☆ Chapter 11

Ling Shaoze looked at the private message sent by Pang Wenguang: “…?!”

How was he supposed to tell his buddy that he was the one who set the one-week deadline in the first place…? Although, to be fair, Wuying had been very cooperative. The guy insisted on holding hands even while walking and would lean in to steal a kiss from time to time, all under the noble pretense of “treasuring every day they had left.”

Ling Shaoze could only reply: “It’s not what you think between me and Wuying.”

If both parties are willing, how can it be called “messing around”?

Pang Wenguang recalled his friend’s bold proclamation about casting a wide net to hook all seven top-ranked players… and figured Ling Shaoze probably hadn’t invested that much emotionally either.

And really, as someone who had never dated and was a forever-single dog since birth, he figured he wasn’t really in a position to meddle in other people’s love lives anyway.

So, Pang Wenguang just simply said, “A’Ze, let me tell you a secret—my cousin’s also a high-level player from the closed beta. He’s ranked #2 on the Warrior leaderboard and the guild leader of the biggest guild Temple, goes by the name ‘Tyrant Blade.’ I just didn’t want him bossing me around, so I never asked him to carry me. But if Wuying ever bullies you, I’ll ask my cousin to take care of it for you!”

Ling Shaoze: “…Alright, thanks, Guangguang.”

He appreciated the kind gesture, but he really didn’t need it.

Soon, the five-person party met up at the entrance to a level-15 dungeon located on a hillside just outside Maplewood Town.

It was a bandit cave dungeon—the entry-level instance with the lowest level requirement. The overall difficulty wasn’t too high, but the rewards were decent.

The dungeon had three difficulty settings: Normal, Hard, and Hell. The higher the difficulty, the better the rewards. If all five players were newbies—especially with Ling Shaoze and Pang Wenguang both being only level 10—they would definitely be expected to go with Normal difficulty.

But now, with the top-ranked Assassin Shadowless on their team, the party leader, ‘Most Handsome Under Heaven’, asked, “What difficulty are we picking—Normal or Hard?”

With a pro carrying them, most of them figured they could probably handle Hard.

He Yi , a full-fledged Imperial Marshal who had seen real-life battlefields more times than he could count, thought nothing of running a dungeon in a holographic online game. And moreover, this was a rare chance for him to show off in front of the young man he wanted to pursue.

Without hesitation, he said, “Hell difficulty.”

Ling Shaoze raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You sure? If we wipe, I’m going to laugh at you, you know.”

Even though beta players’ data wasn’t wiped, all records for first dungeon clears and fastest completion times had been reset.

After the open beta, although closed beta players could still enter these dungeons, there was a catch: for level 15 dungeons, each party could have only one player over level 20. Plus, the number of mobs and the boss’s stats would scale based on the highest-level player in the team.

If Wuying were playing an AoE-heavy class, he might’ve been able to brute-force the whole dungeon by himself—mowing down mobs and soloing the boss. But the guy was an assassin—fragile, with single-target only skills! No sweeping through mobs here.

He Yi leaned in and affectionately kissed Ling Shaoze on the tip of his nose. “Hmm, I wasn’t totally confident at first… but I can’t let you down, Lingling. So I’ll definitely make it happen.”

Ling Shaoze: …?!

Could he not just talk like a normal person?! What’s with the sneak-attack kiss?! There were people watching!!

Just moments ago, the others were still thinking, Even though they’re calling themselves a couple, Ling Shaoze and Wuying don’t really seem that close…

And now:
BAM.
Ambushed by PDA. Unavoidable dog food drop.

“Most Handsome Under Heaven” cleared his throat. “Well, let’s listen to the master—Hell mode it is. No one’s snagged a Hell-mode first clear since the servers opened!”

Dou A’Dou was fired up. “With Wuying leading us, maybe we’ll be the first! C’mon, c’mon, fire it up, let’s gooo!”

Soon, the five of them entered the dungeon.

As a first-time player of a holographic game and a low-level healer at that, Ling Shaoze mostly hung in the back leeching EXP—occasionally tossing out a healing buff or two just to not let people die. His personal motto was: “Stay alive first, help later.”

Anyway, the others were all stocked up on potions. If he didn’t heal in time, they could chug a potion. And even if he did heal in time, his pitiful healing output was worse than their potion cooldowns.

What really let Ling Shaoze slack off with a clear conscience… was just how terrifyingly strong Wuying was. The guy had crazy agility, high single-target burst, and impeccable positioning and combat awareness. Everywhere he passed, mobs dropped like flies—throats slit, hearts pierced.

The rare few elite mobs that didn’t drop in one hit? No problem. ‘Radiant Glory’ and ‘Most Handsome Under Heaven’ took them on in melee, and Dou Ah Dou sniped from afar to finish the job. Their HP bars barely even budged.

To Ling Shaoze, this didn’t feel like Hell level difficulty at all—it was easier than the Normal runs he’d seen other players post online.

Twenty-something minutes later…

[System Announcement: Congratulations to Most Handsome Under Heaven, Dou A’Dou, Radiant Glory, Wuying, and Domineering Lingling for clearing the Level 15 Wild Cave Dungeon on Hell difficulty. First Clear achievement unlocked. Each player receives: Gold Treasure Chest ×1. Dungeon drop: Diamond Treasure Chest ×1.]

In Eternal Legend Online, treasure chests were ranked in five tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond—with Diamond being the rarest of all. They only dropped from Hell-mode first clears, hidden dungeons, world bosses, and open-field bosses.

Gear, meanwhile, came in five grades: White, Green, Blue, Purple, and Orange.

The Diamond Chest always dropped loot that started at least a blue-tier gear, and typically included two to four purple-tier items. As for whether you’d pull an ultra-rare orange-tier item? That all came down to luck.

The Gold Chest, which everyone got, had already been auto-distributed by the system. Ling Shaoze opened his and found a blue-tier robe suited for his Priest class—it boosted defense. There were also some green-grade crafting materials, gold coins, and a hefty chunk of EXP. He shot straight from level 10 to level 14—not bad at all.

The others all got decent loot too.

But what everyone was really looking forward to… was what the Diamond Chest from the final boss would give them.

Wuying had done the bulk of the work in killing the boss. The others hadn’t contributed much, so Pang Wenguang and his two classmates very tactfully refrained from touching the Diamond Chest.

He Yi turned to Ling Shaoze.
“Lingling, you open the Diamond Chest.”

Ling Shaoze hesitated. In his past life, he was a certified unlucky gremlin—the type to buy ten “win-a-free-drink” bottles with a 50% win rate and still lose all ten and didn’t get a single “Try Again.” In games, he was a classic “non-European—zero SSRs, zero luck, all despair.”—totally unlucky, only able to fight fate with his wallet.

The man beside him seemed to sense his hesitation and said warmly:
“Go ahead. Doesn’t matter what you pull— we’re not here to make a living off this game anyway.”

Seeing the other three also waiting for him to step forward, Ling Shaoze gave them a heads-up:
“Just warning you guys—my luck is really bad, like legendary-tier bad.”

The next moment, He Yi stepped over, took Ling Shaoze’s hands in his, rubbed them a few times, and even gave them a kiss, chuckling softly: “Here, let me pass you some of my luck.”

Ling Shaoze: …

Dear god—this man is dangerously smooth! How many poor boys and girls has he seduced with this exact move?

Rolling his eyes, Ling Shaoze pulled his hands back, and walked over to the glittering, jewel-studded Diamond Treasure Chest.

He opened it.

And immediately, the system broadcast exploded across the server:

[System Announcement]: Congratulations to player Domineering Lingling for opening the Diamond Chest rewarded for the Hell-difficulty first clear of the Wild Cave dungeon. Items obtained include:
—Orange-tier crafting material: Moonlight Tear Gem. —Purple-tier Dagger: Shadow Fang of the Night, —Purple-tier Staff: Holy Light Prayer —Purple-tier Boots: Cloud Chasing —Blue-tier crafting material: Treasure Map Fragment —Blue-tier Skill Book: Whirlwind Slash

There were four blue-tier items in total, plus a bunch of green-grade drops.

Pang Wenguang: “Holy crap, A’Ze, this is what you call bad luck?! You’re on fire!!”

‘Most Handsome Under Heaven’: “Bow down to the Living European Emperor!”

Dou A’Dou: “Boss, can we shake hands? Please let me sponge off that lucky aura!”

Not just the three buddies from Shuilan University—even Ling Shaoze himself was floored.

This was the first time in his life he’d gotten this lucky. He had practically pulled the maximum value possible out of that diamond chest.

Ling Shaoze tried to explain: “No, don’t worship me—I swear I’ve never been this lucky before. This is a total fluke…”

As he said that, he couldn’t help glancing at his top-ranked assassin “boyfriend” and mumbled: “Don’t tell me… did you really transfer your luck to me? What’s your luck usually like?”

He Yi thought to himself:
Of course it worked.

When he’d secretly had Zhuo Yingbai swap Ling Shaoze’s gaming pod with a custom-made military-grade Model B unit, he’d also had the tech team quietly tweak the pod’s hidden “luck value” for its first registered user.

Initial luck was a hidden stat, ranging from 1 to 10.
Players never saw it.
But the pod sure did.

Most average players started with a luck stat above the baseline. But if they deleted their character and start over, your luck would drop by one point.

In previous games developed by Zhuo Games Unlimited, players with a history of shady behavior would start off with lower luck. On the other hand, active loyal players had slightly higher values, and veteran players who had made major contributions to Zhuo Games Unlimited could start with maxed-out luck.

He Yì had once invested a large sum into Zhuo Games during its early days without asking for any shares in return. That alone counted as a major contribution. Now that he finally had time to actually play one of their games—and had plans to chase down his future wife in it—asking for two max-luck accounts didn’t seem like too much.

…Of course, none of this was something he could explain to Ling Shaoze.

He Yì walked over and ruffled the little guy’s hair. “Mhm, I’ve always been lucky. I mean, if I wasn’t, how else would I have met you on the very first day of open beta?”

Ling Shaoze: …

This guy just never quits, huh?! Always flirting, 24/7!

Ling Shaoze suddenly felt conflicted. If he really dumped Wuying in a week like he’d originally planned… would his luck drop again from European Emperor back to the cursed RNG peasant?

…He was genuinely starting to not want to be a heartless scumbag now!

That said, “transferring luck” or whatever—Ling Shaoze didn’t really buy into that kind of thing. He came to this game mostly to go wild and have fun, not to grind gear or min-max stats.

Next came the loot distribution.

Everyone agreed that Wuying had carried the whole run. The orange and purple gear naturally went to him. The rest were fine just splitting up some of the blue-tier materials.

After all, without Wuying leading the charge, the best they could’ve managed on their own was clearing the normal mode. That version of the boss would’ve only dropped gold chests with 1–2 blue items—barely worth more than the guaranteed gold chests they’d already received.

He Yì didn’t stand on ceremony. He just went ahead and claimed the orange-tier item and three purples, leaving the rest for the team.

There were also 30,000 gold coins in the drop, which he let them split as compensation for him taking the best loot.

Then he handed the orange gem ‘Moonlight Tear’, the purple staff ‘Holy Light Prayer’, and the purple boots ‘Cloud Chasing Boots’ to Ling Shaoze—keeping only the purple dagger for himself.

Ling Shaoze: “?!”

Dude, I was literally just leeching the whole time! He even took a piece of blue loot—the Treasure Map Fragment—which, while kind of niche, was the only material that even remotely fit his class. You needed ten pieces to use it, and the other blue materials weren’t really useful for a priest, so he’d volunteered to take the least valuable one.

He gave He Yì a speechless look. “Why are you giving these to me? Just keep them. Even if you can’t use them, you can sell them on the market.”

He Yì replied calmly: “Take them. I only ran the dungeon for you in the first place. You can use all of these. If you don’t want them, I’ll just throw them away.”

And with that, he actually made a move to toss the gear on the ground.

Ling had no choice but to take them, then immediately transferred 90,000 gold coins to Wuying—the entire balance in his account.

Ling Shaoze didn’t really know how much an orange-tier crafting material and two pieces of purple gear would sell for, but it was definitely worth more than 100,000 star coins.

“I’ll check the market price later. I’ll make up the difference based on the average then.”

Seeing the man refuse the money, Ling Shaoze said bluntly, “If you won’t take it, then I’m not keeping the gear either. Toss it wherever you like.”

He was never going to invest emotionally in someone, so he had no intention of taking advantage of someone financially. It wasn’t like he was short on money.

He Yì could only helplessly accept the 90,000 gold coins his little boyfriend transferred. “Ninety thousand’s enough. It’s not like I need the money. Don’t be so strict about keeping things even. No matter what happens in the future, we are still a couple for now, aren’t we?”

Ling Shaoze hesitated, then finally nodded. “Alright.”

If everything had to be accounted for with money, then did that mean he’d have to pay for the time the #1 ranked Assassin spent back in Maplewood Town power-leveling his alt Mage?

Wuying could’ve spent all that time when he was flirting with him, running dungeons for others instead, or clearing level-30 elite instances solo—he definitely could’ve made a lot of money doing that.

After exiting the dungeon, the team disbanded.

Seeing that Ling Shaoze had a god-tier boyfriend now, Pang Wenguang tactfully didn’t come over to be a third-wheel. Instead, he left with his two classmates.

Before leaving, Pang Wenguang winked at Ling Shaoze and sent a private message:
“A boyfriend this strong and sweet? A’Ze, you better think long-term, man! One-week flings are a waste. Go get that endgame relationship! Fighting!”

Ling Shaoze: “……”

What’s so bad about weekly flings? Who knows, maybe the next boyfriend will be even more deliciously OP?

He changed into the new gear he got from the dungeon—the blue-tier robe, the purple staff, and the purple “Cloud Chasing Boots”—and immediately felt like he’d gone from peasant to powerhouse.

Even better, mage and priest robes were interchangeable, and the boots weren’t class-locked either. His crossdressing alt could wear this whole set.

Mood: impeccable.

Watching his little boyfriend decked out in new gear, He Yì also felt completely satisfied.

He couldn’t help but think:
Giving clothes to your significant other… is really just the first step toward one day undressing them yourself…

Even though the dream of becoming official partners both in-game and IRL (i.e. legally allowed to strip each other in-game) still seemed far off, He Yì couldn’t help himself. He opened the game store’s clothing tab.

Priest exclusive outfits, universal male costumes? Buy!
Mage exclusive outfits and universal female costumes? Buy, buy, buy!

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Author’s note: Please collect and sprinkle some flowers~ Mwah mwah~!

T/n: New chapter is up🥳😺. The Schemes are getting deeper and deeper 😏🤔😎🤣. Stay tuned for more 🤩. You can support the original author here. If you’re enjoying what I’m doing you can buy me a Ko-fi. Happy Reading ❤️🥳.