An Arrow in the Dark

While Gu Yanxi was still lost in her thoughts, Chen Zixuan didn’t seem to notice anything amiss. He simply grabbed the girl and walked straight into the low, eerie woods.

Currently, the game had not yet updated a world map feature, so players could only explore everything themselves.

Fortunately, this wasn’t Chen Zixuan’s first time here. Following the direction from memory, he avoided those places where players gathered in crowds. After about ten minutes, he brought Gu Yanxi to the edge of the Mutant Jungle, a place he had been to before.

“Aagh!”

Just as he was focused on hurrying along, suddenly the girl beside him let out a cry of pain.

Her blue eyes flickered slightly. Chen Zixuan stopped in his tracks and quickly turned around to ask, “What’s wrong?”

“There are thorns on the ground; I got stabbed in my leg.”

The girl’s voice carried a slight grievance. Then, she lifted up her grayish-white dress, revealing her fair, slender legs. Indeed, there were already a few scratches on her calf from being scraped by the thorns.

“When you created your character, what percentage did you set the pain simulation to?”

Suddenly recalling this, Chen Zixuan asked urgently.

Chen Zixuan had deeply experienced the realism of the pain simulation in this game before.

Especially when the pain simulation was set to one hundred percent—it felt as if your body was being torn apart. If one didn’t have a strong will, a player might even faint directly from the pain. He didn’t want Gu Yanxi to go through that herself.

“Ah…”

She looked up at Chen Zixuan, worried that she might have messed something up. Gu Yanxi said guiltily, “I didn’t set it… Isn’t the system default fifty percent?”

She had been quite nervous at first, but hearing Gu Yanxi’s answer, Chen Zixuan finally let out a sigh of genuine relief.

But even at fifty percent, it was nothing to be underestimated.

He thought it over. Since there was no one else around, Chen Zixuan yanked off his hood, and in an instant, the two long, soft ponytails, like rabbit ears, sprang out freely from their confinement, bouncing happily.

“Open your interface now—see if you can adjust the pain simulation setting,”

Chen Zixuan said, tossing a silver strand of hair that had fallen onto his chest behind him as he moved closer in, asking seriously.

“I’ll try.”

After a flurry of clumsy operations, Gu Yanxi finally opened her main game interface. Searching through the settings, the pain simulation option appeared in front of the two of them.

Fifty percent—sensing half the usual pain. For regular players not pursuing ultimate realism, this was already considered very high.

The good thing was that Gu Yanxi’s account wasn’t special; these settings could be adjusted at any time.

Following Chen Zixuan’s directions, Gu Yanxi lowered the value to ten percent. Upon confirming, the stinging pain in her leg was significantly reduced, almost to the point of being unnoticeable.

“It really works!”

Looking down at her gradually healing wound, the girl became cheerful.

Though he knew the odds were slim, Chen Zixuan still decided to try his luck and opened his own settings interface for a quick glance.

One hundred percent—pain perception exactly matching reality. The button was still grayed out and couldn’t be adjusted.

Seeing Cecilia also open her settings interface, Gu Yanxi looked over curiously, but Chen Zixuan reacted quickly, giving her no chance at all. He only had it open for less than a second before closing his interface at lightning speed.

“Cecilia, what’s your pain setting?”

The more Cecilia concealed it, the more curious Gu Yanxi became. She held back for a moment but ultimately couldn’t resist asking.

“Not telling you.”

Chen Zixuan turned away, rejecting her flatly.

If it got out that he had the pain simulation set to one hundred percent, everyone would think he was crazy or a masochist.

Even the so-called hardcore players generally only set it to sixty or seventy percent, and even that was enough to be considered brave by others.

Even if forced, Chen Zixuan didn’t want to be regarded by Gu Yanxi as some sort of monster.

“How could you— You looked at mine, but won’t show me yours…”

This period of time spent with Cecilia had been quite pleasant, and Gu Yanxi had become more at ease. She unconsciously whined a little, mumbling softly.

He had never seen Gu Yanxi act like this before, and for a moment, Chen Zixuan felt a pang of guilt. He could only sigh helplessly, “It’s the same as yours—fifty percent, okay?”

“Fifty percent—doesn’t that hurt a lot?”

Gu Yanxi clicked her tongue at Cecilia’s answer and asked in surprise.

She had been scratched by some thorns in the bushes just now, and that alone already hurt a lot—there was practically no difference from being injured in real life.

Given Gu Yanxi’s understanding, it was hard to imagine anyone being able to keep their pain simulation at fifty percent and fight monsters.

“It’s not that bad. I got used to it,”

Chen Zixuan replied impassively, briefly recalling the last few days.

If Gu Yanxi discovered that he had always fought monsters ten levels higher than himself with one hundred percent pain simulation, she would definitely see him as a real monster.

It was best to let this topic go and never mention it again.

After this little incident passed, the two continued heading for the Mutant Jungle.

As a ranged priest, Gu Yanxi’s agility stat was not high, just over 150 points—not even half of Chen Zixuan’s—while her stamina bar was so low it was pitiful, making it impossible for her to keep up a long trek.

This seriously slowed down Chen Zixuan’s progress. What should have only taken a few minutes on the map ended up stretching to nearly half an hour.

If it had been another unfamiliar player, Chen Zixuan would have left her behind to travel alone long ago. But this was Gu Yanxi, the very one he’d invited, so he could only endure.

After walking another few dozen meters and passing by a patch of grass, Chen Zixuan suddenly felt as if his right foot had stepped on something. With a crack, his body sank several centimeters.

His mind raced—he realized the situation in less than a second.

She seemed to have triggered a player or monster’s trap skill.

He tried moving his right foot and indeed felt resistance. Gu Yanxi hadn’t yet realized what was going on, but she noticed Cecilia’s expression suddenly grow somber.

“Get away from me.”

With a cold warning, Chen Zixuan shoved Gu Yanxi out of the immediate area as he swiftly drew the dagger from his waist.

If her guess was correct, an enemy lying in ambush would not miss such a perfect opportunity to attack.

Sure enough, the next second, an arrow shot out from behind a large tree tens of meters ahead, flying straight toward Chen Zixuan.

Instinctively, she tried to dodge, but her right foot was stuck fast, as if nailed to the spot.

Helpless, the silver-haired girl only raised her snow-white right arm to block the unexpected arrow in the nick of time.

“Puchi—”

The sound of a sharp object piercing flesh echoed, followed by a jolt of pain. Above Chen Zixuan’s head, a bright red number slowly floated up.

-13!

………

As I was writing, I realized I unconsciously ended on a cliffhanger again. To clear my name, I added a few hundred more words this time.

(Covering my ears to steal a bell)

The crossdressing chapter will be out in the next couple days, please look forward to it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep