T0 Gaming Guild Saves the World

Just as everyone was tense, Zhong Zemo's cat-eared doll, who had changed into a red and white shrine maiden outfit at the last moment, spoke.

"The connection is unstable. My master has temporarily departed from the stars."

"A connection?" the jailer asked in surprise. "Is it a regional internet outage?"

"If the signal base station is damaged, I should also be affected, but I'm still here," Jiang Heyi reminded.

After waiting for a long time without seeing the squid reconnect, the group's plan to challenge the temple again fell through, and they could only stick together and do some casual hunting outside Windjam City.

Filled with questions, Jiang Heyi immediately sent a private message to Zhong Zemo after waking up.

no respond.

The phone was switched off when I tried to call it.

Sensing something amiss, Jiang Heyi opened the chat group and gestured for the somewhat anxious prison guard and Orange Tea to calm down.

A chat pop-up window appears in the bottom right corner, with the fries avatar shaking.

Plain fries: "Let's check if it's a family issue."

Jiang Heyi sent an emoji of a seal lying on the ice with its eyes half-closed.

"That's highly likely. In this situation, what can I say?"

A red envelope suddenly popped up.

"What do you mean?"

"Go check on the travel expenses."

I opened the red envelope, and sure enough, it showed I'd received a V50 bonus.

After saying that, the French fries icon went gray.

What's wrong with you? Even though you're trying to create a persona and seem cold, you actually care about other people quite a bit.

The prison guard, an expert in appraisal, said: "V you 50, go check what's going on. Whether we can start tonight depends on you... I'm so anxious, I need revenge on this Frankenstein's monster!"

"But you sent 200."

"If it's pretty much what I guessed, then let's use the remaining 150 to eat something together. We'll feel better if we're full."

It seems everyone has guessed most of it, except for Orange Tea, who is still completely confused.

Around noon, Jiang Heyi arrived at the residential complex where Zhong Zemo lived. He didn't know the building number or apartment number, so he had no choice but to ask the elderly people chatting at the entrance.

It's like an information exchange center at the village entrance; these retired elderly people know everything about the neighborhood.

"Old Huang, they were arguing in the middle of the night last night, weren't they?"

"It should be, oh my, you don't understand, around 3 o'clock, it suddenly started making a fuss. I was thinking of knocking on the door and yelling at him, but I heard his wife crying and shouting, it was scary."

The timing was right, and Jiang Heyi could only sigh.

Just as I was about to ask Zhong Zemo where he was, the surroundings suddenly became quiet.

Following the gaze of the elderly men and women, a short-haired woman in a beige T-shirt walked briskly not far away, with Zhong Zemo carrying a large plastic bag with a supermarket logo on it behind her.

Perhaps because they had created too much distance, the meticulously made-up woman only then remembered to stop and wait.

Upon seeing Jiang Heyi, Zhong Zemo was stunned. He quickly glanced at the woman, and then, under her gaze filled with a mixture of confusion and anger, he awkwardly whispered something in her ear.

From a short distance, Jiang Heyi could vaguely make out the shape of the mouth.

After a quick comparison, he was certain that the phrase repeated most often was "If there's anything, we'll talk about it at home."

Unexpectedly, the woman quickly walked up to Jiang Heyi.

He, who was originally sitting on the bench with the elderly people, immediately stood up, and the elderly people around him also tactfully made way for him.

Zhong Zemo hurriedly came up, panting, to explain: "I haven't introduced you yet. This is my wife, Du Jingwen... This is my good friend, Jiang Heyi. We've known each other for many years."

"Hello." Jiang Heyi remained calm and greeted him politely.

After looking Du Jingwen up and down, she finally managed a smile, though it looked somewhat fake.

"Is he a friend of Ze Mo's? Want to come up and have a meal together?"

"No, no, I need to talk to him about something," Jiang Heyi emphasized. "It's a personal matter."

"Is it urgent?"

Jiang Heyi wanted to say that it wasn't in a rush, but for some reason, he became a little angry.

For some reason, his temper made him change his mind: "Yes, it's a bit urgent. Could I talk to your husband alone?"

After hesitating for a moment, she looked around at the gazes fixed on her and nodded.

After delivering the bags of groceries home, Zhong Zemo, panting heavily, ran over to meet Jiang Heyi.

Jiang Heyi asked casually, "I remember, you like Cantonese food the most?"

"what?"

"Oh, what? I'm inviting you to dinner. Do you like Cantonese food? Tell me quickly," Jiang Heyi said. "Someone's treating, you don't need to pay."

A strange fire was burning inside him, and his voice rose considerably.

Having received a positive reply, Jiang Heyi found a restaurant she frequented and handed the menu to Zhong Zemo, letting him order whatever he wanted.

Poached chicken, braised platter, honey-glazed char siu, and stir-fried vegetables with garlic were served one after another.

Seeing Jiang Heyi serving him rice, Zhong Zeming hesitated to speak.

After taking a bite of the succulent char siu, using the sweetness to suppress his anger, Jiang Heyi started talking.

"Say something."

“She took off my headband and watch,” Zhong Zemo sighed. “That’s why the connection went down.”

Jiang Heyi pressed his temples with both hands and rubbed them: "We sent you a message."

"Her phone is with her for the time being."

The two fell into a brief silence, the only sound in the cubicle being the chewing of food.

"She always hated that I played games."

This is also the key reason why Zhong Zemo gradually became less active in the game group.

Zhong Zemo is a person with a wide range of interests. In his early years, he cosplayed as various oriental characters, attended comic conventions, and entertained himself.

Almost everyone who knows Zhong Zemo speaks highly of him. He acts as a mentor in many circles, selflessly sharing his accumulated experience.

He was a model kit enthusiast. When Jiang Heyi first joined the group, he saw him patiently teaching newcomers in the model kit community how to get started.

He had been into physical cards, participated in offline tournaments, and met many card game veterans.

But at some point, all of these hobbies came to an end.

He no longer shares his love for certain characters in the group chat.

There was no time left to create a tutorial on rubber bands.

The physical card was even given to Jiang Heyi.

"Can you come tonight?"

"I don't know."

"I won't talk about entertainment that requires waking up for now," Jiang Heyi took a deep breath, her anger rising again. "Do I have to control what happens when they're asleep?"

Zhong Zemo fell silent.

"Let go of the urge to help others and respect their fate."

Jiang Heyi could easily repeat these words when facing strangers, but when the person opposite her was her friend…

Have you been happy these past two years?

Zhong Zemo remained silent.

Jiang Heyi glanced down at her phone, went outside, took a bottle of orange soda from the refrigerator, and handed it to him.

"This orange tea is for you."

"And this meal was paid for by the fries and the prison guard."

"I won't say more. Tonight we'll continue our conquest of the underground temple," Jiang Heyi said. "Everyone's waiting for you."

Jiang Heyi patted him on the shoulder: "I think you were much more exciting before than you are now."

……

……

Insert the key into the lock and turn it.

"I am back."

There was no response from Zhong Zemo; several takeout boxes were casually placed on the table in the lobby.

He tidied up the desk and followed the sound to the bedroom.

Du Jingwen raised an eyebrow slightly, her gaze quickly shifting from Zhong Zemo back to her phone screen. Wearing Bluetooth earphones, she spoke softly.

"Finished chatting with your friend?"

The room is a mess. The bedside ornaments and pillows that were thrown around during the argument last night are still on the floor and haven't been cleaned up yet.

The computer monitor was knocked askew by a pillow and was barely holding on by leaning against the wall.

Zhong Zemo cleaned in silence for a long time before saying, "Next time, give my friend some respect."

Wearing headphones, Du Jingwen couldn't hear clearly.

"What did you say?"

"I said, next time, show some respect to my friend."

The moment Du Jingwen took off her headphones, Zhong Zemo's voice came through.

Very harsh.

Du Jingwen's beautiful face suddenly twisted into a fierce expression: "How was I disrespectful? Didn't I give you face just now?"

"Ultimately, what kind of friend is he to you? You don't have such a colleague, so is it related to your hobbies?"

Zhong Zemo didn't say anything, but gathered her scattered clothes back into the wardrobe that was already full of new clothes.

"Silence means you've been hit?"

After cleaning up the mess, Zhong Zemo pleaded, "Give me the game ring and the watch."

Du Jingwen's face instantly darkened.

"Have you forgotten what I said last night, what you promised me, so quickly?!"

She exclaimed, "Where did your former ambition go? Do you just have to play all the time?!"

Recalling the events of his meal with Jiang Heyi, Zhong Zemo took a deep breath: "Do I have to strive for excellence even when I'm sleeping?"

"Zhong Zemo!"

At this moment, Du Jingwen's expression was comparable to that of a witch from a survival series.

The voices were so similar too.

"I get it! You were flirting with other people in the game, weren't you!"

Every sentence is not a question, but an affirmation.

Zhong Zemo was utterly exhausted; he didn't want to explain anymore.

I don't even want to open my mouth.

He didn't know why his childhood sweetheart, whom he had known for many years, had changed like this after they entered into marriage.

Du Jingwen was still demanding an explanation from Zhong Zemo, her desperate cries bombarding his eardrums.

What other explanation could he possibly offer?

He gave her everything he could, and he always indulged her little moods, all to maintain this once warm relationship.

His concessions did not bring peace, but rather increasingly aggressive aggression.

Zhong Zemo's phone was being investigated, and his computer chats were being checked. If it weren't for the appearance of the Stars' Proof, he would have had no place to breathe.