At this moment, Lu Shi's live stream popularity has surpassed Zi Ling's, reaching the top spot in the Golden Hall.
The reason is probably something even Lu Shi himself can't figure out.
"Ugh, are these two acting out a melodramatic soap opera? When I met you again, you'd forgotten we were once in love!"
"Isn't this a case of a Taoist priest going down the mountain to exorcise a demon, only to stumble upon his former lover turned into a zombie? What a poignant tale of love between a human and a ghost!"
"So Old Ye's skill makes him forget who he is? That's a huge side effect! But the Demon Lord actually went to save him without hesitation, I'm totally smitten!"
"Sorry, this is supposed to be a thrilling and exciting A-level dungeon, but I really wanted to see them kiss! See that? The bridal chamber in the back is prepared for you two!"
"My Lord Demon Lord, why don't you try kissing him? Maybe Old Ye will wake up!"
...
Clearly, Lu Shi wasn't looking at the comments at all; he did something that neither the comments nor Ye Bugui had expected.
A demon lord, how can he not be a little crazy?
Lu Shi stepped forward without hesitation, allowing Ye Bugui's claws to pierce his body.
It hurt a little, but soon a chill began to run rampant in his body, as if it were about to freeze his internal organs.
"Lu Shi, you're fucking insane!"
Ye Bugui woke up instantly. He abruptly pulled his hand back and then hugged Lu Shi: "Do you know how powerful the Corpse King's Frost Bone Claw is?! Even the potions from the store couldn't save you!"
"Really?" Lu Shi's eyes widened, and a rare hint of playfulness appeared on his usually aloof face.
"Didn't I tell you? My technique is least afraid of all kinds of poisons. The Corpse King's cold aura is also a kind of corpse poison, so it's useless against me."
Ye Bugui stared blankly at Lu Shi in his arms, but refused to let go of him. Instead, he moved closer to Lu Shi and carefully examined his wound.
Unexpectedly, Lu Shi actually forced out the cold air.
"See? It's just a superficial injury." Lu Shi thought Ye Bugui wouldn't want to hurt him, so he tried to provoke him.
Ye Bugui's reaction was much greater than Lu Shi had imagined, which surprised Lu Shi and made him happy. It turned out that in Ye Bugui's eyes, he was also a close friend.
As for his supposed immunity to all poisons, that was something Lu Shi told Ye Bugui. In the cultivation world, he dared to say that. But now, who knows if a poison exceeding his tolerance limit might appear?
Fortunately, this zombie king's corpse poison wasn't too strong.
"Don't act so recklessly in the future!" Ye Bugui turned around awkwardly, wondering if his reaction had been too impulsive and whether it was beneath his image as a domineering CEO!
"Okay." Lu Shi obediently agreed: "Let's leave here first, otherwise they'll be off work soon."
"Alright." Ye Bugui knew that this place was not a good place to stay for long, so he used the card's ability again to return to the dungeon.
After pushing open the door, the two didn't even bother to look at the last door before returning to the second floor.
“Go to 205,” Ye Bugui reminded, “and listen to what Gao Yang’s father has to say first.”
Lu Shi thought for a moment, then listened to Ye Bugui and went inside.
After the two lay down, Ye Bugui told the truth without waiting for Lu Shi to ask.
Before that, he went to the store and spent 1,000 points to buy a signal jammer.
"What is this?" Lu Shi asked curiously.
“After using it, the live stream won’t be able to hear what we’re saying,” Ye Bugui said calmly.
"You can do it like that too." Lu Shi learned something new, but it was a bit expensive: "Won't the audience criticize that?"
"Viewers who enjoy watching the Golden Hall are already used to it; when it comes to the specific abilities of the cards, nobody wants to reveal them."
Moreover, Ye Bugui's abilities are so unique.
"My cards can pull everything into a world I create," Ye Bugui said slowly. "However, how many people I can pull, and what level of people I can pull, depends on my ability level."
"Character cards can be upgraded?" Lu Shi was even more shocked.
"It wasn't explicitly stated, but when I went to the God's Chosen instance and talked to other people, everyone said that their skills were gradually improving. You can only perceive and discover this yourself."
Lu Shi nodded, signaling Ye Bugui to continue.
"At first, my ability could only pull them into familiar settings, such as schools or orphanages. In those places, I could only rely on geographical advantages to ambush the enemy, which made me feel that my ability was rather useless."
"Until one time I perfectly cleared a dungeon and obtained the pollutant." Ye Bugui stopped and looked at Lu Shi.
At that moment, Lu Shi simply smiled.
Ye Bugui looked away and continued, "I used the skill again when I was desperate and being chased by the boss in the dungeon. I dragged him into the dungeon that I had perfectly cleared."
"I discovered that I replaced the original dungeon boss and could command other monsters in the dungeon. I could even use its skills, although they weren't as powerful as the original."
"With my intelligence, I managed to defeat the boss for the first time using my skills. But I slept in the dungeon for a week after that."
Ye Bugui said in an indifferent tone, "When I play the role of the Boss, I quickly forget who I am. Only when a flash of inspiration comes to mind can I remember my true identity and leave this virtual world that I created."
"So this skill is really terrifying; it even fooled myself. I won't use it unless absolutely necessary. Because I know that one day, I will completely lose myself in my world and become a monster."
“It won’t happen again.” Lu Shi said seriously, “Your skills are very useful, especially when dealing with bosses. And I can take care of waking you up.”
Ye Bugui, with his back to Lu Shi, didn't want Lu Shi to see the slightly moved expression on his face: "Continue to use self-harm?"
“Or,” Lu Shi thought seriously for a moment, “I’ll slap you?”
"Don't hit me in the face!" Ye Bugui said very seriously, "Then just hug me. I'm sure I'll wake up!"
"Really?" Lu Shi felt that Ye Bugui's suggestion was a bit outrageous.
"I hate being hugged by others, so my body's instinctive resistance wakes me up," Ye Bugui said seriously.
"Okay." Lu Shi chose to believe him: "Can you tell me the story of that Corpse King? Was it a dungeon you visited before?"
"Hmm, this zombie king is quite pitiful, but also quite respectable." Ye Bugui said softly, "The zombie town is set in a small town in the Central Plains, with the background being that the Central Plains were invaded by nomadic tribes."
"Do you remember that wedding night? The Corpse King was the town mayor, and he had a fiancée."
"His fiancée was killed by the intruders?" Lu Shi guessed.
“No, his fiancée joined the army.” Ye Bugui laughed: “This is not difficult in itself. Killing the Corpse King will allow you to pass the level. But a perfect pass is very difficult. After all, not everyone can imagine that the Corpse King was a weak scholar in his previous life, while his fiancée was a hero who joined the army for the people of the town and for her husband.”
Lu Shi's eyes widened; clearly, he hadn't expected things to develop this way either.
"Unfortunately, the mayor's fiancée has not returned; she must have died in battle. And the invaders have also arrived in the town."
"The mayor did not surrender; he chose to resist without hesitation. The night before his departure, he decorated the bridal chamber and placed the tokens of love between him and his wife in the coffin he had prepared in advance."
In the end, he and everyone in the town perished; the yellow sand buried the town, and even the story was forgotten.
"Sigh." Lu Shi sighed, "So the people who suffer the most in war are always the common folk."
The two lay on the floor below the bed, neither of them speaking again, seemingly still immersed in the painful little story they had just heard.
Then they heard two people's footsteps at the door.
"Yangyang, let's go home. Your mother is so worried about you that she's gotten sick."
Chapter 40
☪ Good Family Apartment 15
"Dad, let's not talk about this outside, okay?" Gao Yang complained.
The father agreed, but glanced at his own son with some displeasure.
"Dad, let's not talk about this outside, okay!" Gao Yang complained.
The father agreed, but glanced at his son with some displeasure.
Instead of going home, they're holed up in a place like this!
After the door was opened, Lu Shi and Ye Bugui held their breath and didn't dare to make a sound.
Through the crack, Lu Shi saw the appearance of Gao Yang's father. Compared to the dream, he seemed to have aged a lot, and at least half of his hair was white.
However, after entering the house, Gao's father did not sit down obediently in the chair. Instead, ignoring Gao Yang's objections, he went straight to the wardrobe.
"Dad, what are you doing!" Gao Yang lunged forward, trying to pry his father away, but his physical condition was simply too poor.
Mr. Gao had already opened the wardrobe, and when he saw the row of dresses hanging inside, the already dim light on the middle-aged man's face disappeared once again.
"You sneaked out just to wear these things and embarrass yourself! Do you know how angry your mother is about to die because of you?!"
Gao Yang, who had been holding onto a sliver of hope and preparing to have a proper talk with his father, suddenly stood still.
He looked at his incessantly chattering father, whose disdainful and disgusted expression remained unchanged from years ago.
"Yes, you're absolutely right! I do this so that I can secretly wear a skirt and embarrass myself behind your backs! Your son is a sissy, a pervert who likes men! I love wearing a skirt in the street and being yelled at and pointed at!"
The father was so angry that he was speechless. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He had clearly planned to have a good talk with Gao Yang before he came, but when he saw the dress in the closet, he was instantly overcome with anger and completely forgot that he had promised to stay calm.
He stared at Gao Yang with a stern face, and after a moment said, "You, you've become arrogant! Do the people in your company already know?"
"Yeah, I was so happy that I went to the company with a megaphone to announce it! Just like when I was in school, sigh, I'm still so silly!" Gao Yang laughed self-deprecatingly.
Lu Shi felt uneasy listening to this. He had always thought that parents and children should care for each other. He never expected that these two would deliberately hurt each other, yet their initial intentions seemed to be out of love.
This puzzled Lu Shi. He glanced at Ye Bugui beside him and realized that he didn't understand either.
The father bit his lip, as if recalling that day when his happy family life collapsed.
"You, your colleague didn't hit you, did he?"
"You're not disappointed, are you?" Gao Yang sneered. "Stop pretending now. Do you remember what you said when I told you I was beaten and ostracized at school? That I deserved to be beaten for dressing like that to school! Yes, I was the one who got beaten, not someone else. I should be reflecting on my actions!"
"Yangyang!" the father roared, his voice audible even to the players in the other rooms. "Your mother and I were angry and that's why we talked nonsense. You, weren't you the same way?!"
“For example,” Gao Yang said, as if he knew where his father’s weakness lay, he clumsily used self-harm to seriously hurt his father: “If you had known all along that I was a hopeless case, how much better it would have been if I had been the one to die back then?”
“My brother, whom I’ve never met, would probably be more suitable to be your son than I am, wouldn’t he?”
After Gao Yang finished speaking, he fell silent.
At that moment, Gao's father clutched his chest and coughed violently a few times.
"You, you...how could you say such a thing, Yangyang!"
When Gao's father fainted, if Lu Shi and Ye Bugui hadn't remained calm enough, they probably would have rushed out.
Gao Yang panicked at this moment. He glanced at his father lying on the ground, and without saying a word, he carried his father on his back and ran out.