Chapter 17: Being Alone Is Pretty Good Too

Something this valuable wasn't something Liu Kongkong would ever buy online, and there were no reliable jewelry stores back in his hometown's town either — which was why he'd planned to buy it in Ningcheng and bring it back himself. Since he rarely went out anyway, he'd taken advantage of today's lunch with Gao Yiwen to get everything done in one trip. That was why he happened to have it on him right now.

Earlier, Gao Yiwen had heard him say he could only just get by, but after seeing the bracelet, she had a whole new definition of what "getting by" meant to Liu Kongkong.

And judging by his clothes, this guy was probably too frugal to spend money on himself — the type who liked to save up — but he was clearly quite generous with the people around him. If she strung him along for a while, she could probably get her hands on some valuables...

But before she could finish that thought—

"Oh right, the main reason I wanted to meet today was to get our stories straight. I figure your parents probably forced you into this too. As for me — honestly, I'm perfectly fine on my own. So when you go back, just tell them you weren't interested in me. How does that sound?" Liu Kongkong laid out his real purpose for coming to this blind date.

What followed was the sight of Gao Yiwen's face cycling through shades of green and purple.

By Liu Kongkong's logic, going home and telling her mom that would be perfectly fine — but having this person say it to her face so bluntly made it crystal clear that he simply wasn't interested in her...

"Fine. We'll do it your way." Gao Yiwen's expression went cold. She picked up her purse and stood. "I'm done eating. I'll head out first. Take your time."

Done eating? Liu Kongkong blinked. From start to finish, the girl had eaten exactly one slice of meat.

But he didn't mind. He'd already spent what needed to be spent, and the task his mom had assigned him was complete.

As for what he'd said — well, it was the truth.

Liu Kongkong had no interest in finding a partner. Or rather, he genuinely preferred being alone. Otherwise, he wouldn't have spent all those years in Ningcheng with Wang Di as the only person he was even remotely close to.

And even Wang Di, in Liu Kongkong's eyes, didn't really count as a friend. The two of them were really just in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

He disliked crowded places. He disliked noise and bustle. That was why he rarely went out to eat. People often said humans were social animals, but Liu Kongkong didn't see it that way. Some people liked sweet food, some liked spicy. Some people wanted a lifelong companion by their side — and some people enjoyed time alone. He didn't need anyone's company. Whatever joy others got from being with someone else, he could give himself just as well.

He finished his meal in complete contentment.

Liu Kongkong took a cab home, picked up his phone, and gave his mom a brief rundown of the day.

"What do you mean she wasn't interested in you — what's so great about their family anyway! Don't be sad, Mom will find you a good one another day. But Kongkong, you really do need to find a proper job. Making money online every day isn't sustainable. You're up at all hours — it's not good for your health."

Reading his mother's reply, Liu Kongkong smiled.

He typed back a short response. At the rate he'd been earning these past couple of days, if he kept at it for a month or two, he might actually be able to buy an apartment in Ningcheng. After graduating, he'd moved several times due to various issues, and every move left him exhausted — that feeling of being shuffled around from place to place. Having a stable home was something that actually mattered to him.

As for why he didn't go back to his hometown — at his age, spending two or three days with his parents was fine, but any longer and it started to wear on him.

He put the bracelet away and checked the date. His mom's birthday was in a few days. The high-speed rail from Ningcheng took a few hours, so he could leave the day of.

"Let me check the forums — see if there's anything worth noting." Sitting at his computer back at his place, music playing in the background — this was Liu Kongkong's idea of a comfortable atmosphere.

It was the second day since the servers opened, and the forums had changed dramatically.

The most discussed topics were still players' various in-game discoveries and their amazement at how realistic Hunt Heaven felt. But quite a few conflicts between groups — over boss spawns or resource competition — had also made their way onto the forums.

"Looks like every Starter Village is the same." He clicked through a few threads and found that some Starter Villages had it even worse than Starter Village No. 0113 — practically everyone had gotten dragged into the fighting.

"Huaxia's Number One Guild, Iron Guard, Officially Declares War on All Players in Starter Villages No. 0201 and No. 3014 — Come Fight If You Dare!"

"Huaxia's Number One Combat Guild, Divine Twilight, Recruiting Globally"

"World's Number One Guild..."

The titles kept getting more grandiose. Liu Kongkong curiously clicked through a few and found the comment sections full of people refusing to back down and issuing challenges left and right.

"They're all still in the Starter Village — where are all these guilds coming from?"

One thread quickly gave him his answer.

"Battle Intent Alliance — Recruiting Across All Servers, Offline Employment, Online Membership"

You could do it that way? Liu Kongkong was taken aback. He opened it and found a familiar face — Night's Gentle Chill...

The thread clearly listed the company's address, required verification of Hunt Heaven character information before joining, even had an interview process testing applicants' understanding of the game and their past experience, and laid out salary and benefits at the end.

If he were a regular player, he might actually apply. Liu Kongkong read through the post — assuming, of course, that the job was legitimate. In his estimation, Night's Gentle Chill's demonstrated capabilities made him look like a small-time boss at best, still a long way from the truly wealthy.

He backed out of the thread, scrolled down, and spotted another familiar name.

Big Dumb Duck?

The content of Big Dumb Duck's post was nearly identical to Night's Gentle Chill's — except the salary listed was one yuan higher across the board. It was obviously a deliberate jab to annoy Night's Gentle Chill.

He checked the listed addresses and found that one was in Shanghai and the other in Beijing.

"If they were in the same city, this would be even more entertaining." Liu Kongkong loved watching drama unfold. He felt a twinge of regret, then suddenly thought of someone else. "Right — and there's Lonely as a Song."

Yesterday that guy had posted a thread that had a significant impact on his business. Fortunately, Hunt Heaven didn't have any screenshot or recording functionality, otherwise he'd have been exposed in no time.

He pulled up Lonely as a Song's profile and found that today the guy was completely quiet.

"Huh? That unlimited-capacity backpack isn't worth a post?" Liu Kongkong was puzzled. "Did he just never log off?"

Little did he know that Lonely as a Song had logged off long ago, had already sold the 1 gold coin from his inventory for over ten thousand yuan in real money, and was currently out having the time of his life — he had absolutely no time to be posting weird threads.

Lonely as a Song hadn't posted anything, but plenty of other players from Starter Village No. 0113 had.

The content was remarkably consistent: everyone was furiously condemning Night's Gentle Chill's and Big Dumb Duck's factions for disrupting order in the Starter Village. With that many people brawling inside the village, collateral damage was inevitable.

* * *

At that moment, in Shanghai.

"Between us, we've bought 600,000 worth of in-game currency. At today's burn rate, that should be enough to hold them off for at least a week." Qin Ying reviewed the messages from the other three members of her team, then cross-referenced their expenditures. This was the person known in Hunt Heaven as Ye Weinuan.

Ye Ling nodded. "Not bad — less than I expected. Have we figured out who Big Dumb Duck is?"

"Still working on it. What we know so far is that he's from Beijing. Thirty people entered Starter Village No. 0113 with him, and all their IDs are simple numbers — but the numbers aren't consecutive. If each number represents a person, then his side might have several hundred people."

Qin Ying produced a sheet of paper. On it were recorded all the characters in Starter Village No. 0113 with purely numerical IDs, along with their levels. The highest number was 154.

"Probably couldn't all get into the same Starter Village." Ye Ling looked over the list. Most of them were already level 5, with a handful at level 6. Today they'd recruited quite a few people too, but their average level was a notch below these players.

"I've had Heart and Soul keep recruiting in the Starter Village. We've got 47 people willing to join us so far, but a fair number have also gone over to Big Dumb Duck's side. In terms of numbers, we're still at a disadvantage."

There wasn't much to be done about that — the other side had clearly started preparing earlier.

"Tonight, have those two put in some extra effort. Tomorrow morning at seven-thirty, you and I will go in and take over. In the early stages, being a level behind doesn't matter — as long as we get our gear upgraded, we can still compete. You take the tailor shop and the jewelry store; I'll handle the potion shop and the blacksmith shop. Spend what it takes to upgrade everyone's equipment and try to pin them down in the Starter Village."

"Got it~"