Chapter 14 Shoulder

When Ye Xiu brought back the instant noodles he had prepared, he saw Su Mucheng carrying a small stool and sitting next to his seat. She had already switched the Glory game on Ye Xiu's computer to windowed mode and was using the mouse to search for something on the desktop.

"Noodles are here," Ye Xiu said.

"Put it here!" Su Mucheng tapped the desk next to her. The Xingxin Internet Cafe's front desk had two layers. The outer layer was the front desk, and the inner layer was a normal desk where things could be placed.

Ye Xiu put the noodles down and sat back in his seat, seeing that Su Mucheng was searching for something on online TV.

"What do you want to watch? I'll help you search," Ye Xiu said, placing his hand on the keyboard.

"That Year We Held Hands," Su Mucheng said.

"A new drama?" Ye Xiu said as he typed. A search immediately brought it up.

"Not really new. Xiuxiu recommended it. I haven't seen it before," Su Mucheng said. Xiuxiu was Chu Yunxiu, the star player of the Misty Rain Team, and also the number one female player in terms of technical skill, as Ye Xiu and Chen Guo had mentioned. There weren't many female players in the league, and they were a weaker group compared to the male players, which made them more united and close to each other, forming their own special circle. They even had a QQ group just for them, filled with female players from the league, retired, active, and new.

Of course, Ye Xiu wasn't qualified to join this QQ group, but he was familiar with Su Mucheng, and sometimes he saw it when he was next to her. If no one said anything, no one would ever think that this was a gathering place for Glory professional players. They chatted about clothes, cosmetics, celebrities, and gossip in the Glory circle... At least in the few times Ye Xiu had the fortune to witness, he never saw them chat about anything serious, such as technical tactics. It wasn't even as good as an ordinary Glory online game guild group, where sometimes there were technical exchanges between experts!

"Which episode are you on?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Episode 12."

Ye Xiu opened episode twelve and handed the earphones to Su Mucheng.

"My ears hurt from wearing them."

"Turn up the volume and don't wear them."

Su Mucheng turned up the volume. The first thing that came out of the earphones was the realistic sound effects of Glory and Baozi Invasion's voice. Ye Xiu had already opened the settings and turned off the sound effects and voice, then typed: "Baozi, let's practice our hand speed. From now on, let's communicate entirely through text."

"Okay, I like this practice. How about we have a competition to see who can talk the most in one minute?" Baozi Invasion immediately entered the state.

"First Line Gorge!" Ye Xiu announced their destination.

The game had no sound at all, but Ye Xiu seemed to be very used to it. The TV series theme song was coming from the earphones around Su Mucheng's neck...

"This song isn't good," Ye Xiu said.

"Yeah, skip it," Su Mucheng said.

"How much?"

"2 minutes 43 seconds."

With a flick of the mouse, the cursor flashed from the game to the desktop, and the progress bar of the online player landed on 2 minutes 43 seconds, not a second off. The micro-control of a professional expert!

The monitor was divided into two parts like that: half TV series, half game.

With Ye Xiu's level, dealing with a dungeon while multitasking was more than enough. He would occasionally glance at the plot. Su Mucheng, on the other hand, was just watching TV and didn't need to concentrate fully, so she would also occasionally glance at the battle on the other side.

"Can I eat the noodles?" Su Mucheng said.

"Eat them!"

"Are you eating?" Su Mucheng picked up the noodles and asked.

"I'll drink a couple of mouthfuls of soup."

"Wait until you finish these two monsters." Su Mucheng saw Lord Grim, who was rushing on the road in the game, get entangled by two wild monsters.

The two monsters were quickly dealt with in a few strokes. While Ye Xiu let Lord Grim continue on his way, he took the instant noodles and tasted a couple of mouthfuls of soup.

"Not bad. The person who made these instant noodles is very skilled," Ye Xiu said, handing the bowl back.

"It's alright, I guess!" Su Mucheng took the noodles and started eating.

In the game, Lord Grim arrived at First Line Gorge and met up with Tang Rou and Baozi Invasion. Steamed Bun and Sleepy Moon also ran over to join the team. These two guys basically tried to hang out with Expert Lord whenever they had the chance, and they didn't play with the guild much anymore. Even on this day when the entire guild was excited, the two of them didn't care much. Following Expert Lord, appearing on TV or something was too common, and these two didn't take it seriously.

The dungeon progressed smoothly, and they quickly took down the first boss.

The TV series plot was tortuous. The female lead knew from the first episode that the male lead was her childhood sweetheart, but the male lead was still treating the female lead as a new friend in episode 12.

"Tsk tsk, this person is really stupid," Ye Xiu commented on the male lead.

"Mine, mine, light source set!" Su Mucheng saw a light source set chest piece drop from the downed boss, which was a level 30 set for Gunners.

"I know," Ye Xiu said. After choosing to roll the dice, the others immediately gave up voluntarily.

"It's just a level 30 set," Ye Xiu felt that Su Mucheng was too restless. She was supposed to be a professional player, and shouldn't lose her composure over any equipment other than self-made equipment.

"This piece of equipment looks good," Su Mucheng said.

Ye Xiu was speechless. These god-level experts, no matter how awesome their operations were or how gorgeous their consciousness was, in terms of Glory character equipment styling, hairstyles, appearance editing, and so on, any female player they picked out would be stronger than them. In these aspects, female players were gods, and they were scrubs.

Speechless, Ye Xiu threw the light source set top into his bag, and the dungeon continued, and the TV series continued.

A run through the First Line Gorge dungeon took the five of them about thirty minutes, which was shorter than the forty-five-minute episode of the TV series.

After two dungeon runs, one episode of the TV series was finished, and the second episode was halfway through. Ye Xiu felt a weight on his left shoulder.

"Asleep?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Mmm..." A voice came from the head on his shoulder.

The third dungeon run continued, and Ye Xiu's operation became even more stable. His operation was so steady that even the ash on the cigarette in his mouth wouldn't fall off.

The dungeon progressed, and the TV series played.

After the final boss fell, the third dungeon run was cleared, and the TV series episode also ended at the same time. The ending theme song played softly from the earphones, but Su Mucheng didn't urge Ye Xiu to play the next episode. Ye Xiu turned his head and saw that the girl, wrapped in fluff, had already closed her eyes.

"Hahahaha, I'm so lucky today! I actually got three pieces of my Darkweave set in a row. You must be envious of my luck, right?" Baozi Invasion was typing quickly, practicing his hand speed.

"Not bad, not bad. Soft Mist, you can shout in the world about the Crimson Moon top you got. You should be able to exchange it for the shoulder piece or shoes you need," Ye Xiu said. They also got a Crimson Moon set piece for Battle Mages, which was the top that Soft Mist was already wearing. For sets like these, it was quite common for people to encounter the last one or two pieces after collecting four or five pieces, but fortunately, equipment could be traded in Glory. Everyone exchanged what they had for what they needed. Having six tops was almost enough to exchange for a whole set.

"Okay," Tang Rou replied. Before long, a message about Soft Mist exchanging Crimson Moon equipment was sent to the world.

"If no one messages you, keep posting," Ye Xiu instructed. Tang Rou really needed some guidance in this aspect. She was a pure gaming newbie, unlike Baozi Invasion.

"Are we still going to Burial Ground?" Steamed Bun and Sleepy Moon asked.

"Let's not go for now," Ye Xiu replied.

"Oh!" Everyone responded. Now they could run three types of dungeons a day. They didn't value Burial Ground, which was just used to get experience, as much anymore. Ye Xiu didn't need the materials from this dungeon to make the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella at all. Moreover, it was unrealistic to obtain the materials for the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella by running dungeons.

The group then dispersed. Those who wanted to run dungeons ran dungeons, those who wanted to go to the arena went to the arena, those who wanted to exchange equipment went to exchange equipment themselves, and Ye Xiu had Lord Grim casually farm monsters at the dungeon exit.

"The equipment has been exchanged!" Tang Rou sent a message not long after.

"Good, just one more set piece and you'll have the whole set," Ye Xiu said.

"Wearing it is indeed stronger than ordinary equipment," Tang Rou said. Just from these words, one could tell that Tang Rou's current gaming level was no longer ordinary. Most ordinary players couldn't even feel the difference between some pieces of equipment most of the time.

"Of course," Ye Xiu replied. "If it's a level 30 set, you can wear it all the way to level 40 without changing it."

"Okay," Tang Rou replied, and there were no more messages. Before long, she got up to stretch, refilled her teacup, and went to the front desk as usual. This time, she was startled. What was that fluffy thing next to Ye Xiu? Tang Rou looked surprised, while Ye Xiu looked at her helplessly.

"Who is this?" Tang Rou finally realized that it should be a person.

"Uh... Mucheng," Ye Xiu used the nickname that Tang Rou liked.

"Ah?" Tang Rou was surprised. "She was actually playing here just now?"

"Yeah," Ye Xiu said.

"Asleep?" Tang Rou asked.

"Yeah."

"Go sleep upstairs, you can sleep in my room too," Tang Rou said.

"It's okay, let's just leave it like this," Ye Xiu smiled.

"Be careful not to catch a cold." If it were Chen Guo, she would definitely grab the girl and take her upstairs to sleep in bed, but Tang Rou didn't try to persuade her much. She said this and went back to her seat with her teacup.

"Mucheng, or whatever, it sounds disgusting coming out of your mouth," Su Mucheng said with her eyes closed, as if she were sleep talking.

"Yeah, I almost threw up the instant noodles too," Ye Xiu said.

"The instant noodles are in my stomach," Su Mucheng said.

"I also ate a bowl tonight."

"Really? What flavor?"

"Braised beef."

"Is the instant noodle maker skilled?"

"Very good, just as good as your bowl."

"That's good," Su Mucheng said and then fell silent again.

"When are you planning to go back?" Ye Xiu asked after a long while.

"When do you get off work?" Su Mucheng asked.

"Seven o'clock."

"Me too!"

"Okay..."

"A little cold..." Su Mucheng shrank.

"Of course, this outfit of yours is just a disguise!" Ye Xiu said, taking off his coat and putting it on Su Mucheng.

"Where did the TV series get to? I seem to have forgotten," Su Mucheng said.

"It's not your fault, this show is terrible," Ye Xiu said.

"You're looking down on Yunxiu's taste again," Su Mucheng said.

"I remember every opponent's weaknesses very clearly," Ye Xiu said.