Ch 18: TGCIR

Fortunately, there aren’t many people in the base at the moment. Shen Cheng carefully clicked open each one until she finally found the only one sitting inside the room.

Compared to Li Weilan’s Q-version face and the exquisite character illustrations that could be seen after clicking, it’s obvious that the game team didn’t have as much budget to spend on supporting characters.

Xi Bei’s face is a relatively simple Q-version, with a pointed chin and large, striking eyes. Though gaunt, her innocent big eyes reveal a bit of cuteness.

This girl has a big head, but her body is as delicate as a matchstick that could be blown away by the wind.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Shen Cheng looked at the lonely figure and then clicked on Xi Bei’s character introduction: hmm, that 0.5 is confirmed.

Her character card has a ‘Ability Overload’ debuff hanging on the edge, and her health bar is almost empty.

Not only is it almost empty, but whenever it slightly recovers, it drops sharply again, which looks quite pitiful.

[Ability Overload: Chaotic ability floods her body and mind, mental power recovery -100%, reaction speed -100%]

Her character status is shown as ‘abnormal’. Obviously, as long as this abnormal state is changed to ‘normal’ and the problem of ability overload is solved, Xi Bei can work in the base’s hydroponic room and produce food continuously.

According to the hydroponic room introduction, the corresponding population ratio is 1:500, which means that one plant-type ability person can basically feed 500 people. For Noah base, which currently has only twenty-something people, this is more than enough and there is enough space for upgrading. The second level hydroponic room can feed 2,000 people, and the third level can feed 8,000.

This Xi Bei, who looks like she could fall over with a gust of wind, seems to be one of the most important people in the early development of the base. She needs to be cured. She’s such a little treasure.

Although Shen Cheng doesn’t know how difficult it is to recruit a plant-type ability person on site, she is certain that the rate of producing plant-type ability persons from at least 500 people would not exceed 1/500, type on the 1:500 ratio.

Shen Cheng lovingly poked her the little person’s thin face, and Xi Bei suddenly paused, her misty and watery eyes immediately looking towards Shen Cheng.

“Bei Bei?” Xi Nan happened to push open the door at this time, with Li Weilan following behind him.

Seeing her sister staring at the empty space with misty eyes, Xi Nan couldn’t help but feel worried.

“What’s wrong?” He walked quickly to his sister’s side and touched her head.

Xi Bei spoke slowly, like a turtle, “Someone touched me.”

“What???” Xi Nan didn’t understand and looked around, unable to resist asking, “Where did they touch you?”

Xi Bei touched her own face and pouted without speaking.

But Li Weilan, who had had a similar experience before, suddenly changed his expression.

His face almost turned white in an instant, looking very ugly. Looking into Xi Bei’s eyes, there was also some complexity.

He remained silent, but in the end, he didn’t say anything. His voice was low and hoarse, “It’s okay, Xi Nan, don’t worry.”

“Brother Li, what do you mean?” Xi Nan didn’t think about the aspect of the “invisible lover of his boss,” but he thought that Li Weilan used his mental ability to scan the room and didn’t find any problems. He thought he was being too sensitive, after all, Xi Bei’s mental state was in chaos. Perhaps what she said about being touched was just an illusion. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Xi Nan squatted down and whispered to ask about Xi Bei’s physical condition and whether she was uncomfortable.

However, Li Weilan, who had promised to check Xi Bei’s physical condition again before leaving, suddenly lost his original motivation. In his eyes, there was a faint sadness that flickered.

This sick little chick, soft and weak, was also a person of the same gender as her.

Did that person turn her attention to someone else now?

She saved him during his ability rampage at the beginning, maybe what she cared and liked about was the weak and helpless state he was in?

Once he got better and now seems to have no problems, she doesn’t need to care as much anymore?

She can just go find another person to care about?

Li Weilan’s heart was filled with black air and he felt like his heart was soaked in acid, feeling sour from the inside out.

At this time, Shen Cheng had just finished checking on Xi Nan’s status and looked at her own cub standing next to the siblings without saying a word, with his hands crossed over his chest, empty-eyed, lips tightly pursed, and fingers clenched. She didn’t know what he was thinking.

Coincidentally, her daily task today was to check on her cub’s status, so Shen Cheng clicked on his avatar.

The more she looked, the more surprised she became.

There was a debuff hanging next to Li Weilan, with “Anger” written on it, stating:

【Rationality -50%, IntelBrother Lince -50%, Strength 100%】

“???”

He’s that angry?

Since the current mood was “Anger”, then for the second task…

Just as Shen Cheng was thinking about this, the system “dinged” and the first daily task of checking on Li Weilan’s status was marked as completed.

Her gold coins increased by a bit and now she had a total of 149 gold coins!

Overwhelmed by the sudden reward, Shen Cheng forgot about the cold sweat that the “Anger” debuff had caused her and started racking her brain for ways to make her child happy.

When feeling unhappy, receiving gifts is the happiest thing, as the saying goes. Now, she was considered a wealthy player and decided to continue browsing the store. She set the filter to display items under 200 gold coins, completely forgetting that her ultimate goal was to earn more gold coin rewards by completing daily tasks. She thought that if she really liked something and didn’t have enough gold coins, she could just spend real money to make up for it.

After browsing the store for a while, she found something she liked: a delicate aromatherapy diffuser called “Sweet Dreams,” which claimed to help insomniacs fall asleep and was usable ten times. It cost 60 gold coins.

As she looked at other items in the store, she realized she didn’t know enough about her cub to choose the right gifts for him. She felt that a good gift was one that catered to the recipient’s interests and needs, but without knowing her cub well, she might give something useless. However, this aromatherapy diffuser seemed appropriate.

She could see the deep blue shadows under Li Weilan’s eyes and guessed that he had a tragic past when she first found him. As someone who had experienced something similar, she knew that memories could come flooding back like a torrential river, and the weight of them felt like heavy wheels rolling over you.

Even if someone was extremely exhausted, they would still go over the scenes over and over again in their head, unable to sleep. She didn’t want to see her cub sad. Furthermore, if he used this aromatherapy diffuser and slept better, then his anger debuff would naturally decrease, right? Although his attack power was at 100% when angry, since the game classified it as a debuff, it must have other negative effects on her cub, so it was better to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Not knowing why Li Weilan was angry, she spent 60 gold coins on this delicate little bronze incense burner and quietly placed it on his bedside table. Her mood then turned to anticipation as she prepared to go to work.

Another day of overtime has come.

Gotta work hard and earn money to support the family.

**

Li Weilan returned to his own room with annoyance.

Since Xi Bei didn’t react to that person’s existence the way he did before, Li Weilan began to doubt: Did he overthink it?

Did that person not pay attention to Xi Bei or just accidentally bumped into him?

Realizing that he was overly concerned, Li Weilan felt bad.

He checked on Xi Bei according to the previous plan and arranged for Yan Hongyu to take care of her when they were not at the base. Then he returned to his room.

As soon as he walked into the room, he was stunned for a moment: a purple, mysteriously shiny incense burner was lying quietly on the bedside table.

Regardless of the shape, workmanship, and material, it looked like a handmade boutique left over from the world before the apocalypse.

The incense burner was not lit, and ten burning incense sticks were neatly placed next to it, with the simple words “sleep aid” written in beautiful handwriting.

Although the incense sticks had not been opened, the faint and elegant fragrance had already filled the entire room, and Li Weilan heard his own heart beating rapidly.

“…” However, he vaguely felt that something was not quite right. His eyebrows moved slightly: she knew he was unhappy?

If she didn’t know, she wouldn’t have sent this, right!

What does this mean? Does she think it’s okay not to care if he’s unhappy and just use money to appease him?

Or, does she think that by giving him a gift and making him happy, she can move on to care for the next person?

In almost an instant, Li Weilan’s previously improved mood dropped like a rollercoaster.

In an instant, his mood went from [joy] to [sadness].

He quietly called out, “Are you there?”

No response was received.

It’s almost ironic, as if his own angel was a hit-or-miss illusion.

Li Weilan squeezed the incense, and his mood became even more despondent.

**

During the lunch break, Shen Cheng went online to check on her cub and decided to take a look at the daily tasks. To her surprise, she logged on and saw Li Weilan sitting in the corner, drawing circles with a dark cloud over his head.

He crouched alone in the corner planting mushrooms, and when she clicked on him, the [anger] debuff above his head had disappeared.

Instead, it was replaced by another mood index:

[Sadness: speed -20%, combat power -10%, healing speed -10%]

“…” What’s wrong with cub?

Shen Cheng had only planned to come online to collect the daily task gold coins, but she didn’t expect that her always calm cub would suddenly throw a tantrum and continue for so long.

A gift of 60 gold coins!

Cub, even if you haven’t removed the anger debuff, you should have some kind of calm or sad mood state, right?

How could you still be sad?

This isn’t you, mom doesn’t believe it!

Thinking back, even when Li Weilan met her at the beginning, he was in such a pitiful state that he couldn’t even untie the rope on his own hands, he could only wander alone, covered in blood from head to toe, but his state of mind was always calm and indifferent, how could he be experiencing such intense emotional fluctuations now?

Shen Cheng stubbornly poked Li Weilan’s back, and his body visibly trembled, but he still didn’t want to turn around, instead he moved closer and closer to the wall, almost sticking himself to the wall.

Li Weilan naturally felt the playful touch of the person.

He dodged, but the person poked him again.

He dodged again, and the person poked him again.

Li Weilan himself knew he shouldn’t be getting angry with her like this, but no matter what he said or did before, the person completely ignored him. This feeling of loneliness, like being put on pause, wrapped him up like a tide.

Why did she only appear now?

What was she doing during all that time?

Could it be that she really has another object of attention outside?

Just thinking about the last possibility, Li Weilan couldn’t bear the continuous waves of sadness surging up from deep within his heart.

It was nothing else but sadness.

People may have no choice but to accept reality when faced with something that is beyond their control, something they cannot control, or something that is beyond their control.

To her surprise, with just two taps, Shen Cheng managed to change the small character’s mood from sadness to grief.

[Grief: Speed -50%, Combat power -80%]

“…????” What’s going on?

Shen Cheng panicked: “Cub, even if your mom really gave you the wrong gift, you don’t have to be so sad, can’t we talk about it?”

Shen Cheng suddenly realized a truth: You can eat food randomly, but you can’t give gifts randomly.

If you don’t know why your own cub is unhappy, try not to do something that backfires. Otherwise, if this debuff turns into grief, what should you do?

She stared at the screen nervously, her heart in turmoil. Suddenly, a bubble popped up above Li Weilan’s head.

“I’m sorry.” He suddenly said softly, “Thank you for caring, I know you were looking at Xi Bei for the hydroponics room.”

“…” While apologizing, three broken hearts appeared above his head. Does my cub think I’m blind?

Those three little hearts kept breaking, reassembling, and breaking again. So when my cub acting all “mature and sensible,” it’s all insincere?

Shen Cheng was surprised that her cub could also be insincere, but she immediately understood something: That’s right, my main character is Li Weilan. With the level of AI in this game, it’s normal for him to be jealous when I care so much about others!”