Chapter 1 The "Why"

Gu Fei's single "Why?" made Jian Gui feel rather resentful.

Why else? It was all because of Gu Fei. A level 25 Thief defeated by a level 10 Mage—nobody would believe Jian Gui still possessed his former strength. High level? What was the use? If a Mage fifteen levels lower could wipe you out, how could you expect your level to help you make a name for yourself? Everyone shared this sentiment, and in a few days, they scattered from Jian Gui's side, severing their friend connections.

However, Jian Gui had accepted his defeat wholeheartedly, so he didn't blame Gu Fei at all. It was just that Gu Fei's clueless question of "Why?" at this moment made Jian Gui feel a bit resentful inside.

"Cough, it's nothing! Let's talk about this mercenary group. Are you interested?" Jian Gui asked.

"Oh, I don't have anything else to do. Let's go take a look!" Gu Fei said. Actually, he didn't want to participate in organized activities that would disrupt his personal time. But seeing Jian Gui's expression just now, and recalling the fireball's rambling about Jian Gui's situation the other day, he understood what was going on with Jian Gui's guild. He felt a pang of guilt.

If he had known, he wouldn't have been so competitive back then. He should have let him win a move or two, just to make him understand. With Jian Gui's character, he certainly wouldn't have made things difficult for him and Fireball.

More importantly, Gu Fei knew too well what it felt like to be ostracized. And Jian Gui was even worse off, being discriminated against because of his appearance. This was simply outrageous! It was too much for so many people to judge by appearances. Luckily...he wasn't born so ugly. Feeling sorry for Jian Gui, he couldn't help but feel a bit grateful for himself. That was only human nature.

With guilt, understanding, and sympathy, Gu Fei felt he should sacrifice some of his personal space to help Jian Gui out, as a kind of compensation!

Jian Gui didn't realize that Gu Fei's agreement was such a great act of kindness. Seeing that he had agreed, he nodded and said, "Great. We're meeting this afternoon. You can come with me!"

"Afternoon? What time in the afternoon?" Gu Fei asked.

"Two o'clock!" Jian Gui said.

"Oh, alright!" Gu Fei nodded.

"Then I'll see you this afternoon!" Jian Gui nodded, re-entered the forest, and returned to his leveling spot.

As for Gu Fei, he cracked his neck, stretched his shoulders, and once again charged at the monsters with his long blade.

At one fifty in the afternoon, Jian Gui sent a message: "Where are you?"

"Just returning to the city!" Gu Fei had been leveling in the training area all along. Estimating that the time was approaching, he was hurrying back to the city. *Parallel World* didn't provide a fast teleportation method back to the city. The official reason was to achieve the greatest realism. The players all scorned this, unanimously believing that this was simply a move to extend players' online time. There would be no monthly card after the game was officially launched, only time-based point cards, which was the best evidence.

"Good," Jian Gui replied.

"Where are you meeting? I'll go straight there," Gu Fei said.

"Little Lei Tavern," Jian Gui said.

"Oh! I'll go straight there," Gu Fei replied.

Speaking of this Little Lei Tavern, it was a legend. Because this was the first player-owned shop in the entire *Parallel World*. The requirement for players to open private shops was level 20, but that wasn't the key. The key was money—the money to buy the property.

The system didn't interfere with street stalls, and there were no urban management fines. But to truly own a shop like a storefront, you had to buy it from the system.

Although the game's towns were large, there were only so many fixed assets like houses, so they were quite valuable. No one expected that a player could actually open such a shop at level 20, and it was a rather large bar.

Where did he get so much money? All the players pondered, and only came up with one explanation: buying equipment from the real-money trading market with RMB, and then selling it for in-game currency in the auction house. Rich guy! Everyone marveled.

But after accumulating so much capital, he opened a tavern, which puzzled everyone. Maybe the tavern looked like it was doing good business now, but when the public beta ended and the official operation started, and the point cards started burning, how many people would be willing to waste their time here? Moreover, the system's taverns had a variety of drinks, so what about the player's tavern? Where would he get so many kinds of alcohol? True, bartenders in the life professions of the game could make alcohol, but at the current level, how much alcohol could bartenders make? Could it be that you bought alcohol from the system's tavern and then sold it in your own shop?

As it turned out, Little Lei Tavern was doing just that. Buying at the original price, selling at the original price. The system still charged transaction taxes on the shop every day, so it was simply losing money!

Losing money and still doing it! A person with ambition! Everyone marveled.

A person with money and ambition had a rather ordinary name: Little Lei.

This was the first name to become popular in *Parallel World*, although he was secretly regarded as an idiot by countless people. But no matter what, there were countless cities in the game, and players were randomly placed in one of them at birth. And such a great idiot happened to be randomly placed in Cloudrise City, which was the pride of all Cloudrise City players!

Of course, Gu Fei knew about such a famous person and tavern, and he had been there once with Fireball. He had also seen the famous Little Lei, personally standing behind the bar selling drinks.

Spending so much money, and now losing money every day, yet choosing to stand behind the bar every day to serve the public. It seemed that he hadn't even reached level 30 yet! What does it mean to be someone who has transcended petty interests? This is it! Half of the people who came to Little Lei's bar came to pay homage to this rich, ambitious, and transcended person.

When Gu Fei arrived outside Little Lei's Bar, he glanced at the system time, two o'clock sharp. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Looking around, he didn't see Jian Gui and his group. Just as he was about to send a text message, Little Lei greeted him: "Need any help?"

"Oh, I'm looking for someone!" Gu Fei described Jian Gui's appearance.

That was truly a world-shattering appearance. Gu Fei had just started, and Little Lei had already pointed over there: "Booth number three." After all, it was a player-run tavern! Of course, it wouldn't be as rigid as the ones in the game. Little Lei had specially used wooden stakes to create several circles along the wall, each circle being considered a booth. This was the style of a modern bar.

"Oh, thank you!" Gu Fei said.

"You're welcome. Call me anytime if you need anything!" Little Lei's smile was the epitome of service industry professionalism.

"Little Lei!" Gu Fei raised his finger and said, "I know, your real name must be Zhao Er Lei, right?"

"Just kidding," Little Lei smiled.

Gu Fei smiled and said goodbye, walking towards booth number 3.

The wooden stakes didn't form a door, so a tattered cloth was hung as a curtain. Gu Fei grabbed the tattered cloth and shook it, as if he were knocking on the door.

"Come in!" Someone said from inside.

Gu Fei lifted the tattered cloth and walked in, immediately seeing the guy facing the door.

One word: Beautiful.

Two words: Gorgeous.

Three words: Too beautiful.

Four words: How is it possible?

Five words: It's actually a man?

Facing the door, next to Jian Gui, sat such a guy. If it weren't for the flat chest and prominent Adam's apple, Gu Fei would never have believed he was a man.

It was this person, with one arm draped over Jian Gui's shoulder, who raised his arm and pointed at Gu Fei as he came in, saying, "Is this him?"

Jian Gui nodded, saying to Gu Fei, "You're here!"

Gu Fei nodded: "I'm here."

That beauty pointed to an empty seat across from him and said, "Sit!"

Gu Fei sat down, only then bothering to look at the other three people. Ordinary, unremarkable, average faces. Compared to Jian Gui's ugliness and that guy's beauty, these people seemed more like humans. So much so that Gu Fei couldn't find their individual characteristics.

"Let me introduce you," Jian Gui said to Gu Fei, starting from beside Gu Fei: "Zhan Wu Shang! Warrior."

Zhan Wu Shang was a middle-aged uncle, very strong and giving a mature and steady feeling. "Hello!" He extended his hand while introducing himself, "I like warriors, so I always choose warrior in any online game!"

"And he's always the number one warrior in every online game!" Jian Gui added for him.

"Hello, hello!" Gu Fei took off his straw hat with his left hand and quickly shook his right hand. As a result, he found that the other party's grip was quite strong. This was inevitable; warriors would of course work hard on their strength. Gu Fei, a full-agility mage, felt his bones go numb with that handshake. Fortunately, the other party didn't intentionally make things difficult; he released the grip as soon as he shook, so it seemed to be just a habit. Gu Fei could only smile wryly. This was the first time in his life that he had suffered a small loss in a handshake.

"This is You-ge. He always chooses a random class in online games. This time, it's a knight. You-ge is good at data collection and often notices details that others don't," Jian Gui introduced the second person.

"You-ge? You don't look very old!" Gu Fei reached out his hand.

"I'm sorry, my name is actually You-ge, I'm taking advantage of you!" You-ge scratched his head embarrassedly before extending his hand to shake Gu Fei's, with a very kind smile, looking like a very easy person to get along with.

"Oh, I see," Gu Fei smiled.

"This is Yu Tian Shen Ming. His best class is mage, but this time he chose archer!" Jian Gui introduced the third person. This person was obviously not very old, with no smile on his face, full of the unique rebelliousness and arrogance of teenagers. Most likely a student.

"Hello!" Gu Fei reached out his hand. Compared to the previous two times, he was the most serious this time. Because he knew that the best way to deal with this kind of child was not to treat him like a child, but to make him feel that you value him.

Unexpectedly, Yu Tian Shen Ming was so childish that he didn't even appreciate this gesture. He didn't shake his hand, but just snorted from his nose: "Hello!"

Little brat, no manners! Gu Fei cursed inwardly.

"Finally, this is it! Han Jia Gong Zi, my old partner in online games. His class is the eternal priest." Jian Gui finally introduced the person next to him.