Honestly, that remark about being a hundred years old wasn't entirely out of petulance.
Ever since obtaining the Little Brother role-playing system, he hadn't truly played the part with any seriousness.
Even though his role-playing progress had reached 56%, he himself wasn't entirely sure how he had achieved it.
Constantly slacking off and coasting along made him feel like he was getting system rewards for free. Therefore, he had actually tried to play the role properly just now, to see if he could unlock an "Elderly Person" achievement.
The result, of course, was failure.
The system remained unresponsive, but Fatty and Wu Tianzhen reacted strongly.
"Heaven protect us!" Wu Tianzhen put on a show of tears, as if his useless son had finally become accomplished.
"Little Brother actually knows how to joke now!"
"Ah, this journey hasn't been easy!" Fatty and Wu Tianzhen hugged each other, beginning to reminisce about a non-existent past.
"The child has finally grown up, and we don't have to worry about him anymore!"
"Wuwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwu!"
Zhang Qiling: ...Forget it, just kill me.
The Black Gold Ancient Saber in his hand was itching for action.
...
In the end, it was Fatty who saved himself with that "Flowery World," and incidentally pulled Wu Tianzhen along.
Zhang Qiling outwardly put away his saber with great reluctance, but his curiosity was already piqued.
Perhaps every Fatty in every world was destined to fall in love with Lou Wai Lou. The next day, amidst the enthusiastic greetings of the service staff, Fatty sat down with great swagger.
He didn't know where he got a pair of sunglasses, but he was also ostentatiously fiddling with prayer beads in his hand, looking quite like "Master Fatty."
However, Wu Tianzhen and Zhang Qiling, who were present, knew his true nature.
This Fatty looked proper, but in reality, his small eyes beneath the sunglasses were almost glued to the beautiful service girl.
Wu Tianzhen couldn't stand it and kicked him. Fatty almost rolled onto the ground.
"Damn it, Tianzhen, what are you doing?!"
"What am I doing? You should quickly avert your eyes. Aren't you afraid of scaring the young lady?"
"I'm wearing sunglasses, aren't I..." Fatty mumbled and sat up straight, "I'm just looking, can't I appreciate beautiful things!"
Zhang Qiling had been looking forward for a long time, but Fatty hadn't ordered any food, and his mood dropped sharply.
Just as Fatty was about to look outside again, he saw a menu slapped onto the table in front of him with such force that Fatty suspected the table might shatter.
Looking up, he saw Zhang Qiling giving him a death glare, slowly opening his mouth and uttering one word.
"Order."
Fatty: ...
Good heavens, look how hungry the child is.
Thinking this was Zhang Qiling's subtle way of saying he was hungry, Fatty immediately ordered a table full of signature dishes without delay.
Although these dishes still used the same methods of frying, pan-frying, stir-frying, and stewing, they indeed looked different from those in his own world.
He carefully tasted each of the novel-looking dishes and found that the flavors were largely the same, so he quickly lost interest.
Zhang Qiling didn't eat much. By the time he put down his chopsticks, the other two were fiercely fighting over dishes.
This reminded Zhang Qiling of the first meal he had eaten in this world.
...So, why was it only the taste of cilantro that remained unchanged?
Was the power of cilantro so great that it could not be blocked by world barriers across different worlds?
Perplexing.
...
After eating, it was still early. Fatty and Wu Tianzhen excitedly planned to go out and explore.
As Zhang Qiling walked, he looked at this world with a touch of novelty.
The technology on Blue Star was indeed more advanced than on Earth. Young people holding personal communicators to take pictures were common on the streets, and sweeping robots were tirelessly cleaning the ground, making the streets here very clean.
The feeling of being similar yet different from Earth gave him a sense of dislocation, and he was momentarily captivated.
Unbeknownst to him, Fatty and Wu Tianzhen had already started whispering.
"Fatty, look," Wu Tianzhen said softly, covering his mouth, "I knew he must have been staying in that mountain all along, right?!"
"I think so too," Fatty nodded with his arms crossed, sighing.
"The important task of guiding the primitive Little Brother to understand the modern world falls upon our shoulders!"
The two exchanged glances, their expressions solemn.
Thus, when Zhang Qiling was taken to visit the aquarium, the zoo, the arcade, and the museum, and finally sat on the carousel at the amusement park, he finally realized something was wrong.
Fatty and Wu Tianzhen in front of him still had the benevolent expressions of doting fathers as they introduced him to this thing.
"Little Brother, do you know what this is?"
Zhang Qiling: ...
"We knew you wouldn't know! This is called a carousel! It's something everyone plays in their childhood!"
Zhang Qiling: ...?
A little girl ran over with a smile. Seeing the three big men here, she was momentarily scared and didn't dare to approach.
To show kindness, Fatty went to a store to buy a cotton candy to try and appease the child. However, he didn't consider that his sunglasses, prayer beads, and fleshy face looked more like a pervert than a good person.
As expected, the little girl's mouth turned down, and she burst into tears and ran away.
"Damn it!" Wu Tianzhen saw this and couldn't let it go. He chased after her, wanting to coax the little girl.
But the little girl had already seen these two sneakily forcing Zhang Qiling to ride the carousel. Thinking that these two madmen wouldn't spare even adults, she became even more frightened. Seeing this, she was about to alert the amusement park security.
Poor adult Zhang Qiling: ...
In the end, it was Zhang Qiling himself who stepped in to prove that he was not being forced to ride the carousel, thus appeasing the little girl.
It was hard to say how much of the little girl's ceasing to cry was due to seeing the handsome big brother.
Therefore, as an apology, and to prove that he was indeed sitting on the carousel because he wanted to play and not because he was being coerced, Zhang Qiling finally accompanied the little girl for two rounds with a poker face amidst the carousel's childlike music.
Wu Tianzhen and Fatty watched them from the side with benevolent, almost maternal smiles.
Zhang Qiling: ...I'm tired. These three days are so long.
For the first time, he truly wished he could go on a mission sooner.