Aside from the wilderness, the best place to grind levels in Lungmen was the slums.
There, you could pick up plenty of quests, and gang brawls could break out at any time.
As long as things did not get too out of hand, the big shots above would not intervene. After all, turf wars between small gangs could not stir up much trouble.
Lin Gerui, the "Rat King" who ruled Lungmen's underworld, cared about boundaries and outside forces. He usually ignored brawls between small gangs.
Usually, Players could casually attach themselves to a gang and earn experience through gang fights. Some Players even formed gangs of their own, working hard toward becoming underworld bosses.
Bai Ye had his own leveling methods.
On the way, he casually bought a Columbian cowboy hat and put it on, pulling the brim low to cover half his face.
Then he quietly slipped into the scene of a clash between the Lobster Gang and the Char Siu Gang. Those two groups had started a gang war today over a spot at the docks.
Bai Ye walked straight into the center of the battlefield. The brawlers there had already fought themselves red-eyed and would not notice whether one more or one fewer person was around.
I'm back.
Bai Ye let out a soft breath.
The deafening clamor, fierce sounds of fighting, and all kinds of Lungmen profanity instantly pulled Bai Ye back to the days when the servers had first opened.
Back then, Players were all inexperienced and disorganized. Every one of them was braver than the last, but that was the joy of pioneering. Even when they got the short end of the stick, they still had a great time.
To Bai Ye, these street punks and gang enforcers before him were just as green. Quite a few were even newcomers, blindly swinging their weapons with their eyes shut. Before they could hit anyone, they had already panicked themselves.
"That's not how you fight."
Under the brim of his hat, Bai Ye curled his lips slightly and began sneaking through the crowd, landing dirty blows and clubbing people unconscious.
He did not know any stealth-type Originium Arts, nor did he possess the invisibility talent of the Safra race, but he knew a rather advanced movement technique.
It was a secret art he had learned in Higashi in his previous life—Foot Pull.
Ordinary humans had limited capacity for processing information. To reduce the burden on the brain, they shoved low-priority information into the subconscious. Foot Pull used special breathing methods and footwork to slip information about one's existence into the other party's subconscious, achieving the effect of "invisibility."
Those top Higashi ninjas who could vanish in the blink of an eye did so because they deceived your senses, making you unconsciously overlook them and treat them as a rock or some kind of tree.
After Bai Ye used this move, a skill slowly began to take shape on his game interface.
He snatched an iron rod from a gang enforcer, casually swung it a few times, and tested its weight.
He had never learned staff techniques, so he simply held it like a sword and swung it around.
Bang!
100 experience points acquired.
They were only small fry, but they gave quite a lot of experience. Bai Ye seemed to rediscover the joy of being a newbie and happily knocked people out throughout the crowd.
+100 EXP +100 EXP +200 EXP +500 EXP ...
Oh, he had accidentally knocked out the minor boss overseeing the fight.
Bai Ye projected the virtual screen onto his retina. Streams of data flashed continuously, and his experience pool visibly began to rise rapidly. A sense of harvest filled him at once.
Bai Ye did not focus exclusively on members of one gang. More precisely, he hit whoever he saw, regardless of whether they were from the Char Siu Gang or the Lobster Gang.
This behavior quickly caught certain people's attention. After all, his Foot Pull technique only worked on some people; it was not true invisibility.
In a gang war, not everyone went in to fight. The ones charging at the front were always newcomers who had just joined, along with some formidable enforcers. The ones supervising from farther back were minor bosses with some standing in the gang. As for those standing at the very rear, making noise without lifting a finger, they were veteran members with seniority but no status.
But these old hands were experienced and had an excellent grasp of the rhythm of a brawl, because only then could they successfully slack off.
"This guy is crazy strong. Where did the boss find him?"
"How would I know?! Wait, has this guy lost it? Why is he beating up our own people too? Don't tell me he's a spy sent by the other side?"
"No way. Look, he knocked out their boss..."
Gradually, as more and more people fell, both sides realized something was wrong. And as the number of people fighting in the melee dwindled, Bai Ye could no longer keep slipping around unnoticed.
"Stop! Stop!" The bosses on both sides consciously called their men to halt. When the punks backed away, Bai Ye, still wearing his hat, was the only one left standing in the middle of the battlefield.
At his feet lay quite a few gangsters, sprawled in every direction—members of both sides.
"Who the hell are you?!"
Well, this fight could not go on anymore.
Bai Ye twisted his wrist, spun the iron rod in his hand like a sword, then raised it and pointed at the gangsters around him. "I'm from the Barbecue Gang. Our boss says your names are pathetic. You're all a bunch of trash!"
"What did you say?!"
"Say that again if you've got the guts! Lungmen profanity"
"&*@##@%%..."
As soon as Bai Ye finished speaking, the crowd immediately exploded.
At the same time, he swiftly allocated his experience and leveled up once, placing all six attribute points into the first three stats. Then he flipped into the air and leapt up the air-conditioning units on the side of a building all the way to the rooftop.
Eighteen points each in Strength and Agility were enough for him to do that with ease.
His experience from his previous life allowed him to quickly adapt to his strengthened body without losing control of it.
That night, the Barbecue Gang's headquarters suffered an undeserved disaster. The Lobster Gang and Char Siu Gang joined forces, stormed in, and fought them.
Rumor had it that the reason for the brawl was that they thought the Barbecue Gang's name sounded awful and tasteless.
Penguin Logistics Daily Life
Bai Ye paid no attention to that mess. In his view, he had merely done something insignificant.
Leveling was indeed convenient early on, but later there would be no such benefits. To gain a level, he would have to fight stronger, higher-level monsters.
In his previous life, Bai Ye had farmed demons outside a fortress in Saibei, Yan, for an entire day without gaining even one level.
After that, Bai Ye ran through several more blocks, threw several gang fights into complete chaos, and soloed a few more minor bosses. At last, he reached level 7.
He raised his Constitution to 22, then brought Strength and Agility to 20. Finally, Bai Ye put his remaining four free attribute points into Spirit.
Originally, he had not planned to raise Spirit for the time being. But after trying out his Thought Acceleration talent, he found the skill unexpectedly useful—though it consumed quite a lot of Spirit. It seemed he could not become a hulking Strength build for now.
In "Arknights OL," there were no fixed stat-building paths. Players usually assigned points according to their preferences and the skills they acquired. After crossing over, Bai Ye did not follow the path he had taken in his previous life, because it did not suit his current self.
After allocating his points, Bai Ye began heading back the way he had come. He had already taken off his hat and made several detours, so when he emerged from the Lower City, no one knew that this handsome young man had caused such chaos in the slums.
Because he had leveled up and allocated points, Bai Ye, despite being busy all day, did not feel particularly tired. He was in great condition, just very hungry.
By the time he returned to the Penguin Logistics dormitory, it was nearly seven in the evening.
"Bai Ye, want a slice of pizza?"
Exusiai, Texas, and Sora sat on the sofa, with several open flat pizza boxes on the coffee table before them.
Texas was playing a game with Exusiai. Texas had a Pocky stick in her mouth and kept pressing the controller buttons, while Exusiai's controller had been tossed aside. Apparently, she had died and was waiting for Texas to revive her.
"I feel like I could eat a whole cow," Bai Ye babbled as he walked over to the sofa and picked up a slice of pizza.
"Oh my God, can you drop that damn Columbian translationese?" Exusiai laughed.
While eating his pizza, Bai Ye looked around but did not spot Croissant.
Seeing Bai Ye's confusion, Sora explained, "Croissant went to make a delivery."
"So you don't always work together..." Bai Ye blinked. He realized that he was not actually that familiar with Penguin Logistics. His experience from his previous life was of little use.
"Commissions only go through the boss. Whoever grabs one gets it," Exusiai explained from the side. As she spoke, she picked up her controller; Texas had just revived her.
"Rat-a-tat-tat!"
Exusiai went on a killing spree on-screen with her controller. She had died earlier because she had gotten distracted by pizza.
"By the way, Bai Ye, I've always wanted to ask you something. How did you know the code Sora and Texas had agreed on?" Exusiai suddenly asked while playing.
She had wanted to ask this for a long time. In her eyes, Bai Ye was especially interesting, covered from head to toe in mysteries.
Compared to an unchanging life, Exusiai preferred finding all kinds of fun.
The moment Exusiai finished speaking, Sora jumped straight up from the sofa. She moved with impressive agility, like a Caters whose tail had caught fire.
It was the first time she had heard of this. The girl stared at Bai Ye in shock. That code was something she and Texas had agreed upon, yet Bai Ye actually knew it!
Texas did not react outwardly, but she quietly pricked up her ears. From the way she subtly turned her face, it was clear that she cared about this question as well.
Bai Ye blinked.
He had already prepared an explanation. "You had agreed on a code like that? I just used Morse code normally—couriers commonly use codes like that."
"Too bad about that pack of Pocky."
"Don't worry, I ate that pack," Texas interjected from the side.
Sora let out a breath of relief. "I thought you used some hacking technique to eavesdrop on our conversation..."
"How could I?" Bai Ye shook his head. "You have Lungmen's best hackers and network specialists. No one can hack into your devices."
"I'm not a professional hacker either. I only picked up a few basics during my travels."
"So, our amateur hacker, want to play a round?" Exusiai raised an eyebrow and handed over the game controller.
"Why do you think video games and hacking are the same thing?" Bai Ye found it rather amusing.
Exusiai shrugged. "You'll have to ask my mom. As long as I'm sitting in front of a terminal, no matter what I'm doing, she thinks I'm playing."
Bai Ye was speechless.
Too real.
Even if the world was different, moms were still the same...
Unfortunately, Bai Ye had never experienced that. Whether in his previous life or this one, he had always been alone.
What did "Cat Nest Orphanage" even mean? Tactically leans back.
After spacing out briefly, Bai Ye took the controller from Exusiai.
The grips still retained her warmth and seemed slightly damp. Apparently, she had been holding it too tightly and had sweated a little.
Bai Ye blushed faintly. She really was so carefree, seemingly possessing none of a girl's modesty.
Still, Bai Ye did not dislike the atmosphere here. Even though he had known these people for less than two days, he could already get along with them harmoniously, sitting together to chat and play games.
For Bai Ye, this feeling was fresh.
Before this, he had only had the Fourth-generation AI butler El at his side.
"Hahaha, Bai Ye, you're so bad at this!"
"Hey, dodge! There's an enemy over there..."
Bai Ye held the controller while Exusiai and Sora watched beside him, seemingly even more nervous than he was.
Texas said nothing, merely pulling his dead body back up from the ground again and again.
Bai Ye could not help clicking his tongue.
Playing games with a controller really was an old-fashioned form of entertainment...
He had finally discovered something he was bad at. When it came to video games from the old era, he really did seem like complete trash...
"Bai Ye, have you never played games before?" After he died for the ninth time, Exusiai could not help asking.
"I have. Traveling, fighting, adventuring—to me, they're both work and games," Bai Ye answered casually, his attention entirely on the game.
He was not making that up. After all, he counted as half a professional Player, and all his meals depended on "Arknights OL."
Before you continue