Vol2 Chapter 33: Challenge

It was hard to believe—barely three months at Cassell College, and she was back in China. A bounty had been posted on the Hunter Network: a dragon named Fenrir had awakened in Beijing, with a reward of $100 million.

The news was bigger than the dragon’s awakening itself. Someone called “Prince” had leaked dragon secrets onto the Hunter Network, a site not just for hybrids but also for ordinary people outside their society. This was tantamount to exposing millennia-old dragon secrets to the human world.

A reckless, insane move. After years of silence since the Ice Sea incident, that ID was active again, stirring up something just as attention-grabbing. Cassell couldn’t ignore it—they had to send someone to claim the mission.

So, Bai Ci returned.

Fluorescent lights glowed through choking smoke, punctuated by cheers or curses. Some sweet-talked girls through headsets, while rows of computers lined the room, each battered sofa occupied by an all-nighter, cigarette in one hand, mouse in the other, eyes bloodshot. Blasting rock music leaked from cheap earphones, and the cashier girl slept soundly. All the world’s noise and emotions converged here in a basement internet café in Beijing’s Chaoyang District.

Bai Ci was paired with Zero, but Zero, with her germaphobia, refused to step foot in the café, calling it filthy. Fair enough—neither Bai Ci nor Lu Mingfei cared for overpriced upscale cafés. For gaming, any place would do; Red Alert and StarCraft didn’t need high-end specs.

Lu Mingfei was dominating in StarCraft, crushing opponents left and right. Bai Ci was just as ruthless in Red Alert.

Lu Mingfei’s opponents were left crying for mercy, utterly defeated.

Bai Ci’s approach was unique. As a girl, she didn’t seem like a threat to the pros, who assumed she couldn’t be that good.

Lu Mingfei scoped out the café and told her no one there had faster hands than her. In Red Alert, she’d slaughter them.

In games like these, a one-second delay in deploying your base was a mistake. The slower you were, the faster your base got wrecked.

So, Lu Mingfei came up with a plan and made a sign:

“1v1 Master Match: Lose, pay 5 yuan. Win, be my girlfriend.”

Whoa, that woke everyone up.

She wasn’t a fairy-tale princess, but she was naturally beautiful, her face free of makeup yet stunning. With makeup, she’d be even more striking—and rare! A girl who played Red Alert and looked good? You might not find one in years!

Sure, there were other girls around—like the 200-pound “loli-voiced” beauty nearby. Guess how many wanted to be her boyfriend?

Five yuan wasn’t much, anyway.

At first, a few young guys—high schoolers and twenty-somethings—showed up. They weren’t there to game but to check out the girl, thinking their skills would easily win her over. A girlfriend for the taking, right?

Then her slender, pale fingers danced across the keyboard and mouse, rivaling pro gamers. The crowd’s eyes nearly popped out. The guy across from her, flustered and red-faced, kept slipping up, unable to keep up with her micro. How the hell is her Rhino Tank so nimble and tough? Twisting and dodging, impossible to kill, while his tanks crumpled like paper. Tiny spiders kept popping up to burrow into his tanks, and he was helpless.

Yet she stayed calm, expressionless, fingers flying. She set down her headset, serene, and looked at him.

“Keep going?” Bai Ci said flatly. “You’ve got two tanks left.”

“No way I’m giving up!”

The guy was desperate. Losing at Red Alert—an RTS game—to a girl? That was as bad as being impotent! I’m not done! There’s still a chance!

“Oh.” Bai Ci stopped microing, sending a dozen tanks and conscripts to steamroll him.

“Five yuan.”

He lasted five minutes.

An hour later, the café’s Red Alert players were stunned. This beauty, sipping cola, casually crushed them all, pocketing dozens of yuan. The worst part? Sometimes she’d yawn, hands off the keyboard, playing so carelessly it was an insult. It was like Ximen Chuixue facing Ye Gucheng at the Forbidden City’s peak, but Ximen showed up with a rake instead of a sword—and Ye still lost spectacularly, with no way to save face but to fall on his blade.

Then a real pro stepped up. Brother Kun, the café’s Red Alert legend, sat down, cigarette dangling, oozing swagger with his stylish middle-parted hair. Undefeated in Red Alert, a basketball star, and occasional crooner.

Kun had watched her for a while. She excelled at fast attacks with terrifying hand speed. So he chose a 1v1 on Snowy Lands. Whatever she tried—tank rushes, surprise paratroops, or Kirov swarms—Kun was ready to make her bleed.

Bai Ci’s lips curved slightly. I know every tree on this map.

Victory was assured.

In under twenty minutes, she obliterated him with a French rush. Kun felt her strategy was inhumanly sharp.

Bai Ci glanced at the awestruck crowd and Kun’s near-begging expression.

“Sparring’s fine, but I don’t take disciples.”

She leisurely opened a cola, took a sip, and set it down.

Two minutes later, another player sat across from her.

Bai Ci froze. Lu Mingfei?

Huh? What’re you doing here? Weren’t you playing StarCraft? This was your idea!

“Isn’t that the StarCraft pro from next door?”

“He even beat Doggo!”

“Does he play Red Alert too?”

“This is gonna be good!”

The match began, a crowd gathering behind them. Lu Mingfei sipped a Nutri-Express, white milk stains on his lips.

You think you can win, Lu Mingfei?

Zero stood nearby, holding a candied hawthorn stick, her lips a cold line, but her sky-blue eyes glimmered faintly. The sugar coating gleamed red in the sunlight, the hawthorn’s flesh tempting her to bite.

Her slender figure was framed by golden autumn ginkgo leaves, her icy mask flawless, betraying no emotion except a slight tremble in her fingers, revealing her craving.

“So sweet,” she murmured, eagerly biting a hawthorn, its sweet-tart juice bursting on her tongue.

“Gluttony’s a sin. Get fat, and no one’ll like you,” she recalled Potato Chip Girl’s words. But the sugar’s sweetness neutralized the guilt. Who’d guess this cold girl, a high-purity A-rank hybrid, would feel bliss from a candied hawthorn?

Zero looked up at the sky, clouds swirling like dragons. She slipped the last hawthorn into her mouth, letting the tangy sweetness dance on her tastebuds.

There’s nothing wrong with loving good food…

Beneath her cool exterior, the girl quietly savored her little secret.

In her hands were Daoxiangcun pastries, candied fruit, Tianjin’s Eighteenth Street twists, and Tianfuhao braised pork elbow.

She wanted to wait for them to come out and share it all…