In the evening, three people of wildly different appearances walked along Aikley Avenue.
"Remind me again—why exactly are we out here?" grumbled Harper the goblin, clearly displeased. "Just for some supposedly super-duper-delicious barbecue this guy mentioned?"
"I take issue with your use of the word we," said Mason the dwarf, rolling his eyes at Harper. "I only invited Edith. No one invited you. You tagged along all on your own."
"Hmph! Who knows what you're up to?" Harper snorted. "As Edith's Guardian Knight, how could I possibly let her go eat with you alone?"
"A Guardian Knight who's not even 1.4 meters tall and can't mount a horse?" Edith the elf glanced sideways at Harper, clearly unimpressed.
"Heh heh, Edith, that's where you don't get it," Harper grinned, turning toward her—only to have his view blocked by two ahem imposing obstacles. All he could see was her smooth forehead. "I might not have a knight's steed, but I do have a knight's heart that longs to protect you!"
Mason visibly shuddered at the cheesy line. "Cut it out already, you're ruining my appetite."
Edith also looked helpless. If Professor Hicks hadn't personally assigned her to Harper's lab as his assistant, she would've stayed a mile away from this guy.
Earlier that day, Mason had brought five stalks of Nether Orchid to Harper's lab, where Harper and Edith were instructed to begin research on them.
By late afternoon, Mason suddenly remembered he'd promised the barbecue shop owner, Lyle, that he'd drop by. So, he went to find Edith and invited her to join him for some grilled meat.
As for Harper, Mason hadn't planned to invite him at all.
Harper was infamous as a magic research fanatic. If it weren't necessary, he'd practically eat, sleep, and… do everything else… in his lab. So Mason didn't even consider him.
Edith originally wasn't interested in barbecue either. However, when Mason mentioned the flower shop that sold Nether Orchids was right next door to the barbecue place, she agreed to come along.
After all, while elves didn't completely abstain from meat, they rarely ate it voluntarily. She wasn't drawn by the food, but she was very interested in the flower shop.
Unfortunately, the moment Harper heard Edith was going out alone with Mason, he immediately abandoned his experiment and transformed into a tail-wagging lapdog, determined to block Mason at all costs.
Soon, the trio arrived at the entrance of Ron's Wonderful Flower Shop.
"Mason, why is the flower shop closed?" Edith frowned.
"It only opens from 1 to 5 PM every day. Closed at all other times," Mason replied helplessly. "Let's head to the barbecue place next door—the owner of the flower shop should be there."
At that moment, Ron was indeed sitting in the barbecue shop with Lyle, continuing their earlier Elemental Card Battle.
Smack!
Lyle slapped a "5 of Earth" card down on the table.
The table already had a long line of Elemental Cards, each with different numbers. When Lyle played his "5," he saw that the first card in the row was also a "5."
"Ha! Destiny is on my side!" Lyle's eyes lit up. He leaned over the table, scooping the entire line of cards into his arms. "One card to turn it all around! This is fate, baby!"
Ron looked at Lyle's now-thick stack of cards and sighed.
They were playing Cat Fishing. This round had already gone on for over ten minutes. Both of them had pulled off miracle comebacks multiple times, but neither had been able to finish the other off.
Just now, Ron had thought he was about to win—then Lyle pulled another ridiculous move.
Honestly, Ron was starting to feel bored. As someone with lots of gaming experience, a few silly rounds of a brain-dead card game were fine as a time-killer—but playing it nonstop? Ugh.
That's when he noticed Mason walking into the barbecue shop with two others.
His eyes immediately lit up. He tossed his cards on the table and waved. "Mason!"
Lyle turned around and saw customers entering. He reluctantly set his cards down.
But then both men froze, their gazes zeroing in on the tall figure among the newcomers.
Graceful figure, stunning features, soft pink-tipped pointed ears, long pale green hair, and dazzling emerald eyes.
The moment Edith walked into the shop, the whole atmosphere seemed to brighten.
Especially the, uh, considerable burden on her chest—it made both shopkeepers instinctively swallow.
Edith, meanwhile, also lit up as she entered.
She completely ignored the middle-aged dwarf Lyle and looked straight at Ron—his handsome and gentle features catching her full attention.
"Ron, Lyle, I brought my friends over for some barbecue," Mason greeted as he entered. "This is Edith of the Elf Tribe, and this is Harper of the Goblin Tribe."
"Edith, Harper, this is Lyle, the dwarf—owner of this place. And this is Ron, owner of the flower shop next door."
Everyone exchanged greetings.
Edith and Harper were both surprised. They hadn't expected the Nether Orchid vendor to be this young—and this good-looking.
"What's this?" Harper's sharp eyes quickly noticed the cards on the table.
"Ooh?" Edith was curious too. She picked up a card with the letter J. "Is this… a Tier 6 Water Magic—Hydroblast?"
"A Tier 5 Fire Magic—Repulsion Ring," Harper said, picking up a Fire-type "10" card.
"Oh, those? Just a little something I've been tinkering with—Elemental Cards. They're for playing games," Ron explained with a smile. "You're here to eat, right? Feel free to sit down and try it while you wait."
"Sounds good!" Edith, clearly impressed with Ron, immediately took a seat.
Harper quickly slid into the seat next to her, locking in a prime position.
"Alright, you guys play—I'll go order for us," Mason said, heading into the kitchen with Lyle.
So Ron sat down across from Edith and gave a quick explanation of the rules of Dou Dizhu.
Ron had assumed that such a simple game would be easy to grasp. But once they started playing… he realized how wrong he was.
"Pair of Queens," Ron said as he played his hand.
Harper looked at Ron's two cards, then at his own. After some serious thought, he carefully laid down a pair of cards with a smack.
Ron leaned in and did a double-take. "That's… a pair of Jacks. They're lower than Queens. You can't play that."
"Uh… I can't?" Harper looked confused. Then, a little unsure, he said, "But your two cards are Fire Magic: Falling Flames and Earth Magic: Meteor Shower. Those two can combine into Lava-type Magic: Meteor Inferno. That's seriously powerful."
"But my cards are Water Magic: Torrential Curtain and Wind Magic: Piercing Gust. Together, they form Ice Magic: Fortress of Frost. That should totally block your Meteor Inferno, right?"
"…" Ron looked at Harper, speechless. Then he turned to Edith.
She nodded solemnly. "Mm. Theoretically, Fortress of Frost could withstand Meteor Inferno."
Ron: Am I playing Dou Dizhu or a strategy RPG?! His teeth started to ache.
Should've known better than to draw magic symbols on the cards…