Chapter 101: The Bizarre Call Settings

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Long Fei bowed and withdrew.

Watching the prince leave the hall, Emperor Long Zheng of the Celestial Dragon Empire said gloomily, “Sacrificing one’s lifespan to achieve a hundred percent breakthrough to the Heavenly Cultivator level? I don’t believe it. However... some within the empire might.”

That same day, Jiang Tian and Jiang Shan returned with the dish. Chen Yun knew that what Jiang Tian mentioned could very well become reality, but at least for the next few days, before word spread, he was still safe.

Entering the dining hall, Chen Yun had just found a seat and was about to eat when Secretary Wang approached holding a vintage mobile phone.

“Master Chen, this is for you... a vintage mobile phone.” Secretary Wang looked at Chen Yun with a strange expression, clearly baffled by Master Chen’s eccentric hobby.

“Thank you, Secretary Wang. It must have been difficult to obtain this antique, right?” Chen Yun smiled as he accepted it.

“It was quite a task. Over two hundred people came to sell vintage mobiles this morning, but only seven were still functional. This one is the newest among them,” Secretary Wang explained.

“Thank you for the trouble,” Chen Yun said apologetically, recalling how much trouble he had gone through just to find a usable external communication device.

“You’re welcome. If there’s nothing else, I’ll report back to Director Zhang.”

“Go ahead, and please thank Director Zhang for me.”

Chen Yun held the vintage phone and chose to activate it.

“System detected a usable external communication device. Install?”

“Yes.”

“External communication device installation successful. Player Chen Yun entering call function setup. Step one: please set your call ID.”

Chen Yun paused. Call ID? What was that? Was it the phone number? No, the vintage phone already had a SIM card.

“Two types of call IDs are required. First, the name ID for communication friends; second, the hidden name ID for strangers. Player Chen Yun, please input the first type of ID.”

This game’s call function was impressive—able to assign different IDs for friends and strangers. Chen Yun chuckled.

“First ID: Chen Yun.”

“First ID set successfully. Name—Chen Yun.”

“For the second, since it’s for strangers, they shouldn’t know my real name. Let’s make a random one: ‘I am your father!’”

“Second ID set successfully. ID—I am your father. Proceeding to step two of call function setup: please add friends to your call list.”

“Call friends list? Requires phone numbers, right? Let me add Uncle Jiang first. His number is XXXXXXX.”

“Searching target... no such person found. Please re-enter.”

What? Chen Yun was stunned. That was definitely Uncle Jiang’s number, entered correctly. Why no match? He tried again, same result.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Yun was baffled. Isn’t adding friends just a matter of entering their numbers?

“Maybe I need to enter the name first, then the number?” The thought seemed plausible. He erased the input and typed “Jiang Shan.”

“Player Chen Yun’s friend Jiang Shan detected. Add to contact list?”

What? Chen Yun was dumbfounded. “Wait, I just typed the name. You detected him before I even entered the number? There are many named Jiang Shan in the world. Did you just randomly pick one as my friend?”

Worried, Chen Yun quickly dialed the number.

“Hello? Chen Yun? What’s up?” Uncle Jiang’s voice came through.

Holy cow. Chen Yun was stunned—it really was Uncle Jiang!

“Nothing much. Just wanted to tell you I have a phone now. Contact me if you need anything,” Chen Yun quickly said.

“Heh, okay. I’ll save your number... huh? Where’s your number? It’s not showing on my end.”

“Ah?” Chen Yun broke into a cold sweat. He suspected the system had ported the game’s communication functions into real life. In the game, chatting with friends didn’t require phone numbers—just their names.

“Uncle Jiang, you don’t need the number. That would be complicated. Just enter my name when calling, and it’ll connect,” Chen Yun explained nervously.

“Really? Has telecom technology advanced that much? No numbers needed? Aren’t you worried about duplicate names?” Jiang Shan sounded puzzled.

“No, Uncle Jiang. I paid the telecom company to customize this feature. You know, I have some unique hobbies, haha...” Chen Yun was sweating buckets, trying to justify.

“That must have cost a lot. I remember you borrowed one day’s worth of crystal currency from me. Was that for this?”

“Yes, it was.”

“Little Chen, what can I say? You spent a whole day’s crystal currency just for a hobby. Do you know how much you can do with that? Sigh, never mind. I’ll contact you if anything comes up.”

After the call ended, Chen Yun wanted to cry. His carefully built image of “not spending much, just enough to get by” with Uncle Jiang was completely shattered.

System, I want to throttle you!

“Second friend: Hu Dan Niu; third: A Qi; fourth: Zhang Lang; fifth: Wei Yu; sixth: Xi Jiu. That’s it. The rest are strangers,” Chen Yun said listlessly.

“Communication friends set successfully. Setup complete. Player Chen Yun’s call function officially activated.”

Stowing the vintage phone, Chen Yun sighed. It seemed he couldn’t change the impression he left on Uncle Jiang anytime soon. Oh well, better focus on the important things.

“Short-term goal: master level four driving skills quickly, then find some equipment, especially weapons. Though many have dropped, none are usable. Looks like I’ll have to hunt monsters around my level. But what could a level 15 monster have?”

His gaze involuntarily shifted to the giant fish tank in the hall, watching the ornamental fish swim.

Goldfish: level 1 monster.

Guppy: level 5 monster.

Koi: level 8 monster.

Tiger barb: level 12 monster.

Silver shark: level 15 elite monster.

Rainbow shark: level 18 elite monster.

As he surveyed them, Chen Yun’s eyes brightened until he burst into laughter. After a good while, he jumped up and ran off, causing everyone in the hall to regard him as insane.

“When did lunatics start dining here?”

“Dress all respectable, such a shame.”

“Have you noticed? Why do the hotel staff just ignore this?”

“Not just ignore, I think they’re used to it.”

“I’ll ask. Hey, waiter, why didn’t you stop that laughing lunatic just now?”

“Sorry, that’s not a lunatic. He’s our hotel director and a master-level chef.”

“What? He’s your hotel’s master chef? Why is he so odd, laughing like a fool all the time?”

“...”