Night fell.
Inside the rental apartment, Elliot's hands danced across the keyboard, lines of code leaping across the computer screen.
"Beep! Beep!"
Just then, the phone screen on the desk lit up, showing an incoming call from "Monkey (Caleb)".
"Elliot, where are you?" Monkey's voice came through.
"I'm at the rental apartment, what's up?" Elliot's eyes remained fixed on the code on the screen.
"Leo got dumped."
"Dumped?"
Elliot paused for a moment, then reacted, "You guys went to see the female streamer this afternoon, and didn't meet her?"
Caleb and Leo were Elliot's roommates, and they had arranged to meet a female streamer together that afternoon.
"You come back first. Leo is in a bad mood right now; he's waiting for you to come back and comfort him."
"I'm coming over now."
Hanging up the phone, Elliot saved his code, closed his laptop, put it into his backpack, and left the rental apartment.
The rental apartment was not far from Oakhaven University. Elliot was a third-year computer science student, and he rented a place off-campus for convenience of study.
Ten minutes later, Elliot returned to the dorm. Monkey and Leo were both there.
Leo was sitting on his bed, looking dejected.
"Leo, what's wrong? Did you get cooked?" Elliot teased.
Leo remained silent, looking as wilted as an eggplant hit by frost.
"It's just getting dumped, is it really that bad?" Elliot couldn't help but complain.
"I wish it were just getting dumped," Monkey said faintly from the side.
"It's not getting dumped?" Elliot looked at Monkey, then at Leo, puzzled.
Monkey looked at Leo, hesitating to speak.
"What exactly happened?" Elliot grew even more curious.
"I'll tell him."
Monkey sighed, "We saw that female streamer this afternoon, damn it, she was too ugly!"
"Very ugly?" Elliot asked.
"More than just ugly, she was absolutely hideous!" Leo finally couldn't help but speak, his voice filled with exasperation.
"That's not right, didn't you guys live stream with her before? Didn't you say she was very pretty?" Elliot was even more confused.
As far as he knew, for the past half month, Leo had been chatting enthusiastically with a beautiful female streamer.
"We were tricked," Monkey interjected. "She in the live stream and the real person are completely different people."
"Really?" Elliot was half-believing, half-doubting.
Monkey pulled out his phone, "See for yourself."
The photo showed a corpulent woman with a potbelly, thick arms, elephant legs, and a face full of flabby flesh.
"Holy cow, that's the female streamer?" Elliot's eyes widened; she was truly ugly.
"Are you sure that's the female streamer you were going to meet?" Elliot asked, "Oh, what was that female streamer's name again?"
"Chloe Belle."
"Chloe Belle..." Elliot took out his phone and searched on TikTok, "Is this her?"
"That's her!" Monkey nodded.
Elliot compared the person in the TikTok video with the photo on Monkey's phone, "There's only one possibility: she used a beauty filter during her live streams." Elliot concluded.
Many female streamers now use beauty filters to attract attention, turning even ugly women into beauties.
His gaze shifted to Leo, and Elliot smiled, "I thought you really got dumped, so this is what happened. It's nothing, at most it's just disgusting, you haven't lost anything..." As he said this, Elliot noticed Leo's expression was off, "No way, you didn't give her gifts, did you?"
Upon hearing this, Leo's face became a bitter gourd.
"Damn it, you really did! How much did you spend?" Elliot had an expression of disappointment.
"Not much..." Leo stammered.
"How much is 'not much'?"
"Over two thousand dollars."
Monkey answered for him.
"Holy crap, over two thousand! Leo, that's impressive, turns out you're a hidden trust fund kid!" Elliot was heartbroken, "I'm telling you, it would have been so much better to treat your brothers to good food and drinks with that money!" After shaking his head and sighing, Elliot continued to ask, "Can that money be recovered?"
Leo and Monkey both shook their heads.
"Just let it go?" Elliot retorted.
"What else can we do?" Monkey spread his hands, "Adults must pay the price for their actions."
Leo was an adult; he voluntarily gave the gifts. If it were a minor giving gifts to a streamer, some of it could be recovered.
"Elliot." Leo looked pitifully at Elliot, "You study computer science, I know you're a master. Can you expose her?"
"Expose her?"
"Yes, expose her for using beauty filters to deceive people!" Leo nodded.
"Turn off her beauty filter during her live stream and let her true form be revealed!" Monkey echoed, looking at Elliot with anticipation, "Elliot, that shouldn't be a problem for your skills, right?"
"You mean, remotely turn off her beauty filter during her live stream?" Elliot asked.
Monkey and Leo both nodded.
That's what they meant.
"It's not impossible, it's just that..." Elliot originally wanted to say it was a bit difficult, and he couldn't guarantee it, but the words caught in his throat, and he suddenly froze.
Just then, a series of mechanical voices sounded in Elliot's mind:
<[System Notification]>
[
...
What was that sound?
Elliot looked back; there was no one behind him.
What was going on?
"Elliot... Elliot... say something." Leo saw Elliot suddenly freeze and asked in confusion.
"Oh... nothing, I'm just going to the restroom first. Your problem is my problem; I'll help you sort it out."
Elliot said, walking quickly towards the restroom.
His two roommates did not notice anything unusual about him.
In the restroom.
Elliot was in a daze again.
He stared blankly at the air... no, a virtual light screen appeared before him, invisible to others, with text displayed on it:
<[Elliot]>
{Age: 21 | School: Oakhaven University | Major: Computer Science}
[
Note:
<[System Notification]>
[You have a
...
After a while, Elliot finally came back to his senses, letting out a long breath.
When the light screen appeared just now, he almost cried out.
Suppressing the surprise in his heart, Elliot tentatively reached out a finger and tapped the
<[System Notification]>
[
(Tool has been sent to the player's email as an encrypted attachment, password: abcfg******)]
Elliot quickly opened his phone's email, and sure enough, he received a new message.
This was too magical.
"Elliot."
Leo's voice came from outside the door, "Chloe Belle is starting her live stream at ten tonight."
Elliot closed the virtual light screen and turned to walk out of the restroom.
(End of this chapter)
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Translator and Editor - Husband
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