Chapter 3
Of course, Ye Xiu wasn't without feeling. After 24 consecutive hours without rest, and needing to seriously operate the game the entire time, he had long felt somewhat weary. All he had been doing was persevering.

Perseverance is victory. Although Ye Xiu wasn't pursuing any kind of victory at this moment, he didn't want to miss the generous rewards during the event period. Perseverance meant more rewards.

Leaving aside the things randomly opened from the gift bags, just the experience gained from killing Christmas thieves and opening the gift bags was enough that by 12 noon, Lord Grim, Soft Mist, and Su Mucheng had all leveled up to 35. The other 96 players in their group had obtained fewer Christmas gift bags than the three of them, but the experience they gained wasn't much less. Plus, their original levels were already higher than Lord Grim and the others, and they needed more experience to level up, so they were still in the process of charging from level 36 to level 37.

In the 24-hour event, Ye Xiu and his team leveled up four times, while the players from the major guilds, who benefited from the latter half, also leveled up a full two times.

This kind of efficiency made the players from the twelve guilds extremely regret not having cooperated with Lord Grim in this way from the beginning. This cooperation brought them benefits that were, crucially, very stable. If they had just relied on their own performance, this event would undoubtedly have been very reliant on luck. But collective cooperation reduced the impact of luck to a very low level. Those who had bad luck and couldn't find Christmas thieves had those with good luck who found more compensate them. As a result, the 96 people in the team progressed together and obtained these generous rewards.

The issue that the major guilds were very concerned about at this time was the same as Chen Yehui's: what time would Lord Grim rest?

Lord Grim's role as a super MT (main tank) obviously relied entirely on the display of his technique. But this guy, over the course of the night, jumped the clock tower an average of twice an hour, and he didn't make a single mistake. This stable and solid technique truly astonished everyone.

Among the twelve great guilds, there were many people who could jump onto the clock tower.

But they could only jump on. Jumping up once out of a hundred tries was called being able to jump on. But what about Lord Grim? It was as if he could jump up a hundred times and succeed a hundred times. This "being able to jump up" was completely different from the "being able to jump up" of those in the guilds.

This was solid technique.

And that one out of a hundred times was just luck.

Lord Grim was offline, so there was no way to continue this method of eliminating monsters. But having one person be online for 36 consecutive hours seemed a bit difficult.

Although the major guilds were worried, none of them actually ran to inquire. Several guild leaders were even worried that Lord Grim might have been quite engrossed in it, having forgotten all about sleeping. What if they went and reminded him that there was such a thing as sleeping, and he immediately went to sleep?

So everyone was uneasy. After each wave of Christmas thieves was killed, they worried about receiving a message that Lord Grim had disbanded the group. And when they saw that the message hadn't come, they immediately beamed.

"Tired?" In the game, Ye Xiu was asking Su Mucheng.

"I'm okay," Su Mucheng answered, using the same line as Ye Xiu.

"Go to sleep if you're sleepy!" Ye Xiu said. Actually, he just needed to persevere in this event. Su Mucheng or Tang Rou were just soaking up experience.

"Not sleepy," Su Mucheng replied.

"Aren't you sick?" Ye Xiu said.

"Yeah, insomnia!" Su Mucheng replied.

Ye Xiu smiled, but didn't say anything else. He turned to look at Tang Rou, who was already dozing off. Before Ye Xiu came to Happy Internet Cafe, Tang Rou was actually a girl with a regular routine like Chen Guo.

Chen Guo, who was sitting between the two of them, noticed Ye Xiu's gaze and turned to look as well. Tang Rou, who had just said she wasn't sleepy, now had eyes that were barely open. Chen Guo didn't know if she could still see the screen clearly.

"Go to sleep if you're sleepy. It's okay to sleep a little less. It won't make that much of a difference," Chen Guo said to Tang Rou.

"Not sleepy," Tang Rou forced her eyes open wider.

"What do you mean, 'not sleepy'?! Go on, sleep for a bit. I'll wake you up in a while. You'll fall asleep sooner or later like this. The event lasts until 12 at night! Can you... can you sleep for a bit first, then continue vigorously until the end when you wake up?" Chen Guo suddenly changed her tone halfway through. She originally wanted to say, "Can you stay awake until 12?" but she suddenly stopped. It wasn't good to say that to Tang Rou. It might just arouse her fighting spirit, making her able to do it even if she couldn't originally.

Chen Guo still hoped that everyone could combine work and leisure in the game.

This time, Tang Rou seemed to really be sleepy. She originally woke up earlier than Ye Xiu, and by now, she had stayed awake longer than Ye Xiu. After hearing Chen Guo's advice, she finally stood up.

"Then I'll go to sleep for a while!" Tang Rou said as she went to log out of the game.

"No need to log out of the game," Ye Xiu suddenly said from the side.

Tang Rou was taken aback, but Chen Guo immediately understood. She had sat between the two of them all night, so she knew very well how they had killed the Christmas thieves. Indeed, there was no need for Tang Rou's character to log out. Standing under the clock tower in a daze could also get her experience. And the guild wouldn't snatch their three's gift bags, so anyone could come and help pick up a gift bag when the time came.

"Yeah, yeah, no need to log out. Just leave it here. There's no harm in getting free experience," Chen Guo said.

Tang Rou also reacted, and in the end, she nodded and said, "Then you can pick up my share of the gift bags." She said this to Ye Xiu.

"Okay." Ye Xiu didn't say much more. Anyway, she wouldn't be there at the time. Who could turn on him after picking up her stuff?

Then Tang Rou left, and Chen Guo turned to look at Ye Xiu. "What about you?"

"Can I take a night off tonight?" Ye Xiu said.

"What for?"

"Sleep," Ye Xiu said.

"You... are you really not planning to sleep?" Chen Guo said.

"You know, I can't do it without me!" Ye Xiu pointed at the screen and said.

"I'll see how long you can last," Chen Guo didn't bicker with Ye Xiu.

"I still have to smoke. Please bear with it," Ye Xiu said.

"Hmph..." Ye Xiu had really smoked a lot last night, and Chen Guo had actually endured it the whole time. Seeing Ye Xiu light up again at this moment, she "hmph"ed, but didn't say much else.

The daytime was naturally much livelier than the middle of the night. The closer the event was to ending, the more players hurried. Chen Guo went online this time, messed around for half an hour without any results, and was extremely envious watching Ye Xiu and his team take down piles and piles of Christmas thieves.

Ye Xiu was persevering, always persevering.

On the other end of the screen, countless voices were chattering at him.

"Aren't you going to sleep yet!"

The voices were all the same.

Some were filled with resentment. These were from the Excellent Dynasty side.

And those filled with relief were naturally from the twelve guilds' side.

Guild Leader Chen had slept for four hours and didn't see Lord Grim log off. Later, he vigilantly waited another four hours. Seeing that it was already four o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Yehui, who was sleep-deprived, felt another wave of drowsiness coming on, but he still didn't see Lord Grim log off.

"This guy, he's not really planning to stay awake for 36 hours, is he?" Chen Yehui was in a terrible mood.

Staying awake for 36 hours couldn't really be called a miracle. As time went on, the more Chen Yehui felt that Ye Qiu really intended to do so, and he started to become restless.

At this time, their fifteen good men had all been pushed to the sixth page. They had been continuously overtaken on the guild rankings, and they were now ranked seventh. The six guilds in front were pulling away from them, while the six guilds behind were continuing to close the gap.

What to do?

Chen Yehui thought of more drastic measures like cutting the power lines. But he didn't cut them last night in the middle of the night. In broad daylight...

Moreover, Chen Yehui really didn't know where to start with cutting the power lines. Looking at his subordinates, they were all deadbeats who played games all day. He was afraid that none of them could handle the job, and they were more likely to get electrocuted to death.

Happy Internet Cafe!

Chen Yehui knew where Ye Qiu was. Could he think of any tricks? Besides cutting the power lines...

False fire alarm? Spread a virus? Send someone to pretend they needed to find Ye Qiu?

Chen Yehui was now pondering things that weren't his forte. He was just wildly fantasizing, and unreliable ideas emerged one after another. He wasn't even embarrassed to discuss them with anyone, and he rejected them himself first.

Watching the day pass, and the sun was about to set again, Chen Yehui didn't play the game and was just pacing anxiously in the room.

There was no way. There was really no way.

The game was Chen Yehui's area of expertise, and he couldn't think of any tricks. Letting him think outside the game led him to think about planes crashing into buildings.

And in the game, the guild leaders had all slept, rested, and returned to the game. When they saw that Lord Grim was still there, and had persevered to this time, they all believed that this guy was planning to last the full 36 hours. Everyone quite admired this spirit of persisting in the game.

And in the afternoon, Lord Grim really gave everyone a little scare. When jumping the clock tower, he finally made a small mistake. He didn't control one of the jumps well and fell down. But amidst the cries of surprise, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella transformed into a helicopter rotor again, turned a circle, and flew back up.

Ye Xiu wasn't someone who wouldn't make mistakes, but he had ways to make up for his mistakes, which made people feel more at ease.

At six o'clock, Tang Rou woke up and resumed control of her Soft Mist. When she looked at her inventory, she saw a large pile of stolen gifts. Obviously, someone had been helping her pick them up for the past six hours. Chen Guo was undoubtedly very suspicious, but she pretended nothing had happened.

And Su Mucheng's Wind Following the Flowing Clouds remained motionless at this time. Ye Xiu called out twice but didn't get a response. He guessed that she really couldn't hold on any longer and had fallen asleep. Ye Xiu didn't call her again. At this time, he happened to be leading a wave of Christmas thieves to the clock tower. Wind Following the Flowing Clouds was already standing within the range where she could gain experience, but no one could help her pick up the gift bags. Ye Xiu asked Tang Rou to share them, but Tang Rou refused, so Ye Xiu had no choice but to put them all in his own pocket.

Su Mucheng slept for three hours, and woke up suddenly at nine o'clock. She immediately acted as if nothing had happened and threw herself into the game.

In the blink of an eye, it was almost twelve o'clock. Ye Xiu, manipulating Lord Grim, jumped onto the clock tower and breathed a sigh of relief.

It was over! Although there was still a little time left, it was impossible to gather another wave of monsters like this. They had solidly persevered for 36 hours. Ye Xiu was already extremely tired, but at this moment, he suddenly felt a sense of relief. This 36 hours of persistence was definitely not in vain.