Instance Crystal (Thanks to Alliance Leader Ciwang!)

In the office.

Vice Captain Wang's voice rose and fell, "Your boyfriend has already explained the situation to us. We'll let this slide this time. You can go now, take your things too. Just be more discreet when you set up your stall in the future, don't be so blatant."

"Boy... boyfriend?" Lu Xiaobei looked bewildered.

"Keep talking."

I hurriedly rolled up the pile of trinkets on the ground and hugged them to my chest. "Brother Wang, we'll be going then."

"Go ahead."

Captain Wang lit a cigarette, crossed his legs, and looked like he was living the high life.

Outside, the autumn wind blew, and the plane tree leaves on the ground rolled, reminding me of that Nanjing City.

"Ding Han, you looked so fawning just now..."

Lu Xiaobei glanced at me. "It's okay for a man to be poor, but he must have integrity. Do you know that?"

"You have the nerve to say that?"

I glared. "To get you out, I sacrificed a Ruan Zhong, do you know that?"

"Huh?"

Lu Xiaobei lowered her head, looking a bit embarrassed. Then, as if remembering something, she looked up at me. "Who told you to say I was your girlfriend?"

"I never said that."

I looked at the road beneath my feet. "He guessed it. There wasn't much I could say. In that situation, anything I said would have been superfluous and would have interrupted the bribery atmosphere I created with a Ruan Zhong."

As I spoke, I handed her the bundle. "How much did it cost to stock this pile of yours?"

"Over five hundred."

"..."

I felt a bit helpless. It only cost over five hundred to stock, but it cost me over three hundred in cold, hard cash!

"Ding Han..."

Lu Xiaobei's imposing manner weakened considerably. "I'm hungry..."

"Then let's eat. You're treating me!"

"There's a beef hot pot place across the street. I've wanted to go for a long time, but I never had anyone to go with me. How about... I treat you this time? As thanks for getting me out of the city management office today..."

"Alright, let's go!"

At the hot pot restaurant, we ordered some beef and other hot pot dishes. Lu Xiaobei ordered a few bottles of Heineken beer.

I hadn't eaten anything so delicious in a long time, so I naturally ate to my heart's content. Beer and hot pot were a perfect match. Before I knew it, I had drunk a little too much.

After the third bottle of Heineken went down, my face felt numb, and I felt a sense of haziness.

Damn it, I forgot something important!

The Intestinal Fortification skill had a side effect: alcohol intolerance!

But I never imagined I was that intolerant. Three bottles of beer and I was already about to pass out!

"Lu Xiaobei..."

I frowned, struggling for five seconds before "thudding" onto the table and falling asleep. I seemed to hear Lu Xiaobei's laughter: "What kind of alcohol tolerance is this? Are you trying to make me die laughing, Ding Han? Hahahaha~~~"

My mind was a blur.

When I woke up and opened my eyes, I found myself staring at a familiar ceiling. The chandelier was unique and beautiful. I looked up and realized I was lying on Lu Xiaobei's bed.

"Holy crap..."

A jolt went through me, and I sat up abruptly.

I saw it was already three in the morning. I grabbed my phone from the table and rushed downstairs. Then I saw Lu Xiaobei sitting in the internet cafe manager's chair, propping her chin with a fair arm, her little head nodding, almost falling asleep.

"Hey!"

I crept up behind her silently and startled her.

Lu Xiaobei was easily startled. She jumped out of the chair on the spot. Seeing it was me, she immediately punched me angrily. "Are you trying to die? You scared me to death..."

I took the punch. After all, my defense had been stacked to 54 points, and Lu Xiaobei was just an ordinary person in the Star Abyss world, so it didn't hurt at all.

"Were you covering my shift?" I asked.

"Yeah, what else?"

Lu Xiaobei suddenly hooked her lips, revealing a mischievous smile. "Oh, speaking of which, your alcohol tolerance is really..."

She pursed her red lips. "I've lived for more than half my life, and this is the first time I've seen such a low alcohol tolerance."

"Even the strongest men have their unknown weaknesses. Is it that strange?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "Alright, you go to sleep. I've slept enough, I can handle things here."

"You ruined my sleepiness with all that commotion."

Lu Xiaobei pulled over another chair and sat beside me, crossing her legs, which were glowing white. "I'll keep watch with you. That way, you won't get drowsy and get complained about by customers."

"Fine."

I looked at the shelves and said, "I'm hungry. I want a bowl of noodles, and add a sausage."

"Are you a starving ghost reincarnated?"

Lu Xiaobei said speechlessly, "If you're going to eat, why tell me specifically?"

"I'd be too embarrassed to take out a sausage if you weren't here..."

"Oh my, Ding Han, are you that thin-skinned?"

After finishing the noodles, I felt completely revived.

I looked at Lu Xiaobei beside me and asked, "Are we going to set up a stall tomorrow?"

"Mhm."

She nodded seriously. "There aren't many photography gigs at the inn lately, so we have to rely on the stall to make money. Every bit counts. Besides, if I don't set up the stall, your Soft Central won't be useful."

"Even if you set up a stall, you might not even earn two hundred yuan a day. It's not a long-term solution."

I pondered for a moment and said, "Actually, if we put more effort into our internet cafe, this is the easiest place to make money."

"Do you have any suggestions?" Lu Xiaobei asked.

"Our internet cafe has too few machines, and their performance is poor. Customers playing Legend or Miracle often experience lag. So, getting a batch of higher-performance computers is the top priority."

I pointed to the storage room. "I've checked the storage room. It's quite spacious. If we clean it up and paint the walls, we can fit at least seven machines in there. This way, our Feiyang Internet Cafe can expand to 30 machines. In terms of machine count, we won't be too far behind the other three. What do you think?"

"It's possible, but... where will the new machines come from?" Lu Xiaobei's eyes widened, and she looked very excited.

"Let's inquire if any internet cafes are closing down and selling their machines. We can go take a look."

"Okay, I'll inquire tomorrow!"

Lu Xiaobei seemed full of energy.

Just then, a bell rang, triggering another daily quest!

[You have triggered the Daily Quest: Expand Scale (B-Rank). Quest Objective: Help Lu Xiaobei increase the internet cafe's scale from 23 machines to 30 machines. Quest Reward: Large amount of experience points, with a certain chance of obtaining special rewards!]

A B-rank quest, that's pretty good!

I was slightly pleased and said, "Okay, tomorrow, once we confirm where old computers are being sold, I'll go with you. You go upstairs and sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

"Alright."

Lu Xiaobei finally stopped being stubborn and turned to go upstairs to sleep.

The next day, early in the morning.

Before Zhao Yihang arrived to take over, Lu Xiaobei had already come in from outside, carrying two breakfasts. "I've already inquired. There's an internet cafe on Binjiang Road that's closing down. The owner is selling the computers at a low price. I don't know much about computers, so you definitely have to come with me. I've already contacted them. Shall we leave now? I bought breakfast for you."

"Okay, let's go after Zhao Yihang arrives."

A short while later, Zhao Yihang came to relieve us, and Lu Xiaobei and I took a pedicab to Huaihai Road.

The autumn wind was blowing fiercely, and I was still wearing a T-shirt. I had to admit, it was a bit cold.

Fortunately, the steamed buns and soy milk were hot. Eating them warmed me up from the inside out.

The owner of the bankrupt internet cafe was a Fatty, with a bitter expression. He said that his family's other businesses had lost too much money, so he had no choice but to transfer the internet cafe.

I looked at the computer configurations and asked, "Boss, how much are you selling these machines for per unit?"

"To be honest, I hired someone to configure them when I bought them. Each machine cost over three thousand yuan. Although they've been used for over a year, selling them for fifteen hundred each is still worth it."

Lu Xiaobei glanced at me but didn't say anything, seemingly leaving the bargaining entirely to me.

"Then you were slightly ripped off back then."

I said seriously, "The graphics cards, motherboards, and such on these machines are indeed acceptable, but the RAM is too small. They're fine for playing Legend, but playing Miracle will likely cause lag. This is probably why your internet cafe's business wasn't good. Honestly, we genuinely want them, but fifteen hundred is too much. The internet cafe business isn't easy nowadays either. We can offer at most twelve hundred. That's our sincere offer. If you think it's acceptable, great. If not, then forget it."

"Twelve hundred? That's too low!"

The boss looked pained.

Lu Xiaobei looked nervous.

So, after some haggling with the down-on-his-luck boss, the final price was settled at thirteen hundred, which was Lu Xiaobei's limit.

Afterward, Lu Xiaobei took out a wad of cash and found a small truck to transport the seven computers back to Feiyang Internet Cafe.

Lunch was at the ramen shop next to the internet cafe. Of course, Lu Xiaobei treated.

The workers had finished clearing out the storage room and were now painting the walls. Once the painting was done, they could run the wiring.

"Seven computers alone aren't enough," I said.

I glanced up at her. "The RAM in these computers is too low. I mean, we should add a stick of RAM to each of these computers. The best Kingston 512M DDRII 533 on the market right now will do."

"Is it expensive?" Lu Xiaobei asked cautiously.

"New, each stick is around five hundred. But we don't need to buy new ones; we can just find used ones at the second-hand market. I'll go with you. I'll pick them out, and you'll pay. Once these seven computers have new RAM sticks, they'll be able to run all the games currently on the market smoothly, even some single-player games that require a lot of memory."

I smiled slightly. "After that, we can set up partitions and turn these seven computers in the storage room into a VIP area. It'll cost two yuan per hour. Those seeking a sense of superiority definitely won't miss out."

"You can raise the price?"

Lu Xiaobei's eyes lit up.

"Of course!"

I nodded and smiled. "In the future, when our internet cafe expands and grows stronger, we'll need to categorize machines into premium, VIP, and exclusive zones based on their performance. This kind of tiered system will create a sense of comparison, and those with the means will naturally flock to it."

"Okay, I'll listen to you!"

Lu Xiaobei smiled and nodded.

"Also, don't just hang around outside all day. Many customers come here specifically because you're the beautiful owner. You should spend some time downstairs every day."

"Oh..."

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Lu Xiaobei and I went to the second-hand market and bought seven 512M RAM sticks for 200 yuan each. After installing the RAM, the seven machines in the storage room immediately became the highest-performing batch in the entire internet cafe!

The moment we powered them on, a ding-dong sound came from my ear.

[Congratulations, you have completed the daily quest [Expand Scale] (Rank B), and received a reward: Character EXP +60,000, and an additional special reward: [Instance Crystal - Red Sand Plunder] (Rare ★★)!]