I Have Few Friends

  “Wow…”

  Qiu Ran huddled in the er, c her face with her fingers, but through the gaps between them, her flushed aed face was still visible. Nomi could faintly hear her excited muttering:

  “ I really watch this? This is so intense…”

  Yavanna pressed Li Aozzi beh her, her long blue hair disheveled, making the normally authoritative bd-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 fsh of a strikingly simir 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 impa 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 bee 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 ag repeatedly.

  “So gross… Ugh! I o 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 toug something un.

  Shouldn't I be the one feeling wronged?

  Her gaze lingered on Li Aozzi’s handsome face for a moment, pting the situation.

  Maybe I didn't lose out?

  Yavanna, stunned by Li Aozzi’s scolding, hadn’t yet reacted whewo handguns she had holstered fell out, ndiween them on the floor.

  Ctter.

  In the instant, both of them exploded into a, 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 being 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 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% maurn!”

  Li Aozzi wao cry.

  He held the empty gun, pointing it at the woman who ruined his pn.

  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, ’t lose my head.”

  In the end, it was his eagerness after not entering a worthy oppo for too long.

  Li Aozzi shook his head, and Yavanna pced her gun on the floor.

  Resisting ointless 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 , bindiightly with gravity.

  Instead of returning to the front passenger seat, he sat on the floor fag her.

  Nomi drove in silence, while Qiu Ran’s vigince lessened. She looked between Li Aozzi and Yavanna, the fire of gossip burning in her eyes.

  “Women are so annoying,” Li Aozzi muttered, p more serious matters.

  For now, Nimotin shouldn’t catch up. Li Aozzi’s strategy of injuring instead of killing the agents, aing one car go, meant Nimotin had to divert efforts to search for the missing personnel.

  Given the uable weather, Nimotin would likely have troup before pursuing them again.

  This bought him enough time to plete his mission.

  After taking stock of his gains and experience, Li Aozzi felt a sense of emptiness.

  Boredom crept in. He missed watg 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 tactid gravity to wear her down, or employing terrain.

  But it would dey his mission.

  So frustrating!

  Red and bck hints fshed 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 mutatio, but it was close.

  “I’m no longer a pyer, but I still see myself as one.”

  Li Aozzi shook his head.

  Pyers generally love challenging enemies, honing their skills, and improving their bat prowess—he was no exception.

  He had no i in bullying weaklings because it didn’t help him grow and only led to pcy.

  Only by stantly challenging stronger oppos could one grow. Fag uable foes was like elementary students tag graduate-level problems—too great a disparity to be meaningful.

  Only evenly matched oppos could sharpen one’s skills.

  But this behavior itself might be arrogant.

  Li Aozzi became the most famous Starfall Master partly due to his persistend partly due to his mi of stant improvement.

  Objectively, the dee of the Starfall Master unity was plex, signifitly tied to the pyers’ mi.

  They were tant, thinking their efforts made them invincible, ing to develop new skills, and mog newers’ mistakes.

  Early Starfall Masters became pt, fetting it was a high-skill profession.

  They relied on accumuted experiend exclusive resources to achieve their success, then bmed newers for not w hard, refusing guidance—how absurd!

  A unity with few newers and arrogaerans unwilling to refiheir skills would iably dee.

  Li Aozzi wao ge this.

  He deeply loved the Starfall Master profession. As a founding pyer, he wits rise and fall.

  This wasn’t just a pyer issue; NPC Starfall Masters exhibited the same phenomenon.

  ging NPC attitudes was difficult.

  If pyers ever returned, Li Aozzi hoped to leverage their efforts to root out the NPC Starfall Masters’ arrogand elitism.

  “We lead the power of the stars, immortalized by the os, with bck holes as our spinning tops and the sun as ht—who else has such grandeur?”

  Such arrogance had bee ingrained over time.

  Even Li Aozzi, the top Starfall Master pyer, wasn’t immune—he had e close to death several times, now realizing the danger.

  “I shouldn’t do this anymore. Life is precious—sparing with pyers is safer. I wonder if pyers will return. There are several I’ve always wao spar with… Wait, am I thinking too much, taking everything franted?”

  Li Aozzi felt lonely aless.

  Sini’s words made him realize he was no longer a pyer, today’s string of enters and near-miss had left him infuriated and fearful.

  Maintaining a pyer’s mi might lead to a reckless death one day.