Chapter 19: Old Friends
Opening his eyes once again, Tang Cuo found himself back in his room on East Cross Street, his character panel hovering before him.
[Character]
Player ID K27216: Tang Cuo
Stat Points: 18
Force: -8
Intelligence: 0
Charm: 0
Rating: A-
Health: 16%
Yingjun’s Curse: Fire Resistance -80%
Survival is not easy; please keep up the good work.
Seeing the curse’s details, Tang Cuo did not care much. He promptly allocated eight stat points into Force to clear the negative balance, leaving the remaining ten untouched.
With the negative score cleared, Tang Cuo’s rating immediately reverted from A- back to A.
Switching to the skill tab, three small slots embedded with item icons popped up, apparently the individual rewards mentioned by the system. Tang Cuo’s gaze locked onto one of the slots, and the item description appeared beneath it.
[Black Bear Sharp Tooth]
Category: Material
Quality: Common
The black bear’s tooth had actually been brought out of the instance by Tang Cuo. It seemed to be a material for crafting equipment, or perhaps for refining medicine?
After brief consideration, Tang Cuo looked at the other two slots. These did not contain items, but skill books.
[Sprint]
Category: Skill
Quality: Common
Description: Running speed increased by 20%.
[Fireball]
Category: Skill
Quality: Trash
Description: Launches a fireball with a 2.5 cm radius once every two seconds for ten seconds.
Tang Cuo was momentarily speechless.
Was the system sure this Fireball skill was not deliberately meant to disgust him? Firing five tiny fireballs over ten seconds made it even more of a Peashooter than an actual Peashooter, seeming like pure mockery for him setting fires in the instance. Sprint, on the other hand, seemed ordinary, but could save a life at a critical moment.
Without hesitation, Tang Cuo tapped them, and the two skill books transformed into two streaks of light that flowed into his body.
Checking the system panel again, icons for Sprint and Fireball had been added under [Skills]. At the same time, Tang Cuo noticed a material bar had appeared beneath his equipment slots, also consisting of ten slots.
In his equipment slots, there sat only a solitary Survival Assessment Report.
In his material bar, there sat only a single Black Bear Sharp Tooth.
Knock, knock. Someone knocked on the door.
Tang Cuo did not need to think to know who it was, so he had no intention of opening it. He slipped directly out the broken window and reached the street below in the blink of an eye. Since he did not know where to go, he walked slowly, merely wandering around aimlessly.
The breakfast stall was still open, with the one-eyed proprietress dozing off. Tang Cuo’s pockets were empty, but remembering that stat points could be exchanged for currency, he planned to exchange for a million to spend.
Yet where was he supposed to make the exchange?
Observing as he walked, combined with the information gathered during his previous two trips outside, Tang Cuo could basically determine that system-related functional departments were all located in the Central District, such as the Mission Hall. In contrast, the various shops in Zone F were mostly run by players, such as the hot spring bathhouses, breakfast stalls, and small taverns along the street.
He looked around as he walked, and halfway through, he unexpectedly ran into an acquaintance:
On a wide commercial street, Wen Xiaoming was dressed in an oversized black trench coat, wide-leg trousers, and slippers. Topped with exaggerated sunglasses and a bucket hat, he sat suspiciously by the roadside operating a street stall. Dressed like this, Tang Cuo would not have recognized him initially, but his pink hair was simply too conspicuous; even a wide-brimmed hat could not hide a stubborn lock of pink poking out.
He was currently negotiating a deal with a passing player, holding an item that strongly resembled a smoke bomb concealed beneath his trench coat. Anyone who did not know better would have thought he was peddling pirated DVDs.
After a brief exchange, the player walked away, with Wen Xiaoming still shouting from behind: “I’ll give you a ten percent discount! Hey, twelve percent off, I can’t go any lower!”
The deal fell through in the end. Tang Cuo paused, then walked over. Upon stepping closer, he noticed Wen Xiaoming was also wearing a pair of exaggerated fabric earrings, one embroidered with “Honest Business” and the other with “Fair to All.”
Truly a talent.
“Hey friend, do you want to—” Seeing a pair of long legs halt in front of him, Wen Xiaoming broke off mid-sentence, pulling down his sunglasses in surprise to look at him. “It’s you!”
Tang Cuo kept his hands in his trench coat pockets, saying nothing.
Wen Xiaoming was quite cheerful. “The mission is over? Then my boss must be back too, right? Where is he? Hey, let me tell you, I’ve been keeping watch here every single day. I’ve watched quite a few brawls already; Zone F has been lively as hell lately.”
To his surprise, Tang Cuo suddenly asked, “Your boss is named Jin Cheng?”
“Yeah.” Wen Xiaoming looked at him strangely. They had gone on a mission together, so why ask for his name now? But Wen Xiaoming was no fool; connecting this to Jin Cheng asking him for a mask, realization dawned upon him.
Holy crap, there’s a story here. What kind of person could make that perverted old bachelor of a boss both wear a mask and change his name? But it was too late to take back his words. He could only watch helplessly as Tang Cuo revealed a smile, an exceptionally chilling one.
This was bad.
Although Wen Xiaoming possessed the soul of a gossip, thinking about the consequences of ruining his boss’s game, he decisively packed up his stall to make a run for it. “Um, I just remembered I have something to take care of so I won’t go looking for my boss. Don’t tell him you saw me here, okay!”
With that, Wen Xiaoming slung his bundle onto his back and bolted.
Less than three minutes later, he came running back in a panic, dragging Tang Cuo into a roadside tavern. The tavern was bustling with noise; drunken patrons were shouting and arguing, while the servers paid them no mind.
Wen Xiaoming deftly dodged the drunken crowd, found an ideal spot in the corner, tossed down a stack of bills, and waved to order two large mugs of rum.
“Did you see Jin Cheng?” Tang Cuo asked.
Wen Xiaoming could not help giving him a thumbs-up. To think he could guess even that. “Big bro, let’s make a deal. Don’t tell my boss I told you, and I’ll buy your drinks.”
Tang Cuo: “Are you afraid of him?”
Wen Xiaoming: “Well, I’m not afraid of him, but he is terrifying!”
What kind of logic was that?
Tang Cuo stood up to leave, but Wen Xiaoming quickly held him back. “Don’t go, big bro, sit down and chat for a bit. Look, the drinks are already here.” Right on cue, a server in a jacket brought over two large mugs of alcohol, sporting a sour face. Slapping the mugs onto the table, some of the liquor sloshed out, wetting the tabletop, yet the server did not bother wiping it up.
Wen Xiaoming seemed completely accustomed to it, not annoyed in the slightest.
Remembering the proprietress of the breakfast stall, Tang Cuo asked, “Do these servers need to do missions?”
“Yeah.” Wen Xiaoming took a big gulp of rum, let out a satisfied burp, and replied, “The one who signed the contract with Yong Ye City is the tavern owner. The servers are just players working part-time. Some players have neither points nor money, so they have to use their free time to work, otherwise they can’t even afford meals.”
So that was how it worked.
Tang Cuo asked again, “Where do you exchange points?”
Wen Xiaoming continued drinking. “At the ATMs. But withdrawing cash at an ATM incurs a transaction fee. If you don’t want to pay that, you have to go to the bank in the Central District. Next door to the bank is the courier service. If someone burns paper money or offerings for you in the human world in the future, you can pick them up from the courier.”
Tang Cuo had to admit Yong Ye City provided comprehensive services. He originally wanted to ask if the courier was one-way or two-way, and whether one could send things out. But on second thought, he had no one to write to in the mortal realm anyway, so he dropped the thought.
He took out the black bear tooth instead. “You craft equipment? What can this make?”
Wen Xiaoming took it and inspected it closely. As a Zone A elite, he had seen top-tier equipment of all kinds, so he naturally would not think much of a small black bear tooth. “This? It can be used as a weapon attachment, or maybe for refining medicine. But having just one isn’t very useful, so you might as well sell it. There are lots of equipment shops in Yong Ye City, both official and player-run. The official ones offer the fairest prices, but you rarely get top dollar. If you want to try your luck, you should go to a player-run shop.”
As he spoke, Wen Xiaoming pointed outside with an air of mystery. “Three streets over, there’s a shop called Black Hat’s Grocery Store. It’s a chain, with branches across every zone. The owner has an eccentric temper, but if your item catches his eye, he won’t hesitate to pay an astronomical price.”
Tang Cuo thought to himself that a single black bear tooth was hardly a rare item.
He countered, “Why don’t you go?”
Wen Xiaoming: “I have a feud with him! He’s a black-hearted merchant; there’s no one in Yong Ye City greedier than him. Even my boss is way fairer than him!”
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear: Jin Cheng happened to walk past outside the tavern.
Like a mouse spotting a cat, Wen Xiaoming immediately hunched his shoulders and looked away. But who was Jin Cheng? A man who seemed to possess a built-in radar. With a single glance, he spotted them.
Their eyes met. Tang Cuo did not dodge, his expression merely cold as ice.
Jin Cheng, however, smiled slightly and turned to walk into the tavern.
The drunken patrons were still arguing, screaming themselves hoarse with spit flying everywhere. The shouting gradually escalated into physical brawling. Someone smashed down a wine bottle; instead of splitting anyone’s head open, the table cracked in half.
Jin Cheng tilted his head to dodge a flying glass shard. Paying no heed to the chaos, he walked straight to his destination, grabbed Wen Xiaoming by the back collar, and hoisted him up.
Wen Xiaoming was genuinely terrified. “Boss, boss, what are you doing?”
Jin Cheng said crossly, “You’re sitting in my seat.”
“You should’ve said so earlier!” Wen Xiaoming hurried to pull out the chair for Jin Cheng, respectfully inviting him to sit. Then he dragged another chair over for himself, looking well-behaved and cute.
Jin Cheng continued staring at him.
Wen Xiaoming blinked.
A few seconds of silence followed.
Wen Xiaoming asked hesitantly, “Should I… be under the table?”
Jin Cheng crossed his arms. “Why don’t you just ascend to the heavens?”
Wen Xiaoming scratched his head, grinning sheepishly. That would not do; it looked a bit like Li Yingjun, so Jin Cheng shooed him away to fetch drinks, saving him from being an eyesore here.
Opposite him, Tang Cuo’s face was still cold, looking as though he had just been frozen in a refrigerator, or perhaps the chill from the instance had not worn off yet.
“Recognized me?” Jin Cheng asked.
“Was it hard to guess?” Tang Cuo countered.
“Then why didn’t you expose me in the instance, but avoided me the moment we got back to Yong Ye City?”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
Clashing tit for tat.
When Wen Xiaoming returned, this was the scene that greeted him: both men leaning against their chair backs with arms crossed and legs crossed, one watching coldly, the other smiling, their auras on full display.
For a brief moment, Wen Xiaoming felt the two were remarkably similar.
Jin Cheng: “You’re still as unlikable as ever. Among that batch of brats, there were others who acted even more fierce and arrogant, but you were the only one who refused to yield to me.”
Tang Cuo offered no comment.
Jin Cheng studied his overly cold yet taut expression with great amusement, raising a hand to take off his mask. Beneath it, his sharp brows swept up like blade strokes, yet his facial features were handsome and refined, far more recognizable than any movie star’s.
A face like this could never be forgotten once seen. Yet across his right cheek ran a three-centimeter scar, adding a distinct touch of rugged wildness to his appearance.
“A few years pass, and you don’t even know how to call me Instructor anymore?” Jin Cheng smiled, his presence exceptionally imposing.
Tang Cuo narrowed his eyes, still offering no reply.
Wen Xiaoming was stunned by those words. Instructor? What instructor? He vaguely knew a bit about the boss’s past, which only made him all the more curious. Unable to hold back, he asked, “What exactly is your relationship?”
Tang Cuo: “A relationship where we’ve visited each other’s graves.”
Wen Xiaoming: “What? Visited what? Slept in each other’s beds?!”
Due to utter shock, Wen Xiaoming’s voice pitched up more than an octave. Every single person in the tavern heard his words, and all eyes snapped in their direction.
The drinkers stopped drinking, the brawlers stopped fighting, and eyes followed Wen Xiaoming to lock onto Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo with complete shock. Even in Yong Ye City, something like this was hardly a common occurrence!
Tang Cuo’s face darkened completely.
Jin Cheng could not hold back a laugh. Looking at Wen Xiaoming, he genuinely wanted to applaud him. How had he never noticed before that Wen Xiaoming’s mishearing could reach such sublime heights?
“Come here,” Tang Cuo told Wen Xiaoming.
“W-What do you want?” Wen Xiaoming knew he was in the wrong, but he truly had not meant it. Hearing the phrase, his mind had jumped straight to the bedroom, and he had a terrible habit of speaking before thinking.
He blinked repeatedly, attempting to act well-behaved to slip through.
Tang Cuo did not buy it. He said:
“Come here. I’m going to beat you to death.”
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Author’s Note:
Q: Why does Wen Xiaoming always try to act well-behaved?
A: Because he has been beaten up way too many times.
