Chapter 1 The Morning of November 8th

November 8th, eight o'clock in the morning.

Feng Bujue finished his morning run, picked up some dabing youtiao (flatbread and fried dough sticks) and soy milk on the way, and returned home.

"Eh? You're up." He walked into the living room and found Ruoyu sitting in front of his computer, looking intently at something.

"Ah? Ah..." Upon seeing Jue-ge, Ruoyu responded somewhat flusteredly, adding, "I was just browsing some web pages..."

"I didn't ask you what you were looking at." Feng Bujue moved a stool expressionlessly and sat down next to Ruoyu, placing the breakfast on the computer desk. "What's with that guilty conscience act?"

"Who..." Ruoyu's voice was quite high when she said the first word, but after meeting Jue-ge's eyes at close range, she immediately lost her confidence, "...is being guilty..."

"Isn't it just sneaking a peek at my drafts? Did you think I didn't know about the other times you sneaked a peek?" Feng Bujue smiled and continued, "Actually, if you want to read them, just read them. Why be so secretive?"

"You... how did you know I'd read them before?" Ruoyu asked with some doubt.

"Actually, I didn't." Feng Bujue shrugged. "That sentence was just to trick you, but now I know."

"Hmm..." Ruoyu narrowed her eyes, staring at Feng Bujue with a very unpleasant expression, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

"Heh... alright, let's eat breakfast." Feng Bujue seemed to enjoy this process of "teasing" Heroine Li, but he also knew when to stop. "It's a good opportunity to check the matchups for the next round while we eat."

He naturally changed the subject and quickly took the mouse from Ruoyu's hand, clicking to open the Dream Corporation's official website.

Although the internet speed at Jue-ge's house was good, and Dream Corporation used good servers, opening Dream Corporation's webpage at this time was still a bit laggy...

The S2 rematch had reached the current stage, with only 64 teams remaining. It could be said that... the following matches would almost all be contests between two strong teams, full of highlights.

Therefore, shortly after eight o'clock, there was undoubtedly a massive number of netizens paying attention to the newly released "Third Round Match List."

"Oh oh~ There are all sorts of familiar faces in the remaining teams." After waiting for more than ten seconds, the match chart on the webpage finally refreshed. Feng Bujue just glanced at it and said this.

"Our opponents are..." Ruoyu prioritized searching for their "Hell's Frontline's" match information in the chart. "...Hmm, here it is..." She looked closely, "It's... 'Corpse Blade First Squad'?"

"Ha..." Feng Bujue tore open the youtiao in his hand and laughed, "We really have a fate with Corpse Blade. We've encountered them twice in three matches, and they are their Second Squad and First Squad respectively."

"It's amazing that you can still put on such a relaxed appearance..." Ruoyu took a section of youtiao from Jue-ge and recited before putting it in her mouth, "...the things you caused in the first round aren't over yet, right? Now it's good... in the next sixteen hours, Corpse Blade will definitely try everything possible to put pressure on you and Qin Qin. As long as they can bring you even a tiny bit of psychological influence... they will be considered successful."

"However... they are destined to fail." Feng Bujue continued, "Because I plan to have Miss An substitute in this match. Even if she gets infuriated by the other side, it won't affect the match." He shrugged and laughed, "As for me... you understand me."

"Yeah, even if someone told you that you would die tomorrow, it wouldn't affect your match state today, right?" Ruoyu replied.

"Not necessarily..." Feng Bujue took a sip of soy milk and glanced at Ruoyu. "If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, I probably wouldn't spend my time on the match."

"Don't stare at me with that lecherous look." Ruoyu didn't even look at Jue-ge and coldly spat out a retort.

"Alright..." Jue-ge pursed his lips, shifted his gaze, and changed the topic along with it. "As usual... the work of studying the enemy's match recordings will still be done by me." He paused. "After I finish breakfast, I'll log into the game (it's more efficient to watch the recordings in the game world, and Jue-ge can use his super brain speed in the data world to observe and analyze). If I watch it at eight times the speed... I should be able to finish watching most of their matches before noon."

"Thank you for your hard work..." Ruoyu said, picking up the plastic cup and taking a sip of the soy milk in the cup with a straw, then continued, "I don't have anything to do today. I'll make lunch."

"Sure~" Feng Bujue's thieving eyes darted around, and he followed up, "How about... from now on, you'll cook every match day?"

"Okay." Ruoyu replied. "Theoretically speaking, excluding the match at midnight tomorrow, even if we make it all the way to the finals, there are at most five matches left. In addition to these five meals, you'll be responsible for all the remaining days of this year, how about it?"

"Listening to this... you're at least going to live here until the end of the year..." Feng Bujue took the opportunity to ask a question he was more interested in.

"I'll live here for as long as I want." Ruoyu replied coldly.

"Hey hey... this should be said by me, the owner, right..." Jue-ge said with narrowed eyes, "Although I'm just renting here..."

"Since you've already said that... then I'll live here until you buy a house." Ruoyu continued.

"You'll move into the house I buy, right..." Feng Bujue's mouth twitched as he said.

"That depends on the situation." Ruoyu said.

"What situation?" Feng Bujue asked.

"If you perform well, by the time you buy a house... maybe I can consider putting my name on your property certificate as well." Ruoyu said, and she didn't know why, but she turned her head away. "In that case, the house won't be just yours, it'll be half mine too."

"Whoa~" However, Feng Bujue's reaction was... widening his eyes and saying in a complaining tone, "As if you taking half of my property rights for free is still doing me a favor, huh?"

Obviously, Jue-ge, who was smart his whole life, didn't hear the subtext of Ruoyu's words at this juncture.

"I'm full." Two seconds later, Ruoyu put down the unfinished breakfast and walked towards the room. "I'm going to change my clothes and go out to buy groceries. Do as you please."

Before she finished speaking, she had already entered the bedroom, and the door was closed.

"Most of the time... you seem very smart, nya~" At this time, Assas, a few meters away, said with a helpless tone, facing away from Jue-ge, "But sometimes, you're so stupid that I want to slap you."

"Huh?" Feng Bujue said, "What did I do again?"

"Figure it out yourself, nya." Assas said, jumping down from the sofa and slowly walking towards the bathroom. "Don't come and ask me... I'm so anxious because of you that I'm about to shit."

This cat had been staying at Jue-ge's house for a long time, and her complaining skills had obviously improved. As she said this, she ran into the bathroom, closing the door behind her tail.

"What's with everyone... acting so strangely..." Feng Bujue shrugged, muttered a sentence, and continued to look at his webpage...

…………

Ten o'clock that night, Corpse Blade Studio, Chairman's Office.

A man in a suit and leather shoes, carrying a briefcase, visited here on this night...

And sitting in the chairman's office waiting for him was naturally Corpse Blade's "boss."

Corpse Blade's chairman was named Jiang Daode, forty-five years old, a local of S City. He immigrated overseas with his parents at the age of fourteen, and later graduated from Seoul National University; after graduating, he returned to China to start a business, and was once selected as one of the province's Top Ten Outstanding Youths.

Now, he is a well-known entrepreneur, and can be considered one of the pioneers in the development period of the domestic game industry.

But who would have thought that such a man with a brilliant resume, outstanding ability, assets of over 100 million, and even a patriotic name... also had a special identity unknown to others.

"I don't know what the meaning of this meeting is? Mr. Ouyang." Jiang Daode looked at Ouyang Jian sitting across the desk, and said with a stern face, "I think my secretary has already clearly conveyed to you that regarding the dispute between your client and Corpse Blade, you should communicate with our company's legal department, even if you come to me... it won't change anything."

"Mr. Jiang, I think you have misunderstood." Although Ouyang Jian was more than ten years younger than Jiang Daode, his calm demeanor was not inferior to the middle-aged man in front of him, "I am here today only because I was entrusted by my client to bring you something." As he said this, he picked up the briefcase on the carpet on his right hand side and placed it on the table between him and Jiang Daode.

When Jiang Daode saw this, his expression changed slightly, but he didn't show any panic; he also understood in his heart... this wasn't a movie, the other party wouldn't bring a bomb to see him.

Soon, Ouyang Jian opened the briefcase and pointed the inside of the opened lid at Jiang Daode. The latter raised his eyes and saw that a display was embedded in the lid; and at this moment, this display... was reflecting a man's face.

"What does this mean?" Jiang Daode asked, taking a cigar from the cigar box on the table and smelling it at his nose. "Who are you?"

"You know very well who I am." Feng Bujue on the screen tilted his head, looking at Jiang Daode with a smile that was not a smile.

"Mr. Ouyang." Jiang Daode played with the cigar in his hand and glanced at Ouyang Jian, "This is your client, right?" Without waiting for Ouyang Jian to answer, he sneered and continued, "Heh... could it be that he wants to beg me for mercy through a video call?"

Ouyang Jian smiled without saying a word.

"I just want to play a game with you." After two seconds, Feng Bujue spoke again, "You can treat it as... a gamble."

When he heard the words "gamble," a strange light flashed in Jiang Daode's eyes, but he still replied without showing any emotion on the surface: "Young man, I'm very busy. I stayed at the company late at night and didn't go home, not to play games with you." He said in a tone that was like an elder teaching a younger one, "I don't know what you think you're doing, but I advise you... be down-to-earth. Not everyone will come to play those childish and boring tricks with you."

After saying this, Jiang Daode planned to reach out and close the briefcase.

But...

"Mr. Jiang." A wicked smile hung on Feng Bujue's lips, and he quickly continued, "As far as I know... you haven't been home much in recent years, right?"

Jiang Daode's hand froze, and his eyes changed.

"For example, tonight, even if you didn't stay at the company, you wouldn't go back to the so-called 'home', right..." Feng Bujue smiled, "Although your wife is still charming, you obviously prefer those ladies who are young enough to be your daughters..."

"Feng Bujue!" Jiang Daode glared at the screen with an icy expression. "Do you think your mouth hasn't caused enough trouble? I'm telling you... you better watch your words. If someone like me wants to mess with you, it's as easy as crushing an ant!"

"You have a total of four residences in S City, one of which is registered under your own name, where your wife and parents-in-law currently live." Feng Bujue ignored the other party's intimidation and continued, "And the other three... are registered under the names of three young women. In the past six or seven years, except for the New Year holidays and the period when your son came back to visit relatives, you basically haven't gone back to your own 'home' to spend the night."

"I'm warning you..." Jiang Daode didn't pay attention to Jue-ge's words. He pointed at the screen with his finger, glaring angrily, "...don't think that just because you write a third-rate novel, you're some kind of public figure. I can make you beg for food on the streets within half a year, believe it or not?"

"Heh..." Feng Bujue smiled even more, continuing to ignore the other party and said, "Of course, in this day and age... it's not uncommon for entrepreneurs like you to keep a second, third, or fourth mistress; legally speaking... this kind of consensual transaction is not enough to get you into trouble." At this point, his tone changed, "Hmm... but I heard... Mr. Jiang, you seem to be considering entering politics recently... if you are running for a certain representative or a certain committee member... and those kinds of scandals are exposed, the impact wouldn't be too good, right?"

"Mr. Ouyang!" Jiang Daode stood up and looked at Ouyang Jian, "Did you hear that? What does your client mean by this? Extortion?"

"Hehe..." Ouyang Jian chuckled twice. "If what he just said counts as extortion, then Mr. Jiang, your sentence 'mess with you' is attempted murder, and the sentence 'make you beg for food within half a year' is intimidation."

Jiang Daode was rendered speechless by Ouyang Jian's words. Facing this shyster and the madman on the other end of the video, it was obviously impossible for him to gain the upper hand in negotiations through logic and language...

"Alright, Mr. Jiang, let's cut to the chase." At this time, Feng Bujue spoke again, "First of all, turn off that cigar-shaped recording device in your hand..."

As soon as these words came out, Jiang Daode was immediately stunned.

"Unless... you want us to make the contents of our conversation public, or you really intend to put that thing in your mouth and smoke it..." Feng Bujue said with a smile.

"Hmph..." Jiang Daode snorted coldly. Although he didn't know how Jue-ge saw through this "recording cigar," since it had been exposed, he could only angrily break the thing and throw it away.

"Very good, then... let's get down to business." Jue-ge straightened his expression and said solemnly, "My time is limited. Before twelve o'clock, I still have to log into the game to play the match, so... listen carefully... 'Gambling Emperor Zhai' member – Mr. Jiang Daode, next... between you and me, there will be a formal gamble."