Chapter 572: A Youth Has Already Lost His Dreams

Not only did it feature an array of bizarre and exquisite mystic arts, gods, and spirits, but it was also woven with the mundane yet amusing daily occurrences between humans and demons. Before long, many found themselves utterly captivated by this endlessly charming television series.

“Waiting a thousand years for this single encounter…” Immortal Qingyun subconsciously hummed a few lines. “To think that most of the games and dramas in this shop were originally themed around mystic duels and warfare—such as the Arad Continent, fraught with all kinds of perils, or StarCraft, where war and conspiracy comprise the entirety... Among such a series of games, there could actually be a television series like this.”

Immortal Qingyun watched four episodes almost in a single breath. “Magnificent! If combat like the previous tournament is akin to the shop’s hot and sour, intensely stimulating instant noodles, then this Legend of the White Snake is like the shop’s iced black tea. It enters the palate with a crisp sweetness, refreshing the heart and mind, leaving a lingering aftertaste that endures.”

One could say it was exceedingly relaxing and healing, behaving very much like a breath of fresh air.

As for Jessica and the others who were cleaning the shop, they were dying to watch it at this moment.

“What on earth is this Legend of the White Snake? How is it that every single one of them is watching so intently?”

Just then, they saw Thea, who had just finished the first four episodes, take off her virtual headset with great relish and begin to sing rather awkwardly, “Ah~ haha~ Ah~ haha~”

“The beautiful scenery of the West Lake, in the days of March…” Gabriel, beside her, sang even more awkwardly.

“The spring rain is like wine, the willows like smoke!” The Patriarch of the Tang Family, who was close by, readily chimed in with the next line.

“…Fate brings people together across a thousand miles!” Immortal Qingyun also seemed in high spirits. When singing this line, she could not help but feel a touch of emotion. With so many cultivators and warriors from all over the land gathered in this shop, who might otherwise never have crossed paths in their lifetimes, were they not brought together across a thousand miles right now by fate?

“Without fate, even face-to-face, it is hard to hold hands.” Boss Fang did not join in, so this line was sung by Li Lanruo beside him.

“Ten years of cultivation brings people to cross in the same boat.” Several girls with Jiang Xiaoyue also grew enthusiastic, and Yue Bai opened her mouth to sing.

“A hundred years brings them to, share a pillow, baaa-haha~” A large white deer jumped up and sang merrily in a milk-sweet, childish tone.

“What is wrong with the people in this internet cafe?!” Hearing the singing rise and fall across the shop, Jessica, Kelvin, and Carl—the three outsiders—stood holding their brooms, frozen in utter bewilderment.

What was wrong with this shop? They were just watching a television series a moment ago, so how did it suddenly become a grand singing competition?

The trio's faces twitched. How could you all be so joyful? Do you still have any respect for us invaders?

Uh… wait. The three of them thought about it, and their current identity was that of cleaning staff.

This was truly infuriating. Jessica angrily grabbed a handful of potato chips and shoved them into her mouth, while inwardly cursing in defiance, “With natives like you, we could beat a hundred of you!”

“No, wait, now that our spiritual runes are gone, we can only beat ten… then we shall beat ten.”

While several of them harbored the beautiful desire to beat ten people, a shout suddenly rang out: “The trash bins are almost full, where are the cleaning staff?”

Because they had watched it with such immense satisfaction, the snack consumption of the shop’s patrons had clearly increased.

“I'm here!” Jessica subconsciously responded.

“Go, go, go, hurry up!”

“Oh…”

Ahhh… her inner self was thrown into a frenzy.

She practically had half a mind to murder this boss.

By eight o’clock in the evening, the live broadcast big screen began to play the first and second episodes of the Legend of the White Snake.

In the Jiuhua City shop, the nearby commoners, regardless of whether they could afford to spend money or not, would mostly gather in the shop out of habit to watch the two free daily live broadcast episodes.

Right when the moon was rising, Young Master Xiao sat on the sofa, poured a glass of fine wine from the Breeze and Bright Moon Pavilion, and enjoyed the television series.

At the same time, several cleaning staff in the Yuanyang City shop also poured themselves a glass of iced black tea with tears streaming down their faces: “Finally, we get to watch it…”

“At long last, we get to watch it…”

This was truly: As the bright moon rises over the sea, from a thousand miles away, we share the same sofa.

“Oh—! A deity actually truly exists in this world?”

“This Goddess Guanyin looks so powerful…”

“A mortal can actually summon the God of the Treasury with a casual shout, how are there so many gods and immortals in this world?!”

Two hours later.

A chorus of voices drifted from the sofa…

Jessica: “Ah~ haha~ Ah~ haha~”

Kelvin: “The beautiful scenery of the West Lake…”

Passing customers looked at them with lines of sweat on their foreheads: “…”

“Master, Master… will the great calamity of our Lingzhou still come?” Zhuge Yu sat on the sofa, watching the Legend of the White Snake once again while asking.

“Of course it will!” Carl, beside her, gave a cold snort.

“How do you know?” The young girl looked over in confusion.

“Uh…” Carl’s face twitched, and his face remained dark for a long time before he spat out a sentence, “In the vast void, weak existences will always be coveted by others. Warfare often arises because of this.”

Just as someone had said before Fang Qi traveled across: The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is a hidden hunter, treading through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside obstructing branches, striving to make no sound with their footsteps, and even keeping their breathing tightly controlled. He must be careful, because the forest is full of hunters like him. If he finds other life, there is only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate it.

Boss Fang walked over at this moment and scratched his head. “Why fight a war? Isn't it great to play esports?”

“…” The faces of the few outsiders twitched, and they simply did not want to speak to Boss Fang.

If it weren’t for the fact that they couldn't beat him, they would definitely have taken this kind of person back and whipped him a hundred times over.

…

Having finally handled the tournament tasks and shop affairs, Boss Fang had only just emerged from the "Game Cultivation Room" at this time.

“Hmm?” At this moment, he inexplicably fished out a golden, extremely beautiful stone from his pocket.

“This is…” He finally remembered. Back then, he was forced into a bet by Jessica and won back three stakes: the Shadow Cloak, the Cursed Blade, and this stone.

Fang Qi remembered that when Jessica took out this stone, the system prompted that this stone contained an immense amount of energy.

In fact, the system took the lion's share of the shop's income every time, also for the sake of energy. Sufficient energy was the foundation for creating and maintaining so many vast game and movie worlds, as well as the shop's lightning punishment protection system.

And for Fang Qi, it had another function, which was to upgrade his permissions.

In truth, Boss Fang had already bled heavily to complete the tasks, and on top of that, he had smashed a lot of money into playing Dungeon & Fighter himself, so he was currently quite poor.

“Should I… sell this stone?”

“System absorbing…”

“Energy analyzing…”

“Hey!” Fang Qi stared dumbfoundedly at the stone that had already vanished from his hand, just like the spiritual crystals that used to disappear before. “How is it gone!”

“System! Holy crap! Spit it back out for me, hey! To think you would steal and eat this boss’s treasure! Are you born in the year of the dog?!”

“Holy crap, if you don't spit it out for me today, I'm going on strike!”

System: “*Burp*…”

Boss Fang’s face darkened. “…You're something else. I've never seen a system as brazenly shameless as you!”

A wave of depression washed over Fang Qi's heart, and he thought to himself that he would have to go over to Xiaoyue's place later to freeload half a bag of potato chips to soothe his mood.

Just at this moment, Fang Qi heard the system's voice once again: System energy preparation complete, unlocking new permissions.

Dimensional teleportation is preparing.

A new task has begun.

New Task: Cross-Dimensional Network

Task Description: Want to build a unique network system? Young man, take action.

"No," Boss Fang replied. "I don't want to go anywhere at all."

The youth had already lost his dreams.

The System remained silent.

.