Two days.
Less than two days remained before Ren Ye and the others entered the Qingliang Prefecture Star Gate again.
In an empty room at the academy in Vermilion Bird City.
Yan Duoduo carefully read through Ren Ye's completed report on the second act and nodded in satisfaction. "All right. Old Huang and Xu Peng will come find you shortly. I'm heading to the Moon-Gazing Pavilion to hand this in."
"Okay." Ren Ye answered, then asked with concern, "Has the recruitment for the Qingliang Prefecture mission been going well?"
"It's finished," Yan Duoduo replied truthfully. "Our New Year's Watchers secured 489 slots, all max-level first-tier Players with outstanding combat abilities."
Ren Ye was overjoyed. That number had already far exceeded his expectations. "The organization really is badass."
"Keep up the good work, young man."
Yan Duoduo left him with those words and a smile, then walked out of the academy with the dozen-odd pages Ren Ye had submitted.
Just as he stepped outside, Yan Duoduo looked up and saw Fan Ming in a black robe. He paused briefly, then said with utter exasperation, "Do you really have to keep tabs on me?"
"Heh, I just happened to be passing by. I wasn't keeping tabs on you." Fan Ming, who was intent on poaching Ren Ye, responded softly with his hands behind his back, "Well? Has the kid finished his report?"
"He has. I was just about to deliver it." Yan Duoduo sighed, unable to help lamenting, "The melon hasn't even ripened, and you big shots from headquarters already want to harvest it. That's hardly decent of you."
"Don't put it like that. We're all comrades in the same organization. Whoever he ends up with, isn't it all the same?" Fan Ming replied with feigned sincerity.
"If it's all the same,