After receiving the slow-cooked soup from Luo's mother, Ye Chuan stuffed the entire thermal soup container into his backpack—after all, anything placed inside would have its time paused, so there was no need to worry.
"Summer break is almost over. Any plans?" Luo's mother asked, bringing over a fruit platter.
"Haven't thought about it yet. Is Luo Xi planning to finish the rest of her studies?" Ye Chuan replied.
"Yes."
"Then I’ll probably stay with her for the remaining years," Ye Chuan said, pausing before adding with a smile, "After all, before my family passed away, they also hoped I’d attend a good school."
After a brief silence, Ye Chuan shook his head.
Materially, he lacked nothing now.
Luo's mother smiled without saying anything, watching him for a moment before speaking. "Then how about getting engaged after graduation?"
"Ah…"
"Don’t want to?"
"No, it’s just that we’d have to ask the great beauty Luo Xi first. I’m all for it," Ye Chuan chuckled. "Right, Mom?"
The word "Mom" made Luo's mother beam with joy. "Alright, I won’t see you out then."
"Got it. I’ll head back now."
As Ye Chuan came downstairs from Luo Xi’s place, Lan Xiaoke was idly spacing out on the first floor. Spotting him, she perked up and trotted over. "Ye Chuan, you’re back!"
"Yeah, let’s go home," he said.
"So early?"
"What else would we do? You still haven’t broken through to the Crystal Stage," Ye Chuan said, side-eyeing her. This girl really had no interest in cultivation.
"Of course I’ll reach the Crystal Stage!" Lan Xiaoke declared, throwing a few mock punches into the air. "Hah, hah! I’m already a Crystal Stage powerhouse!"
"Oww!" Before she could finish, a swift chop landed on her head.
"Since you don’t want to go home yet, I’ll take you somewhere else to play," Ye Chuan said. "I’ll let you choose."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Yay!"
……
……
"This is where you wanted to go?" Ye Chuan stared at the neon sign of the arcade.
[Bobo Arcade World]
"Mm-hmm!" Lan Xiaoke clung to his arm, nodding vigorously.
Pushing open the glass door, they were immediately engulfed by a deafening wave of noise—high-pitched electronic sound effects, the crisp clatter of joysticks, the rhythmic swish of basketballs sinking into hoops—all blending into a chaotic symphony.
"Wow!" Lan Xiaoke’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Ye Chuan, meanwhile, scanned the surroundings. Neon signs overhead flickered in shifting colors, casting blue-purple hues over rows of arcade machines. On the screens, digital characters battled under players’ commands, while the fighting game section drew the densest crowd, joysticks creaking under aggressive maneuvers and buttons hammered like rapid drumbeats.
It was surprisingly lively. Ye Chuan had assumed home consoles would’ve made arcades obsolete, but the bustling scene before him suggested otherwise.
And why were those rhythm game players so perfectly synchronized?
Could they pilot mechs with that coordination?
Snapping out of his thoughts, Ye Chuan noticed the weight on his arm was gone. He glanced sideways to find Lan Xiaoke plastered against a claw machine’s glass, eyes gleaming at the plush toys inside.
The fluffy stuffed animals looked especially adorable under the lights.
"Xiaoke, you want to try the claw machine?"
"Yeah!" She bounced in place, barely containing her eagerness. "Ye Chuan, Ye Chuan, I wanna play!"
"To play, you need tokens first, right?" Ye Chuan looked around and spotted the token dispenser.
"Let’s see… 100 yuan for 200 tokens."
"I’ll do it!" Lan Xiaoke whipped out her phone, scanned the QR code, and—beep!—instantly bought 500 yuan worth.
She grabbed a plastic token tray, and with a cheerful jingle, the machine began spilling coins until the basket overflowed.
"Wow~" Lan Xiaoke leaned in, mesmerized.
"Hehe." She handed half to Ye Chuan. "Here’s your share!"
"I’m not really into this…" Before he could finish, Lan Xiaoke had already scampered back to the claw machine.
Ye Chuan sighed but followed.
"Three tokens per try." Lan Xiaoke fed coins into the slot and maneuvered the claw toward a Pikachu plush. But after three or four attempts, the toy kept slipping free from the shaky grip.
"Hmm." She stared blankly. "No fair… why’s it so hard?"
"Not surprising. These machines adjust their grip strength internally. Only every few tries does it actually hold tight."
"Really?" She tried several more times but still came up empty.
"Ugh."
Seeing her pout, Ye Chuan stepped in. "Let me try."
He inserted a token, eyed the claw, and zeroed in on the Pikachu. The claw clamped onto its head—then, with a surge of spiritual energy, Ye Chuan forced the loose mechanism to lock tight.
Thud!
The plush dropped into the chute.
"Yay!" Lan Xiaoke scooped it up, beaming. "Ye Chuan! You’re amazing!"
"Just decent," he said. "But these toys aren’t worth much anyway."
Lan Xiaoke hugged the plush, her expression nostalgic. "It’s fine… Back when I was poor, I’d just watch others play. I always wanted to try, but I was scared of wasting money if I failed." She grinned sheepishly.
Watching her cradle the toy, Ye Chuan tilted his head slightly, smiling faintly.
"Is that so?"
"Oh! And I’m super good at King of Fighters!"
"Sure, I’ll play a few rounds with you."
"Don’t cry when I beat you!"
"Heh."
……
Ten minutes later, Lan Xiaoke was getting demolished, scrambling to recover the joystick.
"No way, no way!"
"Yes way."
"No!" She was frantic after losing every round. "My secret combo didn’t work on you!"
"Your reactions are too slow," Ye Chuan said. With his heightened perception, he could predict her every move.
"Not fair! I wanna win just once!"
By evening, they still hadn’t exhausted the 500-yuan stash, no matter how hard they played.
But Lan Xiaoke, swinging a bag of seven or eight plushies and clinging to Ye Chuan’s arm, hummed cheerfully. "Hmph~"
"Ye Chuan, can we come again next time?"
"You could just come by yourself. Bring Qian Shuang."
"I…" She tightened her grip on his arm. "Just the two of us. That’s what I want…"
Ye Chuan glanced over and saw her head lowered, her expression hidden.
"I’ll think about it," he said, looking away.
"Hehe, so that’s a yes! Ye Chuan, you’re the best."
"Only if you break through to the Crystal Stage tonight."
"Ugh."
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
