“Because—that’s why I agreed to help you!”
Wen Qian struggled for a while to come up with a good excuse for her sudden change of heart, but eventually gave up and skipped that part altogether.
She trusted that the NPC wouldn’t mind.
“So, what message do you want me to deliver?” She naturally ignored the explanation and went straight to the point.
“I changed my mind.” Loren lowered his eyes and looked at Wen Qian. “Perhaps, rather than having you deliver a message for me…”
“I want to know your name.”
Faced with the NPC’s sudden change, Wen Qian didn’t think much and accepted this new task.
【Hidden Quest — First Meeting
Exchange names with the kind person who helped you
Reward: Experience +10, Money +5】
Wen Qian was a little surprised that this was a hidden quest, but when she saw the reward listed afterwards, her expression immediately went blank.
“Tsk, so little.”
“What?”
“Ah, I wasn’t talking to you.” Wen Qian looked up at the boy standing beside her. “My name is Wen Qian.”
“And you?”
Loren smiled slightly, his peach-blossom eyes always seeming full of deep affection, which became even more intense when looking at her up close.
“Loren,” he said slowly. “You can just call me by my name.”
Wen Qian didn’t feel anything unusual, but she did look at him curiously.
“What else? If not by name, then how else would I call you?”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
Feeling good after receiving the reward, Wen Qian’s tone became lighter.
“So, that Chu—” She stopped mid-sentence, glanced down at the envelope, then added, “Chu Lingyu, where is he?”
“He’s your classmate.”
The boy lightly tapped the school badge pinned to Wen Qian’s chest, where it said “Rose Class” in small letters.
As he said this, his eyes fell on Wen Qian’s face, as if trying to see if she would react differently.
Wen Qian, upon hearing this, didn’t feel that asking the person in front of her for help earlier was pointless.
Thinking this way, she was pretty sure he came here specifically to give her the quest!
In a good mood, the player decided to send a friend request to this new classmate she got along with well.
Her friend list was too empty except for the fixed NPCs.
“Lo—Loren, I feel like we’ve known each other forever. Can we be friends?” Wen Qian spoke the prompt shown on the friend panel.
“Hm?” Loren looked good-natured. “Of course, I feel the same way.”
But the playful Wen Qian was quickly rejected.
【The other party declined your friend request】
Smile disappeared.jpg
Wen Qian looked at Loren expressionlessly. “You lied to me.”
“Why would you say that?” Loren’s brows drooped, looking slightly sad at this baseless accusation, but there was still great amusement in his eyes.
“Because you never wanted to be friends with me in the first place.”
Wen Qian just stated the fact objectively. She didn’t feel anything emotionally, just a bit of regret.
She thought she’d have a new friend added to her list. So what was this friend acceptance system about?
The system details said NPCs didn’t consider her a friend, but surely that couldn’t be the NPC’s real feelings, right? Probably some hidden condition not met—like favorability or something?
Out of Wen Qian’s sight, Loren’s smile faded a little as he read her thoughts.
Seeing the girl who had already turned to leave without a word, he tilted his head with a somewhat indifferent troubled expression.
Was his acting really that bad?
But it was interesting.
“You’re going the wrong way. Your classroom is the other side.” Loren stretched out his long legs and easily caught up to Wen Qian.
“You’re still here?” Wen Qian looked at him in surprise.
The player who had already finished the quest and failed to add him as a friend had thrown this NPC aside, but unexpectedly, he actually followed her.
“I’m not going to class. I’m going to the new student registration,” Wen Qian hesitated for a moment. “And then there should be an entrance exam, right?”
She glanced at her stamina bar, sincerely hoping the exam would be in the morning.
If it were in the afternoon, she wasn’t sure her stamina could stay above 50. If her stamina was too low and she failed the final evaluation, that would be too embarrassing.
Wen Qian quickened her pace. Passing classmates cast strange looks her way, and after noticing Loren trailing behind, they lowered their gazes.
With clear purpose, she found the only office with lights on and pushed the door open.
“Excuse me, I’m here to register.” Her eyes landed on the only student inside.
Although it was strange to report to a student instead of a teacher, seeing the obvious [New Student Registration Guide] mark above his head, Wen Qian dismissed her doubts and approached him.
“New student?” The boy frowned, displeased. “Why only today? Don’t you know yesterday was the first day of school?”
He took the student card Wen Qian handed over and sneered, “Poor student, huh—”
His drawn-out tone was unfriendly, and his gaze was filled with disdain.
“Take a test. If you don’t pass, you can leave immediately.” The boy’s words held sarcasm. “Of course, if I were you, I’d just leave. I’ve seen too many students like you; none of them lasts in this academy.”
“Better to leave on your own than be kicked out later.”
This new student was even worse than the few who came before. Showing up only on the second day of school was really bold.
The boy waited for Wen Qian to lower her head in shame, but when she looked up, she seemed completely indifferent and somewhat distracted.
What’s he mumbling about? What a waste of time.
Her mind blank, hoping the cutscene would end quickly, Wen Qian only slowly came back to her senses after the boy finished speaking.
“What’s with your attitude?” The boy’s face darkened. “You’re just a poor student, but you came to our academy…”
Wen Qian checked the system panel and was disappointed to find no option to skip dialogue.
“Skip.” Seeing the NPC about to go on a long rant, Wen Qian tried to manually skip the dialogue. “Skip, skip the cutscene.”
Repeating several game-specific skip terms, Wen Qian stared in surprise as the boy suddenly fell silent—turns out this trick really worked.
“I’ve read all the background. No need to say it again. Can we get the entrance exam started soon?”
“I really don’t have time to waste with you.” Wen Qian sighed.
The previously arrogant boy looked like a plucked rooster, his face stiff and speechless for a long moment.
Wen Qian, puzzled, followed his gaze behind her. At the half-open door, Loren was leaning there with a smile.
“Student council?” Loren glanced at the badge on the boy’s collar. “Lu Yanbai’s man? Interesting.”
Hearing the name Lu Yanbai, the previously arrogant boy turned pale.
“Young Master Luo, I…” He stammered, eyes moving between Wen Qian and Loren.
He wasn’t stupid. He could tell why Loren suddenly appeared and said what he did.
But he couldn’t understand why this young master was involved with this new poor student.
“Another forced dialogue cutscene?” The protagonist, unaware she was the center of the event, just looked around confused, muttering, “Does saying skip again work? Wait, I don’t think the NPC stopped because of my trigger words…”
Realizing belatedly that the NPC quieted down because of Loren’s arrival, Wen Qian was stunned.
What? So skip doesn’t work? She thought she’d found a speedrun tutorial for cutscenes!
Full of regret, Wen Qian sat at the office desk, waiting for the NPC to give her the exam questions.
The student council boy glanced at two files on the bookshelf. His expression darkened and he reached for the file on the left.
A slow voice came from behind.
“I’ve never seen exam papers for poor students before. Give me one too.”
The boy stiffened, quickly withdrew his hand, and pulled out the file on the right instead.
Wen Qian lowered her head to look at the exam paper in her hand. Before she could see the questions clearly, a system prompt sounded in her ear.
【Hidden Condition Triggered — Success
Entrance exam difficulty restored to normal level
Prerequisite: Complete Hidden Quest [First Meeting]】
Wen Qian paused as she took out her stationery bag. What did “restored to normal level” mean?
【Mission update detected. Beginner mission changed successfully】
【Entrance exam passing requirement restored to normal: Intelligence 10+, lowered from 8+】
Ha! Wen Qian clenched her pen. No wonder she felt the system mission’s stats were unbalanced before—she had been given a hard difficulty mission; now it was normal difficulty.
Yesterday, when she was grinding stats in the library, she thought that if she hadn’t realized that different books gave different intelligence points, she’d only reach 8 intelligence after completing the mission.
She wouldn’t have passed the entrance exam!
Turns out the game had provided another way out; as long as she caught one clue, she could pass the exam smoothly.
Fortunately, Detective Wen had already discovered the secret of the books. Not only was the entrance exam difficulty now normal, even a hard exam would be no problem for her!
Little Wen smiled and happily cheered herself up inside.