Chapter 80: Chapter 80 – Settled!
Well, even if people told him not to worry, without contact from Flexy, his secretary, Lisa, or even Mr. Taka, Max couldn't sleep all night, causing him to be groggy and have dark rings around his eyes.
But the hacker wasn't the only reason why he couldn't sleep.
'I ended up reading V-Shelter Survival's beginner guide in the forum without sleeping.'
After getting worried for an hour and watching Flexy streaming Knight's Journey for a while, Max decided to research the game he was playing right now. V-Shelter community forum, or Shelter forum for short, was the perfect place to research the game mechanics and tips.
Players with spirits to make guides put together everything newbies need to know. The forum moderator also appreciated their work and actually pinned the post permanently.
The amount of information in that one thread alone was massive due to how this game was designed and the freedom it provided.
To put it simply, even after reading an entire night, Max only processed around 20 to 30% of the information from that thread.
"They are really passionate… It's not a guide anymore but a Wikipedia page for the game! It should be called 'Complete Guide to the Game' instead of 'Newbie must know this!' How misleading."
Anyway, Max wasn't that worried about the hacker anymore and was more worried about getting scammed by the shady merchant. As promised, he took a quick shower and went to Nina's restaurant to test another new menu.
But that was just an excuse to make Max come, which he was aware of.
The restaurant was still closed, with only half of the door open. He entered through it and greeted Nina who was waiting for him.
"Good morning."
"Morning, Max! I am glad you are okay."
She chirped happily.
"Dad is already waiting in the back. He suddenly wanted to make a new menu when a cute girl said she liked his spinach noodles yesterday and asked whether there was a blue noodle. Ah, she came here after she watched your stream. Hehe, thank you for doing what you did."
"Blue noodles?" Max asked while his stomach scrunched when he heard that. It wasn't out of anger, but out of fear of whether his digested organs would be fine or not.
"Gulp… I-I am looking forward to it." He said bitterly.
"Hehehe." Nina giggled mischievously as she pulled Max's hand, "I am glad that I am not alone in this."
'So she wants us to suffer together! This girl is actually sly!'
***
"Ugh… That was the worst Rush Noodles I ever tasted. Umph!"
Max regretted his decision.
Horrible couldn't describe the taste of the noodles he ate this morning. Even after a few hours had passed, sleeping all day, his stomach was still churning, and he felt slightly nauseous. Currently, he was in the toilet, vomiting the unprocessed noodles from his system.
"Whoever requested blue noodles is a devil… Hmph! Uweeek… Fuck!"
After a while, he finally felt better. However, his stomach emptied, and he cooked something to eat for lunch. He decided to make a full-protein menu with some salad on the side.
While eating on a makeshift table he made on his bed, a message suddenly came.
Ding!
Curious, Max opened to see who it was. Another new name appeared on the list. But this time, it wasn't unwelcome.
"Lisa… Flexy's secretary, huh?" He muttered and opened the message. "If it's from her, then it's about that?"
He referred to a hacker from last night.
'They are working fast. And this message…'
[Lisa: It's done.]
'How simple.'
No useless words or even reassurance. It seemed like they believed he would be fine even without them.
'I am curious, but I probably should just focus on the program for now. Maybe they purposely did not tell me the details so I could ignore this case and just focus on what I needed to do. Lisa is too good to be Flexy's secretary. I wonder how much he paid her? I will ask him later.'
He just replied with a simple thanks before continuing with his meal.
Livestream with Flexy would start at 4 PM. There were plenty of chances to ask about it.
Mr. Taka also messaged him not so long after, saying that he didn't need to worry anymore as the hacker was apprehended. It was one of the worst crimes in this age, as all smartwatches stored personal information and maybe even company secrets that shouldn't be leaked at all.
Privacy was highly honored in this world, way more important than in his previous life. It was kind of surprising, but he loved how this world had a law that kept people's identities safe, especially streamers who didn't want their identities to be known.
Everything was done, just like that, without any victim except the perpetrator. He was probably put in jail for a few years and asked to pay some money.
Hearing that from Mr. Taka immediately put Max in a good mood, as some of the money paid by the hacker would go to his bank account.
[Breeze: Thank you very much, Mr. Taka! I really appreciate your help!]
'And the extra compensation money from a single message!'
[Mr. Taka: You're welcome. I hope you can concentrate on the program now. See you tomorrow.]
Connections were a pretty amazing power to have in the world. If he didn't know those guys, then he probably needed to report to the police and go through some troublesome stuff.
Also… There was one more important thing left to wonder.
'I don't think I should share this story with my viewers. It will only invite some other people to try it as if challenging them.'
Max came to an easy conclusion. If no one knew, then this incident could be written off as non-existent. All parties had tight lips, so he didn't need to be worried about it leaking out to outsiders.
Putting that aside, it was nearly time to make fun– To have fun practicing with Flexy. Max planned to show his secret path after the livestream, too. That way, they would have time to put up a new strategy for tomorrow, and he planned to practice until midnight before resting.
'I don't need to be worried about getting fatigued tomorrow. I have that medicine from the system that can prevent me from getting fatigued for 3 hours. Hehe, it's really useful in times like this.'
And so, it was time for practice!