"I'm not reassured." Saman said with a dark face. He never knew his subordinates were so stupid. They saw the face and still thought it was a ghost. What ghost in the Desolate Corner? They'd never even heard of it.
"Boss, boss?" Dao Yue's eyes widened.
Ren Yifei, who had been sitting there the whole time, switched hands to support his chin: "It's a real shame that I'm not a 'widow' anymore."
"..." Saman raised his hand, "He's talking nonsense, I never said that."
After a period of chaos, Dao Yue finally learned that although his boss was 'dead,' he had a cheat called Black Rabbit, which could bring him back to life and successfully bind him to his original boss.
At this point, Black Rabbit says he wants to break into the top ten and has no interest in managing the virtual game, so he plans to transfer his shares to Daoyue. Of course, there are conditions, such as it cannot be sold or divided, it can only be transferred completely to the next person, it cannot be given to the official team, and it must be ensured that the player always holds 51% of the shares and management rights.
"Boss, do you need any errand boys? They'll pay for their own food." Dao Yue looked at Ren Yifei expectantly. To be brought back from the dead in another form—wow, who wouldn't be tempted?
The black rabbit went to find their leader, and sure enough, it was there for poverty alleviation work.
Saman shoved his head in front of the camera and said, "He's with me now." The implication was clear: go back to where you came from, and get kicked by the horse for interfering with someone else's relationship.
"Change the screen, you guys can chat now." Ren Yifei yawned, turned off the communication, stood up, leaving the space to Saman and his subordinates, then lay down on the sofa, deciding to check the rewards first.
I'm not after anything in particular, I just want to calculate how much stuff was stolen from me by the Desolate Corner.
This dungeon wasn't difficult, but it was a bit mentally taxing, so much so that Ren Yifei felt lethargic and just curled up on the sofa, not wanting to move.
"System, report the reward for this."
"Alright!" The guiding spirit was delighted. It pulled out the reward list, and the whole place trembled. "Wow!"
Upon hearing this "ho," Ren Yifei knew that he must have been robbed of a lot of things in the past, but he simply said, "Speak."
Points +40, White Shells +10,000, Silver Shells +10, Gold Shells +5, No Treasure Chest. This is the basic reward, and it's been the same for the previous few times, nothing special.
The following are particularly noteworthy.
SR Ghost Card: Trainee Priest (48%).
Item skill upgrade card: A to S.
Ghost Card-Specific Equipment Card: Enhances the power of your Ghost Card.
Item Guardian Spirit: Can provide three life-threatening danger warnings.
Item: Evil God Summoning Ticket: Summons an evil god once, unleashing indiscriminate attacks for three minutes.
Ren Yifei's expression froze when he saw these props, and then he saw the skill reward:
Skill: Precognitive Dreams
Skill Activation: Passive Skill. In your dream on the first day of entering the dungeon, you will receive an important clue about the main storyline.
Restriction: Can only be obtained while sleeping.
Rating: A. (First-mover advantage, understand?)
Skill: Priest
Skill activation: Select a player to sacrifice, then attack power increases by 30%.
Restrictions: Applicable to fantasy, monster, and horror-themed dungeons.
Rating: B (Would you die for me? I'm not kidding.)
Skill: Split
Skill activation: Sacrifice a portion of your memories to create a protector from within your body. This protector will possess wisdom, strength, and charisma that surpasses the original body, and can replace the original body to solve puzzles and overcome challenges.
Limitations: Applicable to any copy.
Rating: S (Have you ever heard of a portable grandpa?)
Four items and three skills, most of which were highly rated, made the guiding spirit so excited that tears welled up in its eyes: "Host, you're lucky! You're finally lucky!"
"I've always been lucky," Ren Yifei retorted, and he was certain that he had found evidence—this reward was the evidence.
Damn these government officials! How much of his stuff has been secretly embezzled by them? Ren Yifei wants to blow them up.
After Saman and Daoyue finished talking, they came over to take a look. When he saw that this reward was in line with the Grand Slam player's expectations, and compared it with the previous dismal rewards, he realized that there was still something he didn't understand.
"Starting today, we'll be promoting the virtual game using the official, legitimate version," Saman said. The official team didn't want to expand the virtual game's reach, but he deliberately used the official shareholding as a selling point to attract more viewers and players.
"The title should be—Official Recommendation from the Wasteland Corner." Ren Yifei sneered, letting it shoot itself in the foot.
That evening, as expected, the virtual game displayed the message: "Official recommendation from the official website of Wasteland Corner, officially licensed, for a truly authentic experience."
This virtual game, which was not yet fully accepted, suddenly became a hit.
You can experience the game once for just one white shell, and afterwards you can chat and exchange ideas to learn from each other. Where else can you find such a great deal?
Ren Yifei went to Dianjin Studio to collect the 'Caged Bird' video and told A Jin, the boss with whom he had the longest cooperation, to prepare the video replacement.
"You... you've set up your own studio?"
"Not necessarily. I might leave the desolate corner."
"Huh?" Boss Ajin couldn't understand; she had never known that there was an option to leave the desolate corner alive.
Ren Yifei didn't say much to her; the fact that she offered that one word already indicated a good relationship. His social circle was small; even after two or three months, he only needed to inform Boss Jin.
That's good; he's too lazy to tell and explain to everyone one by one.
"bite."
A new private message arrived in the group chat I'd created earlier. Shanchuan sent him his progress record of getting into the top ten.
He is a meticulous person, and this is reflected in his writing. He records everything, big or small, totaling 100,000 words. It takes a whole day to read, and even longer to write.
Ren Yifei waited a while, anticipating further instructions. However, he merely sent the document without uttering a single additional word.
"What is your wish?" Ren Yifei asked Shan Chuan.
"No," came the reply.
Ren Yifei remained silent for a while. He didn't understand why Shan Chuan had sent him this message and indicated that he had no requests.
"I just admire you, there's no need to feel guilty," Shanchuan replied.
That's true, but he...
"Ding." A new private message arrived: "You have a new file waiting to be received."
"Little rabbit, how did Saman survive?" Wenli sent her her game completion record from back then, along with a question.
"A threat to the desolate corner," Ren Yifei said frankly.
After a moment of silence, Wenli asked, "The evil spirit that appeared back then... was it related to you?"
"It's me."
Wenli sent a smiley face and a goodbye message: "Goodbye."
They don't believe me when I tell them the truth.
Just as Ren Yifei was about to close the window, a final message arrived: "Go early and come back early."
Ren Yifei turned off the phone and leaned back on the sofa without moving. The stove in the room made the room warm and cozy.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, took a fairy tale book from the bookshelf next to the sofa, opened it, and coincidentally, there was a chubby field mouse baking bread and making pumpkin soup in front of the stove.
Ren Yifei turned to look at the open kitchen. From his angle, he could see Saman's busy figure standing on the counter.
Wearing a checkered apron, she weighed salt and sugar with a jewelry scale, measured cooking wine and soy sauce with a beaker, cut pork belly with a ruler, and, like the fat field mouse in the illustration, lowered her head to carefully taste the flavors.
Saman is making a famous Northeastern Chinese dish – pork stew with vermicelli.
Saman only told Daoyue that he was 'alive' and forbade him to spread the word, so even though his subordinates were making a huge fuss, he remained quiet.
Samantha felt he could start learning to cook. As the saying goes, to win a foodie's heart, you must first win their stomach, and he wholeheartedly agreed.
In the steamer on the other side, shrimp dumplings were emitting a delicious aroma. The translucent dough wrapped around pink shrimp meat and light-colored bamboo shoot pieces, with a thin slice of carrot underneath.
Smelling the aroma of food, Ren Yifei felt a little hungry. He grabbed a handful of nuts from the coffee table, which also contained a lot of dried cranberries.
Eating nuts on their own can be a bit dry, so after thinking for a moment, he bought a bowl of thick yogurt, poured in honey, and then added the nuts and dried cranberries. He then ate them with a spoon.
If he doesn't feel full after eating like this, he can take the chocolate biscuits on the side.
"Hmm?" Instead of finding the cookie plate, Ren Yifei touched a trouser leg. He shifted his gaze from inside the book to outside and saw a Saman holding a spoon, looking quite helpless.
"It's not good to eat too many snacks before meals." Samantha, like an authoritative parent, took away most of his cookies, leaving only three.
Ren Yifei: ...
Since Samantha discovered that he always snacks until he's stuffed and keeps digestive pills on hand, he has lost his snacking freedom.
I acted impulsively, I acted impulsively again. This isn't just signing a relative's contract, it's practically signing an ancestor's contract.
Ren Yifei, huddled on the sofa, reached behind him and pulled out a bag of grilled fish, covering his face with a book, his cheeks twitching as he looked towards the kitchen.
The aroma of mutton soup wafted over, and the modified mini naan bread in the oven seemed to be almost ready. The steaming aroma washed away the unassuming smell of the grilled fish in his hand.
He would rather go to the Northwest to eat the most authentic roasted naan with mutton soup.
Since leaving 'Deep Blue', they've been working on a food route map, wanting to eat their way from south to north, from central to western China, eating their way through the country.
Some foods taste best when eaten in their place of origin.
Both he and Saman died suddenly after being chosen by the Desolate Corner, in their early twenties. Subtracting the time spent studying and working, they had very little personal time left. At that time, they were both workaholics, not particularly fond of food, and thus hadn't experienced many unique culinary delights.
"Thinking about it, I've really wasted my time."
Ren Yifei didn't know how much time had passed. Looking at Saman's back, he felt that it had only taken about the time it took to eat a small grilled fish before the dishes were ready.
"Let's eat." Saman turned around and smiled, his fair face bathed in a warm yellow light, like a freshly baked cake in a cupboard, looking very appetizing.
Despite the oil stains still on his cuffs, Ren Yifei suddenly felt a strange possessiveness beyond his appetite: this person, from heart to body, should belong to him.
He licked his lips: "Stay tonight?"
"Clang." The spoon hit the ground.