Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Lin Junruo stood frozen in place.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice laced with disbelief.

“They wanted me to join them, and I agreed,” Mu Xin said, her tone calm. “But they don’t want to accept you.”

Lin Junruo didn’t care for Qin Nan and Jian Fan’s strange team, and she didn’t mind not being accepted by them. What she couldn’t accept was Mu Xin abandoning her.

She stared at Mu Xin with a wounded expression. “So, you’re just going to dump me because of them? Mu Xin, you’re going too far. We’ve gone through so many worlds together, and now you’re just tossing me aside?”

Mu Xin frowned.

She admitted that breaking things off with Lin Junruo was indeed a cold move on her part. However, in the Realm of Death, survival was the only thing that mattered. Besides, she had never promised she would stay in a team with Lin Junruo forever.

“Say something!” Lin Junruo stepped forward and grabbed Mu Xin’s hands, her voice agitated.

Lin Junruo’s reaction caused the guilt in Mu Xin’s heart to dissipate, replaced instead by a sense of annoyance.

“For the sake of our past friendship, I can help you once in a future world. That is the only thing I can do for you.” Mu Xin offered the compensation she had already planned out.

Lin Junruo let out a sharp, angry laugh. “Help me once? Mu Xin, did you forget how I helped you before? Now that you’ve found better teammates, you want to kick me to the curb? In your dreams!”

“And? What can you do about it?” Mu Xin had lost the patience to end things amicably.

Lin Junruo froze.

Indeed, what could she do?

Mu Xin reached out and gripped the hands Lin Junruo had placed on her arms, her tone cold. “I have no obligation to you. You did help me before, but I also saw you safely through those worlds. Lin Junruo, we were simply using each other for what we needed. I don’t owe you anything. The reason I’m willing to give you a promise is because I value our history, not because I’ve actually done you wrong.”

Lin Junruo remained silent.

“This is the Realm of Death. There is a blade hanging over our heads. If you want to live, you can only rely on yourself. Lin Junruo, it’s time you woke up.” With that, Mu Xin shook off Lin Junruo’s hands and turned to leave.

Lin Junruo stood rooted to the spot, dumbfounded.

Mu Xin walked over to Qin Nan and gave him a slight nod as a greeting before leaving as well.

Qin Nan looked at Lin Junruo.

Lin Junruo was clearly reeling from the blow and unable to process it. She stood there dazed for a long while before suddenly dropping into a half-crouch and bursting into loud sobs. With Mu Xin gone and Zheng Jueming already vanished, she had no idea what to do.

Qin Nan felt sympathy for Lin Junruo.

But in the Realm of Death, sympathy was the most useless thing of all. He couldn’t take in a teammate out of pity. He could offer a helping hand within his capabilities out of sympathy, but he had no way of guaranteeing that such a teammate wouldn’t betray them when faced with a life-or-death choice.

You only had one life; no one dared to gamble on it.

To survive here, one couldn’t just rely on others. To become someone’s teammate, one first had to have their own capabilities and be able to provide a certain level of value to the team.

In the Realm of Death, Lin Junruo was clearly not a qualified teammate.

Qin Nan sighed.

He sighed for Lin Junruo, and for their own situation.

He didn’t linger any longer, turning back into his room to rest.

Only Lin Junruo was left.

By the time she had cried herself out, she looked up to see an empty, white world. Her mind was just as blank.

How had she ended up like this?
As it turned out, with Mu Xin around, Lin Junruo could always depend on her. She only needed to do whatever Mu Xin told her to do. Although she was indeed terrified whenever she saw other Players die, she would calm down as long as Mu Xin was in her sight.

But now, Mu Xin had abandoned her.

What was she supposed to do?

Mu Xin was right; she needed to wake up. But what then? Lin Junruo knew exactly how much she was worth, and she simply wasn’t cut out for the Realm of Death. She wanted to rely on herself, but she didn’t have the ability. The only thing she could do was cling to someone else.

Qin Nan and Jian Fan wouldn’t accept her. Qin Weiyi and Lu Jing likely wouldn’t accept someone as useless as her either. Xu Tian… no, Lin Junruo didn’t think Xu Tian had any real skill. That left her with only one choice.

Xia Zeqin.

Thinking of the female companion by Xia Zeqin’s side, Lin Junruo suddenly felt a surge of confidence.

She stood up, straightened her clothes, and walked toward Xia Zeqin’s room.

At this moment, Lin Junruo was incredibly grateful that Mu Xin had sought her out after Xia Zeqin had already left. Back then, she’d had the presence of mind to note where Xia Zeqin and the others were going, and that observation had now provided her with a lifeline.

She reached Xia Zeqin’s door and placed her hand against the ethereal threshold.

Inside, Xia Zeqin was sitting on a sofa, his fingers tapping and swiping through the air, when a notification from the System suddenly popped up.

[Player Lin Junruo requests entry.]

Xia Zeqin raised an eyebrow. He didn’t act immediately. After considering the current situation for a moment, he smirked, dismissed the floating control panel in front of him, and pressed the button to allow Lin Junruo entry.

With Xia Zeqin’s permission, Lin Junruo vanished from the hallway and reappeared inside his room.

Seeing the change in her surroundings, Lin Junruo breathed a sigh of relief.

“Looking for me?” Xia Zeqin asked, eyeing her.

Lin Junruo stood tall, forcing a smile onto her face. “Yes.”

“Is something the matter?” Xia Zeqin asked. He had a vague suspicion, but he clearly had no intention of being the one to voice it.

Lin Junruo nodded. “There is.” As she spoke, she slowly approached Xia Zeqin. With a light tug of her fingers, she let her coat slide off, revealing the sleeveless dress underneath.

Xia Zeqin’s eyebrows shot up.

Lin Junruo gave him a seductive smile and sat directly on his lap. She draped an arm over his shoulder and breathed softly against his face. “Are you interested in discussing… a more intimate arrangement?”

She had thought it through. In terms of intelligence, she was just an average person who couldn’t compete with the geniuses here. If she had any advantage at all, it was likely this-among this group, she was the most womanly woman.

Mu Xin was a high schooler who had just reached adulthood; she had a pure, innocent vibe and played the damsel-in-distress card. Xu Tian was more of the ‘cool girl’ type. But Lin Junruo had both the face and the figure. In the real world, she was a stunning beauty. It was just that her beauty had seemed useless in the Realm of Death.

Was it really useless, though?

Not necessarily.

Previously, because Mu Xin was there, she hadn’t considered using herself to climb the social ladder. Now that Mu Xin was gone, Lin Junruo had realized after much thought that her only capital was her body.

Furthermore, while she didn’t understand deduction, she understood men when it came to matters of the heart.

If Xia Zeqin’s previous companion could do it, Lin Junruo was confident she could do it better.

“How do you want to discuss it?” Xia Zeqin asked, his brow arched in amusement.

Lin Junruo let out a flirtatious giggle as her hand slowly reached for Xia Zeqin’s belt. “Does this method of discussion satisfy you, Mr. Xia?”