Chapter 37

Wang Shujun complained to Li Pu, finally making him understand what had happened: It turned out that yesterday, Wang Shujun skipped class to play MIR2 at an internet cafe outside the school. A few young men in the cafe recognized his well-known mage character on the Thunder 2 server in Zone 3. They said, "Bro, we're all from Zone 3 Thunder 2, let's team up and go to the seventh level of the Pig Cave."

Wang Shujun, without much thought, agreed to join them. When they met in the game's main city of Legend, he found that the three brothers were a Warrior with a "Rage Thirst" skill, a Mage with a "Red Name for Ten Thousand Years" skill, and a Female Taoist with a "Gui Gui★Sell Lottery" skill, all around level 30 like him.

So, the four of them set off for the seventh level of the Pig Cave, clearing monsters with great enthusiasm. They would CTRL+V spam "Someone, please move aside" and if anyone didn't get out of the way within three seconds, they would attack. This aggressive behavior soon turned their monster-clearing into player-versus-player (PvP) battles, and before long, all four of their names turned red.

Wang Shujun enjoyed the thrill of killing, feeling a sense of camaraderie similar to that of Xiao Feng, Xu Zhu, and Duan Yu fighting together against the Shaolin Temple, or Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, and Ba Fenghan battling across the world. He felt a deep regret at not meeting them earlier and thought it would be a shame to forget each other in the game. He suggested adding each other as friends, calling each other brothers, and sharing the spoils of battle.

Unfortunately, before Wang Shujun could finish typing, the three men left the team. Immediately, he was hit with a Soul Fire Spell, and his level 7 summoned beast, with its large buttocks, opened its mouth and spat. Before he could react, a lightning bolt and the Warrior's Double Flame Sword skill hit him, and he didn't even have time to use his random teleport scroll. Wang Shujun's mage character "Invincible Scholar" let out a惨叫 and exploded, his equipment scattered on the ground, and he was sent to the black and white screen.

Wang Shujun was stunned on the spot. After hurriedly resurrecting in the main city and checking his "Invincible Scholar's" equipment, he found that his super-rare Bone Jade Staff with +2~12 magic and +5 luck, his Demon Bell, and his high-quality Purple Snail Ring were all gone. The loss was significant.

Naturally, he was furious and went to confront the three young men. They mocked him, saying that it was common for players to drop items in the game, and there were no rules against it. They warned him to be careful, or he might get more than just a virtual beating in real life.

Seeing the three fierce young men, Wang Shujun, who was a game hero but a real-life nobody, didn't dare to stand up to them. He slunk home, feeling more and more angry, and decided to seek help from Li Pu, whom he considered "more terrifying than a dozen young men."

Li Pu showed no reaction to Wang Shujun's plight. He thought for a moment and said, "It's not a big deal, let's do it the usual way."

"Sure, one thousand yuan. And I'll cover your lunch this month, I'll top up your cafeteria card," Wang Shujun nodded, as this amount was just half a month's allowance for him.

For the past two years, Li Pu had occasionally taken on "jobs" to earn a living. Initially, he was alone with only a bank debit card left by Chen Xin, containing 185,347 yuan, and the apartment he lived in was rented by Chen Xin four years ago. Besides daily expenses, he also had to pay rent, tuition, and textbook fees, which quickly depleted his savings.

Especially the rent, as the landlord, due to a previous incident, was reluctant to continue renting to Li Pu. It was only after Li Pu significantly increased the rent that the landlord agreed to let him stay. The annual rent was 20,000 yuan, plus utilities.

Li Pu was willing to pay the high rent to avoid moving, hoping that Chen Xian would not lose the last address to contact him. However, over the past three years, Chen Xian had disappeared without a trace, with no news at all.

The vast and无形 black hand of Gar-Phoenix completely blocked any possibility of Li Pu contacting Chen Xian. The only way was to gain enough strength to confront this man and his organization.

Living alone for three years, Li Pu spent about 30,000 to 40,000 yuan each year. With his savings dwindling, he started taking on "jobs" to earn money. This was the third time Wang Shujun had "hired" him.

If experienced social figures knew that Wang Shujun had hired a Dark Force Master for just one thousand yuan and a cafeteria card, they would probably be lining up to hire Li Pu for years to come.

"Meet me at the school gate after school," Li Pu and Wang Shujun agreed. After school, Li Pu saw Wang Shujun waiting by the school gate, pushing his bicycle.

Wang Shujun, who was a literary and artistic type in junior high, was very popular with female classmates and teachers. In high school, he took a wrong turn and developed a bit of a bad boy image. He was generous with his money, which made him even more popular with girls.

Standing there with his 1.8-meter tall, handsome figure, he occasionally had female classmates blushing and timidly asking if he could take them home or go out with them. However, since his first love ended, Wang Shujun had lost interest in other girls. He found more enjoyment in playing online games, where he could wield a sword and fight in the legendary cities of Legend and Sand City.

A pretty girl, adjusting her hair, was confidently waiting to sit on the back of Wang Shujun's bicycle. Indeed, Wang Shujun's eyes lit up, and he patted the back seat, smiling warmly (from a love-struck girl's perspective) and said, "I've been waiting for you, come, sit behind me, I'll take you!"

The girl was overjoyed and was about to sit down when Wang Shujun pedaled away, smoothly riding up to a male classmate who was leaving the school.

Seeing Wang Shujun leave her behind and ride off with the male classmate, the girl, who had been dreaming of a romantic drama where a bad boy falls in love with her, felt her heart break. However, she thought that at least he didn't take another girl, and the male classmate was also quite handsome. She wondered what their relationship was and smiled to herself.

Despite only having Li Pu and himself, Wang Shujun felt as if he had a million troops. According to his plan, the three young men were regulars at the internet cafe. They would wait until their names were still red, then sneak into the game and call a few friends to attack them. When the young men came to confront them, it would be Li Pu's turn to act.

Li Pu, however, thought this plan was a waste of time and unnecessary—directly taking them down and looting their equipment would be much simpler. But since Wang Shujun wanted to go the roundabout way, he didn't bother to comment.

The two of them entered a narrow alley and eventually reached the internet cafe Wang Shujun mentioned. Li Pu looked around and concluded, "Is this a black internet cafe?"

"Hehe, it's hard for teachers to find us here. The machines are decent, not much different from other cafes," Wang Shujun said, peeking into the cafe and excitedly adding, "We have good luck, they're all here. I'll get two computers ready."

The black internet cafe was filled with smoke, mostly young men playing, with some young women accompanying them, either staring at the screens or chatting on QQ. Most people were playing a game called "Legend of Mir," and it was interesting to see how these idle young men spent a lot of time in the virtual world, which indirectly reduced real-life conflicts, contributing to society in a small way.

Wang Shujun's two computers were diagonally behind the three young men, who didn't pay much attention to him. They were still in a team, with red names, and were farming and PvPing in the Zuma Temple.

Wang Shujun logged into the game and called his friends in the guild. His mage character "Invincible Scholar" was a vice-president in the guild, so he had a lot of influence. Many people responded to his call to attack.

While he was gathering his team, he also chatted with Li Pu, saying, "Li Pu, you used to play games a lot, right?"

"Uh-huh." Li Pu had been a regular at arcades since he was eight and often played console games at Chen Xian's house. He was familiar with various systems from the Saturn to the PS and DC. However, after obtaining the "War God Armor," he spent less and less time on games.

He recognized a few computer games and, since they had to wait, he opened the folder of single-player games on the computer. His mouse hovered over classics like Counter-Strike, Quake III, StarCraft, Age of Empires II, Red Alert II, Heroes of Might and Magic III, and Swordman - Moon Shadow Legend, finally settling on "Diablo II."

Logging into the game, he found a few well-equipped characters and chose a Barbarian with dual-wielded great swords to play.

Wang Shujun, using his mage character "Invincible Scholar," was calling for friends in the guild. His super-rare Bone Jade Staff with +2~12 magic and +5 luck had been looted, so he was using a cheap staff with +1~3 magic from the store, which made him look like a low-level mage.

Seeing Li Pu playing, Wang Shujun came over and said, "Is this Diablo? It's a copy of Legend, but the graphics are decent. It's outdated, though, and not many people play it in the internet cafe. Why don't you create an account and I'll take you to play Legend? I'll provide you with top-tier equipment, no matter what class you choose!"

"…I think you deserve to be looted," Li Pu looked at him without a word, not bothering to correct his rookie mistake. Wang Shujun could only awkwardly back off.