Chapter 138: Man Proposes, God Disposes

Du Zhifeng frowned slightly, unable to help but reassess the young man standing before him.

Perhaps hearing Lu Kuan's words, a woman's voice drifted from inside the room: "Old Du, who is it? Don't make the guest stand outside..."

Hearing his wife, Du Zhifeng finally released his grip on the doorknob and motioned for Lu Kuan to enter.

Stepping inside, Lu Kuan found the interior decorated simply yet warmly. Du Zhifeng's wife quickly brought out a cup of tea, eyeing Lu Kuan intently all the while.

It was simply because Lu Kuan was far too young. Although his expression and demeanor were much more composed than those of his peers, he could not escape the "cruel" fact that he was only eighteen years old.

"I'll get straight to the point."

Lu Kuan didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "I'd like to hire you as my business manager, dealing with online games. Are you interested?"

The young man's straightforwardness caught Du Zhifeng off guard. After a pause, he gave a wry smile and said, "Young man, I don't know what kind of business your family is in, but coming to recruit me like this is only going to bring trouble to your family..."

"I know a thing or two about the electrical appliance factory, so you don't need to worry about that. Besides, some matters might not be as serious as you imagine."

Lu Kuan smiled and continued, "As for me personally, if someone wants to make my life uncomfortable, I will only work twice as hard to live even better. Mr. Du, how about giving the both of us a shared opportunity to give it a try?"

Hearing this, Du Zhifeng fell into deep thought. Beside him, Du Zhifeng's wife was clearly moved, tugging at her husband's hand with encouragement shining in her eyes.

Without pressing too hard, Lu Kuan took a document pouch from his backpack and placed it on the coffee table.

"I'm planning to acquire a very valuable program written by an independent developer. The other party's basic information is inside, along with my contact details. There is also a bank card loaded with thirty thousand, which serves as my advance on your salary and initial operational expenses."

With those words, Lu Kuan stood up, smiled, and shook hands with Du Zhifeng. "If you decide not to accept, it doesn't matter; just throw the card away, and after a while, the funds inside will automatically transfer back."

Without lingering further, Lu Kuan took his leave. Du Zhifeng escorted him downstairs, staring at the teenager's retreating figure with a rare expression of hesitation on his face.

Leaving the Xingfu Residential Area, Lu Kuan headed straight home.

He wasn't entirely certain whether Du Zhifeng would agree. Although Lu Kuan had other candidates in mind, considering both capability and character, Du Zhifeng was undoubtedly the most suitable choice.

In the near future, if Lu Kuan wanted to carve out a slice of the pie in the virtual gaming live-streaming industry, Du Zhifeng would be the best helper he could imagine.

Currently, the interaction between virtual game players and audiences remained stuck at the stage of recording gameplay videos, uploading them, and having viewers watch. Outside of virtual games, however, the live-streaming format had long since become the industry mainstream.

What constrained virtual game streaming were primarily technical hurdles. Transmitting the signals of the virtual world in real time while factoring in the time-compression effect inherent to gaming helmets had yielded no satisfactory solutions thus far.

Yet all these problems would cease to be problems two months from now. In just a few days, an independent programmer whose online ID was "Single for Ten Thousand Years" would accidentally solve this technical bottleneck.

Yet for the first month, even the programmer himself had no idea what kind of creation he had unlocked, right up until investors came knocking. In his past life, this event spread widely across the gaming circle and became virtually common knowledge.

"Now that the program has been written, all Du Zhifeng needs to do is buy out that person's other programs as well."

Lu Kuan thought to himself, a smile blooming on his face. "Can I pull it off? It all comes down to luck. Let's just treat it as a bold gamble~"

That very evening, right before dinner, Lu Kuan received a phone call from Du Zhifeng: the other party had accepted the "temporary" job.

"A very good start~" Lu Kuan thought happily.

Back at home, his parents stubbornly refused to quit their jobs. Eventually, Lu Kuan came to terms with it; they were still relatively young, and without work, they might just rust away from boredom, so he let them be.

As long as they didn't overexert themselves and maintained a healthy balance of work and rest, it would actually be better for their health.

That night, Lu Kuan logged onto the forums as usual to browse through the posts, only to discover a rather surprising piece of news.

In the game, far away in Torrent Port hundreds of miles away, someone had completed a Grade-A bounty quest issued by the city lord. Ordinarily, such quests rewarded massive amounts of gold coins and prestige.

"Prestige..."

A memory seemed to awaken in Lu Kuan as he muttered to himself, "Calculated this way, the people over at Torrent Port should be starting preparations to establish a guild territory? Heh~ Heavenly Gloom is going to have something to worry about now~..."

At 8:00 PM, inside the game world.

Everything was prepared. Lu Kuan was sitting in the alchemy hall practicing his skills and brewing potions needed for his journey, killing time while waiting for dawn to set out.

However, the heavens apparently didn't want Lu Kuan to embark on his journey so easily. Before the sky even began to brighten, a series of "Beep, beep!" system audio alerts sounded in his ear.

"Huh? An NPC is writing to me?" Lu Kuan was somewhat surprised. This particular alert sound only occurred when receiving mail from NPCs.

Finding the nearest mailbox, Lu Kuan retrieved a carefully wrapped envelope. The seal of the scroll was stamped with an exquisite wax emblem—after scratching his head for a moment, Lu Kuan remembered this was the personal insignia of Deputy Commander Leila.

When Lu Kuan arrived at Leila's private residence, a female soldier stood at the doorway. Her eyes lit up upon seeing him, and she immediately stepped forward.

"Mr. Old Lu? Please follow me~" The female soldier gave Lu Kuan a slight nod, motioning for him to follow before turning sharply away, nailing the cold, aloof demeanor of a proper soldier.

Lu Kuan didn't mind, looking left and right as he took a keen interest in the tranquil and secluded private estate.

"I wonder when I'll be able to afford a large villa to live in both in reality and in the game~" Lu Kuan couldn't help daydreaming.

Before long, however, Lu Kuan snapped out of his pleasant fantasy because a fellow he intensely disliked was approaching from the opposite direction.

Tang Jie, the first castellan of Lava Fortress, dressed in dark armor and accompanied by several guards, walked straight toward them.

The female soldier immediately executed a military salute to Tang Jie, stepping aside to yield the path. Yet as he passed Lu Kuan, Tang Jie let out a questioning "Huh?" and came to a halt.

"I recognize you." Standing at least 1.9 meters tall, Tang Jie looked down at Lu Kuan from his height, speaking expressionlessly while a palpable wave of invisible pressure radiated from him.

Lu Kuan shoved his hands into his pockets and slanted a glance at him. "Pardon me, and who might you be?"

Joking aside, unless tied to a specific storyline plotline or attacked by a player, NPCs had zero capability to harm players. Lu Kuan sneered inwardly: What are you acting so high and mighty for?