Mo Tan nodded, then didn't immediately go to the second Magic Crystal Lamp two hundred metres away with Yina. Instead, he looked somewhat flatteringly at the novice ranger in front of him and said with his head down, "Remember what we were just talking about?"
"You mean about slacking off?" Yina raised an eyebrow.
"Not exactly." Mo Tan sighed: "I've run into some trouble. If you could keep it a secret..."
While saying this, he glanced sidelong at Yina, repeating to himself, 'If you are a woman...if you are a normal woman...'
"Of course!" Yina's eyes lit up, she quickly said: "I am very happy to share secrets with others, and keep them to myself!"
As it turned out, she did indeed possess the qualities of a normal woman. It seemed that even elven females, even if they were just NPCs, were not immune to the allure of gossip.
"I need to prepare something in about forty minutes," Mo Tan said in a low voice, "I might have to go away for a while then. If you could help recharge the rest and tell everyone I wasn't slacking off when you return... especially Double Leaf, don't tell her…"
Leaning against a stone stool with great interest, the sparkle in Yina's eyes could kill a truckload of cats. She chuckled, "This is not a big deal, but what's your reason? And why do you especially want to hide it from Double Leaf~?"
Mo Tan didn't say anything but gave Yina a 'you-know-what-I-mean' look.
Yina immediately nodded, "I see~ I see!"
[What did you get from my look just now? I don't freaking understand! What a powerful ability to interpret...]
Mo Tan faked a smile and roared in his heart. But his real intention was to let the other party deviate and complete who-knows-what self-interpretation, that would be fine.
"Then I'll trouble you, Yina." Mo Tan scratched his hair and gave a silly smile. "If I don't meet up with you when everyone is gathering, just say I went to preach to the priest, I promised them earlier, so it's hard to decline."
Yina blinked her eyes: "You're so well prepared? It seems you're pretty sure about it?"
[What the hell! What the hell am I sure about!!]
Mo Tan twitched the corners of his mouth and nodded, giving a dry laugh, "Yes… Yes…"
"So have you set a date yet? Anything you need help with!" Yina seemed to have completely forgotten about the mission.
[What date?!]
Mo Tan despaired inwardly but sighed outwardly and said: "Let me continue working on these Magic Crystal Lamps first. I'll try to leave less for you."
"You can go now~" Yina generously waved her hand, "Important matters come first!"
[What important matters! Surely standard patrolling for public safety aren't trivial matters in your eyes! Sister, your stance is quite dangerous!]
Mo Tan listlessly waved his hand: "It's okay, there's still time...Let's continue..."
Yina shrugged noncommittally: "Whatever makes you happy."
For the next half an hour, they continued doing the task assigned by the Autonomous Army to the Fenrir Squad. Thanks to Mo Tan's efforts, they had completed about 70% of the work. If it weren't for his low Magic Power limit, they could have done more...
Then, around seven twenty-five in objective time, a chat box suddenly popped up in the corner of Mo Tan's field of view.
Sender: Double Leaf
Message: "Hey! Still busy?"
Mo Tan quickly replied: "Yeah, it took so long just to finish a bit more than half. Don't you have work? How are you still online?"
"If I log into the game during break times, I can rest twice as much! Well, that's about it, I'll go offline first, go for it!"
Double Leaf replied even faster, and immediately went offline after finishing her sentence.
Even though there was no 'online', 'offline', 'invisible', 'visible to XX only' notifications in the friend list of Innocent World players, Mo Tan could guess that Double Leaf had truly logged out of the game.
Then...
"What are you daydreaming about?" Yina, noticing that Mo Tan was standing still, gently patted his shoulder. "Tired out?"
Mo Tan quickly nodded, then pretended to look at the sun and sighed, "Ah! I should go now..."
There's no such thing as a watch in this world. Naturally, Yina's sense of time isn't as accurate as Mo Tan's, who splits his focus to count his own pulses. She could only guess roughly how much time had passed, so she said immediately: "Okay! Then you go ahead! I'll help cover for you in the team~"
Five minutes later
[Your connection has been intentionally severed. Would you like to reconnect?]
"No need."
[Would you like to initiate the awakening program?]
"As soon as possible."
[Received. The current time is 19:30 on January 1st, 2049. You will wake up in one minute.]
When Mo Tan opened his eyes, his mobile phone showed exactly 7:30 PM.
"The time is almost as predicted…" He got up and poured a cup of water for himself, then complained with incredible misery, "Ah~ whether it's hacking part-time or dealing with hackers, both feel very dangerous ah, and super troublesome!"
However, this kind of lament during such times from him cannot be taken seriously. In fact, no matter when he laments, it can't be taken seriously when it comes to 'Mo Tan'.