Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 503 - 140. Original identity Li Aozi: Is there really such a harmonious family?

Chapter 503: 140. Original identity Li Aozi: Is there really such a harmonious family?

"Hey, Snore!"

Li Aozi raised his hand, and the tabby cat immediately leaped off the fence, meowing twice like a person toward the house before scurrying to Li Aozi’s feet. It rubbed its cheeks against his boots, seemingly curious about the military footwear but quickly lost interest. Circling Li Aozi twice, it executed a moon-bounce leap and landed on his shoulder.

"Snore..."

The reason for the cat’s name was obvious; its unique snoring sound was very distinctive and made others laugh when they heard it. Li Aozi scratched its chin, applying the experience he frequently acquired from petting Mikhail in the shop, now to the kitty.

"Hey! Good heavens above, look who’s back!"

No sooner had he finished playing with the cat than a dry raspy male voice rang out. Li Aozi turned his head and saw Isaac’s parents emerging from the house.

Father Franz waddled over with his big belly, panting as he approached Li Aozi and glanced at his height:

"Huh, you’ve grown."

"Mm-hmm, you too, you’ve put on quite a bit," ’Isaac’ joked. "Look at you, Daddy, you used to climb trees and raid bird nests. Now you look like you’re pregnant."

"Go on with you, you brat, the army has spoiled you, you’ve lost all respect for your elders," Franz chortled, draping an arm over his son’s shoulder. "Asimov! Asimov! Come out and see who’s here!"

A robust young man appeared on the second-floor balcony. Asimov, seeing that his brother was back, brightened up, but teased:

"Didn’t we just see each other yesterday? Daddy, your memory really isn’t what it used to be, time to cut back on those calories."

"You two brothers, indeed real kin," Franz laughed, to which he immediately received a slap from Lena at his side:

"What are you saying, you old coot? Real kin or not, don’t you know for sure as their father? Weren’t you there watching when Doctor Wei Lai delivered them?"

"Well, just in case," Franz mumbled. "Look, I was so handsome and dashing in my youth. Which one of these lads inherited that from me?"

Li Aozi activated his "Eye of Truth" and took a look: Father Franz’s "Charm" was only at 4 points, and with the trouble of a balding head plus the debuff from being fat, his "Charm" was a pitiful 2 points.

"Alright, alright, today is a good day." Li Aozi smiled. "I plan to stay at home for a while, take a break, then look for a job."

"Eh, aren’t you going to college?" Mother Lena asked in confusion.

"Asimov will go, he’s good at basketball. If by chance he makes it into the RBA and became a professional star, that would bring glory to the family," ’Isaac’ waved his hand. "With my martial skills, I plan to delve deeper into the Pathway. With the little sister gone, someone has to take over the farm, right? If I progress in my cultivation on the Pathway, I aim to live a few more years, to carry on the family line a bit longer, isn’t that even better?"

"Well, you kid, others might think you’ve learned sweet talk in the army," Lena’s eyes crinkled happily as she listened, hearing about having children and establishing a family, all topics middle-aged women loved. Father Franz mumbled beside her, corners of his mouth curling up, satisfied with this decision.

"Let’s go, big brother. Today we’ll do right by you and give you a proper welcome home. Your room is also tidied up, and tomorrow we’ll visit Susanna."

Asimov patted his older brother’s shoulder and immediately felt something was off.

As a basketball center, he was accustomed to collisions. Being two heads taller than his older brother, his tap felt like it had hit a wall; the older brother remained completely unfazed, all force disappearing without a trace.

’Damn, I heard a lot of soldiers become "Martial Artists," don’t tell me my brother has really turned superhuman?’

If that was the case, he’d have something to boast about. He’d have to seek guidance from his older brother and see if he could learn a move or two to show off to the team’s power forward, let him see who’s better. With a "Martial Artist" father, how impressive is that? His brother was no different.

Asimov was feeling quite pleased with himself, while on the other side, Li Aozi was idly grinding through the friendship and team-formation section of the forum.

Any online game can’t do without a social system, but the Qiqiao Network did a lousy job—it shoved the social system into the forums. This had made it difficult for Li Aozi to find another player to mutually spur on their development before, forcing him to resort to a free-range approach.

But it was different for players.

In less than five minutes from getting off, Li Aozi had already found five teams of players from Red Arrow through the forum; only one team was playing a premade, all the others were ragtag groups formed by solo players.

"Next, I could look for Pseudo-Humans... Pseudo-Humans were the first to realize the differences between players and ordinary people. I encountered one on the train earlier, so I need to be a bit careful now. I should try to clear them out as much as possible since Pseudo-Humans aren’t too strong and they give plenty of experience."

Pseudo-Humans particularly enjoyed infiltrating ragtag groups since everyone in these groups is a stranger—usually they don’t use voice chat, don’t communicate, puzzling through instances in silence like they have social anxiety, grunting occasionally without giving any clues.

To a Pseudo-Human, a ragtag group is almost a guaranteed disaster once infiltrated. Every time they successfully replace a member, they can summon another one of their kind, breeding at an alarmingly disgusting rate.

After scrutinizing by Li Aozi, none of these ragtag groups had been infiltrated by Pseudo-Humans. He wasn’t in a hurry; even if he couldn’t find any Pseudo-Humans, it was still good to hunt monsters together with the team and make some connections.

The premade team with three players was more interesting, though. Despite having three players, they had two NPC companions.

The other party didn’t disclose the NPCs’ appearances and names, and Li Aozi couldn’t see the NPCs’ information either. After thinking for a moment, he felt he shouldn’t miss out.

Those two NPCs might be Pseudo-Humans as well.

There weren’t many players in the Red Arrow area. After some filtering, there were no suspicious teams left—just these few people.

He sent his information to a few teams. The premade team didn’t reply to him, but the ragtag groups sent some scattered messages. They took one look at his attributes:

"A level 5 Martial Artist? Never mind then."

Heh, looking down on newbies, huh?

Li Aozi couldn’t be bothered to care; he continued enjoying his dinner while waiting for more messages.

People from the premade team weren’t online, probably held up by something in real life—the timing in the game wasn’t the same as reality.

Li Aozi had stayed in the farm for a full ten days.

He paid respects to his sister’s grave and learned quite a bit of knowledge. In between, he switched back to his real body, to hand in his homework.

Cultivating, learning, driving a tractor, farming, digging potatoes.

Life was fulfilling, and just as Li Aozi was feeling content and about to master the "Farmer" secondary profession—that bunch sent him a message.

"Okay, come."

Accompanied by a set of coordinates.

That attitude... pretty arrogant.