Chapter 1 This Game is About to End, Right?

"This game is about to end, right?" Lu Xiaoyao said casually as she walked downstairs.

When she entered the conference room, she immediately pushed two chairs together, sat down, and let out a comfortable sigh. "Today was probably the fastest game we've played. I didn't expect Charlie to be so mentally weak!"

Hearing this, the remaining three exchanged glances. They didn't find the first half of her statement strange, but the latter half—Charlie's mental fortitude was weak?

They didn't think Charlie's behavior was normal.

However, they couldn't figure out why Charlie's emotions had suddenly become so agitated.

But what surprised them most was that Mu Chen actually nodded in agreement with Lu Xiaoyao!

Ming Mei had just come downstairs and hadn't entered the conference room yet. Now, watching Mu Chen's reaction through Lu Xiaoyao's live stream, she felt much the same as the others.

"He agrees with Lu Xiaoyao? Is he trying to fool someone?"

Instinct told Ming Mei that Mu Chen was up to no good!

Thinking this, Ming Mei sat in the lobby on the first floor, unsure of what to do. Feeling bored, she wondered if she should sneak into the conference room.

"Right! Gui Gui, what about that NPC小姐姐 (xiǎojiějie, miss) who looks like me?"

She suddenly remembered that the reason she hadn't gone inside was to find that fake fan NPC小姐姐.

[She's outside.]

"Eh? What's she doing outside?"

Before Gui Gui could finish, Ming Mei started walking outside. At this point, she had forgotten about Charlie falling from the building just a while ago.

So, when she met the fake fan NPC小姐姐, she naturally saw Charlie's corpse next to where she parked her food cart.

Although Gui Gui promptly put a mosaic over Ming Mei's eyes, it didn't stop her from seeing a stick figure lying on a pile of blood.

[Gui Gui, your mosaic is a bit perfunctory.]

Gui Gui: [Good enough to see, what more do you want?]

Not arguing with Gui Gui, Ming Mei continued to look at the stick figure, and then she incidentally saw small black dots in the blood splattered on the food cart.

Ming Mei: =.=

She didn't know what kind of human tissue had shattered and landed on it.

Ming Mei approached the pale-faced fake fan NPC小姐姐 and saw that her face was ashen, and she kept spitting out, "It's over, it's over for me! It's all karma! It must be because I sold too many counterfeit products, and a player got food poisoning and died! It's over, I'm going to jail..."

Ming Mei: ???

"Ah... that you..."

Ming Mei opened her mouth, wanting to reach out and touch the other's shoulder to explain that it wasn't her fault, but she suddenly rushed towards the conference room on the first floor of the building as if possessed.

"Wait!"

Ming Mei tried to stop her twice, but she couldn't, as if the other party had eyes in the back of her head.

[Host, don't chase her. These are some of the NPC's storyline settings in the game. They take effect at a certain time or story point.]

Gui Gui stopped Ming Mei, [No matter how you try to stop her, she will break through the obstruction to do what she has to do next.]

"What is she going to do next..."

Ming Mei asked, but when she saw that Gui Gui didn't answer her question, she simply walked toward the conference room as well.

Incidentally, she had already seen what the fake fan NPC did when she rushed into the conference room from Lu Xiaoyao's live stream.

The NPC slid into the room on her knees, scaring everyone!

Good grief!

Even though the floor was smooth marble, the "bam" as she kneeled, and then slid in front of them with inertia, scared them all badly.

Especially Mu Chen, even though he recognized that the person in front of him wasn't Ming Mei at a glance, the veins on his forehead still bulged as he watched her do this with Ming Mei's face.

He couldn't imagine his girlfriend doing this!

"I was wrong!"

The fake fan NPC directly gave everyone a five-body-投地 (wǔ tǐ tóu dì, prostration) kneeling salute, turning everyone into staring blankly. Then, she started a sincere and emotional confession: "I was wrong, I shouldn't have sold fake and shoddy products, I shouldn't have deceived the customers who trusted me, it's all my fault..."

"Hey... wait a minute."

Don't be fooled by how actively the fake fan NPC is repenting, Lu Xiaoyao hadn't even realized who the person confessing was.

"What kind of boxed lunches do you sell? Who did you cheat?"

Lu Xiaoyao said, but her gaze had already turned to Mu Chen and Li Yuan, her eyes full of sympathy.

She was completely in "I understand, you guys are really miserable" mode, which left Li Yuan speechless.

Mu Chen couldn't help but laugh.

Not laughing at Lu Xiaoyao, just simply laughing at Yan Hui for pulling such a stunt.

Wouldn't it just break people's mentality?

Being cheated, and then having the other party let you know you were cheated.

Ignoring Lu Xiaoyao's gaze, Mu Chen directly asked, "Since you say you cheated customers, then how do you plan to compensate them? With credits or money?"

Fake fan NPC: ??

"Ah,大佬 (dàlǎo, big boss), don't force the NPC to compensate with credits just because you were cheated, after all, this is part of the game settings..."

Lu Xiaoyao still hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem, and even waved at the kneeling "repentant" NPC.

While comforting the other party softly, not noticing that the NPC, who was moved to tears by her "generosity," was acting strangely, Lu Xiaoyao subconsciously wondered why Mu Chen was being so calculating.

[She's hopeless, just bury her.]

[Ah, forget it, we won't blame the大佬 (dàlǎo, big boss), after all... enough said.]

[Bury her, bury her!]

Whether they knew the later plot or had already guessed it, the viewers on the barrage were singing the dirge for Lu Xiaoyao. When she got out of the game, this clip would definitely be moved to the ghost畜 (guǐ chù, beast) section by her true fans.

The section where she waved her hand in rejection would be sped up and looped into a hand-cranked flower, with the words "I don't want money tonight" in a fancy font.

Of course, that was a story for another time. Ming Mei came in and saw Lu Xiaoyao helping the fake fan NPC up. Then she heard the fake fan NPC's slightly affected voice say gratefully, "小姐姐 (xiǎojiějie, miss), you're so kind. I knew I shouldn't have sold you the maocai (冒菜, a type of Sichuan street food) boxed lunch."

The action of helping the person stopped abruptly, and the smile on Lu Xiaoyao's face instantly froze. She blurted out, "What did you say?"

"I said I was wrong,小姐姐 (xiǎojiějie, miss), you're such a good person, I shouldn't have sold you the maocai (冒菜, a type of Sichuan street food) boxed lunch~小姐姐 (xiǎojiějie, miss), I didn't expect you to be so kind, you... won't be angry, right?"

Lu Xiaoyao: ?????

Ming Mei: "..."

Why did she have to use that affected tone at this time?

Unexpected, but reasonable. The action of holding her up stopped when she heard these words. Lu Xiaoyao suddenly looked up, the frozen smile on her face, coupled with her slightly widened, unblinking eyes, made her look a bit scary.

The hand that was holding the other party's arm suddenly flipped upwards, and the fake fan NPC felt her arm being clamped by a pair of iron pliers.

Fake fan NPC: 0.0?

"小姐姐 (xiǎojiějie, miss)?"

"There's something I think you got wrong."

"What?"

"Actually... I'm not kind." Lu Xiaoyao instantly exerted force with her arm, pressing the other party to the ground again, kneeling on both knees. The previous repentance had now returned to its initial state.