Won?
Chen Guo was instantly stunned. The flashing "Glory" was the arena's iconic victory symbol, equivalent to a "K.O."
But how long had it been since she walked away? Forty seconds? Fifty? Chen Guo raised her wrist to check her watch—less than a minute, definitely. And the result? The opponent who had just beaten her fifty-two times in a row had been "Glory"-ed by this man in under a minute?
Chen Guo even forgot to rush over and reclaim her account. She had been hoping this man would play one more round so she could watch properly, but instead she saw him skillfully exit the game. He stretched lazily, as if he didn't have much interest in the computer, and started glancing around left and right. When he turned his head, he caught Chen Guo staring at him with wide eyes, and hurriedly explained: "You hadn't logged out of the game, and the match had already started when I sat down. I helped you win it. Don't worry!"
"How long did it take?" Chen Guo asked.
"A little over forty seconds!" Ye Qiu said.
Chen Guo's mouth hung open, while the man added with a hint of regret: "My hands were stiff from the cold. Otherwise, thirty seconds would have been enough."
Thirty seconds... defeating an opponent she couldn't beat even once in fifty-two rounds in just thirty seconds—who was this person?
Could he be a pro player from Excellent Era's team? Chen Guo suddenly thought. She knew the Excellent Era club wasn't too far from her internet café. But then she thought again—she'd be able to recognize anyone from the Excellent Era team! Unless this person was that master who never showed his face—Ye Qiu.
Ye Qiu! At the thought of that name, Chen Guo grew excited. But knowing that this master was famously low-profile, if she pounced on him and asked, he most likely wouldn't admit it. After hesitating a moment, Chen Guo suddenly remembered something and darted back to the front desk like the wind.
"What name did the customer at computer 47 in Section C register under?" Chen Guo asked the girl at the counter.
"Ye Xiu," the girl said.
"Ye Xiu... as in Ye Qiu? Just as I thought!" Chen Guo was thrilled. In her view, this was a classic case of trying to hide something by making it obvious—this only proved the man was Ye Qiu. If he had actually written "Ye Qiu" on the register, she wouldn't have believed it!
"Hehehe..." Chen Guo's smile was positively scheming. She was already planning to grab everything she could find and have him sign it. Ye Qiu's autograph! Who had one? No one did!
Just as she was thinking this, the counter girl casually added: "He left his ID card here."
"ID card?" Chen Guo froze for a moment, only then realizing how muddled her excitement had made her. Internet café registration required real-name identification—of course he'd have to show his ID. Who could register under a fake name?
"Where's the ID? Let me see." Chen Guo took the ID card from the girl and looked at it. Sure enough, it clearly read "Ye Xiu." She was instantly disappointed, and felt a powerful urge to change that "Xiu" into a "Qiu."
Upon learning that this man was not the low-profile master she had long admired, though she was still curious about his skill, her interest abruptly waned by more than half. Chen Guo returned sulkily to computer 47 in Section C and handed the ID card back to Ye Xiu: "You forgot your ID."
"Oh, thanks." Ye Xiu quickly took it back. "Do you work here?"
"Mm, I'm the owner."
"Oh? The owner? That's great. I just saw on your café's webpage that you're hiring a network administrator?" Ye Xiu asked.
"Ah... yes..." Chen Guo hadn't expected him to suddenly say that. She had been wondering how to get him to spar with her, and now she had a perfect excuse.
"I read it. I meet all the requirements, and I have no issues with the work or the pay. So? Consider it, boss," Ye Xiu said.
"Oh, but you'll also have to beat me in a Glory duel first," Chen Guo said.
"What? Is that one of the requirements?" Ye Xiu turned to look at the posting.
"No need to look. I just added it," Chen Guo said.
Ye Xiu froze for a moment, then realized that his earlier victory had looked too professional—this beautiful boss was curious about his skill. Unfortunately... Ye Xiu shook his head with a wry smile and said: "I can't beat you."
"Why not?" Chen Guo was taken aback.
"Because I don't have an account that can beat you," Ye Xiu said.
"Account... What level is yours? What equipment?" Chen Guo asked.
"No level, no equipment," Ye Xiu said.
"No way?" Chen Guo found it hard to believe. Someone who could defeat the strong opponent she couldn't handle in a little over forty seconds, and he only had a brand-new, level-zero account? How had he trained up his skill then?
"I gave my old account away," Ye Xiu could only say.
"Oh, I see... How generous of you," Chen Guo remarked. A person with skill this strong must have had a powerful account too. A formidable account was worth a lot of money, and he'd just given it away like it was nothing. How magnanimous.
"Yes, far too generous," Ye Xiu said with a bitter smile. The account he'd handed over was none other than the Battle God, One Autumn Leaf. Honestly, describing that with just the word "generous" was a massive understatement.
"Are you planning to play on a new server?" Chen Guo asked.
"New server?" Ye Xiu froze, glanced at today's date, and suddenly understood.
Tomorrow was the tenth anniversary of Glory's launch. Starting from its second anniversary, Glory had opened a new server every year on the anniversary at midnight. Sales of the tenth-edition account cards had begun three months ago. Veteran players who weren't enjoying the old servers and newcomers preparing to enter Glory had all gotten their new-server accounts ready, eagerly awaiting this day.
The server currently opening was Glory's Tenth Server. To think that One Autumn Leaf had once been an account on Glory's First Server, and later, when Glory's Chapter 5 update, God's Domain, went live, it had met the standards alongside many other masters, completing the skill challenges to become one of the first players and accounts granted access to the public map, God's Domain.
Now One Autumn Leaf had changed hands, and his own professional Glory career had come to a close—yet by chance, the annual new server opening had arrived. Ye Xiu's heart was stirred, and ten years of memories suddenly came flooding back.
"A new server, huh?" Ye Xiu murmured to himself.
"I remember you can transfer servers before a new one opens, right?" Ye Xiu suddenly asked Chen Guo.
"Only empty accounts at level 1 can," Chen Guo said.
"Then let me try." Ye Xiu pulled an account card from his pocket and quickly opened Glory's server transfer application page. Chen Guo stared at the account card in surprise: "Don't tell me that's a first-edition card?"
"It is a first-edition card," Ye Xiu said with a smile. Glory released a new edition of account cards every year, so a first-edition card was nearly ten years old by now.
Chen Guo looked at Ye Xiu in astonishment: "How many years have you been playing Glory?" Cards were inanimate, but people weren't—the card might be ten years old, but that didn't mean the player was.
"Almost ten years," Ye Xiu replied, confirming that he and the card had aged together.
Chen Guo, with five years of gaming behind her, had already considered herself a veteran. She never imagined this guy had been playing twice as long as her. Ten years—that was Glory's very first generation of players. To have kept playing all this time and still have the spirit to try a new server—what kind of dedication was that?
While they were talking, the page already displayed "Transfer Successful."
"Done." Ye Xiu retrieved his account card and held it in his hand, immediately recalling every little detail this first-edition card contained.
"You said you wanted to be a network administrator?" Chen Guo beside him suddenly brought the subject up again.
"Yes." Ye Xiu hurriedly returned from his memories to reality.
"Which posting were you looking at?" Chen Guo asked.
"The night shift one," Ye Xiu said.
"Oh? Can you handle it?" Chen Guo was surprised. The night shift was the dedicated shift from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., with a monthly salary three hundred higher than the others, but very few people applied. After all, most people weren't willing to flip their days and nights, so at Chen Guo's café everyone currently rotated through it. If someone actually applied for this dedicated night shift, everyone else would finally be free of it.
"I can, I can. I love working at night," Ye Xiu said.
Chen Guo carefully sized up the man before her. His hair and beard hadn't been groomed in at least half a month, his face was a bit puffy, and though fair-skinned, it was a sickly pallor. His eyes, now fixed on her, looked listless. She had seen this look plenty of times—the young men who frequently pulled all-nighters at her café often looked exactly like this. But this guy wasn't young, yet he was this washed-out too. Contemptible.
Contempt aside, Chen Guo was still quite welcoming toward anyone willing to be a full-time night owl. Moreover, she was curious about the skill of someone with ten years of gaming experience, so she made her decision on the spot: "Fine, you're hired."
"Thank you, boss."
"You've read all the conditions carefully? You'll follow them as written," Chen Guo said.
"No problem."
"Then come with me!" Chen Guo was decisive in her actions. Having hired Ye Xiu, she immediately began treating him like an employee, ordering him to carry a pile of newly arrived, still-unpacked keyboards up to the second-floor storage room.
Chen Guo's internet café was called "Xingxin Internet Clubhouse," a fairly high-end establishment with two floors and over a thousand computers. The second floor was somewhat smaller but clearly more luxurious—it was the premium section. And it held a hidden gem: a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment suite, with the storage room located inside this suite. As Ye Xiu bustled up and down carrying keyboards, he had already scoped out the suite. The job posting had said: room and board included. Ye Xiu had just left his club and hadn't figured out where to go next, so the offer of room and board amounted to a ready-made place to land—that was what had made this network administrator position appealing to him.
Now it seemed this suite was probably the "board" part. The furnishings were simple, but clean and tidy—very nice. Ye Xiu was quite satisfied, thinking these thoughts as he carried up the last few sets of keyboards and set them in place.
"Alright, this is where you'll be living." Seeing that Ye Xiu had finished his work, Chen Guo pointed at the low, narrow bed crammed into the storage room.
"Huh?" Ye Xiu froze. What he'd been imagining was that bright, spotless suite out there—even the living room sofa would do. But here... Ye Xiu looked up. The little storage room had only one small window, high on the west wall, which seemed to face the streetlight on the road outside. When the storage room light was turned off, the little window immediately glowed with dim, eerie light—like a haunted house.
"Er, it is a bit lacking. Make do for now... Actually, my café isn't exactly short-staffed with or without you. That job posting you saw is from quite a while ago," Chen Guo said.
"Oh, I see! It's fine, it's fine. This is great," Ye Xiu immediately declared. His nonchalant attitude actually made Chen Guo feel a bit guilty—this tiny storage room really wasn't fit for a person to live in.
"When you're free, just go downstairs and play on the computers or whatever. It's fine—one of us doesn't pay," Chen Guo said.
"You're quite generous too, boss!"
"Ahem, with over a thousand computers, what's one more?" Chen Guo said.
"How's the customer traffic usually?" Ye Xiu asked.
"Pretty good. I'm satisfied, anyway," Chen Guo said. "Of course, on your night shift there are fewer people—mostly college students from the nearby university pulling all-nighters. You won't really have much to do, just keep an eye on the place."
"Understood."
"So, how about pulling an all-nighter tonight to get used to the new job? I can also evaluate you—see how your all-nighter stamina is," Chen Guo said.
"No problem. Stats maxed out." Ye Xiu gave Chen Guo two thumbs up to indicate that all-nighters were precisely his specialty.
"Then let's go, downstairs. Welcome dinner—I'll treat you to a late-night meal," Chen Guo said.
"Oh? What are we eating?"
"There's nothing much at this hour. There's a little restaurant across the street that should still be open. Go take a look, buy a few dishes and come back. I don't eat celery," Chen Guo said, pulling two hundred yuan from her pocket and stuffing it into Ye Xiu's hand as she spoke.
"It's snowing!" Ye Xiu said.
"You're just crossing the street, it's not far. How much snow can get on you? Hurry up and go," Chen Guo said.
Helpless, Ye Xiu went out and crossed the street to buy their late-night meal. He'd barely changed jobs and was already being ordered around, but he didn't feel particularly put out. This woman treated people like old friends after just a few casual sentences, and that easy familiarity felt comfortable, even warm. It was at this moment that Ye Xiu suddenly realized—he hadn't even asked his new boss for her name.
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During the public release period, there will be two updates a day, around noon 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. Since my auto-update assistant is temporarily unavailable, it won't be exact! Also, there's no featured content in the first week of the new book, so everyone will just have to be patient with the book review section for now!