Qingque looked up at Levi, who was standing not far away, and waved the Jade tiles in her hand.
"Don't just stand there! Come on, we're starting another round!"
[Elysia: Help! Why! Why is this happening!]
Qingque's invitation and Elysia's wailing in the group chat rang out at the same time.
For a moment, Levi didn't know which to handle first.
By then, Qingque had already set up another table and patted the seat beside her.
"Hurry up and get over here. Today, I'm gonna squeeze you dry!"
"Hah! Little Sparrow, your chest may not be big, but your words sure are!"
Without hesitation, Levi sat beside her, straightened the tiles in front of him, smiled faintly, and said through the gap in his teeth, "Little Sparrow, don't come crying to your mom when you lose later!"
"Hmph! That line should be mine!"
As Qingque arranged her tiles, she said, "My luck's great today. Haven't lost a single round so far."
She gave her bulging purse a pat as she spoke.
Levi glanced at it enviously. Making money while having fun, small sums or not, was something to envy.
'Wait a second.'
Looking at that plump purse, Levi quickly realized something.
"When did the company start issuing physical currency?"
"They didn't! I just made this for effect, to show how much I've won today!"
After all, it wasn't like she could just pull out jade chips and shove them in Levi's face to prove how much she'd made, right?
"Alright, enough chatter, let's play!"
And so, the two of them, along with two unfamiliar players, began the battle.
Of course, Levi hadn't forgotten about Elysia's screams in the group chat.
While playing with Qingque, he replied to her messages.
[Levi: What happened?]
[Stelle: Yeah, what's going on? Say it out loud so everyone in the group can be happy.]
It had already been a while since Elysia had spoken up in the chat.
Other than Levi and Stelle, neither Lumine nor Kiana had said a word.
Levi knew what was up with Kiana. When she borrowed points from him earlier, she'd already been lying in bed.
By now, it had been a few hours, she was probably asleep, which explained the silence.
[Stelle: Lumine and Kiana? Asleep?]
Seeing Stelle's question, Levi was just about to answer for Kiana.
[Kiana: Nope, I'm lurking OVO.]
[Lumine: +1!]
Levi's hand froze mid-draw.
He remembered that when he'd left his room for the general's mansion, it had been right after Qingque left.
It wasn't even noon yet back then.
He glanced up at the artificial sun hanging overhead and asked Qingque beside him, "What time is it now?"
"Around two or three in the afternoon."
"Two or three in the afternoon?" Levi's expression turned strange.
So that meant Kiana had been lying in bed for several hours and still hadn't fallen asleep?
Was she that excited after what happened today?
And come to think of it, wasn't today some kind of Taibusi event day? Wouldn't Qingque get strung up and beaten by Fu Xuan for skipping work like this?
Just then, the group chat buzzed again.
———
On the Astral Express, Stelle snickered.
[Stelle: @Elysia Come on, come on! Everyone's here, whatever it is, spill it! Let's have a good laugh!]
[Lumine: +1!]
———
In her room, Elysia lay on her pink bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Seeing the messages in the group chat, she muttered in a daze, "My world… probably… also has Honkai."
Just moments ago, while browsing the store, she'd glanced at the ability she uploaded, "Honkai Resistance (MAX)", and suddenly realized something.
Honkai seemed to be something from Kiana's world.
It was also what turned Changkong City from a thriving metropolis into a monster-infested dead city.
The very thing Elysia least wanted to encounter.
"Cute zombies or whatever, never in this lifetime!"
She looked at her "Honkai Resistance (MAX)" ability, nearly in tears.
It said it could make her immune to Honkai energy.
Which meant cute zombies probably wouldn't exist anymore.
But the fact that she had this ability also meant… her world had Honkai too.
[Stelle: LOL!]
[Lumine: LOL!]
[Kiana: LOL!]
[Levi: LOL!]
Though they said "LOL," everyone in the chat was actually worried about Elysia's safety.
After all, she was just an ordinary, no, very ordinary, person.
No one knew why she had an ability that looked straight out of a protagonist's script like "Honkai Resistance (MAX),"
But that didn't change the fact that Elysia was a delicate girl.
If Honkai really did break out in her city, even if she could resist the corruption of Honkai energy, she wouldn't be immune to a zombie's scythe.
Understanding this, Kiana and Stelle immediately started giving her advice.
[Kiana: Honkai outbreaks mostly happen in crowded cities. Try moving somewhere rural, somewhere quiet. That should let you live until the finale.]
[Stelle: Disasters always breed heroes. Maybe find that hero and cling to them to survive…]
[Stelle: Actually, forget what I just said. Heroes tend to sacrifice their teammates to power up. @Elysia you'd better go hide somewhere with fewer people…]
[Stelle: Personally, I'd recommend space.]
No way that Honkai nonsense would chase her into space just to pick on a single human, right?
[Lumine: Why not just come to my world? I'll take care of you!]
Even across worlds, Levi could practically hear the abacus beads clacking in Lumine's head.
Now it was his turn to speak. He cleared his throat.
[Levi: Don't forget, you still have me!]
Direct. Simple. Effective.
Just that one sentence made Elysia instantly relax.
Right, Levi had just said that if she ever needed help, he'd never refuse.
And she'd already seen firsthand in Changkong City how he helped Kiana with her missions.
To say his methods were simple and brutal would be an understatement.
With Levi's strength and her own Honkai immunity, as long as she didn't do something stupid, there was no way she could die.
[Elysia: @Levi Thank you so much! My YYZ is cured!]
[Stelle: A living miracle doctor! @Levi]
[Lumine: A living miracle doctor! @Levi]
[Kiana: A living miracle doctor! @Levi]
[Levi: A living miracle doctor! @Levi]
[Levi: Okay, enough of that! @Kiana Get some rest, will you? Staying up late will make your chest smaller, you know.]
[Hm?] Stelle tensed up. [There's something fishy here!]
[Levi: Can't I just care about the group leader? @Stelle Do you have a problem with our leader or something?]
[Ding! Group member Stelle has been muted by Group Leader Kiana for 1 minute!]
[Ding! Group member Levi has been promoted to "Admin" by Group Leader Kiana!]
["Admin" Levi: Ahem ahem… First of all, I'd like to thank the group leader for giving me this opportunity…]
[Lumine: And then?]
["Admin" Levi: That's it.]
"That's it?" Lumine pouted.
She was expecting some kind of passionate speech.
But that was it?
[Ding! Group member Lumine has been muted by Admin Levi for 1 minute!]
"..."
'I didn't even say that in the chat!'
["Admin" Levi: But I guessed you'd say it!]
[Ding! Group member Stelle's mute has automatically expired!]
[Stelle: You two dogs!]
[Ding! Group member Stelle has been muted by Admin Levi for 10 minutes!]
["Admin" Levi: How dare you! Insulting our adorable group leader Kiana!]
[Ding! Group member Stelle's mute has been extended to 30 minutes by Group Leader Kiana!]
["Group Leader" Kiana: I'm the real boss of this chat group!]
'Dogs!'
Stelle and Lumine cursed silently, while Elysia hid in the corner, quietly eating popcorn.
After a while of goofing around, Kiana unmuted all three of them.
[Elysia: ??? Why was I muted too?]
[Kiana: Witnesses share the crime.]
After finishing that, Kiana happily logged off and lay back on her soft bed.
Tomorrow she had to go complete her school enrollment. She probably couldn't stay up any longer.
She glanced at the time.
"Still four hours of sleep left."
'Golden sleep hours!'
'Perfect!'
———
[Meanwhile, in the Luofu Xianzhou]
Logging out of the group chat, Levi was about to draw a tile when Qingque suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! Pure Suit! I win!"
Levi froze mid-motion again.
He looked at the tiles in front of Qingque and the jade chip held out toward him, sighed, and pulled out his phone.
-100 credit points.
"I wasn't even being serious."
"Ohoho! Our little Levi can not be serious?!"
Seeing Qingque's smug grin, Levi's eye twitched slightly.
"Don't get cocky! Just watch how I win it all back next round!"
"Fine! I'll be waiting!"
As the four began shuffling the tiles again, Qingque glanced at Levi's open sleeve.
"By the way, when did your illness get better?"
That morning, when she'd gone to see him, besides discovering his little… special hobby, she'd also noticed the strange markings still covering his arms.
How had they completely disappeared after just a short while?
Even with the best medicine, that recovery was too fast.
Unless Levi hadn't taken a normal route.
So while she asked when he recovered, what she was really asking was whether he'd gotten involved with the Pharmacist's Secret Tradition.
She was worried he might've been desperate over his short lifespan and strayed down a dark path. If the Ten Lords Commission caught him then, the torture would be unbearable.
Levi clearly heard the concern hidden in her words.
As his hands shuffled the tiles, he replied, "It healed not long after you left this morning."
Qingque's expression turned worried.
'Don't tell me he's not only got a fetish but also got mixed up with the Pharmacist's Secret Tradition?!'
'No way! He's one of the few friends I actually like hanging out with!'
Seeing the concern in her eyes, Levi gave her a reassuring look.
"I just came from the General's Mansion, it was about the Sanctum Medicus."
"They sent me a letter inviting me somewhere, saying they could cure my illness. But they didn't know it was already cured."
Levi couldn't help but laugh as he said that.
"So I gave that letter to General Jing Yuan."
Realizing what he meant, Qingque glanced at the other two players at the table with a warning look.
Seeing that, Levi shrugged.
He grabbed Qingque's Happy Tea beside him, never mind that she'd already drunk from it, and took a big sip through the straw.
"So the thing you were worried about is impossible anyway. You know me, I'm not the type chasing after immortality."