"Eh? Kirito just sent a message."
Just as Akimi and Asuna were about to head over to check out the Voluptia Grand Casino, Kirito messaged them, asking them to meet at a restaurant called Sheep and Cheep.
When the two arrived at the restaurant, they found that Kirito wasn't alone at the bar—Argo and the Chinese player they had previously run into in Lecuxio were also there.
"What's this? Planning another early raid run?" Akimi joked.
"As if," Kirito rolled his eyes.
"Argo has something she wants to talk to us about."
Hearing that, Akimi looked toward Argo, who grinned and said, "Ehehe"
Seeing the slight look of disdain on Akimi's face, Argo cleared her throat and stopped teasing.
She began to explain, "It's not a big deal. Just a little quest I'd like to ask for your help with."
"Details."
"It's a quest related to that place," Argo lowered her voice.
"But I think it'll be tough to handle on my own, so of course I'm calling for reinforcements. You've heard about that place, right?"
"You mean… the Voluptia Grand Casino?" Akimi asked with a raised brow.
"More precisely, the Monster Arena inside the Voluptia Grand Casino," Argo replied, making a casual hand gesture (as if to say 'no big deal').
"Don't worry, it's just a small investigation quest. Totally safe."
Although Akimi didn't buy into Argo's nonsense, after a brief hesitation, he decided to give it a try anyway.
Then he turned to look at the Chinese player sitting next to Kirito, who had been silent the whole time, and asked, "And this is…?"
"Yu Wenjun."
The player spoke simply and directly, stating his name, then fell silent again.
The atmosphere immediately became awkward. Akimi let out a dry chuckle, silently thinking to himself: Man, this guy is seriously cold.
Kirito quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "He's a friend of mine. Good guy, and pretty strong too."
Akimi was slightly surprised by that statement—because considering how socially anxious Kirito was, the number of friends he had was pathetically small.
Noticing Akimi's reaction, Kirito slowly explained:
"Back on the sixth floor, I was doing a quest when Morte and his group started tailing me. They nearly killed me, but Yu Wenjun saved me in the nick of time."
"It was just a small favor, not worth mentioning," Yu Wenjun said calmly.
His refined tone didn't match his appearance at all.
That was the impression Akimi got.
Then suddenly, a realization struck him—this guy looked oddly familiar.
After thinking for a while, he finally remembered—
Akimi looked at Yu Wenjun with a complicated expression and slowly said, "You're the one who cursed me and Kirito the most back then, weren't you…" ( ref Ch 13 )
"I f—cough, cough."
Yu Wenjun instinctively started to blurt something out as he stood up, but before the final syllable came out, he caught himself, let out a couple of dry coughs, and sat back down.
He looked at Akimi and protested:
"How could you falsely accuse someone like that? That's slander! It never happened!"
The two of them stared each other down for a long moment, wide-eyed and silent, until Yu Wenjun finally caved first.
He slumped forward, flopping on the bar without any concern for his image, and admitted in a deadpan voice, "Yeah, it was me."
Akimi's eye twitched slightly.
Yeesh— This guy looked all stern and dignified on the outside, but who would've guessed he had the pure heart of a classic Zu'an flamer, with sarcasm flowing straight out the gate.
"Ahem, let me reintroduce myself. I'm Kira—no, wait, I'm Yu Wenjun, 17 years old, unmarried, Chinese, hardcore gamer, male and into women, no bad habits, descendant of Yuwen Chengdu…"
"Okay, stop stop stop!" Akimi gave him a deadpan look.
"What is this, a dating profile? Or are you trying to swear allegiance to some sect?"
"Huh?" Yu Wenjun blinked in confusion.
"Isn't this how you normally introduce yourself?"
Welp, Akimi had seen enough to be sure—this guy's aloofness was all an act.
In truth, he was a natural-born Zu'an dumbass with zero filter.
Kirito, who couldn't bear to watch any longer, leaned over and whispered to Yu Wenjun, "Just stick to in-game stuff for the intro."
"Oh? I didn't know…" Yu Wenjun looked clueless, but after a couple of dry coughs, he tried again, "I'm Yu Wenjun, currently level 20, weapon is a Yan-Wing Trident…"
Seeing he was about to keep going, Kirito quickly cut him off, "Alright, alright, that's enough—you don't need to spill your whole inventory like you're unloading a bamboo tube full of beans."
"Ahem…" Akimi felt like he'd coughed enough today to hit his daily limit.
He said, "Actually, Asuna and I were planning to check out that beach anyway, so we might as well do this quest while we're at it."
But when he mentioned the beach, Argo shot him a strange look, which made him pause and ask, "What? Something wrong?"
With an odd tone, Argo replied, "You and Asu-chan… want to go to the beach?"
"Yeah. Why? Is that weird?"
"Uh… how do I put this…" Argo scratched at the faux mustache painted on her cheeks with special ink and chuckled, "That target's a bit tricky, y'know?"
Akimi frowned and said, "Two people only need six hundred chips, right? That's not too hard."
"Haha, looks like your intel's a bit outdated," Argo said, arms crossed.
"Want to buy the latest info? Not expensive—how about 300 Col?"
"Shameless merchant. I'll just go check it myself later."
Argo waved her hand and chuckled, "Fine, I'll tell you for free this time—if you want to go to the beach, you'll need 30,000 chips. And the grand prize? That takes 100,000 chips."
"Thirty thousand?!"
Asuna cried out in shock.
She grabbed Akimi's arm and said seriously, "We're not gambling. Let's just help Argo with the quest and move on to the next town."
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