Chapter 28: Little Chicky

He logged out and went offline.

He had stayed up all night, yet he wasn't the least bit tired. Liu Kongkong couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of the Game Pod.

He did his daily check of his account balance: 480,000 yuan.

Heh heh, so good. Liu Kongkong let out a giddy laugh. He'd made nearly 400,000 yuan in just a few days — he almost thought he was dreaming.

Time to treat himself to a proper meal!

He opened his phone, browsed around, and ordered himself some MFC — spending a whopping 79 yuan! Back in the old days, he never would have splurged like that. Was he trying to blow through his money? Seventy-nine yuan on a single meal!

He was gnawing on a chicken wing and watching videos when suddenly a voice call came in!

Who's looking for me at this hour? Liu Kongkong picked up his phone. Wang Di? The two of them usually just sent messages when they were passing job leads to each other — they'd never actually called before.

Did something happen? He answered the call.

"Hey, you free right now?" Before Liu Kongkong could even say a word, Wang Di's low, heavy voice came through first.

"Yeah, though I already ate dinner." Going by habit, a call at this hour usually meant someone wanted to grab food.

There was a brief silence on the other end. "Something came up and I need your help. Come down for a walk?"

"Oh, sure." Something about Wang Di's tone didn't sound right, but Liu Kongkong agreed anyway. He hung up and glanced at his dinner: "What a shame — these chicken wings aren't finished yet. They'll taste worse once they go cold."

Five minutes later.

Liu Kongkong shuffled downstairs in his slippers and spotted Wang Di from a distance, pacing back and forth like a zombie.

"Let's go then — where to?" Liu Kongkong gave Wang Di a pat on the shoulder. Wang Di startled as if he'd been scared, then recognized Liu Kongkong and managed to squeeze out a faint smile.

Uh... this didn't look like a casual evening stroll.

"Old Liu."

"Yeah?"

"I got cheated on..."

"!!!" Liu Kongkong was stunned. The impact of those words hit him no less hard than if a teenage Sophie Marceau had desperately begged him to his face, saying she wanted to be with him. But what shocked him wasn't that Wang Di had been cheated on — it was that this guy apparently had a girlfriend in the first place.

"Why?" He was asking why Wang Di even had a girlfriend.

"She's been seeing someone else." Wang Di didn't catch the real meaning behind Liu Kongkong's question and just started talking on his own. "I've been playing Hunt Heaven lately, and Xiaoyu was in the same Starter Village as me. She didn't change her appearance in the game..."

"Did you?" Liu Kongkong had never actually seen Wang Di's in-game look — the last time he'd checked his app, it only showed his level and stats.

"I did..."

"That's something at least..." Being overweight was one thing, but the bigger issue was that this guy was also sloppy. Liu Kongkong already considered himself a bit of a slob, but standing next to Wang Di, he felt like a fresh recruit by comparison.

"So she didn't recognize me."

"Makes sense."

"Can you stop acting like the setup guy?" Wang Di looked up at Liu Kongkong, who quickly waved his hands and promised to pipe down.

Seeing Liu Kongkong go quiet, Wang Di continued: "I saw her in the Starter Village hanging around with some male goblin, and they even had couple names."

Worth noting: in Hunt Heaven, players could not only adjust their appearance but also change their skin color — so the "goblin" Wang Di mentioned might have literally looked like one.

That's quite the taste... Liu Kongkong thought to himself.

"After I logged off, I confronted her about it, but she denied everything. So I had a friend look into it..." Wang Di's expression grew conflicted as he said this, and Liu Kongkong let out a sigh. He didn't really understand matters of the heart himself.

"I found out that before me and that goblin, she'd been with other guys too."

Wait, hold on — is that the right angle? Shouldn't we be investigating who the goblin actually is? Liu Kongkong blinked. How did the investigation go in a completely different direction?

"That's... pretty normal, isn't it?" Sure, her cheating now was obviously wrong, but the fact that she'd dated other people before — that seemed fine enough.

"More than just one."

"Well, people are more open these days. If you don't like it, just move on." Liu Kongkong responded half-heartedly. He was just here to listen to the gossip — he had no real advice to offer. Or rather, he had no desire to offer any.

"Enough for a full table of mahjong."

"Four people?"

"Mahjong tiles."

"Hold on a second!" Liu Kongkong pulled out his phone and looked up how many mahjong tiles there were. It was immediately clear this was way beyond normal. He looked up in shock: "Good lord! Does that include the flower tiles?!"

"..." Wang Di said nothing — mainly because he didn't know how to answer that either.

"And by the way, you're using the wrong term. You don't say 'a table of mahjong' — it's 'a set of mahjong.'"

"It's a table." Wang Di insisted. "An automatic mahjong table."

Liu Kongkong paused, looked it up again, then raised his head: "...Is it the kind with two sets, or... four?"

Wang Di fell silent.

"Well... that particular detail isn't super important. She must be pretty well-off." Liu Kongkong was practically ready to wish that girl named Xiaoyu a thriving business. "But don't be too down about it — just think about that goblin."

In Hunt Heaven, your ID couldn't be changed after registration. If the game kept its current popularity and they both kept playing, that goblin was going to have a rough time down the road.

"But my feelings for her..."

"Then just pretend you don't know." Liu Kongkong's answer came without hesitation.

"But she's with someone else..."

"Then steel your heart and let go." Another brainless response.

"But she said she liked me back then..."

"Liked what about you?" Liu Kongkong asked, genuinely curious.

"My gaming skills." Wang Di's face broke into a confident expression.

Liu Kongkong blinked. "So you two met through gaming — don't tell me she was one of your clients."

"She was. And I later passed her on to you." Wang Di blinked.

Liu Kongkong took out his phone and opened the chat account he used for boosting and carry work. Wang Di quickly tapped on one of the IDs, and the next second, Liu Kongkong's chat history with the contact named "Little Ducky" appeared on screen.

The earlier messages were all normal. Liu Kongkong wasn't the type to chat much with clients — beyond confirming job details and collecting payment, he barely said a word. But this Little Ducky had sent quite a few messages, including a good number of photos.

Little Ducky: [Big Brother Dameng, I'm broke right now, can you help me with my dailies first?] [selfie]

Liu Dameng: [Sorry, I can't.]

Little Ducky: [Are you in Ningcheng too, Big Brother Dameng? How about I come to your place and clean up for you, and you help me with this season's dailies?] [leg photo]

Liu Kongkong: [Sorry, no need.]

Then she had sent selfies from every angle — some showing "skin" that even Wang Di had never seen!

"You didn't let her come over to clean, did you?" Wang Di shot Liu Kongkong a suspicious look, half-afraid he might be one of the tiles in that mahjong set.

Liu Kongkong blinked. "You think I'm an idiot? Is she worth the money for cleaning with that stuff? My place is tiny! What's she gonna do — lick the toilet bowl?"

Wang Di was speechless. The girl still had some connection to him, after all — that was a pretty harsh thing to say. But he had a rough idea of Liu Kongkong's personality: money first, people second.

He then watched as Liu Kongkong took back the phone, opened the contact's nickname, changed "Little Ducky" to "Little Chicky," and slipped the phone back into his pocket with a satisfied look.

Wang Di: "...I thought you'd just delete her."

Delete her? Liu Kongkong blinked. Not a chance. What if Hunt Heaven went under someday and she had money again and needed boosting work?