Chapter 58 S.H.I.E.L.D. Has a Mission

0:36 AM on April 4th.

After having some late-night beer and taking advantage of a slight buzz to sleep for two and a half hours at a proper little foot-washing parlor, Dachun deliberately dragged his feet until this exact moment to return to the internet café. After all, the more elite a player was, the more they cared about midnight—the time the rankings refreshed—and the harder they would grind until the very last second before twelve... But he refused to do that! This was called the poise of lying flat.

Upon returning to the internet café, the usual dead silence of the late night was completely absent, replaced by a bustling uproar.

Dachun was startled: "What's going on?"

The assembled gaming masters greeted him: "Brother Chun is here! It's a massive PK battle for the village between professional teams outside of Silver City!"

Though he desperately wanted to log in and check the fruits of his labor over the past three days, when things got urgent, one must not rush; it was better to chat with everyone for a bit first: "Are you all paying attention to the Silver City village battle? What about the villages in Iron Black City?"

Everyone replied with exasperation: "There's no suspense left there, right? All three villages must have been occupied by the big shots camping the gates, and not a single shred of news is getting out."

Alright, let's change the subject: "Then have the professional teams upstairs gone into battle?"

"That's the last remaining seedling of our national server right now! They just finished a fight and occupied Silverlight Village, and they're looking pretty fierce!"

"If they really manage to hold Silverlight Village, it's basically equivalent to having a direct minting machine. They're going to strike it rich."

"Right now, Beauty Ning from their guild is live-streaming. Let's switch to her streaming channel so Brother Chun can have a look."

"She's a professional female pro gamer, and she's right upstairs—talk about proximity leading to success. Only Brother Chun has the clout to go and meet her."

Dachun panicked: "Stop, stop talking nonsense!"

Everyone burst into laughter: "We aren't talking nonsense, we're being 100% serious!"

Just at that moment, the scene on Ningning's stream shifted: "We were able to achieve such a crucial victory thanks to the assistance and defense provided by the beautiful guild led by River Free-Floater..."

Dachun was suddenly stunned. It was actually Old Jiang! He was on a live stream!

"Brother Free-Floater is also a top-one-thousand celebrity in the China region, and his female guild members number as many as seventy-two. They call it the Three Palaces and Six Courtyards—"

River Free-Floater hurriedly interrupted: "Ah—well, as for this, our Firmament guild is also a well-known esports team in Shenjiang City, holding top-tier national strength. As a Shenjiang player, of course, I support the Firmament guild..."

Dachun was shocked to hear this! Although he knew the guy was obsessed with female streamers, he never imagined there were as many as seventy-two of them...

The gathered gaming masters, however, showed utter disdain: "He's purely dragging a bunch of female players out to distract the attention of other guilds."

"Shameless, but effective!"

"He's a big boss, he can afford to play like that."

"I really dislike watching Goddess Ning and this kind of middle-aged lech chatting and laughing together."

Dachun was actually quite amused. So this was Old Jiang's reputation? To be honest, hearing others speak ill of him felt rather uplifting.

Just then, River Free-Floater's speech stuttered noticeably: "Damn, the server room... has been hacked..."

Then, both he and his entire retinue of female guild members went offline.

This threw Goddess Ning into a panic as well: "It seems Brother Free-Floater is experiencing abnormal circumstances. At this crucial moment of defending the village, we hope he can resolve the malfunction quickly..."

Dachun couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat for him either. Going offline in this game wasn't like traditional MMORPGs; player characters wouldn't simply vanish from the world. A normal logout could only happen in safe environments with free idling or inns. In the middle of a village defense battle like this, he would just have to pray for his own luck.

Anyway, they had chatted for quite a while. Time to head back to the private booth.

Right at that moment, Dachun's phone rang. Pulling it out to look, it was unexpectedly River Free-Floater! Holy shit, holy shit, could it be because he was hacked?

Dachun hurried back to the private booth, closed the door, answered the call, and put on a voice as if he had just been woken up: "Are you annoying or what?"

Actually, he didn't even need to fake it; he *was* genuinely annoyed! He still wanted to log in and check his automated idling status.

Old Jiang was frantic: "Brother Chun! You are my own dear brother! You're the master! My server room has been hacked, and I can't find anyone else in the middle of the night, I can only turn to you! Save my life!!"

Dachun retorted irritably: "You make it sound like finding me in the middle of the night is a guaranteed thing?"

Old Jiang laughed: "Didn't I know Brother Chun suffers from insomnia? You definitely wouldn't be asleep at this hour."

"I had *just* managed to fall asleep, alright..."

Complaining aside, seeing someone in trouble meant he still had to rescue them. Dachun helplessly tidied up his tablet briefcase: "Wait for me."

"Hurry, hurry! I'll send the company's location to your phone."

"What's with the rush? Is this the attitude of someone begging a deity for help?"

"Yes, yes, I'll go burn incense right away..."

Hanging up the phone, Dachun slung his bag over his shoulder and hurried downstairs. Seeing Dachun's aura of getting down to serious business, the group of gaming masters tacitly refrained from teasing him. They quietly and uniformly watched him off as he went to hail a cab...

Then they began whispering among themselves: "I told you, the S.H.I.E.L.D. mission has arrived!"

"Holy shit! Is he going to fix the server room for River Free-Floater?"

"Keep dreaming! Is River Free-Floater even worthy? Getting your server room hacked usually takes down a whole cluster at once..."

...

Up on the third floor, at the Firmament training base.

Captain Qingfeng was pacing anxiously by the windowsill. Although they had just seized a short-lived victory over Silverlight Village, the price paid was heavy, and many allied studios had been forced back to the main city. Only River Free-Floater's female guild remained. Though their skill level was quite average, they were all crucial healing Holy Paladins, and at this stage, mindless healing didn't really require much skill.

As a result, another accident happened—River Free-Floater and several other studios got hacked!

At this time, Ningning had also turned off her live stream. In such a dangerous moment, daring to keep the stream running was tantamount to exposing their own weakness.

"Peak Brother, if we can't hold it, what do we do?"

Qingfeng sighed helplessly: "The enemy is willing to throw away even their commercial reputation just to mess with us, which means they think it's worth it. What else can we do?"

Ningning sighed: "Compared to the ultimate selling point of mining for profit, even the worst reputation doesn't matter anymore—huh?"

Ningning pointed downstairs: "Isn't that Brother Chun? He's shouldered his tablet bag and gotten into a cab."

Qingfeng's hope instantly flared up: "Could he be—"

Ningning whipped out her phone and started taking pictures!

Qingfeng was stunned: "What are you doing?"

Ningning laughed: "Posting on my Moments! He can fix machines, drop holy artifacts, and spread the plague, plus his identity is mysterious—just how much conversational topic value is that?!"

Qingfeng sighed helplessly: "Won't posting that randomly cause trouble for the guy?"

Ningning hummed: "They're all just my close girlfriends in my circle, what do you mean by posting randomly..."

Qingfeng sighed: "We might still need to negotiate business with him later..."

Ningning smiled: "Oh, so Peak Brother finally admits he's an expert?"

Qingfeng sighed resignedly: "What kind of expert spends precious gaming time fixing computers? If you or I had the opportunity to drop holy artifacts and be exiled to a hidden map, our progression would be calculated by the second. We wouldn't even have time to go to the bathroom."

Ningning sighed: "That's true. Hearing the younger girls downstairs say he always acts so casual whenever he goes out and always smells of alcohol, he's really wasting such opportunities—only, if this exiled island really is just an island without any NPCs or opportunities, how would Peak Brother develop if you were the one sent there?"

Qingfeng chuckled: "I would light lamps at night, making the whole island brilliantly lit so that passing NPC ships around us could see it. Then various legends about a plague island would spread across ports everywhere, and wouldn't opportunities just come knocking like that?"

Ningning widened her eyes: " Wow, manufacturing opportunities where there are none—Peak Brother, you really are an expert!"

Qingfeng remained unimpressed: "What's so great about that?"

"I wouldn't have thought of it!"

"You wouldn't think of it because you aren't in that situation..."

Just then, a team member reported: "Captain, the opposing guild has started gathering outside the village!"

Qingfeng's gaze instantly turned sharp and cold: "They think that because the hack succeeded, we're going to cower? We'll strike right as they're gathering! Ningning, Pig God, the three of us will charge out from the main gate, and the second team will flank from the side door..."

"Received!"

...

1:50 AM.

Even at this hour, Shenjiang displayed the flair of an international metropolis, with traffic flowing endlessly like a roaring stream.

Taking advantage of a traffic jam, Dachun managed a quick half-hour nap and finally reached his destination: a media company named Free-Floater Tech and Media, sandwiched snugly between rows of motels and restaurants, its neon sign flashing brightly.

Old Jiang was waiting anxiously by the roadside, eyes straining: "Brother Chun is finally here! Strictly speaking, I should have driven to pick you up myself—"

Dachun cut him off frantically: "Don't bother picking me up! As a top-tier grandmaster engineer, I hate that routine the most. Let's head straight to the server room."

As soon as they stepped inside, a strong temple-like aroma hit their noses. Dozens of beautiful women were lined up on both sides, each holding a stick of burning incense and bowing: "Welcome, Brother Chun!"

This formation left Dachun dumbfounded: "What is going on here?"

Old Jiang pressed his palms together in a Buddhist greeting: "It's the attitude of begging a deity for help! They've already burned two rounds of incense."

Holy shit! No... wait... Old Jiang had actually gathered dozens of beauties onto a single floor! Damn it, even if this wasn't the Three Palaces and Six Courtyards, it sure looked like... outsiders would mistake it for a movie set!

A wave of unprovoked jealousy welled up inside Dachun, and he suddenly didn't want to help him anymore! This middle-aged lech deserved to run out of oil and drop dead!!

Arriving at the server room, Dachun—being somewhat familiar with the ropes—spotted the root cause of the malfunction at a glance. He handed his phone to one of the beauties: "Beauty, help me record a video! President Jiang, stand by my side and pose like you're inspecting my work. None of the other beauties are allowed in the frame, got it?"

Old Jiang laughed: "For the sister-in-law to see, I presume?"

Dachun replied irritably: "Why else would I come out in the middle of the night?"

Old Jiang chuckled: "How can a photo op lack a female secretary? You there, Zisu, come stand by my side and strike a classy pose..."

Finally, after a flurry of busyness, the job was done.

Old Jiang grew impatient: "Everyone, log back online!"

Having known him as a slacker for all these years, this was genuinely the first time Dachun had seen him take a task so seriously.

Well, better not to disturb him and quietly slip away.

...

Just as he got into the return taxi, Dachun's phone chimed with a transfer notification—it was a whopping ten-thousand-yuan transfer.

Dachun was stunned: "What is the meaning of this?"

"Brother Chun, you left before we even had a chance to talk about you taking the supervisor position! You saw my environment here; normally there's nothing much to do except hang out with pretty girls and play games. Plus, my company over there keeps me busy and I'm not around often..."

Dachun helplessly replied: "Does your company over there even need you to be busy anymore? You've stopped holding morning court with officials from this day forth! President Jiang, please take care of your imperial body!"

"I'm being serious!"

"I'm being serious too. Are you joking with this money? What does this even mean? I'm not taking it; keep it to tip female streamers instead."

"Fine, fine, you're so noble, you're so awesome..."

To be frank, given the kind of stuff his character was pulling off in-game, how could he dare to openly expose himself? Hang out with pretty girls and play games? God knows what kind of trouble he'd drag this company into...

...

At 4:00 AM, Dachun finally returned to the internet café. Though his heart was racing to get back to the game, he still forced himself to maintain a leisurely, exhausted pace.

The front desk clerk, however, was full of energy: "Welcome back, Mr. Ding!"

The group of gaming masters beamed with high spirits: "Good morning, Bureau Chief!"

"Brother Chun, the Firmament guild upstairs successfully defended the village."

"At the critical moment, River Free-Floater's female guild reconnected in full force and healed them when the enemy least expected it..."

"Don't celebrate too early; that's just holding off one wave. They'll mobilize even more people to besiege them next."

Dachun felt both relieved and helpless. Did these guys firmly believe he went out just to fix machines for River Free-Floater? This, this, this...

Better hurry back to the private booth for the main business. Who knew what state his character was in after idling continuously for six or seven hours?