"Argh—" Her scream was cut off midway by water splashing into her cavity and flooding her vocal cords.
The yank was abrupt and swift; Amelia was submerged before she knew it.
F rank Chen Mo didn't react fast enough; Amelia had slipped through his arms. For a split second, something cold flickered in his chest, something that screamed, "No, I'm not losing you again."
That cold left as hastily as it came; Chen Mo was back to calculating.
He quickly inhaled a deep breath before slamming his head past the water's surface, diving down himself.
SPLASH!
Amelia and Chen Mo breathed out bubbles that vibrated upwards. Chen Mo swam frantically, nearly violently, downward until his hand grasped Amelia's bare shoulder again.
He desperately pulled himself close to Amelia again. One palm on her delicate waist, another behind her ear, fingers laced through her luscious silver hair.
His legs tangled with hers, forcing the distance so close that they were pressed and squeezed into one. Her breasts rubbed against his chest. Her thighs rubbed against his pelvis.
Chen Mo forced his feet toward where the apparition had yanked. Consequently, the apparition let go of its grip on Amelia. Wherever Chen Mo went now, Jack would follow, and the apparitions were afraid of Jack.
The two stayed in their embrace underwater, with Amelia's long hair spread out and wafting elegantly.
Amelia stayed because she was afraid; Chen Mo stayed to complete the mission.
Around them were dark graphite walls with eerily wide smiles etched everywhere. Above them, moonlight dispersed into the pool in sheets of pearly white.
Beneath them was a concrete slab, or the bottom of the pool, which their feet had just landed on. That reminded them that they were human, as they returned to reality with gazes firm on each other.
A pensive pause, taking in each other's eyes.
"Brrra...argurgllrr..." Amelia's message was very clear; she was about to drown.
The system's message was clearer:
[Second Task Completed!]
[Reward: 30 Sapphires]
[NEW: Store unlocked!]
[Third task: Get Mrs. Smith off your tail! (She will find and eat the bullies or murderers she finds!)]
...
"Ahhhh!!!" The two emerged out of the pool with huge gasps. They climbed up and sat atop the edge of the pool, legs kicking the water.
Amelia worked to squeeze water out of her long hair when she realised Chen Mo still hadn't let go of her legs; his right leg was still locked with her left.
Chen Mo did that to make sure Jack was close enough to Amelia, so that the smiling apparitions surrounding them at this very second wouldn't get a chance to ambush.
Amelia saw that as flirting and sat even closer toward Chen Mo, until their distance was zero. "That was fun..."
The silver-haired beauty still seemed oblivious to the supernatural, even after her ankle was literally yanked by one of them. But, considering she was an NPC, Chen Mo didn't find her lack of awareness strange; she was probably programmed this way for the game to play out as it should.
The pool was relatively quiet, so Chen Mo decided he had time to breathe a sigh of relief. He took that time to appreciate the lady leaning against him at the moment.
In her bikini, her dangerous, bewitching curves were bare for all to see. Her fair skin, paired with a flawless complexion, easily trumped any girl Vincent had ever had relations with. Her azure eyes glimmered with depth, and her silver hair, even though soaked, was still as enchanting as ever.
Her voluptuous mounds, supported by the pink-and-white striped bra, were bobbing and rippling with her slightest movements.
New livestream messages disturbed the view:
[sean_069 upvoted your stream!]
[sean_069 donated 10 Sapphires!]
[sean_069: you lowkey got potential bro]
[sean_069: don't die on me now]
Upvotes and donations were simple concepts to grasp, and now Chen Mo understood their existence in this game he didn't wish to play.
He spelled the word 'Store' in his head.
The neon-lime system returned with a new screen, fresh to Chen Mo's eyes. The title: Store. The layout: boxes with items and their respective price tags.
Chen Mo's assets were visible at the top left: 60 Sapphires. 60 wasn't a lot; the Store only displayed affordable items, and there were only eight of them.
Three of them were named single-use insta-kill daggers (SID), but of varying ranks. For 10 Sapphires, a SID that could eliminate an F-tier monster. For 25 Sapphires, a SID that could eliminate an E-tier monster or lower. For 50 Sapphires, a SID that could eliminate a D-tier monster or lower.
All the monsters Chen Mo had encountered so far were C-rank or higher, though...
For 5 Sapphires, a bottle of beer.
For 5 Sapphires, a bottle of... lube?
For 10 Sapphires, a pair of walkie-talkies.
For 25 Sapphires, a pair of sneakers.
For 35 Sapphires, a smell bomb.
The first four items were self-explanatory, so Chen Mo only extended the description of the 'smell bomb'.
[A single-use grenade that bursts out an unbearable, pungent scent. (Extremely effective against zombies, werewolves, apparitions.)]
Apparitions were obviously the main threats in a minigame called School of Apparitions, so the 35-Sapphire smell bomb would easily be very useful.
However, Chen Mo thought 35 was very expensive. It was more than half of what he currently owned.
"You wanna go steal towels from the locker room?" Amelia returned Chen Mo's attention to the minigame itself.
He closed the Store before speaking, "Yeah. Sure."
They ambled towards the locker room. The male locker room was on the left of the main entrance, while the female locker room was on the right. But it was the dead of night, and they didn't bother to care; they both headed for the male locker room.
Chen Mo didn't intend for that, but Amelia wasn't allowing their shoulders to disengage.
They stole the towels as they said they would, then dried themselves as much as possible. In the end, Amelia's long silver hair wasn't completely dry; occasionally, drops of water still dripped from its ends.
"We don't want to leave a trail for Mrs. Smith," Chen Mo advised, then retrieved another dry towel from the shelves. "Wrap your hair up."
"Great idea." Amelia happily accepted it, bent down, and began folding a turban; her bountiful bottom protruded toward Chen Mo.
Chen Mo was already scheming, analysing all the information currently at hand. Then, he decided to shove the wet towels they had just used into their duffle bag.
"Xiao Bai?" Amelia was done with the turban and perplexed by Chen Mo's actions.
"No one will notice anyway. Free towels," Chen Mo justified simply.
Amelia shrugged. "Fair."
They exited the locker rooms carefree. Chen Mo remained vigilant of the game, while Amelia was pouting, disappointed that nothing happened in the locker room.
But it's not like Chen Mo would make a move on an NPC.
Chen Mo was spooked by the utter silence outside — the pool was now free of apparitions, like a crowd of cockroaches had suddenly gone out of sight.
Then, footsteps.
Chen Mo strained his ears and found the source: the entrance back into the school's hallways.
A familiar yellowish beam of light seeped through the door slit.
Mrs. Smith was coming.