The Young man in Online Romance (7): 

Gu Juntian cleared a dungeon once and didn’t continue.

First, it was getting late. Second, his body couldn’t handle it.

Controlling a game character required constant hand movements. His control was indeed very good, but because of that, his hands never got to rest.

The whole process, from preparing to clear the dungeon to finishing it, took over two hours. By the time it was done, his hands were already sore!

Luckily, the original owner was fat, and the extra flesh protected the bones, so it was less likely to cause injuries. His wrists and fingers had no issues, and resting for a while was enough to recover.

After killing the dragon, because it was a first clear, quite a bit of equipment dropped, including two pieces from the Dragon Scale set.

These were the most valuable items in the loot.

Gu Juntian only took those two pieces and left everything else. The others in the dungeon party had no objections.

After all, in this run, “the Emperor” had contributed the most.

“Emperor, this equipment should be part of a set. We can run the dungeon a few more times to get the whole set!” someone said.

Gu Juntian agreed immediately. “Alright, let’s run it again tomorrow!”

In the original plot, the original owner led the Tianmo Pavilion members to repeatedly clear this dungeon, getting two pieces, then used Zhou Qinghao’s money to buy the remaining six, completing his own set.

Now, he wanted to complete a set for Zhou Qinghao!

It wasn’t realistic for him to farm all eight pieces of the Dragon Scale set himself—he’d definitely have to buy a few from others.

But he didn’t have much money. Selling his house wouldn’t be quick. Was there a way to make money faster?

Because of that thought, Gu Juntian uploaded his dungeon-clear recording online.

Even mosquito legs are still meat.

After doing all this, he logged off and went to sleep.

It was already past ten o’clock. Gu Juntian took a quick shower and went straight to bed.

The original owner, to save trouble, never washed his hair and had shaved his head with an electric razor. That saved Gu Juntian some effort—no need to blow-dry hair.

However, from now on, he planned to grow it out.

A shaved head really didn’t look good.

The next morning, a little after six, Gu Juntian got up.

He made himself something to eat, then put on a mask and a hat before heading out, planning to walk five thousand steps.

The original owner’s body was in bad shape and couldn’t handle much exercise yet, so walking was a good start.

As for the hat and mask, that was to avoid sun exposure.

The character the original owner designed in the game was very fair-skinned!

Zhou Qinghao was rich, and it definitely wasn’t because the original owner was wealthy that he liked him—it was most likely because of the character’s face.

He had to protect his own face.

After walking, Gu Juntian went online again and bought a treadmill and other fitness equipment.

The original owner’s house was big, and since Gu Juntian had thrown away the living room sofa, the space was now very open.

The fitness equipment would fit easily in the living room, making home workouts more convenient.

Gu Juntian shopped quickly—if the functions and price looked good, he bought immediately.

By the time he finished, it was only a little after eight.

But he was already hungry.

Even though he hadn’t eaten much in the morning, getting hungry so quickly meant the original owner’s digestive system was a bit too efficient.

Gu Juntian drank some water, skipped eating, and instead put on his VR helmet to watch programming tutorials.

The VR helmet wasn’t just for gaming—it could also connect to the internet for learning. It’s just that most people didn’t use it for studying.

There was a huge amount of material online—even university courses could be found.

As he watched, a sense of familiarity welled up in him.

He felt like he knew how to do this.

Before transmigrating, he might have been a programmer!

He had already thought of ways to improve Cultivation, and now it seemed he really could.

Since he was short on money lately, should he contact Qida Technology and see if he could sell his ideas for improving Cultivation for some quick cash?

But he was completely unknown—Qida Technology might not believe him…

Thinking that, Gu Juntian moved on to reading other material.

At the same time, at Qida Technology—

When Zhou Qinghao arrived at the office that day, he was in a good mood.

Yesterday, Gu Juntian had ignored the “Little Sheep” and focused on running the dungeon with him, which pleased him greatly.

Originally, Zhou Qinghao had been in charge of Cultivation, but because his younger cousin Zhou Lin had performed very well over the past six months, giving many useful suggestions for the game, Zhou Qinghao had recently handed Cultivation over to him and taken charge of developing a new game, Counter-Terrorism.

Counter-Terrorism was different from Cultivation. Its gameplay rules were similar to an older game called Peacekeeper Elite, but it was a military competition experience game in full VR, offering players a more immersive experience.

Of course, Zhou Qinghao had his reasons for giving up such a profitable project as Cultivation.

Many of Zhou Lin’s proposals were things Zhou Qinghao had already planned to do, making him suspect that Zhou Lin had planted someone to gather intel.

And since Zhou Lin was clearly determined to take over Cultivation, rather than fight him over it, Zhou Qinghao decided to start fresh and create another hit game.

Cultivation had been built by him and his team, and after it became a hit, Zhou Lin had swooped in to take the credit. In their grandfather’s eyes, who would seem more capable?

By yielding and avoiding direct conflict, Zhou Qinghao could also earn his grandfather’s respect.

If he could make Counter-Terrorism a success, his position as the Zhou family’s heir would be secure.

While he was busy working, someone came up to him: “President Zhou, there’s been a problem with Cultivation. Young President Zhou wants you to come over.”

“Young President Zhou” referred to Zhou Lin.

Zhou Qinghao wasn’t happy but didn’t show it. “I’ll be right there.”

Zhou Lin summoning him so casually showed little respect.

But Zhou Qinghao knew the kind of people his grandfather liked.

So, he decided to go.

Soon, he arrived at the place where he had once worked for a long time.

There, he saw Zhou Lin, whose eyes held open hostility.

Zhou Lin was only half a year younger than him, but since childhood, they had lived very different lives.

Zhou Qinghao’s parents were unambitious, focused on enjoying life, but they treated him well.

His uncle, on the other hand, was ambitious and entrepreneurial, but never cared for his children.

When Zhou Lin was three, his mother divorced his father and went abroad, leaving him behind. He grew up without parental love.

Zhou Qinghao had once pitied him and treated him well, but Zhou Lin always worked against him, unable to stand seeing him do well. Over time, they became mortal enemies.

“Xiao Lin, what’s the matter?” Zhou Qinghao asked with a smile.

Zhou Lin smiled without warmth. “Zhou Qinghao, the dungeon information for Cultivation seems to have been leaked.”

“You called me here because you suspect me? Do you have proof?” Zhou Qinghao asked directly.

Zhou Lin said, “Yesterday, the Dragon Prison dungeon had just been released, and someone already cleared it. You happened to be in that party. How did you clear it on the first try?”

Zhou Qinghao was speechless.

So Zhou Lin thought he had leaked the strategy for Dragon Prison?

Did he think he was that stupid?

What good would leaking the strategy do him? At best, it would just mean getting a bit more gear.

Something like the Dragon Scale set might be precious to players, but to someone running a game company, it was just data.

It wasn’t worth revealing insider info over.

And even if he had leaked it, this wasn’t exactly a big deal.

Zhou Lin was the same as ever—capable but with a twisted personality.

Out of jealousy, he always kept a close watch on Zhou Qinghao, even doing things that harmed others without benefiting himself. Who knew what went through his head?

“We cleared it fair and square—there’s a video online,” Zhou Qinghao said. “Haven’t you seen it?”

Zhou Lin hadn’t.

He had reviewed yesterday’s game data—parties with similar overall strength to Zhou Qinghao’s had failed three times in a row, while Zhou Qinghao’s had cleared it in one run.

That was definitely suspicious!

Since there wasn’t enough proof, he hadn’t exposed Zhou Qinghao and “the Emperor” yet, but he thought now was a good time to plant the seed.

Zhou Qinghao was a love-struck fool—there was no way their grandfather would hand the company over to someone like that!

“This dungeon isn’t that easy, and your party isn’t that strong. If you didn’t leak the info, there’s no way you could have done it in one run,” Zhou Lin pressed.

The programmers behind Zhou Lin looked uncomfortable. One of them, a skilled technician whom Qida Technology had poached years ago and whom even Zhou Qinghao treated politely, said, “Young President Zhou, if you haven’t watched the clear video, don’t jump to conclusions! I just saw Tianmo Pavilion’s run—they relied on pure skill.”

After work started at nine, Zhou Lin had brought up the suspicion that Zhou Qinghao had leaked the dungeon info.

None of them had taken it seriously.

It was just leaking a dungeon strategy—what was the big deal?

But since Zhou Lin insisted, they checked out the first-clear video “the Emperor” had uploaded.

As insiders, they didn’t need to pay to watch, saving themselves twenty cents.

They hadn’t watched the whole thing—just skipped to key points—but that was enough to understand.

They cleared it purely because the Emperor had great skills.

With that level of play, why would he need anyone to leak the strategy?

When killing mobs, he didn’t even follow the easier path the developers had designed. When fighting the dragon, he accidentally avoided a total party wipe. And honestly, even if they had wiped, with his skills, they would have cleared it on the second attempt anyway.

Zhou Lin hadn’t expected his own team to speak against him, and his face darkened.

Other technicians also spoke up: “With the Emperor’s skills, even if he didn’t clear it on the first run, he’d clear it on the second.”

“Our prediction was that someone would get the first clear within two or three days anyway.”

“The dungeon’s meant to be beaten. If they cleared it, they cleared it—it’s nothing.”

“We were more worried no one would clear it at first, and players would complain.”

“In the past, if a dungeon was too hard, we’d even leak tips on purpose.”

…

As they all chimed in, Zhou Lin’s face grew uglier.

Zhou Qinghao sighed. “Xiao Lin, you’re still too short-sighted. It’s just a game dungeon—no need to make a big fuss. We’re here to do big things, so stop focusing on such small matters.”

With a company as big as the Zhou family’s, Zhou Lin was fussing over a single dungeon in a game.

With such narrow vision… Grandfather definitely wouldn’t like it.

Zhou Qinghao knew that whatever happened here, Grandfather would hear about it, so he added with deliberate sincerity, “You need to look further ahead.”