"This… this… this is your account?!"
When the black market merchant saw Andy again, his eyeballs nearly popped out of his sockets to perform a tap dance on the floor.
"How much did you spend?!" His trembling hands could barely grip the Magic Slate.
"I didn't spend a single cent." Andy shrugged, though the dark circles under his eyes wept silently for the sheer amount of "grinding" he had endured. "I gathered every free Mana Crystal available in the game and used them all for pulls."
"Then you must have pulled an SSR every single time?!"
"Not exactly. I got a few SR and R cards too..."
"Child, if I didn't know your family was struggling and that it's impossible for you to spend money recklessly, I'd think you were making fun of me."
Andy gave a weak smile. "How much is this account worth?"
The merchant was about to blurt out, "It's worth a fortune!" but he forced the words back down.
"Well..." He fell back on his polished sales tactics. "You know, this game has been out for a while now. Most people have already pulled the cards they wanted. There aren't as many people looking to buy accounts anymore. If you had come earlier, maybe... but now, I can only give you ten gold coins at most."
Andy nodded. This was close to what he had expected. To earn ten gold coins was enough to satisfy him. Everyone said he was lucky; if that were true, selling this account was like selling a bit of his luck.
"Can I sell the slate along with it?" he asked. "One silver coin is fine."
"You're not going to keep rolling new accounts?" The merchant raised an eyebrow in surprise. "With luck like yours, you could open a few more and the money would just come rolling in."
Andy's expression dimmed. "I'm not playing games anymore," he said softly. "No time. I... I have to find a job."
"Well, to each his own." The merchant pulled out his wallet. "Ten gold coins and one silver. Deal."
Andy carefully counted the paper notes several times, only handing over the slate and the account password once he was sure. The merchant grabbed the slate, but Andy didn't let go immediately. It took several tugs and a threatening glare from the merchant before Andy's arm finally dropped to his side.
He tucked the money into his inner coat pocket, clutching it tightly for fear of pickpockets. His parents would surely wonder where he got so much money. If they knew playing games could actually earn a living, they'd probably be shocked speechless.
Light snow kissed Andy's cheeks, cool and refreshing, melting into tiny droplets against his skin. From this day forward, he was saying goodbye to Magic Games. His encounter with them had been brief—only a few months—like a fleeting dream. But the joy of those months would be etched in his heart forever. Whenever he faced hardship, he would take this precious memory out from the treasure box of his mind, savor it, and find the courage to keep facing life.
Andy didn't go straight home. Instead, he took a detour to Adventurer's Avenue. There was a goblin shop there that sold eccentric gadgets, including metallic prosthetic limbs. He wanted to see if there was something suitable for his father.
At the entrance of the goblin shop, he ran into the two people he knew best.
"Twelve gold coins, not a copper less, Madame," the goblin said in heavily accented Common. "I have a business to run! My whole family depends on me for food!"
"Ten gold coins!" Andy's mother—Mrs. Mohawk—shouted in her characteristically loud voice. "This thing has been gathering dust in your shop for ages! Sell it to me and at least you'll make a profit, otherwise, you can hug it until the end of the world!"
Mr. Mohawk leaned on his crutches, one empty trouser leg swaying in the cold wind. He tugged uneasily at his wife's sleeve. "I don't need that thing. I can walk just fine with the crutches."
His wife ignored him, continuing to haggle with the green-skinned goblin.
Just then, a hand reached out in front of her, holding a crisp, new ten-gold note.
"Take it, Mom."
Mrs. Mohawk looked in disbelief at her son, who had suddenly appeared behind them. His nose was red from the cold, and two frozen trails of tears marked his cheeks.
"Where did you get so much money?" She froze for a second, and then a logical—though not entirely legal—thought popped into her head. "You little brat! Believe me, I'll chop your hands off! How did I raise you? Even if we're poor, we don't steal—"
"I sold the Magic Slate," Andy interrupted dejectedly. "And my game account. You probably won't believe it, but it's worth quite a lot."
His mother's reaction was different than he had imagined, but he understood. If he were in her shoes, he would have assumed the money came from illegal means too.
The goblin stared at the bill, greedily rubbing his hands. "He's right, Madame, I can testify!" To get the money, he unhesitatingly sided with Andy. "Good accounts are in high demand right now! Oh, if I weren't so old and didn't struggle with those young people's toys, I'd be selling accounts for extra cash too!"
Mrs. Mohawk opened her mouth, then closed it. She took the note and gripped it tight, the crisp paper crinkling under her fingers.
"But didn't you love that slate?"
Andy shrugged and forced a strained smile. "I got bored of it. Only kids like playing with those things. I'm an adult now."
The three of them looked at each other in silence. A thousand words flowed between their gazes, but no one spoke.
After a long moment, Mrs. Mohawk turned to the goblin and held out the note.
"Ten gold coins," she said through gritted teeth. "Take it or leave it!"
"Deal! Madame, of course, it's a deal! Sigh, I'm really taking a loss here. If it weren't for your family's hardship, I wouldn't do this! Sir, would you like to try on the prosthetic?"
Andy watched the goblin fit the prosthetic for his father. This tall, silent man had been a brave warrior on the battlefield, but as he leaned on his wife to test the limb, he was as clumsy as a newborn infant.
"This limb... it works well. It's like my leg never broke." He grinned at his wife.
Then, he patted Andy firmly on the shoulder. It was a silent gesture, but Andy understood exactly what he meant.
The three of them left Adventurer's Avenue and headed home. After walking for a bit, Andy suddenly stopped. "Dad, Mom, can I go to Sunset Avenue for a moment?"
"What for?"
"Nothing, I just... want to look."
The Mohawks looked at each other. This time, it wasn't the father who spoke first, but the mother.
"Why not?" she said. "I'd like to take your father there too. To see the most popular place in our Norelia."
Lorne slumped over his desk, head propped up by one hand while the other tapped rhythmically on the table—though "tapping" was a generous word; it looked more like an unconscious twitch. His eyes were vacant, staring blankly into the void.
Across from him sat a richly dressed noblewoman. She cradled her pet dog, dabbing away tears with a handkerchief while rambling incoherently about her ordeal.
"I was playing just fine yesterday, but today, for some reason, I can't log in..."
"I really didn't tell my password to anyone, Mr. Lorne! I swear!"
"You're asking what I used as a password? Oh, I didn't use my birthday or house number—wouldn't that be too easy to guess? I'm not that stupid!"
"I used my little darling's birthday!"
Her "little darling" let out two barks and wagged its tail happily, completely unaware that the unfortunate day of its birth had caused its owner so much trouble.
Lorne had been listening to this noblewoman's complaints for a full hour. To put it simply: she had been hacked.
Over the past few days, Lorne had received several reports of account theft. The unprecedented popularity of Hero Legend 2 had attracted a massive player base, and with such a large sample size, even low-probability events were becoming common.
Most of these "thefts" were actually players forgetting or mixing up their passwords. A few were because they had set passwords so simple that those around them could guess them easily.
Lorne couldn't really blame them; even on the advanced Earth, cybersecurity was never truly "solved." He could only update the game overnight, forcing players to set more complex passwords and adding security questions and fingerprint verification.
Silas and Selina were at a loss on how to handle the players who showed up at the door, so they passed them to the person in charge. Consequently, Lorne spent the whole day resetting passwords and listening to long-winded complaints.
By the end of the day, he felt more exhausted than if he had worked 24/7 for two months. The only silver lining was that these players didn't insult his parents to his face—likely because they had run into Wolf on their way up.
After seeing off the particularly talkative noblewoman, Lorne rubbed his throbbing head and found Luca.
"Write me a recruitment poster. Right now!" He ruthlessly added to his employee's workload.
Ten minutes later, he marched downstairs with a roll of posters. The holidays were over, shops were reopening, and Sunset Avenue was bustling again. The Magic Game Experience Store was packed as usual.
The screen-protector shop next door was also doing a roaring trade. A batch of Hero Legend 2 co-branded phone cases had just arrived, featuring ten different characters from the game. Lorraine intended to use this merchandise to test character popularity and plan for future "whale-bait" strategies.
Many passersby noticed that the shop on the other side of the Experience Store had been emptied. The interior decorations were mostly stripped away, revealing brick walls. A group of workers was hauling in construction materials.
Lorne waved to the foreman and proceeded to paste the poster on the wall between the two shops. He noticed a man and woman with a teenage boy standing behind him, watching him with curious and confused looks.
The boy looked familiar. Those two next to him must be his parents.
After finishing, Lorne turned and smiled. "Oh, you bought a Magic Slate before, right? I don't remember your name, but I remember your face."
The boy immediately straightened his back, looking like a young soldier being inspected by a Grand Marshal.
"I'm Andy Mohawk, sir!" He even gave a proper salute, his freckled face lighting up instantly.
His mother cast a scrutinizing look at the shop under renovation. "You bought the shop next door?"
"Yes. I plan to separate the retail store and the net cafe—I mean, experience store. Otherwise, it gets too crowded." Lorne looked worriedly at his shop and the street packed with people waiting in line. "Also, I plan to renovate the upstairs into office space for the Customer Service Department."
"Customer Service?" Andy had never heard the term.
Lorne nodded toward the poster. Andy leaned in and read the text aloud:
"Hiring... Customer Service Representatives? Job Requirements: Provide after-sales consultation for customers who purchased Magic Slates and forward tickets to the appropriate departments; handle troubleshooting for Magic Game recharge issues; assist customers with account and password problems..."
If Lorne had to personally reset every player's password, it would be a nightmare. Given the expansion of operations, it was time to build a support team.
The team, of course, had to be human. Imagine the reaction if a customer called a support hotline only to find a demon on the other end. Lorraine didn't expect monsters to solve human problems—he was just thankful when they didn't create them.
On Earth, consumers were used to after-sales service; its quality was a benchmark for a brand's reputation. But in this world, in this era, it was a brand-new concept. If a consumer bought a faulty product, they usually just had to suck it up and accept their bad luck. Concepts like "7-day no-reason returns," "3-year warranties," or "Consumer Protection Associations" sounded like fairy tales. A "Customer Service Rep" was an unheard-of profession, as mystical as a "Magical Scientist."
Andy looked bewildered. "Is customer service... just serving customers? Like a restaurant waiter?"
Lorne explained: "To put it simply, it's about finding the underlying logic of user satisfaction. By focusing on user perception based on usage scenarios and using user experience as the closed-loop evaluation standard, we use a combination of innovation and humanistic care to empower the brand."
Andy: "?"
The explanation was worse than no explanation at all.
Lorne ruffled the boy's hair and said kindly, "It's okay if you don't understand. If you just think a little harder, you'll find that you still don't understand."
Andy: "???"
While he was still dazed, Mr. Mohawk limped forward. He read the poster carefully, then turned to Lorraine and asked in a nearly humble tone, "What are the requirements for this 'Customer Service' job?"
"Only two," Lorraine said. "Patience and thick skin."
In other words: the ability to handle tedious complaints without getting frustrated, and staying calm even when being yelled at. Without these qualities, a CS rep would end up in the ICU in no time.
Lorne had only hosted players for one day and already felt he was on the verge of sudden death. He couldn't imagine how much pressure tolerance a professional CS rep must have. If they could do this job, there was probably nothing in the world they couldn't handle.
Mr. Mohawk wrung his hands nervously. This man, who had never flinched in the face of fully armed enemies, looked embarrassed. After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally mustered the courage: "Can someone like me apply?"
"Dear, what are you saying?!" Mrs. Mohawk cried out.
Magic games might be fun, but working in a shop related to magic was a different story! Working as a CS rep for magic games—how was that different from sweeping floors in a Mage Tower?!
Lorne studied Mr. Mohawk. "Can you type?"
"No," Mr. Mohawk said guiltily. "But I'm literate. I went to public school. I can learn."
"If a customer screams at you or insults your family over the phone, what do you do?"
"Pretend I didn't hear it and continue following orders," Mr. Mohawk said. "I heard every curse word imaginable when I was in the army. If our commander wrote a book titled The Art of Cursing, he'd be on the rich list."
Lorne nodded. "Five gold coins a month, one meal included. Five days on, two days off, but you need to work shifts. If you stick to the night shift, there's an extra allowance."
Mr. Mohawk was overjoyed but also deeply anxious. "But a man like me... haven't you seen my leg?"
"Do you plan to type with your feet?" Lorne asked.
"No! I just want to make sure—you don't mind that I'm disabled?"
"That doesn't affect your work, does it?" Lorne spread his hands. "Back home, many customer service reps are disabled. Any other questions about the pay? If not, go find Selina in the shop to fill out a form. Once the renovation is done, you can start. What? You say many shops won't hire you? Don't they know there are tax breaks for hiring the disabled? Do they have too much money? ..."
That day, when the Mohawk family left Sunset Avenue, all three of them walked with light steps and dazed expressions, as if in a dream. Andy felt like everything today was surreal.
In the morning, he thought his family had fallen into a pit of despair, and he would have to say goodbye to school to become a child laborer in a factory. By evening, his father had suddenly found a job—working under Mr. Lorne Dungeon, the man he admired most! The family's financial crisis had been solved just like that. Andy could go back to school, and his mother didn't have to sell her belongings!
Though the income wasn't as high as being a bodyguard for a noble, his father was satisfied. He spent the whole way home muttering that if they saved money and rented out the attic, they'd never have to worry about living expenses again. They could even save up to send Andy to university...
A week later, the Mohawk family received a letter from Dungeon Entertainment, notifying the father to officially start work. To earn more, he chose the night shift. That day, his mother made him a special, hearty bento. In Andy's memory, this was the first time his father had smiled from the bottom of his heart since returning home.
Later, news broke that Hero Legend 2 was launching a new event. Classmates gossiped endlessly; even before the faction war started, they had already picked sides, leading to minor scuffles.
Andy didn't join the debates. He could only listen enviously, yet even the arguments between his friends sounded incredibly interesting to him.
Another week passed, and his father returned home beaming, handing an envelope of cash to his mother. She counted it, then frowned. "Why does it look like some is missing? Were you docked pay?"
"I bought this for Andy."
His father pulled a box wrapped in a beautiful ribbon from his pocket. "Take it, son," he said to Andy. "I just want you to be happy. That's enough for me."
Andy opened the box. Inside was a brand-new Magic Slate.
Norelia Train Station.
"Miss Yvette! Over here! Over here!"
Chris held up a sign with Yvette's name, jumping up and down excitedly. The young girl hopped off the train, adjusted her hat, and ran over with a light, quick stride.
"I'm so sorry, the train was late!" she shouted over the loud whistle of the locomotive. "We hit a volcanic eruption halfway through—apparently the dragon living there woke up—and the train had to wait for it to finish. Did you wait long?"
"It's fine! I've always wanted to try picking someone up at the station with a sign! I've only seen this in movies before!" Chris shouted back.
He handed the sign to his manservant-slash-driver, who gave a helpless look and went to help Yvette with her luggage.
Yvette had returned to school a week early because Chris had sent her a telegram saying Hero Legend 2 was starting a new event. The event was time-limited, and once it was gone, it was gone. Yvette had rushed to buy a ticket to get back to Norelia.
"By the way, during New Year's, Grandpa took me to the Crown Prince's banquet. Guess who I met? Your cousin! I only just found out his father owns the ToyJoy Company! He even asked about you. Why didn't you ever mention him?"
Chris hurried Yvette into the car and quickly changed the subject. "Isn't the weather in Norelia cold? You probably don't need a coat in the capital right now, right? But it was snowing here just a few days ago!"
Yvette keenly sensed that Chris didn't want to talk about his cousin and followed his lead. "Speaking of which, which faction are you joining in the event?"
"Greece, of course!" Chris perked up at the mention of the game. "According to the prologue, Helen was the Queen of Sparta and was kidnapped to Troy. Greece went to war to get her back—it's perfectly reasonable. I believe in standing on the side of justice!"
He immediately regretted his words. Yvette's face was covered in a dark, chilly frost. Compared to her gaze, the icicles outside the window looked warm.
"Are you... supporting Troy?" Chris asked in horror.
"Chris, oh Chris, you've been blinded by the surface-level family drama of the story," Yvette said righteously. "I read the prologue on the train. Do you really think anyone in the world would start a massive war over one woman? Even if you were willing, your soldiers wouldn't agree. In reality, the Greeks were just jealous of Troy's wealth. Their goal was to plunder riches and slaves. Helen was just a grand excuse. Even without her, the Greeks would have found another reason—like 'our soldiers went missing in Troy' or 'the Trojans refuse to trade freely with us.' In other words, the Greeks are the invaders, and Troy is the side of justice!"
"But stealing someone else's wife is just wrong!"
"We should protect the innocent people of Troy!"
The two of them stared each other down, neither willing to yield.
"It's a pity, Chris. We used to be partners, but this time, we must face each other on the battlefield," Yvette said deeply.
"Let the sword and flame decide who is right!" Chris clenched his fist.
The driver looked at them through the rearview mirror and silently covered his forehead.
Help me... two more have gone mad...