A tall, thin man stepped forward and nodded at Jing Minghe. "Hello, you must be Jing Minghe? Miss Yumi mentioned you."
"Yes."
As Jing Minghe approached, the tall, thin man extended his hand for a handshake. "It's good to finally meet you. My name is Tong Zheng. We'll be entering the same instance soon, so it's good to get acquainted."
With that, Tong Zheng pulled the person behind him forward. "This is Chen Mu."
Chen Mu sized up Jing Minghe before speaking. "Hello."
Jing Minghe smiled friendly and asked Tong Zheng, "Were you together in the last instance?"
"No," Tong Zheng explained. "We met in the resting area. The ones who came out of the last instance with me were Yan Xiaoqian and Qi Meiyuan. Chen Mu and Lin Ling came out of a different instance. Oh, and there was also Guan Wei, who was the only one to come out of his instance alive."
"Are you here to buy something too?" Tong Zheng gestured towards the vending machines, sighing. "I've been looking for two days and still don't know what to buy. My points are too few to spend recklessly."
Jing Minghe detected Tong Zheng's probing, and replied, "I'm just looking around. I just woke up and my mind is still a bit fuzzy."
"Haha, I see. It is a bit difficult to choose. We still have a few days before the next instance anyway, so we can take our time."
"Hmm?" Jing Minghe asked suspiciously. "Do you already know when the next instance opens?"
"Didn't your partner tell you?" Tong Zheng replied. "On the first day we returned to the resting area, there was a notice downstairs from the hotel saying the next instance would begin in seven days."
Jing Minghe nodded. "I haven't had a chance to ask. Thank you for telling me."
Tong Zheng took two steps closer to Jing Minghe, lowering his voice slightly. "Speaking of which, your team is quite strong. It's quite enviable that five people survived."
Jing Minghe smiled and gave a very official reply, "As long as everyone works together, the chances of survival increase significantly."
"Yes," Tong Zheng agreed. "You're right."
"I'm going upstairs to rest," Chen Mu suddenly said. "You two continue your chat."
Seeing Chen Mu bypass Jing Minghe and prepare to leave, Tong Zheng called out, "Aren't you buying anything?"
"No, nothing I need to buy right now. I'll think about it later."
"Alright, I'll find you later then."
After Chen Mu walked away, Tong Zheng continued to chat with Jing Minghe. "You seem a bit younger than me. Can I call you Minghe? Regardless of whether we live or die later, let's be friends first."
"You can just call me by my name," Tong Zheng seemed like a very optimistic person. "Or you can call me Brother Zheng."
"Brother Zheng."
Jing Minghe didn't mind people being familiar with him.
Having made another friend, Tong Zheng's mood brightened considerably. He casually slung an arm around Jing Minghe's shoulder. "Minghe, what do you want to buy? Come on, I'll help you brainstorm."
"I'm just looking around."
"It's fine, we can look together. You can help me brainstorm too. I really don't know what items would be useful."
This was the first time Jing Minghe had encountered someone so friendly and enthusiastic. Unlike Cheng Jun from before, there was no obvious exploitation in his eyes.
"Alright," Jing Minghe agreed.
Such a person could probably be temporarily placed in the category of trustworthy.
The two of them circled the vending machines. Jing Minghe first opened the red vending machine, wanting to see what useful items were available and what he could afford, remembering the points on his item card.
Opening the product homepage, Jing Minghe scrolled through about two pages and found that the items didn't seem to have any particular ordering pattern. On the fifth page, an item called a 'Shapeshifting Orb' caught Jing Minghe's attention.
"What is this?" Jing Minghe asked, tapping on the item. A description immediately appeared below.
Shapeshifting Orb: Can freely transform into any cold weapon that can be visualized in your mind.
"This is a great item."
Just as Jing Minghe praised it, Tong Zheng chimed in, "It's just too expensive. It costs 200 points."
Jing Minghe thought of the meager 30 points on his item card and sighed, "Yeah, it's too expensive."
"The points on item cards are all pitifully low," Tong Zheng said. "The points on medical cards and general shopping cards are a bit more."
"That makes sense," Jing Minghe wasn't too disappointed. "After all, their uses are different."
Tong Zheng nodded and suggested, "You don't need to buy items for now. Save up your points, and you can buy more useful things. You can buy some wound medicine, as injuries are common in instances. The daily necessities machine has everything except food."
"I don't have a medical card," Jing Minghe closed the item vending machine and switched to the daily necessities machine. "Let's see what I can buy here." Sudana Novel Network
As soon as Jing Minghe opened the daily necessities homepage, before he could even look, a deep, cold voice reached his ears.
"Jing Minghe."
His hand, poised to turn the page, paused. Jing Minghe turned around, forcing a smile onto his face. "Yo, Big Brother Chi, are you here to buy something too?"
"I'm looking for you. Come with me."
"No way," Jing Minghe heard the familiar tone and, remembering that this person had risked his life to save him, felt like teasing him. "Big Brother Chi, you want me to go with you, so I'll go with you? Why should I listen to you, this young master?"
To his surprise, however, Chi Hao had already entered the elevator and completely ignored him.
He thought to himself, I really have too much time on my hands. How could this person possibly tolerate being teased?
Seeing the elevator doors about to close, Jing Minghe called out as he walked, "You want me to go with you, so keep the elevator doors open, old man."
Chi Hao slightly extended his hand, stopping the almost-closed elevator doors from shutting.
Jing Minghe quickly stepped into the elevator. Noticing Tong Zheng following, he turned back and smiled, "Not looking anymore?"
Tong Zheng followed Jing Minghe into the elevator and smiled, "I'll look later. I haven't decided what to buy yet."
"Then let's go together."
As the elevator ascended, Tong Zheng's gaze swept over Chi Hao, who was standing on the other side. He leaned in close to Jing Minghe's ear and whispered, "This Mr. Chi doesn't seem to talk much. I've tried to greet him several times these past two days, and he hasn't responded once."
Jing Minghe smiled and explained, "He's just like that. Don't mind him."
"I don't mind," Tong Zheng's voice became even softer. "He doesn't talk to anyone else either. I only saw him speak a few words to Miss Yumi. He doesn't even acknowledge Yue Yang and Guo Wei, who are on your team."
Just as Jing Minghe was about to explain a few things for Chi Hao, he heard Tong Zheng continue, "However, Mr. Chi looks very capable. You called him 'Big Brother' just now. I wonder, how can one latch onto a capable figure like him?"
"That," Jing Minghe rolled his eyes, turned his head, and leaned into Tong Zheng's ear. "Two words: be obedient."