"It should be eight o'clock now, right? Who has the time?"
"I do! It's past the time!"
"Then why isn't it open yet?"
"Oh, why is the boss late again today?"
"Just don't tell me he had another cultivation breakthrough today!"
"He probably just overslept?"
People in this world used a timer similar to an hourglass. Everyone pulled theirs out to check, and sure enough, it was time, but the Internet Cafe still hadn't opened, making them a bit anxious.
But in reality, only five minutes had passed.
It's just that these customers were extremely sensitive to time. It was fine if it wasn't the stipulated business hour yet, but once it was, they couldn't wait!
You see, they could only play for fourteen hours a day, so if it was five minutes less, they'd only get thirteen hours and fifty-five minutes. Oh, right, you also had to account for the ten-minute warning at the end. It was pitifully short, wasn't it?!
Someone immediately tried to shout for the boss from downstairs.
But before he could even call out, the window on the second floor opened, the curtain was pulled back, and a head poked out from inside.
"Everyone, please wait, I'll be right down!"
Su Ran stabilized everyone with a single sentence, then closed the window again.
He was holding a cleaver in his hand, and he turned back to look at the ingredients he had just taken out of the refrigerator on the dining table, frowning in annoyance.
Of course, Su Ran hadn't overslept today, because he hadn't slept at all. He had only just come out of the game a short while ago.
To be honest, Su Ran himself hadn't expected to play for so long.
If the experience of Stardew Valley for Su Ran was only mediocre before successfully planting crops, then after planting crops, the experience was directly maximized.
The more he planted, the more addicted he became.
In the time that followed, he tried planting more than a dozen kinds of crops, but because the cultivation methods were too difficult to find and master, most of them failed. However, several were successful, such as green vegetables, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
When Su Ran tasted them himself, he was amazed.
Su Ran became even more convinced that it wasn't due to one or two special ingredients, but that all the food in this game world was extraordinarily delicious.
The taste was such that after one bite, any other food paled in comparison.
At this moment, Su Ran realized that he truly loved farming and wished he could try cultivating all the crops.
The process wasn't important, but the result was. As long as he could taste such delicious food, what did the difficulties in cultivating and planting methods matter?
However, while he had a feast in the game, it was a tragedy outside the game.
When he looked at other ingredients, even those given by the system, he had no appetite at all.
So at this moment, Su Ran was considering how to cook these ingredients to make them a bit more palatable.
And with this hesitation and deliberation, he accidentally forgot to open the door.
"Forget it, I'll deal with it later!"
Su Ran shook his head, put down the cleaver, and then went downstairs.
…
"It's open! It's open!"
"It's finally open! Boss, why are you late again today?"
"Yeah, you're so punctual when closing, at least be punctual when opening! We're going to lose so many minutes of play today!"
"Forget it, don't waste time! Quick, quick, turn on the computers, get into the game!"
The moment the Internet Cafe opened, players swarmed in, rushing inside to grab seats, turn on their computers, and enter the game.
Wu Lei also entered the game at this time, appearing in the Hunter's Hub Starfall.
Normally, he would have been the fastest to rush in, and by now, he would have already accepted a quest and started hunting monsters without a word.
But this time, he wasn't in a hurry, because he knew that being in a hurry was useless. In his current state, it would be very difficult to defeat those Ancient Dragons.
So he first went to the Blacksmith and found the Blacksmith's uncle, wanting to ask if he could forge new equipment.
But the Blacksmith's uncle shrugged and said helplessly, "I'm sorry, if you can't give me new monster materials, I can't forge new equipment for you!"
Wu Lei heard this, and although he had expected it, he still looked disappointed.
In other words, at this moment, he probably wouldn't be able to obtain better equipment through conventional means.
"In that case, I'll just have to try this!"
Wu Lei's heart stirred, and he couldn't help but call out, "Game Store!"
Then he saw a virtual screen page immediately appear in front of him.
Wu Lei knew that this Game Store was the new feature the boss had mentioned before, as it had already been discovered by other players.
Everyone coveted the items inside, but no player had used it yet.
Because to buy items in this store, what was needed was not gold coins, nor game currency, but achievement points, and achievement points were accumulated very slowly.
So for common items, players could obtain them themselves in the game, and of course, they were reluctant to buy them. They all wanted to save more achievement points to buy rarer items.
Wu Lei was no exception. Since he couldn't learn the Foresight Slash of the Taichi Sword, he had originally planned to save 100,000 achievement points to buy it directly.
But now he changed his mind. He opened the armor page of the Game Store, then flipped through it for a while, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
"Found it!"
"This is it, the Steel Dragon set!"
Wu Lei's face showed surprise. This Steel Dragon set equipment could originally only be crafted at the Blacksmith after defeating an Ancient Dragon and collecting its materials.
But he hadn't expected that it could be bought directly from the Game Store.
Wu Lei hurriedly checked the price again, and couldn't help but gasp, exclaiming, "So expensive!"
Although the price of a full Steel Dragon set was not as expensive as the Foresight Slash skill book, he still couldn't afford it with his current achievement points.
"But even if I can't afford the whole set, buying three pieces of it is enough!"
When Wu Lei fought the Steel Dragon before, he felt that the formidable aspect of the Steel Dragon wasn't the monster itself, but the disgusting terrain and wind pressure.
And as long as he could wear three pieces of the Steel Dragon set equipment, he would be immune to wind pressure, which he felt would make dealing with the Steel Dragon a sure thing.
And if he only bought three pieces of equipment, his current achievement points would be enough.
"Chest armor, gauntlets, helmet, just these three, bought!"
Wu Lei selected the three pieces of equipment in the Game Store and clicked buy. The screen prompted: [Purchase successful, your equipment will be delivered in three seconds]
Wu Lei looked, his face full of excitement, and stood quietly in place, waiting for three seconds.
But after three seconds, he looked around and asked the air in confusion, "Where's my equipment?"