ARBW Chapter 14

When Pei Yuhuai turned off the building system, Lin Mian and Cheng Xiaowan happened to come looking for him.

Pei Yuhuai did not engage with the other townsfolk around him but walked straight through the crowd to stand before Lin Mian and Cheng Xiaowan.

Seeing the tall and handsome Mr. Pei approach him directly, Lin Mian couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.

He cautiously raised his eyes to examine Mr. Pei and noticed that today he was wearing a new outfit.

Yes, Pei Yuhuai had changed into a new set of clothes when he logged in.

He had previously bought a suit and a casual outfit.

Today, he was wearing that casual outfit.

At a glance, it bore a slight resemblance to what Lin Mian was wearing.

This made Lin Mian feel a bit shy, and his heart raced suddenly in that moment.

Pei Yuhuai, upon seeing Lin Mian and Cheng Xiaowan, immediately set out to increase his favorability with them.

He had no particular interest in Cheng Xiaowan, but he included her in his favorability efforts out of habit from playing games in the past.

Many frequent gamers know that increasing NPC favorability might trigger side quests or other unexpected rewards.

Moreover, since Pei Yuhuai was wealthy, his inventory was filled with gifts, which took up space, so it was better to give them to the NPCs in the game.

Of course, he didn’t increase favorability with every NPC.

He was quite double-standard in this regard.

For NPCs he liked, he would think of ways to give them gifts.

For those he didn’t like, he felt that giving them even one gift was a huge loss.

For instance, he particularly liked Lin Mian, Cheng Xiaowan, and a few other NPCs.

Whenever he encountered them, he would give them gifts.

Especially Lin Mian; he found Lin Mian’s looks to be his type. He wanted to give Lin Mian more gifts, eager to see the joy on Lin Mian’s face when he received them.

Just like at this moment, he controlled his character in the game to walk up to Lin Mian and immediately presented him with a small bouquet of orchids.

Cheng Xiaowan, standing nearby, couldn’t help but laugh with a hint of teasing.

She felt that she and Lin Mian were good friends now, and if Lin Mian won Mr. Pei’s favor, she would also benefit as his friend.

Since she wasn’t particularly afraid of Pei Yuhuai, seeing him give flowers to Lin Mian, she immediately moved closer to him.

“Mr. Pei, Mr. Pei, I want a gift too.”

Pei Yuhuai saw her message on the screen and chuckled lightly before generously giving her a small cake.

Others watching were eager to try their luck, hoping to receive something nice from Pei Yuhuai.

However, not everyone could receive gifts from him.

Among the crowd that approached, only three people received gifts.

Afterward, Pei Yuhuai followed Lin Mian to their home as a guest.

The other townsfolk observed this and felt that Mr. Pei had taken a liking to Lin Mian and intended to stay the night at Lin Mian’s place.

It was no wonder they were imagining things; Pei Yuhuai indeed treated Lin Mian differently. Moreover, since they had only recently gained their freedom, being a guest at their home carried a deeper meaning, which led them to think inappropriately.

Only Lin Mian and Cheng Xiaowan knew that Pei Yuhuai was not that kind of person.

Even if he liked Lin Mian, he wouldn’t rudely suggest staying over.

Pei Yuhuai said he wanted to go to Lin Mian’s house mainly to escape the group of townsfolk behind him.

Once he arrived at Lin Mian’s home, he began to space out. In reality, he was checking his system, planning to choose a location to build a house for his game character.

He felt that this main quest was quite simple.

His game partner would definitely live with him in the future.

As long as he built his house well, then later chose a target to pursue and invited them to move into his house, wouldn’t that complete the task?

So the urgent matter now was to build his house first.

Pei Yuhuai searched for a location in the lower right corner of the town map, which had previously been an abandoned farm.

He planned to build a two-story villa there.

In the building system, there were twelve types of houses.

The first was a standard residential house, one story, with two bedrooms and a living room.

The second was similar to the first, the only difference being it had a front yard.

The third was a two-story building with a total of six rooms.

The fourth, compared to the third, had an additional backyard.

Then there was the fifth, which was a one-story house with four rooms and a living room, featuring both front and back yards.

The sixth was the two-story villa that Pei Yuhuai intended to build.

This two-story villa would have yards in both the front and back. The front yard would include a small garden, while the back would have two parking spaces.

The second floor would have six rooms, and the first floor would have a total of nine rooms.

The remaining types would continue to become more beautiful and exquisite.

Previously, the construction speed of the engineering team was based on the third standard building.

A top-tier engineering team required five days to build a standard building.

Pei Yuhuai would need nearly seven days to construct the sixth villa.

In the building system, he selected the previously abandoned farm, and with the time needed to demolish the farm, it would take about eight days.

Once Pei Yuhuai finalized the house he needed to build, a large engineering team arrived at the town entrance, bustling with materials.

Since their town had no guards, the few townsfolk who patrolled autonomously saw so many people and didn’t dare to approach to inquire.

However, someone specifically ran to Lin Mian’s house to ask about Pei Yuhuai, and they learned that the engineering team belonged to him.

“Pei… Mr. Pei, are you planning to build a house in the town?”

Pei Yuhuai nodded in response.

The person continued to ask, “Why do you need to build a new house? There are many houses in the entire town. Rather than wasting time and money on building, wouldn’t it be better to use those resources to restore the electricity?”

Pei Yuhuai remained silent upon hearing this.

This was a requirement of the game task, and he himself didn’t understand why.

It was likely that only the game system could answer that question.

The game system would go to great lengths to have Pei Yuhuai rebuild houses.

The main reason was that the electricity and water sources in the town were connected to the inner city of this world.

To prevent Pei Yuhuai from being constrained by these in the future, the system had him go through the motions of rebuilding houses.

The newly built houses would have water, electricity, internet, etc., sourced from the game system.

Thus, even if Pei Yuhuai’s base were to confront the inner city in the future, he wouldn’t have to worry about them cutting off his power and water supply.

It could be said that the system had good intentions, but unfortunately, no one knew about it.

Since Pei Yuhuai was unwilling to explain and had no intention of discussing it with the NPCs in the game.

The townsfolk also didn’t dare to press him, so in the end, everyone could only watch the house construction with trepidation.

Then they discovered that Mr. Pei was indeed wealthy; the machinery used by this engineering team was high-tech. Even the big shots from the inner city would probably be shocked to see it.

Some clever townsfolk, seeing this, thought to use this information to negotiate for a chance to live in the inner city.

After observing for a whole morning, they stealthily left the town.

He thought he had left without a sound, but little did he know that as he departed, the game system sent a notification to Pei Yuhuai.

“One townsperson has chosen to defect from your base due to dissatisfaction.”

When this message was pushed to Pei Yuhuai, he was downstairs watching television with his parents.

It wasn’t until an hour later, when Pei Yuhuai went upstairs to take a nap, that he saw the notification on his phone.

Pei Yuhuai glanced at it and then changed into his robe to lie down and rest.

Around four in the afternoon, Pei Yuhuai finally had time to log in and take a look.

In the morning, he had been too focused on building houses and hadn’t completed the limited-time tasks for the day.

So as soon as he logged in, he immediately went to the square to accept ten requests from the townsfolk.

Today, Lin Mian hadn’t written a request, but he found one from Cheng Xiaowan.

Cheng Xiaowan wanted a dress.

A dress? Simple enough.

Pei Yuhuai bought it from the game store and took the dress to Lin Mian’s house.

He completed this request task and happened to see Lin Mian cooking, so he approached him to ask.

“Why didn’t you write a request today? Don’t you need anything special?”

Lin Mian smiled shyly at the question, “I… I have food, I have clothes, and I have a gun. Well… it seems I don’t really need anything special.”

“Is that so? Compared to them, you’re too sensible. Such a personality can easily lead to being taken advantage of.”

He had just scanned through the requests from the other townsfolk.

Some wanted money, some wanted guns, and others wanted clothes, food, medicine, and even abilities.

Compared to their bold requests, Lin Mian had only asked for a bottle of water yesterday, making him seem a bit foolish, like a pitiful little rabbit.

“That’s not true. Because Mr. Pei is taking care of me, I… feel like I’m doing well now.”

Cheng Xiaowan, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, suddenly shouted in frustration, “What do you mean you’re doing well? You’re not doing well at all! You got a gun from Mr. Pei, and the townsfolk have been bothering you. They’re all after your gun. If they weren’t afraid of Mr. Pei, they would have come to snatch it from you long ago.”

Upon hearing this, Pei Yuhuai turned to look at Cheng Xiaowan, who had rushed over, with an expression that suggested he wanted to hear her elaborate.

Lin Mian felt a bit flustered at this. He thought he had already received a lot of help from Mr. Pei. One shouldn’t be too greedy; otherwise, it would be easy to lose everything.

He was afraid of losing what he had now, so he appeared very cautious. He didn’t seek to gain more benefits; he just hoped to live steadily like this.

He knew that Cheng Xiaowan meant well.

She understood that he was shy, which was why she was so eager to help him get benefits from Mr. Pei.

He also realized that someone of Mr. Pei’s status might not genuinely like someone like him, a Lower Class Person.

He should actively take advantage of Mr. Pei’s attention and try to gain some benefits from him.

But knowing was one thing, and understanding was another; a person’s character was set, and he truly couldn’t bring himself to ask the other for things.

Whether it was called being noble or foolish, he simply… just couldn’t do it.