Volume 3, Chapter 0 – Thus, Twinmoon City Was About to Become Lively

Ruins Town.

Beep beep, beep beep…

Leading the Charge accepted a call request from his younger sister, Leading the Escape.

“What is it this time? Every time I try to contact you, you never answer…”

Leading the Charge set down the crystal cup in his hand. Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Jieyu’s excited voice cut him off.

“Bro, I’ve struck it rich!”

“Mm…”

Leading the Charge instinctively leaned back and covered his ears.

His little sister was still as reckless as ever. She really gave him, as her older brother, a headache.

“Can’t you be a little steadier, like me?” Leading the Charge tossed out a piece of internet slang that had been around for years.

Zhou Jieyu went on noisily, “At a time like this, who cares about being steady? I’m telling you, I’ve struck it rich!”

Rich my ass.

“Just say what you need to say properly!” Leading the Charge scratched at his hair in resignation.

Even after listening to her babble on for quite a while, he still had not figured out what Zhou Jieyu meant by striking it rich. But there was one thing Leading the Charge did know: Zhou Jieyu had come specifically to show off.

This little sister of his was willful and flighty, careless in the way she did things, disliked thinking problems through, was bad at studying, and loved to play around. He lectured her often, but one of her favorite things to do was still to run up and show off in front of him.

Even so, his younger sister still had plenty of good points.

For example, she was very pretty.

For example, she was adorably silly.

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For example, emmm…

Leading the Charge thought it over seriously.

“Bro, what level are you now?” Zhou Jieyu asked first from the other end of the call.

Leading the Charge snapped back to himself. Looking slightly embarrassed, he gave a light cough and said, “Level 3. It already feels like leveling is getting hard. Getting to level 4 takes 5,000 EXP, and I have no idea how many drinks I’ll have to mix before I can level up.”

Leading the Charge had only unlocked one secondary profession: Bartender.

Secondary professions had a lower level cap, so leveling them was actually harder than leveling a main profession.

“I’m already level 3 too, and I even unlocked two professions: a main profession, [Apprentice Scout], that I leveled to 3, and a secondary profession, [Pastry Maker], that I leveled to 2!” Zhou Jieyu could not help sounding smug.

“Huh?”

This time, Leading the Charge was genuinely shocked by Zhou Jieyu.

“How did you level up so fast?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Leading the Charge immediately remembered that Zhou Jieyu was in Twinmoon City.

“Is the main city really that amazing?”

“Of course,” Zhou Jieyu said. “But really, it’s because I’m amazing. Last night I got a quest with a full 1,500 EXP as the reward, and I successfully escorted an NPC out on a mission.”

1,500 EXP.

Leading the Charge’s mouth fell open.

“I remember Twinmoon City was still fighting a war last night.”

“That’s right. Bro, let me tell you, this quest was super dangerous. Twinmoon City was full of bullets and artillery fire everywhere. I escorted that NPC through the most intense crossfire zone without a scratch, and I finished the mission in the end. The only annoying thing was that after I completed it, I got careless and was ambushed, so I got sent back to the starter village again,” Zhou Jieyu said with a grin.

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“…”

Leading the Charge’s expression turned a little strange.

Since when was his sister that capable? Crossing a hail of bullets unscathed? It would be impressive enough if she had not been scared half to death.

Wasn’t this story something she made up?

But Zhou Jieyu had already shared her personal status panel with him, along with screenshots of her completing the quest.

All of it seemed to be telling Leading the Charge that his sister was not lying.

“So you’re still in the starter village now?” Leading the Charge asked.

“Mm,” Zhou Jieyu replied firmly. “But it’s fine. I made quite a bit of money in Twinmoon City, and I heard the war’s already over. The Resistance got pushed back, so I’ll take the train back to Twinmoon City in a bit.”

Reselling discs, along with agreeing to let the media reprint that post of hers, had earned Zhou Jieyu several hundred Bilu. Among the player community, she could now count as a minor rich girl.

The main city.

Leading the Charge suddenly fell silent for a moment.

No matter how much of what his sister said was true or false, one thing was beyond doubt: the main city offered plenty of opportunities.

He had been stuck in the starter village for quite a while now, and on top of that, he did miss his sister a little. So Leading the Charge said at once, “All right. I just about have enough money for the fare too. I’ll take the train to Twinmoon City tonight.”

“Emmm…” Zhou Jieyu hesitated for a moment, not expecting Leading the Charge to say that. But when she thought about it, that was not bad either.

Zhou Jieyu thought.

After ending the call with Leading the Charge, Zhou Jieyu bought a train ticket to Twinmoon City.

…

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Springwater Valley.

“The war in Twinmoon City is over, it’s over!”

Nai Knight was standing at the entrance of the shop, looking around, when Qingshuang came running over from the distance at top speed.

“What happened?” Nai Knight looked up.

Qingshuang’s slightly babyish face was full of smiles. “Brother Nai!”

The corner of Nai Knight’s mouth twitched. Miss, could you please not use such an innocent smile while calling me that?

He was starting to regret choosing that ID.

It was way too direct.

Qingshuang went on, “The official news broadcast just said the war in Twinmoon City is over. Morningstar Resistance got beaten back, and transportation will be restored this afternoon.”

“Really?” Nai Knight’s eyes widened at once.

“Really!”

“Hurry, hurry, hurry.” Nai Knight fumbled as he pulled up the communication interface. “Quick, call the other three. We’ll have to transfer halfway through, so let’s buy the tickets right now. We’re leaving immediately!”

After receiving a sum of compensation money from the government, Nai Knight now had money in hand and no panic in his heart!

“Mm.” Qingshuang immediately sprang into action as well.

Twinmoon City. They were about to head to the main city!

Just thinking about it was a little exciting.

There were definitely going to be countless opportunities there!

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At that moment, a bald man walking by on the roadside happened to overhear the conversation between Nai Knight and Qingshuang.

Among the player community in Springwater Valley, this starter village, Nai Knight’s group of five could already be considered celebrities.

They had finally scraped together enough money to go to the main city, only for their train to get blown up halfway there, sending them right back to square one overnight and turning them into a laughingstock.

But who would have thought that just a few hours later, they would receive a sizable compensation payment from the government and turn disaster into blessing? Just like that, Nai Knight’s group of five became the object of everyone’s envy, jealousy, and resentment.

So infuriating.

The bald man thought, I’m going to Twinmoon City too. I can’t let them snatch up all the benefits first.

…

“Eh? Eh? Eh? The war’s finally over?!”

After seeing a post on the forum, a female player with the ID “Monster Mountain Hermit” immediately jumped excitedly to her feet.

Creak, creak went the little wooden stool inside the cabin.

“Hahaha…” Monster Mountain Hermit laughed loudly a few times.

“Twinmoon City, here I come! My idol, here I come!”

She swept the graph paper, pens, and several photos scattered across the table into her small backpack in one go.

Then she hurried out of the little wooden cabin.

At the edge of the backpack, half of one photo stuck out. Under the blowing wind, it finally floated free, wobbling through the sky in circles.

In a fleeting glimpse, one could see what was printed on the photo: in the darkness of night, a girl in a hat holding a gun—