Chapter 60
Chapter 60
Ning Shuo looked at him, then suddenly laughed aloud.
He reached out and stroked Ning Wang’s face, the one that looked exactly like his own, and said in a bewitching voice, “Ningning, do you like your good big brother that much?”
Ning Wang seemed to snap back to himself. He arched one brow and said, “Whether I like you or not… can’t my good big brother feel it?”
He didn’t give Ning Shuo a chance to say anything more. Looking at Ning Shuo’s lips, still glistening faintly with moisture, he curled his own and leaned down to kiss him.
A real kiss really was different from pretending to kiss.
The former was far more tempting just to look at.
…
They still hadn’t broken through that final thin layer between them. Ning Shuo was waiting for Ning Wang to confess, even though everything that had happened so far was missing only that one verbal confirmation.
Ning Wang, meanwhile, was waiting for the right opportunity.
Unlike Ning Wang, whose personality had become relatively cool and detached after spending two years in the Murder Mystery Game, Ning Shuo’s personality was closer to the old Xie Ning.
Xie Ning loved to wander and take in the sights. He was born to surrender to romance.
Ning Wang didn’t mind building him a romantic setting for a confession.
But it couldn’t be some clichéd kind of romance. His good big brother had probably seen plenty of that over the past two years.
Ning Wang wouldn’t even deign to give him that.
If he was going to give Ning Shuo romance, it would be something one of a kind.
The next day, when they went to find Rao Lin and the others, Ning Shuo said at an unhurried pace, “You got that skilled after only one kiss? When did you secretly learn?”
Ning Wang said, “Ge, don’t talk nonsense. I’ve only ever kissed you.”
Ning Shuo thought back to that night, to how clumsy Ning Wang had been during his first kiss, and how practiced he’d been during the second.
His words paused for a beat. “…Are you saying you went from gnawing like a dog to actually kissing, all without a teacher?”
Ning Wang’s steps halted.
“Gnawing like a dog?”
A dangerous aura came surging over from beside him. Ning Shuo, as if nothing had happened, quickened his pace by two steps. “Willow and the others must be getting impatient.”
Ning Wang strolled leisurely behind him and followed him through the door.
Because Ning Wang had been here once before, this time, under Rao Lin’s instructions, the NPC guarding the door didn’t ask a single question and simply let them through.
Their identity information had been saved last time anyway.
When they entered, several people were already waiting inside.
Aside from the three familiar faces, there were two strangers.
One was a man and one was a woman. The man had a buzz cut, wore a jacket, and had a scar on his face. He looked fierce from head to toe.
The woman wore a long trench coat. More noticeable than her pretty features was the scholarly air between her brows. Her long, wavy hair was tied into a ponytail, and her expression was rather cool.
Rao Lin introduced them. “This is Qin Genan, codename Nan-ge. That one is Zhuang Yao. Her codename is the same, and we all call her Sister Yao.”
Ning Shuo had seen both of them on the Ranking List.
Qin Genan, thirteenth on the Ranking List.
Zhuang Yao, fourth on the Ranking List.
Zhuang Yao and Qin Genan had just returned from clearing a Script together, which was why they hadn’t been around last time.
After introducing the old team members, Rao Lin continued by introducing the new ones.
According to the deal Rao Lin had struck with the System, if the Rose Castle Script could be shattered again by Ning Shuo and Ning Wang this time, the two of them would be allowed to participate in the Star Zone Arena as specially invited Players.
Once the introductions were done, Zhuang Yao gave a simple greeting. Qin Genan, on the other hand, had a lot more to say. “So you two are that Narcissus pair with really high Heat on the Forum lately?”
Ning Shuo said, “…Do you know what Narcissus means?”
“I do,” Qin Genan said. “Doesn’t it mean one person?”
Ning Wang glanced sideways at Ning Shuo and took over the conversation. “That’s right. It’s Narcissus.”
Rao Lin, who had just been about to explain: ?
He looked at Song Zhu: Wait, seriously? In just one night?
Song Zhu: They were already together ages ago. They’re just missing the title.
Rao Lin: ???
Ning Shuo didn’t speak, so Qin Genan continued chattering with the two of them. “I heard from the captain that you two escaped from a Script, right? Man, if you ask me, an NPC who can escape from inside one is seriously something else. Though I don’t know what went wrong and split you into two.”
Ning Shuo looked toward Rao Lin. When he met Rao Lin’s intrigued gaze, he knew their guesses about his and Ning Wang’s identities were probably about the same as his own.
They had escaped from a Script, then for some reason split into two.
Qin Genan’s chatter was interesting, too. She called it idle conversation, but in reality, every sentence was an attempt to pry information out of them.
Ning Wang deflected her in a few short sentences, then started fishing for information from her instead.
After two rounds of verbal tai chi, Qin Genan shut up and went off humming a little tune to exchange information with Zhuang Yao about the Script they had just cleared.
Ning Shuo also checked the Forum for information related to the two of them.
Zhuang Yao, ranked 4th, skilled at data analysis.
Qin Genan, ranked 13th, skilled in hand-to-hand combat and firearms.
Rao Lin also introduced the Star Zone Arena and their team.
According to ordinary Player Li Ziqian, the System was divided into Scripts and Rest Areas, but that was not entirely accurate. This was normal. For an ordinary Player who had to spend huge amounts of time every day earning a meager amount of Heat, being able to browse the Forum each day and learn a little about some Scripts was already pretty good.
As for Star Zones, Li Ziqian only knew the name and that there were differences between one Star Zone and another. She knew very little beyond that, and she would never say things she did not know, only to have a customer ask, “What’s that?” and end up ruining her own reputation by being unable to answer anything.
The System was divided first by Star Zone, then by Script and Rest Area. Put that way, what Li Ziqian had said was not actually wrong.
The Star Zones were divided into Zones A through F. Zone ABC was the Dead Zone, while Zone DEF was the Living Zone.
As the names suggested, the Players in Zone ABC were all people who had already died in the modern world, while the Players in Zone DEF were people who were still alive in the modern world.
Perhaps because they had already experienced death once, the Players in Zone ABC were generally stronger than those in Zone DEF. Within the Dead Zone and the Living Zone respectively, Zone A and Zone D ranked first, while Zone C and Zone F were last.
Of course, that was only a comparison of the overall strength of all Players in each zone.
According to Rao Lin’s own shameless boasting, he had the highest Heat in the entire System.
Next came Rex, a Rookie from Zone A who had risen to prominence over the past two years, though he had not participated in last year’s Star Zone Arena.
Ning Shuo asked, “No real name?”
Rao Lin shook his head. “To prevent Players from the Dead Zone and the Living Zone from making contact, Zone ABC keeps real names extremely well protected.”
That made sense. If real names could really get out, then the affairs of Zone ABC would not have remained unclear to most Players in the Living Zone.
For other Players, the mere fact that they might be able to see someone they could no longer see in the modern world was enough to cause an uproar.
The rest included Ah Shu from Zone C, Qi Yu from Zone B, Yiqu Xiuzhi from Zone E, and so on.
The vast majority of them were Rookies.
Thinking of something, Ning Shuo asked casually, “What about the others?”
He did not just mean people from the other Star Zones, but also the Players near the top of Zone F’s Ranking List.
Rao Lin fell silent for a moment, then smiled. “So you still don’t know.”
“In the System, even if a Player dies in a Script, their name on the Heat Ranking List doesn’t disappear. The color only darkens. If you don’t look closely, you can’t tell at all.”
Ning Shuo went to check the Ranking List.
Among the top twenty Players, the names of eleven had already darkened.
Rao Lin smiled. “There are no get-out-of-death-free cards in the Star Zone Arena. You either live or die. In other words, if we go this time and fail to achieve our goal, we may very well die there.”
“So, my two specially invited Players, are you still willing to join?”