Lin Sheng returned quickly, holding several objects that looked like conch shells in his hand.
Upon closer inspection, the spirals on these conch shells were identical, with every detail perfectly matching.
When he held one to his ear, he could hear the sound of waves and sea breezes emanating from within, like music playing on a serene beach.
This was the currency of the Star of Art—inspiration.
"No problems, right?" Lin Sheng asked.
"None at all, brother!" Lin Xing gave an 'ok' gesture, and the blonde girl followed behind him, silent as ever.
Lin Sheng stared at the girl for a moment, feeling a faint sense of oddness in his heart, yet he couldn't point out anything wrong.
She seemed different from before, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Was it the expression on her face? Why did her face seem a bit more... rigid?
Inside the stock exchange, people in tailored suits were impeccably dressed and spoke with refined grace, yet their eyes were like wolves, fixed on the fluctuating stock prices on the electronic boards.
A tense atmosphere brewed in the air, as if a silent war was being fought.
Every jump of the red numbers tugged at the expressions on their faces. Between one phone call and the next, massive amounts of capital flowed every second.
The hall was vast, with the entire floor completely hollowed out. Pillars wide enough to require several people to encircle them supported the steel-structured dome. Light from the morning dawn filtered through the silver-gray glass ceiling. Even before the sun had fully risen, these securities investors gathered here. They came from all over the world, drawn by the name of this land of dreams, eager to dig for treasure in a place where gold supposedly lined the streets.
Xu Xiaoyou sat on a long bench with her hands in her pockets, scanning the surroundings. She breathed a sigh of relief after confirming the two shadows hadn't followed her.
It seemed she had successfully shaken them off. She had used a substitute to lead them out of the shop and then took the chance to slip away.
She just didn't know how long it would take for Lin Sheng and Lin Xing to realize the girl beside them was her substitute.
She took out her phone and tapped the screen; the signal bar in the upper right showed no service.
The Corrupt Hive City was still too backward.
Communication devices couldn't even connect to the network here in the Star of Art; it was completely disconnected from the rest of the universe.
She looked at the people around her. Everyone wore ornaments by their ears, and light screens floated before their eyes. With a few taps of their fingertips in the air, they could pull up a multitude of pages where complex information and text automatically arranged themselves.
Those were personal light screens, known in the Star of Art as 'curtains.' They were one of the mainstream communication tools of this world,
Developed by Kowloon Information Enterprise, which held a monopoly over the most advanced wireless communication technology.
With a wave of Xu Xiaoyou's hand, the card pool page appeared before her.
【Current Card Pool Name: Starry Singer.】
【Current 5-star UP Character: Sevia Winter - Drop rate increased.】
【Condense Count: 40/90】
In the illustration, the girl's deep blue hair was as profound as a galaxy, and her blue eyes were serene. She sat diagonally on a stage with her legs slightly pulled together, holding a bow-shaped lyre in her arms, her slender fingertips lightly brushing the strings. Her long hair, like flowing stars, cascaded down to her ankles and scattered across the stage floor.
She was breathtakingly beautiful, so much so that the entire starry sky seemed to dim in comparison, reminiscent of the Goddess of Night from mythology. In the dark environment, thousands of shadows watched the girl on stage. The tilt of her brow and every smile captured the gaze of the people below, driving them into a frenzy.
Xu Xiaoyou lacked the vocabulary to describe how beautiful or stunning she was. If she had to say it, the girl had a face that screamed 'top-tier meta.'
One look was enough to tell this was a human-rights-level character card.
Since things had come to this, she might as well pull.
Counting the rewards from her previous commissions and the subsidies the company gave to S-rank employees, she now had over fifty thousand credit points, enough to hit the hard pity.
She didn't expect a gold pull early at all. She didn't even bother looking and skipped fifty pulls in a row.
【Gingko Curtain】, 【Flower Voucher x39】, 【Song Training x2】, 【Dance Training x2】, 【Painting Training x2】, 【Character Experience Card x2】...
【5-star Character, Star of the Stage—Tang Xin obtained.】
The image on the golden-flashing character card materialized. A blue-haired girl dressed like the girl next door held a microphone with a shy expression. Before her were only a handful of audience members, with only a single glowstick shining for her.
In the past, Xu Xiaoyou probably would have started cursing out the unscrupulous gacha pool, but now her heart was calm.
Although the name was different—even making her suspect a machine translation error—she was still certain:
Tang Xin was the form of Sevia Winter before she had fully matured. The girl's appearance and temperament had undergone earth-shaking changes, but only her gaze remained the same, like a resilient and beautiful flower.
"Very good," Xu Xiaoyou nodded.
Aside from the various skill cards, there was also a personal curtain. She wasn't sure what brand it was, but it looked expensive.
Xu Xiaoyou placed the earring, which looked like a ginkgo leaf, by her ear. A numbing sensation traveled from her earlobe, and soon, a curtain appeared before her.
[Personal curtain of 'Pending Name'.]
[Gingko Curtain Next-Gen Commemorative Edition.]
[System: Colors 1.24]
[Processor: Junmao s9000.]
[Local Number: 10000000. Communication Provider—Junmao Netcom.]
As soon as it turned on, all sorts of advertisements popped up, such as singing training classes, painting training classes, adult art academies, and the organ loans unique to Universal Heavy Industries—the kind where the security department would provide 'doorstep service' if you didn't pay on time.
It was dazzlingly chaotic.
After completing the activation, her personal curtain automatically connected to the network, and various apps began downloading. Before Xu Xiaoyou could cancel one, another 'ding-dong' signaled the completion of a download.
"This really is something," Xu Xiaoyou sighed with a wry smile.
After a flurry of activity, she deleted everything she needed to delete, set it to refuse automatic subscriptions, and checked the box to block text messages. She only left two social apps: the short-video platform 'Note' and the chat software 'Drawing Board.'
These were the two social apps installed on the curtains of almost every young person in the Star of Art. Greeting friends through Drawing Board and posting daily life on Note was what the vast majority of people did every day.
Tang Xin's character card appeared in Xu Xiaoyou's hand. As the patterns on the card lit up, the curtain before her eyes automatically changed.
[User Tang Xin BuBird Contact: 8634215. Communication Provider—Chaofeng Mobile.]
[Current User Tang Xin BuBird Location: No. 136 Shell Street, Queen's District. Positioned for you.]
A 3D model of the city map appeared before her. The place she was currently at was called Belvedere Square, which wasn't far from Shell Street in the Queen's District. It would only take about half an hour to walk there from here.
Before leaving the stock exchange, Xu Xiaoyou logged into her Corrupt Hive City network account and converted her remaining ten thousand plus credit points into inspiration at the exchange counter.
By the time she stepped out, the snow outside had stopped. Golden light shone on the accumulated snow. In front of the revolving glass doors, Xu Xiaoyou wrapped her scarf around her face over and over again.
After pulling the second character, the cost to condense points had indeed increased again. A single ten-pull now cost sixteen hundred inspiration, which was roughly equal to over a hundred thousand credit points.
Game developers are all insatiable wolves, Xu Xiaoyou thought.
Her pockets were empty; she only had about a hundred inspiration left to her name.
Just then, a man wearing a brownish-gray trench coat with a gentle smile on his face walked toward her and happened to bump into Xu Xiaoyou.
"Sorry, are you alright?" the man said.
Xu Xiaoyou was in a fairly good mood and returned a polite smile. "I'm fine. Have a pleasant day, sir."
The man paused, his gaze softening slightly. "You too, beautiful young lady. Walk a bit faster; leave this street."
Xu Xiaoyou was somewhat puzzled as she watched the man, who was carrying a black briefcase, put a top hat on his head. He then pushed through the revolving glass doors and walked into the exchange without looking back.
But she didn't think too much of it. She sniffed the air and walked quickly away from the stock exchange to the roadside. Although this place was very prosperous, few float-cars flew in the sky; most people still traveled by horse-drawn carriages or pumpkin carriages.
"Over here, over here!" Xu Xiaoyou waved her hand and hailed a horse-drawn carriage.
After getting in, she didn't rush to call Tang Xin's mobile number. Perhaps she was still sleeping. The girl looked quite delicate; she might be a young lady from a well-to-do family. Leaving a bad first impression would affect the favorability increase.
She decided to observe the other's personality first and, when the time was right, tailor their first meeting accordingly.
Meanwhile, somewhere on Shell Street in the Queen's District.
A sky-blue-haired girl holding a bass guitar, looking somewhat uneasy, pushed open the door to a dim room.
Rate on N.U.
