Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 843 - 841: "Candy (3)

By the Wishing Pond, the fountain refracted multicolored light.

The icons for [Answer] and [Hang Up] flashed continuously, and Eni stared at the communication in front of him.

His mind raced, and he quickly waved his hand, saying: "I looked at it wrong, I looked at it wrong! This is... Lin, Lin Da’an, yes, it’s a call from a United Group staff member named Lin Da’an! I made a mistake."

He glanced at the communication interface in front of him, which clearly read "United Group Lin Wang’an", but now he only wanted to play blind.

"Did you see it wrong?" Su Ming’an was very close in front.

Eni looked up at Su Ming’an and saw his calm expression: "Yes, I saw it wrong."

But this clumsy cover-up by Eni was clear to anyone.

"I see." Yet Su Ming’an seemed unaware of Eni’s disguise.

Eni laughed and said: "Just a staff member, I’ll hang up then."

He glanced at Su Ming’an, seeing he made no move, then reached out to click the "Hang Up" icon.

For a moment, the heavy atmosphere hovered like melting ice, and everyone’s expressions quickly returned to normal.

"Since it’s the United Group’s staff member, let it go—come on, open your mouth—" Luna smiled and handed Lv Shu the sugar figurine.

Su Ming’an opened his mouth and bit the sugar figurine, smiling as he thanked her, showing no trace of sadness, as if he had truly only hung up on a stranger’s call.

"Su Ming’an, I see there’s a panda park over there, let’s go take a look..." Lin Yin waved, leading them forward.

...

In United Group’s Section 12, the woman by the piano watched quietly at the call interface before her, the blood-red "Call Rejected" reflected in her eyes.

Her expression turned slightly somber as her fingers pressed spastically on the piano keys, emitting a "clang—".

"Did... Eni actually hang up the call?" Qin Xiaohui of the Yangtze System’s Kunpeng Faction beside her exclaimed in surprise.

As early as the First World, Eni was a supported figure by the United Group and had a close cooperative relationship with them. But now, when Lin Wang’an wanted to make a call, Eni actually hung up the phone?

Lu Changshen speculated: "Maybe someone else made Eni hang up. Rumor has it they’re playing with a few top-ranking players together."

"Do we have surveillance in the zoo area?" Qin Xiaohui asked.

"We do, but we can’t capture their specific location. Besides, we aren’t their enemies; we’re potential partners, so monitoring might actually push them away." Lu Changshen said: "If Noel and the others demanded the hang-up, then there’s nothing to be done..."

"No." Lin Wang’an said quietly, her voice hoarse.

Both turned to look at Lin Wang’an.

Her brows lowered, long hair smoothly draped behind her, her pale slender fingers pressing on the piano keys, appearing as exquisitely sculpted jade under the sunlight, starkly contrasted by the shadowy gloom hidden in her eyes, her slight form seemingly housing a fierce beast.

"...it must’ve been his permission, it must be him." Lin Wang’an spoke softly.

"You mean, Su Ming’an?" Lu Changshen asked.

"Yes. It must be him... If he hadn’t permitted, Eni wouldn’t hang up, it must be this." Lin Wang’an’s voice sped up, her fingers gradually curling unnaturally: "He used to never defy me, never argue, never fuss, never cry, and never hang up on my calls; indeed... he’s grown up, doesn’t want to answer mom’s call anymore. Even knowing mom has awakened, he won’t come to the hospital to visit."

Hearing this, Qin Xiaohui secretly thought: given your mental state, if he comes to the hospital, you’re likely to hit him again. Number One Player is really out of luck having such a mom; if it were her, she’d rather sever ties.

Thinking about the way Lin Wang’an had violently smashed the piano earlier, Qin Xiaohui still felt a lingering fear—this was a real madman.

Seeing Lin Wang’an’s increasingly rapid breathing and deepening finger marks, Qin Xiaohui whispered to Lu Changshen: "Call the psychologist."

"Alas..." Lu Changshen could only temporarily give up contacting Su Ming’an.

If he contacted Su Ming’an, it could count as an achievement. If he could bring Su Ming’an here, it would be a great accomplishment. But Eni hung up the call, and it all vanished!

Truly an ungrateful wolf; this Eni’s speed in reaching for benefits was incredibly fast, consuming all sorts of United Group’s props and equipment. Yet when it comes to Eni contributing, he refused even to relay a phone call, these players really are...

Lu Changshen turned and left.

"Don’t be upset, maybe it’s not necessarily he who hung up..." Qin Xiaohui still comforted Lin Wang’an: "Come, let me chat with you..."

...

That day, Su Ming’an went on to see many landscapes.

Lin Yin really liked pandas; she said there were plenty of them in her hometown in the Shu Region, and the ones she saw before always lay asleep behind glass. Here in the World Game, pandas came in bulk, with hundreds running around densely in a single park.

"Su Ming’an, when I return to Zhai Xing, I definitely want to keep a panda." Lin Yin admired the pandas running inside the glass with deep envy: "Then I’ll invite you to my house to play. There are many delicious things at my home, skewers, hot pot, brown sugar rice cakes, they’re all delicious. My house is large; please do come."

She straightened up, her eyes seemed to sparkle: "Although these foods are available in the Main God World, somehow I feel these foods, no matter how perfect here, aren’t quite the same as the hometown taste. The farther from home you go, the more scenery you see, oddly, the more you miss home..."

"Mm." Su Ming’an steadily looked at her: "Alright, I haven’t been to the Shu Region, I’ll count on you."

"Hehe." She scratched her face, turning shyly.

Lv Shu liked insects. During his past straying days, the mantis Bi was one of his few friends.

Walking into the zoo’s insect zone, he saw almost a mountainside full of colorful butterflies, his gaze hazy, lost in memories.

In a Hanfu standing beneath the vibrant butterflies, slightly raising his head, sunlight pierced through the transparent butterfly wings onto his forehead, like a protagonist from a tale of ancient style.

Some kids saw him and called "Handsome Big Brother in Hanfu!" Several young ladies in Hanfu with flower hairpins, in a slightly more distant spot, blushed and raised their hands, seemingly wanting to capture the scene.

"What are you thinking about?" Su Ming’an said.

"Once before, I saw so many butterflies." Lv Shu lifted his head.

"Are there cities with this many butterflies?" Su Ming’an watched this splendid sight.

"At the time, after eating half a steamed bun from a trash bin, my stomach hurt, no money to see a doctor. Walked half the city to the outskirts, met a kind village doctor who gave me some money and a bit of medicine. Later, alone, I climbed a hillside on the outskirts and happened to see so many butterflies flying toward the slope." Lv Shu said: "At that moment... it seemed my stomach suddenly stopped hurting."

On his shoulder, Little Hong flapped its wings and joined the butterfly swarm.

"People’s pasts were not easy." Luna said sentimentally.

"Sometimes I really feel lucky." Yamada Machiichi started with his gushy talk.

But he was telling the truth.

If the World Game hadn’t started, he might really have ended his life one day by diving into an icy lake by the roadside, or by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills at night.

At that time, everything he saw was in black and white, and he had not a sliver of attachment to the rest of his life. The World Game, to him, was like a second chance at life.

This included Lu who walked the line between life and death, Luna who was cyberbullied because of her orientation, Eni who was raised like an Edward-level idiot in his youth... If they hadn’t entered the World Game, their destinies would not have changed.

Lv Shu’s face seemed to warm up a bit.

"When we get back, let’s go to Taihua Mountain together," he said. "The real Taihua Mountain, not a dream, not an illusion, not a fabricated scene. In the autumn, it’s beautifully golden everywhere."

He stood under a scene resembling a rainbow, looking up as if there were endless green mountains there.

While the others responded to Lv Shu, Noel had already turned around and disappeared.

"Come, there’s a nice view over here!" Noel called out, running swiftly.

He liked birds. Whether it was pigeons flying in the sky, or peacocks walking on the ground.

Here, near the Flying Bird Garden, Noel took a few steps, staring at the thousands of birds in the sky, raising his hands high, attempting to perform ’Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix’, trying to make all the birds circle around him.

"Su Ming’an, I actually succeeded at ’Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix’ in Yu Country once. Back then, all the birds flew beside me. Let me show you today!" Noel raised his hands forcefully, twisting his fingers into strange shapes, his posture like one raising the sun, shouting:

"——Come! Come fly to the New World Adventurer!"

Su Ming’an blinked his eyes.

Noel twisted his limbs.

Su Ming’an watched him twist wildly.

Everyone else watched him twist wildly.

After a silent ten seconds, it was still empty around Noel, not a single bird.

A few pigeons passed by in the sky, dropping a few ’bombs’, narrowly missing Noel’s open mouth.

"Pfft! These birds here lack appreciation." Noel lowered his hands, pouting.

Luna burst into laughter.

Noel said, "Next time I’ll take you guys to Yu Country, where the birds are truly experienced. Su Ming’an, I’ll show you the lavender and the windmills then!"

Su Ming’an slightly curved his lips.

It was only in these leisure moments that he realized, everyone was like children, capable of being upset, making mistakes, acting cute. Noel wasn’t as wise as a demon like in the instance either, he would get sulky at the rebellion of the birds, and act like a young man in his twenties.

Everyone had shed the blood that stained them in the instance, removed the calm mask of a top player, just like they lived in Zhai Xing before, never having seen great storms, never experiencing bloody battles (except for Lu).

Time slipped away as they played, and in the evening, they went to the penultimate stop of their trip, the botanical garden.

Su Ming’an poked his head in along the hanging leaves on both sides, as if entering a vegetable tunnel made of flowers and plants.

The golden autumn chrysanthemums were curled, like gold embellishing the green cloth. Wisteria hung down, petals plump like wheat ears. Lilies were particularly abundant, but they were no longer rooted in the barren, desolate soil of the Ruined World.

Perhaps to match the Ninth World’s style, passing through the plant tunnel, many people were taking pictures under the ginkgo trees. Su Ming’an even saw someone cosplaying ’Yasa Acto’, sitting in a wheelchair, posing, surrounded by a bunch of people snapping pictures with cameras.

Upon closer inspection, the wheelchair bore a remarkable resemblance; the white coat and black shirt were a one-to-one recreation, and there was even a highly detailed toy wristwatch. The Acto cosplay scored a solid ninety.

"City Lord, can you smile for us?" The cameraman enthusiastically shouted to the cosplayer.

"Do you have the Dawn System, City Lord? Can you summon it? Is the beautiful Xike here? Can you call her out?"

"City Lord, are you skilled at digging pits for yourself?"

"City Lord, can you perform a handstand?"

"City Lord, can you do that thing... you know, that..."

"City Lord, do you really dislike white hair? Can you answer directly? If Noah and Lin Guang both fell into the water, who would you save, City Lord?"

Under the long and short artillery of the cameras, the cosplayer cooperated quite well. Constantly striking handsome poses, some holding tea under ginkgo trees, others bowing in contemplation, and some closing their eyes for a nap. Faced with questions, the cosplayer even answered in a serious manner:

"I can smile, see?"

"No Dawn System, no Xike, the AI props have not been made yet."

"Handstand is not quite doable."

"What does ’do that thing’ mean?"

"I would save neither."

Su Ming’an pondered as he walked past this crowd.

"Hey! There’s another team here!"

Another large group noticed Su Ming’an’s "top player cosplayer" team, holding cameras and aiming to rush over.

If it weren’t for Yamada Machiichi having a line of blood-red letters above his head saying [We do not take group photos], the photographers would’ve already surrounded them.

Looking at the ’Yasa Acto’ sitting under the ginkgo tree, Su Ming’an really felt like he saw himself in the Ruined World. Instances and reality always blended and separated before his eyes, sometimes seeing screenshots of the characters he once played on the forum. He truly might have a moment of thinking that person was himself.

"Hey, Su Ming’an, look, I recognize all these plants. This is hibiscus, this is autumn chrysanthemum..." At this moment, Yamada Machiichi was fiddling with the plants beside him, loudly saying to Su Ming’an:

"Su Ming’an, you must come to Fusang sometime! By then, there will definitely be no restrictions on going abroad, and I’d welcome you to come and play with me!"

Su Ming’an came back from his reminiscence, and looking up, he saw Yamada Machiichi’s smiling face.

He calculated that after the game ends, he would have so many places to visit—Lin Yin’s Shu Region, Lv Shu’s Taihua Mountain, Noel’s Yu Country, Yamada Machiichi’s Fusang. He couldn’t play favorites with Lu and Luna either; Italy and North Country must be visited too. And if he could meet even more friends in the future, he’d have to travel the whole world map...

...If there really were that day, when they traveled together.

Those would surely be wonderful days.

If there really were that day.

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