"Buddy, why are you doing this?" The internet cafe attendant didn't respond immediately, only asking with more confusion.

"It's for the justice in my heart, of course," Lin Li's eyes suddenly became deep and sorrowful.

"I have a friend named Bai, he was ruined by smoking. His life was quite content and happy, but everything changed after he started smoking."

The internet cafe attendant's expression changed slightly, somewhat regretting asking this question, as it seemed to have stirred up painful memories for the other person.

Lin Li continued with the story:

"After becoming addicted to smoking, he spent all his salary on cigarettes. At the beginning of the month, it was 'Which cigarette costs two thousand a pack? Let's try one.' By the end of the month, it was 'Let's roll up some lint; can we smoke that?' Finally, he died by chasing a fresh cigarette butt thrown out by a driver and was hit by a car right in the middle of the street.

The root cause of all this was accepting that cigarette offered by someone in the internet cafe back then."

"You tell me, how can I remain indifferent?"

The internet cafe attendant regretted asking this question even more now.

He was even a little scared.

Damn.

Did this guy get a prenatal injection in his head when he was a child?

The internet cafe attendant awkwardly shrunk his neck: "Oh... I... I understand, but I'll pass on it, you... you do it yourself, please."

Lin Li: "Not going? Mr. Internet Cafe Attendant, you don't want your manager to lose his cafe, do you? And you don't want to lose your job, right?"

The internet cafe attendant smiled with resignation.

Well, damn.

...

Experimenting with asking others to stop someone from smoking didn't get system approval, even if I witnessed it myself.

Seems like this task can only rely on myself.

Otherwise, I might rely on threatening the internet cafe attendant to speed it up.

But there's no need to rush; I've already completed one-sixth, and it's not even eleven o'clock yet. There are still many cafes to visit, and maybe I'll finish tonight!

At worst, it'll take two or three days.

Next stop, "Manyi Internet Cafe."

Changing into the corresponding adaptive employee badge, Lin Li smoothly navigated through the booths.

[In-person persuasion... one hundred times (17/100)]

[In-person persuasion... one hundred times (20/100)]

The vast majority of people extinguished their cigarette butts immediately after hearing Lin Li's internet cafe attendant warning.

Those with severe addiction who showed hesitation got the system prompt mostly when Lin Li mentioned fines and eviction.

Of course, there were a few stubborn ones who ignored even the threat of fines, and Lin Li didn't waste time on them, directly skipping over.

"Sorry, sir, for bothering you. We've received a notification, so recently we're..." Lin Li opened a booth door and started routinely.

The man with a cigarette in his mouth put it down when he heard Lin Li and looked up at him.

The emotion in his eyes went from confused to bewildered to shocked.

"No, buddy—" The man interrupted Lin Li, raising his hand sharply before he could finish.

"How come..." Lin Li's words paused when he saw who was in front of him.

Lin Li recognized this guy too.

—he was the customer from the previous internet cafe who decided to switch cafes after hearing he couldn't smoke.

It's quite normal for him to choose here since Manyi is close to Juxian.

"How come you're the internet cafe attendant here too?" Wang Lei glanced at the badge on Lin Li's chest, rubbed his eyes, and looked again, shocked, "Am I seeing things?"

Lin Li blinked and then pretended to suddenly understand: "Brother, did you just come over from 'Juxian Internet Cafe'?"

"Yeah!" Wang Lei nodded.

"Then I understand what you're surprised about," Lin Li smiled, "You've seen my brother, haven't you?"

"My brother works at Juxian Internet Cafe. If you're staying overnight, you'll see him riding his bike to pick me up after my shift when we switch over at 5 AM."

Wang Lei: "(;☉_☉)?"

Twins?

"Want me to call my brother, and you can see? Today's event is quite interesting." Lin Li pretended to pull out his phone.

"There's no need for that." Wang Lei weakly said, scratching his head. Although his eyes were still skeptical, seeing Lin Li's natural and candid expression, he half believed him.

We're not that familiar with each other, so there's no need to say more.

"The notification I just received was passed on from his side. The information channel at Juxian is better than ours, so we're a bit slow..."

Before Lin Li could finish his sentence, Wang Lei was already standing, waving his hand, signaling no need to explain:

"Your brother already explained it once, no need to explain again. I understand, I'll just switch again, luckily I haven't started up yet."

[In-person persuasion... one hundred times (22/100)]

"Thank you~" Lin Li smiled brightly, "See you next time~"

...

Opportunity emerged.

Twenty-two minutes later, at Yi Hexang Jing Internet Cafe.

Lin Li and Wang Lei stared at each other in a booth.

Wang Lei: "☉_☉"

Lin Li: "☉v☉"

They both stared at each other, one smiling and the other not, but neither spoke.

Until the cigarette between Wang Lei's fingers quietly burned out, the scorching ash singed his knuckles, making him exclaim and throw away the cigarette butt, breaking the silence.

"Buddy," Wang Lei took a deep breath, suppressing his rising emotions, and spoke expressionlessly: "Come on, explain."

Lin Li thought for a moment and explained:

"Buddy, have you seen Pokémon or Pokémon?"

"...Yeah." Wang Lei nodded.

Lin Li sighed in relief, this would be easy to explain:

"Then you should know Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy, right? They take on the roles of police officers and doctors in every city in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions."

"The reason things are like this is that behind them is a family where everyone looks the same, and they are families of police officers and doctors, with every generation becoming police officers and doctors."

"And I, Bai Bufan, belong to Xiling's internet cafe attendant family."

"Our family is similar to theirs; from a young age, everyone is raised to be an internet cafe attendant. When each person reaches adulthood, they are inevitably assigned to Xiling's internet cafes, taking on the role of an attendant and guiding people to surf the internet."

"I'm ranked eighth in the family, and my brothers all call me Bai the Eighth. The Brother Bufan you saw at 'Juxian Internet Cafe' is my Third Brother, and the Bufan you saw at 'Manyi Internet Cafe' is my Sixteenth Brother..."

Wang Lei: "?"