NOVEL FROG 045. I Have Few Friends
- I Have Few Friends
“Wow…”
Qiu Ran huddled in the corner, covering her face with her fingers, but through the gaps between them, her flushed and excited face was still visible. Nomi could faintly hear her excited muttering:
“Can I really watch this? This is so intense…”
Yavanna pressed Li Aozzi beneath her, her long blue hair disheveled, making the normally authoritative black-and-white Law IV trench coat exude a touch of femininity. Her body, influenced by gravity, was tightly pressed against Li Aozzi.
Their faces were close, and in the gold-green and grey eyes reflected in each other’s pupils, there was a momentary flash of a strikingly similar golden hue.
“Wow!” Qiu Ran’s eyes sparkled. “This is so dramatic, but I love it!”
Smooch…
Yavanna opened her mouth in shock, sitting up stiffly, separating herself from him.
Li Aozzi felt a rush of impact on his head. He was silent for a moment, then reached out to touch the bloodstain on his lips. Sure enough, there were remnants of something not his own.
“Beast… pervert…”
Li Aozzi muttered, his face turning red with embarrassment. Wiping away the stain on his lips, he cursed:
“You damn pervert! You stole my first kiss after 21 years of being single—I'm—I'm not pure anymore, damn it!”
“...Huh?”
“Give me back my purity! Damn it, if a man remains pure until 30, he can become a wizard! I was only nine years away! Now it's all ruined, damn it! You destroyed everything!”
Li Aozzi, feeling as if stung by something disgusting, quickly retreated, shrinking beside Qiu Ran and retching repeatedly.
“So gross… Ugh! I need to find a mud pit to rinse my mouth!”
Why… Why did it turn out like this?
Yavanna was kicked to the other side by Li Aozzi, who hugged the seat and wiped his mouth vigorously as if touching something unclean.
Shouldn't I be the one feeling wronged?
Her gaze lingered on Li Aozzi’s handsome face for a moment, contemplating the situation.
Maybe I didn't lose out?
Yavanna, stunned by Li Aozzi’s scolding, hadn’t yet reacted when the two handguns she had holstered fell out, landing between them on the floor.
Clatter.
In the next instant, both of them exploded into action, each grabbing a gun and pointing it at the other, pulling the trigger without hesitation.
Click—
No bullets fired.
“—I’m out of bullets,” Yavanna said solemnly.
Li Aozzi snapped back to reality, the shame of having his first kiss stolen clouding his judgment.
The gun was empty; he had figured that out himself.
[I was just nine years away from becoming a wizard…]
This wasn’t just a rumor.
In *Star Abyss*, if you’re over 30 and have no friends of the opposite or same sex, you can gain a powerful spellcaster achievement—[Pure Heart]: All spells return 10% of their energy cost.
He initially aimed for this, but it was now ruined here.
“My pure heart… my first kiss—oh, the first kiss isn’t important. You lost just a kiss; I lost 10% mana return!”
Li Aozzi wanted to cry.
He held the empty gun, pointing it at the woman who ruined his plan.
For a moment, he didn’t know what to do.
Because this woman, Yavanna, had a personal talent he also coveted. Killing her would be a waste.
“I must stay calm… I’m not young anymore, can’t lose my head.”
In the end, it was his eagerness after not encountering a worthy opponent for too long.
Li Aozzi shook his head, and Yavanna placed her gun on the floor.
Resisting was pointless now. There were three of them, and she couldn’t even handle Li Aozzi who was clearly holding back.
“I’ve lost,” Yavanna said solemnly.
Hearing this, Li Aozzi felt worse than losing.
“Hmph.”
Li Aozzi threw out the chain, binding her tightly with gravity.
Instead of returning to the front passenger seat, he sat on the floor facing her.
Nomi drove in silence, while Qiu Ran’s vigilance lessened. She looked between Li Aozzi and Yavanna, the fire of gossip burning in her eyes.
“Women are so annoying,” Li Aozzi muttered, pondering more serious matters.
For now, Nimotin shouldn’t catch up. Li Aozzi’s strategy of injuring instead of killing the agents, and letting one car go, meant Nimotin had to divert efforts to search for the missing personnel.
Given the unpredictable weather, Nimotin would likely have to regroup before pursuing them again.
This bought him enough time to complete his mission.
After taking stock of his gains and experience, Li Aozzi felt a sense of emptiness.
Boredom crept in. He missed watching short videos, reading web novels, chatting in forums…
It was either crushing weaklings or being overwhelmed by stronger foes—such battles were dull.
He could handle Nimotin, even if slightly underpowered, using tactics and gravity to wear her down, or employing terrain.
But it would delay his mission.
So frustrating!
Red and black hints flashed in Li Aozzi’s eyes. He calmed himself, suppressing the agitation within his cells, the heat from his arm pods rising.
“Why now… another mutation?”
He quickly calmed himself, repressing the mutation.
It wasn’t a full mutation yet, but it was close.
“I’m no longer a player, but I still see myself as one.”
Li Aozzi shook his head.
Players generally love challenging enemies, honing their skills, and improving their combat prowess—he was no exception.
He had no interest in bullying weaklings because it didn’t help him grow and only led to complacency.
Only by constantly challenging stronger opponents could one grow. Facing unbeatable foes was like elementary students tackling graduate-level problems—too great a disparity to be meaningful.
Only evenly matched opponents could sharpen one’s skills.
But this behavior itself might be arrogant.
Li Aozzi became the most famous Starfall Master partly due to his persistence and partly due to his mindset of constant improvement.
Objectively, the decline of the Starfall Master community was complex, significantly tied to the players’ mindset.
They were too arrogant, thinking their efforts made them invincible, neglecting to develop new skills, and mocking newcomers’ mistakes.
Early Starfall Masters became complacent, forgetting it was a high-skill profession.
They relied on accumulated experience and exclusive resources to achieve their success, then blamed newcomers for not working hard, refusing guidance—how absurd!
A community with few newcomers and arrogant veterans unwilling to refine their skills would inevitably decline.
Li Aozzi wanted to change this.
He deeply loved the Starfall Master profession. As a founding player, he witnessed its rise and fall.
This wasn’t just a player issue; NPC Starfall Masters exhibited the same phenomenon.
Changing NPC attitudes was difficult.
If players ever returned, Li Aozzi hoped to leverage their efforts to root out the NPC Starfall Masters’ arrogance and elitism.
“We lead the power of the stars, immortalized by the cosmos, with black holes as our spinning tops and the sun as our light—who else has such grandeur?”
Such arrogance had become ingrained over time.
Even Li Aozzi, the top Starfall Master player, wasn’t immune—he had come close to death several times, now realizing the danger.
“I shouldn’t do this anymore. Life is precious—sparing with players is safer. I wonder if players will return. There are several I’ve always wanted to spar with… Wait, am I thinking too much, taking everything for granted?”
Li Aozzi felt lonely and restless.
Since Nomi’s words made him realize he was no longer a player, today’s string of encounters and near-miss had left him infuriated and fearful.
Maintaining a player’s mindset might lead to a reckless death one day.