68 Ranked Matches

Shen He chuckled at Song Mei's words, "It's like this. Right after bumping into me at the docking area, he dragged me into this cafe before buying me a cup of Star Raising Coffee. Since he's only finished the tutorial, the amount of money that he has is far from enough to pay the cost."

Song Mei burst into laughter, "Are you kidding? What kind of transcender can't even afford Star Raising Coffee? I'm pretty sure it only costs 500 T-gold a cup, right?"

Lu Fengyi nodded sadly.

"It's fine, I'll pay for him. Since you bought two, it should only cost 1000 T-gold, right?" Song Mei flicked her hair before walking towards the store counter and pulling out a thin card and handing it to one of the attendants.

After swiping the card across what seemed like a sensor, the attendant revealed a shocked expression before smiling, and handing the card back, "Enjoy your day."

Song Mei nodded before sitting back down and chatting happily with Shen He.

Lu Fengyi's head spun in circles, still unable to fully digest everything that had happened today. He had already been shocked enough that his score in his tutorial was complete trash, now that the one he had thought to be a brawny man had become one of the more beautiful women he had even seen in his life, it was a wonder that he was still sane.

It wasn't long before Shen He disengaged from the conversation, "Sorry I couldn't accompany you longer. I still have matters to attend to, so I'll have to leave now."

Song Mei shook her head, "It's fine. I'll take care of Lu Fengyi from now."

Shen He waved goodbye before jogging out of the cafe, only to peer back around the corner before cupping her hands against her mouth, "Thank you for the coffee!"

And with that, she left.

Instantly, Song Mei smiled cheekily as she jabbed Lu Fengyi's side with her elbow, "Oi, oi, oi. Do I see a playboy before me?"

Pushing Song Mei away, Lu Fengyi responded in confusion, "Playboy? What do you mean?"

"You've only just entered the Fictional Transcension Hall, yet you've already picked up a girl and treated her to Star Raising Coffee. Even if you're desperate, isn't that a little too quick? I don't remember you being so bold."

Swiping away Song Mei's finger which had found its way to his cheek, Lu Fengyi could only sigh in annoyance, "Look, I was just trying to clear things up so she didn't think that I was intentionally being a pervert by carrying her around."

Song Mei placed her fingers upon her chin, "Oh? So you admit to touching her physically without her consent then."

"Do you have to word it like that?" Lu Fengyi shook his head, trying his best to numb himself to the subtle jabs at his hikikomori past, "What am I supposed to do now?"

Content with getting her fair share of laughs for the day, Song Mei dropped her joking, mock tone, "Since you've just completed the tutorial, you should go explore the various departments of the Fictional Transcension System before you begin your next quest. I'm assuming that you haven't been through them yet."

Lu Fengyi nodded contemplatively. The most important task for him as of now would be to fully understand what he had been thrown into.

"I would show you around, however generally it's better if you go yourself. You'll remember everything better this way. Also, I have a ranked match in a few minutes, so I'll be unable to accompany you anyways."

Of course, Lu Fengyi did not blame Song Mei at all. After all, they had only met twice and there was no obligation for Song Mei to show him around even if she didn't have anything on. Lu Fengyi nodded his assent, "I don't blame you, however what's a ranked match?"

"Ranked match?" Song Mei paused for a moment before responding, "A ranked match is just a way to increase your ranked score quickly. You basically duel others with a bet of a certain amount of ranked score and the winner wins everything. I wouldn't personally initiate ranked matches, however since my opponent is offering generous helpings of points, it'll be a good opportunity to rack points without much effort."

Lu Fengyi creased his brows in confusion, "How do you compete? You said it's a duel, so does that mean that you fight each other physically?"

Song Mei chuckled as she waved her hand, "Of course, that's not the case. You know how transcension into certain worlds works, right?"

Although Lu Fengyi had a good idea, he decided to stay silent. If he could learn something for free, why wouldn't he?

"When you transcend into a world, you are given a time in which you are placed inside. Since the Fictional Transcension System is a system, that means that there will be system errors and backlog, and hence, the best way to reduce lag and backlog in the system would be to simply create worlds that many transcenders can enter at a time." Song Mei replied as she gathered her items from the table.

Realisation dawned upon Lu Fengyi, "So that's why you were inside my world even though you did not have anything to do with me."

Song Mei nodded, flinging her silky hair out of her face as she did so, "Exactly. There are two main types of worlds that can exist, one being the long term, personal worlds that are never deleted and only shared between a maximum of a dozen other transcenders and the short term worlds that are deleted after all transcenders leave. The system will place transcenders into different world every time, however it is possible that changes have already been made to the world due to other transcenders. Your tutorial world was deleted because my quest in that world was a one time quest that specified that the world would be deleted after the completion of my quest. Since you finished your tutorial and I finished my quest, the world should have been deleted by now."

'It's good being friends with someone knowledgeable after all. And I was thinking that I already knew how everything worked...' Lu Fengyi made sure that he remembered every word that the beauty before him said.

"Do remember though, if a quest you're prepared to take does not specify that it is a short term world quest, make sure that you form good relations with the characters inside the worlds as you wouldn't want to cause trouble for yourself during future quests. And make sure that you have some information of the other transcenders that share the world... Shit! My ranked match is right now, I have to dash!" Song Mei quickly waved goodbye before dashing out the store front and sprinting down the halls.

"I guess I should start exploring the Fictional Transcension Hall then." Lu Fengyi muttered to himself, gulping the down last of the Star Raising Coffee.

"I have to say though, this coffee does taste good..."