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Xie Ran pretended not to hear him, but Meng Feixuan seemed dissatisfied and continued, "Sir, although your photo is perfect, it has no soul."

Xie Ran fell silent for a moment. "Weren't you the one guiding me?"

"I was." Meng Feixuan spoke with perfect confidence. "But I'm an AI. AI has no soul."

The logic was impeccable, and Xie Ran found himself unable to refute him for a moment.

"But you can still be saved." Meng Feixuan said. More precisely, Xie Ran himself was indeed being saved. His Consciousness Atom Cluster—his soul, in a sense—needed to return to its original world.

Meng Feixuan had practically worn out his core code over Xie Ran's ability to understand emotions. "Sir, how about I tell you the urban story of Old West City? It might help you understand the collective emotions between artistic creators and a city."

Xie Ran neither agreed nor objected. Since he had nothing else to do, he walked over to the railing and looked into the distance. "Go ahead."

"Then I'll start with what you're looking at now." Halfway through, Meng Feixuan suddenly coughed lightly. "Sir, please raise the camera and point it where you're looking. Or did you want to learn about the floor of New West Building?"

Meng Feixuan relied entirely on the camera to see. Since Xie Ran was not taking pictures at the moment, he had casually let the camera hang down, its lens pointed directly at the ground.

Xie Ran laughed, then raised the camera again. Meng Feixuan said, "All right, now we're looking at the same scenery. First, look at the street on the far left. There are Chinese signs there. Can you see them?"

As though worried that Xie Ran could not see clearly, the camera image automatically zoomed in, bringing the street on the left to the center of the frame.

"Right there." Meng Feixuan sounded mildly disdainful. "The resolution on this trash lens isn't high enough. Want me to find the surveillance footage from that street, grab a few frames, and send them to you?"

Xie Ran: "...No need."

"All right, then." Meng Feixuan gave up regretfully before continuing at an unhurried pace. "This street is Chinatown in Old West City. The earliest generation of Chinese people here were overseas laborers who were tricked into coming over at the beginning of the twentieth century..."

Rarely relaxed, Xie Ran leaned slightly against the waist-high glass railing, one hand in his pocket and the other casually holding up the camera. The lens seemed to be aimed aimlessly into the distance.

The wind of Old West City carried the dampness of a coastal city, while the sky was a brilliant blue. Meng Feixuan controlled the camera lens as it turned toward different corners of the city. This was scenery they shared.

Normally, guests would walk around a lot during this segment, both to look for inspiration and to give the production crew more material and themselves more screen time.

This was the first time the production crew had encountered someone like Xie Ran, who stood in one spot without moving for half the day.

What was even more outrageous was that after standing there for most of the day, he handed the staff a camera containing only one photo—the very first one he had taken.

The staff and Fang Huiwang simultaneously went, "..."

Looking again at Xie Ran's photo, the angle and composition were fairly decent. The problem was that this kind of bird's-eye view was everywhere online. It was not outstanding in the slightest, the sort of image netizens would swipe past after one glance.

Xie Ran did not care about their reaction, but Meng Feixuan gave a cold snort. "Sir, I caught their expressions through the lens... They look down on you!"

Xie Ran: "...Is that so?"

"These people have terrible judgment." Meng Feixuan grumbled. "You may not have a soul, but your technical skills completely crush theirs, okay!"

For a moment, Xie Ran could not tell whether Meng Feixuan was praising him or insulting him.

That evening, after all three groups had completed their tasks, they returned to the hotel to gather again. They held a meeting to tally everyone's current funds so they could adjust their strategies for the upcoming tasks.

Without question, Xie Ran had once again taken a taxi back without a care in the world.

Fang Huiwang had already gone numb.

The girl group duo were visibly delighted. Chen Xiaoxuan happily did the calculations. "Our lodging last night was only a hundred, and food was cheap too. We arrived first again today, so we got a fifty-dollar bonus..."

After calculating everything, she found that the two of them had spent only a little over sixty dollars that day, including lodging. They still had around two thousand three hundred left.

The veteran group had not received a bonus, and after including lodging, they had two thousand two hundred left after a day.

The girl group duo's remaining funds had overtaken the veteran group's by one hundred dollars!

Jiang Wei sighed. "Looks like this bonus is really important."

Zhu Chuanjia decided to find some balance by looking at Xie Ran. "Xiao Ran, how much did you spend today?"

Before Xie Ran could answer, Fang Huiwang gave a soft scoff and said with some annoyance, "Don't mention it. Xiao Ran alone spent two hundred and thirty."

Jiang Wei hurriedly did the math. "Then, including the four hundred in room fees, you spent over six hundred today. That means you still have around three thousand left."

Three thousand was still a little ahead of them, but after paying for another night's room, that advantage would be gone.

Meng Xixi was straightforward by nature and did not hide her delight. She immediately said expectantly, "Looks like our group has a chance to win."

"You missed something." Xie Ran suddenly spoke. "I also made a profit of two thousand today."

The other two groups, who had been quietly celebrating, all turned around and blurted, "Huh?" Zhu Chuanjia looked baffled. "Where did you get a profit from?"

"The stock market." Xie Ran was concise. "Today's margin was seventeen hundred, with five times leverage. The stock rose twenty-three percent."

With the profit from yesterday, although Xie Ran had spent quite a lot, his margin was still seven hundred more than yesterday's. In the end, he made roughly two thousand dollars in profit.

He had earned even more than yesterday.

Jiang Wei's expression nearly cracked. "You're still trading stocks?"

Xie Ran said, "As I recall, it doesn't violate the rules."

Jiang Wei: "..."

It did not violate the rules, but they truly had not expected it. Everyone else earned money through labor. If they had to complete tasks, they had no time for part-time work, yet Xie Ran was completely unaffected. He completed tasks while his money kept making more money.

Two thousand dollars in a single day.

Thinking back to how they had just been painstakingly calculating every expense down to the last dollar, they suddenly felt incredibly bitter.

"Sir, your meal." At that moment, a waiter delivered Xie Ran's dinner.