What do you mean, “even if I were a man”? Alice Parker was so tempted to stab this damn shemale to death with Duanchang. I’m already a man, do I need you to “even if” me? And giggling again? This damn shemale is really addicted to pretending to be pure. I really can’t stand this bunch of perverted players. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have picked an eye-candy character—choosing a male gnome would’ve been better than this. Just thinking about a bunch of perverts fantasizing about his ID, Alice Parker wondered if he should go deal with those two idiot colleagues.

“Hey, it’s the weekend. Let’s find a place to eat tomorrow.” The pure little beauty sent an invitation. The two often chatted casually while teaming up for quests. They’d found out they actually lived in the same city.

Eat together? Goosebumps started to rise on his arm—this damn shemale was actually trying to make a move on him. Still, having a meal together was an interesting suggestion. For one, even though this damn shemale was disgusting, he’d actually been quite helpful. For days, he’d helped Alice Parker level up without complaint, so treating him to a meal was only fair. Secondly, today this damn shemale had wrongly accused him of being a woman—scaring him a little would be fun.

“OK, tomorrow’s Saturday. I should be free at noon. To show my appreciation, let me treat you.” Alice Parker sent a message.

“Great, great! I want to eat Western food!” The pure little beauty seemed very excited.

Western food? Alice Parker didn’t mind eating Western food with a real beauty, but he definitely had no interest in having a romantic lunch in a Western restaurant with a sleazy guy. He immediately shot down the suggestion: “Let’s have hotpot instead, and maybe some drinks.” This damn shemale really thought he was a beauty, wanting to eat Western food with him.

“Drinks?” The pure little beauty replied instantly: “So you like drinking too? Perfect, we can drink to our heart’s content. After lunch, we can even go to a bar.”

A bar? No, thanks! He thought to himself, this shemale must be a regular in nightclubs—bar, huh? Heh, probably up to no good. But he didn’t bother exposing his intentions. After all, this guy insisted on calling him a woman today. Might as well give him a “surprise” tomorrow. Maybe it’d be such a shock he wouldn’t even be able to eat his hotpot. Alice Parker stroked his chin and chuckled, surprised at his own potential for mischief...

“How about we add each other on QQ and video chat first?” The pure little beauty sent another message: “So you’ll recognize me tomorrow and it won’t be a hassle.”

“Little beauty, I’m still at work. Besides, there’s no webcam on my office computer.” Alice Parker quickly dodged the request. There actually was a webcam, sitting right in his drawer. But first, he wanted to give the guy a scare tomorrow—how could he let him find out today? Second, playing games at work was one thing; the boss, Sarah Bennett, usually turned a blind eye. But if he video-chatted with some sleazy guy during work hours, who knows—if Sarah Bennett saw, she might faint on the spot...

Chapter 9: This Kind of Problem

“All right then.” The pure little beauty didn’t insist, first giving the address of a well-known hotpot restaurant. Then he and Alice Parker exchanged phone numbers—whoever arrived first would reserve a table and message the other.

After settling things with this damn shemale, Alice Parker checked the time—it was already noon. Stuff like fried dumplings and soy milk didn’t really fill him up, so he was feeling pretty hungry.

He sent a quick reminder to Little Charming and Little Flirty to eat lunch. Then he said goodbye to the little beauty and logged off.

Barely two minutes later, two well-dressed men walked over. But their faces were plastered with mischievous grins, which didn’t match their attire at all.

“Mr. Parker, still enjoying Duanchang?” The burly Little Bolton grinned and patted Alice Parker on the shoulder. “That’s a purple weapon, you know.” No need to say it—this guy’s in-game ID was Little Charming.

“Enjoy your heads, you two.” Alice Parker rolled his eyes and picked up his work badge, knocking each of them on the head. “Damn it, it’s bad enough you two shamelessly play shemales, but you had to drag me into it too.”

“Shemale, so what?” The other, a skinny guy about twenty-five or six, Little Thompson, laughed indifferently. “It’s not like we’re trying to pick up girls in the game. If we wanted that, we’d just go to a bar, right? It’s just for fun, to relieve some stress.” Actually, Little Thompson had a point. White-collar workers these days face intense competition and pressure, and clearly need outlets to vent. Online games, bars, nightclubs—they’re all great places for that. Still, venting is one thing, but these two’s methods were a bit twisted. Duanchang was worth a little money in-game, but if you converted it to real cash, it was nothing to any white-collar worker. If you really wanted it, you could just buy it. A decent bar charges more for a bottle of beer. Yet these two beasts in suits seemed to love this kind of trickery.

“Exactly, exactly! At first, they didn’t believe you were a beauty.” Little Bolton looked smug. “Once I posted your photo on the guild forum, everyone scrambled to give us good rogue gear, hoping we’d introduce them to you.”