Free Web Novel——————
Bai Liu stepped out of the game exit.
Mu Ke, who had already cleared the game and had been anxiously waiting outside, finally let out a long breath of relief the moment he saw Bai Liu emerge.
“You’re finally out.”
Bai Liu gave a small nod.
“Did Mu Shicheng clear as well?”
“I just checked,” Mu Ke replied. “His small TV is still in settlement, but he should be coming out soon.”
Sure enough, only a short while later, Mu Shicheng stumbled out of the exit supported by Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua, one on each side.
He looked utterly exhausted, as though all the energy had been wrung out of him. His steps were unsteady, almost like someone suffering through a terrible hangover.
In contrast, the two newcomers beside him looked surprisingly healthy.
The instant Mu Shicheng spotted Bai Liu standing there waiting for him, he straightened up and started cursing.
“I’m seriously impressed, Bai Liu. You know that once you use my skill, I can’t use it myself anymore, right? I was just about to unleash a huge move over there, and then you activated it first and completely ruined my ultimate! Couldn’t you have switched to somebody else’s skill for once? Why are you always shearing wool from the same sheep?! What kind of behavior is that?!”
Despite the sharpness of his words, there wasn’t much actual anger in his tone.
Instead, after a brief pause, he awkwardly lowered his voice.
“...Though if Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua hadn’t come in to save me, I probably would’ve ended up getting killed by you sooner or later. Even if you wanted to train my teamwork, did you really have to go that far?”
Although Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua looked tired, the excitement of clearing the game still showed plainly on their faces.
“It’s nothing, really,” they said with embarrassed smiles, waving their hands. “Xiao Mu worked hard leading us.”
At this point, Mu Shicheng was beginning to understand Bai Liu’s methods.
Bai Liu handled things with terrifying efficiency. He preferred fast, practical solutions and had no interest in wasting time.
Because of the lingering psychological shadow left behind by Liu Huai, Mu Shicheng himself had become an unstable variable in team coordination. And as a speed-type attacker, even a brief hesitation during combat could easily become fatal—not only to himself, but to his teammates as well.
Bai Liu repeatedly hijacking his skills had partly been a way to force him into a disadvantaged state, leaving him no choice but to rapidly adapt to working alongside Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua.
In a Level One game, Mu Shicheng was unlikely to die so easily.
Which meant Bai Liu could safely and boldly “train” him.
On the other hand...
Mu Shicheng’s skills really were absurdly useful.
“Even if I do have... some issues with cooperation because of what happened before,” Mu Shicheng muttered while leaning weakly against the exit to catch his breath, “you were still way too ruthless...”
As he spoke, his gaze drifted casually across the group—
Then suddenly froze.
His eyes locked onto the pair of daggers in Mu Ke’s hands.
Mu Shicheng recognized those weapons instantly.
He knew them too well.
Those daggers had saved his life countless times, intercepting disaster monsters pursuing him.
And they had nearly killed him just as many times.
Mu Ke had been too preoccupied worrying about Bai Liu after leaving the game to notice that he was still unconsciously clutching the daggers.
Now, under Mu Shicheng’s fixed stare, he finally looked down and realized what he was holding.
Thinking about everything between Mu Shicheng and Liu Huai, Mu Ke instinctively wanted to put the weapons away.
The daggers disappeared from his hands.
But Mu Shicheng’s gaze remained fixed on the empty space where they had been.
His expression became strangely blank.
“Where did those daggers come from?” he asked tonelessly.
“They belonged to Liu Huai,” Bai Liu answered calmly.
Something strange appeared on Mu Shicheng’s face.
His eyes remained fixed on Mu Ke’s hands, but the corners of his mouth slowly curved upward in an almost distorted smile—like someone who had just heard a joke so absurd that his mind couldn’t process it yet.
“How could they belong to Liu Huai?” he asked softly.
“Skills can only be transferred if the owner willingly signs an agreement before death. You don’t have to make up lies just to lessen my guilt.”
His voice grew increasingly strained.
“You’re saying those are Liu Huai’s daggers...”
“...which means he already...”
Mu Shicheng stopped speaking.
Mu Ke looked helplessly toward Bai Liu.
Bai Liu merely lifted his eyes calmly.
“He’s dead, Mu Shicheng.”
——————————
Mu Shicheng sprinted across the campus running track.
He ran with all his strength while Bai Liu’s final words before logging out echoed repeatedly in his ears.
[Liu Huai wanted me to apologize to you on his behalf, but I think those words are better said by him personally.]
[If you run fast enough, maybe you can still see him one last time before he dies.]
[You know where he’ll be, don’t you?]
Mu Shicheng’s breathing came in ragged gasps.
His lungs burned as though they were on fire.
But he already knew where Liu Huai would choose to go.
If Liu Huai was going to die, he would absolutely log out at the place where everything had begun.
The bus station near the school.
That was the place where Liu Huai had once watched his younger sister leave, crying as she chased after him while someone else dragged her away.
And it was also where Mu Shicheng had met Liu Huai for the first time.
The station was the stop where incoming university students arrived.
Back then, Liu Huai hadn’t even owned a suitcase.
He had carried only a huge patched-up cloth sack and a plastic bucket.
Compared to the neatly dressed freshmen around him, he looked painfully out of place.
He sat nervously beside the window, staring at the peeling film on the glass and absentmindedly scratching at it with his fingernails.
Mu Shicheng had never expected that this awkward country boy would end up becoming his dormmate.
Nor had he expected that the moment Liu Huai entered the dormitory, he would hug his bucket and burst into tears.
His father had only just left.
Even as he walked away, he had still been hurling vicious insults at Liu Huai.
An invisible pressure had already crushed the newly enrolled Liu Huai beneath its weight.
But back then, Mu Shicheng couldn’t understand any of those things.
He had only felt awkward.
So, in an attempt to ease the atmosphere, Mu Shicheng generously treated the crying Liu Huai to KFC.
Liu Huai’s eyes immediately turned red with gratitude.
He called him Shi-ge over and over again and said shyly that he had never eaten anything like this before.
From then onward, Liu Huai began helping Mu Shicheng with practically everything.
Signing attendance sheets.
Cleaning up.
Even trying to wash Mu Shicheng’s socks and bedsheets.
Mu Shicheng had rejected that suggestion in speechless disbelief.
Whenever he was refused, Liu Huai would stand quietly off to the side with his head lowered, looking exactly like a child who had done something wrong.
Liu Huai was an extremely introverted and timid person.
If not for everything that happened later, Mu Shicheng probably never would have become close to him at all.
Liu Huai simply didn’t fit Mu Shicheng’s idea of a friend.
Not because of his background—
But because he buried too many things inside himself.
He was like a fish, silently swallowing everything.
Whenever someone asked if something was wrong, he would only smile helplessly and say:
“It’s nothing, Shi-ge.”
“This is my own business.”
Mu Shicheng had always wanted to tell him something.
Between friends, your business eventually becomes my business too.
Whether good or bad, things spread through human relationships regardless. Silence doesn’t stop that transmission.
Liu Huai... you can’t just carry everything alone.
Mu Shicheng finally reached the station.
He bent over, bracing his hands against his knees while gasping desperately for air.
Across the road, Liu Huai sat alone at the platform.
He was staring blankly downward at the yellow paper bag in his arms.
KFC.
Mu Shicheng instinctively shouted:
“Liu Huai!”
Liu Huai suddenly lifted his head.
The instant he saw Mu Shicheng, his eyes lit up.
He smiled through tears.
For the first time, there was no unease in his expression. No restraint. No careful caution.
Only the calm relief of someone who had finally let everything go.
He took a step forward and waved at Mu Shicheng, who was running toward him.
From the opposite side of the road, his voice carried over clearly.
“I thought I’d never see you again, Shi-ge.”
“I’m sorry!”
Liu Huai shouted loudly, crying so hard his voice broke apart.
“I’m really sorry, Shi-ge!”
“I was wrong!!”
Then—
A deafening bus horn tore through the air.
An out-of-control bus slammed violently into the station platform.
Mu Shicheng’s pupils contracted sharply.
Fried chicken scattered everywhere across the ground.
Still clutching the KFC bag in his arms, Liu Huai collapsed into a pool of blood beneath the bus.
——————————
Game Lobby — Nightmare Rising Star Area.
Bai Liu’s small TV was currently undergoing settlement.
This newcomer—who had stormed into the core area on his very first game and then miraculously climbed to second place in the Nightmare Rising Star rankings during only his second run—had now, through a chain of absurd circumstances involving pursuit by the Carrion Guild and an encounter with the masked Little Witch, forcibly surged into first place before the settlement of his third game had even concluded.
That alone was already a terrifying achievement.
But the crowd gathered before Bai Liu’s small TV clearly expected something even more shocking.
Standing there were not only Kings-level players from Killer Sequence, but also high-ranking members from nearly every major guild.
Everyone was waiting for Bai Liu’s final settlement result.
Static crackled across the screen of Bai Liu’s small TV.
This only happened when the amount of settlement data being processed was enormous.
Wang Shun stared fixedly at the screen and unconsciously swallowed.
The calculation process had already lasted an entire minute.
Which meant the volume of data being processed was absolutely terrifying.
At last, the static slowly faded.
The system settlement began.
Wang Shun held his breath.
So did everyone else.
No one made a sound.
Every viewer present had already been stunned by the impossible accomplishments this newcomer named Bai Liu had achieved.
Then—
A brilliant golden crown symbol slowly appeared on the screen.
Three-dimensional fireworks exploded endlessly around the television.
[1,600,673 users liked Bai Liu’s small TV. 166,700 users bookmarked Bai Liu’s small TV. 45,371 users charged Bai Liu’s small TV. Player Bai Liu has obtained 578,010 points.]
[Player Bai Liu has received over 500,000 likes within one minute and over 500,000 points from charges! The audience is fanatically obsessed with you!]
[Congratulations to Player Bai Liu for obtaining the final promotion position and entering 10th place on the Central Screen King’s Promotion Rankings. Viewership is increasing at an explosive rate...]
[Congratulations to Player Bai Liu for unlocking /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ all main missions and clearing “Love Welfare Home.”]
[System: Player has achieved the True End — “The Welfare Home of Eternal Escape.”]
[A childhood version of yourself lives forever within your body. When you see them again, will you choose hatred, salvation, or avoidance?]
[They are the prototype and reflection of your growth. While they continue suffering along the original path, will you sacrifice the self that once grew up exactly that way in order to grant them an entirely new future?]
[Or will you continue feeding upon them, growing maliciously within your current self and becoming a lofty Investor above all others?]
[There is no “Love” within the “Love Welfare Home.” How much of the current you is still the original you?]
[“Love Welfare Home” True End Clear Reward — 30,000 Points.]
[“Love Welfare Home” True End Clear Reward — 100 Attribute Points (May be freely distributed according to player preference).]
[“Love Welfare Home Monster Book — Plant Patient Page” Collection Reward — Item: Blood Lingzhi (Capable of curing all disease-related negative status effects).]
[“Love Welfare Home Monster Book — God Page” Collection Reward — Item: Inverted Cross Pendant (Quality unknown. Possesses identity-related attributes. Specific effects unknown).]
[System: Comprehensive evaluation for Player Bai Liu’s small TV is now complete.]
[Total data volume exceeds three million.]
[Player Bai Liu’s “Love Welfare Home” video has been evaluated as Crown Badge level.]
[Considering the dislike-to-like ratio of 1:1702, no rating reduction will be applied.]
[Final evaluation: Crown Badge level.]
[This level of video qualifies for entry into the VIP Archive.]
[Player Bai Liu’s game recording has officially entered the VIP Archive.]
[After entering the VIP Archive, viewers wishing to watch Player Bai Liu’s “Love Welfare Home” game recording must first become system VIP members and additionally pay 1,000 points. The paid points will be split equally between the system and Bai Liu.]
[Player Bai Liu has achieved the following accomplishments through this small TV:]
[10th Place on the King’s Leaderboard.]
[First player since Spades to enter the King’s Leaderboard within only three games.]
...
In the largest and most central area of the game lobby, Bai Liu’s small TV suddenly appeared overhead.
A dazzling golden crown emblem gleamed brightly upon it.
Passing players stopped one after another in stunned disbelief as they recognized the increasingly familiar face on the screen.
“Isn’t that the newcomer Bai Liu who’s been exploding in popularity lately?! How the hell did he make it onto the King’s Promotion Rankings already?!”
“Wasn’t the Carrion Guild hunting him down?!”
“Go check the forum! The whole place exploded! Miao Feichi is dead, and Miao Gaojiang apparently came out mentally shattered. The Carrion Guild already announced a change of Guild Leader...” freewebnσvel.cѳm
“A complete dark horse...”
“This guy is terrifying.”
“If he joins the League next year, things are going to get very interesting...”
