The King of Black Fog

The live stream ended, and Yang Qinglan opened her eyes to find Li Changzhou already by her side.

"Was it good?" she asked.

"Do you even need to ask? No one in this world looks better than you," Li Changzhou replied, then added, "Not even a fairy."

"I meant Xiao Yue."

"What's Xiao Yue?"

With a faint smile from Yang Qinglan, the moonlight seemed to grow three times more beautiful.

"Is this what they call 'checking in'?" Li Qianxia cradled her right hand with her left, stroking her chin as she muttered to herself.

"No," Yang Qinglan's gaze shifted to her, "it's teasing."

"Oh— it's teasing." Li Qianxia had an epiphany, very much deserving a beating.

"Alright," Li Changzhou spoke up, "Let's tally up this time's rewards."

The school history museum fell quiet, yet there was a distinct palpable excitement in the air.

The three exchanged glances and simultaneously began to smile, all eagerly anticipating.

The greater the risk, the bigger the reward, the huge piles of Identity Cards, the countless Skills and items from the event reward, not to mention the income from the live stream, how could they not look forward to it?

Thinking of the live stream revenue, Li Qianxia came back to her senses from the excitement and complained to her brother, "Why did you only charge 1 point? It would've been so much better to charge a thousand points!"

"A thousand points..." Li Changzhou was at a loss for words.

Yang Qinglan, taking over for him, said, "Qian Xia, a C-level Skill is only a little over four hundred points. Who has a thousand points to spare?"

"A thousand is too high, but surely a hundred or even ten points would do?"

"For a player, even 100 is too much. We can't bear to spend that, let alone others. And 10 points, though it seems little, for people from big organizations, like nations, with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of players, would they allow everyone to watch the live stream? No, they would just hold a meeting, send one player to watch the live stream, and then distribute the content to tens or hundreds of thousands of players for free."

"That's piracy!" Li Qianxia began to get angry.

Her brother's money was her money, and not even the nation could steal it from her!

Yang Qinglan didn't address the topic of piracy. With life so fleeting, who cared about piracy?

Besides, even the countries that champion Intellectual Property Law would not hesitate to pirate another nation's high-tech if given the chance.

She said, "1 point is different. Before organization leaders can hold their meetings, most players would have already paid."

"That's what I was thinking too," Li Changzhou nodded in agreement. "Besides, the minimum would be 100 points. Players would hesitate over 100 points, but 1 point... Am I too poor to discuss and get approval over spending one point? No way!"

Yang Qinglan glanced at him, "But 1 point may not necessarily be the highest earning option."

"Then how much?"

"I'm not sure," Yang Qinglan admitted frankly, "such things cannot be known unless they occur at the same time. No one knows which option yields the highest reward. I'm just reminding you not to be too complacent."

"...Alright, I'm not complacent anymore. Let's start sorting through our gains," he conceded.

"Wait!" Li Qianxia interjected, catching Li Changzhou's movement as he was about to pull out the Identity Cards.

"What now? Still want to talk about the live stream fee?" Li Changzhou looked at her impatiently.

"Qian Xia, no matter how big or small our gains are, that's all in the past," Yang Qinglan also urged her.

"It's not that!" Li Qianxia felt the two were missing the mood. "Are we just going to celebrate here? In this dark and gloomy school history museum? What's the difference between this and a graveyard?"

Li Changzhou, pictured in the school history museum, watched his sister with a smile, pondering how to include her picture as well.

Yang Qinglan looked around, a long corridor with the moon as the sole source of light, not even a place to sit.

"What's your idea?" she asked Li Qianxia.

"How about KTV?" Li Qianxia got a little excited, "Get a private room, have some watermelon, cantaloupe, some seeds, peanuts, chips and other snacks, order some barbecue takeout, and lounge on the sofa while we sort through our spoils. If we find good Skills and items, we can even sing out our emotions!"

The more she talked, the more excited she got, feeling her plan was simply perfect.

Yang Qinglan thought it wasn't a bad idea either.

"You sure know how to enjoy yourself," Li Changzhou remarked.

"Of course!" Li Qianxia was proud, "My life plan is for you to work hard and for me to spend the money and enjoy life. This is what we call 'solidarity between siblings,' clear division of labor."

Clear division of labor...

Li Changzhou decided to place her picture behind his own.

The three left the school history museum, unafraid of surveillance—with Teleportation, and the 'Honey Pot World' almost in their grasp.

Besides, who would watch the school's security cameras late at night?

Not even the nation had enough manpower, and technology wasn't so advanced that human oversight wasn't needed.

The nighttime campus was serene, leaves whispering songs in the wind, the streetlights glimmering through them like little moons.

Li Qianxia held onto Yang Qinglan with her left hand and Li Changzhou with her right, sharing stories from when the siblings were in high school.

How as boarders they had an extra evening self-study session, getting scolded by a teacher for being noisy;

Jostling for a turn at the water room, either snatching the other's water bottle directly (Li Qianxia emphasized that most times it was the younger sister fetching water for the older brother, who was just too lazy);

Playing finger-guessing games in front of the snack shop at night, the loser treating the other to oden;

Sneaking out early on Friday midnights to hit the internet cafes for a night of gaming (from Li Changzhou's male dormitory);

Taking the bus back to the countryside on Saturday mornings.

And so on.

Every path held stories, every corner held conversations; as Li Qianxia vividly narrated, Yang Qinglan could almost see those scenes replaying within the campus.

A desire rose within her, wishing she too could have attended high school with them.

Nevertheless, even if she did, it was unlikely they would have mingled, much like their pre-Value Game college life.

Always keeping her distance from others, she never hung out with anyone consistently, besides class activities. She spent very little time with classmates and most of her days in bookstores.

She remembered what Li Changzhou said in the live stream: the Value Game changed many people's lives, freeing them from the mundane and revealing landscapes they'd never seen before.

Happy times are always fleeting, and in the blink of an eye, the three were already sitting in a private room of a KTV named "Jin Hui."

Besides the free fruit on the table, there was a large assortment of snacks and appetizers bought from the snack area, along with expensive fruits. Due to high spending, they were even allowed to order barbecue takeout—an act against KTV regulations! No outside food allowed!

"Back in our day, we used to sneak snacks in our backpacks to play!" Li Qianxia said with excitement and nostalgia, watermelon in her left hand, song-selecting remote in her right.

"What do you guys want to sing?" she asked. "I'll start with 'Love of Hawthorn Tree.' Qing Lan, how about you?"

"Liang Jingru's 'Ask,'" Yang Qinglan looked around; it was her first time at a KTV and she thought the lighting was a bit risqué.

"'Ask'... Alright, bro, your turn?"

"'Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang,'" Li Changzhou leaned back on the sofa, tearing open a pack of the weird-flavored beans he used to eat as a kid and started munching with relish.

For adults, no matter how novel the snacks or how pretty the packaging, they could never replace the popsicles and spicy strips of childhood.

"Stop killing, you've killed enough people, you're steeped in sin. 'Because of Love,' you and Qing Lan sing a duet," Li Qianxia decided everything by herself.

After selecting the songs, she said, "Alright, now let's start tallying the spoils; whoever finds something good gets to sing, and no hogging the mic."

"She's the one hogging the mic," Li Changzhou whispered to Yang Qinglan.

"I can see that," Yang Qinglan nodded.

There were two microphones in the room, and Li Qianxia naturally took one, placing it on her leg, ready to sing at any moment.

She then said, "Qian Xia, let's not rush the other spoils, have your brother redeem 'Honey Pot World' first. The champion's priority purchase right lasts only three hours."

"Oh, so you want to sing 'Because of Love' with my brother first, is that it?"

"..." Yang Qinglan looked at Li Changzhou, asking him with her eyes—what's up with your sister?

Li Changzhou hesitated a moment, then glanced at the weird-flavored beans on his fingertips: "Want some?"

Yang Qinglan took the entire pack of weird-flavored beans from his hand and set them on the table.

"Bro, you've annoyed Qing Lan."

"I kindly asked if she wanted some, how is that my fault?"

In the middle of their conversation, Li Changzhou ate the bean on his fingertip, dusted his hands, and pulled out a white Identity Card.

Li Qianxia immediately plopped down next to him, munching on her watermelon while watching him swipe the Identity Card and browse the shopping list.

Yang Qinglan also looked on.

"The exchange rate from Game Coin to points is so high!" exclaimed Li Qianxia.

Thanks to live streaming, Li Changzhou had earned over six million Game Coins, but one thousand Game Coins could only be exchanged for one point, totaling just over six thousand points.

With his existing points, minus the fifteen thousand points for 'Honey Pot World,' all that was left was three thousand five hundred sixty points.

'Honey Pot World' was a honey-solidified bead, about the size of a grape, looking like amber.

[Name: Honey Pot World]

[Type: Item]

[Quality: S−]

[Special Effect: Opens a world of one's own; Cannot be dropped; Cannot be traded; Unique]

[Minimum Use Conditions: Must have Life Force]

[Introduction: World size is 20 times the strength of the Life Force, no further growth possible]

[Note: The world's size is determined by strength, the world's vitality by purity. Choose whether to exchange skills, enhance Life Force, increase the world's area, or rely solely on oneself to enhance the world's vitality. The choice is yours, Champion (special reminder for the full moon event champion).]

Xiao Yue never mentioned the information in the note before.

She might have been unaware or possibly deliberately concealing it to increase the allure of 'Honey Pot World' and make the fight among players bloodier.

"Is this like water?" Li Qianxia asked. "If you mix a lot of it together, you get more water, but it's all mixed up. If it's just you, it's pure water, even if it's ink—it's just ink, with no alcohol sneaking in?"

"That's about right," Li Changzhou mused.

Looking up, he asked the two, "What do you think we should choose?"

The original plan for the three of them was for Li Changzhou to plunder a Life Skill from a player similar to the Dragon Blood Tree, to make the world as large as possible.

"I think vitality is more important," Yang Qinglan spoke up. "A dead world that relies on the outside is not a world, at least not for us."

"Yeah, you're right!" Li Qianxia nodded.

Setting aside the watermelon rind, she picked up and bit into a melon piece on a toothpick: "Actually, it doesn't need to be too big. The three of us don't need much space, the key is to be self-sufficient."

Li Changzhou sighed, "If only we could simulate an experiment to find a balance between vitality and size."

Unfortunately, they had only one shot, and 'Honey Pot World' was too precious for them to take risks. They could only choose the safest path.

"Shall I start now?" he asked the two.

"Wait!" Li Qianxia finished the melon on the toothpick and stopped her brother. "Big bro, have you done anything recently that could deplete Life Force?"

"Something that depletes Life Force?" Li Changzhou and Yang Qinglan both started to ponder.

Does making Blood Pearls use up Life Force?

Does staying up late use it up?

As the two were considering, they noticed Li Qianxia's serious face as she raised her arm, her delicate white hand gripping the microphone.

"..."

Yang Qinglan turned her head to the side, quietly picked up a boiled peanut, and began to methodically peel and chew it.

"This is serious business!" Li Qianxia waited in earnest.

"I · think · I'm in top form right now," Li Changzhou wished he could tear his sister into strips with his teeth.

The honey bead the size of a grape emitted countless shafts of golden light, overshadowing even the sultry lights of the KTV.

The bead zipped into Li Changzhou's forehead with a swish.

All the Life Force in his body madly surged toward his forehead.

In every corner of his body, the Strength that had manifested during 'Physical Enhancement' but then became dormant, suddenly awoke again.

This Life Force, like a raging fire boiling a pot of water, began to cook 'Honey Pot World.'

Soon, his Life Force was drained, the temperature of 'Honey Pot World' stabilized, and the world inside had formed.

With a single thought, Li Changzhou caused the three of them to vanish from the room.