After Pretending to Be an Alpha, I Was Exposed by My Rival - Chapter 16

As soon as Yuan Datou logged in, he spotted the two young ladies they had played with before. He immediately skipped over, acting cute and coquettish in one smooth routine.

“Misses, misses! Are you running dungeons today? Want to play together again?”

Wu Qi and Monkey had just logged in as well. They had both been in rather gloomy moods today, but the moment they saw the adorable little girl, all of their unhappiness vanished.

“Sure! We just logged in too. But wait a bit—we’re waiting for Lu Jian.”

“Mhm, okay! I’m waiting for someone too,” Yuan Datou said sweetly. His shy, bashful manner made both Wu Qi and Monkey’s hearts flutter.

The two of them swallowed hard, already imagining what the girl behind the character looked like in real life.

Surely she must be delicate, adorable, and charming.

Such a cute little sister had to be a beautiful Omega.

“Are you waiting for Cycle Without End?” Wu Qi asked.

“Yep! He promised he’d come online soon. Why don’t the five of us team up together? A new dungeon just opened in our server today. Maybe we can set the first clear record!” Yuan Datou was so used to acting cute that he unconsciously added little adorable gestures while talking, waving both hands and making cute little noises.

Wu Qi and Monkey stared, completely captivated.

When single for too long, even an adorable game avatar that acted cute was enough to make people lose their minds.

Ji Yijue logged into the game.

From afar, he saw Yuan Datou surrounded by two girls. They looked oddly familiar.

As he approached, he realized they were the “beautiful girls” who had cleared the Spider Woman dungeon with them before—the same “young ladies” who had completely enchanted Yuan Datou.

Back on old Earth, online games had already been popular. Plenty of men disguised themselves as women in games. Ji Yijue had met quite a few of them himself, and even knew people who had been tricked emotionally and financially.

Back then, the gender ratio had already been uneven—but nowhere near as severe as it was now.

So in this era…

There were undoubtedly even more men playing female characters.

Only an idiot like Yuan Datou would stubbornly believe they were really two beautiful girls.

A fool was destined to be fooled.

Unless he stumbled a few times, Yuan Datou would never learn his lesson.

“Hello, big guy. Want to play together later?”

Wu Qi’s female avatar walked over to greet Ji Yijue.

Ignoring Wu Qi, Ji Yijue glanced at Yuan Datou’s loli character behind him and nodded, silently agreeing.

Since Datou was this happy…

He’d indulge him this once.

At that moment, Lu Chizhou logged in.

His default male avatar immediately caught Wu Qi and Monkey’s attention, and they hurried over to greet him.

Ji Yijue also looked over instinctively.

Feeling someone’s gaze on him, Lu Chizhou looked up. Seeing it was Cycle Without End, he smiled and walked over.

“Hey, brother. Want to play together today?”

“Mm.”

“A new dungeon came out today—it’s called Hell Messenger. It opened this morning, but nobody’s cleared it yet. Why don’t we give it a shot? With Lu Jian and Cycle Without End here, we’ll definitely beat it,” Monkey said confidently.

Neither Ji Yijue nor Lu Chizhou reacted much, silently agreeing.

The game officially began.

Only after entering the dungeon did they realize how ridiculously difficult it was.

No wonder nobody had cleared it all day.

The dungeon wasn’t just about defeating the boss.

After entering, players first had to clear several preliminary stages before they could even reach the final boss, Hell Messenger.

Some stages were solo.

Some required two players.

Only if every member of the party successfully cleared their own stage would the system consider the challenge complete and allow them to face the dungeon’s final boss.

The moment the five entered, the dungeon separated them and threw each person into a different challenge.

Ji Yijue wasn’t sure whether his luck was good or bad.

He’d been separated from Yuan Datou…

…but Lu Jian had been placed with him.

“Looks like this is a two-player stage. I’ll be counting on you,” Lu Jian said as he walked over with his sword on his back.

“Let’s see the clear conditions first,” Ji Yijue replied.

He wasn’t very talkative while gaming.

Unless necessary, he rarely spoke.

Yuan Datou, on the other hand, was a chatterbox.

Whenever they teamed up, Datou would chatter nonstop while Ji Yijue listened—or seemed not to. Yet whenever Datou actually asked him something, Ji Yijue would always answer. Everything else he filtered out automatically.

“Alright.”

The two walked to the notice board.

After reading it, Lu Chizhou smiled.

Ji Yijue, meanwhile, wore a dark expression.

Stage Theme: Hearts in Harmony

Participants: 2 Players

Answer ten randomly generated questions.

Each correct answer earns 10 Harmony Points.

Reach 80 Harmony Points or higher to clear the stage.

Ji Yijue: What kind of trash game designed this trash stage? Are they insane?

Lu Chizhou chuckled.

“Interesting. Shall we try?”

Although Ji Yijue was extremely unhappy, quitting halfway wasn’t his style.

“Let’s start.”

The instant they agreed, the scenery around them changed.

Several vines suddenly shot out, wrapping around both of them before pulling them in opposite directions.

Completely caught off guard, Ji Yijue let out a startled cry.

It wasn’t quiet.

Even from a distance, Lu Chizhou heard the fear in his voice.

He couldn’t help laughing.

The sound drifted on the wind and reached Ji Yijue’s ears, making the tips of his ears turn red.

Soon, a floating notice board appeared before each of them.

A countdown from ten began.

When it reached zero, the first question appeared.

Question 1

Describe the characteristics of your partner’s class.

Too easy.

It was practically free points.

Both of them were veteran players familiar with every class, and they answered almost instantly.

+10 Harmony Points

Question 2

Within three seconds, write down one characteristic of your partner.

A correct answer earns 10 points.

An incorrect answer results in immediate elimination from the dungeon.

Ji Yijue: ???

What kind of garbage game is this? Which idiot designed this dungeon?

What the hell kind of questions are these? No wonder nobody has cleared it all day.

Even while complaining internally, when the countdown reached 1, he quickly wrote a single word.

Congratulations! You have earned another 10 Harmony Points.

Ji Yijue, who had already prepared to be kicked out of the dungeon:

???

He had written a word completely at random…

And it was correct?

Was this game secretly his biological father or something?

He had simply written:

Strong.

Since he’d earned the points, that meant Lu Jian had written the exact same word.

Having spent so many years stuck as the eternal runner-up, Ji Yijue treasured being acknowledged by someone strong.

His mood immediately improved.

For a brief moment…

He even forgot all the anger Lu Chizhou had caused him earlier that day.