The little figure in the black cloak was walking faster this time, surprisingly not tripping over itself. Huo Yi, who was following behind, couldn’t help but be amazed, feeling that this little guy’s secrets seemed to be increasing.
For example, it should have been an in-game NPC, so why did it have a player system and seem to have a similar understanding of the game as players? It even appeared to be purposefully completing quests to level up.
Another thing that caught Huo Yi’s attention was the player system page that Jing Nian had opened.
Huo Yi’s player system was something he had recreated himself to avoid being detected as unusual by the “Creator”. So, Huo Yi had severed the communication channels between his system and other players, including those unimportant chat channels. As long as Huo Yi didn’t add friends, the game database would never trace his actions.
However, it appeared that the young dragon’s page was also in a similar severed state. Yet, it seemed unaware of this fact. Not only had it added friends, but it also opened the team chat channel.
Receiving messages from three teammates, Jing Nian finally snapped out of his astonishment. He sighed, tapping his forehead, and remembered that he had left Gordon back at Aunt Wang’s place.
Looking at the crystal-clear stream in front of him, Jing Nian fell silent for a moment. He decided to focus on the task for now, as Aunt Wang didn’t seem to have any ill intentions towards Gordon. Besides, Gordon’s level was much higher than Aunt Wang’s, so there shouldn’t be any life-threatening situations.
Right now, the most important thing for him was to raise his own level!
After understanding the magical idea that the young dragon had suggested – that by turning one of the two dads into a mom, they wouldn’t fight – Jing Nian decided to take a step back and let the young dragon call him “Dad” and refer to the man in black as “Mom.”
But the young dragon’s gaze drifted away, looking at the sky, the ground, its own fingers, playing with its tail—anything but Jing Nian.
In the young dragon’s eyes, once it acknowledged Jing Nian as the weaker one, like the squirrel mommy, who needed protection from the squirrel daddy, Jing Nian was determined to surpass the man in black’s level.
After all, he was an esports champion. How could he lose to someone in a game?
Just then, Jing Nian’s ring of materialization reacted again. Perplexed, he took out the responding pearl and looked around, only to see…
The black-clothed player who had been following him.
However, the direction in which the pearl reacted didn’t seem to be pointing at the black-clothed player. Instead, it seemed more like it was in the river. Jing Nian furrowed his brows in confusion but still asked the man in black without thinking, “Do you have an item called ‘River Pufferfish’?”
Huo Yi glanced at the pearl in Jing Nian’s hand, also furrowing his brows slightly. Although he didn’t understand the significance of it, he recalled the time when he had demonized some river clams to obstruct players from leveling up. During that incident, the “Creator” had demonized a batch of pufferfish to counter his clam demonization.
The young dragon’s question must be about this river pufferfish.
Huo Yi quietly replicated the data for a river pufferfish and then handed the sleeping fish over to Jing Nian.
Jing Nian accepted the river pufferfish with a dazed expression before realizing something. How did he have a river pufferfish? Wasn’t it a necessary item for beginners? And it said it was a one-time use…
Unless he hadn’t used it back then.
Most importantly, this particular river pufferfish didn’t trigger the response from the pearl.
Just then, the pearl in Jing Nian’s hand suddenly glowed brightly. He turned in the direction the pearl indicated, hearing a rushing sound of water, and his pupils contracted.
A gigantic river clam with a shell as wide as half the river’s width was opening its shell wide as it lunged toward Jing Nian.
This river clam was colossal, and when it attacked Jing Nian, it soared out of the water. Jing Nian was about to dodge, but someone moved even faster.
The moment the giant river clam appeared, Huo Yi had noticed it. However, he hadn’t discerned its intentions until it suddenly launched an attack on the little one. In a swift move, he scooped up the little figure, moving them out of the clam’s attack range.
Saved by someone he had considered his archenemy just moments ago, Jing Nian’s emotions were complex.
Although he could have evaded the attack on his own, the person had meant well.
Jing Nian approached Huo Yi with a somewhat awkward expression. “Thank you. If there’s anything I can help you with, I’ll do my best.”
Huo Yi lowered his gaze, lightly tugged at his lips, and thought, “Well, there’s something right now.”
However, with the ferocious giant river clam still stranded on the shore in front of them, they remained silent for the time being.
Perhaps they could call it the “River Clam King.”
Jing Nian searched for a reference point and estimated the size of the river clam. Its shell was approximately the length of two tall black-clothed individuals, making it appear quite large, possibly close to 190 centimeters in height. In other words, the river clam’s size was approximately 4 meters!
Moreover, because this River Clam King was right in front of them, the pearl in Jing Nian’s hand not only glowed but also began to heat up.
The heat became unbearable, causing Jing Nian to release the pearl, which rolled onto the grass. The gigantic river clam instantly extended a mass of white flesh to snatch the pearl and disappear into its shell. Then, with great effort, it extended the white flesh from its shell, pushing itself toward Jing Nian across the grass.
Jing Nian was puzzled.
The little mermaid had only mentioned that the pearl would have a reaction to her friends. She hadn’t said anything about it reacting to other things. What was happening now?
Although the River Clam King looked large, it moved extremely slowly. Jing Nian watched as it inched closer, and after it had moved a few centimeters in his direction, he took a couple of steps back, easily creating distance while keeping a close eye on it.
Seeing Jing Nian move further away, the River Clam King grew anxious. It emitted a “hehe~” sound and the mass of white flesh inside its shell wriggled in agitation.
However, all its efforts were in vain. Other than getting itself dirtier with grass and mud inside its shell, it had no effect whatsoever.
It seemed that it was indeed a river king in the water, but outside of it, the grand entrance it made earlier had been just a fleeting display.
Jing Nian: “…”
With grass and dirt now inside its shell, the giant clam was extremely uncomfortable. Originally, it could move a few centimeters at a time, but now, it couldn’t move even a millimeter. It could only open and close its shell, attempting to intimidate Jing Nian, while awkwardly attempting to speak in the common language of the continent.
“Don’t~ hehe~ run~ hehe~”
Jing Nian had no intention of running away and stood still, observing what the giant clam would do next.
The clam continued to struggle for another two minutes before bursting into tears with a loud “wuwuwu~ hehe~.”
“Wuwuwu~ Li Li~ I can’t avenge you~ wuwuwu~” The river clam, still uncomfortable inside its shell and unable to reach Jing Nian, remained in place, crying uncontrollably.
Amidst the intermittent cries of the River Clam King, Jing Nian caught some crucial words.
“Li Li? Revenge?”
He glanced at the clam, which was crying like a four or five-ton child. Jing Nian gently asked, “Are you talking about a little mermaid with a red carp tail?”
“Wuwuwu~ Haha~” The emotionally charged River Clam King paused for a moment, then hiccupped and stopped crying. Slowly, it opened a crack in its shell and spat out some mud and grass.
Although it had no eyes, Jing Nian felt a hopeful gaze upon him.
“The little mermaid with the red carp tail, the pearl you swallowed before belonged to her,” Jing Nian further explained, “She asked me to use this pearl to help her find her friend, so she temporarily entrusted the pearl to me.”
The River Clam King’s shell opened completely, and then…
“Wuwuwu~ Wawawa…” It cried even harder.
Jing Nian: “…”
Beside him, Huo Yi: “…”
Inside the Dragon Soul Space, the little dragon cub: “…Hmm?”
The River Clam King only stopped crying once it had cried enough. It then emotionally and intermittently narrated its story with the little mermaid.
A long time ago, when the little river clam and the little mermaid had just been born, they were neighbors. In other words, they were childhood friends.
However, later on, the little mermaid had to move away, so the river clam gave her the first pearl it had produced in its shell as a token of recognition for their future reunion.
Jing Nian hesitated and looked at the over four-meter-long “little river clam,” feeling perplexed about the idea that they were childhood friends. Could such a size difference have occurred in just a year or two? Was the little mermaid even a year old?
Childhood friends? This seemed even more exaggerated than an adult cow chewing on tender grass.
However, since the River Clam King was speaking so earnestly, Jing Nian didn’t interrupt. It was only in the Dragon Soul Space that the little dragon cub, upon hearing about the pearl as a token, became curious and asked a question.
“The River Clam King explained that both it and the little mermaid had dripped a drop of their blood onto the pearl. As long as someone with blood on the pearl was nearby, it would sense the direction and emit light.”
As he said these words, the gradually excited River Clam King opened its shell, revealing a soft, glowing white flesh inside. This gentle light seemed to shine like eyes that it didn’t possess.
He spoke affectionately, “This is the symbol of their love, between the River Clam King and the little mermaid.”
Love, tokens…
Thinking about how many pufferfish could trigger the pearl’s reaction, Jing Nian fell into silence.
This is truly a story of unspoken words and tears between a man and a woman.
However, Jing Nian speculated that the little mermaid probably didn’t betray the River Clam King intentionally, right? It might be due to the age difference or perhaps some miscommunication that made the little mermaid perceive the clam’s gift as a testament to their friendship.
But now that the not-so-bright River Clam King seemed to have misunderstood something, Jing Nian found it challenging to explain.
“Is Li Li doing well?” The River Clam King asked Jing Nian in a slightly calmer mood.
Jing Nian hesitated for a moment and replied, “It’s doing well.”
“Then let’s go find Li Li!” The River Clam King eagerly “looked” at Jing Nian.
Jing Nian sighed, feeling conflicted. Perhaps due to the clam’s heart-wrenching cries earlier, he couldn’t bring himself to reveal the truth. Yet, the awkward misunderstanding needed to be addressed.
In the end, he glanced at the massive size of the River Clam King and hesitated, saying, “But… you’re too big. I can’t take you with me to find the little mermaid. How about I go back and inform her of your location first, and then come back to find you?”
The River Clam King’s mood visibly dampened, but it eventually agreed, saying, “Alright, please hurry then.”
For some reason, Jing Nian couldn’t help but see the River Clam King as an innocent little baby, and a slight sense of guilt crept into his heart. Still, he tentatively asked, “Can you give me the pearl for now?”
“Pfft.” The River Clam King obediently spat out the pearl, looking entirely trusting of Jing Nian.
“Thank you!” Jing Nian exclaimed with gratitude.
Then, the clam spat out two more pearls and said, “These are my tokens of appreciation for you. Although their functions are not as great as the pearls Li Li and I have, each pearl can absorb two drops of blood.”
Upon hearing the last sentence, Jing Nian choked a bit. So, even though there were special tokens that could be one-to-one connections, it gave its beloved one advanced token capable of accepting countless drops of blood?
Should he say the clam was excessively affectionate or just plain naive?
The River Clam King, a bit shy and anxious, watched Jing Nian, as if worried he might reject the gift. Sensing the growing presence of “worry” on the clam, Jing Nian instinctively played along.
He picked up the two pearl gifts, smiled, and said, “Thank you, I really like them.”
Indeed, the River Clam King radiated a sense of satisfaction like when he accepted the gifts from the mini street kids.
After making their arrangements, the River Clam King sighed despondently, “If only I hadn’t grown this big, then you could have taken me directly to find Li Li.”
Jing Nian, who had been about to leave, froze and asked, “Grown this big?”
The River Clam King struggled to move toward the riverbank and continued, “Yes. About ten days ago, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I had transformed into this form.”
On the sidelines, the instigator, Huo Yi, feeling a rare pang of guilt after witnessing the situation he had unintentionally created for the “Little River Clam Baby,” searched in the program library he had separated from the holographic world to find a way to restore the clam to its normal size.
Hearing the astonishing revelation, Jing Nian was taken aback. He turned back and cautiously approached the clam’s shell, then, as he helped it move towards the river, he asked, “How big were you before you grew?”
“About… hehe, about the size of your palm, I guess?” replied the clam.
That was even smaller than the Little Mermaid, wasn’t it? The claws of the baby dragon were roughly only half the size of an adult’s palm. So, the true age of this clam seemed to genuinely match the Little Mermaid’s status as childhood friends. Furthermore, this growth had occurred just around the time of the game’s launch, hadn’t it?
As Jing Nian was lost in thought, he suddenly found his hands empty. The River Clam King had effortlessly slipped into the river.
“I’ll be waiting for you~ Gurglegurgle~” the River Clam King’s voice bubbled as it sank beneath the water.
When Jing Nian regained his composure and looked up, he indeed saw the black-clad figure standing behind him, extending a helping hand.
