Chapter 144 CATCHING UP WITH AH JIN

IT was already past ten in the morning when Luo Jin woke up with a grumbling stomach. If not for being hungry, he would probably continue to sleep past noon. He brushed his teeth and washed his face before going out of his room. He went straight to the dining room and asked a maid to prepare breakfast for him. Not long, plates of different dishes were brought to the dining room table.

He was about to start eating when someone suddenly sat down on the seat opposite him. He raised his head and saw Luo Yan smiling at him.

"Good morning, Ah Jin," Luo Yan greeted brightly.

"Yeah, morning," Luo Jin replied back and proceeded on eating a spoonful of porridge.

"I heard you stayed until midnight playing Arcadia. Were the Mysteries of the door you ended up in hard to solve?"

Luo Jin’s spoon stopped midway, then he continued to eat. "I don’t want to talk about it."

He said the words with not much emotion, but Luo Yan could still feel that his younger brother instantly fell into a bad mood the moment he mentioned the task yesterday. It could be seen from the strain between his eyebrows and the downturn arc of his mouth.

So, what exactly happened? Luo Yan’s curiosity was piqued even more.

"I actually had a hard time. I had to dress up as a girl and dance in front of these group of NPCs. I was even poisoned and put into prison," Luo Yan said, acting all pitiful. He looked at Luo Jin, acting like he was forcing himself to smile. "I just wanted to know if Ah Jin was a bit better than me. If you were, then that’s good. But if you don’t want to talk about it, then I won’t force you. I’m sorry for asking."

It took a bit of a while before Luo Jin reacted. He was still in shock because of the first part of what Luo Yan said. His brother had to cross-dress, was forced to dance, he was poisoned, and was even thrown into prison. And here he was, throwing a tantrum because of the annoying things he experienced in that blasted red door.

"No, it’s okay. Sorry, I didn’t mean to brush you off," he said. "Were you hurt terribly doing the task?"

Luo Yan smiled, real this time, and shook his head. "No, I was only poisoned but I was immediately healed. Brother Ji Yun was with me the whole time. We actually made a good team. The blue door we went into had us solve some ancient political intrigue that involved two countries."

Hearing that Luo Yan was with Shen Ji Yun during the whole task last night, he already felt his temper rising. How could that guy be so lucky? Well, looking at his brother’s happy smile, he probably had fun despite the things that he told him. And a part of that probably had something to do with that Shen Ji Yun.

As much as it annoyed him that the guy was with his brother, it’s probably better that he was instead of some random player out there. But despite him thinking that, Luo Jin’s initial impression of him still hadn’t change. He still thought Shen Ji Yun had some kind of ulterior motive.

"What about the crossdressing and dancing part?" he asked instead.

"Oh, that’s only because of the role I was given. I kind of hate the dancing part though," Luo Yan answered then immediately added, "We also teamed up with another player, he’s from team Celestials. He’s a bit annoying because of all his side comments. But it’s kind of fun teaming up with him. The three of us cleared the blue door perfectly and get some amazing rewards. I got an item that could help my beast egg to quicken its hatching time. I even got a business establishment. I could earn money through it. Amazing, right?" Of course, Luo Yan didn’t include that new skill he earned. If he could, he just wanted to ignore that it existed. "How about you, Ah Jin?"

Seeing his second brother’s excited look as if he was truly eager to hear what happened to him during the task, Luo Jin just couldn’t refuse him.

"I was in the red door with Su Yuqi. The setting was some kind of medieval fantasy. We’re both playing the roles of nobles that had to attend this party where a prince from this other famous kingdom had to choose his wife," he said, conveniently not mentioning the part of him also needing to cross-dress. There’s no way in hell he’d tell that black history to his brother.

"You’re with Sister Yuqi? That’s great. At least you didn’t have to do the task alone."

"Yes, it actually is."

Su Yuqi’s presence actually helped Luo Jin endure all the unlucky things that happened to them in that damn door. He continued;

"The whole mystery of the door revolved around the famous kingdom I just mentioned. You see, every four years, they held a party in some other kingdom where one of their princes could picked a wife. But it turned out that all those girls didn’t end up as their wife but some kind of sacrifice instead. And the ’princes’ who looked for a wife were actually just the same person. He was a wizard who wanted to resurrect some demon king. And he used the souls of the women he picked as food for the demon king."

The men in black who attacked the prince-wizard were actually relatives and friends of those women. They caught onto the wizard’s scheme and had been planning to find a way to kill him. That’s why when they heard that a ’prince’ from Crystal Kingdom would appear again, they didn’t hesitate to crash the party.

"But that year, at least the year in the door, the wizard needed to gather more souls. Because the demon king was about to wake up and he needed a large number of souls to feed him. So, he brought his pet monsters with him and decided to massacre all the people who attended the party."

He still had goosebumps thinking about those tentacle monsters.

"It seems to be a very interesting door." Definitely much interesting than the blue door, Luo Yan thought. "It looks like you and Sister Yuqi managed to clear it perfectly. But why did it take you until midnight?"

Luo Jin’s face was suddenly filled with black lines because of his brother’s question. Because he remembered again what happened. "We were trapped."

But, of course, it was not that simple.

When that annoying Alucard appeared, he and Su Yuqi decided to act like NPCs so the guy wouldn’t know they’re players and annoyed them to join their team. It wasn’t that hard since both their avatars in the door was so far-off from their in-game avatars. Once he discovered that they were NPCs, he totally lost interest.

And when the ground they were currently standing on suddenly opened, the bastard used him and Su Yuqi as human ladders to prevent himself from falling. It’s because Luo Jin managed to grasp the edge of the opened floor and caught Su Yuqi’s hand using his other hand, preventing them to fall. But then that bastard, Alucard, clutched Su Yuqi’s foot on time before he could completely fall. Then, as he mentioned earlier, he used them as human ladders. Making the both of them fall into some underground dungeon.

It took hours for Luo Jin and Su Yuqi to get out of there, avoiding traps, not to mention some low level monsters that somehow found their way there. Once they managed to get out, the two of them couldn’t almost recognize themselves. They were both filthy, their clothes in tatters, and their bodies full of scratches.

Luo Jin swore, he’d definitely pay that Alucard back for what he did.

"Then what kind of rewards did you get?" Luo Yan asked.

He decided not to ask his younger brother about the process of him and Su Yuqi being trapped. Because based on Luo Jin’s expression just now, he probably wouldn’t tell him anyway. And he really didn’t have the heart to tease it out of him. Considering he looked like he just wanted to murder someone.

"A gem that could be embedded on a weapon to increase its attack power."

Luo Jin didn’t mention the skill he got as an extra reward. [Chaotic Tears]. A stupid passive skill that would confuse any hostile party that was near him once they saw him crying. And not just any crying, the one that involved tears and snot.

There’s no way in hell he would ever use that skill.

"That’s a good item," Luo Yan commented. "Maybe it’s time we should look for a Blacksmith to craft our weapons."

Luo Jin just shrugged as a silent agreement and picked his mug of soy milk.

"Are you ready for your exam tomorrow?" he asked, changing the subject.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Of course I am. Can Ah Jin tell me about your school?"

And the two brothers proceeded on talking about Guizu Academy.