In the afternoon, classes were scheduled back-to-back. Song Fu, who had only eaten a pack of instant noodles for lunch, lay sprawled on her desk and had to consider her survival issues in this small world.
She could ask her family for money, but the result would surely be self-humiliation. Her parents this time had always taken the attitude that as long as their daughter stayed alive, it was fine. Later, she could marry some rich guy, turn around and support her little brother who was over ten years younger, and it was best if she didn’t go too far away.
The female supporting character’s parents had even specially prepared a notebook that recorded every expense from her childhood to now. As soon as the female supporting character had any concept of money, they proudly pulled out the notebook and said these were all debts she had to repay later.
After the female supporting character had a little brother, her parents were even less willing to spend money on her. Every time she wanted some money, she had to endure their nitpicking from head to toe first. Asking for a hundred, she was lucky to get fifty.
[Host, there’s still a box of instant noodles on your dorm balcony.] The System kindly reminded her.
Song Fu had already eaten instant noodles for nearly five days and had reached the point where even thinking about them made her want to vomit. She took a deep breath. ‘Self-heating rice to change up the taste would work too.’
The System said wistfully, [But that’s expensive. The female supporting character couldn’t bear to buy it.]
Fine. She wouldn’t spend a few bucks on self-heating rice, but she bought hundreds-of-yuan lipsticks without hesitation. Song Fu, who was starving until her vision went black, was speechless.
The Old Professor on the podium was lecturing from his ancient slideshow that he hadn’t bothered to update in eight hundred years, then started playing an operation video with Qing Dynasty-era video quality. It was pretty dull, but their school was excellent and hard to get into. Almost everyone who got in wanted to learn, so no one collapsed in sleep en masse.
The only one fighting drooping eyelids was Song Fu.
Although the System had labeled the female supporting character as stupid, truthfully, she was quite sharp when it came to studying. Her grades had always been top of the class since childhood; otherwise, she couldn’t have gotten into this university where the male and female leads attended.
It was just that after entering university, the female supporting character’s energy had all gone into chasing rich second-generation heirs. She wasn’t top-tier beautiful, had strong ulterior motives, and sky-high standards, so she never succeeded in dating anyone. That was why she turned her attention back to the game.
…
After an afternoon of classes, she parted ways with her roommate who was going to the cafeteria to buy food. Song Fu returned to the dorm, soaked instant noodles with hot water, and started the game during the wait.
Song Fu was very satisfied with her in-game character creation. The little face was round and chubby, looking very blessed with good fortune.
【Friend】Yan: Sent you the stuff. Claim it.
【Self】Fu Guang Luo: Got it.
After sending it, Song Fu felt the two words weren’t cute enough, so she quickly added: Thank you, brother.
Then she pulled him into the party to do quests together.
Similar to the common crop collection in the first phase, she didn’t even need to move. She could gather everything at the free market. Beating powerful bosses was effortless with the male lead, who ranked among the top on the Combat Power Leaderboard. So, the only truly troublesome part was the mechanism stages that required coordination to defeat.
This quest clearly wasn’t meant to be done solo. It required splitting actions. The boss had five phases corresponding to the five elements, where one person attacked while the other completed the environment switch to counter it. For example, if the boss entered the water phase, the surroundings needed to switch to the fire plate; otherwise, the boss’s combat power would double to an unbeatable level.
It wasn’t hard for frequent gamers to pick up, but since it was Song Fu’s first time, she didn’t perform well.
Watching the ethereal white-haired character get swept away and fall again, she guiltily bit her lip, hammered the keyboard, and sent apologies rapidly: Sorry, sorry.
【Party】Fu Guang Luo: It was my reaction that was too slow.
She didn’t dare act cute at this moment, saying things like she was a bit dumb or whatever, worried it would piss off the male lead to death. She couldn’t even guarantee it wouldn’t happen next round, because she had zero confidence.
【Party】Fu Guang Luo: I didn’t expect an air wall there. I got blocked and couldn’t make it in time.
【Party】Yan: .
【Party】Yan: Send me your account and password. I’ll have someone else log in and finish the quest.
【Party】Yan: I’ll give you the promised outfit.
Oh, so it could be done like that! Song Fu had just finished typing her account when she heard the System’s alert “ding.”
[Host, you can’t. This is your one-sided way to get closer to the male lead, paving the way to mention forming a Romance later. If he finishes the wondrous encounter quest alone, it changes everything.]
Song Fu paused her hands, rubbing her forehead in headache. Building rapport—she worried that after two more rounds, the male lead would develop a hatred of stupidity. Even in the plot, the female supporting character wasn’t well-liked.
She steeled herself and sent the rejection.
【Party】Fu Guang Luo: …The most important part of gaming is the experience. I still want to do it myself.
【Party】Yan: Are you free to connect voice now?
【Party】Yan: You don’t need to talk. Just listen to my commands.
This she could do. Song Fu immediately agreed.
They were supposed to use YY, but Song Fu clearly hadn’t downloaded it, and explaining would be troublesome. So Yan directly sent his social app account, and the two successfully added each other as friends.
She had thought the somewhat gloomy male lead’s profile pic would be something dark and moody, but it turned out to be a silly-grinning Samoyed, instantly diluting his aloof vibe. Of course, when the voice call connected, Song Fu’s tension didn’t decrease by half a bit. It was even more exaggerated than during the College Entrance Exam, stemming from her lack of confidence in her gaming skills.
“Hello, can you hear me clearly?”
The man’s voice rang out, cool and indifferent, the standard tone of a handsome guy, with a magnetic quality that made her ear tips itch.
Song Fu responded with a somewhat stiff “Mm,” “Yes.”
The other side seemed to pause, then explained the stage’s mechanics in detail. “His phase changes follow the order gold, wood, water, fire, earth. Pay attention to the health bar. Every time it drops by a fifth, go to the corresponding spot and adjust the mechanism. Got it?”
“Yes.” Song Fu obediently replied, adopting her serious class-attending attitude. “But it seems like I just can’t make it in time…”
“You need to head there ahead of time. This time with voice, I’ll tell you when to go.”
“Okay.”
Song Fu exhaled. “Shall we start now?”
“Mm.”
They started right away. The little character on screen moved again, and Song Fu focused twelve times harder on the health bar.
“Wood phase, go gold.”
Song Fu, who had already positioned her character at fire, blanked out. Before she could say anything, she watched the male lead’s character fall again. She weakly apologized, “Sorry.”
Male lead: “…It’s fine.”
He finally realized where the problem was. “Look up the five elements counters and read it twice. It’s gold counters wood, not fire.”
Song Fu’s face heated with shame. Her pale fingertips tapped the keyboard, searching up the info. “Mm-hmm, I get it this time.” She had assumed too much, thinking fire burned wood, but it wasn’t like that. “Give me one more chance. Last one.”
The other side seemed to chuckle lightly, low and mixed with the game background noise, hard to distinguish. “Okay, last time.”
Having found the issue last round, this one went much smoother. In less than five minutes, they successfully killed it.
“Great.” Song Fu quietly sighed in relief. Good, good. Otherwise, she’d find a hole to crawl into. She’d wasted so much of his time; she needed to catch up on progress quickly. “Next, let’s go to the Secluded Valley…”
“Am I awesome?” the male lead suddenly asked.
Song Fu gave him face. “Awesome! Super awesome.”
Male lead: “Why aren’t you calling me brother now?”
Song Fu: “…” Was this sarcasm or what? She needed mental prep because it was embarrassing, but since she was already planning to scam his money, being coy was pointless. “Brother, you’re so—”
Click. The sound of the door opening. Song Fu swallowed the unfinished words as her roommate returned.
“Fu Fu, I bought from the cake shop in the cafeteria…”
Lu Yan Zhi didn’t hear the rest, because the voice call was unilaterally hung up.
His thick eyelashes drooped lightly, his deep black eyes withdrawing from the phone beside him. A university student, huh.
【Party】Fu Guang Luo: My roommate’s back. Not convenient to continue voice.
【Party】Fu Guang Luo: Brother, let’s go to the Secluded Valley.
【Party】Yan: Okay.
After replying, Lu Yan Zhi immediately used a teleport scroll.
With his idle left hand, he rubbed his ear—his first time in eighteen years discovering he had the potential to be a voice fetishist.
The other person’s first words had directly made his heart skip half a beat.
Lu Yan Zhi scoffed lightly. Just calling him brother, and he liked it that much?
On the other side, Song Fu received the puff pastry her cute roommate shared with her, stuffing it into her mouth. The sugar brought a full sense of happiness. She had no idea what the person on the other side of the screen was thinking or feeling. Her attention was now on her over-soaked instant noodles, as if staring would make them teleport straight from the bowl to her stomach.
Her roommate couldn’t stand it anymore and brought it up again. “Are you really not considering a part-time job? If you’re embarrassed about being seen by classmates at the cafeteria, you could tutor outside. Our school’s students make good money tutoring.”
Song Fu didn’t think being seen doing a part-time job by classmates was embarrassing, but the female supporting character definitely would. Tutoring was indeed a good choice, though she still needed to convince the System.
‘I’m not tutoring for food. I’m doing it to maintain my refined appearance, so I need to make money. In a bit, the weather will turn cold, and I don’t even have a single thick piece of clothing in my closet.’
[…Fine.] The System couldn’t bear to let its host eat instant noodles every day either.
Song Fu’s eyes curved happily. “I’ll check this weekend if I can find one.”
Her roommate didn’t catch on. “Find what?”
Song Fu answered: “A tutoring gig.”
Her roommate’s eyes widened. “For real?” She’d said it more than once or twice. “Then can you pay back the money you owe me?”
Song Fu then remembered that the female supporting character still owed her roommate two hundred yuan. Since the female supporting character didn’t care about it, she hadn’t noticed right away upon inheriting the memories.
Song Fu clenched her fist in a cheering pose. “ASAP. Don’t worry.” Worst case, she could do some online interior design sketches or something.