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Chapter 3 – Special Duty: Night Shift

Win?

Chen Guo was dumbfounded for a moment. The word that flashed on the screen, Glory, was the Arena’s victory symbol meaning “K.O.”.

Only, she had only left for how long? 40 seconds? 50 seconds? Chen Guo lifted her wrist and looked down at her watch. It definitely hasn’t been a minute yet. But the result? The opponent I had lost to 52 times in a row was defeated in less than a minute?

Chen Guo even forgot to rush up and snatch back her account. She wanted to see if this person could duel again for her to examine properly. But in the end, she saw that the person had already logged-out of the game. He stretched out his arms as if he weren’t too interested in the computer and glanced around left and right. Turning his head, he saw Chen Guo looking at him with wide eyes and hurriedly explained: “You hadn’t logged out yet and when I sat down, the fight had already started. Don’t worry, I helped you win!”

“How long have you used it?” Chen Guo asked.

“40 seconds!” Ye Qiu said.

Chen Guo’s mouth dropped open when he said somewhat regretfully: “My hands were frozen cold or else 30 seconds would’ve been enough.”

30 seconds… … 30 seconds to beat the opponent that I lost to 52 times in a row? Who is this person?

Could it be a professional gamer from the Excellent Era Team? Chen Guo suddenly thought. She knew that the Excellent Era Club wasn’t too far away from the Internet Cafe . But she thought again. I would have recognized him if he was from the Excellent Era Team! Unless it’s that expert that never shows his face Ye Qiu.

Ye Qiu! Chen Guo became excited as soon as she thought of the name, but thinking how low-profile this expert was, he probably wouldn’t admit to it if she asked him directly. After hesitating for a bit, Chen Guo suddenly thought of something and quickly ran back to the reception desk.

“Who registered as Area 3 Number 47’s guest?” Chen Guo asked the girl at the counter.

“Ye Xiu.” the girl said.

“Ye Xiu… … Ye Qiu? It really is him!” Chen Guo excitedly thought. It looked like she really had uncovered his hidden identity! This showed that he really was Ye Qiu. If she had seen the name Ye Qiu written, then she wouldn’t have believed it.

“Heh heh heh… …” Chen Guo’s laugh could only be called sinister. She had been prepared to use everything she owned to get his signature. Ye Qiu’s signature, ah! Who had it? No one!

Just as she was thinking this, the receptionist girl said without thinking: “He even forgot his ID card.”

“ID card?” Chen Guo stared blankly after hearing this. Only then did she realize that she had turned silly from excitement. Internet Cafe registration had a system for identifying customers. An ID card had to be shown. How could someone use a fake ID?

“Where is it? Let me take a look.” Chen Guo looked at the ID card in the girl’s hand. Sure enough, Ye Xiu was written on it. A wave of disappointment washed over and she a strong urge to change the word Xiu into Qiu.

After finding out that he wasn’t the low-profile expert she admired, although she was curious about this person’s strength, her interest had already largely disappeared. Chen Guo angrily returned to Area 3 Number 47 and handed over Ye Xiu’s ID card: “You forgot to take your ID card.”

“Oh, thanks.” Ye Xiu immediately answered, “Do you work in the Internet Cafe?”

“Yeah, I’m the boss.”

“Oh? The boss, that’s good. I just saw on the Internet Cafe’s homepage, is your Internet Cafe hiring?” Ye Xiu asked.

“Ah… … yes… …” Chen Guo didn’t think that this person would suddenly ask this. She had just been thinking to compare notes with this person. This would be the perfect excuse to.

“I looked at it and felt that I match all of the qualifications. Work and pay aren’t a problem. How about it?” Consider it for a moment, boss.” Ye Xiu said.

“Oh, then you have to beat me in a duel in Glory.” Chen Guo said.

“What? There’s this condition?” Ye Xiu turned around to check.

“You don’t need to look for it. I’m adding it.” Chen Guo said.

Ye Xiu stared blankly. Only now did he realize that his prior victory was too professional. This beautiful boss was curious about his strength, but… … Ye Xiu bitterly laughed shaking his head: “I can’t beat you.”

“Why?” Chen Guo startled.

“Because I don’t have an account that can beat yours.” Ye Xiu said.

“Account… … what level is it? What equipment?” Chen Guo asked.

“No levels, no equipment.” Ye Xiu said.

“How?” Chen Guo didn’t believe it. He had defeated the opponent she couldn’t beat in 40 seconds. If this type of person didn’t have a leveled account, then how did he practice to this level of skill?

“I gave away my original account.” Ye Xiu could only say this.

“Oh, so it’s like this… … how generous.” Chen Guo sighed with sorrow. This person’s strength was powerful, his account definitely wouldn’t be weak. Powerful accounts were extremely valuable. Gifting it away so easily was very valiant.

“Yeah, too generous.” Ye Xiu forced a smile. The account he had given away was the Battle God One Autumn Leaf. To only use the word “generous” to describe him was truthfully too petty.

“Is it to get ready to play in the new server?” Chen Guo asked.

“New server?” Ye Xiu stared blankly and suddenly glanced at the date.

The next day was Glory’s tenth anniversary. Glory, starting from the second anniversary onwards, would open a new server on every anniversary. The registration for the tenth server had already started three months ago. Old players who weren’t satisfied with the old server would prepare to enter Glory again looking forward to this day.

Now, Glory’s tenth server was opening. The distant One Autumn Leaf was an account in Glory’s first server. Later, in Glory’s fifth expansion, a lot of experts obtained the qualifications to complete the Challenge skill becoming the first ones possessing access to all servers.

Now One Autumn Leaf had already exchanged owners. His career as a professional in Glory also left with it, but he coincidentally met up with the start of the new server. Ye Xiu’s mind stirred. Ten years of memories suddenly flashed through his mind.

“New server?” Ye Xiu mumbled.

“I remember that at the start of a new server, you can transfer to it right?” Ye Xiu suddenly asked Chen Guo.

“Only Level 1 accounts can.” Chen Guo said.

“Let me try.” Ye Xiu fished out an account card from his pocket and quickly applied for a server transfer on the Glory home page. Chen Guo looked at the account card amazed: “Isn’t this a first-edition card?”

“It is.” Ye Xiu smiled. Glory had a new edition every year. A first-edition card would be from almost ten years ago.

Chen Guo looked at Ye Xiu astonished: “How long have you been playing Glory?” Cards weren’t living objects. People were. Even if a card had been around for ten years, it didn’t mean a person had been.

“Almost ten years.” Ye Xiu answered confirming that he and the card were one.

Chen Guo had thought that she, with five years of gaming, was already considered a veteran. She wouldn’t have thought that the guy in front of her had a full double her experience. Ten years. That was Glory’s first group of players. To continue playing up until now yet still having interest in entering a new server, what type of drive was this?

While thinking this, the home page had already displayed “Server Transfer Successful”.

“Done.” Ye Xiu pulled out the account card. He once again recalled the little details contained with this first-edition card.

“Are you saying you want to become a network manager?” Chen Guo suddenly brought up this matter.

“Yes.”

“Which one are you looking at?” Chen Guo asked.

“The night shift one.” Ye Xiu said.

“Oh, are you fine with that?” Chen Guo surprised. The night shift one went on from 11PM to 7AM. The monthly income was greater than others by three hundred, but very few applied. After all, not many people were willing to have day and night reversed everyday. As a result, everyone had to take turns completing the task. If there truly was someone who took on the special night shift task, then everyone would be relieved.

“No problem, no problem. I like working at night.” Ye Xiu said.

Chen Guo carefully sized up this person in front of her. His hair looked as if it hadn’t been taken care of in at least half a month. His face didn’t look too healthy. Although it was white and clear, it was that sort of sickly pale. His two eyes gazed at her listlessly. She had seen this appearance many times. The youths that frequently visited her Internet Cafe often look like this. The guy in front of her didn’t look too young, but was unexpectedly also so dejected and disdained.

Disdained was disdained. As long as he wanted to be a full-time night cat, then Chen Guo would welcome him. What’s more, she was also curious about the strength of this person with ten years of gaming experience . She clapped her hands on the spot: “Okay, then you’re hired.”

“Thank you very much boss.”

“Look at the terms carefully. It’ll be in accordance with those.” Chen Guo said.

“No problem.”

“Then good, come with me!” Chen Guo handled matters crisply. After hiring Ye Xiu, she immediately ordered him as an employee to tidy up a pile of keyboards and move them to the second floor for storage.

Chen Guo’s Internet Cafe was called “Happy Internet Club”, considered a fairly high-class Internet Cafe. There were two floors and over one thousand computers. The second floor was somewhat small, but was clearly luxurious — a high-class area. And the inside was a paradise hiding two small inner rooms and storage room. Ye Xiu busily moved keyboards up and down having already inspected this small room. The recruitment page wrote: Food and shelter included. Ye Xiu had just left the club and hadn’t yet thought of the next step. Food and shelter, these sort of conditions, would give him time to settle down and think about what to do next. Only then did he feel interested in taking a position at the Internet Cafe.

At first glance, this small room was probably the “shelter”. Although the decoration was simple, it was clean and tidy. Ye Xiu was very satisfied with it. He continued pondering as he arranged the keyboards that he brought up.

“Good, that’s where you’ll be sleeping.” Seeing that Ye Xiu had finished the work, she pointed towards the small bed crammed into the storage room.

“What?” Ye Xiu stared blankly. He imagined that he would be sleeping in that bright and clean room. Even the drawing room sofa would be good. Here… … Ye Xiu lifted his head to look. On the west wall of the small storage room was a tiny window that directly faced the streetlights. When the storage room lights were closed, dusky light immediately shone through the tiny window as if it were haunted.

“Eh, it’s a little lacking. Just put up with it for now… … In reality, my Internet Cafe isn’t lacking people. With you, we don’t have too many. Without you, we don’t have too few. The recruitment fliers you saw are a fairly old.” Chen Guo said.

“Oh, so it’s like this! No problem no problem. This is pretty good.” Ye Xiu declared at once. His approving attitude made Chen Guo feel very apologetic. This small storage room truly wasn’t a place for living.

“In your free time, you can go on the computers and play. It’s not a problem, employees don’t have to pay.” Chen Guo said.

“Boss, you’re also very generous!”

“Cough, as if I cared about a single computer among a thousand!” Chen Guo said.

“How is the flow of customers ordinarily?” Ye Xiu asked.

“Not bad. Enough for me to be satisfied.” Chen Guo said. “Of course, there won’t be as many in the night shift. Most of them are students from the nearby university pulling all-nighters. There’s really not much to say. You’ll see when it’s time.”

“Got it.”

“In order for you to adapt to the workplace, how about starting today? I also want to observe and see your ability to work all night.” Chen Guo said.

“No problem. My energy’s at full capacity.” Ye Xiu gave her two big thumbs-up showing that working all night was his specialty.

“Okay then. Let’s go down. I’ll treat you to a midnight snack.” Chen Guo said.

“Oh? To eat what?”

“There’s not much at this time. There should be a small restaurant nearby that hasn’t closed yet. Go look and buy a few dishes to bring back. I don’t eat celery.” Chen Guo said as she fished out two hundred dollars from her pocket and slipped them to Ye Xiu

“It’s snowing though!” Ye Xiu said.

“It’s just across the road. How much snow would get on you? Hurry up.” Chen Guo said.

Ye Xiu had no other choice. He crossed the road and bought a few midnight snacks. He had just been hired but had already been ordered in quick succession. But he wasn’t feeling depressed at all. After speaking with her for only a bit, they were no longer strangers. This sort of natural friendliness made him feel comfortable. Ye Xiu suddenly realized. Even after all this, he had never asked for his boss’s name.