Chapter 75 – Unexpected Truth

Countless historical experiences have taught us that if you want to escape with your life, you should reveal your trump card right from the start. Otherwise, the high-speed train of fate won’t be able to make a sharp turn in time.

[Local] Blood Bulls Don’t Graze: Um, he went back to the respawn point.

[Local] Milk is Mom: Yeah.

[Local] Blood Bulls Don’t Graze: And left some last words?

[Local] Milk is Mom: Seems like it.

[Local] Blood Bulls Don’t Graze: When did you ask him to help you farm gear?

[Local] Milk is Mom: Never did.

[Local] Blood Bulls Don’t Graze: What now?

[Local] Milk is Mom: No worries, I’ll just chase after him and ask.

[Local] Blood Bulls Don’t Graze: Then pass on a message for me. Say sorry, my hand slipped.

[Local] Milk is Mom: Sister Blood Bull, you’re so smooth~~~~~~~~~~

[Local] Blood Bulls Don’t Graze: Sorry, I got a bit 2B.

[Local] Milk is Mom: ……

—Every member aligning themselves with the legion’s temperament is one of the important manifestations of the legion’s cohesion.

After bidding farewell to Blood Bull, Fang Zheng sent Wild Ferry a whisper—

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Where’s your respawn point?

A few seconds later, Wild Ferry sent his grievance—

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Not cool. I didn’t even say I’d haunt you as a ghost, so why can’t you let go of the ghost that is me? [cries]

The sheer amount of information left Fang Zheng lost in thought for a long time without fully digesting it, but that didn’t stop him from getting to the point.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Sister Blood Bull asked me to pass on a message—sorry, her hand slipped earlier.

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: No! What was she thinking when she was hacking at me?! Every slash was so brutal! I’ll never forgive her!!!

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Wait! Sister Blood Bull?

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Yeah, sister.

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Fine, I forgive her.

Is this guy 2B’s long-lost blood brother?!

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Besides, I was the one who ambushed first. That was wrong of me.

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Please apologize to that Demon Refiner too.

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Oh, does Sister Blood Bull have a husband in-game?

Confirmed. This guy is definitely 2B’s biological brother =_=

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Whatever, you don’t need to tell me your coords. I just want to ask what you meant earlier—what’s this about working hard to farm gear for me? Do we even know each other?

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: You don’t know me, but I know you.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: So I’ve unknowingly become a celebrity??~\(≧▽≦)/~

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Brave soul, please rein in your optimism.

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: After we got the Staff of Radiance that day and left the party, we ran into you on your way to loot the gear. Don’t you remember?

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Uh……

To be precise, Fang Zheng didn’t forget—he simply had no memory of this at all. There was a power outage that day, and Birdy had logged into his account to pick up the weapon for him.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Fine, let’s say this staff was farmed by you guys, but it’s not like you were farming it specifically for me, right? It just happened to drop, and since our Deputy was in the party, he left it for me.

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: ……

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: [Etwell’s Sword of Light]

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Huh?

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: This is my Sword of Light. If you want, I can ask the others from that day’s party to show off their greatsword, spellbook, dagger, and hammer too. Just happened to drop? Show me a “just happened to drop” full set of Radiant gear, will you?

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: You guys were farming weapons on purpose?

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Other than the healer weapon, the rest of the Radiant set is garbage!

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: So you were farming the Staff of Radiance specifically?

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Brave soul, we were farming the Staff of Radiance specifically for you!

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Does your legion choose its leader based on who has the lowest IQ?

Damn it, the usually laid-back Wild Ferry was starting to sound more and more like Birdy!!

The Ghost Server Legion Leader’s fragile heart was once again cracked by the sharp tongue. Just as it was about to shatter, a sudden flash of insight struck—Wild Ferry’s words, Birdy’s mysterious disappearances those past few days, always saying he was busy whenever Fang Zheng looked for him, making Fang Zheng suspect that Birdy had lost interest in the legion and was planning to strike out on his own. But now, all these seemingly unrelated clues automatically pieced themselves together, slowly painting a clear picture of the truth…

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Birdy formed your party specifically to help him farm the Staff of Radiance! Right?

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Finally, the light dawns… [wipes sweat]

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: But to be precise, he hired us—2000 Huaxia Coins per person per run.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: What the hell, twenty-something bucks just to mercenary-run a damn unicorn?! Might as well rob people!!!

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: What the hell! You think I wanted to earn that money?! Damn it, I stepped right into a huge pit!!! Farming non-stop!!! Every single day!!!! Couldn’t stop until it dropped!!!! Couldn’t quit even if I wanted to!!!! We were like slaves, summoned by the slave master the moment we logged in!!!! Skipping a single day meant getting hunted down by the slave master!!!! A complete history of mercenary-run blood and tears!!!!

Wild Ferry’s furious rant was dripping with blood and tears, but the Ghost Server Legion Leader paid no attention, as he was still lost in his own inner monologue—

Ugh~ What to do~~ It wasn’t even my money, but my heart still aches TAT

After venting, Wild Ferry also realized something was off—

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Hold on, so you didn’t know? It wasn’t you who hired us to farm it? He even made us swear to keep it a secret and not leak that the unicorn dropped Radiant weapons, afraid too many parties would come farm it and devalue the gear…

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: It wasn’t me.

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: So the zombie did it on his own?

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Is your legion’s motto to dedicate your entire life to the Legion Leader?

Fang Zheng wasn’t in the mood to banter with Wild Ferry anymore.

Right now, his head was half water, half flour, and despite his best efforts not to shake it, the two had slowly mixed into paste.

Birdy specifically spent money hiring mercenaries to farm the Staff of Radiance for him? What for? And after farming it, he claimed it was just a random drop no one wanted—most importantly, Fang Zheng actually believed him!

IQ, I’ve failed you TAT

[Whisper] Wild Ferry Adrift: Hey, you’re a girl, right? Other than him trying to hit on you, I can’t think of any other explanation.

Having received no reply for a while, Wild Ferry sent his final guess before heading off to a dungeon.

Fang Zheng stared blankly at those words for a long, long time.

He wasn’t actually so dumb that he couldn’t see anything. If this had happened to someone else, he could’ve pieced together the exact chain of events with his eyes closed. The problem was, it didn’t happen to someone else—it happened to him, a shameless, sleazy fatso who took delight in being despicable. That just didn’t make sense. And the most nonsensical part was that Birdy had seen his photo! Even if he was just some no-hoper hanging around internet cafés all day, he was still 178 cm and 130+ jin. With a little effort, he wouldn’t look that bad—was Birdy really that desperate?

Yeah, probably not.

This must just be the Deputy’s pure admiration and respect for his Legion Leader. It had to be.

Wait, how much money could a Deputy who did nothing but loaf around internet cafés all day possibly have? Damn it, did this guy eat nothing but instant noodles that entire month?!

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: What’re you up to?

[Whisper] Polly: Farming monkeys.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Don’t move, I’ll handle it!

[Whisper] Polly: ……

Successfully diverting his train of thought elsewhere, the Ghost Server Legion Leader helped his Deputy massacre all the monkeys on Flower-Fruit Mountain before midnight. By the end, the system’s respawn rate couldn’t keep up with their relentless slaughter, forcing the duo to call it a night, bid each other goodnight, and head to bed.

Perhaps because he’d overused his brain before sleeping, Fang Zheng slept soundly through the night without a single dream.

Until 7:30 AM, when his phone rang.

Over the past few days, Fang Zheng had grown accustomed to Birdy’s morning calls, so his body reacted before his brain could, his arm reaching out to grope for the phone on his bedside table and answer it in one smooth motion.

“Get up.” Succinct and to the point—Birdy’s signature style.

“Can we take a day off… just one day…” The healer, still unable to pry his eyes open, went through his usual routine of struggling.

“You said the same thing yesterday, the day before, and the day before that.”

“But you never agreed…”

“So what makes you think I’d agree today?”

“……”

There was nothing wrong with Birdy’s words. Under normal circumstances, Fang Zheng would’ve playfully retorted with something like ‘the weather’s nice today’ or some other nonsense. But perhaps because he was hiding something in his heart, Fang Zheng found himself overthinking Birdy’s words. Why did he think Birdy would agree today? Because yesterday, he’d learned a secret…

No need to think further—the healer bolted upright like a carp leaping out of water, wide awake now.

On the other end, unaware of the truth, Birdy asked, “Hey, don’t tell me you fell back asleep.”

“I’m up, I’m up.” Fang Zheng grumbled unhappily.

Birdy clicked his tongue in amazement. “Rare. Did a needle fall on your bed?”

A needle fell on the bed, so it pricked his flesh, making him wake up instantly. Damn it, only he could understand that—who else would get it?!

After hanging up, Fang Zheng sat quietly on his bed, contemplating life for another two minutes.

He still didn’t think Birdy had those kinds of feelings for him. If he did, how could he get more and more sarcastic every day? TAT

It’s just a misunderstanding, Fang Zheng told himself. Fatty, you need to calm down, hear me?

But as he was putting on his shoes to leave, Birdy called again. The content wasn’t anything special—just confirming that Fang Zheng was actually going out this time. Fang Zheng, however, couldn’t take it anymore. Staying calm wasn’t a one-man job—damn it, how am I supposed to stay calm with you calling me every morning like this?!

Pausing mid-shoelace-tying, Fang Zheng straightened up and spoke into the phone nonchalantly, “You don’t need to call me in the mornings anymore. I can get up on my own, really.”

Birdy didn’t respond.

The other end of the line was silent for a long time. If not for the faint background noise and static, Fang Zheng would’ve thought the call had dropped.

He knew he was being ridiculous. This had nothing to do with Birdy—it was all his own wild imagination. Yet the one bearing the consequences was Birdy, who was only trying to be kind. Forget whether Birdy might feel hurt—at the very least, he’d think Fang Zheng was being weird, right?

Just as he was agonizing over this, Birdy finally spoke: “No.”

Wow, so blunt =_=

“Do you have so much money you don’t know what to do with it, making long-distance calls just for the rebates?! I said I can get up on my own. At most, I’ll send you a text after I wake up, okay?”

“Texts can be scheduled.”

“Then just give me a missed call. I won’t pick up.”

“You can try.”

“……”

This guy definitely doesn’t have feelings for me! He’s definitely just toying with me like a cat with a mouse!!

Strangely enough, after this chaotic back-and-forth, Fang Zheng stopped overthinking it. He realized that Birdy’s sharp tongue was a natural support skill—one that dispelled all negative status effects, returning the target to their natural state.

Thanks to his childhood friend, Lu Yue had also started morning workouts recently. But compared to his friend, who was obsessed with pure strength training, Lu Yue’s routine was far more varied. Some days, if he was in a good mood, he’d go for a run; other days, if he was feeling down, he’d hop on a bike. Either way, working out with someone was always more fun than going solo. For example, right now, when cycling felt too monotonous, he could observe his brooding childhood friend as a form of entertainment.

A brooding man wasn’t particularly interesting to watch, but a man who’d been brooding for over ten minutes while continuously performing the same repetitive motion of lifting a dumbbell with one hand could only be classified as an otherworldly creature.

“Hey, if you don’t switch hands soon, your arms are gonna end up uneven,” Lu Yue couldn’t help but warn.

His childhood friend glanced at him and said flatly, “Human arms aren’t perfectly symmetrical to begin with.”

Lu Yue rolled his eyes. “But they’re not supposed to be as different as steel rebar and a bridge pier.”

Perhaps because the analogy was too brutal and easy to visualize, his friend finally switched the dumbbell to his other hand, then resumed his repetitive motion while deep in thought…

Lu Yue was done. “What’s going on? Just tell me.”

After a long pause, his friend sighed softly. “The problem is, I don’t know what’s going on either.”

Lu Yue gave up. His friend’s romantic world was something he’d never understand.

Birdy didn’t give up, continuing to think about the slightly different attitude his Legion Leader had shown during this morning’s call.