The growing Xin family

Xin Jiu said flatly, "Give me a single room."

She Ling stared at her for a few seconds, put on a classic customer-service smile, then took a room card and a waist token from the drawer and handed them to Xin Jiu.

"Oh, Miss Xin, there's a hot spring in the hills behind our inn. As the top-ranked player, you can use it for free. Whenever you feel like taking a dip, just bring your room card."

Xin Jiu raised her eyebrows slightly.

She hadn't expected such a hellish service area to offer hot spring baths.

"Any time?"

"Of course." She Ling gave her a playful wink.

"Got it."

"Also, checkout is fifteen hours from now. Remember to come pay to extend your stay. If you go over the time limit, your status will change to vagrant. You're smart, so I don't need to tell you what happens then, do I?"

"Thanks for the reminder." Xin Jiu nodded and turned to head upstairs.

Bubu followed on her short little legs, but She Ling called her back, and She Liu reached out to stop her too.

"Little guest, wait a moment."

"What?" Bubu glared at her unhappily.

She Ling wasn't annoyed. She smiled and said, "You need to book your own room."

Bubu wasn't a player and couldn't possibly have points, but this... Xin Jiu didn't panic. Instead, she said evenly, "He's my little brother."

"Even little brothers aren't exempt." She Ling was all smiles, but there was little amusement in her eyes. "All players must follow our rules here on Snake God Mountain."

Xin Jiu said, "Nine Provinces regulations state that children under six traveling with their guardians receive free accommodation. Are you going to violate that regulation?"

She didn't know whether real-world regulations applied in the game, but she might as well try.

She Ling narrowed her eyes. "Those are your Nine Provinces regulations. This isn't-"

Rumble! Rumble!

Several bolts of lightning suddenly split the night sky, followed by deafening peals of thunder. Xin Jiu saw two lanterns at the inn's entrance struck down by lightning.

She Ling's face instantly went deathly pale, and She Liu shrank his neck back too.

It was heavenly punishment!

Why was there heavenly punishment?!

Xin Jiu let out a soft breath. Even inside the game, even evil NPCs had to follow Nine Provinces rules as long as they were within its borders. Anyone who tried to challenge its authority would suffer a backlash!

The lightning and thunder departed as quickly as they had come.

She Ling crawled out from beneath the counter and patted her chest. That had scared her half to death. She hadn't expected Nine Provinces rules to carry so much weight.

She forced a smile. "Since it's a Nine Provinces regulation, go ahead and take him upstairs."

She Liu trembled as he led them upstairs. The thunder had clearly given him quite a fright.

The other players watched Xin Jiu enviously. So that was another way to exploit a bug.

The inn's wooden stairs creaked with every step. Each time Xin Jiu put her foot down, she felt as though she might break through. Snake God Mountain had swindled so many points out of the players. Once they left, surely it ought to do some major renovations.

Bubu swiveled his little head, looking around and occasionally covering his nose in disgust.

He'd said snakes stank. Just smell that-enough to stink a dragon to death!

When they reached the fourth floor, Xin Jiu frowned.

"This place doesn't look very big. Can it fit all the players from Zone 46?"

She Liu didn't turn around. "Rest assured, guest. Every room here is an independent space. Never mind tens of thousands of guests-we could accommodate hundreds of thousands."

So it really was spatial folding.

The Snake God Mountain Service Area's facilities were far superior to those at the Bear Service Area. Of course, the danger levels weren't on the same scale either.

"We're here."

She Liu brought them to a room.

"If you're hungry, guest, our inn also provides food. Just go straight to the lobby."

"Does it cost points?"

"Naturally."

Xin Jiu waved a casual hand, and She Liu left. She opened the door. Although she'd already prepared herself for a less-than-ideal room, she hadn't expected it to be this bare.

The space measured less than five square meters, with a wooden plank bed in the middle covered by nothing but a thin straw mat.

There was also a table and a chair in the corner.

A countdown was displayed on the wall.

[Time until checkout: 14:49:27]

Other than that, the room was empty.

Eight hundred points could get her a standard room at the Bear Service Area, yet this was all she got here. She absolutely had to leave a scathing review when she left!

Xin Jiu lay on her back on the bed, the wooden planks digging painfully into her back.

"I really miss the ocean-view room at the Bear Service Area..."

Bubu said in surprise, "You stayed in an ocean-view room at your last service area?"

He'd heard of the Bear Service Area. The service was excellent, and the Xiongxiongs were adorable, but the rooms were a little expensive for players fresh out of the tutorial match.

Xin Jiu smiled. "Yes, because I was first in the global rankings last round too."

"Wow! Really? You're amazing!"

Bubu tactfully switched into flattery mode. After his stream of chirpy praise, Xin Jiu felt much better.

She handed the Bear Honey to Bubu. "Hungry? Have something to eat first."

Bubu hugged the Bear Honey and was about to sit at the table to eat it. Xin Jiu thought eating it straight would be cloyingly sweet, so she took a bottle of mineral water out of her system backpack and handed it to him. "Mix it with water. It won't be so sweet that way."

"Oh."

Bubu took the mineral water and returned to sit at the table.

Xin Jiu opened the chat panel and checked the world channel first. The players there had gone mad, hurling abuse in all sorts of languages. Most of it had, of course, been censored into *** and ###, which gave her some idea of just how foul their language was.

The Nine Provinces Channel was also full of people calling Snake God Mountain a pig-butchering scam.

Xin Jiu read through it slowly until a message suddenly caught her eye.

[Xin Family Crown Prince: Hello, fellow players. My name is Xin Yue, and I'm the top-ranked player Xin Jiu's biological younger brother. Please each trade me ten points. Once the next instance ends, I'll definitely have my sister repay you a hundredfold! I promise!]

Xin Jiu scoffed. He was actually using her name to beg online.

Just as she was about to post a message exposing him, the players seemed to find an outlet for their frustration and began mocking him.

[You're her biological younger brother? Then I'm her biological older brother!]

[Hello, everyone. I'm Xin Jiu's younger brother, Xin Qiang. Send me 50 points, and I'll have my sister add you as friends right away. With 50 points, you can't lose, and you can't get scammed. Limited to the first twenty people!]

[I'm Xin Jiu's younger brother, Xin Gan. Send me points, and I'll carry you through the next instance.]

Within just a few minutes, tens of thousands of related replies flooded in.

All sorts of IDs starting with Xin sprouted like mushrooms after rain: Xin Suan, Xin Ku, Xin Teng, Xin Sai... They twisted the surname Xin into every kind of pun on sorrow, hardship, heartache, and distress.

Xin Yue was so angry he nearly couldn't catch his breath!

He really needed points, and he really was Xin Jiu's younger brother. These people knew nothing, yet here they were stirring things up!

And that damn girl Xin Jiu-had she really not seen his message, or was she pretending not to?!

No wonder Dad disliked her and had kicked her out so early. Who could like someone so selfish?

Xin Jiu closed the Nine Provinces Channel and noticed a red dot on her friends list.

The system had enabled anti-harassment mode, so players ranked below the top five hundred weren't eligible to send her friend requests. Was it someone who had just entered the top five hundred?

Puzzled, Xin Jiu opened it.

[Heartless Dao Dabao has requested to add you as a friend. Accept?]