Chapter 32 - Far From Enough

For the remaining time, Shu Jun was a little dazed. Had it not been for Zhu Yanchen to pull him back in time, he would’ve hit the remnants of a billboard in front of him. Luckily, Yu Jin had been focusing on searching for traces of the mutated monster and didn’t detect Shu Jun’s strange state.

The mutated monster wasn’t far from the three of them, and when Shu Jun finally saw it, it was busy chewing on another monster’s corpse.

The creature was close to the size of an elephant, with its soft neck being tightened by a collar, looking almost like a money pouch with four legs protruding out of it. Feeling someone approaching, it stopped eating in vigilance and started scanning the surroundings.

Shu Jun took the initiative to walk ahead of the team.

Yu Jin was a good teammate, so Shu Jun didn’t want him to be injured. On the other hand, he wanted to end this test as soon as possible — because this was probably the 100th time he had glanced at Zhu Yanchen’s mask.

The face of the child in his memory carried vague similarities to Zhu Yanchen’s. If the game’s official data was correct, Zhu Yanchen was one year older than him, thus that child’s age seemed to match. If it happened once, it could be regarded as an accident, but now, Shu Jun was remembering that detail in a completely sober state, thus he would definitely not let go of this clue easily.

“I’m going to take its pictures.” He said to Yu Jin, who was pondering which tactics they should use.

“No, you heard what those guys said, this thing is very dangerous. We have to set up a camera fishing rod and put some rotten meat as bait…”

“I’ll hide my aura. This is how A Yan and I went hunting before.” Shu Jun was no longer in the mood to make casual jokes. His temperament suddenly toughened: “I’ll show it to you. Even If I fail, I can ensure that you won’t be affected.”

Yu Jin was a straightforward man, so at this moment, he wouldn’t waste time arguing. He wiped the mud on his hands: “Since it’s already come to this, I’m looking forward to an eye-opener.”

He watched Shu Jun approach the mutated monster with extremely light and dexterous movements. The mutated monster was turning its huge back to Shu Jun and showing no sign of wanting to move, as if the person behind it was a ball of air.

“Oh, it really can’t detect him?” He turned to Zhu Yanchen: “Your buddy didn’t do anything particular to his body, how did he do it?”

Zhu Yanchen suspected that the mutated monster was simply scared. After all, with Shu Jun plus Monday, there were two Erosion Marshes dangling behind it. Even if Shu Jun wasn’t familiar with how to command the monsters as an Erosion Marsh, Monday was a veteran.

But right now, he could only spew nonsense in place of Shu Jun: “He has a special physique that emanates very little aura.”

He couldn’t use ‘some remedies’ as an excuse anymore . It was already quite a stretch that they told Pan ge they had some anti-erosion ‘remedies’. If they attracted too much attention, it would only be detrimental to their plan later.

A few dozen steps away, Shu Jun stealthily ran to the back of the mutated monster, then “click click click”, he enthusiastically took its pictures. Flabbergasted throughout the entire process, the monster didn’t dare to move at all. Shu Jun then made an OK gesture towards the two and, ‘very very carefully’, he tiptoed back.

As soon as he returned to the team, the mutated monster began to move — It coughed frantically for a while, obviously choking on its own food.

“This move is amazing.” Yu Jin patted Shu Jun on the back: “Very nice, take my camera then. After we pass the assessment, I’ll treat you to a feast at the Longevity Bar.”

Except for the incident of the woman being deceived by her teammates, the whole test turned out to be exceptionally smooth. Seeing that the leader was Yu Jin, the military didn’t raise any doubts and directly locked the display device on the three of them. People from the settlements covered their faces most of the time, or even if they didn’t, their appearance might change after a few days due to their deformity. Also, there had been people pretending to be someone else to join the mission before, so it was better to straightaway mark them as soon as the assessment was over.

Shu Jun recognised this. This thing was equivalent to an NPC’s label, which wouldn’t be activated until the mission officially started, and neither could it be taken off by themselves. He stretched out his wrist and asked the staff to buckle the last button. Now he was wearing a special monitoring device made by Zhu Yanchen on one hand and the official display device on the other. They sat symmetrically on his wrists, making him look just like a prisoner who just fled from prison.

“Grey Claw, you might as well add a metal chain to yourself, you know, those old-fashioned shackles.”

Being able to pass the test so easily made Yu Jin feel great. Deciding to not head home, he directly pulled the other two to the Longevity Bar for dinner. He ordered a large table of food: “Unfortunately, this mission only requires us to take photos. I haven’t gotten to see my bro Haze’s skills, what a pity.”

Chewing a mouthful of meat, Yu Jin gulped down half a bottle of liquor and exhaled heavily.

“The first time I had such a team that didn’t make me worry so much was also the first time I was backstabbed. Do you two plan to stay here, how about partnering with me… Nah, or how about we make friends? Literally everyone here has at least some respect for me, so you’ll have an easier time here.”

Shu Jun smiled: “We were actually expecting you to say this. Jin ge, your name is interesting, does it refer to tulips?”

As soon as those words came out, Yu Jin stopped in his tracks and the smile on his face slowly faded away: “Kind of, my mother really likes that flower… Today is a strange day. It somehow reminds me of the past.”

“The past?” Shu Jun quietly drank as he guided Yu Jin step by step.

Zhu Yanchen gazed at Shu Jun, and the speed at which he was picking up the vegetables slowed down. As usual, Shu Jun wore half of his face mask and only exposed his chin, and his smiling face seemed rather sincere.

“Yeah, haven’t I been taking on NPC missions for a long time? Actually, it’s not a huge matter. It’s just that I don’t feel too comfortable about the Player system. When that woman’s incident took place today, seeing that you were planning to make a move, I suddenly felt that we were a good match… What do you think?”

“We were doing odd jobs in the city before, and this was the first time we came into contact with this industry. We were also waiting for you to talk about this.” Shu Jun smiled.

“Yes.” Zhu Yanchen also said: “I’m also curious about your story.” 

Shu Jun glanced at him, feeling a tad surprised.

“People in the city normally don’t care. They’re only aware of the rough idea, and they usually don’t meet the players, so what can they know? Anyway, when the high-ups look for NPC guides, they like to pick those from unemployed people like us.”

Speaking of this topic, Yu Jin couldn’t bother hiding his disdain.

“Actually, I didn’t care about the system before, I didn’t think it was a big deal. The higher-ups said it’s a product of science and technology, dubbed ‘the most advanced synthesised human’, which sounds almost like ‘the most advanced purifier’. I used to live in the city before, and I only knew that this system was in place in order to serve the people in the military, so that they don’t have to go to the erosion zone and suffer — After all, between the higher-ups forcing you to go to the erosion zone and you trotting to the place yourself, no matter how you think about it, it’s not the same thing.”

“But you still came.” Shu Jun said.

Zhu Yanchen’s chopsticks seemed to come to a pause as he listened to Yu Jin’s words. To prevent the scene from turning awkward, Shu Jun stuffed a bunch of meat onto his bowl. Marshal Zhu stopped moving for a second, then he began to chew the fried pork in silence.

“Peaceful times didn’t last long. People need to make ends meet. In short, my family and I got out of the city and went to do things near the stronghold. Once, I was lost, so my parents went to seek help from the stronghold. Usually, the military wouldn’t rescue civilians if they ran into an erosion zone, but at that time, there happened to be a team of young players who needed some practice, so they simply turned me into the target NPC.”

Yu Jin sounded quite emotional.

“Then I had a feeling that… how should I put it? The high-ups said that ‘players’ aren’t humans in nature, they just look like humans. But I watched them closely and always felt that there was no difference… In any case, those synthesised people saved me. Humans, after all, are not animals, I have to remember their kindness.”

No wonder this man didn’t take the fixed NPC position, Shu Jun took another sip of liquor. If Yu Jin became a fixed NPC, he would be rewarded very well, but he wouldn’t be able to choose the NPC missions by himself and could only follow the official script.

What happened back then did happen. The “thank you” of that little chubby boy now indeed seemed to come from the bottom of his heart.

Shu Jun felt a little better.

“Have you not told anyone else?” As they went deeper into the topic, Shu Jun was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to control his expression, so he chewed on a piece of chili. His ears immediately turned all red.

“I must have. Am I not saying it to you two now? The problem is that, whether I talk about it or not, isn’t it useless? I remember that there were people trying to stir trouble before, but the higher-ups wiped it clean with just one single sentence — ‘Whoever thinks this system is inhumane, you can replace the synthesised humans yourself.’ If normal humans have to do that kind of work, they won’t last even a month. Who the hell would dare to make trouble?”

“And there were very few who tried to make a fuss in the first place. Most of them are already busy scraping by, they won’t even have time to care about the synthesised humans. It’s how commoners think. What about the higher-ups? The resources are all in their hands, they only need to focus on getting votes to pull themselves up the ranks, and the commonres don’t care either. Who will fight for such a thankless cause?” 

The more Yu Jin said, the more dejected he became.

“I’m a small fry who can’t barely have a say. In any case, I have to make a living, so I might as well become their guide to make them safer. Alas, I had a bad attitude towards you two at first, don’t take it to heart. I really value ​​this job.”

“Of course.” Shu Jun picked up his cup: “Come, let’s wish for our mission to turn out smooth — cheers!” 

After his ‘chattering box’ was unlocked, Yu Jin made them drink until midnight. Shu Jun was, at the very least, a ten-year veteran, so he obviously could go on and on about combat topics. Yu Jin drank gleefully and almost pulled Shu Jun to pledge life-time brotherhood with him.

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Zhu Yanchen, for a rare time, actually drank. Through the goggles, those black eyes seemed bottomless. Now Shu Jun could understand the expectation in that gaze, and he didn’t intend to avoid the question.

As soon as the two of them returned to the hotel room, Shu Jun pulled the mask and stood in front of Zhu Yanchen, staring at Marshal Zhu taking off his mask with scorching eyes. The liquor actually worked, for Zhu Yanchen’s pale cheeks had become slightly ruddy, and his usually dispassionate aura had dispersed quite a lot.

“I didn’t expect that the great Marshal was quite shy when he was a child.” Shu Jun was straightforward: “Have we met before?”

Yu Jin spewed a lot of information, which immensely helped to confirm Shu Jun’s memories. The memories that suddenly popped up in his head wasn’t an illusion. It did exist. If that child was really Zhu Yanchen, and the dream that night was also a real memory, things would become very interesting.

Zhu Yanchen slowly put the mask on the table and didn’t try to deny: “How much do you remember?”

“It seems that we really know each other.” Shu Jun straightened his collar: “The task of finding Yu Jin, were you the NPC who ran out to help Xiao Yu?”

 “Uhm.”

“It was also you who got lost in the virtual city in the middle of the night?”

“…Uhm.”

“I actually remember so much.”

Zhu Yanchen’s eyes became a little bleak.

After finally meeting an old acquaintance and retrieving unexpected fragments of his memory, Shu Jun felt rather elated. But, as soon as he started talking, his heart began to sink to his stomach.

It was normal for people to forget the trivial matters of their childhood. But Zhu Yanchen’s statement of ‘how much do you remember’ sounded really strange. If Zhu Yanchen hadn’t actually been in his past, the situation would turn out rather… intriguing.

Shu Jun wiped his face with a wet towel, and the intoxication that lingered in his heart faded a bit: “Interesting. How was our relationship before?” 

“Very good,” Zhu Yanchen said.

As if he was afraid that Shu Jun would misunderstand his politeness, Marshal Zhu solemnly added: “Extremely good.”

Shu Jun: “……” 

It was hard for him to imagine that Zhu Yanchen’s relationship with him was ‘extremely good’, and all the more, he couldn’t figure what he was really doing during that childhood.

“Theoretically, your memory cannot be restored, but your physique has changed, so things seem to become less absolute. I can’t carry a thorough inspection for you now. This mission is an opportunity. There are places in that city that are relatively well-equipped. When that time comes…”

Zhu Yanchen’s lips curled up — an incredibly rare sight: “…I’ll personally introduce Ai Xiaoxiao to you.”

This is almost the same as what I’ve guessed, Shu Jun raised his eyebrows — although he still had no idea how Zhu Yanchen got to ‘the other side’, such that Zhu Yanchen, an affluent young master, and he, a synthesised human, became friends. If this matter was discovered by the Zhu family, it would be too nice of them if they didn’t try to get rid of Shu Jun.

Now that he took a step back and thought carefully about it, if humans could dig out the truth from Shu Jun’s mind, it wouldn’t be difficult to do the same thing to Zhu Yanchen. Right now their relationship had eased a lot, and Zhu Yanchen had no need to lie about this kind of thing.

“Alright. I’ll fully cooperate with you.” Shu Jun replied very sincerely: “I really want to remember, especially since you went from that —”

Shu Jun tried to compare his height back then with the height of the child in his memory.

“— to this.” Then he compared his height right now to Zhu Yanchen’s height.

Zhu Yanchen: “…..”

The tugged-up corners of his mouth went back to its original shape, and there was a little helplessness in his eyes.

To be honest, there were only two short fragments of memories in his head, so Shu Jun hardly felt any real emotions. At this stage, knowing that Zhu Yanchen was a friend in the past, not an enemy or creditor, was enough. The situation they had to face wouldn’t get better because of this, but compared to the tense reality, this was a good addition.

At least, this could explain a lot of things.

Shu Jun thought casually while taking off his shirt.

Zhu Yanchen’s attitude towards him was cold and aloof at first, but he became strangely close after Shu Jun’s body recovered. Now Shu Jun finally found a fitting explanation.

Since they smoothly became good friends before, Marshal Zhu was afraid that they would become friends again then died miserably. Such a thing would only subject himself to dangerous, unnecessary sentiments. His subsequent ambiguous behaviours were even easier to understand — they were originally friends, so perhaps those were habits they used to develop while being together previously.

Thinking a bit more, back then, the fact that Haze took the initiative to talk to him was probably also influenced by their past connection.

After solving quite a few mysteries today, Shu Jun should’ve felt a lot better, but he found that his mood somehow turned worse —

OK, the evidence was conclusive enough. Zhu Yanchen subconsciously regarded him as a close buddy, so all his behaviours so far were out of the closeness between good friends. After all, it was Shu Jun’s romantic seedling that caused the trouble. He should’ve completely uprooted it long ago.

Inexplicably, Shu Jun felt his chest tighten a little.

Don’t think about such nonsense, he grimly warned himself, think about what I should do in the future. Perhaps when everything was over, he could still joke with the Marshal when they both reminisced about these days —  “Bro, do you know, back then, when we hadn’t met face-to-face, I had a bit of a crush on you”.

Then they could laugh out loud together. What a pleasant picture.

…Now his heart felt even heavier.

After all, Zhu Yanchen had an ex-girlfriend. Miss Xia was beautiful and cute, with an innocent  personality. She would be an ideal type for most straight men.

The human heart was amazing. The more you didn’t want to think about something, the more your brain had to drift in that direction. Shu Jun simply threw his jacket away and plunged into the bathroom. The cold water calmed him down a lot.

But, the other man missed the chance to pour cold water over his head.

Hearing the sound of water in the bathroom, Zhu Yanchen began to leisurely walk around the coffee table.

Shu Jun’s memory had begun to gradually recover. Looking from both the perspectives of their cooperation and his personal expectations, his wishes had all been fulfilled. When Shu Jun finally remembered it all, their trust would become deeper, and future plans could be carried out more easily.

But that isn’t enough.

Zhu Yanchen thought with a dazed expression.

Not enough, far from enough.

The translator has something to say: If you haven’t noticed, I updated the thumbnail for Saving Unpermitted on the sidebar hehe. I didn’t intend to create any Picrew for this novel, but I chanced upon a lovely Picrew maker that I thought would fit Shu Jun & Zhu Yanchen rather well, so here we have it.

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