CHAPTER 274: CHAPTER 274 STAR-LEVEL

Ben Gang City, northwest of the Kowloon Peninsula in Deep Water, near Duck Street.

Despite the explosive sound of its name, suggesting a place frequented by rich ladies, Duck Street actually targeted male customers—since it was a hub for electronic products, audio equipment, and games.

The area was bustling and known for its wide array of products at low prices. Many tourists also liked to visit—or rather, get fleeced. Tourists who came to Duck Street to buy parallel-imported or official goods were often easy prey for swindlers. If these merchants discovered someone wasn’t a local and didn’t know the prices, they would unhesitatingly raise their metaphorical butcher’s knives. After all, with a fat sheep right in front of them, not fleecing it would be a waste.

Where there’s a significant flow of people, the food service industry naturally thrives. At night, numerous Ghost Stalls would pop up. The sizzle of boiling fat and the pungent smell of various seasonings filled the street, offering hungry tourists a chance to refuel and continue shopping.

After the shops closed at night, the vicinity transformed directly into a Ghost Food Market, offering everything one expects to find, from barbecue to fried rice and noodles.

Tonight, close to midnight, the Ghost Stall vendors had started early, preparing ingredients while chatting:

"I was really unlucky today; I almost couldn’t open my stall."

"Oh? Fatty, you too? I really messed up today. When I was about to set up, I realized I was missing a pot."

"What a coincidence! My rice cooker also disappeared for some reason."

"You guys lost things too?"

"You too?"

"Yeah, I lost a whole set of kitchenware. If the supermarket hadn’t still been open tonight, I wouldn’t have been able to open at all."

"Everyone lost something? ...So, where you all keep your things, was there a glass of water there?"

"You saw that glass of water too? That was some really, really good water."

"Yes, yes! After drinking it, I felt so refreshed body and soul. I was wondering who strangely left that water there."

"Me too. You know my spouse passed away early, leaving just me to raise my son. I was so tired and frustrated, life felt meaningless. But after drinking that water, when I went to pick up my son from kindergarten, I suddenly felt like life had something to look forward to again."

"Right, actually I also..."

A customer who came to order overheard their conversation and asked curiously, "You lost things, then you all saw a glass of water and just drank it? Could someone be stealing your things? And maybe they even put something in the water—look how happy you all are."

"What’s worth stealing about a pot?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"But that water really was delicious. If I really traded that nearly broken-down rice cooker for that glass of water, it was damn well worth it."

"Yeah, afterward, I drank a ton of water, but I couldn’t find that feeling again. My whole body felt as if it had been lightened and invigorated."

The customer asked curiously, "Aren’t you angry about losing your things?"

"What’s there to be angry about? The most important thing in life is to be happy. You can be happy for a day, or unhappy for a day... Alright, I’ll cook you some noodles."

After Ren Suo asked Dong Chengling to help him buy a set of clothes, Dong Chengling first fell silent for thirty seconds. Then, she said she needed to consult with a friend and took her phone to the restroom. When she returned, she gave Ren Suo the Taobao link for the clothes.

"My size might not suit you," Dong Chengling said calmly. "You should choose for yourself."

Ren Suo then carefully observed Dong Chengling and shook his head. "No, it’s very suitable. I need exactly your size."

Dong Chengling then took her phone to the restroom again. When she returned, she told Ren Suo her size and then hurriedly left.

Although Ren Suo faintly sensed that something was off, he was quickly distracted by a notification from the Bond System—his Bond with Dong Chengling had upgraded.

’Dong Chengling, Level 2 Bond, Bond Ability ’Within Reach, Yet Worlds Apart’: Teleport 10 meters (starting and landing points must be in the same Dimension). If your superficial density (skin, hair, etc.) is lower than the landing point’s average density, teleportation is not possible. Cooldown: 20 hours. No consumption required.’

The teleportation distance had doubled, and the cooldown time had decreased by one-sixth, but it still seemed to be useful only as a life-saving Skill.

But that was not important. What mattered was that Ren Suo had discovered a use for "Desire Detection"!

Although Bond upgrades should be a natural result—after all, the many days of shared meals were not for nothing—a triggering event was still needed for Bond upgrades. Otherwise, why was his Bond with his sister only Level 1? It was because Ren Suo had failed to trigger a life-discussion event with his sister after obtaining the Bond System...

Slowly increasing their favorability level was one thing, but triggering events was a whole other issue. Ren Suo had no idea how to trigger them...

Moreover, Ren Suo faintly felt that each triggering event had to be unique. For example, after the first time he helped Li Dan sleep, subsequent attempts didn’t trigger a Bond upgrade; it had likely become ineffective.

But with "Desire Detection," it offered him a shortcut: check if he could satisfy the bonding partner’s Desires. If he could, there was a high chance of improving the Bond Level!

Although others might not be as simple as Dong Chengling, where deepening the relationship could be achieved through chatting, having this new method was better than fumbling blindly on his own.

Therefore, Ren Suo was very cheerful during dinner. Gu Yueyan only found out about Dong Chengling’s promotion when she returned in the evening. During dinner, she and Dong Chengling talked continuously about Cultivation matters. Gu Yueyan noticed Dong Chengling’s joyful yet complex expression, and then seeing Ren Suo’s delighted face, she felt a wave of suspicion.

When Ren Suo went home and logged onto CatCat Online to buy the clothes, he remembered that these clothes were meant for the Truth Seeker.

When the Truth Seeker next appeared in that outfit, wouldn’t it definitely be exposed? And then, wouldn’t people be able to follow the clues back to him?

But Ren Suo felt reassured after opening CatCat Online. Although these particular clothes weren’t bestsellers and weren’t cheap, their monthly sales exceeded ten thousand units, and total sales were over one hundred thousand. Moreover, they were shipped directly by the manufacturer, so the possibility of being traced was extremely low.

Furthermore, after receiving the delivery, Ren Suo definitely wouldn’t touch it; instead, he’d let the Truth Seeker open it herself, to minimize the chance of any connection being made through handling.

The only issue was whether to buy underwear or not.

However, after some thought, Ren Suo recalled that the Truth Seeker didn’t seem to have a habit of wearing underwear. Furthermore, his online search revealed that underwear involved many intricacies he couldn’t quite grasp, unless he personally helped the Truth Seeker take her measurements... The Truth Seeker had only asked for clothes, so Ren Suo decided to drop the matter. Besides, not wearing underwear seemed fine too!

After handling these miscellaneous matters, Ren Suo then turned on his Mini-World Game Console.

Because Dong Chengling had interrupted him, he hadn’t finished analyzing his gains.

First, Ren Suo noticed that a rotating disc had appeared in the bottom right corner of the game icon for "Midnight Walker."

Based on previous gaming experiences, it could generally be determined that the rotating disc icon likely represented "Midnight Walker" turning into reality. Generally speaking, in electronic devices, this rotation represents ’loading’ or ’importing.’ In the Mini-World Game Console, it represents the ’game’ being imported into ’reality.’

That was just a minor matter, however. What Ren Suo was focused on was another point—’Rippling Spring Sounds.’

’Rippling Spring Sounds’ was undeniably powerful. It not only meant that Ren Suo, in reality, could summon game characters at any time, but also that when he encountered difficulties in games, he could summon characters from games he had already cleared to help him.

Although the summoning time for ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ was limited and generally required completing a Four-star game or higher to replenish time, it was still more than worth it.

In addition to the limitation on summoning time and the fact that game characters could only be controlled through commands, ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ had one more restriction: only characters with a Star-level lower than ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ could be summoned.

’Rippling Spring Sounds’ was Four-star, so Ren Suo could only summon Three-star characters or lower.

As for the Star-level of game characters, he hadn’t actually noticed it until the system mentioned it...

The Initial Star Level of game characters was linked to the game. For example, the Truth Seeker and the Fairy Palace Assassin were both one-star game characters, while Ren Woxing was two-star.

However, this Star-level, according to the description, didn’t seem to be related to combat power.

Instead, it was related to the frequency of the character’s deployment and the impact they caused.

For example, the Truth Seeker, besides appearing in "If You Are Strong, Climb Ten Thousand Meters," had also appeared in "Pass the Hat" and "Mage Under the World Tree." These two additional game experiences had raised the Truth Seeker from a one-star character to two-star.

If a Player summoned the Truth Seeker in reality, it would also increase the Truth Seeker’s Star-level experience.

According to this setup, when Ren Suo had summoned the Truth Seeker earlier to have a chat, he had actually helped her increase her Star-level experience, although not by much.

Moreover, according to the Star-level experience setup, the stronger the game character and the greater the impact they caused, the more their Star-level experience would increase.

For instance, if he summoned the Devouring the Spirit of the World to take a stroll around Lian Jiang, it might just advance to a Four-star game character.

This also meant that even if Ren Suo later got more summoning time, if the Star-level of ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ didn’t increase, eventually all his game characters would advance to Four-star, and then he would be unable to summon them.

Thus, the current use of ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ was: if possible, try to use Low Star Level characters who caused less impact and whose power was just right.

Powerful High Star-level characters should be used sparingly; otherwise, when a critical moment arrived, discovering that the needed High Star-level characters couldn’t be used would be frustrating.

And Ren Suo also set a long-term goal: to increase the Star-level of ’Rippling Spring Sounds.’

The higher the Star-level of ’Rippling Spring Sounds,’ the fewer the restrictions Ren Suo had on summoning game characters.

Although Ren Suo didn’t know how to raise the Star-level of ’Rippling Spring Sounds,’ it generally involved one of three possibilities: either Ren Suo’s Player Level needed to increase, or Ren Suo needed to clear a Five-star game, or both his Player Level and clearing a Five-star game were needed.

Moreover, because ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ couldn’t summon characters of the same Star-level, the God of Cookery, from the game Ren Suo had just cleared, couldn’t be summoned either.

At that time, Ren Suo had thought the game evaluation was still uploading, which was why he couldn’t summon her. But upon careful inspection now, he realized the Food Goddess was already a Four-star character.

Ren Suo had wanted to summon her directly to make him a delicious meal that wasn’t crap-tasting, sparing him the trip to a Ghost Stall.

Should he wait until ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ advanced to Five-star? By then, he could summon the Food Goddess and eat whenever he wanted.

Ren Suo hesitated for a moment but quickly abandoned the idea. Firstly, he didn’t know when ’Rippling Spring Sounds’ would advance; if this upgrade unexpectedly took a long time, he’d be in a bind.

Secondly, even if he summoned the Food Goddess, it wasn’t guaranteed that summoning her would also summon her Ghost Stall. Ren Suo hadn’t seen the Food Goddess possess any special ’Ghost Stall’ equipment. Who knew if summoning her would only allow her to fight and cook home-style meals—after all, the Food Goddess’s Combat Power was not weak.

Thirdly, Ren Suo was already prepared. If he gave up now, he felt that the late-night snacks of the past ten-odd days would have been eaten in vain!

Moreover, recalling his game experience in Lian Jiang on the tenth day, Ren Suo narrowed his eyes slightly and opened his laptop to record his thoughts.

He needed to verify his ideas.

This was the first time he had encountered such a situation in a game. Although it felt somewhat risky, Ren Suo believed it was safe enough and worth investigating.

Mini-World Game Console... Ren Suo also found himself quietly looking forward to it, a thrill of excitement in his heart.

He liked this feeling of exploration, enjoying the process of peeling away layers to uncover the secrets beneath.

It was just like when he was a child in the countryside, throwing firecrackers into the outhouse—thrilling to the point of making one’s blood boil.

"This truly is endlessly fun."