The farce in Dong Xing city continued as Saman lowered his head and lit a cigarette. He does not smoke, he just simply liked watching the cigarette burn for fun; thus, his body also vaguely smelled of cigarettes.
"Boss, there's an incoming message from Tian Hong," a subordinate brought the intercom over.
"Impudent, as expected of our head honcho."
The subordinate pouted.
Saman picked up the communicator, he frowned before loosening his brows a moment later.
"Stop," Saman dropped the cigarette in his hand and stomped it out with his boot, the shouting men immediately stopped and gathered around him.
He held out his wrist to check the time, it was getting late.
"If this matter is not resolved, I will come again. Farewell, Dong Feng. Send my regards to the people behind you for me," Saman took his people and turned around to leave.
"Saman, you are also nothing but a mad dog raised by Hong En!" Dong Feng shouted.
Saman turned his head and his subordinates behind him immediately gave way.
On the other side of the path, Dong Feng was helped up by one of his subordinates, he turned his head to spit out a mouthful of blood, "I heard that Sun Qingxu is now the second in command of Hong En. Saman, let's see how long you can still be arrogant."
Saman's subordinates were angered but Saman just looked at him and laughed, "Watch out and behave yourself."
The group of people left the banquet while players on the street evaded them one after another.
"Boss, he..." the subordinate wanted to say something but couldn't.
Saman raised his hand and the person behind him immediately shut up.
"If there's something, wait until we go back and talk."
The roads were lit with neon lights and there were all kinds of players on the streets. Suddenly, an illusion that they were still in the real world was formed.
This was, of course, just an illusion.
The Cape of Desolation was a slow simmering hell.
Out of all the seven main cities, Dong Xing city disguised itself to be like the human world the most. But unfortunately, demons are demons, no matter how much they resembled real humans, they were not real humans.
Demons eat people, and so do players.
***
In the morning, the wind carried the fragrance of dew-stained flowers, Ren Yifei woke up from his dream and took a deep breath, letting his breath take in the scent of nature.
Setting all the other factors aside and just looking at the wilderness, Ren Yifei thought it was a good place to be.
The good thing was the fact that there was no one around for as far as the eye could see.
He went to wash up. His frosty pale face was reflected in the mirror-his eyes were slightly raised and carried a hint of evil callousness.
For his last role, he had to lose more than six kilograms. Handsome yet demonic, he looked like an enchanting evildoer that came down from the mountain to bring chaos to the human world; it was a look
that was not very popular.
The director said that he needed this kind of visual impact, however, Ren Yifei suspected that he was just using this 'evil visual' to reduce everyone's attention to his appearance.
In the past, when he acted as a criminal, the critics thought that it was not good. He was too good-looking while his acting was too realistic and that could easily damage the children's three views. Why in the world would a child want to see a film like that?
Teachers always sighed: your acting is being hindered by your face.
Fortunately, there will be no such inconveniences in the future. When he's in the game, he would not be in his own skin.
"Good morning dear player, the weather today is clear with no rain, would you like to go out for a walk?" The white screen which called itself a guide elf appeared again, full of energy.
Ren Yifei returned its greeting as he began to purchase breakfast.
A slice of bread, a glass of milk, a fried egg and half an apple was the standard breakfast for Ren Yifei; it cost a total of 3.8 shells.
He had to spend about a dozen white shells for his three meals each day which was ridiculously expensive compared to other things.
If a person was to play once a month, the minimum reward for clearing the game would only be around 600 shells. He's afraid that it won't even be enough to pay for three meals per day.
In the small garden that came with the cement house, he had set up a small square table. This place was called a garden, but in fact, it was more like an overgrowth of weeds. In the corner, there was also Mr or Ms Hedgehog whom he had met earlier.
He gave the other half of the apple to the hedgehog and they were now enjoying the morning breeze together.
"Dear..."
The guide elf only utter a word when Ren Yifei raised his hand. It didn't know the reason but still quieted down subconsciously.
He closed his eyes, the morning light blurred his profile, seeming to coat it with warm light, "Did you hear it?"
"What?"
"The sound of birds calling."
The guide elf silently opened the 'The Host Is Not A Trivial Matter' manual given to it by its predecessor to see how it could respond in a manner that appeared mature and experienced.
Ren Yifei opened his eyes, "I want to buy this wasteland, how much will it cost?"
The guide elf: ...
Wealthy and indulgent hosts act exactly like this. Despite falling into despair for a moment, it still searched through the ocean of stars.
"Your money...may not be enough," the guide elf tried to protect its host's psyche.
"En, I know, so how much?
After the guide elf reported a number, Ren Yifei thought for a while and nodded, "Okay."
"It's not ten or twenty thousand but three hundred thousand," the guide elf reminded him, "And the annual land conservation tax is one-tenth of the purchase price."
"Okay," Ren Yifei, who had never been frustrated over money in reality, smiled slightly, "As long as I go earn some, then I'll have it. This wasteland will belong to me sooner or later."
Ren Yifei continued to eat the bread as he looked at 'his' wasteland and felt that it looked even more lovely.
"Does it snow over here during winter?" He suddenly thought of this. If there was no snow in winter, it would inevitably lose some of its wonder and beauty. m 5Hdz
The guide elf was stunned for a moment, "It does."
Ren Yifeir nodded, one day in the future, he would plant a pine tree in the garden in front of the house. He liked the aroma of snow on pine branches during winter, he also liked the icicles hanging from the trees.
His mood index rose by 0.01.
The system comes with a 'player mood curve', but it was almost a straight line and only fluctuating no more than 0.05.
It suspects that the host was an A.I.
The face displayed all kinds of emotions but the inner world was like an ancient well, lacking any grief or joy; so in the end, what exactly was the situation?
The guide elf started to doubt its life.
"Three hundred thousand is not a small number, and the daily expenses are not low," the guide elf still couldn't help but emphasise that, unlike in reality, money is much harder to earn over here.
Money equals life, and in the Cape of Desolation, money was the truth.
"I know, food is expensive," Ren Yifei nodded.
In fact, he was a person who lacks the concept of money.
Because he grew up acting, he was paid a lot for the films and had only a few extravagant expenditures so he was hardly ever short on material things. In addition, he grew up having an assistant by his side that took care of his day too day activities. 'Expensive' or 'cheap' are usually just two strings of numbers that are not the same length.
But at this moment, he felt that what he was eating was 'very expensive'.
This could only mean that the food here is really expensive, so expensive that he could not help but silently calculate the daily food expenses when he places an order.
"Players who are worried about the items in the system's store being too expensive can go to stores run by other players. They would buy raw materials and produce goods at a slightly lower price," the guide elf suggested.
"No need, I'd rather spend more money than go through these troublesome steps that waste time and energy," Ren Yifei was lazily leaning against the plastic chair. He then turned sideways and the corners of his mouth slightly curved, "Moreover, I only like making money, not saving."
"Compared to saving money," in the affluent residential area of Dong Xing City, Saman was more or less saying the same thing as he sat on his expensive sofa, "I still prefer to make money from games."
"But Tian Hong…"
"Ahem," Saman reminded, "He's our boss."
Several people in the living room looked over, "He's already like that, why do you still respect him? Besides, he had been playing more and more dirty tricks lately, should we still continue putting up with him like this?"
These were his followers and they all felt dissatisfied for Saman.
If they were not to mention anything else, then they could just look at yesterday's affairs.
The Dongfeng affair was obviously under Saman's jurisdiction. How much effort did he use to grab onto his weakness? Tian Hong is good, with one word, he sold off all of his hard work and slapped Saman hard in the face.
Who could bear it?
Yes, Hong En was founded by Tian Hong. However, it's rapid growth was also due to Saman's, the second-in-command, contributions. As a result? He had only just been promoted to the boss of Dong Xing City when he discarded Saman and promoted a guy called Sun Qingxu.
Mu Zhi was so angry that she slammed the coffee cup onto the table, making a loud noise and said in dissatisfaction, "I think that he got addicted to hearing people calling him boss so he really thinks that he is the emperor of Dong Xing City."
Saman frowned, "That coffee table is very expensive."
"Sorry," Mu Zhi picked up the cup and found that there was an additional crack on the surface. She took a paper towel and flattened it with her hands to cover up the crack.
"Ahem, anyways, Tian Hong has gone too far this time!"
The group of subordinates loyal to Saman expressed their opinions. As one of the people being targeted, they had a long-standing grudge against Tian Hong and were only waiting for the fuse to blow up for a riot to happen.
"I'm going to open another file tomorrow," Saman said slowly as he watched them lament over the injustice.
The living room became quiet, "Didn't you just enter a game a few days ago?"
"This time, I will be bringing a newcomer to open the file. It's an order from the top," Saman furrowed his brows before easing them.
"What? Tian Hong is actually asking you to bring a newcomer?" The expressions on several subordinates' face immediately changed, "This is simply bullying people. Who is it? We can take them."
"Take a seat and settle down."
He opened a can of coffee, "I'm just informing you guys. If there's anything important, just hold on to it for two days. As for the rest, don't bother with what you shouldn't."
"Boss, this temper of yours, you're really going to suffer losses!" The more he was like this, the more the crowd felt bad for him.
After chatting for a long time, the subordinates who came with him left one by one. Everyone had their own things to do, and in the Cape of Desolation, time was as valuable as life.
Once everyone left, Saman pressed a button, all the curtains in the room automatically closed and the room was lit by a dim light.
"They're gone?" A strange man with narrowed fox eyes appeared from the utility room. If the people from before had not left, they would've been shocked as it was none other than the 'bootlicker' Sun Qingxu who they had been scolding not too long ago.
"It's must've been hard for you to deal with these idiots," Sun Qingxu sat down and poured himself a glass of water, "I heard that you guys went looking for trouble with Dong Feng while you blew up Dongfeng's ecstasy cave elsewhere. Dongfeng's money-sucking 'Chunyu House' will be relocated in the next few days and Dong Feng is going to be furious. Here, what you asked for."
He put a piece of paper on the coffee table and slowly took a sip of water.
"Isn't it cute to be foolish?"
Saman threw the coffee can into the rubbish bin before loosening the tie that was tightly bound to him and undid a few buttons, the gentle smile on his face slowly disappeared.
His face was reflected in the dark mirror. The man in the mirror was callous and cruel- his eyes could not be described by any words associated with warmth.
"Being a little foolish can make you live longer."