The residential area of headquarters was very quiet. Taking the elevator down, it grew livelier once you reached the training zone.

People exercising, attending classes, in meetings, doing research — all sorts of people coming and going.

At the entrance to the training room, several young people spotted Bai Youwei and exchanged glances. They’d long heard of this “legendary figure” in a wheelchair — rumor had it she had never once been defeated.

“B-Bai — Bai Miss,” they greeted her, their voices a little tense.

Bai Youwei raised an eyebrow slightly. “Bai-Bai Miss? What, are you doing double-syllable greetings as a new trend?”

The young men: “…N-no.”

“No-no?” Bai Youwei rolled her eyes. “You’re not little girls — what are you being cutesy about.”

The group grew even more awkward.

But Bai Youwei paid them no further attention. At the training room entrance, she looked through — there was a long glass wall along the entrance, giving a clear view inside, where a group of men were training. She could hear the shouts and cries of sparring, the sound of solid muscle and streaming sweat, an aura of raw masculinity hitting her face.

Shen Mo and Tan Xiao were among them, as were Yu Chaohui and Tan Xiao’s companions.

Shen Mo was guiding their attacks, adjusting their stances, demonstrating over and over — his agile figure particularly striking.

“He’s so handsome~” Bai Youwei tilted her head, watching Shen Mo with undisguised admiration. “How can someone be this handsome~”

The group of young people nearby exchanged glances.

Being stared at by all of them was dampening her mood. Bai Youwei wheeled herself slowly away and drifted to the floor below.

The floor below was where the strategist-type players gathered.

Here, players sharpened their logical thinking by working through repeated problem sets, and the training instructors had condensed game scenarios into simulated test papers for players to practice extensively.

Whether this approach truly improved one’s abilities was difficult to say — but players who had drilled through the exercises did, in fact, tend to be more composed when entering a game, and quicker to find a line of reasoning.

There were drawbacks, too.

When someone else has already laid out every possible direction of thought for you, breaking out of that fixed mode of thinking to consider new solutions becomes considerably harder.

Bai Youwei wandered around leisurely and soon ran into someone she knew.

She spotted, in a room that resembled a classroom, Fu Miaoxue sitting beside Pan Xiaoxin, earnestly wheedling him: “What’s the point of staying by her side? She doesn’t treat you well — always bossing you around with this and that. You’re so young, still growing. And she works you like that? How is that any different from exploiting child labor? She really doesn’t nurture her people.”

Bai Youwei blinked. Is she talking about me?

“It’s completely different if you join us~” Fu Miaoxue said smugly. “We just breezed through Battle 1 — so easy! And we got loads of puzzle pieces and items. That alone shows our strength. Come with us, and you can pick any puzzle pieces or items you want. And we won’t force you to participate in battles either. How about that? Pretty generous offer, right?”

Pan Xiaoxin stayed quiet, only shaking his head slowly.

Fu Miaoxue grew a little anxious. “What would it take for you to even consider joining my side? Isn’t what I’m offering good enough? Tell me what you want.”

Pan Xiaoxin stood up awkwardly, clutching his test papers, and said with a sheepish flush, “…It’s fine. I need to hand in my papers.”

He then left his seat and scurried off to find the instructor.

Fu Miaoxue was deeply disappointed. She sat in her chair and kicked the desk out of spite — a loud clatter.

“Digging quite vigorously at someone else’s foundation~” Bai Youwei strolled in from behind with an amused smile.

Fu Miaoxue turned to look at her with not a trace of guilt — and instead declared with complete self-righteousness: “And I wasn’t wrong! He’d be far better off with me than with you! Hey, how exactly do you threaten and bribe a kid like that anyway? Honestly, I offer conditions this generous, and he won’t even talk to me!”

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