"Seriously? How is this even possible? Isn't 'Gods and Demons' supposed to have the world's most powerful servers? How could such an error happen?"

"I don't know, I'm planning to send an email to the official website and see if I can get it back." Although he said this, John Carter didn't feel confident at all. 'Gods and Demons' is a world-class game with too many players, and customer service has to handle an unimaginable number of emails every day. Plus, John Carter hasn't spent any money on 'Gods and Demons'—he's what's called a non-paying player—so his priority is very low. Who knows how long it would take to resolve the issue; by the time the account is recovered, its value probably won't be what it is now. And even if the customer service does see the email, can the lost system data really be restored?

"It's fine, we've got plenty of time ahead, bro. Let's eat first." Mule handed over a boxed meal.

John Carter gloomily opened the meal, eating while writing an email to the official website. "Sigh, I was hoping to make some money from 'Gods and Demons,' but now it looks like there's no way I'll be able to pay you back the 8,000 yuan for the helmet this year."

The money John Carter used to buy the helmet was borrowed from Mule, a total of 8,200 yuan. If you play an online game well, it's not a problem to earn several thousand yuan a month. John Carter originally planned to pay back Mule this semester, but now that hope seems slim.

Mule's family is well-off; his parents run a small company. In this era, the monthly income of mid-to-high-level white-collar workers in big cities is generally over 10,000 yuan. Of course, expenses have risen accordingly, but 8,000 yuan is still a huge sum for a student—especially since John Carter's family isn't well-off, and his living expenses for a whole year are only about 5,000 yuan.

Mule pulled out two cans of beer from under the bed, popped one open, and handed it to John Carter, saying, "Don't worry about it, I can handle this little bit of money. Don't bring it up again. It's not like I don't know your skills. When I lent you the money, I figured you might lose it, so I never expected you to pay me back. Even though you got lucky and landed a hidden class, you still managed to run into a freak accident like the system losing your data. It's just your looks, man—who can you blame for that?"

John Carter knew Mule was just trying to lighten the mood. Normally, he'd fire back, but today he just wasn't in the mood. "Alright, I'm already this miserable and you're still roasting me. It's fine, I can handle it. Even if I really can't get it back, I'll just start over. At least I still have the helmet."

"Haha, well said! Come on, let's have a drink."

Just then, John Carter's phone rang.

He didn't really want to answer, but when he saw it was his mom's number, he had to adjust his mood, pick up the phone, and say as calmly as possible, "Mom."

"Xiao Jian, how come I got a call from your homeroom teacher saying you keep skipping class?"

John Carter immediately felt a headache coming on. That beautiful homeroom teacher really had nothing better to do— even the counselor doesn't bother with such trivial matters, but she actually called his home. Wasn't this hitting him where it hurts?

There was nothing he could do. The beautiful homeroom teacher was a newly graduated master's student, so dedicated to her job it was hard to explain.

"Mom, that's not true. I just wasn't feeling well for a few days, didn't miss much class." John Carter is a filial son, but lying to his parents comes naturally to him. As he puts it, these are "white lies."

"Don't think you can fool me. I heard from your homeroom teacher that you bought a gaming helmet and play online games all day. Even the cheapest gaming helmet costs over 8,000 yuan. Where did you get that kind of money?"

John Carter was at a loss for words. Even though he's close with Mule, there's no way he could tell his mom he borrowed money. If she found out he borrowed money to play games, she'd be furious—especially since his tuition at Lingnan University was paid with student loans.

And there's no way to explain online games to her. John Carter does like playing online games, but his goal is to make money and ease the family's burden. The profits from online games are huge these days. Just think: a platform with over a hundred million players—never mind anything else, just the media advertising revenue alone is astronomical. It's practically a virtual world of its own, and the influential figures within it have unimaginable clout. A world with over a hundred million people—sounds abstract, but in reality, that's more than the population of the UK or France, equivalent to a major country!

John Carter believes that if he keeps playing 'Gods and Demons,' it could change his life. Of course, it's full of hardships, but if you think about it, if he were to go out into society, in this era where undergraduates are worth less than pigs or dogs, making a name for himself might be even harder than playing 'Gods and Demons.'

After that, John Carter endured his mom's lecture for over ten minutes before finally hanging up.

Mule grinned at John Carter and said, "Haha, looks like our beautiful homeroom teacher really cares about you. It's hard to handle a beauty's favor, man. You're lucky."

"Oh, come on, you animal. Can't you say something decent for once?"

Mule took a sip of beer, his expression turning a bit more serious. "So, what's your plan? Still planning to keep playing online games?"