In the end, Bai Fuling regretfully failed to collect 9,999 hamburgers. Reality proved that the cafeteria’s inventory was, in fact, limited.
So he settled for ninety nine instead, counting it as a successful restock. Bai Fuling was, for the most part, satisfied with the result.
Pang Chengyu watched as the transfer student made a motion as though stuffing something into an invisible bag. Then, one after another, the hamburgers mysteriously vanished right before his eyes.
Pang Chengyu: “…”
Silently, he raised a hand and wiped the anxious sweat gathering at his temple.
After witnessing the exact same scene repeat itself over and over again, he already knew there was no way this was some trick of the eyes, a visual illusion or a problem with his eyesight.
That left only two possibilities.
One: the transfer student had superpowers.
Two: there was something seriously wrong with his brain.
Any normal person would choose the first option rather than the second. After all, nobody wanted to believe there was something wrong with their own mind.
Pang Chengyu might grumble every day that this school was going to drive him insane but that didn’t mean he actually wanted to become “that idiot who’s completely lost his mind” in other people’s eyes.
…So it had to be superpowers, right…?
It really had to be superpowers!
Thinking back to the transfer student’s bottomless appetite just now, Pang Chengyu found the superpower explanation even more convincing.
Those mountains of food and the plates along with them, must have been transferred into some alternate dimension.
Otherwise, how could someone with such a petite, delicate frame possibly swallow that many dishes…
…plates included?
According to all the animated movies he’d seen, people with superpowers were always extremely careful about concealing their abilities.
So why was the person standing before him acting as though nobody else existed?
He wasn’t even trying to hide it!
At the moment, only Pang Chengyu and Bai Fuling were present.
Because they had ordered such a large quantity of hamburgers and the serving window was too narrow to pass everything through, the two of them had entered through the small side door and collected the food from inside the counter instead.
The cafeteria employee had already fled for dear life long ago, terrified that if he lingered even one second longer, the ravenous glutton before him would decide to bite into the man wearing the hamburger shaped hat as well.
As a result, he never noticed how Bai Fuling had made all of the later hamburgers disappear.
Watching Bai Fuling squirrel away food one piece after another, Pang Chengyu opened his mouth several times, only to swallow the words each time.
It wasn’t until they left the cafeteria and arrived at the patch of ground where they had previously tilled the soil, planted seeds and watered the field that he finally couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“…Baicai… Student Bai,” he said cautiously. “Wasn’t what you did just now… a little too obvious?”
“Hm?”
Bai Fuling turned his head, not quite understanding what the person beside him meant.
“Your ability, I mean… your power to manipulate dimensional space…” Pang Chengyu hurriedly corrected himself. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to pry. Although… it doesn’t really seem like you were trying to hide it in the first place…”
He paused awkwardly before continuing.
“Anyway… is it really okay to expose it so openly? Won’t someone come looking for trouble? Won’t they… take you away for research or something?”
Bai Fuling froze ever so slightly.
His very first thought was:
Wow. This NPC is seriously advanced. It can even comment on the player’s inventory mechanics!
His second thought immediately followed.
Wait a second.
NPCs weren’t supposed to say things for no reason. Could this be some kind of plot trigger.. or maybe a hidden system hint?
Could it be that openly looting everything in front of NPCs was about to earn him some kind of system punishment?
Was the beginner protection period ending, so new restrictions were being introduced?
How evil.
So the game actually wouldn’t allow players to shamelessly stuff everything into their inventory while NPCs were watching!
Bai Fuling fell into thought.
A few seconds later, he came up with an entirely new bug exploiting strategy.
No problem.
As the saying goes, when the game raises the bar by one foot, the player climbs ten.
Game rules were dead.
Players were alive.
If openly making items disappear into the system inventory wasn’t allowed anymore, then all he had to do was add a little camouflage and change the presentation.
Bai Fuling decided he should find himself a shoulder bag to carry around. From now on, whenever he stored or retrieved items, he’d simply take them in and out through the bag. Better yet, he could just rummage around beneath his oversized yellow raincoat whenever he needed something.
Surely that way, the NPC detection system wouldn’t register the player himself anymore.
At most, it would only register the bag or the raincoat.
Haha.
He really was a genius.
The brilliant player Baicai truly lived up to his name.
Praising himself inwardly, Bai Fuling controlled his character and entered his response into the dialogue box.
“I understand.”
“If you ever need someone to help cover for you, just ask me anytime.”
Pang Chengyu hesitated for a moment before lowering his voice.
“I’ll help you… if you trust me enough.”
“Mhm. I know,” Bai Fuling replied.
“You’re a good person. I’ll come to you.”
Helping with chores, spending money on the player, even reminding the player about hidden mechanics…
He was practically the perfect beginner support NPC.
Bai Fuling was extremely satisfied with the blond pixel character before him.
Naturally, he’d continue making full use of him while he could.
Hearing Bai Fuling’s answer, Pang Chengyu couldn’t help lifting his head.
Those dark, deer like eyes were looking directly at him, their gaze earnest and unwavering.
So… he hadn’t said that because he didn’t understand the importance of hiding his abilities.
He had said it because… he was willing to trust him.
A surge of emotion welled up inside Pang Chengyu.
To him, those simple words were acknowledgment.
The beautiful transfer student with extraordinary powers didn’t look down on him.
He had accepted him as a teammate worthy of trust.
The transfer student had probably already seen through him.
Seen that he, too, was a fish struggling desperately in the same stagnant waters.
He wasn’t as intelligent as the transfer student.
Nor was he as brave.
Even so…
He wanted to resist.
“…What can I do?” Pang Chengyu clenched his fists and asked eagerly.
Huh.
Such an enthusiastic beginner support NPC.
Bai Fuling blinked in surprise.
The other party had just helped him stockpile food and now he was proactively unlocking another support function.
Still, Bai Fuling only paused for a second before nodding.
As if a player would ever refuse help from an NPC!
So… what should he have the NPC do?
Normally, NPC assistance followed fixed task routines.
Looking after livestock.
Gathering stone.
Farming.
Watering crops.
Things like that.
Players spent time raising affection levels precisely so they could unlock NPC assistance.
Once repetitive tasks were handed over to NPCs, the player would have more time to explore new maps and discover new quests.
Standing beside his little plot of farmland, Bai Fuling quickly came up with an assignment.
“Then I’ll leave this field in your care.”
Afterward, he added the conditions.
“It’s simple. Water it every morning and just wait for the crops to mature.”
Farming mechanics in RPG games were relatively straightforward.
After clearing the land and planting the seeds, all you had to do was water them every day until harvest.
Occasionally, crops would fall ill but the game would simply prompt you to spray pesticide or apply whatever treatment was required.
“If anything comes up, you can always come find me,” Bai Fuling added.
He hadn’t actually tried farming in this game yet, so he wasn’t sure whether there would be any additional requirements.
“Okay. Don’t worry.”
Pang Chengyu answered immediately, his eyes shining with excitement.
“Leave it to me!”
His gaze burned with determination.
To Pang Chengyu, Bai Fuling’s arrangement carried an obvious meaning.
This wasn’t merely about cultivating crops.
It was a direct challenge to the school’s rigid rules.
A banner of resistance raised for every student to see.
The field happened to lie on the lawn directly in front of the student dormitory building.
The transfer student had already cut away every neatly maintained patch of ornamental grass the school had planted and replaced it with rows of mysterious new seeds.
Surely…
This was a metaphor.
A symbol of new life.
The seeds of resistance had already been planted.
Now they would stand here for every passing student to witness.
The healthier these crops grew, the more powerfully they would convey the meaning behind them.
Without Bai Fuling needing to explain anything further, Pang Chengyu enthusiastically pieced together a perfectly self consistent chain of reasoning all on his own.
Taking care of this field appeared to be a simple task.
In reality, however, its significance was immense.
If nothing grew here…
Or if the crops withered and struggled…
Then the momentum behind their cause would be lost before it had even begun.
Entrusting this field to him wasn’t merely a task.
It was trust.
And it was a test.
Straightening his back, Pang Chengyu declared once more,
“I definitely won’t let you down.”
Such a serious NPC.
He was only being asked to tend a field yet he was making solemn vows over it.
Bai Fuling found himself genuinely touched.
As a result, he decided to hand Pang Chengyu his watering can.
He wasn’t sure whether NPCs could perform actions without the required tools.
Just to be safe, it was better to equip him in advance.
Otherwise, if the NPC lacked a watering can and therefore skipped the watering step altogether, the seeds might never sprout.
Bai Fuling reached toward his inventory, intending to retrieve his damaged watering can.
Then he remembered the system hint Pang Chengyu had inadvertently given him earlier.
So he performed one extra action.
He had his pixel character slip a hand inside the bright yellow raincoat before pulling the watering can out from beneath the wide cloak.
This way, it wasn’t appearing out of thin air anymore.
Perfect.
He handed the battered watering can to Pang Chengyu.
“Just use this to water the field. One full watering can is exactly enough for this entire plot.”
Bai Fuling hadn’t chosen the size of the farmland at random.
He had calculated it based on the watering can’s capacity, counting the exact number of tiles so that one full can would water every single square perfectly.
Pang Chengyu accepted the watering can and nodded repeatedly, indicating that he understood.
The emotion in his heart swelled over once again.
The transfer student had explained everything in such meticulous detail…
He truly regarded him as a trusted teammate.
Bai Fuling watched as pink plus signs and numbers bubbled up above the blond pixel NPC’s head like floating speech bubbles.
He blinked.
Huh.
Bai Fuling couldn’t help feeling rather impressed.
So assigning him work actually increased his affection level?
After the animal loving Liao Zhiqiu, Bai Fuling had discovered another NPC whose affection level was easy to raise.
That was none other than the hardworking Pang Chengyu.
As long as you gave him tasks to do, his affection would happily bubble upward.
His dedication to labor was genuinely moving.
He had to admit…
The methods these two NPCs used for increasing affection were both rather unconventional.
After parting ways with the blond NPC, Bai Fuling wandered aimlessly around the campus, casually rummaging through a few trash bins while wondering what he should do next.
With the food supplies fully stocked and the farmland entrusted to someone else, it was time to focus on the main quest line once again.
Bai Fuling shifted his gaze toward the quest log at the side of the screen.
His appointment with Liao Zhiqiu was set for the following day at the back entrance of the campus alley, so the quest [The Cat’s Secret] probably couldn’t continue until tomorrow.
As for [Have a Sweet Dream], he had already obtained the newest clue, [Guan Jiayue’s House Key]. That meant he could head over tonight and take a look.
The in game clock had already advanced into the evening.
A slender crescent moon hung high in the sky while a scattering of tiny pixel stars dotted the darkening night.
With practiced familiarity, Bai Fuling exited through the small path behind the school’s back gate and located the residential area marked by the map prompt for [Guan Jiayue’s House Key], Warm Home Residential Community.
The entire game screen was much dimmer at night. Only places illuminated by streetlights were touched with a little extra brightness.
Although it wasn’t particularly late yet, the streets were strangely devoid of NPCs. The roads looked unusually empty, with only the occasional vehicle speeding past. The evening breeze lifted several newspapers scattered across the pavement, each printed with enormous bold headlines, sending them fluttering into the air before they drifted back down.
Since there was no reason not to summon a mount if he had one, Bai Fuling stood at the street corner and gave a whistle to call his gray wolf, [Big Dog].
Instead, a system notification popped up.
【 [Big Dog] is already resting. 】
What?
Player mounts actually needed to sleep?
Bai Fuling’s eyes widened.
The player himself hadn’t even gone to bed yet, so how had the mount already turned in for the night?
Animals really did sleep better than people.
Come to think of it…
Weren’t wolves nocturnal animals?
Could it be that after becoming [Big Dog], even its sleeping schedule had changed?
Standing where he was, Bai Fuling frowned in confusion.
After thinking for a moment, his finger unconsciously drifted toward the mount panel.
He wanted to test whether changing the gray wolf’s name to something like [Owl] might wake it back up.
However, before he could tap the screen, his eyes caught a line of text that had quietly appeared at the side of the interface.
【It seems… someone is watching you…】
Hm?
Why had this prompt appeared again?
Bai Fuling immediately closed the mount panel and quickly rotated his character’s field of vision.
The movement happened to catch something.
At the edge of the screen, what looked like several pixelated black tentacles hurriedly slipped past before disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Almost instinctively, Bai Fuling controlled his character to chase after them for a couple of steps.
He watched the black strands vanish directly into a brick wall.
What was that?
A bug?
A living bug?
Or maybe some hidden treasure hint?
Filled with curiosity, Bai Fuling walked over to investigate the exact spot where the black tentacles had disappeared.
The pixelated wall looked perfectly ordinary.
There wasn’t the slightest difference between it and the surrounding brickwork.
But any experienced player knew better than to trust appearances.
In any case…
The first thing to do was obviously smash it and see what happened!
With great confidence, Bai Fuling prepared to split open the wall.
He controlled his little pixel character to pull the axe from his backpack beneath the oversized yellow raincoat.
It was at that exact moment that he heard something hit the ground through the game’s background audio.
Accompanied by a rolling clatter,
A canned coffee tumbled across the pavement before stopping at his feet.
Wow.
A gift from nature!
Bai Fuling’s eyes lit up.
With practiced ease, he bent down, picked up the canned coffee, tucked it into his raincoat, that was to say, into his backpack and only then looked in the direction from which the can had rolled.
At the far end of his vision stood the familiar bespectacled office worker pixel NPC.
The man stared at him in stunned disbelief.
His canvas shoulder bag had fallen onto the ground, its contents scattered everywhere.
In the CG illustration, beneath his slightly long, softly curled bangs, a pair of grass green eyes were opened wide in shock as they looked over.
Standing before the bespectacled NPC was another NPC seated in a wheelchair.
Judging by the scene, the bespectacled young man had been pushing the wheelchair and escorting the other person home.
A new event?
Bai Fuling stood upright again, looking at the newly appeared NPCs.
The surroundings were silent.
There was no one else nearby.
Neither party spoke first.
For a few quiet moments, everyone simply stood there facing one another, as though the scene itself had frozen in place.
Bai Fuling’s gaze swept over the bespectacled NPC carrying various belongings before shifting to the wheelchair he was pushing.
After thinking for a second…
He understood.
So this was one of those small side quests where you helped passing NPCs!
Besides the lengthy main story quests, RPG games always included countless little random events that could be triggered anywhere at any time.
Even mosquito meat was still meat.
Players would never complain about having too many quests.
The more they could accept, the better.
Warm hearted as ever, Bai Fuling immediately walked over, intending to lend a hand.
Although he was holding an axe in his left hand…
His right hand could still push a wheelchair.
As a player, Bai Fuling didn’t think there was anything strange about this scene.
But from everyone else’s perspective…
What they saw was a suspicious figure dressed in a bright yellow raincoat, carrying an axe beneath the crescent moon, striding rapidly toward them.
So almost the instant Bai Fuling took one or two steps forward with the axe in hand, an enormous exclamation mark burst into existence above the bespectacled NPC’s head.
As for the man sitting in the wheelchair…
His entire body jolted violently.
He instinctively sprang to his feet,
And immediately started sprinting away at full speed!
Bai Fuling was utterly astonished. The player had actually created a medical miracle!
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
✦ The translator summons words. You may summon coffee. ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Escape game freezesChapter 2 · Players aren’t allowed to use the main entranceChapter 3 · Players have created a medical miracle!Chapter 4 · If I hit the NPC more, will the NPC drop gold coins?Chapter 5 · Players earn the title of “bus weirdo”Chapter 6 · Players get a prison experienceChapter 7 · So the red bar isn’t for favorability, it’s for anger!Chapter 8 · The player is a nimble catChapter 9 · The player is a “law-abiding” good studentChapter 10 · Players have no morals and are fearlessChapter 11 · Player: What’s wrong? It’s called “Cai Cai Shui Ling LingChapter 12 · The player is the famous Farmer Detective!Chapter 13 · The player raised a new petChapter 14 · The player is a genius dog-riding boyChapter 15 · The player is a sticky, helpful, and kind comradeChapter 16 · It turns out that players aren’t considered human by NPCsChapter 17 · Players are like angels descending upon my side!Chapter 18 · Player: There’s only one truth!Chapter 19 · Why are players farming at the school?!Chapter 20 · Players came to the cafeteria to buy suppliesChapter 21 · Are NPCs model workers?Chapter 22 · If you’re a gay manChapter 23 · Player: Wheelchairs are a useful mode of transportation!Chapter 24 · So the player is actually part of Cat Returns (?)Chapter 25 · Liao Zhi Qiu, a large pet belonging to the playerChapter 26 · Player: Hello, I picked up this corpse.Chapter 27 · Bai Fuling: Players will never dieChapter 28 · Has the murderer been caught?Chapter 29 · Player: Visiting the mental hospital felt as familiar as coming homeChapter 30 · Players’ Adventure in the Mental Hospital: Round 1Chapter 31 · Player: Kid, fly!Chapter 32 · The player who does good deeds every day is truly a good personChapter 33 · The kitten brought back some local specialtiesChapter 34 · Let this adorable kitten stay forever?Chapter 35 · Players, don’t give up on being human!Chapter 36 · A kitten is just a kitten, isn’t it?Chapter 37 · Players want it, players get itChapter 38 · Angel Player and Unlucky Bear NPCChapter 39 · In short, players choose to throw at NPCsChapter 40 · The player just flew away!Chapter 41 · Player: You need to thoroughly understand the bookChapter 42 · Players love to tease honest NPCs.Chapter 43 · He said he was a little hungry.Chapter 44 · Even if cotton essence mutatesChapter 45 · Pure Love TentaclesChapter 46 · Choose to be a kitten?Chapter 47 · Players’ tears are weaponsChapter 48 · Players do not need to breatheChapter 49 · It’s on fire!Chapter 50 · The player is a top-tier rescue masterChapter 51 · How did the player manage to resurrect after killing themselves?!Chapter 52 · Call the player “Little Cat King”!Chapter 53 · What are the consequences of raising the cat-like alienation