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Chapter 080 The First Step

Xia Xinyan unknowingly finished getting dressed in front of him.

In fact, even if she did notice, it wouldn’t be a big deal; this level of exposure didn’t seem like a wardrobe malfunction to her—of course, this was limited to those she was most familiar with, and right now, that was just Ling Mo.

Plus, giving Ling Mo a little benefit here and there should keep him tightly bound to her.

This is strategy, after all.

Of course, if Ling Mo dared to turn into a hungry wolf, she could send him straight to the hospital.

At least at this stage, she could still pin Ling Mo down and slap him around if needed.

Fortunately, Ling Mo had quite the self-control; he hadn’t shown any strange behavior from start to finish. After she tidied herself up, he went on to prepare breakfast.

As Xia Xinyan watched his back, she felt something odd in her heart.

Ling Mo seemed the same today as he had been before.

But in comparison, it made yesterday’s Ling Mo stand out as abnormal.

In her previous life, the first time she encountered a haunted dungeon, she was taken out by a ghost halfway through, leaving her with a psychological shadow regarding the game that lasted quite some time before she dared touch it again.

She wondered if her appearance would change Ling Mo’s experience this time as it had in her last life. She could allow him a few days to ease into things, but there was no way they could take as long as she had before; that would slow them down.

So during breakfast, she couldn’t help but ask, “Mo Mo, what are your thoughts about that game… after yesterday’s dungeon?”

Ling Mo paused slightly. “Hmm? Nothing much, seems pretty good.”

Xia Xinyan thought for a moment and expressed her thoughts more gently, “Taking a few days to rest isn’t bad, a few days won’t set us back too much; adjusting your mindset is the most important thing. I don’t want you to have any problems hoping for this game.”

Upon hearing that, Ling Mo took a sip of porridge, fell quiet for a moment, then said, “Is this game… really that important?”

He was gradually realizing the differences in this game and its potential impact on the future.

However, he felt that his ideas didn’t align with what Xia Xinyan was telling him… at least, it didn’t seem that important.

Even if the game could completely affect all areas of the real world, with the Summer Family’s significant weight, couldn’t they take half the territory in the game beforehand?

Game studios were quite common nowadays; although “Realm of Divine Presence” was different from typical games, wasn’t it just a variant of a large studio? It didn’t seem too different.

Xia Xinyan nodded in agreement. “Exactly, the true impact of this game on the future is far greater than you realize.”

Ling Mo frowned slightly.

Speaking of which, there was one thing he really couldn’t comprehend—

If the game’s impact was only what he anticipated, then as the daughter of the Summer Family, Xia Xinyan didn’t need to personally engage in dungeons that could let people genuinely experience death.

So what was her true purpose?

Ling Mo couldn’t figure it out.

And didn’t ask.

He preferred to play it safe, especially in matters related to Xia Xinyan. Because he cared so much for her, he dared not take risks.

With these things, he couldn’t determine what consequences would arise from directly asking.

It seemed he would have to find ways to understand through other means.

—In fact, Xia Xinyan didn’t really understand this either.

To be more precise, she shared the same question in her heart as Ling Mo.

Living muddled in her past life, now that she had a second chance, she realized many details she had overlooked before, such as quite a few other noble sons having come into contact with the game aside from herself.

Was it the game that attracted them? Xia Xinyan didn’t think so.

So this was something she needed to figure out now as well.

But for now, she was more concerned about Ling Mo.

“I got it,” Ling Mo nodded, “Don’t worry, I’ll work hard to become stronger in the game.”

Xia Xinyan smiled. “I believe in you.”

That was enough for her.

At least she knew he hadn’t been scared off.

Well… she was just being herself.

However, in the following days, the two didn’t run dungeons together much.

Mainly because graduation was approaching, there were more things to deal with at school; aside from the few classes, there were also many graduation-related matters to handle, so Ling Mo was returning home quite late these days.

Xia Xinyan understood, after all, she had gone through the same herself.

Anyway, there was no rush; she could be sure their progress in this life would absolutely be faster than in the last.

It’s worth mentioning that Ling Mo also took the time to run dungeons with other members of the club while at school without calling Xia Xinyan, which was classic solo play. However, he later discussed the dungeon matters with Xia Xinyan, including some interesting stories and his own progress.

Xia Xinyan was quite pleased; this proved that this guy could clear dungeons even without her leading him… it was almost like his experience was shooting up just by grinding monsters without her doing anything.

Not only that, his abilities had also seen improvements, but it wasn’t an expansion of manifested items; rather, it was more about the speed of manifestation and consumption improvement, which was good news for Xia Xinyan, effectively saving her quite a bit of points.

However, when it came to points, she felt a bit displeased. Tianji was still bound to Ling Mo, so the task releases were mainly led by Ling Mo, but now she realized if she wasn’t present, Tianji couldn’t track Ling Mo’s game status. Therefore, she couldn’t release tasks when Ling Mo was playing solo; otherwise, she could have done completely automatic grinding.

Of course, it was just a thought. If such a heavenly setup really existed, she would find it off… so her displeasure was simply at the fact that Tianji was linked to Ling Mo instead of her.

It just felt really silly.

But silly as it was, she had to admit that Tianji’s points mall was a huge help, and given that she could earn several thousand to ten thousand points per dungeon now, that assistance was ridiculously large.

At first, she thought about saving points, but after seriously studying the mall during this time, she discovered… there was no need to save at all.

In fact, if she wanted to, she believed she could compress the time it took to reach the peak she originally attained down to a tenth or even shorter.

Of course, it sounded tempting, but she certainly wouldn’t do that; the odds of becoming a pig after overeating were pretty high, and taking it step by step seemed far more prudent.

So now she started to focus on the first step ahead.

Coming soon, the National Day.

 

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