Just then, a man in a black suit, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, suddenly walked up to Long Ming’s group.
"You must be Xiaoqi, Long Ming, and the others," he said.
Long Ming and the others were stunned for a moment, turning to look at the man before them.
"And you are?"
"Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Captain Gao Feng of the All Stars Guild."
Gao Feng said with a smile.
"Hello. Is there something you need?"
Seeing that the man was from the All Stars Guild, Xiaoqi asked politely.
"I’ve come on Young Master Qian Wei’s orders to give you a reward."
Gao Feng took out five envelopes and handed them to Long Ming and the others.
"A reward?"
Long Ming and the others were completely bewildered.
"That’s right. You snatched the quest from the Star God Guild, and Young Master Qian Wei is very pleased. This is your reward. I hope you’ll accept it."
Gao Feng explained briefly.
"Then please thank Lord Qian Wei on our behalf."
Long Ming and his group were very surprised, but they accepted it nonetheless.
"By the way, this is my business card. I can see you are all exceptionally talented. If you’re interested in joining the All Stars Guild, feel free to contact me."
Gao Feng then handed his business card to Long Ming’s group.
Cloud Fish and the others were taken aback. ’Isn’t this poaching?’ For a moment, they weren’t sure whether to accept the card.
Just then, Xiaoqi smiled, reached out, and took the card, saying,
"Thank you for Lord Qian Wei’s generous offer. We’ll consider it."
"Alright. I’ll take my leave, then."
Gao Feng then turned and left.
Long Ming’s group then turned to Xiaoqi and asked,
"Xiaoqi, are we opening these rewards or not? Looks like they were trying to poach us."
"It doesn’t matter. Go ahead and open them."
Xiaoqi said to Yun Yu and the others.
"Alrighty."
Cloud Fish and the others exchanged a glance, replying excitedly as they tore open their envelopes.
Curious, Long Ming also opened his envelope. Inside was a check. He took it out and saw the amount written on it: 100,000.
"Whoa, 100,000 Mountain Coins!"
"Haha, we’re rich!"
...
Xiaoqi and the others were ecstatic.
This was almost a full year’s salary for people like Cloud Fish.
"Nice. I’m heading out," Long Ming said, putting away his check. He was a bit tired, so he bid farewell to Xiaoqi’s group.
"Okay, take care on your way back."
Xiaoqi and the others all said their goodbyes to Long Ming.
...
「A moment later.」
Long Ming arrived at the subway entrance near Guangwei Street and took the escalator down into the station.
But when he reached the platform, he saw that over a thousand passengers were gathered there.
The crowd of passengers stared at the electronic display screen, murmuring anxiously amongst themselves.
"What’s going on?"
"No idea!"
...
Long Ming also looked up at the electronic display screen.
It showed that Lines 1, 2... all the way to 13 were experiencing service delays, with an estimated postponement of 1 hour and 21 minutes.
Just then, the broadcast announcement sounded again.
"We sincerely apologize, esteemed passengers. Due to unforeseen circumstances, subway service is currently delayed..."
A look of utter astonishment crossed Long Ming’s face. For as long as he could remember, the subway in Mountain City Mountain had never had any issues, let alone a service delay.
’What in the world happened?’
As he thought about it, Long Ming felt a growing sense of unease, but he waited patiently nonetheless.
A little over an hour passed. When the countdown on the screen hit zero, the station’s broadcast announcement came on again.
"Esteemed passengers, we apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay. Subway service has now resumed. Please board the trains in an orderly fashion."
Long Ming breathed a sigh of relief. ’Thankfully, it was just a random incident,’ he thought.
He then followed the crowd toward the Line 1 train.
...
「Mountain City Mountain · Lower City District」
When Long Ming emerged from the subway exit onto the street, he was met with the sight of a massive crowd of people marching past, filled with fury and holding protest banners high.
"PROTEST! PROTEST!"
...
Long Ming watched the scene, a look of bewilderment on his face.
He walked dazedly down the street toward home.
Long Ming then noticed that more than half of the shops on both sides of the street were closed, and trash littered the ground.
’What is going on?’
Long Ming muttered to himself.
He’d only been playing a game for a few days; how could it feel like the whole world had been turned upside down?
Just then, Long Ming saw that Happiness Noodle Shop was still open. He went inside, planning to order a bowl of noodles. No matter what was happening, he had to fill his stomach first.
Inside, he saw Boss Zhao Ku standing in front of the small blackboard on the wall, changing the prices with a piece of chalk.
A bowl of noodles that originally cost 5 Mountain Coins was now being changed by Zhao Ku to 8 Mountain Coins—a price hike of more than half.
"Boss, what are you doing?"
Long Ming asked in disbelief.
"Oh, Long Ming, it’s you! I’m changing the prices. What can I get for you?"
Zhao Ku asked, turning to look at Long Ming.
"I’ll have a bowl of noodles."
"Alright, one moment."
"Mm."
Long Ming sat quietly, glancing around the restaurant. Normally, Happiness Noodle Shop would have at least a few customers at this hour, but right now, he was the only one there.
「Several minutes later.」
Zhao Ku brought a steaming bowl of noodles to Long Ming’s table.
"Eat up while it’s hot."
"Boss, can I ask you something?" Long Ming said, picking up his chopsticks to look at Zhao Ku.
"Go ahead. It’s not like I’m busy, with business being what it is."
Zhao Ku then sat down across from Long Ming.
"What happened today? Why are there so many protesters outside?"
Long Ming asked, looking at Zhao Ku in confusion.
Hearing this, Zhao Ku gave Long Ming a surprised look.
"You don’t know?"
"I honestly have no idea."
"You didn’t see the announcement from the Lower City District this morning?"
"No, I’ve been busy with some things in the Upper City District for the last few days."
"Oh, that explains it. Here’s what happened: Mountain City Mountain issued a new announcement. Effective immediately, all food rations in the Lower City District are cut by 30%, and all food prices are up 30%. For water, they’ve started rationing—it’s completely shut off from 9 PM to 6 AM, and the price of water has also gone up by 30%! And there’s more. Industrial power is being restricted for the entire Lower City District. And while they haven’t limited residential electricity, the price for it has gone up 30%!"
"Has Mountain City Mountain gone insane?"
Long Ming almost shot up from his seat when he heard what Zhao Ku said.
The situation in the Lower City District was already a total mess. A one or two percent increase would have been hard enough to bear. Now they’re hitting everyone with a thirty percent hike across the board, on top of cutting food rations and restricting water and electricity!
No wonder so many people were protesting today.
"Who knows? Life just keeps getting harder. Business was already bad, and now they pull this. We have to raise our prices to keep up, which probably means we’ll have even fewer customers."
As he spoke, Boss Zhao Ku’s face was etched with worry.
"I suppose so."
Long Ming didn’t know what else to say, so he just silently lowered his head and ate his noodles.
"Alright, I’ll let you eat. You should hurry and finish up, then head home. It’s chaotic out there."
Boss Zhao Ku advised Long Ming.
"Got it."
Long Ming nodded.
...