ATFBETIBM Chapter 300.2

Sun Ning propped up her head and thought for a moment. “I do have some friends, but we’re not so close that we share everything.”

Bai Lixin asked, “Between your brother and Chi Yan, who used to give you gifts more often?”

Sun Ning replied without much thought, “Ah, that would be my Brother Yan. Brother Yan was really good to me. Sometimes, I feel like he’s more of a brother to me than my own. My real brother can be quite stingy. When the three of us used to be together, every time Brother Yan returned from a copy, he would bring me a little gift. Brother Yan is also quite handy and often makes handmade gifts for me. He used to tell me that he’s a designer in the real world, so he’s very creative.”

Bai Lixin’s gaze fell on the gift box in front of Sun Ning. “May I take a look at your prize? I’m curious. Let me see it.”

Sun Ning agreed, “Sure.” She began to unwrap the outer packaging of the gift box and casually remarked, “But since it’s from this small shop, it’s probably just silver… Silver…pure diamond?!”

With wide eyes, Sun Ning took out the necklace with a huge diamond pendant from the gift box. It was heavy, almost making her wrist tremble.

“Bai…Bai Lixin, can you help me check if this is made of diamonds?”

Her voice was trembling.

Bai Lixin took the diamond, glanced at Sun Ning, and then secretly glanced at the nervous clown-masked waiter.

After examining it with a seemingly serious expression, Bai Lixin nodded. “It is a diamond, but the purity is average. It’s far from what I’ve seen at the Eternal Diamond Mountain.”

“Most places would give away something like bubble tea for customer appreciation events, but this shop is actually giving away diamonds,” Sun Ning said in disbelief as she accepted the diamond necklace. “This is the first diamond I’ve ever received in my life, and it turns out to be a lucky customer gift?”

Bai Lixin cast a fleeting glance at the distant clown-masked waiter and said, “In the game lobby, diamonds are practically worthless; you can’t do much with them, so their value doesn’t compare to the real world. There are tens of millions of this kind of diamond at the Eternal Diamond Mountain.”

“Sister Ning, I’ve mentioned ‘Eternal Diamond Mountain’ twice now. Have you caught on?”

Sun Ning cautiously placed the necklace back into the box, and her face lit up with a rare smile. “It’s different. This is a gift, and I love it.”

‘Alright, it seems she still hasn’t caught on; she’s purely surprised by the gift.’

Afterward, the three of them chatted for a while and then parted ways.

The clown-masked waiter worked diligently for eight hours. After finally finishing his shift, he removed his mask and fled like a disheveled rat fleeing through a small door.

It was already dark outside. As soon as the man stepped out of his room, he saw a figure standing quietly in the otherwise dark and empty alley.

It was a very good looking young man, tall and slender. The distant streetlight cast a long shadow behind him, elongating his already slender legs.

The man froze for a moment and then immediately lowered his head to walk past the young man.

Just as he walked past the young man, the softly spoken words, “Clown Mask,” caused the man to stop in his tracks.

The man leaned against the narrow alley wall, his wary gaze fixed on the young man in front of him. They just stood there, and one might think they were playing a game of “Simon says.”

Bai Lixin suggested, “How about going to my place for a while?”

The man: “…”

‘Do I even have the right to say “no”?’

Ten minutes later, the disheveled man followed Bai Lixin to the door of his luxurious dormitory.

Bai Lixin opened the door and reassured the somewhat nervous man as he entered, “Don’t be nervous. There’s only me in the dormitory.”

With a “click” sound, the door opened, and Bai Lixin touched the switch in the darkness. “Coming here should feel like returning to your own home…”

His words stopped abruptly.

In the dormitory that should have been empty, there was a man wearing an apron.

The man had a demon mask on his face, held a spatula in one hand, and an egg in the other. Through the two small holes in his demon mask’s eyes, his pitch-black eyes seemed to be contemplating something as he gazed at the two men by the door.

Bai Lixin almost bit his own tongue. “It shouldn’t feel too much like you’re at home, after all, you’re a guest.”

‘Damn it, I nearly broke my tongue.’

The man: “…”

‘Wait, does this feel like catching a spouse cheating?

Hold on, why is there an NPC in the dormitory?!’

Bai Lixin glanced at the man in the hall and then looked back at the man behind him.

At this time, his brain was spinning even faster than when he was clearing copies. “Uh, he… um, he’s not human.”

“Yes, not human,” Bai Lixin said, pointing at the apron-wearing “Snail Man” in a nervous manner, and swallowing hard. “The game has introduced many practical smart home devices, including individual AI robots that can take on specific appearances based on players’ preferences. He is one such intelligent AI robot, which is why I said there’s no one in the dormitory.”

*”Snail Man” is a reference to “The Snail Girl” in Chinese folk tales. A man found a huge snail one day and kept it in a jar at home. Since then, he would find hot food on the table and the house cleaned whenever he came back home. Later, he found out a beautiful girl would come out of the snail shell and do all the home chores.

“Haha, don’t be afraid, come in.”

The man: “…”

‘Are you kidding me? I can clearly tell that you’re making it up.

If you want to hide a beauty in a golden house, then go ahead. We are all adults. If you stay in the game world for a long time, you will inevitably meet a player you like. There is nothing to be embarrassed about.’

Under the watchful eye of “Snail Man”, who stood over 1.9 meters tall, the man entered the dormitory with a stiff expression.

Once inside, Bai Lixin tossed a casual “sit wherever” and pulled the “intelligent robot” with him into the kitchen.

Facts have proven that no matter how luxurious a building looked, soundproofing might not be so great.

The man sat obediently on the sofa, with snippets of an unabashed conversation occasionally creeping into his ears.

—“Why did you come?”

—“I sneezed.”

—“Huh?”

—“I knew you were thinking about me, so I came over. And I made dinner for you. This is a lovingly prepared dinner, so he can’t have a single bite.”

The man: “…”

‘I don’t even want it!’

Just as he was silently cursing, he faintly heard smacking kissing sounds.

The man: “…”

‘Is this really appropriate?’

—“Alright, can you be more honest? Stop doing that all the time.”

—“But I haven’t seen you for ten days. I miss you, really miss you.”

—“Nonsense! You were here just yesterday! You old pervert.”

—“But you slept so soundly last night. I cleaned you thoroughly from head to toe, inside and out, and you didn’t wake up. I felt wronged and did it.”

The man: “???”

‘What does “from head to toe” and “inside and out” mean?!

What do you mean, “I felt wronged, and did it”?!’

Why don’t you just kill me to liven up the mood?’

—“Go away, we’ll talk later! You better behave later; if my guest gets scared, I’ll hold you accountable.”

—“Fine, but you have to kiss me first, and then I’ll behave.”

There was another round of smacking sounds.

The man: “…”

‘No, need, I’m already scared out of my wits.

Let me go.

Please let me leave this place of controversy.’

A few minutes later, the two from the kitchen came out one after the other.

The man sneakily glanced at the young man and saw his lips were plump and rosy, as if he had just done some kind of lip enhancement treatment. “…”

‘I didn’t see anything, I saw nothing at all.

It would be great if I was blind for a day.’

The young man hurriedly poured a cup of hot tea for the man, then sat across from him.

As soon as he sat down, the “intelligent robot” also sat down next to the young man. It nonchalantly took the young man’s fingers, one by one, and played with them in its hand as if there were no one else around.

The young man smiled awkwardly, and his explanations sounded pale in the face of reality, but he still persevered. “Uh, this is… a massage service. Yes, it’s a massage service provided by the intelligent robot. I often have hand fatigue, so I’ve set up this program for him.”

The man’s expression was already numb. “Oh.”

‘Whatever you say.

I’m a bit mentally exhausted.’

“Ahem,” Bai Lixin cleared his throat, trying to steer the conversation back to a normal track. “How should I address you now? Is it Chi Yan, or Clown Mask, or something else?”

Suddenly getting down to business, the man, whose eyes were hidden under thick hair, blinked a few times. “Call me Clown Mask.”

“And you don’t use the other name because…” Bai Lixin’s index finger was suddenly tugged, and he raised an eyebrow, controlling his voice, “system restrictions?”

The man nodded. “Yes.”

Bai Lixin: “We left Diamond Mountain together, why did you become an NPC?”

When the man who was massaging Bai Lixin heard the words “become an NPC”, his movements paused for a moment before continuing.

The Man: “My task was not entirely successful.”

Bai Lixin grasped the situation. “So, after leaving the time cage, you became an NPC and couldn’t use your previous name or acknowledge your previous identity?”

The man nodded again.

Bai Lixin realized, “That’s why you appear disheveled and don’t want to reveal your identity to Sun Ning.”

“Are all NPCs played by players?”

The man replied, “Not exactly, actually, most of them are programmed. But recently, the Game Lobby introduced a ‘Nationwide Battle’ event. Due to the high number of participants, the original NPCs were insufficient to serve everyone. So, the system brought us in to act as NPCs.”

“I was lucky because I should have been punished. But I happened to encounter that event. It was either beheading or becoming an NPC. Of course, I didn’t want to die, so I signed an agreement with the system to become an NPC and abandoned my previous name.”

“It’s like knowing what’s stored in the bank, but you can’t retrieve it. Although I can’t acknowledge Sister Ning, I will silently protect her from the shadows. Please, tell her not to do anything foolish. I’ll handle the revenge, and she just needs to stay happy and persevere until she leaves this game.”

Bai Lixin suddenly sensed a touch of heroic emotion in the man’s words. After hesitating for a moment, he asked, “What happens after you sign the NPC agreement?”

The man replied, “you’ll stay in the Game Lobby forever, always being an NPC. I’ve noticed something strange since becoming an NPC; my memories are gradually fading away. Maybe after some time, I won’t remember anything. I might even forget that I used to be human, only remembering myself as a dedicated NPC, focused on serving every player.”

“But Sister Ning still has a future, she can leave this place.”

“Now that her brother is gone, the only one who can protect her is me.”

“I’ll find out the truth about that year in my own way and seek revenge for Sun Nu, that brat. I request that you take my sister with you in the next copy. If she keeps staying in the Game Lobby in her current state, I’m worried she might do something irrational.”

Bai Lixin assessed the man who looked like a savage and inquired, “Sun Ning managed to catch you today. Is it because you were following her to protect her, and she found out?”

The man scratched his head shyly. “I’m ashamed to say, after all these years, I didn’t expect her to become so strong. I almost got pinned against the wall by her.”

Bai Lixin asked, “You mentioned you’d seek revenge in your own way. How do you plan to do that?”

The man paused. “You don’t need to worry about that, it’s not suitable for young ears.”

Having said this, he suddenly stopped talking.

‘Not suitable for young ears?

It doesn’t seem to describe them.’

“We had a life-and-death bond back then, right?” The man gritted his teeth and, treating Bai Lixin as a last resort, continued, “So, my sister is your sister too. We only have one sister, you must look after our sister. In her current situation, she may seem composed on the outside, but inside, she’s already falling apart. According to psychology, it’s called ‘smiling depression.’”

The man paused and then said, “In that case, can you get me some paper and a pen? I want to write something.”

Though puzzled, Bai Lixin retrieved paper and a pen from his backpack and handed them over. “Here.”

As soon the man got the pen, he swiftly wrote a series of numbers on the paper. He filled half the page with densely packed numbers. After finishing, he carefully reviewed it from start to finish and, satisfied that it was error-free, handed it to Bai Lixin. “Consider this my gift to you. When you receive this gift, please take good care of our sister. I don’t know how long I can remember her.”

Bai Lixin accepted the paper.

[100, 23.3245; 45.5635; 09.5673

150, 45.5678; 124.4573; 14.4573

150, …

200, …

350, …

500, …]

A total of six lines, each containing four sets of numbers.

Bai Lixin stared at this string of numbers for a couple of seconds and suddenly understood what they meant. “Are these coordinates for tokens?”

The man replied, “Is it a great gift? This is all I know. I escaped from the Eternal Diamond Mountain thanks to your favor before and never had the chance to thank you.”

“This gift is my way of expressing gratitude for saving my life back then.”

Bai Lixin held the coordinates and exchanged a glance with the man in the demon mask.

Dijia took the coordinates from Bai Lixin’s hand, glanced at them, and nodded. “Correct, they’re all written accurately.”

Upon hearing this, the man froze on the spot.

‘Written accurately?

Could this man really be an NPC?

How else would he know?’

Dijia casually placed the paper on the table and added, “The three-dimensional coordinates are all included, and the writing specifications are precise.”

The man: “…”

‘So, he was talking about the way they were written?!’

Bai Lixin stayed quiet.

I might scare you to death if I say that all those locations were made by my old gong!

But he didn’t tell me a single one!’