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Chapter 077 We All Need Some Returns, Right?

However, what bothered Fatty the most wasn’t that he hadn’t cleared the dungeon, but rather that he had crossed his moral line that night.

Especially when his brain finally caught up—

“Wait a second, I just realized, if the ghost’s weakness is girl’s hair, why didn’t we try this less sacrificial option from the start?”

Brother Haonan didn’t dare to speak.

He had been attacked by the ghost multiple times, and his brain was on the verge of crashing; the fact that he could analyze useful information in that situation made him admire himself enough.

So about those little details… cough, it’s in the past, let it go.

Of course, Fatty didn’t blame him; after all, his brain wasn’t functioning well at that moment either, they were in the same boat.

It just felt uncomfortable, really uncomfortable.

When they disbanded, Xia Xinyan glanced at Fatty’s expression, questioning life itself.

Although it sounds a bit harsh to say now, she managed to confirm several game mechanics from the situations, including Fatty and others.

First, the game really doesn’t force players to do anything beyond their limits to clear the dungeons. Even if something appears, it’s most likely deceptive false information.

Also, the game is designed to test their unscrupulousness.

Based on her current experience, the difficulty of a dungeon isn’t fixed from the start; it adjusts in real-time according to the overall strength of the surviving players, but the overall difficulty must still comply with the standards set by the dungeon.

The most evident example is how in the later stages of this dungeon, everyone showed their unique abilities: Brother Haonan’s giant transformation, Wen’s slow motion, Fatty’s lightning, and Ling Mo had already crafted a few minor inventions in the early stages, while she… although she hadn’t used any abilities, her hair was the only unique trait—she was confident that had she died back then, the game would never have provided them with such a weakness to break free.

But as long as there is a way for players to clear the dungeon—even the most extreme ones—the game wouldn’t change the dungeon process. For instance, in the previous dodo monster dungeon, if it weren’t for her having a God of War Mark, they would have been stuck.

Looking back now, that incident shouldn’t have been a dungeon bug.

So this point still concerned Xia Xinyan. Even if the tools weren’t obtained in-game… or even not from this world at all, could they still be detected by the game system?

What connection does Tianji have with this game?

—She had previously asked Tianji about this, but that guy chose to play dead.

Looks like she’ll have to investigate slowly.

As for now, she was more focused on a pressing issue.

Looking at Ling Mo, who was dazed in the game pod after logging out, she finally couldn’t help but ask, “Are you… okay?”

Please don’t tell me he’s developed psychological issues from being scared.

“Hmm?” Ling Mo snapped back to reality, climbing out of the game pod. “I’m fine… just thinking. By the way, what types of dungeons does this game have?”

Or rather, he was curious about what type of game this actually is.

Hearing this, Xia Xinyan pondered for a moment and shook her head: “There are no restrictions; the dungeons are entirely randomly generated and could have any background or type.”

“Can’t there be some personal settings to filter out certain types? Like this horror type… what if some players don’t want to play it?”

“…No.”

How could they train players’ psychological endurance if they filtered it out?

Ling Mo fell silent for a few seconds and smiled: “Got it…”

Watching him, Xia Xinyan grew even more worried: “You… really okay? You can tell me anything; don’t worry.”

He really didn’t seem right.

“I’m fine,” Ling Mo casually shook his head and sat next to Xia Xinyan on the sofa, leaning for a moment before lightly chuckling, “Xinyan, actually, I’m very afraid of ghosts; I used to be very scared.”

Xia Xinyan froze.

…Something’s wrong, totally wrong.

If it were her, she definitely wouldn’t confess something like this.

What should she do? Should she find a psychologist for Ling Mo?

Though that was her thought, on the surface, Xia Xinyan maintained a gentle demeanor: “It’s okay, I’m afraid of ghosts too; it’s totally normal, really.”

Anyway, she couldn’t let him feel embarrassed; she needed to soothe him first.

Unfortunately, Ling Mo seemed completely unconcerned, talking about it as if it were just a mundane topic: “So when I first saw a ghost, I got completely scared and couldn’t move, like an idiot… If you hadn’t protected me, we might have died.”

Xia Xinyan: “…”

No, actually, they both had three lives.

—But she felt it was inappropriate to say this in such an atmosphere, so she kept quiet.

“I don’t want to be a weak useless guy hiding behind my girlfriend, even in front of ghosts.” Ling Mo paused for a second before continuing, “So I want to overcome my fear… to conquer all my flaws, ensuring I can always stand in front of you.”

Xia Xinyan slightly bit her lip while locking eyes with him, unsure of what to say.

…Is this a love confession?

How should she react?

Should she be happy?

Or touched?

“Xinyan, you said before that in a relationship, giving unconditionally is also a form of selfishness.” Ling Mo tilted his head, gradually leaning closer, and whispered, “So… we all need some returns, right?”

“…Huh?”

Xia Xinyan’s brain hadn’t caught up yet.

But she didn’t need to catch up.

Before she could give a concrete response, Ling Mo directly pushed her down onto the sofa, leaning over to cover her lips.

The kiss was light.

Almost fleeting.

Ling Mo then chuckled lightly, getting up. “I’ll go take a shower; it’s getting late, so you should rest early.”

Xia Xinyan lay on the sofa staring at the ceiling, taking three seconds to process what had just happened.

Then she was stunned.

She… got kissed?

She actually… got kissed?!

By Ling Mo?!

Her first kiss was just gone like that?!

—And this wasn’t even in the game!

…She wasn’t dreaming?

【Congratulations, Host, significant progress has been made in the relationship with the original body.】

‘……’

She couldn’t even muster the words to complain.

Things were spiraling beyond her imagination.

There’s a problem.

Absolutely a problem.

Ling Mo… Ling Mo… how dare he do something like this?

Wasn’t he a coward?!

Didn’t he say he would take it slow?!

Didn’t he say he’d wait until they got familiar first?!

So he must have totally been possessed, right?!

【No, it’s just that the Host’s charm ability accelerated this process; the changes in the original body differ from the system’s forecasts but have not deviated from the general progression, possibly due to this dungeon’s influence.】

‘…Forecasts, forecasts, how did you come up with those? Do you understand me better than I understand myself?’

【No, but the Host needs to understand that using process perturbation studies, from the moment the Host saw the original body, it was no longer the past Host but a new, independent process.】

【This system is only examining the new process based on predictions, not using the Host as the basis for analysis.】

Xia Xinyan remained silent for a long time, unsure of what to think.

Or perhaps she figured out the key point.

‘Tianji, rewind the records; I want to go back and be his bro.’

【This operation is not possible.】

‘Then how did you rewind last time?

【One-time function, already used.】

‘……’