After capturing the true culprit behind it all, this farce—which could hardly be called entertaining—finally drew to a close. No one remained to stir up any more trouble.
Chen Guyi erected a Barrier nearby and began interrogating the white Life Tree. Meanwhile, β-62 excitedly clutched a white root tendril—the High Priest’s severed head still dangling from its tip—waiting eagerly for Chen Guyi to finish so she could excavate the Player’s memory storage and slice it up for fun.
Luo Shang, however, now had to confront everything from his real world.
Freed from the High Priest’s suppression, his skeleton rolled across the ground once more, transforming into a large Labrador Retriever. It bounded over in excitement, tail wagging furiously as it wriggled about nearby, clearly itching to nuzzle Luo Shang’s leg but too hesitant to do so.
The onlookers who had regained their senses could only click their tongues in astonishment.
Jiang Jingwu stared at the dog, his emotions a tangled mess.
He had originally believed it was a real dog. So when the High Priest chanted the Spirit Chant to force the skeleton back to its true form, Jiang Jingwu had nearly blacked out on the spot.
Remembering the harsh words he had once flung at the dog, and the sympathy he had felt for Su Mingyao because of it—even offering to discipline it on behalf of its owner and teach it some loyalty—left him mortified. Turns out it wasn’t a dog at all, but an undead skeleton!
Back then, Jiang Jingwu had glanced at Su Mingyao’s reaction and noticed he didn’t seem particularly surprised. It didn’t look like he was in the dark. Recalling how Su Mingyao had stopped him from “educating” the dog, Jiang Jingwu realized Su Mingyao had known all along. He had long been aware that his little brother’s “dog” was actually a skeleton.
Wait, isn’t that a weird thing to get used to? If you knew it was a skeleton and not a dog, why were you even walking it??
Jiang Jingwu couldn’t wrap his head around it.
The more baffling it was, the more curious he grew about what kind of person the dog’s owner must be.
What sort of individual would keep a dog that was really a skeleton in disguise?
But those thoughts were swiftly interrupted by Su Mingyao’s suicide attempt. Then his brother had appeared, saving Su Mingyao while handling everything else in one fell swoop.
Even now, Jiang Jingwu’s head was still spinning.
He gazed at Luo Shang’s boyish, almost endearing face and thought Su Mingyao’s brother was quite the study in contrasts—his deeds utterly at odds with his innocent looks.
If Jiang Jingwu had judged solely by appearances, he might have added him to his list of people needing protection. But in reality, the kid had pinned a god to the ground with a single move, leaving it half-dead.
Jiang Jingwu suspected he hadn’t finished the god off only because he wanted answers from interrogation, not because he couldn’t.
Watching Luo Shang’s actions stirred an inexplicable emotion in his heart.
Su Mingyao’s suicide had been heroic enough to rattle him deeply. Yet for some reason, the moment his brother showed up, Jiang Jingwu’s attention had locked onto him completely. His heart had pounded faster than it had at first sight of Su Mingyao, his palms sweating, his face flushing.
Could this be… could this be love?!
Jiang Jingwu wondered.
Had he fallen in love again?
But yesterday he’d fallen for Su Mingyao at first sight, and today he was smitten with his brother. Was he some kind of player?
Jiang Jingwu began to agonize over it.
Or maybe it was just the suspension bridge effect… he mused.
At that moment, the System chimed with a ding, and the progress bar jumped to 30%.
Luo Shang: [??]
[You’ve fulfilled the seduction plotline. Jiang Jingwu’s heart is shaken,] the System explained.
[In the original plot, you tried seducing Jiang Jingwu too. It didn’t work, of course.]
Luo Shang: …
But he hadn’t done anything now. Why had Jiang Jingwu suddenly gotten “seduced”?
He pondered for a moment and concluded he still didn’t understand how these people thought.
In the plot, Su Shang had gone to great lengths to seduce Jiang Jingwu. He’d researched the man’s preferences and decided that since he had a savior complex—evidenced by rescuing Su Mingyao—he should play the fragile type to evoke pity. So Su Shang had dolled himself up to look vulnerable, deliberately creating troubles for Jiang Jingwu to swoop in and save him.
The original plan was to naturally thank him afterward, build a rapport, become friends, get Jiang Jingwu to fall for him secretly, and thus rob Su Mingyao of an ally—or even use Jiang Jingwu to sabotage him.
But Jiang Jingwu hadn’t bought it at all. He’d found Su Shang too weak and effeminate, which infuriated the plot’s Su Shang into getting some thugs to beat him up. Ironically, that only deepened the bond between him and Su Mingyao, who ended up caring for him for a while.
Now, Luo Shang had shown up purely to save Su Mingyao, with zero interest in Jiang Jingwu—not even sparing him a glance. Yet Jiang Jingwu had spun his own narrative in his head, achieving the effect of being seduced all on his own.
Luo Shang was utterly speechless.
The System chimed in from the side, piling on: [Doesn’t this feel just like one of those classic vicious male side character stories? You were only supposed to play the vicious male side character, but by some twist of fate, you ended up catching the eye of the main gong and all the side gongs instead. They stopped loving the protagonist shou and fell for you.]
Luo Shang stayed silent.
Then he replied,
[Cut the jokes. You know I’m not interested in them.]
Truth be told, Luo Shang still couldn’t figure out why the version of himself in the plot had been so obsessed with competing against Su Mingyao in terms of charm. His own charm stat wasn’t all that high, but that never stopped him from extracting the intel he needed by holding a blade to the throats of the right people.
Hearing Luo Shang declare he had no interest in them came as a huge relief to Su Mingyao deep down. But then it hit him—he ought to feel insulted by that.
Luo Shang had already soared to realms far beyond their reach, while they were like frogs at the bottom of a well, able only to crane their necks and glimpse the moon overhead. Luo Shang was a dragon roaming free between heaven and earth, unbound to go wherever he pleased.
He recalled the short-haired woman saying that he possessed player qualifications too, and Su Mingyao felt a spark of longing stir within him.
If I could enter that space as well… could I become like Luo Shang?
As powerful as him. As free as him.
In truth, there weren’t many people still conscious at this point. The punch β-62 had ordered the High Priest to slam into the ground hadn’t just knocked out the fleeing priests—the sacrificial victims sprawled on the floor fared little better. If Chen Guyi hadn’t been cautious enough to shield them with a barrier, precious few of those offered up as sacrifices would have lived long enough to regain consciousness. Most of them merely passing out was already the better outcome.
And among those still awake was Wen Yanjun, the nation’s undercover operative.
“I want to…” Luo Shang had just begun.
“I swear I won’t breathe a word of this to anyone!” Jiang Jingwu blurted out.
Su Mingyao: ?
Why on earth was Jiang Jingwu piping up? Luo Shang hadn’t even asked him anything!
Wen Yanjun: ??
Who the hell was this guy? How dare he raise his voice like that to this god? He himself was still agonizing over the perfect phrasing—this fool had a death wish!
Worried that Luo Shang might take offense at the interruption, Su Mingyao hurriedly shot Jiang Jingwu a warning glance, urging him to watch his step. But Jiang Jingwu paid no heed to Su Mingyao’s signals at all. His eyes were locked solely on Luo Shang.
“It’s not about that,” Luo Shang said, his tone perfectly even.
“To be precise, I’m not asking you—I’m asking my second brother.”
“Truth is, I don’t even want to call you second brother. Su Mingyao, we were born the same day. No one knows who came first.” Luo Shang went on.
“But I bet you could figure out exactly who was born first between us without breaking a sweat. Not a challenge for you at all,” Su Mingyao said with a sigh.
“True enough. But I don’t care to bother. You got a problem with that?” Luo Shang replied offhandedly.
“None at all.” Su Mingyao choked on the words, at a loss for a comeback.
Of course he wouldn’t dare object!
“Then we’re good.” Luo Shang shrugged.
This god had a mischievous streak, Wen Yanjun noted to himself as he listened quietly from the sidelines.
