Chapter 036: Do I Get Paid to Eat Now?

Lin Jia took the roll of small bills handed over by the restaurant owner without paying much attention, stuffing it into his pocket as he walked out and called back politely, “Take care, boss!” The owner, busy tidying up the mess on the tables, smiled broadly and waved him off, “Safe travels!”

When the three brothers wandered back to the Science Café Internet Bar and pushed open the door, they were immediately greeted by a clamorous noise inside. They thought something big had happened, so they hurried over to look behind the crowd. To their surprise, the players in the internet bar were exclaiming, “Look! Look! It’s a GM! Damn, he’s wearing heavy armor!”

“Wow! The female priest next to him, could she be a GM too? The skeleton beside her is a level 19 skill for priests! Damn, I fought zombies all night and didn’t get a single skill book! Tsk tsk! The first one to have a skeleton! So cool!”

“Go ask the GM for gear!”

“Nonsense! Do you really need to say it? I’ve been pestering him for ages, but he’s ignoring me!”

“Idiots! Of course the GM won’t just hand out equipment to you. Do you think this is ‘Jianghu Chatroom’!?”

The three brothers glanced at each other, stuck out their tongues secretly, and slipped upstairs to their private room. It turned out Lin Jia’s little mage, dressed in warrior’s heavy armor, had caught the players’ attention. Almost no one had seen a player wearing heavy armor, so they mistook Lin Jia’s mage for a GM, which nearly made the brothers laugh themselves silly. Still, it put them on alert.

Although the heavy armor was indeed earned by the three brothers, they weren’t sure if the monster respawning at the corner was a bug or not, especially since Lin Jia’s level 20 mage was wearing it before hitting max level. If a GM noticed, they could be banned for suspected cheating. They knew from experience that account bans for such incidents were not uncommon in games they’d played before, so better to keep it quiet for now.

As the three headed upstairs, a burly, shirtless middle-aged man wearing a greasy apron burst through the internet bar’s door, anxiously scanning the room. He looked at every machine but didn’t find what he was looking for, muttering curses under his breath as he left with a sour face. Many players looked at him perplexed, thinking someone must have gotten into a fight with the apron-clad man and he’d come in to settle the score.

Once upstairs, Lin Jia and his friends entered the private room and felt a coolness envelop them, their sweat quickly drying off. Maybe they’d eaten too salty earlier. Lin Jia picked up the teapot steeped with chrysanthemum tea to pour himself a cup, but the three had finished it all that morning, and none of them bothered to refill or steep more. Now, thirsty and wanting a drink, there was no iced tea left.

“I’ll just go downstairs and buy a big bottle of Pepsi!” Lin Jia was parched, digging out some money from his pocket and said to the fourth brother, “Hey, could you run over? The big bottle at the shop next door is only 6.5…”

“Alright!” The fourth brother stood back up just as he’d sat down, but paused when he saw Lin Jia pull out a wad of bills, blinking as he counted them on his fingers, trying to figure something out. The fourth brother asked, “What’s up? He gave you the wrong change? Go back and ask him!”

Lin Jia looked up in surprise, “Yeah, he did! But not less, a lot more!”

“Huh?” The eldest and fourth brother nearly fainted. How could he eat a meal and still get the wrong change from the owner—especially getting more money back?

“How much extra did he give you?” The eldest brother was delighted, leaning in. More money was always welcome.

Lin Jia calculated aloud, sorting through the wad of small bills, “Eggplant in soy sauce, 6; shredded pork with green pepper, 8; pickled vermicelli, 6; five beers, 7.5…” He raised a 50-yuan note, saying, “I gave him 50 yuan, and he gave me back 173… Damn, how did he calculate that?” Lin Jia was baffled, staring at two fifties, three twenties, a ten, plus three small coins in his hand.

The eldest and fourth brother were speechless. The eldest couldn’t help saying, “So we didn’t pay for the meal, and he gave us 123 yuan extra? That’s nuts! Is that even possible?” The three brothers exchanged dumbfounded looks, then burst into wild laughter.

“Perfect! Here’s your money back! I was just about to give it to you anyway!” Lin Jia wiped tears from laughing as he handed 170 yuan in bills to the eldest brother, then dug out thirty coins from his pocket and gave them to her, finally settling his debt.

“So heavy!” The eldest brother complained as he stuffed the pile of coins in his pocket, weighing them in his hand.

“Heavy?” Lin Jia grinned, “I’ve got over fifty more!” He slapped his thigh, making the coins in his pocket jingle. The unexpected windfall had clearly put Lin Jia in a good mood, and he laughed, “We better not eat at that little restaurant again! Otherwise the owner will chase us through eight blocks with a knife!”

The fourth brother took the opportunity to run downstairs and buy a bottle of cola, pouring everyone a glass before diving into the game. Lin Jia’s knack for stumbling upon money had become so common that they barely batted an eye, just laughed it off.

“Damn! Seems even laggier than this morning!” The eldest brother moved his priest character around to test the smoothness, only to find that after two or three steps, the character would freeze for nearly a second as if time had stopped.

“There are more people online this afternoon than this morning, so the lag’s worse! No wonder the guys downstairs aren’t leveling up, just hanging out in the safe zone watching the spectacle!” The fourth brother squeezed his character out of the safe zone.

“Should we still go level up? I’m just a little away from leveling,” Lin Jia said, looking at his experience bar, which was nearly full.

“Of course!” The fourth brother checked his own experience bar, slightly behind Lin Jia’s, and replied, “I’m almost leveling up too! Anyway, no one’s fighting monsters in the second floor of the Fragrant Stone Crypt, so even if we die, there are three of us—no worries about losing gear! Just be careful, and we’ll be fine. The eldest brother’s the only one at risk!”

The eldest brother jogged around again, testing the lag, and said, “Sure, it’s a bit laggy, but nothing serious. I’ll buy more random teleport scrolls—if things go wrong, I’ll teleport out, and you two stay safe inside!” With the eldest brother’s approval, the other two stocked up on potions and headed back toward Fragrant Stone.

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(Trouble: Two chapters updated in a row, don’t miss the previous one, guys! Yep, let’s keep going! If you’ve never heard Wuhan dialect and can’t feel the flavor of the slang in the story, click the link below and listen to a very cheeky Wuhan song to get the vibe! Boohoo, off to work now! See you tomorrow morning~ tears~~~)

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