ARBW Chapter 13

Lin Mian felt that Cheng Xiaowan was overthinking. Mr. Pei clearly gave gifts to others as well; just because the gift he gave Lin Mian was a bit more thoughtful, it was rash to conclude that Mr. Pei liked him, right?

What if Mr. Pei didn’t mean anything by it? Cheng Xiaowan’s words could create a bad impression on him.

However, while Lin Mian said that Mr. Pei wouldn’t like him, when he lay down to rest at night, he couldn’t help but start to overthink.

People are drawn to the strong, and Lin Mian was no exception.

Moreover, this strong person was handsome, exuded an air of nobility, and had a gentle personality.

It was somewhat amusing; before meeting Pei Yuhuai, Lin Mian thought he was a straight man, believing he could never like another man.

But after meeting Pei Yuhuai, the thought of possibly becoming lovers with him didn’t seem… entirely unacceptable.

It turned out he was also a person with double standards, and his sexual orientation could waver like this.

Because of Cheng Xiaowan’s question, “Does Mr. Pei like you?” Lin Mian had a restless night.

When he got up the next day, he didn’t look too well.

After Cheng Xiaowan got up, she called him to go for a run together. Before they could set off, they discovered that the town had lost water and electricity.

They pulled out their Live Streaming Watches, only to find that they couldn’t connect to the internet.

Well, they hadn’t expected everything to be cut off so quickly. It seemed that soon everyone would be in an uproar again.

As if to validate their thoughts, a crowd gathered in the town square around nine in the morning.

They were discussing whether they should just leave while they still had food.

No matter how capable Mr. Pei was, he couldn’t possibly restore their water, electricity, and internet.

Rather than continue waiting, it would be better to leave with their food while they still had it.

Lin Mian took a glance and then returned to his place.

He had a gun, and many people looked at him unfavorably; it was better not to get involved.

As for those who wanted to leave, he felt there was no need to stop them.

People who didn’t genuinely want to stay from the beginning would only bring more trouble to Mr. Pei if forced to remain.

Then, while Lin Mian was planning to make something to eat for lunch, Pei Yuhuai logged on to complete his daily limited-time tasks and immediately heard people clamoring to leave.

He shared Lin Mian’s indifference towards those wanting to leave.

So when he heard their heated arguments, Pei Yuhuai didn’t feel the need to intervene.

At that moment, he was looking at the task panel, having logged on to complete a limited-time task.

Unexpectedly, upon logging in, the first main task had updated its progress.

The first main task was: “As a strong and brave traveler, please occupy a stronghold within thirty days to establish a safe and comfortable living place for your future partner.”

Now that Scarlet Town belonged to Pei Yuhuai, it meant that the task of occupying a stronghold was complete.

However, this task wasn’t counted as finished yet, because there was still the subsequent requirement to establish a safe and comfortable living place for his future partner.

This was easy to understand; it meant that merely occupying a stronghold wasn’t enough; Pei Yuhuai needed to rebuild the town.

Pei Yuhuai was so certain because, as the task progress increased, the game interface had added many new features.

First, a map appeared, which currently only showed the layout of the town.

After opening the map, he could see the entire layout of Scarlet Town.

Zooming in on the map, he could see each house and who lived in them.

In addition to the map, the game also introduced a construction feature.

Before using the construction feature, Pei Yuhuai needed to purchase a construction team.

This construction team had four levels: low-level, mid-level, high-level, and special-level teams.

The low-level team consisted of eight NPCs, taking three months to build a regular two-story building and a year to build a five or six-story building.

The three months and one year here were synchronized with the time in Pei Yuhuai’s world.

This was far too slow; Pei Yuhuai glanced at it and decisively discarded the option.

The mid-level team had twenty NPCs, taking one month to build a regular two-story building and four months for a five or six-story building.

Hiring a mid-level team required 10,000 gold coins.

10,000 gold coins equated to 10,000 in reality.

For an ordinary mobile game, this level of spending was a bit high.

The high-level team had fifty NPCs, taking ten days to build a regular small building and one month for a five or six-story building.

Hiring a high-level team required 30,000 gold coins.

Finally, there was the special-level team, which had one hundred members.

They could build a small building in five days and a five or six-story building in half a month.

Hiring a special-level team required 50,000 gold coins.

After reviewing the hiring costs, Pei Yuhuai casually charged 100,000 into the game.

Perhaps startled by his generosity, the game system noticeably lagged for a moment when he charged in 100,000, then promptly issued him a game gift pack.

Pei Yuhuai didn’t open the gift pack; he first hired a special-level construction team, then immediately hired a high-level team.

Yes, you read that right; Mr. Pei was indeed that extravagant.

He felt that even a special-level team wasn’t enough, so he hired a high-level one as well.

With two powerful construction teams, Pei Yuhuai began to explore how to use the building system.

In fact, the building system was quite user-friendly; he could directly open the town map and select the house he wanted to rebuild.

After selecting the house, he could choose what type of house he wanted to build at the original location.

In other words, the construction team would demolish the original house and build the type of house Pei Yuhuai preferred at the same location.

However, since some house types were quite large, if he wanted to build a taller building, more houses would need to be demolished.

The building system would specifically remind Pei Yuhuai of this when he made his selections.

While Pei Yuhuai was checking the building system, he had unknowingly attracted a crowd around him.

Everyone came over to ask Pei Yuhuai for help regarding the town’s power and water outages.

However, Pei Yuhuai seemed oblivious, appearing a bit dazed and seemingly not hearing their words at all.

Seeing this, Cheng Xiaowan thought Pei Yuhuai was in a bad mood today. She figured Mr. Pei seemed to prefer Lin Mian a bit more, so she turned to find Lin Mian.

As soon as Lin Mian heard that Pei Yuhuai had arrived, he happily set aside what he was doing, eager to wipe his hands and follow Cheng Xiaowan to meet him.

Then he looked up and saw Cheng Xiaowan watching him with a playful smile, and he realized he had just been too eager.

It was as if… he really wanted to see Mr. Pei.

Lin Mian felt a bit embarrassed. “I-I didn’t particularly want to see Mr. Pei; I just… just thought about the power outage in the town and wanted to…”

Before he could continue explaining, Cheng Xiaowan interrupted him with a knowing look.

“Alright, alright, you don’t want to see Mr. Pei; it’s me who wants to see him. So… can we go now?”

Many people in the town liked Mr. Pei; after all, who could resist someone so wealthy, powerful, strong, gentlemanly, and handsome?

Even Cheng Xiaowan couldn’t help but feel a flutter in her heart.

But unfortunately, she could sense that Mr. Pei had no such feelings for her.

The way Mr. Pei looked at her was akin to how an older brother would look at his younger sister, filled with kindness but devoid of any romantic interest.

And because she knew Mr. Pei could never like her, even though she noticed Lin Mian had a bit of a crush on him, she didn’t want to compete.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to compete; it was just that he clearly didn’t have any feelings for her. If she were to shamelessly pursue him, it would make her seem cheap.

Moreover, Mr. Pei was different.

He had saved her, and if he liked her, she would be willing to be his woman.

But if he didn’t like her, she would obediently avoid causing him any trouble.

Lin Mian didn’t immediately follow her out; instead, he rummaged through the clothes and shoes Pei Yuhuai had given him yesterday.

He had washed the clothes last night, but they weren’t completely dry yet.

For some reason, he really wanted to wear the new clothes for Mr. Pei to see.

So after hesitating for a moment, he put on the still-damp new clothes.

Seeing Lin Mian go back to change into the new clothes, Cheng Xiaowan had a look of hesitation.

She could tell that Mr. Pei treated Lin Mian a bit better than others.

However, this “better” hadn’t reached the level of liking or love.

Despite her earlier teasing Lin Mian, making it seem like she hoped they would be together, in reality, her hope was for Mr. Pei to like Lin Mian so that Lin Mian could cling to him.

Lin Mian was too beautiful; such beauty in the apocalypse, without equivalent combat power, would only accelerate his downfall.

She hoped that Mr. Pei would take him in because of his looks, but she didn’t want Lin Mian to truly fall in love with Mr. Pei.

Yes, Lin Mian could like Mr. Pei; it was not surprising for someone as outstanding as Mr. Pei to be liked.

But liking and loving were different; love would inevitably lead to a desire for possession.

She was worried that if Lin Mian fell deeply in love with Mr. Pei, but Mr. Pei only had a fleeting interest, Lin Mian would end up getting hurt.

Before Cheng Xiaowan could think of how to remind Lin Mian, Lin Mian, feeling a bit nervous, stepped out of the house first.

Seeing this, Cheng Xiaowan immediately followed, jokingly saying to Lin Mian, “Mr. Pei must be the son of some big tycoon. With his status, who wouldn’t like him? If you fall for him, you’ll definitely have a lot of rivals.”

Lin Mian paused at her words, slowing his pace slightly to wait for Cheng Xiaowan to catch up before cautiously asking, “Do you… like him?”

“Of course I like him; who wouldn’t like someone as impressive as Mr. Pei? But my liking isn’t the romantic kind; it’s more like a fan’s admiration.”

Cheng Xiaowan said this and then added, “What, are you afraid I’ll steal your man?”

Lin Mian immediately denied, “I don’t; I don’t like men.”

As he said this, his pace quickened again.