ARBW Chapter 09

Early the next morning, Pei Yuhuai went to work as usual.

In the morning, he first attended a two-hour-long meeting, followed by nearly half an hour of reviewing documents. Just as he was about to take a break, his spare phone, which he had set aside, rang.

Pei Yuhuai heard the sound but made no move. At that moment, all he wanted was to stop and rest; he didn’t want to look at either his work phone or his spare phone.

So, he stood up, stretched a little, and walked toward the nearby lounge.

Seeing this, his life assistant, Xiao Su, brought his teacup and spare phone into the lounge.

During his breaks, Pei Yuhuai liked to drink some light white tea and occasionally check his spare phone.

Every time he took a break, she would help prepare everything, and then she would have half an hour of her own break.

Yes, as a life assistant, she could also take a break when her boss did.

As for work matters, that was the secretary’s responsibility; her main task was to take care of Pei Yuhuai’s daily needs.

Just as Xiao Su had anticipated, as soon as Pei Yuhuai entered the lounge and lay down to rest, he picked up his teacup, began to sip his tea slowly, and opened his spare phone.

As usual, he intended to check some news.

However, today was slightly different because there was a push notification on his spare phone.

His spare phone didn’t have many contacts, so generally, no one would reach out to him.

As for news or advertisement push notifications, they wouldn’t appear on his phone either.

Wealthy people can avoid those annoying notifications.

Pei Yuhuai preferred simplicity; both of his phones had been specially customized to eliminate any unremovable ads.

It was precisely because he knew there wouldn’t be any of those on his phone that he instinctively raised his hand to click on the notification when he saw it.

It was a game notification, informing him that a group of red names was threatening his base in Scarlet Town.

As a warrior, a traveler, a fighter, he needed to log in promptly to deal with it.

Pei Yuhuai glanced at it indifferently, intending to continue reading the news he wanted to see.

But his elegant, long fingers hesitated slightly as he was about to open the news app, and he ended up opening the game instead.

He successfully logged into the game, and his character appeared in the same spot where he had logged off yesterday.

To his surprise, as soon as he logged in, he saw a familiar character standing still, waiting for him.

This familiar character was none other than Lin Mian, whom he had just met yesterday.

Lin Mian wasn’t deliberately waiting for him; they had started dismantling the cameras early that morning.

Only a little over half of the people were willing to cooperate, making the task of removing the cameras quite challenging.

Yes, more than half of the people didn’t trust Pei Yuhuai. Not only were they unwilling to cooperate in dismantling the cameras, but they also helped the organizers monitor the situation.

One of them, named Song Yuli, quite enjoyed his current life.

Before the apocalypse, he was a man who liked other men. Unfortunately, at that time, due to societal norms, men like him often faced misunderstanding from those around them.

His biggest wish was to be able to openly be with men, just like women could.

Now that the apocalypse had come, he was finally able to be with men, thanks to his good looks.

He actually liked and enjoyed his current life.

He enjoyed being surrounded by a group of men and engaging in casual encounters without having to venture outside; just showing some skin was enough to get food.

So, Pei Yuhuai’s appearance felt like an unwelcome disruption to him.

He truly, truly despised the other’s presence.

He also hated Lin Mian and his group, who pretended to be noble and wanted to resist those Nobles.

He thought men weren’t like women; they wouldn’t get pregnant from being seen or slept with.

What was the use of that nobility and self-respect? He didn’t understand what Lin Mian and the others were rebelling against.

It was better to enjoy life like he did.

Of course, those Nobles were also quite detestable.

They didn’t like obedient people like him; they preferred the disobedient types like Lin Mian.

So even if he was willing to listen to them, they didn’t like him; they thought he was too flamboyant and uninteresting.

Song Yuli worried that Lin Mian and his group’s actions to dismantle the cameras and resist the Nobles would ruin his happy life.

So, in the morning, he incited other townsfolk who were too afraid to resist, constantly creating trouble for Lin Mian and his group.

Then, when the two sides were at a stalemate, people from the town’s organizing committee suddenly arrived in Scarlet Town.

The Guardian’s dormitory was located at the entrance of the town.

So when these people arrived, Lin Mian and his group, who were temporarily staying in the dormitory, were aware of it.

The number of people who came this time wasn’t large, and their attitude towards them was relatively polite.

Lin Mian understood that their sudden politeness was likely for Pei Yuhuai’s sake.

He recalled what Pei Yuhuai had said about meeting again the next day, and since he had nothing to do at that moment, he deliberately waited there in advance.

Unexpectedly, he hadn’t waited long before Pei Yuhuai appeared before him.

Looking at the excessively tall and handsome man standing very close to him, Lin Mian couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward.

He took a slightly embarrassed step back and then raised his head to speak, “Good morning, Mr. Pei.”

Pei Yuhuai glanced at him upon hearing this, thinking about the task he had to complete, which involved courting an NPC as a romantic partner.

He didn’t have a particular NPC he liked yet, so he planned to give gifts to each one and see whose favorability increased the most quickly. If he encountered someone he liked later, he could focus on raising that person’s favorability.

Looking at Lin Mian in front of him, he clicked on the gift option and sent him a bouquet of Earl Grey roses.

An NPC could only receive gifts twice a day. He sent Lin Mian a bouquet of roses, which increased his favorability by five points, and then sent him a piece of toast.

Both gifts added five points of favorability, and with the ten points from yesterday, Lin Mian’s current favorability towards him was twenty points.

After sending the gifts, Pei Yuhuai went to deal with the troublesome red names.

These red names were from the town’s organizing committee. They didn’t come to shout and kill; otherwise, they wouldn’t have waited specifically for Pei Yuhuai to log in.

Among them, the person who stepped forward to negotiate with Pei Yuhuai was a woman.

They could tell that Pei Yuhuai was a very gentlemanly person, and he would likely be more patient with women.

In fact, Pei Yuhuai was indeed a very gentlemanly person; he was generally more patient with women, children, and the elderly.

Given that the other party was a red name, with Pei Yuhuai’s character, he might have already shot them by now.

However, since the other party was a woman, and a seemingly weak one at that, he gave her the opportunity to speak.

The woman sat across from Pei Yuhuai, smiling as she said, “Sir, please don’t be nervous. We come in peace this time and would like to discuss a collaboration with you.”

Pei Yuhuai remained silent, looking at her, waiting for her so-called collaboration details.

Seeing his silence, the woman continued, “It’s like this: our boss means that if you take a liking to this town, we are willing to give you this town, including all the townsfolk, as a gift for our meeting.”

Pei Yuhuai raised his eyebrows, “And then?”

Both the woman and the town’s organizing committee thought the conditions they offered were quite generous.

They were voluntarily giving up a town, which they considered a significant gesture of goodwill.

All they wanted was for Pei Yuhuai not to interfere with their boss’s business anymore.

However, Pei Yuhuai didn’t agree immediately; he looked at the woman with a hint of amusement. Then, realizing she was just a messenger, he swallowed the sarcastic remark that was on the tip of his tongue.

The woman, noticing his silence, didn’t sense anything amiss and generously said, “We can give you three days to consider.”

Afterward, the woman left with the people from the organizing committee.

Once they had all departed, the townsfolk learned the reason for the organizing committee’s visit.

When Song Yuli heard that the organizing committee wanted to abandon them and hand them over to Pei Yuhuai, he couldn’t help but feel very dissatisfied.

Although Pei Yuhuai looked tall and handsome, it was clear that he was a righteous gentleman.

Following someone like him didn’t seem worthwhile; he still hoped to follow the organizing committee so he could continue living his previous life.

Unfortunately, the organizing committee came and went in a hurry, giving him no chance to leave with them, which only made him feel more frustrated.

Pei Yuhuai didn’t take the organizing committee seriously; he continued to have the townsfolk dismantle the cameras in the town while sending various gifts to increase their favorability.

He sent Lin Mian flowers and bread, and then sent Lin Mian’s roommate, the girl, a portion of fried chicken and an ice cream.

The girl was now good friends with Lin Mian, and when she received the two gifts, she immediately ran back to share with him.

Originally, when Lin Mian suddenly received two gifts, including a bouquet of roses, he couldn’t help but let his imagination run wild.

He wondered if Mr. Pei liked him?

Otherwise, why would he send him roses?

Roses seemed to… represent love?

If it had been before the apocalypse, if a man suddenly sent him flowers, he would have definitely thought the other person was strange.

But after experiencing the apocalypse and realizing he was seen as beautiful by men, his thoughts had changed somewhat.

For instance, right now, his first reaction wasn’t to find it odd, but to think… could it be that the other person liked him?

Moreover, Pei Yuhuai’s looks were exceptionally outstanding, and he was a gentle, gentlemanly person. Being liked by someone like him didn’t seem shameful; he felt quite okay with the idea.

However, he quickly dismissed that thought.

Because he saw his roommate and other townsfolk also receiving gifts from Pei Yuhuai.

Although he was the only one who received flowers, in the apocalypse, flowers didn’t seem like something particularly useful.

So… he must have been overthinking; the other person probably didn’t have any strange thoughts about him.

After sending gifts to over a dozen NPCs, Pei Yuhuai had very few gifts left in his backpack.

At that moment, he remembered the several treasure chests he had obtained yesterday and the new VIP package he had purchased.

So he opened his backpack and opened the treasure chests and the package.

The treasure chests didn’t contain any special items; they yielded food, water, clothes, and the like.

However, the new VIP package contained quite a few good things.

Previously, Pei Yuhuai had reached VIP level eight, and now his VIP level was maxed out.

The highest VIP level in this game was ten. He had spent quite a bit of money on abilities yesterday, and his VIP level had long been maxed out.

From the VIP nine package, he opened a Gene Serum, a tranquilizer gun (with five bullets), a solar-powered smart watch, and a box of fever-reducing medicine.

From the VIP ten package, he only opened one item, but it was extremely precious: an ability slot card.

What is an ability slot card?

It’s similar to the abilities on Pei Yuhuai’s skill panel, but this ability slot card isn’t for his own use; it’s specifically for the NPCs in the game.

Some NPCs without abilities can gain abilities when given an ability slot card.

This ability slot card requires the abilities Pei Yuhuai had previously drawn to fill it.

For example, if he used an ability slot card on an NPC, he could then select one of the abilities he had drawn that he hadn’t used, and that NPC would then possess the ability he granted them.

This was simply amazing.

When he eventually found an NPC he liked, he could use this card on them, allowing them to have self-defense capabilities.