A huge thanks to all our Kofi supporters: Jazi, GreenKiTea, Angee, and an anonymous ko-fi supporter for their support! Enjoy these bonus chapters!

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

Qiyu felt he’d spent a particularly joyful day in the Golden Desert. 

Dan Xingyu took him on a tour of the entire grand palace.

It was truly beautiful.

In his heart, this glittering golden mansion was only slightly less impressive than his own treehouse—and this ranking had absolutely nothing to do with his excessive fondness for his own home overshadowing his sense of aesthetics. 

That afternoon, he followed Dan Xingyu out of the territory to get a feel for what the Golden Desert was really like without the temperature-regulating magic array. Two minutes later, he silently took the Guardian Mage Robe out of his backpack and put it on. 

He then used his magic to cast a barrier.

The magical barrier was a skill he’d recently learned after advancing to a Four-Star Mage.

He cast one on Dan Xingyu as well, earning a grateful, warm hug in return. 

The Golden Desert isn’t the kind of place that’s stunning and awe-inspiring at first glance, only to become boring after a while. That’s because all you can see with the naked eye is yellow sand.

Dan Xingyu also took him to a mining spot and showed Qiyu how he usually mined. 

Back at the territory, Qiyu thought to himself, “I’ll be nicer to Dan Xingyu from now on.” Life in the Golden Desert seemed pretty tough. 

Until today, he had never realized just how much he missed lush vegetation and moist air.

As he thought about it, he suddenly froze: he realized he was actually complaining about the Golden Desert.

This realization surprised him: He’d only been in the survival game for a little over a month—had he really become this picky? 

Although the Golden Desert was hot, it was safe here; he could mine, hunt mutated creatures, open treasure chests, and there was no shortage of food. If, over a month ago, he’d been randomly assigned to the Golden Desert, he would have been grateful. 

He silently took stock of himself.

Survival game, you’ve spoiled me rotten. 

That afternoon, the two of them roamed the desert for several hours and found several types of mutated creatures wandering about. That evening, the meat from these mutated creatures ended up on their dinner table.

As promised, they had a barbecue that evening, and Dan Xingyu kept his word.

Qiyu followed behind him, watching as he prepared the meat, seasoned it, and marinated it, then joined him in whittling wooden skewers and threading the meat onto them. Such a delicious meal shouldn’t be this much trouble, he thought. But then again, anything Dan Xingyu made was bound to be this good.

If it were him, he’d just throw the seasoning and meat into a pot to simmer. Or he’d thread the meat onto a twig and roast it until done. It was a perfect day—except that Dan Xingyu kept glancing his way.

Qiyu glanced back several times, catching his gaze each time.

Dan Xingyu made no attempt to hide it; once caught, he simply smiled at him openly. 

When he saw the puzzled look on Qiyu’s face, he laughed even harder.

After they’d eaten and drunk their fill, just as Qiyu was getting ready to go home, he heard Dan Xingyu say to him, “Qiyu, you have such a good temperament.”

Qiyu: “What?”

Dan Xingyu: “I’ve been watching you all day. You clearly felt offended—why didn’t you say anything to me?”

“Offended?” Qiyu shook his head and said matter-of-factly, “I didn’t feel offended. I’m right here—look all you want.” 

He’d never had a friend he was this close to before, and he didn’t really have much experience with how to get along with friends, so he could only learn little by little from Dan Xingyu. 

“If I feel uncomfortable, I’ll say so,” he said. 

His attitude toward his friends could practically be described as “indulgent.”

On the one hand, Dan Xingyu was pleased by Qiyu’s attitude, but on the other hand, he couldn’t help but wonder: Is he like this with his other friends, too? 

He didn’t know what he was thinking, but he blurted out, “You don’t mind me staring at you the whole time, so how about a hug?” 

Qiyu asked him curiously, “Haven’t we hugged before?”

Dan Xingyu actually understood what he meant: If I minded, those previous hugs wouldn’t have happened. He took a gentle breath and opened his arms: “Well then, let’s have a hug before we part ways today, Qiyu.” 

“Oh! I get it now.” Qiyu felt he understood why Dan Xingyu was acting a little strange at that moment.

He took a step closer, gave Dan Xingyu a hug, and said cheerfully, “You’re not going to miss me, are you?” 

Dan Xingyu’s breathing faltered for a moment. The next second, he felt Qiyu pat his back gently, as if comforting a little child. 

Then he heard him say, “Back when you came to play in the Star Forest and went home, I felt a little reluctant to see you go, too.” 

Being with Dan Xingyu was truly joyful, and he even thought it would be nice if the two of them lived in the same territory. 

Qiyu said, “Since you’re so reluctant to part with me, I’ll stay here a little longer. Or maybe you could come back with me, and we can practice together under the Tree of Life.”

Dan Xingyu was actually a little tempted.

But he declined: “That would be such a shame—I’ve got something to do tonight.”

“See you tomorrow, then.” Qiyu patted him on the back again. “You’ve been hugging me for a long time—you can let go now.” 

On the way back, they had to pass by Dan Xingyu’s bedroom again.

Qiyu couldn’t help but glance at that enormous bed several times. Dan Xingyu smiled and said, “Interested? Some day when you’re free, I’ll let you sleep in the big bed.” Qiyu was indeed interested; he’d never seen a bed that big before.

Hearing Dan Xingyu say that, he asked curiously, “Why would you let me sleep in it? This bed is almost as big as someone else’s entire room.” 

He held out his arms to illustrate: “We could sleep together, and there’d still be this much space between us.” 

Dan Xingyu:“……”

He took a quiet breath, watched Qiyu walk through the teleportation gate, and only then raised his hand to cover his forehead.

Oh my God.

This doesn’t feel right. 

He couldn’t be bothered to move, so he sat down right there on the balcony. He opened his personal panel.

【God Has No Form: .】

【With My Retreat: God, has our game dad gone back?】

【God Has No Form: How did you find out?】

【With My Retreat: The whole server knows, right? As for you, aside from bragging a bit this morning, you haven’t posted a single message in the server chat all day.】 

【With My Retreat: If the gaming pro didn’t leave, would you even have time to send us messages?】

【The Future Is Long: As soon as “Game Dad” shows up, Er Shen won’t even notice us poor folks in Server 88.】

【The Future Is Long: Er Shen, I definitely didn’t mean to take a dig at you with what I just said. On the contrary, I support you clinging tightly to the game dad’s leg!】

【God Has No Form: Right now, I’m thinking about something.】

【God Has No Form: Any of you… Never mind.】

【The Future Is Long:???】

【The Future Is Long: You can’t just leave your sentence hanging like that, Er Shen.】

【God Has No Form: It’s nothing. I can figure it out on my own—you four ungrateful brats aren’t much help anyway.】

With the group chat flooded with question marks again, Dan Xingyu felt flustered, so he simply closed his personal panel and looked up at the sky.

What a pity, he thought. If he weren’t on Earth, in an environment like this, he might be able to see a brilliant starry sky at night. In this survival game, there was only pitch-black darkness.

As he gazed, the heavy night sky transformed into a plain, unadorned face. 

Dan Xingyu blinked: “It looks like I’m really screwed this time.” 

Whenever he saw anything related to magic, he thought of the boy older than him, and he didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. When his gaze kept drifting unconsciously toward him, he didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

He wanted to get a little closer to him, and he couldn’t help but want to touch him—he didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. He didn’t mind—in fact, he even longed—to hug him, and he didn’t think there was anything wrong with that either.

But one day, as he stared closely at the boy’s snow-white cheek, he actually had the thought of taking a gentle bite to see what he tasted like. 

That was really bad. 

It didn’t seem like this could be brushed off as just close friendship between good brothers. 

The most twisted part is that, even now, when he thinks back to that moment, he still wants to take a bite.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

He returned home through the portal.

The moist air and the magic of nature immediately surged forward and enveloped him. It felt so good.

As expected, there’s no place like home. 

Qiyu, feeling utterly content, began casting Blessings across the entire domain, causing the bluebell fairy to fly over in a panic, asking the Lord if something had happened. 

Qiyu: “Nothing’s happened. What’s the matter?”

The bluebell sprite fluttered its wings gently, puzzled: “Then why has Your Lordship cast so many Blessings?” 

It had just been so scared it was on the verge of tears: it thought something terrible had happened in the domain, that the Lord wasn’t going to take care of them anymore, and was giving everyone one last good meal. 

Qiyu understood what he was thinking and couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time: “No, no—the territory’s fine, and I’m fine too. If everyone likes the Blessing spells, I’ll cast them often.”

After calming the little sprite down, he took a shower and returned to the Tree of Life, planning to spend the night training instead of resting. 

Before training, he opened the Survival Panel to catch up on the backlog of messages and trade requests.

A group chat that was usually very quiet actually had a new message.

“Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens” and “Traveler in the Misty Rain of Jiangnan.”

Qiyu first took care of the trade section; the supplies he’d listed earlier—purchased in Ophelia City—had all sold out.

For the constant-temperature magic array, the pre-order he’d posted had actually attracted orders from over thirty players; glancing through them, none were familiar IDs. The chat in Squad 01 was pretty routine—nothing major.

Only then did Qiyu open the group chat between the two siblings.

It turned out the two of them had obtained a random area exploration blueprint but hadn’t gotten a party scroll, so they were asking if he’d sell one.

【I Love Survival Game: Not for sale.】 

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: Got it.】

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: I’m planning to go out and explore sometime soon, and I’ll bring a teleportation scroll. Do you have any other handy tips you’d be willing to share, Gaming Pro?】 

【Your friend “Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens” has sent you a gift.】

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: Hey, big shot, how about starting a paid consulting service?】 

Qiyu declined.

【I Love Survival Game: I don’t have any tricks. This world is huge, and even after exploring it several times, I’ve never been to a more complex area. The random location you mentioned is most likely somewhere I’ve never been either.】

【I Love Survival Game: There are teleportation scrolls—as long as you stay alive, you’ll be fine. The rest is up to you.】For these two siblings to have made it to the top of the leaderboard, they must have had their own unique opportunities and circumstances.

Seeing that he wouldn’t accept the gift, “Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens” didn’t press the issue and even shared a piece of news.

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: I’ve heard that “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens” seems to have gone out exploring today.】

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: It seems he’s not doing too well right now.】

【I Love Survival Game:?】

He was puzzled as to how he could possibly know such a thing. He was also puzzled as to why he was telling him this. He wasn’t interested in

“My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens.”

However, “Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens” was eager to share and took the initiative to explain:

【Reaching for the Moon in the Heavens: There’s a mole among his people. It seems he’s been captured by the natives and locked up—he can’t escape.】 It was precisely this news that had made them a little nervous.