The Stand-in Side Character Only Wants to Make Money – CH2

Chapter 2 – Special Service

The camera was aimed from the neck down, focusing mainly on the keyboard.

He set the livestream to the gaming section, where new streamers get a slight traffic boost. Slowly, people started trickling into his stream.

Glancing briefly at the screen, Chen Bai started a new game.

After playing a few rounds to refresh his memory, his movements were still not very smooth, but at least he wasn’t dying as soon as he landed. His character, like a determined worm, crawled awkwardly across the map.

In this game, teams were made up of five players, split between floors one, two, and three, all happily moving forward. Chen Bai was on the fifth floor, paired with the guy on the fourth.

The guy on the fourth floor was a chatty fellow whose character design was flashy, basically a walking target.

With both of them still getting back into the groove, their clumsy moves made them oddly compatible.

Chen Bai’s rank was low, but his historical performance was good. Due to the special matchmaking system, their opponents were strong, but thanks to their incredible luck, they managed to survive into the late stages of the game.

All five players in their team made it through and began wreaking havoc in the final stages.

The three main players were focused on killing, while Chen Bai and his partner… well, they focused on surviving.

Hiding inside a building, the chatty guy freaked out as the gunfire outside grew louder, while Chen Bai, still practicing his controls, repeatedly picked up and put down a gun he had scavenged.

The contrast between the chaotic outside and the quiet inside was stark, as if they were in two different worlds. They even managed to chat casually during all of this, and Chen Bai glanced at his livestream every now and then.

Surprisingly, the viewer count had grown, much more than when he first started.

However, the viewers weren’t staying to watch his gameplay. They were just curious how long these two could survive with their absurd luck. Someone in the chat confidently bet that they’d get wiped out before even reaching the final circle, wagering a small gift of a gold bean.

Gold beans were a cheap gift on the platform, perfect for betting.

Chen Bai continued practicing his gun-raising technique against the wall and quipped, “Thank you in advance for the gold bean.”

Maybe his words were blessed.

Shortly after he thanked the viewer, the other three members of their team entered unfavorable terrain and were wiped out. No chance of revival—leaving just the two of them standing.

They couldn’t stay in the building anymore and needed to move. Even the usually optimistic chatty guy was starting to sweat.

They made their way to another building, which was just outside the shrinking final circle.

Based on the earlier gunfire, someone was likely camping nearby. If they didn’t move, they’d die to the shrinking zone. But moving out could mean getting sniped.

The chat erupted into laughter, flooding the screen with “hahaha.”

Chen Bai calmly turned to his teammate and said, “Hey, we’re friends, right?”

The guy confidently responded, “Of course.”

“Well then,” Chen Bai continued, “could you step outside for a second?”

The guy didn’t get it but bravely stepped out.

He didn’t disappoint—he got sniped immediately.

Two gunshots rang out.

One came from the enemy hiding nearby, the other from Chen Bai, followed by a notification that he had knocked someone down.

[What just happened?]

[I looked away for a second, and this?]

It was simple.

When the enemy locked onto the chatty guy, Chen Bai quickly pinpointed the location based on the sound and the mini-map, turned, and instantly sniped the enemy. As his teammate dropped, so did the enemy.

In short, he used the guy as bait for a one-to-one trade.

[What a sneaky human!!]

[Sneaky but kind of cool?]

[I can’t believe the same guy did both that snipe and the grenade self-destruct earlier (confused cat emoji)]

[RIP to the teammate. Choose your friends wisely (patting shoulder emoji)]

No need to RIP just yet. There were no other enemies nearby, and the safe zone wasn’t far. Chen Bai revived the guy, and together they made it to the final circle.

While helping his teammate up, Chen Bai glanced at the small screen on the lower left and professionally thanked his viewers for their gifts.

The guy, standing again, didn’t feel cheated. In fact, he believed he had found his unique purpose. He transformed from a flashy novice into a flashy decoy, getting used multiple times.

Before the final showdown, the guy completed his mission and retired honorably.

Thanks to his sacrifice, the final victory came easily. Two opposing players went down—one died, the other was injured. As Chen Bai casually chatted with his stream, he finished off the injured player and claimed the kill.

When the victory screen appeared, the viewers were still baffled. They couldn’t figure out how such a shaky start ended in victory.

Not fully understanding what had just happened, the viewers stayed, watching a few more games. The more they watched, the less they understood.

Chen Bai seemed like a noob, but his snipes were perfect. Yet, calling him skilled didn’t seem right either, considering his earlier grenade mishap that had killed himself.

Despite all the chaotic moments, Chen Bai managed to win every game that day, whether through his own skill or by relying on his teammates. When the stream ended, the viewers still couldn’t figure out if he was actually good at the game. Only after hearing him say “see you tomorrow” did they realize they’d been glued to the stream for over two hours.

After saying goodbye and receiving a few more gifts, Chen Bai thanked his viewers and ended the stream.

The moment the stream ended, Chen Bai leaned back into his chair, tilting his head back while slowly rotating his wrist.

Today was just a test stream. Since he had just recently gotten his stitches removed, he couldn’t hold up for long, so the stream didn’t last very long. But the earnings, for a new streamer, were surprisingly good, exceeding his expectations.

After relaxing in his chair for a bit, he leaned forward again and looked at his computer screen, where he saw some new messages in the background. Before checking them, he quickly changed his default ID to “Chen Er Bai.”

The messages were from the platform, asking about a contract. He typed a brief reply on the keyboard.

During the days he was working out the contract with the platform, Chen Bai continued streaming at the same time every day, settling into a routine of streaming in the evening and late at night.

Since he streamed late into the night, he ended up sleeping late and waking up groggy in the mornings. The only meal he didn’t prepare himself was breakfast.

On yet another groggy morning, the weather was nice. As he woke up, still lying in bed, the first thing he saw was a patch of sunlight illuminating the corner of his blanket.

Squinting his eyes, he sat up, slid into a pair of slippers, and headed to the bathroom to wash up. Afterward, he threw on a jacket and headed out the door.

Downstairs was a breakfast shop. The morning rush had passed, so there weren’t many people. He bought two buns and carried them in his hand as he walked to a locksmith shop nearby. Lowering his head, he pulled out the keys to open the door.

This shop belonged to his landlord. After he returned from the hospital, they had a chat, during which the landlord learned that he now worked at night. Conveniently, the landlord offered him the day shift at the shop. All he had to do was sit in the store when he had time, and handle any business that came in.

Surprisingly, this job was easy to pick up. He had taken a bit of time to get a locksmith certification and immediately started working. When there was work, he worked. When there wasn’t, he would just sit in the store, looking for other jobs he could do. Occasionally, someone would ask for contact information, and he would gladly hand them the business card with the shop’s QR code, which his landlord had printed but no one had ever used.

As the number of passersby dwindled in the afternoon, Chen Bai closed the shop, bought groceries from the nearby market before the elderly shoppers left, and carried the ingredients home to prepare dinner for that night and the next day.

The side character wasn’t much of a cook, and his kitchen was quite bare. After returning from the hospital, he had bought some kitchen supplies, which made it look less sparse. Now, he could fry dishes and cook rice.

After dinner, it was almost time. He washed the dishes, dried his hands, and turned on the computer.

As the screen lit up, he glanced to the side and noticed that his usual medication was running low.

Since it was still early and the nearby pharmacy should still be open, he paused his work on the computer, grabbed his phone and keys, put on a jacket, and went out.

The pharmacy was still open, and his usual medicine was in stock.

After losing a hundred bucks, Chen Bai walked back through the cold wind, feeling chilled both inside and out. His half-lidded eyes stared ahead before his pupils shifted slightly.

On such a cold night in an old neighborhood, he noticed someone else walking alone, just like him, heading into the building next door.

It was the same building he lived in.

Inside the building, the sound of one set of footsteps turned into two, then back to one again.

Walking up the stairs, Chen Bai, holding the medicine, looked up and saw someone standing at the end of the stairwell. It was a man in a black jacket with the brim of his hat pulled low, standing right in front of the door next to his.

This person seemed to be his neighbor, someone he had never met before. Chen Bai couldn’t recall seeing him, so he figured the man didn’t live here regularly.

As he pulled out his key to unlock his door, Chen Bai casually asked, “Forgot your key, friend?”

The man, whose jawline was sharp and whose entire demeanor exuded coldness, replied curtly, “Yeah.”

Already feeling cold inside, Chen Bai wasn’t bothered by the response. His eyes immediately lit up, and after opening his door, he quickly shut it behind him.

The stairwell returned to its previous silence.

Xu Sinian glanced at the now-closed door and took out his phone.

This was a house his grandfather had left him, and he had come over to retrieve something he had left here. His key was likely left behind at the filming location’s lounge.

The lounge was quite a distance away, so he could only ask his assistant, still on-site, to look for the key. He would have to come back another time.

Just as he was about to dial the number, the door that had just closed reopened.

Light spilled through the crack, and the face he had just seen reappeared, smiling with sincerity and enthusiasm.

“Hey, need some special service?”

Xu Sinian glanced over and saw the man’s bright eyes beneath his tousled hair and the thin collarbone peeking out from his jacket. His brow furrowed slightly.

Before he could refuse, the man pulled out a small booklet from somewhere and said, “Professional locksmith services, certified by the police, fast and reliable!”

The tone was full of passion, sounding like a promotional ad straight out of a commercial.

The booklet was his locksmith certification.

The “special service” referred to unlocking doors.