CH 59

As long as she wasn’t the one doing the bad things, Luan Qing Xiao was fine.



It's just that she has to know what this pocket watch was and whether it mattered to Nie Zhen'er or not.



Luan Qing Xiao threw her question to 520.



【Ding! The pocket watch is an heirloom left to her by the female lead's deceased parents, which she cherishes very much. Whenever she was sad or happy, she’ll take out the pocket watch to tell it. To her, the pocket watch is like a medium connecting her and her parents, so it is very important to the female. 】



Luan Qing Xiao: … … 



She knew the compulsory plot wasn’t that simple.



After Nie Zhen'er washed up, the two headed out to find a place to eat.



Luan Qing Xiao held the door open. When Nie Zhen'er came out of the room, she quickly closed the door and as Nie Zhen'er was about to turn around, she put her arm around her shoulder, "What should we eat later? Is there anything you want to eat in particular?"



Immediately, Nie Zhen'er's attention shifted to the meal.



"I want to eat hand-rolled noodles!" She has only eaten instant noodles and dried noodles, but she heard that hand-rolled noodles tasted a hundred times better than instant noodles or dried noodles.



They didn't forget to bring their crystal nucleus when they came out. In case the food was too expensive, they brought a few extras back up.



After a stroll around the streets, the aroma of the food finally reached their noses. They followed the scent and quickly found A Base’s canteen.



The canteen at A Base was similar to a school’s cafeteria that had various windows, selling different types of foods.



There are many people in the canteen. Most of them were people who were about to head out on missions that wanted to eat a bowl of noodles before leaving.



Since the two of them were new faces and had outstanding appearances, especially Nie Zhen'er, who gave off a pitiful temperament like a white lotus in a clear pond.



Entering the canteen, countless gazes fell on the two of them, causing Nie Zhen'er to nervously grab Luan Qing Xiao’s sleeves. Luan Qing Xiao calmly tilted her head and assured her in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid, they’re only watching because Zhen’er is so good-looking."



Nie Zhen'er blinked her starry eyes, "I'm good-looking?" Her face flushed a little.



No one has ever praised her for her beauty, so Luan Qing Xiao definitely said this to comfort her. Nie Zhen'er knew those people were staring at Luan Qing Xiao, not her.



Qing Xiao is so nice.



Nie Zhen'er thought dreamily in her heart.



She took the initiative to grab Luan Qing Xiao's hand and stuffed her soft little hand into Luan Qing Xiao's palm, while smiling sweetly at her, "In case, we get separated by the other people who’s also buying food."



There are only four windows, but there were a lot more people buying. Therefore every window was crowded with a bunch of ability users.



The two scanned the four windows one by one and actually found one window selling hand-rolled noodles.



The smile on Nie Zhen'er's face immediately brightened when she thought she would be able to eat the legendary hand-rolled noodles later.



The ability user in front of them inadvertently turned his head and just happened to catch the smile on Nie Zhen'er's face. He only felt his heartbeat speeding up as his hands and feet turned soft. He scratched his head and carefully asked Nie Zhen'er, "Would you like to cut in front of me?"



Luan Qing Xiao knew at a glance that this was a hotheaded youth who had never been in a relationship before. She reached out and pulled Nie Zhen'er behind him, "Thank you, but no need. We’re not in a hurry, waiting here is fine."



After speaking, she turned around and said to Nie Zhen'er, "Zhen'er, don't you think so?"



Nie Zhen'er nodded and replied seriously, "You still need to go finish the mission, while we don't have to. It’s okay, we’re really not in a hurry."



Hearing this, the Hotheaded Youth thought Nie Zhen'er was even better. Although he no longer mentioned Nie Zhen'er cutting ahead of him, he still wanted to talk to Nie Zhen'er through Luan Qing Xiao.



"Hello, my name is Yuan Hao Ren, a Level 2 thunder-type user."



Since he exchanged courtesies, Luan Qing Xiao also greeted, "My name is Luan Qing Xiao, a water and plant user. Her name is Nie Zhen'er, an enhanced strength user."



After Yuan Hao Ren finally managed to say a sentence, he didn't know what else to say. So the three people just stared at each other, causing the atmosphere to suddenly become a little awkward.



Fortunately, the staffs’ meal serving speed was extremely quick. Before long, it was Yuan Hao Ren's turn. He held a bowl of noodles, then took out a card from his trouser pocket to swipe in the card reader by the window.



Nie Zhen'er was a little surprised, "Don't you use crystal nuclei to pay?"



Yuan Hao Ren just happened to be reluctant to leave. Hearing what Nie Zhen'er said, he explained, "You guys are probably newcomers. At A Base to get contribution points, you can do missions to receive contribution points and contribution points can be used to buy food. This way, you can save a lot of crystal nuclei to absorb and enhance your own strength."



Nie Zhen'er's face showed visible disappointment, "But we have never done a single task yet, so we don’t have any contribution points. Can't we just use crystals to buy food?"



Immediately Yuan Hao Ren handed his card to Nie Zhen'er, "Use mine, I have a lot of contribution points. It isn’t cost-effective to buy food with cores. If you feel bad, just treat me to dinner when you guys finish a mission and obtain points."



Luan Qing Xiao retracted her previous assessment of Yuan Hao Ren. What hotheaded youth, he was clearly an experienced player. With a little contribution points, he secured the next meal for them to meet again.



Luan Qing Xiao took the card storing the points from Yuan Hao Ren, "Thank you."



Once she bought two bowls of clear soup noodles, Luan Qing Xiao returned the card back to Yuan Hao Ren after swiping it.



Yuan Hao Ren eagerly followed behind them. Since she just used his contribution points, Luan Qing Xiao couldn't directly drive him away. Therefore, the three of them sat down at the same table for a meal.



Yuan Hao Ren would glance up at Nie Zhen'er every time he took a bite of his noodles. Luan Qing Xiao rapped on the table with his fingers and warned intentionally, "When eating hot soup noodles, you still have to concentrate, otherwise it’ll be easy to burn yourself."



Yuan Hao Ren's swarthy face blushed like an inconspicuous black paint on the blackboard, as he lowered his head and began to focus single-heartedly on his noodles.



While Nie Zhen'er was holding onto the bowl of noodles as if she were holding a baby, eating every noodle sincerely and didn’t notice the "small friction" that happened between Yuan Hao Ren and Luan Qing Xiao.



Halfway through the meal, a tall guy stood in the middle of the canteen and shouted loudly, "Those who haven't finished eating yet, hurry up, we’ll be heading out in three minutes!"



Yuan Hao Ren had deliberately slowed down his speed in order to stay at the same table with Nie Zhen'er for a while longer. After hearing the words of the tall guy, he moved his open mouth to the side of the bowl and swiftly slurped up the noodles into his mouth with his right hand using chopsticks before swallowing with difficulty. He sprang up to hurriedly say good-bye to the two of them and jogged out of the canteen before the two could answer.



In the canteen, there were also other people who scooped their meal into their mouths just as anxiously as Yuan Hao Ren, who immediately got up and ran out of the cafe without having the time to chew it properly.



Three minutes later, there were only two of them and a few non-ability users left in the spacious canteen.



The two leisurely finished their meal and planned to stroll around the base to help digest food before returning to their dorms.



On the other side, Luo Zi Lin didn't eat during the day, therefore as soon as it got dark, she couldn’t fall asleep because of the hunger. So, she asked whether Jiang Yue Bai wanted to eat something, to which Jiang Yue Bai shook her head in response as she turned around and fell back asleep.



Since she arrived at A Base, she didn’t need to grab a simple bite like their time outside.



From the descriptions in the book, Luo Zi Lin remembered there were many types of food in the canteen. Moreover, their taste was also quite delicious. Of course, she doesn’t want to mistreat her stomach after living exposed to the elements for so long.



Because Jiang Yue Bai didn't want to eat, she headed to the canteen by herself.



Luo Zi Lin recalled that A Base’s canteen food needed contribution points. She has no contribution points, but she could still buy them with crystal cores. This was considered as a private transaction that A Base didn’t support, but also wasn’t opposed to them to do this. Normally, only people who lived at A Base over a month will know this.



Therefore, those who have just entered A Base are very active in doing missions to feed themselves. However after knowing there was a shortcut a month later, the ability users who cherish their lives no longer act as desperate.



When Luo Zi Lin left her dorms and passed by Nie Zhen'er’s and Luan Qing Xiao’s room, she found the door of their room was slightly opened. Luo Zi Lin’s heartbeat skipped a beat as she knocked on the door, "Anyone there?"



No one answered.



Luo Zi Lin's eyes lit up with excitement.



She had memorized the room number of Luan Qing Xiao’s and Nie Zhen'er's rooms. It seemed that they had forgotten to lock the door when they left.



Luo Zi Lin's heart was tempted. This was the heroine from 《The Apocalypse Leader's Little Sweetheart》’s room. Her treasures must be in it.



The thing Luo Zi Lin envied the most about Nie Zhen’er in the book was a pocket watch that can control time or space. According to the timeline right now, Nie Zhen'er hasn’t discovered the pocket watch’s special function yet. This pocket watch has the ability to control time or space three times, which the female lead had never even used once. What if she had the pocket watch...



Luo Zi Lin's heart beat wildly.



She pushed open the door and scanned around carefully to finally realize Luan Qing Xiao and Nie Zhen'er were really not there. Her actions immediately became bolder.



There were a total of two beds in the room and since Luo Zi Lin didn't know which one was Nie Zhen'er’s, she planned to search both of them one by one.



By the time Luo Zi Lin finally found the pocket watch inside Nie Zhen'er's bag, the two beds were flipped over by her into a mess.



Luo Zi Lin tried to suppress her elation. In order not to be discovered by others, she hid the pocket watch in her underwear.



Feeling the cold touch of the pocket watch, Luo Zi Lin felt hot all over instead.



The female lead's golden finger was now in her own hands. Does that mean she can replace Nie Zhen'er and become the heroine?



Luo Zi Lin's ambition instantly skyrocketed.



After confirming there was no one in the corridor, Luo Zi Lin carefully left the room. She closed the door and took a deep breath as she left the dormitory building as if nothing had happened.



Luo Zi Lin strolled around on the street looking for a place to exchange contribution points. After more than ten minutes, she finally saw a tiny green sign in a small alley. On the green sign a golden sunflower was drawn, the petals of the sunflower curled around like arrows circling around the sunflower's center.



Luo Zi Lin walked up to the door with the sign. She knocked three times on the left and three times on the right, before the door slowly opened from the inside.



"How much are you exchanging?" An old female voice sounded.



"Two crystal nuclei." Luo Zi Lin took out two crystal nuclei and put them on the table.



The person sitting behind the table wearing a mask picked up the cores and confirmed the energy storage inside was sufficient. She turned around and took a card from behind to place on the table, "Two hundred contribution points."



"Why is it so less?" Luo Zi Lin asked in surprise.



She clearly remembered one crystal core can be exchanged for two hundred contribution points.



The old hand covered the card with her palm "You can always choose not to accept." Her tone was faint.



Luo Zi Lin gritted her teeth, "I'll redeem it!" Then, she angrily took the card and turned to leave.



As Luan Qing Xiao and Nie Zhen'er left the canteen, they happened to run into Luo Zi Lin.



When Luo Zi Lin saw Nie Zhen'er, her guilty conscience flashed in her eyes, but she quickly comforted herself that since Nie Zhen'er didn't know the purpose of the pocket watch, it was better off for her to have it instead. So her expression immediately returned back to normal.



"What a coincidence, you guys also came here to eat too." Luo Zi Lin even greeted the two with a big smile.



Nie Zhen'er didn't realize that Luo Zi Lin had stolen her pocket watch yet, so seeing Luo Zi Lin greeted herself with a smile, she also returned a friendly smile and kindly reminded, "Zi Lin, eating in the canteen requires contribution points. You can find someone inside to borrow some and pay it back when you finish your missions later."



Naturally, Luo Zi Lin can't reveal she knew the contribution points were needed for eating. She covered her mouth, stunned, "It turns out to be like this. Thank you Zhen'er, if it weren't for you, I wouldn’t know what to do when I go in."



Luo Zi Lin's movements and facial expressions were both so exaggerated that Luan Qing Xiao felt embarrassed for her,  "Enough, you should go eat, we two will be leaving since we already ate."



After speaking, she said to Nie Zhen'er, "Let's go."



Nie Zhen'er nodded and waved goodbye to Luo Zi Lin, "Zi Lin, we’re leaving first."



Luo Zi Lin stared at Luan Qing Xiao's back with a bitter hatred in her heart. This vicious female supporting character was really an eyesore. She can always manage to say something to irritate her. Every time, she could only comfort herself that Luan Qing Xiao was going to die sooner or later, but now she can't endure it anymore.



If it weren’t for her lack of an offensive ability, she would have killed Luan Qing Xiao in advance.



Luo Zi Lin patted herself on her chest to assure herself. Touching the pocket watch, an idea suddenly appeared in her head.



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Notes:

golden finger (金手指): something that is a OP tool to its user like a system, basically a cheat or bug in the world