Chapter 9

The CD kept skipping, and Su Peng also felt as if some knowledge had been infused into his consciousness.

The CD had only read about one-sixth of its content when it suddenly stopped.

"Your martial arts experience is 25 points, comprehension failed... You have mastered the first three moves of the Baseball Punch." Such a prompt appeared on Su Peng's screen.

Su Peng immediately checked his skill bar and indeed found a new page marked with the Baseball Punch.

He opened it and saw three moves: Charging Cannon Punch, Swinging Horizontal Punch, and Whip Side Kick.

Su Peng equipped the skill and used it, instantly delivering a powerful side kick with momentum, which seemed to have a decent attack power.

"Not bad... I can improve my martial arts experience in the future. Learning the entire set of Baseball Punch is just a matter of time." Su Peng thought, considering this a small surprise.

At that moment, a bell rang in Su Peng's ear, which turned out to be from the real world.

"Alright, it's time to clock out. Everyone, find a safe place to log off!" Lei Ming clapped his hands and said. Although Su Peng and the others were somewhat reluctant, they still pressed the large round button next to the main unit. After about three minutes, their characters turned into faint shadows and disappeared from the game world.

The game pod, which looked like a CT machine, popped open, and Su Peng and the others stepped down from it. Sun Shijia asked, "Team Leader Lei, can we log back in after dinner? I want to level up my profession."

"That doesn't comply with the rules," Lei Ming replied, looking at Sun Shijia. "Newcomers can only log in during working hours. If you want to work overtime, wait until you become a full-time employee. Many dungeons and quests require long hours of play."

"Alright... I understand." Sun Shijia rubbed his nose. Fu Kang patted him on the shoulder, and the two of them prepared to leave the room.

As Fu Kang was about to leave, he glanced back at Su Peng, who was also looking at him. Su Peng nodded at Fu Kang, but Fu Kang's expression was rather cold, and he only slightly nodded before leaving with Sun Shijia.

"Did I offend him?" Su Peng felt a bit puzzled at this scene.

At that moment, Ji Ming walked over from behind Su Peng, glanced at the departing Fu Kang, and said to Su Peng, "My in-game mentor, the old hunter, keeps praising me for selling items at a good price. I have a friend at the butcher's shop, and I heard Fu Kang say the same thing."

Su Peng couldn't help but laugh. He thought it was just a small matter, as Fu Kang felt a bit uncomfortable because Su Peng had given Ji Ming a discount but not him.

"It's a small matter... but small matters can easily cause problems," Su Peng said, not intending to explain.

"Let's go eat," Ji Ming said. Su Peng nodded, and the two of them left the studio.

In the corridor, Su Peng tried to probe Ji Ming, but Ji Ming didn't seem to talk much and didn't reveal any key information, so Su Peng didn't get any news.

The two of them arrived at the cafeteria. Su Peng ordered a cured meat set meal and saw Sun Shijia and Fu Kang sitting at a two-person table, discussing something enthusiastically. Fu Kang noticed Su Peng looking at them but remained cold. Seeing this, Su Peng didn't go over.

After finishing dinner quickly, Su Peng was about to put his tray away when he suddenly stopped in his tracks!

He saw a woman in a light yellow sportswear with a ponytail just entering the cafeteria.

This woman had a delicate oval face and large, lively eyes that seemed to twinkle. Several girls surrounded her.

Noticing Su Peng staring at her, the woman with the ponytail also looked over.

"Hehe..." The girls around her couldn't help but laugh at Su Peng's gaze. Su Peng turned his head away, feeling a bit surprised.

"Hehe..." Seeing him turn away, the girls seemed to laugh even more.

The woman with the ponytail smiled triumphantly and went to get her food with her friends.

Su Peng heard her say, "My watch has been stopping at 1:00 AM lately. Sometimes when I get up to use the bathroom in the morning, I see this time and think it's not yet time, almost causing me to be late for work."

"You're so lazy," a girl beside her said with a laugh, and the group of girls went to eat.

Su Peng sighed lightly, put his tray in the sink, and returned to his room.

He opened his Apple computer on the desk and looked up some things he was interested in.

For example, information about Japan's V mold series, the most advanced technology in motion-sensing games, and the game pod, as well as information about the game he was playing.

However, there was only so much information about the game equipment, and there was no information about the death loop game online.

Thus, Su Peng continued browsing web pages until around 9:00 PM, then opened a video website and watched a few fantasy movies. By 11:00 PM, he seemed tired and, without changing his clothes, fell onto the bed and started to sleep.

About two hours later, at around 1:00 AM, Su Peng suddenly seemed to wake up, stretched his body, looked around, took a pack of cigarettes, and opened the door, heading towards the bathroom outside.

He quickly walked to the public bathroom on the right side of the corridor. Near the bathroom, Su Peng lit a cigarette and then went inside.

"Turn your back to the corridor and block the entrance. This is a blind spot for the cameras, so they can't capture anything here."

A female voice sounded inside the public bathroom.

The bathroom was divided into male and female sections, sharing a sink. At the entrance to the women's section, a woman in a nightgown was leaning against the door.

The woman had a ponytail and was the same woman Su Peng had seen in the cafeteria earlier!

"Doesn't this seem like you're trying to hide something?" Su Peng asked, smoking and turning his back to the corridor.

"I have a habit of coming to the bathroom to smoke at midnight, and the person in charge of the surveillance cameras should be used to it. It's you who might be suspected," the woman with the ponytail said to Su Peng.

Su Peng was quite familiar with this woman...

Her name was Ning Cai.

When Su Peng was a child, he didn't live in this city, but he knew this woman from a small town in the past. They were neighbors, classmates, and even desk partners. It was a twisted fate.

Like all stories of childhood sweethearts, there were plenty of playful fights, territorial lines, and pranks. Young Su Peng enjoyed pranks, and this woman, in her lolita phase, liked to play the role of a police officer.

They had many stories together, but after they both entered junior high school, Su Peng left the small town, and they parted ways. He never expected to meet her again here.

He just didn't know why she was here.

"You actually smoke... Steel Teeth, what do you want from me?" Su Peng asked, exhaling a puff of smoke.

"Cut the crap. Two things: first, pretend you don't know me, and I won't acknowledge knowing you. Second, leave this company, for any reason—car accident, malignant tumor, anything. Just don't touch this game anymore."

"Do you know something?" Su Peng asked Ning Cai.

"Don't ask me. It's for your own good. If something happens, I won't be responsible," Ning Cai said. "After this cigarette, go back. I usually smoke a few in the bathroom, so I won't be suspected if I don't return for at least 20 minutes."

"I won't leave the company, but I won't acknowledge knowing you either," Su Peng said. "We can communicate sometimes and exchange information. What's with the glare? Alright, I know you're upset about my sudden departure. I'll leave now."

Su Peng pressed the cigarette butt into the trash can and left the bathroom.

"Didn't expect... she's here too... She seems to know something," Su Peng thought as he lay in bed after returning to his room.

Since he had already slept for an hour, he couldn't fall asleep again, so he decided to do some Sudoku puzzles stored in his mind to pass the time.

Soon, it was morning...

In the following days, Su Peng followed the company's rules and played the game normally.

In the game, Su Peng did Aunt Li's ingredient collection task every day, earning over ten taels of silver.

The skills he learned at the butcher's shop were practiced to level 10 in three days.

At level 10, the butchering and slaughtering skills evolved into a set of knife techniques!

"Pig Slaughtering Knife Technique: A martial art self-learned through deep understanding of butchering and slaughtering. It targets vital points with the force of a storm. Current level: First Heaven."

This was the description in Su Peng's skill bar.

Opening the skill, he saw six moves: Shoulder Cut, Elbow Cut, Rear Cut, Rib Cut, Leg Cut, and Bone Cut.

This unexpected gain made Su Peng both laugh and cry.

After reaching level 10 in both skills, Su Peng lost interest in working at the butcher's shop. He bought a steel knife from the blacksmith and started leaving the village to kill wild dogs and complete Aunt Li's ingredient collection task.

During this time, Su Peng became quite familiar with the NPCs in the village. He visited the mysterious carpenter Cao's house, where Cao was watering a strangely shaped jujube tree with several large knots on its trunk. Cao was quite friendly when he saw Su Peng, but Su Peng felt, perhaps it was just his imagination, that Cao didn't like him getting close to the jujube tree.

...

In no time, it had been nearly five days since his first log-in.

On the sixth day, Su Peng logged in as usual. In the game, he had been working part-time for Cao the carpenter for the past few days, collecting wood and chopping it. Besides earning more silver, he also learned the skills of chopping wood and cutting trees, which he quickly leveled up to level 10 and learned the Tree Cutting Axe Technique and the Wood Chopping Knife Technique.

At the village entrance, Su Peng could easily kill wild dogs and, with a steel knife and medicine, could kill yellow cattle to get leather and beef for profit.

Each wild dog gave Su Peng 5 points of combat experience, and each yellow cattle gave 12 points of combat experience.

Sun Shijia, Fu Kang, Ji Ming, and others seemed to be developing well, with Sun Shijia and Ji Ming becoming even closer.

...

Su Peng swung his knife at the front leg of a yellow cattle, which mooed and turned its head, its sharp horns aiming at Su Peng!

Su Peng easily dodged to the side and then stabbed the cattle's chest!

"Critical hit! Fatal strike! Bleeding skill activated!"

A prompt sounded in Su Peng's ear. The cattle trembled, taking 120 points of damage, and then fell to the ground.

"You gained 12 points of combat experience," the screen prompted.

Su Peng wiped the sweat from his forehead; this was the second yellow cattle he had killed today.

He skillfully took out a meat knife and used the butchering skill to quickly skin the cattle and cut out the best pieces of meat.

Unexpectedly, this cattle had a large piece of gallstone, which the village chief, Doctor Han, would buy at a high price. Su Peng took the gallstone and a full bag of beef and headed towards the village.

In the distance, smoke rose from the village, and someone's wet firewood was causing black smoke.

Just as he returned to the village, Su Peng faintly heard the sound of galloping horses in the distance.

"They're the bandits from Green Dragon Mountain! Close the village gate! Close the gate!" An NPC in the village, seeing the dozens of fast horses in the distance, immediately showed a look of fear and shouted!