ARBW Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The two of them stopped in a patch of wild grassland. Pei Yuhuai observed from his map that there were quite a few red dots nearby.

Red dots represented monsters, and where there were monsters, there were Zombies, zombie animals, and the like.

As it turned out, there were indeed many monsters here.

However, they weren’t Zombies, but a pack of zombie wolves.

There were about a dozen zombie wolves.

Pei Yuhuai didn’t take action himself; he left it to Lin Mian and the two robots.

Lin Mian had a gun, and with the help of the two robots, he faced no danger from these zombie animals.

Pei Yuhuai wanted to train him, so the task of killing the zombie animals was handed over to Lin Mian.

At first, Lin Mian’s hands trembled when using the gun, but after firing a few shots, he gradually steadied himself.

The two robots, one large and one small, had default names. The small robot was called “Yuanyuan,” and the large one was named “Langlang.”

Their names were quite arbitrary, intended to be changed by their owners after purchase.

But Pei Yuhuai didn’t want to waste energy on such matters, so he didn’t rename the robots.

Under these circumstances, the robots were stuck with their default names.

Yuanyuan was primarily responsible for protecting Lin Mian, while Langlang charged into the pack of zombie wolves to hunt them down.

The robots’ combat prowess was formidable, and it didn’t take long for all the zombie wolves to be killed.

Afterward, they began digging out the crystal cores. Meanwhile, Pei Yuhuai opened the intimacy system between him and Lin Mian, checking their current intimacy level.

Holding hands could increase intimacy by one point.

Hugging could also increase intimacy by one point.

Kissing could increase intimacy by five points.

Giving gifts could also boost intimacy.

Giving a gift that the partner liked would increase intimacy by one point, while giving a disliked gift would not increase intimacy.

His intimacy with Lin Mian had already reached thirty-two points. The rapid increase was likely due to the gifts he had previously given Lin Mian.

Reaching ten points of intimacy earned Pei Yuhuai two crystal cores.

Twenty points earned him five.

Thirty points earned him ten.

Adding the eleven cores obtained from the recent monster hunt, they now had a total of twenty-eight crystal cores.

Pei Yuhuai didn’t need to upgrade his Ability, so he decided to give all the crystal cores to Lin Mian.

When they found a place to rest, Pei Yuhuai handed the crystal cores to Lin Mian.

“Take these to upgrade your Ability,” he said.

Lin Mian thanked him and began slowly absorbing the cores.

Absorbing crystal cores was a slow process, and after half a day, Lin Mian had only absorbed two.

Since they needed to continue hunting for more cores, Lin Mian paused the absorption process.

They kept hunting monsters and collecting crystal cores until around six in the evening.

At this point, Pei Yuhuai decided to take a break. He had been playing the game for too long today and didn’t plan to continue into the night.

However, both he and Lin Mian were still outside. If he logged off directly, he wouldn’t feel at ease leaving Lin Mian alone.

In the end, Pei Yuhuai patiently used his Ability to bring Lin Mian back to the town.

After this trip, he realized it was quite troublesome.

First, the distance was a bit far, making the back-and-forth journey cumbersome.

Second, there were few monsters nearby, and they had to travel further to find the desired crystal cores.

After spending so much time today, the number of cores they obtained was still fewer than what Pei Yuhuai had gained through increasing intimacy.

Pei Yuhuai felt it was quite inefficient. Instead of going through the hassle of taking Lin Mian out every day, he thought it would be better to go out and collect the cores himself.

Going alone would be much safer.

When he logged in, he could take the robots to collect the cores. When he logged off, his game character would disappear.

This would be much safer than bringing Lin Mian along and would also save him the trouble of having to escort Lin Mian back.

Pei Yuhuai decided that from now on, he would collect the crystal cores himself.

Occasionally, he could also gain some cores by increasing intimacy through the intimacy system.

As Pei Yuhuai prepared to log off, Lin Mian seemed to sense that he was about to leave.

The shy little figure shuffled his feet, seemingly reluctant to part.

Pei Yuhuai found him adorable and decided to go through all the unlocked intimate interactions.

First, he lifted Lin Mian up effortlessly.

Lin Mian was very good-natured, no matter what Pei Yuhuai wanted to do with him, he always had a compliant expression.

Of course, he wasn’t truly submissive. He cooperated so willingly with Mr. Pei simply because he didn’t dislike him.

Lin Mian wasn’t an inherently obedient person; his obedience was relative to certain individuals.

From his willingness to starve himself to death rather than submit to the Nobles, it was clear that he wasn’t as soft as he appeared on the surface.

But now, facing Mr. Pei, whom he liked very much, his attitude was completely different.

Lin Mian was like a beautiful, obedient doll—lifted up, carried like a princess, held with one arm, his hand held, his lips kissed, and then tightly embraced…

When it came to the final interaction, Pei Yuhuai hesitated, unsure whether to proceed.

On one hand, he thought it was just a game. Even if there were suggestive scenes, they would likely be fleeting.

On the other hand, he noticed that this interaction would increase intimacy by fifty points, which was quite significant.

If it was just a fleeting moment, the game characters would simply go through the motions.

Given his personality, he wouldn’t let Lin Mian suffer or betray his trust.

For the sake of the intimacy reward and to help Lin Mian obtain more crystal cores for upgrades, he felt that they would eventually reach this point.

And so…

Pei Yuhuai clicked.

He clicked, and Lin Mian agreed.

Lin Mian didn’t know what was coming; he was just accustomed to Mr. Pei’s closeness.

He liked Mr. Pei, didn’t mind his advances, and deeply trusted him.

In this situation, no matter what Mr. Pei was about to do, he was instinctively willing and accepting.

So when Mr. Pei laid him down on the soft bed, Lin Mian was still wide-eyed, staring in confusion at Mr. Pei, who was undressing by the bedside.

Pei Yuhuai stared blankly at his phone, watching as “he” in the game, beyond his control, began to take liberties with his in-game lover.

Watching as Lin Mian’s clothes were removed…

He couldn’t bear to watch and instinctively flipped his phone over. Feeling parched, he got up to pour himself a glass of water.

Whether it was due to lack of rest or the impact of the scene he had just witnessed, Pei Yuhuai felt a bit disoriented while pouring the water and accidentally dropped the glass.

Seeing this, he crouched down to pick up the broken pieces.

Then, his finger was cut by a shard of glass.

Pei Yuhuai stared at the cut on his hand, and his vision began to blur.

He quickly reached out to steady himself on the nearby table, then groped his way to the sofa.

As he slowly sat down on the sofa, he suddenly lost consciousness completely.

The next morning, Pei Yuhuai was awakened by the ringing of his phone.

The previous afternoon, he hadn’t gone to the company but had stayed home to play the game.

This morning, he had an important meeting.

Normally, Pei Yuhuai would have already been at the company by this time.

But today, for some reason, his driver had been waiting outside his residence for a long time without seeing Pei Yuhuai emerge.

Pei Yuhuai’s secretary, Xiao Zhang, was a bit worried and decided to call him.

“President Pei, this morning’s meeting…”

Before Xiao Zhang could finish, Pei Yuhuai’s hoarse voice came through the phone, “Postpone it. I’m not feeling well today; I’ll take a rest.”

Xiao Zhang was momentarily stunned, “Ah, rest? Alright, I’ll make the arrangements.”

Then, remembering something, he added, “Should I send Xiao Su over?”

Originally, Xiao Su was Pei Yuhuai’s personal assistant and should have lived with him to justify her high salary.

But Pei Yuhuai felt that as a man, and Xiao Su being a young woman, it wasn’t appropriate.

In today’s society, women often faced unfair scrutiny.

Even though everyone knew Pei Yuhuai had no ulterior motives toward Xiao Su, if people saw them together all the time, there would inevitably be gossip.

Additionally, Pei Yuhuai didn’t like having outsiders in his residence, so he didn’t have Xiao Su stay with him.

Pei Yuhuai: “No need. At noon, give Cai Cai a call and tell her not to come to the company to find me. Have her come directly to my place.”

Xiao Zhang: “Understood, President Pei. Anything else?”

“That’s all. Hang up.”

“Alright, President Pei. Rest well.”

Pei Yuhuai hung up the phone and then raised his hand, staring at it curiously.

He… had suddenly fainted from the sight of blood last night?

He didn’t remember having a fear of blood before.

Moreover, after fainting, he should have been unconscious.

But later, he distinctly remembered having a dream—a rather explicit one.

If it weren’t for the fainting episode, Pei Yuhuai would have attributed the dream to being single for too long and his body’s physiological needs.

But…

He had never had a fear of blood before, yet he suddenly fainted last night. Pei Yuhuai found it very strange.

Thinking about the sensations from the dream, he found a spare phone, charged it, and prepared to log into the game to check.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Mian was alone in the bathtub.

He carefully touched the marks on his body, recalling what had happened the previous night.

Lin Mian couldn’t help but pinch his own face, his heart starting to race uncontrollably.

He took a deep breath and sank further into the hot water, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

He… he had slept with Mr. Pei last night.

Actually, when Mr. Pei had laid him down on the bed, he had already had a premonition.

But because he trusted Mr. Pei so much, even with the premonition, he hadn’t felt scared.

Now, he felt embarrassed mainly because… he hadn’t expected his own reaction to be so intense?

Thinking about everything that had happened last night, the sounds he had made, Lin Mian couldn’t help but feel utterly ashamed.

Fortunately, Mr. Pei had been very kind, always treating him with gentleness and patience.

And also… Mr. Pei’s physique was really good.

Broad shoulders, narrow waist, the type that looked good in clothes and had a thin layer of muscle when undressed.

Compared to a burly, muscular build.

Or a skinny, flabby one.

Lin Mian preferred Mr. Pei’s type—some muscle, not exaggerated, just a thin layer, whether in terms of feel or…

Cough, cough, Lin Mian quickly stopped himself from continuing that train of thought.

He curled up in the hot water, blowing a few bubbles like a little fish.