Chapter 203
Chapter 203
Jian Fan’s shift in mood came without warning.
Everyone noticed that something was wrong.
“Jian Fan?” Qin Weiyi called.
Jian Fan came back to himself. His expression seemed calm again as he replied flatly, “I’m fine.”
Yet Qin Weiyi’s peripheral vision swept over Jian Fan’s tightly clenched fist, its veins still standing out starkly. He knew Jian Fan was nowhere near as calm as he appeared.
Xia Zeqin was clearly the reason for the surge of emotion, but Jian Fan apparently did not want to discuss it.
In that case, Qin Weiyi wasn’t going to pry.
He nodded. “That’s good.”
Qin Nan frowned.
Good? What was good about this?
He already knew the broad outline of the bad blood between Xia Zeqin and Jian Fan, but Jian Fan’s reaction always made Qin Nan feel there was another layer to their connection. Jian Fan had never told him what it was, and Qin Nan couldn’t work it out for himself.
It wasn’t that Xia Zeqin himself mattered to Qin Nan. He simply didn’t want Jian Fan brooding over these things and making himself miserable.
Qin Nan wouldn’t force him to talk if he didn’t want to, but he hoped Jian Fan could live as lightly and happily as possible.
“How about we level up our skills?” Qin Nan said suddenly.
“Huh?” Yellow Hair looked bewildered.
Jian Fan turned toward Qin Nan with a trace of suspicion as well. He couldn’t understand how a conversation about Xia Zeqin had abruptly jumped to leveling the skills on their card faces.
“Instead of standing here obsessing over something we can’t solve, we might as well do everything we can–like leveling up our skills,” Qin Nan said.
As he spoke, he suddenly moved closer to Jian Fan. Jian Fan was already standing near the wall beside the window, and when Qin Nan crowded in, he instinctively retreated several steps.
And then–
Jian Fan found himself backed against the wall. Qin Nan planted one hand against it and rested the other on Jian Fan’s shoulder.
They were roughly the same height. Qin Nan stared straight into his eyes, his expression serious, while Jian Fan’s vision was filled entirely by Qin Nan’s magnified face.
For an instant, Jian Fan went blank.
There was an almost bewildered cast to his emotions. He didn’t quite understand the situation before him, and his brows drew faintly together.
He disliked overly intimate physical contact, yet Qin Nan’s behavior did not repulse him.
Even though Qin Nan was a man, and the pose he had struck was exceedingly suggestive.
Jian Fan found his own reaction perplexing.
Before he could reach an answer, however, his attention was abruptly diverted.
A System notification sounded in his mind.
“Character Card Similarity: 70%. Character Card Experience Bar increased by 7%. Please continue working hard to upgrade your Character Card.”
The notification pulled Jian Fan back to himself, and his eyes settled into their usual calm.
He raised a hand, pushed Qin Nan’s arm away, and took several steps aside to put some distance between them.
Qin Nan thought nothing of it. He merely asked, “Well? Did it work?”
Jian Fan glanced at him. “Seven percent.”
“Then it worked, but why only seven?” Qin Nan sounded dissatisfied. “We lose ten percent because the setting is different, so where did the other twenty go? Jian Fan, describe your card face again.”
Jian Fan shook his head. “No need.”
“Huh?” Qin Nan paused.
“I’m not going to grind my skill level,” Jian Fan said.
Qin Nan froze again. “Why not?”
Qin Nan himself had no way to do it, but Jian Fan clearly could. Why refuse? At the very least, leveling the skill would extend its duration and shorten its cooldown. It could still prove useful if they encountered danger.
Jian Fan had no intention of explaining himself.
Performing such intimate gestures with so many people was entirely unacceptable to him. Besides, he had no plans to fight anyone by force. They were a group, and all of them had skills. As long as they allocated those skills properly, there was no real need for him to level his.
And they still had Lu Jing, didn’t they?
Since he had no intention of grinding his skill level, Jian Fan naturally wasn’t going to explain why his similarity had only reached seventy percent either.
On his card face, the man had one hand braced beneath the woman’s chin, and the two were posed as if about to kiss. What Qin Nan had just done with him… Jian Fan’s gaze paused. He forcibly dragged his thoughts back to the matter at hand.
He looked at Mu Xin. “Mu Xin can try.”
“What?” Mu Xin looked confused.
Qin Weiyi nodded. “Good idea. Mu Xin is the only one among us whose card has reached SR. Didn’t we speculate that upgrading a card would raise the level cap on its skill? You can test it.”
Qin Nan didn’t understand Jian Fan’s decision, but at Qin Weiyi’s words, he too looked expectantly at Mu Xin.
If Mu Xin could only level her skill once as well, they would have to keep searching for what else changed when a card ranked up.
After all, an SR card couldn’t possibly be identical to an R card in every respect.
Mu Xin naturally did not refuse.
Her card face was simple enough to recreate.
There was no need to reenact the collision itself. Someone only had to lie on the floor and let Mu Xin fall against their chest. It wasn’t particularly difficult.
At most, the different surroundings would cost her ten percent similarity.
The group quickly put the plan into action.
They took turns helping Mu Xin grind experience. One notification after another sounded in her mind, and before long, her skill gained a level. Unlike Qin Weiyi, however, Mu Xin heard a different notification at the moment of the upgrade.
“It went up one level, and I still have eight percent experience left,” Mu Xin said.
Qin Weiyi laughed. “Looks like we were right. An R card’s skill can only gain one level. Once the card ranks up, the skill’s level cap rises too. Now that makes sense.”
“Should we keep going?” Mu Xin asked.
Qin Weiyi shook his head. “No.”
Now that they had confirmed the theory, there was no need to keep helping Mu Xin grind her skill.
There were several reasons for that.
First, their group was large. If they staggered the use of their skills, they could effectively reduce the impact of cooldowns. They also far outnumbered any enemies they were likely to face, so there was no need to waste more time on this.
Second, Mu Xin had declined to kill them even when she held the advantage, but that did not guarantee she would always feel the same way. They couldn’t allow her strength to grow unchecked. Doing so would put far too much strain on their alliance.
The current balance was just right.
Qin Weiyi’s skill was at the same level as Mu Xin’s. Even if she developed malicious intentions, he was fully confident he could handle her.
Mu Xin could naturally guess at all of this.
But she didn’t want to dwell on it. Since she had chosen to work with them, she ought to place at least some trust in her teammates.
She nodded, then asked, “What do we do next?”