They played a game called Endless Kill, which was currently the hottest MOBA game among young people. Players chose game characters provided by the system and engaged in various types of PvP battles such as 1v1, 3v3, and 5v5. The side that successfully destroyed the enemy base crystal first would win.

After hearing Guan Heng’s introduction, Meng Feixuan thoughtfully said: “Sir, when I was in a superposition state, I also obtained similar game information in other parallel worlds. The most popular one was called Honor of Kings, but it was a mobile game and a favorite among elementary school students.”

Xie Ran was not surprised, this type of game mode met human entertainment needs, and as long as technology and the gaming industry developed normally, it should appear in most parallel worlds.

He wasn’t sure if it was just an illusion, but he always felt there was a hint of eagerness in Meng Feixuan’s tone.

Meng Feixuan did want to play personally, but Xie Ran stopped him.

Although this game posed no difficulty for Xie Ran, he couldn’t just sit idle, especially since he was playing together with Guan Heng and the others.

If they got reported for cheating, they wouldn’t get paid.

For the first time, Mr. Xie experienced being poor and calculated money very clearly.

It felt very real.

Xie Ran registered a game account and asked Guan Heng to introduce the specific game attributes and gameplay.

Guan Heng thought: “… I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m a sales clerk introducing products to customers right now.”

But Xie Ran’s attitude was so natural, as if he was born to be served, that Guan Heng hesitated only for a second before obediently starting the introduction.

However, just after Guan Heng finished explaining the gameplay, Xie Ran waved his hand: “Alright.”

Guan Heng wanted to say more but stopped, he hadn’t introduced the different heroes’ attributes and roles yet!Before he could complain internally, he saw Xie Ran open the hero shop and quickly browsed through each hero. Xie Ran’s speed was so fast that within minutes, he had clicked on every hero. Then he looked at Guan Heng and said: “Enough.”

Guan Heng couldn’t help but ask: “What can you tell just by looking like that?”

Xie Ran replied: “Enough.”

Guan Heng muttered: “Alright then.” The nerd had read too much and thought playing games was like studying—just understanding the words meant you knew how to play!

It was time for the underperformers to teach these top students a lesson!

Thinking this, Guan Heng couldn’t help but get excited again. Seeing these academically brilliant students get beaten badly in the game would be really fun.

Today, he would prove on Xie Ran’s behalf that intelligence wasn’t only shown by academic grades, top students also had their weaknesses. Though they had poor grades, they were clever in games

They entered the game. Since Xie Ran used a new account without any ranking, they played in casual mode. That was fine, but Xie Ran immediately picked the hardest assassin hero.

Newbie, quick pick, assassin—basically ticking all the boxes for a terrible player.

Guan Heng’s teammates grumbled quietly: “Brother Heng, are you sure we’re the ones carrying him… or are we just the ones being carried?”

Guan Heng had already emerged from Xie Ran’s shadow and fully immersed himself in the fantasy of beating the top students. He righteously said: “We’re all classmates, why fuss over this?”

The teammates: “… You’re not usually like this!”

They were too scared to speak up.

Guan Heng happily entered the game, planning to randomly direct Xie Ran to chase dragons and lose towers. Before he could say anything, Xie Ran skillfully controlled his assassin and entered the jungle to farm.

Guan Heng raised his eyebrows: The nerd learned pretty fast.

Just as this thought came up, the headset played the “first blood” sound effect—Xie Ran killed an enemy hero who came to invade the jungle.

Guan Heng, who was still leisurely clearing minions, was confused.

The teammates were even more confused.

Guan Heng hadn’t taken Xie Ran seriously from the start and hadn’t watched his perspective carefully, so he didn’t realize things were complicated. After all, newbies sometimes accidentally get first blood. He just blinked in surprise and joked awkwardly: “Lucky top student.”

Two minutes later, Xie Ran finished jungling and started roaming lanes.

At this time, Guan Heng’s marksman was just killed by an enemy assassin, and several enemy heroes were grouped in the top lane. Guan Heng saw Xie Ran approaching and immediately said: “Don’t go there and feed, they have numbers…”

Before he finished speaking, the headset played the sound of their team killing the enemy.

One kill, two kills, three kills…

Xie Ran’s assassin moved flexibly and used skills precisely to take down several enemy heroes. Then he briskly withdrew and directly invaded the enemy jungle.

Guan Heng: “…!”

The teammates were also shocked by the sudden triple kill and stared at Xie Ran in surprise.

Only then did they notice that Xie Ran’s operations were surprisingly smooth and beautiful. His fingers were nice-looking, fair, slender, and with clear joints. But what was more impressive was his technique: his hand speed was fast, almost no hesitation or pause between actions, and what shocked Guan Heng and the others was not only his speed but also his precision.

Xie Ran’s screen view switched rapidly, and his hero’s operations were concise and efficient, with almost no wasted moves.

This level of play, Guan Heng and his group had only seen in professional e-sports matches.

For a while, they were all stunned. When the headset played the sound of their heroes being killed, they snapped out of it. One of them exclaimed: “Damn, why are you spacing out? The tower’s already being pushed.”

Right after, the headset played continuous kill sounds. The only surviving teammate, Xie Ran, single-handedly wiped out the enemy team and pushed to the enemy high ground.

Guan Heng and his friends: “…”

Before Xie Ran destroyed the enemy crystal, the enemy players typed in the chat: [Only the enemy assassin knows how to play.]

Enemy: [Is the assassin carrying? One versus four?]

Enemy: [Listen to me, don’t carry, you can’t handle it. Come join us and play in the national server.]

Guan Heng and friends: “…”

With a “boom,” the enemy crystal exploded, and the screen showed the big word “Victory.”

At this time, the other teammates’ characters hadn’t even respawned.

Guan Heng and his group were completely stunned. Xie Ran’s face showed no change, he simply clicked ready for the next round. Seeing Guan Heng and the others hesitate, he turned around and impatiently urged: “Hurry up.”

Guan Heng snapped out of his daze, almost jumped out of his chair, and shouted excitedly: “Have you played this game before?”

Xie Ran said: “No.”

Guan Heng said: “I don’t believe it. How could you be so good if you never played it?”

Xie Ran looked at him as if he were an idiot and said: “Because it’s simple.”

Guan Heng suspected his intelligence was being insulted and began to argue irrationally: “Then explain how it’s simple?”

Xie Ran looked back at the game screen: “Just calculate.”

Guan Heng said: “… I can calculate!” He had played the game so long, of course he knew it required calculation.

Endless Kill was an economy-based tower push game. Heroes needed to earn economy to upgrade equipment and increase damage. Players knew they had to calculate the economic and damage gap between their team and the enemy before deciding whether to attack.

After hearing Guan Heng’s game insights, Xie Ran paused and asked coldly: “You call that calculation?”

Guan Heng: ?

He wasn’t mistaken! Xie Ran was looking down on him!

Soon he realized that his so-called skills really weren’t “calculation” in Xie Ran’s eyes.

For the first time, Guan Heng learned that top students playing games could calculate heroes’ damage and health down to the unit digit and could precisely model heroes’ activity trajectories based on their position and movement speed, then analyze their path decisions.

Guan Heng even heard for the first time about using mathematical models in games…

As for how to calculate damage range, damage falloff, path selection when fighting five against one, that was not mentioned.

Guan Heng understood these principles but thought before Xie Ran joined the game that these things were only theoretical.

He thought human brains couldn’t work so fast, and handspeed couldn’t be that quick.

Now he knew, the difference between people’s brains could be as big as between humans and apes.

As for Xie Ran’s handspeed and technique…

Xie Ran briefly said: “Basic operations.” He wrote code faster than he played games.

If the computer speed in this world was faster, he could be even faster.

Guan Heng and the teammates slowly knelt down.

At 9 PM, broke Guan Heng and his teammates both happily and sadly sent Xie Ran off from the internet cafe.

Guan Heng even opened a bottle of cola for Xie Ran: “Brother Ran, have some ice-cold Coke.”

Standing before them was no longer newbie Xie Ran but the new king of Endless Kill.

He reached the king rank in three hours, setting the record for fastest rise to king in Endless Kill. Without carrying these dead weights, Xie Ran could have climbed faster.

Xie Ran casually took the cola and said: “You don’t have to pay the money in cash. Bring me a phone tomorrow.”

Yes, after four hours of gaming, Xie Ran did not lose a single match. When the settlement came, Guan Heng not only gave all his pocket money to Xie Ran but also owed him several thousand yuan.

Guan Heng solemnly said: “Got it, Brother Ran.”

The one who could carry them to rank-up was always the big brother!

Xie Ran, who did not lose a single match in four hours, was the king among brothers.

Xie Ran took the electronic dictionary and more than seventy thousand in cash and went home.

The original owner’s family rented an old-style “tube building” where dozens of households lived tightly packed together. The economic conditions of residents were generally poor, everyone was busy with daily life. The place was usually lively, with people helping each other sometimes but more often bumping into one another and arguing noisily.

The original owner’s family rented a unit on the first floor, because the privacy on the first floor was poor, the rent was a bit cheaper.

When Xie Ran returned home, the original owner’s parents were already anxiously pacing and waiting at the door. When they saw him come back, they relaxed. His mother stepped forward and grabbed him: “Xiao Ran, why did you come back so late? Did something happen?”

In the original world, Xie Ran’s parents were typical elites. The family atmosphere was always restrained. Perhaps knowing that Xie Ran was capable of taking care of himself, his parents never showed such close concern or affection in front of him.

Xie Ran was a bit unaccustomed, quietly avoiding his mother’s touch and calmly said: “School just started, there’s a lot going on.”

The original owner was always well-behaved and never told his parents about his experiences at school to avoid worrying them. The Xie family parents just thought his increasing silence was due to heavy studies, never doubting otherwise.

“It’s good that nothing’s wrong.” Xie’s father stepped forward and took Xie Ran’s school bag: “Are you hungry? Let’s eat first.”

Xie’s mother was somewhat annoyed: “You should buy Xiao Ran a phone, so if he’s late, he can at least call home.”

Xie’s father sighed and said softly: “We’ll talk about it later.”

Xie Ran and his parents went inside. The house was a small two-bedroom with a living room, a bit dark and damp, but very clean. A small table stood in the cramped living room with a simple meal of three dishes and a soup.

The Xie family was not wealthy, but the parents were very attentive to the original owner. Though their clothes and food were simple, they never lacked anything.

“The food is cold, I’ll warm it up.” Xie’s mother helped Xie Ran sit on a chair: “You sit for a while.”

Not long after she entered the kitchen, a somewhat sharp middle-aged woman’s voice came from outside: “Xiao Ran’s back?”

Along with the voice, a plump woman popped her head inside from outside while eating melon seeds, glanced at Xie Ran, her eyes spinning around, and said: “Where have you been? You made your parents so anxious.”

Living on the first floor had this downside, any noise or movement was easily noticed.

This woman was the landlord of this building. She was nasty, sharp-tongued, and especially gossipy. Usually, she wandered around stirring up trouble and taking advantage of others.

The tenants disliked her, but because the rent was cheap, everyone just tolerated her.

The landlord had a child the same age as the original owner, but his grades were poor. So the landlord particularly disliked Xie Ran, who studied well and even won scholarships at Qixing School, often coming over to make snide remarks.

“Xiao Ran, did you get a scholarship this semester too?” The landlord said while casually spitting melon seed shells on the ground: “I think I should raise the rent a bit.”

Xie’s father hurriedly replied: “That can’t be. You just raised it last year. You know our situation. Xiao Ran’s scholarship all went to paying debts…”

Last year, Xie Ran got a scholarship at Qixing, and the landlord used the opportunity to raise the rent by 100 yuan. But Xie Ran had already advanced three years’ worth of scholarships to pay family debts. If the rent rose again, it would be a big burden.

“Relax, why are you so anxious?” Seeing Xie’s father’s worried face, the landlord’s mood improved a lot. Even if Xie Ran was good at studying, the whole family still had to look at her face.

She was purposely trying to scare Xie’s father, she knew their situation well and knew they couldn’t afford another raise.

At this moment, Xie’s mother brought out the reheated food. The landlord glanced, smiled twice, and sarcastically said: “Xiao Ran is still growing, you should eat better.”

Xie’s parents exchanged a glance, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Alright, we won’t disturb your meal.” The landlord spat the last melon seed shell and grabbed a toy from a cardboard box by the door: “Give me this, my little nephew is coming tomorrow, I’ll give it to him.”

Since Xie’s mother got sick, her health declined and she couldn’t work. Usually, she sold cheap small goods at a nearby night market. Because of little capital, she only took cheap things and couldn’t stay long, barely making some money.

Whenever the landlord came over, she always took some things.

Xie’s parents were used to this. The toy the landlord took was only worth a few yuan, which was acceptable to them.

Xie’s mother helplessly waved her hand, about to agree as usual, when Xie Ran, who had been quietly sitting at the table using the electronic dictionary, suddenly spoke: “Pay for it.”

Everyone inside froze. The landlord was also stunned for a moment before reacting with displeasure, saying: “Why did Xiao Ran become stingy after getting a scholarship? This broken toy is only a few yuan. You’re arguing over this with me?”

Xie Ran stood up, looked at her calmly and said: “If it’s only a few yuan, why don’t you pay for it?”

His tone was calm, but the content was very sarcastic.

Xie Ran had been in business for many years and never let anyone take advantage of him for free, he was always businesslike.

A few yuan was not much, but in business, you can’t easily give in.

At the same time, the electronic dictionary in his hand suddenly emitted a harsh electronic voice: “Pay—”

Landlord: !!!

Her face instantly turned bright red. After a while, she realized and angrily shouted: “Fine! You want to count money with me? Then okay! I’ll raise your rent by 200 this year!”

She was standing at the door, and the old building had poor soundproofing. Her shout immediately attracted several neighbors on the same floor, who all peeked out and asked: “What’s going on?”

With an audience, the landlord became more arrogant and sharp: “The Xie kid has grown up, getting petty with neighbors. Then don’t blame me for being petty too.”

“Oh, oh, oh, forget it, forget it.” Xie’s father became anxious and quickly stopped Xie Ran, smiling apologetically to the landlord: “The kid doesn’t understand. It’s just a toy. You can have it.”

Seeing Xie’s father soften, the landlord was still unsatisfied. She raised the toy and shouted: “This broken toy is only a few yuan. My rent is way cheaper than others. You’re so ungrateful…”

Before she finished, Xie Ran pushed aside Xie’s father, looked at her and coldly said: “Pay.”

At the same time, the electronic dictionary repeatedly said: “Pay, pay, pay.”

Landlord: “…”

She didn’t expect him to still demand payment. The electronic dictionary’s harsh repeating “pay” sounded like a debt collector, instantly letting the onlookers know that the landlord took things from the Xie family without paying.

The landlord was furious and fully lost it. She threw the toy back and yelled: “I don’t want this broken thing anymore. Since you’re ungrateful, don’t blame me for being ruthless. Your rent is going up by 200 starting this month. Crying poverty won’t help…”

Xie’s parents panicked and tried to calm the landlord down, but Xie Ran continued: “We’re moving tomorrow.”

Everyone was stunned.

The landlord’s eyes widened: “What did you say?”

“We’re moving tomorrow.” Xie Ran glanced at his parents and explained calmly: “I took part in a competition today and won some prize money. We can move to a better place.”

He didn’t say much about the competition. Based on his past experience, his parents automatically assumed it was some academic contest.

Xie’s father was immediately happy. His son was always smart and never made them worry, but then said: “Even if you have prize money, don’t spend it recklessly. Save it for college…”

The original owner had participated in many competitions before. The prize money usually ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand yuan. Most of it helped support the family, so there was hardly any savings.

Not to mention moving because of prize money.

The landlord had also thoroughly investigated the original owner’s prize money and quickly realized the truth. She was sure the Xie family couldn’t really move and that Xie Ran was just pretending. She immediately sneered: “Fine, if Xiao Ran can really make big money, then move! Tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.” Xie Ran cut her off, looked at the info displayed on the electronic dictionary, and told his parents: “I already found a new house at Ruijin Garden.”

When the landlord first came in and started spitting melon seed shells on the ground, Xie Ran had been typing on the electronic dictionary to Meng Feixuan to find a new house.

Meng Feixuan’s searching and sorting efficiency was undoubtedly very high. He instantly filtered all available rentals in the city and based on Xie Ran’s preferences and budget locked the most suitable community. By now, he had sent details of several apartments in the complex to Xie Ran.

Xie Ran only needed to go see one and pay.

Xie’s parents were stunned. Xie’s mother stuttered: “Xiao Ran, are you… are you serious?”

“Yeah.” Xie Ran knew they were used to budgeting carefully and would definitely try to talk him out of it. So he said: “The money’s already paid. I prepaid six months’ rent, non-refundable.”

Sure enough, Xie’s parents were about to persuade him but swallowed their words, their faces showing a moment of blankness, as if dreaming.

Ruijin Garden was a well-known community in the city, not very far from here. It wasn’t very high-end, but definitely beyond what they had ever imagined.

The landlord then realized Xie Ran was serious and not bluffing. She got anxious: “No, we have a rental contract. How can you just say you’re moving—”

Her cheap rent was not because she was kind but because the location, environment, and living conditions were bad. The rent couldn’t be higher.

If the Xie family moved out, she could still rent the place, but most tenants for such places were large families crammed together, many with poor hygiene and a habit of late rent payment. Good tenants like the Xies were rare.

Hearing they were really moving, she immediately regretted and changed her tune: “Ruijin is expensive. Can you afford it? Don’t rent it then come back in six months with your tail between your legs. Mine’s the cheapest in the city…”

“This place isn’t much cheaper either.” Xie Ran looked at the information on the dictionary and calmly listed several place names: “These places have similar rent to here.”

The places he mentioned were not far, but the environment was better.

The neighbors watching exchanged looks and became interested.

They all hated the landlord. Most were older and didn’t use the internet much, so they only tolerated the landlord because she bragged about cheap rent. But hearing Xie Ran, they realized they could consider moving to these places with similar rents but better environments.

Though they didn’t say it out loud, the landlord sensed danger in their expressions and jumped up and down anxiously: “Xie Ran, don’t say nonsense—”

Xie Ran didn’t give her a chance to continue making a scene, stepped forward, pushed her out the door, and then “bang”—shut the door directly.

The landlord nearly hit her nose, both shocked and angry, and cursed nonstop outside the door, but she had no way to deal with the Xie family.

Since the Xie family had decided to move, her usual rent threats naturally became ineffective.

Xie family’s parents still found it hard to believe. Xie’s father said blankly: “Xiao Ran, you really rented in Ruijin?”

“Yeah.” Xie Ran leisurely picked up his rice bowl: “The environment here is too bad, I can’t live here.”

After he said that, Xie family’s parents completely gave up on persuading him. For them, Xie Ran’s living environment was the most important thing. They had no choice before, but now that Xie Ran was capable, they naturally wouldn’t want him to continue suffering.

Xie’s mother was still a bit worried about the money, but Xie Ran was really impatient to explain more, so he just took out a thick stack of cash from his schoolbag and stuffed it into their hands: “This is the remainder, you can use it.”

Xie family’s parents looked at the thick wad of cash they were handed, at least tens of thousands, their eyes almost popped out.

Xie’s father’s hands were trembling as he asked: “Xiao Ran, what competition is this? How did you get so much money?”

Xie Ran glanced at the electronic dictionary and casually said: “The first Mark Cup Electronic Information Technology Competition.”

Xie family’s parents exchanged a confused look, not understanding at all.

Xie’s father respectfully said: “Sounds impressive.”

 

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