Chapter 16

“Sent it wrong… wasn’t talking about you… you don’t have to scram.”

Chen Ziming, fresh out of the shower, came up behind Yu Mi, glanced at his chat history, and read it out loud in bits and pieces. Then he asked a straightforward question:

“Are you dating him, bro?”

“No way!” Yu Mi turned his head and dodged a bit, “Hey, your hair’s still wet, you’re dripping water on me.”

Chen Ziming stepped back, drying his hair as he said, “That ‘What Are You’ guy treats you pretty special.”

Yu Mi immediately retorted, “He just tricked me! Made me lose face on the world channel…”

He recounted the recent events to Chen Ziming, accusing someone of their wicked deeds.

After hearing it, Chen Ziming commented, “I noticed he really likes teasing you. But you are quite fun.”

This guy is cute and has a great personality, Chen Ziming knew it well.

“Scram.” Yu Mi pretended to kick him.

Chen Ziming said, “Joking aside, don’t date him, little bro. Online dating is risky. Instead of online dating him, why not develop something with that senior Qi You’an?”

“What the heck?” Yu Mi was speechless, “Where are you going with this?”

“I’m serious,” Chen Ziming returned to his seat, “You don’t even know what this ‘What Are You’ looks like, and you’re already being played by him. How does that work?”

“I’m not being played by him,” Yu Mi said, “He’s just bullying me because I’m a newbie and don’t know anything. This guy is sneaky bad, I wouldn’t online date him.”

He took out his tablet, ready to draw an avatar.

“That’s right, people in the game can’t be trusted, don’t consider him,” Chen Ziming said, “Go for Qi Ge. At least you’ve met him, you know what you’re getting. Qi Ge is so handsome, works out every day, shows he’s disciplined. Plus, he’s a cosplayer, very into anime. Don’t you like anime?”

“Wait a minute,” Yu Mi turned his head, “Who am I to be picking? Am I even in the running?”

Chen Ziming said seriously, “You’re his guide on the path of life, no… on his detour. You enlightened him.”

Yu Mi couldn’t help but laugh, “It’s good enough if he doesn’t punch me into corn mush.”

He drew a couple of strokes, then looked up, “Aren’t you in an online relationship yourself? And you’re lecturing me?”

“I’m an experienced player,” Chen Ziming said confidently, “I’ve video chatted with Xiao Ya, we know each other well. We’ve known each other for years, just haven’t met in person yet. Unlike you, still inexperienced. Don’t become the kind of close friend with ‘What Are You’ that you can kiss.”

Yu Mi couldn’t help but laugh at the “kissable close friend” joke.

He thought the players in this game were really interesting, so good at creating jokes, their cheeky talk was endless, how did they come up with it all?

Simply both crazy and hilarious.

Maybe I’ll draw this today.

Putting the avatar aside, he couldn’t help but start drawing this “kissable” friend joke. He drew two versions, one of non-kissable friends, and one of two chibi characters kissing.

After finishing, he posted it on Weibo.

[@EvilPopcorn: Newbie learned something new… just found out that friends in Sword Roar in the Jianghu are divided into non-kissable and kissable. The seniors’ creativity in making jokes is beyond my imagination Orz…]

After posting, he checked the comments for a while, and the friends who shared and commented all said, “Find some kissable friends.”

Yu Mi was overjoyed.

As he laughed, he saw the cat in the game, the pet ‘What Are You’ gave him.

Yu Mi still wanted to return the cat to him, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He could only remember it for now and think of a way to return it later.

He stopped worrying about it and continued drawing. It took him two days to finish the remaining avatars, and he posted them all at once, tagging fan artists for reposts.

Seeing many fans change to the avatars he drew, he felt very satisfied.

After logging in at night, his master said there was a world boss today and called him to join.

Yu Mi joined the team where his master was, and his master opened the mic to explain the gameplay.

The world boss event starts every Wednesday and Friday at 8 PM. The bosses are some of the antagonists from the main storyline, and they refresh at fixed locations on certain maps. Players need to queue to enter the map and fight the boss together. These bosses have extremely thick health bars, and it takes hundreds of people a long time to defeat them.

Since the bosses refresh on outdoor maps, it’s also a battleground for PVP players.

Generally, neutral players who haven’t joined any faction diligently fight the boss, while PVP players are mostly busy killing people from opposing factions.

After the boss is defeated, there will be some special drops, which will then be auctioned server-wide. Players who participated in fighting the boss and met the condition of fighting for at least five minutes can receive a share of the auction proceeds, commonly known as wages.

Yu Mi had either missed the event before or couldn’t get in the queue, so this was his first time participating, and he was full of anticipation.

He was always looking forward to events with wages.

At 8 PM sharp, the boss clocked in on time, shouted its classic line, and then thousands of people started fighting.

Neutral players went to fight the boss, and PVP players started free-for-all combat.

When the focus list captured the figure of ‘What Are You,’ Yu Mi immediately selected him and spammed skills at him!

Seeing him just made him want to hit him!

‘What Are You’ didn’t say a word and sent him to the little black room to watch the stars.

The two of them targeted each other in the midst of thousands of people, only focusing on hitting each other.

For some reason, Yu Mi was very happy when hitting him, laughing non-stop at his seat, occasionally private messaging his master and senior brothers and sisters, asking them to help control ‘What Are You.’

The map was a chaotic battlefield, mixed with all kinds of cheeky talk.

[Map] Half Yuan Jun: Fighting the boss, not me! Hitting me won’t drop gold! #Angry

[Map] Xiao Bu Mian: Neutral players, hurry up and fight the boss, are you not full? I see you slacking off!

[Map] Hit Me You Get a Rag: Mmm, slurp slurp slurp… slurp slurp slurp…[Neutering Knife]

[Map] Qing Zhi: Sorry, Knife Dad, I was fighting the boss and accidentally got pushed onto your chest by the boss. Look at this mess… #LickScreen#LickScreen

Yu Mi fought ‘What Are You’ while copying the cheeky talk.

After an hour of chaos, the diligent neutral players defeated the boss, and everyone went forward to loot the treasure pile left by the boss for a basic reward.

This was also a matter of luck, the worst being a gold brick worth 50 gold, and there were also five-element stones, equipment, tea cakes, and other miscellaneous items.

PVP players fought fiercely over the treasure pile, and after dying several times, Yu Mi finally managed to grab a colorful stone with the protection of his healer teammates, then quickly fled for his life.

As a newbie, he couldn’t understand the attributes of the colorful stone, so he summoned Chen Ziming.

Chen Ziming grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

“How come your luck with looting is so good? This is a great item! The attributes are excellent, you can sell it for tens of thousands of gold on the trading market!”

Yu Mi did as he said, put the item on the trading market, and it was bought as soon as it was listed, selling for 40,000 gold!

Happy!

Then the world boss auction began, and the auction interface showed some equipment, with a golden icon at the top. It was a wolf, named “Xiao Tian Lang,” a rare mount.

Yu Mi previewed it, and this wolf was huge! Fluffy and majestic, it could breathe fire, and had many exquisite accessories, very eye-catching.

The description stated that this wolf could be ridden by two people.

Soon, a few people started bidding, and the highest bidder’s game ID was displayed under the wolf’s icon.

Yu Mi saw a familiar name—’What Are You.’

‘What Are You’ was also bidding for this wolf, along with four other IDs constantly raising the price.

To earn more wages, players who participated in the world boss event started acting as salespeople in the world channel, constantly praising how cool this wolf was.

[World] Past Like Smoke: Boss, this wolf’s attributes are unbeatable! Riding it guarantees you’ll be the coolest guy in the server!

[World] Stranger Crossing: I can’t imagine how cool it would be to ride this wolf for an escort mission! No one would dare to rob you!

[World] Poison Immortal Baby Three and a Half: Boss, go for it! Ride this wolf, take your partner, and you’ll be a winner in life!

Yu Mi had never seen such a sales scene before, found it quite fun, and wanted to earn more wages too! So he joined in copying.

There were still many people on this map, everyone concerned about how much they could earn tonight, so many stopped fighting. As long as they weren’t in combat for five minutes, the faction mode would automatically turn off. So even PVP players became harmonious, watching the auction together.

The bidding price kept rising, reaching over 8 million gold!

Over 8 million, converting the gold price, that’s more than 10,000 RMB.

10,000, to buy a wolf in the game, Yu Mi almost couldn’t recognize money anymore.

Two people dropped out of the bidding, leaving ‘What Are You’ and two others continuing, the three of them kept raising the price, tightly locked in competition.

The sales champions kept changing their rhetoric, continuing to promote the wolf, eventually even cheering for the three bosses.

[World] Scallop: Fortune Teller Bro, if you win this wolf, you’ll be the wolf god incarnate, maxed out in calculation power! Unraveling the mysteries of the universe will be a breeze!

[World] Banana: \Zi Long/\Zi Long/\Zi Long/ Go go go! Just bid 10 million to scare them off! #Fierce

[World] Shi Yu Ya: Blueberry Purple, go for it! Sister wants to sit behind your wolf’s butt for a ride. #Pitiful

To promote, everyone focused on the double riding in the carefree world.

Watching the endless new rhetoric from everyone, Yu Mi found it so fun, constantly taking screenshots and then copying again.

[World] Sweet Nuo Nuo: Fortune Teller Bro, I want to sit behind your wolf’s butt for a ride, living freely with you, galloping with the wolf, sharing the world’s prosperity! #Shy

The next second, the bid updated.

‘What Are You’ directly raised the bid from 10 million to 11.11 million.

The world channel was flooded with his name!

Then Blueberry Milkshake continued to bid, raising it to 12 million.

The auction was about to end, with only one minute left, the two kept bidding, raising the price.

In the last ten seconds, Blueberry Milkshake bid 12.88 million!

The next second, ‘What Are You’ bid again.

13.14 million!

Blueberry Milkshake retreated.

The countdown ended, and the system announced in yellow text server-wide.

[System: Congratulations to the hero ‘What Are You’ for winning the rare reward ‘Xiao Tian Lang’ from this world boss with a bid of 13.14 million gold!]

The world channel was very excited.

[World] Long Men Biao Ju: \Fortune Teller/\Fortune Teller/\Fortune Teller/, [What Are You] boss is so powerful!

[World] Xiang Ru Gu: Accountant, calculate how much wages we can get? Urgent urgent urgent!

[World] Wu Jin Lian Hua: I saw you fighting the world boss, share some wages with me. #Pitiful#Pitiful

[World] Xiao Yang Today Gets Rich: I saw you fighting the world boss, share some wages with me. #Pitiful#Pitiful

Yu Mi quickly sent a private message to his master, asking when the wages would be distributed?

Master said: Usually around 11 PM.

Master also said: Based on experience, each person can get over 10,000 gold.

Over 10,000?!

Yu Mi calculated, so he would earn a net 50,000 gold tonight?

Great, great, great!

11 PM is nothing, he could wait.

Yu Mi was eagerly anticipating the wages when suddenly the focus showed ‘What Are You’ approaching him.

The other party was riding the wolf he just spent 13.14 million gold on, coming to him.

Yu Mi observed the wolf, it was indeed handsome, with golden highlights in its fur and golden eyeshadow.

The next moment, an invitation popped up on the screen.

[System: ‘What Are You’ invites you to double ride, do you accept?]

Huh??

Yu Mi raised an eyebrow in front of the screen, what did he want??

He wavered the mouse between [Reject] and [Accept].

At this moment, ‘What Are You’ spoke.

[World] ‘What Are You’: ? Didn’t you want to sit behind my wolf’s butt for a ride?