Chapter 17: Identity Exchange
“To make a long story short… I am one of the Light Elves in the Elf Race.”
At this moment, they also noticed that Treika’s pointed ears were indeed a characteristic of the Elf Race.
“A month ago, the empress ordered the pursuit of the traitor Kirus, and I joined the hunting team. However… in the end, we were ambushed. I didn’t expect Kirus had already allied with the Dark Faction. The team… they”
At this point, Treika covered her face and sobbed softly, “They all died… I used the relic left by my father—the Cross-Boundary Stone to come here.”
“…Then what about the Blood Bats outside and the strange occurrences in the village?” Zane asked.
“That was Kirus’s masterpiece. At that time, the Cross-Boundary Stone opened a portal, and he seemed to have directly stuffed a Mind-Eroding Grass into the mouth of a Blood Bat before throwing the Blood Bat in.”
“In other words, the large Blood Bat King outside?”
Treika nodded. “I was severely injured and had no strength to deal with it, so I could only hide here. The unique aura of us Light Elves is extremely repugnant to Blood Bats, so it dares not come in.”
“Can you heal up enough to beat it?” Endless Sea asked.
After a moment of silence, Treika said, “Maintaining this aura has already drained my power, and I can feel that the Blood Bat’s strength is continuously growing…”
It seems she is not someone they can rely on anymore.
“As you can see, our team couldn’t handle that guy. As long as it feeds on blood, there’s just no chance with our current output,” Endless Sea said, feeling speechless. They initially thought they’d find help, but it turns out they still had to go in alone.
“Feeding… huh,” Treika murmured, “I can temporarily let the Aura of Light remain on you, and it probably won’t feed on you anymore.”
“What!?!” Zane exclaimed. If the blood-sucking could be stopped, with Starry’s maneuvering, they would have a chance against the boss! It seems like there’s still hope!
“But, not right now.” Treika’s words were undoubtedly a cold shower for Zane.
“Uh… why not?”
“To maintain the excess magical power to enhance you means I can no longer keep the aura outside. I need to reduce the range. Plus, night is coming, which is the Blood Bat’s active time. It’s best to fight during the day for a chance to win,” Treika explained.
Night is approaching? Zane checked the time.
“Oh no, it’s past 5? Have we really taken this long?”
“Yeah, first there were those items that took over an hour, then taking down the Blood Bats took quite a while, and then there was cave exploration. We were moving too slowly without torches.”
“…” It hadn’t crossed his mind that it was so late, but for now there were no announcements or information released, likely the Temple Guild was also stuck.
“Hey beautiful, how long will it take you to gather magical power?”
“That depends on the energy of light. Right now, I can only absorb the magical power emitted by these fluorescent ores, at least an hour.”
“…” Does this mean they’ll waste 2 hours?
“Forget it, let’s log off and eat. I don’t even feel like grinding other monsters right now, and who knows if anything will happen to this NPC when we go out,” Zane said.
“Alright, then I’ll go eat too. We might have to pull an all-nighter later,” Treika replied.
“Yeah, go ahead, bye-bye.”
“Bye-bye.”
…
“Brother Shiu, you coming to eat?” Zane patted him on the shoulder.
“No, I’m almost level 8. A level 8 blue premium helmet just dropped, and I want to try it out.”
“Okay, then I’ll help you get food. What do you want?”
“Um, a serving of yellow braised chicken rice, please!”
“Okay.”
Leaning back in the small shop chair, Zane suddenly felt so tired. He hadn’t noticed while playing, but once he logged off, he was hit by endless fatigue. Hitting weak points continuously with Starry’s body… now that he thought about it, it was really insane. The attacks required intense concentration, and he was lucky to have held on until now. He needed a quick nap when he got back.
After packing two meals, Zane returned to his small room, hastily ate, tidied up the table, delegated tasks to Brother Shiu, and set an alarm before going to sleep.
To avoid wasting time in daze when waking up, Zane fell asleep directly with the game helmet on.
…
In the dream.
As always, he existed in Starry’s body as an observer.
Looking at the faint glow around him, Zane was a bit puzzled about where he had ended up this time. Could it be that he was blocked by someone? With this thought, he started to worry about Starry.
At that moment, he noticed a figure in front of Starry, with their back turned to her.
That figure seemed familiar; the tattered clothing and the… Radiant Iron Sword on their waist!?
No way! Zane wanted to rub his eyes to see if he was dreaming, but without control of his body, he could only watch.
Then, the figure turned around.
A strong face with sharp features, not particularly tall but a few centimeters taller than Starry, with black eyes filled with deep brilliance, smiling as he looked at Starry.
!!!
Without a doubt, this was Zane’s own body, but now he was in Starry’s body, so who was in front of him?
Could it be…
“It’s the first time I’ve seen you up close, another me.”
Zane found his hand involuntarily reaching up to caress the male figure’s face, and the words that came out of his mouth struck him like a thunderbolt!
“Hehe, didn’t scare you, right?” Starry said to herself.
Scared, his heart was about to leap out!
“Is it really that serious? You’ve played for quite a while, it’s my turn now.”
Is it a matter of taking turns? Wait… she can actually hear my thoughts?
“Of course! After all, you are another me~” Starry said proudly.
… Zane was completely dumbfounded, unsure of what to say. If she could hear thoughts, then all those dirty words from before when she was bathing, did she hear them too…
“I didn’t know before, but now…”
I was wrong. Zane never dared to think wildly again.
“Alright, alright, just kidding. In reality, I’ve seen quite a bit when you were bathing; we’re even now.”
Oh really? So we’re even…
Not at all!! What kind of nonsense is it to watch me bathe? Zane felt like the amount of information he had to process today was explosive.
“Just like how you can observe me in the dream, I can also observe you in the dream, your life is also my life,” Starry casually stated something terrifying.
Zane felt like he was about to collapse. Didn’t that mean all his special hobbies had been discovered by Starry?
“Ahem, although the scale is a bit large, a part of it is still quite interesting,” Starry said with a flushed face.
Oh my God, what a desperate public execution this is! Zane just wanted to find a hole to hide in.
