chapter 10: new to online games

After Qin Ye returned to the dormitory, he opened his phone and found a new message that popped out in the QQ group. After seeing that the message was from “Cute Wulin Professional League”, one glance at this cute character, you would know this wasn’t a professional one but a privately-made group for professional players.

Captains, main players, substitutes—too many professional players have been added to this group to the point that it almost exceeded the limit. The typing speed of professional players was very fast and with so many people chatting, the screen scrolled down faster than one could blink. Unlike the others, Qin Ye was too lazy to type words. He wasn’t fond of chit-chatting on the Internet nor any interest in any kinds of miscellaneous groups, so he simply blocked the group.

The blocked group suddenly showing up meant that someone talked about the keywords he had set up.

[Master Sansi*]: Ye Se, have you read the officially updated Emei weapon information?

* Sansi – think three times; to think carefully

Master Sansi, full name Xiao Sijing or Captain Xiao was the captain of the Seven Star Grass Team*.

* Previously TL-ed as Qixingcao

The name Si Jing comes from a gentleman who has nine thoughts: to be mindful, to think respectfully, to ask questions, to think hard, to see meaning.* His parents obviously wanted him to take everything seriously and professionally. Xiao Sijing was as cool as his name, the type to think carefully before taking action. Because of his ID “Master Sansi”, he was later nicknamed “Xiao Sansi” by the professional players.

* From Analects of Confucius: Nine Thoughts on Life. Full quote is "A gentleman has nine thoughts: to be mindful, to listen to Sicong, to think warmly, to look respectful, to think loyal, to think respectfully, to ask questions, to think hard, to see meaning."

Unlike Liu Chuan and Qin Ye, Xiao Sijing didn't mind showing up in front of the media and getting his pictures published.

Reporters want to take pictures? Yes, take away. Take whatever you want.

At first, the reporters were very happy about Captain Xiao being photogenic and cooperative but they didn’t find out until his interview…

Everything was merely an illusion!

This person who looks at everything calmly, with a pair of deep dark eyes that makes a person feel like they're being stabbed by a sword.

When questions that shouldn’t be asked would be raised during a Seven Star Grass conference, Xiao Sijing, in lieu of a response will only stare at the reporter in silence. Any reporter stared at by Captain Xiao would deflate, feeling defeated. Then Captain Xiao would smile politely and say, “next question.”

All the reporters want to cry!

This person is ostensibly polite and graceful but he always uses sharp eyes to kill the people around him. Gradually, Captain Xiao became the person most reporters were afraid to interview. Not only that, this person had a complex background. He spent some time in the police academy and under his leadership, the Seven Star Grass Team was full of vigor like the army marching and fighting in a war.

Seeing the message, Qin Ye asked suspiciously: "Captain Xiao? What happened to Emei's weapon?”

Xiao Sijing said: “There’s something wrong with the updated Emei weapon data. Today, I opened a trumpet to play in the arena. After playing a few games with the team and trying the new weapon, I accidentally found out that the skill description was inconsistent with the actual damage. I submitted the bug to the officials and they should be able to repair it tomorrow. Remember to try again after repair since you know more about Emei weapons than I do.”

Qin Ye quickly understood and typed, “Oh, I see. Thank you.”

Xiao Sijing said, "By the way, was the person at the airport that day you?”

Qin Ye asked, "What day?”

Xiao Sijing said: "Last Wednesday, at the airport, the Seven Star Grass Team was blocked by reporters. I seemed to see you when I passed by. Unfortunately, we were surrounded and I didn't want to trouble you so I didn't come over.”

Qin Ye remembered that on the day Liu Chuan invited him to dinner, the Seven Star Grass Team was surrounded by reporters at the airport. During that time, Xiao Sijing glanced at their direction but soon left. Qin Ye wasn’t sure if he saw them or not, but surprisingly, Xiao Sijing had seen them. To avoid causing trouble, he didn’t greet them at all.

Qin Ye said, “It’s me. I happened to be in Beijing at that time.”

Xiao Sijing asked, "Who was the person with you?”

Surprised, Qin Ye questioned, “You didn’t recognize him?”

Xiao Sijing asked, "Is it really Liu Chuan?”

Qin Ye said, “Hmm.”

Xiao Sijing asked, "When did he come back?”

Qin Ye said: "Last Tuesday.”

Thinking of the text message Liu Chuan sent when he returned home, Qin Ye added: “By the way, Liu Chuan asked me to tell the captains that during his absence, everyone should try not to miss him too much.”

Captain Xiao: “…”

Captain Tang: “…”

Captain Ye: “…”

Captain Lin: “…”

— During my absence, try not to miss me too much.

Liu Chuan’s exact words had the lethality comparable to that of an atomic bomb.

Liu Chuan deserves to be the number one hated person in the professional circle. As soon as Qin Ye sent his words, he directly angered the captains of the major teams. More than a dozen captains lined up together with an overwhelming ellipsis.

Who missed you, asshole!!!

This group of people, who were each other's opponents, suddenly shared the same thought.

Qin Ye, who angered more than a dozen captains, left the group satisfied and went to bed in a happy mood.

But Liu Chuan, who was already asleep, was being chased by a group of people wielding knives in his dream…

***

In a blink of an eye, the opening day of the Wulin new area: Saturday, September 6 arrived.

After lunch, Liu Chuan wandered to the nearby Tsinghua* Internet Cafe. As soon as he arrived at the counter to ask for a computer, a familiar voice suddenly rang out: “Hello, is there any room in the hall on the second floor? I want two computers!”

* Previously, author placed C University but apparently, they changed it?

— Li Xiang, who unexpectedly, managed to pull Wu Zewen together with him!

Liu Chuan sidestepped to avoid meeting with them. After scanning their IDs, they went to the east side of the hall. Liu Chuan was about to come out when he heard another familiar voice.

“Hello, is there any room on the fourth floor?”

— It was Jiang Xue and Zhou Xiaowei. Coming to the café must be to surf the internet but won't they also go to the new area?

Liu Chuan waited for them to go upstairs before he came out of the corner.

To avoid bumping into all of them, Liu Chuan simply asked for a computer on the third floor.

Along the way, a lot of people have the familiar interface on their screens. The popularity of Wulin was nothing to scoff at. 70% of the computers in the Internet café have Wulin’s game on and a large part of them are waiting for the new area to open.

Liu Chuan went to the corner and sat down. He turned on the computer and logged in to the official Wulin website.

The account protection measures of Wulin were very strict: mobile phone, email address, and an SMS verification code, similar to Alipay and that of online banking, to minimize the risk of account theft.

Liu Chuan quickly registered an account, bound his mobile phone and email address, and then opened the game client.

He has played so many trumpets before he can hardly remember them. This time, the name he must take must be easy to remember!

What’s your name?

Liu Chuan looked down thoughtfully. He smiled and then quickly typed down four words on the keyboard.

***

In the newly opened area, Li Xiang wanted to call his brothers from Dormitory 301 to come together but both of his roommates didn’t want to restart their levels again and Liu Chuan… had already disappeared when Li Xiang got up at noon.

Finally, he managed to drag Wu Zewen over to help the novice who is going to play online games for the first time.

There was still half an hour before the new area opened but Li Xiang already has the game client opened and counted the time before it started. He was impatient, wanting the time to pass by quickly. Unlike him, Wu Zewen was very calm as he checked the information on the official website.

Li Xiang looked sideways and found that he was opening the page for Five Poisons Sect, carefully looking at the introductions of the different schools and genres.

The gentle boy with glasses, when looking at the page, was serious as an expert reading literature.

The Five Poisons Sect is a mysterious organization located in southern Xinjiang. The disciples of the sect wore clothes rich in Miao customs and exquisite silver jewelry. Their female disciples were bewitching while the male disciples were mysterious and unpredictable. They use Miao’s skills to traverse the rivers and lakes, roaming the Jianghu. It’s considered one of the most famous sects in Wulin.

Due to a dispute in the sect years ago, the Five Poison Sect was now divided into three different schools⁠--

Mending Heaven School: Peace-loving, using Nuwa’s* heaven mending technique** to cure diseases and save people, versed in group healing and healing negative states. They are the indispensable healer for the team.

* Nüwa, also read Nügua, is the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven

** In the Huainanzi, there is described a great battle between deities that broke the pillars supporting Heaven and caused great devastation. There was great flooding, and Heaven had collapsed. Nüwa was the one who patched the holes in Heaven with five colored stones, and she used the legs of a tortoise to mend the pillars.

Long Whip School: Taking the specially made Miao poison whip as a weapon, which can be shortened and extended freely, used to pull or throw away a person’s body to achieve forced control. It’s a very powerful remote field control* and output role.

* Controlling the positions of another character

Poisonous Insect School: Using the Insect Flute as a weapon, which feeds the insect with its own blood to summon a beast and assist in combat using poison. A cruel method and an attack with a poisonous effect. Each kind of Gu* insect has different skills.

* Gu poison, so the stories went, was collected by sealing venomous snakes, scorpions, and centipedes in a jar and forcing them to fight and devour each other. The surviving creature containing a concentrated toxin. Gu poison was considered a slow-acting poison.

In simple terms, the Heaven Mending school is a team of healers, the Long Whip school are remote field controllers and the Poisonous Insect school are spell summoners with poisonous pets.

Most novices would choose a school that’s simple to operate. Only a handful of people would dare to choose the Poisonous Insect School or the Tangmen Sect’s Puppet School, so Li Xiang found it incredible—why did Liu Chuan and Wu Zewen dare to choose such difficult schools to master in the first place?

Sensing Li Xiang’s gaze, Wu Zewen turned to him and asked, “Li Xiang, you said before that the Five Poisons’ Poisonous Insect School and Tangmen’s Puppet School are similar to summoners in other games, right?”

Li Xiang nodded: “That’s right!”

Wu Zewen wondered, “What’s the difference between the two schools?”

Li Xiang replied: “The puppets summoned by the Tangmen are used to set up formations. You can summon a lot simultaneously, depending on how many you can control. Each beast summoned by the Five Poisons has different skills and only one can exist at a time!”

In fact, it was easy to understand. The Tangmen Sect was good at stratagems and trick techniques and at the same time releasing puppets to control the enemy. The Five Poisons Sect was good at the Gu technique, and since the insects rely on feeding on their owners, it’s reasonable to release only one at a time.

Both are summoners but the operating methods are different. Tangmen paid more attention to controlling multiple puppets at the same time while Five Poisons paid more attention to the rapid switching between various Gu insects. Both had high requirements for hand speed.

Although Wu Zewen had never played online games, he quickly understood Li Xiang’s explanation. Li Xiang continued: “Taking care of their puppets or taking care of poisonous animals, these two schools are difficult to get started with. Are you really going to play this school?”

Wu Zewen nodded seriously: “Well, it’s very interesting.”

Li Xiang: “…”

Did you even hear me?

Others find it difficult but Wu Zewen finds it interesting! Really worthy of being called Xueba!*

* Top student, incredibly smart, the boss when it comes to studying, etc.

However, his expression was too calm, making Li Xiang wonder if this guy understood it or not.

The boy with glasses next to him had a serious and focused expression while checking the strategy on the official website. He quickly scanned the forum and copied some things that needed to be recorded into a document. He was just as professional as taking notes.

It seemed like he really liked the Five Poisons sect that even Li Xiang couldn’t bear to attack him. Hesitant, Li Xiang said, “Zewen, why don’t you create a female account when you enter the game later?”

Wu Zewen looked at him suspiciously: “Build a female character?”

Li Xiang nodded: “Well, the ratio of men and women in online games is seriously imbalanced. Female players are fragrant, not to mention that the women in the Five Poisons Sect are beautiful. Her body is enchanting and there would be a lot of people willing to carry you*.”

* Someone willing to take others to level up

After hearing that female players were easier to get picked on a team, Wu Zewen, the novice who has never played online games, nodded and said, “Okay.”

Li Xiang looked away guiltily.

In fact, the most important reason why he asked Wu Zewen to create a female character instead wasn’t just because it was easy to form a team but to avoid being scolded for being too noob.

Female players were tolerated more in online games. Even if girls make a mistake during an instance, she would rarely get scolded by her teammates. There were even experts who would be willing to take a little white girl to an instance.

When changed into a man, it becomes entirely different. A big man causing chaos and making mistakes will be scolded into submission.

Wu Zewen is a novice yet even as a novice, he took on the challenge of playing the difficult gameplay of the Five Poisons Summoner. It can be imagined how much scolding he'll get if he teams up to fight in the arena or in instances in the future.

Li Xiang wants Wu Zewen to build a female character, in fact, it was just: for the sake of a female character’s face, so that she won’t get scolded too badly.

However, Wu Zewen only knows how to bury his head to calculate various mathematical formulas and play female characters. What’s to be done if he provokes a rotten peach blossom*?

From now on, Li Xiang decided he would be Wu Zewen’s personal bodyguard and take this novice to do leveling tasks together. Any encounter with a rotten peace blossom, you must strangle them in the cradle* until the opponent’s teeth are all over the floor and they’d get out of there on their own!