Chapter 52: You Have Finally Returned

“Dad.” As soon as the girl entered the restaurant, she called out loudly to the owner.

“Oh, Xiaoxue, you’re back. And this is…?” The owner turned his head at her voice and immediately noticed the boy following beside her.

The boy smiled and said, “Hello, Uncle, I’m Xiaoxue’s classmate.”

The owner asked again, “Oh, a classmate. So, what would you like to eat?”

“Uh…” The boy hesitated for a moment, but then replied, “I’ll have a steak, please.”

“Steak?” The owner shook his head and said, “We don’t serve steak here, but we do have beef noodles. Would you like that?”

The boy nodded, “Alright, that’s fine.”

Yi Shou could tell from the subtle look of reluctance on the girl’s face that she wasn’t pleased to have the boy accompany her. She wasn’t exactly beautiful, but she had a clean, delicate appearance—perhaps even more attractive than the landlady. As for the boy, his looks were quite ordinary.

“&*%￥ (Hello).” The boy suddenly turned toward Yi Shou and said something. Although he knew he was greeting Yi Shou in his native dialect, the others had no idea what he meant.

They could tell the boy had spoken, they knew he’d said something, but exactly what, they couldn’t comprehend. It was like talking to a foreigner whose language you didn’t understand; you’d know he was speaking, but not what he was saying.

“?” Yi Shou realized the boy was addressing him, but he had no idea what was being said. As mentioned before, Yi Shou wasn’t a god; he wasn’t omniscient or omnipotent, so it was perfectly normal for him not to understand everything.

“Oh, nothing.” The boy said no more and simply sat down at the table next to Yi Shou: [He’s eating here, wearing flip-flops and baggy shorts—he must live nearby. If I make a move on him, Xiaoxue might get caught up in it. But if I don’t, I’ll lose face with the others. Never mind, for Xiaoxue’s sake, if my guys don’t find him, I’ll let him be.]

To tell the truth, there was no real conflict between this boy and Yi Shou. The only connection was that the person Yi Shou had knocked out earlier was one of the boy’s men. As the boss, he naturally had to look out for his own.

Now, seeing how close Yi Shou lived to Xiaoxue, he realized that even if they planned an ambush, Xiaoxue could get dragged into it. Even if there was only a slight chance of that happening, he didn’t want to risk it.

After all, if he made a move on Yi Shou, it was only to give his subordinates an explanation. If they couldn’t find Yi Shou, he could put off that explanation for now.

When Yi Shou finished his meal, he glanced at the boy and left. He had no idea that thanks to a certain lovely girl, he was spared a bout of trouble, at least for the time being.

Although Yi Shou wasn’t afraid of trouble, it was a relief to have less of it. With fewer distractions, he could focus on his game and hunt down all of Zero Beast’s data.

Returning to his room, Yi Shou exercised for a while. By half past one, he was done. Then he burned incense and bathed for twenty-eight minutes, carefully adjusting his state. As soon as the time came, he logged in once more.

Sure enough, the Digimon Corporation kept its word. He didn’t know how they managed it, but when they said he could log in at two o’clock, he could.

This time, Digimon Corporation also took the opportunity to update and optimize the game content. Yi Shou didn’t bother to check the specifics—he’d already read about the updates on the company’s website.

Most importantly, as Yi Shou had guessed, the evolution experience bar had disappeared, replaced by a comprehensive combat power point system. Normally, when your combat power points exceed half of the current maximum, you can attempt to evolve.

For example, if the highest combat power point for a mature stage Digimon is one thousand, then at five hundred points, you can try to evolve. If successful, you become a Perfect-level Digimon.

Of course, Digimon that evolve at the lowest threshold are very weak. Never mind surpassing their limits—even a mature Digimon at max points could wipe them out.

Additionally, skills now come with special effects.

For instance, previously, Kongoumon’s [Power Strike] had no extra effects, but after the update, [Power Strike] grants a certain attack boost. If Kongoumon’s attack is one thousand, and [Power Strike] increases it by fifty percent, then when he uses the skill, his attack rises to fifteen hundred.

Similarly, Agumon’s [Baby Flame] and Greymon’s [Mega Flame], both flame attacks, now inflict burn damage and have higher attack power.

There are also skills like Lucemon: Falldown Mode’s [Dead or Alive], which are judgment-type special effects. If judged as [Dead], the target’s HP is reduced by fifty to ninety percent. Since this is a game, there can’t be true one-hit kills as in the real Digital World.

These were the main two updates. According to the official release, they’d intended to launch these features in the last update, but due to time constraints—and their commitment to promises—they postponed it.

They had planned to update that very night, but a hacker attack that morning delayed it for several days.

Aside from these, there were a few minor tweaks, but nothing significant. If needed, he would look into them later.

“You’re finally back. I thought you wouldn’t make it…” As these thoughts passed through Yi Shou’s mind, his figure appeared in the login space. Before he could survey his surroundings, a voice spoke from his wrist.