Chapter 123
Chapter 123
He had just returned to the hotel he was staying at and swiped his room card to open the door.
Before he could even turn on the light, a warm breath brushed against his ear. “Shh, Ningning, don’t turn on the light.”
The other person closed the door behind them, long hair brushing past his ear in the process.
…For some reason, Ning Wang’s mind immediately began to wander.
He had just been about to say it was useless, that such a trivial little benefit wasn’t enough to buy his forgiveness.
Then warm lips pressed against his.
That person’s voice was low and beguiling. “Ningning, let me tell you a secret. In the Second Timeline, I discovered a second use for the Water Moon Mirror.”
The mention of the Second Timeline immediately touched the very thing Ning Wang was upset about.
He had just been about to say he was still angry when Ning Shuo began explaining in an unhurried voice.
Perhaps because it likewise involved a shift in time and a transfer through space, while in the Second Timeline, Ning Shuo discovered that the Water Moon Mirror could actually carve out part of a space and turn it into a private area.
In other words, within that space, even the System would be unable to spy on them.
Besides, leaving aside the issue of the Player, the Rest Area was an absolutely safe place. The System would neither dare nor be able to break that rule and interfere with a Player’s item.
That meant he didn’t need to worry about the Water Moon Mirror failing midway.
“This is no trivial little benefit.”
“Since Ningning is angry, your gege will let you be on top and won’t fight you for it.”
“When the meat is already at your lips, would Ningning really leave it uneaten?”
As soon as they entered this room, that ever-present feeling of being watched truly vanished without a trace.
Ning Wang’s heart began pounding faster and faster. He kept swinging back and forth between staying angry and letting himself be coaxed just like that.
After struggling with himself for a while, Ning Wang reached out and swept the person in front of him into his arms. “Ge, that’s what you said.”
And so, someone who could have flown on his own ended up diving straight into the arms of the man chasing him.
…
While some people were wrapped up in romance, others could only seethe in impotent rage.
In the Main God Space, the figure on the high platform was finally no longer just a brain.
His face and body were covered in blue patterns, and he wore a long robe etched with intricate designs. The fabric was visibly extraordinary, as though a civilization from beyond the stars had descended upon this place.
003 knelt obediently beneath the high platform, though his expression was anything but obedient. “My lord, there’s no need to keep trying. The Water Moon Mirror and the World-Descent Rule are items with the same level of authority. How could it be so easy to break through–”
Before he could finish, 003’s eyes suddenly went vacant.
The Main God merely shot him a glance. “I’ve told you before, your mouth stinks. I don’t want to hear things I dislike.”
His gaze returned to the Virtual Screen, where countless screens kept shifting along with his line of sight.
After a long while, his face darkened completely. “Impossible… Back then, when his memories were erased, no one realized the Water Moon Mirror was hidden on him, and that brief oversight was what allowed the mirror to shatter. Even one tiny component of the World-Descent Rule was enough to destroy that mirror. That’s enough to prove the World-Descent Rule can break the Water Moon Mirror…”
Before he could finish, the Main God seemed to suddenly think of a possibility, and his expression instantly stiffened.
A mocking laugh came from below the platform.
“Sorry, couldn’t help it,” Shu Yan said with a sneer. His mind had already recovered, so even the way he knelt was crooked and sloppy. “If the World-Descent Rule can’t break it, then that only proves one thing: Ning Shuo destroyed the Water Moon Mirror with his own hands.”
He had guessed that if he lost his memories, the intact mirror would definitely be snatched away by the Main God.
At that point, they would have had no chance of winning at all.
So the very first time his memories were erased, Ning Shuo personally shattered that mirror.
Fragments were easier to hide than a whole mirror.
And what Ning Wang, who had not lost his memories during the first war against the System, needed to do was find a chance to see whether he could defeat the System without any items at all.
Obviously, they had failed.
But that was fine. They had never expected to succeed in one go from the very beginning.
That was why there was this second expedition.
…
Ning Shuo suddenly clenched his teeth.
He really regretted it. He truly did.
He’d only remembered that Ning Wang had read quite a bit of fanfiction, so he ought to have some theoretical experience.
But he’d forgotten that back when Ning Wang kissed like a dog gnawing on a bone, he’d also read plenty of BL novels.
So their first kiss still ended up like a dog gnawing on a bone.
Gritting his teeth, Ning Shuo said, “It’s not even our first time. Did you really have to be this…”
He suddenly cut himself off.
The room was steeped in hazy intimacy when Ning Wang abruptly smiled. “So gege remembers quite a lot too.”
“Then, gege, in this Script, I realized I’d forgotten you. And when I remembered, there was some extra personal stuff mixed into those memories.”
He seemed to think for a moment about whether “extra personal stuff” was the right phrase, then continued, “I remembered our first real meeting. Around that time, we were taken away to have all our memories erased.”
“I clearly didn’t get my memory wiped, but the NPCs said it was done twice.”
“Ge, the first time, you were the one who went. Then who went the second time?”
“How many times did I forget? How many times did you forget?”
“Just how much suffering… did I make you go through?”
Ning Shuo could no longer ignore the sorrow spilling from the corners of his eyes and brows. He gently kissed him. “Be good. It’s okay. I have that mirror. No matter how much I get tossed around, I won’t die. It’s better for one person to lose their memory than for both of us to…”
“Is that so?”
Ning Wang looked down at Ning Shuo from above.
Or rather, at his skin.
It was much redder now, but when they’d first met, he had been pale to an absurd degree.
The kind of pale that looked sickly.
Though after staying in the System for so long, he seemed to have gotten a lot better.
Since no matter how much he pushed himself, he wouldn’t die, he just kept pushing himself right up to death’s door.
In the end, Ning Wang’s heart ached. He gentled his movements, and even his kisses turned tender. “I’m sorry, Ningning.”
For a brief instant, that form of address gave Ning Shuo a strange sense of overlap. He felt as if he’d returned to the warm red gauze curtains of that dream, their fingers laced together.
Before he could sink into the memory, a hand caught his.
Then pressed him into an even deeper heat of desire.
…
The Main God couldn’t crack the Water Moon Mirror, so he simply gave up trying.
He sat on the high platform with a gloomy expression, then suddenly smiled.
003 thought he was having another episode, but then he heard the Main God say, “Didn’t we throw the Water Moon Mirror into that Script? When it’s Zone F’s turn to compete, throw them into that Script.”
“Since they like solving problems in such a simple, brutal way, then let them deal with that place.”
“And Ning Wang-doesn’t he love stringing NPCs along?”
The Main God sneered. “This time, we’ll let him do it to his heart’s content.”
—
After all, he hadn’t exercised in two years. The moment he did, he was almost worked to death.
Ning Shuo had finally fulfilled the dream he’d once declared in Overworked and Overrun: “I’m going to lie down for three days and three nights.”
The second round of the competition between Zone A and Zone D happened to be three days later.
However, on the very first day he was stuck in bed, a guest came to visit.
Ning Wang had wanted to carry him, but at a time like this, Ning Shuo finally developed some sense of shame. Raising a hand, he said, “This King will do it personally,” then endured the pain and wrapped himself up so tightly he was covered from head to toe.
Very tightly, in fact. Even his ankles were covered, so no one could tell a thing.
What a joke.
Even if he really was the one on the bottom…
Out in public, he still had to maintain the dignity of a King.
A King was absolutely not a 0.