Chapter 147: When You Strike It Rich, Remember Your Old Friends

Morning.

Qiao Mian threw a flurry of clumsy, erratic punches in the jungle, consumed the breakfast hanging from a tree branch, and then leaped up to a fork near the top of a massive tree.

Settling into a comfortable, diagonal posture, he leaned back and took out his phone, intending to watch a movie.

Not long after he started watching, a shrill, piercing roar suddenly shattered the peace.

Frowning slightly, he mentally summoned Zero.

A beam of light projected outward, displaying the exact source of the blood-curdling screams.

Seeing what was unfolding over there, Qiao Mian found himself torn between laughter and tears.

Ever since the last staff meeting, where five outstanding employees had been publicly commended, the others were no longer as listless and unmotivated as before.

Some coveted the reward game coins, while several beasts and monsters simply desired Qiao Mian's personal recognition.

Even the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a creature not particularly renowned for its intellect, was trying to reinvent its work ethic.

Right now, it had gathered ten other massive, robust carnivorous dinosaurs and was forcing them to rehearse a dinosaur dance routine.

Whenever a dinosaur failed to keep up with the steps, it would lunge forward and snap at them, eliciting loud, mournful howls of pain from the unfortunate beast.

At Qiao Mian's behest, Zero shifted the camera angle, and sure enough, he spotted Jazz lying on the ground some distance away, writhing and undulating his metallic body in a spirited cosplay of a dinosaur.

Choreographing a dinosaur dance routine was undoubtedly the brainchild of this dance-obsessed Cybertronian.

"This guy," he murmured, shaking his head with a light chuckle.

Ten carnivorous dinosaurs sticking out their rear ends and wagging their tails in unison actually looked oddly mesmerizing.

Putting down his phone, he crossed his arms, leaned back against the tree fork, and watched the spectacle with rapt attention.

Time ticked away second by second.

The morning sun climbed higher into the sky.

The exhausted dinosaurs, worn out from the rigorous drill, gradually dispersed to forage for food on their own.

By then, Qiao Mian had already returned to his office.

Even though he desperately wished to be a completely hands-off boss, there were still countless matters demanding his daily attention.

A mere gamer forced to transform into a capitalist—the bitterness of his plight was truly known only to himself.

***

Several hundred kilometers away in a small county town.

A young man sat in a daze.

His name was Wang Lu, seventeen years old, and an utterly ordinary high school student.

He possessed plain looks and mediocre grades.

Both of his parents were farmers who tended to a few acres of apple trees, bringing in an annual income of thirty to forty thousand yuan.

After deducting the costs of pesticides, fertilizers, and basic living expenses, they could barely save a few thousand yuan by the end of the year.

Half a year ago, his father was involved in a car accident, which instantly wiped out the family's meager savings and left them with a mountain of external debts, momentarily driving Wang Lu to the brink of dropping out of school to work.

His parents had vehemently opposed the idea.

His academic performance was nothing special; even with grueling effort, he hovered only in the upper-middle tier of his class, likely destined for nothing better than an average university.

Faced with the academic prodigies who slept through every lecture, spent breaks discussing video games, and still effortlessly claimed the top three spots in every exam, he felt an agonizing knot in his chest.

He couldn't help feeling that he was simply too dull-witted and perpetually cursed with bad luck.

Whenever he guessed on multiple-choice questions he didn't know, he almost never managed to hit the one-in-four probability.

When teachers advised that blank fill-in-the-blank questions should simply be guessed as "1" or "0," he invariably picked the exact opposite.

Watching the girl he secretly had a crush on walk further and further away, he finally withdrew his gaze, picked up his lunchbox, and bought a serving of egg-fried pancake at the cafeteria.

While eating, he took out his secondhand Redmi phone, opened the official website of the Fantasy Park, habitually clicked on the registration link, and then switched over to a dictionary app to review English vocabulary for a while, before sluggishly returning to his dormitory to grind through more practice problems.

Having stayed up far too late working on problems, he felt slightly drowsy during morning reading the next day.

Amidst the resounding drone of recitation, he suddenly heard a classmate at the front of the classroom blurt out a stunned curse.

Immediately after, another classmate echoed the exclamation.

A ripple of muttered profanities abruptly warped the atmosphere of the classroom.

The head teacher, clutching a stack of English textbooks, stood right at the doorway, on the verge of erupting in anger, when a student eagerly rushed forward and shoved a mobile phone directly into the teacher's face...

A split second later, the head teacher let out a subdued curse of his own, then strode briskly toward Wang Lu's desk.

By then, several students had already swarmed around Wang Lu's desk, bombarding him with a chaotic barrage of rapid-fire questions.

"Bro Lu, don't forget your humble friends when you strike it rich!"

"Bro Lu, turns out you were the hidden European emperor all along!"

"Quick, let me touch you to rub off some of your godly luck!"

"Wang Lu, is it really you?"

"Say what you want, but I've always thought Wang Lu was so handsome!" a female classmate gushed infatuatedly.

"You used to say he was too dark!" someone mercilessly exposed her.

"That's called masculine charm!"

...

Wang Lu's head was buzzing relentlessly.

Still clueless about what had transpired, he half-believed he must be dreaming.

It wasn't until the head teacher walked up and physically shoved aside the two boys crowding his desk that he snapped back to reality.

"Teacher!" Wang Lu jolted upright, instantly straightening his posture.

This middle-aged man, already half-balled in his thirties, was one of the few teachers in the school known for dishing out physical punishments.

Yet behind his back, very few students ever spoke ill of him.

Old Ban was deeply responsible, fundamentally decent, and frequently spent his own money to buy rewards for students who showed significant improvement.

Because of his own weak English grades, Wang Lu had always held a lingering dread of him.

Yet right now, the head teacher addressed him with a gentle tone Wang Lu had never witnessed before: "Is your online nickname 'Wang Lu, Class 6, Grade 3, Sunshine High School'?"

Nickname?

Both his QQ and WeChat display names were "Hero of the Greenwood."

Wait.

A sudden realization struck him, and his expression twisted into one of utter disbelief.

The head teacher maintained a stoic face, though his right hand trembled slightly as he handed his phone forward: "Is this you?"

Wang Lu cast his gaze downward.

It was the official roster for the latest batch of winners granted the qualification to purchase Fantasy Park admission tickets.

His name was ranked second.

In an instant, hot blood surged through his veins, overwhelming agitation washing over him as tears welled up uncontrollably in his eyes.

The entire classroom stared at him.

Not a single person laughed.

Even the most boastful and pretentious show-offs in the class looked at Wang Lu with eyes filled exclusively with thick, unadulterated envy.

It took a long while for Wang Lu to finally snap out of this overwhelming surge of joy.

His legs felt weak and rubbery, making it difficult to remain seated.

He desperately wanted to make a phone call to his parents, but teachers and classmates had trapped him in an impenetrable circle, leaving him no opportunity even to retrieve his phone.

Before long, teachers from neighboring classes rushed over to verify the news.

A short while later, several senior school administrators had arrived outside the classroom as well.

The entire Sunshine High School was instantly plunged into a state of wild celebration.

Reporters from the provincial television station had long since caught wind of the news and rushed to the scene.

Sitting before the camera lens, the balding principal spoke with eloquent fluency.

"Student Wang Lu possesses both exceptional moral character and academic excellence. Ever since entering our school, he has been repeatedly honored as a Three-Good Student year after year. I have always held a deep impression of him..."

Seated off to the side, Wang Lu pinched his own thigh in secret.

He almost suspected he had time-traveled into an alternate reality.

After the reporters finally departed, wave after wave of new visitors arrived.

Among them were liaisons from certain national government departments, as well as representatives from major conglomerate corporations.

Wang Lu felt as though his head was spinning throughout the entire ordeal.

Especially when a corporate representative subtly hinted at a buyout offer of two hundred million yuan for his qualification, he felt his breath hitch in his throat.

With that kind of wealth, wouldn't he be able to live in the tallest skyscrapers and remain entirely free from financial worries for the rest of his life?

Every single time a wave of temptation washed over him and he felt on the verge of immediately accepting, the head teacher standing nearby would invariably step in ahead of him and politely decline on his behalf.

"The child's parents haven't arrived yet. A decision of this magnitude requires family consultation."

It wasn't until everyone had been escorted out to the reception rooms and the balding principal went along to play host that the head teacher pulled Wang Lu aside into a quiet corner.

"A matter like this ought to be discussed between you and your parents, but as your teacher, there are a few things I must remind you of."

"I am well aware of your family's circumstances, but now that this opportunity has fallen into your lap, regardless of what path you choose, the rest of your life is secured."

"Think long-term, and don't let yourself get blinded by money."

"This era is undergoing a profound transformation," Old Ban said, his expression weathered with solemnity as he patted Wang Lu firmly on the shoulder. "When an opportunity arises, you must seize it with both hands!"

Wang Lu listened, understanding only half of the profound weight behind those words.