Book 4: Chapter 15 |
“Promise me, Leon—before I make my move on you, you absolutely must not get knifed by someone else, okay?”
“Hmph, don’t get cocky. Next I’m targeting you only—you won’t live to see the next meeting.”
“Really? Then I wonder who it was that skipped the very first meeting of the game. Why didn’t you go, Leon? Didn’t want to?”
“That was me being careless and falling for your trick. Just a role advantage—that doesn’t represent skill.”
“Sure, sure. Then I’m really looking forward to what you do next.”
“I’m done talking nonsense with you. Stay away from me—don’t get in the way of me finding clues.”
“Who’s staying away from who? You’re the one who came over here.”
“You make it sound like I’m thrilled to be with you.”
Yet just as the two of them were about to go—you take your broad sunny road, I take my single-plank bridge—the NPC prompt tone suddenly rang from the projection stones in both of their pockets at the exact same time:
“‘The King’s Old Friend’ and ‘The Royal Chef,’ please pay attention. ‘The King’s Old Friend’ and ‘The Royal Chef,’ please pay attention.”
“You have been affected by the item card ‘Love Strong as Gold: Seven-Day Lock.’ For the next six hours, you must act together and may not be more than five meters away from each other.”
Hearing that, the two of them froze.
W-what “Love Strong as Gold: Seven-Day Lock”?
What a disgusting name!
After a brief moment of shock, Leon and Rosvitha turned back to look at each other.
“Was it you who used that item card?” Leon asked.
“Am I crazy? Why would I use that kind of card on us?”
“Then who has such trashy taste?”
“Whoever it is, that person definitely thinks this game isn’t chaotic enough yet.”
Rosvitha shook her head. At this point, it didn’t really matter who had used the item card on them—better to focus on the situation in front of them.
“Then from now on, for the next six hours, we have to act together. Sigh~”
Leon raised his brows. “What does that sigh mean? Acting together with me is your blessing—watch carefully and learn properly later.”
Rosvitha’s eye-roll nearly flipped all the way to the ceiling.
“Just thinking about being tied to you—this narcissistic, smug, dog-man—for six hours makes me feel uncomfortable from the top of my head to the tip of my tail!”
Leon (firmly): “You’re lying.”
Rosvitha: “Truth.”
Leon: “Lie.”
Rosvitha: “Truth.”
Leon: “It’s the truth.”
Rosvitha: “It’s a lie!”
Smack—
Leon clapped his hands. “See? You admitted it yourself—you said it’s a lie, so what you said earlier was a lie. Which means you obviously really want to be with me.”
“……”
So speechless, it hurts.
Rosvitha stomped her foot and flicked her tail. “I’m not dealing with you.”
With that, the queen strode toward the other side of the corridor.
Leon saw that this tactic could make that dragoness miserable, and immediately got playful, following right after her.
“Hey, hey—don’t get too far away, wife! Our distance can’t exceed five meters!”
……
However, what neither Leon nor Rosvitha expected was: being chained together wasn’t the most painful part.
The most painful part was—
Being seen by other people while chained together!
“Little Luo, brother-in-law—you two have pretty good acting skills.”
The couple covered their faces in silence, preparing—as they had so many times before—to endure their big sister’s teasing.
The Red Dragon Queen folded her arms across her chest, wearing a wicked grin, and continued:
“On the meeting table you were at each other’s throats, but privately you’re doing tasks together. Tsk—playing a game and still getting force-fed dog food—so miserable~ so miserable~”
If you’re really miserable then stop bullying us here, Big Sis! Go do your tasks, okay?!
“Sis, we’re actually ‘love-strong-as-gold’—”
“Wow~ Not only are you glued together, you’re even using words like ‘love strong as gold’ to describe yourselves? You two—married for five years already—stop being so mushy~”
“Let’s knife her.”
“Agreed.”
“Hey, hey, hey—no no no! I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”
Isha immediately stopped teasing.
She knew perfectly well: although her sister and brother-in-law looked like they disliked each other on the surface, if those two actually teamed up, they could probably speedrun this entire game.
Even someone as sharp as Isha could only go fifty-fifty with Leon—if you added Rosvitha on top of that, then among the remaining six people, there probably wouldn’t be a single one who could beat them.
Unfortunately, they were gathered together right now only because someone had used an item card on them.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, this little couple would never cooperate.
“So, have you found any useful clues?” Isha changed the subject.
The couple shook their heads.
“Mm… I haven’t found any either. Then I’m going to keep doing tasks. You two enjoy your little world of two.”
With that, Isha waved her hand and turned to leave.
When her footsteps faded away, Leon asked slowly,
“Isha’s identity is ‘Doctor.’ Do you think she’d have zero identity advantage?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look—your ‘Chef’ identity can use in-game items to make players unable to attend meetings, and there should be other props with different abilities too. Then what about Big Sis? As ‘Doctor,’ logically speaking, she should have more operational tools than the ‘Chef.’”
Rosvitha nodded thoughtfully. “True. And my sister keeps saying she hasn’t found any clues, but from the start of the game until now, whoever it is, they should’ve done some tasks and gained intel or items. How could she have absolutely nothing?”
Leon blinked, thoughts turning. Then he said,
“Your sister… isn’t she the lone-wolf player?”
“Lone wolf?”
“Yeah—someone who isn’t on the same faction as anyone. As long as they survive to the end, they win.”
The fake lone-wolf playstyle: kill everyone.
The real lone-wolf playstyle: smear everyone.
General Leon—high-level!
“Mm… when you put it that way, it is possible.”
Seeing the dragoness about to be successfully misled, Leon was about to press the advantage and splash a little more dirty water onto Big Sis—
but then Rosvitha said,
“Still, it doesn’t matter. It’s the early game—no one can be trusted. Even if you’re chained to me right now, I’ll still suspect you.”
Well.
Getting Rosvitha to fall for it with just a few lines was probably impossible.
Leon shrugged. “Whatever. Let’s go—keep doing tasks.”
The couple set off again.
About half an hour later, they completed a task.
But the reward was a ‘Chef’-exclusive reward.
Which meant Leon had run around busy for half the day—only to make a wedding dress for Rosvitha.
The queen smugly shook the card in her hand. “Watch carefully. Learn properly.”
“That’s purely just good luck.”
“Tch.”
Rosvitha didn’t say more. She opened the intel card. It read:
“Recipe”
“Food Name: Mint Iced Tea”
“Effect: After drinking it, you can remove any negative status effect.”
“Note: Can only be used once.”
Rosvitha’s pupils shifted. “Remove any negative effect… That means as long as we make mint iced tea, we can解除—remove this… whatever ‘Love Strong as Gold: Seven-Day Lock’ is.”
Leon’s eyes lit up too. “Then let’s hurry to the kitchen.”
“Okay.”
The two of them moved immediately, heading straight for the kitchen.
But when they arrived, they found someone was already there.
Noa and Helena.
The Princess and the Guard.
“Dad, Mom? Why are you together?”
“Ah, we… came here to do a task.”
As Leon spoke, he flicked a glance toward the underside of the kitchen water tank—because that was where the key item of the whole game, the “Black Holy Stone,” was hidden.
If Leon’s lone-wolf main quest was to hide the Black Holy Stone and survive until the end to win…
Then it wasn’t hard to guess: Noa’s victory condition as the “Princess” was to find the Black Holy Stone.
And right now, the key to victory was less than two meters away from his eldest daughter.
Leon withdrew his gaze and showed no panic at all.
“And you two? You also came here to do a task?” Rosvitha asked.
“Oh no, we’re just wandering around casually, seeing if there are any tasks here or something.”
“I see…”
“Yeah. Then you go ahead and do your task, Dad and Mom. Helena and I will leave first.”
“Okay.”
After two simple lines with their daughter, the two groups were about to go do their own things.
But just then, they suddenly heard a voice come from Noa’s projection stone:
“‘Princess’ and ‘Friend A,’ please pay attention. ‘Princess’ and ‘Friend A,’ please pay attention.”
“You have been affected by the item card ‘Love Strong as Gold: Seven-Day Lock.’ For the next six hours, you must act together and may not be more than five meters away from each other.”
Noa froze. “W-what Love Strong as Gold: Seven-Day Lock…”
“Friend A? Does that mean one of Mu’en and Xiaoguang’s group?” Helena asked.
When they drew identity cards, the sister group did draw “Princess’s Friends.”
To distinguish them, they were labeled “Friend A” and “Friend B.”
“Sis! Sis!”
Before Noa could even understand what was happening, Mu’en’s voice came from the kitchen doorway.
Little Moon held her projection stone and ran over in tiny steps, hooking Noa’s arm. Her big eyes were watery. “Sis, w-we seem to have been hit by a bad person’s item!”
“Ah—I just found out too. That… Love Strong as Gold: Seven-Day Lock?”
“Mm!”
Mu’en nodded hard. “For the next six hours, I can only act together with Sis. I won’t cause trouble for you, right?”
“Of course you won’t.” Noa pinched her little sister’s cheek, saying affectionately.
“Yay~ Sis is the best~”
“Then do you know who used this item card on us?”
“Don’t know! Mu’en doesn’t know anything!”
“Oh… okay. Then let’s do tasks together.”
“Mm-hmm!”
Before leaving, Mu’en didn’t forget to say goodbye to Dad and Mom.
“Bye-bye, Dad and Mom~”
The couple smiled and waved back.
Once the girls had gone far, Leon instantly exposed his second daughter’s little scheme.
“She definitely used that Love Strong as Gold item card on herself, right?! Definitely, right?!”
Rosvitha smiled helplessly.
“It’s a game—playing like this is what makes it fun.”
Hearing that, Leon seemed to think of something.
He rubbed the tip of his nose and, in a tone that sounded casual, said,
“Then after we make the mint iced tea later… do we still解除—remove this item effect?”
The queen lifted her pretty eyebrows. Of course she understood what Leon meant.
But she still wanted to tease this idiot.
“Of course we remove it. Why wouldn’t we?” Rosvitha smiled sweetly.
Leon instantly panicked. He rubbed his hands, still pretending to be indifferent.
“Because… look, this ‘Love Strong as Gold’ isn’t some especially severe negative effect. If we use the mint iced tea now to remove it, then later, if we run into a negative prop with a stronger effect, what do we do? That tea can only be used once, right?”
Oh wow—he made it sound so logical.
But all those words could be condensed into one sentence:
I want to stay tied to you longer.
“Mm… you have a point.”
Rosvitha, too, wanted to stay with her captive a little longer. After all, this was a family-team-building type of game—if they didn’t interact more now, then when would they?
Actually, their real thoughts didn’t need to be guessed at all.
They were simply waiting for a timing where they “didn’t have to act tough.”
After deciding, Rosvitha followed the recipe on the intel card and made the mint iced tea, then placed it into Leon’s hands.
“For me?” Leon was surprised.
“Yeah. You like wandering around. If you accidentally trigger some negative prop card, the mint iced tea can still save your life.”
“Oh? Your Majesty—so anxious to protect your husband.”
“Don’t be disgusting. If you don’t want it, give it back.”
“I want it! Why wouldn’t I!”
Rosvitha rolled her eyes at him with a soft snort of laughter. “Alright. Hurry and go do the next task.”
“Mm—let’s go, let’s go!”
…
Footnotes:
- “You take your broad sunny road, I take my single-plank bridge”Pinyin: nǐ zǒu nǐ de yáng guāng dào, wǒ guò wǒ de dú mù qiáoExplanation: A common saying meaning “we go our separate ways,” often used with a dramatic or comedic flair.
- “Trashy taste / wicked趣味”Pinyin: è qù wèiExplanation: Slang meaning someone has “bad taste” in a mischievous way—likes stirring trouble or making things awkward.
- “Force-fed dog food” (dog food = PDA/sweet couple moments)Pinyin: sài gǒu liángExplanation: Internet slang meaning witnessing a couple’s sweetness/romance and feeling like you’re being forced to watch it.
- “Fifty-fifty”Pinyin: wǔ wǔ kāiExplanation: Internet shorthand meaning evenly matched, roughly a 50/50 outcome.
- “Speedrun”Pinyin: sù tōngExplanation: Gaming slang meaning clearing something extremely quickly with optimized steps.
- “Make a wedding dress for someone”Pinyin: gěi bié rén zuò jià yīExplanation: Idiom meaning you did all the work, but someone else got the benefit/credit.
- “Expose / call out (instantly)”Pinyin: chuō pòExplanation: Slang meaning to pierce the cover story and reveal the truth directly.
- “Act tough / be嘴硬”Pinyin: zuǐ yìngExplanation: Slang meaning refusing to admit feelings or truth, putting on a stubborn front.
- “Timing”Pinyin: timing / shí jīExplanation: Borrowed internet wording; means the perfect moment/opportunity to speak or act.