Chapter 17: The Instance Crystal (With Gratitude to the Alliance Leader!)
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Inside the office, Deputy Captain Wang’s voice rose and fell with emphasis: “Your boyfriend has already explained the situation to us. Let it go this time. You can leave now and take your things with you. Just avoid setting up your stall so openly next time.”
“Boy... boyfriend?” Lu Xiaobei looked bewildered.
“Exactly,” I quickly gathered the scattered little items on the floor and hugged them to my chest. “Brother Wang, we’ll be going now.”
“Go ahead,” Captain Wang said, lighting a cigarette and crossing his legs with an air of swagger.
...
Outside, the autumn wind stirred the fallen plane tree leaves, making me think of that city, Nanjing.
“Ding Han, you were really flattering just now...” Lu Xiaobei glanced at me and said, “It’s okay for a man to be poor, but he must have backbone. You know that, right?”
“You’ve got some nerve saying that!” I glared. “I sacrificed a soft skill just to get you out of trouble, you know?”
“Huh?” Lu Xiaobei lowered her head, looking a little embarrassed, then suddenly looked up and said, “Who told you to say I was your girlfriend?”
“I didn’t say that,” I replied, staring at the path beneath my feet. “He guessed it, and I didn’t want to say anything more. Saying anything in that situation would have been superfluous and might have broken the bribery vibe I created with that soft skill.”
I handed her the bundle. “How much did you spend on this batch?”
“Over five hundred.”
“...” I was a bit helpless. The stock cost just over five hundred, but it had cost me more than three hundred in real money!
“Ding Han...” Lu Xiaobei’s tone softened. “I’m hungry...”
“Then let’s eat. You’re paying!”
“There’s a beef hotpot place across the street I’ve wanted to try for a while, but no one’s gone with me. How about... this meal is on me? Consider it thanks for you getting me out of the city management office today...”
“Alright, let’s go!”
...
At the hotpot restaurant, we ordered some beef and other items to cook, and Lu Xiaobei got a few bottles of Heineken.
It had been a long time since I’d eaten something this delicious, so I ate heartily. Beer and hotpot were a perfect match; before I realized it, I’d drunk a bit more than intended.
After the third bottle of Heineken, my face tingled and a haze clouded my mind.
Damn it, I forgot something important!
My gastrointestinal enhancement skill had a side effect: alcohol intolerance!
But I never imagined it would be this bad—just three bottles and I was about to crash!
“Lu Xiaobei...” I frowned, struggling for five seconds before my head dropped onto the table with a “plop,” drifting off to sleep. I seemed to hear Lu Xiaobei laughing: “What kind of drinking capacity is that? You’re killing me, Ding Han! Hahaha~~~”
...
My mind was a blur.
When I woke and opened my eyes, I found myself staring at a familiar ceiling. The chandelier was unique and beautiful. Looking up, I realized I was lying on Lu Xiaobei’s bed.
“Holy crap...” I jolted upright.
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It was already three in the morning. Grabbing my phone from the table, I rushed downstairs and saw Lu Xiaobei sitting in the internet cafe’s management chair, resting her delicate arm on her chin, nodding off.
“Hey!” I sneaked up behind her and startled her.
Lu Xiaobei, timid as she was, jumped up from the chair. Seeing it was me, she punched me in anger. “You wanna die? You scared me to death...”
I took the hit without flinching. My defense was at 54 points, and Lu Xiaobei was just a regular person in the Star Abyss world, so it didn’t hurt at all.
“You’re on duty for me?” I asked.
“Yeah, what else?”
Suddenly a wicked smile curved her lips. “By the way, your drinking capacity is really something...”
She pursed her red lips. “I’ve lived half my life, and this is the first time I’ve seen such a drinking limit.”
“Even the strongest men have hidden weaknesses. What’s so strange about that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Alright, you go to sleep. I’ve had enough rest. I’m fine here.”
“You’re making such a fuss, I’m wide awake now.”
Lu Xiaobei dragged over a chair and propped her glowing white legs up beside me. “I’ll keep you company on duty so you don’t fall asleep and get complaints from customers.”
“Fine.”
I looked toward the shelves. “I’m hungry. I want a bowl of noodles, with a sausage, please.”
“You’re a glutton, aren’t you?”
Lu Xiaobei sighed. “Just eat then, why do you have to tell me?”
“I’m too embarrassed to take the sausage without you around.”
“Oh wow, Ding Han, you’ve got such a thin skin!”
...
After finishing the noodles, I felt revived.
I looked at Lu Xiaobei and asked, “Going back to the stall tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
She nodded seriously. “The inn hasn’t had much photography business lately, so I have to rely on the stall for a bit of income. Every bit helps. Besides, if I don’t run the stall, your soft skill is wasted.”
“You might not even make two hundred a day at the stall. It’s not a sustainable plan.”
I thought for a moment. “Actually, we should focus more on the internet cafe. That’s where the real money is.”
“Any suggestions?” Lu Xiaobei asked.
“Our cafe has too few machines, and the ones we have are underpowered. Customers playing Legend or Miracle games often experience lag. Getting a batch of better computers is urgent.”
I pointed to the storage room. “I checked it out. It’s spacious. If we clean it up and repaint the walls, we can fit at least seven machines in there. That would bring Feiyang Internet Cafe’s total to 30 machines, making us comparable to the other three cafes in scale. What do you think?”
“That sounds good, but where will the new machines come from?” Lu Xiaobei’s eyes widened, excitement clear.
“I’ll find out if any internet cafes are closing down and selling their machines. We can check it out.”
“Okay, I’ll ask around tomorrow!”
She looked full of energy.
Just then, a chime sounded, triggering a daily task!
[You have triggered the daily task “Expand Scale” (B-rank). Task: Help Lu Xiaobei increase the internet cafe’s machines from 23 to 30. Rewards: Massive experience points and a chance for a special item!]
...
A B-rank task—pretty good!
I smiled slightly. “Alright, once we find out where to buy old computers, I’ll go with you. You should get some rest upstairs; there’s a lot to do tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Lu Xiaobei stopped resisting and went upstairs to sleep.
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The next morning, before Zhao Yihang arrived for his shift, Lu Xiaobei came in from outside carrying two breakfasts.
“I already found out there’s an internet cafe on Binjiang Road going out of business. The owner is selling computers cheaply. I don’t know much about computers, so you’ll have to come with me. I’ve contacted them already. Shall we leave now? I got breakfast for you too.”
“Alright, we’ll leave when Zhao Yihang gets here.”
Soon, Zhao Yihang arrived for his shift, and Lu Xiaobei and I set off in a rickshaw towards Huaihai Road.
The autumn wind blew sharply, and I was still wearing a T-shirt—definitely a bit chilly.
Fortunately, the steamed buns and soy milk were hot and warmed my stomach.
...
The owner of the bankrupt internet cafe was a stout man, looking miserable. He said other family businesses had been losing money, so he had no choice but to sell the cafe.
I inspected the computer specs. “Boss, how much are you asking per machine?”
“To be honest, I had them custom-built for over three thousand each. Though they’ve been used for over a year, selling them for fifteen hundred each seems fair.”
Lu Xiaobei glanced at me, silent, as if leaving the bargaining to me.
“You got a bit ripped off,” I said seriously. “The graphics cards and motherboards are decent, but the memory is too small. They’re fine for Legend, but Miracle will lag. Probably why your business hasn’t been great. Honestly, we really want them, but fifteen hundred is too high. Business is tough everywhere now. Our max is twelve hundred. That’s our sincere offer. What do you say?”
“Twelve hundred? That’s too low,” the owner winced.
Lu Xiaobei looked tense.
After some haggling, we settled at thirteen hundred, Lu Xiaobei’s maximum budget.
She pulled out a wad of cash and arranged for a small truck to transport the seven computers back to Feiyang Internet Cafe.
...
Lunch was at a nearby noodle shop, again on Lu Xiaobei’s treat.
Meanwhile, workers had cleaned the storage room and painted the walls. After painting, they would run cables in.
“Seven machines alone won’t cut it.”
I looked at her. “These computers’ memory is too low. I mean adding one memory stick per machine using the best Kingston 512MB DDR2 533 available.”
“Is that expensive?” Lu Xiaobei asked cautiously.
“New sticks cost about five hundred each. But we don’t need new ones. We’ll go to the secondhand market for used sticks. I’ll pick them; you pay. Once these seven machines have upgraded memory, they’ll smoothly run all current games, even some high-memory single-player ones.”
I smiled. “Then we can create zones—make these seven machines in the storage room a VIP area charging two yuan per hour. Those seeking status won’t miss it.”
“Can prices really go up?”
Lu Xiaobei’s eyes sparkled.
“Of course!”
I nodded with a smile. “When the cafe grows bigger and stronger, we’ll classify machines by performance into premium, VIP, and exclusive zones. That kind of hierarchy sparks competition; powerful customers will flock to us.”
“Okay, I’m listening!”
Lu Xiaobei nodded, smiling.
“Also, don’t wander outside all the time. Many customers come here because of you, the pretty owner. You should hang around downstairs more.”
“Oh...”
...
Three days later, Lu Xiaobei and I visited the secondhand market and bought seven 512MB memory sticks at two hundred each. After installing them, the seven machines in the storage room instantly became the best performing ones in the entire cafe.
The moment we powered them on, a chime rang.
[Congratulations! You’ve completed the daily task “Expand Scale” (B-rank). Rewards: +60,000 character experience and a special rare reward: “Dungeon Crystal: Red Sand Plunder Ground” (Rare, ★★)!]