Professor Xie, isn't this a case of forcing customers to buy products that don't match the

Shang Song stared, mouth agape, at Xie Jing's handsome face, now filled with seriousness, his mind buzzing.

Global thermonuclear conflict? Financial system collapse? Asteroid impact?

What on earth is all this?!

Seeing that he didn't speak, Xie Jing kindly added, "Only under a global extreme disaster of this magnitude would those core overseas assets theoretically have the possibility of a complete collapse."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the peaceful New Year's atmosphere before returning to Shang Song's face. "But in that situation, we should prioritize stockpiling survival supplies, establishing shelters, and developing plans for ecological reconstruction and the continuation of civilization. Bankruptcy would be the least important issue."

Shang Song: "………………"

His mind was currently filled with images of nuclear mushroom clouds, asteroid impacts on Earth, and Xie Jing, with his current handsome face, calmly planning a survival strategy in a post-apocalyptic wasteland...

After a full ten seconds of stunned silence, Shang Song grabbed Xie Jing's arm: "Stop! Stop! I was wrong! I shouldn't have asked! Please don't say anything more!"

He was just imagining a scenario where he was keeping a fallen patriarch as a pet, and Xie Jing immediately threw him into an apocalyptic scenario! How could they possibly have a conversation like that?! They couldn't continue!

Let's play video games instead!

He nudged Xie Jing with his head, "Log in, I'll take you to run a dungeon."

After opening the game again, Shang Song calmed himself down for a while and finally resigned himself to taking the pile of costumes, mounts, and special effects out of his mailbox. While muttering "spendthrift" under his breath, he put them on one by one.

He watched as his character kept changing into cool outfits, while the commander standing quietly beside his character was still wearing that drab newbie outfit.

Compared to the other players around him who had come specifically to watch because of the server-wide announcement, dressed in all sorts of cool outfits, this level 8 elementary school student rich kid looked particularly... pathetic.

This won't do! Little Bear Songsong has his pride too! How can his keeper be dressed so shabbily!

Shang Song immediately opened the store, switched to the Commander class category, and directly found the [Dark Night Arbiter] limited set for which he had participated in the special effects design.

It's just spending money, right?! Although it hurts, it's for Xie Jing!

888 Star Coins.

He gritted his teeth, clicked to buy, and then sent it without hesitation, quickly typing in the gift message: "Even Little Bear Songsong's keeper can't dress too shabbily! Wear this!"

[System Announcement] Player "Little Bear Songsong" has gifted the limited-edition legendary outfit [Dark Night Arbiter] to player "Little Bear Songsong Keeper". This gesture of friendship is priceless, and the entire star system celebrates!

If the past ten minutes or so were a time when all players on the server were watching how a level 8 alt account was spending money to top the sales charts and showing their love, then this announcement is a two-way street.

[World] [Comment]: ? ? ? Again?! When will this end?! Slaughtering couples on the first day of the Lunar New Year is bad enough, but twice?! Where's the GM?! Do something about these two elementary school kids who're spending money to show off their love!

[World] [Shandundun]: I'm familiar with this plot. Shouldn't we meet the parents in the next episode?

[World] [Hearing a Breeze]: Reported! Reported! This pair of IDs is so childish! They're obviously in a relationship! @GM-07, quickly check if they're minors who have exceeded spending limits!

[World] [Don't hit me, I'm going to mine]: @GM-07, are you even going to do anything about this?! This sales ranking is being dominated by a level 8 alt account! Is this reasonable?!

[World] [Did you have any extraordinary encounters today?]: I have submitted feedback on the abnormal data to customer service. Waiting for the results. If it's a genuine whale (high spender), then disregard what I said. If it's a hacked account/minor account, please be sure to recover the account and ban it (just kidding).

[World] [cc beats up llq's dog head]: Okay, okay, I just asked my brother, and he said some rich classmates in his class received tens of thousands of yuan in lucky money during Chinese New Year. Maybe it really was a battle between two rich kids over lucky money.

[World] [Chilingyue]: So, is there any GM going to say anything? Are these two accounts safe? Could it really be a case of fraudulent spending?

……

Xie Jing frowned slightly as he looked at the world chat in the game, which was once again buzzing with excitement because of Shang Song's return gift.

Shang Song was already laughing so hard he was practically doubled over. "Hahahaha, Professor Xie, look, we're about to be drowned in the world! Everyone's saying they're going to report us for being elementary school kids stealing adults' credit cards! It's hilarious!"

Shang Song made his game character bounce around a couple of times in the crowd, while Xie Jing's fingertips had already opened the world channel, slowly typed out a line of text, and sent it.

[World] [Little Bear Songsong Keeper]: Adult, with legal source of funds.

This message mingled in the bustling world chat channels, then triggered an even more intense explosion.

[World] [Don't Touch My Energy Bar]: ? ? ? The main character? ? ?

[World] [Pay-to-Win Doesn't Change Fate]: Hahahaha! I'm dying of laughter, folks! This is so childish!

[World] [Please help me out]: Case solved! Case solved! This is definitely a real elementary school student! Only elementary school students would take this seriously when accused of credit card fraud!

[World] [Liang Xiaoyangyang & Mengmeng]: ...Little friend, do you know that in the adult world, people usually ask questions or just say "What's it to you?" in this situation?

[World] [Mining trips nine out of ten times empty]: @Little Bear Songsong Zookeeper, stop pretending, have you finished your homework? Does your mom know you spent 56 yuan on her phone?

[World] [Adventures, quickly swipe my face]: This serious and earnest tone, this elementary school kid must think he's incredibly mature [doge emoji]

……

Shang Song was laughing so hard he almost died laughing, and Lin Zhou, who was not far away, couldn't help but keep glancing over.

"Hahahaha!!!" He laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face, and he was almost about to punch Xie Jing's thigh.

"Why do they think I'm lying?" Xie Jing asked seriously, looking at Shang Song's breathless laughter.

The more serious he became, the more Shang Song laughed.

"Because!" Shang Song wiped away tears of laughter, explaining haltingly, "Because when a normal person is asked that, they either ignore it or yell back. Who would do something like you, so seriously trying to clarify? It just makes you seem like a child imitating an adult! It only makes things worse!"

Xie Jing remained silent for a few seconds, then finally gave up trying to understand this unfamiliar set of network rules. He minimized the world channel page, then retrieved the [Dark Night Arbiter] from his email and clicked to use it.

In the game screen, the level 8 commander with the lengthy ID has shed his simple beginner gear.

Instead, a silver-black commander's combat uniform with mechanically aesthetic lines was adopted.

His demeanor instantly rose from that of a random passerby in the newbie village to that of an ace commander.

"Wow!" Shang Song exclaimed with a laugh, maneuvering his character around Xie Jing's character. "It looks amazing! No wonder I helped design it! Look at the breathing light effect of the energy stone on his chest; I spent ages adjusting that!"

Xie Jing spun the character around, examined it carefully, and then said to Shang Song, who was leaning against him, "Thank you, it's very beautiful."

He naturally guided his in-game character to stand next to Shang Song's character, placing the two side-by-side. "Where do we go next?"

Shang Song's character bounced around a couple of times, "Let's go! Let's take Little Bear Songsong, the zookeeper, to grind some dungeons!"

As soon as Shang Song finished speaking, a team-up request popped up on the screen.

Player "Sky Star" has sent you a team-up request. Do you accept?