Chapter 62: Lu Xiaobei's Dance Sage

Around eleven o'clock at night.

I brought Lu Xiaobei back to the apartment. The lights in the living room were off, and Lin Qingying seemed to have already retreated to her bedroom.

"Ding Han."

Lu Xiaobei was trembling all over, her voice laced with tears: "I'm cold..."

"Go take a hot shower first."

I placed her clothes at the bathroom door: "Hurry up, turn the water nice and hot."

Lu Xiaobei went off to wash up.

Left to myself, I felt somewhat bewildered. Now there were two women living in this apartment.

Before long, Lu Xiaobei finished her shower, changed into her own pajamas, and threw a down jacket over them. She asked, "Where am I sleeping?"

"In my room."

I pulled a quilt out of the wardrobe and said, "I'll make do on the living room sofa for the night. Don't argue, just go on in. The typhoon will pass by tomorrow, and I still need to get up early to find a craftsman to repair your loft and deal with trivial things like the Internet cafe's light box."

"Okay..."

Lu Xiaobei was very obedient, stepping into the room and crawling into my bed.

As for me, clutching the single quilt I had left, I began to shiver on the sofa. It was an air-conditioning quilt, terribly thin.

...

The lights went out, and sleep gradually took over.

I didn't know how much time had passed when a sound came from nearby, followed immediately by the living room light snapping on.

Lin Qingying gave me a faint glance, then looked toward my bedroom door, said nothing at all, and simply headed to the restroom to pee...

I continued to shiver, trembling constantly on the sofa, almost resonating with the wind and rain outside.

Soon enough, I drifted off to sleep again, this time feeling quite warm.

Early in the morning, the alarm went off.

An extra quilt was actually draped over my body. It wasn't my cotton quilt, which left only one possibility—Lin Qingying had covered me with it.

By now, the weather outside had cleared up, and the typhoon had passed.

I neatly folded the bedding, placed it on the sofa, woke Lu Xiaobei, and after washing up, we headed to the Internet cafe.

Perhaps because it was too early, Lin Qingying hadn't come out yet.

...

This daytime was extremely busy, finding people to repair the Internet cafe and Lu Xiaobei's residence. We retrieved the plywood pieces, then had the craftsmen build brick walls on the outside of the plywood and aluminum panels, and reinforced the roof once more. Although the overall structure remained simple, its wind resistance had undergone a radical transformation.

It was already evening by the time everything was finally finished. Lu Xiaobei treated me to a box meal, after which we returned to the apartment.

The living room was pitch black.

The light in Lin Qingying's room, however, was on.

I didn't bother her, as I was utterly exhausted. After washing up, I went straight to sleep.

The next morning.

When I woke up and got out of bed, I found that Lin Qingying had already finished washing up, dressed in a sharp work outfit, wearing her employee badge, and with her car keys and bag in hand, she opened the door and left.

She turned a blind eye, acting as if I didn't exist at all...

"What the..."

Only then did I realize that she simply didn't want to talk to me!

Yet I hadn't done anything to offend her, had I?

Could it be because I brought Lu Xiaobei back to spend the night?

That seemed highly likely. Lin Qingying was someone with mysophobia and a psychological aversion to uncleanness. A joke by Zhang Ruolin last time had already left her with a poor impression of me, but this time was a bit different.

Should I explain?

There didn't seem to be any necessity...

I frowned. I needed to hurry up and find a place. Once I found one, I'd move out. Living under someone else's roof never felt quite right.

...

A new day began, and business at Feiyang Internet cafe was bustling once again.

In the afternoon, Lu Xiaobei sat at the second computer behind the counter, clacking away furiously while playing *Audition Online*. After dancing for a bit, she started typing, her expression gradually turning ferocious, just a step away from boiling red.

I tilted my head and glanced over. She was mutually disparaging another male player's skills, and was ultimately broken-defended by his remark, "If you're so good, why haven't you reached the Dance Saint rank by now?"

"Ahhhhhhh~~~"

Lu Xiaobei picked up the keyboard with both hands, ready to smash it.

"Calm down!"

I said with a calm gaze: "This keyboard is worth 120 yuan!"

Lu Xiaobei calmed down instantly, put the keyboard back down, and then sat there with her arms crossed, fuming. Once the opponent brought up her failure to reach Dance Saint, Lu Xiaobei had no counter-attack left in her and was completely defeated.

"How about..."

Acting as her armchair strategist, I immediately devised a plan: "How about I write a cheat for you? I guarantee you'll reach Dance Saint in minutes. Forget Dance Saint, even Dance Star won't be a problem!"

"You wouldn't..."

Lu Xiaobei was wildly tempted, yet remained somewhat cautious: "I heard the official crackdown on cheats has been pretty intense lately. What if I get banned? This account of mine is the crystallization of years of hard work, embodying my youth!"

I gave her a contemptuous look: "Do you know the saying 'the bolder the person, the greater the yield'? But since you prefer to play it safe... let me think of another way. There's always a solution."

I refused to believe that a mere *Audition Online* game could stump an advanced programming Level 10 master like me?!

To be honest, with my programming skills, I could walk into any software company in this world and start at a managerial level. It's just that I didn't care to chase that money, nor did I want to go bald prematurely.

Right at that moment, a dinging sound suddenly rang in my ear. The long-awaited daily quest had finally triggered again!

[You have triggered the daily quest 〖Lu Xiaobei's Dance Saint〗 (Grade B)! Quest Objectives: Use various methods to help Lu Xiaobei's *Audition Online* account reach the Dance Saint rank. Quest Rewards: Massive EXP, with a chance to obtain a special reward!]

...

It's on!

I took a deep breath and said, "Anyway, leave this matter entirely to me. Just wait to be promoted to Dance Saint and become that one-in-a-million peerless genius!"

"Great!"

Lu Xiaobei flashed an expectant smile.

My train of thought was quite simple: since internal cheats were easily detected by the official system and resulted in account bans, what about an external cheat? The authorities couldn't interfere with that, could they?

Thus, after getting off work at four o'clock, I immediately hailed a motorcycle taxi and headed straight to the south side of the city.

Inside an abandoned factory, countless scraps were piled as high as mountains.

The scrap metal yard was a godforsaken place. It was said that almost all the factory waste from Xicheng was shipped here, but no one was willing to pay to process the waste, leaving the scrap to pile higher and higher. The government didn't want to spend money to clean it up either, so it ultimately became a paradise for scavengers.

"Halt!"

At the gate of the scrap yard, two punk youths with pierced ears stepped out. One of them had the characters "Loyalty and Righteousness" tattooed on his arm, and he laughed: "Brother, know the rules of the scrap yard?"

"I know."

I nodded: "One hundred yuan lets you pick a basket of stuff to take away."

"That's right."

He nodded with a smile: "The baskets are piled over there, hand over the money."

I immediately pulled out a hundred-yuan bill, handed it over, grabbed a basket, and walked into the scrap yard.

Actually, the scrap yard was unsupervised, but these punks had organized themselves to fence off the area and scrape a layer of profit off the scavengers. The government was well aware of this, but couldn't be bothered to interfere.

...

Inside the scrap yard, a pungent odor drifted over—decaying and heavy with the scent of iron rust.

I wandered through the scrap yard, and soon my gaze fixed on a damaged television set. After inspecting it, I took some of the parts, skipped putting them in the basket, and tossed them straight into my extra-dimensional storage space.

A player's advantage was simply too great; even scavenging in a scrap yard allowed me to carry away more materials than anyone else.

After wandering around for a long time.

*Clack...*

Suddenly, a crisp sound echoed from beneath my feet. I pulled out the Legion Blade and dug down over a foot deep, uncovering a rusted, long sword. It looked like an iron bar, but the hilt happened to catch my eye—it actually had an energy-driven setup.

This was a power sword!

Unfortunately, the power mechanism of this power sword had long since been destroyed, making it impossible to form a force field anymore. Any valuable settings in the hilt had already been stripped away, leaving behind nothing more than scrap metal.

Naturally, how many scavengers visited this scrap yard every day? It had been combed through thousands of times over like a fine-tooth comb; how could any good things possibly be left for me?

After searching for a long time, what I gained was little more than some scrap iron and spare parts. These items might not even be worth the 100-yuan admission fee.

Night fell.

Darkness had descended. Just as I was nearing despair, I suddenly caught sight of an arm amid the pile of scraps ahead!

Strictly speaking, it should be an abandoned power arm!

*Whoosh!*

I hurriedly picked up the power arm. It was covered in rust, and it seemed to have been through a battle. The section from the wrist upward had been completely scorched by a thermal weapon and had lost all value.

However, the five finger-sleeves were preserved relatively intact, and the tension cables inside the sleeves were still functional, allowing the five fingers to bend perfectly!

Got it!

My original conception required a powered finger-sleeve. Then, using optical targeting technology, I could buy a camera to lock onto the directional dance markers on the screen, connect it to the powered finger-sleeve, and directly achieve flawless keystrokes!

Now that the powered finger-sleeve was in hand, and cameras weren't expensive, all I needed was to buy a few cheap chips, a second-hand burner to flash the program, and completing this Grade B daily quest would be a walk in the park!

In fact, I could have written a screen-capturing program, but that was easily detected by the system. Therefore, for the sake of Lu Xiaobei's account safety, going entirely external was the better choice!

I hurried back to the apartment in high spirits.

Lin Qingying hadn't returned yet. After quickly fixing myself a meal, I fished the tools out of my extra-dimensional storage space, disassembled the powered finger-sleeve, repaired the circuitry, and prepped it for the installation ahead.

This kept me busy all the way until around eight o'clock.

*Clack~~~*

The living room door opened.

Lin Qingying walked in, looking lovely in her work attire. She had initially planned to ignore my existence, but a glance caught sight of the nearly repaired powered finger-sleeve in my hands, and she couldn't help showing a look of astonishment.

Still, she didn't speak, turning straight back to her bedroom.

...

I remained completely immersed in my work. After fixing the powered finger-sleeve, I went downstairs to an electronic accessories store, bought a camera and some chips, and borrowed their tools to write the cheating program for the camera and the powered finger-sleeve!

As a result, I ended up working all the way past one in the morning.

I turned off the living room lights, returned to my room, and fell sound asleep.

The next morning.

Arriving early at the Internet cafe and handing over with Zhao Yihang, I pulled out the camera and the powered finger-sleeve, and shouted toward the upper floor: "Lu Xiaobei, get down here and let's blitz the Dance Saint rank!"

In the Internet cafe, a group of drowsy web-surfers raised their heads in unison, eyes shining brightly, eager to see what Lu Xiaobei looked like today.