammit!!!

Her first… adventure failure.

All because of Su Qi!!!