Chapter 25 Five Skills

# Chapter 25: The Skill of Five-in-a-Row

Luo Qingxi and Spine walked along the winding path of Tentacle Village, heading toward the Bouncy Amusement Park.

The sky above the village was azure, sunlight shining through the bellflowers until they were translucent. Every green leaf, every blade of grass was pure in color, ethereal and otherworldly—like a healing dreamcore aesthetic.

At the Green Supply Station, Luo Qingxi obtained a map of the village and retrieved the daily afternoon letter from his keeper, left in the sun-warmed mailbox—

"Dear Qingqing,

I hope this letter finds you well.

I've arrived at the market outside the village. The mission went smoothly, and I bought strawberry cake.

And you? Have you been carefully judging whether the little animals around you are Holo-Humans or players? Remember not to expose your identity."

"How many times do you need to read that?" Spine, who had been waiting, crossed his arms and looked at him. "It's only a few lines."

Luo Qingxi folded the letter neatly and put it into his pocket.

On the way, other little animals were also picking up their letters one after another. Luo Qingxi aimed the pearl bracelet Solace had given him at a passerby and twisted it, but it showed no reaction.

Refusing to believe it, he tried several more times. Spine said, "Stop wasting your time. The function to read past memories only works on this game's mission targets."

Luo Qingxi asked, "This game has mission targets too?"

He had thought it was just a game to test his abilities.

Spine countered, "Or do you think Solace actually went hunting in the wild?"

Luo Qingxi: "..."

Spine said, "Alright, don't waste time on such trivial things. Hurry up and get to the next core location."

Luo Qingxi put his hands in his pockets, stared straight ahead, and strode forward. As he passed Spine, he couldn't resist getting back at him: "You sound like a scripted NPC too."

Spine clicked his tongue lightly and followed him. Looking at Luo Qingxi take out the letter again, he couldn't help but say, "Stop dwelling on Solace. Even if you see him, what then? Your relationship is no longer what it used to be. Now, there's only a cooperative relationship between you."

Luo Qingxi pressed his lips together and said nothing.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the Bouncy Amusement Park.

The amusement park had several zones, including a Splash Pool area, a Bouncy Castle area, a Card Game area, and more.

Many little pets had reverted to their full animal forms, jumping and playing in the ball pit.

At that moment, Luo Qingxi understood the selling point of this game.

The little animals in Tentacle Village had nothing to do all day except play and wait for their keepers to come home.

During the day, they enjoyed the most beautiful dreamlike scenery at the end of the world. They played without any concern for personal appearance and chatted aimlessly with unfamiliar fellow creatures around them.

After the sun set, their strong keepers would return home to feed, protect, and accompany them unconditionally.

It was such a wonderful life, day after day. They bore no social pressure at all—a completely carefree existence.

People suffering from extreme involution and anxiety in real life would probably love this game.

Luo Qingxi clicked the "Transform into Animal" button on his visual panel and turned into a fluffy arctic fox. His round, obsidian-like eyes shifted, and he stepped onto the amusement park's plush carpet with his soft pink paw pads.

Being an animal felt very strange. The surrounding play equipment instantly became several times taller. He had to coordinate his four limbs to move forward and also ensure that a tail he wasn't used to didn't sway randomly.

Not far away, the little hamster whose identity he hadn't figured out earlier was playing gobang.

Spine simply found a spot to sit, observing this absurd scene of the many animals at play.

"Little Snow Fox, come over quickly." The little hamster, as if finally full, was rubbing its round belly, and beside it lay a hedgehog with many small plastic balls stuck to its quills.

In front of it was a little yellow dog squinting, trying to decide where to place its next gobang stone.

—All of them were little animals that had visited his small cabin before.

Luo Qingxi didn't know how many animal identities he needed to figure out to pass the test.

Maybe just the three in front of him would be enough.

As he got closer, he saw the two animals playing gobang with clumsy paws.

The little hamster said, "The three of us take turns playing gobang, squeak! Whoever loses gets swapped out. Little Snow Fox, do you want to join?"

Luo Qingxi nodded and asked, "Why did you choose to play gobang?"

The little yellow dog pointed a small paw at the board games around them: "Woof! Because we don't know how to play Werewolf Kill, Script Kill, Mahjong, or any of that!"

The little hamster squeaked, "Right, right!"

Luo Qingxi, who rarely spoke anyway, found himself momentarily at a loss for what questions to ask to probe their identities.

Fortunately, the talkative little yellow dog spoke first: "Little Snow Fox, do you know how to play? Your species is supposed to be very smart, woof! There's even a snow fox statue in the middle of the square."

That—was probably due to his protagonist aura (plot armor).

Luo Qingxi: "I know how to play. We can play a game later, yip..."

Luo Qingxi abruptly cut himself off mid-sentence, his snow fox face freezing with disbelief. Such a soft, kitten-like onomatopoeia had actually come out of his mouth.

Some buffs from this game were irreversibly affecting him, transforming him.

To avoid falling into that trap again, Luo Qingxi clenched his jaw and didn't say another word.

To outsiders, he sat with his back straight, his jawline taut, gazing downward. A gentle breeze ruffled his glossy white fur, making it sway slightly—like a noble king of a silver snowfield.

The little yellow dog laughed: "Little Snow Fox, you're so aloof!"

Luo Qingxi nodded slowly with a profound expression.

Even though he didn't speak, the other three lively little animals could still chatter away enthusiastically, occasionally whispering secrets to each other. But their conversations mostly revolved around the gobang game, offering no useful information.

Because... he was just too good at gobang. Since sitting down at the gobang table, his opponents had changed one after another, but he remained unmoved, whether playing first or second.

Little Yellow Dog: "Put it here, woof! Otherwise he'll get three in a row."

Little Hamster: "No, squeak! Put it here instead. Protect your own line and you'll have a chance to win."

Little Hedgehog scratched its head, then scratched its head again.

After playing countless rounds, with the sun's position in the sky having shifted significantly, Luo Qingxi finally overcame his psychological barrier and decided to probe them again.

He placed the final winning stone and was just about to speak when the little yellow dog picked up his black stone and flung it away: "Flying sand and rolling stones!"

Luo Qingxi: ?

He looked away from the black piece that had flown off and saw the three animals in front of him had formed a stable triangle, singing and doing a weird dance—

"Traditional gomoku is just about connecting five pieces in a line. So tedious and dull!"

"But skill gomoku adds skills to traditional gomoku. So fun, it's off the charts!"

Luo Qingxi: ???

The three clumsy little animals barely managed to stay upright, flailing their short limbs wildly. If this were in real life, it would totally be labeled 'AI-generated.'

But in this game, it was basically certain that they were all players.

Because Senze's AGI couldn't possibly be this goofy...

Seeing the Little Snow Fox's dazed expression, the little animals cracked up after just a couple of dance moves and collapsed laughing on the ground: 'Hahahahahahahahahahahaha *hic!*'

"Woof woof woof woof!"

The cloud of consecutive gomoku losses lifted instantly. Little Hamster giggled and said, 'Little Snow Fox, have you come across this meme? Squeak squeak.'

In the middle of all the cheerful laughter, Luo Qingxi shook his head expressionlessly.

On the bright side, he at least found out the player identities of three animals in one go.

But right after shaking his head, he realized that holographic NPCs had their own internet and wouldn't come across memes from the real world, so he added, 'I don't know what it means.'

Little Yellow Dog was still rolling on the ground laughing, and only stopped after getting poked a few times by Little Hedgehog's spines: 'Woof woof woof, Little Hamster's dance is the goofiest.'

Little Hamster snorted twice, then turned to Luo Qingxi and said, 'Hey Little Snow Fox, wanna learn? I can teach you.'

Luo Qingxi: 'Nope.'

Little Hamster: 'Then let's be game friends, squeak. I'll send you the video later?'

Luo Qingxi paused for a moment.

Only players can add each other as in-game friends by fist-bumping.

Without changing his expression, Luo Qingxi pushed the pieces into the basket, his tone flat but super convincing: 'I'm not a player.'

Little Yellow Dog sat up on its haunches, stuck out its tongue, and said, 'Woof! Little Snow Fox, quit pretending, woof!'

A giant question mark slowly popped up over Luo Qingxi's head: ...?

Little Hamster: 'Exactly, squeak exactly, how could you not be a player? If you were really a Little Snow Fox who just got picked up, would you be this chill waiting for the owner with us?'

Luo Qingxi: ...

Little Hedgehog chimed in: 'You'd be all scared, asking us what those tentacle monsters are like, whether they'll hit you or bully you.'

Luo Qingxi wanted to facepalm, but his paws made it awkward, so he could only fake mental toughness and said, 'I'm not.'

The little animals were really quite idle. Seeing how stubborn he was, refusing to give in, they weren't angry and instead asked, 'So what did you go through in the wild as a kid?'

The character Luo Qingxi got was a Little Snow Fox raised by its owner since it was little. To make things easier, he just went along with saying he was just found, so he had no memories of childhood experiences in the wild.

But for an Arctic fox, childhood is just following its mom, crawling around the den entrance, and picking up hunting skills.

Yet it felt like something was gripping his throat, leaving him speechless.

The word 'childhood' was like a block of ice frozen for years—the moment it was mentioned, he went completely stiff.

Seeing the Little Snow Fox's black, glossy eyes drooping listlessly, Little Hamster was about to say something else when suddenly a 'dong—' bell sound rang through Tentacle Village, one after another, the lingering sound lasting long.

When the bell rang, all the little animals in the playground instantly stopped playing and dashed toward the exit. Hundreds of beasts running together shook the ground.

The sight was as spectacular as the great wildebeest migration in East Africa.

The kind-hearted Little Hamster, before running, didn't forget to remind Luo Qingxi: 'The owner is back, squeak. Hurry, hurry, squeak squeak squeak!'

Luo Qingxi froze for a few seconds, then also sprang into action with his nimble limbs, sprinting on the soft ground, joining the animal army.