The Coward - Chapter 3

After joining Gui’an, Li Jingchi showed no interest in the titles or authority the organization offered him.

Whenever they rewarded him with rare treasures, he tossed them to me as casually as if throwing away trash.

With Li Jingchi’s strength, however, the organization naturally matched him with instances ranked S or higher.

In that elite team, I was the weakest and the most cowardly.

A burden, as everyone knew perfectly well.

Li Jingchi was the team captain. The vice-captain was named Shen Tingxue. On missions, the two worked in perfect harmony, and they often chatted around the base.

“Hey, Old Li. That Gu Lin—does she have a crush on you?”

Li Jingchi arched a brow. “What makes you say that?”

“She’s always fawning all over you.” Shen Tingxue rolled her eyes. “Clinging to you every day like some scheming innocent, flattering you and currying favor. What else could it be but wanting you to like her back? I’m not the only one who sees it. Everyone does.”

Li Jingchi kept both hands in his pockets, his steps slowing by half a beat.

“Oh. Is that so?”

“Just ‘oh’? That’s cold. Aren’t you happy?”

“The world is full of people who worship the strong. Am I supposed to throw a celebration for every one of them?”

“Pfft. How cruel. What a shame for the poor girl’s tender little heart.”

I happened to be passing and stood frozen behind the corner, listening.

Everyone thought… I liked Li Jingchi?

If I truly did like him, there was only one possible explanation: he had frightened me into a heart attack, and I had mistaken the palpitations for love.

Yet the next day, when the entire team entered an SSS-rank instance that had wiped out countless squads, Li Jingchi was conspicuously distracted, and the mission ground to a halt.

When Shen Tingxue tried to communicate with him, he barely responded.

At last, after one team member was badly injured for breaking a rule, Shen Tingxue panicked. She shoved me toward Li Jingchi.

“Go. Aren’t you the best at sweet-talking people? I don’t care what you say—make Old Li happy, now, or we’re all going to die in here!”

I had no choice but to shuffle over. “A-A-Chi, are you all right?”

At the sight of me, Li Jingchi’s pupils focused, as if he had only just come back to himself.

He abruptly reached out and seized my wrist.

“Come with me. I have something to tell you.”

【Teleportation】

Being dragged through a teleportation felt awful. It was as though all my organs had been displaced.

When I looked around again, there was nothing but darkness and deathly silence.

My legs immediately began to weaken.

Li Jingchi still had my wrist in a tight grip.

“Gu Lin, I like you too.”

Huh?

I pulled my gaze back, still dazed. “Oh… Thank you?”

“Thank me, my ass! Who responds to a confession by saying thank you?” Li Jingchi sounded irritated, but his ears were red and the corners of his mouth kept curling upward. “So you accept? You’ll be my girlfriend.”

I paused and instinctively raised my head.

I looked him straight in the eyes.

“No.”

Now it was Li Jingchi’s turn to freeze.

The curve of his lips vanished at once. “…Say that again?”

As soon as his expression darkened, my heart began pounding like a drum.

I lowered my head, not daring to look up, my voice shrinking with every word. “I-I said no… I don’t want to be your girlfriend.”

“Why?”

Li Jingchi’s voice grew colder beside me. “What’s wrong with me?”

I hurriedly waved my hands, denying it and trying to calm him. “Nothing, nothing at all! You’re wonderful. You’re especially wonderful! A-Chi, we should hurry back and meet up with the others. It’s so cold here, and there’s a smell. This place feels dangerous…”

“I asked you what’s wrong with me.”

Expressionless, Li Jingchi repeated himself.

“Gu Lin, I’m not an idiot. I can tell when you mean something and when you’re just humoring me. Did you think I couldn’t? I want the truth now. Otherwise, we can stay here forever.”

I swallowed and answered with great care. “A-Chi, I’m grateful that you’ve always protected me. I truly am. But whenever you’re upset, you abandon me. Once, after you left, I threw up on the spot… I-I’m actually scared all the time. I’ve been scared beside you ever since we were children, because you’re always frightening me…”

“I only did that because I liked—!”

The words Li Jingchi had blurted out jammed in his throat.

The vein in his temple throbbed even harder. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he twisted his mouth into a mocking smile.

“…Forget it. There’s no getting through to a blockhead like you.”

With that, the air warped.

【Teleportation】

Li Jingchi vanished.

He left me alone inside this SSS-rank, rule-based horror instance.