I am a Big Player
Chapter 140 - 139, Street Sketch (Second Update)_1

Chapter 140: 139, Street Sketch (Second Update)_1

Ren He ran out to do his tasks that very evening, as if he was on early vacation—with no classes to attend and nobody to mind his absence.

He didn’t pick a specific time for doing tasks and simply tried to control his speed to complete more challenging overtaking maneuvers. Generally, he was willing to wait at red lights or in traffic jams since they never lasted too long.

Overtaking 100 motor vehicles in 10 minutes was still quite easy.

However, the reward’s rating certainly wouldn’t be that high, just a "Good."

It seems the Divine Punishment System’s rating system only includes "Perfect," "Good," "Average," and "Poor."

"Host has completed the task, reward: master-level painting skills."

Wow, Ren He realized the Divine Punishment System’s quirks—once you gain a skill, it plans to stack you up to master level no matter what. What’s the use for him to have master-level painting skills? It’s enough to draw game settings.

But Ren He thought it over and let go of his concerns—having many skills never hurt anyone, and you never know when they might come in handy.

And...the reward was already given, the Divine Punishment System doesn’t do refunds...

This is probably the last task for the near future, right? The Divine Punishment System was quite humane last winter vacation, even if it issued tasks, the completion deadline was a month, not a week.

Ren He’s mood completely relaxed, getting a vacation from the Divine Punishment System was a good thing.

After not attending school for a few days, Xu Nuo called, asking when Ren He would return. The middle school exams were approaching, and it was baffling how he had suddenly become a "Good Driver"; he was a bit anxious...

Ren He’s reply was just to keep doing the exercises he had given him, and he would surely get good grades—there’s no need to worry about the middle school exams.

As for the "Good Driver" stuff, no one would really believe the Luo City Evening News report, seeing as Ren He was known for his high-definition video as "Knight."

What surprised Ren He was that Yang Xi also skipped classes!

Half a month before the middle school exams, such a good student in the eyes of the teachers just skipped classes—or not exactly skipped, since Yang Xi had legitimately taken three days off, which was fundamentally different from Ren He’s behavior...

Ren He was about to leave the house in the morning when he found Yang Xi already waiting for him downstairs. He had mentioned over the phone yesterday that he would go out early to take a look at some office buildings, but didn’t expect her to show up downstairs without a word, giving him a big surprise.

"I might not be able to accompany you today, since I have important things to attend to," Ren He explained, as he had to visit several places to look at office buildings.

"No problem, I’ll accompany you today," Yang Xi smiled, for her, sometimes just being there was happiness already.

Ren He’s original plan was to rent a not-so-large office space, but he had underestimated the current real estate prices...

It’s not that the prices were too high, but too low...

A new office building was not selling well, to the extent it could be sold for as cheap as 1900 yuan per square meter—such a bargain! Of course, this was only possible in a small city like Luo City in 2006, where there was no buying frenzy and no capital speculation.

However, Ren He didn’t splurge to stock up on them. To be honest, if he was going to invest in real estate, that would be in places like the Capital, an entirely different level of cost-effectiveness.

Moreover, he was short of money for game development at the moment—it would be better to get Dota out as soon as possible. By then, buying a luxury house wouldn’t be a problem.

If he really didn’t have any cash flow issues, he could buy two or three floors initially, but the reality was that he still needed to reserve funds for game development.

It’s not that Ren He wasn’t aware of how frightening the surge in real estate prices could be; it’s just that at a certain point, one understands that there are things even scarier than property when it comes to making money.

This "scarier" doesn’t refer to the magnitude—after all, the richest in the country are mostly those real estate moguls. It refers to the speed of growth!

They may not necessarily top the wealth rankings, but their rate of growth is certainly fast enough.

And to tell the truth, making it onto the wealth rankings isn’t necessarily a good thing either. People often call it the "pig-slaughtering list." Looking back at someone who was in the top 100 of the wealth rankings in my past life, it was shocking to see that, ten years later, the survival rate wasn’t even half...

Working hard all your life only to end up in prison—what’s the point in that?

Ren He finally bought an office space of 210 square meters. Overall, it was definitely enough for now.

The entire renovated second-hand office space only cost just over four hundred thousand. The seller was a company on the brink of bankruptcy—Ren He had snagged a real bargain.

Yang Xi found it quite novel. While everyone else was still earnestly attending school, here was someone next to her already buying offices in office buildings...

Ren He had only roughly mentioned to her that he was planning to develop a game, which surprised Yang Xi. A game? What kind of game warranted such a big move from Ren He?

Plus, as far as Yang Xi was aware, Ren He was currently into writing songs, writing novels, engaging in extreme sports, and now he was saying he wanted to develop games.

Yang Xi was no longer curious about what Ren He could do—she wondered if there was anything he couldn’t do.

When they came out of the office building, there was a girl setting up a drawing board in the plaza, probably charging for sketches. There were quite a few students who supported themselves through earnest labor like this.

The girl was likely a college student with a very ordinary appearance and simple dress.

Yang Xi suggested to Ren He, "Let’s have her draw us together, just like taking a photo together."

"Sure thing," Ren He said cheerfully, as a boyfriend how could he not indulge in such a simple request.

The sketching girl was troubled for a moment—drawing one person was 10 yuan, but how to charge for a drawing with two people in it? Perhaps 20 yuan?

Ren He agreed without hesitation, "Go ahead, 20 for a drawing isn’t expensive."

The artist was quite skilled, and a simple sketch was completed in just over ten minutes. Yang Xi excitedly took it over to show Ren He, and they were drawn rather vividly.

However, by now, Ren He’s painting skills had reached the master level. Looking at the drawing, he could not help but subconsciously notice quite a few flaws—and there were quite a lot of them.

But Ren He wouldn’t say that. Not belittling others’ sincere work is the least of courtesies, and after all, they were diligently supporting themselves through their studies.

Ren He smiled, "Can I do a drawing myself? I’ll pay you 10 yuan for it. I just would like to personally draw one for her."

The girl looked startled upon hearing Ren He’s words. To be honest, she was in college, while Ren He and Yang Xi were just junior high students. Were junior high students nowadays so adept at flirting that they could sketch for a girl?

But what could he really come up with? Skills like drawing require repetitive practice; how good could a junior high student be?

Regardless, money not earned is a wasted opportunity, so she graciously gave up her spot. As for how terrible the guy’s drawing might be, what did that have to do with her? He was spending money to flirt; she was earning money—no problem with that.

Yang Xi smiled, "You know how to draw too?"

"Let me tell you, don’t underestimate me. This is a secret family technique, generally not something I just share!" Ren He shamelessly claimed, even though he had only acquired his master-level painting skills yesterday.

Ren He smiled, "Stand still for me, and don’t move. Let me show you what a miracle looks like! The moment to witness a miracle has arrived!"

At first, the college girl beside them thought this boy was shameless but amusing. In fact, many girls liked this kind of boy—those who were too shy or too serious were somewhat less appealing.

Too shy wasn’t suitable for dating, only for teasing...

But when Ren He began outlining Yang Xi’s profile, her mouth gradually fell open in amazement. He was actually quite skilled!

At least better than herself!