Leaving the Entertainment Industry

Yu Xunge was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes—because she was 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 them."

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—we were both wary of each other. Later, I looked into whether anything strange had happened, and I found something."

"Do you know a gaming streamer named Yi Xue Zhi Dong? Has his gaming skill suddenly become really good lately?"

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

Yu Xunge said, "Mm. The player I talked to later also mentioned Ye Dong. They said they suspected he had some kind of sound-related skill. I watched recordings of his streams. Every time he shouted things like, 'Get up! Keep going! I believe in you!' his team would suddenly become much stronger."

Yu Xunhuan: What the hell?

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

On the way home, Yu Xunge left 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 now depended on his own ability.

Yu Xunge did not let Yu Xunhuan take her back to the small villa. She disliked outsiders setting foot in her territory. After some time, she planned to sell the villa and buy a small apartment where a Dungeon Entrance would appear.

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

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 by herself.

Then she began studying in seclusion.

It could only be said that she had not been a top student before because she had never found the right field.

Over the next period of time, Yu Xunge earnestly, almost devoutly, went through every beginner- and intermediate-level alchemy recipe. Each recipe came with a potion-brewing video, and she worked hard to memorize every movement made by the Undead Female Mentor.

After finishing all four hundred beginner and intermediate recipes and beginning a second viewing from the start, she discovered that the Undead Female Mentor in the videos would occasionally offer a sentence or two of explanation.

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

Perhaps, to a true scholar, Blue Star humans were no different from races other than the undead. Just as goblins cared neither for war nor glory, but only for money and business, once their professional skills reached the Legendary level, all they saw was the inheritance of their craft.

She did not dwell on it, instead cherishing everything she was being given.

Whenever she occasionally hit a dead end, she would cook a meal for the cats outside. Meow Meow Hostel truly lived up to its name. Cats came and went, but not a single one stayed for long. No cat remained for more than three days. There were also stray cats that lived permanently in the villa district, but they only came by for food now and then, never settling down.

Although Yu Xunge liked cats, she had no plans to keep one. She was too busy, constantly going out to stir up trouble. Where would she find the time to raise a pet that needed constant care?

This kind of relationship was just right. Every day, when she practiced her cooking skill, all she needed to do was make some extra meat with less salt and seasoning and leave it outside. She could pet and hold different cats without having to take responsibility for them.

An open cat-raising relationship.

Although the ingredients in the food she made for the cats were just the most ordinary meats from the real world, they still provided buffs after being eaten. Some increased Strength for a short time, while others increased Movement Speed. They all tasted great, and both the cats and Yu Xunge loved them.

Although skills learned from another world were also taught through videos played directly in one's mind, that was still different from following along while watching a video oneself. The former was projected directly into the mind, eliminating a layer of reaction time while continuously reinforcing memory.

In less than half a year, Yu Xunge went from someone who was not proficient in cooking to a master chef skilled in hundreds of recipes.

Once one principle was understood, all others followed. Now, even without following a recipe, dishes she casually combined and stir-fried still tasted good. They simply lacked buffs.

She had not ordered takeout in a long time, because her own cooking tasted far better than anything she could buy outside. Moreover, several dishes had an effect that read: "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 during those minutes was much higher. She could easily notice details in the alchemy videos that she had previously overlooked.

Yu Xunge simply spent half a day baking over a thousand little cookies that could increase focus after being eaten, studying while she ate them.

In August, Yu Xunge also found time to return to the company and formally terminate her contract, then posted a statement announcing her departure from the industry.

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

Ordinary people would at most gossip a little about such changes, 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 come to seek out a friend he somewhat trusted and stick together.

News of Yu Xunge's departure from the industry was a hot topic online for several days. People dug up the incident from not long ago where someone had died at her management company and her agent had been implicated, and some speculated that she might have suffered some kind of harm.

Yu Xunge picked out the questions she could answer and answered them all. Not caring about empty fame was one thing, but that did not mean she was willing to inexplicably bear a bad reputation or let people speculate about lewd matters.

"I'm fine. I wasn't harmed. I just felt tired and wanted to rest for a while and 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, the person in the photo selling handbags is me. I never liked these things to begin with; they were only necessary because of my profession as a celebrity. Now that I've left the industry, of course I can sell the things I no longer need."

"If I were really so short on money that I couldn't survive, I wouldn't have left the industry. Thank you for your concern."

"The company is quite good. We parted on good terms."

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

Yu Xunge spoke with complete confidence, as if the person who had gone to the Su Family to rob them of gold not long ago had not been her.