Penguin Logistics / Cool for Three Seconds

Exusiai had found it interesting, so she came along with Texas.

The two got out of the car and hurried toward Bai Ye.

"Didn't expect you to come knocking so soon."

Bai Ye casually flourished his sword and held the straight blade at his side.

There was no way he could outrun them. They had a car, and they had a shooter keeping him covered. There were no sewers nearby, either.

As Exusiai drew closer, Bai Ye got a clear look at the weapon in her hand. It was not a proper firearm at all.

"Of course it isn't a real one. Forty-two layers of shipping cardboard, seamlessly bonded with industrial glue, powered by high-quality rubber bands... Want to borrow it and give it a try?"

Seemingly noticing Bai Ye's gaze, Exusiai spun the "toy slingshot" in her hand while waving at him from afar with a smile.

She was awfully friendly for a stranger.

Bai Ye said nothing, instead fixing his gaze on the Lupo girl standing in front of Exusiai.

A sharp sword. Sharp eyes.

She was skilled with weapons.

"The boss wants to see you."

Texas spoke as she approached. Yet when she saw Bai Ye himself, she visibly froze, even her steps pausing as her long black hair swayed lightly beside her ears from inertia.

Exusiai was equally stunned. She did not snap out of it until she walked straight into Texas's back. Looking at Bai Ye, she could not help poking Texas in the back. "Hey, Texas, do you think we got the wrong guy?"

They had expected the culprit behind the "Zero Yuan Purchase" to be some lawless, arrogant, rude thief. They had never imagined that the person their boss wanted to see would be so handsome.

It was hard for the two of them to imagine that such a good-looking young man had broken into the safehouse, taken their things, and even sat in a chair eating while browsing the terminal.

He looked as comfortable as if he were in his own home...

Looks really could be deceiving.

Bai Ye was somewhat dumbfounded too. He had assumed Texas and Exusiai had come to demand answers, but he had not expected them to fall silent the moment they met.

Then he noticed the faint blush on the girls' pretty faces and remembered his Charm stat of ninety-six.

Charm was a comprehensive attribute. It involved not only appearance, but temperament and all sorts of other factors. In short, his face simply made people feel comfortable looking at it.

Well, this was the first time he had experienced the advantages of a high Charm stat.

After all, in his previous life, he had not been good at socializing and disliked going out. He had never shown his face while streaming, and even the virtual characters in games had all been made by him.

Who would have thought that after transmigrating, being attractive would have benefits like this?

Sure enough, every world judged by appearances.

Bai Ye could not help letting his thoughts wander. If he had taken off his mask when he encountered Officer Chen earlier, would Sir Chen have let him off?

Ahem. He was getting carried away.

"Mm, please come with us. You should know why."

Texas took a deep breath and returned to her usual calm, icy demeanor, though her tone had become much more polite and gentle.

"Come on, handsome, get in the car." Exusiai blinked, put her weapon back into her pocket, and chimed in from the side.

Bai Ye nodded. With a flick of his wrist, the straight sword vanished back into his inventory.

It was best if he did not have to fight. As a veteran player, he believed every battle should have a purpose.

Meaningless fights were purely a waste of time.

It was a habit he had developed as a newbie in his previous life. During the early game, there were no direct healing methods. Injuries had to be treated with bandages and medicine, while serious wounds took a long time to recover from. To avoid risks, every fight needed careful planning.

Penguin Logistics

Bai Ye followed Texas and Exusiai into the car.

Cars here were powered by Originium Engines. Bai Ye had bought one in his previous life; it handled well, and he had even driven it out into the wilderness for fun.

"Hold on tight," Texas reminded him softly. She seemed much easier to get along with than before.

Exusiai patted Bai Ye on the shoulder. "We're in a hurry. The sooner we get back, the sooner we can rest."

Actually, they had both been pretty angry at first. After all, nobody liked working overtime. That was why Exusiai had fired a shot at him right away.

But after seeing Bai Ye, they suddenly could not stay mad anymore. How many bad intentions could someone that good-looking possibly have?

Sitting in the front seat, Exusiai could not help looking at Bai Ye through the rearview mirror. He sat obediently in the back, his body gently swaying with the speeding car, looking almost a little blank.

Then, without warning, she met Bai Ye's eyes in the mirror and immediately felt awkward.

She pretended to casually look away, but after a while, Exusiai could not help sneaking another glance.

Bai Ye was still looking at her through the rearview mirror.

The girl could not help coughing, then secretly glanced at Texas beside her from the corner of her eye, afraid her companion had seen what she had just done.

"By the way, what's your name?" Exusiai broke the awkward silence through conversation.

Texas beside her also quietly perked up her ears. The Lupo's pointed wolf ears were fluffy and adorable.

The two of them were both very curious about Bai Ye's background and had already been holding back a whole list of questions.

"Hm?" This time, Bai Ye was the one who froze.

In truth, Bai Ye had not been looking at Exusiai at all. He had merely been staring in one direction while spacing out and thinking.

All he could say was that Exusiai was putting on a show for herself.

"I mean, what's your name? What should we call you?" Exusiai asked again.

"Bai Ye."

Bai Ye said it in standard Yanese, then repeated it in Terra Standard Language. Bai Ye was an astronomical phenomenon: after the sun fell below the horizon, atmospheric scattering prevented the night sky from becoming completely dark.

"Bai... Ye? That's kind of a strange name." Exusiai repeated it under her breath, though she did not understand why it sounded impressive.

Bai Ye thought, You haven't seen truly strange names. The names those goofy Players came up with in my previous life were something else. For instance, there had been someone called "Northeast Tornado Jumping Monkey." Whenever an NPC called that name, it was hard not to break immersion. The NPCs all looked like they were trying not to laugh, and delivering those lines flatly must have been exhausting.

Exusiai wanted to say more, but the car suddenly stopped. Texas opened the door and said, "We're here."

As she spoke, she casually reached into her pocket and pulled out a stick of pocky.

Come to think of it, she had originally intended to give Bai Ye a hard time. Taking the weapons was one thing, but what was with casually making off with a pack of pocky?

Bai Ye obviously had no idea he had escaped a calamity. He jumped out of the car, only to find it parked before a bar.

The bar had transparent floor-to-ceiling windows, with bright lights spilling out and bathing the entrance in exaggerated gold.

As if worried people would miss it, there was also an enormous penguin graffiti piece outside the bar, all claws and swagger, flaunting its personality and uniqueness.

1301 East Sunset Boulevard, "World's End."

For some reason, people of Terra always liked using the word "land." People of different races and countries chewed over the word "land" in their own languages.

In some racial languages, "land" and "world" were synonymous.

It was as if mentioning the word alone could evoke a grand sense of weight and solemnity.

Of course, this World's End bar seemed to have nothing to do with solemnity.

The interior was lavishly decorated, and its use of mirrors and transparency made the place dazzlingly bright, much like some bizarre brand of punk art.

Penguin Punk?

Bai Ye pushed open the door and entered. He saw a penguin seated behind the bar, swirling a glass of liquor.

On the sofa sat a tall, slender man in silence. He wore a mask that hid his features and held a mobile personal terminal in his hand.

In the corner, a semi-retired blonde Lupo girl idol swayed with headphones on, seemingly practicing some kind of dance. Her audience was a Fervent Hoof girl with short orange hair.

Bai Ye could not help raising an eyebrow.

Other than a certain Blue-haired Fallen Angel, nearly all of Penguin Logistics's core members were here.

"Kid, you've got some nerve. Young people these days..."

The Emperor, Penguin Logistics's boss—the penguin holding the wineglass and wearing sunglasses—suddenly spoke.

As he spoke, he studied Bai Ye curiously through his sunglasses.

Mm, he looked pretty good.

But aside from his appearance, there did not seem to be anything particularly special about him.

Bai Ye's Charm stat was simply a bug. So long as someone was not hostile toward him or thoroughly angered by him, it was difficult to feel any enmity upon meeting him for the first time. Besides, he had a somewhat babyish face, giving him a highly deceptive and harmless appearance.

Bai Ye took the opportunity to sit down at the bar.

The Emperor did not know him, but Bai Ye was very familiar with this penguin. In his previous life, the Emperor had offered a long-term quest to collect records, and most Players who passed through Lungmen would come here to accept it.

"I never thought everyone from Penguin Logistics would be here... I'm truly flattered," Bai Ye said with a smile.

"Heh. Depending on how you behave next, we'll decide whether to throw you a welcome party or beat you up together," the Emperor sneered sidelong.

Bai Ye remained unmoved.

Instead, the Emperor could not keep it together. "Sigh... Seeing that face of yours now, I can't bring myself to hit you."

"Your Majesty is magnanimous, so how about letting me off?" Bai Ye blinked and pressed his advantage. "I had no hostile intentions to begin with. Not only did I know my limits, the documents on the terminal were also a small token of my sincerity."

Earlier, in the safehouse, Bai Ye had not simply taken everything and left. He had also helped Penguin Logistics identify several security flaws on the terminal as compensation.

"Smooth talker." The Emperor was not angry, though.

"It helped a lot. It was genuinely useful." At that moment, the masked man who had been using a laptop terminal on the sofa stood up, walked over, and sat beside Bai Ye.

"My name is Ifrit." He extended a hand to Bai Ye. "I'm Penguin Logistics's logistics staff, more or less. An IT specialist."

"Nice to meet you." Bai Ye knew that he was a highly skilled hacker, and that he was also exceptionally proficient in support work such as weapon maintenance and intelligence gathering.

The Emperor had merely been listening from the side, but the next exchange shocked him.

Ifrit put down his terminal. "Was that mess at the Lungmen Guard Department just now your doing?"

Too Handsome for Three Seconds

The Emperor looked at Bai Ye with a strange expression. (Don't ask me how a penguin made expressions. I don't know either.)

He had lived for so long that very few things still surprised him.

"You brat, stirring up trouble with Penguin Logistics in one night wasn't enough, so you went and courted death at the Guards Bureau too?"

The Emperor found it amusing. Were young people these days all this reckless?

Bai Ye truly was bold. Logically, he should have proceeded step by step, carefully and cautiously, starting by grinding low-level monsters in the slums. Yet this guy had begun by taking Penguin Logistics's things and forcing his way into the Lungmen Guard Department.

Ifrit, meanwhile, was intrigued. "Mm, you caused quite a stir. The Guards Bureau mobilized officers overnight to search the lower levels... yet you're sitting here safe and sound now. Not bad."

The Emperor began reevaluating Bai Ye as well. "I didn't expect that little girl from the Chen family to let you go. Can being good-looking really let you do whatever you want now?"

At first, he had only taken Bai Ye for a technician like Ifrit, but he had not expected the guy to actually have some skills.

"It was only a few little tricks, nothing worth mentioning." Bai Ye did not think it was anything extraordinary. In his previous life, he had once gazed upon the world's towering peaks and witnessed a vast, surging sea. How could he become complacent over climbing a small slope now?

"You'll need to be more meticulous in the future." Ifrit closed his laptop terminal and stood up from his chair. "Putting dozens of new identity records into the database at once was certainly imaginative, but the traces were still too obvious."

Bai Ye nodded. He had never been a professional hacker, so his skills naturally fell short. To an expert like Ifrit, his work truly was riddled with flaws.

"But it's fine. I took care of it for you just now." Ifrit raised his terminal. "Use that identity openly from now on. There won't be any problems."

At that, Ifrit suddenly seemed to recall something. He looked at Bai Ye curiously and asked, "When I accessed the central database just now, I found that it hadn't been hacked. How did you do it?"

At first, he had thought Bai Ye had hacked into the database and changed his own identity information. But when he hacked in himself, he found that was not the case at all.

"Ahem, I went straight into the server room and changed it."

"??"

"Mm, I went to Officer Chen's office first to get the access card, then went to the server room," Bai Ye explained.

Ifrit was deeply shaken. "Mm... Creative..."

Then he turned to the Emperor and said, "Boss, I'll be leaving first. He's not a professional hacker, but he's very good."

After saying that, Ifrit pushed open the bar door and left.