On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

What is the concept?

For a player like him since the server opened, his best contract record so far is only "A-" on the 15th floor. That was only because he managed to snag a fan benefit from a top-tier streamer with great skills.

结果

Now he's been easily surpassed by someone from out of town, a convenience store worker who only earns seven yuan an hour?

what the hell!

"Dude, you...you really haven't played this game before?" the chubby guy asked cautiously. After Liao Ji's actions just now, his attitude towards Liao Ji had changed by at least 90 degrees, if not 180.

"No," Liao Ji replied truthfully.

Seeing the chubby boy's incredulous expression, Liao Ji thought for a moment and then added, "However, I think I've played something similar on the computer before."

Upon hearing Liao Ji's words, the chubby boy finally breathed a sigh of relief; otherwise, he really wouldn't have been able to accept it.

Even so, he was still amazed by Liao Ji's extraordinary talent.

"Dude, you've never played this game, so how do you know the skills and stats of those dozen or so operators on the field?"

"Didn't I see you playing with it for a while? It's not hard to remember, it's quite easy. Just look at it a few more times and you'll understand it."

Uh

The chubby boy tried to see a smug look on Liao Ji's face, but the young man genuinely looked sincere and serious, showing no sign of bragging.

Row.

However, he still has a question, which concerns the final wave.

"Bro, why did you have to sacrifice that Guard in the last wave? It was such a waste of a combatant, I really don't understand!"

"Oh, you mean that time? Because I calculated that the Guardian Operator's skill cooldown, if it relies on automatic recovery, won't be able to catch up with the last wave of the BOSS. But if we let her die once first, and then take advantage of the characteristic mechanism that allows her to immediately release her ultimate skill after reviving, we can save two seconds, which is just enough time for the BOSS to appear."

After listening to Liao Ji's explanation, the chubby boy suddenly understood.

But soon, he gave Liao Ji a strange expression that was hard to describe.

how to say

In order to make his skill ready two seconds earlier, he deliberately sent his subordinates to their deaths. It felt, uh, a bit cruel. It was the first time he had ever heard of such an operation.

Fortunately, Liao Ji doesn't play this game, otherwise the operators he trained would definitely be in a terrible situation.

Inexplicably, the image of Liao Ji using all sorts of strange and bizarre methods to exploit the operators and finally clear the highest difficulty level flashed into the little fat boy's mind.

Speaking of the highest difficulty

The chubby boy's eyes suddenly lit up.

Yup!

Now that there's such a powerful player here, we should hurry up and ask him to help us get more kills!

If you can easily get an "S+" on the 18th floor, then clearing the 19th, 20th, or even 25th floors shouldn't be a problem!

Just then, a new batch of customers entered the convenience store. Liao Jigang was about to get up to go to work when the chubby boy pushed him back down.

"Brother Liao, leave it to me!"

The chubby guy who used to slack off has now transformed into an outstanding employee, taking on all the work of two people, just so that Liao Ji can focus on the back and help him clear a few more levels of the Turbid Calamity Contract.

About fifteen minutes later, the wave of customers finally left. The chubby boy, panting heavily but still full of anticipation and excitement, ran over to Liao Ji to ask about the results. Liao Ji did not disappoint him.

"Holy crap!"

"Awesome, Brother Liao!"

The chubby boy was shocked to see his "S+" ratings for clearing the game. Liao Ji had cleared ten more levels! He only stopped when he reached the twenty-eighth level of the Turbid Calamity Contract, a level he used to be too afraid to even look at.

The little fat boy was completely bewildered as he passed all ten floors, from the eighteenth to the twenty-eighth floor, with a perfect score of "S+".

As for what happened next, it's not that Liao Ji couldn't win, but rather that it wasn't the right time to open up the game yet.

Generally speaking, the last two levels are the grand finale, and they are only opened in the last few days of the event. It's a competition to see who can clear the highest difficulty level in the shortest time.

"Brother Liao, with your talent, why are you still stuck here as a lousy shop assistant? Just start a live stream, become a gaming god and become famous!"

"I, Chen Shuo, have watched quite a few live streams of so-called 'tech streamers,' and to be honest, my evaluation is that they're not even half as good as you, Brother Liao! Damn it, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. Last time I sent them a 1998-yuan rocket, and they only gave me an A- rating. What a damn tech streamer!"

When he got an A- before, the chubby guy was quite happy, but now it doesn't matter. When compared, he feels that those technical streamers are nothing.

"I'll pass on that, and besides, the streamer," Liao Ji shook his head.

In his mind, playing video games is a waste of time and a disgrace; he even thinks it's better to do manual labor than to do manual labor.

The chubby boy immediately understood what Liao Ji meant. He was filled with regret and frustration. However, considering Liao Ji's "country bumpkin" background, Chen Shuo could understand. So he pulled Liao Ji aside and was about to give him a good talking-to.

"Brother Liao, wake up! It's 2051 already. Game streaming is a legitimate profession now, and there are tons of big-money streamers out there! Besides, our game 'Falling II' is one of the hottest mobile games right now, with tens of millions of players. With such a huge player base, Brother Liao, you don't have to worry about not having food to eat! You'll easily make tens of thousands a month, and once you become famous, you'll be making hundreds of thousands, even millions a month!"

As the chubby boy excitedly spoke, he seemed to have completely immersed himself in Liao Ji's role, becoming a top-tier game streamer with millions of fans, enjoying flowers and adulation.

As for Liao Ji, he was indeed stunned for a few seconds after the little fat man's words.

It wasn't because of the chubby boy's own rosy vision of the future, but rather...

"What's the name of the game you just mentioned?"

"The Fall II, what's wrong?"

"It sounds familiar." Liao Ji frowned.

Seeing Liao Ji's expression, the chubby boy waved his hand and said, "Hey, it's normal. I told you this game is very popular, especially in the mobile game circle. Many people at exhibitions will cosplay characters from this game. It's normal that you've heard of it before and it sounds familiar."

However, Liao Ji still shook his head with a furrowed brow.

"No, it feels like I've played it before."

"Have you played it?"

This stumped the chubby boy too. He remembered that Liao Ji had previously said he'd never played this before, only similar games on the computer.

Huh?

Wait!

The chubby boy seemed to suddenly remember something, and said with a slightly uncertain tone, "Speaking of which, when I was browsing the forum before, there was a popular science post that mentioned that the predecessor of 'Falling II' was indeed a computer game."

"However, those are all old games from twenty or thirty years ago. And it's said that the game had terrible reviews back then. People said it was like it was deliberately trying to annoy players, and that the game was extremely difficult. So in the end, only a few tens of thousands of players were interested. It was only popular for a short time, and then the sales plummeted. The company just gave up and even shut down many of the cloud servers, making it impossible for many players who had completed the game to log in to their save files. They probably ran out of money and ran away."

The chubby boy originally wanted to ask Liao Ji if he was playing the previous game, which would explain why Liao Ji was so powerful now.

But then Chen Shuo thought about it again.

That's not right.

These are all old games from twenty or thirty years ago, but judging from Liao Ji's appearance, he's about the same age as him, at most no more than 25 years old.

If Liao Ji really does play around, does that mean he's been playing around since he was in his mother's womb?

"Sorry, I... I might be having some memory problems."

"Falling" did indeed touch Liao Ji, but when Liao Ji tried to delve deeper into finding that touch, the pain of his head being torn apart struck again.

Seeing Liao Ji's pained expression, the chubby boy assumed Liao Ji was a veteran player with strong convictions and passions, so he quickly added:

"It's okay, Brother Liao. You can look it up for me later, or you can just search for the game company 'Senmeng' and maybe you'll find something."

"Senmeng?"

This new term pulls Liao Ji out of "Falling," and there's a strange sense of familiarity about it.

"Yes, Senmeng. Oh, the full name of this game company is Forest Alliance, but we're used to calling it 'Senmeng.' Senmeng is the developer of the current game, Falling II. Since they can release a sequel, they must have some connection with the original company."

"If you're in a hurry, Brother Liao, there's really no way..."

The chubby boy lowered his voice, glanced around furtively, and whispered to Liao Ji:

"I recently got a new girlfriend who works at the reception desk of this building next door. I'll go ask her if she can pull some strings and let us into the building!"

"Put it in the building. Why that building?"

"Damn! Brother Liao, didn't you see? That building next to our convenience store is the headquarters of 'Senmeng'!"

Chapter 323 A Turbulent Night

Liao Ji, who was leaving get off work under the moonlight, hurried home.

He had previously agreed with Nuonuo that he would work until nine o'clock at the latest, and then go home to have dinner together. However, he got so engrossed in the conversation about Little Fatty's "Falling II" that he forgot about the time.

By the time he came to his senses, it was almost ten o'clock.

Nono should be asleep by now, right?

Liao Ji, who was at the door, didn't use the access card Nuonuo gave him, afraid that the sound of the electronic lock opening would disturb Nuonuo. Instead, he used the key to open the door quietly, trying to keep the noise to a minimum.

click

Upon opening the door, Liao Ji breathed a sigh of relief to find the foyer completely dark; he had been worried that Nuonuo was still waiting foolishly for him.

However, when Liao Ji changed his shoes and walked into the living room from the corner, a small orange-yellow table lamp was emitting a faint light on the dark dining table.

By the light of the small table lamp, Liao Ji could see several dishes covered with lids on the dining table, and next to these dishes, a woman lying on the table, as if she had fallen asleep after waiting for too long.

It's early autumn now, and there's no air conditioning in the living room. The temperature is very low, which makes Nono, who is asleep, subconsciously wrap the cloak she's wearing even tighter.

The cloak was the same one he had worn before, and Liao Jineng recognized it at a glance.

However, in Liao Ji's memory, many of the holes and rips on the cloak now show signs of being mended.

Moreover, mending and patching doesn't mean simply and crudely patching things up; rather, it's like pursuing a new art style. Nono wasn't lying to him; she really is very good at knitting clothes.

Both are tattered cloaks, but the latter, with the addition of elements of vicissitude, seems to immediately become different, as if the entire cloak has gained a bit more charm under Sister Nono's sewing.

Yes, besides the dishes covered with plates, there was also a sewing box on the dining table. Liao Ji could already recreate the scene of Nuonuo waiting for him to come home for dinner while mending his cloak.

Liao Ji's heart was clenched tightly; being moved was secondary, he was filled with more self-reproach.

He quickly walked over and gently shook the woman who was asleep on the dining table.

"Nono, Sister Nono."

"Oh, you're back."