Moving House

Yu Xunge was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes—because she had been holding back a yawn. She was truly exhausted. "Let's go home. I found someone who might be a player, but I didn't make contact. You might even know him."

On the way, she told him what she had "investigated." "It's not easy to ask about this openly. Everyone's keeping it hidden. We didn't actually meet the person I saw this time either; we were both wary of each other. Later, I changed my approach and asked around about whether anything strange had happened. That's when I found out something."

"Do you know a gaming streamer called Yi Xue Zhi Dong? Hasn't his gaming skill suddenly become incredible lately?"

Yu Xunhuan's eyes lit up. "Yes, we're good friends. We've known each other for a long time. Not long ago, our gaming group was talking about him, saying it was like he'd suddenly gotten the hang of it."

Yu Xunge said, "Mm. The player I talked to later also mentioned Ye Dong. He suspected Ye Dong had some kind of voice-related skill. I watched recordings of his streams. Whenever he shouted things like 'Get up!' or 'Hold on!' or 'I believe in you!' his whole team would suddenly get much stronger."

Yu Xunhuan: What the hell?

Yu Xunge explained, "I told you about God-Bestowed Talents, right? They come in all kinds. I can control someone's Luck Value for a short time, so other players might be able to influence people with their voices."

On the way home, Yu Xunge tossed the matter of Ye Dong to Yu Xunhuan and stopped worrying about it. Yu Xunhuan was still an ordinary person. This time, the ordinary person standing before Ye Dong had changed from her to him. Whether he could turn his friendship with Ye Dong into a brotherhood would depend on his own abilities.

Yu Xunge did not let Yu Xunhuan take her back to the little villa. She did not like outsiders setting foot in her territory. She planned to sell the villa after a while and buy a small apartment where a Dungeon Entrance would appear.

Whether she traded it to the authorities for resources or kept it to farm dungeons herself, either option would be good.

After having a meal at the Yu Family home, she turned down Yu Xunhuan's offer to drive her back to the villa and returned home alone.

Then she began studying in seclusion.

It could only be said that she had not been a top student before because she had simply chosen the wrong field.

Over the following period, Yu Xunge earnestly, almost devoutly, went through every beginner and intermediate alchemy formula. Each formula came with a potion-making video, and she worked hard to memorize every movement made by the Undead Female Mentor.

After she had watched all four hundred beginner and intermediate formulas and started over from the beginning for a second viewing, she discovered that the Undead Female Mentor would occasionally offer a sentence or two of explanation in the videos.

Yu Xunge: Teacher, you're aiding the enemy!

Perhaps, in the eyes of a true scholar, Blue Star humans were no different from races other than the undead. Just as goblins did not care about war or glory, only money and business, once their professional skills reached Legendary rank, all they cared about was passing on their craft.

She did not dwell on it and instead treasured all of it.

Whenever she occasionally hit a dead end, she cooked a meal for the cats outside. The Meow Meow Hostel truly lived up to its name. Cats came and went, but not one stayed for long. No cat remained for more than three days. There were resident stray cats in the villa district, but they only occasionally came by for food and never settled down.

Although Yu Xunge liked cats, she had no plans to keep one. She was too busy and had to go out and cause trouble from time to time. Where would she find the time to care for a pet that needed constant attention?

This kind of relationship was quite nice. Every day, she only needed to make some extra lightly seasoned, low-salt meat while practicing her cooking skill and leave it outside. She could pet and hold different cats without having to take responsibility.

An open cat-keeping relationship.

The food she made for the cats used only the most ordinary meat from the real world, but it still provided buffs after being eaten. Some cats gained strength for a short time, while others gained movement speed. It all tasted great, and both the cats and Yu Xunge loved it.

Although skills learned from another world were also taught through videos playing bit by bit in one's mind, it was still different from following along while watching a video. The former was projected directly into the mind, eliminating a reaction delay while constantly reinforcing the memory.

In less than half a year, Yu Xunge went from someone unskilled at cooking to a master chef proficient in hundreds of recipes.

Once she understood the principles, everything else followed naturally. Even without following recipes now, dishes she casually combined and stir-fried tasted quite good. They simply lacked buff effects.

She had not ordered takeout in a long time, because her own cooking tasted far better than anything sold outside. Several dishes also had the effect: "No matter what you do, you will become more focused." Even though the effect only lasted a few minutes, she found that her learning efficiency was higher during those minutes. She could easily spot details in the alchemy videos that she had previously overlooked.

Yu Xunge simply spent half a day baking more than a thousand little cookies that increased focus after being eaten, studying while she ate them.

In August, Yu Xunge also found time to return to the company to formally terminate her contract, then released a statement announcing her retirement from the entertainment industry.

Given her current circumstances, it was better for her to stay out of the public eye. What she had told Yu Xunhuan about Ye Dong's abnormality being noticed was not exactly a lie. Wasn't Yu Xunhuan's gaming group also discussing Ye Dong's changes?

To ordinary people, such changes were at most worth a few bits of gossip. But players could quickly connect them to the game.

She suspected that Ye Dong's sudden move to S City to find Yu Xunhuan in her previous life might have been because someone had noticed him. So he had gone to a friend he somewhat trusted to stick together.

News of Yu Xunge leaving the entertainment industry caused a stir online for several days. People dug up the recent incident where someone had died at her management company and her agent had also been implicated, speculating that she might have suffered some kind of harm.

Yu Xunge answered whatever questions she could. Not caring about empty fame was one thing, but that did not mean she was willing to inexplicably shoulder a bad reputation or let people speculate about disgusting things.

"I'm fine. I wasn't harmed. I'm just tired and want to rest for a while, to live the life I truly want."

"I didn't suddenly get rich, and I didn't marry into a wealthy family. I just calculated my savings and realized I have enough to spend."

"Yes, I'm the one selling bags in the photos. I never liked those things to begin with; they were only necessary because I was a celebrity. Now that I've left the industry, of course I can sell the things I no longer need."

"If I were truly too broke to survive, I wouldn't have left the industry. Thank you all for your concern."

"The company was good to me. We parted on good terms."

"I don't have a rich second-generation boyfriend. I don't plan to date or marry. I'm not interested in spending someone else's money, and my own money is only enough for me."

Yu Xunge said it all with perfect confidence, as though she had not been the one who had gone to the Su Family to rob gold not long ago.