Chapter 67: New Mission

Li Yan walked down the long corridor and finally reached his familiar practice room, pushing the door open.

Only a single overhead light was on in the room, and a black upright piano stood solidly in the center, as if waiting for him.

He walked over to the piano bench, set his bag down first, pulled out his sheet music and placed it on the music stand, then rotated his wrists to loosen his joints before trying out a few simple chords as a warm-up.

Looking out the half-open window, the clear morning light poured in, making the piano room feel quiet and gentle.

He played through the main melody first, breezing through it effortlessly in under twenty seconds;

Immediately afterward, he tried incorporating the left hand, but stumbled at a turning point. Li Yan frowned slightly.

Teacher Wang had specifically gone over the fingering technique for this part yesterday, but blending it into the overall rhythm was no easy task.

He immediately slowed down the tempo, breaking it down section by section, and only reassembled them once he confirmed everything was correct.

Just like that, it took him over ten minutes to smooth out the difficult spots, gradually enabling him to keep up with the metronome's pace.

The music coming from the piano room could hardly be called melodious, and it certainly had nothing to do with a beautiful tune.

Yet, even these halting, clumsy notes stirred a profound sense of yearning in Wang Wanjun's heart as she stood at the front desk.

She had chosen the computer science major for a reason, but Wang Wanjun couldn't help envying those students who played the piano.

Naturally, Wang Wanjun possessed an artistic soul, but her family circumstances simply did not allow for it.

Choosing computer science was merely a practical decision to secure a high-paying job after graduation.

As time passed, more students arrived for their tutoring classes, and the notes of the "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations" gradually became drowned out and indistinct.

Wang Wanjun cast one last glance toward the piano room, clutched a thick stack of flyers to her chest, tossed her ponytail, and walked out into the blazing sun.

Each of us has a bright future ahead.

...

"Come on, don't rush, try it a beat slower."

"Okay."

...

[Mission accomplished. Rewards: Intermediate Piano Skill and a delicate, fair skin complexion bonus. The skin tone transformation will be fully integrated within three days.]

Three days of hard work transformed into a very real reward at this exact moment.

This could be considered the most nerve-wracking mission Li Yan had ever undertaken since acquiring the system.

Fortunately, it was now successfully completed.

As the final, lingering notes of the somewhat clumsy yet completely played-through "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations" faded away,

A flood of memories unconsciously filled Li Yan's mind.

These were memories pertaining to piano mastery—various techniques for pitch variation, fingering methods, finger flexibility, and more, all imprinted upon his heart as if he were born with them.

Li Yan let out a soft breath and checked the time.

It was already eleven-thirty in the morning. With the piano mission completed, Li Yan planned to head to the 4S dealership to pick up his car.

He hoped to get the window tinting and license plate registration sorted out by the afternoon. After all, this was his first car, and Li Yan felt quite excited.

Sitting on the piano bench, he felt a slight itch in his fingers, desperately wanting to play a complete piece of his favorite music, such as *Castle in the Sky*, *Bird's Poem*, or *Attack on Titan*.

At the same time, Li Yan knew that playing such pieces here would be altogether too astonishing.

After all, he had literally just learned the "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations"; busting out intermediate-level music right after would simply be inappropriate.

[Rediscover photography, and use your camera to capture beauty. With the system's assistance, participate in the 2023 Chengdu Landscape Photography Competition and place in the top three. Rewards: 3 cm height increase, and a mission bonus of 100,000 yuan.]

Immersing his consciousness in his mind, he looked at the newly surfaced mission.

Photography?

Back in high school, he really had learned photography just to impress girls.

However, that wasn't professional photography by any means; he had merely learned some basic composition and lighting knowledge.

Still, credit where credit is due, photography was perhaps the ultimate skill for picking up girls, in Li Yan's opinion.

Even the guitar couldn't compare to it.

Back when Li Yan learned the guitar, he thought it would captivate thousands of young women, only to realize the truth much later.

The primary use of learning the guitar was mostly playing songs for other guys who could only howl like ghosts and wolves.

In fact, the praise and admiration he reaped from male classmates far surpassed that of female classmates.

That being said, sitting with three or five good friends, drinking a little wine, and feeling slightly buzzed while strumming a song by Wu Bai or David Tao—

Singing your favorite melodies under the influence of a mild intoxication felt far better than using it purely as a tool to chase girls.

Solely in terms of picking up girls, the guitar was no match for the piano; it fell far, far short.

Photography, however, was entirely different.

First off, pulling out a high-end camera—leaving aside the lenses, the camera body alone cost tens of thousands, and that was considered cheap.

If you added professional lenses, the total expenditure skyrocketed.

It was a form of low-key flexing. Even if a girl didn't understand technical specs, it allowed you to show off smoothly and naturally.

Moreover, almost no girl could resist the allure of getting a good-looking photo of herself, and the girls who sought you out invariably possessed a certain degree of confidence in their looks.

Once the photos were taken, adding each other on WeChat to send the pictures happened as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

As long as you weren't an absolute fool afterward, you wouldn't lack a girlfriend.

Have you ever seen anime conventions, street photography, or private portrait photographers lacking girlfriends?

What was most infuriating was that one of them was prettier than the last...

Li Yan thought of the camera gathering dust at home, and also recalled the "Seraphine" he had encountered on the road yesterday.

Regarding the system's mission—participating in the 2023 Chengdu Landscape Photography Competition and finishing in the top three—Li Yan felt the difficulty was quite high.

This wasn't something that could be solved by his technique for taking private portraits of girls; it demanded professional aesthetics, mastery of light and shadow, composition, and post-processing retouching if he wanted any hope of winning an award.

Previously, his approach was just whatever made the girls look alluring, but cityscapes? Aside from snapping pictures to post on social media to show off and attract girls, he had hardly ever tried serious landscape photography!

Fortunately, the prompt noted that he would have the system's assistance.

If Li Yan had to complete this mission entirely on his own, he wouldn't even dare to dream about it.

After all, the other contestants were undoubtedly professionals who made a living out of it, and Li Yan wasn't that self-confident.

He stood up, grabbed his bag, and hailed a cab to the 4S dealership. His Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon was waiting for him!

Li Yan temporarily set the new mission aside. Although he felt this tycoon system wasn't quite pure—

Other people's tycoon systems rewarded them with hundreds of millions or billions every few days, so why did he have to study this and learn that?

And to top it off, the rewards so far hadn't even reached the tens of millions or hundreds of millions tier. If word got out, how would other tycoon systems view him?

How would readers view him? How would other protagonists view him?

By all rights, at this stage, even if he hadn't bought an estate, he should at least own a super high-rise penthouse or a massive luxury villa in Tomson Riviera, right?

His bank balance should already boast a few small goals (hundreds of millions), shouldn't it?

He should have at least seven or eight girlfriends by now, right?

While silently grumbling about his system, Li Yan walked lightly toward the door. A hundred-thousand-yuan bonus? A 3 cm height increase?

He glanced at the 15.88 million yuan balance in his bank account, then thought about his newly minted 177 cm height, and Li Yan could only utter a single phrase:

"Well, damn, this is awesome!"