Leaderboard (Thanks to the Alliance Leader Wufeng's Ningjing!)

I chatted with Ruolin until noon and freeloaded a meal of braised chicken from her.

The afternoon sun was lazy.

The aftereffects of staying up all night finally hit, and feeling a wave of fatigue, I decided to go back to the internet cafe and find a chair to catch a quick nap.

Passing through an alley, a few tourists on the left were chatting and laughing, while hurried footsteps came from the right, accompanied by someone's maniacal laughter: "The city guards are coming, run!"

A figure burst out of the alley, clutching a bundle, looking flustered, and glancing back as they ran.

Lu Xiaobei!

I froze slightly.

"Ding Han!"

Lu Xiaobei saw me too and quickly shoved the bundle in her arms into mine: "Run, run!"

Without asking why, I instinctively followed her into another alley.

Lu Xiaobei seemed very familiar with the terrain of the old city, leading me through a maze of turns before finally ending up in a deserted alley. The danger had passed, and she plopped down on a flower bed, panting heavily, her face flushed from the strenuous run.

"What's going on?!"

I put down the bundle: "What is this?"

Opening the bundle, I found a pile of small plaques with various surnames printed on the front and a pattern of Stream City on the back, along with some small pendants bearing the Stream City logo. They were all small tourism-related trinkets.

"It's not easy to set up a street stall these days..."

Lu Xiaobei clutched her chest, still shaken, and smiled at me: "Luckily I ran into you, otherwise I would have probably fallen victim to those city guards."

I was speechless: "Is it that serious? Isn't Feiyang Internet Cafe enough to support you?"

"You don't understand."

Lu Xiaobei said, "There are four internet cafes on Qianjin Street, and the competition is fierce. Although we're next to Stream City University, business isn't good. Our cafe has fewer machines; with the three you repaired, we only have 23 machines that can connect to the internet, while the other three cafes have basically thirty to forty machines each."

She glanced at me and said, "If I don't save money and continue to buy new machines to make Feiyang Internet Cafe bigger and stronger, our customer base will eventually be eaten up by the other three cafes!"

"I didn't expect you to have such a strong sense of crisis."

I said sheepishly.

Lu Xiaobei squatted down and began to sort through the trinkets in the bundle.

"Didn't you go to take photos for the inn?" I asked.

"Finished."

Lu Xiaobei said, "Although I'm pretty, my fees are high. You get what you pay for. Those inn owners are all so stingy, so I don't get that much business."

She rambled on to herself, then suddenly looked up and smiled at me, "Business was good this morning. Some tourists on a family road trip visited my stall. I sold over two hundred yuan in half a morning. Pretty impressive, right?"

"Impressive."

I asked, "Are you going to set up your stall again this afternoon?"

"Of course. The weather's great today, sunny and pleasant. I need to hurry and make money."

She picked up the bundle and smiled, "I'm off to my stall. You should head back."

"Mm."

I nodded and watched her retreating figure before I couldn't help but ask, "Lu Xiaobei, did you have lunch?"

"What, are you going to treat me?" She turned to look at me, her face full of expectation.

"Of course not. I'm still waiting for you to pay your salary in advance."

"Never mind, my head hurts. I'm leaving."

She waved and excitedly headed in the direction of some tourists.

Late at night.

The overnight session began again, and business at the internet cafe wasn't great. Only twelve people opted for the overnight package. Most of them were young boys and girls from the Funeral Love Family playing Audition. There were also one or two middle-aged men playing Legend, smoking a cigarette. The night was quiet, with only the clatter of keyboards filling the cafe.

I flattened the internet cafe manager's chair and used it as a bed, closing my eyes to rest for a while.

In the Star Chart, people were chatting, and I began to frantically screen-watch.

When those people finally lost interest in chatting, I finally consumed 1% of my experience points and officially entered the Star Chart. "Brothers, I'm new here. I'm looking for someone. Have you seen a player named 'Chasing Light'?"

"No..."

A player with a deep voice chuckled, "There aren't too many players in Stream City. Most of them come from the wilderness. If you really want to find someone, I suggest you go to the Crimson Dragon Country. I heard that most of the national server players were born in Crimson Dragon Country. That's our main base."

"Oh, I see..."

I was a little disappointed and smiled, "Thanks, it's okay. I'll keep looking."

"Yeah, yeah. Many of us are looking for friends too, but this can't be rushed. The friend system in this game hasn't been released yet. Everyone is waiting. Once the friend system is released, you can at least search by ID to add people, and finding people won't be so troublesome then."

"Mm, thanks!"

I nodded, no longer wasting precious experience points, and directly exited the Star Chart chatroom.

Afterward, I casually opened the regional leaderboard, and a string of unfamiliar IDs immediately came into view—

1, Gun Like a Dragon Level: 14 Class: Starry Sky Super Weapon

2, One Blade Into Soul Level: 13 Class: Starry Sky Super Weapon

3, Milk Tea Life-Extending Immortal Level: 13 Class: Starry Sky Super Weapon

4, Chaos Demon King Level: 12 Class: Starry Sky Super Weapon

5, Lu Xun Deletes Comments Overnight Level: 12 Class: Starry Sky Super Weapon

6, Bunny Critical Hit Level: 12 Class: Firepower Specialist

7, Zu'an Liberal Arts Top Scholar Level: 12 Class: Psionicist

8, Chen Jinnan Level: 11 Class: Starry Sky Super Weapon

9, Ruolin Level: 11 Class: Starry Sky Super Weapon

10, I'm Bad But Can Talk Trash Level: 11 Class: Firepower Specialist

Looking at the levels on the leaderboard, I frowned slightly. There were still many formidable players!

The top three, Gun Like a Dragon, One Blade Into Soul, and Milk Tea Life-Extending Immortal, were undoubtedly powerhouses. To reach such high levels at this stage meant they were either incredibly skilled or possessed deep resources.

However, according to what Ruolin revealed in the chat, players didn't descend into this world through "cloning" as rumored, but rather by directly possessing an existing character who was a substitute for themselves. I could deeply relate to this; my current body looked almost identical to my real-life self, even down to the scars and birthmarks. It was far more complex than simple cloning.

Still, the hosts players possessed were generally not wealthy. Almost everyone started from scratch, so one could imagine how formidable those top three players were!

Seeing the virtuous, one should emulate them. I needed to learn from them!

"Beep!"

Just then, my phone buzzed with a WeChat message.

Opening it, I saw it was from Ruolin: "Tomorrow, we've decided to form a five-person team to explore a newly spawned map outside the city. I'm confirming with you, are you willing to join our team?"

"Sure."

I replied directly, "Are my one thousand 9mm peanut shells ready?"

"They're ready. You can trust your sister Ruolin to handle things."

Ruolin added a "dog head" emoji.

I asked again, "Where should we meet tomorrow?"

"Health Road, at the bus stop for Stream City's Third People's Hospital, at nine in the morning. Just wait there when you arrive. Someone on our side has an eighteen-year-old Santana, and we can all ride out of the city together."

"Okay, see you there."

"Mhm, see you there!"

After putting down my phone, I felt a slight joy in my heart. Finally, I could leave the city to fight monsters and level up. My SS-grade Essence Furnace was currently craving opportunities to extract experience points; it was practically parched!

The next morning.

"Manager, the overnight shift is over. Open the door."

Woken from my sleep, I immediately grabbed the keys and opened the rolling shutter, letting a group of Funeral Love Family members, their faces pale and like walking corpses, depart.

Outside, Zhao Yihang approached with a bag of buns and a carton of soy milk, smiling, "Ding Han, was the night shift fun?"

"Fun your ass..." I was speechless.

"Hahahaha~~~"

Zhao Yihang patted my shoulder, "Our boss Lu assigning you the night shift shows she values you, wanting to train you into the commander of Feiyang Internet Cafe. Look, why doesn't she assign me the night shift?"

"Tsk tsk, how novel."

I chuckled, "How about we switch?"

"No way, I'm afraid staying up late will make me deficient in kidney essence. The younger girls in our Business Administration department are still waiting for my care."

Zhao Yihang might not be good at anything else, but his bragging skills were truly impressive, making people admire him.

"Ding Han."

Just then, footsteps sounded from upstairs. Lu Xiaobei, dressed impeccably, walked down. She carried herself with an air of arrogance, as if she hadn't even seen Zhao Yihang. Her gaze fell upon my phone.

"Did you buy a phone?"

"Yeah."

I nodded, "A friend let me have it on credit. I don't have the money."

"Did you download WeChat? Add me as a friend so we can communicate promptly if anything happens at the internet cafe."

"Alright."

As I added her as a friend, Zhao Yihang grumbled beside me, "Boss, I've worked at the internet cafe for so long, why have you never proactively added me on WeChat?"

"It's just a phone call, why add WeChat?"

Lu Xiaobei's differential treatment was perfectly demonstrated.

At this moment, I had successfully added her and saw Lu Xiaobei's WeChat name. The name was quite unique: "Northern," followed by a cherry blossom, a wave, and a leaf. It was clear she was someone who couldn't sit still, which perfectly matched her personality.

Afterward, Lu Xiaobei and I parted ways in front of the internet cafe. She went to the Old City District to take photos, while I took a detour to a breakfast shop, bought a few steamed buns and a bag of soy milk, then headed to the bus stop. I sat on the platform and finished eating, then rested with my arms crossed, gathering my energy for today's adventure.

Just before nine o'clock, a rather rusty-looking Santana slowly pulled up to the bus stop.

The driver was a middle-aged man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes; he was quite handsome. What was most striking was his demeanor, possessing the composure, grace, and calmness of a middle-aged man. He gripped the steering wheel with his left hand and turned to look at me.

In the passenger seat sat a burly man with large, staring eyes.

"Ding Han!"

The rear window rolled down, revealing Ruolin's beautiful face. As she shifted inside, she chuckled, "Come on up, squeeze in the back."

I looked down and saw another woman next to Ruolin. She was also very attractive, but her expression was rather cold, unlike Ruolin's warmth.