As soon as the thought of Huo Yi crossed Jing Nian’s mind, he received a message from Huo Yi.
[“Are you there?”]
Jing Nian replied with a “yes,” and then a message popped up on his interface.
[Received a team invitation from [Huo Yi], would you like to teleport?]
Thinking about the reliable and silent figure, and his sudden decision to entrust the Dragon-slaying Sword to that person, Jing Nian felt that this choice was appropriate. However, he still needed to investigate the mushroom matter, and the fate of the Dragon-slaying Sword was closely tied to the game world and even the safety of the Dragon Clan. Jing Nian needed to make a careful decision.
So, he decided to get on good terms with Huo Yi first.
With that in mind, Jing Nian pursed his lips and came up with a clever idea. He remembered the detailed description behind the title he had received from the recent special encounter quest. As he was the first to find the God-tier Blacksmith, his title was [God-tier Blacksmith’s Trusted Friend], and there were other titles with different levels like [God-tier Blacksmith’s Friend], [God-tier Blacksmith’s Acquaintance], and [God-tier Blacksmith’s Encounter]…
In other words…
Jing Nian initially declined Huo Yi’s team invitation and then turned to his Dwarven friend, making a request: “Regarding the new owner of the Dragon-slaying Sword, I have thought of a reliable friend whose identity might be similar to mine. I would like to introduce him to you. Would you be willing?”
He added, “As you can see, there are indeed some secrets I cannot reveal, but I promise, I will not…”
“I trust you,” Ga’erfu replied with his usual warm smile, waving his hand dismissively. “The Dragon-slaying Sword is in your hands. It’s up to you to decide its new owner. As for your friend…”
With that, Ga’erfu paused, his expression slightly awkward and embarrassed, as if he had something to say but was hesitant to say it.
Perhaps it was an instinct honed from his time with the young dragon, Jing Nian quickly added, “He’s another kind of friend, more like a fellow comrade, while we are best friends, the only best friends!”
Feeling a bit jealous of this newfound friendship, Ga’erfu, who was usually a man of few words, cleared his throat uncomfortably. Nevertheless, he seemed much more satisfied and continued, “Since he’s your friend, he’s my friend too. Maybe you can invite him to visit my home.”
–
On the other side,
After his team invitation was declined, Huo Yi’s smile, which had unconsciously started to form on his lips, froze.
Even though he wasn’t inherently arrogant or overly confident, thinking that no one would reject him, it seemed that he had been mistaken.
However, as a prodigy among the heavens, Huo Yi indeed had little experience with rejection. For someone who often traveled alone, accompanied only by an ugly dragon, issuing invitations to others was a rare occurrence. What’s more, he had made some psychological preparations before extending this invitation, and with it came a mysterious hope.
Undeniably, the moment he extended the invitation, the inexplicable hope that had welled up in his heart, followed by the intense disappointment upon receiving the rejection, were all real. The rollercoaster of emotions that surged through his heart from ecstasy to despair made Huo Yi’s handsome brows furrow.
That young man named Nian Nian seemed to have stirred up emotions within him that were a bit too profound. Huo Yi thought to himself that he needed to exercise some restraint. He didn’t resist these unexpected feelings, but he felt the need to control them appropriately. He couldn’t let himself be completely led by his emotions; otherwise…
Otherwise…
A faint hint of confusion crossed the man’s normally composed face. He hadn’t quite thought through the consequences of “otherwise,” but instinctively, he sensed that it wouldn’t be favorable.
So, he exercised restraint and closed the chat window, deciding not to contact the other person for a while, unless…
However, before Huo Yi could fully organize his thoughts, he suddenly received another invitation. When he noticed that the note had been changed to Nian Nian’s name, he didn’t have time to react before his fingers, seemingly of their own accord, selected—
Accept.
His heartbeat unconsciously quickened, and an uncontrollable sense of joy began to well up within him. In the next moment, Huo Yi realized the destination of the team teleportation…
Huo Yi: “…”
Jing Nian was unexpectedly within a few hundred meters of him.
Huo Yi looked up at the massive and imposing stone gate before him, covered in locks, and then glanced at the teammate’s location indicator…
He realized that Jing Nian was actually at the place where he had originally intended to invite him to, and he didn’t need to lead him there at all.
Knowing that the young man had been dealing with matters related to the Dragon Clan these days, Huo Yi had guessed that he needed to level up, so he had painstakingly found the clue to the Divine Artifact quest line to give him a surprise.
But the result…
Huo Yi: “…”
—
[The second title of the Divine Artifact quest is gone!!!]
Because there was reliable information that the level 50 trigger for that Divine Artifact quest was related to the later main storyline, almost all advanced players had been frantically trying to complete this quest recently. However, when they were making no progress whatsoever, the Champion title disappeared!
Not only that but the second title was gone too!
What was even more frustrating was that players couldn’t find out who had earned the titles!
Outside of the game, the Dragon Slayer Studio once again found itself in an awkward situation.
Without the support of the Jing family, the Dragon Slayers might not have made it to where they are today. However, the game kept throwing unexpected surprises their way.
The incidents in the newbie village and with the NPCs didn’t really matter, and even the unexpected events that tormented players and studio staff had become a unique selling point for the game, generating considerable publicity.
Faced with these surprises, the studio staff were often crying while working overtime but secretly laughing on the inside, hoping for more unexpected twists.
However, this time it was about the Jing family’s search for the Fourth Young Master of the Jing family, and the anchor point was the mushroom.
Trouble was brewing!
No one could laugh this time.
The eldest brother of the Jing family sat sternly in his chair, a hint of stubble on his handsome face, making him appear somewhat weathered and weary. However, it didn’t diminish his imposing presence. The hardness he had gained on the battlefield added to his innate aura, making it even more formidable.
“Speak up, what’s going on again?”
His cold, white fingertips, capable of easily cracking open the shells of the Zergs, tapped lightly on the table, producing crisp, weighty sounds that seemed to demand answers.
The senior members in charge of the situation stood before him, practically turning into quails under the intense pressure.
Cold sweat dripped one by one from Zhang Hang’s cheeks, the person responsible for building the growth system. If he once took pride in being the first to create a growth system in the interstellar era, he was now having some regrets.
It wasn’t just because of the pressure that the Jing Family’s eldest brother was placing on him at this moment. It was also because of a hidden discovery he dared not speak of.
With the growth of the game world and the growth of NPCs, something was amiss.
Even the “Creator” by his side, as well as the expert responsible for the “World Rules” System, hadn’t noticed.
The game world’s NPCs kept defying expectations, repeatedly breaking free from programmed data control. Perhaps it wasn’t just because of the growth system.
As the builder of the growth system, no one understood better than him that he had merely used a larger database and more data simulations than others to make the growth of NPCs and the development of the game world appear more realistic.
In the end, it was just a simulation of infinite possibilities, making them appear infinitely close to reality, but not true reality.
He even suspected that this world was not created by their studio but was originally a real world.
However, proving something that was infinitely close to reality to be real, especially when it was something he had created, was a daunting task.
He couldn’t even convince himself.
He feared that others would say he had gone mad.
And he had no evidence.
At this moment, the “World Rules” System expert glanced thoughtfully at Zhang Hang, who was sweating profusely with madness. Then, he lazily stepped forward and met the cold, deep eyes of Jing Family’s eldest brother. He spoke in a measured tone.
“As you can see, for your younger brother, the greater danger now comes from NPCs rather than players. Closing the game won’t stop NPCs from acting in the game world. Right now, our only option is to intensify the search for your brother or publicly disclose his existence, mobilizing players to help find him. What do you think?”
Jing Chen, after hearing this, furrowed his handsome brows and entered deep thought.
Although he had never been involved in online games before, during his search for his younger brother, he had received a crash course from his third brother and had also done extensive research himself. He was now well-informed about the situation within the world of the Dragon Slayers.
He also understood that the current situation was very challenging. Before the game world was fully constructed, they could modify data, but at that time, they couldn’t guarantee Jing Nian’s safety. Even changing data might have caused Jing Nian’s spiritual energy to dissipate directly into the data, so in the end, they had no choice but to let the studio complete the construction of the game world.
But what was even more difficult was that after the game world was fully constructed, it grew independently and was no longer subject to data control and modification.
So, the Jing family could only search for Jing Nian like looking for a needle in a haystack.
The mushroom anchor point incident was not the fault of the studio members. In this world of free growth, anything could happen.
Moreover, for Jing Chen, unexpected events and changes had long become commonplace.
He just didn’t want to accept that such an accident had happened to his delicate and adorable younger brother.
“Brother!” The studio’s door was pushed open from the outside, and the hurried footsteps approached.
It was the other two brothers of the Jing family who had rushed here upon hearing the news.
Finally, what was fortunate was that the anchor point mushroom was not something in the game world construction or the mission system. It could be directly duplicated and manufactured with data without causing any disturbances in the game world.
Therefore.
In the game world.
As Jing Nian faced the silent figure of Huo Yi, who had taken out a spatial ring filled with mushroom candies, the three Jing brothers, using the backdoor access provided by the studio, rushed to the residence of a certain NPC carrying a ring filled with mushroom candies.
