Chapter 10

Chapter 10

But after flipping through all the photos, Shen Dongqing's hopes of scoring the bounty had dropped quite a bit.

His memory was actually pretty solid, but cramming that many faces into his head at once made him feel like he was going face-blind.

Not to mention a lot of these photos were old—wanted criminals actively change their looks, and even if they didn't, their faces naturally change with age. Spotting someone at a glance was a real pain.

Hold on, this one...

Shen Dongqing's eyes landed on a photo in the corner. The bounty on this guy was tiny—just five hundred yuan—but the face looked oddly familiar, like he'd seen it somewhere.

It took him a second to place it—this was the guy Xiao Ze had nabbed yesterday. Of course, the only reason he remembered so fast was that five-hundred-yuan bounty—that stood out.

Comparing the face in his memory to the photo, Shen Dongqing had to hand it to Xiao Ze.

The wanted photo barely looked like the guy, yet Xiao Ze took one look, thought for two seconds, and confirmed who he was. His memory and eye for detail were seriously impressive.

Back home, Shen Dongqing remembered something and pulled up the system mall. He'd scrolled through all the skills in the system mall before and vaguely remembered one that did something similar.

Sure enough, he found it—Identification Technique: Facial Recognition.

Description: Your ability to tell faces apart isn't just basic image recognition anymore—you remember the actual facial features. No matter how they disguise themselves, they can't get past your eyes.

Price: 500,000 Fame Points.

Shen Dongqing had 50,000 Fame Points right now—enough for a tenth of the skill, but the skill wasn't sold in fractions.

Forget it. Buying a skill that expensive just to catch wanted criminals wasn't worth it.

Shen Dongqing tried to console himself, but staring at those prices, he couldn't help but gripe—were these prices even reasonable?

Shen Dongqing sighed. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimmer of light and instinctively tapped it. A giant spinning wheel popped up.

"Super Spinning Wheel: Hey hosts, stressing over not having enough Fame Points? Eyeing something you want but can't afford? The Super Spinning Wheel makes dreams come true! For just 1,000 Fame Points, you could win the item or skill you want—even stat points!"

The ad was cheesy, but it hit Shen Dongqing right where it hurt.

The system mall had plenty of great stuff, but everything was stupidly expensive. After buying Unrestricted Combat Arts, Shen Dongqing hadn't spent a single Fame Point—not because he didn't want anything, but because everything he wanted was way out of his price range.

He could save up for other stuff, but stat points were what he wanted most—and he knew for a fact he couldn't afford them right now.

Luck Points were the ones he wanted most. He'd thought it through: the Criminal Attraction Aura brought danger, and when danger came knocking, luck was everything.

If he couldn't shake the Criminal Attraction Aura, then boosting his luck might be his endgame.

Shen Dongqing decided to give the spinning wheel a shot.

The wheel had single draws and ten-pulls. Shen Dongqing waffled for a second, then went with the ten-pull, since it had a pity system—at least one item worth 1,000 Fame Points or more.

Plus, from his experience with gacha games, ten-pulls had better odds of dropping something good.

Sure, single draws could pull off miracles, but that was for the ultra-lucky. For someone with average luck, the ten-pull was the safer bet.

But before drawing, he washed his hands, said a little prayer, and took a deep breath before hitting the ten-pull button.

A blinding flash of light, and the prizes started popping up one by one.

"Tissues" "Bone China Bowl" "Kitchen Cleaning Set" "Non-stick Pan" "Egg Tarts (Box of 4)"

Five physical items in a row. Shen Dongqing's face fell. If he was remembering right, all of that together wasn't even worth 1,000 Fame Points.

Shen Dongqing felt like he'd fallen into a massive trap. He'd suspected there might be a catch, but this was way worse than he'd imagined.

The next three were still physical items, which he quickly skimmed past. Then the fourth one—a skill card, actually.

It was just a basic cooking skill, but Shen Dongqing was pretty happy with it. In the system mall, this skill went for 3,000 skill points.

But he figured this was probably the pity reward, so he didn't have high hopes for the last item. He tapped it without much thought.

A brilliant golden flash blinded him for a second, and his heart raced—did he actually hit the jackpot?

A skill card appeared before Shen Dongqing: Identification Technique—Facial Recognition.

He'd barely been happy for three seconds when he spotted a tiny label on the card: Three-Day Trial.

Shen Dongqing let out a dry laugh. Of course. With his luck, how could he ever win a 500,000-point skill? What he'd pulled was a trial card—only good for three days.

Not that it was totally useless. Used in the right situation, it could still be a big help. It's just that...

Then a thought hit him—the card's main ability was remembering facial features. Once the card expired, would he still remember those faces?

Shen Dongqing was dying to test it right away, but after thinking it over, he held off.

He didn't have enough faces to memorize right now, and once the card was activated, the clock wouldn't stop. He needed to dig up more wanted criminal photos and get the most out of this card.

Doing the math, this card had cost him at least 6,000 Fame Points. Not getting his money's worth would be a total waste.

As for the rest of the physical items, he took them all out. They were practical everyday stuff, and he'd won them with Fame Points—not using them would be a waste.

Once he had them out, he found the quality was actually pretty good—saved him from buying them himself.

The egg tarts were great too—sweet, silky filling and a crispy, flaky crust. Best egg tarts he'd ever had. He wondered where the system got them from.

He checked the mall and saw this box of egg tarts was priced pretty steep. The non-stick pan was only 300 Fame Points, but four egg tarts in a box ran 200 Fame Points.

He'd thought about just buying some from the mall if the price was right, but seeing those numbers, he figured he wasn't there yet. Might as well wait for the spinning wheel and eat whatever he pulled.

The ten-pull rewards were decent, but Shen Dongqing wasn't planning to draw again. He only had enough Fame Points for four more ten-pulls, and he needed to show some restraint.

...

Staring at his remaining 20,000 Fame Points, then at the twenty physical items he'd pulled, Shen Dongqing took a deep breath and flopped onto the bed. He had a feeling this spinning wheel was one of the system's little tricks.

Dangle the skills hosts want as bait, then dump unsold junk on them—harvesting their saved-up Fame Points while clearing out the warehouse.

After two ten-pulls, he'd basically completed his whole kitchenware set, and even pulled a full outdoor streaming kit—made him feel like he was going for a 100% achievement run.

But after reading up on the streaming gear, he couldn't say the draw was a total loss.

He'd only streamed twice, but he'd already noticed the flaws in his current setup—the biggest being that it wasn't convenient or smart.

The gear he'd pulled wasn't the best in the mall, but it would still be a huge upgrade—the camera could auto-follow him, fly around, and shoot on its own, freeing up his hands.

Just as he was about to pull out the streaming gear, the system popped up a notification.

"Non-standard item. Please choose a delivery option: 1. Retrieve directly. 2. Have the system ship it to you via a suitable method."

Shen Dongqing read the description and got it.

The items he'd drawn earlier were all regular products you could buy in the real world, so he could take them out without any issues. But this livestreaming setup was a bit more high-tech—basically a lab prototype. If he just pulled it out, it'd be hard to explain where it came from and could easily attract unwanted attention.

Shen Dongqing picked the second option without hesitation. He'd been dealing with the police a lot lately, so he had to be careful where he could.

After he hit the option, his phone lit up. A social media app opened and auto-forwarded a lottery post—with the drawing date set two days ago.

Then his phone buzzed. He looked down and saw a text from the pickup point with a collection code, reminding him to grab his package.

Shen Dongqing was blown away by how efficient the system was. He couldn't wait to head to the pickup point and grab the livestreaming gear.

After swapping in the new gear, he couldn't resist going live to test it out.

The Flying Camera was tiny—about as heavy as two eggs—and voice-controlled. Once it recorded his voiceprint, it took off and hovered by his shoulder.

It was 8 PM, and the sky had been dark for a while, with only streetlights and shop lights glowing. But when he started the stream, he found himself clearly visible in the frame.

In fact, the him on camera looked even better than the daytime him...

He didn't know how to describe it, but a saying came to mind: "Under the lamp, a beauty only gets better with every look."

Looking at himself on camera, he couldn't help striking a few poses.

Of course, that was purely to test the Flying Camera's streaming effect—definitely not because he was blown away by his own looks.

A big chunk of Shen Dongqing's followers were there for his looks. Even though his first two streams had solid content, they still couldn't get over his face.

When they saw he was live again, many fans muttered about how dedicated this new streamer was while clicking in—and immediately froze.

Shen Dongqing had a striking face—clean brows, sharp features, and especially a pair of bright, clear eyes that added extra charm. Even random shots had always looked good.

Now with the Flying Camera's smart shooting, his looks got a massive boost. Every frame looked like a magazine spread—beautiful and classy.

"Whoa, the streamer finally realized his biggest advantage!"

"Keep streaming, we love this!"

While some were lost in his looks, others noticed the camera quality. After all, even with great daytime lighting, he'd never looked this good. How could night lighting like this produce such results? What kind of god-tier equipment was this?!

Seeing the questions in the chat, he casually explained where the gear came from.

Hearing it was won in a lottery and was a lab product not in mass production, the curious viewers realized it'd be nearly impossible to buy.

He chatted with the viewers while testing out the gear's features. Once he was done testing everything, he ended the stream.

This stream didn't earn him many Fame Points, but it got him a good number of tips. Adding it up, the tips from this short evening stream were about the same as the whole daytime stream.

Shen Dongqing finally got why Zhang Feiyu had tried to talk him into being a looks-based streamer. Looks-based streamers really did rake in more cash than outdoor streamers!

Too bad what he wanted most was Fame Points.