2: Chapter 2 Real Pain

The next morning, Ye Tingting woke up early. The bank where she worked was in another district, so she had to squeeze onto the subway.

However, Su Nange woke up even earlier today. He was a simple man; because his girlfriend had covered him with a blanket last night, he remembered her kindness.

So, for once, he warmed up some milk and bread and placed them on the dining table.

Su Nange prepared to call Ye Tingting over to eat.

Pushing open the bedroom door, he found her changing clothes.

However, Ye Tingting didn't feel the need to hide anything from her boyfriend.

She took off her pajamas, slipped into a white shirt, and put on a uniform skirt that accentuated her figure. No matter how Su Nange looked at it, he felt it was a bit short.

But what suddenly made him uncomfortable again was that Ye Tingting had actually chosen a pair of black stockings today.

She rarely paired her beautiful legs with such a color. Su Nange had explicitly forbidden it, as he felt it looked too provocative.

Su Nange spoke up in complaint again, "Do you have to wear those?"

Ye Tingting didn't think much of it and replied, "The others were all washed yesterday; I don't have any skin-colored ones left."

Su Nange shook his head. "I'm not talking about that. I've seen female white-collar workers before, why are you the only one wearing them every day?"

Ye Tingting still replied indifferently, "Manager Wang said that we in the marketing department must follow marketing etiquette. This is a sign of respect for our clients."

“By the way, I have a social engagement tonight with a big corporate boss. If this loan goes through smoothly, I'll get a significant commission.”

Su Nange felt a pang of resentment. "Manager Wang this, Manager Wang that. You do whatever he says."

Ye Tingting finally lost her patience. "He's my boss, and he can help me make money. I'm just a newcomer, what else do I have?"

After saying that, she felt it wasn't enough and added, "If you don't like it, I can rely on you! You go earn money to support me. But is that possible? Are you just going to stay home and play games all day again today?"

Su Nange took a deep breath. His good morning mood vanished instantly.

Su Nange said out of spite, "Then just go with your Manager Wang and let him support you!"

Ye Tingting also flared up. "Fine! Starting today, I'm moving out! Don't think that just because you have this little apartment your dad left you, you can just lie flat. And don't think I can't survive without you!"

Su Nange never expected the girlfriend he had been with for years to say such things!

Su Nange didn't respond. He went into the living room and stared out the window.

Before long, the front door slammed shut. The milk and bread on the table were still warm, but they sat there untouched.

The more Su Nange thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. A relationship of several years, gone just because he currently had no money and no job?

Was it his choice to be unemployed? It was all because of that Old Woman who didn't close her door!

Ye Tingting, did you ever try to understand me? Before I could even pursue my ambitions, I was struck down! To have such a baseless accusation pinned on a man—do you know how wronged I feel?

Su Nange slammed his fist onto the computer desk! At this moment, he wanted to find someone to lash out at!

So, he thought of "Los Santos Phantom Thief," which had finished reloading last night. He turned on the computer and prepared to log into the game to vent his frustrations in a session.

He had mastered this game back in university. If it were reality, Su Nange would have dominated Los Santos long ago.

On that distant West Coast, his properties were everywhere.

Back then, whenever he felt bored, Su Nange would drive his flashy sports car to the beautiful Vespucci Beach and watch the infinitely beautiful sunset in first-person view.

He had imagined more than once that if he became successful in the future, he would definitely come here.

Looking at the completed progress bar, Su Nange wanted to reminisce about this peak masterpiece in gaming history once again.

Su Nange was now impatient to mount his tyrant 2 again, the vehicle known as the Mark II—a surreal flying motorcycle in the game that could take on fighter jets in the air and was a nightmare for countless newbie players on the ground.

However, Su Nange was a bit dazed by the screen that followed.

Huh, where was his original account?

Could it be that because he hadn't logged in for a long time, the system deleted it? That shouldn't be possible; the Steam platform wouldn't do something like that.

Forget it, Su Nange thought. He just wanted to get online, find some muscular guys on the beach, and vent. If he had to start over, so be it.

But Su Nange was even more surprised—where was the character creation screen? Why was that gone too? How could this updated game be so completely unrecognizable?

Originally, when logging into this game, one could choose between Online and Story modes. Story mode followed a fixed plot, while Online was the open-world brawl sought after by countless players.

In the Los Santos of the game, there were almost no restrictive rules. Here, you could fully display your violence, cunning, and mechanical skills.

There was only one goal: take your character from rags to riches, becoming a powerful mogul with finance, real estate, equipment, arms, facilities, and casinos.

There were no laws here, only the "Five-Star Good Citizen" status everyone was familiar with!

The screen quickly shifted to a thin young man wearing a Hawaiian shirt, comfortably finishing a bottle of cola in an alley lined with bars.

Through Su Nange's headphones came the unique West Coast greeting from the street: "Hey, man! What’s up!"

Su Nange used the keyboard to control the character. Having not played for years, he needed to get reacquainted with it.

Without even looking at the map, Su Nange could tell that this alley was not far from the coast.

Perfect! He shouted, "Muscular meatheads on the beach, your grandpa is back!"

However, when the character turned around, Su Nange discovered with surprise—huh! Why did this character's face look so much like his own?

Slightly long, messy hair, handsome features, and a well-defined bone structure. He wasn't short, but he looked a bit thin.

The character's name was also nange.SU.

Furthermore, Su Nange discovered that after the update, the graphics of GTA 5 appeared even more lifelike. Originally, this epic game was already incredibly realistic.

Now, if Su Nange weren't separated by a computer screen, he would feel as if he were actually in Los Santos.

Su Nange simply assumed this was another major update from Rockstar. After all, GTA 6 had been rumored for years and still hadn't come out.

Su Nange pressed the spacebar while holding W. The character inside ran forward like a released macaque, jumping in a strange manner.

The weather at the golden beach was nice today, which slightly improved Su Nange's mood.

Muscular men were not far away on the pull-up bars, performing repetitive fitness movements.

Su Nange identified a target and approached him.

When he reached the muscular man, the system identified the guy as an NPC who wouldn't actively cause trouble. Without a word, the NPC started walking away.

But Su Nange didn't care about any of that and clicked the left mouse button. The game character threw a punch at the big man.

The crisp sound of flesh hitting flesh rang out. The white man just stumbled forward but didn't fall.

Now, he was angry. He turned around and settled into a fighting stance.

He even cursed, "You’re a piece of shit!"

Su Nange's character was vastly different in size from this man. If it weren't in a game, Su Nange would have stayed far away from someone like this.

But in Los Santos, Su Nange didn't care about such characters at all.

He continued to operate the controls and threw another punch.

Unexpectedly, the opponent actually dodged it and countered with a punch straight to the face of Su Nange's character.

Su Nange cried out, "Ah!"

What was going on? Clearly, it was the character in the game being hit, so why did his own face feel a burning pain? What the hell!

Su Nange felt a bit panicked, but his hands clicked the mouse frantically. His character acted as if he didn't care for his life, unleashing a flurry of wild punches.

Fortunately, these pedestrian NPCs in the game weren't strong. Despite their size, they fell after a few hits.

With a "swish" sound, several green bills on the ground were picked up by Su Nange's character.

Su Nange looked at the top right corner. A green line went from 0 to $7, while the white line below still showed 0.

Su Nange knew that the green represented cash and the white represented bank deposits.

Su Nange touched his cheek; it still throbbed with pain. But suddenly, a strange excitement rose in his heart. It seemed that this kind of realism allowed him to find a better sense of release.

Thus, after one big man fell, Su Nange locked onto his next target not far away—a large Black man doing push-ups.