Chapter 22: What’s Wrong With This Person?

“If the person who cleared the game registered as a boy… we use a beautiful woman’s profile picture!”

“If it’s a girl, we use a handsome guy’s profile picture…”

“Opposites attract, and there’s a reason for that. In fact, for shut-ins, the lethality of a beauty or a hunk is quite significant. It makes communication much easier…”

“The internet is virtual, and we should take advantage of that virtuality to create convenience for ourselves…”

“Ge Shen, are you okay?”

“…”

Zhang Yang sat in his chair, controlling the chat interface while giving another lecture on his little tidbits of psychological knowledge.

He noticed Ge Yumiao’s face was pale and asked instinctively.

“I’m actually… fine…”

“…”

Ge Yumiao suddenly felt a wave of nausea.

His stomach cramped involuntarily.

He couldn’t help but glance at the burly man from the Northeast, Wu Zhuang.

He thought back to that painful past he didn’t want to remember!

“Little brother…”

“Little brother, you’re so amazing!”

“Little brother…”

He had once fantasized about who exactly was behind that Q-Dog account…

Was it a young girl, a fair-skinned beauty with long legs and glasses, or perhaps…

He had been immersed in it, imagining all sorts of unrealistic scenarios, even scenes from novels where beauties fell for him at first sight.

But!

How could he have ever imagined that behind that beautiful profile picture was a burly man from the Northeast who probably spent his time scratching his feet?

At this moment…

His goosebumps returned.

“Huh? This is a newly registered Q-Dog account?”

“A newly registered Q-Dog account, Old Wu. Generally, people with these kinds of accounts are those who want to hide their identity, or rather, they’re afraid we’ll send them a virus…”

“So, when chatting with someone like this, you must be cautious…”

“You can’t use ‘little brother’ or ‘little sister’ right away. Of course, for people like Ge Shen who use anime profile pictures, a large portion of them can’t handle being called ‘little brother’ or ‘little sister’ directly…”

“But a profile picture of a girl with glasses, fair skin, and a pure, beautiful look – as long as the target is a man, most will find it irresistible… unless he’s gay. Of course, even if he is gay, it doesn’t matter. The probability is too small. Encountering that would be like a miracle from your ancestors, so we won’t consider it…”

Zhang Yang was lecturing.

Wu Zhuang was learning, even taking notes in a notebook.

And…

Ge Yumiao was experiencing total social death.

He felt like finding a hole to crawl into and never coming out for the rest of his life.

He finally couldn’t take it anymore and walked out of the room to get some fresh air.

He felt!

That life was simply too long!

After watching Ge Yumiao leave, Zhang Yang didn’t care and continued pulling Wu Zhuang along for his lecture.

“First, facing a newly registered account like this, we should confirm one thing: this person has a very strong awareness of fraud prevention! With someone like this, sending ‘little brother’ or ‘little sister’ content can sometimes backfire. We should be a bit more serious…”

“We should send: ‘Congratulations! You have become the first player to complete all the hidden quests in the game. I am your Customer Service Xiao Wei…'”

“After sending that, confirm how they reply. From their tone, judge what kind of person they are… If they seem very interested in chatting, we can proceed to the next step. Use the advantage of your profile picture to get close to them, giving them the illusion that they are very impressive and admired…”

“If they just reply with an ‘oh’ like this, then it means this person’s vigilance is incredibly high. Someone like this is hard to ask out for an offline meeting… even if we do, we must choose a public place that everyone knows…”

“…”

Zhang Yang saw the other party reply with an “oh” on the screen and immediately frowned, turning back to look at Wu Zhuang.

……………………….

“Respected sir, could we schedule a time to meet offline?”

“…”

“Are you free to accept a simple interview from us? We are very eager to meet a pro player like you…”

“…”

“You are the first person to complete all the hidden quests, and your points are even higher than the previous Ge Shen, breaking our game’s all-time record… I personally admire a great god like you very much. If I could get an autograph, that would be even better. I think it would be very meaningful…”

“…”

“Please rest assured, we are a group of very reliable people. You don’t have to worry about a honey trap¹…”

“…”

“You can pick the location – a cafe, an internet cafe, a restaurant, any of those will work…”

“…”

“Little brother, why aren’t you replying?”

If.

One day…

You saw someone using your own photo as their profile picture, chatting with you, and seemingly hinting in every possible way that they wanted to meet you to celebrate and promote you in person…

How would that feel?

Liu Ruohan didn’t feel great.

She sat on her bed clutching a pillow, staring at her laptop screen, feeling goosebumps all over her body.

After reading the chat history, her face turned bright red instantly.

Especially after hearing that “little brother” line…

She completely lost it on the spot, burying her head in her pillow.

For some reason…

She even involuntarily imagined herself gently calling a strange man “little brother”…

And what those men would do in response.

In an instant…

She couldn’t help but shut down the computer.

This was simply too much to bear!

“How can this person be like this…”

“Aaaaaaaaaah.”

“…”

…………………………

On the other side.

Zhang Yang had encountered the most difficult challenge of his life.

He, who prided himself on being a master of chat psychology, was currently filled with embarrassment.

The script didn’t seem to be going the way he said it would?

This person…

Why did they keep replying with “oh” or “…”?

Why the speechless look?

Had he done something wrong?

No, that couldn’t be right!

According to his analysis, there shouldn’t be any issues at all!

And…

Why was the guy just ignoring him now?

Even if he were gay, he wouldn’t have this kind of attitude, would he?

Wu Zhuang watched from the side…

Zhang Yang was no longer lecturing Wu Zhuang.

His mind raced, countless persona options flashing through his thoughts.

He waited for a long time…

Finally…

He saw Q-Dog reply.

“Aren’t you afraid of copyright infringement, using someone else’s photo as your avatar?”

“…”

The other party had suddenly asked such a question.

Zhang Yang was instantly dumbfounded when he saw it!

Why would this person ask that?

Someone else’s avatar?

This…

Why would he ask this question?

It made no sense!

This…

Zhang Yang couldn’t figure it out.

“Sorry about that. It doesn’t matter who the person in the photo is. What matters is, sir, we hope to meet with you and formally present you with your award…”

“The award is secondary. I think it’s very wrong of you to use someone else’s photo to deceive people. Don’t you agree?”

“Sir, we aren’t deceiving anyone…”

“Then why are you using someone else’s photo? Don’t you know that causes trouble for people?”

“Sir… we didn’t use someone else’s photo…”

“Then is that you? Are you the person in the photo?”

“This…”

Zhang Yang froze for a long time.

He felt like he had run into a total contrarian².

I’m not the person in the photo, but are you?

Zhang Yang’s expression was one of utter disbelief…

He took a deep breath and looked at Wu Zhuang, who was watching closely.

Zhang Yang knew he had likely crashed and burned.

But he couldn’t let it show.

“Well, Old Wu, when you run into a contrarian like this, it’s actually quite difficult to handle. How should we reply? First, we have to be sincere…”

“…”

Then, he typed a sentence.

“This is a photo of an old classmate of ours… It really isn’t my own photo. If it caused you any trouble, I’d like to offer you an apology. Let’s talk about the award ceremony…”

“…”

“…”

To his surprise…

“You’re lying again! You don’t have a classmate like that at all!”

“…”

Zhang Yang was stunned when he saw this response.

He was completely lost.

What was wrong with this guy?

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes