She became a heartthrob among internet celebrities.

After the two added each other as friends, Lu Jin immediately sent a message in the game: "Then I'll invite you?"

Jiang Lai: Okay!

Lu Jin directly invited them to team up, and then the two connected via voice chat.

"Have you been very busy lately?" Lu Jin's refreshing voice came through the earpiece.

Jiang Lai tried controlling the game character to move around, and said with a smile, "It's alright, a bit busy, but I can get used to it. How about you?"

Lu Jin: "I'm fine, it's just—"

"Ok?"

"nothing."

Jiang Lai didn't follow up with, "Have you played this game before?"

"This is the second installment. I've played the first one, but this is my first time playing this one."

Was the previous game also a two-player puzzle game?

"Correct."

"So who did you play with in the previous game?"

"Do you care a lot?" Lu Jin's lips couldn't help but curl up, his tone somewhat cheerful.

"Oh, wouldn't it be embarrassing if I played worse than that person?"

Lu Jin's voice paused for a moment, "No, you're so smart, we'll definitely be able to clear the level quickly."

"Thank you for your kind words?" Jiang Lai seemed oblivious to his silence.

001: "Waaaah, why are you flirting with me if you're not going to marry me?"

Jiang Lai: "Who issued this task?"

001: "I don't know, I'm just a useless tool right now."

Jiang Lai: "Then shut up."

"Hopefully we can beat the game quickly, then you can help others..."

Lu Jin interrupted her, saying, "There's no point in playing these kinds of puzzle games after you've already completed them." So I won't play them with anyone else.

“That seems to make sense.” After confirming that she had mastered the game, Jiang Lai asked, “Can we start the game now?”

Two tiny figures were standing in the hall, while Jiang Lai's character was jumping around aimlessly.

"Okay." Lu Jin started the game.

In the first level of the game, the two players need to escape from a secret room, which contains traps, ghosts, quest items, and rewards.

It resembles a suite, with a living room, bedroom, and kitchen.

Jiang Lai controlled the little figure to walk back and forth in the room. When it walked near certain items, the system would give some prompts or explanations.

"The door is locked, no password is needed, so what we need is the key." Jiang Lai looked at the system prompt, "This is a door, but it's locked. Perhaps something is needed to open it." "Won't there be a door-opening killer?"

Lu Jin: "Let me fight wherever it's needed."

"Alright, for now, let's focus on finding the key."

The two people acted separately.

"This is a bookshelf that has been gathering dust for a long time."

Jiang Lai stepped forward and pressed the interaction button. "Should we search?"

"Yes."

Soon, Jiang Lai's little figure pulled out a photo album.

"This is a photo album."

Jiang Lai opened the photo album, which contained some photos.

“Lu Jin?” Jiang Lai shared the photo with him. “Take a look at this.”

"Isn't this a picture of this room?"

"Yes, but it seems a little different. Do you see the ornaments over there?"

"It seems like one is missing?" One of the decorative items displayed in the cabinet in the photo is missing.

"It's that pig head ornament!" Jiang Lai guided her little figure to the cabinet and took out the ornament.

"Interact with the F key..."

Should we break it?

"Yes."

After the ornament shattered, a key appeared in front of them.

Just then, Jiang Lai's screen flickered a few times, and the system displayed that she was locked and had a buff that prevented her from moving for three minutes.

The background music suddenly turned terrifying and eerie, and many ghostly NPCs appeared in the room, rushing towards Jiang Lai's character.

"Save the child!! He's going to die! He's going to die! He's going to die!" A ghostly face suddenly zoomed in on the screen, startling Jiang Lai.

Lu Jin was originally checking at the other end of the room when he saw the situation on Jiang Lai's side and rushed over. In the scene, the little man was holding a knife and stabbing the ghost.

"Would a physical attack work?" Jiang Lai asked.

Lu Jin's voice came through, accompanied by the clicking of buttons, "This is an item I just found in this room, it works."

"COOL!"

"How long will your immobilization last?"

"A little over two minutes!"

“Alright then.” Lu Jin took the initiative to attack the ghosts and monsters, drawing all the hatred onto himself.

Jiang Lai could only wait helplessly, unable to do anything, with eerie music and strange laughter playing in her headphones.

"I'm impressed, time is passing so slowly."

Lu Jin remained calm, saying, "It's alright, I can hold on a little longer."

Perhaps because he had played the previous game, Lu Jin understood how to play this one, and he remained calm at this moment.

He used props to fight against the ghosts while also keeping an eye on their cooldowns and preventing them from getting close to Jiang Lai.

Lu Jin moved swiftly, making his way to Jiang Lai's side and killing all the ghosts that were about to approach her. At this point, his own health bar was also running low.

"3, 2, 1! All done!" As soon as Jiang Lai could move, she grabbed the keys and ran to the door.

After clicking the door lock and using the key, the door opened with a "click," and the ghosts in the room disappeared.

They are now free to leave the room and proceed to the next location.

"Phew!" Jiang Lai breathed a sigh of relief. "Even though I know it's just a game, I'm still a little nervous. If you mess up, will we have to start the game all over again?"

"Yeah, whoever runs out of blood has to start over."

"Wouldn't it be really frustrating if we lost this later on?" Jiang Lai said. "But we've only just reached the first level, so it's alright. It's okay if we lose. Shall we move on to the next location now?"

"No rush. Search this room now. There might be some plot holes or rewards and items."

"Okay! That's fine!"

Jiang Lai manipulated the little figure to search the room, while talking to Lu Jin: "Thank you so much just now! Otherwise I would have been dead!"

Lu Jin said with a smile, "What's the big deal? Teammates are supposed to help each other, right? You said it yourself, it's just the first level, it's okay if we fail. Besides, it was my mistake, I forgot to remind you that finding certain key items in this game will trigger an attack."

"I see." Jiang Lai praised, "I'll remember that. You're amazing!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin smiled happily, maneuvered his character to Jiang Lai's side, and handed her the blood-replenishing potion he had just found. "Here, take it!"

"Give it to me? What about yourself? You're low on health right now." Jiang Lai refused, saying instead, "Use this first to restore your health, then we'll go check out the next level."

"I can decipher code, but I'm not good at fighting. I need you to protect me. You can handle that, right? My life is in your hands?"

Hearing Jiang Lai's question, Lu Jin's heart stirred slightly, "Of course."

He didn't refuse again, but drank the blood-replenishing potion directly. After his condition returned to normal, the two searched the room again to make sure there was nothing else, and then left the initial room to go to the next location.

"Will there be a door-opening kill?" Jiang Lai and Lu Jin's two little figures passed through the door and came to an empty corridor. At the end of the corridor was another door.

Lu Jin walked beside her. "It's hard to say. This game sometimes likes to play a bit of a dark joke. Shall I go open the door first?"

"That works too." Although Jiang Lai wasn't afraid of ghosts, the kind of image that suddenly jumps out and takes over your entire screen, accompanied by some eerie music, was still a bit scary.

As Lu Jin pressed the interaction button, he quickly pressed the S key, causing his character to retreat rapidly.

Sure enough, although there were no ghosts or monsters, there was a trap resembling flying needles after opening the door. Lu Jin retreated to avoid its attack range.

“Mirror Ghost…” Jiang Lai picked up a note with writing on it. “The content on it is missing.”

"There are so many mirrors in the room." Lu Jin looked at the view of the room on the screen and manipulated the little man to circle around Jiang Lai's little man.

"There's a box, which probably contains items to help you clear the level. But if you walk past it, you'll definitely pass a mirror. I don't know what the conditions are for triggering the attack, but this note says 'Mirror Ghost,' so it must be related to mirrors. Does it trigger by looking in a mirror?"

"How about we give it a try?" Lu Jin suggested. "We can work together. You do the work, and I'll push these signs to block the mirrors."

"it is good!"

"The green sign is five from the left." "The white sign is three from the top right!"

The two worked together seamlessly. Jiang Lai controlled the little figure to walk on the grid on the ground, and then guided Lu Jin to push the sign to the designated location.

Jiang Lai used the wooden sign to block the mirror, then safely reached the box, opened it, and took out the props inside.

The two of them rummaged through the room again before finally deciding to leave.

By the time she passed the third level, Jiang Lai was a little tired.

"I'm sleepy, let's call it a day? I have an early morning class tomorrow," Jiang Lai yawned and asked.

Lu Jin: "Then you should go and rest. I'll find you to hang out again next time."

“Okay!” Jiang Lai agreed.

-

Lu Jin took off his headphones and saw the three curious faces of his roommates.

"How's it going, third brother?" "How's it progressing?"

The fourth brother spoke up: "You can tell it went very smoothly by the way he's grinning like that!"

Lu Jin grabbed his neck: "Little Fourth Brother, are you looking for a beating?"

"I told you not to call me that!!" the fourth brother struggled.

"Ignore him, third brother, tell me what's going on with you?" the eldest brother asked.

"We had a lot of fun playing the game, and then she said she had class the next day, so we canceled. I told her we could play together next time, and she agreed."

"Next time, when is the next time?" the second son asked.

"When is she free?" Lu Jin asked uncertainly.

"Idiot!! We should have just arranged a time!!" The second brother slapped his thigh in exasperation. "If all else fails, shall I step in?"

"Get lost!" Lu Jin pretended to kick him, but he dodged it.

"I'll ask her again next time. I don't want to push too hard. I just like her, and I have the right to pursue her. She also has the freedom to choose. I have to take it one step at a time. I can't be playing games with her today and then asking her to be my girlfriend tomorrow, can I?"

"Well, the emperor isn't worried, but the eunuch is," the second son said casually.

"You can't say that! It's you, not us." The leader refused to be represented.

"Pah, pah, pah, slip of the tongue." The fourth brother slapped his own mouth a few times.

Lu Jin stood up. "Let's go, go brush our teeth and wash our faces."

"What time is it? Why are you brushing your teeth and washing your face already?"

"Never mind him, let's do our own thing."

Lu Jin was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, thinking about the games he played with Jiang Lai in the past, feeling both happy and a little lost.

At least she didn't refuse my invitation to play games again, which is probably a good start, right? Besides, there don't seem to be any other men around her, and her social media posts are all about her and her roommates. I shouldn't have any other rivals, right?

……

Jiang Lai had finished washing up. She was wearing her pajamas and recording audio, planning to upload today's bedtime video.

"At the warm twilight, I usually sit in my small boat playing the flute and watching the perch. I seem to have a charm for the perch; they keep swimming around me. The moon walks across the ribbed lakebed, where the remnants of the trees are clearly visible."

It was still a fifteen-minute reading video. Jiang Lai posted it directly to Douyin and then opened her other videos.

Her earlier vlog already had quite a few comments in the comments section.

—What the heck is this "Idle Club" thing? Hahaha, can't you just join and leave it alone?

—Hahaha, it's comparable to our school's Diogenes Club!

—Our school also has a weird club called Psychokinesis, hahaha.

—I laughed so hard I almost threw up! How could it be so funny?!

—I truly admire Ma Shen Institute of Technology; research on national treasures wouldn't be possible without you.

I'm from a science and engineering university and I need a matchmaking club.

—I suspect your university of science and technology should have a gay friendship club.

—I really love the blogger's campus vlog, it's so interesting and fun!

—You've been updating quite frequently lately! Keep it up!!

Jiang Lai glanced at her follower count and exclaimed, "It seems like it's increased quite a bit compared to before. Sure enough, EVE is still somewhat useful."

001: "Yes, I've detected that you'll be able to claim your next reward soon."

"Yay!" Jiang Lai said to 001 as she climbed into bed. "Online friends are great, no pressure and no burden."

"So what are you planning to do with Lu Jin?" 001: "I'm looking forward to what's to come."

Jiang Lai was exhausted: "Look at the difficult problems you've given me."

"You can choose not to take initiative, not to refuse, and not to take responsibility."

"You've changed! You used to really like him! And what kind of scumbag talk is that?" Jiang Lai was speechless. "It doesn't matter if you're a system, but I'll get scolded."

"Or you could try having a few more ambiguous relationships. Loving one person is tiring, but loving many people isn't; it's just exciting."

"Is the thrill of capsizing at any moment exciting? I told you not to look at any random stuff online."

001: "Since I haven't had any scenes lately, I'm pretty free. How about we chat?"

Jiang Lai pulled the blanket up high. "Don't bother me, I'm going to sleep."

I just pulled the blanket over myself and ignored everything else.

001: "Hmph."