Please Stop Pretending To Be a Cute Newcomer!

In his personal game space, Shen Qingcheng's body slowly formed from blue light spots, coalescing in his room.

The first thing Shen Qingcheng did after regaining consciousness was to open his terminal to check the rewards he had obtained: 15 survival points, 1 rest coupon.

Looking at the two pitiful numbers, he felt regret for the first time.

Why did he choose another way to clear just because he disliked the trouble of cracking the story line?

If he was going to choose it, then he might as well just do it, but then he’d ended up getting bored again, and followed along with Lu Qi, collecting clues from everywhere?

Shen Qingcheng regretted it endlessly.

After the test copy, he had had 11 survival points left. In the last copy, he had bought two sets of furniture, with an original price of 100 points, and paid only 90 points. With 11 survival points left, plus the 15 points of this reward, his entire assets were only a tight 36 survival points²!

What could he buy with 36 survival points?

After buying the set of engraving tools he had favored and put into the shopping cart, his balance is 0.

The original price of the set of carving tools was 40 survival points, which ended up as exactly 36 after his 10% discount.

Shen Qingcheng placed the order angrily, looking at his balance of 0. Not a drop left!

If he kept on going like this, when would he be able to stuff a whole room with annoying work³ before his death? No, in the future he’d be angry with whoever didn’t let him explore the story line.

How could it be annoying to solve storylines? He, Shen Qingcheng, liked listening to stories and solving puzzles the most.

After repeating this silently many times to brainwash himself, Shen Qingcheng calmly opened the rest coupon to check the details.

This is Shen Qingcheng's first time getting extra drops after clearing the copy. Before, Chen Ge had only mentioned it once, when he introduced the game to him.

【 Rest Coupon: After use, players will get extra time⁴ to stay in the game space. Note: Can be stacked. 】

【 Acquisition Method: Drops after customs clearance. 】

Each player had a period to rest and make adjustments to their game space after finishing a copy. The purpose of a rest coupon was to add another two days to this period. That was to say, this time Shen Qingcheng could enter another copy after 6 days.

Shen Qingcheng suddenly remembered Lu Qi had taken the initiative to add him as a friend after the last copy ended.

The friend request he received had been sent 5 days ago, and after 5 days, when he had come out of the copy, Lu Qi was still in the game space.

It turns out that Lu Qi had used a rest coupon?

He wasn't sure, so he sent a message to ask.

After asking, he glanced at Chen Ge's information--Chen Ge was still in a copy.

After a while, Lu Qi gave him an affirmative reply: "En."

Shen Qingcheng: "Is the drop rate of rest coupons high? How many do you have in total?"

Lu Qi: "It's passable, I have 5 left."

5x2=10

10+4=14⁵

Didn’t that mean that Lu Qi could take a 14-day break at any time if he wants? He was really worthy of being number one on the leaderboard!

Immediately after remembering the number of survival points on the leaderboard, five figures, Shen Qingcheng wilted again.

Five figures, compared to the 0 in his own account… he suddenly hated the rich.

Just when Shen Qingcheng was retreating into a depressive state, Lu Qi sent another message:

"You can use the rest coupons, but don't stack too many."

This Shen Qingcheng understood--just like a student skipping practice questions students for one day, passing the copies was similar; staying away from dangerous environments for too long would chip away at the alertness that he had cultivated.

He slumped on the sofa, "I want to go to your personal space."

Lu Qi waited for two minutes before replying, "Do you want to go to the Player Heart Exchange⁶? Players can get rid of any items they don't need there."

Shen Qingcheng suddenly sat up straight. So there was such a place? "I want to go! Of course!"

The two agreed to meet in the game hall.

Around the platform, various ranking boards hung in the sea of stars. The top name on the rookie king list was still "Alluring Beauty", indicating that the game had not yet brought in a new batch of players after Shen Qingcheng’s group.

At the top of the other rankings--number of customs clearances, survival point consumption, and wealth--was “God 7”.

It was the first time Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi had met in the game space.

Players looked different in the copies and the game space: the game space showed their real appearance, while the copies were fine-tuned every time.

Shen Qingcheng silently observed the man walking towards him; he was a little different, but still recognizable at a glance.

Lu Qi was still very tall, with wide shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs. He wore a short-sleeved black shirt and a pair of camo pants. His facial features were well-defined, his browbone sculpted, the bridge of his nose high, and pursed lips, giving him an air of tranquility and reliability.

The man walked in front of him and lowered his eyes slightly, "Shen Meiren?"

Feeling a little short, Shen Qingcheng asked, "How tall are you?"

The tone and way of speaking were undoubtedly Shen Meiren. Lu Qi quickly scanned the person in front of him, taking in his appearance and height, "189⁷."

Wow, that was 4 cm taller than him.

Shen Qingcheng folded his arms and circled the man. After appraising him, he nodded and concluded, "I⁸ look better."

Lu Qi's fingertips moved, but he didn't speak.

The Player Heart Exchange wasn’t on that platform, so Lu Qi took him to another larger platform through the teleportation point.

Lu Qi paid the teleportation fee of 1 survival point for Shen Qingcheng.

Shen Qingcheng always felt that Lu Qi's reaction after learning he was penniless was very complex, as if he had expected it, but also as if he was a little surprised?

Combining those two feelings: although he knew he was poor, he hadn’t expected him to be so poor?

Shen Qingcheng: "..."

Lu Qi pinched his brows with a headache; Shen Meiren's gaze was so straightforward that he couldn't ignore it, but he didn't know what he had arranged for him again.

"What are you thinking about?"

Shen Qingcheng: "Although I knew you were poor, I didn't expect you to be so poor."

Lu Qi understood in seconds, "I didn't say you were poor, I just didn't expect you to be so good at spending."

He could admit that he could really spend, but Shen Qingcheng retorted, "All workers are from the moonlight clan⁹!"

The implication was that he wasn’t the only one who spent!

The two wandered around the Player Heart Exchange for a while to get familiar with the environment, and left after more and more players began coming around.

Shen Qingcheng had a preliminary understanding of this player's exchange of hearts.

In a nutshell, the Player Heart Exchange was a place where players could come to an agreement that let them get eliminate unused items.

Because the props that could be exchanged for currently were definitely different from the out-of-date¹⁰ sticks mixed in later.

For the higher-quality props, it was a waste to leave them in the past. It was better to sell them to new players at a discount. It was also a way for old players to recover blood¹¹.

In the game space, survival points and props could be transferred back and forth.

The hustle and bustle behind them was getting further and further away. Lu Qi: "You aren’t planning to change your props?"

Shen Qingcheng: "No money."

Lu Qi: "I have some used ones."

Shen Qingcheng: "Huh? You didn't swap them?"

Lu Qi: "En."

Shen Qingcheng looked at the man, "Right, you have money, and you don't need to recover blood. So do you have peach wood props?"

Lu Qi: "No."

Shen Qingcheng: "I want to go to your personal space."

Lu Qi: "? Are those two related?"

Shen Qingcheng said confidently, "It doesn't matter, but I want to go to your personal space."

Lu Qi walked around him, to the front.

What undisplayable things were hidden in his space? He followed reluctantly.

Lu Qi: "In front is the entertainment area. The buildings inside are built by player teams to exchange items. As long as you can give survival points, they can provide any service."

Shen Qingcheng, who was interrupted, remembered what He Wei and Gao Shulin said in the copy, "Including physiological needs?"

Lu Qi paused in his footsteps, and then answered in a lower voice, "En."

Shen Qingcheng had asked purely out of curiosity, and he was no longer interested when he knew the answer.

He was about to walk forward to see what entertainment activities were available when his terminal suddenly received a message.

He opened it up.

"Shen-ge, I came out alive!"

"Shen-ge, where are you now? Can I find you in your personal space?"

【 Player Gargoyle is applying to enter your personal space, agree or disagree 】

Shen Qingcheng replied to Chen Ge first, and then said to Lu Qi: "Chen Ge came out of the copy to find me, I'm going see what’s up with him."

Lu Qi closed his terminal, which had rung a few seconds late with a message from the person he had called to help Chen Ge, and nodded.

Shen Qingcheng clicked to return to his personal space, and Lu Qi's figure in the hall soon followed suit.

"Shen-ge! I'm so happy to see you!" Chen Ge rushed off the sofa towards Shen Qingcheng with a bear hug.

Shen Qingcheng tapped a finger against his forehead¹², "Why did you call yourself Gargoyle?"

Chen Ge said "Ah," dumbfoundedly, "It's like in a fairy tale."

Shen Qingcheng: "Huaxia?"

Chen Ge looked at him even more dazedly.

Shen Qingcheng: "..."

He let go and walked to the sofa to sit down, looking up to observe Chen Ge's state: his eyes were full of energy, and he was as lively as a young calf.

"How was that copy?"

Chen Ge put aside the phrase he hadn’t understood just then, and sat down on the sofa as well, "It went well, Lin Zi-ge took me."

"Let me tell you, Shen-ge, Lin Zi-ge was very curious about why God asked him to take me. I said it was for your favor, but he wouldn't believe it , saying that God is not such a person!"

Shen Qingcheng interrupted him, "He knows Lu Qi very well?"

Chen Ge: "Probably, otherwise why would God ask him to take me?"

Shen Qingcheng: "You didn't ask how they met?"

Chen Ge: "Is there any other possibility besides the game?"

Shen Qingcheng was about to cry stupidly by him, "You never thought that they might know each other in reality? Do you think Lu Qi is the type of person who takes the initiative to make friends?"

Chen Genanne, "But God took the initiative to add you as a friend."

Shen Qingcheng: "..." It made sense, but it still felt strange.

Don't ask, it was just intuition.

At the same time, Lu Qi's personal space:

The decoration style of Lu Qi's room was similar to that of Shen Qingcheng. They were both very simple, and only had the basic facilities.

However, Shen Qingcheng's simplicity was because he has no money, and Lu Qi’s was because he was used to it.

In his room, there was a bogu shelf¹³ as high and wide as the wall, on which was placed all his unused props, all attack props.

At this moment, a baby-faced youth was standing in front of the bogu rack.

The young man held up a strange little sword. This little sword was engraved with talismans on the front and back, and there were two patterns on the handle. "How come I can’t see what's so special about this wooden sword?"

But an ordinary small sword wouldn’t appear on the bogu shelf.

The youth inspected it for a long time and found nothing, almost suspecting that his own level had regressed.

At this time, Lu Qi's figure appeared in the room, and the young man immediately put down the sword and stood up straight, "Duizhang¹⁴!"

Lu Qi nodded, "En."

"Hey, duizhang." The relaxed young man rushed to Lu Qi's side with small steps.

He revealed the small sword from where it had been behind him, and smiled widely¹⁵, "What is this small sword used for? I really can’t see it, can you explain it to me?"

TLN:

¹ Lit. “face base” (面基), internet slang that refers to meeting an online friend IRL.

² The math here is a bit confusing, not least because it leaves out some stuff… He had 110 points from the test copy, then bought a newcomer gift package worth 100 points (but since all items in his store are 10% off, he paid 90 points) as well as Mama Rong’s Silver Needle (9 points), leaving him with 11 points. He gained 100 points from the next copy, “Xingxing Kindergarten”, then bought 2 sets of furniture at 50 points each (discounted 5 points each). He’s just gotten 15 points; 110-90-9+100-45-45+15 leaves him with 36 points. The raws actually say he has 10 points left before the new reward and 6 points after, but those are almost definitely typos.

³ Translated literally. Raws say “一屋子的工嫌麻烦”, and honestly I have no idea what it’s supposed to mean. Maybe that when he’s rich he won’t have to do so many menial tasks that they would fill a room?

⁴ My copy of the raws does not specify how many days, which may or may not be intended. Based on Lu Qi’s situation. it seems that the base number of days is 4, and each coupon extends it by 2 days. (Seriously, I wasn’t expecting to have to do any amount of algebra when I began translating this…)

⁵ Raws say 5x=11 and 11=14, both of which I have altered for obvious reasons. If anyone has more accurate (?) raws, feel free to reach out.

⁶ Weird name but I’m not sure how else to translate it (玩家交换心).

⁷ Around 6’2. SQC is around 6’1.

⁸ He uses 本人, a humble way to refer to oneself.

⁹ Refers to people who spend all the money they earn each month (月光族). Generally applied to young workers, whose low starting pay means there isn’t anything to save after paying their bills. Originated in Taiwan due to low wages there.

¹⁰ Lit. “old fried dough sticks” (老油条), which generally refers to crafty/sophisticated people. In this context, most likely means they’re old/stale.

¹¹ Lit. “return blood” (回血), means heal. Basically, they want to recover some of their (financial) losses.

¹² Can’t find a visual reference, so just imagine that thing in anime where an over-excited person is stopped by a single finger to their forehead as they flail.

¹³ Indoor rack used to display antiques, jade pieces, and other small valuables. Size varies from tabletop versions to racks that connect buildings. They look super cool!

Source

Source

¹⁴ Means “captain” or “leader” (队长).

¹⁵ Lit. “smiled out a flower” (笑出了一朵花), meaning he’s smiling really hard.

Does anyone want the terminology to change? For example, “copy” could be replaced with “dungeon” or “level” or “instance”, while “customs clearance” would change to “clear” or “clearing the level/dungeon”.