OMDA -Chapter 3 God’s Miracle

Seeing Zhang Yang’s terrifying appetite, Xu Xin secretly laughed to herself. This girl didn’t work as a kitchen helper at Shiweitian for nothing back then. Surely I learned a few tricks from the chefs! This is great. As long as I take good care of this guy, I won’t have to worry about ending up homeless!

It turned out that in her previous life, Xu Xin had worked for a while at the best restaurant in B City. Once, there had been too many customers, so the kitchen called several waitresses in to help out. Since Xu Xin had been independent from a young age and often cooked for herself, she was much more nimble and efficient than the other waitresses. She quickly caught the eye of one of the head chefs and began helping out in the kitchen from then on, learning quite a few things in the process.

Later, one of the cooks noticed that Xu Xin was rather pretty and tried to get handsy with her. The result was that the young woman kicked him squarely in the crotch, knocking him unconscious on the spot. A frightened Xu Xin promptly disappeared, retreating straight back home to become a professional gamer. She was afraid that if the man found her, she might end up having to take responsibility for what happened.

But she had never abandoned the cooking skills she had picked up back then. Against Zhang Yang, who normally ate nothing but instant noodles and ham every day, those skills were more than enough.

“Burp!”

Zhang Yang lazily sprawled across the sofa in the living room, one hand rubbing his stomach.

Mm! I’m so full! That meal was amazing!

He casually glanced at Xu Xin, who was washing dishes in the kitchen. Suddenly, he felt that having a girl like this cook for him wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

That thousand yuan was totally worth it.

Having been won over by a single meal, the foodie Zhang Yang thought this to himself.

“Right! I haven’t even asked what your name is!”

Zhang Yang suddenly remembered that he still didn’t know her name. Feeling a little embarrassed about it, he called out to her.

“My name is Xu Xin. Just call me Xu Xin!” Xu Xin swiftly placed a clean plate into the cabinet as she replied.

“Oh! Xu Xin, huh? I’m going back to my bedroom. If you don’t have anything to do, you can watch TV or something.”

Now that his opinion of Xu Xin had changed, Zhang Yang spoke much more amiably. He then got to his feet with some difficulty and walked toward his bedroom.

Ah, I ate way too much. I’ll have to take it easy next time.

Zhang Yang lay happily on his bed.

To him, the saying “Take a walk after eating and you’ll live to ninety-nine” was complete bullshit. The happiest thing in the world was lying comfortably in bed after stuffing yourself full. Now that’s satisfying!

As for indigestion? If one digestive tablet could solve it, could it really be considered a problem?

After lying there for a little over half an hour and catching his breath, Zhang Yang climbed out of bed.

I might as well study the information on God’s Miracle some more! This time, Universal Network is making a huge move. I absolutely can’t afford to be careless.

With that thought, he shuffled over to the chair in front of his computer desk, sat down, opened a webpage, and began reading.

God’s Miracle was the latest virtual-reality game released by the world’s largest online gaming company, Universal Network.

Speaking of online games, their origins could be traced back to the end of the previous century. At that time, the Internet swept across the globe at a breathtaking speed, and online games emerged soon afterward.

Their unparalleled interactivity allowed online gaming to flourish. From the earliest web-based chat rooms, to 2D games, and then to 3D games, it had taken only ten years.

At that point, however, online gaming had entered a bottleneck in its development.

Many fantasy novelists began writing about their visions for the future of online games, hoping that virtual-reality technology could eventually be combined with online gaming. At the time, this was nothing more than a fantasy.

Yet no one could have imagined that, driven by profit, countries around the world would organize scientists to conduct research into the technology.

In less than thirty years, a research center in Country M announced that virtual-reality technology had officially been developed successfully.

The moment virtual-reality technology appeared, it immediately attracted attention from all sides.

However, when the research center announced its discovery and prepared to register a patent, it discovered that someone else had already registered it before them.

And the registration date was 2030—a full eight years earlier.

That same year, China’s largest game-development company at the time, Universal Company, launched the first online game based on virtual-reality technology.

Although gamers everywhere flocked to it, the game ultimately performed rather poorly due to immature technology and insufficient management experience.

Afterward, with government support, Universal Company successively released two more virtual-reality games. The response to each was better than the last.

Then, in 2045, a virtual-reality online game called Grand Prosperity was released.

Its peak concurrent player count reached an astonishing 49 million—and that was only the figure for China.

The appearance of this game marked the official arrival of the virtual-network era. Humanity’s second world was no longer merely a dream.

At the same time, Universal Network rose in a single leap to become the largest game-development company in the world.

Five years later, Universal Company once again launched a new online game: God’s Miracle.

The company announced that the game had been developed over five years at a cost of more than three billion U.S. dollars, with nearly 80,000 elite professionals from countries around the world participating in its development, including online-game planners, programmers, artists, and other specialists.

It was a new-generation virtual online game, with a scale even more magnificent than Grand Prosperity and a much higher level of security.

Its degree of virtual immersion reached a terrifying 85%.

Furthermore, thanks to the birth of biological intelligent brains in 2046, its computational speed was even faster, allowing the game to accommodate up to five billion simultaneous players.

Universal Network announced that God’s Miracle would officially launch worldwide at exactly 6:00 p.m. on April 6, 2050.

The game helmets would go on sale starting from the day of the announcement.

Each player would have one account, and upon entering the game, their DNA, fingerprints, and corneas would be scanned to bind the account to the helmet.

For a time, gamers around the world went crazy over it, treating it almost like a major holiday.

The official website, which had opened ahead of the game’s launch, nearly crashed under the overwhelming flood of players.

“Knock, knock.”

A knock sounded at the door.

“Is that Xu Xin? Come in! The door’s unlocked,” Zhang Yang called.

The door slowly opened.

Xu Xin stood prettily in the doorway with a flattering smile on her face.

Looking at the girl who clearly needed something from him but was too embarrassed to ask, Zhang Yang couldn’t help thinking of his mischievous younger sister.

Whenever his little sister wanted to ask him for a favor, she would make exactly the same expression as the Xu Xin standing before him.

“If there’s something you want, just say it,” Zhang Yang said.

Hearing how straightforward Zhang Yang was, Xu Xin’s pretty face turned slightly red.

Fortunately, her complexion was relatively dark, so it wasn’t very noticeable.

She hesitated for a moment before saying, “You know, my luggage was lost at the train station, and I don’t have much money left. I wanted to borrow some money from you to buy a few clothes.”

After saying this, she seemed to feel that her explanation wasn’t convincing enough and immediately added, “Two thousand. I only need two thousand! You can just count it as an advance on my wages, okay?”

Zhang Yang smiled.

“I thought it was something serious. No problem. I’ll give it to you.”

As he spoke, he took his wallet from the drawer of his computer desk, counted out a stack of bills, and handed it to her.

Zhang Yang had thoroughly enjoyed that meal earlier.

He hadn’t really noticed anything when he ate instant noodles every day, but after suddenly having such a good meal, he realized even more clearly that instant noodles were simply not fit for human consumption.

He didn’t want to lose the opportunity to enjoy delicious food again, so Zhang Yang decided to be a little more generous.

Besides, although the girl in front of him was a little dark-skinned, she was still quite pretty and had delicate features.

What if she develops feelings for me? Wouldn’t that be… hehe!

Xu Xin accepted the money Zhang Yang handed her, somewhat stunned.

She hadn’t expected it to be this easy.

Lowering her head, she couldn’t help thanking him.

“Thank you, Zhang Yang. You’re really a good person!”

She herself froze for a moment after saying it.

She awkwardly glanced at Zhang Yang, only to discover that he was also standing there dumbfounded.

“No need to thank me. You’re working it off with your wages anyway! It’s only right that I help you,” Zhang Yang said after recovering. “Looks like this is actually the first time I’ve ever received a ‘good person card.’ Feels pretty interesting, haha!”

As he spoke, he burst into self-mocking laughter.

Xu Xin laughed along with him.

She suddenly found Zhang Yang a little more pleasing to the eye.

He’s actually kind of handsome, too.

“Oh, right. What kind of work did you do before?”

Zhang Yang remembered that he still didn’t know what she did for a living, so he asked.

At the same time, he pointed toward his bed.

“There aren’t any chairs left, so you’ll have to make do with sitting there.”

“Ah! Me?”

Xu Xin no longer felt the same awkward shyness that had made her so restrained earlier. She obediently sat down on Zhang Yang’s bed.

“I’m just a shut-in. I used to be a professional gamer in Grand Prosperity, making a little spending money. I haven’t really figured out what I’m going to do now.”

After all, aside from gaming, she didn’t know how to do anything else.

“It’s just a shame that a God’s Miracle helmet costs more than eight thousand yuan. I don’t have that much money either.”

As she spoke, her expression once again turned gloomy.