Chapter 23 Another Creditor
He quickly clicked the accept button, but the other party's avatar remained gray.
Not online, Qi Huan's eyebrows, which had just raised, fell down in disappointment again.
If this account is Si Han's main account, it would probably require the Star Network to connect to it. If it is a small account opened on a waste star, they may not use it after they leave.
This name looks more like the nickname of Waste Star.
"What are you daydreaming about? Are you going or not? I specially borrowed an airship from Brother Man." Quan Hai bumped his arm.
"Go! Wait for me." Qi Huan wiped his hair twice and ran to change clothes. He had always wanted to go to the Tongling Hall to see the food live broadcast, but he had been busy for so many days and had no time. It's better to do it today. There's an airship to take, so let's go today.
The Tongling Hall is a six-story white tower. The tower is square with a slightly slanted arc, quiet and harmonious. From the glazed tiles on the top of the tower to the bricks and stones of the tower body, everything is white. At this moment, the whole tower is brightly lit, and the four walls are emitting a soft light. The gauze curtains hanging from the top floor draw graceful arcs in the wind. In the night, it looks like a huge and exquisite white jade palace lantern, which looks even more "dazzling" among the dilapidated buildings.
You may not notice it from a distance, but you will find out when you fly closer that it is actually very high. Each floor is at least twenty meters high, with a door on each of the four sides. There is also a wide platform outside the door, which extends outward like a bird's wing and can be used as a temporary landing spot for an airship.
The first floor is the base's internal affairs hall, which mainly deals with matters related to these 'NPCs', and all information related to the base will be announced and displayed here; the second floor is the trading hall, and all matters involving money can basically be handled here, including the sale of animal cores or paid services of various bases, and the people entering and leaving are basically hunting teams; the third floor is the leisure hall, which has multiple service areas such as the interstellar network area, physical training ground, and mental massage. The main consumers are naturally hunting teams; the fourth floor is the conference hall, which is used to hold auctions and large-scale conferences and other activities; the fifth floor is the office hall of the Waste Star Management, where the Star Lord and his private guards in red uniforms stay on a daily basis; the sixth floor is called Tianfeng Pavilion, which is the private club of the Jiufang family, which is only used to entertain VIPs and is not open to the public.
"I heard that the Star Lord often holds dinner parties in Tianfeng Pavilion," Quan Hai, who was in the driver's seat, turned his head and gossiped with Qi Huan, "The furniture inside is specially shipped from other star regions. It is said that a chair costs six figures."
"Zhu! Gate! Wine! Meat! Stinks!" Qi Huan gritted his teeth at the exquisitely carved windows on the top floor, wishing he could shout 'Down with the evil slave owners!'
"I remember that Uncle Lin Sen was often called by the Star Master to cook at night. The tips alone could cover the restaurant's monthly income."
"So what now? Is there any job I can apply for?" Upon hearing that he could earn money from the Star Lord, Qi Huan immediately changed his attitude and became eager to try.
"I seemed to have heard last year that he spent a huge sum of money to hire a very good star chef from another star field." Quan Hai parked the airship steadily in front of the west gate on the third floor.
Qi Huan touched his nose, remembering that Rondo said there was only one second-rate star chef on the abandoned star, and he was probably the one invited back by the star master.
The two got off the airship and walked inside. The network area was very large, occupying almost half of the third floor. It was similar to the Internet cafe in Qi Huan's impression, divided into the signal area and the experience area. The signal area only provided interstellar signals, which could be accessed with Qi Huan and his current basic personal terminals. Of course, it could only be browsed in two dimensions.
The experience area is lined with egg-shaped cabins placed at a 60-degree angle. The cabin covers are transparent, and the silver-white cabins are round and smooth, shining with a gentle pearl-like luster. There is a digital serial number in the middle of the cabin. That is the game cabin that Quanhai mentioned before, which can experience the five-dimensional immersive effect, and the price is three times that of the signal area.
"Hurry up." Rondo had already opened three game cabins and was pacing back and forth beside the front one. When he saw them, he waved hurriedly.
Qi Huan and Quan Hai trotted over.
The game cabin is very easy to use. Just lie down in the correct position, and a number of electrode-like inductive contacts will automatically stick to your temples, wrists, and ankles. They are smooth and warm, and except for a slight fever at the beginning, there is almost no discomfort.
Two seconds later, the hatch slowly closed. [The third best chef in the world, welcome to StarNet again. Please relax and close your eyes.]
Qi Huan closed his eyes following the voice prompt, but before he had time to get used to the shame of this second-year online name, a bustling square appeared in front of him.
In the middle of the square is a tall white crystal square monument, the body of the monument is clear and transparent, like ice, and you can vaguely see the shadows of people walking on the other side. The whole square monument is at least a hundred meters high, the base part is very similar to a pyramid, but the upper part is rugged and steep, with several irregular crystal prisms standing upright, the peaks are like knives.
There are many figures carved on each wall of the stele. Some have three heads and six arms, some have a leopard head and a human body, some are half human and half snake, some have nine heads and nine tails, and some are even just a piece of stone or a ball of mist. They don’t look like living creatures at all.
Qi Huan looked at the 'stone' and 'cloud' in confusion. If the images engraved on the wall were of representatives of the various ethnic groups living in the alliance's first to ninth star fields, some of them really looked very... conceptual.
With the slightly distorted shadow on the wall, he could roughly see what he looked like at the moment. He was still wearing his own brown-red shorts, but he looked more mature, with his half-long brown hair tied into a ten-centimeter-long low ponytail. Qi Huan curiously shook his ponytail twice at the wall, looking around. The uncle face that the original owner had molded didn't look like him, but it looked familiar. Ten seconds later, he realized that it looked about 70% like Uncle Lin Sen!
A tall orc appeared from behind him on the right, hugged his shoulders warmly, and spoke in Quan Hai's voice, "If you are not used to it, you can go to the personal panel to adjust it. Your appearance, figure, voice, five senses, and sensitivity can all be reset to your liking."
Qi Huan raised his eyes to look at the muscular guy who was much taller than him. It turned out that Quan Hai liked the double-door body?
"No, this is fine." Qi Huan shook his head. He didn't have time to study the face-pinching function now, so he decided to use the one set by the original owner.
The square is connected in all directions and crowded with people. There are many streets around it, with giant banner-like gemstone signs hanging on them, shining with jewels and dazzling. The names of the streets on the signs are varied, such as Live Broadcast Road, Shopping Center, Energy Station, Square and Round Platform, and some of them are completely unrecognizable.
Qi Huan was looking at the sign when a slender red-haired beauty came towards him and Quan Hai. She was wearing a semi-tight leather jacket and leather pants, with a 30-40 cm long short knife hanging on each side of her waist. She looked sexy and hot. The beauty raised her hand and blew them a kiss.
Qi Huan was stunned for a moment, then reacted, "Londo?"
"I thought I could trick you," the beautiful woman shrugged in boredom and pointed to the nearest street on her left. "Let's go. The live broadcast will start in three minutes."
What Rondo was referring to was the live broadcast channel.
After entering, the street scene changed with their footsteps, giving the feeling of shrinking the earth into an inch. The street was divided into many "丰"-shaped paths, with words such as [exploration] and [competition] written on them.
[The next stop of the adventure is up to you! Come and vote! ]
[The strongest throne is waiting for you to fight! ]
There are various advertising signs on the roadside, and the slogans are also very lively.
Qi Huan also noticed that there was a strange blue door about three or five steps away from them on the right. It was just a door and a door frame, about ten centimeters off the ground, suspended in the air. As they walked, the blue door also moved horizontally, always maintaining the same relative distance and position, neither far nor near.
Amid the noise, Qi Huan asked Quan Hai, "What door is that?"
"Universal door." Quan Hai said, "If you can't find the channel you want, or feel it's too far and don't want to go, you can use the universal door. For example, if we want to go to the arena to play a few games, we can knock on the door twice from a distance, and it will fall to the ground. Go over and say Fangyuantai to it, and when the door opens, it will directly lead to the street of the arena. Specify the name of the arena, and it will directly locate the entrance of the mapping hall."
"What if we only talk about the arena? How can it tell whether we want to play a few games or watch the live broadcast of the competition?" Qi Huan asked with interest.
"If it's blurry or indistinguishable, it will become a corridor with doors related to the word 'competition'. You can then choose the door you want to go to and open it." Rondo continued, "You can also ask it questions and let it help you find the 'path' to the solution."
So the universal door can be regarded as a three-dimensional search box? It is quite convenient. Qi Huan couldn't help but look at the door again.
While they were chatting, they had already reached the intersection of [Game]. Rondo, who was walking in front, turned in without hesitation. The universal door also turned along with their steps, still floating not far away.
There are large display screens on the roadside, playing highlights, and the names of the games are on the signs.
"Why don't you just play the game?" Seeing the game advertisement, Qi Huan couldn't help but feel a little excited. It might be quite interesting to play the game immersively. It would be a bit of a waste of effect to watch the live broadcast, right?
"Do you think he doesn't want to? The game he likes is from the Empire, and all the players are from there. We can only watch, so the popularity is not particularly high." Quan Hai happily gossiped with Qi Huan.
"It turns out that we can't play it." Qi Huan nodded.
He had seen some data about the Empire. Currently, there were three civilizations coexisting in this star sea: the Alliance, Fangxing, and the Empire. The Alliance had the largest area, with nine star fields, and the Empire had the smallest area, with only one smallest star field. The three parties coexisted peacefully and were considered allies, working together to protect the order of this star sea and resist the invasion of the Tuli people and the attacks of star beasts.
"It's useless even if you can play it. The game is extremely difficult. For someone like Rondo, if he can survive three minutes, he'll be considered a winner."
The red-haired beauty turned her head away angrily, "How many minutes can you stay?"
Quan Hai raised his arms proudly to show off his muscles, "At least four minutes!"
Qi Huan: ...
Isn't that the same thing?
"Ah Huan, don't listen to his nonsense. That game requires brains, and watching the skilled players show off their skills is really addictive."
"I'm smarter than you~"
The two men were arguing, and various display screens flashed by like a kaleidoscope, making people dizzy. Rondo walked forward skillfully, and finally stopped in front of a black display screen with five bloody words on it: [Library of Death].
A horror game? Qi Huan glanced at the display screen calmly.
When Rondo opened the door, Qi Huan only felt a flash of white light around him, and the noisy sound waves disappeared instantly. In a blink of an eye, they were standing in a magnificent place similar to a hotel lobby, with beautiful crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and a mirror-clear floor.
Where the elevator should have been, there were six beautiful red glazed arches, each carved with one to six diamond-shaped stars. The upper and lower corners were slightly elongated, and at first glance, they looked a bit like the diamond pattern on a playing card.
Rondo raised his hand and tried to push the four-star door, but Quan Hai stopped him, "Keep it down. This is the first time Huan has come here since he lost his memory. Let him get used to it. Don't be too stimulating."
Rondo nodded, turned around and pushed open the door of the second star. Quan Hai dragged Qi Huan and followed him in.
[Dear Sally, Zhihuzheya's fanboy, and the world's third-best chef, welcome to "Death Library". We are about to arrive at the live broadcast site of the newcomer's examination room No. 9. ]
Why are you in the examination room again? Qi Huan was confused.
It was empty all around, and it felt like a screening room, but there was no display screen. There were only three connected seats in the middle, with Rondo and Quan Hai sitting on his left and right, tacitly sandwiching him in the middle.
"Follow mode or group viewing mode?" Rondo turned around and asked them.
"Follow means using the perspective of a certain player, and group view means looking down and seeing all the players. Which one do you want to use?" Quan Hai explained in a low voice.
"Then let's do a group viewing." Qi Huan replied. It sounds like a group viewing should be similar to a God's perspective.
"Okay." Rondo responded.
The light dimmed like the opening of a movie, and a few seconds later, a dimly lit dirt road appeared in front of them. An old man and a young boy were walking slowly along the dirt road.
The older one was an old man who looked to be in his seventies or eighties. He was haggard, hunched over, leaning on a crutch in one hand and holding a worn-out kerosene lamp in the other. He also had a blue leather bag as heavy as a small mountain on his back.
Behind him followed a lonely and skinny little girl, timidly holding the corner of the bundle with her left hand, and tightly grasping a hollow ball made of bamboo strips with a small bell inside with her right hand.
The halo of the kerosene lamp flickered with the old man's steps, mixed with the sound of bells, heavy and depressing.
As the two moved, an inn appeared at the end of the road. It was surrounded by earth walls and a string of pale lanterns hung at the door. On each lantern was an ink character so large that it almost overflowed from the lantern frame. When put together, it read "Huangquan Inn."
Seven or eight people were standing by the ancient well inside the wall, looking around with confusion on their faces.
The night wind blew, and the string of lanterns at the door creaked. Qi Huan also felt a chill in his ears, and the hem of his clothes rustled, as if he was really there.
The old man seemed to sense something and suddenly turned around. There was only one eye on his wrinkled face, which looked sinister and cruel. He raised the corners of his lips and showed them a weird smile that made people shudder.
It was quite atmospheric, just like watching a horror movie. Qi Huan was smiling at the old man and sighing, when he felt his waist and arms tighten at the same time, and Rondo on the left and Quan Hai on the right hugged him tightly.
Qi Huan: ...
No, it's just a close-up, why are you two so scared?
A huge translucent subtitle popped up in the air, accompanied by a voiceover.
[After a long drought, there was sweet rain; in a foreign land, I met an old friend; on the wedding night, it was midnight.
On the seventh day of July, the six gods are on duty. It is an auspicious day and brings good fortune.
Life is like a banquet, and you know your own sorrows and joys.
Thank you all for visiting the Novice Zone and witnessing the unknown trivialities of a period of turmoil.
Secret Room Name: Wedding Banquet
Difficulty of the secret room: 2 stars
Game mission: Leave the secret room alive.
In-game limited time: 9 days
Game players: Xiang*, Li**, Zhao**, Zhou*, Wang**, Liu*, Feng*, Zhao*
Player level: Novice, first game
You have selected the group browsing immersive mode, and the interactive interface is hidden. Double-click the lower right corner to display the interactive interface.
If you feel uncomfortable during viewing, double-click the upper right corner to trigger the exit function. 】
Qi Huan clicked on the interface and flipped through it quickly, and roughly understood it.
This is a live broadcast similar to an escape room game. The group viewing mode is, as he guessed, a God's perspective, where you can see the actions of all players and the main storyline of the game. It is more suitable for people like him who have never seen the whole escape room to understand the entire escape room. The follow mode is to choose a certain player's perspective, which is more immersive, but may deviate from the main storyline. It is suitable for some old viewers who already know the plot and want to seek excitement, or focus on a particularly powerful player.
Click on the player or NPC head to get personal information. Since this is the first game for novice players, only those who win are eligible to enter the game, so personal information is temporarily protected, names are censored, and other game data, such as ability analysis charts, winning rate statistics, etc., are also blank for the time being.
There are also functions such as bullet screen area, player reward, game result guessing, etc. The guessing method in the novice area is also relatively simple, that is, to choose a player to pass the level successfully or fail, with a one-to-one odds. Quan Hai and Londo each chose two people to bet on success, but Qi Huan was not very interested and skipped that interface directly.
Eight players were searching for clues in the inn like headless flies, triggering murders from time to time. Qi Huan was not afraid at first, because his cousin Zhang Chi liked to watch all kinds of adventure and horror movies, and liked to discuss bugs with him while watching. But the two people beside him were startled all the time, and when they were scared, they would grab his waist and arms, which scared him from time to time.
It would be more appropriate to call the eight newcomers the eight trappers, as they would almost certainly step into any trap that was discovered, and would even do so in succession, dying very quickly. By the fifth night of the game, all of them were wiped out.
It was finally over. Qi Huan breathed a sigh of relief, pulled back his arm covered with red marks from Quan Hai's six tentacles, and slapped away Rondo's hand that was around his waist. These two people were the typical inexperienced but also fun to watch.
However, he did understand what Rondo meant by addiction. For example, in this secret room called the Wedding Banquet, the more everyone is wiped out, the more you want to watch another round, to see how another group of players will operate, to see whether those places that players didn't step into but thought were "traps" are really traps, whether the methods you think are to avoid traps can really be avoided, and you want to know how to pass the level.
There was still some time left after exiting the live broadcast room. Rondo wanted to go shopping, Quanhai wanted to practice in the arena, and Qi Huan wanted to watch a food live broadcast, so the three decided to act separately.
After leaving the game intersection, Qi Huan walked a little further before he found the food intersection. He now understood that the positions of the roads were arranged according to the popularity of the subject matter, similar to the ranking of web pages. The closer to the intersection of the live broadcast street, the higher the popularity.
On the live broadcast channel, the most popular ones are adventure and competitive live broadcasts, followed by games. Food is relatively less popular, only ranking around ninth or tenth.
As you walk into the Food Road, there are display windows filled with a variety of dishes, which are probably the host's specialties.
Qi Huan first walked into the most popular live broadcast room, which was like a street bakery with an open kitchen. There was a sink in the front, a finished product display cabinet on the left, shelves on the right, and a seating area in the middle, where one could sit down and comfortably watch the red-haired handsome guy's operations at the sink. There was also a translucent bullet screen wall in the air.
The host is called Toast Prince, and he is teaching everyone how to make toast with nuts.
You can choose between quiet and live mode. The default is quiet, and Qi Huan curiously switched it. The surroundings immediately became noisy, and the empty seats and the kitchen counter were crowded with people watching. The barrage also turned into a noisy live commentary, which was similar to the atmosphere of staying up late to watch the World Cup in the bar before, warm and crazy.
Qi Huan quickly switched back to quiet mode. It was too noisy and he couldn't hear the host's voice at all.
If you look closely, the host is just demonstrating how to operate a food processor. It is so simple that it cannot be simpler, but the response from the comments is extremely enthusiastic. 70% of the content is about the host's nice voice, nice posture, beautiful hands, and most importantly, he is handsome.
The window is filled with toasts, some with dried fruits and some with jam. It seems that this anchor has been eyeing the vertical track of adding toast fillings.
5D live broadcast can smell the fragrance of the window exhibits, and first-time visitors to the live broadcast room have three free tastes. It is said that the degree of simulation can reach about 90% of the real thing. Qi Huan naturally would not miss this opportunity. After tasting three kinds, he finally confirmed that, well, although a single category can indeed support a store if it is done well, such as a steamed bun shop, noodle shop, puff shop, cheesecake shop, etc., but the popularity of this anchor should be mainly because he is handsome.
He sighed and left the first live broadcast room.
The second-ranked anchor is called 'Cold Mix Star'. The person behind the kitchen counter wears a bamboo hat and a shoulder-length black veil. His face cannot be seen clearly, but his figure and voice are both that of a man. He is teaching everyone how to make sweet and sour sauce.
This time, Qi Huan first ran towards the items displayed in the window, which included cold cucumber, preserved egg and tofu, and right in the center was the purple melon mixed with sugar, which to put it simply was the Snow-covered Flaming Mountain. After all, there were no tomatoes in this world, and the purple melon was the substitute.
Although the cold dishes are simple, they are well seasoned. Compared with the toast in the previous live broadcast room, they are simply amazing.
Qi Huan silently clicked "follow" and then visited the third live broadcast room.
The anchor is called "Crazy Fried Rice". You can tell from the name that the main dishes are soy sauce fried rice, vegetable fried rice, curry fried rice, shrimp fried rice... Looking through the window, all are fried rice. The taste is quite satisfactory, at least better than the nutritional supplements.
There are also "Nothing to Do, Come with a Skewer" for skewers, "Everything Can Be Wrapped" for buns, "Nutrient Aesthetics" for nutrient solution matching, and so on. Qi Huan visited more than a dozen live broadcast rooms and found that there was a reason why the food area was not popular. The dishes in the live broadcast were simple and tasted ordinary. In other words, the potential was unlimited! He planned to find time to come back and study the audience's interests and understand the specific issues such as the conditions required for live broadcasting and the approximate income.
Seeing that the time was about to expire, before exiting, Qi Huan opened the contact and took a look. The avatar of the fierce beast Jia was still gray.
After relaxing in the command hall, Qi Huan's homesickness was alleviated a lot, and he went back and had a good sleep.
During the peak hunting season, the number of orders at the hunting grounds increases, and returning home late becomes commonplace.
That day he worked with Lao Wu and did not get off work until 8:30. When he was almost home, he saw a flying boat parked outside his house from afar. There were vaguely two figures inside, but their appearance could not be seen clearly.
The people waiting at the door should be guests who have been there before. Could it be that Lin Jian and his companions have returned from the hunting area? They don't look like that.
Si Liang is back? Qi Huan quickly quickened his pace, but then rejected the idea. It was impossible. Si Liang knew that he could enter the house directly through the back window on the second floor.
Walking closer, you can see that it is an unfamiliar, fully covered black airship. A cartoon bear graffiti is sprayed on the hull with bright lemon yellow lines. The shape is a bit like a combination of a violent bear and a teddy bear. There are three 'X' shaped OK band-aids on the left face. It is eye-catching, cute, and sweet and cool.
Qi Huan walked closer with full of doubts and knocked on the window of the airship.
Two seconds later, the window rolled down, and sitting in the driver's seat was a tin stuffed bear with a strong punk style. Not only did it wear a mechanical monocle on one eye, it was also dressed like a human being in a suit shorts with suspenders and a complicated gentleman's four-layer satin bow tie.
Qi Huan: ???
Someone next to him snapped his fingers, and Qi Huan looked over in the direction of the sound, only to see a little boy of about eight or nine years old sitting on the passenger seat. He was wearing a snow-white, crisp short-sleeved shirt, dark blue suit shorts with suspenders, and a satin bow tie of the same style as Bear's.
In front of him was an extra-large light screen that folded three times on the left, middle and right sides. The pale blue light from the screen was reflected on his round glasses that covered most of his face, and his childish look was mixed with a sharp elite aura.
"What's up?" The little boy raised his head slightly and looked at Qi Huan. The thin crystal chain on the frame trembled with his movements. On one side was a little bear carved out of white jade. It was exquisite and beautiful, and it was obviously a very expensive high-end product. Looking more closely, his shirt buttons were all white crystal with a gold background.
"Hello, are you waiting for this restaurant to open?" Qi Huan pointed to the sign of the Renjian Restaurant next door.
"Yes, I'm waiting for my friend." The little boy nodded, his fair face showing a healthy blush.
"I'm the owner. Who are you looking for?" Qi Huan was a little confused. This kid had red lips and white teeth, and his body was spotless. He didn't look like a resident of the waste planet at first glance. Friend? Whose friend?
"Qi Huan."
"I am, who are you?" Looking for the original owner? Qi Huan was a little surprised. The original owner seemed to have never left the waste planet? Where did the alien friend come from?
The little boy tilted his head slightly, looked Qi Huan up and down, and said seriously, "I'm here to collect the debt."
Qi Huan: ???
Another creditor?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
