Chapter 293 - 292: Brother Expert! (Part 1)

Chapter 293: Chapter 292: Brother Expert! (Part 1)

Yin He ate a meal, and it was a hearty, soul-satisfying one. His depleted stamina was also recovering quickly.

But after he finished, he was once again consumed by worry.

Gaming addicts never know day from night, especially in an era where everyone cultivated. Their stamina for grinding grew daily, right alongside their essence and mental energies.

However, the same couldn’t be said for their gaming skills.

Yin He had been grinding for ages, but his ladder score just wouldn’t budge. He was still stuck in the low ranks, which refused to yield no matter how stubbornly he played.

It would be one thing if he were just playing for fun, but he had a solo match against a classmate today, and he was so anxious he could barely eat or sleep.

He had only his own big mouth to blame. He’d always bragged in class that his skills were second to none, looking down on everyone else like they were a bunch of scrubs. Now that Wang Yang had called his bluff, forcing him into a one-on-one match in front of the whole class, he couldn’t help but lose his nerve.

Losing was one thing, but if everyone found out he was all talk and no skill? It would be all over for him.

So, ever since accepting the challenge, he’d been practicing day and night. He’d even come to Bo Xin Amusement City in the wee hours of the morning, hoping to see some short-term improvement through sheer effort and extra practice.

The results, of course, were not promising.

If a few days of grinding were enough to raise his rank, he would’ve been in the stratosphere by now. How could he still be stuck messing around in the newbie zone?

His communicator chimed. Yin He glanced at it—his classmates had already set a time and were about to log on. He scratched his head in frustration, then glanced around furtively, trying to find someone to sub in for him for a couple of games.

But... rumor had it that Wang Yang was really good, already at the Lieutenant rank. An ordinary sub probably wouldn’t be a match for him. And where was he supposed to find a pro on such short notice?

’Forget it. I’ll just go back and practice a couple more games,’ Yin He thought. ’I wonder if that delivery guy managed to hang in there, or if he lost me any points.’ The thought of his already meager ranked score made him antsy. He used the restroom, washed his face, and after psyching himself up, rushed back and slapped the notification button on the spherical pod.

The pod door opened at once. With a pleasant expression, Shi Tiexin flicked his hand, dispersing the nanomachines. He smiled at Yin He. "You’re back. This thing is pretty fun."

"Yeah, yeah, stop messing around. Out of the way, I need to keep practicing!"

"Alright, then. You do that. Have fun." Shi Tiexin stepped out of the pod. Seeing it was almost five o’clock, he got ready to start snagging orders.

Sighing, Yin He stepped into the spherical pod. The nanofluid swirled around him, forming simple controllers instead of military hardware.

’Did the last match end? Or did he get kicked for being too trash?’ Yin He raised his hand and tapped the air, and the post-game results screen for the previous match immediately popped up.

The words "Player of the Match" loomed large before his eyes.

Yin He stared blankly at the four words, unable to process what was happening for a good while. He’d never seen this screen before.

But after two seconds of stunned silence, Yin He yelled, "Holy shit!" He wanted to leap forward and hug the "Player of the Match" banner, to stare at it until he could see the individual pixels.

Utter shock!

Then he scrambled to open the game history.

—Deaths: 9.

’Yep, that’s the score I racked up earlier,’ Yin He thought.

—Kills: 16...

Hmmmm...

Uh...

’How many kills was that again?’

’Have I been grinding for so long my eyes are playing tricks on me?’

In disbelief, Yin He opened the replay, wanting to see what secrets it held. And then he saw it: his own virtual character, rampaging across the battlefield, cutting down anyone and everyone in its path with majestic authority.

This was a game about capturing flags and taking objectives, but the character in the replay showed no intention of doing either. It just killed, and killed, and killed. In the end, it was sheer kill count that offset the points he’d lost from feeding earlier, clinching the Player of the Match award.

If his teammates hadn’t captured the objective, he could have kept on killing.

He sighed. Yin He wanted to slap his thigh in frustration. ’Why’d my teammates have to go and capture the flag? If they hadn’t gotten in the way, I could have gotten twenty, maybe even thirty kills today!’

Er, wait. Yin He suddenly remembered that he wasn’t the one who had gotten that score.

Along with his regret, a flash of inspiration struck him.

’Wait a minute... Isn’t this the pro sub I was looking for?!’

CLANG! Yin He threw open the pod door and looked around wildly. He spotted the tall figure walking toward the exit, busy tapping at something, already about to leave Bo Xin Amusement City.

"Don’t go! Hey, delivery guy, wait up!" Yin He shot forward like a bullet, waving and yelling as he ran.

Shi Tiexin heard the shouting and turned to see the guy who had just ordered the food rushing toward him. At that speed, he must have been using essence energy to accelerate.

"Hey, delivery guy! Uh, no, I mean... Bro, expert... Brother Expert, wait up!" Not sparing any essence energy, Yin He zipped over to Shi Tiexin like the wind. His eyes were gleaming as he asked eagerly, "Brother Expert, were you the one who got those 16 kills?"

"Yeah," Shi Tiexin replied, his fingers a blur as he furiously tapped on his wearable device. "You asked me to cover for you, didn’t you? Is there a problem?"

"No problem, no problem at all! Absolutely no problem!" Yin He wrung his hands, looking a little sheepish. "Um, Brother Expert, could I ask you for a favor?"

"What is it?" Talking didn’t slow down Shi Tiexin’s frantic tapping in the slightest.

"Could you please help me play a couple more games? Uh, you know, as a demonstration. I’ll learn from you. Just treat it like you’re giving me a tutorial, how about it?" Yin He was too embarrassed to ask him to sub directly, so he tried to pretty up the request.

Shi Tiexin sounded helpless. "Brother, I’m on the clock. It’s the peak period for orders right now. I have to go make deliveries."

"I’ll pay you! Just consider it tuition!"

"It’s not about the money. I earn Gang Contribution for my deliveries. You can exchange Gang Contribution for money, but you can’t exchange money for Gang Contribution." Shi Tiexin stared at the orders flashing and disappearing on his wearable device. The details for each one were perfectly clear, but whenever he tapped on one, he was always a split second too late.

’Damn it! I got a better device, and I still can’t snag any orders?’

A wave of frustration washed over Shi Tiexin.

Seeing that the expert was getting annoyed, Yin He’s mind raced, and he came up with an idea. "How about this, Brother Expert? You sub for me—I mean, you teach me how to play—and I’ll place orders on Jingtuan and specifically request you for the delivery. How does that sound?"

Hmm? Shi Tiexin looked at Yin He, suddenly realizing this was actually a pretty good idea. You could indeed specify a courier when placing an order on Jingtuan. Designated orders were sent directly to that courier with priority. Only if the courier explicitly rejected or transferred the order could someone else claim it.

Normally, that was the kind of perk you only got after building up a network of connections. He never expected to drum up business just by playing a video game.

Shi Tiexin put on a sincere expression and pointed at the flashing pop-ups. "Brother, I have a lot of orders. I’m very busy."

"I’ll place one order for every game you play! I’ll just order from the little restaurant next door, so you’ll only have to take a few steps!" Yin He promised grandly. "Even ten or twenty orders, it’s no big deal!"

Shi Tiexin tried tapping a few more times but still couldn’t snag a single order. He decisively lowered his device and nodded. "Alright. It’s a deal!"