Chapter 36: The Timely Sun Yuan
“What are you following us for?” Bao Qi stared hard at Qin De as she threatened, “Leave, or I’ll have brother Sun teach you a lesson!”
“I didn’t come with ill intention!” Qin De turned toward Sun Yuan with a smile on his face and spoke with deference, “Sun Yuan… Um, leader Sun, are you still recruiting? Why not let me into your team?”
“Sorry, but I don’t know you.” Sun Yuan shook his head.
“Don’t friends start off as acquaintances?” Although Qin De was embarrassed to be refused, he could only thicken his skin and beg if he wanted to survive. “My name is Qin De, and I’m 21 years old. I enjoy playing basketball and exercising. I’m master rank in League of Legends, and I like to eat bean sprout pancakes.”
“Are you really a master rank?” asked Zhen Yu.
Attaining master rank is an incredible accomplishment.
“I’m the thigh that everyone hugged in my dorm. I carried all of them!” Qin De deflated as soon as he was done talking.
He could easily fight 1v5 in League of Legends, which was why the other guys were willing to follow him.
But in the real world, he was absolute trash.
This game was simply too difficult.
“Leader, I’m a good person willing to work hard without any complaints. Can you take me in?” Qin De was hard at work as he tried to sell himself. “You can’t possibly let the girls handle the dirty and tiring manual labor, can you? I can fill that role no problem!”
“Are you really that desperate?” Xu Qingshan was puzzled by Qin De’s humble plea.
Can’t you fly solo?
Whack!
Zhao Siyu elbowed him and glared as she warned in a low voice, “Stop spouting nonsense when you fail to realize that you’re blessed with good fortunes.”
There were less than two hours until noon. In other words, it was also the time remaining that players without honeydew mushrooms had left to live.
Who wouldn’t be scared?
“Is there a need for this?” Sun Yuan, who had never experienced such pleading, was momentarily at a loss.
“I don’t feel bad! Not at all!” expressed Qin De. Seeing that Sun Yuan still wasn’t moved, he gritted his teeth and added, “Since no one knows what will happen in the next round, you’ll need cannon fodder. I can be one!”
“You said it yourself!” Bao Qi’s eyes lit up as she interjected.
As someone who hadn’t contributed much to the team, she was afraid that she would be used as cannon fodder. Now that someone had volunteered, it was a burden off her shoulders.
“I can make an oath!” Qin De guaranteed.
He had to survive to be able to plan for his future.
“Qin De, I wouldn’t snatch mushrooms for you even if you join the team,” said Sun Yuan.
“You don’t need to trouble yourself for that!” Seeing that Sun Yuan had given his approval, Qin De immediately thanked him, “Leader, I’ll be following you from now on.”
Xu Qingshan’s lips twitched, and he felt that it was shameful for a man standing at 1.8 meters to do something like this.
He had no self-esteem.
Zhao Siyu, on the contrary, found Qin De to be someone smart and knew how to work to his own advantage.
“Let’s go,” urged Sun Yuan. He had to quickly locate Zhuo Wen and Shen Jingran.
“I’ll lead the way!” Qin De immediately made his way to the front of the team.
It was as Zhao Siyu thought; he was a smart person.
Although there were many girls around Sun Yuan, none showed signs of nervousness. This meant that they already had sufficient honeydew mushrooms.
Considering the girls’ ability to survive in the wild, it wasn’t achieved with their own strength. In that case, who was it?
They interacted with Xu Qingshan normally but treated Sun Yuan with caution, such as how they spoke.
As someone who had once been a goffer, Qin De recognized the girls’ mentality that they were afraid they would be expelled from the team if they offended the leader.
Simply put, Sun Yuan had the highest standing in the team; his might was apparent.
As for snatching mushrooms, Qin De wasn’t in a rush.
As they approached the teleportation array, there would be more people attempting to rob them. When these idiots served themselves up on a platter for Sun Yuan, who would send them packing, wouldn’t Qin De be able to loot their mushrooms?
“Surely, I can gather three honeydew mushrooms if over a dozen people come, right?” His gaze landed on Zhao Caiwei’s hand wrapped in a blood-stained cloth.
Giving it some more thought, if one of the girls died, wouldn’t her mushrooms be passed on to him?
Hence, crises were also opportunities.
Although he was sent packing by Sun Yuan in a failed attempt at robbery, it also gave him a scent of survival.
It depended on whether he could grab ahold of it.
“I previously had six other team members with whom I had to share the mushrooms. It was unlikely for us to gather many mushrooms within an hour, and we probably had to fight each other for survival. But now, any mushrooms we obtain would belong to me.” Qin De was elated and felt that he was a genius.
The group took twenty minutes to reach around one mile away from the teleportation array.
On their way there, they came across a team of five players.
It was apparent that they had honeydew mushrooms because they escaped as soon as they saw Sun Yuan’s team.
Although Qin De was itching to snatch some honeydew mushrooms, he dared not do so without Sun Yuan’s permission.
Looking around the dark spore-filled forest, Sun Yuan was agonizing over how he was going to find Zhuo Wen and the rest when a voice suddenly called out.
“Sun Yuan?” Over in the distance, Shen Jingran stepped out from behind a gigantic mushroom and ran toward him.
There were over a dozen people behind her; some he recognized while others he was unfamiliar with.
Zhao Siyu immediately focused on the girl running over.
Um!
With her looks and figure, she qualified as a school flower beauty. Her brain, however, mustn’t have been good for her to not follow Sun Yuan.
Comparatively speaking, the anime and game-loving Zhen Yu was much smarter.
She was the cream of the crop in hugging thighs.
“Shen Jingran!” greeted Sun Yuan.
“Why are you calling me by my full name? It sounds as though we aren’t friends. Just call me Jingran, okay?” said Shen Jingran as she smiled sweetly.
Femme fatale!
These two words popped up in Zhao Siyu’s mind. She had once heard from her roommate that there were girls who were skilled at picking up boys. They would make the boys fall head over heels for them before they used the boys as disposable income.
Evidently, this Shen Jingran was an experienced femme fatale.
“Are these people your friends, Sun Yuan?” Shen Jingran was surprised by Zhao Siyu and the others’ calm expressions when she swept her eyes over them.
It can’t be. Did they all have honeydew mushrooms?
Four girls totaled up to twelve honeydew mushrooms.
There was even an injured person among them.
Wait, Zhen Yu’s share should also have been provided by Sun Yuan…
“I’m working hard to be leader’s friend, but I’m currently just cannon fodder one!” joked Qin De.
For Qin De to be able to command a team, albeit temporarily, his EQ and IQ were naturally high for the task. He was eighty to ninety percent sure that Sun Yuan liked Shen Jingran when he noted her beauty.
Hence, he lowered himself and gave Sun Yuan some face as he hoisted Sun Yuan into the air. This might make Sun Yuan see him in a different light.
Um!
It was a pretty good deal in exchange for a chance at survival.
“Sun Yuan is a very good man!” Although Shen Jingran replied casually with a calm look on her face, her heart was thrown into turmoil. Why was a big, strong-looking man like Qin De acting so humble before Sun Yuan?
Just what did you do during my absence?
And what’s up with those girls?
She glanced at Zhao Siyu.
At least she isn’t as pretty as me.
“Great Saint!” Zhuo Wen rushed over and lightly punched Sun Yuan’s chest; it was their way of greeting each other. “What did you do? Have you gotten enough honeydew mushrooms?”
“Enough.” Sun Yuan could tell from Zhuo Wen’s expression that he hadn’t reached the quota. “How many more do you need?”
“Just one!” Zhuo Wen sighed. “Those ubiquitous mushrooms that explode mimicked the honeydew mushrooms too well. We barely found some despite searching throughout the night.”
“Sun Yuan, looking at your complexion, you seemed to have had a good night’s rest!” Zhao Limin came over.
Zhou Ze and Wang Xu were here as well.
Li Wan wanted to greet Sun Yuan but didn’t have a chance to do so. Instead, she breathed a sigh of relief when she couldn’t find any injury on Sun Yuan.
Opening his backpack, Sun Yuan took out a honeydew mushroom and handed it to Zhuo Wen, “Here, take it.”
Swish!
Everyone was stunned when they peered into the backpack.
That…
That’s a lot of honeydew mushrooms!
“Believe in the Great Saint, and you’ll have eternal life!” The happy Zhuo Wen poked fun at Sun Yuan.
“Wow. Sun Yuan, how did you get so many honeydew mushrooms?” said Zhao Limin as she reached for one.
Pah!
Sun Yuan caught onto Zhao Limin’s arm.
“What are you doing?” Qin De shouted, “Don’t touch the leader’s possessions!”
“I… I…” Zhao Limin was frightened by Qin De’s shout.
“Get lost!” reprimanded Qin De.
It was evident that Sun Yuan didn’t like Zhao Limin from the way he grabbed onto her arm, which was why Qin De had to work hard for his honeydew mushrooms.
Zhao Limin shivered in fear as tears flowed down her cheeks.
“Sun Yuan, I-I know that I angered you when I sided with Chu Yuntao back at the library. I was wrong. Can you forgive me?” Zhao Limin apologized.
“Let me hand out the honeydew mushrooms first; you can have the leftovers if any,” replied Sun Yuan.
Some classmates, such as Zhuo Wen, were buddies with whom he could entrust his back during a fight, while others were simply classmates with whom he had no interactions.
Zhao Limin was the latter.
“Sun Yuan, can I have two mushrooms?” Although Shen Jingran had heard from Silver Trojan that Sun Yuan liked her, she dared not wait for him to take the initiative to give her the mushrooms.
It was better to put on a weak display at times like this to inspire affection.
It didn’t matter to Sun Yuan when he had them in excess.
“Sun Yuan, can you give me two?”
“Can you help me? I don’t have any mushrooms.”
“Sun Yuan, I don’t want to die!”
His classmates cried out simultaneously.
Qin De was dumbfounded at how Sun Yuan handed out the honeydew mushrooms.
This can’t go on.
Where’s my share?
He stopped himself just as the words were about to leave his mouth.
It was because of his situation that he had to remain calm.
But, deep in his heart, he was still envious of these people.
It was highly unfair for them to receive the honeydew mushrooms solely because they were classmates with Sun Yuan.
The students who came with Shen Jingran were green with envy; they were so agitated that their eyes were red.
“Great Saint, thank you!” Wang Xu was very grateful to him.
“You’re my good brother from now on, Sun Yuan. I’ll even introduce my little sister to you as a girlfriend!” cried Zhou Ze as he teared up.
He was thankful that he didn’t have to die anymore.
They naturally had the right to receive three honeydew mushrooms from Sun Yuan when they were his roommates.
“Sun Yuan, how can you be this heartless?” roared Zhao Limin. She was upset.
She didn’t receive a single mushroom.
Ignoring her, Sun Yuan turned to Qin De as he signaled Zhen Yu to hand the rein of the fragrant pig over to Qin De. “I’ll give this pig, who can find honeydew mushrooms, to you.”
Everyone turned toward the pig with a crown of red hair at Sun Yuan’s words.
“This was found by senior; isn’t he incredible?” Zhen Yu proudly stood with arms akimbo.
“Did you gather sufficient mushrooms early in the game?” Shen Jingran was amazed.
“That’s right!” laughed Zhen Yu, “Before evening.”
I’m so dumb!
Shen Jingran was so angry that she wanted to give herself one tight slap across the face.
If only I had kept up with Sun Yuan, I would have been able to sleep peacefully and not be frantically searching the whole night with only one mushroom to show for it.
“Zhao Limin, Li Wan, and the rest of you should follow Qin De to search for the mushrooms.” Sun Yuan didn’t have sufficient honeydew mushrooms to go around. Besides his roommates, Wang Xu and Zhou Ze, everyone else got one mushroom.
“Leader, I’ll go on ahead then!” said Qin De as he left in a hurry.
“Hey, why are you running so fast? Slow down and wait for me!” scolded Zhao Limin.
“Thank you, Sun Yuan!” The students all thanked him before they chased after Qin De excitedly.
Their chances of survival rose significantly with the mushroom given by Sun Yuan.
“Jingran, you guys have all gotten honeydew mushrooms, but what about us?” asked Chen Yang with an unsightly look on his face.
His group of six men was gathered under Shen Jingran’s banner. But now that she had obtained her share of mushrooms, it was evident that she wanted to abandon them.
Furthermore, they were displeased with how Shen Jingran intimately interacted with Sun Yuan.
She owed them an explanation.
~~~
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