Chapter 00075: Settling for Second Best
# Settling for Second Best
Chapter 75
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 75: Settling for Second Best
The next morning, Li Chengxi woke up in a daze.
He fumbled for the phone on his nightstand and checked the time.
It was only five-thirty in the morning.
The opening hours for Li Chengxi's convenience store were not fixed; he mainly followed his customers' schedules.
When school was in session, Li Chengxi would open before seven in the morning, making it convenient for students to buy things like bread and milk.
But now that it was summer vacation, Li Chengxi usually opened after eight.
His drowsy mind couldn't quite make sense of the situation.
It was all because he had gone to bed too late last night.
Suddenly having another person in the house, a beautiful girl who had transmigrated no less, had caused Li Chengxi to toss and turn in his bed all night.
It wasn't so obvious during the day, but when night fell and all was quiet, all sorts of thoughts came flooding in.
He vaguely remembered still being awake around one or two in the morning, and he had no idea when he finally fell asleep.
The result was that the moment he opened his eyes in the morning, his mind was a complete mess.
He even suspected that he might be dreaming, that everything that happened yesterday was part of a dream.
After all, a game character suddenly jumping out of the screen was truly extraordinary.
And then there was the matter of Section Nine, and the fact that the always kind and beautiful Lei Lei was actually a cultivator.
It was utterly beyond his understanding of the world.
Waking up at five-thirty was a habit ingrained in Li Chengxi's biological clock, but his sleep-deprived brain was still groggy.
Since it was still early anyway, Li Chengxi decided to roll over and go back to sleep.
He turned from facing the door to facing the wall.
Then he felt a warm stream of air fall upon his arm, a bit like someone breathing...
Blinking his eyes open, he saw Audel lying on the other side of the bed in the pose of a reclining consort.
Seeing Li Chengxi open his eyes, she even gave him a little wave.
"Good morning, Lord Demon God. Oh no, I mean, Big Brother."
“……”
Li Chengxi executed a carp flip followed by a twisting leap; he felt that he had never been so agile in his entire life as he jumped right off the bed.
Now, he was completely awake.
–‐‐——–‐‐——
Li Chengxi's home had the business on the first floor and his living quarters on the second, where there were some empty rooms.
Last night, Li Chengxi had specifically tidied one up for Audel and had clearly watched her enter the room.
Who knew how she ended up on his bed when he opened his eyes.
It was a good thing Audel's clothes were still perfectly neat, otherwise Li Chengxi might have thought he had done something in his sleep-addled state last night.
"Gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle..."
The sound of Audel gargling came from the bathroom.
Li Chengxi had opened the store early today.
He sat behind the cash register, pressing his throbbing temples.
As expected of someone who ran a convenience store, he had a full set of daily necessities, and he didn't even need to teach Audel how to use them.
Apparently, people in Audel's world also brushed their teeth.
Their toothbrushes were made of pig bristles, and they usually brushed their teeth with a tooth powder extracted from some kind of plant.
So, the only thing that gave her a small surprise in this regard was the slightly different toothpaste.
Breakfast was instant noodles again.
Audel seemed to be completely addicted to the taste of instant noodles.
When she came out of the bathroom, Li Chengxi held his forehead and said:
"Next time, next time don't sneak into my room again."
"Why? Are you not happy?"
"I just feel shocked..."
A look of confusion appeared in Audel's eyes.
"I heard the maids at home say that men are very happy to see a beautiful maiden when they wake up in the morning."
She was indeed very confident.
"And shouldn't the Demon God be even more debauched and tyrannical? I waited for you in my room all night, but you never came to find me. So I thought you would surely want to have a child with me this morning. A Divine Child is very rare, I want to conceive one to study it."
"..."
Li Chengxi had originally thought Audel was just a bit eccentric, but he never expected this eccentricity to go beyond the bounds of common sense.
"Do you know what you are saying?"
"Of course. Since I dared to grab the tray and be pulled into the Divine Realm with you, I was already mentally prepared to be a mother."
As she said this, she saw Li Chengxi's expression of someone whose worldview had been shattered, and now it seemed Audel finally realized something was not quite right.
"Is that not the case?"
"Hold on, what kind of reputation do I have in your world?"
"Due to the long passage of time, we don't know much. We only know that the Demon God is cruel, lecherous, and greedy, possessing a vast harem of ten thousand women. Beautiful and pure maidens must be offered at every ritual, and even when he occasionally descends to the mortal realm, it is to search for beautiful women."
"..."
Li Chengxi never knew that the Demon God played by the players was such a lecherous character.
"I'm not a scholar specializing in history, so my account might not be entirely accurate. The most mainstream view now is that the Demon God is an extremely greedy deity who wants everything and is unwilling to let go of anything. This naturally includes beautiful women, it's just that this aspect is more sensational, which is why it seems so widely spread."
Thinking about it carefully, the things that the players, who were hailed as the Fourth Calamity, did in the game were not much better than what Audel described.
A single game could be developed with many unorthodox playstyles by its players.
The more freedom, the more twisted the gameplay becomes.
For example, if one could install MODs, then what the NPCs wore would no longer be up to the game company...
Seeing that Audel was about to launch into a long speech about the 'great achievements' of the Demon God, Li Chengxi quickly said:
"No, I'm not like what you all say. I've never done those things."
"Indeed, this place doesn't look like it has a harem."
Audel had thought that after being brought into the Divine Realm, the first thing she would see would be a magnificent and massive palace, along with countless beautiful women with graceful figures.
But what she actually saw was, one could say, not at all the same as she had imagined.
Audel thought for a moment, then clapped her hands.
"Oh, I understand. You are not the original Demon God. You are the new Demon God who has taken over the divine office and divine power of the Demon God."
Let her think that.
Li Chengxi felt that as long as he wasn't branded a pervert, it didn't matter how Audel understood it...
This was, in a sense, settling for second best.
–‐‐——–‐‐——
Demon Lord Calendar, Year 648.
May third, early morning.
Outside Viola's room, Zola, who was on guard duty today, heard the sounds of scratching walls and pounding the floor coming from inside.
She knew that Viola was already awake and was still agonizing over the matter of the Demon God taking Audel away.
The main point was not who was taken, but that Viola, the number one follower, was not taken.
At this moment, Zhuoya suddenly walked over alone.
"Captain Zola."
After a greeting, Zhuoya said:
"Has Her Highness woken up yet?"
"She just got up, and hasn't washed up yet. Is there something you need this early?"
Zhuoya took out a piece of tree bark from her waist pouch and handed it to Zola.
"The druids in the forest on the other side of the Spine of the World have sent back intelligence. I thought Her Highness the Princess might be interested, so I hurried to deliver it."
"Thank you very much, this is just what we need."
The Leon Territory was isolated from the outside world.
It was difficult for enemies to get in, and it was equally difficult for Viola and her people to get information about the outside.
Fortunately, the druids had their ways.
The Springlight Woodland was also isolated from the outside world, but this outside world did not include the woodlands in other forests.
Druids could use animals or plants to send messages to faraway places.
Zhuoya was just here to deliver the message.
After delivering it, she returned to the woodland through a mushroom ring.
Zola looked at the words on the tree bark and turned to knock on the door.
"Come in."
When the door opened, one would find that Viola had returned to normal.
The sounds of pounding the floor were gone, as if she had a split personality.
Viola was the type to vent her frustrations by herself, always maintaining her princessly decorum in front of her subordinates.
Although Zola knew this, she did not expose it and said directly:
"Your Highness, Zhuoya has received intelligence from the druids about the outside world. It says that the Tandelon Navy is retreating."
"Really?"
Viola took the tree bark and looked at it, then considered it for a moment and said:
"We need to verify this as soon as possible. Call Wendy over. If the intelligence is true, we can establish contact with Sailing Harbor by sea."
Although retreating to an isolated land was safe, the day of counter-attack was far off.
Viola had not given up on her dream of restoring her kingdom for a single day.
(End of Chapter)