"Yu?"
Hearing the name his father mentioned on the phone, Shen Fei froze for a moment. Then, a flood of memories surfaced in his mind. He had been reborn for almost twenty days. Other than his parents and sister, whom he saw at home every day, his entire focus had been invested in the game, *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms*. He simply had no time for anyone else.
Hearing his father's voice on the phone now, Shen Fei finally remembered his little sidekick—Sun Yu. Sun Yu was the son of his father's driver—Uncle Sun. He was a year younger than Shen Fei and had always followed his lead without question. He also remembered that in his past life, when he was a streamer, his number one top donor had been Sun Yu. After a falling out with his family, Shen Fei had run away from home to become a streamer. His father and Uncle Sun had ordered Sun Yu not to associate with him anymore. As a result, Sun Yu could only send him gifts in secret.
He had been reborn for nearly twenty days, his mind completely on the game. After living through three years of the apocalypse in his previous life, many of his old memories had grown distant. He only remembered now that his father had brought it up.
Yu was gambling? He's on the run? And he was running a betting pool on a game forum? He wants me to tell Yu to stop playing games and join the company to learn the ropes with me?
From his father's words, Shen Fei pieced together what had happened to Sun Yu recently.
That's not right! I never heard about this!
Searching his memories of his past life, Shen Fei couldn't recall Sun Yu ever going through this. He only remembered that to stop Sun Yu from following his streaming career, his father and Uncle Sun had sent Sun Yu to Songhai City. Then, after the apocalypse began, he had lost contact with Sun Yu.
There was never anything about him running a betting pool and then going on the run...
"Alright, I get it. You don't have to worry about it anymore." After thinking it all through, Shen Fei hung up the phone with his father.
"Yu, where are you?!"
Opening his phone again, Shen Fei got in touch with Sun Yu.
Now that I remember him, of course I have to help Sun Yu out. In the future, after the apocalypse began, I know I won't be staying in Qing City forever. I will leave to chase other opportunities. Although I've put money into the game for my parents and sister, giving them a safety net for the future, their protection will still be significantly weakened once I leave. Yu's re-emergence offers me a form of insurance. If I pull Sun Yu into *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* and charge his account with a few million, then with Sun Yu as a double insurance policy, I can pursue those opportunities with more peace of mind.
Moreover, among the Secret Realm Scrolls he had just opened, there were quite a few duo and team Scrolls.
With Yu, the problem of finding partners for duo and team content would be solved! I don't want to team up with strangers, but I have no problem at all entering a Secret Realm with my little bro. Killing two birds with one stone!
"Bro! Why are you calling me? What's going on? I haven't seen you stream lately!"
As soon as the call connected, a slightly nervous voice spoke in a quiet, rapid-fire whisper. Sun Yu had been under strict orders not to contact Shen Fei proactively. That was why, even though Shen Fei had stopped streaming for a while, he hadn't dared to ask what was going on. Now that he was on the run, hiding out in a rented room in an urban village, he was a little excited to get Shen Fei's call.
"Bro, are you finally going to apologize to Uncle Shen? Are you done messing around out there?" Sun Yu asked quickly, his imagination running wild. For the past few days, he'd been tormented by debt collectors.
Originally, his betting pool had been running just fine. But then that whale in the game, "Skyrocketing," did something completely illogical and completely blew up Sun Yu's betting pool. To make matters worse, a few players who had won bets with odds of several hundred to one knew it would be difficult to collect, so they sold their winnings to a debt collection agency. And then, what had been a fun, casual betting pool on a game forum completely changed in nature. The odds were simply too high, and the potential winnings were enormous. And these debt collection agencies didn't care about the context. Even if it was just on a game forum, if you ran the pool, you had to pay up!
Faced with the professional tactics of the debt collectors and a bill amounting to several million, Sun Yu had no choice but to flee…
"Buy a ticket right now, come back to Qing City, and then you're going to play a game with me!" Shen Fei stated his intentions directly. His father had told him to get Sun Yu to stop playing games, yet here he was, pulling Sun Yu right into one…
"Bro! I can't go back! I've got debt collectors after me! I'm still in hiding…" Sun Yu replied, agitated.
"What happened? How much do you owe?" Shen Fei asked. He had already heard from his father about Sun Yu running a betting pool. If the amount was small, he could take care of it easily. Matters concerning *Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms* were more important.
"Bro, it's like this... That guy didn't play by the rules, and then…" Under Shen Fei's questioning, Sun Yu blurted out the whole story.
And then, Shen Fei was dumbfounded…
What the hell? How could it be such a coincidence? Yu plays Tower Defense of Ten Thousand Realms too? And what's more, his pool blew up because of my 'Skyrocketing' account? The source of this whole mess... was me?
"Bro, you have no idea what a dumbass that Skyrocketing guy is! I mean, it's such a braindead game, why would he pour so much money into it?! Pouring in that much money would be one thing, but he doesn't even follow the usual script! A few days ago, his Combat Power nearly doubled in one fell swoop! He's not giving anyone a fighting chance!" After explaining his situation, Sun Yu launched into a rapid-fire rant.
The stunned Shen Fei coughed twice, cutting Sun Yu off. "Yu, what if I told you… the 'Skyrocketing' you're ranting about is me?" he asked slowly, his expression darkening with exasperation. He hadn't expected that this change in Sun Yu's life was a butterfly effect that he himself had set in motion…
"Huh?! No way! Bro, what kind of joke are you telling! Isn't your game account named
The Skyrocketing account belongs to my bro? My bro is that huge sucker from the game forum? My bro is the Brother Chongtian that so many female players want to build towers for? My bro is the rich whale all those female streamers want to get with?
Sun Yu was floored.
This… this… this… The one who blew up my pool was my own bro? Talk about friendly fire…
After getting confirmation from Shen Fei, Sun Yu's brain simply short-circuited. A moment later, it was Shen Fei's voice that snapped him out of it. "How much do you owe? Stop hiding. I'll give you the money! Just hurry back here and help me with the game!"
Shen Fei couldn't be bothered to explain everything to Sun Yu. Besides, he wouldn't have been able to explain it clearly even if he tried. He just demanded that Sun Yu come home.
"My dear bro! Who needs money! Do you have any idea what it means to be the house?! You're Skyrocketing, but nobody else knows that! Just watch! I'll open up the betting again and clean house! I'll win it all back for you!"
Having snapped back to his senses, Sun Yu was ecstatic.
My bro's a huge sucker—no, wait, my bro is a Krypton Gold whale. Doesn't that mean I'll know exactly how much Combat Power he's adding every day? It's like having insider information! I can totally reopen my pool. And I'll clean house! My pool blowing up? Just watch. I'll be the house this time, and I'll beat you all until you're calling me Daddy!
"Do whatever you want, but you need to get back here. Fast!" Muttering to himself that Sun Yu was a real piece of work, Shen Fei hung up.
After that, he transferred a million to Sun Yu to use as start-up capital, then turned his attention back to the game.
(PS: Thanks to reader o8a and others for the donations! Thanks to readers Mojian Zhiren, Zhanmeng Ren, Danwang Xianyi, Forever saber, Sun Haokuan, Fuyun Wei, and others for the monthly ticket support!)