My Demon Friends-Chapter 435 - 431: Taking You to Fly

"I’m back."

Zhou Li stepped through the dorm room door. He subconsciously took a breath and looked at the three people inside.

Chen Yang was playing video games.

Liu Zhengming was watching him play.

Chang Xiaoxiang was chatting on QQ, with four or five windows open.

Good, they’re all sitting in their spots; that’s better than lying on their beds.

"Did the dorm head bring us any local specialties?" Chang Xiaoxiang asked.

"I brought some pea cakes and donkey rolls," Zhou Li replied.

"Are they tasty?"

"They’re awful."

"..." Chang Xiaoxiang, who had asked the question, was rendered speechless. "Then why did you bring them for us?"

"I was afraid if I didn’t bring them, you’d think I didn’t want to bring them," Zhou Li said honestly. He then stepped onto the ladder to take down the small fan clipped to the head of his bed. The weather in Chunming was starting to cool down, so the fan, occasionally needed in summer, was no longer necessary.

"Let me try..." Chang Xiaoxiang muttered.

"Oh," Zhou Li responded.

Zhou Li sniffed again and took the snacks he had bought out of his backpack.

A few days ago, on his way back from watching the flag-raising ceremony, he’d seen a tourist-trap supermarket specializing in local specialties and casually bought a few boxes. They turned out to be greasy. The freshly made pea cakes and donkey rolls from restaurants, however, tasted quite good—much better than these pre-packaged ones. The State Guesthouse had also made some, and they were excellent. In fact, when he was leaving, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also provided gifts, including traditional handicrafts and food, intended to showcase national culture to foreign visitors. But the amount of traditional food was only enough for one person to sample, so Zhou Li had saved it for Brother Nan.

"Where’s Lord Dumpling?" Chen Yang asked.

"I left him with a friend. It’s not very convenient to have him in the dorm," Zhou Li replied.

"What’s inconvenient about it? We don’t mind you keeping Lord Dumpling in the dorm," Chen Yang said, puzzled. He felt Zhou Li was being distant. "Lord Dumpling doesn’t make messes or cause trouble. He’s very well-behaved, and we all like him a lot."

"..."

Zhou Li was at a loss for words.

He waved his hand. He was, after all, a kind person. "My friend really likes Lord Dumpling, so I let him take care of him for a few days."

With that, he climbed into his bed. "I’m going to take a nap."

If people were sitting on the lower bunks, then someone had to be lying on an upper bunk. That made things feel complete.

「An hour later.」

Zhou Li opened his eyes.

His nap hadn’t been very good. He kept feeling uncomfortable. It wasn’t because he was picky about beds—he wasn’t. He just felt like there should be a fluffy little thing wriggling and crawling in his blanket, or walking and parkouring all over him. But there wasn’t, and it left him feeling empty. Sometimes, he’d even feel an odd sensation in his blanket and subconsciously think it was Lord Dumpling practicing his commando crawl. But then he’d suddenly remember: Lord Dumpling had already left, gone outside without a backward glance to find young, pretty women who didn’t have smelly feet.

It was all because of that Little Trash Cat that he hadn’t slept well.

He checked his phone and saw several messages.

Li Daimao: Come play games

Li Daimao: Let’s team up

Li Daimao: Bro

Li Daimao: ?

Zhou Li sat up and typed back expressionlessly, "It was you who told me to take a nap."

Li Daimao: Oh, sorry.

Li Daimao: Hurry up! Come play games. The three of us are teaming up. Huai Xu and I have been waiting for you for a long time.

Zhou Li scratched his head, threw off the covers, and got out of bed.

He had to admit, after being bundled up in his clothes under the blanket for so long, the air felt surprisingly chilly when he got out of bed and the breeze hit him.

「Five minutes later.」

Zhou Li, Brother Nan, and Huai Xu entered the game lobby.

Ultra Rapid Fire.

Zhou Li had been introduced to this game by Brother Nan. It was hard to say he had fully grasped it, as he played infrequently, was quite unskilled, and didn’t particularly enjoy it. However, he was happy to join in whenever Brother Nan invited him to play a casual mode.

Voice chat was enabled.

Brother Nan’s voice came through, "What are you guys playing?"

"Whatever," Huai Xu said confidently. "I’ll just close my eyes and pick one randomly."

"Zhou Li?" Brother Nan asked.

"Sword Saint."

Zhou Li had already decided on this hero. There was no help for it; he was a bit of a simpleton—just like that famous namesake of his—and only knew how to play Sword Saint.

Brother Nan picked Draven.

Huai Xu picked a hero Zhou Li didn’t recognize.

Brother Nan’s voice was incessant, "Zhou Li, take Blade Cluster! Yeah, select that one! Hey, for the ARAM talents, change the first one—that red skull icon—to the little whirlwind one..."

Zhou Li hurriedly made the changes.

The game started.

It turned out the enemy team was also a premade group. One player was named "Ad Space for Rent Year-Round," and another "Price Negotiable." One played Lucian, and the other played Thresh.

Brother Nan had clearly noticed. "The enemy team is also a premade, and they’re showing off their couple status! We’ll go to their lane and crush them!"

Zhou Li wasn’t confident.

Brother Nan continued, "Hey, do you think we should also buy a couple of Name Change Cards and get matching premade names? Then we’ll be like those two; everyone will know we’re a team when they see us... We should think of something funny, something that fits my personality."

"Whatever," Zhou Li replied.

"Whatever my hammer!" Brother Nan retorted.

"Don’t swear..." Zhou Li mumbled.

The game screen appeared.

THUMP! Brother Nan was the first to launch towards mid lane. This was followed by several more THUMPS as champions from both sides rushed towards the middle.

By this time, Zhou Li had already walked to the entrance of their base’s high ground. He paused, then remembered the cannon, so he went back to use it.

FIRST BLOOD!

Brother Nan had been killed.

The killer was the enemy Lucian.

Brother Nan’s voice came through the headset, "No worries, no worries! I just accidentally got hooked by Thresh. Wait till I get a critical strike; I’ll absolutely blast them! Then I’ll snowball and go one-versus-five! You just focus on having fun; I’ll carry you!"

Zhou Li didn’t say anything.

Huai Xu didn’t say anything either.

Brother Nan respawned quickly and launched towards mid lane again.

Ten seconds later.

Draven’s portrait turned gray again.

Brother Nan quickly cut his losses. "Stop fighting! If this keeps up, we’re in trouble. Let’s wait a bit, and then go straight to lane."

The enemy Lucian and Thresh went bot lane, so Brother Nan dragged Zhou Li to bot lane too. He also frantically pinged the Volibear who was already in bot lane. This annoyed the Volibear, who sent a "?" before recalling and heading to the top lane.

Child of Destiny (Glory Executioner): Don’t any of you come bot lane. I’m going to make these two pay.

25-year-old Programmer (Indestructible Thunder): 666

Elementary Schooler Bald Lu (Dark Sovereign): 666

Free Little Demon (Desert Rose): 666

Zhou Li thought for a moment and also typed "666" to follow suit, but he was a bit clumsy and almost got hit while typing.

The showdown between the "couples" began.

Two minutes later—

Brother Nan, now 0-4, bought an Agility Cloak.

Critical Strike Chance +20%.

Facing the question marks pinged by his teammates, Brother Nan remained quite composed and typed to everyone: No big deal.

At this point, the enemy Lucian had completed an Infinity Blade.

Ten minutes into the game, Huai Xu’s unknown hero came down from mid lane and shut down the Lucian, who was on a twelve-kill streak, and the Thresh, who had just reached ’Godlike’ status.

Fifteen minutes into the game, Brother Nan kindly reminded Zhou Li to mute their teammates’ voice chat.

Twenty minutes into the game, Brother Nan had gone quiet. He no longer looked for fights. Instead, he started taking Zhou Li around the map with him, transforming into a tower-destroying specialist. They pushed towers wherever there was an opportunity, even tanking tower shots to do so.

You know, it was actually quite fun, Zhou Li thought. Even though they often got killed and had to run whenever they saw an enemy, it didn’t matter. They weren’t worth much gold anyway. After respawning, they’d just continue their tower-pushing. They even hid in the jungle, waiting for enemies to leave before immediately going to push, just like thieves.

Unexpectedly, they still won the game. This was because, apart from the two of them, the rest of their team were all strong carries. On the enemy side, apart from the two good premade players, the rest were all feeders.

After exiting the game, Zhou Li distinctly heard Brother Nan cough twice. He guessed this was Brother Nan’s way of masking his embarrassment.

COUGH, COUGH. "See? I told you I’d carry you!" Brother Nan’s voice showed no trace of embarrassment; he concealed it completely. "We won, didn’t we?"

"Mm..." Zhou Li responded.

"Wasn’t it fun?"

"It... was... quite fun," Zhou Li carefully chose his words, trying not to hurt Brother Nan’s pride. "Especially when we were pushing towers later. The enemy team must have been furious, but they couldn’t do anything about us."

"Oh?" Brother Nan’s tone rose. "So, Zhou Lili, that’s what gets you excited, huh? Alright, next game, we’ll just go crazy pushing towers!"

"Okay," Zhou Li agreed.

"Brother Nan, start the queue," Huai Xu’s voice chimed in.

"Hold on!" Brother Nan said solemnly. "Let those two get into a game first. We don’t want to queue into them again! I practically start having a coughing fit now whenever I even *see* a hook!"

"They’re Diamond rank," Huai Xu said. "It’s easy to get matched against high-ranking players when you queue with me."

"Don’t you have a smurf account?" Brother Nan asked.

"This *is* my smurf account..." Huai Xu pondered for a moment. "Maybe I should use my even lower-level one?"

"Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up!" Brother Nan urged.

"But my super-smurf only has half the skins..."

"Use my account! It has more skins than your main, all the limited-edition ones too!" Brother Nan said impatiently. "Stop dawdling! Hurry, log into the smurf! If you ruin my and Zhou Li’s fun, it’ll be all your fault!"

"Alright!" Huai Xu conceded.