You're Still Pretty Handsome

After Fang Yue finished reading the post, his heart jolted.

No way. My cash cow won't even last a month?

But after thinking it over, Fang Yue realized the post actually made a lot of sense.

After all, the people on this forum were professional players who made a living from gaming. Their understanding of games was worlds apart from that of ordinary players.

When ordinary players ran into problems or setbacks in a game, five out of ten would give up.

Of the five who kept at it, four would give up if they still couldn't figure things out.

The one left was a veteran or dedicated gaming enthusiast. But even after researching the problem for ten days or half a month, they might still fail to solve it because of some issue on their end or with the game itself, and eventually give up for good.

Professional players were different.

Professional players made it their job to solve problems in games.

Once they solved a difficult problem, they could charge ordinary players to help them with it.

That was why professional players researched games so deeply and meticulously, spending all day thinking about them and turning them over in their minds.

No matter how much ordinary players loved a game, they couldn't devote all their time to it to solve its challenges.

Professional players, on the other hand, could spend all their time studying a game.

That was their advantage, and how they made money.

The most typical example was a high-difficulty dungeon boss.

Ordinary players didn't have the time or energy to fully figure out a dungeon boss's mechanics, so they couldn't beat the dungeon.

Professional players could help them clear it, or even solo it. As long as the client paid, they could lie there dead and no one would care.

That was just one example. In a game, professional players could also figure out how to complete hidden storylines or solve difficult puzzles and mechanisms. Ordinary players could simply pay for their services.

Of course, some players were good enough to figure things out for themselves, and could even outplay the professionals. But they were always in the minority.

As the saying went, never pit your amateur hobby against someone else's livelihood.

Still, no matter how deeply professional players studied a game, it only mattered if ordinary players were willing to pay. Otherwise, if nobody bought their services, they'd have to starve.

That was why professional players always chose to join the most popular games.

Tengli Group's groundbreaking game Blue Sea was clearly the hottest, most popular game with the most buzz lately. Every professional player hoped to make a fortune in it, and this post from the great Liang Baikaishui had poured cold water over their enthusiasm.

Most of the replies below the post were doubtful or frustrated. Some had decided to quit, return to older games to farm for gold, or wait for the next big hit.

Fang Yue hadn't expected this reaction.

If this kind of mass quitting had happened even in a forum for professional players, what was happening among ordinary players?

Thinking of this, Fang Yue quickly left the Longwan forum and opened the official forum.

Compared with the closed little circle of professional players on Longwan, the game's official forum was bustling.

Posts were flying by, covering every kind of issue: finding a romantic partner, getting killed by someone maliciously, being killed by an NPC, or provoking something eerie out in the wild...

Some posts showed such wild imagination that Fang Yue couldn't help admiring them. One player, for example, had tried to steal a widow's underwear, only to be caught and chopped in half. Their corpse was still hanging at the village entrance, baking in the sun.

After browsing for a while, Fang Yue realized he'd been worrying too much.

At this stage, ordinary players were still enthusiastic about the game, and were endlessly finding new ways to get themselves killed.

Their only real problem was the same one troubling professional players: how to deal with the Lifespan issue.

Some had even started protest threads, demanding that the developers open a Lifespan top-up option or give away extra Lifespan so they could live a few more days.

They were practically rushing to throw money at the developers. Unfortunately, the developers had only opened the forum and weren't managing or maintaining it at all, let alone replying to posts.

The Lifespan issue really was what the professional players were studying, and it represented a huge business opportunity.

Ordinary players were just complaining that the Lifespan limit restricted their playtime, while professional players were thinking about how to solve the problem.

It was easy to predict: whoever could reliably solve the Lifespan problem would make a fortune.

Fang Yue felt confident again.

Time flew by as he browsed the forum, and he gained a much better understanding of what ordinary players wanted.

He shouldn't underestimate this information. Fang Yue was counting on making money in the game, after all. These people would all be his clients someday!

He glanced outside. The sky was already growing dusky, and he figured it was about time.

Now he just had to see whether Night's Breath could save his life.

He closed the forum and was about to enter the game...

Creak.

The sound of the door opening suddenly came from next door.

Was Sister Yuan awake?

After hesitating for a moment, Fang Yue put on his Game Watch and lay down on the bed...

"Ah Yue! Aaaah Yue!"

Bang!

The door swung open, and Sister Yuan poked her head in, her hair a complete mess.

Her big, adorable eyes swept across the room and settled on Fang Yue, who still hadn't entered the game.

"You just got off work? Great! I'll take a shower at your place. Make me a bowl of noodles, will you?"

Off work?

Fang Yue felt too embarrassed to tell her that something had gone wrong with his game character and that he hadn't actually "worked" at all that day.

"O-okay."

He put down the Game Watch and left the room to cook noodles. Before long, the sound of rushing shower water came from his room.

He added sausage and an egg, and by the time the noodles were ready, Sister Yuan came out with her hair dripping wet.

"That smells amazing! Your cooking's gotten better!"

...Sis, it's just instant noodles. How does that count as cooking?

Fang Yue urged her to dry her hair first, but Sister Yuan ignored him, sat down, and slurped up the noodles with gusto.

"Delicious! Ah Yue, you'd make a killing if you opened an instant-noodle shop!"

"This sausage is so springy! Delicious!"

After Sister Yuan had even finished the soup at the bottom of the bowl, she let out a long sigh.

Watching Fang Yue clear away the dishes, she rested her cheek on one hand and smiled at him.

"Ah Yue, now that I'm looking closely, you're actually pretty handsome."

"Not pretty handsome. Very handsome!"

"Hahaha! So shameless!" After teasing him for a bit, Sister Yuan's expression suddenly turned a little gloomy.

"Seriously, sometimes I really envy you professional players. You can make money just by gaming at home.

"Unlike me. I work at a bar, switching between day and night shifts, and I still have to deal with the men my family sets me up with.

"The guy I had a blind date with yesterday was so revolting. If he'd been even half as handsome as you, I wouldn't have had to leave before finishing dinner to go to work."

Sister Yuan's thoughts had taken a sharp turn. One moment she was talking about professional players, the next she was rambling about blind dates.

But, well, she was a girl. It was understandable.

Fang Yue didn't pick up that thread and continued washing the dishes.

Being a professional player wasn't easy, either. Plenty of people had been in the business for years and still couldn't afford to eat.

You still needed some talent to make a living at it.

Just as he was thinking this, an adorable face suddenly leaned close to his from the side.