Chapter 514: Suspicious Contact Info, Low EQ
"A mole?"
The sudden appearance of a mole shouldn’t have been such a grand scene. However, I was slightly taken aback by it.
’Could he possibly know the dungeons that I had been to as well?’
Nothing was out of possibility considering the number of privacy violations that I had to deal with in the Fire Domain, but this was the most intrusive violation of them all!
"Do you have a problem with moles? This is just the shape that my AI came in, or... Is it that you don’t want us to add each other as contacts?"
’Huh?’
Really? Was it truly just one big coincidence?
Xin Yu’s narrow eyes made him even more suspicious, but regardless of whether my assumption was correct or not, there was nothing that I could do about it.
"Not at all. How could I pass on one of my rewards? Unfortunately, while I would like to get it, my AI has been responsive for a while."
It didn’t matter if he was a scammer, evil man, or even a Player Killer beyond my knowledge. After all, all that connecting contacts did was draw a line between us.
I just had to be the one who uses the other person without being used in return!
That being said, Long had been deaf since a little while ago. Without him, I couldn’t access any of the System’s auxiliary abilities.
{ Ahem, did you call? }
However, just as I was ’politely’ declining Xin Yu’s friendly invitation, the slumbering little lizard flew out of my ring.
’Eh?’
"Wow, a dragon. I wish I had such a symbolistic AI for myself. My mole is pretty lame."
The mole didn’t seem to speak, but it burrowed down before appearing next to Xin Yu’s leg and taking a bite... Or it at least tried to.
"Don’t you get bored of trying that out every time? You weren’t that helpful at the start, I pretty much had to figure everything myself. Just do your job!"
"Squeak, squeak!"
Glancing at the harmonious duo, I turned back to look at Long who had finally shown his face at such an opportune moment...
{ Sorry, I was disconnected for a short while. Are we going to do this or not? }
"My little mole is ready."
"...Let’s do it."
Although I had much that I wanted to ask Long about, it wasn’t time to air our dirty laundry in front of a person with such a dangerous ability like Xin Yu.
At this point, I just wanted to do this and get it over with so this ’friendly’ meeting would come to an end.
[ Communication System(Player to Player) has been activated. ]
[ Player #000 is now connected to Player #005 ]
’He must have gotten my player number from the System Quest...’
"Alright then, I guess this concludes our little Player Party. I have enjoyed the precious treasures very much, let’s talk again later."
"Sure, take care of yourself."
I only took one more look at Xin Yu’s suspicious smile before getting on Light’s back and turning away to leave. It felt like it would be my turn to pour out all of my secrets if I stayed any longer.
While it might have felt like Xin Yu was a generous and pitiful person who wanted to share the story of his suffering and reveal a lot of compromising information about himself at no cost, I saw another angle to this whole thing...
’This should have been a warning of sorts.’
I wasn’t sure if he was telling me to quickly get out of the Fire Domain so that I wouldn’t spoil his fun or if he was just bugging me off, but his explanation was mainly him telling me the means that he could use to possibly screw me over.
’It could also be that I’m being paranoid, my head still hasn’t completely cooled down just yet.’
I was only 80% sure of my guess, but I welcomed the possibility of the other 20% being right. I truly wished I was just reading too much into the situation.
In any case, my next task was scouring the Fire Domain for a way to the next Domain before deciding on whether I should really leave or not. I need to have options just in case.
Still, there was one more meeting that I had to attend, and this meeting was likely going to be far more fruitful compared to Xin Yu’s sob story.
On the way back, Long kept floating next to me as he observed my expression for the majority of the road before finally speaking.
{ I really was disconnected... }
"Is that so?"
For once, I wasn’t sure whether I really should be angry or not. However, just remembering the fact that he wasn’t there for me at the moment when I almost blacked out put me in a bad mood.
’He did help me greatly in the Corruption Space...’
My heart was split about it, but in the end, I still couldn’t ignore Long until the very end.
"Does that mean you can tell me what happened to me?"
{ I wish I could, but even I have no answer this time around. I was literally disconnected and I still have no idea what happened at that brief period of time. The last thing I remember seeing was some sort of a barrier being created by the Demons. }
"I almost blacked out, because of rapidly increasing anger no less. Does that make sense to you?"
{ You got too angry to think? Are you kidding me? Hmmm... You did get too close to Corruption Energy this time around, but even then, such an aftereffect doesn’t exist in my database. }
Long also reached the one and only conclusion that could have made sense, but he was still skeptical about it. Looking at him in deep thought like this, I felt slightly better. It didn’t even matter if he was just pretending.
’I need to get actual friends.’
From conversing with a deceptive Player to getting angry at an AI... I might have been called a genius but my EQ wasn’t that great.
’...Maybe I can get one soon.’
I had great hopes for the entity I was going to meet.
