"Hello, Xiao-gege..."
After the other party accepted her friend request, Old Auntie Eighteen-Year-Old Dirt-Sucking Miss immediately sent a smiling emoji along with a message that sounded incredibly sweet.
"Hello..."
Xiao Xiao hesitated over words like "Old Auntie" and "Eighteen," then tentatively asked, "Dirt-Sucking Miss?"
"..."
The chat box fell silent for a while before the other party replied, "My name is Ruan Ruan."
"Sorry, sorry..."
Xiao Xiao typed an apology: This nickname sounds pretty wild, but her name sounds like that of a very gentle girl...
"Jiajia-jie already told me about you, Xiao-gege. She said you're someone with a great deal of potential..."
Looking at her message, Xiao Xiao suddenly felt that he should be modest. At that moment, she sent a second line: "And you're very handsome."
Xiao Xiao silently deleted his modest reply and typed instead, "I'm just an ordinary person. I wouldn't call it potential."
"You'll know when we meet. Uptown East District, ten o'clock. Is that all right, Xiao-gege?"
"Of course. See you at ten."
"..."
After arranging a time to meet with Ruan Ruan, Xiao Xiao quickly changed into clean clothes, put on a hooded jacket, and went out.
Uptown East District was one of Black Gate City's busiest commercial areas. More than seventy percent of the city's high-end restaurants and luxury stores were concentrated there. Normally, only two kinds of people appeared in that place.
One kind was the elite of local high society. The other was the lower-class people who served them.
Xiao Xiao was just a poor student and normally had no chance to come here. He did remember visiting a few times as a child with his father.
After four years without leaving home, he naturally had no money on him. Fortunately, his mother had left him two hundred yuan in pocket money. That was the only wealth he could currently use.
Thus, Xiao Xiao did not even order a cup of coffee. He sat outside the café and quietly waited for Designer Miss to arrive.
"I wonder what this eighteen-year-old Old Auntie Dirt-Sucking Miss looks like?"
Thinking of her cuteness during their chat and Yang Jia's earlier reminders, Xiao Xiao pictured a quiet, sweet girl in his mind. His eyes subconsciously swept over the crowds passing by.
Sweet and charming, with a touch of rebelliousness—she should be that kind of girl.
When the appointed time arrived, Xiao Xiao's phone still had not rung. He kept looking at the time.
Just then, a tall, sleek black motorcycle came from the far end of the street.
A motorcycle this powerful and cool could instantly seize any man's attention.
What was more, sitting on it was a petite girl with excellent proportions. Yet compared to the motorcycle, she was small—and even compared to an electric scooter, she looked rather tiny.
The motorcycle reached the intersection and was about to turn when a blue sports car suddenly came from the left. Both sides braked in time, then simultaneously began honking.
The sports car's engine roared, its front end surging forward as if impatiently waiting for the motorcycle to get out of the way.
The rider on the motorcycle immediately looked annoyed. She stretched out one short leg and planted it on the railing beside her to keep from falling, then began honking repeatedly with her right hand as well.
Neither side would yield. The sports car grew eager to force its way through and edged forward.
The girl on the motorcycle angrily removed her helmet. She turned out to be a quiet, short-haired girl. With a cold curl of her lips, she suddenly twisted the throttle.
"Vroom..."
The motorcycle shot forward.
Seeing the motorcycle actually charge at him while he was still revving his engine and pressing forward aggressively, the sports-car driver slammed on the brakes.
But the motorcycle showed no intention of stopping. It rammed straight into the intersection, forcing its way through. The sports car, unable to dodge, was scraped by a deep, ugly line.
The motorcycle turned through the intersection. The short-haired girl on it looked smug as she shoved the vehicle against the roadside and stood up.
The sports car stopped as well. A man in fashionable sportswear jumped out, golf club in hand. Furious, he pointed toward her and strode over.
The short-haired girl adjusted her hair, then bent down and pulled a huge metal wrench from a bag beside the motorcycle. Weighing it in her hand, she walked toward him.
The two sides drew closer and closer. The man with the golf club began to panic. He stopped first, hid the club behind his back, and seemed to acquire a more refined, gentlemanly air.
After chatting for a while, they somehow became extremely friendly, exchanged phone numbers, and parted with the sports-car driver leaving happily.
Only then did the short-haired girl return. She shoved the metal wrench back into the bag on her motorcycle, took out her phone, fiddled with it several times, then looked up at the surroundings.
Xiao Xiao's phone rang. When he opened it, he saw a message from Designer Miss: "Something delayed me. Where are you, Xiao-gege?"
"It really is her..."
Xiao Xiao stared in shock and hurriedly stood up to wave at her. "Over here!"
The short-haired girl's gaze locked onto him. She happily waved, then vaulted over a stretch of railing and walked toward him. Xiao Xiao hurriedly went forward to greet her as well.
"Hello, hello, Ruan Ruan... Designer Miss."
"..."
This was no cute little Ruan Ruan. This was clearly a battle-hardened tough guy who needed a slab of forty-second-grade concrete to go with her Italian noodles.
"Oh my, are you Xiao-gege?"
The pretty little girl who had just greeted someone with a wrench bounced over to Xiao Xiao. Her eyes lit up, and she extended her soft little hand with a giggle.
"Jiajia-jie didn't lie to me. You really are a handsome young man..."
"..."
"No, no..."
Xiao Xiao hurriedly reached out to shake her hand, afraid that she would get upset if he was too slow.
He looked over the short-haired girl. Her smile was sweet and she was incredibly adorable—the sort of person whose sugary smile could melt someone's heart.
Although in reality, she might be better at cracking someone's head open...
"Don't blame me, okay? I wasn't late on purpose. I almost got hit just now. It scared me to death..."
The little designer, Ruan Ruan, smiled sweetly as she made excuses for herself.
"It's fine. I just got here too..."
Xiao Xiao explained aloud, while secretly thinking, You're clearly very good at handling arguments with people...
He did not dare say that aloud. Maintaining a somewhat stiff smile, he released her hand and asked, "What would you like to drink? It's on me."
Although he had only two hundred yuan on him, he had to maintain some dignity and treat her to a drink.
"You can order for me. I like things on the sweeter side."
The girl acted very sensibly. After saying that casually, she obediently sat down and waited.
"Are you sure you don't want me to add some erguotou?"
That was what Xiao Xiao thought, but he still went to the counter. Before long, he returned with an iced Americano and caramel, having spent a full seventy yuan.
I haven't gone out much in four years, and prices have risen so quickly...
He still maintained a polite smile. "Yang Jia said I could ask you about anything I don't understand?"
"..."
"Of course."
Ruan Ruan held the coffee in both hands and said, "I'm already a very experienced enhancement designer. You can completely trust me in this area, Xiao-gege."
"Enhancement design?"
Xiao Xiao had heard Yang Jia mention the term before, but he was still somewhat confused.
"Yes."
Ruan Ruan set down her coffee. From a fluffy pink backpack she carried, she took out a tablet computer and nodded her little head.
"You know that we're already stuck in a place like this, and we have to deal with so many strange things."
"Of course, we have to find something to protect ourselves."
"..."
Listening to her, Xiao Xiao was slightly moved. "What kind of thing?"
Ruan Ruan smiled. "Something dangerous. The more dangerous it is, the more useful it'll be."
As she spoke, she laid the tablet flat, then extended her hand and crooked a finger at Xiao Xiao. "Give me your information card."
"?"
Xiao Xiao froze for a moment before realizing she meant the dark red card Yang Jia had taken him to retrieve yesterday. He pulled it from his pocket and handed it to her.
Ruan Ruan pressed the card against the back of the tablet. A strange scene appeared. The tablet, whose screen had previously displayed an ordinary shopping website, suddenly trembled faintly, seeming to take on an eerie, mysterious quality.
The text and images on it broke apart and rearranged themselves, forming entirely new content.
In the end, what appeared was a strange dark-red page that looked as if it had been stained with endless blood. A number of options could be seen on it.
Looking at it, Xiao Xiao felt as if ants were crawling over his body. "What is this?"
"A method of communicating with the city's will..."
Ruan Ruan smiled at him and said, "This card allows us to communicate with the City Will through electronic devices in all kinds of environments. You'll understand later."
"Now, look..."
She smiled and handed the tablet to Xiao Xiao. When he lowered his head to look, his heart suddenly gave a slight tremor. All kinds of bizarre names and exaggerated descriptions leaped into his vision:
Violence Factor: 20 points/unit Pursue violence. Tear apart all these hypocritical things and make those twisted monsters fear us. Tremble in fear, you bastards! ... Lurking Instinct: 20 points/unit Possess the instinct and talent to hide yourself in any environment. Stay in the safest place and keep those monsters and malicious forces from finding us— Shh, they're coming. ... Extreme Sensitivity: 20 points/unit See through the malicious hearts beneath any smiling face. See through the truth beneath the disguise. Don't even think about fooling me. You're all trying to hurt me! ...
"..."
Xiao Xiao felt his scalp prickle. "What the hell are these things?"
Ruan Ruan smiled sweetly, but Xiao Xiao felt that she seemed somewhat mysterious at that moment. She lowered her voice and said, "Things that can help us fight against this crazy world."
"We call them Enhancement Elements!"
What are you holding there?
Looks like tickets—the kind that make the author really happy when you vote for him.
Before you continue