A down-and-out college student, reduced to a mere teapot, leads a group of girls in playing online games—

Life has its ups and downs; surviving in the cracks is the true way.

The protagonist is just like this—once glorious, now unwilling to accept mediocrity.

What can an online game change? Fate!

Volume One: The Quiet Village

Chapter One: Living with the Girls

White smoke filled the small room. A pink electric water heater was stuck upside down in a water bottle, making a "puff~ puff~" sound as boiling water kept splashing out.

Next to the boiling water, on a milky-white lounge chair, lay a stunningly beautiful and sexy woman. Her pink silk nightgown tightly wrapped around her alluring, curvaceous figure. The low neckline draped over the chair, revealing a patch of snow-white skin below. Two tall, perky outlines were faintly visible, and a deep, dark red cleavage stretched before my eyes.

The sexy beauty was engrossed in reading a copy of "Virtual World" magazine, her delicate face tinged with a rosy blush, so absorbed that she seemed to have forgotten everything around her.

That's right, she was my boss—Linda Harris, the owner of a small underground foot massage parlor in the city!

The reason it's called "underground" is because these kinds of foot massage parlors are as common as cattle in the city—dozens on a single street. But the real business hours usually start after 8 p.m., the kind of legal business that can't see the light of day.

Everyone running these parlors has a tacit understanding: they only open their doors after eight, waiting for customers to arrive. And after ten—when the police have gone home to sleep with their wives—every parlor has their girls put on bathrobes and sit on the sofas in the lobby. Passersby can often see the girls' fair bodies through the wide glass doors, and the more perverted ones, if they lower their heads a bit, can even see the color of the girls' underwear.

With such physical temptation, men with weaker self-control who come home late often can't resist their desires and come in to experience the girls' skills. Of course, there are also those who just drool on the glass door and watch for free.

Our foot massage parlor isn't big, but it's not small either. Excluding Linda Harris, there are five girls, one genuine foot therapist, and me—the only male in the place. My job is simple: I handle the heavier chores. Sometimes I even wash the girls' clothes. The reason is simple: they serve the customers, and I serve them. Fortunately, they haven't made any excessive demands of me so far.

Besides that, I also shoulder a great mission: bringing in customers!

No doubt, soliciting customers is illegal, so I'm usually pretty shy about it. On a good week, I might bring in one or two people at most. The most ridiculous was a month when I didn't bring in a single one.

Roughly calculating, I've been here for almost half a year. My income has always hovered between not enough to fill me and not enough to starve me. Linda Harris treats her employees fairly well and sometimes jokes around with us. As for why she does this job, that's anyone's guess.

Glancing at the steaming water heater, I put down the "E-Sports Guide" in my hand as I lay on another lounge chair:

"Sis Lin, you can pull it out now, the water's all out!"

"......"

Silence. Linda Harris didn't move a muscle, still absorbed in her "Virtual World" magazine.

"Sis Lin, pull it out! It's making so much noise. If you don't, it'll break!"

"......"

Still quiet.

I raised my voice: "Sis Lin, if you don't pull it out soon, it'll go soft!"

After a moment of silence...

"Boom~!"

A delicate throw pillow smacked me on the head. Linda Harris's beautiful eyes glared at me, "If you want it out, do it yourself! That thing isn't mine!"

Damn! I suddenly remembered—the water heater was something I bought with my own money!

Linda Harris glanced at her book and said to me, "Hey, Little Clark! Go wake up those girls. I have something to discuss with them, and you should listen in too. This might affect our future lives."

I nodded. Although I didn't know what was going on, I still did as she said and went to wake up the girls who were still sleeping.

In the break room, five or six girls were sprawled all over the beds pushed together. The only one who was a bit reserved was Hannah Cooper, sleeping on the innermost side. She was the foot therapist here, and the only girl who wasn't a "hostess."

"Hey, all of you, get up!"

"Evan Clark, are you looking for trouble? You woke me from a good dream!"

My status wasn't high, so the girls often snapped at me.

"The boss has something to say. Anyone not there in five minutes gets fined 500!"

"Ah!!"

In a flurry of chaos, the girls didn't even bother with their underwear, just wrapped themselves in blankets and rushed to Linda Harris's room.