Calmly walking away, Zhou Lei went straight to his parents" bedroom, ignoring the chaos he caused. His hands were in his pockets, and he whistled as he made his way."Zhou. Lei."
Only when his name was called did he stop walking. He slowly turned his head towards where the dinner table was.
"Uh... dad. What is it?" Zhou Lei asked, his eyes not daring to meet his father"s.
.....
Zhou Lei"s b.u.t.t was red. He would regret this decision for days to come.
Anyways, after being scolded, he resumed what he was doing earlier.
He walked towards his parent"s bedroom and headed towards the closet.
Opening it, he was disappointed at the sight of the clothes. There were only about five!
Since there was only that small of a number, he tried all of them on, only to find out that none of them complemented his good looks. They all looked pretentious, fit for someone about to conduct a sales pitch.
"But dad isn"t a sales professional though..." Zhou Lei was confused. Why would his father have this kind of suits if he wasn"t one of them?
"I guess he just has terrible taste."
In the end, Zhou Lei wore his own clothes as he felt that they fit him more than his father"s.
Of course, these clothes were very baggy, as they came from when he was obese.
Still, they complemented his look more than his father"s pretentious suits.
He could finally exit his house after asking for permission. He knew his father was unlikely to agree, so he treaded with much care so as to not let his father find out that he was going to go out and ask for permission from his mother at the same time.
"Hmm? Lei, where are you going?" Zhou Xiang asked with a suspicious tone on her voice.
"I, um... I"m going to the arcade!"
"Eh, why? Do you even have money to go there?"
"Uh, yes."
Unexpectedly, his mother had agreed peacefully! He was then allowed to leave with the blessing of his mother.
Now, all he needed to do was exit the house without getting spotted by his father.
Zhou Lei poked his head out of a doorway, looking if his father was anywhere there. Scanning the whole room, he could not find any traces of Zhou Jiahao.
"Hmm, is it safe?"
To check, Zhou Lei looked for an item that would make loud noises when it hit the floor. He found a spoon.
Grabbing it, Zhou Lei extended his hand out of the doorway, then threw it out.
Ting! The spoon hit the floor and made a loud sound that would startle anyone unprepared.
Zhou Xiang almost jumped when she heard it!
"If dad is here, he would be concerned and check the source. If he isn"t, then good for me!"
His mother turned her head to look at Zhou Lei, who was sticking his head out the doorway. She felt that his current behavior was weird, especially when he threw that spoon on the floor for no reason!
"Lei, what exactly are you doing?"
As soon as he heard his mother"s voice, Zhou Lei stood up and left the room without answering.
"..." Zhou Xiang.
.....
At the Webnovel building.
The leader was panicking. Everyone on the internet was either pleading them to fix the problem immediately or berating them for not doing so fast enough!
Even the presidents of various superpower countries were pressuring them to fix the problem p.r.o.nto!
It hasn"t even been 30 minutes yet since the servers crashed, okay? What are you all panicking for?!
"Hey! You," he said as he pointed to a random employee, "call maintenance!"
The employee was startled before he hastily reached out his hand to grab the landline telephone, which slipped from his hand a number of times. He picked it up each time and pressed the digits to the maintenance"s number with his shivering fingers.
Ring, ring! The telephone rung as the employee waited for the people at maintenance to pick up. It only stopped after a minute.
"H- h.e.l.lo?" The employee quivered as he spoke.
On the other side of the phone, utter chaos was happening. They were all indignant at the crash of their servers, but more importantly, they were angry that they couldn"t read "Conqueror of the Realms"!
"h.e.l.lo, who is this?" The man who picked up the phone calmly spoke amidst all the noise in the background.
"Th- this is Webnovel!" The employee said, "We, uh, have a problem-"
Before he could continue, the man hung up.
Beep, beep, beep...
This was the sound the employee heard on his ear.
As the leader stared at him with great hostility, the employee didn"t dare to put the phone down and say that they hung up on him. He could only continue acting as he was on the phone with maintenance. "We have a problem! Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes."
Seeing his employee answer yes or no on the telephone annoyed the leader for quite a bit. He wondered in his mind, "What questions is this maintenance asking?! What do I pay them for..."
Suddenly, a group of people barged in the office. They looked like electricians, with tools on their belt, wearing a yellow hat and a blue uniform. All of them had urgent looks on their faces like they were blaming themselves for something.
"Sorry for coming late, boss." The man in front greeted the leader with respect. "We kind of forgot we worked here..."
The leader was startled. His employee was still on the phone with them, answering questions like a robot. Seeing maintenance this fast shocked the leader.
The employee, oblivious to the situation, continued his fake conversation. "So what are you doing tonight? How about I take you out for dinner? Yeah, I"ve been there, babe. I can get us a reservation if you want!"
His acting was so good, he could win an Oscar for it!
The electricians looked at the employee and then looked at each other. The man in front then asked the leader, "Who is he talking to?", pointing his index finger at the employee.
The leader dumbfoundedly answered, "Uh... you guys."
He walked to the employee, then tapped his shoulder.
The employee felt the tapping and started to conclude his conversation. "Uh, my boss needs me. Get here faster, bye."
He put down the phone, turned around, and smiled amiably to his leader. He spoke with a confident voice, "Rest a.s.sured, boss. They are going to be here very soon!"
Hearing his employee"s response, the leader didn"t know whether to cry or laugh. They are already here, okay?!
However, he managed to keep his calm as he cleared his throat. "Ahem, maintenance has already arrived." He then pointed behind him.
The employee looked at the direction his boss was pointing at and widened his eyes.
He froze for a second, before regaining his composure. "Uh, yes... Didn"t expect you guys to come here so fast!"
Standing up, the employee walked towards where the group of men was. He then put his arms around one as he said, "Nice to see you, man!"
"..." The man being hugged.
"..." The leader.
"..." Everyone else.
.....
At the arcade.
There was a crowd around one of the games.
Dance Dance Revolution.
"She"s about to get a perfect score!" "Look at her feet move frantically!" "d.a.m.n, is she not tired yet?"
On the screen, multiple arrows were rising up from the bottom, only to disappear once they reach the top. Each time, the word "Marvelous!" shows up.
The song was ending.
"She"s close!"
Suddenly, a "Good!" appeared on the screen, before returning to the constant "Marvelous!" showing up.
However, the split second this appeared didn"t escape the crowd"s eyes.
"Aw, she isn"t going to get a perfect score anymore..."
Even though their eyes were being treated to a show, their brains were left unsatisfied. She was *this* close to having a perfect score, only to see it taken away before their very eyes. Naturally, this disappointed many people. Of course, they didn"t dare to criticize her. After all, her skills were already unmatched among them. No one could beat her.
Amongst the crowd, Zhou Lei was wearing a hoodie with a facemask. He dared not reveal his face here, otherwise, it might make a commotion.
Unknowingly, his eyes were glued to the girl playing with such ferocity. Her feet were moving fast as her hands grabbed onto a bar behind the platform. Her white skin was sweating, and the gla.s.ses on her eyes were about to fall off any second.
Looking at the girl, Zhou Lei couldn"t help but feel entranced.
He never had any interest in any girls since the start of his life, only idolizing some celebrities when he was younger and didn"t know any better.
When he had an urge to let it out, he would think of some random girl, and not someone he knew. Deep down, he wondered if he would ever find someone he was interested in.
"Wait...!" Zhou Lei stopped his train of thought. "This girl... she looks familiar! Now that I think about it... she"s the transfer student!"
The inconspicuous transfer student that transferred on Wednesday, the same day he went to school with this face he has right now.
He actually remembered that the author said that the supposedly shy transfer student tried to talk to Zhou Lei as well, but as far as he recalled, there was no "trying to talk to him" at all.
So, this is not a retcon, but rather, the author was previously lying. Alright? Don"t say this is a retcon, which is for lazy people, okay?!
Other than her ident.i.ty of being the transfer student, Zhou Lei also kind of felt like he had seen her somewhere before.
"Hmm... No matter!" Zhou Lei said before he entered System, which already gave him the prize for going to the arcade.
However, there was another prize waiting for him: a new quest.
Quest: Get a perfect score in Dance Dance Revolution"s hardest song on the hardest mode (Time limit: 1 week)
Description: We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.
Rewards: 100 upgrade points, 10 lottery tickets, Mystery Prize (without Dance Dance Revolution Sudden Burst); 10 upgrade points, 1 lottery ticket (with Dance Dance Revolution Sudden Burst)
Note: This is a succesive-type quest.
Zhou Lei stared at the quest. His eyes widened as he stared at it dimbfoundedly.
"This... this is even harder than the Make Love with Wen Hui one! And the time limit is 4 times less? How do I do this without the Dance Dance Revolution Sudden Burst item...?"
Zhou Lei thought for a second.
The girl finished playing the song, only to end up with an imperfect score. He had seen her skills with his own eyes, witnessing her feet move faster than sound, but still ending up not getting the score that he needed to achieve in one week.
"Eh, System, have I angered you?" Zhou Lei asked innocently.
As he asked that, System suddenly notified him of the same quest again.
However, the difference was that... the time limit was reduced by one day!
"W- what? What is happening here? System, answer me!" Zhou Lei panicked, thinking that this was only a bug.
In the end, System reduced the time limit by one day again!
The time limit was now only 5 days instead of a full week.
"F**k! It seems that System is... truly angry this time!"
.....
The scientist laughed maniacally as she stared at the monitor.
"Haha haha! That"s what you get for insulting my Dance Dance Revolution!" she said, before walking out of the dark room.
Outside the doorway, there was another room opposite where she was. She entered that room and closed the door behind her.
After a short while, sounds of Dance Dance Revolution could be heard from the outside...
.....
In the end, Zhou Lei resigned himself. He looked at the rewards, and saw that they would be different if he were to use the previously useless item that he got from the lottery.
He checked the description for this item.
Name: Dance Dance Revolution Sudden Burst
Description: Since DDR skill isn"t a stat in and of itself, this item will up your skill temporarily, making you the (probable) number one player in the world!
Time limit: 1 hour
Used: None
"Oh, that"s why..." Zhou Lei nodded his head in realization. He understood why the rewards would be one tenth of if he didn"t use the item. This would make the quest way too easy!
Zhou Lei decided that this would be his last resort. If he wasn"t able to master the song in 5 days, he would just use this item to finish it swiftly.
"This is going to be hard..." Not to mention that Zhou Lei needed to finish the hardest song on the hardest mode, the fact that Zhou Lei has almost no prior experience playing Dance Dance Revolution was enough to dampen his hopes.
He walked up to the DDR machine, which was still being used by the transfer student.
Waiting for her to finish, he ended up absentmindedly watching her swift movements again.