Chapter 5

At half past nine the next morning, the SF Express courier arrived at the Blue Sailboat Internet Cafe.

Chen Bin rubbed his bloodshot eyes, took the account card off the reader, carefully wrapped it in three layers of foam, put it in the card box, filled in the address of the Dragon Chant Team, handed it to the courier, then took the key and went to his bedroom, falling asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

Around noon, Lan Bai kicked the door from outside: "Hey, the new server is about to open, don't you want to get up and have lunch?"

At two o'clock in the afternoon, *Jianzhan* was set to update its third expansion pack—Bloody Mountains and Rivers.

With this expansion, two new telecom servers, Yunwu City and Qin Yu Tower, and one new network server, Night Song, would be added. The level cap would be raised to 85, and a new set of nine military camp dungeons would be introduced, along with the battlefield system and military merit reputation equipment.

"It won't kill me to go in a bit later..." Chen Bin yawned and turned over to continue sleeping.

"You will die—literally die!" Lan Bai directly used the spare key to open the door and dragged Chen Bin out of bed without any hesitation.

Chen Bin, still dazed, washed up and then yawned his way to the computer room. Lan Bai stopped him at the door, glancing at his messy hair: "No, are you going in like that?"

"What's wrong? Is there a girl?" Chen Bin, with dark circles under his eyes, asked listlessly.

"How did you know..." Lan Bai, with an APM of over 200, closed the door and pushed Chen Bin back to his room.

"This is the end of the second floor, with only one computer room and three and a half bedrooms. It's just you and me living here. Do you really need to be picky about my hair?" Chen Bin shrugged and said calmly.

"Hair?" Lan Bai looked at his messy hair speechlessly. If this could be called hair...

"Do you have scissors?" Chen Bin rummaged through his drawers.

"Check the cabinet by the window. Wait, what do you need scissors for?" Lan Bai looked at Chen Bin in confusion.

Next, Chen Bin found a pair of scissors in the cabinet, stood in front of the mirror, and with a few swift cuts, shaved off all his hair.

Surprisingly... it didn't look bad at all.

Lan Bai was stunned. If they hadn't lived in the same dorm for four years and known each other so well, he wouldn't have recognized this young man with the new haircut as Chen Bin.

"Your skills are pretty good." Lan Bai said with a smirk.

"This is called fine control, you don't understand!" Chen Bin smiled and walked out of the bedroom.

"Hey, the world has really changed. When did it become your turn to show off your skills in front of me..." Lan Bai followed closely behind.

Entering the computer room, Chen Bin smelled the aroma of food. His stomach growled in response, and he saw a girl in a pink dress setting the table behind the neatly arranged five computers. The girl turned around and smiled at them when she heard the door open.

Her smile was sweet, and she had two dimples on her cheeks.

"A college student from a nearby school, I hired her to cook." Lan Bai saw Chen Bin raising his eyebrows and added, "If it weren't for you, a foodie, I wouldn't have bothered to hire anyone."

"Oh..." Chen Bin drew out the word meaningfully.

"I knew it!" Lan Bai cursed and went to the small kitchen in the computer room to help the girl serve the dishes.

Chen Bin ate two bowls of rice without any decorum, then grabbed the last grilled chicken leg and turned on his computer to log into the game.

It was already 1:40 PM, and the three new servers were still closed.

But, one could imagine how many players were waiting at their computers to enter the new server.

Chen Bin and Lan Bai were waiting to enter the new server, while the girl had already washed the dishes and was watching a movie. This was the deal she had with Lan Bai: she didn't want a salary for cooking, but she required room and board and internet access.

The server was still in the countdown, and Chen Bin glanced over. The cute girl with the sweet dimples and excellent cooking skills was watching *The Walking Dead*...

These days are too dangerous; one wrong move and your worldview shatters.

The game area of the Blue Sailboat Internet Cafe was packed today, with many non-game area computers being occupied by *Jianzhan* players. Lan Bai temporarily hired three nearby students to work as part-time network administrators, and everything went smoothly.

Every time a new *Jianzhan* server opened, it meant a large influx of players. Some were experienced players who hadn't done well in the old servers, but more were new players who had just entered college, freed from the pressure of the college entrance exam, and suddenly had a lot of time to play games.

The server opened on time, and Chen Bin and Lan Bai chose the Yunwu City server on the telecom network.

Chen Bin created a character: Zero.

Lan Bai created a character: Night Walker.

After the familiar introduction, they stood in the newbie village and sighed simultaneously.

They had expected a lot of people, but not this many. It was a testament to the *Jianzhan* company's server capabilities that it could handle such a massive influx of players. In the past, no server opening had ever been this crowded.

"What do we do?" There were too many people, and Lan Bai was already in a state of wanting to throw his keyboard.

"We can't get to the newbie NPCs right now. How about we go hunt the flower thieves? The non-quest monster areas should be empty."

"Flower thieves... those level 5 humanoid monsters?"

"Seems like it." Chen Bin had only a vague memory.

"Do you remember the coordinates?" Lan Bai picked up the mouse again.

"No..."

"Do you remember which monster area?"

"No..."

"Do you remember which gate to leave the newbie village?"

"No..."

"Damn it!"

The last time they were in the newbie village was nine years ago.

The newbie village had undergone several changes, with a new monster area added each time. Now, there were eight monster areas near the newbie village.

"Let's just split up and find the monsters. With our skills, it's not a big deal to level up a few levels in the newbie village, and we don't need to team up."

Chen Bin left the newbie village through the southern path, and Lan Bai went through the northwest gate.

As soon as they split up, the girl watching *The Walking Dead* turned her head and stared at Chen Bin's screen.

"I've seen videos of this game online." The girl said after a while.

"Oh? Have you played it?"

"No, it seems too complicated. I'd rather learn a couple of new dishes in that time, but I have an idol in this game."

"An idol? Who?"

"Her name is Lin Wei."

"Besides Lin Wei, who else? Shen Zuige? Liu Lika? Or... Chen Bin?" Lan Bai laughed as he ran.

"No one else."

"No one else?"

"I only know Lin Wei. I don't know the others..."

"Ha, Lin Wei is indeed pretty good." Chen Bin nodded.

"No, I don't idolize her because she's good at the game."

"Then why?"

"Because... she is extremely, extremely beautiful!" The girl answered very seriously.