Chapter 2: There's a Cheat!

The short ten minutes left Lin Mo with a sense of unreality.

He hadn't watched fewer instructional videos like this before, and while he couldn't say he learned nothing, the results were quite mediocre.

But when he looked at the work on his computer again, he found that many of the problems that had previously seemed obscure and difficult were now as simple as breathing.

"Could it be that I've finally had a breakthrough after long accumulation?"

The work before him became incredibly simple in his eyes. He finished all of his tasks for the day with two hours left before he was supposed to get off work.

*Ding~* A WeChat message arrived.

He checked it; it was from Yuan Meng.

【Don't leave after work. Call Zhang Wei, same place, my treat!】

Seeing this message, Lin Mo replied with an "OK" emoji and continued to slack off.

Soon it was time to get off work. Lin Mo didn't dare delay for a minute; he grabbed his phone and headed straight out. He was just an intern with a meager salary, so overtime was never something that fell to him.

Before long, the three of them met up at a food street behind the company.

At "Sister Jiang's Barbecue," Zhang Wei and Lin Mo were eating heartily, while Yuan Meng was gesticulating wildly, recounting her glorious battle in the General Manager's office that afternoon.

"You guys didn't see it. This afternoon, I gave Fatty Dong a real earful in the GM's office.

That fat pig is just a manager who climbed the ladder by bootlicking. What right does he have to throw his weight around? Doesn't he want money? I told him, 'No money for you, but if you want my life, I've got...'"

Before she could finish, Lin Mo and Zhang Wei simultaneously picked up their phones and turned on the recording function.

Yuan Meng: o_O

"What are you two doing?"

Hearing this, the two quickly put down their phones.

"Ahem, Sister Yuan, according to the procedure of Jinling Deputy General Ma Guocheng, it's time for you to take off your clothes now," Lin Mo laughed.

Zhang Wei, sitting to the side, nodded repeatedly. "Exactly, exactly. Hurry up, Sister Yuan, the atmosphere is already set!"

Yuan Meng: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

"Get lost! I've got the figure and the face; do you think I'd let you two get a bargain?"

Hearing this, the two looked at Yuan Meng in unison. It had to be said, if you ignored her height of just over 1.5 meters and her figure that made it hard to tell front from back, she was indeed a beauty just looking at her face. It was just that her temper really didn't match her sweet appearance.

"What are you looking at? Are you still eating or not!" Feeling their gazes, Yuan Meng felt a bit guilty, then turned her embarrassment into anger.

"Eating, eating, eating," they replied in unison.

"Sister Yuan, you embarrassed Fatty Dong so much, won't he give you a hard time? Why not take two days off to avoid the limelight?" Zhang Wei asked with some concern once they had eaten their fill.

Yuan Meng sneered at this. "Me, avoid his limelight? Do I look like a coward to you?"

"Exactly. Fatty Dong already lost his dignity; does he dare provoke Sister Yuan?" Lin Mo chimed in.

"You... you guys. I look like a coward, fine! You two—one is a rich girl who's always the top salesperson, and the other is a student who can just walk away once the internship ends. I can't do that!" Zhang Wei wanted to say more, but wilted as soon as he thought about the situations of the other two.

"Oh? Xiao Lin, your internship is almost up, right?" Yuan Meng asked.

Lin Mo: "Yeah, at the end of this month."

"Are you coming back?"

"Don't know. We'll see when the time comes."

Lin Mo hadn't even decided what he wanted to do in the future, let alone the fact that he still had a year of school left.

Once they were mostly done eating, Yuan Meng said, "Three-man queue tonight. It's my promotion series, don't you two dare drop the ball!"

The two nodded repeatedly. That's right, the reason the three of them got along well was mainly because they were gaming buddies. Of course, Yuan Meng and Zhang Wei were the main forces, while Lin Mo was just a "pendant."

He was a Silver-tier player who only knew how to charge in blindly. Occasionally, he would pull off a miracle, like a blind punch killing a master, but most of the time, by the end of a fight, his teammates would have had to endure three executions on his behalf. The only reason the three hadn't broken ties was that it was hard to find good gaming partners; otherwise, they would have fought long ago.

After the meal, the three went their separate ways. Lin Mo returned to his rented apartment not far from the company. It was a one-bedroom place; fortunately, he hadn't graduated yet, so his mom could still support him a bit, otherwise, he would have starved to death relying on that internship salary.

Open door, take off shoes, turn on computer, log in—all in one smooth motion.

Soon, the sounds of the game filled the room.

Zhang Wei: "Armed and armored, invincible!"

Yuan Meng: "Armor intact, the third watch has arrived!"

Lin Mo: "Burning with rage—holy crap, save me, save me, save me!"

He popped his ultimate, died instantly, and incidentally cleared the enemy's debuffs. Zhang Wei and Yuan Meng were forced into a two-versus-three and were soon wiped out as well. Such "eyes-blacking" operations were just a daily routine for him.

The gaming lasted until the early hours of the morning. By then, Zhang Wei and Yuan Meng were desperate from losing. Not only had they dropped a whole rank, but they had also been chased across three streets by a guy in white armor wielding a golden horse-slaying blade. He had brutally shattered Yuan Meng's golden armor and red longsword, even knocking out her inner core, leaving her completely broken.

"Are you trying to kill me, you little black dog? Can you do anything? If you can't, just open one! I already parried him, and you're dismantling him? Are you a traitor?" Yuan Meng was almost crying looking at her rank.

"Black dog" happened to be a play on the character "Mo" in his name, so whenever Yuan Meng got angry, she called him that.

Zhang Wei trembled, not daring to say a word.

Lin Mo:...

"Uh, didn't you tell me to charge in blindly? I..."

Before he could finish, Lin Mo suddenly noticed the online shopping pop-up from the afternoon appearing on his phone again. It was the same four items

【9999 Pure Silver Ingot, 20.79g, ¥4.79】

【Changbai Mountain Wild Ginseng, ¥3.4】

【Little Blue Pill, nourishes yin and kidneys, good for you and her; ¥9.8】

【Humanoid Cheat, Naraka: Bladepoint combat tutorial, guaranteed to learn in three minutes, straight to Asura; ¥1.12】

Lin Mo:...

"Again? I..."

But immediately, he remembered the programming skills he had suddenly mastered today, and his heart wavered.

'It's not expensive anyway, what if?' Thinking of this, Lin Mo couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"One more round, if I don't carry, I'll eat it!"

He glanced roughly at the four options. The silver ingot and the ginseng were obviously fake; he was a college student, not a sucker.

As for the little blue pill, pfft, who are you looking down on? My "little brother" is invincible!

No sooner said than done. With a tap of his finger, the password-free payment of 1.12 yuan was deducted, and soon a game tutorial video appeared on his phone.

Then, he felt that same sensation from the afternoon—knowledge flooding into his brain.

"Fine, I'll trust you one more time. If you don't carry, you're done for," Yuan Meng said, starting the matchmaking in a huff.

In the blink of an eye, three minutes passed, and the game began.

*Gulp.*

Lin Mo couldn't help but swallow. At this moment, he felt terrifyingly strong—the kind of strong where even Kled would get slapped twice.

Just as they entered the game, they landed in Celestra, and there was a team right in their faces. Moreover, Yuan Meng and Zhang Wei, the two main players, had no armor and no weapons.

"Run, run, we can't fight this!"

"Go, go, sacrifice the little black dog!"

Zhang Wei and Yuan Meng shouted, wanting to abandon the pawn to save the king.

But Lin Mo was no longer the same. Various gaming techniques formed muscle memory as if he had undergone long, arduous training. He charged in alone, not afraid at all.

Soon, Zhang Wei and Yuan Meng saw the notification that he had killed three people in a row. They rushed back, and when they arrived, they saw Lin Mo chasing two people down by himself...

"Little black dog, you're fierce! We can fight, we can fight!"

"Awesome, awesome!"

"Nice parry!"

When they saw him perform a katana rising dragon, grapple-hook hundred-crack, aerial triple-combo, and switch between longsword and katana with ease, executing every technique flawlessly...

Zhang Wei: "Did you really hack?"

Yuan Meng: "Damn it, he's cheating!"

Lin Mo:...

(End of chapter)