Nodding, Gongcheng Yuandu stopped talking and waited quietly.
When they returned home, Gongcheng Yue had already prepared a meal ahead of time, and the four of them sat down at the table to eat.
Gongcheng Yunling did not mention to the other two that Yuandu had cried; as for why, only she knew.
After hastily finishing his meal, Gongcheng Yuandu went back to his room. Looking at his retreating figure, the second oldest felt as though something was weighing on his mind, but finding it hard to ask, he looked instead toward the fifth sister.
Yunling shook her head to indicate that she didn't know either, and then sat in the living room with Gongcheng Mu to watch television.
Sighing helplessly, he put the leftovers into the refrigerator, washed the dishes, and sat back down at the dining table to look at a video of Dark Lugiel's battle on his phone.
To others, this might be a trivial matter, but to him, it was a big deal.
Anxiously, he placed a hand over his chest. A surge of warm current flowed into his hand, and wisps of white light filtered through his fingers.
Gongcheng Yue let out a long sigh, lowered his hand, and silently stared at the paused video on his screen, where the face of Dark Lugiel filled the frame.
The scarlet, X-shaped eyes were deeply engraved in his mind. An inexplicable fear rose in his heart, only to be suppressed by an unfamiliar light glowing from within.
He didn't know when this light had appeared inside his body. Ever since birth, his constitution had been exceptionally good, and he had a strong interest in things like martial arts.
Yet the moment those three giant entities appeared, he had been enveloped by an inexplicable warmth, accompanied by an intense desire to protect his younger siblings.
Though this didn't happen constantly, it was close enough.
Pushing aside further thoughts, he called out to the two people watching TV in the living room and headed out. He still had his own matters to attend to.
Gongcheng Mu watched his second oldest brother leave without giving it much thought, then took out his phone and called a contact saved as "Big Brother."
"Hello, Big Brother, you there?"
"What is it?"
Gongcheng Mu told Gongcheng Xuansu about the favor Yuandu wanted to ask, and his brother replied that it was all a minor issue.
After hanging up, he and Yunling went back to watching TV in peace.
Sitting at his desk, Gongcheng Yuandu quietly stared at the Dark Spark in his hand, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes as he wondered what to make of it.
Without a word, he put the Spark away and began his homework. Since it was just the start of the semester, there wasn't much of it, and drawing on the knowledge in his head, he finished it in a few minutes.
Glancing at his phone, the time had just hit seven o'clock. He opened his favorite history-themed fighting game.
Impatiently starting the matchmaking, he joined a game within just a few seconds.
The rules of the game generally followed a ten-versus-ten format. Both sides could choose from a variety of characters modeled after historical figures, with no duplicates allowed, and then freely develop their strength across a large map where enemy and ally soldiers would spawn in every corner from time to time.
Players could gather their own faction's soldiers to form legions, and the victory condition required one side's players to accumulate enough kills.
The game featured multiple modes, the most classic being First Entry, Breaking the Array, General Slaying, and Flag Capture.
First Entry was a siege battle utilizing a best-of-three system. Both sides took turns acting as the attacking and defending forces. The attacking side had more troops, but the defenders' soldiers were more elite; whichever side successfully breached or defended the fortress within the time limit won.
Breaking the Array was also a best-of-three system, with teams taking turns as the array-breaking force and the array-founding force. Unlike First Entry, the troop numbers were unequal: the array-breaking force had fewer troops, and they were not elite. Victory was achieved within the time limit by destroying the enemy formation and slaying all enemy players and soldiers.
General Slaying featured twenty players in total scattered across the large map, where the side that secured the most kills within the time limit won.
Flag Capture was the standard stronghold-domination mode.
Character classes included swordsmen, spearmen, archers, mages, musketeers, and more.
There were bond bonuses between certain characters.
The game heavily tested player control and team awareness.
The mode he had just queued into was General Slaying.
Gongcheng Yuandu frowned deeply as he looked at the allied and enemy lineups.
It wasn't that he had any major complaints about his own team; on the contrary, his teammates had chosen powerful characters.
The problem lay right there.
The enemy lineup consisted of the standard three spearmen, two archers, two mages, two supports, and a musketeer.
Meanwhile, his own team had four spearmen, three mages, and three archers.
Not a single support.
In a setup like this, team fights were bound to be fatal.
The match had already begun, leaving him no time for second thoughts. He maneuvered Sun Ce to grope his way toward the nearest allied barracks, but to his dismay, he ran into an enemy warrior along the way—Takeda Shingen, wielding a long spear!
Spotting the enemy, he hurriedly controlled Sun Ce to duck into the tall grass as best as he could, and Takeda Shingen apparently hadn't noticed him.
He didn't like charging blindly at the enemy upon sight; instead, he preferred to wait until they were low on health, out of skills, or lacking a legion, then pounce out of the grass with his soldiers for a wave of cleanup.
A classic sewer rat.
Seeing Takeda Shingen leave, he resumed his cautious advance toward his side's barracks.
Just as he gathered his soldiers and was about to head to a nearby enemy barracks to farm experience, a frantic call for backup from his teammate Chen Ping, who played a mage, flashed across the screen.
Chen Ping had run into the enemy warriors Guan Yu and Alexander!
And he and Chen Ping were the closest.
Without a second to lose, he brought his newly gathered troops and sprinted toward Chen Ping.
Chen Ping seemed to have noticed Sun Ce as well and moved quickly to close the distance.
Guan Yu and Alexander were in hot pursuit. It was worth noting that neither of them had managed to gather any soldiers.
Upon reaching Chen Ping, Sun Ce unleashed his first skill against the two pursuers, thrusting his long spear forward into the pair, while Chen Ping deployed a crowd-control skill that froze them in place for a few seconds.
Struck by both abilities, the two enemies saw their health bars drop by a third, at which point Sun Ce's accompanying soldiers surrounded them and began raining down attacks.
Just as they were about to launch a counterattack, Sun Ce struck again.
"The Marquis of Wu, Sun Bofu, is here!"
Sun Ce's battle cry echoed from the phone, though Gongcheng Yuandu couldn't hear it very clearly.
Alexander immediately cast a skill the moment he cleared away a few soldiers, brandishing his spear to swat aside the closing infantry before preparing to retreat. Seeing this, Chen Ping immediately launched an attack against him.
Meanwhile, Guan Yu brandished his Green Dragon Crescent Blade and charged straight at Sun Ce atop his Red Hare horse.
Other teammates and enemies, keeping a close eye on the action, eagerly chimed in with their comments in the chat.
Blue Team Channel:
Zhang Jiao: "Crap, this Guan Yu is so bold! Daring to face a full-health Sun Ce when he's already at half HP, what's he thinking?"
Guo Ziyi: "666, gotta say these two are absolute beasts, Sun Ce's troops haven't even died out yet."
Arthur: "Looks like our side is about to pull ahead by two kills. The start of the match is so effortless."
...
The Red Team Channel was even livelier, with Guan Yu's teammates offering the pair their warmest regards. The only one who had yet to speak was Takeda Shingen.
Zhuge Liang: "Guan Yu, Alexander, what are you two doing? Can't you just retreat?!"
Li Mu: "Damn, I'm done. Can we actually play this game? Hang on, I'm coming to help right now!"
Qi Jiguang: "So tired of this..."
Li Bai: "6"
...
Watching the two enemies whose health was on the verge of exhaustion, Sun Ce—having lost only a fifth of his health—unleashed his first skill once more.
Noticing the broadcast on the public chat, Gongcheng Yuandu continued steering Sun Ce to turn and slaughter Alexander.
Seeing this, Chen Ping also cast his first skill, trapping Alexander—who was already entangled by the ordinary soldiers—in place for a few seconds.
By now, Sun Ce was already within arm's reach!
"Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain!"
A stirring, passionate voice echoed across the entire battlefield as Takeda Shingen arrived with reinforcements!
...
"???"
Staring at the suddenly appearing character, Gongcheng Yuandu was plunged into utter bewilderment. How had he failed to notice the newcomer?
With no time to dwell on it, he frantically spammed the retreat button while bolting backward.
The soldiers brought by Takeda Shingen had already drawn their bows and notched arrows, aiming directly at him and Chen Ping.
Chen Ping seemed unwilling to let go of Alexander's kill. Instead of retreating as Gongcheng Yuandu had anticipated, he pressed the attack, casting another skill to hold Alexander in place.
Three blue pillars of water erupted from the ground, knocking Alexander into the air to hover helplessly for a few seconds, while Takeda Shingen charged forward with his spear, immediately followed by a rain of arrows filling the sky.
Chen Ping's health bar instantly plummeted to a quarter. As a mage, his HP was second only to archers and musketeers, and after taking hits like that, his health dwindled visibly before his eyes.
Just as Takeda Shingen struck again, Chen Ping used his final sliver of health to take down Alexander before being cut down himself.
By this time, Sun Ce had already led his remaining troops to rally near Guo Ziyi, who was still relatively close.
Blue Team Channel:
Zhang Jiao: "No worries, no worries, one for two, we're not losing out!"
Fang Xuanling: "Pretty good, an ultimate one-for-one. From here on out, let's play safe, turtle up, and then group up to beat down any isolated enemies."
Arthur: "Right, right, play it safe! Once Chen Ping respawns, I'll go meet up with him!"