Chapter 79: Never Have I Ever

[Nemesis’ will is interested in swallowing the spirit.]

[Do you wish to sacrifice the spirit to Nemesis’ Will or store it in the system database for a lower grade. Note: Sacrificing the spirit will convert it into 10,000 common-grade spirits, and storing it in the system database will unlock it in the Summoner’s shop, but the quality of eggs drops to Epic grade.]

Lin Fang, from the start, wished to convert this opportunity into a business only. But he wasn’t aware that he could gain spirits from the eggs, too.

That would only imply that he doesn’t need to kill monsters in the wild to feed them to Nemesis. 10,000 is not a small number, after all. Even after fighting so much, all he could collect was only around 42k common-grade spirits so far.

The addition of 10k is surely tempting. But then, another thought came to his head, if this were the case, then he could just buy eggs on the market and feed their spirits to Nemesis’ will? Then why bother wasting this one in sacrifice?

When that thought came to his head, he put away his second thoughts and proceeded with his original decision.

*Ding!

[You chose not to sacrifice the spirit to Nemesis’ Will]

[Mimic spirit expresses gratitude to the host]

[1 Mimic Egg Token is sent to the inventory as a reward.]

[Mimic Egg is added to the Summoner’s Shop.]

“Oh, I get a free one, too. That’s great. Let’s check what it holds…”

Curious, Lin Fang tapped on the Mimic Egg Token in his inventory.

[Use?]

As he clicked, a burst of light escaped from his inventory before a black, slimy creature materialized in front of him. It has no eyes, no mouth, no ears, or limbs. It looked just like an irregularly shaped blob of slime and jumped high like an excited little kid, making the sound of a water balloon every time it landed on the ground.

*Ding!

[Name your summon]

“Since you can copy others, I name you Mirror.”

*Ding!

[Mirror is added to your companions list]

[You are contracted to 5 summons. You reached the limit. Upgrade the system to rank 2 to increase the limit.]

*Ding!

[You received a new main quest: Rank up]

Quest: Rank up

Details: Upgrade System to Rank-2

Conditions: 5 monster companions, Min: 1,000,000 credits worth of sales, Min: 1 habitat clear in Training Grounds, All monster companions reach level-30.

Reward: System 2.0

At the same time, a new screen unfolded:

Mirror

Species: Mimic

Level: 1

Grade: Legendary

Element: None

Potential: Level-1 (Max)

Skills:

[Imitation]: Can temporarily copy a monster’s appearance, its level, and its skills as long as it touches it once. Restrictions: Cannot copy Legendary-grade or higher. It can only copy the monster that it last touched. Only work on monsters (humans, demons, angels, or other races cannot be copied by Mimic). Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 60 minutes.

Lin Fang blinked, his lips curving into a smirk. “That’s… pretty cool. Too bad it can’t copy Black or Nebula, though.”

Since he had already filled all five of his available monster slots, he refrained from clicking the token to summon it. Instead, he checked the Summoner’s Shop out of curiosity. As expected, the sellable version was Epic Grade, with downgraded stats: able to copy only Rare-grade or lower monsters, same five-minute duration, one-hour cooldown, and still only costs 30 coins. Still, the sheer versatility of such a beast gave him the hope to earn more money.

He closed the interface with a satisfactory smile on his face. “Alright…” he muttered to the empty roadside, before tucking his phone back into his pocket and riding back to the store.

Later that evening, the four of them—Li Xue, Li Liu, Zhi Yan, and Lin Fang—sat together in the cozy living room while Nebula was left at the building. To keep her company, Lin Fang left Black and other monster companions too, as he could no longer use Nursery Pen due to lack of funds, and he wanted to use it to improve the bond between them instead of letting them hibernate in his pet inventory.

As work talk had wound down in Li Xue’s house, she suddenly clapped her hands with a mischievous glint, suggesting. “Should we play a game? How about Never Have I Ever?”

Lin Fang shrugged in amusement, reacting before anyone else. “Sure, why not?”

As the other two were forced to agree, drinks were set on the table.

“I’ll start,” Lin Fang said with a chuckle. “Never have I ever kissed a guy.”

Li Liu rolled her eyes. “C’mon, that’s too obvious.” She took a sip. Li Xue followed suit with a knowing smile.

All eyes turned when Zhi Yan’s glass stayed untouched.

“Wait,” Lin Fang raised a brow. “You’ve never kissed a guy?”

Zhi Yan’s cheeks flushed crimson. Li Xue leaned closer, trying to tease her. “Don’t tell me you kissed a girl?”

“N-no,” Zhi Yan stammered, shaking her head. “I am straight. I’ve just… never kissed one.”

Li Xue blinked, genuinely surprised. “That’s unexpected. Someone as beautiful as you, and no one ever courted you properly?”

Zhi Yan looked down at her drink. “My priorities were different.”

Lin Fang, who surprisingly gained a lot of information, particularly the fact that Zhi Yan was actually straight, indicating her and Li Liu’s bond might be just a sisterly one, cleared his throat and rescued her. “Alright then, Liu’er, your turn.”

Li Liu smirked. “Never have I ever fallen asleep in public.”

Lin Fang immediately took a sip. “I once dozed off on a bus and ended up all the way in Tianmen.”

Zhi Yan again left her glass untouched.

Li Xue laughed, sipping too. “Mine wasn’t sleeping exactly—I fainted once in the summer heat as a teen.”

“Okay, my turn. Never have I ever pretended to be sick to skip school or work.” Zhi Yan said.

The other three raised their glasses at once.

“See?” Lin Fang grinned. “Everyone does that.”

“Not me,” Zhi Yan replied firmly. “I had 100% attendance.”

Li Xue chuckled and leaned in. “Alright, my turn. Never have I ever written a love letter to someone.”

This time, only Lin Fang raised his glass and drank. Surprised, he asked. “So you guys never wrote a letter to your crushes?”

As Li Liu shook her head, Li Xue’s eyes glimmered with curiosity. “Who was it?”

Lin Fang rubbed his neck. “A teacher of mine, back in high school. I had a huge crush on her, so I wrote her a letter on Valentine’s Day, asking her out.”

Zhi Yan’s eyes widened, blurting out before he could finish: “Wait—don’t tell me it was Teacher Jasmine?”

Lin Fang froze. “How do you know?”

Zhi Yan was surprised again. “Cuz almost everyone in the school heard of the rumor, where you had gone to a nightclub with Ms. Jasmine.”

Lin Fang’s face slightly reddened in embarrassment, “No, we didn’t go out. Well, I wish we did, but we didn’t. We just met in the nightclub and exited together, more like she dragged me out because I was a minor, and some guy saw it and caused the rumor.”

“Ooh… that’s juicy. What happened then?” Li Xue leaned forward; her intentions to fish out more information looked quite obvious.

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