“Then don’t play in the War Zone anymore. Just stick to the Safe Zone.” Ling Mo said it right away. “Seriously, I think this game’s designers are messed up. It’s just a game, and they set the pain feedback to seventy percent? That’s not for people to play.”

“Yeah, it really isn’t for people to play...” Xia Xinyan repeated in a strangely unreadable tone. Then she lowered her voice and said, “Because it was never made for people in the first place...”

Ling Mo paused. “What do you mean?”

Xia Xinyan fell silent for a moment, then gave him a slightly apologetic smile. “I can’t tell you why yet. But I can tell you this: the War Zone is the true core of this game. More and more people will enter this game in the future, and it’s tied to something very important. If you don’t want to fall behind, then the only way to grow stronger is through the War Zone.”

Ling Mo frowned slightly, clearly unconvinced. “What are you talking about? Isn’t this just a game?”

“It’s not just a game...” Xia Xinyan said meaningfully. After a few seconds of silence, she continued, “This game is going to have a huge impact on the world in the future, so... just think of it as challenging yourself. From now on, let’s keep playing the War Zone together, okay?”

Ling Mo’s expression turned a little strange. “Not just a game?”

This bizarre explanation had already gone beyond what he could understand.

Still, his powerful imagination instantly came up with dozens of possibilities, all of them straight out of sci-fi novels and movies.

Could this game... actually be some kind of military training test for selecting special forces?

Then why was Xia Xinyan playing it?

And also... the fact that she suddenly came looking for him, could that be related to this game too?

Did she not actually like him?

As his thoughts ran wild, Xia Xinyan suddenly took his hand. At some point, she had already walked up in front of him. She tilted her head up slightly and met his eyes, a hint of pleading in her gaze.

“Believe me. I came to find you because I like you. And because I believe you can become strong in this game. Call me selfish if you want, but could you... keep playing with me?”

Ling Mo frowned and thought for a long while before speaking in a low voice. “Is it because this is classified information? That’s why you can’t tell me? Then why did you choose me?”

Now that everything had been laid bare, it was hard for him to stay as simple-minded as before.

After all, he didn’t even know what kind of situation he had gotten himself into. In a case like this, it was only natural to become suspicious.

He knew it. There was no such thing as a free lunch falling from the sky...

Then Xia Xinyan suddenly stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“You’ll know the truth very soon. Just not yet. But you can trust me. I’ll stay by your side, and I’ll never betray you.”

Ling Mo couldn’t help feeling conflicted. “Don’t do this. I just want to—”

But before he could finish, Xia Xinyan suddenly rose onto her tiptoes, looped her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips against his.

The room fell into dead silence.

Only after a long while did Xia Xinyan slowly let him go. She looked at the completely stunned Ling Mo and smiled.

“Trust me. Just once. Once is enough, okay?”

Ling Mo stopped thinking altogether. “Ah... ah...”

He’d... he’d... he’d... he’d been kissed...

He wasn’t dreaming?

He’d really... been kissed?

And she had taken the initiative?

And from what he knew, Miss Xia had never had a boyfriend before. She didn’t even have a single male friend. So that meant...

Had he just... gotten Xia Xinyan’s first kiss?

First...

Kiss...

“Fine. I’ll trust you this once.” Forcing down his racing heartbeat, he tried to sound calm. “I don’t know why you came to find me. But if I notice anything wrong, I’ll leave.”

“Okay.” Xia Xinyan excitedly gave him another hug and let out a light laugh. “I won’t let you down.”

How could she possibly let him down?

If she did, wouldn’t that huge investment she had just made go straight down the drain?

Tsk.

In both her previous life and this one, right up until that moment, she had never once imagined that her first kiss would be given away like this.

Unbelievable.

But if she hadn’t done that, she really couldn’t think of any other way to make Ling Mo stop overthinking.

Because she had realized something very clearly: after experiencing the agony of seventy percent pain feedback, she truly couldn’t come up with any reason for someone to keep playing the War Zone.

As for her previous life, things had been different. Back then, there was no Miss Xia throwing herself at him. The system had bugged out at the start. No one could tell her what the future would be like. At first, she played the game just to try something new. Later, she saw examples of top players making a fortune in the game, and that tempted her. That was when she started getting into the War Zone.

In truth, once your strength improved, the chances of getting injured became lower and lower. Most of the time, you either cleared a dungeon almost unscathed, or got instantly killed.

But right now, no one knew that except her.

And the current Ling Mo had also lost the reason she had in her previous life for getting into the War Zone.

Money?

If he could latch onto a rich heiress like Miss Xia, would he ever be short on money in the future?

So in that case, continuing to play the War Zone was basically just self-torture.

Of course, she could also give up on Ling Mo and let him develop on his own, walking the same road he had in her previous life. But if she did that, then there would have been no point in the system bringing her back at all. Even if it wasn’t her choice, now that she had been given another life, there was no reason to waste that chance.

So if she wanted Ling Mo to keep playing the War Zone with her, she had to use some other reason.

She had considered many options back in the dungeon, but in the end, she still chose this one. In a sense, she wasn’t really lying to Ling Mo. After all, one lie needed ten thousand more to cover it up. She couldn’t guarantee that if she solved the current problem through lies, then one day, if the truth came out, Ling Mo wouldn’t stop trusting her forever.

In her previous life, she had been betrayed and deceived before. And she knew better than anyone what methods she had used to deal with those people. She knew her own temper well, so naturally, she didn’t want Ling Mo to one day get hit with that side of her.

In that case, it was better to just tell the truth.

Of course, she still couldn’t reveal everything right now. So staying mysterious was actually a pretty good choice. As for whether Ling Mo would keep doubting her... if not for that, she wouldn’t have offered up her first kiss.

Still, even though the problem had been temporarily solved, she felt like she had taken a loss—

In her previous life, she had never even experienced what it felt like to kiss a girl. Yet this life’s Ling Mo got to experience it first.

A total blood loss.

Even though they were both technically her, she still felt weirdly annoyed about it.

And most importantly, even after going this far, all she had gained was part of Ling Mo’s trust for the time being. After this, she would still need time to slowly wear him down, until he fully trusted her and accepted her.

...No rush.

Take it slow.

After all, she had already gone all in and made such a huge investment today. She refused to believe she still wouldn’t be able to lock Ling Mo down.