Kira and Lily rushed over. Lily teased, "What’s wrong? Did you spot a girl you never got the chance to confess to?"

"I think I saw someone I know." Don punched the wall lightly. "Hopefully she’s just here at Henshaw Tower on business."

The two women exchanged a glance but didn’t press further. Their relationship hadn’t reached the point where they could ask about everything.

They ate stir-fried knife-cut noodles at a small shop in the alley across from Henshaw Tower. The chef’s skills were excellent, every strand of noodle was flavorful, the vegetables were crisp and refreshing, and a drizzle of chili oil and vinegar mixed through the whole dish elevated it to something genuinely delicious.

Lily and Kira both loved spicy food. After watching Don eat, they immediately followed his lead, and soon their full lips were tinged with a rosy hue from the chili.

Looking at the flush on their mouths, Don’s mind drifted to that splash of red he’d seen moments ago. It reminded him of a fiery young woman he’d worked with not so long ago.

Little Chili, that was the nickname everyone used. She was the girl who had once stayed at his apartment, his colleague, and also his most capable subordinate during three years at the advertising company. She was the girl who had gently touched her forehead on the day he’d left.

She was three years younger than him, only twenty this year. When Don had joined the company as a regular salesman, she’d been just a helper in the post-production department. She was only seventeen at the time, poorly educated, from out of town, she could only do odd jobs. Post-production at an advertising company meant supervising print runs for clients’ promotional materials and cleaning up afterward. The pay was barely anything.

Don never understood why, but whenever he saw that short, pretty girl, he felt an instinctive tenderness. He’d started helping out in her department regularly. Because she was from the south and loved spicy food, and because her cheeks always carried a rosy glow, everyone eventually forgot her real name. She became Little Chili.

She had a huge appetite and never gained weight no matter how much she ate. But she sent nearly every cent she earned home to support her family, so her own diet was painfully simple. Don couldn’t stand watching it, so he’d started dragging her out to eat with him. Over time, the female employees in the sales department grew a little jealous. After all, he was tall, fit, and reasonably good-looking, wasn’t he?

Every time they ate together, she’d beg him to teach her how to negotiate with clients. When he asked why she wanted to work in sales, her answer was the simplest thing he’d ever heard: "My family is poor. I want to earn more money for them. Sales pays better than back-end work."

He’d laughed. "Right now I’m just a regular sales rep myself. Once I’ve proven myself and have some pull with the boss, I’ll try to get you transferred. Sound good?"

Her face had immediately bloomed into a smile.

A year later, after Don closed several major deals and generated serious revenue for the company, Mr. Wang promoted him to department manager. Don used that influence to have Little Chili transferred into his team.

At first, the other two women in the sales department were cold toward her, they wouldn’t even greet her in the hallway. The only people who talked to her were Don and the three guys in the department. Those three liked to tease her with their words whenever they had nothing to do, but Little Chili couldn’t be bothered with them. She focused entirely on learning from Don.

Her dedication paid off quickly. In less than a month, she closed a deal, a large one. What impressed everyone even more was that despite having been in Liverpool for barely a year and a half, she spoke the Scouser dialect fluently, even more accurately than some natives. Her clients adored her, her small stature, her cute appearance, those charming dimples when she smiled. Several older clients even adopted her as a goddaughter. Among Don’s four subordinates, she became the top performer by a wide margin.

In the fiercely competitive world of advertising, talent like that couldn’t stay hidden. Women from other departments gradually changed their opinions of her, taking the initiative to get close and learn from her methods. Little Chili held no grudges. She taught them everything she knew, openly and without reservation.

The night before Don left the company, he’d had drinks with three colleagues and her. Little Chili got drunk that night. She clung to him, refusing to let go, muttering over and over about how good he’d been to her for the past three years. She even said she wanted to quit and follow him into Realms Online.

Honestly, with Don gone, she was the obvious choice for department manager, she should have been happy. But she wasn’t happy at all. She just cried.

Red was her favorite color. Every time he saw her, she wore a red string on her right wrist. She said it blessed her to close every deal.

Don didn’t want her to follow him. With her abilities, she could climb from department manager to director in two years at most, earning far more money than gaming could ever provide. A stable job was better for a girl like her. Realms Online wasn’t the right path for someone with her potential.

After dinner, putting daydreams aside, the three of them went upstairs. For their ideals and for the unknown possibilities ahead, Don and his new colleagues would keep pushing forward.

The first thing Don did after logging in was open his friends list. All three core members of Reincarnation were online. Their leveling speed hadn’t slowed either, Dust had reached Level 24, while Cappuccino and Bernita were both 23. Then Don checked Diana’s level and nearly choked. The swordswoman had already hit Level 28. It was hard to imagine what kind of grinding pace produced that.

He sent voice invitations to all four of them, and everyone joined the dedicated Realms Online voice channel one by one.

"Let me introduce a new friend," Don said. "She’s also my current colleague, the first player in the American region to unlock a hidden class. Paladin Aqua Nebula."

Diana sighed. "Don, your luck is something else. You actually ended up working alongside the Paladin girl."

Cappuccino and Dust expressed similar amazement.

Don got straight to the point. "I have a habit of being blunt, so I’ll just put this out there. The dungeon quest requires six players. But right now we have seven."

Before he could finish, Cappuccino jumped in. "Don, that’s completely fair, no offense taken. I’ve said it before: my DPS is too low. And we genuinely need a dedicated main tank for the dungeon. It’s not right to keep asking Sister Diana to do both tanking and damage. How about this, Dust and Bernita can join you for the dungeon once they hit Level 25."

Lily, that mischievous girl, seized the moment to feign selflessness. "How about you swap me out instead?"

Cappuccino immediately rejected the idea. "That won’t work. You’re the tetherer, you can control the boss at crucial moments, and your level is right where it needs to be. Isn’t it?"

"Well, if you insist, I suppose I have no choice but to graciously accept." Lily smiled shamelessly.

Diana said, "Since Cappuccino can’t go, have him level with the Sword Song team. We’re in an alliance now anyway."

Don was taken aback. "You’ve already formed an alliance?"

"Of course. I like small but powerful allies the most," Diana said.

Bernita’s face darkened. "Sister, you might as well just call us cockroaches..."

With that settled, the meeting adjourned. Time to level.

Diana was thoughtful enough to share several good grinding spots. She understood Don’s personality well, she knew he preferred leveling quietly with a small team. The locations she recommended were areas with high concentrations of elite monsters. Don also kept Bernita and Dust in the party for the shared experience, which boosted overall efficiency considerably.

Following her directions, they traveled to a beach along the southern coast of the American region. The monsters there were Level 30 elite evil mermaids, high physical attack, decent defense, relatively low HP. Kira served as the main tank, while Dust and Don provided the DPS. The composition worked smoothly. After equipping the Heart of Jelgund, Kira’s defense jumped dramatically, and the shield’s high Strength bonus also gave her attack a slight bump, keeping her aggro rock-solid. Don only needed to focus on Backstabbing from behind. Dust’s new battle halberd was powerful too, with his pure Strength build, a single normal attack reached around a thousand damage. Lily was still the weak link, only occasionally nailing a weak-point shot well enough to avoid accusations of freeloading.

The elite mermaids had an incredibly low drop rate, but they did occasionally yield bronze-grade metal armor, the kind that warrior players dreamed of. This Level 25 armor lacked set bonuses but boasted solid base stats and high physical defense, making it especially suitable for Knight players. Dust indicated he didn’t need any of it, since he already had a full Rare Wood set. So every piece went straight to Kira. Her current gear was mediocre, a patchwork of Level 10-plus white iron and bronze. In that state, attempting the D2-difficulty Anya Mine dungeon would be close to suicide.

They weren’t the only ones grinding here. Throughout the afternoon, more than a dozen leveling teams rotated through. Everyone kept to themselves and didn’t interfere with each other. But the other groups’ strength was far below theirs, they could barely handle a single mermaid, and if they accidentally pulled two or three, they became flustered and sometimes even wiped embarrassingly. Without exception, every team left dejectedly within half an hour. Honestly, without the right levels and team composition, this beach was a death trap.

But there was one small team, or more precisely, a couple, who ground alongside them for half the afternoon.