Chapter 41: Selling Friends for Glory

In order to save the mirror, he needed to become a high level player first. Only then would he be able to explore the truth about the system.

But he had to remember that he could not be impatient. If he became impatient, it’d be easier to fall into the system’s traps. It was better to go step by step.

He also didn’t need to take the initiative to kill other players. He could take action if he needed to defend himself or if it was a match against other players, but killing just for 1000 points wasn’t Xing Ye’s style. He still needed to guard his bottom line. He could not cross it.

The most important thing was to make himself stronger.

After talking with the mirror until he was tired, Xing Ye laid on the bed and took a nap. After about an hour, he opened his eyes and took out a paper and pen to practice drawing QR codes on the table.

He was practicing the QR codes for the piano, Peaceful Spirit’s Tune, and the three QR codes he saw in Guan Ling’s hand earlier. Right now, those were all he could use.

When Xing Ye said he could draw a QR code in 30 seconds, he wasn’t exaggerating. It was possible if he kept practicing and made a foundation. Furthermore, he needed to keep drawing each and every QR code countless times in order to reach such a speed.

Such speed would also only be possible for three days at most. If more time passed without practicing, it would be easy to forget and get confused.

In fact, the only QR code Xing Ye had currently memorized was Peaceful Spirit’s Tune. After all, he had spent all of last night drawing it. His memory of the other QR codes had already gotten a bit fuzzy. However, he had already drawn them out earlier before he forgot, giving him something to refer to as he practiced.

After practicing for around two hours, Xing Ye got a text from Cao Qian.

Cao Qian: I paid somebody to watch Bai Xu and Di Kuang’s group. She and Di Kuang had contact and are meeting in the gymnasium.

Sure enough, she hadn’t listened to what Xing Ye said earlier about resting. However, Xing Ye was the same, frantically practicing, so he didn’t have the right to say anything.

The problem was...

Xing Ye: Who did you hire? Where did you get the money from?

Cao Qian: I need you to send me ten thousand, they’re still waiting to be paid. I’m not as upfront as you. Our friend circles are different and I didn’t make a group or anything. I just offered 200 per piece of information and asked a few girls I’m close with.

Xing Ye immediately sent Cao Qian 100,000 over and told her she could be even bolder.

Cao Qian: To prevent anybody from suspecting me, I told them that I had a crush on senior Di Kuang but he seems to like his classmate, Bai Xu. They seem to be together often, so I hoped my friends could help me see if there’s anything ambiguous between them.

Xing Ye: ...

Very good, this excuse was much better than how he just wantonly threw money around. It also fit Cao Qian’s character very well, so it wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

The things girls pay attention to would always be different from a man’s, but Cao Qian’s strategy really was smart.

He looked at the photo of Di Kuang and Bai Xu. It was taken during lunch break. Di Kuang was playing basketball, with Mr. Deng as referee, while Bai Xu watched at the side. Guan Ling and Wu Yu were rushing about, picking up the basketballs.

There was also a picture of Bai Xu passing Di Kuang a towel. The two’s relationship seemed very intimate.

They were in contact with Bai Xu in the daytime and also met at the gymnasium last night.

Xing Ye stared at the photo and recalled Zeng Jingrou saying Bai Xu was very kind and gentle, often taking special care of her.

At this moment, Cao Qian sent him the third year girls’ impression of Bai Xu.

She was pretty, smart, well-mannered, and liked to help others- outstanding in every way. The third year girls all told Cao Qian to give up. If Bai Xu really liked Di Kuang, Cao Qian didn’t have any hope.

They seemed to be describing an entirely different person from the one last night. In fact, their description actually seemed quite similar to Liu Muqing back in the day.

Xing Ye started from the piano so from the very start, he was looking at everything through Lin Jingxue’s point of view. Following those clues, he saw how Bai Xu was last night first-hand. However, Di Kuang’s group started from “Mona Lisa’s Slight Smile” and found the owner of the painting from the office, using that to get in touch with the daytime Bai Xu.

Xing Ye didn’t hide anything and really told Di Kuang everything. However, Di Kuang might not have completely believed him, or had his own ideas.

The video recording could be deciphered differently if put under another pretext.

Xing Ye immediately sent Cao Qian a text: Are they still in the gym?

Cao Qian: They’ve already gone to class. The students have all left, leaving Mr. Deng alone in the gym.

Xing Ye: Then let’s go take a look.

Cao Qian had long been waiting to move. The two met at the gym.

The current class wasn’t using the gym. If Mr. Deng wasn’t in the exercise room, he should be in the equipment room or office.

The gym door was locked and they didn’t have a key. However, it was no problem with Cao Qian. Strength was something very useful- with a kick, the door fell open. Fortunately, the gym was in a rather remote area of the campus, so apart from the Mr. Deng who was in the room, nobody else heard.

Xing Ye sighed. He would have to take the blame for this and the headmaster would probably pay another call to his dad.

When he went to school, the headmaster had never called his family and his parent-teacher conferences were always just full of praise. After entering the game, he finally knew what having a rich dad that covered everything felt like.

It was actually pretty good.

Xing Ye discovered that he actually quite liked this unconditional, loving-type spoiling. However, raising a child like that also made it very easy for them to go astray.

The sound of the door getting kicked open startled Mr. Deng. He ran out, and upon seeing Xing Ye and Cao Qian, took out his phone without another word. Cao Qian just casually grabbed one of the basketballs that fell when she kicked the equipment room door open and threw it at Mr. Deng’s arm, forcing him to drop his phone before he could press anything.

This was also one of the game’s loopholes. In order to use QR codes, the players have to tap their phone or the bracelet. In contrast, starting abilities were much more flexible. As long as they allow points to be deducted automatically, they could just use their mind to activate it.

For somebody like Cao Qiao, whose starting ability granted her speed faster than the human eye could perceive, it would be very difficult to beat her in a real fight. He could only use his starting skills if he stopped her first.

“Beat him. Don’t get close, just beat him from afar.” Xing Ye ordered, “Later, you can push all the blame for breaking the door and beating Mr. Deng on me. My dad will deal with it!”

Cao Qian couldn’t help but pause there. His words were seriously too infuriating, a true example of a hedonistic son with rich parents.

Sports equipment was what the gym lacked the least. With Cao Qian’s boosted strength, she could even use a treadmill as a shot put ball.

And so, a petite girl, not even 160 cm tall, stood there with an elliptical in one hand and a treadmill in the other, throwing them at the far away Mr. Deng.

If he got smashed by it, then even if he didn’t die, he’d at least leave with a serious injury. However, the treadmill didn’t end up landing on Mr. Deng. He had suddenly reappeared somewhere else.

It was like teleportation or some other ability. However, wasn’t teleportation as a starting skill a bit too overpowered? If he had such an ability, why would Mr. Deng lower his head to work with others?

There had to be some restriction.

Xing Ye wasn’t idle while Cao Qian was attacking. He activated Redrawing Pen and drew a QR code in the air. As soon as Mr. Deng escaped the treadmill, a piano about half the size of an ordinary one dropped from the sky.

Even if it was half the size, it was still a piano!

But when the piano dropped down, Mr. Deng reappeared again at another location.

Xing Ye continued: “Keep attacking, there has to be a cooldown on his ability. Don’t forget that he has two abilities; the other might be an attack skill.”

Even the little mirror’s Otherworldly Beauty had a three hour aesthetic fatigue cooldown. There was no way Mr. Deng’s teleportation didn’t have one. Xing Ye didn’t believe somebody could be even luckier than the little mirror. In other words, he didn’t believe anybody’s innate skills could beat Lu Mingze’s attractiveness.

Cao Qian didn’t need Xing Ye to speak, already throwing the elliptical at Mr. Deng.

With Mr. Deng’s third blink, he arrived right in front of the equipment room door. He saw that Xing Ye had already drawn a second piano QR code and put his hands up in a panic as he shouted, “I’ll speak, I’ll tell you everything I know about Di Kuang’s group and their current situation!”

With that, Xing Ye’s drawn out QR code disappeared and the basketball Cao Qiao was about to attack with also stilled.

Xing Ye was sure he hadn’t deactivated Redrawing Pen, but the ability had automatically disappeared. He also couldn’t use the special ability interface in his mind.

He looked at Cao Qian and sure enough, she was the same. This had to be Mr. Deng’s second special ability, forcing them to lose the ability to attack.

What did Mr. Deng do before the ability was activated? He said he would sell out Di Kuang’s group, and it was also done after he blinked three times.

Xing Ye could already guess that he could only teleport a maximum of three times and he could make others lose the will to attack.

“Never mind them for now, what are your starting abilities?” Xing Ye asked.

Mr. Deng sat on the floor, sighing as he explained, “They’re ‘A Crafty Rabbit Has Three Burrows’ and ‘Selling Friends for Glory’. A Crafty Rabbit Has Three Burrows lets me escape for my life three times. Selling Friends for Glory means as long as I sell off or betray a friend, the enemy can’t attack me. However, if I use it, I have to sell out absolutely everything I know.”

Xing Ye: “...”

Cao Qian: “...”

Both of his starting abilities were about surviving and one of them even had a prerequisite of selling off a friend first.

No wonder he didn’t hesitate to give him a QR code and wanted to partner up with Xing Ye, yet turned hostile as soon as they revealed their special abilities!