Chapter 148: Does she think I like her? No way! Absolutely not!

Hearing Qingyan's reply, Xi Yan felt even more shocked. Judging by her words, did she have an even larger "tent" inside her backpack?

It felt as though Qingyan was not struggling to survive at all; truly, a big sister from the main city was different.

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and eat!" Qingyan said with a smile as she sat down opposite him, urging him on.

After resting in the tent for a while and eating some food, Xi Yan proposed taking the first watch.

"Didn't we agree that I would take the first half of the night and you would take the second half?" Qingyan stopped him.

Xi Yan replied, "It's fine. I can just keep watch for the entire night. You should stay here and get a good rest."

Without waiting for Qingyan's response, he turned and left the tent. Qingyan wanted to stop him again, but looking at his departing back, an inexplicable sweetness suddenly welled up in her heart.

Thus, the hand she had extended to stop him remained suspended in mid-air before slowly pulling back.

After withdrawing her hand, she clasped them together, pressed them against her chest, and a shy expression bloomed on her face.

He must care about me, too... otherwise, why wouldn't she bear to let me take the night watch?

Qingyan comforted herself with this sweet thought.

In reality, that was not the reason at all. Xi Yan wanted to go out and keep watch because he wished to gather more clues about the amusement park.

He had never expected that his actions would lead to Qingyan's misunderstanding.

...

Xi Yan left the tent and sat down on the steps right outside.

The sky had gradually darkened, and the number of people continuing to play on the amusement facilities dwindled, though a few were still grinding for points throughout the night.

Xi Yan suddenly grew curious: if people stopped playing the amusement facilities, where did they sleep at night?

Thinking of the hypothesis he wanted to verify, Xi Yan decided that nighttime was the best time.

Because at this hour, not many players were actively grinding points, giving him the opportunity to test whether the leaderboard was truly ranked based on the number of times a survivor participated.

...

"Why are you sitting out here?" Bai Yuan appeared abruptly. However, having been startled by him so many times, Xi Yan had already developed an immunity and felt no great surprise this time.

"It's already night, isn't it? I'll continue grinding points tomorrow," Xi Yan answered very honestly.

"This tent..." Bai Yuan glanced sideways at the tent behind Xi Yan.

Without even turning his head, Xi Yan replied, "Qingyan is inside. She's been tired all day, so I let her rest in there."

"I wouldn't have guessed you could be so considerate and gentle," Bai Yuan said suddenly, squatting down to sit beside him.

The two of them sat together like old friends and began to chat idly.

"Why did you suddenly come looking for me again?" Xi Yan asked.

"I'm here to give you some information. After all, I think highly of you and hope you'll end up winning," Bai Yuan replied, drawing a piece of paper from his tunic and handing it to Xi Yan.

Puzzled, Xi Yan took the paper, unfolded it, and instantly froze.

He looked up at Bai Yuan in disbelief, glanced back down at the paper in his hands, and asked uncertainly, "Did you really mean to give this to me? Didn't you hand me the wrong thing?"

Bai Yuan chuckled, crossed his arms behind his head, and stretched his neck from side to side. "Isn't it just the rules of the leaderboard? It's no big deal."

"Huh? The rules of the leaderboard..." Xi Yan looked down at the paper in his hands once more.

The paper Bai Yuan had handed him clearly detailed a method for rapidly farming points—how on earth did it become the rules of the leaderboard?

Seeing that Xi Yan still looked somewhat doubtful, Bai Yuan suddenly lost his own composure. Realizing that he still had other items in his possession, he hastily snatched the paper back.

The movement was so swift that Xi Yan didn't even have time to react. By the time he came to his senses, Bai Yuan had already opened the paper and was reading its contents.

Upon seeing the large characters at the top of the white paper, Bai Yuan felt a sudden buzzing in his head.

Noticing Bai Yuan's unusual behavior, Xi Yan became even more certain of his previous guess: Bai Yuan had definitely given him the wrong item.

Regardless of whether it was a mistake or not, he had already memorized the contents of that paper.

To mask his awkwardness, Bai Yuan recovered his composure with remarkable speed and nonchalance, telling Xi Yan, "I didn't give you the wrong thing. This is meant for you, I just forgot to give you something else along with it. Here you go."

Bai Yuan looked composed on the outside, but inside, his heart was bleeding. That strategy manual for rapid point farming could have been sold for a hefty sum of points! Yet it had just been seen by Xi Yan like that.

On second thought, however, Bai Yuan rationalized that since Xi Yan had only glanced at it for a few moments, he probably hadn't memorized the whole thing. If that were the case, it wasn't a severe loss.

Bai Yuan began to comfort himself inwardly.

Still, he hadn't forgotten his purpose for coming. He was a man of his word; since he had decided to give Xi Yan the leaderboard rules, he would not go back on it.

Thus, Bai Yuan reached into his tunic once more and pulled out an identical sheet of paper. This time, however, he checked the contents first before handing it over to Xi Yan.

Watching his actions, Xi Yan started to chuckle inwardly.

Instead of feeling any fear toward Bai Yuan, he found him remarkably approachable and even a little cute.

Why was Qingyan so terrified of him? Was it merely due to an overwhelming gap in strength?

Xi Yan was utterly baffled, but ultimately set the thought aside to focus on other matters.

"The item I'm giving you this time is indeed the leaderboard rules. Take a good look at it," Bai Yuan said, gesturing toward the paper in Xi Yan's hand.

Xi Yan nodded and replied, "Since you have such high confidence in me, I certainly won't let down your expectations."

"Very well, study it carefully yourself. I'll be going now. There are quite a few customers at night, and I can still sell a lot of guides..."

With that, Bai Yuan stood up, brushed the dust off his clothes, and walked off into the distance. Before long, his figure completely vanished from Xi Yan's sight.

"This guy is truly a bit strange... Never mind him, let's see what rules this leaderboard actually has." Xi Yan happily began browsing the contents of the paper.