Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 618 - 616: Doghouse

For a time, the forum pages were filled with posts about guild formations and shop openings.

Long before the plaza opened, a large number of secret societies had already been established among the people. These included groups like Mercury Amalgam, Flying Spaghetti, Brotherhood of Steel, Magicians of the Far East Napping Club Summer, and the DD Bootlicker Official Support Group. For a long time, they actively recruited like-minded individuals on the forums, mostly indulging in memes and fun rather than serious operations.

When you clicked on their posts, you'd find the number of discussions about anime, single-player games, mobile games, and vtubers clearly surpassed those about strategies for the deathmatch games.

However, now with the guild feature activated, some of these less-than-serious secret societies had actually gone legit. They officially posted their guild emblems, medals, uniform designs, and membership benefits on the forum, indicating their guild headquarters in the Game Square and the contact information of the person in charge, all looking quite formal.

Alright, that's understandable. Building a small guild doesn't cost much; a guild with fewer than ten people only costs 4,000 Game Coins to establish. The potential benefits, however, were numerous—ten players were essentially ten upright, humanoid weapons of mass destruction, instantly boosting one's bargaining power in negotiations with large organizations, no longer helpless prey at the mercy of others.

Alongside guilds, shops were also being constructed with equal enthusiasm.

One issue that had always troubled Lone Wolf Players was that the good items in the game mall were too expensive. Trading with other players, on the other hand, required real-world contact. If one were to run into a Bounty Hunter's trap, the consequences would be inconceivable.

Now, with the Game Square, players could finally engage in secure transactions. The mall housed a specially designated, public-service trading hall where players could ensure fair and reasonable trade by signing contracts in advance.

Similarly, various shops opened by players (selling goods, providing food services, etc.) could also guarantee safety and fairness through contracts. The Animal-headed Guard NPCs in the Game Square came equipped with market regulatory functions. If they caught any business violating regulations or customers intentionally causing trouble, they would immediately Teleport into the shop, pull out a door-sized greatsword from behind them, and smack the offending player into the wall with one blow, whether they broke market rules or disturbed the peace. The injury was kept precisely at the level of "won't die, but in unbearable pain, completely incapacitated for a while."

One look at their methods was enough to tell they were seasoned masters of torment.

In this way, the safety and fairness of the shops' services were also assured, and almost overnight, various shops of all sizes popped up all over the Game Square.

However, this did not mean that the real-world black market would be directly replaced—after all, only a few players could visit the Game Square, and many matters inconvenient to handle in the square had to be dealt with in the real-world black market.

Li Ang browsed the forum for a while, then casually closed the webpage. He picked up his phone and glanced at the WeChat red packet sent by the landlord in the middle of the night, as well as the message below it that read, "Had a great time tonight, [Rose]."

After hesitating for a moment, he dared not click it and tossed the phone under the pillow, pretending to have already fallen asleep.

「A few days later.」

Early in the morning, the patter of rain sounded against the window. Li Ang woke up from bed and, upon opening his eyes, saw a figure in white with long hair crouching at the foot of his bed.

The figure was on all fours, like a cockroach on the ground, its hands and feet twisted at strange angles. Its face was completely covered by long black hair, revealing only a hint of a pale nose, looking extremely eerie.

"KEKEKEKE..."

The white-clad figure made a strange noise from her throat, her fingers and toes nimbly tapping on the ground, creating a rustling sound like rain—yet looking out the window, the sky was clear and cloudless.

Dressed in pajamas, Li Ang calmly rubbed his eyes, got out of bed, and shuffled to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. While spitting out the mouthwash, he said to the white-clad figure, addressing her reflection in the mirror, "Isn't it tiring to strike a pose like this so early in the morning?"

The figure in white was silent for a moment before responding, "Tch."

She stood up from the ground and casually tossed her hair aside—it was Chaichai, with nothing better to do, cosplaying Kayako.

"So bored, Li Ang."

Chaichai rotated her head 720 degrees and said, "When are you taking me out? Staying home every day, I'm sick of gaming."

"Go out where? Don't you know it's the holidays and the streets are packed with people?"

Li Ang, brushing his teeth, mumbled, "We'll have to wait another day or two until the tourist spots are empty, then we can go out and have fun. Besides, the Special Affairs Bureau is maintaining such good order right now that it's hard to stumble upon any anomalous incidents; there's no real need to go out. If you're really that bored, why not help me with my experiments?"

"PFFT."

Chaichai crossed her arms in front of her, rolled her eyes, stuck out her tongue, and flatly refused, "No way."

The "experiments" Li Ang mentioned mostly involved him being engrossed with the Pet Breeding Box, tinkering with insects and plants: squishing insects, dissecting insects, modifying insects, hatching insects, using Necromancy Technique to revive dead insects, planting trees, growing flowers, and using Alchemy to create tricycles, motorcycles, bumper cars, and grenade launchers...

It got boring after a while, and one tended to end up smelling like insect pheromones.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

A knock sounded at the door. Chaichai quickly grabbed her phone to check, then whispered mysteriously to Li Ang, "My online order has arrived; go get it for me."

"What random stuff have you bought online now?"

Li Ang, looking utterly perplexed, went to open the door and took a massive cardboard box from the delivery guy.

"What is this?"

Li Ang dragged the box into the room and closed the door. Miss Chai immediately floated out, eagerly extended her sharp nails, and smoothly sliced open the tape sealing the box, pulling out... a large dog bed?

Indeed, it was square-shaped, with cool, waterproof material on the outside and fluffy, soft padding on the inside, perfect for pets to lie in.

Li Ang was dumbfounded, but Miss Chai excitedly jumped up and landed heavily in the dog bed, which was still partly covered in its plastic packaging. She adjusted her position, then looked up proudly at Li Ang and said, "How's that? It's suitable, isn't it?"

"Suitable my foot!" Li Ang exclaimed, eyes wide. "Why did you buy a dog bed?"

"To lie in, of course," Chaichai explained as if it were obvious. "Summer's coming, and the couch gets too hot. The beanbag chairs on the market are also hot. It's much better to buy a large dog bed—it's cheaper, cooler, and the right size. See? Aren't I wonderfully thrifty and home-loving?"

As she spoke, Chaichai waved her limbs about, trying to get as comfortable as possible, the very picture of a lazy, good-for-nothing slacker.

"MHM MHM MHM, HA HA HA HA! Just as comfortable as I thought it would be. I'm a genius, I tell you!" Chaichai, lying in the dog bed, narrated with expressive gestures, "The God of War returns to find his five-year-old daughter living in a dog bed and eating leftovers every day. In a fit of rage, he summons one hundred thousand live-in sons-in-law who are currently working as security guards. Unexpectedly, each son-in-law stabs him once, saying, 'You're the one who's always so damn troublesome!'"

"...As long as you're happy."

Li Ang sighed, checked his vibrating phone, and tossed it to Chaichai. "The landlord sent another game invite. You're playing with her today."

"What?"

Chaichai's face immediately fell. She writhed in the dog bed like a maggot, reluctantly saying, "But I was planning on watching anime today..."

Ever since that day Chaichai had used Li Ang's voice to flirt with people and accidentally targeted the wrong person, that wealthy landlady—in her late thirties and owning several properties in Yin City—often invited him to play games, and would even send a red packet afterward.

The landlady had always been kind to Li Ang. She had rented him this apartment cheaply when he first left the orphanage, had never raised the rent in several years, and would even bring over fruit and such on holidays. Consequently, Li Ang didn't want to use Mental Control or other brainwashing skills on her. Instead, he let Chaichai, the original troublemaker, play games with her.

The benefit was... Li Ang's rent was now halved, and all his utilities were covered...

Go for it, Chaichai. I believe you can do it.

With that thought, a smile appeared on Li Ang's face. He ignored Chaichai as she tossed and turned in the dog bed, wailing and screaming. He changed his clothes, said, "I'm heading to the Game Square," and then vanished on the spot.

After a few days of waiting for things to settle, many shops had opened in the Game Square. It was time to do some market research and open his own store.