After the Copy ended and she returned home, Su Shisan didn’t check her rewards right away—instead, she first distributed payment to her two employees.
There was the externally hired Fu Mingxu, who got 500 points, as previously agreed, so there was no need to change that.
But after thinking it over, since this Copy ended in a teamwipe, she remembered how, back when she was an NPC, Builders would always give her a little extra if a Copy ended in a teamwipe.
Granted, a big part of that was because she was usually the main reason for the teamwipe, but a bonus was a bonus—so she decided to add 100 points as a small token of thanks.
As for He Feixian, since she was her own NPC, the pay was much lower. Su Shisan originally planned to give her 200 points, plus another 100 for the teamwipe.
Technically, He Feixian should’ve gotten a bit more for successfully swapping the tickets of the other three players, but since she made a mistake on the bus at the end—prematurely telling the players they were on a fake bus—her merits and mistakes canceled each other out. Total: 300 points.
Finally, there was the 100 points for Jun Qian. Honestly, the guy came into her Copy just to cause trouble, and Su Shisan still had to pay him points. It sounded pretty humiliating.
But the fact was, there was a loophole in her Copy, so she had no choice but to pay up.
Still, paying the points didn’t mean she’d just let it go. Even though, all things considered, she hadn’t suffered any real loss—in fact, Jun Qian’s Task Completion Rate even went down.
The fact that he didn’t come out ahead was thanks to her own abilities, but that didn’t mean Jun Qian’s troublemaking could just be overlooked.
Su Shisan lowered her gaze and contacted [Sparta]: “Are you there? Can you issue tasks to free NPCs?”
She hadn’t even waited for [Sparta]’s reply when He Feixian’s apology arrived first.
“I’m sorry, Boss… It was my carelessness, I didn’t expect them to still be able to return after getting on the bus.” As soon as she opened the door, He Feixian gave her a deep bow.
When she straightened up, her eyes and nose were both red, her curly hair a little messy, looking pitiful and cute.
Anyone with even a slight weakness for good looks would probably have all their anger melt away at that face.
But Su Shisan wasn’t one to be swayed by appearances. She calmly stepped aside: “Come in first. I should thank you for not directly telling them which bus was the real one.”
Honestly, if He Feixian had really told the players which was the real bus, and that caused her Continuous Teamwipe to end, she wouldn’t just be docked points—Su Shisan might have sold her off altogether. Major mistakes bring major consequences.
The only reason she was still willing to pay points was because those two players had indeed asked He Feixian if the other bus was the real one.
At that moment, He Feixian finally sensed something was off and lied to them, saying the second bus was the one that could take them back.
That tricked the two players into making the wrong choice after the rewind.
So the “merit” in “merits and mistakes canceled out” included this part, which counted as making up for her mistake.
He Feixian wasn’t lacking in emotional intelligence—she could hear the sarcasm in Su Shisan’s words and quickly apologized again:
“I know I was wrong, I promise I won’t speak carelessly before the Copy ends next time. Please forgive me, Boss!”
She then raised her phone and sincerely said, “I’ve already refunded the 300 points you gave me. I don’t need any rewards for the next Copy either—let’s wait until I make up for it before talking about payment again.”
Her attitude was sincere enough that Su Shisan relaxed her expression: “I’ve already sent the points, so just accept them. But there still has to be a punishment—the custom NPC I mentioned before is canceled. Don’t let it happen again.”
In truth, she hadn’t really been angry to begin with. Acting angry, and even planning to get back at Jun Qian, was just her way of following social norms.
Su Shisan’s experiences growing up taught her that if she only acted on her own feelings—if she didn’t punish when punishment was due, didn’t take revenge when it was needed, didn’t reward when appropriate—then others would never know how to deal with her.
Hearing this, He Feixian carefully observed her boss.
Once she was sure there was no sarcasm this time and that Su Shisan genuinely thought she could keep the points, she finally breathed a huge sigh of relief and bowed gratefully:
“Thank you, Boss! I won’t let you down again!”
Although she’d really wanted the custom NPC, this was already the best outcome. Messing up and still expecting a reward? That would just be wishful thinking.
Su Shisan was about to wave her off, then thought of something else:
“Go rewatch the Copy’s footage and track down all of Jun Qian’s movements—the NPC who pretended to be an employee. Make a video for me.”
She wanted to know exactly when Jun Qian had stolen the ticket from the slicked-back guy and his companion, and how he’d figured out those two would survive until the end.
Having work to do was great—it meant her mistake had already been forgiven. He Feixian’s eyes lit up: “Okay! I’ll get right on it.”
She believed that as long as she didn’t make any more mistakes and worked hard, Su Shisan would eventually reinstate the previous reward.
After sending He Feixian off, Su Shisan opened her chat interface and saw that [Sparta] had already replied:
“Free NPCs are all S-class. For a B-rank Builder like me, hiring them is a luxury. Usually, only A-class have the right to contact them.”
“Usually” meant her case wasn’t the usual. Su Shisan immediately caught the key point: “Do you know Jun Qian?”
“Of course, he’s the famous Top1. Super expensive, but his Task Completion Rate is always high—usually at 99%. Why, you want to hire him for a Copy?” [Sparta] replied quickly, apparently glued to the chat.
Before Su Shisan could type her next message, [Sparta] sent another: “Ah, it just dropped to 98%. Hahahahaha, I just mentioned it and it fell. I wonder what kind of task could trip him up.”
Su Shisan paused for a moment, then typed: “Do you know how S-rank NPCs take on tasks?”
[Sparta] was unexpectedly chatty online:
“Sure, there are two ways. First, contact them directly. Second, post a task on the free NPC homepage and specify the NPC. Of course, whether they accept or not is another matter.”
Su Shisan nodded thoughtfully: “Do their private contacts change?”
The answer was as expected: “Usually not, since most clients only know that contact info. Changing it would be a hassle.”
“Alright, got it. Thanks.” She thanked politely.
Since Su Shisan wasn’t being clear, [Sparta] grew curious: “Doesn’t seem like you want to hire him? Something happen?”
“Just a small conflict.” Su Shisan didn’t bother lying. While the details were private, she hadn’t said what she planned to do—just hinted at wanting revenge. Jun Qian had probably already guessed as much.
That only made [Sparta] more curious, but she knew better than to press, so she changed the subject: “It’s a new month—do you have a new Copy? How did it go?”
Su Shisan’s Copy had just finished and wasn’t on the Homepage yet. As she added the new Copy, she replied succinctly: “Player teamwipe.”
“Impressive, as expected of you.” [Sparta] was both surprised and found it reasonable. “You’re going to surpass me soon, aren’t you? I’d better hurry up and aim for A-rank.”
Remembering her own trip to an A-class Scenario, Su Shisan couldn’t help sighing: “A-class Scenarios are huge.”
“Yeah, and that’s what makes them hard to design. I’m okay, but for Builders like you who focus on details, it must be tough.” [Sparta] replied honestly.
She was a Builder specializing in war-type Copies, where the overall picture outweighed individual details.
As long as she set up the reasons for war, the most powerful weapons, and the factions involved, the local NPCs would fill in the rest.
That was the opposite of Su Shisan’s type—ghosts, urban legends, and the like.
It was hard to fill an entire city with just one or two supernatural beings, but if you tried to include several types, it became exhausting.
Still, ghost-type Copies were popular early on, since when players had few Props, these scenarios were almost a dimensional crush.
“I’m still a long way off.” Su Shisan wasn’t worried. You had to design a lot of Copies to advance from C-rank to B-rank—it wasn’t as simple as a single teamwipe.