chapter 11: opening of the new districts

Amidst the expectation of countless people, 2 o’clock in the afternoon finally arrived. The interface of the login button shined bright and all online game servers in Wulin opened simultaneously.

Li Xiang’s hand speed burst out and immediately entered his password. Similarly, Wu Zewen hurriedly registered his account information.

After verification, Wulin’s two* characters flew upwards, appearing on the screen with a dazzling 3D painting effect. Twelve districts appeared in the login interface simultaneously, all named after unique legacies--

* in Chinese, Wulin has two characters: 武林.

Recalling Jiangnan [1], Qingpingle [2], Dielianhua [3], Jiangjun Ling [4], Yulou Chun [5], Zhe Gu Tian [6], Shuilong Yin [7], Yi Jiang Chunsui [8], Basheng Ganzhou [9], Haitian Kou Chou [10], Chenzui Dongfeng [11], Queqiao Xianling [12].

[1] Jiangnan: south of Changjiang or Yangtze River; south of the lower reaches of Changjiang; often refers to south Jiangsu, south Anhui and north Zhejiang provinces; a province during Qing times; in literature, refers to the sunny south

[2] Qingpingle: Qing or Ch'ing dynasty of Imperial China (1644-1911) also means clean/pure; Pingle county in Guilin

[3] Dielianhua: from the Liang Jianwen Emperor Xiao Gong poem “Fān jiē jiá dié liàn huā qíng” in three words; means a butterfly’s love for a flower

[4]: Jiāngjūn lìng: general’s order/command

[5]: Yùlóu chūn: Spring in Jade Pavilion, poem by Yan Jidao an Important poet of the Song dynasty

[6]: Zhè gū tiān: Patridge sky

[7] Shuǐlóng yín: Chant of the water dragon

[8] Yī jiāng chūnshuǐ: the spring river flows east

[9] Bā shēng gān zhōu: Eight Tones of Ganzhou, poem famous during the Northern Song Dynasty that depicts the sentiments of jail

[10]: Hǎitiān kuò chù: Vast Seas and Sky, poem by Zhao Xi, a poet in the late Qing Dynasty

[11]: Chénzuì dōngfēng: Feeling Tipsy in the Eastern Winds, poem by Hu Zhiyu in the Yuan Dynasty (not really sure about the origin of this one); [12]: Quèqiáo xiān lìng: Fairy of the Magpie Bridge, poem by Qin Guan, a poet from the Song Dynasty which is based on the fairy tale: Cowherd and Weaver Girl (a very famous fairy tale in China)

* basically districts are named after famous poems, places or stories

Wulin is an ancient-style game and the servers are also appropriately named after the brand name. The three-character brand in the first row is the TELECOM region, and the four-character brand in the second row is the Netcom region. There are more domestic telecom users than Netcom, so Telecom has two more regions than Netcom. The game uses world-class servers and is said to be able to accommodate millions of players in a single region.

* TELECOM and Netcom are CN telecommunications service provider

The newly opened districts Shuilong Yin and Queqiao Xianling were written in bold, below were the eye-catching words “New District” in red which was followed by the word “Full”.

—Less than ten minutes after the new district opened, the capacity was already filled to the brim!

Wu Zewen didn’t realize the popularity of this game until now.

No wonder the number of online players has been steadily increasing in the past six years. Many e-sports players use this game as their profession, and countless online game players are crazy about it. It seems that this game has become synonymous with the new generation of online games.

Wu Zewen pressed his mouse and selected the TELECOM seventh district, Shuilong Yin.

After successfully logging in, the game’s opening CG animation appears on the screen. The opening animation was quite exquisite, almost rivaling the trailers of large-scale movies. It was quite beautiful—showing the martial arts style of different sects and a piece of music that matches the ambiance. Every character appearing on screen had lines that were dubbed by professionals.

The backstory of the expansion film starts when a “mysterious master” in black suddenly appeared during the Annual Sword Discussion Conference at Mingjian Pavilion and took advantage of the chaos to steal the 24 most powerful weapons in Jianghu*. Bested by the traitor, the masters of the eight sects were poisoned and were secretly taken by the Five Poisons Elders** to the misty forest of the border of Miao to heal.

* Jianghu: the community of martial artists

** Sect Elders instruct the disciples in the proper methods of cultivation or training in the styles of the sect, typically one of the backbones or pillars of the sects.

The backstory of this expansion* will be later related to the update of the 24 top-level orange martial artists, plot tasks, the map of “Misty Forest” and the newly opened instance “On the Sword Conference.”

* Expansion: usually add-ons, new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, etc. in a game

After the animation comes the character creation page. In the character creation interface, you can directly click on your favorite sect. A preview of the character’s clothes, styles, skills, and detailed description of the sect is seen on the corner.

Wu Zewen clicked on the female Five Poison character and entered the adjustment interface. The game character’s appearance can be changed freely—height, body shape, skin color, facial features, etc. can be set according to one’s own preference. Wu Zewen took a look at the features, thought it was too troublesome, and set it on default.

The default face for the Five Poison Sect was very beautiful. Enchanting tattoos marked the sides of her face and her jet-black long hair reached her waist.

Li Xiang suddenly had a bad idea: “Zewen, if you take a gentle name, such as Tang Yushi, you have to pretend to be a she-male* and if you pretend to be she-male, it will be easier to form teams!”

* Men who use female characters online

Wu Zewen looked at Li Xiang suspiciously.

Li Xiang patted his chest and promised: “Listen to me.”

Wu Zewen didn’t want to listen to him so he turned around and wrote: “Misty Swamp”

Li Xiang scratched his head. “Misty Swamp… why does that sound so familiar?”

The other day, Wu Zewen sat next to Li Xiang and watched as he checked the official website. In the new expansion pack, an instance was added called Misty Swamp. Because of Zewen’s amazing memory, he wrote down the name at that time because it had “Ze” and easily entered these four words as his ID*.

* Misty Swamp in chinese/pinyin is mi yu zhao ze which is four words and contains the character “ze”

Glancing back, he found that Li Xiang’s name was a long string of words: “Ideal Master.”*

* 有理想的大师 = a master with ideals, also contains the characters for Li Xiang

Wu Zewen: “….”

Ignoring the fool next to him, Wu Zewen calmly click on the confirmation and proceeded with the next step.

— Congratulations, your character was created successfully!

Five novice villages popped up in front of Wu Zewen, from Novice Village 1 to Novice Village 5.

Li Xiang said, “Let’s enter Line 5. Line 1 must be brimming with people.”

Wu Zewen nodded and chose the Novice Village 5.

“Entering the game… queuing… the number of people in line are 302… 301… 300…”

Not expecting Line 5 to be full, Wu Zewen was stunned. Queue? Just like queueing for lunch in the canteen during the peak noon rush hour, there’s a queue for entering an online game? Wu Zewen, who played online games for the first time, felt that everything he saw in the world of online games was very fresh.

Li Xiang had grown bored waiting in line. Luckily, his master also seemed to be online so Li Xiang hurriedly typed a message in QQ*: “Master you’re here!”

* Messaging software in China

His master replied with a smile: “Mm. Have you gone to the new district?”

“I’m queuing with my friend! I built a Shaolin character while my friend is playing with Five Poisons.”

“What’s your ID?”

“Ideal Master.”

“And your friend?”

“Misty Swamp.”

The queue was quick and Li Xiang sent a goodbye expression to his master: “Master, I’m going to advance my level in the game! Once I reach that level, I’ll come to the Wulin Conference to find you! Teach me how to PK!”

“En, good luck.” Followed by a shoulder pat to express encouragement.

Li Xiang patted his chest. “Don’t worry!”

The number of people in the queue changed to 0, and the screen flashed in front of them. Their game characters finally managed to make their way to the novice village.

Wu Zewen was stunned again.

The crowded scene was even more terrifying than the vegetable market or the train station. The novice village was full of people, densely packed to the point where they couldn’t even see the ID on the characters’ heads.

Li Xiang and Wu Zewen added each other as friends. Just as they were about to do a task, a system announcement suddenly appeared in the middle of the screen--

“Welcome to Shuilong Yin, District 7 of Telecom. Due to the excessive number of online players, the official has urgently added six, seven, and eight new novice village servers. Players who are queuing in the novice village and players whose games are stuck can open the system button in the lower right corner to change the server line. Thank you all for your understanding and support!”

“Go to Line 7!” As soon as he saw the news, Li Xiang immediately spoke up. Wu Zewen quickly followed and changed to Line 7.

Sure enough, there were only a few people in Line 7. Most of them were players who probably saw the announcement to change lines. At the very least, it’s not as crowded as the vegetable market in Line 5 making it easier to do the tasks.

The novice village tasks are relatively simple and created to familiarize players with the operations—find NPCs to talk to, buy things and fight small monsters. Although it was Wu Zewen’s first time playing online games, he has fast reflexes and quick reactions. It was fairly easy to do the task after adapting to the vision of the 3D game, especially with Li Xiang the veteran to help.

Fifteen minutes later, both of them rose to level 10 and came to the coachman at the entrance of the village together.

After leaving the novice village at Level 10, you have to continue to the novice town to upgrade. There are four places in the novice town. Five Poisons and Tangmen are in the novice town of Southern Xinjiang, Shaolin and the beggars are in the novice town of Central Plains, Mingjiao and Wudang are in the novice town of Western Regions, Emei and Xiaoyao go to the novice town of Jiangnan. The tasks of the four novice towns are similar and the only reason for the separation was to avoid the situation of overcrowding on such a large map.

When they arrived at the coachman’s side, Li Xiang turned his head and said: “Zewen, do a task in the Southern Xinjiang. When you reach level 15, the sect guide will directly transfer you to the Five Poisons Sect where you’ll continue to do the task for the sect. It’s estimated that all main storylines will connect at Level 25. You can come to find me then!”

Wu Zewen nodded. “Okay.”

The two said goodbye to each other at the entrance of the novice village.

The technology in the game makes one lost looking at the scenery. You can walk from the novice village to Southern Xinjiang. The scenery along the road will gradually change. There is also a weather system and a day and night system in the game. The scene is very beautifully made. This is one of the reasons why this game is very popular.

After coming out of the novice village, there were bursts of thunder in the sky and all of a sudden, the pitter-patter of light rain. The 3D scene was very realistic. There were even circles of ripples on the lake, and the surrounding pavilions and towers looked even more beautiful in the misty drizzle.

This was the first time Wu Zewen played online games. He sat on the carriage and looked curiously at the scenery passing by as if he was on a sightseeing tour.

Five minutes later, the carriage finally arrived at the post station of novice town in southern Xinjiang!

The flowers, plants, and trees here are obviously different from those of the Central Plains. The surrounding houses are no longer courtyards of the Central Plains, but various wooden houses and bamboo buildings, which are a quite southern Xinjiang style.

As soon as Wu Zewen got off the carriage, he saw a man coming toward him. Obviously, the man had come from the novice village to the novice town to upgrade. Looking at his clothes, he should be part of the Tangmen Sect.

The Tangmen Sect’s male disciple stood upright and tall, wearing dark blue clothes and black boots. His hair was neatly tied up and he wore a silver mask, only showing one side of his handsome face.

The name on top of his head were four words: Immortal.*

* liu fang bai shi – four words; idiom which means to leave a mark for generations to come or to be immortalized; chose Immortal instead of something like Everlasting Mark since it seemed more fitting

Immortal? The antonym of this word seems to be called “Infamy”*, right…

*yi chou wan nian means to have one's name go down in history but in a bad way so I chose to TL it as infamy

Wu Zewen glanced at him suspiciously and saw a friend invitation suddenly pop up on the screen.

— Player [Immortal], level 10, requests to be added as a friend with you.

As soon as Wu Zewen agreed, another request popped up on his screen.

— Player [Immortal], level 10, requests to team up with you.

A sentence from the other party popped up on a nearby channel at the same time: “You just came to southern Xinjiang too? Let’s do the task together?”

Someone came to him to form a team together. Of course, Wu Zewen, this novice, would not refuse. He immediately pressed agree and typed in the word “Good.”

— The team was successfully created: the captain [Immortal] and the distribution method of items: free pick.*

* If any items would be dropped by the in-game characters, anyone could pick whatever they want

Afterward, Tangmen said on the team channel: “Let’s go.”

Wu Zewen followed the man to find the guide NPC of Novice Town. Together, the two followed the stairs made of plants and walked to the junction point of Novice Town. There were many NPCs wearing Five Poisons and Tangmen costumes in the bamboo house, and there were many players who had risen to Level 10 running around to do tasks creating a lively atmosphere.

After talking with the guide NPC, the NPC taught the two the basic Jianghu light exercises and then gave the task of “light steps challenge.”

— Please cross all obstacles in front of you within one minute and reach the wooden house in front of you.

As soon as the task showed up, the Tangmen beside him whooshed and flew out. He pointed his toes on the water and flew over the lake. He jumped directly over the bushes and obstacles three times in a row. The back turned towards him looked very handsome.

Within twenty seconds, Wu Zewen saw him arrive at the opposite wooden house, hand in the task, and then flew to the next mission location.

Just like that, the Tangmen flashed by in front of his eyes like a phantom at an astonishing speed. If not for the visible blue letters flashing “Immortal” on top of his head, Wu Zewen would even think he was downright hallucinating.

This Tangmen was obviously a veteran of the game and Wu Zewen was embarrassed to let him wait, so he had to do the task of light steps challenge by himself.

Bang! He didn’t grasp the height well the first time and directly bumped his head.

Crash! His floating direction was not controlled correctly and he plunged into the water.

It wasn’t easy to grasp the angle in 3D games. On top of that, the light steps challenge was hard to control. Wu Zewen encountered great problems in light steps and he fell into the water dizzy with countless novices next to him.

Fortunately, Wu Zewen had a quick learning ability. After several repeated attempts, he became familiar with the operation and the control of the character.

Finally, it took ten minutes to finish this fraudulent light steps challenge task. As soon as he looked back in the team list corner, Wu Zewen was stunned.

Teammate [Immortal] reaches Level 12!

……

Teammate [Immortal] reaches Level 13!

……

Teammate [Immortal] reaches Level 14!

……

Teammate [Immortal] reaches Level 15!

……

Wu Zewen looked at the name [Immortal] feeling like he was about to faint.

The team channel in the lower-left corner was swamped with the news of Tangmen leveling up. It took him only 30 seconds to complete a task! The speed of this leveling up was comparable to a fighter in an airplane!

After Immortal reached Level 15, a message appeared on the team channel: “Are you still playing light exercises? You play slowly, I’ll go to the sect first.” Followed by a smiling expression waving goodbye.

System message: [Immortal] quit the team and your team will be disbanded.

Looking at the back of the Tangmen that quickly disappeared, Wu Zewen wondered: Is this the so-called do. the. task. together?!

Shouldn’t a master bring a novice?!

He really did well. He finished the task and immediately ran away…