Chapter 71: Shared interests are the best way to bring people closer (Revised)

In the dormitory, only a desk lamp on the corner of the desk was lit; its dim yellow glow spread a small warm area in the darkness, but could not dispel the silence that filled the whole room.

Luo Jinyou was not wearing headphones and immersing himself in his game world as usual.

He sat with his back to the door at his desk, his figure looking somewhat thin in the lamp light.

The expensive handheld game console lay beside him, its screen dark.

He was doing nothing, just sitting quietly there, unconsciously twisting a corner of his pajamas, revealing that the wearer's mind was far from calm.

He had asked Professor Luo De'an about Ying Duo's situation, saying Ying Duo would return to the dormitory at the latest today.

Ying Duo's blank face and that striking neon-green hair kept flashing in his mind like a virus invading his brain.

Luo Jinyou understood the truth of his body, so he habitually built high walls with coldness, pushing everyone away, then used aloofness to disguise himself.

But Ying Duo had none of it.

He had hidden in a narrow wall crack almost impossible to find, yet he was still dragged out?

When his Mutation Value spiked, forcing him into a coma, he truly believed he would never wake up as a human again.

The terror of his near-fatal mutation, the miraculous stability after being forcibly fed an unknown drug, and the image of the Judgment Court's people appearing to take Ying Duo away flashed through his mind like fragments.

These contents were basically told to him later by Shen Zexi; it was the medicine Ying Duo unhesitatingly shoved into his mouth that pulled him back from the brink of complete mutation.

But Ying Duo himself was taken away by the Heresy Tribunal's people.

"Heresy Tribunal"...

Just thinking of that name, Luo Jinyou could feel a bone-chilling chill.

It was a terrifying organization that even Professor Luo De'an would speak of with a solemn expression.

Why did they take Ying Duo? Was it because of that miraculous pill? Or had they discovered something else unusual about him?

Or had he once again become the source of disaster?

Although Professor Luo De'an told him it had nothing to do with him, this did not let Luo Jinyou relax.

In the dormitory he was restless, unable to focus on games or books, his mind filled with images of Ying Duo being taken away by those judges and possibly suffering a series of tortures.

Behind him came a slight turning of a key, then the door being pushed open with a creak.

Luo Jinyou's body instantly stiffened, the fingers twisting his pajama hem suddenly tightening.

Light from the hallway outlined a familiar yet slightly unfamiliar figure, that neon-green hair glimmering in the night.

It was Ying Duo.

Seeing Ying Duo unharmed standing at the door, Luo Jinyou's taut nerves finally eased a little, only to be tightened again by more complex emotions.

How should he face this "lifesaver"?

Thank him?

He is not good at it.

Ask about his experience with the Judgment Court?

That is obviously not a pleasant topic.

A thousand words seemed stuck in his throat; finally, he looked at Ying Duo's tired yet still calm golden eyes and cautiously opened his mouth.

"...... You're back?"

【Luo Jinyou's current favorability: 30 (worry)】

【Likes: games, …… (to be unlocked)】

Unexpected joy?

Yang Yixie had no idea that, during the time Ying Duo was detained by the Heresy Tribunal, Luo Jinyou had stayed in the dormitory and managed to win himself over, his favorability, which had dropped below zero, returning to normal.

Yang Yixie only knew that he finally saw hope of completing the mission.

No need to think of ways to mend the pen after losing the sheep; from now on he could start raising Luo Jinyou's favorability.

Thus, while Luo Jinyou was still immersed in a complex mix of heaviness and subtle joy, he braced himself for a serious conversation likely concerning his own mutation.

Those hollow golden eyes spotted the game console beside him, and at that moment they clearly lit up.

The complex emotions he had just been brewing were all interrupted by Ying Duo's next action.

Ying Duo walked straight up to him, pointing at the high‑looking game console beside him.

"Can this be played online?"

"......"

Luo Jinyou had prepared lines to refuse Ying Duo's probing into his mutation, but they got stuck in his throat as he saw Ying Duo's eyes fixed only on the game console, leaving him momentarily dazed.

He instinctively nodded, "...... Can, can we?"

"Then let's play a round?"

"......"

Luo Jinyou was stunned; he had imagined countless scenarios of Ying Duo's return, but never...... had he imagined being invited to play games.

He opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know how to respond.

Luo Jinyou had been brewing for three full days, the whole dormitory exuding a heavy atmosphere, but now it was like a balloon pricked by a needle—pfft—and the accumulated negative emotions vanished without a trace.

All that remained in his heart was a ridiculous, laughable sense of helplessness.

Seeing Ying Duo's matter‑of‑fact attitude, Luo Jinyou finally just nodded mechanically, squeezing out a syllable from his throat.

"...... Play."

"Then let's go."

Playing a game inside a game probably won't produce Tetris, right?

With NPCs so smart, there's no need to put such a mini‑game in there.

Luo Jinyou looked at Ying Duo, then at his own game console, and a bewildered feeling of "how did things come to this?" welled up.

But he indeed needed to do something to calm his turbulent emotions, and gaming was his most familiar way of escape and relaxation.

He nodded again, and his voice regained a hint of calm.

"I have an extra game controller; you... can play?"

"I, a gaming prodigy."

Ying Duo boasted without any modesty, but paired with his deadpan face, it created a peculiar comedic effect.

Luo Jinyou's mouth twitched involuntarily, and he almost couldn't hold back a laugh.

He silently lit up the console screen, pulled up a high‑difficulty action‑puzzle game he had been playing lately, "Abyssal Corridor," and then handed a brand‑new game controller to Ying Duo.

"Give it a try?" his tone still carried a hint of enjoying the spectacle.

Having heard that Ying Duo came from the Slum, he probably had never encountered such indie console games; facing the self‑proclaimed gaming prodigy, Luo Jinyou was somewhat mischievous about it.

Ying Duo took the controller and started playing without hesitation; at first his movements were a bit clumsy, apparently due to unfamiliarity with the game's interface.

Yet his learning speed was astonishing; in less than five minutes, his controls became fluid as clouds, precise as finely tuned machinery.

Positioning, dodging, attacking, puzzle‑solving… each command was spot‑on, as if his brain had the game's optimal solutions built in.

After watching for a while, Luo Jinyou couldn't resist joining the battle.

He hadn't tried co‑op stages before; he had only heard that this mode was harder and demanded more teamwork, yet until now he could never find anyone to play with.

Even when the game mode was suddenly switched to co‑op, Ying Duo stumbled only at the start; the two quickly got a feel for each other's combat habits.

Consequently, they surged forward like a hot knife through butter, swiftly clearing the early main chapters and then launching an assault on the later hidden stages and challenge modes famed for their perverse difficulty.