Coffee shop.
Su Bai stared at the girl across from him, who was holding an iced latte and talking nonstop, and began to doubt himself.
Who said Chen Yusheng was aloof? She was not aloof at all. Just look at that little mouth of hers, chattering away without pause.
She was completely different from the image everyone usually had of her.
Just now, Chen Yusheng had taken the initiative to exchange a code phrase with him, and Su Bai discovered that they were both die-hard fans of a certain girl-band anime.
Then, as if she had finally met a kindred spirit, Chen Yusheng's urge to talk exploded.
The hallway in the laboratory building was not suitable for chatting, so the two of them came to a nearby coffee shop.
They talked nonsense for a while.
To their surprise, they found that they did not merely like the same anime.
Their hobbies overlapped to an astonishing degree.
For example, the anime and movies they liked to watch, the music they liked to listen to, and the books they loved.
And their usual pastimes too: playing games, watching absurd videos, making food, and reviewing all sorts of electronic products...
It was practically another version of himself in this world!
Su Bai was deeply shaken. By all rights, should not a cold, brilliant female student's hobbies be refined, like those of a wealthy young lady?
Or, like the stereotype people had in mind: following celebrities, reading entertainment gossip, going shopping with her girlfriends, and knowing luxury brands inside out.
Yet Su Bai saw his own reflection in Chen Yusheng.
It was genuinely hard not to laugh.
But it also filled him with an exciting sense of anticipation.
After all, "someone understands me" was a higher-level spiritual need, especially when the person who understood you was a beautiful, mature-looking girl with long black hair.
As they chatted, the two happened to take a sip of coffee at the same time. The air suddenly fell silent. The coffee shop was filled with the leisurely atmosphere of the afternoon, and their gazes accidentally met before they shyly looked away.
"Um... well, I need to go work at Professor Luo's lab."
"Go ahead. Work comes first."
Chen Yusheng gave Su Bai a slightly reluctant look. Her lips moved, but she ultimately said nothing.
She grabbed her backpack and left.
Actually, Su Bai also had something he had not had the chance to say.
He wanted to know why Chen Yusheng still worked as a gaming companion when she had income from working at the lab.
It was not that he looked down on gaming companions. It was just that an ordinary female college student did not need to work herself so hard.
It seemed Chen Yusheng was very short of money.
Forget it. He would ask when he got the chance later. Maybe it was her private matter, and she was not comfortable sharing it.
After finishing his coffee, Su Bai bought some small desserts at the coffee shop and had them packed to go.
This coffee shop specialized in an exquisite aesthetic. It could barely be considered a popular check-in spot on Jiangcheng University's campus, and the desserts it sold were not cheap—perfect for Su Bai to trigger rewards.
He brought them back to the dorm and shared them with Wang Haoran.
"Brother Bai, do you want me to help write your lab report?"
"Why are you suddenly asking that?"
"I keep mooching food and drinks off you, so I feel bad about it. Let me do some odd jobs for you. Oh, right—if you play gacha games in the future, I can also grind them for you."
Wang Haoran looked utterly sincere.
To be fair, this guy really did have decent character. Lots of people loved taking small advantages, then felt absolutely no gratitude after doing so.
However, when gacha games were mentioned, Su Bai got a new idea.
Playing anime-style gacha mobile games was also an excellent way to indulge in spending!
Take the most classic example, Yuanshen. When a new banner opened, pulling every available item on it had an expected cost of around twenty-five thousand yuan. With bad luck, it could cost over thirty thousand.
If there were two new characters in the current cycle, then the spending would be doubled and then some.
Su Bai opened his computer and logged into his Yuanshen account.
When this game had first come out years ago, Su Bai had tried it. He did not particularly like the game itself, though some of the characters were pretty. The problem was that he could not afford to pull—it was too expensive.
Throwing 648 yuan into it barely made a ripple, while back in high school, six hundred yuan could have fed Su Bai for a month in the school cafeteria if he watched his spending.
Things were different now. Since the system considered spending on mobile games indulgence too, then he would pull to his heart's content!
Su Bai spent money like water, wildly doing ten-pulls until he had cleared out everything available from the banner.
His total spending exceeded fifty thousand yuan.
Su Bai did not even know who those game characters were or what backstories they had.
It did not matter. He only needed to know that the system had triggered an eightfold cashback reward: four hundred thousand yuan!
Wang Haoran, sitting beside him, was stunned.
He had long heard that rich people played mobile games and spent money as naturally as breathing.
Now he was seeing it for real.
Compared to those players who did daily tasks and pinched every penny to save up gacha resources, it felt like they were playing two entirely different games!
The Blue-Green Modifier was terrifying indeed!
"Brother Bai, does that overseas wealthy family that came looking to claim you still need another young master? How about adding me in?"
"What the hell do you mean, add you in? Are we in the King of Glory lobby looking for a couple here?" Su Bai logged out and sent Wang Haoran the account and password. "I've pulled everything. You play it for me. I haven't played in ages, so I don't even know how far I got in the main story."
"Huh?? No, Brother Bai, aren't you going to try out the characters you just pulled?"
"Try out my ass. I quit the game ages ago. I can't be bothered to learn whatever new mechanics there are now. It's enough for me to watch you play."
"...Brother Bai, if you do not reject me, Haoran is willing to acknowledge you as his Godfather!"
"Get lost, get lost. I don't want a stupid son like you."
Su Bai laughed and cursed at him as he returned to his own computer.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
"Wait, doesn't Mi Shenme You have two other gacha mobile games too?"
Wang Haoran's eyes lit up. "They do, brother, they do!"
Half an hour later.
Two windows were open on Wang Haoran's computer screen as he simultaneously controlled Yuanshen and Juequ Ling.
Bēng Tiě was also running on his phone.
He operated across three fronts with incredible smoothness.
Su Bai watched in amazement. "Damn, you were born for this!"
"It's nothing, it's nothing." Wang Haoran humbly replied, "I'm just more familiar with the mechanics of these grindy games. It's not difficult. I worked as a grinding service for a while during summer break, and the computer I'm using now was bought with the money I earned from that work."
"Awesome."
Su Bai began to ponder. If he opened an online gaming studio and had Wang Haoran run it, then put all the accounts he had spent money on under the studio, would that not satisfy the indulgence requirement?
After all, he would be hiring someone to grind for him, rather than merely spending money without playing the games.
It would not count as waste.
But that was a matter for the future. For now, he would just let Wang Haoran grind Mi Shenme You's three flagship games for him.
It counted as roommates helping each other out. Wang Haoran liked playing them anyway, and having top-tier accounts to play was a pleasure for him.
Thanks to maxing out his spending on all three games and receiving cashback, Su Bai's savings had already surpassed one million yuan.
In Su Bai's mind, Apple's status as a holy land for cashback had now been replaced by Mi Shenme You.
After all, phones and tablets could last a long time after buying a set.
Gacha mobile games changed banners in less than a month.
For Su Bai, that meant stable cash flow.
And it was incredibly simple and easy. He did not even need to leave the house—he just paid, and his roommate did the grinding.
After thinking about it a few times, Su Bai reminded Wang Haoran, "Remember to notify me whenever the banner updates. I'll spend money and max it out again then."
"...You're going to max out every banner?"
"Max it out. It has to be maxed out!"
"..."
This was what a true rich person was like—spending money however he pleased.
The key was that Su Bai was still low-key and did not like showing off. He had none of the airs of a rich young master.
Compared to him, the other two people in the dorm—the "local" and Hu Ye—were nowhere close.
Wang Haoran sighed inwardly.
Ding! Detected that the host's savings have surpassed one million. Reward issued: one Luxury Car Lottery Ticket. Please keep up the good work and indulge yourself!
A Luxury Car Lottery Ticket?
Not bad.
River City's urban area was huge, and public transportation was nowhere near as convenient as in first-tier cities. Having a car to drive would be nice; taking taxis was never quite as free.
Su Bai summoned the system and checked the details of the lottery ticket.
Before you continue