Chapter 62

“Impossible.” Ling Feng refused directly without a second thought.

He could exchange his special ability without hesitation, and in doing so, he was also prepared to lose his special ability and become an ordinary person; he could also exchange any organ on his body, like his eyes and hands before, and similarly, he was prepared to become disabled.

Unlike the optimistic and positive Zhou Chenhao who thought “I believe I can get back what I exchanged,” Ling Feng’s way of thinking was somewhat pessimistic.

Every time Ling Feng exchanged something, he would prepare for the possibility of losing it completely. Maybe he could get it back in the end, but he kept his own expectations very low, not holding onto any hope.

Exchanging personality?

If he hadn’t already known that Bai Xuechao just liked thrills and probably had no ill intentions towards them, he would have suspected the other party was intentionally trying to harm them… No, in a way, it was indeed intentional, because the other party was seeking thrills through this method.

No wonder he came to the Dream Game City.

Ling Feng suddenly felt that this was truly a suitable place for a “madman.”

“Personality, also known as character, is the sum of relatively stable psychological characteristics with a certain tendency.” A hint of helplessness appeared on Ling Feng’s face, as if he were trying to persuade a child clamoring for ice cream, he said to Bai Xuechao, “Personality is manifested in various aspects such as cognition, emotion, and will. Do you know what will happen if you lose it to someone else?”

“I probably know.” Bai Xuechao grabbed the thin chains on both sides of the narrow wooden board and swung his body nonchalantly. The swing swayed with his movements as he said with a frivolous attitude, “I might become a walking corpse without consciousness, or I might become someone else’s slave?”

He let out a light laugh: “That seems quite thrilling too.”

He said it so lightly, as if it didn’t matter even if he became something worse than a dog, as long as he could have his thrilling fun.

Ling Feng was at a loss for words for a moment and could only say seriously: “In any case, I refuse.”

“Alright then.” Bai Xuechao shrugged his shoulders indifferently, as if his suggestion was just something he said casually, and it didn’t matter if everyone disagreed, “Then what do you think we should exchange?”

On the other side, ever since Bai Xuechao proposed that everyone exchange their “personality,” Xiao 6 had been screaming incessantly in Bai Xuechao’s head, and the entire system was on the verge of crashing: “Host, do you really want the male lead’s ‘personality’? Are you serious?!”

Bai Xuechao let Xiao 6 scream for a while, and only after he finished talking with Ling Feng did he say to it: “Yes, I’m serious.”

“Ahhhhhh!” Xiao 6 was about to go crazy. As a system, it knew a little more than Bai Xuechao, and it earnestly advised, “If the male lead loses his ‘personality,’ he’ll become a marionette! He’ll have no cognition, no emotions, no self-control, and he won’t be able to talk to you on his own anymore. He’ll be like a doll, completely following your commands. How terrifying is that!”

“Oh?” Bai Xuechao’s tone was pleasantly surprised, “There’s such a good thing? Isn’t our mission to make the male lead complete the plot?”

Xiao 6: “?”

What kind of demon is this?

Xiao 6’s code cried a river of tears, initiating the familiar flood mode: “Wuuuuuuu! That’s different! Is a male lead like that still the male lead? The plot will collapse, wuuuu!”

At this moment, in Bai Xuechao’s vision, a few garbled characters were mixed in with the light blue tears, constantly rising from the bottom like water being poured into a glass tank. It had been a while since he had seen it, and he even felt a little nostalgic.

“How would it collapse? In the later stages, I will still make the male lead complete the plot.”

Bai Xuechao said slowly, “Besides, didn’t Ling Feng refuse?”

“No, you can definitely do it!” Xiao 6 shouted, clutching its small handkerchief.

“You believe in me that much?” Bai Xuechao leisurely swung the swing, swaying in mid-air, “I’ll take that as a good omen.”

Xiao 6 was shocked: “?!”

Xiao 6 cried loudly: “I wasn’t wishing you well, ahhhhhh!”

At this time, after deep thought, Ling Feng finally said: “Let’s exchange our hair…?”

The other three: “…”

Silence was the Dream Game City of tonight.

Exchanging hair? How could he even suggest that?

Because no one had responded, a hint of confusion appeared on Ling Feng’s face: “Is it not okay?” It’s not a big deal to lose hair, right?

Gong Ting looked at him and said with a fake smile, “You might want to become a punk, but I don’t.”

The two of them had completely different ways of thinking. One was thinking that losing hair was acceptable, while the other was thinking about what would happen if he got that hair.

They were worlds apart.

Perhaps sensing that the current atmosphere was too awkward, Zhou Chenhao laughed a couple of times to ease the tension, but it seemed he had inadvertently made it even more awkward. The other three turned their gazes to him upon hearing the laughter, and then remained motionless, as if waiting for him to speak.

“Uh, how about…” Zhou Chenhao scratched his neck, a look of struggle on his face, “Exchanging kinship?”

Gong Ting snapped his fingers: “Finally, something that interests me.”

Ling Feng lowered his head, thinking for a moment. His bangs drooped down, covering his eyes and brows, making his expression unreadable, as if he was mentally preparing himself.

After a moment, he looked up and said: “Alright.”

Bai Xuechao was the last to state his position: “I have no objection, but—”

Before Bai Xuechao could finish speaking, the large screen in front of them showed a throbbing line, like a heart monitor. Without the special ability waiter needing to hold their hands, the screen displayed the value of their “kinship.”

【City Lord: 2000】

【Player A: 86,000,000】

【Player B: 2,000,000】

【Player C: 0】

The four of them saw the amount of game coins on the screen and fell into a strange silence.

There were too many things to complain about, they didn’t know where to start.

“How can there be a 0?” Zhou Chenhao grabbed his hair, looking at Bai Xuechao in disbelief, “You don’t have any kinship?”

Bai Xuechao spread his hands, sitting on the swaying swing, and said with a seemingly helpless tone: “The prerequisite for having kinship is that I have to have relatives, but all my relatives have passed away.”

But because of this, he discovered the exchange mechanism of the Dream Game City.

He of course had “kinship” for his deceased parents, and even setting aside blood relations, he also had “kinship” for Liu Jingchun. But the Dream Game City judged the value of his “kinship” to be 0, which meant that what it was really exchanging was not the player’s feelings, but “the feelings of the player’s blood relatives towards the player.”

In other words, if you won someone else’s kinship, you would take their place as a member of their family.

Assuming Bai Xuechao won Zhou Chenhao’s kinship, he would replace Zhou Chenhao’s position in the family and become “Zhou Chenhao,” and Zhou Chenhao’s parents would also think of him as their son. As for whether Zhou Chenhao would become a stranger in their minds or something else, it was unclear.

Zhou Chenhao didn’t expect to have touched a raw nerve and apologized to Bai Xuechao: “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Bai Xuechao waved his hand.

“That’s not right!” Ling Feng found the problem, his heart suddenly sinking, and he questioned Bai Xuechao in a cold voice, “You clearly have a brother, we just met your brother a week ago, you’re lying.”

He remembered that Bai Xuechao also had a sister, but based on her missing status, he temporarily assumed that the sister might have passed away, so he didn’t mention it.

Bai Xuechao was not at all flustered despite being found out. He calmly tucked the white hair at his temples behind his ear, revealing a bright, cloudless smile: “I said it just now, all my relatives, all of them, have passed away.” The word “all” was emphasized.

While Ling Feng was stunned, having understood the meaning behind his words, he continued to smile and added: “Of course my brother passed away too, just three days ago.”

The more he smiled, the more it made people feel that this was a forced smile after losing a loved one, and that his emotions were already on the verge of collapse. The brighter his smile, the more it made people feel that it was a mask, used to cover up his overwhelming grief.

In reality—

Bai Xuechao thought to himself: Sorry, Duan Xingzhi, just let your alternate identity die!

“I’m sorry.” This time it was Ling Feng’s turn to apologize. The colder his tone had been when he questioned Bai Xuechao just now, the more embarrassed he was now.

The little figures inside Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng’s minds were both covering their little faces, making the expression from “The Scream,” annoyed with themselves for bringing up a sore subject.

“I’ve said this before too, it’s alright.” Bai Xuechao’s blood-red eyes curved into crescent moon shapes as he spoke chilling words in a gentle tone, “If I miss them, I’ll just go see them.”

Zhou Chenhao was greatly dismayed: “Don’t do anything rash!”

Actually, Bai Xuechao had been through a period like this before, and it was Su Zhao who had pulled him back.

Thinking of Su Zhao, Bai Xuechao remembered Su Zhao’s younger sister, Xia Xiaoxi. She hadn’t been rescued yet. They should start the game soon.

He glanced at Gong Ting, who was watching the show with great interest, and asked: “City Lord Gong, what do you think we should exchange?”

Gong Ting, however, asked him a question: “Do you think personality includes self-dominion?”

“Of course—it does.” Bai Xuechao drawled lazily, as if he had guessed something, and said with a light laugh, “Personality includes will, isn’t self-dominion just humans acting on their own will?”

“Is that so.” Gong Ting said with a grin, “I also support exchanging ‘personality,’ it sounds very interesting.”

It was just as he expected.

Bai Xuechao smiled and nodded.

Losing one’s personality, according to the exchange mechanism of the Dream Game City, would likely mean the winner gains “control over the loser’s personality,” that is, control over the loser’s emotions, will, and so on.

It would truly be like he had casually said before, becoming someone else’s slave.

And Gong Ting had once said that his freedom had been exchanged. Bai Xuechao could guess that he had lost it to the perverted leader of the Apocalypse Society. The concept of freedom needs no explanation. Gong Ting, who had lost his freedom, had lost control over his own freedom, which is to say, self-dominion. But, personality also includes self-dominion.

What if Gong Ting lost his personality to another person?

The overlapping part of personality and freedom, who would obtain it?

The most likely possibility is that both could obtain it, but their functions would pull at each other, unable to gain complete control.

Gong Ting might be trying to use this possibility to escape the control of the leader of the Apocalypse Society.

For the sake of freedom, even his personality could be put on the line.

What a madman.

At the same time, Ling Feng was thinking. If possible, he really didn’t want to exchange his personality. He couldn’t imagine what he would become after losing his personality to someone else.

After a long while, he spoke: “How about exchanging friendship?”

Zhou Chenhao said readily: “Sure.”

Bai Xuechao nodded in agreement.

He thought, even if Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng didn’t exchange their personalities, it didn’t matter.

As long as he won all their game coins and forced them to use what they had, sooner or later they would exchange their personalities.

Xiao 6 didn’t know what Bai Xuechao was thinking. It thought that Bai Xuechao’s willingness to exchange friendship meant he was planning to let the male lead off the hook and not take his personality, and it couldn’t help but feel relieved.

After all, who doesn’t have friendship? It’s not like they could have no friends at all, right?

Gong Ting smiled meaningfully: “I have no objection.”

The wavy line on the big screen throbbed, and then it showed the value of each person’s “friendship.”

【City Lord: 0】

【Player A: 326,002,000】

【Player B: 197,500,000】

【Player C: 668,205,000】

The first thing everyone saw was Gong Ting’s conspicuous 0.

What, there really are people in this world with no friends at all??

The second thing they saw was Bai Xuechao’s.

How… how much?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep