In an instant, a black figure cut across the screen like a bolt of lightning. Before the first strike was even finished, a flurry of slashes followed, one after another. Santuchuan, using his hands as knives, swiftly executed over a dozen powerful “Eagle Strike” moves to take down the White Bear. The bear roared as it fell, while Santuchuan, unscathed, stood quietly amidst the snowstorm.
White snowflakes gently settled on his black hair and black clothes. He was a deeply ingrained color in Su Yao’s heart. Su Yao swallowed, “That was intense!” His health was low; a single hit from a monster would kill him, yet he wasn’t afraid of death. Was it for her? “Can the monsters here give experience points?” Qin Chuan was rubbing his fingers together, seemingly nonchalant in his question. Su Yao looked and realized he had leveled up to 51 after killing one White Bear, while she had skyrocketed from level 15 to 20 after killing several. “Holy crap! That’s amazing! Let’s go, let’s kill more monsters!” In this game, the lower the level, the less experience needed to level up. The experience from a level 200 White Bear, when split between two players, would only bump Santuchuan up one level at level 50, but Little Mary would jump five levels at level 15. However, this was still quite impressive; in the outside world, this would be like a dream. To prevent low-level players from using hacks to level up quickly, the game was designed so that only monsters within five levels of the player’s level could provide experience points.
A level 50 player hacking to kill a level 200 monster would gain nothing; however, in this ancient time layer, they could gain experience from monsters far beyond their own level.
Qin Chuan was also excited; here, strength was everything, and their low levels significantly hindered their true potential. For example, Santuchuan needed over ten powerful moves to defeat a White Bear, whereas a max-level player from the Immortal Palace could finish it in one move. They decided to focus on leveling up first. They followed the snow-laden path at the foot of the mountain, hunting down scattered White Bears. After dispatching about twenty, they followed the distribution of the monsters and finally reached their lair—a cave. The dim light inside couldn’t hide the cave’s ancient, magnificent appearance.
Even more curious, although the entrance was small, the path led downward to a river, its waters shimmering in the extreme cold without freezing. The river stretched into the distance, its end unknown, with numerous White Bears, elite White Bears, and White Bear bosses scattered along its banks.
“Should we cross the river?” Su Yao pondered. At level 100, a priest could automatically learn a skill called “Underwater Breathing,” which could be applied to themselves and team members, allowing them to swim underwater.
“Let’s level up,” Qin Chuan decisively said. In the outside world, reaching level 100 would take at least two weeks of non-stop grinding, but here, they could level up by fighting higher-level monsters, which was as fast as an author updating their work in a frenzy.
A small assassin in black leading a priest in white walked along the riverbank, killing as they went deeper into the cave, from the level 200 centennial and millennial White Bears at the entrance, through to the level 300 to 400 White Snowmen, Underground Black Snowmen, and the King of Black Snow… all the way to the end of the riverbank where they faced a level 500 Millennial Abyss Black Snow King. With the assassin attacking and the priest supporting, they managed to defeat the boss. Time had unknowingly slipped into the middle of the night, and by then, Little Mary was level 80, while Santuchuan was level 92.
“Leveling up is too damn fast!” Su Yao cried tears of joy as she watched her Little Mary go from level 15 to 80 in one night. But even warriors need sleep, right? “Are you hungry? Want to eat or sleep?” Qin Chuan got up to pour her a glass of water.
“Sleep… where?” Su Yao looked at the cup in his hand and at his face, which seemed to be smiling yet not, under the light. She thought, “Surely not in your bed?” She cursed inwardly, but going home would make communication difficult if something happened in the game, and one mistake could cost them the divine artifact…
If Wang Shenmu knew his meticulously designed divine artifact was being sold to coal bosses by the Red Medicine Hall, he might spit blood in anger. But right now, the artifact was still just an idea, and Su Yao heard Qin Chuan say, “Just sleep here.”
“Don’t worry,” he added, “I’ll sleep in the study, I won’t watch you.”
Su Yao: “…”
“Of course, if you want me to watch, I wouldn’t mind.” Somehow, he just loved to tease her, to see her get all riled up.
Indeed, our Su Yao flipped the table, “I’m not sleeping! I’ll pull an all-nighter!”
“Okay, then I’ll stay up too.”
With a mischievous smile… “Alright! You said it, so you’ll stay up all night killing monsters to level me up, and I’m going to sleep!” Su Yao burst into laughter and stood up; she had been waiting for him to say that. “Sleep well,” he said with a grin. But as Su Yao got up, she tripped over her slippers, falling forward, and in the process, she knocked over the paper cup in Qin Chuan’s hand.
Su Yao fell into Qin Chuan’s embrace, and all the water from the cup spilled onto his thin, thin pants. The hot liquid flowed down Qin Chuan’s pants… Su Yao was stunned. She didn’t expect to cause such trouble on her first visit to someone’s home. But did she really have to wash his pants? She stared at him blankly, both of them locked in an awkward gaze. Su Yao still couldn’t fully accept that he was THANATOS, even after they had kissed… Yet, she had to admit, after a closer look, Qin Chuan’s appearance, physique, skills, and personality were strikingly similar to the THANATOS who always hid in the shadows. But why did he choose to remain hidden before, not letting anyone see or love him? What kind of person was he really?
“What are you looking at?” Qin Chuan teased, “Are you going to dry me off?”
With his pants soaked in hot water, he felt a bit embarrassed too… But to see her embarrassment, he didn’t mind at all.
“I’ll… go get a towel,” Su Yao said, feeling downcast as she headed to the bathroom.
She had decided to use his face towel to first clean the floor and then his pants. Hmph, it was his fault for teasing her! She needed to vent her frustration! However, as the saying goes, karma is a circle – those with dark intentions often meet bad ends – like our female warrior here. Just as she took a step, her poor slippers failed her, and she slipped on the wet floor, landing with a thud – poor female warrior, sprawled out awkwardly.
“Damn it!” The female warrior cursed loudly, struggling to get up, ready to demand some comfort, perhaps a massage for her sore spot, when she suddenly realized where she was hurt – her butt. Ask him to massage her butt? Oh, forget it, she’d rather die.
In frustration, our female warrior punched Qin Chuan in the chest and stormed out to get a towel without looking back, leaving Qin Chuan alone by the desk. He wanted to chase after her, tell her he could handle cleaning the floor, but he could only lean on the desk, pain radiating from where she had punched him. This unhealable wound reminded him never to forget, that he deserved this.
When Su Yao returned with a mop and towel, Qin Chuan had his back to her. Oblivious, she mopped the floor and hesitantly approached to dry his pants. Before she could touch his trousers, he turned and pinned her against the desk, followed by a hug that nearly suffocated her.