Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Jingliu: Please Unmute Your Mic

Yes! The cross-temporal teleportation bug wasn't fixed!

Wangshu nearly clenched his fist and pumped the air, but a sidelong glance at the ever-composed Senior Jingliu made him swallow the impulse. He forced himself into a pose of someone studiously reviewing the update notes.

"Wahhh, finally... we finally got the recruitment function."

Asta dabbed at nonexistent tears in the corner of her eye, then dove into researching the new feature, eyes blazing.

"Three people."

Jingliu spoke quietly. She glanced sideways at Wangshu. He hastily averted his gaze.

"Ahem — if it's the next round, I'm absolutely willing to yield my slot to you, Senior. But this time, I also have... someone I very, very much want to invite."

Wangshu didn't back down. He was living entirely on Senior Jingliu's goodwill, but he felt this request wasn't unreasonable. Next time, the time after that — she could have them all! But not this first round.

Without this feature, it was a moot point. Now that it actually existed, he had to be impulsive just once. Blame little Jingliu — she'd made him lose his cool.

Jingliu's gaze lingered on his face for a moment — complex, searching, tinged with faint resignation — before she said nothing and simply nodded.

In this instant, all three members held maximum expectations for the chat group and its recruitment function.

New members meant new variables, new possibilities, perhaps reinforcements... and most importantly, everyone had someone they wanted to pull in.

Asta: "Human, female, beautiful, cute, young (crossed out), brilliant, very humane, a world-saving heroine!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Asta had dumped every descriptor of Ms. Herta in one go. She'd badly wanted to include "young," but at the last second remembered this chat group wasn't exactly reliable... so she'd crossed it out as a precaution.

Because of her past and her current circumstances, Herta was Asta's guiding star, her object of worship. She hadn't hesitated for a single second.

Besides, Herta truly cared about her... In the future Iron Tomb arc, she'd even held the honored second position.

Having submitted her suggestion, she stopped and looked curiously at the other two.

Wangshu: "Blue-and-white gradient hair, legally underage in her region, well-behaved and adorable, possibly not very smart, long-life species, dating too young."

His submission was equally swift. He'd been speculating about this feature for days — he just hadn't expected it to require written traits. But he had a draft ready!

His description was remarkably specific — practically a confession. Beside him, Jingliu's fingertips paused. She turned her head calmly, and the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several degrees, despite this being a virtual space.

"What was that last... tag you added?"

Jingliu's voice sounded like a wraith crawling out of the abyss. Not mournful per se — just inexplicably spine-chilling.

"Misclick. You know how it is, Senior — this chat group's interface is way too easy to mistap."

Wangshu made his expression as sincere as humanly possible. Jingliu stared at him. After a moment, she withdrew her gaze.

Only her trembling fingertips suggested she was not, in fact, calm.

She was silent for a long while, deliberating, remembering, weighing her words. Finally, she raised a finger and slowly, solemnly typed four characters: "Cloud Quintet..."

【Please input species, personality, traits, profession, or characteristics — not broad groups or historical titles.】

The chat group's cold notification popped up, interrupting her input.

Jingliu paused, eyes drifting upward. She unconsciously skimmed past Wangshu's description and modeled her submission after Asta's format.

Her movements were slow — as if crystallizing memories into individual words.

Jingliu: "Female, Foxian, from the Yaoqing, loves racing starskiffs, wide social circle, loves to laugh, from a flying dynasty, renowned adventurer..."

【Group members' recruitment preferences have been recorded. The chat group will conduct a broad search and match based on the three members' tag submissions...】

【Beginning search and match...】

【First member successfully recruited! Matching tags: Human, female, beautiful, cute, brilliant, very humane (?), a world-saving heroine (crossed out)】

"That's it?!"

Asta's expression froze. Her entire body went limp, hand bracing against the ground. So the tags could actually get crossed out?

If she'd known, she would've added another dozen descriptors. Ms. Herta... wahhh, your most loyal station chief seems to have botched the whole thing.

It wasn't just Asta — Wangshu and Jingliu's expressions had gone stiff too. So the traits we submitted were really just suggestions?

Garbage group! The thought flashed through both their minds simultaneously.

【Herta██ has joined the Bright Future Chat Group】

"Huh? Ms. Herta doesn't even qualify as a heroine?"

Whiplashed by the highs and lows, Asta's expression ran through an entire spectrum. She blinked, gazed quietly at Ms. Herta's name in the group, and after a moment let out a long breath.

"Whatever — as long as she's in. Maybe the group is just too literal and doesn't consider reverse-aging as qualifying for 'heroine' status."

She muttered, consoling herself.

【Second broad recruitment in progress. Due to the first recruitment's excessively wide search range, recruitment accuracy has slightly decreased.】

Wangshu: ...

An ominous feeling crept in.

Jingliu: ...

Her fingertips clenched.

Asta — who had contributed to the first search's bloated range — seemed to realize something and shrank her neck, looking very well-behaved.

【Second member successfully recruited. Matching tags: Blue-and-white gradient hair (crossed out), legally underage in her region, well-behaved (crossed out), cute, long-life species (crossed out), possibly not very smart, dating too young (crossed out)】

Wangshu: ...

"They crossed out more than half."

Wangshu's liver ached. "Seriously — can this garbage group even function? The group members' futures are 'bright' enough. Does the chat group itself have to be 'bright future' too?"

Beside him, Jingliu wailed internally. The first round only crossed out one. The second crossed out half. So what about her tags?

Wait — was this garbage group really this unstable?

【Xing has joined the Bright Future Chat Group】

"Who?"

Asta stared at the familiar ID and slowly typed a question mark.

Wangshu didn't know what to say. He clutched his chest, feeling like he'd lost a hundred million. His little Jingliu!

【Third broad recruitment in progress. The chat group will do its best to ensure recruitment success.】

"It can't even guarantee success anymore?"

Jingliu pressed her palm to her forehead. She wanted to laugh!

Ever since joining this group, she'd felt the shadows and madness looming over her heart gradually fading. But right now she inexplicably wanted to laugh. Ha. Haha!

【Bzzt... bzzt... Matching personnel detected. Recruiting... Recruitment successful. Matching tags: Female, Foxian (crossed out), wide social circle...】

This recruitment processed especially slowly. And if Wangshu wasn't mistaken, the tag list seemed to be missing one — no, two entries. Before "wide social circle," there should have been "loves racing starskiffs" and "from the Yaoqing."

"Ha — hahaha! Why don't you just cross out everything!"

Jingliu's slender frame shook with each burst of laughter. There was no warmth in it — only pure, unfiltered madness.

And the chat group obliged her wish. Everything after that was crossed out too...

【March 7th has joined the Bright Future Chat Group】