Chapter 102: Account Level Up

The fifth alarm rang. Chu Cheng slept through several alrams. He defeated a bunch of enemies in his game. He finally got out of bed and yawned lazily.

Last night had been rough. He had planned to finish his task quickly and then log off, since his mom had bought him an early morning ticket, and he needed to get up early to take it to the station.

The downside was that he stayed up too late, and now he was dragging in the morning. After some struggle, he finally got out of bed. Based on his mom's look, he figured he probably had some dark circles under his eyes.

The Secret Service Nine, which he used to think of as a spooky place, was starting to feel more like a fancy hotel. The place was filled with strange characters, and their tactics seemed more about "running away and selling out" than anything else. But hey, the food was good.

What surprised him was when he went downstairs and saw Fana, who had just left yesterday, waiting across the street. She was holding a small bag and looked like she was waiting for someone.

Her face lit up when she saw him, and she quickly handed over the bag.

Chu Cheng was confused. "For us?"

Fana nodded.

Huang Liping took the bag and looked inside. It was filled with some desserts and snacks from the popular shop they had passed by yesterday, which had been sold out. The shop had been closed for a long time, and people lined up early every morning to get their treats.

Chu Cheng was puzzled. Fana must have been up before six in the morning just to buy this small bag of desserts and waited all morning to give it to them.

It was nice of her, but Chu Cheng didn't understand why. They had only had dinner together once and weren't very close.

"Why?" Chu Cheng asked, still confused.

The girl smiled. "Friend," she said.

Huang Liping accepted the gift and invited Fana to hang out next time Chu Cheng visited his hometown. Just then, Chu Cheng's ride arrived, and they had to part ways.

As Chu Cheng got into the car, he remembered the kids he saw when he drove Batman to the orphanage last night and then thought about Fana's past.

It made him wonder. For him, it was just a chance meeting and a shared meal. But for her, it might have been a special moment.

As the car drove away, Chu Cheng looked back and saw Fana standing at the corner, still watching him from a distance. 

Then, for a brief moment, he thought he saw a woman in red standing behind her, with long black hair hiding most of her face. It looked strange and eerie.

But she seemed to be waving back too.

Chu Cheng suddenly remembered that at dinner last night, the girl had mentioned her family.

"Not alone," she had said, "with Mom."

Could it be that the mother she mentioned was...?

Chu Cheng was startled. He looked again through the car window, but the car had already driven too far, and the girl's shadow had vanished into the crowd.

…

After sending his mom off, Chu Cheng didn't go to school. He let his friend cover for him. Instead, he went back to his room and turned on his computer.

After a busy night, it was time to check the laundry. As soon as the computer booted up and the game started, a notification popped up about the rewards from last night's mission.

The first thing Chu Cheng saw was the logo with flashy lightning effects, showing that his account had leveled up again.

This lifted Chu Cheng's spirits. Account upgrades usually mean more features and new modules, which meant he was making progress.

The update brought new features. The team function now allows the use of four characters at once instead of three. Also, the double team feature has also been added; it made sense that it would be unlocked soon.

So, Chu Cheng jumped right into the training level to test it out. The tutorial levels were saved, allowing players to practice and test new heroes or gameplay at any time.

After a quick test, Chu Cheng saw that the new function worked as he'd hoped. It was similar to the doubles mode in the Arkham series. Players could switch between two characters, with the other being controlled by AI. The switch only took one second, which was almost instantaneous.

Good AI is important. If your AI teammate is bad, it can make the game frustrating. Luckily, the AI in this update was helpful and didn't mess things up too much.

The new mode also featured combo skills when certain heroes teamed up, improving their effectiveness. For example, Batman and Superman, Iron Man and Captain America, Green Lantern, and The Flash had special combo skills.

Chu Cheng didn't need to memorize every superhero pairing. The system automatically identified the best matches for him. When selecting two heroes for a team, a "best match" prompt would appear on the screen, suggesting the best combos.