Little Chili’s eyes lit up. "I can eat hometown food again."

Lily raised her glass. "Sister Chili, welcome to the team."

Little Chili set aside whatever lingering guardedness she’d had with Lily, smiled, and clinked glasses with her. "Let’s all raise our glasses, to everyone making money in this game."

Kira nodded approvingly. "That’s a very true sentiment."

They all drank in one go. Then all four of them looked up at each other simultaneously, cheeks already flushed from a single shot of beer. They stared at one another for a beat, then burst out laughing. People who flushed easily after drinking were usually easy to get along with. It was proof enough that birds of a feather really did flock together.

Don put food on the three girls’ plates. "Eat something. Lily, you clearly can’t hold your liquor, switch to soft drinks after this. We still have grinding to do this afternoon, and if you die, it won’t just mean losing one level."

Lily stuck out her tongue. "Hehe. I’m going to drop eight levels if I die. I’ve been red for over three hours. Realms Online is ruthless, they count three hours as four without even rounding properly."

"Then we’d better just write off those three hours and work on clearing the rest."

"Hey, Don, you were thinking exactly what I was thinking!"

"Stop. I don’t think that way."

Kira glanced between them. "Neither of you should be commenting on the other. You’ve both had more than enough."

Don glared at her. "You can stop talking too, little miss. You had your fun killing people today, didn’t you? You were red for hours."

"Still five hours left to clear. What about you, old comrade?"

"A little over seven."

Little Chili rested her chin in her hand and stared at Don with soft, attentive eyes. "Brother Don looks so cool when he’s fighting."

Don chewed a piece of cold jelly. "By the way, chili pepper, where are you staying right now?"

Little Chili’s eyes began to sparkle with unmistakable intention. "Ah, I don’t have a place yet. Brother Don, could you take me in again, like you used to?"

Lily immediately covered her mouth and laughed. "Hehe, looks like Don is going to get squeezed out to the sofa."

Little Chili smiled. "I already know you two are staying at his place. I can sleep on the sofa, it’s quite comfortable actually. And I can cook, so I’ll make breakfast for everyone in the morning."

Kira put her arm around Don’s shoulder and teased, "Chili is wonderful, the virtuous, capable type. You should really consider her seriously."

Don picked up a piece of piping-hot bullfrog with his chopsticks and deposited it directly into Kira’s mouth. "You and Lily deserve each other. Both of you are the type that asks for trouble."

Kira’s eyes widened. She picked up her glass and swallowed half a beer in one go to cool the burn, then said slowly, "Damn it. That was scalding."

That entire afternoon, they farmed wolves relentlessly. High-quality wolf pelts, wolf meat, and wolf teeth appeared in Little Chili’s hands in a steady stream. The 50 percent dexterity coefficient was no joke, in practice, it almost guaranteed excellent-quality materials on eight out of every ten harvests, helped further by the high rank of the wolves they were fighting.

At 2:30 PM, Diana came online. Before Don could say anything, her message appeared. "Got into a fight again?"

Her tone was exactly like a teacher scolding a student who’d gotten into trouble at recess.

"Yeah. Adventure Club players tried to claim the hunting ground, and in a moment of impulse..."

"Those bastards from Adventure should’ve been dealt with long ago. But remember, right now your every action represents Extraordinary Studio. If something like this happens again, just contact Cloud Wind or Ice Condensation first. Sword Song has plenty of ’old friends’, and yes, those quotes are intentional. You know what I mean."

"Thank you, Sister Diana."

"Sometimes you act like a little kid, always so impulsive. Not that I’m surprised. You’re only twenty-three. Young people at that age need a bit of fire to drive them."

"Please. You’re twenty-seven, sis. Why do you always talk like you’re lecturing a child?"

"Because you’re younger than me."

"Fine. I’m not going to argue. I need to go fight monsters."

"Go on. I need to level too."

The rest of the afternoon passed peacefully, without incident. While his hands moved through the routine of combat, Don’s thoughts drifted to Elias Finch. Given Finch’s abilities both in-game and in the real world, he almost certainly had a detailed grasp of Don’s every move, even if he’d never let it show. The reason he hadn’t acted was that he was observing, watching Don’s relationship with Sword Song, calculating which way the wind was blowing. In Realms Online, the American playerbase alone numbered over 200 million, and second-generation glasses were still selling as fast as they could be manufactured. Sword Song and War Fire were irreconcilable enemies, but they hadn’t openly clashed yet in-game. The battlefield was vast and constantly shifting, and new powers could rise at any time. In an environment this volatile, neither side could afford to act rashly.

But what was the owner of Extraordinary Studio’s position in all of this? And who, exactly, was he?

That evening, after dinner, Don insisted until Little Chili finally gave in. He put his apartment keys in her hand and told her to go home and sleep. Her eyes were red and swollen, if she didn’t rest soon, she wouldn’t be able to keep going.

Lily and Kira watched silently as he handed over the keys. Only after Little Chili had walked away did Lily turn and give him a slow thumbs up. "Brother Don, I’m starting to genuinely admire you."

"Trust those you employ; don’t employ those you don’t trust." Eight words, no elaboration.

Lily tilted her head. "What if it were me?"

Don cleared his throat. "Let’s discuss that topic another time. Leveling takes priority right now."

He’d barely finished the sentence before she punched him squarely in the arm.

They didn’t grind too late that night, heading home around midnight. Everyone agreed to sleep until nine the following morning.

Thinking it over, Don realized they’d actually been quite lucky. Many other players had invested just as much time and effort over these past few days, slept even less, pushed even harder, yet their levels and gear were nowhere close. They had Long Wu to thank for that, that slovenly vagrant NPC under the crooked locust tree. Nobody knew who he really was, but whoever had written him into the game had been generous: three quests, each one flooding the team with experience points at pivotal moments.

Back at the apartment, the warm, enticing aroma of pork ribs simmering in the kitchen drifted out to meet them.

Little Chili had stayed up to make them a late-night snack.