Destined by Heaven

That night.

Lin Bai's viral marketing spread silently through Jiamao City.

The children played a huge part in it.

"You love me, I love you, Chef God Restaurant welcomes you." Those maddeningly catchy lyrics burrowed into the brain after just two repetitions.

The children didn't care about anything else. If something was fun, they sang it over and over, unwittingly spreading the Chef God Restaurant's influence.

Even adults who had worked all day and knew nothing about what had happened on Greenfish Street could hardly avoid growing curious about the Chef God Restaurant when they heard those bizarre lyrics.

Not to mention the customers who had been swindled and taken advantage of at the restaurant that day. They spared no effort in promoting it to their friends and relatives.

Lin Bai's business was growing.

The closed-beta players hadn't stopped moving forward either.

These were clever people eager to learn. No game, however difficult, could stump them, especially with the forum serving as a cheat tool for exchanging information.

Exploiting the suicide bug to farm copper coins;

Deleting characters to fleece the Game Company;

Showing off real-world knowledge to win NPCs' favor;

Working in pairs to rob NPCs, fleeing with the loot, then deleting their characters after transferring the stolen money;

In short.

Each player displayed their own special talents, putting their ingenuity to work in the game. They all earned their first pot of gold and began joining martial arts halls, smithies, clinics, herb shops...

They embarked on a life of ferocious grinding.

For most players, levels were life. If they didn't grind now, when would they?

Even if their instructors didn't demand it, they would put in extra practice themselves.

Before their levels rose, players were the employees capitalists loved most, capable of working the game world's natives into the ground.

Fortunately, there weren't many closed-beta players, so they hadn't caused too much damage.

Especially in Jiamao City, where all the players together hadn't caused as much of a stir as Lin Bai alone.

The people in Jiamao City least attuned to the Chef God Restaurant were probably the players immersed in the joys of leveling up and gaining experience.

After all.

This was a novel game in which everything could be done hands-on, with one hundred percent realism. It was an entirely fresh experience, and everyone was absorbed in it.

Just as Lin Bai had predicted.

The next day.

The entrance to the Chef God Restaurant was even livelier than the day before.

There were curious newcomers, as well as spectators who hadn't had their fill yesterday and had come specifically to see whether a Ghost had killed the restaurant owner...

Before Lin Bai even opened his eyes under the covers, his negative emotion points and incompleteness points were already climbing rapidly.

By the time he reached the restaurant.

[Deng Libuduo] was already singing and dancing outside the entrance, enthusiastically performing the brainwashing song without being asked.

Last night, [Deng Libuduo] had logged off and browsed the forum, discovering that most players were already on track. On the surface, he scoffed at crooked methods like exploiting bugs to farm money, but that made him even less willing to slack off in his efforts to win over Lin Bai.

A rat looking both ways would end up with nothing.

[Deng Libuduo] firmly believed that, even if he spent a little more time now, as long as he could become Lin Bai's disciple, he could make up for all the time he was losing later.

Most of the martial arts people on the forum were practicing were things like "Basic Saber Technique," "Basic Fist Technique," and "Basic Staff Technique." Even the advanced ones were merely arts such as "Five Tigers Saber" and "Mo Family Fist," which sounded like common fare.

His Shopkeeper Lin, on the other hand, was not only a story NPC, but also possessed a martial art called "Dragon-Subduing Palm" that came with flashy special effects.

Which was superior was obvious at a glance.

Getting fat first didn't count; getting fat later could crush the bed.

[Deng Libuduo] was waiting for his chance to soar into the sky.

Zhang Bao and Zhang Dashan, who had been scared off by the Ghost last night, also arrived as promised. When they learned that [Deng Libuduo] had spent the whole night in the restaurant unharmed, they admired his courage and finally put their minds at ease, quickly settling into their roles as waiters.

Only a bastard would pass up money there for the taking.

If the Ghost hadn't hurt Deng Libuduo, it wouldn't hurt them. Shopkeeper Lin truly had extraordinary powers.

Under Lin Bai's powerful leadership.

Every employee of the Chef God Restaurant, whether permanent or temporary, brimmed with initiative, each more enthusiastic than the next. He hardly had to worry about them at all.

Once half the city was discussing the Chef God Restaurant, even players deaf to everything outside their windows caught a whisper of it.

The Mo Family Sword Hall.

"Crazy, what the hell is this Chef God Restaurant everyone outside is talking about?" Bitter Gourd Vine found Crazy Guy, who was drenched in sweat practicing his swordplay, and asked.

To pay the enrollment fees, the four of them had exploited bugs to farm money, each deleting their character several times.

Then Bitter Melon became Bitter Gourd Vine, Madman became Crazy Guy, No Compromise became Take It or Leave It, and Terminal Laziness became Chronic Laziness.

After saving enough money, their four-person character-deletion alliance split into three groups so they could learn more skills.

Bitter Gourd Vine and Crazy Guy studied the sword, Take It or Leave It went to the Zhang Family Fist Hall to learn fist techniques, and Chronic Laziness joined the Wu Family Saber Hall to learn the saber.

They agreed to exchange what they learned afterward, allowing each of them to possess three martial arts at once.

Of course.

The four who had fleeced the company didn't report this loophole to the Game Company.

When they deleted their characters and created new ones for the third time, the money the system granted suddenly dropped by half. That made them realize the company knew about the loophole all along.

As long as the starting copper coins kept decreasing, deleting a character served no purpose beyond changing one's face.

They had saved enough for enrollment but hadn't achieved the results they expected. To spite the Game Company, the four-person alliance selflessly published the character-deletion money-farming process on the forum, benefiting the many closed-beta players struggling to get anywhere.

The various money-farming methods Deng Libuduo had seen on the forum were a whole crop of ingenious ideas sparked after Bitter Gourd Vine and the others tossed out a brick to draw forth jade.

When it came to exploring gameplay, aside from those like Long Xi and Deng Libuduo who had encountered exclusive hidden quests, the veteran players were selfless and lovable.

After all, most people played games to enjoy themselves.

"What Chef God Restaurant?" Crazy Guy stopped swinging his sword, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked breathlessly.

"Apparently someone opened a restaurant in Jiamao City and gave it that lousy name. They say it's in a haunted house, and if you sing something like 'You love me, I love you' at the entrance, you get a discount on your meal..." Bitter Gourd Vine said uncertainly.

"A haunted house?" Crazy Guy's sensitive nerves twitched. "A dungeon?"

"Doesn't really sound like it. More like a publicity stunt. Lyrics like 'You love me, I love you, Chef God Restaurant welcomes you' don't fit this city at all. It sounds more like something a player cooked up. Too modern." Bitter Gourd Vine shook his head. "Lots of people from the Martial Arts Hall have gone to see it. Why don't we take a look too? We might miss a game event or something. This lousy game doesn't even have announcements..."

"Let's go." Crazy Guy decisively put away his wooden sword and informed the senior disciple overseeing their basic training.

The two left the Martial Arts Hall together and headed straight for Greenfish Street.

They weren't inner disciples. The Martial Arts Hall didn't restrict the freedom of ordinary disciples who had paid an enrollment fee to learn basic techniques.

Meanwhile.

Jiamao City.

At the entrance to the dilapidated City God temple.

After tossing and turning through a mostly sleepless night, Qingfeng Daoist opened the temple doors and saw a young man standing ramrod straight outside.

Qingfeng Daoist froze. "What are you doing?"

"Your disciple Long Xi begs you to accept me as your apprentice, Daoist!" Long Xi looked at Qingfeng Daoist, shouted, and dropped to his knees, knocking his forehead against the ground.

While all the other players went to learn martial arts, Long Xi, who had dealt with a Ghost, already looked down on those basic fighting techniques.

No matter how well you trained in martial arts, could you fight a Ghost?

If he was going to learn anything, it would be Taoist arts.

After wandering around Jiamao City for a day and asking everywhere, Long Xi had finally found this utterly inconspicuous City God temple. Upon learning that a Taoist lived inside, he had come to seek apprenticeship, treating a dead horse as though it could still be saved.

When it came to fighting Ghosts, a Taoist had to be more professional than a Martial Arts Hall.

Wherever there was poison, an antidote had to lie within seven paces. Since the game had Ghosts, it ought to have a corresponding countermeasure. Long Xi firmly believed in that principle.

What a familiar scene!

Looking at Long Xi kneeling before him, Qingfeng Daoist froze. For a moment, he seemed to return to that night of torment.

The figure of Long Xi before him gradually overlapped with that of the fellow surnamed Deng kneeling before Lin Bai. Qingfeng Daoist drew a deep breath and imitated Lin Bai. "Young man, rise. Our sect's requirements for accepting disciples are stringent. You do not meet them yet."

"You haven't even asked me anything, Daoist. How do you know I don't meet your requirements?" He really is a master! Long Xi looked excitedly at Qingfeng Daoist and asked.

Lin Bai's actions flashed through Qingfeng Daoist's mind. After a moment's hesitation, he gritted his teeth and said, "To enter our sect, you must harbor the utmost evil in your heart without letting it show on the surface. You must ensure that everything you do benefits you. If you can take advantage, you must never take a loss. Be greedy, turn your back on people without a second thought, and always seek joy in the suffering of others... Can you do all that?"

Holy shit!

A demonic sect NPC!

Overjoyed, Long Xi sprang to his feet and thumped his chest. "Of course I can! I'm good at all of that! I can go even further—betray my lord for glory, call a thief my father, use public office for private gain, betray my master and destroy my ancestors. There's nothing I can't do, only things you haven't thought of, Master. Master, I'm the disciple Heaven destined for you!"