Brother Jiang could naturally see J's hesitation when it came to facing his family. He also knew that J desperately wanted to see them, he just didn't know whether he should, or what kind of way he should meet them in.
Brother Jiang understood J's concerns, but in his view, nothing was more important than family. Rather than letting J struggle indecisively forever, he figured he might as well make the decision for him directly.
As for the details of the meeting, Brother Jiang still intended to leave that choice to J. If J wanted to reunite with his parents, then everyone would be happy.
If he didn't want to, Brother Jiang wouldn't force him either. Even letting J see them from afar would probably put his mind at ease.
Hearing those words, J opened his mouth as if wanting to speak, but stopped himself. After thinking it over again and again, his gaze unconsciously drifted toward Notch, as though seeking his opinion.
Truthfully, J hadn't changed at all. Whenever he faced a major decision that he couldn't make up his mind about, he would always ask Notch for advice.
Seeing J look over, Notch patted him on the shoulder and smiled as he nodded.
"Brother Jiang actually came up with a good idea for once."
After saying that, Notch looked at Brother Jiang and said, "Then I'll leave this matter to you. Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I last saw Uncle and Auntie too. I really ought to apologize to them properly. Bring me along when the time comes."
Those words from Notch were like a reassurance pill for J. At that moment, his nose suddenly stung with emotion.
Naturally, he understood that both Brother Jiang making the decision for him and Notch offering to accompany him to see his parents were meant to reassure him.
Even though he hadn't said anything, Brother Jiang and Notch still managed to accurately pick up on his emotions. Being wrapped once more in that long-lost warmth made everything feel unreal.
"Okay."
J didn't say anything more. With Brother Jiang and Notch supporting him, he no longer had any concerns.
Seeing J agree, Brother Jiang nodded happily before turning to Notch.
"Alright then, leaving me this much time is enough. You two probably still have a lot to deal with. Meeting adjourned, meeting adjourned."
Notch didn't stand on ceremony with Brother Jiang at all. He nodded and said, "If you're free, go help Rookie out. I handed the PR work over to him."
"You're better at that stuff anyway, so give him some pointers. Once I finish handling the in-game situation, I'll come find you outside."
Notch was completely at ease bossing Brother Jiang around. The fact that Brother Jiang had logged in with an administrator account already proved he was currently inside Zero Point Company.
Notch couldn't free himself up right now, and the company was definitely in complete chaos. Brother Jiang could step in and help stabilize things.
Under normal circumstances, Brother Jiang would definitely argue with Notch for a while, but he knew Notch had already made time for him, so he said nothing and simply agreed with a nod.
After Notch brought Brother Jiang and J out of the Nameless Lands, the three of them each went off to handle their own matters.
———
[Meanwhile, Outside The Trial Grounds]
"Baa baa baa… baa baa baa?… (What just happened…? Has our king completely disappeared?…)"
"Kuri sasali… sa'us urulu… kuri?… (That feeling just now… was it what they mentioned before… a server shutdown?…)"
"Roar roar roar roar roar?… (Has our king already turned the situation around?…)"
Although Notch, Brother Jiang, and J had spoken for quite a long time in the Nameless Lands, less than a minute had actually passed outside.
At this moment, the server was still in the middle of restarting. The living beings had only just awakened from chaos and darkness, and the players still hadn't had time to log back into the game.
That was why the creatures were so confused. While they chirped and discussed among themselves, the players who had previously been in the area also gradually began reappearing.
The first player to appear in the zone was Pocolo. During the game shutdown, he had sent at least several hundred messages to Grayfist.
Since Grayfist never replied, Pocolo had practically gone insane with anxiety. So the moment the reboot announcement appeared on the forums, he logged in down to the very second.
The instant he entered the game, before even observing his surroundings, Pocolo instinctively shielded the nearby creatures behind him.
Only after doing that did he begin carefully checking whether anything around him had changed.
Very quickly, he noticed something unusual.
The creatures who had previously been held hostage inside those transparent floating prison spaces had all somehow appeared on the ground, each one wearing a bewildered expression.
Seeing this, Pocolo immediately began searching for D's figure nearby.
Before long, he spotted D collapsed on the ground not far away.
"He lost?!…"
Pocolo's eyes widened as he muttered under his breath.
Although he couldn't tell whether D was dead or alive, from the current situation, at the very least it was clear that D had temporarily lost his power.
The sight immediately put even the usually decisive Pocolo in a difficult position. Sure, he'd celebrated early plenty of times before, but by now he'd learned to be a lot more cautious.
Although he desperately wanted to rush over and finish D off while he was down, even if he couldn't kill him, at least spit on him a few times, he definitely wasn't going to act recklessly before figuring out what was happening.
While Pocolo was deep in thought, the players and creatures around him also seemed to notice the strange changes in their surroundings.
They looked at one another, confusion written across their faces as they began whispering among themselves.
Just as everyone was buzzing with discussion, rain suddenly began falling from the sky.
Ordinarily, that wouldn't have been anything worth making a fuss over.
But this rain was extraordinarily unusual.
Because this wasn't ordinary rain.
It was a golden rain that spread across the entire game world.
The golden droplets fell from the sky like countless dazzling stars.
Even stranger, the raindrops could pass through all objects. Even places blocked by solid cubes couldn't stop them. The droplets slipped through like ghosts.
Even someone deep inside a mine tunnel would probably still be bathed in this golden rain.
One drop after another, each as large as a bean, fell onto the faces of the players and creatures present before instantly sinking into their bodies.
The golden raindrops seemed to possess some sort of miraculous power. Wherever they spread, not only did people feel no discomfort whatsoever, they instead felt pleasantly warm all over.
As more and more of the golden rain soaked into them, an unfamiliar memory suddenly appeared in everyone's minds.
Like scenes from a movie, the memory continuously flashed before their eyes.
And that memory conveyed a piece of joyous news to everyone, Xu Yuan had not truly vanished.
At this very moment, he was inside a mysterious inner world.
Not only that, the memory also showed everyone the method for entering the inner world.
While the living beings bathed in the golden rain and absorbed the information, D, collapsed off to the side, slowly opened his eyes…