Quadruple split.

Chapter 2784 Interlude: Luo's Busy Life
Real time: 18:19
S City, Red Constellation Club, 2nd Floor, Restaurant Corner

"Brother Shen Dao..."

The second team's main player, the Crimson Prince, who at a young age already possessed near-professional player skills, was known as "Little Fei" and "Brother Fei" by his colleagues outside the game. His real name, "Xuan Yuan Fei," was a peerless young master who pursed his lips and asked the man in front of him with a face ashen as if he were about to be buried: "Eating in the club's cafeteria... is that also part of our training?"

Shen Dao, whose ID in the [Innocent Realm] is 'Scavenger', is a sparring partner for the Crimson Constellation Team 2. He is a versatile player in the club, able to help out in any position, and can even chime in on the analysis and discussions of those bald, nerdy guys in the technical analysis department. This man, whose role is unusually vague and seems 'everywhere', shook his head and said seriously, "No, that's not true. I just spent all my salary, and there's nowhere to eat except in the club cafeteria."

"..."

The Crimson Prince took a deep breath, looked down at the plate of literal 'Chinese herbal fried rice' in front of him, and muttered with a deathly pale face, "But Brother Shendao, this stuff is really not good to eat. I remember during the last long holiday, even Sister Jiujiu, who has such a good personality, was forced to go eat Japanese food with Sister Meimei. This is something no normal person can stand."

Shen Dao, whose face was also pale but who was truly broke, swallowed hard and said in a dry voice, "You can't say that. I heard that Sister Yin Yue often comes to the cafeteria to eat, so if she can handle it, why can't we two old men?"

"elder brother……"

The Crimson Prince shook his head, his eyes filled with bitterness, and said, "I specifically inquired about this matter. First of all, Sister Silver Moon is a trained practitioner. She has eaten a lot of medicinal cuisine since she was a child, and her resistance to poison, tonics, and supplements is many times higher than that of us ordinary people. Then, she is proficient in medical theory. Although she is certainly not as good as a professional Chinese medicine doctor, she can still easily distinguish which Chinese herbs are barely edible when stir-fried and which Chinese herbs are deadly when stir-fried."

The janitor, who had been sitting in the cafeteria with the young man for fifteen minutes without seeing a single colleague, stiffened and said in a deep voice, "So, since Silver Moon hasn't appeared in the cafeteria at this time, it means..."

"Today's food must be terrible."

The Crimson Prince took a sip of water, his voice hoarse, and asked, "So why didn't you tell me sooner, Brother Shen? I have money, you don't. I could have just treated you to a meal!"

"That's what I said..."

The cleaner sighed, his eyes brimming with tears, and said, "But didn't I promise you, kid, that I'd treat you to dinner if you completed the training tasks I assigned?"

"What the hell?"

The Crimson Prince was immediately shocked and exclaimed, "So, Brother Shendao, you mean that you just used our club's meal card, which is one-thousandth of your salary that we have to deposit every month, and which not only gives you a 90% discount but also doesn't allow you to withdraw the money, to treat me to a meal?"

The cleaner, looking extremely guilty, looked away, scratched his stubble, and said in a dry voice, "Then how... how can it not count? Just tell me, was it my card that was swiped? Was it food we ate?"

"To be honest... at least emotionally, I really don't want to call this thing 'food'."

The Crimson Prince glanced down at the lump of something on his plate that supposedly had kidney-tonifying, lung-nourishing, hemostatic, and phlegm-reducing effects. It was said to treat lower back and knee pain, chronic cough and asthma, and cough with bloody sputum. Its Latin name was Cordyceps, also known as 'Winter Cordyceps,' but it was actually a complex of the stroma and the corpse of a parasitic moth larva. He looked like he was about to cry: "Leaving aside the fact that I don't need you to treat me to a meal, let's be honest, Brother Shendao, how...how did you manage to get yourself so poor?!"

The cleaner scratched his head and said somewhat awkwardly, "It's simple, I just... made tens of thousands of dollars trading currency."

"Oh."

The Crimson Prince, who had witnessed too much of this kind of thing since childhood, sneered, "And then you suddenly realized that you might be a financial genius, so you resolutely plunged into that ruthless market, and happily lost everything you had?"

The cleaner touched his nose somewhat awkwardly and nodded slightly.

"Ugh……"

The Crimson Prince sighed and asked, "How much did you lose?"

The cleaner looked away and said dryly, "Several hundred."

Is the house still there?

"exist……"

Has my credit record been compromised?

"without……"

"No loan, right?"

"without……"

Did you leverage your connections with relatives and friends?

"without……"

"Oh?"

The crimson prince, his expression gradually softening, clicked his tongue and confirmed, "So you just lost all your savings?"

The cleaner, his eyes twitching, glared at the young man in front of him and roared, "What do you mean 'just'?! Aren't I already in a terrible situation?!"

"Your situation is definitely not that bad."

The young man nodded vigorously and said in a light tone, "You didn't owe any money or take out any loans, you didn't bother your parents, relatives, or friends, and you even kept your house. Brother Shen, you really didn't pay too much tuition fee."

Cleaner: "...But I don't have a single penny on me, and I won't be able to get paid for another two weeks."

The Crimson Prince glanced at the scavenger, whom he found incredibly pretentious, with disdain and asked irritably, "So?"

"So this means that if I don't want to go hungry, I'll have to eat at our club's cafeteria for the next two weeks and become a sacrifice to the old man's 'medicinal cuisine'."

The cleaner stared at the 'Cordyceps sinensis' on the plate, his face pale, his legs trembling like a leaf, and he said in a trembling voice, "Isn't this frightening enough?"

"This……"

The Crimson Prince pursed his lips, but finally nodded helplessly and admitted, "Fine, this is indeed quite scary. I mean, couldn't you just ask a friend for a meal or something?"

"No way. All the people in the club who are close to me have been bribed by Hanmei and Xiaojiu. If they find out that I'm down on my luck, they'll definitely try to coerce and bribe me. I can handle it, but it's still very annoying."

The cleaner sighed, then turned his gaze and revealed a fawning smile, saying seriously to the crimson prince in front of him, "So, considering that I'm so poor yet still treated you to a meal, Your Highness, could you please solve my problem of food before payday?"

The Crimson Prince: "Have you ever seen anyone use such a grand gesture to curry favor with others?"

"Don't say that. I originally wanted to act like a big man who doesn't care about trifles."

The cleaner twitched the corner of his mouth and sighed, "But I just can't bring myself to eat this thing calmly, so I've decided to be honest with you."

"..."

Although the Crimson Prince would have completely ignored this guy before, he now knew that this was the same Crimson Prince who was once a top-tier player from the Crimson Constellation Club, a player who was as dazzling and fleeting as a shooting star. He had indeed learned a lot from the guy. After a long silence, the Crimson Prince finally compromised and said, "Okay, then Brother Shendao, you eat mine too. I'll treat you until you get your paycheck."

"Ah this..."

The cleaner hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "How about I quietly throw these annoying things away..."

"It's a shame to waste."

Just then, the owner of the Crimson Constellation, who on the surface only appeared in public spaces even when entering the [Realm of Innocence], was actually secretly active in the Blood Barbarian region of the Northeast Continent under the identity of 'Romeo Spending the Night with a Pig'. The owner of Romeo, who was very busy both day and night, sat down opposite the Cleaner and said in a muffled voice, "Eat it all."

The Crimson Prince was startled and instinctively cried out, "Uncle Luo! Ah... um... boss..."

"There are no outsiders here, so just call me Uncle. It's been so long, how could that kid Shenqu not know your background? He's really good at background checks."

Luo Ou shrugged, then laughed with great emotion, "Thinking back to more than ten years ago, you were even fooled by your dad into calling me 'brother'."

The crimson prince blushed instantly and stammered, "No, Uncle Luo, I was really ignorant back then. I believed whatever my father said. Please don't..."

"What do I have to mind? If I have kids in the future, I'll definitely trick them into calling you 'Dad,' 'brother.'" Luo Ou grinned, but then his smile froze. He looked down at the highly nourishing cordyceps in front of him and said in a dry voice, "But this old man seems to be even more eager than I am... Is the temptation of holding a grandson really that great?"

"But boss—"

Finally finding an opportunity to interject, the cleaner pointed seriously at the medicinal food in front of him and said in a deep voice, "This thing isn't even food, it's not the kind of food you'd waste if you just threw it away."

“That’s what I just said to the old man, and then he told me…waste is shameful, eat it all.”

Luo Ou sighed and said in a low voice, "I happened to see you two here at the time, and I thought that I couldn't be the only one suffering. Since you were already prepared to come here to eat, you had to come down to this hell with me."

"But boss, I..."

"Shut up and eat!"

"Uncle Luo, I think so too..."

"Shut up, you eat too!"

"..."

……

ten minutes later
Red Constellation Club, 4th Floor Balcony
"Impossible...absolutely impossible..."

Shenqu was squatting on the ground, half-dead, chewing gum frantically and saying through gritted teeth, "Hanmei and the others actually said that there are people in this world whose skills are even more terrifying than the old man's. I will never believe that."

"I can't imagine it either."

Luo Ou took a deep drag on his cigar and said tremblingly, "But judging from the way Meimei and Xiaogang acted back then, they didn't seem to be lying."

"I need to calm down..."

The Crimson Prince slumped on a beach chair and sighed, "Let's just skip today's special training. Since I'll treat you to dinner later, let's rest today, Brother Shendao."

The cleaner rolled his eyes: "No way."

Crimson Prince: "...?!"

"My boss just agreed to give me an advance of half a month's salary."

The cleaner pointed at Luo Ou, who was fuming beside him, and grinned smugly, saying, "So your training can't be less than ten minutes."

"Xiao Shen is right. Xiao Fei, you are at the age where you need to work hard. If you want to avoid taking detours, it is very necessary to learn from the seniors."

Luo Ou grinned, then changed the subject and said, "But Xiao Shen, although I agreed to give you half a month's salary in advance, it's not like it's a free advance. You have to do me a few favors."

"help?"

The cleaner's eyes widened in astonishment. "Still 'a few favors'? Boss, what are you doing?! Let me tell you, I'm now..."

“I know you hadn’t decided whether you wanted to make a comeback.”

Luo took a puff of his cigar and said softly, "But times have changed. Isn't the situation different now?"

"different?"

The cleaner frowned and asked curiously, "What's different?"

"You lost all your savings playing the fund game."

Luo Ou gave a serious 'reminder', then happily gave a thumbs up: "But Uncle is very rich."

Cleaner: "..."

"Return to the main force and lead the [Red Constellation]."

Luo Ou looked calmly at the Cleaner and said in a light tone, "Little Li is a good kid, but he doesn't yet have the ability to balance 'responsibility' and 'passion' in the game 'Innocent Realm'. For him right now, the identity of 'Red Constellation Captain' is actually a burden. But you are different, Little Shen, you are a natural leader."

The cleaner shook his head and said calmly, "I've already stepped down. I only went to help the second team before because Xiao Jiu asked me for help, and these kids were so weak that I didn't feel guilty."

"I know how much the injury has affected you, but I also know that the game [Innocent Realm] can help you rediscover your former self."

"I don't want to look for one."

"No, you want to."

"What kind of domineering CEO statement is that?"

"You just can't find an opportunity, and you don't want to steal the spotlight from the younger generation anymore."

"Uh... Boss, is it possible that I'm only in my thirties?"

"I'll give you the same treatment as Xinglong, and you'll come back to lead the team."

"..."

"If you were here, we wouldn't have lost to [Windbreaker] in the team competition."

"Good grief, so you've taken this to heart?"

"I'm an insider here, after all. If I didn't have this much competitive spirit, I wouldn't be qualified to be your boss."

"I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't ready after all."

"Okay, forget it."

"I already told you, boss, I really... Huh? What did you say?"

"I said, forget it then, since you're not ready."

"You're not going to back out and not give me the advance on my salary, are you?"

"No, your salary will still be advanced."

"Phew, that's too touching..."

"but."

"Tch, I knew it..."

"Go to the Blood Barbarian Region in the Northeast Continent of the [Innocent Realm] and do me a favor."

"what?!"

Chapter 2775: The End