After Lu Ce finished speaking, he noticed that Xie Antong across from him seemed to be looking at him with a somewhat dazed expression, appearing lost in thought.
Xie Antong silently watched him and spoke:
"That mask is too ugly. Actually, you look much better like this."
Lu Ce: ?
Looking at her expression, he felt slightly speechless, sensing that something seemed off about her.
With a casual flick of his hand, a metal ball appeared in his palm.
Ding!
A crisp metallic sound rang out as the metal ball transformed from the Black Knight shot out like a bullet, whizzing past Xie Antong's ear.
"Hey, can't you just talk? Why are you flicking me?"
At the same time, Xie Antong suddenly snapped out of her own world, as if she had just regained her senses.
"Ah, what were you saying just now?"
Lu Ce: ......
"About how you contacted me today, claiming it was some internal benefit from Divine Punishment."
"That's easily exposed, isn't it?"
Xie Antong looked at him, the corners of her mouth slightly upturned as she smiled faintly:
"How do you know that was a lie?"
Lu Ce was immediately startled, looking at Xie Antong across from him with some surprise.
Xie Antong took a sip of the wine before her, her eyes slightly lowered.
"Everything I said was true. I've actually done all those things before."
As she spoke, she smiled slightly and raised her eyes to look at him.
In reality, she had laid many similar groundwork, preparing identities for offline meetings that she had already established long ago...
Those excuses she had found for Lu Ce, she had never actually spoken them.
But now, Lu Ce could see them all through her eyes.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed for a moment, she actually proactively averted her gaze.
"Are you feeling a bit off right now?"
"Have you been relying on Pleasure's power continuously?"
Xie Antong nodded, not denying it, speaking quite frankly:
"Yes, I need to gradually adapt to the fusion. Why, is this state not good?"
"No, since you've already devoured it, you really should properly integrate it."
Lu Ce shook his head.
"It's just... you should still be more careful. Be careful not to lose yourself in that feeling. Why do you seem so... so..."
So bold!
"So bold, not exercising restraint, right?" Xie Antong finished his sentence for him.
"After all, with you here, shouldn't I take full advantage of having the world's strongest protector? If something really goes wrong, you'd be able to tell."
Lu Ce: ......
"As for being careful."
Bang!
Xie Antong heavily placed her wine glass on the table, looking straight into Lu Ce's eyes.
"How do you know to be careful?!"
"In the last game, Gluttony's final state was truly out of control, wasn't it?"
Lu Ce had no response, because this was indeed the truth.
"I want to know, when you take risks, what's your backup plan? What insurance do you have?"
Perhaps it was because this version of Xie Antong influenced by Pleasure had such strong presence, or perhaps the warm-toned lighting in this somewhat dim room truly made people let down their guard.
Lu Ce also temporarily opened his heart.
"Unnecessary. If I fail, I die."
"Or completely lose myself, becoming a madman or a walking corpse. I don't care."
Seeing Xie Antong's slightly surprised expression across from him, Lu Ce slightly furrowed his brows, remembering the previous game.
That bounty order that War had placed on him.
And that completely unknown entity Agony, the one who was said to be dead according to the gods, what exactly were his plans.
"You're not like me. I have no choice, and I don't plan to choose anything else."
"Then I have no choice either." Xie Antong suddenly said.
When I decided to enter the same game as "Sin," I already had no choice.
The two fell into a brief silence, waiting for the waiter to serve the course meal.
This meal was eaten very slowly, with neither of them mentioning those life-and-death matters again, instead relaxing for once.
Like a pair of friends out on a date, they chatted calmly, and Xie Antong even asked about what Zhao Jiacheng had said in the afternoon.
Lu Ce roughly recounted it, focusing on one of the other's speculations - whether the game's progression and difficulty increase were tied to the improvement of top players' situations.
"What!?"
Xie Antong was immediately shocked. Even someone as well-informed as her had never heard such a thing before.
"Nonsense! What is he talking about? I've never heard of such a thing."
"No one knows how the game will develop. How can it be attributed to specific individuals?"
As she spoke, Xie Antong glanced at Lu Ce from the corner of her eye, but seeing that he didn't seem to react to this matter, apparently not caring about it.
"I'll keep an eye out, try to look into information about this aspect."
Lu Ce nodded. He was just sharing information and didn't really care about these claims himself.
......
This dinner seemed to pass very quickly, and soon it was time to part.
"See you in the next game."
Xie Antong said as they parted, but soon, both of them froze.
They hadn't teamed up for games in a long time. The reason they had been in so many games together was purely due to coincidences of unknown origin.
Whether these coincidences were truly "coincidences" was something both of them actually had doubts about.
"Then let's hope our connection can continue." Xie Antong, realizing her slip of the tongue, added with a laugh.
"Who knows, but that might not necessarily be good news for you."
On the way back, the Black Knight changed its vehicle cover, moving inconspicuously through the night.
"Honestly, how did you manage to say something so socially inept at the end?"
......
The night passed without incident. For Lu Ce, games were most of his life, and sleeping in a different bed wasn't worth distracting his attention.
After organizing all the items in his backpack, he began waiting for the new game.
But this time, the game start notification was somewhat different.
[Attention all players! The game is about to begin.]
[Time remaining until next game start: 00:35:59.]
[Please choose whether to become a "Spectator" or a "Player"!]
"Player."
After the familiar selection, that inquiry page didn't disappear. Instead, after flickering twice, it turned blood red!
In the game, an unusual voice sounded, as if whispering in Lu Ce's ear.
[Abnormal Mode!]
[Hello, may I ask, is this player "Sin"?]