"Something feels... hehe, a bit off about today's atmosphere, doesn't it?" During breakfast, Luo Xi seemed to sense something unusual and glanced at the people around the table.
Bai Qianshuang remained silent, quietly eating her rice, but the aura she unintentionally emitted made the surrounding air feel almost frozen.
Ye Chuan didn’t speak either, occasionally smiling as he served dishes to everyone.
As for Lan Xiaoke, she just looked utterly innocent—after all, she had been peacefully asleep until now.
"What’s up with you guys?" Luo Xi asked when no one answered, finally turning to Bai Qianshuang. "Qianshuang, care to explain?"
"Nothing." Bai Qianshuang continued eating without raising her head.
"Oh?" Luo Xi shifted her gaze to Ye Chuan. "What did you do to Qianshuang?"
"Nothing at all." Ye Chuan chuckled.
Luo Xi then looked at Lan Xiaoke but quickly dismissed the idea—it probably had nothing to do with her, given how airheaded she was every day.
"I feel like you’re all hiding something." Luo Xi tilted her head, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"Aren’t we going to the beach today? Shouldn’t we be in a better mood?" she said to Bai Qianshuang.
"It’s fine." Bai Qianshuang’s expression remained unreadable, though whether her inner emotions matched her calm exterior was anyone’s guess.
Just as breakfast ended, Ye Chuan received a message from Wang Yanran.
Wang Yanran: Good morning, Ye Chuan. Have you eaten? What time are we heading to the beach?
Ye Chuan: Yeah, just finished. Send the driver over.
Wang Yanran: Got it.
Ding-dong. The moment the message arrived, the doorbell rang. Ye Chuan didn’t seem surprised, even though he hadn’t used his spiritual sense to check.
Opening the door, he found Wang Yanran standing outside in casual attire, smiling brightly. "Morning."
"Judging by your outfit, you’re coming with us?" Ye Chuan asked.
"Yep, is that okay?"
"You’re already wearing a swimsuit underneath—how could I say no?" Ye Chuan glanced at her outfit, his spiritual sense easily piercing through to see the red-striped swimsuit beneath.
"Huh?"
"Miss Yanran, have you had breakfast yet?" Suddenly, a fair arm wrapped around Ye Chuan’s neck as Luo Xi popped her head over his shoulder, grinning.
"I have."
"Great! Then we should get going, right?"
"Yeah, everyone grab your swimsuits," Ye Chuan said. "Oh, and call Ke Ning out."
As the group started preparing, Bai Qianshuang’s eyes flickered briefly.
"I think I’ll stay behind."
She turned as if to return to her room to cultivate.
"Aw, come on! Everyone’s going. What’s up, Qianshuang? Join us!" Before she could finish, Luo Xi grabbed her arm.
"Let’s go, let’s go! You look adorable in a swimsuit."
Bai Qianshuang hesitated but didn’t pull away.
Half-resisting, she eventually packed her swimsuit into her storage ring and followed along.
"I’m kinda sleepy… yawn." Ke Ning emerged still dressed in her usual white lab coat, though compared to yesterday, she looked utterly exhausted.
Lan Xiaoke blinked curiously. "Ke Ning, didn’t you sleep well?"
"Well… my body’s full, but my spirit isn’t." Ke Ning yawned again, offering a simple explanation.
"Aren’t you changing into outdoor clothes?" Ye Chuan asked.
"This is my outdoor outfit. It’s different from what I usually wear." Ke Ning gestured to her lab coat.
Ye Chuan scanned her up and down but couldn’t spot any difference.
"What’s different?"
"The hem is one centimeter shorter." Ke Ning adjusted her glasses.
"That counts as a difference?!"
"If an experiment’s margin of error exceeds one centimeter, a 99.99% drop in success rate wouldn’t be surprising."
"..." Ye Chuan had no retort. "Just get in the car."
"Okay."
Ke Ning immediately dozed off in the car, her head plopping unceremoniously onto Lan Xiaoke’s chest. The latter blinked but didn’t complain.
Wang Yanran took the wheel while Ye Chuan sat in the passenger seat.
"Ye Chuan..." Wang Yanran seemed about to discuss something important but paused when her gaze landed on the girls behind him.
"It’s fine. Say what you need to," Ye Chuan assured her.
"Alright." With his permission, she began,
"About the [Players]—we’ve interrogated that girl and learned a lot."
"They come from another world very similar to ours, with modern technology and even comparable history, except familiar historical figures have different names."
"One day, a small group of them were suddenly transported to a [Dungeon World]."
"As [Players], they must keep clearing dungeons to survive. Each successful run grants them a safe zone—the harder the dungeon, the better the rewards, and the more comfortable life in the safe zone becomes. Some even get to return to their own world."
"Ye Chuan, is this how you understand [Players]?" Wang Yanran seemed ready to repeat herself in case he hadn’t followed.
"Yeah, no need." The information matched what Ye Chuan already knew.
After all, that coward Tian Xiaogua had once cost him hundreds of millions in mosquito coins—a grudge he still held.
Who knew if that guy was even alive anymore? Probably died in some dungeon.
"That girl said the dungeon they chose—our world—is a low-difficulty, welfare-level one. They didn’t even need weapons; it would auto-clear when the time came," Wang Yanran added.
Heh. Ye Chuan smirked. If he hadn’t shown up, that might’ve been true.
Cackle cackle~
"That’s all the intel we have for now," she concluded.
"Got it." None of this was news to him. After a brief acknowledgment, he shifted topics. "How’s the pharmaceutical company?"
"Progressing steadily."
"Good."
Behind them, Luo Xi and the others listened with nothing but question marks in their heads.
Players? Dungeons?
Is this some kind of game?
"I don’t understand a word of what you’re talking about," Lan Xiaoke chimed in.
"Kids shouldn’t ask too many questions."
"Who’s a kid?!" Lan Xiaoke widened her eyes indignantly.
...
The car soon arrived at the seaside, where a yacht was docked.
"We’ll take that yacht. It’ll take about two hours to reach the island," Wang Yanran said.
"Two hours? Isn’t that too long?" Ye Chuan asked.
"Well, we could use a helicopter, but the winds are pretty strong right now..." She hesitated.
"No worries. I’ve got a better solution." Ye Chuan waved his hand, and a massive flying vessel materialized out of thin air.
Wang Yanran stared up at the looming, shadowy behemoth: "?"
Wait, what is this?!
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
