Last Online... Whenever You're Ready. - Invidia_Envy - 全职高手 (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Truth be told if someone asked Ye Qiu why he played Glory, he’d just bullsh*t his way through with theory of software and how he was interested in making his own MMORPG game in the future. The good result would be the person get bored to death, the bad result was that person would listen attentively and supported him wholly while also bringing it up in future conversations.

No. It honestly never was about Ye Xiu.

Seriously, no.

He was just bored one day and accidentally watched the livestream of the E-sport league his brother was in. He then got annoyed by the commentator’s incessant comments about it being an amazing game and whatever.

On the first try of playing the game, Ye Qiu was absolutely clueless. He played it for an hour straight before browsing the internet for a walkthrough, then, he proceeded to play like that, alternating between the game and playthrough.

Ye Qiu was but an innocent twenty-year-old who never touched an MMORPG in his life before. He struggled so much that he dragged his supposed assistants to struggle with him. Out of two, only one was useful.

“Huh, this seems to be an RP server?”

“What does that mean?” Ye Qiu furrowed his brows at the seventeen-year-old girl beside him. She’s his fourth cousin from his father’s side, in a way she was like a childhood friend to him.

Xiao Lin twirled her long hair. “RP stands for Role-play. Do you understand?” she rolled her eyes when Ye Qiu looked at her unimpressedly. “Essentially, RP server usually used to role-play. How to role-play? You make up a character and pretend you’re that character.”

“So... I pretend I’m Cool Autumn Breeze?” Ye Qiu said.

“Essentially like that. Cool Autumn Breeze is not you but can retain some of your traits. Let’s say, Cool Autumn Breeze doesn’t like mandatory overtime and will throw a tantrum by hissing his words out when forced to do so,” Xiao Lin said and Yang Qing snorted in the background. “But he can also have a trait you don’t have. Your pick.”

“I still don’t understand,” Ye Qiu said. “Can’t I just play as I usually do?”

“You can, but I think that will kill the mood?” Yang Qing said.

“What’s new?” Xiao Lin snorted.

“...” Ye Qiu rubbed the bridge of his nose and physically refrained himself from cutting their salary (allowance, for Xiao Lin).

“Like me, my character is Colourful Jade, I’m the princess of the faraway kingdom that was located at the edge of the heavenly light but I was dumped here in Glory to learn about the life of other people. I’m going to refer to myself as ‘This Princess’,” Xiao Lin said.

Ye Qiu didn’t understand.

“You over there! This princess demands you to tell me how to change this princess’ class!”

“Of course, your highness. Which fair kingdom’s royal family beget you if I may ask?”

“Seven-Coloured Sky Kingdom, I’m the only princess so you better treat me nicely!”

“Of course, your highness! This one used to be a humble bard, but I turned a new leaf and became a Knight.”

“I see, if you’re good enough, I may let you be my Knight.”

Xiao Lin turned off her mic and turned to Ye Qiu. “More or less, it’s like that. Do you get it?”

Ye Qiu was appalled.

“Boss, it’s usually not as intense as she did it,” Yang Qing jumped to console Ye Qiu.

Xiao Lin turned on her mic again. “This is my cousin, Cool Autumn Breeze, he’s the current heir to the throne and I’m accompanying him to gain experience in the outside world of Glory.” She said as her pretty female character turned to Ye Qiu’s character.

“It’s nice to meet you, your highness,” the Knight bowed to Ye Qiu.

Ye Qiu closed his eyes and sighed. This would take a long time to get used to.

It had been months since then, it had been quite a long few months with Ye Qiu studying RP server like it was the newest project his father dumped on him. He was honestly new at it and he spent days erasing the nickname of ‘Prince from faraway land’ and changing it to a much simpler "Wind Prince". But he learned to enjoy the game based on the quests it offered, Xiao Lin stopped accompanying him after three months, saying she no longer held any interest but Ye Qiu still persisted.

Why?

Because the mystery of that suspicious Prince Consort is still yet to be solved!

“I swear I need to expose that Prince Consort or nothing at all!”

“Cool, brother Autumn!”

“As expected of the faraway land’s prince!”

“I see! You’re in love with the beautiful queen of Holy Sapphire Empire!”

“Go get your WAIFU, BROTHER!!!” Ye Qiu’s party members cheered rambunctiously.

“No, it’s not like that,” Ye Qiu tried to say.

“f*ck THE PRINCE CONSORT!!!”

“DE-THRONE HIM!!!”

“If it isn’t because of the limit Glory put upon us, that Prince Consort would have died along with the expensive-as-hell tavern he’s in!”

“The queen shall be our sister-in-law!”

“...” Ye Qiu smiled helplessly. “Yeah, the queen is quite pretty...” It would be a lie if Ye Qiu said he didn’t like their easy excitement.

It took months into the game and the server that Ye Qiu found someone who didn’t seem to keen on the whole role-playing deal and got bullied a lot because of it.

“f*ck! This father is already this old, do I look like someone who will like doing some role-playing!?”

“Lighten up, Warlock. I know you’ve lived for hundreds of years, but in Glory, everyone is the same. This fourth world is where dreams and your wildest imaginations come true. Don’t lose out hope!”

“f*cking shut the hell up already!”

“But what makes you hide your identity so deep, warlock? Can’t you tell us your story?” A Cleric insisted.

“I swear to God, if you don’t leave me alone, I’ll f*cking murder you all.”

“Wait, aren’t Mage-class people atheist? Since they strayed from the path of God?” An Assassin asked.

“Maybe he’s enlightened?” The Cleric said unsurely. “But all blessing to you for receiving the grace of God to your heart. Even if you do sorcery, I’m sure God will forgive you.”

“I will send you to your God you little punk.”

“Oh! That’s more like it!” A Blade Master exclaimed in excitement. “I mean! I’ve gotten sick of this cleric’s preaching!”

“Wait, God forbids killing amongst brothers!” The Cleric exclaimed. “Brother Windward Formation, accept God to your heart, do not go astray!”

Ye Qiu chuckled and some people noticed him.

“Cool Autumn Breeze!”

“How’s your conquest of the queen’s heart today, Brother Autumn Breeze?!” some people greeted him merrily.

“Nothing yet,” Ye Qiu replied easily. “I got a little bit distracted by the noises here.”

“Oh, we’re just trying to interrogate the back story of Windward Formation.”

“Stop with the cringe words!” Windward Formation exclaimed.

“Why do you need his backstory?” Ye Qiu asked. Usually, they wouldn’t press for someone to make up a backstory when they could clearly see the person was not an avid role-player.

“Because he’s a crazy good Warlock, of course. Someone as good as him can’t be a casual,” an Assassin called Rue Night whispered conspiratorially.

“And he got all defensive when we asked him nicely,” A Cleric named Blinding Light complained.

“f*cking hell, I’m done with this server, why did I get in this? Should have created a new account in the third one,” Windward Formation grumbled in annoyance.

“Alright, I’ll talk to the warlock for a while. Will you give us some space?” Ye Qiu decided to interfere.

“Oh? You know him, brother Autumn Breeze? Well, he’s all yours. I’ll bid you goodbye.” And then they were gone after one last team banter.

“Finally...” Windward Formation sighed.

“You’ll get used to them,” Ye Qiu pitied the guy.

“I don’t think so,” Windward Formation said. “Some just did it for fun, but others do it intensely and I can’t handle it. I swear they’re a bunch of middle-schoolers.”

“There are some adults who are also into role-playing to mess around,” Ye Qiu mentioned.

“Bunch of immature toddlers,” Windward Formation growled. “Ah, f*ck. I just want to gather the materials and leave for the new server, if the new one is not another RP server that’s it.”

“The easiest way to deal with them is to not respond, they usually just makeup something and leave you alone. If you keep on denying and responding in a hostile way, that’d encourage them to be more creative,” Ye Qiu informed kindly.

“...I’ll try that,” Windward Formation said. “You’re a decent guy, not an RP, right?”

“I only do it sometimes,” Ye Qiu said honestly.

“Great, you’re level 55? I’m level 50, not that far off, let’s stick to each other. How good are you?” Windward Formation asked.

“Want to see?” Ye Qiu arched an eyebrow.

“Okay, I gotta agree that you’re great,” Windward Formation admitted.

“Great? Cool Autumn Breeze is the best Battle Mage in the entire fourth realm!” The Cleric they had recruited for their party, slu*tty Summer, came to Cool Autumn Breeze’s defense.

“I’ve seen better,” Windward Formation blurted out.

“Impossible!” Nearly everyone gasped.

“Which realm has a better Battle Mage???” The party’s Sharpshooter, Missing Target, demanded.

“Yeah, you can’t just boast about meeting a better one without telling us the details about this better alternative!” the Brawler, Cotton Heart, complained.

“I just did, okay!?”

“Boring!”

“Tell ussssssss!”

“Even if I tell you, you won’t believe me,” Windward Formation said.

“We’ve finished a dungeon together, isn’t this already the fairest of brotherhood?” slu*tty Summer said heatedly.

“Brotherhood is when you exchange your drink,” Windward Formation said bluntly. “I’m not telling unless you’re paying me a drink.”

“Oh? Then, let’s go to the tavern. I’ll buy you Fruit Punch?” Missing Target proposed.

“I’ll pitch in, Old Fashioned variety.” Cotton Heart volunteered.

“There’s a tavern with a cute bard nearby,” slu*tty Summer suggested.

“Not in-game, you idiot!” Windward Formation blew up.

Ye Qiu snorted. He had found another source of entertainment aside from the quests in the form of a hopeless man with a bunch of role-playing teenagers.

As Ye Qiu spent time playing with this Windward Formation, the guy began to loosen up and didn’t mind role-playing from time to time and even earn himself a title of ‘great guru’ when Ye Qiu was not looking. Even though Windward Formation had jumped up and down about changing server after the new one released, seeing him entertaining a bunch of nerdy RP-ing teenagers made Ye Qiu doubt his resolve.

Ye Qiu doubted it even more as a new elite merge-server was launched.

Heavenly Domain. A supposed elite server which only the great players could touch... however, Ye Qiu doubted that. This server would just be another business farm for gamers who were desperate for money to sell a Heavenly Domain account.

Because Windward Formation could go to a different server to escape the RP server, he didn’t actually start over in a different server and opted to just keep playing his Windward Formation and went to challenge the Heavenly Domain Challenge.

“I finally could escape this hell while still retaining my perfectly good avatar, what a f*cking relief,” Windward Formation commented.

“I thought you like it here,” Ye Qiu purposefully said in an innocent manner. “Your real life friends seem to enjoy it.”

Windward growled. “That’s because most of them are a bunch of immature toddlers!” God knows he regretted having his band of brothers sign up to the fourth server.

“Whatever you say, great guru,” Ye Qiu snorted.

“...Once we’re in Heavenly Domain, let’s pretend we never know each other,” Windward Formation said seriously.

“Why?”

“Let’s forget the fourth server ever exists...” Windward Formation said. “If I see you, I’ll remember this place.”

“Your avatar is also a dweller of this server.”

“Shut the f*ck up! Don’t remind me about that!”

“I don’t understand what’s your problem with it. Great guru sounds great,” Ye Qiu said logically. “You’re the mysterious warlock who appeared out of nowhere one day, whispers from people who knew you intimately, you had been expelled from your cult and disgraced by a new, more talented, Warlock. So you are searching for a new life in the fourth realm, burying your past behind. Acting rude is just your defense mechanism so you don’t have to be betrayed again.”

“How the f*ck do you remember all of that?!”

“There’s an RP website of this server,” Ye Qiu said softly. “Sometimes it disappoints me to know you’re an avatar and not an NPC, a quest from you will be really entertaining. But all I get is a person who greedily hogged the materials from bosses after we defeated it.”

“You didn’t need those materials.”

“Not a fun quest.”

“f*cking hell, Autumn Breeze.”

“Brother Cool Autumn Breeze! Have you started on the challenge, yet?!”

Ye Qiu turned serious. “I have.”

“You will soon leave us then. You’re the greatest of this realm,” slu*tty Summer said seriously. “May the grace of summer follow you. Remember me when you attain the enlightenment of Heavenly Domain.”

“Of course. I’ll go there to unveil the real face of the prince consort, so I’ll surely be back,” Ye Qiu said.

“Yes! The queen is still here, don’t forget to come back!” Rue Night exclaimed. “Find the mystery of Prince Consort, come to me when you need an Assassination to commence. But only after he’s no longer a Prince Consort, I can’t risk political unrest in the realm if I assassinated him now.”

“I completely understand,” Ye Qiu laughed. “Then, see you later, I’m currently doing the challenge.”

“Yes!” the two replied merrily. “Oh, great guru! Nice to see you here too, good luck!”

Windward Formation sighed. “The people in this server are like dogs, I swear. Always excited. It’s as bad as Huang Shaotian.”

Ye Qiu had heard the name ‘Huang Shaotian’ uttered a few times by Windward Formation but didn’t bother with it at all. But to be compared with the people here, ‘Huang Shaotian’ must’ve been quite a handful.

“I think that’s what’s endearing from them,” Ye Qiu said in amusem*nt.

“You know what, we can still see each other,” Windward Formation said when they both met again just before Windward Formation was going on his last Challenge, thanks to the disparity of their online time, Windward Formation naturally finished his challenge sooner. Windward Formation seemed to have a change of mind at the last minute. “We’re not going to force ourselves to RP-ing again, after all. You’re a great guy to be in a party with.”

“...”

“You’re seriously not going to continue RP-ing, right?” Windward asked calmly.

“...”

“Right?” Windward pushed.

“What is this ‘RP’ are you talking about, Windward Formation? And why would this prince continues it?” Ye Qiu answered in a dignified way.

“...You’re a f*cking lost cause, Cool Autumn Breeze.”

Obviously, Ye Qiu was just kidding, but Windward Formation was a pain in the neck who took everything way too literally and always avoided Ye Qiu afterward, actively not accepting Cool Autumn Breeze’s party invitation and goodwill.

That, or maybe Windward Formation had found some other poor fool to exploit as a teammate for his obsession in gathering raw materials. Either way, Ye Qiu was completely alone.

The gameplay in Heavenly Domain was roughly the same. The place was just wider than normal server, there was no safe area essentially, higher chance to drop equipment when you die, and so on, and so on, basically high-risk high reward.

There were fewer people here too since not just everyone could barge into Heavenly Domain, and the timeframe was still too early for someone to mass produce accounts with access to Heavenly Domain and sell them to people who couldn’t do it themselves.

There was no way Ye Qiu would want to continue RP-ing when most of the wacky role-players were still in the normal server, focusing on the new feature on the normal servers and generally just enjoying the server with the fact they couldn’t instantly pass the Challenge for Heavenly Domain.

Because Windward Formation was confident in his decision in pretending to be a stranger, Ye Qiu was left to his own device in the new merge-server.

It was a bad idea.

It did not take long for Cool Autumn Breeze to trip and got into trouble.

No, rather than trouble, it didn’t take Cool Autumn Breeze long to have his name resound in Heavenly Domain as if he wasn’t infamous enough in his original server.

[System Announcement!: Cool Autumn Breeze [Battle Mage] just defeated Hidden Boss; The Dark Guard Traitor ‘Drakes’(Level 60) For The First Time! Congratulations to the brave Hero!]

What ‘first time’??? That boss was triggered the moment he stepped into the Heavenly Domain through the Wind Bell Tower where he disguised as a Wind Mage NPC!

‘What do you mean ‘first time’?!?!’ Ye Qiu’s mind screamed in disbelief. How could he be the first time to kill it when he was sure he wasn’t even the first one hundred people to enter this forsaken domain???

‘Maybe they have a different guard so it will always be ‘First Time’???’ Ye Qiu consoled himself and controlled Cool Autumn Breeze to go to the nearest village to re-stock because the Solo-able boss had caught him by surprise.

“That’s the one named Cool Autumn Breeze!”

“How the f*ck did you solo a Hidden Boss?!!!”

“How the f*ck did you find the Hidden Boss?!?!”

“You only stepped into Heavenly Domain fifteen minutes ago???!!!!”

Okay, so that meant not everyone.

Cool Autumn Breeze took off in the other direction, true to his namesake, he left as quickly as the breeze.

“You don’t play Glory?” Xiao Lin blinked and asked her older cousin as if the sight of Ye Qiu reading a book in his free time was one of the world’s seven wonders.

“Must I play Glory every time I’m free?” Ye Qiu shot back.

“You always played it whenever you’re free,” Xiao Lin retorted. “I thought Heavenly Domain will get you excited. Don’t tell me they don’t administer quests in it?”

“No, they did,” Ye Qiu said.

“The quests are boring then?”

“I haven’t checked yet, but some have a potential to be good,” Ye Qiu said.

“Then, why not playing?”

“I become too famous,” Ye Qiu sighed.

“...” Xiao Lin put down the cup of steaming coffee she had on the table along with the saucer. Without breaking eye contact, she reached for a canned soda in her blazer and popped it open. “Let me guess...”

She took a sip.

“You accidentally killed a big shot?”

“No,” Ye Qiu said. “I almost did but I didn’t.”

She nodded. “You accidentally stole an important boss or items from a powerhouse?”

“Hmm, no.”

“Not negative. So positive, then?” Xiao Lin narrowed her eyes as if it was the most difficult puzzle she encountered.

“I did say famous not infamous,” Ye Qiu pointed out.

“I was under an impression that your ego mistook bad rep as good rep,” Xiao Lin said bluntly. “You are too good and now people are not leaving you alone?”

“That’s always the case, isn’t it?” Ye Qiu sighed in exasperation as he picked up his coffee cup.

‘And you wondered why I started with the negative?’ Xiao Lin did not show her thoughts on her face. “So, which part of you that is too good and become the hot topic?”

“My brilliance,” Ye Qiu answered in the most honest tone. “Also the fact that I apparently killed the first hidden boss that can be soloed.”

“That’s a big thing,” Xiao Lin commented.

“Everyone knows that,” Ye Qiu said.

“So now they want to befriend you?”

“Not just that. They want to know what triggered the hidden boss’s appearance. I can’t exactly tell them that it seems to be a continuation of a chain-quests I followed from the normal server,” Ye Qiu said.

“I see. So they want to know the secret and want to befriend you too?” Xiao Lin hummed.

“I’ll let it simmer down for a few days, hopefully, they’ll forget about it,” Ye Qiu said lazily.

“I know a way for them to leave you alone immediately,” Xiao Lin said bluntly.

“You do? As expected of you, Lin’er, tell me,” Ye Qiu straightened.

“Okay, this is going to be really easy,” Xiao Lin said seriously. “When they approached you... start speaking in a royal way.”

“You mean...?”

“Wanna see this voice changer I bought for fifty yuan yesterday?” Xiao Lin asked. “It can turn your voice to have a tint of royal undertone and made it sound more dignified. Just attach it to your mic.”

“...Why did you buy that?”

“Do you really wanna know?”

Ye Qiu paused and mulled for a while.

No. He truly didn’t want to know.

“I’ll take that,” Ye Qiu nodded.

If role-playing could save him the time and from annoyance, he’d role-play as the crown prince of Colourful Sky Kingdom.

“I met that Cool Autumn Breeze dude.”

“Really? How’s it going?”

“He’s... weird.”

“Weird? How?”

“I approached him and wanted to befriend him, right? And then he started to refer to himself as ‘this prince’.”

“...”

“Afterwards, he insisted he was not playing Glory and the likes.”

“...”

“I know, I got so confused too until I remember Fourth Server was an RP server.”

“And then?”

“Then? There’s no ‘and then’. When I told him to stop Role-playing, he attacked and killed me! I don’t want to approach that lunatic again!”

“Seriously?”

“Maybe he’s just playing around with you.”

“Yeah, he’s probably just irritated and wanted to mess around.”

“Well, whatever you say, but I’m not getting close to that guy again unless absolutely necessary. He’ll just spew out bullsh*t regarding that hidden boss that can be soloed.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

A few days later, dozens of players suffered through the same fate and basically tacitly agreed to leave Cool Autumn Breeze alone.

A few weeks later, Ye Qiu would look at the screen in confusion and wondered why no one approached him to join a party anymore, not even when he initiated the party.

“Is this voice-changer too strong?” Ye Qiu wondered, but Ye Qiu thinks it sounded fine, even refined.

That day, Ye Qiu decided to keep using it.

Suffice to say, Cool Autumn Breeze’s fame declined over time. Most people basically avoided him or ignored him when they passed by. There were only selective few that got close, either by desperation for a teammate, or they were also a graduate from the fourth server who came to reminisce about role-playing while traveling the realm with him.

Ye Qiu knew he didn’t exactly have the luxury of being exclusive, once the words got out that he was a really great player, other great players seemed to be gravitated towards him, asking for PK. Role-playing is like a defense mechanism that deflected those people.

He even managed to confuse the heck out of some really strong players who were determined to PK him like that one really strong Striker whom Ye Qiu swore he had seen somewhere but can’t recall where. Or that one Brawler who politely came to him for a PK but confusingly left after a while since he couldn’t comprehend if Ye Qiu was accepting the challenge or not.

Cool Autumn Breeze managed to stay under the radar for months...

Until now, that is.

[Congratulations to Cool Autumn Breeze for being the Master of Soaring Watch Tower.]

[System: One of the Twenty-four Seats of Holy Council Has Been Filled. Congratulations to the Great Hero of Battle Mage: Cool Autumn Breeze.]

Ye Xiu sat before his computer, Su Mucheng leaning beside him close to peer at the screen, in fact, nearly everyone looked over his screen, even Wu Xuefeng who just recently announced his retirement.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Su Mucheng furrowed her brows. The soon-to-be debutant eyed the screenshots the guild members had captured just recently of the System Announcement in-game.

“A hidden feature, no doubt about it,” Ye Xiu said calmly. “Someone just found out about this. Tomorrow, the soonest, an official announcement to clear all the doubts will be made, I’m sure,” he said.

“A hidden feature???”

“Glory has that kind of thing???”

“Shouldn’t we know about it?”

“It’s most likely added with Heavenly Domain, right?” Wu Xuefeng said ruefully.

“No doubt about that,” Ye Xiu put his unlit cigarette in between his lips. “They didn’t even hint it this time around,” he frowned.

“Who knows what’s in the mind of those developers?” Wu Xuefeng sighed. “Well, I’m lucky I’m already retired, I guess.”

Ye Xiu shot Wu Xuefeng a dirty glare and the older guy just chuckled.

“You’re having a new headache this summer,” Wu Xuefeng said with schadenfreude.

Chapter 2: This Changes Everything

Chapter Text

Glory (Official) V: Congratulations to the first seat-holder! The tower master of Soaring Watch Tower. We are honestly and sincerely surprised to know someone already attained the coucil’s seat in less than a year, a testament of skills and love for Glory! We were planning to officially announce the existence of the seats in the third year of Heavenly Domain if no one couldn’t find the fact. But since someone already found it, we hereby announced our hidden feature in Heavenly Domain! [[Link.HeavenlyDomainGlory.gl.note.aid]]

Glory (Official) V: Let’s race against each other and vow to be better with Glory. The seats of the council, who will fill it? [Pic; Twenty four empty seats each with a subclass’ symbol on them.jpg]

That solved it. Everyone lost their f*cking mind.

When the announcement was made, none of the pro players were actually online in the server or Heavenly Domain, so they missed the first wave of shock, disbelief, incredulity, bewilderment, and existential crisis.

However, one look at the report the guild’s people gave to them, they immediately dragged themselves to log into the server and Heavenly Domain.

It roughly took half an hour for most of the pro players to go online after the first reaction, mainly because the normal players took a few minutes to digest the news, and they didn’t even understand half of it.

When the gods descended to the Heavenly Domain themselves to investigate about the Twenty-four Seats of Heavenly Council, half an hour already passed. But still, the entire domain was in shambles, tension was everywhere as if war was impending.

“Twenty-four seats. That means there should be one for each sub-class,” Zhang Xinjie mentioned as he reviewed the reports as Immovable Rock stood in front of Tyrannical Ambition’s guild headquarter.

Everyone also reached the same conclusion as him.

One of them was already filled. The seat of Battle Mage.

sh*t finally hit the fan when Glory’s official Weibo account finally confirmed it after the netizens made the topic trending.

“Have you seen the official announcement?”

“Yes.”

“Only a seat for each subclass. Unfortunately for you, the first one to attain the seat was a Battle Mage.”

“It’s really a bad luck. What can be said? Great player invites other great players to play the class,” Ye Xiu sighed. “But at least I know someone must have been hellbent and love Glory deeply to find out about a secret feature that the devs already planned to only announce over two years later as a surprise.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Han Wenqing said.

Ye Xiu sighed helplessly. “The devs even got so secretive about the way to be the seat-holder. Guess I just have to focus first on attaining the remaining seats I’m eyeing. The revealed bonus stats is worth it, I wonder what else you get...”

It would be a lie to say that Ye Qiu was not proud and excited to be congratulated as the first seat-holder. That can only mean he’s the best at following the plot and tracking the quests relevant to attain the seat. But on the other hand, he was also nervous... Nervous that his already-semi-famous account would be too famous and people would start bothering him while he played to finish quests.

It was not an unfounded fear. Why? Because once they caught sight of him, half of the server practically rushed over towards him and he couldn’t even approach the NPC he wanted to talk to because everyone would immediately exclaim and chase after him.

It was horrible.

Even his trusted ally, Windward Formation, chased after him too for the sake of the secret about getting the seat. How could Ye Qiu know? He just followed the trail of quests and made the right judgment, that’s all.

Now, Ye Qiu always had to change his avatar’s flashy clothes to a common-looking one and when people came yelling for him, he’d lie that he was not THAT Cool Autumn Breeze and he actually came from a different server.

It worked 9 out of 10.

It was not perfect, you have to be a naive idiot to immediately trust that, which, as Ye Qiu experienced it himself, was 90% of the players of Glory. It was cute and sad at the same time how they were easily deceived and swayed.

“Cool Autumn Breeze.”

“Not that Cool Autumn Breeze,” Ye Qiu instinctively said.

“No, I know you are, the ID checks out.”

f*ck.

“What is this ID you speak of?” Ye Qiu changed his tactic.

“Your ID code, unique to every avatar.”

“What is this avatar you’re talking about?” Ye Qiu asked back as his hand speed picked up to pull back his Battle Spear out of the banyan tree in front of a dungeon that he suspected as an NPC. He turned around and finally saw the speaker clearly... along with the accessories of several people behind him. “Sorry, I’m an atheist.” He said bluntly to the Cleric.

“Pardon?” the Cleric named Immovable Rock asked back.

“The rule of a succession of my hometown forbids me to have any other religion except for worshipping money,” Ye Qiu said bluntly.

“Rule of...???”

Great. He’s confused. Time to run.

Cool Autumn Breeze abruptly turned around and was about to flee when a pillar of hot light descended right in front of him and revealed a very familiar Striker.

“Thug!” Ye Qiu blurted out.

The Striker named Desert Dust didn’t seem to mind getting cursed out. “Can we talk? It won’t take long.”

“This prince doesn’t need to talk to people just because they want to,” Ye Qiu claimed.

“What... are you talking about?” The Cleric asked in confusion.

“Um, young vice-captain, that guy is a role-player.”

“Role-player?”

“Yeah, he’s from the RP server.”

“I see...” Immovable Rock mumbled.

“Cool Autumn Breeze, I’m sorry for interrupting you like this. It’s just we have some questions about the new feature of Glory,” Desert Dust said calmly. “First—“

“You’re desiring my claim of the Soaring Watch Tower? You can come and try to claim it from me, I’m the rightful owner and will remain so until my last breath!” Ye Qiu exclaimed and attacked.

Desert Dust was prepared and blocked him as soon as possible.

“Don’t attack!” Desert Dust sternly yelled. Ye Qiu thought it was for him at first, but he soon realized he ordered the people behind the Cleric to not step up and make the water murky.

“Have I fight you before?” Ye Qiu asked, genuinely curious.

“Have you forgotten?” Desert Dust asked back.

So, I did fight you...

Fishing in murky water was Ye Qiu’s most trusted execution. When people gang up on him, he’d slip away easier than when people not.

Without the murky water, Ye Qiu could only focus himself to fight the Striker to death... a feat proved to be very difficult as the Striker turned out to be much more skilled.

‘This is Heavenly Domain...’ Ye Qiu thought. So far he only met stupid and naive people, now he really met the real skilled one.

Desert Dust pinned him to the ground and Ye Qiu decided to double down.

“Cough, you’re a great warrior. To think there comes a day for me to be humiliated like this...” Ye Qiu said dignifiedly. “From which realm did you come? I’ll remember you when I assembled my soul back and return for revenge.” By return for revenge, Ye Qiu meant avoiding him at all cost.

“Q City.” Desert Dust answered calmly.

Ye Qiu blinked rapidly in disbelief. ‘Did this guy just tell me his home city? What am I going to do there? Fight him in real life?!’ Ye Qiu would never do that! “I don’t know which realm this Q City is in, but I hope you’re proud.” Ye Qiu coughed, pretending not knowing anything.

“Brother, seriously stop role-playing. We’re here just to talk,” someone said from the background and Ye Qiu opted to not hear him.

“What do you want? Money? Power? I’ll give you nothing, warrior,” Ye Qiu resumed his shameless role-playing. He was getting good at this. The words he would never dream of uttering in real life can be said out loud in Glory. No one knew his identity, so no one can criticize him.

“Cool Autumn Breeze, I seriously just want to ask you a question,” Desert Dust sighed.

“Pardon me, do you...” Immovable Rock stepped beside them and looked down on Cool Autumn Breeze. “Do you know who this is...?” Immovable Rock gestured to Desert Dust.

“Desert Dust?” Ye Qiu blurted out.

“Yes. Desert Dust.” Immovable Rock confirmed.

“...”

“...You don’t?”

“Don’t what?” Ye Qiu was not role-playing right now, he was genuinely lost.

“Impossible, how could you not know?” Somebody in the background exclaimed with a derisive snort.

This time, Ye Qiu didn’t ignore him. “Know what?” Cool Autumn Breeze looked at the Assassin behind Desert Dust, Cold Season.

“The tone he uses sound honest,” Immovable Rock noted.

“He can spit out nonsenses like ‘benwang’* and stuff, how are we supposed to judge his tone? Besides, I’m pretty sure he uses a voice-changer.” Cold Season said in disbelief.

“Am I supposed to know you, warrior?” Ye Qiu asked Desert Dust bluntly. “Are you a ghost of my old life coming back to exact revenge?”

“For f*ck’s sake! Stop role-playing!” Cold Season exclaimed.

“Do you follow Glory’s professional league?” Desert Dust asked.

“...” Ye Qiu paused to wonder how to twist that into his role-play but Cold Season spoke up.

“He’s Han Wenqing.”

“...” Ye Qiu narrowed his eyes, he felt like he should know that name.

“It’s fine if you don’t know,” Desert Dust said. He sounded somewhat kind-hearted with that line and it made Ye Qiu feel a little bad for not remembering him until he recalled his character was currently pinned to the ground by him. “I’ll let you go now.”

Huh...?

Desert Dust did let go and Cool Autumn Breeze sat up, confused.

“You could have freed yourself but you chose not to,” Desert Dust noted. “We can talk now.”

“What do you want to talk about with this prince?” Ye Qiu asked cautiously.

“How did you manage to be the seat-holder,” Immovable Rock asked calmly.

“I’m passionate about my profession, naturally, I’m fortunate to recover the lost tower and claim it as mine,” Ye Qiu said calmly.

“Can you speak human?” Cold Season complained.

“This prince will not degrade himself to your language, peasant,” Ye Qiu disdained.

“...” Cold Season unsheathed his dagger in a moment of rage.

“Cold Season, enough,” Desert Dust stated. “Can you go into details? That will be really helpful.” He said politely.

“We’ll give you hefty rewards for sharing information,” Immovable Rock said confidently.

“And, pray tell, Cleric, what can you offer?” Ye Qiu smirked.

“Do you high-level weapons? Equipments? Rare items? Tyrannical Ambition will do hard to fulfill it,” Desert Dust answered instead.

“Are you one of the hall masters of Tyrannical Ambition?” Ye Qiu asked curiously.

“This guy could move the entire Tyrannical Ambition with just one word,” Cold Season said in annoyance.

Ye Qiu wanted to say something damning but he ended up showing his real thought. “Wow, really...?” he then huffed. “I don’t believe it.”

“What will make you believe it?” Cold Season challenged and Desert Dust sighed.

“Ask them to flood the world chat with the word Windward Formation You Suck,” Ye Qiu bluntly said. “If you can do that, I’ll tell you how I could claim the ownership of the lost Soaring Watch Tower.”

“...”

“...”

“Who is Windward Formation?” Desert Dust asked.

“My friend, a wicked warlock who left me to fend by myself in this realm knowing I know no one here,” Ye Qiu said.

“A friend, huh...” Desert Dust sounded doubtful. “Alright.”

“Boss.”

“Hm.”

“Boss Wei.”

“What the f*ck, Little Bai?”

“You should see the world chat.”

“What? What the f*ck? Someone announced a Wild Boss position or what?” Wei Chen turned and clicked the World Chat.

Tyrannical King: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Conqueror of the Time: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Burn For You: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Hard-Knock Shell: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Airing My Pants: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Begonia: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Sunburnt Toast: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Thieving Grass: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Grass Excellent Era: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

Heartless Goddess: “Windward Formation You Suck!”

A wall of messages cursing him immediately entered Wei Chen’s eyes and he blinked. Not just once, but twice, to make sure he was not looking wrong.

“What the f*ck?! Who did I piss off?!”

“They’re all from Tyrannical Ambition... but some people also followed the trend...?” Little Bai mentioned.

“The f*ck? I have no grudge with Tyrannical Ambition??” Wei Chen aggressively put out his cigarette and was about to curse Tyrannical Ambition’s whole ancestors when someone Whisper-DM-ed him.

[Whisper] Cool Autumn Breeze: Heh, heh, you suck.

“...” Wei Chen crushed the filter in his hand. “f*cking Cool Autumn Breeze.” Wei Chen didn’t know how, but he’s confident Cool Autumn Breeze was behind everything somehow.

“Alright, you have convinced me,” Ye Qiu said in amusem*nt. “This prince will hold his end of the deal. You want to know how this prince could be the owner of Battle Mage’s seat, right?”

“Yes,” Desert Dust answered.

“It’s from a hidden chain-quest, you don’t know the chain-quests will lead you to the seat at all. It’s deceptive and very difficult, not to mention very long. I don’t even know where it started unless I look at my journal.”

“Journal?”

“Maybe he means mission log,” Immovable Rock said.

“But I think you can only do it once you did enough class-related quests and be recognized for your class by the people,” Ye Qiu said. “Afterward, just follow the flow. I honestly can’t explain further than that, because there really isn’t any pattern, it was chaotic.”

“I see. Class-related quests...” Desert Dust murmured. “What else do you got for being the tower master, aside for what was revealed by the official announcement?”

Ye Qiu paused. “Well, this prince recovers the artifact of the last tower master.” Cool Autumn Breeze spun his spear. “This spear grows with the owner.”

“Grows with the owner?” Cold Season repeated.

“As I grow stronger, it also grows stronger.”

“Do you mean it also levels up with you?” Immovable Rock asked seriously. “You don’t have to upgrade it?”

“That’s a good privilege,” Cold Season murmured.

“This prince has the ability to release the sealed Battle Mage Wild Boss,” Ye Qiu said. “But I never did it.”

“What?”

“What?”

“What?”

“What?” Ye Qiu responded.

“Release a Wild Boss?” Desert Dust asked with a disbelieving tone.

“Yes.”

“Holy sh*t! That’s a crazy privilege! You haven’t been in a guild yet? Come to Tyrannical Ambition!” Cold Season immediately proposed.

“I don’t choose the place to which it appears and I can only do it once a week,” Ye Qiu said. “That’s what the rule book said, anyway, I never do it.”

“Why?” Immovable Rock asked curiously.

“Because it will cause devastation to this beautiful domain.”

“...”

“Aren’t you tired of being that kind, brother? Go crazy once in a while, please.” Someone in the background said, but Ye Qiu ignored it.

“So, technically, you have the right to release the Wild Boss once a week but can’t choose where it spawns,” Immovable Rock said. “That’s interesting. Might not be as useful as it would be if you can control where it spawns, but it’s still a great privilege. That means other seat-holders will also have the same privilege.”

“Twenty-four more Wild Bosses,” Desert Dust murmured thoughtfully.

“But whether or not you can secure it for yourself is the question,” Cold Season sighed. “No wonder you didn’t release it.”

Oh? You understand finally? Ye Qiu wouldn’t let others enjoy his privilege when he couldn’t even kill it himself.

“Also, my tower generated energy and compress them to a stone that I could retrieve once every three months. The stone could increase the chance of successful creation or upgrade of an equipment and weapon of Battle Mage by 20% and could force an initially unsuitable material to be suitable,” Ye Qiu said proudly. Even though he didn’t have any use for this stone as he didn’t have any interest in making his own equips or weapon, the stone was still pretty and it was still his tower’s product.

“... So, we could make you the guild master of Tyrannical Ambition if you want,” Cold Season said seriously. “Right? We can, right?” he turned to Desert Dust.

“This prince is not interested in the vulgar way of guilds,” Ye Qiu said bluntly. “I’ve told you everything, I’ll leave now, I have too many things in my schedule.”

“Right, thank you,” Desert Dust said.

Cool Autumn Breeze paused. “Also, don’t ignore mundane quests from people in need,” Ye Qiu said. “They might have some stories to tell themselves and they might aid you by giving you vague clues.”

Desert Dust also paused, as if he didn’t expect that. “I see, thank you very much,” Desert Dust said sincerely.

“You’re welcome, you’ve shown me an entertaining sight today, warrior. This prince is naturally pleased,” Ye Qiu said. “I wish you all the best.”

“We’ll meet again,” Desert Dust stated and turned away. The others immediately followed his lead.

“Is that a statement or a threat?” Ye Qiu mumbled.

Apparently, they were still in hearing range. Desert Dust turned around, his tone was noticeably lighter. “I do wish we’ll meet again under a better condition.”

“Okay, may we meet again,” Ye Qiu said elegantly and they parted in a friendly way.

Desert Dust: @Everyone [Video #3774 Cool Autumn Breeze]

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: What’s this?

One Autumn Leaf: You have eyes, Lele, watch it.

Screen Killer: Looks important.

Cold Season: Come on, punks. Don’t bury it. that’s our interview with the first seat-holder.

Peaceful Hermit: Holy sh*t, that fast? I haven’t even passed my ID name to my heir, guys, sh*t.

Demon Subduer: Let me see, let me see.

Cold Season: Don't. Bury. It.

One Autumn Leaf: As expected, Old Han. You move fast. Really generous too.

Blossoming Chaos: @One Autumn Leaf if it’s you, we’ll never even know you talk with Cool Autumn Breeze.

One Autumn Leaf: Trade secrets should be guarded. Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Maybe except Old Han, I’ll tell you if anything important happened @Desert Dust

Desert Dust: Shut up.

Windy Rain: Stop chatting, please, my internet connection is potato rn and I can’t click on the link if you guys keep on chatting!

Swoksaar: Weak.

Wind Guard: I do whatever the f*ck I want.

Vaccaria: Thank you, senior Han.

Demon Subduer: Right, almost forgot. Thanks @Desert Dust

Boundless Sea: Can I ask why he’s referring to himself as ‘this prince’???

Cold Season: Guy is a role-player.

Wind Guard: And he’s still role-playing?

Cold Season: Yup.

Screen Killer: What a dedication.

Swoksaar: Right. Thanks, Old Han. The kids appreciated it, I talk in their places until I could move out.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: The seat-holder have the power to release a Wild Boss once a week?

One Autumn Leaf: That sold it for me. Gotta ask this Cool Autumn Breeze guy about his price.

Cold Season: Good luck with that, he’s a tough nut to crack.

One Autumn Leaf: I will try once I find a way to get the Launcher seat.

Wind Guard: The weapon sounds useful. If you don’t have time to upgrade your weapon to the new level, might as well get the Orange weapon that follows you as you level up.

Demon Subduer: The material from the tower. Although he specifically mentioned only for Battle Mage, that means other seat-holders will also have specific-class stone to increase successful creation or upgrade for silver equipments, right?

Blossoming Chaos: Idc, I’ll get Berserker seat.

Swoksaar: Guys wanna have a bet?

Screen Killer: You’re retired, Fang Shijing. Get out. you can’t bet.

Swoksaar: Damn it.

Angelica: Guys, wanna have a bet?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: What bet.

Angelica: the first one to get the seat next will get money from everyone involved. 50 yuan.

Wind Guard: That’s pathetic. Make it 100 yuan.

Blossoming Chaos: 200 yuan or leave.

Demon Subduer: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Remember last time?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Old Lin is right. 300 or gtfo.

One Autumn Leaf: Season 2’s rookies, you guys need counseling.

One Autumn Leaf: Count me in, but for another avatar.

Vaccaria: You don’t exactly set up a good example, do you?

“Life is hard with all these f*ck-head pros being online running here and there,” Windward Formation cursed.

“Didn’t you use to be one as well?” Ye Qiu pointed out.

“You know past tense, right? Yeah, I’m f*cking not anymore. f*ck, it’s getting harder to even f*cking move when everyone is so excited.”

“Boss Wei just doesn’t want to get spotted by his old team.”

“Shut the f*ck up, bitch!”

“Maybe it’s all in your mind, Windward. Maybe they have forgotten about you,” Ye Qiu said bluntly. “And you’re just running away from nothing.”

“Just what is your problem with me, Autumn Breeze?” Windward Formation demanded.

“I’m just saying. I mean... it’s been a year.”

“You think I’m that easy to be forgotten?” Windward Formation growled.

“I’m just trying to be positive,” Ye Qiu said. “Maybe they remember you in a PTSD episode, but as long as you cover your avatar’s face, it wouldn’t trigger anyone’s memory.”

“I thought you’re supposed to be an elegant prince, since when are you speaking this poisonously?” Windward Formation choked out in rage.

“Since no one is leaving me alone after I sit in this seat of honor,” Ye Qiu sighed.

“...Die in hole,” Windward Formation said.

“Speaking of a hole, I found a hidden monster pit in the swamp near the Blacksmith Village,” Ye Qiu said.

“How the hell did you go there from my swearing?”

“Wanna go there together? Last time I got mobbed and died,” Ye Qiu said honestly.

“HAHA! You lost something didn’t you?” Windward Formation said knowingly.

“My golden crown.”

“...That thing you equipped every time you want to do pompous role-playing?” Windward Formation asked. “Good God, let it disappear then. I hate that thing so much,” he said begrudgingly.

“You Don’t See Me, do you want to—“

“Fine! Fine! I’ll help you, damn!” Windward Formation said. “I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart.”

“Alright.”

“At least f*cking thank me, prick.”

“Thanks.”

“...f*ck, do whatever you want,” Windward Formation sighed. “This is going to be boring but at least I can kill some monsters.”

[System: Congratulations to Cool Autumn Breeze <Battle Mage> for his dedication to reviving the lost knowledge of the Mage class and attained the right to crown the next successor of Witch’s Castle- the Seat of Witch.]

[System to Cool Autumn Breeze: Because you’re a Battle Mage, you can’t inherit the seat. Give the Key to Witch Cauldron to a Witch you trust and let them do the Quests of Witch’s Seat.]

[New Title!: <The Regent of Witch’s Castle> Will Disappear Once You Choose a Witch to be the Real owner of Magic Castle.]

[Attained! Key of Witch’s Castle <Cursed Key> that can only be de-cursed by a Witch. Don’t hold onto it too long and pass it to a worthy Witch, if that Witch succeeded in the Quests of Witch’s Seat, you’ll also receive a reward for assisting them!]

“What the f*ck?!” Windward Formation shrilled from the back while Ye Qiu was also baffled.

“Wait, what?” Ye Qiu checked his inventory to look at the ornamental moss green key.

“Autumn Breeze, what the f*ck?!” Windward shrilled even more. “How the f*ck did you- I- you, we, how?! Isn’t it class-specified SEATS??! WHY DO YOU HOLD ONTO THE WITCH’S SEAT WHILE BEING A BATTLE MAGE?!?!?!”

“I don’t know,” Ye Qiu said honestly. “I did follow a long trail of missions hinting about Witch lately...” But it felt different than his trail of Battle Mage quests so he only thought it was the NPCs setting up the usual Evil Witch scenario. After all, Witches are the go-to villains in cliches.

“Brother Autumn Breeze, you’re... GOAT. f*cking GOAT!”

“Boss Wei, you’re no match for him, simply divine!”

“But how and why...?” Ye Qiu spoke up.

While the new regent was still confused, Heavenly Domain was set afire in shock and disbelief once again.

“Holy sh*t, you can do that?!” Fang Shiqian cried out when he saw the system announcement. “Wang Jiexi, the Seat of Witch is already taken! It’s not per-subclass. Anyone could receive the key and give it to someone else!”

They all thought that only specific class could trigger the specific class’ quests line for the Seats, but they were actually wrong!

Wang Jiexi furrowed his brows and tapped his foot impatiently. “If it’s not specific and everyone could get the key to getting the seat. This could be trouble.” The range of rivals just suddenly expanded from 1/24 of the population in Heavenly Domain to the entirety of it.

Which means other great players from another class might as well stumble upon the key after following a certain quest-chain and give the key to their friend...

This changes everything.

Ye Qiu sneezed violently after he stored the Cursed Key away. He shivered slightly.

A storm is coming.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

“Look at this,” Ye Qiu said seriously as he tilted his body sideways to let access for his younger cousin who looked at the item in his inventory seriously.

“I see, so other subclasses are able to attain the key to get the seat and crown it to someone else,” Xiao Lin said seriously. “So nepotism is also encouraged.”

“Right?” Ye Qiu nodded. “But they still need to go through quests to get that seat, so I guess, nepotism with ability is more encouraged than a random nepotism.”

“What’d happen if the guy you give this key to can’t finish the quests?” Xiao Lin asked.

“I don’t know...” Ye Qiu frowned. He didn’t know if there will be any penalty for that.

“In the first place, you’re kinda giving the right of succession, but whether or not it could attain it will depend on the player you pick. This is a flawed system, since the right of succession is only one so the one who attained that right will be the sole candidate. If the candidate is stubborn but can’t fight till the end, the Seat of Witch will remain empty,” Xiao Lin said.

“And I won’t get my reward,” Ye Qiu nodded.

“How about opening a competition?” Xiao Lin smiled. “You’ve been chased by every Witch in the Heavenly Domain, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then, just make them turn against each other for competition. You’re the regent and responsible to choose the rightful leader. As the crown prince, this is within your right,” Xiao Lin said bluntly.

“I think that’s true,” Ye Qiu mumbled. “I’ll open a contest to see who is worthy.”

“Or just pick the strongest one,” Yang Qing said. “Boss, you don’t always have to follow Xiao Lin’s ruse.”

“Continue on your path, dear cousin. Surely you’ll find a confidant amongst all those Witches,” Xiao Lin said bluntly.

“...I pity those Witches,” Yang Qing shook his head as he shed an imaginary tear for those Witches who would have to cater to his boss’ boredom.

Cool Autumn Breeze: Hear ye, hear ye, thus of you who views yourself as worthy of the seat of which I’m guarding for the suitable candidate, come to the Striving Goddess Peak. I’ll see which of you is truly worthy.

“There you go,” Ye Qiu smiled.

“This is going to be a sh*tstorm,” Yang Qing murmured as he peered to the screen over Ye Qiu’s shoulder.

“An amazing sh*tstorm,” Xiao Lin grinned chaotically. “Now, this is how you role-play, young master.”

The message on the World Chat actually halted the activity on it for solid fifteen seconds as everyone re-read it repeatedly to make sure they were not seeing it wrong.

Everyone was in a state of disbelief.

“Am I seeing things wrong or...?”

“What... is this...?”

“Cool Autumn Breeze is calling every Witch to choose the next sole candidate for the seat-holder???”

In Tiny Herb’s training room, everyone was frozen in thought.

“Wang Jiexi, what do you think is happening?” Fang Shiqian turned to the captain.

“I honestly don’t know,” Wang Jiexi said honestly as he eyed the message. “But I have no reason to not go.”

“Are you serious, captain?”

“Well, you’re currently the strongest Witch in the entirety of Glory,” Fang Shiqian said. “I see no danger in going. The privilege for being a seat-holder is quite a lot.”

“Exactly,” Wang Jiexi said as he moved Vaccaria.

“Do I need to go with you?” Fang Shiqian asked. “Having a healer is an assurance.”

[World] Cool Autumn Breeze: Just Witch. If I see anyone from another sub-class come, I’ll kill you with my own hands with the power granted upon me as the tower master of Soaring Watch Tower. If you come as a Witch’s teammate, I’ll blacklist them.

“Damn! This guy has so many rules!” Fang Shiqian cursed.

Wang Jiexi shook his head. “I’d like to see what Cool Autumn Breeze is brewing in Striving Goddess Peak. Don’t worry, I can handle this.”

”I don’t doubt that,” Fang Shiqian said. “We’ll be waiting below then. Just ask if you need us.”

Vaccaria traveled with his teammates to the Striving Goddess Peak but left them when he climbed the peak himself. Striving Goddess Peak was an area that could be accessed with series of control and maneuvers, not everyone could gain access to the peak, you needed to have either luck or the ability to take your avatar there. Flying around this part usually make you crash to the ground. Witches and Mechanics’ special ability was useless here.

Perhaps that was why Cool Autumn Breeze chose this place, he wanted to filter the weaker players.

Wang Jiexi was calm as he reached the peak and he was immediately welcomed with the sight of a Battle Mage ruthlessly pushing off a Sharpshooter from the edge of the cliff.

‘He’s not one for empty threats...’ Wang Jiexi admired.

“Lifeline Guide, you’re eliminated. Get out of this prince’s sight.”

“But—“

“Did I stutter?”

“Bastard! You’re being unfair!”

Vaccaria stood aside as Wang Jiexi witnessed a completely one-sided fight with the favor on the Battle Mage’s side.

For some reason, Wang Jiexi felt nervously expectant, like he was but a normal person waiting for an entrance test to a Sect or something.

“Vaccaria?”

“That’s Vaccaria...”

“Oh my God, it is...”

“Is... Is it really Wang Jiexi playing?”

Wang Jiexi heard other Witch players murmuring in the background, obviously shocked to see a god-tier character here with them, in the same frame.

“He-hello? G-god Wang?”

“Yes, I am,” Wang Jiexi answered calmly.

“Oh my God!”

“The seat is really great!”

“To even entice a professional player...”

“If Wang Jiexi joins, we can never be crowned.”

“Yeah, yeah, Vaccaria is obviously the deserving Witch avatar...”

Wang Jiexi didn’t mind those whispers, instead, he paid a close attention at the only Battle Mage in the area.

“So, are you all ready for the Witch’s Trials?” Cool Autumn Breeze announced with a question.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Is Wang Jiexi in the peak?

Wind Guard: He is.

Cold Season: Damn. My condolences.

Scene Killer: Tell Wang Jiexi to take care of my senior.

Wind Guard: No way.

Desert Dust: Make sure to record it.

Wind Guard: I’ll tell him that, Old Han.

Blossoming Chaos: Here hoping for public humiliation.

One Autumn Leaf: Would be funny if it ended up losing O:)

Demon Subduer: It will, isn’t it? But all the best to Wang Jiexi.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Lol, will be embarrassing if it’s any other Witch who got the seat. Vaccaria will stop being the number one Witch.

Wind Guard: Won’t happen. Captain Lin Jie’s legacy will stay strong.

One Autumn Leaf: Fanboy.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Fanboy.

Cold Season: Fanboy.

Blossoming Chaos: Fanboy.

Boundless Sea: Don’t any of you think this system feels a bit flawed? Anyone could attain the key and give it to the person they want even if they’re weak.

Desert Dust: That’s what keeps the competition running.

Scene Killer: I agree with Captain Han. The developers are ruthless.

Boundless Sea: Not just that, ofc. But the fact that we don’t hear anything that the seat could change. What if the avatar stopped playing altogether? Will the seat remains filled with the prolonged absence?

One Autumn Leaf: I’ve been thinking about that too.

Desert Dust: Because you still want the Battle Mage seat?

One Autumn Leaf: Of course. But currently, I could only focus on one assignment at a time.

Wind Guard: Maybe we’ll get the answer soon when all the seats are filled?

Peaceful Hermit: You’re saying that, but has any of you found the clue about it yet? Because I certainly haven’t. Currently, only two seats could be seen and it was in the hand of the same person.

One Autumn Leaf: Old Guo? I thought you said you’re going to the countryside and grow old to be a single dog with a dog?

Peaceful Hermit: Bitch, I haven’t even announced my retirement yet.

Blossoming Chaos: Can’t help it, you’re the one who’s very vocal about retirement.

Peaceful Hermit: Because I know you guys will miss me if I suddenly retired. Look at the previous season and how you guys got all mopy when Old Wei and Old Lin Jie retired.

One Autumn Leaf: Before that. Can you pay up your debt first?

Peaceful Hermit: What debt.

One Autumn Leaf: Bitch.

Scene Killer: Do you think there might be a special requirement to get the seat? Aside from the quests, naturally.

Demon Subduer: Dunno.

Boundless Sea: I’m a bit worried with this nepotism system.

One Autumn Leaf: You don’t have to be worried if you’re in Excellent Era.

Boundless Sea: No.

One Autumn Leaf: I’ll spare no effort to seek a way to attain the Qi Master seat for Qi Breaker if you’re willing to transfer.

Boundless Sea: No, thank you.

One Autumn Leaf: Fine.

“This person is good,” Ye Qiu commented and glanced at his assistants who fought over a plate of fries in his presence.

Xiao Lin looked over and gasped. “No wonder. You don’t recognize him?”

“Do I suppose to?” Ye Qiu shot back.

“My young master, that’s Vaccaria. The avatar of the captain of Tiny Herb, a powerhouse team in Glory’s Professional League,” Xiao Lin rolled her eyes. “The player behind him is the Best Rookie of the latest season, also the first-ever to receive that award.”

Ye Qiu pressed his lips when he heard the illustrious background his young cousin cleverly painted.

“So he’s a professional?” No wonder... Judging blindly alone, Vaccaria shone more than anyone else.

“Do you know? He’s also been nicknamed as The Magician,” Xiao Lin giggled.

“The Magician?” Ye Qiu arched his brows in amusem*nt.

“Yes, because of his explosive playstyle that feels like a magic,” Xiao Lin said.

“Interesting...” Ye Qiu nodded and Xiao Lin grinned. “To think the illustrious Magician came to my trial, it’s truly exciting.”

“Maybe you could offer him to be the royal magician once you ascend the throne,” Xiao Lin said.

Yang Qing finished the fries on the plate and shook his head. ‘These two genius idiots are taking role-playing too far again.’ At this point, Yang Qing was just glad they didn’t turn to LARP-ing. Sadly, the people in the game could never be safe.

Yang Qing offered incense for the poor Magician.

“I see, so you’re the only one left,” Ye Qiu said gravely as he eyed the only Witch left on the peak.

His attire was impeccable, unseen and unique to the entirety of Glory. The Broom in his hands was something Ye Qiu never saw before, it left behind a trail of stardust when used.

“It seems so.” Vaccaria dropped to the ground and held Stardust Extermination close.

“I didn’t expect only one survivor after merely three trials, but you managed to eliminate your opponents,” Ye Qiu said. “Who are you?”

Wang Jiexi tilted his head at the question. “I’m Wang Jiexi,” he answered honestly.

“...”

“...”

A pregnant silence ensued and Wang Jiexi blinked in bafflement.

“It seems like you’re still reluctant to tell me who you truly are,” Ye Qiu said seriously.

“...” Wang Jiexi furrowed his brows.

“Fine, then,” Ye Qiu said slowly. “But I can’t give the key to a Witch that I’m not sure of. To prove your trustworthiness, I want you to fly down the cliff, pick a White Flower, and return in less than five minutes.”

“What?” Wang Jiexi blinked.

“Start!” Ye Qiu ruthlessly declared.

Wang Jiexi had no time to be confused and directly jumped off of the cliff. Stardust Extermination left behind a trail of stardust as Vaccaria fell at a speed nearing free jumping, before he swiped his broom and landed with little damage, he snatched a White Flower from the bottom of a cliff (A normal trash item that was only useful for a few petty quests) and returned with a different route that his broom could take.

Vaccaria returned back to the peak at a record speed that Ye Qiu couldn’t complain over.

The Witch took out the common flower and offered it to the Battle Mage who simply stared at it. “Can you send the White Flower to the Flower Girl at the edge of Guan Yin Mountain Range?” Ye Qiu said bluntly.

“Flower Girl...?” Wang Jiexi murmured

“Yes, she has orange hair and wear flower accessories on her hair, she usually stood under a pine tree near a small orange house that looks like a mushroom. She will give you something and you have to give me her return gift to confirm you did meet her,” Ye Qiu said innocently.

“... I thought if I win the trial, I’ll get the key?” Wang Jiexi frowned.

“This is a trial,” Ye Qiu said.

“Okay,” Wang Jiexi finally agreed. “Will you promise to stay put, then?” Guan Yin Mountain Range took quite a while to reach, it’d take at least half an hour to go there and return.”

“I will await your good news.”

“Are you done?” Wind Guard approached Vaccaria and Wang Jiexi looked up to see Fang Shiqian arching an eyebrow in question.

“No, I have to do an errand.”

“Errand? How many Witches were left? The last one who told the World Chat said you’re the last one to survive,” Fang Shiqian said.

“I am. But I still have to do an errand.”

“...?” Fang Shiqian tilted his head in confusion. “What kind of errand? Do you need help?”

“No, just stay here. It’ll be much faster alone.” Wang Jiexi shook his head.

Vaccaria returned half an hour later, while waiting, Ye Qiu had worked on his project reports regarding his plan to snatch a bid from his rival company so he didn’t waste that much time.

“Here you go. She gave me a White Vial,” Wang Jiexi said as he took out the quest item.

“I see,” Cool Autumn Breeze eyed the quest item in Vaccaria’s hand but didn’t accept the trade offer. “To think you can travel that fast from this place to that mountain range, you’re not a normal Witch.”

“It’s a standard speed,” Wang Jiexi denied.

“What did she say?” Ye Qiu asked with a smile on his face.

“Pardon?” Wang Jiexi blinked.

“The flower girl surely told you a message, right?” Ye Qiu asked back.

“...” How could Wang Jiexi knew that? He skipped the dialogue!

“I see, she didn’t tell you, I guess she knows you’re keeping secrets yourself,” Ye Qiu said calmly.

“...”

“Maybe you’ll get an answer next time. Give the White Vial in your hand to the Majestic Night Crow in the Black Swamp?”

The tone sounded like an order. Wang Jiexi had no choice but to comply once again.

He returned less than an hour later and brought the Red Rope the crow gave, this time, he read the dialogue and was ready for the quiz but Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t ask anything regarding the dialogue.

“You survived the Black Swamp which could trap souls and even returned with this Red Rope. Impressive, Witch. You’re a special existence, aren’t you? I wonder where did you come from...”

“...Can we just skip this and tell me what you want from me?” Wang Jiexi asked directly.

“Ah, Witches are always impatient. Trust me, I won’t betray my promise. Can you take this Red Rope to the Weeping Maiden in Yellow Tear River? Also, fetch me the Goddess Soil from the depth of the river.”

“Will this be the last errand?”

“We’ll see...”

Vaccaria returned back to the peak and jumped off his broom directly in front of Cool Autumn Breeze.

“I’ve given her the rope. She gave me a hairpin,” Wang Jiexi said to prove that he did his errand. “Goddess Hairpin,” he announced.

“What about the soil?”

“Soil...?”

“Goddess Soil that I asked you to bring over.”

It completely slipped Wang Jiexi’s mind. He just remembered the key word ‘Goddess’ and when he saw the NPC’s return gift had the word ‘Goddess’ he just directly returned just like he usually did. It was ‘Goddess Soil’ and not ‘Goddess Hairpin’?

“If I fetch the soil, will you give me the key?” Wang Jiexi asked seriously.

“We’ll see...”

Vaccaria returned once again with the soil and wordlessly gave it to Cool Autumn Breeze.

“Are you injured, honorable Witch?”

“No, just wasting my time,” Wang Jiexi responded expressionlessly.

“Fetching the soil of the bottom of the fierce Yellow Tear River is a waste of time? You’re truly an exceptional person. I understand why you would want to hide your identity.”

“I’m not hiding my identity,” Wang Jiexi responded, brows furrowed.

“I see your identity is really important...”

“...”

Cool Autumn Breeze started, “...Can you send the soil to Jolly Farmer in Southern Village?—“

“I’m the Magician,” Wang Jiexi stated, which successfully earned him a weird look from everyone in the training room.

This time, Cool Autumn Breeze was the one who stood at his spot, unmoving.

“Magician...?” Cool Autumn Breeze whispered in bewilderment.

“Yes, that’s the title I earned while I play—travelled.”

“...I see. So you’re hiding such an illustrious identity. I didn’t expect to talk with an honorable existence.”

I knew it. Wang Jiexi narrowed his eyes.

“I should have known better,” Cool Autumn Breeze said.

This guy is baiting for a role-play since the start! Wang Jiexi sighed long-sufferingly.

“It was my own will to hide my identity before the tower master of Soaring Watch Tower,” Wang Jiexi said politely.

“If it’s the Magician, I can be at ease knowing this key will be in the right hand.”

Wang Jiexi blinked when he saw the trade offer from Cool Autumn Breeze.

That’s it? Wang Jiexi thought and directly accepted it.

[System: Congratulations to Vaccaria <Witch> for attaining the Cursed Key from <Witch Regent> Cool Autumn Breeze and becomes the next candidate for the Seat of Witch.]

[System: Congratulations to Cool Autumn Breeze <Battle Mage> for finally relinquishing the Cursed Key to his Chosen One. The quest <Quest of Witch> is now open.]

[System to Cool Autumn Breeze: <Quest of Witch> is now open. Player is encouraged to work together with the Chosen One to help <him> and gain more rewards. The faster the Chosen One attained the seat, the more rewords!]

“Wait, what?” Ye Qiu blinked.

Wang Jiexi finally felt his heart settled when he saw the quest item in his inventory and the announcement from the system. He paused when he saw an additional notification for him.

[System to Vaccaria: <Quest of Witch> is now open. Deadline: 10 Days Left...]

“There’s a deadline?” Wang Jiexi murmured.

“What? Deadline?!” Cool Autumn Breeze snapped to look at him.

Wang Jiexi frowned at the clueless tone Cool Autumn Breeze used. “You don’t have a deadline?” he didn’t remember any mention of a deadline from the recording Han Wenqing dropped in the chatroom.

“No. I encountered it by fate and directly got chosen by the tower to be the new master...”

Wang Jiexi hummed. “Then, a deadline only happens when it’s handed by a Regent...” That’d make sense. To prevent random nepotism and locked position that would make the seat empty for a long time, a deadline might prevent the people who were unworthy to keep holding onto the candidacy.

“If you failed, I won’t get my reward.”

“Pardon?” Wang Jiexi blinked. “You’ll get a reward?”

“I found that key, why wouldn’t I get it? I don’t work for free,” Cool Autumn Breeze said logically.

That makes sense... Wang Jiexi nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll finish it.”

“You have to,” Cool Autumn Breeze scoffed. “So, did it say where it starts?”

Wang Jiexi clicked at the key and checked his quest log. He furrowed his brows.

“There’s no definite start. Only a riddle,” Wang Jiexi squinted.

“...Damn it,” Cool Autumn Breeze said. “Why can’t I have a riddle quest?” he complained.

“So, you f*cking fled?” Windward Formation asked, unimpressed.

“You want me to be his assistant as he goes on a journey to find himself? I’m way busier than that,” Ye Qiu scoffed.

“So, what if he couldn’t finish the quest within ten days?” Windward asked curiously.

“I won’t get any reward.”

“What if he really can’t.”

“I’ll hunt him down and tell him how worthless he is,” Ye Qiu said confidently. That’s how he deals with disappointing workers who can’t even meet the deadline; tell them how worthless they were. Yang Qing repeatedly told him that wasn’t a good working etiquette, but time is money and if you can’t manage your time, you’d lose money... Hence, you’re worthless.

“You could be really harsh, you know that?” Windward said.

“In my line of job, I have to be harsh,” Ye Qiu said.

“What do you do for a living?” Windward Formation asked curiously.

“A prince. A prince has to control his subject lest they can’t even work in a decent manner,” Ye Qiu said. “Sometimes, the elders and ministers are really chatty and this prince has to shut them up before they forget who’s the subject.” Those damn board directors could be really frustrating to control.

Windward Formation wanted to call bullsh*t but he can sense Cool Autumn Breeze was serious and there was a little personal grudge in that voice. He simply hummed in response.

“BROTHER COOL AUTUMN BREEZE~~!!!”

Windward Formation and Cool Autumn Breeze turned to look but it was Windward’s friend that exclaimed first.

“Ah! They are...”

“Oh, f*ck no...” Windward whined.

The one who came to them was a Berserker of the same alumni as them, Cotton Heart, they sometimes interacted but ultimately have their own interest in Glory so they rarely crossed paths. Today, he came with a few people behind him.

“Look at the newly enlightened members of Heavenly Domain,” Cotton Heart exclaimed.

“You guys...” Ye Qiu blinked in astonishment.

“My handsome brother Breeze, we meet again!” slu*tty Summer squealed. “And great guru! I miss you~”

Windward stepped back when slu*tty Summer approached.

“To think we’ll actually be in the same world again without you having to lower yourself to our level, sniff, sniff.” A Thief named Harder Daddy sobbed in an indecent manner. “Great guru, it’s been a while, every day, without a fail, I always wished for your descent from Heavenly Domain to grace us with your incredible presence. I don’t know if you still remember this disciple at all!”

Windward Formation didn’t even want to answer the thief that had one-sidedly claimed as his disciple. He couldn’t even scold this brat properly because the two words in his name were simply un-curse-able. In the end, he sighed. “I already told you, don’t talk to me if you want to follow me.”

A Qi Master named Sovereign of Fate, who often role-played as an oracle who liked to make fake oracles just to supply reasons for riots in the fourth server, giggled and said, “It’s because it’s been a while. His highness also rarely visited the fourth realm, don’t you know we have to change shifts constantly to make sure the Queen didn’t get involved with anyone and stay faithful to you, my prince?”

“She’s still a married woman, it’s inappropriate for me to always visit her. Until I found a concrete proof against the Prince Consort and she separated with him, I won’t get too close. I’m a respectable prince, not a scoundrel who seduces married woman,” Ye Qiu said calmly.

“Impossible! Prior Heavenly Domain, you always said you admire her beauty and even argued with the little royal princess when she said her nose is crooked!” Charming Girl gasped.

“Don’t tell me... gasp! Brother, you’ve found a new flame?!” slu*tty Summer accused.

Ye Qiu went silent in thought before saying, “Indeed. I’ve recently been involved with the search of the Fae Queen.”

“From one queen to another!”

“Scandalous!”

“A stallion! Truly a stallion!”

“Does the little royal princess know about this?”

“Well, that’s news. Actually, Fancy Dog had been quite smitten to the queen lately and even announced in a tavern once that if you don’t return from Heavenly Domain, he might take liberty with the queen.”

“I see, Fleeting Fancy is still himself, delusional,” Ye Qiu said with a hint of disdain though mirth danced in his eyes.

“Sigh, you guys can fight over the queen. After all, a woman is just a woman at the end of the day. It’s better to stick with your brothers,” Harder Daddy clicked his tongue. “Right, seniors?!” He cheered and immediately jumped to a group of Windward Formation’s friends who whooped and shouted in agreement.

“My life is a f*cking tragedy one after another,” Windward Formation lamented.

“Cool Autumn Breeze, I need your help.”

“Can’t you see I’m a bit busy right now?” Ye Qiu responded as Cool Autumn Breeze laid at a large boulder, looking straight to the sky, not even glancing at the talker.

“You’re experienced in this. I’ve met a wall at the quest.”

Cool Autumn Breeze finally turned his head to see the face of the Witch that he had chosen as the candidate a week ago. Vaccaria floated there, his face and Cool Autumn Breeze were on the same level and they stared at each other, unmoving.

Eventually, Cool Autumn Breeze turned his face back to the sky, ignoring him.

A few seconds later, the beautiful starry sky was covered by the handsome Witch on his flying broom.

“Hey!” Ye Qiu exclaimed, offended.

Vaccaria leaned down, still suspended on his broom. “What should I do to get you to help me?”

“You’re in the way of my stargazing, Magician. Get away before this prince decides to execute you right here,” Ye Qiu threatened.

“A Witch is not afraid of execution,” Vaccaria said calmly.

“I’ll tie you up at a stake and burn you down,” Ye Qiu growled. “Don’t make me repeat the Agnedas Witch Trials.”

“You won’t do that unless you don’t want to recover the lost history of the Mages,” Vaccaria said confidently.

Ye Qiu scoffed. “Clever words will get you killed one day, Magician. Get off my sight.” Cool Autumn Breeze raised his spear and Vaccaria easily dodged to the side.

The Battle Mage finally deined to sit up and jumped down the boulder, a second later, Vaccaria joined him on the ground by gliding down smoothly.

Before Ye Qiu could say anything, Vaccaria already talked first.

“Fifty-seven point three percent.”

“Pardon?”

“My progress.”

“That’s a weird calculation, Magician. Just say you’re slightly over halfway there,” Ye Qiu said indifferently. “Have you checked all the known Witch in Heavenly Domain?”

“I have.”

“What about the hidden ones?”

“I’ve tracked everyone down as much as I could.”

“What about other Mages-type?”

“Done.”

“Did you stop by some people who might be related to witchcraft?”

“I’ve tried everything. I don’t have enough confidence to say I can’t be missing anything, but that’s why I come here to ask for your assistance.”

“Do you have any clue from the latest one?”

“No, it ends in a cliffhanger short of ways. The NPC—person I did a favor to the last time only left in murmuring incoherently without giving me any slight of information.”

“What kind of murmuring?”

Vaccaria was silent for three seconds before a speechbubble appeared and floated above him.

(How...? *murmur* *murmur* *murmur* ugh, ah... *sobs* *murmur*.......................................)

(...) Cool Autumn Breeze responded with his own speechbubble.

“I see...” Ye Qiu finally spoke up. “I need context to that.”

“I’ll convert it to a file, can you give me your QQ address?” Vaccaria asked.

“What’s QQ?” Ye Qiu said blankly back.

“... A Witch’s way to communicate. I was wrong, let me gather my notes,” Vaccaria said with a hint of helplessness in his voice.

“I see,” Ye Qiu smiled.

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

“How long do you have left again?” Ye Qiu asked.

“Three days.”

“And you only came to find me now? Your pride is on the wrong place, Magician.”

“I’ve been tracking you down since two days ago, but we couldn’t seem to meet at all.”

“We were not fated then,” Ye Qiu said blandly.

“...”

“With the stars as my mark post, I will travel the world and find the missing piece of history that the Witch of West has hidden for the sake of the humans. May the Witch of Rebirth, Witch of East, embraces her power and protect this piece of hope, and accepts the curse to turn it into a blessing. There comes the day Witches won’t be persecuted, the world will change drastically, but the sky will remain unmoved. The stars are the greatest of witnesses.” Ye Qiu recited that one riddle in particular. Mostly because Vaccaria mentioned that it was just mentioned without ever being relevant in his quests.

Which could only mean that Vaccaria overlooked this piece of fine art.

“Do you think there’s a hidden message there?”

“Yes,” Ye Qiu snorted. “This is most probably a clue for a star map.”

“Star... map?”

“You don’t know?” Ye Qiu disdained. “There are several instances of star map in Glory, you can only see them at night in a certain coordinate. The boulder where you just interrupted my stargazing on is one of them.”

“What does that mean?” Vaccaria asked.

“Lie there and you’ll see.”

Vaccaria hesitated but ultimately found no reason not to. The Witch flew on top of the boulder and lied there, looking at the sky.

“I don’t see it,” Vaccaria expressed.

“Use your eyes, not mouth. Open them both wide and you can see map made out of stars,” Ye Qiu sighed in a tone that seemed to suggest that he alone could see while everybody else was blind.

“What does it mark?”

“That is for me to know and you to never find out,” Ye Qiu was not reserved in protecting his secret. “You’re here for your next quest, aren’t you? Witch of West hides... means the star map is probably on the west, the place where the late Witch of West resided was the Town of Gold.”

“You can know that much from that riddle?” Vaccaria sat up.

“If I don’t know that much, I wouldn’t be the tower master right now. Come on, Witch. We’ll clear this up for once and all,” Ye Qiu said.

Just when Ye Qiu said that, the door to his office was thrown open abruptly. Xiao Lin stood in the doorways, her face was grave as she made a firm hand gesture that can only be interpreted as;

‘Your old man is here for a surprise inspection. If you’re not currently opening a work file- abort everything!!!’

Ye Qiu was a professional in pretending to be busy when he was not. So, without even batting an eye, he logged off of Glory, pulled out his card, pulled out the card reader and tossed them all into his drawer, and stuffed the key into his pocket.

As a finishing touch, he dragged a folder in front of him and opened it with his old notes on his left.

Xiao Lin waltzed in and put ‘away’ a stack of brown envelopes filled with proposals.

Not long after, Yang Qing brought in a familiar man in his forties pushing fifty and Ye Qiu’s lips twitched.

“Good afternoon, father. To what I owe you for your presence today?” Ye Qiu said in an overly pleasant manner.

“I heard you’ve been slacking off a lot on the company management,” Master Ye said. “Recent activities have been subpar, you have to have an aspiration to advance.”

“Things can’t always be in the climax or else everything will fall apart,” Ye Qiu said calmly. “Moreover, there’s no hurry. The company lost nothing, we lost nothing. Retaining is harder than obtaining, after all. I’m still young, we have a lot of time to improve while waiting for the real heir.”

Master Ye frowned, just as he always did whenever Ye Qiu mentioned of the absent original heir and his obvious intention of not succeeding in the family business. “Once your brother comes back, the two of you will work together to develop the company.”

“When a creature has two heads, it won’t be able to decide where to go,” Ye Qiu stated. “Either way, the current status quo is very much satisfactory. If you want to say something more, just wait till the next three months, I already have a plan to shut up those board directors.”

“I do hope so,” Master Ye narrowed his eyes. “If you can’t do that. I will consider putting you through another means of education through an experienced supervisor I have on my contact.”

“If you think that would be the best way, why don’t you just put that supervisor in charge?” Ye Qiu smiled.

Xiao Lin and Yang Qing looked at each other and only at each other since the other two in the room were too much to look at. They both pursed their lips hearing the cold exchange between the father and son.

Master Ye didn’t stay long. He only came to ‘set straight’ Ye Qiu, before giving a furtive glance around the office and left with his group of assistants.

Ye Qiu didn’t send him off and only let his two assistants go to do it in his stead.

When everything was said and done, Xiao Lin returned with a face full of unwillingness.

“Why did you promise him that three months deal?” Xiao Lin complained. “The success rate is fifty-fifty! Not a safe bet to use against uncle!”

“Up the rate, then,” Ye Qiu said unconcernedly.

“How can that be done with just a word?” Xiao Lin stomped on the ground.

“You don’t have to worry. If I already decide so, it will happen,” Ye Qiu said as he twirled the pen in his hand. “He will not put a supervisor on me if I could help it.” Ye Qiu frowned at the idea, not only he would not be able to move as freely, even his subordinates would need to look at the person his father put beside him rather than him. It was already hard to get rid of his father’s influence around him and he just managed to have his own people such as Yang Qing and even Xiao Lin who was the only distant cousin he had that would side with him rather than his father.

“I’ll finish the presentation file, then,” Xiao Lin scratched her head and sighed.

Ye Qiu watched as his teen cousin exit his office and sighed.

Great. His father’s surprise visit really dampened his mood. Now he didn’t have any desire to do anything aside from sulking on his seat and staring out of the window to satisfy his inner desire for freedom.

“Come on, Witch. We’ll clear this for once and all.”

Was the last thing Cool Autumn Breeze said before he disappeared from the face of Glory, leaving Wang Jiexi staring into space where he stood just a moment before, full of arrogance and confidence. Suddenly Wang Jiexi recalled that old internet meme.

“Don’t worry! I got this.” [Your Friend Has Gone Offline]

Wang Jiexi couldn’t believe he got stood up to at Glory. In fact, he refused to believe it and waited there for ten whole minutes, thinking that it might be a connection issue or Cool Autumn Breeze had a cat that tripped the power line or pushed the “Shut Down” button.

Because there was just no way someone would voluntarily abandon him like that after confidently telling him that they would solve his problem, right?

‘Could it be a power outage?’ Wang Jiexi seriously thought. If it was a power outage, that meant Cool Autumn Breeze probably lived in a smaller town. After all, not every part of the country could be like B City, the capital.

Can’t the power outage wait until he finished his quest at least?

Wang Jiexi felt a throbbing headache coming. Fang Shiqian walked behind him and paused when he saw the rare sight of depressed Wang Jiexi.

“You good?” Fang Shiqian asked casually.

“I have been better,” Wang Jiexi said honestly.

“Why? Cool Autumn Breeze does not know how to solve it also?” Fang Shiqian asked in concern. What about the promised privilege then?

“No, I just talked to him and he sounded to be really knowledgable about this,” Wang Jiexi responded. “It’s just, he suddenly went offline.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. He just suddenly disappeared, maybe a power outage,” Wang Jiexi murmured.

“You sure that’s not on purpose?” Fang Shiqian said doubtfully.

“Why would he do that on purpose when he can just reject me outright?” Wang Jiexi asked in confusion.

Fang Shiqian shrugged. “Trolling?”

“...” Wang Jiexi shook his head. “I don’t think he’s the type to play that low.”

“Um? You wasted three hours on an errand the first time to get that key?” Fang Shiqian crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow.

“But he gave me the key in the end,” Wang Jiexi said.

Fang Shiqian gave up. “So, what’s your next plan?”

“I...” Wang Jiexi wanted to say he’d wait for Cool Autumn Breeze to come back but realized that was not a good step at all. “I’ll go to the Town of Gold.”

“Something there according to the guy?” Fang Shiqian tilted his head.

“There should be,” Wang Jiexi said.

“Alright. Guys! We’re going to the Town of Gold to scout around there!” Fang Shiqian announced to the others with a clap of his hand. “Pick up your pace, our deadline is three days.”

One Autumn Leaf: So, how’s Wang Jiexi? @Vaccaria about the seat. I’m really curious. You guys didn’t divulge anything after you got the key, what a bunch of stingy people. Old Han would never.

Scene Killer: I agree with Ye Qiu. Wang Jiexi, be more kind and tell us your progress so we could break through our bottleneck of investigation.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: T_T I’m giving up the search, everything I thought as a lead turned out to be trashes.

Vaccaria: I haven’t made that much progress.

Boundless Sea: Really?

One Autumn Leaf: Why do I doubt that?

Vaccaria: Don’t you think the system would have announced it if I already attained the seat?

Scene Killer: Want to pass off the key to someone else? :)

Vaccaria: No.

Wind Guard: Ffs, this feature is a headache. Why can’t we just trail-blaze it like how we always do as a pro player?

Desert Dust: This feature encourages players to see things from another perspective.

Wind Guard: But Old Hannnnnnnnn. We play games basically because we have a short attention span on written details that is not about fighting, they can’t just expect us to explore everything.

One Autumn Leaf: I agree. It’s getting a bit hard in researching the seat and snatching off new Wild Bosses. If you guys can just pick one, I’ll pick the other one.

Blossoming Chaos: @One Autumn Leaf f*ck off.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Yeah, f*ck off, Old Ye. You have no right to complain when you stole two Wild Bosses from Blossoms Valley this week alone.

Demon Subduer: @Vaccaria Do you need any help? Maybe I’ll keep my eyes around.

Vaccaria: Actually, I do. Can anyone help me to recognize a Star Map?

Desert Dust: Star map?

Scene Killer: What?

Cold Season: What do you mean by that?

Vaccaria: [Town of Gold. Coordinate.jpg]

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: ????

Vaccaria: For anyone that wants to help. I’ll pay you if Vaccaria does become a seat-holder.

One Autumn Leaf: You’re desperate, unlike yourself.

Desert Dust: Is there a deadline?

Wind Guard: There’s no deadline but the quests are really frustrating.

One Autumn Leaf: There IS a deadline, isn’t it? You want to lie to me and Old Han? Don’t you want face?

Wind Guard: Up to you to believe it or not.

Cold Season: You’re trying to play us because you’re currently the only one who has the key so no one can confirm it?

Swoksaar: So evil. So evil. So evil. Fang Shiqian, you’re quite shameless yourself. What will Lin Jie think of this?

Wind Guard: Shut the f*ck up, Fang Shijing. Aren’t you retired already?

Swoksaar: If there’s no deadline? Can I sabotage Vaccaria with Blue Brook then?

Angelica: Please, don’t.

One Autumn Leaf: Wonder what will happen :D

Swoksaar: :D

Angelica: Please, don’t. Can’t anyone hear me?

Boundless Sea: @Angelica No. But I do read you.

Angelica: ...

Swoksaar: Just kidding. I’m not going to be that childish to sabotage you.

Swoksaar: Unless...?

Wind Guard: [Midfing]

Swoksaar: You’re so easy to incite. Don’t worry, I already have a lot to think of with my family’s two new rookies.

“Cool Autumn Breeze.”

Ye Qiu stopped Cool Autumn Breeze’s movement and slowly turned around to see Desert Dust running towards him. “Hello, fighter. It’s been a long time.”

“Yes. I’m going to keep it short. The quest to get the seat has a deadline?”

“Not for me, no,” Ye Qiu answered simply.

“So Vaccaria does have a time limit?” Desert Dust asked again.

“Yes. It should be because of the nepotism,” Ye Qiu said. “His deadline is ten days.”

“I see,” Desert Dust murmured. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“Here I am protecting the information regarding the deadline, all Han Wenqing needs to do is to walk up to the guy and ask.”

Another new avatar joined their conversation, a Paladin with Herb Garden symbol above his head.

“Withholding information is not going to help anyone,” Desert Dust mentioned.

“It certainly helps us from prying people,” the Paladin, Wind Guard, said. “Cool Autumn Breeze, can we still ask your help?”

“Who are you?” Ye Qiu asked in confusion.

“Vaccaria’s teammate,” Desert Dust supplied.

“Aah,” Ye Qiu made a noise of realization. “Right. I did promise to help yesterday. Where’s Vaccaria?”

“Follow me,” Wind Guard said. “We’ve spent the whole day loitering around Town of Gold but finds nothing,” he signaled.

“Maybe you don’t search hard enough.”

“How hard do you usually search?” Wind Guard challenged.

“Hard. Until I got the seat.” Ye Qiu said with a hint of disdain.

“...You know what, I can’t argue with that...” Wind Guard said begrudgingly. “Since you bailed on us yesterday, now our deadline is two days left. Frankly, I don’t feel too confident in it, but it’s a waste to give up now.”

“If the mind is already negative, the result can’t be positive,” Ye Qiu stated idly. “Just leave it to me.”

“If you can make this work, you’ll be our team’s lifetime benefactor.”

“Am I not already?” Ye Qiu asked. “I gave you the key, it’s not my fault you can’t use it. I’m already nice enough to give you a chance.”

“...You know I always think Wang Jiexi is overboard in describing you as extremely hard to please.”

“Who’s Wang Jiexi?”

“He’s... You know what, let’s stop this here. If Vaccaria can be the Council’s Witch, I’ll be your slave for as long as you want. I’ll f*cking role-play for you, even be your dog. Let’s stop talking here because I’m feeling under pressure.”

“No way...”

“What?” Wind Guard paused. “You don’t want me to be your slave? Huh? I’m not ser—“

“You’re in Heavenly Domain?!” Ye Qiu exclaimed in disbelief but also delight as Cool Autumn Breeze looked forward to a certain character running their ways.

Desert Dust and Wind Guard turned to see a Brawler approaching, he was dressed in an eccentric way with equipments that were in no way impressive but eye-catching.

“Your friend?” Wind Guard asked.

“ROAR!!!”

Both Wind Guard and Desert Dust stood rooted in their places as Cool Autumn Breeze went forward to welcome the Brawler.

“How do you do?” Ye Qiu asked affectionately.

“GROAR!!!”

“Indeed, I’m so proud of you,” Ye Qiu smiled. “You should be among the rare animals to ever earn enlightenment.”

Wind Guard and Desert Dust stared at the Brawler’s name. I’m A Bear...

“Someone from the fourth server?” Desert Dust asked calmly.

“Oh, yes. This is bear—“

“GROAR!!!”

“He’s my royal bear,” Ye Qiu explained.

Another recorded roaring followed after Ye Qiu’s short explanation.

“...Does he only... growl?” Wind Guard asked.

“ROAR! ROAR!!!”

“Just... what is inside the fourth server?” Wind Guard said in astonishment.

“He’s the fourth server’s strongest bear,” Ye Qiu said.

“...There are more?” Wind Guard said incredulously.

(<I’m A Bear> The Strongest Bear in Fourth Realm. A Bear that has a revolutionary idea involving brick for the future of its race. Hates Wolves. Likes Fishes. After being saved from drowning by Cool Autumn Breeze, he becomes Cool Autumn Breeze’s royal bear. Has a history with circus and will turn ballistic when hearing the word ‘circus’.)

A Speechbubble appeared above I’m A Bear’s head, containing his short history and like dislike.

“f*ck they have a description box too?!” Wind Guard exclaimed.

(Further Information: Read; RP-4GLORY;;;I’mABear)

“I don’t need that!” Wind Guard exclaimed.

“Wang Jiexi, it’s forfeit. I don’t think we can ask a lunatic like Cool Autumn Breeze to help us at all,” Fang Shiqian took off his headphone and declared.

“You found him?” Wang Jiexi perked up. “Have you asked him to come to Town of Gold?”

“I have. But let’s not have a high expectation,” Fang Shiqian said.

“Just bring him here.” Wang Jiexi didn’t care.

Wang Jiexi opted to not get distracted by the bear-dressed avatar who could only roar menacingly at people by Cool Autumn Breeze’s side. Instead, he was more focused in the Battle Mage who stood by the clock tower while staring blankly at the dark night sky of Town of Gold.

“Hmm, it should be the Gate of Hell Ruins map,” Cool Autumn Breeze finally stated.

“Gate of Hell Ruins?” Wang Jiexi asked nervously.

“Yeah, it should be. The outline matches. Also, from your notes and the lore, there’s some connection between the Witch of West and the Witch of East. I heard the king of hell was the guardian of Witch of East.”

“Alright, I’ll go there,” Wang Jiexi said. There was no harm in checking it out. Besides, Wang Jiexi had run out of ideas on how to proceed.

“I’ll go with you since it’s obvious you can’t do it without me,” Cool Autumn Breeze said.

“I’ll go too.”

Wang Jiexi sweated a little hearing that statement coming from Desert Dust.

“You don’t have to,” Wang Jiexi said.

“I want to.”

Wang Jiexi forgot just how stubborn top-players from Pioneer Generation could be.

“Old Han, can we negotiate?” Fang Shiqian tried.

“I’m not going to sabotage anyone,” Han Wenqing said calmly. “I’m just here for my own research for Tyranny.”

“My, how studious of you, fighter,” Cool Autumn Breeze said. “Very good. It’s time to break the stereotype that fighter class like Striker only know how to throw a punch.”

“GROWL... GROAR!!!”

“Of course, my bear over here is studying architecture while being a Brawler himself,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly as if he wasn’t comparing the King of Fighting with his ridiculous role-player online friend.

To prove a point that Wang Jiexi wasn’t sure what, I’m A Bear tossed a brick that landed flat in front of Vaccaria.

“Atta boy,” Cool Autumn Breeze crooned.

“Roar...!” I’m A Bear glowered in a pleased manner—f*ck, Wang Jiexi was losing his mind in his stress, did he just insinuate in his mind that he could hear a tone of pleasure in that nonsensical glowers?

For the first time in forever, Wang Jiexi began doubting the worthiness of being the Council’s Witch compared to his own sanity.

Luckily, before Wang Jiexi had any second thought, Cool Autumn Breeze exclaimed.

“Alright, let’s set out to our destination!”

“We better make it to make this worth it,” Fang Shiqian swore.

There was a time in the olden time where Witches were hunted for their peculiarity and wickedness. In reality, just like normal humans, there were good witches and bad witches. However, humans always fear differences. Witchcraft became the art of devils. Numerous people fell victim to slanders and countless Witches lost their lives along with many other normal humans who got involved in the crossfire.

Countless Witches reached for the sky, begging for mercy and the release out of their misery. Many lost their faith and even the Witches began to believe their art was the art of the devils and abandoned the thought of salvation. Instead, they turned to the greatest Witches of the time. The Four Witches. North, the Witch of Ice and Silence. South, the Witch of Fire and Destruction. West, the Witch of Metal and Transformation. East, the Witch of Wind and Rebirth.

But there was always a catch for having such great power. One by one, they succumb to the emptiness in their heart, driven to insanity by their own inability to achieve complete peace with their existence. A war happened between three Great Witches and it was won by the Witch of West.

Witch of West was not happy, however. He worked hard for years to slowly change the outlook of humans towards Witches, but one wrong slip and he was back to step zero. Heartbroken, he contacted the Witch of East who had opted to not be involved in the war, and ask her to kill him and let him be reborn.

To a world where Witches would no longer be discriminated against. To the world where Witches could live in the light and not hiding in the darkness. The world where people of the art of devils like them could converse with the people of God and work together for the prosperity of humans as a whole.

Witch of East accepted his plea but with the condition that he wouldn’t be a Witch or a powerful being in the next life. Upon his death, the power of the Greatest Witch was in Witch of East’s hands, she could easily rule the world with it but she opted to hide it away for someone who was worthy.

Witch of East had lost her many friends. She once again reached for the sky, but not for salvation to come from heaven. Instead, she moved the stars, using her life force, she re-painted the sky to show a map that could be visible and complete when you see it from Town of Gold, her old friend’s home.

Witch of East lost her life soon, leaving behind a bitter message.

‘We lived like royalty before emptiness consumes us. I might be able to withstand it until now, but I don’t want to end like thus. There comes peace in the future of which I cannot oversee. For the great Witch of the future, I wish thee glory.’

“Witches are really dramatic,” Ye Qiu commented when Vaccaria was done narrating. “Why are they so eager to die?” he asked curiously.

“I have no idea,” Vaccaria said honestly.

“It’s full of melodrama...”

“Yeah...” Even the others from Vaccaria’s team agreed.

“Well, they were hunted and killed unfairly. I guess that amount of angst is warranted?” there were several other murmurs that agreed with that statement, covering up for the Witches.

“Okay, so we’re done with that. What else?” Wind Guard asked fervently. “How’s the progress, Jiexi?”

“Seventy-one percent.”

“That much?”

“Well, you just unlocked the melodramatic history,” Ye Qiu commented. “So the Witch of West must have been the previous owner of the Magic Castle of Witches. At least we know the previous owner now...”

“I have a question, tho. Why did the Witches have elements?” Angelica asked. “Aren’t Witch’s specialty potions? I get Ice and air, but Fire? Isn’t that Elementalist’s specialty?”

“That’s because Witches from that time ended up descending from West’s art,” Ye Qiu said disdainfully. “West is Metal and Transformation. Nowadays’ Witches used the power of transformation to make potions... Or maybe one day someone will make a groundbreaking discovery by breaking through their limit and finding a fire in themselves.”

“...Oh, you mean another update?” Someone asked reluctantly and Ye Qiu ignored him.

“Anyway, since we’ve learned about the main problem in history, things will go easier from this point onward,” Ye Qiu said. “Come on, there should be some loot around here.”

Cool Autumn Breeze is a miracle worker, Tiny Herb couldn’t possibly argue with that statement.

The quests that made the captain and vice-captain hopeless were solved just like that in an easy manner. They breezed through the quests with so few pauses in between.

Even when there was a monster-killing quest, it was done swiftly by everyone and Desert Dust who didn’t want to stay too far. Cool Autumn Breeze? He was just in charge of reading the lore and directing the team. Everyone was too ashamed to ask him to do anything else since he was the very backbone of the quests and they could make any progress regarding the Council’s Witch’s mission solely because of him.

Finally, with only a few hours left of the deadline, Vaccaria exchanged the Cursed Key with a box containing a Witch’s Hat.

[Awaken Magic Castle?] <Yes> <Not Yet>

Wang Jiexi did not hesitate.

DING!

[Congratulations to Vaccaria for being the Master of Magic Castle.]

[System: One of the Twenty-four Seats of Holy Council Has Been Filled. Congratulations to the Great Hero of Witch: Vaccaria.]

“Finally!” Fang Shiqian broke down.

“We did it! We did it!”

“Those ten days of nightmare!”

“f*ck those riddles!”

“God, thank you for your mercy!”

“MOM! I can finally go home with peace!”

“Vaccaria is the one who became a part of the council but why am I the one feeling so happy? Damn, I feel like I’m marrying off a son!”

“All ends well,” Cool Autumn Breeze said cooly.

“Right,” Han Wenqing responded.

“Thank you,” Wang Jiexi thanked the two guests sincerely. “I won’t be able to do it without you. Cool Autumn Breeze, Senior Han also...”

“No need. I’m not here purely to help,” Han Wenqing said honestly.

“I know, but you did help,” Wang Jiexi said. “Cool Autumn Breeze, if there’s anything you need, I’ll give it to you.”

“Where’s my dog?”

“Pardon?”

“COUGH! COUGH!!!” Fang Shiqian choked.

One Autumn Leaf: Congratulations! @Vaccaria I see the system notif. So it all works out in the end, huh?

Swoksaar: :< I was planning to drop by to play with you guys today but now it won’t be fun.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Congratulations Tiny Herb! Damn, I’m jealous.

Boundless Sea: @Vaccaria Lucky bastard.

Screen Killer: @Vaccaria Why don’t you release a Wild Boss to celebrate *wink wink* You have a Wild Boss, right?

Vaccaria: @Screen Killer I do.

One Autumn Leaf: Release it

Boundless Sea: Release it +1

Demon Subduer: Release it +2

Blossoming Chaos: Release it +3

Cold Season: Release it +4

Cloud Piercer: Release it +5

Tide: Release it +6

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Release it +7

Swoksaar: Release it +8

Vaccaria: Sure. I’ll do it in a bit.

One Autumn Leaf: You’re really in a good mood ^v^

Boundless Sea: Thank you in advance.

Vaccaria: How could I not be in a good mood?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Hahaha, just don’t rub it in our faces.

Demon Subduer: Where’s Shiqian? He usually has one or two things to say about sharing resources.

Angelica: Uhh, vice-captain is currently busy.

Demon Subduer: ???

Desert Dust: Being a loudmouth finally has a consequence for him.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: I’m smelling gossips.

Cold Season: What happened?

Swoksaar: ???

One Autumn Leaf: @Wind Guard

One Autumn Leaf: @Wind Guard Old Fang, someone insulted Lin Jie

Swoksaar: f*ck Tiny Herb’s Captain Lin.

Demon Subduer: Impossible.

Swoksaar: Ikr?! That never failed before!

Vaccaria: He won’t be able to answer for quite a while.

Demon Subduer: Why?

Vaccaria: He’s taking one for the team.

Angelica: A heart-moving sacrifice.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Well, now I’m very curious. What kind of sacrifice?

Vaccaria: The kind that I’m willing to let him make.

One Autumn Leaf: Aah, there’s no better sacrifice than another’s sacrifice. I see you’re learning how to be shameless, Big-eyed Wang.

Desert Dust: It was deserving too.

Demon Subduer: Shiqian, there’s no one in your side. *incense burning*

“Bear! You’re in Heavenly Domain!”

“Welcome!”

“Groar!”

“I need you guys to watch over Bear for a while,” Ye Qiu said to the group of role-players who stuck to each other for the sake of having fun.

“Aye, aye, your highness! But why?” Harder Daddy asked.

“I’m going home for a few months, there’s a problem in the kingdom,” Ye Qiu said bluntly.

“Gasp! Did something happen? The little royal princess is fine, right?”

“She’s fine and will help me regarding it. So take care of Bear while I’m gone,” Ye Qiu said.

“Sigh, I miss princess Colourful Jade. I hope things will get better.”

“I’ll try to bring her back to Glory once our problem ends,” Ye Qiu said.

“Really? Yay!”

“So, are you going to stop playing today?” slu*tty Summer asked seriously with no hint of his usual exaggerating raspy voice.

“Hm, almost. I need to investigate some other things for a few days,” Ye Qiu said. The things those people from Herb Garden said regarding Witches and Elementalists made him feel piqued. He might find the next key of Mage class, Elementalist, if he followed the track in his mind.

His cousin’s avatar was an Elementalist, so it might be worth it to drag her back to play with him sometimes.

“Okay! We won’t hold you back!” Cotton Heart said.

“Thanks. Take care of yourself!” Ye Qiu kindly said and Cool Autumn Breeze left without looking back once.

[System: Congratulations to Cool Autumn Breeze <Battle Mage> for his dedication to reviving the lost knowledge of the other class and attained the right to crown the next successor of Berserker’s Arena- the Seat of Berserker.]

[System to Cool Autumn Breeze: Because you’re a Battle Mage, you can’t inherit the seat. Give the key to Blood Arena to a Berserker you trust and let them do the Quests of Berserker]

[New Title!: <The Temporary Owner of Blood Arena> Will Disappear Once You Choose a Berserker to be the Real owner of Blood Arena.]

[Attained! Key of Berserker’s Blood Arena <Bloody Skeleton Key> that can only be used by Berserkers. Don’t hold onto it too long and pass it to a worthy Berserker, if that Berserker succeeded in the Quests of Berserker, you’ll also receive a reward for assisting them!]

“...This is not Elementalist’s key,” Ye Qiu murmured. “It’s not even a Mage’s key...” Berserker did not even rely on magic!

Ye Qiu massaged his temple as he felt cold sweat forming on his back because... he spent four days for this? He spent hours wanting to throw up from following a few hollow trails risking the deadline of several of his work... for this? How did he get a Berserker’s key by following Elemetalist’s track? Did he take an odd turn somewhere?

Creak

“Young master cousin, these are the proposals and documents you were asking.” The fed-up voice of his intern cousin filled Ye Qiu’s ears and he took off his headphone.

“Put it here.” Ye Qiu logged off Glory immediately. He’d think later about Elementalist’s key, three months later.

Chapter 5: Berserker: Second Mission

Chapter Text

Wind Guard: LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO!!!

Wind Guard: My condolences to every Berserker here, LMAO

Wind Guard: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Wind Guard: I’ll be sitting here, enjoying your misery. To @Berserker good luck.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Hey, can’t you at least share some info about the guy?

Wind Guard: What? You want tips?

Blossoming Chaos: If possible.

Wind Guard: Well, aside that you guys are f*cked. The guy is a serious RPer, you guys need to act like you didn’t live in real life while talking to him. And don’t promise him anything ridiculous. The bastard is petty.

Desert Dust: Don’t be a loudmouth like Fang Shiqian.

Swoksaar: Lmao.

Vaccaria: I would advise the same as Fang Shiqian. Follow his lead in role-playing or he’ll waste your time until you did.

Blossoming Chaos: Anything else?

Vaccaria: Idk. Feed his ego, I suppose? You’ve seen the video from Tyranny. He role-plays as a prince.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Ok, got it.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: @Blossoming Chaos Pick your role. Are you a traveler searching for the true meaning of victory with his amazing Spitfire partner or a bodyguard to a Spitfire that is originally a young master of a ruined household?

Blossoming Chaos: What?

Sun Zheping sighed as he craned his neck and cracked it. He already asked the guild department to keep an eye on every corner of Heavenly Domain they could reach to inform him when Cool Autumn Breeze appeared.

Sun Zheping didn’t actually like doing this, but for the title and the privilege that came with it... He’d do his best. It was just his luck it had to be through someone else, although searching for the clues himself was hard, he much preferred it than relying on someone else to give him the key.

“Okay, when we meet him, if he wouldn’t already arrange another contest like the Witch one, let me do the talking,” Zhang Jiale dropped to sit beside him and arranged their plan. “You just need to say ‘yes’ or agree with me heroically.”

“Fine.”

“If what Wang Jiexi warned happened, just do the quest he gave without many questions and dramatize it if possible.”

“Mm.”

“If he asks you who you really are, you can just introduce yourself as the ‘Blood General’? It’s better to introduce yourself separately from Blood Blossoms title.”

“Blood General?” Sun Zheping repeated in disbelief.

“That’s one of your internet nicknames,” Zhang Jiale said. “Don’t complain. It’s better than my ‘Magic Marksman’ or ‘Dazzling Bullets’.”

“f*ck that,” Sun Zheping groaned. “Ugh, fine. Blood General it is.”

“You have to remember all of this, we don’t want to waste our time like Tiny Herb and Wang Jiexi did,” Zhang Jiale said.

“I hear you.”

“Now, we can just wait till he shows up,” Zhang Jiale said cheerfully. “If he wants to do another contest, I’ll just leave it to you.” After all, Sun Zheping was the current number one Berserker, Zhang Jiale was not really concerned if he was to be in a contest. Like Wang Jiexi, he could sweep clean his rivals in a matter of time. But they wouldn’t be able to do anything against Cool Autumn Breeze so better play into his game rather than not.

“Yes, when he shows up,” Sun Zheping agreed.

“There really hasn’t been any movement for the past week?” Sun Zheping furrowed his brows.

“There really isn’t.”

“Well, it’s impossible for our whole guild to cover an entire Heavenly Domain,” one team member said logically.

Zhang Jiale crossed his arms. “Don’t we have anyone from our guild that’s friends with him?”

“Maybe we do, but... They’re outsiders...” What the guild leader meant by ‘outsiders’ were people who were in the guilds but only casually in the guild. They could never be organized professionally and most of the time never accepted any real-life gatherings.

“Have you asked them?”

“Captain Sun, they’re a bit hard to be interrogated, most of them came from the fourth server,” the guild leader said helplessly.

“What about it?” Sun Zheping shook his head.

“How about I bring the fourth server’s guild leader here instead?”

“...???”

“Alright, we’ll wait.” Zhang Jiale nodded.

The team went ahead and resumed their training for two hours before the guild leader returned bringing a youth with a sweet smile.

“Captain, vice-captain, everyone. This is Ling Xu, the fourth server’s guild leader,” the guild leader introduced.

“Nice to meet you all. I’m a big fan,” Ling Xu waved cheerfully. “Can I have your signature? I’ll hang it in my bedroom for—“

The guild leader pushed the youth’s head down to stop him from vibrating in excitement. “He can tell you about the fourth server.”

Zhang Jiale smiled at the youth. “Hello, I’ll give you a signature later. Can we ask about the fourth server?”

“Of course!” Ling Xu beamed. “What do you wanna know?”

“Cool Autumn Breeze,” Sun Zheping replied.

“Oooh?” Ling Xu tilted his head. “One of the princes we have in the server. He’s also the fourth server’s strongest. What about him?”

“You see, we need him for something, but we rarely see him lately. We are wondering if we have any Blossoms Valley’s members that are friends with him to confirm our suspicion regarding his online time.”

“Oh,” Ling Xu frowned. “A lot of people wanted to be friends with him, but not a lot succeeded. He’s quite a loner but that’s what makes him attractive to others. I think some outsiders like Agdar Of Methisla, Leaning Peach Tree, Bard In-Training, and Pink Curtain are friends with him.”

“Can you ask them?” Zhang Jiale asked as he reached for a mousepad with Dazzling Hundred Blossoms and Blossoming Chaos printed on it and then reached for a permanent marker.

“I can’t promise that they are, though,” Ling Xu said. “But I’ll do my best to see our connections.”

“It’s fine,” Zhang Jiale passed the mousepad and marker to Sun Zheping.

“Then, I’ll report back as soon as possible!” Ling Xu saluted.

“Thank you,” Zhang Jiale beamed and handed him the mousepad. “For you.”

“Thank you, vice-captain, captain!”

With that, the youth left with little jumps in his step.

“He’s quite young,” Sun Zheping commented. “How old?”

“Seventeen...” The guild leader sighed.

“We’re hiring underaged teens now?” Sun Zheping arched an eyebrow.

“We initially installed someone much older to be the guild leader of the fourth server but... he couldn’t adapt with the server and got overthrown,” the guild leader said helplessly.

“Overthrown...?” Zhang Jiale blinked.

“He wasn’t exactly a role-player,” the guild leader said. “And the members became dissatisfied and demanded a change. Ling Xu is quite popular within the fourth server’s branch so we don’t have any choice but to give the position to him unless we want an outsider to do it...”

“How could that happen?” Zhang Jiale asked incredulously. This was the first time he ever heard of a guild leader being overthrown! They usually stepped back, not stripped out of it!

“We called it fourth server’s magic,” the guild leader said hopelessly.

They got news back three days later.

“Vice-captain, I managed to make someone talk,” Ling Xu waved.

Zhang Jiale smiled in amusem*nt. “Manage? What did you have to do to make them talk?”

“Well, I gave him all the pink dyes and materials in our store. Senior is quite upset but it’s necessary.”

“Pink dyes and materials? Why?” Zhang Jiale blinked.

“Because it’s Pink Curtain. He’s infamous in Fourth Server for only wearing pink equipment and weapons. He spent most of his time in the blacksmith, trying to dye his everything pink,” Ling Xu said. “So I bribed him with the materials so he doesn’t have to go out and gather them all painfully.”

“I...see...” Zhang Jiale wondered how many interesting personalities like Pink Curtain in the fourth server. From Ling Xu’s tone, he didn’t seem to be too weirded out by it?

“Pink Curtain said that Cotton Heart told him that Cool Autumn Breeze decided to take a break from exploring Glory because there’s a problem in his kingdom.”

“What does that mean?”

Ling Xu shrugged. “Usually we gave random excuses just simply to say we’re taking a break. Maybe he’s busy in real life?”

“You hear that Big Sun?” Zhang Jiale turned to his partner.

Sun Zheping spun his chair to look at Ling Xu. “So he really hasn’t been online lately?”

“Yes,” Ling Xu nodded.

Sun Zheping hummed thoughtfully. “Okay, thanks for your hard work.”

“Aye, please excuse me, captain, vice-captain.”

When the door was closed, Zhang Jiale turned to Sun Zheping who stared blankly into space.

“You don’t think he stops playing, right?” Sun Zheping asked pessimistically.

“...Let’s not be negative first,” Zhang Jiale said.

“Is there any rule that says anything about winning a key and then stops going online altogether?” Sun Zheping asked seriously. “Because if there isn’t, I’m going to have a talk with the developers.”

“Let’s wait first,” Zhang Jiale said hastily.

“That will shut him up,” Ye Qiu glowered coldly as he tossed aside his blazer and plopped on the extra-soft sofa in his office.

“Good work, boss,” Yang Qing closed the door lifelessly.

“Also, who is that balding old fat guy who said that I could make more profit if I snatch the chance this month to make the second branch?” Ye Qiu asked.

“Please be specific. We have a lot of balding old fat guy.”

“The one with a tacky gold watch.”

“Aah, that should be Tao Mujin, a board director with four percent share and your old man’s friend in college.”

“I want him out,” Ye Qiu said. “I don’t care how. Take away the share in his hand before the end of the year. I don’t want a naggy person that has narrow eyesight in the seat that could talk randomly to me, the CEO.”

“We can buy it...” Yang Qing said unsurely.

“Don’t make any loss,” Ye Qiu said coldly.

Yang Qing nodded. “There’s a dead land we had that looks profitable.”

“Arrange it.” Ye Qiu loosened his tie. “Where’s Xiao Lin?”

“Should be in the emotion chamber,” Yang Qing said. “She cried a lot lately and the place is a mess... with disemboweled plushies...”

“I didn’t give her any overtime order for a week, though?”

“It’s college.”

“Aaah...” Ye Qiu sighed and put a cushion behind him before leaning back comfortably. “Tomorrow should be the final step, right?”

“Yes, boss. I must congratulate you in advance for your far vision and the good future of the project, after all, we have gained so much support for the last few months. This project is guaranteed a smooth sail.”

“This is only the beginning.” Ye Qiu shook his head. “But we did pass the first critical stage. Let’s celebrate.”

“Shall I prepare a cruise ship or rent out a five-stars hotel?” Yang Qing inquired.

“Xiao Lin will spend the entire time miserable on a cruise ship and the weather lately is not really pretty,” Ye Qiu said. “Hotel is boring too. I don’t want that kind of celebration.”

“Then...?” Yang Qing tilted his head.

“Let’s celebrate by not contacting each other for the whole weekend, I’ll give you all bonuses,” Ye Qiu said.

‘You’re paying me to not disturb you?’ Yang Qing nodded dumbly. “I will arrange it, boss...” he said awkwardly.

“Call Xiao Lin over, tell her I’ll give her money.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Captain!”

“What?” Sun Zheping swiveled his seat.

“Cool Autumn Breeze is sighted!”

“What?!” Sun Zheping exclaimed.

“He’s online?!” Zhang Jiale gasped.

“Why today?” Sun Zheping asked incredulously. Today was Hundred Blossoms’ home game! “That guy left for an entire summer and only returned when the season started?” not only that, he chose to return on a game day!

“Calm down, Big Sun, let’s focus on the game first,” Zhang Jiale said as he wiped his forehead. At last, the person they’d been waiting for was finally here, but they needed to focus on the match today rather than anything else. “At least now he’s online, we can pursue him later.”

“Let’s finish this early,” Sun Zheping growled.

When they finished their match with a victory against a mid-tier team. The team rushed back and checked if Cool Autumn Breeze was still online. When Sun Zheping saw Cool Autumn Breeze was still online from his spies, he dove straight into the game with Blossoming Chaos.

The Heavenly Domain was in shock when they learned of the Blood Blossoms going online, didn’t they just finish a game? What are they doing here?

Blossoms Valley was already ready, though. They all shielded their top players from casual fans and told them the location of Cool Autumn Breeze.

It took a while but the Blossoms Duo finally found Cool Autumn Breeze standing in the Prairie Of Princess Xinghe.

The surrounding area was surrounded by tall hills, making this particular area somewhat dark but the dandelions growing in it glowed like stars, every step they took here would incite the puffy flowers to let go of its sparkling fluff and let them drift in the wind. Usually, Wild Boss level 55 the Flower Spirit would spawn here along with its other three most-common spawn point.

The two partners stopped a few paces behind Cool Autumn Breeze. Dandelions’ puffs dancing in the air around them, creating a scene out of dream and drama.

“Say something,” Zhang Jiale DM-whispered to Blossoming Chaos.

“Cool Autumn Breeze,” Sun Zheping called out.

Zhang Jiale cleared his throat. “We’ve been looking for you.”

“You’re disturbing me,” Ye Qiu frowned as he opened his eyes, still laying on the bed lazily.

“Disturbing? What are you doing?”

“Listening to the sound of nature,” Ye Qiu sat up and walked up to his computer. He had Cool Autumn Breeze turn around to see a Berserker and a Spitfire.

“...BGM?” Blossoming Chaos asked.

“Shut up,” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms hissed. “Sorry for disturbing you, but we have a business with you.”

“You want the key?” Ye Qiu asked lazily.

“Yes,” Blossoming Chaos said confidently.

“What’s so great about you that you think you’re worthy of the key?” Ye Qiu asked haughtily.

“Then, how do you want me to prove it?” Blossoming Chaos shot back.

“Hmm...” Ye Qiu hummed. He had half a mind to send him on errands all over Heavenly Domain like what he did to Vaccaria, but at that time, Ye Qiu didn’t have anything better to do and he enjoyed tormenting the non-role-player like Vaccaria. He was not in the mood for that now.

Ye Qiu recalled something and nodded.

“I wanted to open another competition initially, but seeing you’re the first Berserker to seek out for me and so early at that, I’m moved by your determination. So, let’s do this. Bring me three unique and rare drops of the Council’s Witch’s imprisoned Wild Boss, I’ll give the key to you.”

“The Council’s Witch? You mean Vaccaria’s?” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms asked. “The Wild Boss he has the authority to set free?”

“Yes. If you could bring me three unique and rare drops from it, I’ll consider giving you the key. Bring them to me and I’ll choose the three items I like.” Ye Qiu smiled, astonished by his own genius.

“That’s it...?” Blossoming Chaos asked.

“Yes. You have to win it yourself, though. I know the council’s Witch, if I find out you guys cheat by buying them, I’ll delete you from the choice of candidates.” Ye Qiu added.

That made the problem much harder than before but at least it was a clear goal. The two seemed to be in an agreement as they turned towards each other.

“Alright, I’ll do it,” Blossoming Chaos said. “But if another Berserker comes to you, will they have the same challenge?”

“Already looking out for rivals?” Ye Qiu smiled leisurely.

“Your challenge will significantly be more difficult and relies on luck if that’s the case,” Blossoming Chaos said. “I’d like to be thorough.”

“No,” Ye Qiu said.

“No?”

“I’ve told you. You’re the first Berserker to reach out to me after I left for my kingdom for months. You have proven to me that you’re determined to win this and that’s amazing. For now, you’re my only candidate, so don’t disappoint me.”

“What?” The two seemed to be in shock.

“Of course, I also have limited patience, so you better make some progress before I change my mind,” Ye Qiu said bluntly. “Don’t worry, when I change my mind, I’ll announce it in World Channel.”

“Fine. Just wait, don’t pull out of your promise,” Blossoming Chaos said seriously.

“Berserker, I’m the tower master of Soaring Watch Tower, you can hold onto my words.”

Blossoming Chaos: @Vaccaria When’s the next time you’ll release your Wild Boss?

Vaccaria: The cooldown ends in two days, why?

Blossoming Chaos: Release it immediately after the cooldown. I want to kill it.

One Autumn Leaf: Very bold of you to think you’ll kill it. Excellent Era will have that boss. Again.

Troubling Rain: BLUE BROOK WILL!!! We’ll win that boss this time! Like hell, I’m giving any of you another chance to win it!

Screen Killer: For a guild who never won it, you sure are confident. @Troubling Rain

Troubling Rain: Blue Brook almost won it last week, this week will be in our luck, I’ll do it myself.

Wind Guard: f*ck off. That Wild Boss belongs to Herb Garden, have some shame. This week will belong to us.

Immovable Rock: I’m actually thinking we from Tyranny could use some materials from it.

Vaccaria: Children, another argument and you’ll only see the boss in a month.

Angelica: Really hard to be Wang Jiexi and being so important like this. [Vaccaria in sunglasses]

Swoksaar: Why so sudden, though? Senior @Blossoming Chaos

Blossoming Chaos: Do I need to answer all your questions?

Swoksaar: You don’t have to.

One Autumn Leaf: You have to if it’s my question. Now, my question. Why are you suddenly so determined about that boss? @Blossoming Chaos

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: We’ll just tell you guys. You guys know Cool Autumn Breeze is finally online, right?

Boundless Sea: He is?

Peaceful Hermit: He is...?

Desert Dust: I’ve heard of it.

Wind Guard: Oh wow, when?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: The first sighting is about three hours ago.

One Autumn Leaf: Did you guys make it a habit to do a guild inspection at night?

Blossoming Chaos: No. But it’s a special order when it comes to Cool Autumn Breeze.

One Autumn Leaf: I know. You and Jiale acted like hopeful wives waiting for their military husband’s glorious return for months now. But Old Han?

Desert Dust: One of the high-ranking guild members saw him and told me about it when he submitted his late report to the RnD while I was there.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Who’s acting like a hopeful wife?!

Blossoming Chaos: f*ck off @One Autumn Leaf

Vaccaria: Back to the topic, please. Why do you need my Wild Boss and how Cool Autumn Breeze fits into this?

Blossoming Chaos: He gave me a mission. He told me to kill the Council’s Witch’s Wild Boss and bring him three unique and rare drops of it.

Wind Guard: Oh wow, that’s an impossible mission if you’re not a player with an entire guild’s power.

Vaccaria: I see. Good luck.

Desert Dust: That’s it? That means every high-ranking Berserker could very well do it.

Blossoming Chaos: No. He said I’m his only candidate presently.

Vaccaria: You should have won the competition, right?

Demon Subduer: Weird, if he’s as open as the previous one, I would have known it by now.

Blossoming Chaos: It’s complicated.

One Autumn Leaf: I see, I wish you good luck, Old Sun. But that doesn’t mean Excellent Dynasty will step back and let you have the Wild Boss easily.

Troubling Rain: I said, I will do it myself with Troubling Rain to kill that boss, even if it’s you Senior Sun, I will not give it to anyone.

Blossoming Chaos: This brat...

Windy Rain: This might be interesting to watch.

Wind Guard: Can’t help it. I’ll go incognito to safeguard it for Herb Garden.

Vaccaria: Everyone, settle down.

“Brother, you’re back!” slu*tty Summer squealed when he saw him. “We miss you!”

“I doubt you guys even remember me enough to miss me,” Ye Qiu said calmly. In reality, he rarely played with other people, sometimes it was easy to forget him.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re always in my mind,” slu*tty Summer moaned. “Great guru also sometimes asked about you, you didn’t tell him that you’ll take a break?”

“No,” Ye Qiu hummed. “Who told him to always avoid me?”

“Oh, thankfully! I thought you really stopped playing, my journey of enlightenment would have been in vain then!”

“Leaning Peach Tree?”

“Yes! She reached Heavenly Domain about two weeks after you took a break,” slu*tty Summer said.

“How’s your husband?” Ye Qiu asked amiably.

“Still refusing a divorce,” Leaning Peach Tree sighed dramatically. “He still thinks there’s an amber left to be re-ignited, but we all know it’s long gone since I flirted with my twelfth man, Fluttering Step. I’ve gone so far to Heavenly Domain just to avoid him.”

“Amazing,” Ye Qiu said sincerely.

“Of course! Also to meet you here, your highness~” Leaning Peach Tree said playfully.

“You know I’m not one for casual romance,” Ye Qiu said politely.

“That’s right, Peach Tree. You should let it go,” slu*tty Summer sighed. “Bear is not here currently. But I want to ask something, how’s the problem in your home kingdom?”

“All taken care of,” Ye Qiu said calmly.

“Then, the princess?”

“She’s going to be here after she attains her enlightenment.”

“Aww yes!” slu*tty Summer cheered.

“Well, well, I see my friend list doesn’t lie. You’re back!” another avatar came along, it was Harder Daddy.

“Hello to you too,” Ye Qiu looked at the frivolous avatar and still felt amused.

“Great guru thought that you’re gone for good. I told him that I believe you can take care the matter of your home kingdom and surely returns to announce your triumph and roam the Heavenly Domain again,” Harder Daddy sighed. “Since you’re here, why don’t you convince Great Guru to take me in as his student?”

“Student?”

“Don’t pretend to look surprised like that! I’ve been trying to be his student for months now, but he never even want to say my name.”

“No one ever wants to say your name,” Leaning Peach Tree mocked.

“Cheater, shut up.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” Ye Qiu said. “It’s been a while, I wonder what that guy is up to?”

“You’ll talk to him about me too?” Harder Daddy said hopefully.

“You know... When you said things so often, it will become a reality. We know Windward Formation still has an old wound regarding a disciple, he probably just doesn’t want to say it out loud, I’m sure in his heart you’re already his student.”

“Your highness...” Harder Daddy sniffed. “Thank you for your wisdom.”

Ye Qiu smiled. He was always happy to give Windward Formation a little bit of headache.

Vaccaria: @Blossoming Chaos Congrats on winning my Wild Boss.

Blossoming Chaos: Thanks.

Vaccaria: It’s nothing. I just want to ask, are you going to start the quest now?

Wind Guard: You’re metal if that’s the case.

Blossoming Chaos: ???

Vaccaria: Did you miss the memo?

Desert Dust: If you won over the key from someone else, you’ll have a time limit of ten days.

Blossoming Chaos: When did this get shared?

Demon Subduer: That’s why you back-read.

Endless Forest: Idiot.

One Autumn Leaf: That’s why you do things with your brain, don’t just go all offensive. This is the reason you lost in the previous season.

Blossoming Chaos: f*ck you, Ye Qiu.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Go f*ck yourself, Ye Qiu.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: But they’re right, Big Sun. There will be a deadline.

Blossoming Chaos: Why didn’t you tell me this?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: I failed to assume that you, being you, probably didn’t know it already.

Blossoming Chaos: ...

Sun Zheping opted to find Cool Autumn Breeze himself after he won the Wild Boss and was confident enough with his timing on the deadline.

Zhang Jiale was leading another troop to snatch a few other Wild Bosses since they were a bit behind in materials and Sun Zheping didn’t feel like being treated like a child that needed guardian everywhere he went even in a f*cking game.

While he was wandering alone, he met troops from Herb Garden and Vaccaria who asked him where he was going without troops. Sun Zheping told him to mind his own business and Wang Jiexi decided to tag along no matter how many warning attacks he unleashed on The Magician.

“You might want my insight?” Wang Jiexi offered.

“You’re lucky you’re the only member of the council in the Alliance.”

“I know,” Wang Jiexi answered earnestly. “I very much enjoy the privilege.” Frankly, Wang Jiexi felt like they owed him a thank. Imagine if the council’s Witch was anyone but him, imagine if it was Huang Shaotian... They would probably be frustrated to death. At least he didn’t ask much and only pull the ‘I won’t release the Wild Boss, just see’ card when they became too much unbearable.

Wang Jiexi handed the troops to another pro player from his team and told them to go off alone without him.

And so, Sun Zheping ditched a fussy guardian that was Zhang Jiale for a curious companion that was Wang Jiexi.

After checking with his intels, Sun Zheping finally located Cool Autumn Breeze with his party somewhere in the Southern Seaside.

“—besides in the meantime I'm just dreaming of tearing you apart!”

They saw Cool Autumn Breeze fighting a few monsters at the same time by the beach before a Brawler jumped into the bunch and started savagely hitting all the gathered monsters in the most reckless way.

“GROAR!!! AAARRRR!!!”

“I just got to get you out of the cage

I'm a young lovers rage

Gonna need a spark to ignite”

Several monsters were thrown into the air and Cool Autumn Breeze hit them all accurately without an effort, killing two and let the other one hit the ground.

Sun Zheping furrowed his brows and searched for someone who kept on singing while there was a slaughter nearby.

“All the writers keep writing what they write

Somewhere another pretty vein just died

I've got the scars from tomorrow and I wish you could see

That you're the antidote to everything except for me~”

Just when he found her, she stopped singing.

“Brother, we got guests.” The female Elementalist said as she jumped from the big coral.

Cool Autumn Breeze turned around as the last monster was mauled by I’m A Bear. “Vaccaria? ...And Berserker.”

“I’ve done your quest.”

“So quick?”

“You said you’d change your mind if I take too long, right?” Sun Zheping replied.

“I was thinking along the line of within a month, it hasn’t even been two weeks,” Cool Autumn Breeze said. “And what are you doing here, Vaccaria?”

“Just want to say hi,” Wang Jiexi replied. “It’s been quite long.”

“You have no reason to visit me casually unless you bring the dog with you.”

“Dog?”

“Apologies, I will keep that in mind next time,” Wang Jiexi answered back dutifully, there seemed to be a tone of amusem*nt in his voice?

“Brother, you befriended yet another unique individual while I wasn’t looking?” the female Elementalist trotted up to Cool Autumn Breeze.

“It’s just business. He’s my champion for the Berserker’s seat.”

“Cham--? You have another key?” the female Elementalist, Colourful Jade, gasped in astonishment. “No wonder such a famous individual appears here!”

“Famous?”

“My dear prince brother, you don’t know him too? He’s the number one Berserker, Blossoming Chaos. A part of the Blossoms Duo,” Colourful Jade said.

“... I see, so that’s why you can finish the challenge so fast,” Cool Autumn Breeze said thoughtfully. “Why didn’t you tell me about this, Berserker?”

“You didn’t ask,” Sun Zheping said bluntly. Zhang Jiale had prepared an entire script and background story for RP-ing, but this guy just directly gave him a quest and a promise to give him the key before anything could be used from that script.

“I suppose you know him too, Vaccaria?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked critically.

“We merely know each other through work,” Wang Jiexi answered easily. “I only encountered him on the way, when I learned that he was going to meet you, I tagged along.”

“I brought all the drops of Abyssal Void Demon from the Witch Castle’s imprisoned Wild Boss,” Sun Zheping said as he clicked transaction to Cool Autumn Breeze.

Cool Autumn Breeze rejected the transaction.

Sun Zheping blinked.

“I already said no cheating, didn’t I?” Cool Autumn Breeze said in displeasure.

“I didn’t cheat.” Sun Zheping frowned.

“How would I know that? You obviously know Vaccaria, the Council’s Witch, very well. You may very well help each other for a price,” Cool Autumn Breeze said.

“Huh?” Wang Jiexi blinked rapidly as he got dragged into the topic. “Cool Autumn Breeze, I never give any preferential treatment amongst my acquaintances. He won the Wild Boss fair and square amongst the rivalries for it.”

“That’s right. My guild and I won this fair and square, where the hell did I cheat?” Sun Zheping demanded.

“No, I’ll think of this result as half-legitimate and half-illegitimate.”

“What? Take it!” Sun Zheping clicked transaction again but Cool Autumn Breeze rejected it again. “Cool Autumn Breeze, you promised,” he growled.

“Hehe, you guys sound like a dramatic couple,” Colourful Jade commented with a giggle.

“Jade, shut up,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly and the girl went quiet immediately and started humming instead. “I did promise it, but I was under the impression that you didn’t know Vaccaria and wouldn’t work together with him to get the perfect result.”

“I really didn’t help him,” Wang Jiexi said.

“He didn’t help me! Why would I need his help to win a Wild Boss?!” He was Sun Zheping! Aside from Wang Jiexi’s willingness to release the Wild Boss, he didn’t need any other support from the other team’s captain!

“No. The result is still half-legitimate.” Cool Autumn Breeze said strictly. “I’ll give you another mission instead to make it fully legitimate.”

Sun Zheping clenched his hands unwillingly but it was better than nothing. “Speak. I’ll do it. This time, what do you want me to confirm? My identity? My address? My backstory?”

“I need no such thing,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly. “Wait a second.”

“What...?”

Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t deign to answer anymore and just stood there.

“Hey,” Sun Zheping called out with a frown.

Cool Autumn Breeze then suddenly thrust out his spear and spun it frantically before slamming it down to the sandy ground.

“Step back,” Wang Jiexi told Sun Zheping and had Vaccaria to flew a few paces away. Blossoming Chaos followed the suit and a flare came out of Cool Autumn Breeze, the tip of his Battle Spear glowed and flashed.

A tower slammed to the ground behind Cool Autumn Breeze out of nowhere.

Sun Zheping gazed and it and immediately knew what it was. He saw Vaccaria did this several times before.

The Soaring Watch Tower fitted the personality of Battle Mage, overbearing and dashing. The Magic Castle in his memory looked dainty in comparison.

“What...?” Sun Zheping murmured in disbelief.

“Prince-brother, what are you planning to do?” Colourful Jade gasped.

“GROAR?!” I’m A Bear roared in confusion and shock.

Cool Autumn Breeze turned and walked up the stairs. Blossoming Chaos and Vaccaria stood where they were, mainly because aside from the master of the tower, no one could enter the building, this was also the case for Vaccaria’s Magic Castle. The tower was not massive nor it took a lot of space, but it was tall. Really tall.

There was a condition to step into the building of the seat-holder even for the seat-holder themselves. They shouldn’t be in duel or PK mode, which was probably why Cool Autumn Breeze asked them to wait for a few seconds earlier.

Sun Zheping found himself looking at Vaccaria for answers but Vaccaria looked back at Blossoming Chaos, equally clueless.

[World] Cool Autumn Breeze: Hear ye, hear ye, this prince is here to announce the start of Autumn Hunt.*

[World] Fluttering Butterfly Wings: Huh?

[World] Choose Me: What?

[World] Nay Jaa Nee: Cool Autumn Breeze?!

[World] Bros Over Hoes: Autumn Hunt?

Sun Zheping and Wang Jiexi also noticed the world channel, but before anyone could ask further, Colourful Jade gasped.

“Autumn Hunt?!”

“What is it?” Sun Zheping asked desperately.

“I have no idea, but it sounds important,” Colourful Jade said bluntly. “I have an inkling...”

[System] Fierce Bloodthirsty Dragon Wolf <Level 60> has escaped the imprisonment of Soaring Watch Tower. Imploring to everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Soaring Watch Tower.

The blood-red and eye-catching system notification could be seen from every player’s screen. Sun Zheping and Wang Jiexi paused in disbelief.

“I see...” Wang Jiexi murmured.

A few seconds later, Cool Autumn Breeze came out of the tower and it floated back, disappearing once it reached a certain height.

“Your next quest, Blossoming Chaos. I want you to win over Fierce Bloodthirsty Dragon Wolf. This will validate your result. I will release this boss only four times and at random times, if you can organize your guild to win it, I’ll give you the key,” Cool Autumn Breeze said coolly. “Show me that you really don’t cheat.”

Sun Zheping gaped in disbelief.

“Big Sun! What’s going on there?” Zhang Jiale shouted from across him. “Why did Cool Autumn Breeze suddenly release his Wild Boss???”

Sun Zheping ignored him in favor of answering Cool Autumn Breeze. “Fine. I’ll show you then.”

“Then, I hope to see a good result. Bear, Jade, let’s go,” Cool Autumn Breeze said and left with his friends.

Sun Zheping licked his dry lips, he didn’t expect that it would escalate to this. He then turned to Vaccaria.

“I’m sorry, Sun Zheping. But since it’s only going to be four times...” Wang Jiexi said. “I have no desire to just miss this chance.”

“I bet you’re dancing with joy because of this sudden change, right?” Sun Zheping ridiculed.

“I can’t say I’m not pleased,” Wang Jiexi said. “Then, good luck.” With that, the council's Witch flew away.

Sun Zheping took off his headset. “Jiale, organize the troops. We’re hunting down that Wild Boss even if it kills us.”

Zhang Jiale looked up. “What’s wrong? Why did we get a Wild Boss notification instead of the notification of you earning the key?”

“Cool Autumn Breeze questioned the legitimacy of our victory over Abyssal Void Demon and decided to let me try again using his monster,” Sun Zheping said bitterly. “I only have four chances to win it before he changed his mind.”

Zhang Jiale’s eyes widened. “f*ck. We gotta win this.”

“We have to,” Sun Zheping agreed. “Wang Jiexi probably had told his teammates.”

“Wang Jiexi?”

“He was with me to see Cool Autumn Breeze.”

“f*ck! Why!?” Zhang Jiale turned back to his screen and rapidly gave out orders to scout the area. They had learned from Vaccaria’s frequent summoning for the last few months that the Wild Boss usually would spawn on the same side of the map as the summoner.

So if by example Vaccaria was on the northern plain and a little bit to the west, the Wild Boss could either appear on northern plain or western plain, but they needed to scout the heck out of it to find it.

“Where are you?” Zhang Jiale demanded.

“Southern part, on the Southern Seaside.”

“I’m going there with the guild. Stay put.”

Chapter 6: Berserker Trial

Chapter Text

Huang Shaotian sighed long-sufferingly as he let Troubling Rain randomly destroyed everything in his path. “What now? The Wailing Moon Naga is stolen by Herb Garden, damn it, can’t believe we got there way too late. Ah, what should we do, Captain? It seems like Zheng Xuan’s upgrade should be pushed back yet again, what a poor guy you are, Zheng Xuan. Why do you have to be a Spitfire anyway?”

“Huang Shaotian, I inherited this avatar.” Zheng Xuan sounded so exhausted, it seemed like he had said this countless times to the young vice-captain yet received no understanding from the other side.

“If only there’s someone out there who could be kind enough to donate some materials for you like someone did to me,” Huang Shaotian sighed.

“I also wish so.”

“Sigh, this sucks. Should we ask that Ye Qiu for other rare materials, the last bits were already too expensive. Blue Rain is not rich right now, damn that sly shameless bastard. Just wait, when Blue Rain wins the championship, he won’t be arrogant for long.”

“If Boss Wei is here, he’ll probably be able to argue for a price. Aaaaah, Boss Wei...” Huang Shaotian whined.

“Patience, we still have time,” Yu Wenzhou said. “We won one Wild Boss today at least. Always be grateful, it could be none.”

“But it could be more than one,” Huang Shaotian insisted. “When will Abyssal Void Demon’s cooldown end again? We haven’t win that one even once.” Out of all Wild Bosses, Huang Shaotian was the most concerned about this one in particular. After all, its spawn time was not determined by the system’s automatic cooldown, but by a player.

If one day Wang Jiexi decided he didn’t want to release the Wild Boss for an entire month or even year with sufficient materials from the said boss in Herb Garden’s inventory, they might make a monopoly of its exploit. When that happened, other teams could only dream of ever hunting for Abyssal Void Demon.

“Maybe it’s not our luck just yet,” Yu Wenzhou calmly said. “Don’t think too much about it. After all, Council’s Wild Bosses are, in the end, just additional Wild Bosses. There are still other Wild Bosses for Blue Brook.”

Huang Shaotian reluctantly nodded. “But...No matter what the seat of Blade Master is mine,” Huang Shaotian declared in determination. “We’ll also keep an eye out for the Warlock’s seat for Swoksaar, if any other avatar earns it, we’ll have to hunt them.”

“Why?” Zheng Xuan asked. “Even if you kill them, the seat won’t just change, you know?”

“Who says anything about changing seats? It’s because there’s a big chance the player of that other Warlock is Boss Wei, duh,” Huang Shaotian snorted.

“You’re not going to let him off after so long? You sure he still plays Glory?” A senior snorted when he heard Huang Shaotian’s intention.

Huang Shaotian tutted. “Senior Gu, that’s where you’re wrong. Our Boss Wei can’t possibly stop gaming. What else can he do aside from gaming?” he joked and the other seniors laughed.

Yu Wenzhou looked up to peer at Huang Shaotian who started cracking jokes with the seniors and the towards the seniors who kept on ridiculing the absent ex-captain. His lips quirked up slightly. Even when the person was not here, his presence still could be felt with the people who remembered him fondly.

Yu Wenzhou sighed inaudibly. But he couldn’t disagree with Huang Shaotian. Someone who had such a massive love for Glory, it was impossible for him to just stop. Ice Rain’s full upgrade was the proof of that.

“What is this?” Zheng Xuan spoke up and everyone focused back on their screen, searching for Bullet Rain. However, they soon found out Zheng Xuan didn’t refer to anything in his avatar’s pov but instead the system notification.

[System] Fierce Bloodthirsty Dragon Wolf <Level 60> has escaped the imprisonment of Soaring Watch Tower. Imploring to everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Soaring Watch Tower.

“What is—“ Huang Shaotian jumped and straightened.

“The Council’s Battle Mage’s Wild Boss,” Yu Wenzhou murmured out loud and narrowed his eyes.

“He finally unleashes it?! Holy sh*t, this is the first time!” Huang Shaotian exclaimed. “Cool Autumn Breeze...” He murmured the name that he always heard and spoke around by the people in the chatroom like an urban legend.

He always wanted to meet this elusive expert in-game, but he couldn’t find any trace of him in the summer and later on found out that he was on break playing Glory. When he was back online, the season already started so Huang Shaotian couldn’t possibly wander around the Heavenly Domain to look for him—as a rookie and a vice-captain, he was very busy.

“Wow, look at the World Chat. The guy is quite awesome,” Zheng Xuan commented. “He named this Autumn Hunt...”

Huang Shaotian got excited. “We can’t get Abyssal Void Demon, but we might get this! It’s a sudden spawn after all! Let me just order the guild to scout actively—“

“You don’t have to,” Yu Wenzhou said.

“Huh--? But, captain!” Huang Shaotian protested.

“Huang Shao...” Senior Gu spoke up. “We don’t have to scout, look at two o’clock direction.”

Huang Shaotian turned Troubling Rain and gawked when he saw a magnificent beast with a bright aura surrounding it, prancing around the prairie in its spawn place. It had a body of a wolf but covered in scales, its head was thus of a dragon. Every time it moved, there resounded a distant clashing of metals.

[Fierce Bloodthirsty Dragon Wolf] <Level 60>

“We got a jackpot.”

“f*ck me sideways, seriously? Right beside us???”

Huang Shaotian found himself grinning widely. He cackled, “Our luck triumphs today! This Wild Boss is ours! Thank you, Cool Autumn Breeze!”

Huang Shaotian had yet to meet nor talk Cool Autumn Breeze, but he already felt a deep respect for this elusive expert.

“Windward, let me introduce you to my royal cousin. Little Jade, this is your cousin’s good friend, also from the fourth realm.”

“Greetings to you, Warlock. I’ve heard quite a lot about you.”

“A girl? Is she your real cousin or do you guys have some kind of fetish about royal affairs?” Windward Formation blurted out.

“Gasp! Master, you shall not say something so scandalous out loud!” Harder Daddy cried out.

“I’m disgusted. Can I kill him?” Colourful Jade turned to Cool Autumn Breeze.

Ye Qiu sighed. “She’s really my cousin, although a very distant one.”

“How old is she?” from Windward’s entourage, a Blade Master stepped forward and purposefully walked closer to Colourful Jade.

“Do you wanna die?” Cool Autumn Breeze slammed down his Battle Spear. “This prince doesn’t mind executing an acquaintance.”

“Brother, calm down, ah. I’m just joking.”

“Little Xu, stop playing around,” Windward Formation called out to his teammate. “I need you to not die. You’re here,” he looked at Cool Autumn Breeze. “That means the Wild Boss you released is around this region. What makes you suddenly release it?”

It made sense that Windward Formation was curious. After all, no matter what Windward Formation offered back then to have Ye Qiu release it, Ye Qiu rejected them all.

“For a trial,” Ye Qiu answered simply.

“That’s it? Your stupid little game?” Windward Formation snorted. “You don’t even let a friend have it, but you don’t mind letting a stranger have a go?”

“Don’t you also have a go? It’s not like the Wild Boss is reserved for a special someone, you can also kill it,” Ye Qiu said. “Go, go.”

“Fine, I’m going,” Windward Formation spat out.

Just when the group was going to move, there was a notification by the system.

[System] Congratulations to Blue Brook Guild for slaughtering [Fierce Bloodthirsty Dragon Wolf] <Level 60> for the First Time!!!

“What... the f*ck?” Windward Formation said in shock.

Ye Qiu was also in shock but not anywhere near as dirty-mouthed as Windward Formation. “Little Jade, how long has it been since I released it?” he instinctively turned to his well-trained assistant cousin.

“It just entered the thirteenth minute.”

Hearing that, Ye Qiu shook his head in astonishment. “Amazing.”

Wind Guard: The f*ck Blue Brook???!!!

Troubling Rain: Ah ah ah ah ah aaaaaaaaahhhhh! Ahahahahashahahahahahahahahaha

Immovable Rock: That is quick, did it spawn near you all or something?

Troubling Rain: Have a guess :D

One Autumn Leaf: What’s going on?

Boundless Sea: Blue Brook won the first kill of the Wild Boss from the Battle Mage’s seat.

One Autumn Leaf: What?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: f*cking hell! Did it spawn near Blue Brook or what?! Ten minutes in? Really!?

One Autumn Leaf: Cool Autumn Breeze released his Wild Boss? Finally?

Screen Killer: I’m quite upset, ngl. I was just arriving when they already brought the health down to red. Locating the boss within ten minutes was quite a feat but somebody is even quicker.

Wind Guard: Guess it’s the lost luck from never getting Abyssal Void Demon.

Blossoming Chaos: Bastards...

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Out of all coordinates, why the hell did it spawn next to Blue Brook?

Troubling Rain: Why u mad?

Vaccaria: He has reasons.

Swoksaar: Oh?

One Autumn Leaf: @Swoksaar Can you send me the screen capture of the loots?

Troubling Rain: No. f*ck you all. Stay mad.

Troubling Rain: You all may wait until Cool Autumn Breeze has his next whim. Not going to share.

Blossoming Chaos: What a f*cking brat.

Wind Guard: Sharing is caring! That’s the rule.

Troubling Rain: Just win it next time, seniors :p

Life Extinguisher: Everyone, Cool Autumn Breeze is on the World Chat.

--[World]--

Cool Autumn Breeze: Blue Brook- First Kill. (1/4).

My Money: Blue Brook is quick af, wtf?

I Did It Again 2: Did it spawn near them or smth?

Shooting At Sunset: f*ck. The hunt just began and the winner is already decided?

Pine Tree: Wtf, I was just pulling down my pants to feel the thrill and suddenly it’s gone?

Troubling Rain: Thank you, thank you everyone. Thank you, Cool Autumn Breeze. You rocks.

Feral Cat: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Huang Shaotian!!!!!!

Chocolate Run: HUANG SHAOTIAN!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sharp Sword: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Local Reporter: A Pro Player Sighted! In. World. Chat!!!!!

Immovable Rock: Cool Autumn Breeze? What do you mean by 1/4???

Some Dark Matter: ZHANG XINJIE IS HERE TOO!!!

Kick Ass Take Name: IMMOVABLE ROCK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Leaning Peach Tree: Zhang Xinjie, pls notice me.

Forgotten Tissue: Your latest match is great, Zhang Xinjie!

“He didn’t talk again,” Zhang Jiale wiped away his sweat after observing the World Chat without blinking for fifteen minutes straight. Thanks to some upstarts, there were simply too many people blabbering in the World Chat, making it hard to track.

“If he does, we’re done,” Sun Zheping clicked his tongue. “For the meanwhile, Wang Jiexi seemed to have held the information about it being limited to only four times.” Which actually made sense, since if everybody else knew, it would incite another deadly rivalry for the Wild Boss knowing it would be released again and for a limited amount of time.

If Cool Autumn Breeze decided to make life more difficult for Sun Zheping, he could just announce that he’d only do it four times and watch the chaos from the other side of the river. But it seemed like he was giving Sun Zheping the benefit of the doubt.

“Still, if it’s like this, it will be discovered by the time the second one is decided,” Zhang Jiale said. “There’s no way the others won’t notice it if he announced it and the 1/4 turned into 2/4.”

Sun Zheping sighed and took off the headphone around his neck, putting it carelessly on the desk. “The best bet is the second chance. The third and fourth chance will be bloody.”

“Hahh, why did you have to bring Vaccaria with you?” Zhang Jiale also took off his headphone and complained.

“Like hell I knew he would make things difficult for me,” Sun Zheping complained too. “Forget it, we have the next chance at least in one week, we can take it easy for the next seven days...” Then, the cautious time would begin as Cool Autumn Breeze said he’d release it according to his whim and not based on the cooldown’s ending.

It was true, even after one week, Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t show any sign of releasing his Wild Boss to prevent Sun Zheping from getting the pattern and prepare himself.

In fact, it had been over ten days, and still no news whatsoever. Sun Zheping tried to act like it was nothing, but Zhang Jiale had been a really bad influence on him with his constant nagging and fretting.

Sometimes, Sun Zheping would be awake with a start as a nightmare plagued him on how he lost the second chance, and now all guilds were carefully looking for the Wild Boss and he lost the chance to win that damn motherf*cking key.

Every time he got that nightmare, he would always jump up tensely with his fight or flight instinct flaring furiously.

It was stressful.

His dream always started roughly the same. There would be a knock on his door and a muffled voice from the other side.

“Captain! Cool Autumn Breeze released the boss!”

And then Sun Zheping would jump up, heart on his throat, feeling like a deer in headlight. He would then run to the nearest computer but it would stay further and further away as his teammates yelled behind him.

“Captain! Come quick, it’s been announced!”

“Captain! The other guilds had come too!”

“Captain Sun, are we going to let this one slide???”

Each of them struck anxiety in his heart, but when he reached the computer he’d found himself without Blossoming Chaos. Terrible. Really terrible.

But at least now, Sun Zheping had gotten used to this nightmare. So even though his fight or flight instinct still flared, he would no longer be deceived.

BANG!

“Big Sun! You f*cking oaf, you can still sleep while someone is shouting for you in front of your door!? Are you deaf!?” Zhang Jiale hollered at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly, the mist of sleepiness cleared up and Sun Zheping blinked incredulously at the cherry-haired man by his bed.

“W-what?” Sun Zheping murmured.

“The Wild Boss is sighted and the poor guy from the guild had stood in front of your door for five f*cking minutes, shouting. Even I wake up, get up!” Zhang Jiale ordered.

Usually, Zhang Jiale was never intimidating for Sun Zheping, the guy just never inspire any feeling of intimidation or callous toughness. But Zhang Jiale’s angry expression, which was covered by a high-brand moisturizing face mask, looked really alarming in dim light and very intimidating to Sun Zheping who just woke up.

Sun Zheping jumped up, any haze of sleepiness had completely disappeared. “f*ck!” he scrambled off his bed and fetch his account card. “Why today?!” He exclaimed furiously.

It was a match day! Actually- to be technical, yesterday night was a match day.

It was the most vulnerable time for pro players because they all would have been too tired to do anything else but sleeping after a match the night before.

Sun Zheping was very tired because of the match the night before!

“Enough complaining, just go!” Zhang Jiale shot back.

“Are you kidding me?!” Sun Zheping shouted when he saw Blossoms Valley struggled to fight Excellent Dynasty for the Wild Boss. “YE QIU! Why the hell are you awake at this time?!”

“Huh?” One Autumn Leaf whirled around and saw the person calling his name. “Old Sun, insomnia?” he greeted with his usual leisurely insulting tone.

Blossoming Chaos attacked One Autumn Leaf, or at least tried to because a swarm of avatars guarded One Autumn Leaf right away. “How the hell are you awake at this time?” he demanded.

“Well, Mucheng woke me up for an emergency that I’d rather not talk about and I can’t sleep after that so I play Glory instead. Who would have thought Cool Autumn Breeze would release his boss again? I’m truly lucky.”

Sun Zheping cursed his bad luck especially when he saw Excellent Dynasty had good control over the boss. Winning against Ye Qiu in a Wild Boss fight with only him alone leading the troop was near impossible, but luckily since Sun Zheping had issued an order for alert-at-all-time just for the sake of this one boss, Blossoms Valley actually had a lot more players on their side.

“Attack them!” Sun Zheping ordered.

“Hold the coast.” One Autumn Leaf jumped out of the protection and went straight for the boss.

Sun Zheping cursed. “Fight me, Ye Qiu!” he yelled after the Battle Mage.

Ye Xiu leaned back on his seat as he puffed out a cloud of smoke. He stared at the loot he won and smiled slightly.

It was a bloody battle. Ye Xiu didn’t know what drove Sun Zheping so determined to win this one Wild Boss for him, he wasn’t even a Battle Mage... Though, the materials could be used on many things indeed.

The loots were all to Ye Xiu’s liking, it was good too since he sacrificed a lot of guild members to win the boss from the fierce Blossoms Valley.

“Wonder what’s all that about...?” Ye Xiu said to himself as he took a drag of his cigarette. It was a game night yesterday, how could Sun Zheping was awake at all?

It was purely by accident that Ye Xiu was online at the moment. Excellent Era had an away match, which was more exhausting than home game. Naturally, it was better to sleep than not, but Su Mucheng came knocking on his door at midnight asking him to buy her sanitary pads.

Women’s hygiene was very important, especially it was outside her usual schedule (Ye Xiu would know, he always did his best to not piss off Su Mucheng on certain days of the month). It was impossible for Ye Xiu to brush her off with how miserable she looked, so Ye Xiu braved through the night and went to the nearby convenience store near the hotel to buy some for her while mentally noting to stock up himself for later away matches in case this thing would repeat in the future.

After walking in the cold night air, it was hard for him to get back to sleep so he just opened the hotel’s computer and played Glory.

Did Sun Zheping wake up by chance too?

No... Ye Xiu ashed his cigarette at the cobalt-coloured ashtray beside him.

Sun Zheping was uncharacteristically determined and desperate earlier, if it was just by chance, he wouldn’t be as upset. “I wonder why...?” Ye Xiu murmured.

Ye Xiu shrugged and stretched out, craning his neck to earn a satisfying crack. When he was about to log off, a name in the World Chat caught his attention.

Cool Autumn Breeze: Second kill, Excellent Dynasty. (2/4)

Ye Xiu’s eyes widened. His entire focus was on the numbers within the brackets.

“I see...” Ye Xiu chuckled.

It was really a simple message, Ye Xiu was not the only one who caught on. Other guilds’ people also caught on and passed it to the higher-ups and reached the ears of the pro-players by the next day in the afternoon

Since this was a limited Council’s Wild Boss, the information naturally had to reach the pros.

They already had a new grade for materials. Commons, Uncommons, Rare, and Council Rare—for the Council’s Wild Boss. So far, as the members of council only made up of two avatars, they were near impossible to attain. Wang Jiexi ever released his Wild Boss eleven times despite having the chance to release it fifteen times if he went by schedule.

It truly relied on the owner’s whim.

Zhang Jiale was rightfully upset when he found out about it the next morning. He expected a good news when he returned to bed but what welcomed him when he woke up was the worst possible outcome.

Zhang Jiale didn’t really blame Sun Zheping, they were tired. Why the hell Ye Qiu of all people was online at the time? Excellent Dynasty had an away game the night before!

“Ugh, we’re doomed Big Sun. We’re f*cking doomed,” Zhang Jiale cursed. “Welp, let’s forget about it then. Let’s focus on the Spitfire seat now, no one has found the key nor making any progress yet. I’ll have more chance to get it than you’re getting the Berserker’s key now.”

“Shut it, Jiale.” Sun Zheping glared petulantly at his cereal. “There are still two chances left. I don’t believe I can’t get it in those two chances.”

Sun Zheping scooped up a spoonful of cereal and ate them intimidatingly.

“I just need to have a talk with that guy.”

Desert Dust: @Blossoming Chaos the four chances limit, is it related to you and Berserker’s key.

Blossoming Chaos: Would you believe me if I say no way in hell and that you guys should lower your guard?

Wind Guard: No.

Demon Subduer: Not really.

Gentle Angel: No.

Screen Killer: No.

Boundless Sea: No.

Soul Speaker: No.

One Autumn Leaf: Nope.

Blossoming Chaos: Exactly.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Sigh, messed up so badly.

One Autumn Leaf: Then, let me deliver my apology in advance, Old Sun. I don’t think I can hold back.

Wind Guard: GG. Lmao.

Vaccaria: My condolences.

Cool Autumn Breeze stood at the edge of a cliff right in front of a stone pillar. Ye Qiu stared blankly at the stone pillar as he worked out the riddle in his head.

‘When the two faces face each other, harmony will be achieved and the path will open.’

What did that even mean? Whose faces he should force to look at each other for a path to open?

“There should be a clue here somewhere,” Ye Qiu said to himself.

“Cool Autumn Breeze.”

Cool Autumn Breeze turned around to see a familiar Berserker standing a few paces away from him. He wondered what was with this guy and greeting him from behind, in their second meeting, if Xiao Lin didn’t tell him, the same thing would occur too.

“Swordsman, what business do you have with this prince again?” Ye Qiu asked blandly.

“I want to make a request, favor, or whatever it is.”

“Big words from the side who needs something,” Ye Qiu indicated.

“I’m begging you then,” Blossoming Chaos assented instantly. Even though there was still pride in his tone, he was willing to lower his head. It made Ye Qiu feel intrigued.

“What is it.”

“Please. Don’t release your Wild Boss on the weekends, especially the nights of weekends. Whatever you want from me I will give it to you, I just want you to never release it on weekend ever again, please.”

Much to Ye Qiu’s surprise, Blossoming Chaos fell on his knees and stayed like that as if he was truly begging for Cool Autumn Breeze’s mercy.

And then Ye Qiu remembered that professional league seemed to have games on weekend? ...oops?

‘I didn’t think that far...’ Ye Qiu was just overwhelmed with annoyance that night since he had to work to chase a deadline, he just felt releasing the Wild Boss was a kind of venting. If he wasn’t happy, then, the unfortunate person who relied on him to get something he wanted should feel unhappy too.

Ye Qiu felt a little bad, but he was still an arrogant prince and he needed to play that role. “Alas, since you’re begging like this.” he sighed haughtily.

“You’re always in my heart I can say it now

Oh, love you

From that day on, for sure…

You are the only one”

There were sounds of clapping accompanied by a disgustingly romantic song in the background. Ye Qiu turned Cool Autumn Breeze around to see a female Elementalist standing a few paces away, watching over their exchange with a Ninja by her side.

“Congratulations, royal cousin. It never crossed my mind before and I always doubted you. I can’t believe you’ll get proposed to and in the best scenic place at that,” Colourful Jade swung her staff—which was a mic stand with its mic that she refused to change for some reason—and struck a pose as if she was giving a blessing. “Shall I call slu*tty Summer to officiate it? You know he always wants to officiate yours.”

“Jade, shut up.”

“Sorry, I should have waited until it all plays out. Did I interrupt something? Stupid me, of course I did.”

Ye Qiu sighed heavily.

Blossoming Chaos seemed to ignore the Elementalist perfectly. “How about it? This is me pleading you. Just the weekends, please.”

“Very well, I have considered it. It’s doable,” Ye Qiu said dignifiedly. “You can—“

Yet again, Ye Qiu was interrupted. This time, a blur of black flashed by and jumped towards Blossoming Chaos.

Blossoming Chaos seemed to be startled but didn’t react quickly, in the end, he only sat there as a Ninja wrapped in black... sat on his lap.

“...???”

“...”

“I- excuse me,” Blossoming Chaos spoke up sternly but no one responded back for a while.

“...Anyway, you can be rest assured and trust my words,” Ye Qiu said calmly.

“Ok, thank you,” Blossoming Chaos said.

There was a period of silence after that before Blossoming Chaos spoke up again, “Can you move?” he snapped at the Ninja on his lap.

“Oh, he likes you~” Colourful Jade trotted closer.

“Excuse me?” Blossoming Chaos demanded back.

“That’s our royal cat,” Ye Qiu said. “Shadow,” he called out.

“Mew~” the Ninja answered.

Blossoming Chaos looked up at the avatar’s name.

Shadow Cat...

“Can he get off?” Blossoming Chaos asked calmly.

“No. You see, Shadow is very particular about people’s lap, he loves it. Sadly, people rarely take a rest and sit around here, it’s rare for him to find one. And when he finds it... he’ll sit with one for hours.”

“...I can’t move.”

Ye Qiu bit his lips to keep his amusem*nt in. “So you know the universal rule. Indeed, when a cat sits on you, you can’t move.”

“I literally can’t move. I want to move,” Blossoming Chaos hissed.

“Yes, Glory indeed acknowledges that rule too,” Colourful Jade did a lap around Blossoming Chaos, laughing. “After all, it is a universal rule.”

Rather than a rule, it was a glitch.

When someone was either sitting on the ground or kneeling, if another avatar went up to them and sat on their laps, the first avatar would have a glitch and couldn’t move at all from their position. It was a minor glitch and rarely happened because no one really sat down on the ground willingly. It was a game, after all, everyone was always standing, so it wasn’t strange that this glitch was overlooked.

However, many people in the fourth server liked to have their avatars sit down just for good visuals while role-playing. This was the reason why many people found out about this glitch and abused the hell out of it.

Shadow Cat, in particular, was the worst offender in the fourth server. He was infamous for it and started the trend.

There was a small guild in fourth server called Cat Colony and they usually went around the server to search for people role-playing by having their characters sitting down.

It was chaos and Ye Qiu was very fond of them for it. In fact, Ye Qiu was considering breaking his rule to join a guild if it was for Cat Colony, sadly they only accepted cat role-players.

“Meow~” Shadow Cat mewled spoiledly.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Blossoming Chaos still couldn’t move.

“Well, I’ve heard your plea and granted it. Our business is done, I’m going to go first,” Ye Qiu said in a good mood.

“Wait, take your cat with you!”

“The universal rule says you never own a cat,” Ye Qiu said with a dramatic sigh. “Little Jade, come on. Let’s search for two faces that need to face each other.”

“Wait! How do I get out of this?!”

“Royal cousin, can we stop by the town for a bit? I ran out of mana potions.”

“Sure.”

“Cool Autumn Breeze!”

Blossoming Chaos Invites You To ‘Help’ Groupchat!

Blossoming Chaos: Is the seat really worth it? Genuinely asking.

Vaccaria: I think it is. Why?

Blossoming Chaos: Just between you and me, I think Cool Autumn Breeze is mental.

Vaccaria: You’re just saying that because you can’t please him.

Blossoming Chaos: And you can?!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Big Sun was forced to sit through a glitch until he had enough and pulled out his card directly!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Hilarious sh*t!

Vaccaria: Glitch? How?

Blossoming Chaos: Apparently if you kneel down on the ground and somebody else hop on your lap, you’ll get a glitch and cannot move at all.

Vaccaria: Cool Autumn Breeze got into your lap...????

Blossoming Chaos: Not him. He has this crazy cat role-player friend who won’t f*cking talk at all.

Vaccaria: A cat? I only know a bear.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: A bear...?

Vaccaria: Yes. Sun Zheping should know. He was there when Cool Autumn Breeze summoned his tower.

Desert Dust: Why am I here?

Blossoming Chaos: Because I know you’ve met him several times and could handle him. Tell me how.

Desert Dust: I didn’t ‘handle’ him. Just go with the flow, you don’t even have to overreact.

Desert Dust: And he has a cat now?

Vaccaria: Apparently so.

Vaccaria: That being said, giving up now is a bit of a waste, no?

Desert Dust: Be serious and man up.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: That’s right, Big Sun. As much as I want you to quickly help me to find and get on track for the Spitfire seat, it’s a waste to give up now. Where’s your usual determination go? Booo....

Blossoming Chaos: ... You’re right, my sanity is already attacked several times, giving up now is a waste of f*cking time.

Blossoming Chaos: f*ck this. I’ll get that key and forget about this.

Blossoming Chaos (Owner) Dissolves ‘Help’

Sun Zheping had once again strengthened his resolve and put his mind at ease. At the very least, the most important and fragile time of a pro player was already covered with his plea.

It had been over a week since the last time the Wild Boss was released and they were back to absolute alert. They didn’t know when Cool Autumn Breeze decided to screw with them. although Sun Zheping had asked him to not release the Wild Boss at midnight around weekends, he never said anything about weekdays because requesting that would be too much.

Sun Zheping had given permission to the guild’s officials to enter his room should it happened at midnight or early morning again. They couldn’t afford to repeat the same mistake.

And then...

“Big Sun! The Wild Boss is released!” Zhang Jiale barged into Sun Zheping’s room.

“What?!” Sun Zheping shouted back, eyes sealed shut with shampoo on his head, naked and wet in his shower.

“Quickly!” Zhang Jiale urged.

“Hang on, hang on!” Sun Zheping said.

“Forget it! I’ll log into Blossoming Chaos first, where’s the card!?” Blossoming Chaos was the one who was doing the trial, if he wasn’t there, it was the same as nothing at all.

“It’s around the cabinet with the merchs and clothes.”

“Where?!”

“Just look there!”

“Damn it, Big Sun! There’s only a pile of garbage here. I told you to clean up your room a week ago—f*ck, is that ice cream cone? With a little bit of ice cream left in it? Big Sun, you’re disgusting!”

“Look for the card, Jiale—f*ck!” Something fell while Sun Zheping flailed around to find the tap to turn on his shower and rinse his face.

“You should have cleaned your room, it’s like living in a dumpster here. Ah, damn it. I’m telling Auntie Sun on you, you’re already this old and still can’t take care of yourself. I’m not asking you to be pristine clean, just manageable, but which point of this is manageable? How did Blossoming Chaos survive here and didn’t get lost?”

Bang!

Sun Zheping stepped out of the bathroom while tying a towel around his waist. “Because I look for it, not nagging.” He stomped over and Zhang Jiale stepped aside. Sun Zheping nudged aside Blossoming Chaos figurine and slid his hand to the side of the cabinet and pulled out his account card.

Zhang Jiale snatched the card. “Get dressed, I’ll bring Blossoming Chaos there.”

The battle over Fierce Bloodthirsty Wolf Dragon was very... fierce. By the time Sun Zheping tossed on a brief, boxer and a shirt, over three guilds already gathered there. By the time he rushed over and took control, another guild also arrived.

Simply... too crowdy!

It was indeed a rush hour for the gamers! Many other pros were also present. But the most headache-inducing were the tacticians.

Ye Qiu with Excellent Dynasty.

Zhang Xinjie with Tyrannical Ambition.

And Yu Wenzhou with Blue Brook.

Two guilds already won this boss once before, the other one seemed quite determined if Desert Dust’s presence meant anything.

The next one was Wang Jiexi and Fang Shiqian with Herb Garden.

f*ck, Royal Heritage was also here, but they seemed to lack their pro avatar.

Very quickly, Desert Dust and One Autumn Leaf turned towards each other and fought. Troubling Rain left Blue Brook’s formation and Vaccaria flew up to scout the front and meeting him. It was just a matter of time before they dragged the captain-vice captain of Hundred Blossoms into the higher-ups exclusive battle.

“I’ll go,” Zhang Jiale said as Dazzling Hundred Blossoms left the line-up. “You focus on the boss. Careful about Blue Brook and Tyrannical Ambition.”

Sun Zheping simply hummed in response and was about to make the first move and broke the stand-still when Dancing Rain from Excellent Dynasty did it first.

The female Launcher propped up her hand cannon and fired at the boss as Excellent Dynasty’s players swarmed towards the boss with a few Knights at the front.

Swoksaar raised his staff and a part of Blue Brook swarmed towards Excellent Dynasty.

The situation turned really chaotic. Several players whooped in excitement at how they were recording and this was the craziest thing they had ever seen.

Sun Zheping narrowed his eyes and turned his vision several times to search for a way to break through when he caught a sight of a familiar avatar on a hill nearby.

Ye Qiu never knew watching a Wild Boss fight was very entertaining. He never felt this way with countless Wild Boss fights he encountered, but here he was.

With his headphone on, leaning heavily on the back of his seat, and eating a bowl of fruit salad as he watched the battle happened. Or maybe it was just his good mood making him enjoy everything. After all, he did get rid of someone he disliked in the board of directors. Yang Qing was really meticulous, exchanging that dead land for the shares?

Just when Ye Qiu was thinking about how to get rid of that dead land from his asset. He was really upset when his grandpa gave that to him as his nineteenth birthday gift and told him to make it profitable. He refused to believe his grandfather was blind enough to not see that it was a dead land and yet he wanted Ye Qiu to make it profitable? Ye Qiu wouldn’t even want to build a vacation home there let alone develop it.

If he tried to develop it, in ten years, he wouldn’t see anything returning to his pocket and would lose money instead.

But now he could see some merits to that land. He could exchange it for a share of the company, it was really profitable, his grandfather should be proud.

He didn’t care if people would call him a ruthless and sly businessman. Who told them to be blind and stupid?

Ye Qiu picked up a phone nearby and called his secretary. “Bring me coffee.” He put down the phone and put aside his fruit salad.

The battle had concluded after a long struggle.

Herb Garden snatched it in the end. Really, unlucky for his champion.

Ye Qiu clicked the world chat. After the system announced the winner of the Wild Boss.

[World] Cool Autumn Breeze: Third kill, Herb Garden. (3/4)

“Bear, let’s go,” Ye Qiu called out for his friend who was trying to climb a tree to reach the beehive on it.

“Groar!”

Cool Autumn Breeze beckoned. “The show is done, let’s go.”

“Cool Autumn Breeze.”

Cool Autumn Breeze turned around and saw a familiar entourage. “Fighter, we meet again.” He shifted his gaze. “...And several others I haven’t met before.”

Desert Dust turned around and said in annoyance. “Ye Qiu.”

“I was wondering where you’re going and then saw someone I always wanted to meet so I decided to come closer.” One Autumn Leaf, along with his own troops from Excellent Dynasty, stood nearby. The tone in his voice gave an impression of leisure aloofness in contrast with Desert Dust’s stern discipline.

“f*ck. Off...” several members of Tyrannical Ambitions growled under their breath, full of poison and hatred.

Ye Xiu obviously ignored them. “I’ve been wanting to meet you, Cool Autumn Breeze.”

“Oh?” Ye Qiu feigned cluelessness. “And who might you be?”

“Let’s just say, I’ve been paying attention to you. But we have only met now.”

“I don’t think I can feel flattered with that,” Ye Qiu’s face twisted. “Is he your friend?” he turned to Desert Dust.

Desert Dust had yet to speak up when dozens of people behind him bristled in offense.

“As if!”

“He’s a menace! We don’t make friends with menace!”

“He’s our enemy!”

“He’s the worst!”

“Ye Qiu, f*ck you!”

“Ye Qiu, go die in a hole somewhere you bastard!”

Ye Qiu felt mildly offended. Even though he knew these people didn’t curse at him but that name was still his through and through.

“Your guild is still as lively as always, Old Han.”

“f*ck YOU!!!”

“Haha, do you mind coming with us, Cool Autumn Breeze?” Ye Xiu asked and Ye Qiu sneered.

“I don’t go anywhere with a stranger, fellow Battle Mage. I have places to be. Bear,” He called out once again to I’m A Bear.

“Too bad, I just want to talk to someone who won the Battle Mage’s seat and found two keys for other classes,” Ye Xiu said. “I can’t change your mind?”

“Why? Battle Mage’s seat is already filled. There’s no meaning for you to come here and talk to me,” Ye Qiu said haughtily. “Unless you want to snatch this place?”

Ye Xiu chuckled harmlessly. “I don’t think that’s possible for now.”

“So you’ll do it if possible?” Ye Qiu scoffed. Cool Autumn Breeze swiped his spear and slammed it to the ground. “This is the first time this prince is insulted like this!”

“Yes!” Cold Season jumped out from Tyrannical Ambition’s line-up. “You tell him!” he supported Ye Qiu thoroughly.

“I really mean no harm—“

“Hey! God Ye didn’t say anything like that, why are you so provoking!”

“God Ye, this role-player is indeed weird like this, don’t mind him.”

“Cool Autumn Breeze! Do you know who you’re talking to?!”

“Just because you can defeat a few people, it doesn’t mean you can challenge the mount Tai!”

Hearing that Ye Xiu got so much supports from his fans, Ye Qiu got even more upset. “I don’t care who you are. You think I’ll be afraid of you with your guild behind you?”

“Don’t be afraid, Cool Autumn Breeze! Damn, I’m with you! Ye Qiu, control your f*cking guild members!” Cold Season jumped to side with Cool Autumn Breeze as if he was afraid people wouldn’t know who he sided with.

Seeing one of their idols was supporting Cool Autumn Breeze, naturally, many people of Tyrannical Ambition also swarmed to Cool Autumn Breeze’s side.

“I didn’t do anything,” Ye Xiu said. “And let’s not have a double standard. Your guild scolded me too literally a minute ago.”

Cold Season stepped up, covering Cool Autumn Breeze. “It’s different. You’re Ye Qiu, the boss of Excellent Dynasty. Even if Tyrannical Ambition scolded you, so what? But Cool Autumn Breeze is an independent player without a guild to back him up, how could you let your guild abuse him like this?!” he stated righteously.

Hearing this explanation, the people of Tyrannical Ambition got even more fired up. That’s right! We’re morally on top on this!

“Shameless Ye Qiu!”

“Excellent Dogs!

“You...!” Excellent Dynasty was speechless.

“Enough,” Ye Xiu ordered his guild with a sigh.

“Enough!” Han Wenqing barked out to his own guild.

“...”

“...”

Immediately, the whole place was dead silent.

Just when Ye Xiu was about to speak up again, mainly to apologize for his guild’s behaviour on Cool Autumn Breeze. A Brawled came barrelling in between the two guilds and squatted down, stabbing his Claw to the ground and then dragging it as he shifted backward.

Soon, there was a line made by three scratch marks in between them.

The line even passed right in front of One Autumn Leaf and Ye Xiu could see it clearly.

And then, the Brawler returned. This time, with a Brick.

He squatted once again and put a brick over the scratch mark and stayed like that for a while as he tossed sand onto the brick.

“Excuse me?” Cold Season asked the Brawler named I’m A Bear.

He didn’t respond.

Soon, he put another brick and tossed another handful of sand.

“...”

“...”

“Is... Is he trying to build a wall?” Zhang Xinjie asked unsurely.

“...” Han Wenqing inhaled deeply. He then turned to his guild members that had stepped out of his back. “Where’s Cool Autumn Breeze?” he asked bluntly.

“Huh? He’s here,” Cold Season stepped aside to reveal... a Striker named Bowling Night. “Wait...”

Everyone suddenly realized that the Council’s Battle Mage was nowhere to be seen. Not even when everyone spread out for better vision.

“Did anyone see him leave?” Ye Xiu asked.

Everyone said negative, it was as if Cool Autumn Breeze was swallowed by the earth.

“He’s a master at slipping off when there are a lot of people,” Han Wenqing finally sighed. “Probably had long slipped away when Ji Leng stepped up to cover him. This guy over here is his friend,” he indicated to I’m A Bear.

“Friend, do you know where your friend go?” Ye Xiu asked at the squatting Brawler.

“I won’t ask him if I were you,” Han Wenqing said.

“Why?”

“Growl...” I’m A Bear growled and put another brick on his line.

“Hey, Brawler over there,” Someone tried.

“GROAR, GROAGH!!”

“...”

“I see. Well, nothing I can do,” Ye Xiu said. “GG Old Han.”

“Let’s go,” Han Wenqing said to his guild.

“Why are you guys here?”

“Where’s Cool Autumn Breeze?” the people of Blossoms Valley also approached.

“You’re late,” Ye Xiu said. “He’s long gone.”

Sun Zheping clicked his tongue. “What did you do?”

“Why are you blaming me?” Ye Xiu asked back.

“It’s an instinctive reaction at this point,” Ji Leng snickered in mockery.

By this time, I’m A Bear already reached the fourth Brick and his first Brick began to disappear.

Zhang Jiale noticed this and asked, “What is he doing?” he didn’t see any guild symbol on top I’m A Bear’s head so he directed his question to everyone.

“Building a wall, I think?”

The first brick was completely gone by now and I’m A Bear suddenly roared in fury, startling people who were still standing around him.

Without any other notice, I’m A Bear jumped to the nearest person and started abusing the poor guy in the most gruesome way.

“Holy sh*t!” Ji Leng exclaimed.

(<I’m A Bear> The Strongest Bear in Fourth Realm. A Bear that has a revolutionary idea involving brick for the future of its race. Hates Wolves. Likes Fishes. After being saved from drowning by Cool Autumn Breeze, he becomes Cool Autumn Breeze’s royal bear. Has a history with circus and will turn ballistic when hearing the word ‘circus’.)

(Caution: He likes to try building a wall, but could never exceed more than three bricks at a time. When he set his fourth brick, the first brick will disappear. He will be enraged and attacked everyone around, thinking they stole his brick.)

“f*ck, there’s a description box!” Someone exclaimed.

“Amazing,” Ye Xiu breathed out, sounding astonished yet comically amused at the same time.

“What the?” Zhang Jiale was speechless.

(Further Information: Read; RP-4GLORY;;Animal/Beast;I’mABear.glo)

“There’s a link to the RP website?!”

“Who needs that?!” Ji Leng exclaimed.

Han Wenqing suddenly felt a strong sense of dejavu and a headache coming his way.

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

Ye Xiu always heard so much about the first person to ever discover the feature of Heavenly Council. Contrary to what most people expected, he never really minded of having lost his chance to vie for a seat at the very start, he also didn’t feel the extreme need to go and test out this other Battle Mage that had won the seat.

Instead, Ye Xiu felt that the Battle Mage was quite talented and he respected that he was the first one to discover the feature. While Ye Xiu excelled at nearly everything in Glory, he knew he wasn’t a complete ‘textbook’. It honestly impressed Ye Xiu that someone could love Glory so much that he spent his time exploring the realm which pros like him often avoided.

Ye Xiu respected that, the love- of course. It was honestly not a humiliation to lose to someone who loved Glory like that. That kind of love reminded him too much of his late friend, if he was still here now, Ye Xiu fully believed Su Muqiu would be able to seize the seat of Launcher or Sharpshooter or both by now after tireless efforts.

Sure, he couldn’t deny that he was curious of Cool Autumn Breeze. But Ye Xiu was not Han Wenqing who always had to know everything, he respected some boundaries and he wouldn’t bother someone unless he happened to see them in his peripheral of vision.

The time after fighting over the third release of the Fierce Dragon Wolf, Ye Xiu happened to see him and decided to get to know him.

And then Cool Autumn Breeze, the first Battle Mage Ye Xiu honestly respected, was gone just like that. Truly like a breeze he left.

Since they already met, Ye Xiu found him even more interesting and decided to keep an eye out for him.

He pestered Han Wenqing about him and his friend-slash-rival reluctantly shared what he had observed from Cool Autumn Breeze.

Apparently aside from being quite a role-player, the guy didn’t like to be disturbed and preferred to be by himself until he decided otherwise. His way of thinking was unpredictable but his logic was flawless when you look at it for the second time. He was quick and efficient, he didn’t want to waste his time even for a second which Han Wenqing liked and Ye Xiu could respect.

Cool Autumn Breeze also always seemed to be in a haste to Han Wenqing’s observation, he preferred to do all the thinking while he was walking from point A to point B rather than stop and mulling about it. Ye Xiu refrained from asking just how close Han Wenqing observed the guy to notice that, seriously.

All in all, Ye Xiu’s interest was piqued. Su Mucheng joked how all the strong pro players in the Alliance couldn’t keep Ye Xiu’s interest at all but a random person in the internet could, Su Mucheng didn’t understand. The feeling of uncovering a mystery was just too tempting for men like Ye Xiu. Ye Xiu knew everyone in the Alliance, but he didn’t know this guy.

Ye Xiu even visited the RP website and had to admit the people who pitched in to make this website were either talented graphic designers who were jobless or some dedicated and devoted role-players.

[[Battle Mage]] <Cool Autumn Breeze>

Cool Autumn Breeze is a prince from a faraway kingdom at the edge of the sky with seven-coloured lights protecting it. He’s, in fact, the crown prince who had went out on a journey to cultivate himself and experience the way of the world.

He was intially very reluctant to talk and clueless about the way of Glory, he relied heavily on his cousin, but slowly he learned the power of friendship and understood the importance of socializing especially since his cousin, Princess <Colourful Jade>, had to leave him and return to the kingdom for her royal duty as a royal daughter.

He’s in love with the Queen Clarisya of Zafiro and had expressed this feeling publically for several times and even won fights against his love rivals. He was very sincere in his intent with the queen that he swore to uncover the dark secret of the Prince Consort Ardarius, the queen’s husband.

Till now, he unquestionably the Fourth Realm’s Strongest. He’s amongst the first batch of people who earned enlightenment and ascended to [Heavenly Domain].

Recently, he seems to have returned to his kingdom for several months to take care of something. Whispers spread that the king had fallen ill and he needed to return and be the king, others swore Cool Autumn Breeze doesn’t have a good relationship with his father and probably returned to stage a coup. No one knows the truth for sure.

As per date; DD-MM-YYYY; Cool Autumn Breeze is already back on [Heavenly Domain], however, the reason why he returned home remains a mystery.

A few hours later, Su Mucheng found Ye Xiu in front of his computer reading a screen-worth of chinese characters that she later on found out as a role-player website.

The battle for the Battle Mage special boss was as fierce as ever if not fiercer. As pro players, even if they knew Sun Zheping would lose his special privilege if they stole the kill, they didn’t care. Either way, it was just a special privilege, Sun Zheping could always try again later when Cool Autumn Breeze decided for an all-out brawl for Berserkers just like the Witches.

Friendship? What was that? There was no friendship over special Wild Boss unless that friendship could win them the said special Wild Boss.

Naturally, Sun Zheping and Zhang Jiale worked harder. Even if the world was against them, they still braved through the storm. Because like hell they were coming out with nothing after all of those miseries Cool Autumn Breeze put them through.

Their pride couldn’t take it, dammit!

Truth be told, if he knew this was how it would turn out, Sun Zheping would have just waited until Cool Autumn Breeze opened a Battle Royale again. Look at Wang Jiexi, he won his key in a matter of one chapter and Sun Zheping himself couldn’t do it after two chapters.

It took a lot, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms jumped to sacrifice himself to secure the boss to Hundred Blossoms when the boss was nearing Enrage mode when Tyrannical Ambition nearly made a breakthrough by their vice-captain’s tactic. Dazzling Hundred BlossomsUH died as a martyr for the sake of Sun Zheping’s Blossoming Chaos— so you better f*cking win that or I’ll choke you in your sleep, Big Sun!!!

Fortunately, nothing too major happened next and Hundred Blossoms won the Wild Boss after losing their vice-captain.

Everyone in Hundred Blossoms’ training room cheered and hugged each other as if they just won a ten million super prize or maybe a championship. Maybe not championship as no one cried... yet.

The majority of other guilds’ people began to disperse then, some began picking up their fallen comrades’ fallen items, and some stuck around wanting to look at the famous avatars.

“So, what are we doing next?” someone asked Sun Zheping who was still on post-victory clarity.

Sun Zheping snapped out of it. “Right.” He had Blossoming Chaos turn around to look back at the last place he saw Cool Autumn Breeze only to find another Battle Mage was already there. “What the hell, Ye Qiu...?” he murmured in disbelief and Blossoming Chaos began to run.

He couldn’t risk Ye Qiu annoying Cool Autumn Breeze and made him unable to claim the Berserker’s key today.

“YE QIU!”

Two Battle Mages looked over.

Sun Zheping glared at One Autumn Leaf. “Are you bothering him?” he accused.

Ye Xiu was absolutely speechless. What was this? Why did he suddenly get accused? Moreover, what’s up with that accusation? Ye Xiu felt like a sleazy man bothering a lone young maiden in a blanket of the night!

Why don’t you just address Cool Autumn Breeze over here and add ‘Is he bothering you?’ for full effect???

“I’m just talking with Cool Autumn Breeze as a fellow Battle Mage, that’s all,” Ye Xiu answered. “What do you want me to do?” He shot back meaningfully.

“I want you to do nothing,” Sun Zheping shot back heatedly.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

“Congratulations, Blossoming Chaos, that was a great battle,” Cool Autumn Breeze finally spoke up. “I was expecting you to lose, rather, I was actually rooting for you to lose.”

Sun Zheping’s lips twitched. ‘Don’t get mad, don’t get mad, he holds the key, be patience...’

“In fact, I was actually thinking of accusing you of cheating again. After all, how could it be so lucky for you to only win on the last chance unless it’s rigged?” Cool Autumn Breeze said lightly.

‘...Hold yourself, Sun Zheping. He just wants to see you react. He eats on negative emotions, hold yourself back.’ Sun Zheping deceived himself and kept his silence.

“That makes sense. It is hard to believe when someone wins on the last try,” Ye Xiu said agreeingly.

“Ye Qiu, you bastard, shut the hell up,” Sun Zheping was not so patient with this three-time champion.

“But as it turned out, I can’t find a single flaw that I can accuse of you being unfair and asking your friends to make it easy for you.”

“If given a chance, those people will eat each other. There’s no way I can get help from them,” Sun Zheping said bitterly.

“I mean, if you promise me one or two rare materials from the Wild Boss, I’d have Excellent Era withdrawing without a fight.”

Sun Zheping glared at One Autumn Leaf. “You wanna fight?” he demanded aggressively.

“Why? I’m just providing some insights,” Ye Xiu said innocently.

“f*ck. Off.” Sun Zheping growled.

“Cool Autumn Breeze!” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms ran up to them. “We did it, give my comrade-in-arm-- what are you doing here?” Zhang Jiale paused his role-playing when he saw One Autumn Leaf.

“Don’t mind me.”

“How could that be?” Zhang Jiale demanded. There as no way Zhang Jiale could peacefully role-play with this bastard here!

“Here, I’ll give you the key,” Cool Autumn Breeze initiated a trade between him and Blossoming Chaos.

Sun Zheping gingerly accepted.

The trade happened quite fast. In less than half a minute, it was finalized and system notification rang out to announce Sun Zheping as the candidate of Berserker’s Seat.

“Okay, bye,” Cool Autumn Breeze turned around carelessly, making Sun Zheping feel like he couldn’t even feel happy for this achievement.

“Autumn Breeze,” Ye Xiu called out. “How about a PK?” He proposed.

The Blossoms Duo nearly snorted at that. That had to be the least unexpected thing the Battle God ever did in their eyes.

“No,” Cool Autumn Breeze’s rejection was expected but actually more decisive and quicker than they expected.

“Why not?” Ye Xiu asked.

“I don’t entertain just anyone,” Cool Autumn Breeze said coolly.

“Pfft—“ Zhang Jiale snigg*red mockingly at One Autumn Leaf.

Ye Xiu didn’t care, though. One Autumn Leaf raised Evil Annihilation and launched an attack at the other Battle Mage, but as expected Cool Autumn Breeze noticed right away and dived to the side at the right time.

Clash!

Ye Xiu blinked when he saw he entered the battle mode- which should have happened unless he hit a target. Ye Xiu blinked twice when he saw a Striker when the aura of his attack disappeared, he had his hands in front of him in a shielding position before lowering them slowly to his side.

Desert Dust...

Ye Xiu could hear the two behind him inhaling deeply with Zhang Jiale giggling a second after.

“Old Han, I didn’t see you there,” Ye Xiu said honestly.

Desert Dust got into a position. “An eye for an eye,” Han Wenqing said coldly and the King of Fighting lunged at the Battle God like a blur of red bloody rage.

Sun Zheping let the two ‘bitter’ rivals at it and recalled that he might need Cool Autumn Breeze’s help in solving the challenge. He hastily turned around but Cool Autumn Breeze had escaped.

“Dammit, Ye Qiu!” Sun Zheping cursed out. There was no way he could blame anyone by Ye Qiu in this situation! “You made him leave!” Blossoming Chaos jumped to join the fight against One Autumn Leaf, of course, there wouldn’t be Blossoming Chaos unless Dazzling Hundred Blossoms followed a moment later.

Ye Xiu got speechless at how he was suddenly fighting against three god-tier players until Su Mucheng noticed his trouble and rushed over to help him escape by covering up his track with her destructive ability as a Launcher.

Ye Qiu couldn’t believe his bad luck when his brother found him, luckily for his assistant’s vision that got him a voice-changer Ye Qiu could pass the tribulation without much troubles. Even though it had been a while, Ye Qiu could still recognize Ye Xiu’s voice in a heartbeat, he deeply believed that it would be the same vice-versa. Ye Qiu didn’t want to risk it.

Ye Qiu sighed. “I expected him to come to find me, but it’s still surprising...” After all, Ye Qiu played a Battle Mage and had snatched the council’s seat for Battle Mage for himself. Even though in his defense he could say he didn’t know he’d get the title, and it wasn’t his fault that Ye Xiu didn’t do enough quests to unlock it.

What should he do now?

Will Ye Xiu keep on looking and bothering him? He hoped not. He might slip up with his brother and... And Ye Qiu honestly didn’t want to think of that possibility.

Ye Qiu sighed harshly. “Stupid elder brother.”

But...

Ye Qiu’s lips quirked into a smile.

It felt refreshing to run away from Ye Xiu and left before he could finish his words. It was usually Ye Qiu who tried to get a hold of his brother and Ye Xiu who shut him down. Now the role is reversed!

Let that disgraceful brother know the feeling of getting ignored! Hmph!

[Congratulations to Desert Dust for being the Master of Mysterious Tiger Colosseum.]

[System: One of the Twenty-four Seats of Holy Council Has Been Filled. Congratulations to the Great Hero of Striker: Desert Dust]

Christmas was a special time for everyone including the pro players, and this christmas they were greeted with a grand news from the King of Fighting himself.

It felt somewhat surreal. Someone actually win the Council’s Seat without going through Cool Autumn Breeze first?

So far, there only had been three seats found, all of them were found by Cool Autumn Breeze, it became quite a sensation amongst the players who began to spread rumors that Cool Autumn Breeze was a mole from Glory’s company to boost the game’s name, they didn’t know that some missions were not only designed for the detailed one but also a crazy-great player. Even if they wanted to, there was nearly no one who could finish the chain of quests leading to a specific seat let alone trying for another class’ seat.

But, today, Han Wenqing proved to everyone that someone else could do it alone and didn't need Cool Autumn Breeze’s grace. It was so big that people began to call him ‘The First’ even though technically Cool Autumn Breeze did it first... thrice even, but that guy was not counted because he was too much of an anomaly.

Not only the normal players, even the pros were both surprised and feel moved. Of course they also suspected that Cool Autumn Breeze was a mole from the studio that developed Glory, although a few encounters with Cool Autumn Breeze was enough to convince them that Cool Autumn Breeze was an authentic expert, who is to say that the two matters were exclusive from one another? You can be a great expert while also working for the studio as a mole.

Han Wenqing’s success made everyone recognize that they might be able to do it after all.

Truly a pioneer.

Such an example towards the younger generation.

What a hero.

On another hand, Ye Qiu was quite surprised when he saw the system announcement. He remembered Desert Dust being that guy who was curious and asked him many things. Who knew Ye Qiu actually taught him for something, after all?

Recalling that Ye Qiu taught this Desert Dust, his feeling for him became quite affectionate. How to explain this? It felt so special...

Like a proud teacher seeing his disciple’s success through his teaching. Truly a wonderful feeling.

Ye Qiu opened his friend list but then remembered he never added Desert Dust at all. He closed the window and felt a bit regretful that he couldn’t congratulate his disciple (?) for his success.

But fate was a funny thing. A few hours later while wandering aimlessly, Ye Qiu stumbled to a group of people from Tyrannical Ambition. Ye Qiu instantly recognized the familiar Striker avatar and gingerly walked over.

“Congratulations, Desert Dust.”

Desert Dust whirled around. “Cool Autumn Breeze?” He called out in surprise. He then realized what Ye Qiu meant and continued, “It’s nothing, I followed your advice. It was helpful.”

“A proof everybody can do it as long as they are studious,” Ye Qiu said graciously. “You make me gain some hope for Glory’s future. I hope everyone followed your lead and could find the secret of their own profession by themselves.”

“They will find it with their own pace,” Desert Dust brushed it off. “Are you here to just congratulate me?”

Ye Qiu blinked. “Is there any problem in that?”

“Why don’t you join my party?” Desert Dust proposed. “I haven’t thanked you yet for sharing those informations that helped me a lot.”

“You’re too gracious, Desert Dust. Truly honorable. But I need not such a thing, how could a prince from a kingdom accept a return gift for mere few sentences? I’m just here to see a fellow Coucil’s member who earned his place by himself.”

“Oh, you don’t want to know about the dowager queen mission scroll that I found?” Desert Dust asked doubtfully. “I heard you talking about it so I kept it.”

“What scroll?” Ye Qiu asked seriously.

“The description said it was a scroll of parchment signed by the dowager queen of Hantyver ten years ago the content can’t be read clearly but it seems to be about permission of an invasion.”

“Where did you find it?” Ye Qiu asked quickly. Quest items can’t be transferred to anyone, the only quest items that can be trade to someone else if the keys of Heavenly Coucil’s seats in Ye Qiu’s experience, so he could only ask Desert Dust where he found it and went there to retrieve his own quest item.

Desert Dust explained where he got it and even the rough coordinate which Ye Qiu recognized in an instant.

“I knew it. I should have gone west from that turn...” Ye Qiu murmured to himself. He paused when he recalled that his mic was on. He turned to Desert Dust, “Thank you for telling me this, Desert Dust. Do you want to finish the quest together with this prince?”

“Alright,” Desert Dust answered.

Whispers broke out among the people of Tyrannical Ambition but Ye Qiu ignored it.

“Just the two of you?” Cold Season demanded.

“Good luck,” Immovable Rock cut in.

“Why?” Ji Leng demanded to Zhang Xinjie.

“Cool Autumn Breeze is quite introverted,” Zhang Xinjie observed. “He wouldn’t like going with a whole lot of people. Let Captain Han forge a personal friendship with him before the rest follows.”

“...What are you? His mother?” Why do you care so much about his feeling and how he’d make friends??? Ji Leng was stunned. “Cool Autumn Breeze is not even our teammate!” Granted, Ji Leng couldn’t imagine anyone mothering Han Wenqing, but still...

“Who knows about the future, right?” Zhang Xinjie said calmly.

“You mean you want to go friend’s route to recruit him?” Li Yibo asked in surprise.

“I said, who knows about the future,” Zhang Xinjie stated.

“Whatever, let’s just go. We have a christmas event to ace, can’t let those people from Excellent Era top us.” Ji Leng said and took the lead of the group.

Han Wenqing ditched the christmas event for Cool Autumn Breeze, if anyone would ever tell Han Wenqing that he would ditch an event that could provide for his team and guild for a single person, he would have snorted and chalked it up as that person being crazy. However, there was a difference between choosing somebody over his guild and having to leave his guild for a while to pay a debt.

Han Wenqing couldn’t exactly say he didn’t feel thankful that Cool Autumn Breeze was quite generous in giving informations. Mainly because Han Wenqing knew this guy was not a mole or whatever people gossiped about. No mole could be so devoted and an expert at the same time, not to mention Cool Autumn Breeze was quite clueless about other sides of the game that didn’t involve the lore.

Now they played together once again, Han Wenqing could feel Cool Autumn Breeze was much friendlier than before.

“Where should we go next?” Han Wenqing flicked a glance at his new quest item after following Cool Autumn Breeze for half an hour.

“To the mid-stream of Kayan River, there should be a fishing village there, you familiar?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked.

Han Wenqing paused for a while to recall. “A settlement?”

“Suppose so, they’re not a part of any superpower so they don’t have the most interesting trade but most of the people there are kind,” Cool Autumn Breeze said in a way that convinced Han Wenqing that they were talking about people and not NPCs.

“Fishing village, huh...” Han Wenqing murmured.

“Speaking of fishing, have you tried that Fishing Challenge from the Legendary Fisher?” Cool Autumn Breeze said sophisticatedly. “If you passed, he’ll give this magical box that could be used against the boss you defeated to choose one item it can potentially drop for yourself. Oh, and a fishing badge.”

“What?” Han Wenqing blinked when he heard that.

“Fishing Badge?” Cool Autumn Breeze repeated.

“No, before that,” Han Wenqing said.

“Magical box?”

“Yes, the one that could control what we get,” Han Wenqing said.

“Yes.”

“How did you get that?” Han Wenqing asked. The two talked some more and Han Wenqing once again felt astonished at this guy’s knowledge in missions, these missions sound like a waste of time and really hard but he finished it and reaped quite a rich reward.

As they conversed, they breezed through several stages of the quests, fighting and running through the map of Heavenly Domain quite actively.

“Do you always go by yourself like this?” Han Wenqing couldn’t resist asking. “I didn’t see that bear that’s always with you.”

“Bear is not always with me, but he’s currently in hibernation so no one would be hearing from him until spring arrives,” Cool Autumn Breeze said.

“...I see,” Han Wenqing replied. “Is there also any special reason for you to stop playing a few months ago?”

Cool Autumn Breeze chuckled. “I didn’t go on seasonal slumber if that’s what you asked me. I went back to my kingdom to fulfill my duty as the heir to the throne to my tyrannical father.”

Han Wenqing wondered if he was being half-serious or entirely role-playing. “How did it go then?” He asked casually.

“Great.” Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t elaborate further. “How about you? I’d imagine life as the high-ranking member of Tyrannical Ambition is busy but you actually offered to explore with me.”

Han Wenqing hummed. “It won’t take long anyway, I haven’t thanked you for making it easy to get information.”

“It was just a trade, I did ask you to help me with my friend.”

Han Wenqing recalled that name the entire Tyrannical Ambition trolled and shook his head.

“He must be quite a person to be your friend.”

“You flatter him,” Cool Autumn Breeze answered with amusem*nt in his voice.

Dowager Queen Consort’s mission was not a direct mission. It was more like a discovery quest where the giver of the mission was somewhere and probably didn’t even know you were trying to crack her quests. Ye Qiu liked this kind of mission since it added flavor to the lore and most probably would lead him to another secret quest that could only be unlocked when you knew the details of another mundane quest.

Ye Qiu guided Han Wenqing to the previous pieces of the mission's scrolls and pieced together the lore behind it.

One day, after the death of the previous king, the Dowager Queen made an order to track down a man with white hair and golden eyes. The man she sent wrote all the details in the scrolls of mission the Dowager gave him.

He went everywhere to locate this man, crossing many suspicions and adding more questions. Eventually, the man found something that couldn’t be ignored with the Dowager Queen’s quest and began to slip in his own thoughts regarding this search as more and more details revealed themselves in his journey.

In year XX decades ago, the kingdom of Evintan suffered a rebellion and the queen had to flee the palace, at that time, the heavily pregnant queen gave born to the current king somewhere after more investigation the man on the mission found out that she didn’t just give birth to a son, but twins.

On the night with moon eclipse happening, the elder twin was born when the moon was completely covered, casting a curse upon the supposed heir and turning his hair white- as white as the moon that was covered. The second son was born right after the moon eclipse was done and had normal black hair.

Twins of the same gender were regarded as ominous in Evintan kingdom. Twins were supposedly equal when everyone knew only one can be a king and take the throne. It had been a long-standing tradition to kill the younger twin to prevent any accident in the future where the younger twin posed as his elder twin brother and took the throne after eliminating the true heir, it was a legitimate concern as it would make chaos descent upon the kingdom.

However due to the elder twin’s cursed appearance, the queen dowager decided that his younger twin was more suitable to be the heir. On the other hand, the queen didn’t have the heart to kill her child so she ordered her maid to dump the elder twin somewhere.

The scroll that Han Wenqing found revealed the existence of the twin. Biased as he was, Ye Qiu was determined to uncover the whole mystery as it involved twins. He got really excited because he got briefly introduced to the character of the king- the younger twin, it was said that the king didn’t actually like his job as a king, Ye Qiu wondered if the queen dowager’s attempt to find the elder twin was to get him back to help the younger twin.

Ye Qiu had a lot of ideas about where this was going, ranging from a happy family reunion with a little drama (since the mother did throw away her first son) to a brotherly love ending where the two brothers would lead the kingdom together with the elder twin as the king’s masked advisor that he once received a mission from- if that was true, Ye Qiu would need to get back to that NPC and see if something changed after he discovered the truth.

However, the ending of the quest was not something he ever expected.

The elder twin died... the king killed him. That was it. The ending of the quest.

After finding out he had a twin and an elder twin brother at that, the king set out to meet him. When he saw how similar his elder twin was to him except for the white hair, the king killed him on the spot reasoning that he couldn’t jeopardize his hold on the throne.

“That’s unexpected...” Desert Dust commented. He read slower than Ye Qiu- he initially didn’t even want to read the lore but changed his way since he had to wait for Ye Qiu to read the lore anyway.

Ye Qiu wanted to agree with him but held himself back. Ye Qiu was currently Cool Autumn Breeze, a prince of a faraway kingdom. He should be experienced with this kind of bloody royal drama. “Royalties are different. I expected this outcome,” no he didn’t. Damn. “The elder twin was too naive,” stupid elder brothers, “but I can’t blame him. He grew up away from palace intrigues and never saw the shadow cast by all those glittering gold.”

“Do you condone the king’s decision?” Desert Dust asked nonchalantly.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I might be heartless when I want to be but I could never kill my own blood,” Ye Qiu wanted to answer with some drawn-out epic tough line about killing his own kin to secure the throne, but he really didn’t have any desire for power whether in game or real life. Moreover, his only brother was that disgraceful slope and as much as Ye Qiu wanted to strangle him and yell at him, Ye Qiu couldn’t even imagine himself hurting Ye Xiu...

Well, maybe, a tiny bit.

Desert Dust hummed. “You have a brother?”

Ye Qiu was surprised at the direct question. “Is that what you gather from my vague reply?” he laughed. “I do,” he confirmed easily.

“Does he play-“ Desert Dust paused for a while. “Then, why are you alone?”

Ye Qiu, oddly pleased that he kept someone like Desert Dust within the grey line of playing normally and role-playing, smiled. “He and I walked different paths. He shed his chains and fly free to other horizons and here I am trying to emulate freedom in this domain.”

Though, to be fair, technically Ye Xiu was also in this domain but Ye Qiu refused to say that. Dramatic flair is what every role-player needs.

After seeing the disappointing ending of a lore quest, Ye Qiu went as far as escorting Desert Dust to the fishing village and detailed to him how to finish the quest again while standing before the NPC in question.

“Make sure to fish in a place between the sea and the river, around the group of mangrove at the end of the map is the best spot. For the second fish, you have to talk at the NPC near the Quiet Lake and then fish there for a while before talking to the NPC again, he’ll mention that you’ll need a quieter lake to get the second legendary fish and you should go to the place where not even wind disturb the surface, after that, you go to the underground lake at Sylbis Underground Tomb at the free-roam part of the map, go to the right from the fork turns and then walk until you find the lake. The second one will take a while before you can get it.”

“Okay. Is that all?”

“Hmm, right, I forgot. The second fish is sensitive to sound, so don’t move at all. In fact, the more idle animation you get, the better chance the fish will appear. After that, you’ll get pulled to a miniboss battle.”

“A what?”

“Don’t worry, it’s quick but really weak, even if you don’t know how to fight aquatic battle, you won’t die. The fish only requires you to attack it thrice before it died.” Ye Qiu remembered flailing the first time before he realized the fish didn’t actually do much damage.

Desert Dust hummed. “Have you considered writing a guide?”

“Guide?” Ye Qiu paused, he suddenly went on a nostalgia when he remembered how many guides he studied to really understand what he got into when he first played Glory especially when his assistants couldn’t make themselves more useful in this regard.

“Yes. You’re really meticulous with your quests and way to finish it. I believe if you write one, it will be a valuable asset to anyone who read it,” Desert Dust said seriously in a sincere manner. “Moreover, I doubt anyone went as far as you did with some of these. You’ll be a good guide author. Did you write anything from those quests and way to finish it?”

Ye Qiu’s mind went to the small folder he had in his computer. He paused. It wasn’t like the thought of writing a guideline never occured to him. It had. A few months ago when he stumbled upon one in the internet and criticized everything out of it.

Ye Qiu then recalled the talk he had with his good friend, Windward Formation, a few months ago.

“Windward.”

“What the f*ck?!” Windward Formation stopped abruptly. “Where did come from?!”

“I was nearby so I figured I’ll wait for you here.”

“That’s f*cking creepy, how do you know I’ll be here?”

“The hardworking Thief tells me,” Ye Qiu answered impassively as Harder Daddy wandered near them.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you Great Guru, His Highness was asking where we are so I told him.”

“You have this scoundrel in your friendlist?!” Windward Formations exclaimed disbelievingly.

“Of course! We, from the fourth realm, should stick to each other. You should accept my invitation, great guru, so I don’t have to run around blindly to find you.”

“I don’t even want to be found by you!” Windward Formation snapped.

“Just accept your fate, you’re stuck with us,” Ye Qiu deadpanned.

“Well, f*ck my life!” Windward Formation screamed in despair.

Ye Qiu’s lips quirked up at his online friend’s frustration before he asked, “Have you written a guide before, Windward?”

Windward Formation paused, taken aback with the sudden unrelated question. “Guide? Just so we’re clear, we’re talking about the ones in the internet to get something or to finish the dungeon right?”

“Yes. I found some when I was browsing, most of them are terrible, some are subpar, some are quite good, but mostly they’re all subpar or below average,” Ye Qiu complained.

“Careful, those people put aside some of their times to write it, they’re helpers,” Windward Formation scolded him seriously. “Except for the copy-pasters, damn those all reposters.”

“They don’t help me at all,” Ye Qiu said. “Except for the initial guidelines posted in the official site.”

“Well duh, I can’t even help you at some parts let alone those noob writers!” Windward Formation exclaimed.

“So only noobs write?”

“No, many experts also did their fair share of contributions,” Windward Formation answered evenly. “I’ve written my fair share as well. I’m in the middle of writing one myself right now.”

“You do?” Ye Qiu blinked.

“Yeah. You get some missions give you Skill Books when done in a certain way, right?”

“Oh,” Ye Qiu nodded carelessly. Skill books meant nothing to him, his Skill Point was maxed a long time ago. “I guess some did.” Ye Qiu only paid attention to the interesting and unique rewards, not the boring ones.

“Yeah, I’m currently noting something about that, here and there, this and that, compile it to one, voila,” Windward Formation said boredly.

“That’s so cool, great guru! You should teach me your way to attain Skill Books from missions!” Harder Daddy jumped into the conversation again but got resolutely ignored.

“Did you upload it?” Ye Qiu asked.

“f*ck no. It’s mine,” Windward Formation said.

Ye Qiu nodded. He felt that way too to some quests he did.

“Would you write one for some people you think as special enough to read it?” Ye Qiu asked.

“The f*ck is this gross question? You want to write a guide? Be that way,” Windward Formation said.

“Just humor this prince,” Ye Qiu said carelessly.

Windward Formation groaned. “I have no reason to do that.”

“You truly don’t?”

The Warlock paused. “Well, if it’s for that brat, I’ll think about it. If he still wants to listen to this father at all.”

Ye Qiu hummed.

“That brat?” Harder Daddy repeated. “Do you mean your previous disciple, great guru?”

“...”

Ye Qiu understood and punched his palm. “I see, so you’ll only share it within your line of teaching.”

Amazing. Ye Qiu couldn’t believe how touched he was at this idea. Wonderful, marvellous, out of this world.

“The f*ck are you on?” Windward Formation responded.

“You’re so smart, Windward.”

“Well, of f*cking course. This father has always been smart, clever, and handsome,” Windward Formation didn’t miss a single beat.

“I know how incorporate this into my role now,” Ye Qiu smirked. “If I ever need to, that is.”

Ye Qiu chuckled. “And who will read those if I do write it?”

“I will,” Desert Dust said surely.

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“Great. You’re my first disciple from now on,” Ye Qiu declared.

“Excuse me?” Desert Dust was dumbstruck.

“Mucheng, you lead the others, I’ll regroup later,” Ye Xiu commanded when he saw a very familiar avatar in the distance from where One Autumn Leaf stands.

“Okay!” Su Mucheng didn’t question Ye Xiu and took charge of the party to the other direction.

Nobody questioned anything either, their captain had not always been the most talkative on his business.

Ye Xiu didn’t pay attention to them anymore and observed the place for a trap or ambush laying in wait, when he found nothing on the surface, he relaxed a bit but still took the safest route to reach the other avatar.

What is Han Wenqing doing there standing around without his team? Ye Xiu didn’t know. But when he saw the other avatar beside Desert Dust, Ye Xiu knew he had to drop by and say hi.

While the event was exhilirating and the competition was really tight, it became a bit repetitive, there was no harm in taking a little break to say hi to his old friend/rival and also to talk more to his latest fixation.

“Have you considered writing a guide?”

“Guide?”

One Autumn Leaf soon reached their blind spot and Ye Xiu took one last puff of his cigarette and put it out on the ashtray nearby as he listened to their dialogue. His hand returned back to his mouse and he pondered about the way to greet them and how to annoy the hell out of Han Wenqing with one entrance. He zoned out a bit while thinking of the best way to annoy Han Wenqing enough for him to be upset but not upset enough to actually attack him on sight.

“And who will read those if I do write it?”

“I will.”

Ye Xiu blinked back to his screen. ‘Are they talking about a guide?’ The Great Han Wenqing would read a guide now? Funny.

“Really?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked.

“Of course.”

“Great. You’re my first disciple from now on.”

Ye Xiu paused and stared at the scene on his screen incredulously. His mouth opened automatically in his disbelief and his voice came out in sync with Han Wenqing’s.

“Excuse me?”

Desert Dust snapped back and saw One Autumn Leaf creeping from behind a bush. “What are you doing there?!” He demanded.

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

It had been days since that team-up with Cool Autumn Breeze that ended up with Han Wenqing challenging Ye Xiu, who came out of nowhere, to a fight and Cool Autumn Breeze leaving in the middle of their fight.

Han Wenqing was currently watching his screen as the Wild Boss’ defeat animation played out less than a second after its hp hit zero. When the light began to appear he clicked the box in his inventory and his avatar held the box and directed it to the Wild Boss and a new window appeared with the list of all possible drops the boss could have, ranging from the rare ones to the commons.

Half of the RnD crowded behind the captain but maintain enough distance to not warrant an annoyed glare from the strict King of Fighting, even Zhang Xinjie had abandoned his screen to watch Han Wenqing’s screen.

“The Nine-Corners Lava Rock.”

Han Wenqing clicked on the mentioned material and the choice window loaded before disappearing. In Desert Dust’s mostly empty inventory, a Nine-Corners Lava Rock appeared while the box disappeared.

“Oh my God, it works. That’s the rarest drop and the drop rate is only 5%!”

“We don’t have to keep waiting once a week...”

“This is awesome!”

Even Zhang Xinjie readjusted his glasses seriously with a slight smile, it was obvious that the vice-captain was pleasantly surprised with the result.

Just after that, the main loot box appeared and it was still the same normal number of loots, so the extra from the box was counted alone and not as the main loot.

“Where’s the note for the quest, Captain Han? We can immediately tell the guild to organize all the paid and trusted players to do it.” Of course, if dozens or so players have this box, Tyranny would get the rarest material easily, especially if they all make use of all the spare ownerless accounts. That would be hundreds.

Han Wenqing leaned back, feeling a little light. While he trusted Cool Autumn Breeze’s claim, it was still surprising that a rare item like this came from a deceivingly easy quest- though the requirements of this quest was as weird as it could be.

It did take Han Wenqing three hours and most of those hours were spent waiting. Just like fishing in real life.

Han Wenqing waved. “I’ll give it to you later.” He didn’t even know why they all came here, he just casually mentioned this to one of his friends in the RnD department and the guy made a fuss and brought so many people with him. It just so happened that the Wild Boss they were aiming for to get an upgrade on Desert Dust had spawned.

If it was any other person, the people would protest. But who told them to have Han Wenqing as their captain? None of the staff dared to complain and obediently agreed with Han Wenqing. After getting those noisy staff out of the training room, Han Wenqing leaned back and stared at the Nine-Corners Lava Rock.

Ji Leng whistled as he stopped behind Han Wenqing, peering at his screen. “Captain, we let you be with him for a few hours and you returned with this kind of valuable information.” He felt grateful that Zhang Xinjie encouraged Han Wenqing to go alone with Cool Autumn Breeze, if not, where else they could get such a valuable information?

“This kind of thing has near no value for a solo player like him,” Zhang Xinjie observed. “On the other hand, with Tyranny’s resource, this kind of special item is terrifyingly powerful.”

Han Wenqing nodded. It almost made him guilty even though Cool Autumn Breeze shared this with him willingly without any coercing. To a soloist like Cool Autumn Breeze, the item had been a one-use switch, but it was a weapon for Tyranny or any other guild.

“He can’t possibly be a mole,” Han Wenqing said. This enforced Han Wenqing’s belief that Cool Autumn Breeze was just a simple gamer. No one would give this kind of information to a guild that can amass dozens of professional help. “He didn’t seem to be aware how important the item is.”

“The Wish Box...” Zhang Xinjie muttered. “As long as one knows where to search, it’s a very simple and easy quest,” the difficulty in this quest was how to find it but if they already knew where to find it, it got no difficulty in it.

“I wonder where he finds this,” Ji Leng muttered.

“He’s really perspective with details,” Han Wenqing said. “It feels like he knows many things in Glory like the back of his own hands.” That level of knowledge and familiarity was honestly both amazing and intimidating.

“The back of his own hands?” Ji Leng arched his brows. “Makes you think of someone, doesn’t it?”

Han Wenqing didn’t say anything but it felt like an acknowledgment.

They went silent. Enough said with that alone. Ye Qiu was called Glory’s Textbook not for nothing, to be compared to Ye Qiu by Han Wenqing, Cool Autumn Breeze must’ve really impressed the King of Fighting.

Han Wenqing inclined his head. “Zhang Xinjie, tell the RnD to take out the loots from Deep Volcanic Chimera.” Deep Volcanic Chimera was the name of the special boss Han Wenqing could unleash with Desert Dust, they managed to seize it the first time.

Zhang Xinjie readjusted his glasses. “You’re giving them to Cool Autumn Breeze?” Despite being young and new, Zhang Xinjie could read his captain quite well.

Han Wenqing furrowed his brows. “Yes.” He felt like he was taking advantage of an innocent bystander like this, he needed to give as much as he took.

It had been a few days since Han Wenqing thwarted Ye Xiu’s plan to get close to Cool Autumn Breeze, he still yet to get another chance to find him and talk to the elusive expert who might as well among top-tier player in his skill.

It was new year’s eve now, the event for new year’s eve had been open since the 29th as the continuation of the christmas event.

For this event, Blue Brook had been leading quite studiously but that was only because Ye Xiu hadn’t gone serious yet.

Tyrannical Ambition had lagged a bit behind because of the absence of Han Wenqing in the early days of Christmas Event due to him probably finishing his Council mission to attain the title but Zhang Xinjie had been very steady, they could very well disturb the flow of the event if Han Wenqing decided to unleash the special Wild Boss he had which would distract a lot of people, Ye Xiu included.

Herb Garden was just behind Excellent Dynasty in the third place, not too bad, even if Wang Jiexi decided to be shameless and released his Wild Boss at this time, Ye Xiu could ignore it as he already won it a few times already, it wouldn’t be as effective as Han Wenqing if he does it.

After hours of farming for the event, Ye Xiu felt really tired and decided to tell everyone that he was going to have a break. It was either a twist of fate or someone up there just wanted to have a drama, Ye Xiu encountered Desert Dust while wandering off, he was also alone.

“Old Han, you’re not with your guild?” Ye Xiu asked.

“I can say the same to you,” Han Wenqing replied back.

“Well, Excellent Dynasty is not the one who lagged behind,” Ye Xiu said with a calm smirk.

“That won’t be for long,” Han Wenqing said calmly.

Ye Xiu controlled One Autumn Leaf to walk alongside Desert Dust. Contrary to popular belief, Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing could very much co-exist peacefully and not immediately got into a duel when meeting in-game.

“You still haven’t told me what’s all the deal about you being Cool Autumn Breeze’s disciple.”

Han Wenqing exhaled. “I’ve told you, he’s obsessed with role-playing. There’s no such a thing as disciple-master here in Glory.”

“But it could be,” Ye Xiu pointed out. “Anyway, what kind of person that guy is?”

“Truth be told, he reminds me of you,” Han Wenqing answered casually.

“Me? Because we’re both Battle Mage?” Ye Xiu narrowed his eyes and chuckled. “That’s kinda shallow, Old Han.”

“No.” Han Wenqing wanted to roll his eyes. “You’re both meticulous to a concerning detail and talk bluntly without any reservation.”

“Wait, aren’t you the same on the last point?” Ye Xiu accused.

Han Wenqing ignored Ye Xiu. “The difference is he tends to overshare a bit regarding his finding.”

“I see. Can’t keep the valuable information to himself, huh?”

“More like he sees no value in it, unlike us,” Han Wenqing said. “When you think something is very valuable, you will want to keep it for yourself, the more valuable it is, the more you want to keep it exclusive. He didn’t think Glory as something of value.”

Ye Xiu hummed. He knew there were differences between people who were passionate about the game, such as them, and those who played it casually. “So... a very casual player who can’t possibly be tied to any club nor having any plan to exploit his findings, huh...”

Even some normal players would be protective of their own findings if they thought of it as something that could be valuable, either for themselves in the future or to sell it for money. It seemed like this Cool Autumn Breeze had no foresight for Glory or having any drive to monetize his finding. He could easily come in contact with Tiny Herb or Hundred Blossoms to sell those keys for the Heavenly Council’s Seats, but he opted a challenge instead.

“Truly a true solo player,” Ye Xiu murmured. “Doing everything alone so efficiently, what a potential...”

Han Wenqing hummed. “I think he’s just lonely.”

Ye Xiu blinked and smiled in amusem*nt. “Really? You would notice something like that?”

“He overshares,” Han Wenqing mentioned. “Zhang Xinjie mentioned he might actually want to connect with people through his findings but couldn’t find the ones who could really follow or wanted to listen due to his role-playing.”

“He got no friends? Last I read from the website, he seemed to be pretty popular amongst the fourth server’s players,” Ye Xiu said. “I do notice the emphasis on ‘solo’ in the description, that’s just sad.”

“Website?” Han Wenqing asked.

“Anyway,” Ye Xiu restarted without missing a beat. “Since when Tyranny is full of psychologists? You’re not going to exploit this lonely kid to be in your camp, right?”

“...?” Han Wenqing shook his head, not even bothering to reply to Ye Xiu’s outrageous claim.

Ye Xiu paused, knowing Han Wenqing wouldn’t reply, he continued, “Should we be his friends?”

“I’m already on his friend list.”

“Why don’t we clean a dungeon with him? You and me. Maybe he won’t be so lonely, then. No- wait, why do we suddenly sound like a couple wanting to adopt a lonely child?” Ye Xiu blinked incredulously. Why did he care anyway? He never even talk more than a few sentences to the guy!

“You’re the one who derailed,” Han Wenqing pointed out. “I was just going to ask why you’re really concerned.”

“Well, maybe if he’s happier he’ll release Fierce Bloodthirsty Dragon Wold more often,” Ye Xiu said shamelessly. “You can help me coax him.”

They kept walking and chatting when they heard humming in a particularly isolated part of the map.

“What I wanted, what you wanted.

It always becomes a neverending problem.”

The two top avatars followed the voice curiously and walked through the uneven terrain that led to a trash heap which usually became a spawning spot for one of the Wild Bosses, after looking more and entering a much more isolated corner of it, they saw a familiar avatar crouching down under a big banyan tree and in front of a black wall which had aesthetical, but undetailed and unfinished, carving on it.

“Why don’t we try to give logic a chance.

Don’t be like all these times.

Living like water and fire. Hm, hm, hm~”

Ye Xiu felt that he was kinda cute before shaking his head weirdly at the thought.

“Cool Autumn Breeze?” Han Wenqing called out in confusion.

The Battle Mage turned around. “Hm? Desert Dust...? One Autumn Leaf...?” He sounded even more confused than Han Wenqing. “What are you two doing here?”

“Exploring. What are you doing here?” Ye Xiu asked.

“A quest,” Cool Autumn Breeze answered calmly.

“I was actually looking for you,” Han Wenqing said.

Ye Xiu turned to look at Desert Dust in surprise. So that was the reason Desert Dust was alone without a teammate or his guild’s member.

“What is it? You want to complete a discipleship ceremony?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked.

“...”

Ye Xiu had to admit Cool Autumn Breeze was unapologetically blunt and shameless. The King of Fighting? A disciple? He really knew how to push his luck.

“I can’t be your disciple,” Han Wenqing said calmly.

“You don’t want to read my guide? Too bad,” Cool Autumn Breeze sighed in disappointment. “I already approved of you...” he then looked at them both again. “So what are you doing here? Especially you?” he directed his question at Ye Xiu.

“I just met Desert Dust on the way and decided to tag along. We’re friends, you see,” Ye Xiu said casually.

“I want to thank you for the information you gave me a few days ago so I brought you a few rare items,” Han Wenqing said. “Of course, if you’re willing, we can send money to your bank account... in real life,” he added the last few words as an afterthought.

Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t answer for a while. “You’re talking gibberish, Striker,” he finally responded. “You can’t send money via bank here, just trade.”

Han Wenqing sighed at Cool Autumn Breeze and his stubbornness.

“How old are you, friend?” Ye Xiu scrutinized.

“Of age,” Cool Autumn Breeze answered appropriately.

“You’re really water-tight.” Ye Xiu observed. “How about a PK?” he smiled intriguingly.

“No, I’m busy.” Cool Autumn Breeze turned around back to whatever he was doing previously. “And you don’t have to pay me, Desert Dust. It’s nothing.”

“To you, but it’s been really helpful to my team and guild,” Han Wenqing said stubbornly.

“Come on, Cool Autumn Breeze. Just once. Are you afraid? Don’t worry, Fixed Field and I won’t be brutal,” Ye Xiu said.

“How about this, Desert Dust. You get that annoying guy away from me and we consider this paid?” Cool Autumn Breeze bargained.

Ye Xiu saw Desert Dust turning towards him and smiled helplessly. He could feel Han Wenqing’s glare and annoyance from the Striker’s expressionless face. “What are you so busy for anyway? Don’t tell me you’re trying to win over other class’ key again?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Who wants to do their job for them?” Cool Autumn Breeze ridiculed, his character still glued to stare at the wall beside the tree. “I don’t go around diligently to collect something I couldn’t even unlock. Besides, those two keys had been a mistake. It’s not like I can magically attain those keys no matter how much of a genius I am.”

[System: Ding! Ding! Ding!]

[System: Congratulations to Cool Autumn Breeze <Battle Mage> for his dedication to reviving the lost knowledge of the other class and attaining the right to crown the next successor of Legendary Workshop- the Seat of Mechanic.]

Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing stared blankly at the eye-catching red notification and the spelled words on the top of their screen. A part of them wanted to be shocked, but another part simply couldn’t keep up and could only stare blankly.

“Damn it...” Cool Autumn Breeze softly whispered, sounding frustrated to himself. “Not again.”

“You do this without even meaning to?” Ye Xiu asked, speechless.

Han Wenqing also sounded incredulous as he spoke up, “What were you trying to do?”

“I thought this is a Time Machine quest trail,” Cool Autumn Breeze said softly, sounding upset. “Where did I screw up?” he whispered angrily.

“What time machine?” Ye Xiu asked in astonishment.

“It’s not the name of the quest. But it’s been hinted that the Fourth Hero’s secret society is on a different dimension and time warp. I need to search for records about a time machine to see if I can progress from there,” Cool Autumn Breeze explained annoyedly.

“Fourth Hero? Who?” Han Wenqing asked.

“It’s one of the main quests? We’re supposed to find out the real reason behind the disbandment of the Four Heroes of the World. The fourth hero holds the answer to it,” Cool Autumn Breeze explained. “You guys don’t know this? It’s one of the main quests!”

“I’ve heard something about the four heroes, one of them married a demon or something, right?” Ye Xiu said.

“That’s not the Four Heroes, that’s Four Protectors of the Realm, that’s also a main quest but it’s not it,” Cool Autumn Breeze grumbled.

“f*ck, there are so many four-npcs group lores out there,” Ye Xiu cursed. “The main problem is how did you get a Mechanic’s key while just randomly researching for a quest and standing right in front of us!”

“I don’t know!”

The whole Heavenly Domain fell into another chaos. It was a very common sight lately ever since the first seat-holder was announced. Some cried, some cursed, some tried to contact the GM to accuse them of letting a mole in before getting banned for a day themselves for wasting GMs’ time.

Again, forget the normal players, even the pro players began to get headaches from it. Some even straight-up turned off their computer because they got a mild PTSD case from seeing the notification.

Just when they got their hopes raised after Han Wenqing won his seat by himself, Cool Autumn Breeze dragged them back to hell of anxiety, making them hyper-aware that this abnormal expert lurked around the Heavenly Domain and might very well snatch their own subclass’ key before they could even get it.

How could such an anomaly even exist in this world, they didn’t know. If they hadn’t seriously try to confirm it to the HQ and the HQ had sternly sworn they never had any mole, especially one with crazy good mechanics and skill, to do any of collecting keys in the game.

There were only ten people who knew about it prior Cool Autumn Breeze’s breakthrough, they were; the leader of the developer team, the five members of the developer team with the special task of coding the special quests separately from other members, two testers from the developer team, the owner who made the call, and the owner’s niece who made the storylines. They were all pretty tight-lipped group and the pro players, as well as the investors, had no reason to doubt them.

Not even the people responsible for designs, item coding, artists, or any other members of the developers knew about it. They just created what they were ordered to do and when it didn’t show up in the game, they just assumed it was unused, something usual in programming industry.

What did this mean?

This meant Cool Autumn Breeze was indeed a gaming lunatic. A gaming lunatic that nearly caused strife within Glory’s HQ’s own developer team since they suspected each other as mole... if only not because Cool Autumn Breeze’s caliber was simply out of the programmer’s skill, they would seriously break up as a group.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: That lunatic is indeed a lunatic! This time it’s a Gunner class, I’m feeling very threatened!

Wind Guard: Seriously, he needs to stop before he hogged everything. How are we supposed to peacefully research for it if he’s behind us, breathing down our necks?!

Wind Guard: Right. Condolences to every Mechanic here. You guys do not suck, the other side is just abnormal.

Troubling Rain: @Life Extinguisher You okay? You were researching about it, right? I say, Xiao Shiqin, don’t get disheartened. Maybe your luck will be better than Senior Sun! Take a look at Wang Jiexi, he got his key in just a day, better than wandering around searching for clues!

Immovable Rock: It’s different from my observation. Captain Han’s quests, while very difficult to trail along to, is very simple and didn’t need the whole chatroom to try and solve it the way Senior Sun’s did. And it didn’t have ta ime limit, so it’s a safer choice.

Troubling Rain: Well, we’re f*cked. Just when I thought Senior Han had become the light at the end of the tunnel, Cool Autumn Breeze f*cking trailblaze us from behind. Is he going to keep being the gatekeeper?! We should call him The Gatekeeper now because he already attained THREE KEYS that aren’t even his own class’ key!

Boundless Sea: The Gatekeeper, huh. That’s fitting.

Vaccaria: It’s better now we’re experienced. We even helped Sun Zheping to finish his without the help of Cool Autumn Breeze.

Blossoming Chaos: That’s because he’s so hard to trace and even went MIA for a week.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Right. Thank God you guys are here. And even then, it took every smart person here to analyze everything with the help of Tiny Herb’s experience with Cool Autumn Breeze.

Demon Subduer: Something that we all work together for, yet Cool Autumn Breeze can do it by himself. He must be really smart, no wonder he keeps getting the keys before any of us can.

Screen Killer: I really want to meet him and ask him ‘What are you, really?’ because this is insane.

Life Extinguisher: @Troubling Rain Well, it happens. I’ve also expected this to happen if I don’t find it. Maybe not this fast, but I already made mental preparation.

Troubling Rain: Seriously, should we go and ask the HQ to limit a person’s chance to win the key? If he keeps doing this, I’m afraid he’s going to win other keys.

Sobbing Ghost: ^ You’re speaking as if any other person had won a key to another class except for him.

Swoksaar: @Life Extinguisher Good luck.

Immovable Rock: @Life Extinguisher You have a plan? If you’d like to know, Cool Autumn Breeze is in this coordinate near the scrap heap [Coordinate]

Life Extinguisher: Thanks, how do you find him quickly?

Immovable Rock: I didn’t. Captain Han and Captain Ye are with him when he got the key, they were just talking when it happened according to Captain Han.

Vaccaria: Talking? What are those two doing there in the first place with Cool Autumn Breeze?

Immovable Rock: Happenstance.

Dancing Rain: So, that’s where Ye Qiu had gone to.

Xiao Shiqin was lying if he said he didn’t feel an ounce of disappointment when he saw that Mechanic’s key was already taken, but he would also be lying if there wasn’t this feeling of ‘Thank God, at least it’s found’ when he saw the announcement.

Despite being one of the black horses in a season full of promising rookies, Xiao Shiqin knew his position was not that high despite his talent and intelligence. His team’s performance without him can be said as acceptable and scrapping mid-tier. Meanwhile, other rookies’ teams had stronger roots.

Which was why, Xiao Shiqin had done a lot to research about the Heavenly Council’s Seats, especially Mechanic’s seat. Although the stat boost in the competition could be covered or rivalled with better Silver Equipment- something that would no doubt develop fast in the coming years, it would still be quite a helpful boost. But the stat boost was not something that everyone really looked at, it was the resource the Council’s members held.

The first pro account that became the Council Member, Vaccaria, already upgraded his Stardust Extermination as soon as the new update took place. Very cost-effective with all the special resources.

If Xiao Shiqin wanted to close the gap and helped his team to improve, he’d need Life Extinguisher to be the one who had the Mechanic’s seat.

Life Extinguisher quickly went to the coordinate Zhang Xinjie had given in the group chat but when he arrived there, there were only Desert Dust and One Autumn Leaf battling it out and destroying the non-permanent landscape of the place.

Xiao Shiqin knew better than to disturb their fight, so he planned to sneakily leave when he was spotted.

“Oh, Little Xiao, you’re here? Searching for Cool Autumn Breeze?” Senior Ye asked.

“Yes, Senior. I’ve been told that he’s here...” Xiao Shiqin answered sheepishly.

“He shouldn’t have gone far,” Senior Han mentioned. “Go ahead.”

“That’s not fair, Old Han. You let Little Xiao go search for Cool Autumn Breeze but not me?”

“You have no business with him.”

Xiao Shiqin decided to leave them at that and tracked down Cool Autumn Breeze by himself.

“Excuse me, friend,” Xiao Shiqin greeted him nicely. “Mind if we talk a bit?”

“...”

Xiao Shiqin waited for a bit and received no reply. He tried again. “Hello?”

No answer again.

Xiao Shiqin started typing on his keyboard. (“Are you AFK?”) a speechbubble floated above Life Extinguisher’s head and he gazed at Cool Autumn Breeze to see any change in his posture.

Five seconds later, the Battle Mage turned. “Were you speaking? I was looking at the map and didn’t wear my headphone just now.”

“It’s okay, I did greet you out of nowhere,” Xiao Shiqin said kindly. “I—“

“Are you here for the Mechanic’s key?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked bluntly.

Xiao Shiqin answered without hesitation, “Yes. If that’s alright with you. I’m ready if you want to test me,” he said confidently yet this confidence didn’t sound like challenging the other side.

“Hmm. Who are you?”

Xiao Shiqin smiled. “I’m the captain of Thunderclap.”

“Thunder...clap,” the other side sounded distracted but Xiao Shiqin waited patiently. “Never heard of it. Is it a temple? So, what are you known as?”

“I’m actually only an upstart. I’m...” Xiao Shiqin trailed off for a second, recalling all of his seniors’ advice, “...pretty new. But I’d like to try and win the key and then finish the trial. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you want to exchange with that key?”

“Pretty new, huh...” Cool Autumn Breeze sounded half thoughtful and half disbelieving.

“Yes. I just started a few months ago officially, you see.”

“I see... Let me think.”

“Of course,” Xiao Shiqin let him think and just stood there patiently. Although he didn’t know the other side’s identity, it wasn’t good to be rude when you need a favor. Moreover, Cool Autumn Breeze was not someone moved with money or fortune, he played the god-tier players like a fiddle so far and Xiao Shiqin wasn’t eager to experience the same.

“How good are you at being a Mechanic?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked seriously.

Xiao Shiqin pursed his lips. He didn’t like boasting but in this kind of situation, but it wasn’t good to be lackluster. “I’ve been told I’m among the best Mechanics and will continue to grow.”

“A humble one, aren’t you?” Cool Autumn Breeze stated with mirth in his voice.

“Senior is overpraising,” Xiao Shiqin replied.

“Alright, I’ll give you a quiz then!”

Xiao Shiqin blinked. “A... quiz?”

“If you answer correctly, I’ll give you the key,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly.

“What kind of quiz?” Xiao Shiqin asked nervously.

“Glory’s history quiz.”

“...” For the first time in his life, Xiao Shiqin actually felt nervous in front of a quiz. He was a bright young man, naturally, maybe not a straight-A student, but his result in school had been quite brilliant among his peers, he never had to worry about a quiz. But to be faced with a quiz out of nowhere and about something he had no idea about at that...

“Okay, first question, the Four Heroes disbanded after killing the all-powerful monster from the abyss, that monster’s name is Dark Pool Thunder Abyss, what’s its nickname?”

“...” Xiao Shiqin picked up his phone.

“Oh, and don’t bother searching in the internet... no one ever wrote its nickname in any written walkthrough on the site.”

“What happened if I can’t answer it?” Xiao Shiqin asked helplessly.

“We’ll see,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly.

“I... I don’t know?” Xiao Shiqin answered nervously. At this point, honesty was better than nothing.

“Okay. Second question, which of the Four Protectors married a demon?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked patiently.

“It should be the strongest one, right?”

“Name and title.”

“I... don’t know...” Xiao Shiqin said helplessly.

“There are how many Princes Lost In Time?”

“Four?”

“Three. I’ll ask a more general question then, the Prince of Sun Kingdom and Warlady of Archipelago, what are they to each other?”

‘That’s a general question?!’ Xiao Shiqin almost hissed to himself. No wonder his seniors all commented how difficult this guy was!

After being silent for an extended amount of time, Xiao Shiqin heard the guy sigh.

“It’s on the early main quest. You don’t know that?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked in disbelief. “The Warlord of Archipelago, the Warlady’s father, had thirteen sons and a daughter, most of the sons ventured out of the islands in their youth and never returned. One of the sons became the prince consort of Sun Kingdom and later on died in a rebellion. Although it’s never been mentioned blatantly as the warlady never met nor knew her brother, their relation had been hinted strongly. The prince and the warlady are aunt and nephew.”

“Senior, I never really pay attention to that... Sorry...” Xiao Shiqin said. The disbelief and disappointment in Cool Autumn Breeze’s voice made him feel guilty for not paying attention.

“Okay, that’s fine. You at least know the reason why there was a rebellion in Sun Kingdom, right?”

“...”

“No? Hmm... Okay, this one is an easy question. The Fae Queen, who is she to the Fourth Hero?”

After a series of questions with none ever answered correctly, Cool Autumn Breeze finally sounded fed up.

“Young man, how could you be this clueless?” Cool Autumn Breeze demanded. “You should learn more about this world’s history before you can take this key away from me.”

“Senior, all of those trivia you quizzed about, not even the top players could possibly know about them,” Xiao Shiqin said helplessly.

“Okay, I’ll give you the last question. In the world, there existed ten deities. Who is the deity of beauty?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked. “I’ll give you a clue. She’s also a Wild Boss.”

Xiao Shiqin inhaled deeply and started thinking.

“Cursed because of her beauty and vanity, she fell into insanity.”

Xiao Shiqin squeezed his eyes shut in thought.

“Beauty turns to ugly and goodness overturned by evil.”

Xiao Shiqin knew the answer but he couldn’t tap the memory at all.

“She had the most beautiful pair of wings, with her whole being circled by light forming like a ring.”

The word ‘wings’ caught Xiao Shiqin’s attention and he opened his eyes.

“The fairest of them all yet the first to fall.”

“Is it River Stardust?” Xiao Shiqin answered.

“Yes!” Cool Autumn Breeze exclaimed. “There’s actually some hope in you, young man.”

“Thanks, Senior...” Xiao Shiqin smiled sheepishly.

“Come with me and help me clear up the way to a mission point on the northwest of Heavenly Realm,” Cool Autumn Breeze invited kindly.

“Clearing up? Sure thing. But what’s going on in the northwest?”

“Since this lead actually led to the key to Mechanic’s Council Seat, then I have to see the other lead,” Cool Autumn Breeze explained.

Xiao Shiqin absolutely had no idea what he was talking about. “Would you like me asking my teammates to come and aid us too?”

“Hm? That’s a good idea. Let them wait at the coordinate, we’ll go through together.”

Xiao Shiqin had no idea what he was getting into until an hour later.

Life Extinguisher: Has anybody ever gone to this coordinate? [Coordinate] Because I’ve never known existence of monsters whose existence was purely just to mob people and prevent any intruders from coming in.

Immovable Rock: I don’t think so, what kind of monster? maybe I’ll remember then.

Life Extinguisher: [Screenshot]

Immovable Rock: No.

Swoksaar: Never seen that.

Vaccaria: Neither did I

One Autumn Leaf: What did it drop?

Life Extinguisher: @One Autumn Leaf Nothing at all. They just disappeared and no one ever dropped anything.

One Autumn Leaf: What kind of useless monster is that?

Troubling Rain: A never-seen-before monster but did not drop anything? No wonder it’s not known, it’s simply trash.

Life Extinguisher: Exactly. Their entire existence simply to just mob people and they only existed in the coordinate I sent earlier.

Troubling Rain: How did you find that anyway? It’s luck to find a new kind of monster, but what a terrible luck to find ones that didn’t even drop anything. Completely useless!

Swoksaar: Maybe it’s the new update’s glitch?

Life Extinguisher: No. These monsters seemed to have been here since the previous update, not the new one.

Swoksaar: Oh?

Windy Rain: Interesting. But I’ve never seen this before.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: It didn’t drop anything, after all. Even if someone found out about it, who would want to go there?

Demon Subduer: Is there any problem with them? @Life Extinguisher

Life Extinguisher: They managed to catch us by surprise and now out of everyone in Thunderclap, only I remain...

Troubling Rain: Holy sh*t? That strong? Are you f*cking serious? Even with you leading the entire team with a Cleric and legal use of potion? An entire pro team got eradicated in a PvE???

Life Extinguisher: I didn’t joke when I say they caught us by surprise. One of their characteristic attack is to blow green bubbles, most were harmless and only chip down a little health, but amongst them there were some that had an insta-kill ability and there’s no way to know which is which.

Desert Dust: What are you doing there, anyway?

Life Extinguisher: [Pic] Cool Autumn Breeze wants to find an NPC.

One Autumn Leaf: There’s an NPC in there?

Life Extinguisher: No... He said it seems to be a dead lead.

Vaccaria: I see. He couldn’t get in before and now he got you guys he exploited it to reach there just to check.

One Autumn Leaf: Audacious... I approve.

Blossoming Chaos: Ruthless... Sounds like Cool Autumn Breeze alright.

Troubling Rain: Shameless... I like it!

Life Extinguisher: ... But now I don’t really know how to leave this place... I could use Rotor Wings but that means I have to leave Cool Autumn Breeze behind.

Wind Guard: GG

Vaccaria: GG +1

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: GG +2 you can do it junior Xiao.

Angelica: GG +3

Blossoming Chaos: Wait till he dies

One Autumn Leaf: You need saving?

Xiao Shiqin shook his head and took off his attention from the chatroom. As if he would dare to be saved by the Battle God. Xiao Shiqin might be an innocent naive upstart but he wasn’t stupid. In just a few months, he knew dealing with the three-time champion was harder than shutting Huang Shaotian up after he died in the team competition.

Xiao Shiqin would rather risk offending Cool Autumn Breeze than ask help from the unbeatable Ye Qiu.

“Don’t worry. I know how to escape this place,” Cool Autumn Breeze suddenly said.

Xiao Shiqin perked up. “You do?”

“Yeah, just wait,” Cool Autumn Breeze said distractedly.

Xiao Shiqin smiled and decided to make an update to the groupchat.

Life Extinguisher: Wait. Cool Autumn Breeze seems to have an idea how to get out.

Desert Dust: As expected.

Vaccaria: Did he go offline?

Life Extinguisher: @Vaccaria Huh...? No?

Vaccaria: (y)

Xiao Shiqin didn’t understand why Wang Jiexi would ask if Cool Autumn Breeze went offline. Just when he wanted to ask, the Battle Mage in front of him disappeared abruptly and his party notification buzzed.

<Party> [Your Friend Cool Autumn Breeze has gone Offline]

Life Extinguisher: ...

Vaccaria: He went offline, didn’t he?

Life Extinguisher: Did he do this before?

Vaccaria: :)

Chapter 9: New Year Event

Chapter Text

Ye Qiu didn’t mean to ghost Life Extinguisher, he really didn’t. It was just for some weird reason, Little Dot accidentally ran into his processor and accidentally pressed the power button. Ye Qiu was forced to sit there, staring blankly at his monitor while Little Dot barked at him for attention.

Ye Qiu felt a nagging sense of deja vu. It felt like he did this once but because of another situation.

He shrugged.

“Well, that means we’re not fated. I’ll have dinner first, I can give the key to him later when we meet again.” As the side that didn’t need anything from the other side, Ye Qiu was very calm. He didn’t have any guilty conscience about it due to having been used to getting what he wanted and making others wait for him, that was his privilege as Ye family’s only available young master.

Ye Qiu went to feed Little Dot first before he went to get his dinner. He ate slowly while he listened to the voice messages of his assistants regarding their report, drank his juice in silence, and finally left the dining room. He then continued his activity by looking at his schedule for the week, after he found no problem with it, he moved on to have a light exercise, and then he went to take a shower.

After he took a shower, he reviewed his work again for a few hours before he went to bed.

While Ye Qiu unhurriedly went through his days, the entire chatroom of professional players of Glory was talking about him.

Immovable Rock: I do wonder just who is Cool Autumn Breeze in real life.

Vaccaria: Fang Shiqian is completely convinced he’s fifteen, but I think he’s much too clever for a fifteen-year-old.

One Autumn Leaf: If he’s fifteen, I’m making him my successor. But it’s very clear he’s at least an adult. A sarcastic one.

Blossoming Chaos: He’s acting like a child at times, probably still a teenager. Maybe he’s at the same age as the youngest current generation.

Demon Subduer: Do you think he’s a student? His schedule seems a bit strict.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Which is an embarrassment to everyone because he clearly didn’t spend as much time in Glory as the rest of us.

Screen Killer: ^ No need to be that salty.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: How can I not be salty when that guy is wandering around the map and picking keys left and right while we’re left with nothing!? Only Old Han broke the tradition and it only makes the odds to be four to one, it’s HIM against US, the entire f*cking proscene!

Boundless Sea: Now, now, maybe his streak will be broken with this one key.

Troubling Rain: I pray every day that it is the case, but if he finds Blade Master key, I won’t know how to feel about it. Poor Shiqin.

Life Extinguisher: @Immovable Rock I think he’s around the same age as us if not older.

Troubling Rain: ^You’re trying to divert the topic. Accept my pity, dammit.

Windy Rain: Huang Shao, shut up.

Dancing Rain: But he’s a very interesting guy, isn’t he? I heard that Ye Qiu’s charm failed to capture him :D :D :D

Cold Season: Charm???

Immovable Rock: What kind of charm are we talking about?

One Autumn Leaf: My endless pulling charm.

Blossoming Chaos: It’s pulling, alright. It’s pulling all the aggression towards you.

Vaccaria: I do feel curious about his identity, though. Is he a student? Does a student have this kind of free time of analyzing an online game’s lore to the deepest part of it?

Desert Dust: Probably.

Immovable Rock: From his interaction with Captain Han and the others, I dared to conclude that he’s either a geography student or an economic major.

Vaccaria: Geography because of the star map?

One Autumn Leaf: Why economic?

Immovable Rock: ^He seems to know which NPC he should talk to when things come down to it and he’s mostly right.

One Autumn Leaf: Huh... Maybe business major, yeah?

Swoksaar: Xinjie’s analysis is impeccable.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Wait, I can’t follow.

Troubling Rain: Anyways, @Life Extinguisher is he online again?

Life Extinguisher: No. No notification saying otherwise.

Vaccaria: Don’t worry. He might look and act suspicious at times, but you can take his words on it.

Blossoming Chaos: As much as I hate to say this, Wang Jiexi is right. That guy can be a pain in the neck, but he’s through with his words.

Life Extinguisher: Thank you, Senior.

One Autumn Leaf: Poor junior. Take me with you if you want to find him and ask for the key, I’ll accompany you.

Desert Dust: Don’t. Cool Autumn Breeze would just run.

Life Extinguisher: Okay, senior.

One Autumn Leaf: Who are you answering to? Me or Old Han?

Dancing Rain: Dear captain, leave the poor guy alone :/

Ye Qiu rubbed his eyes as he gazed through his schedule. A few projects were halted for a few months so he didn’t have that tight of a schedule, he just needed to wait for the other side to start the talk again with his assistant.

The last project they won through auction wouldn’t start until autumn next year so he didn’t need to think about that one too.

He nodded. He should have a lot of free time next year too.

Ye Qiu sat in front of his computer and logged into Glory with his account card. He spawned in the place where he left off, alone, he sighed. He initially wanted to give the majority of his inventory to Life Extinguisher for him to bring away so he could die peacefully, but it seemed like that was no longer an option.

So, with little health potions, Cool Autumn Breeze died.

Ye Qiu looked at his inventory in worry to see what he dropped and sighed in relief when it was just a new equipment he picked up and wanted to sell.

Ye Qiu restocked and went on his merry way. The previous day was new year’s eve, today was new year’s day. Glory had updated a new event proceeding the previous eve’s event, Ye Qiu didn’t really bother with the previous events since the lore was subpar but this event caught his attention when he read the details.

The very small ‘see details’ that every other player skipped because it was unnecessary and boring to them, but Ye Qiu was piqued.

[New Year is where everything is born anew! Wash your mistake from the previous year in the fountain of rebirth! This year, the Fourth Hero’s dimension warp is forced open and released Calamities, save the new year for everyone!]

Ye Qiu gasped delicately and covered his mouth in disbelief. ‘They included the Fourth Hero’s location spoiler in this event!?’

Ye Qiu had tried to track down the Fourth Hero’s location with trails of quests and many NPCs, but he still couldn’t find it at all, but this event outright said the Fourth Hero’s dimension warp was forced open? Could it be he finally could find the Fourth Hero thanks to this event’s spoiler???

Ye Qiu grew determined. He had to join this event.

On the other hand, Ye Qiu felt ashamed. He actually needed spoilers to find the Fourth Hero’s whereabouts, he was truly slow. Even though he’d already avoided even searching the internet for clues, he still had to rely on spoilers to get what he wanted. He was an embarrassment, no wonder he wasn’t a real gamer.

Should the pro players in the Alliance have heard Ye Qiu’s thoughts right then, they would have vomited a mouthful of blood.

The event would take two days, which was a very limited amount of time for a game’s event, but since it was the last part of the ‘Christmas & New Year event’ that had started since the 24th of December, it was understandable. The result of this event would eventually be counted in the previous Eve’s event to get the last calculation for the leader’s board.

The goal for New Year’s day mission was simple, kill as many ‘Calamity’ monsters as you could, each calamity would drop their monster drop, and a special event item that you need to return to the event NPCs in the safe area who would reward you for a specified number of the item returned. Pretty basic, but at the end of the event, there would be a big boss that appeared to ruin the day through Fourth Hero’s dimension’s broken dimension warp.

Ye Qiu gathered all the information and went hunting for the small calamities in the midst of deadly rivalries amongst big players and guilds.

He wanted to ask help from Windward Formation and the co, but Windward Formation still refused to play extensively on Heavenly Domain.

Windward Formation: Sorry, I’m only available in Heavenly Domain from four in the morning to nine. I’m in the normal server past that.

Ye Qiu was truly alone, he sighed bitterly but quickly resolved he should just try his best as a solo-er.

However, hours passed and Ye Qiu realized he truly underestimated the guilds’ domination regarding monster monopoly. Ye Qiu already had a spat with many guilds in the fourth server, but those guilds were helpless against him, eventually, they just existed without acknowledging each other. Their interest never overlapped, Ye Qiu did his own things, and they did theirs. But when Ye Qiu wanted to get into the event, he was absolutely outside the box and unable to be involved at all with the guilds’ organized monopoly.

Ye Qiu knew he had to switch his intuitive style to a strategic one for this event if he didn’t want to lose out.

So far, he only managed to catch two calamities, though that was better than any other player who didn’t even kill one, it was dissatisfying.

“I should target one guild and rob them,” Ye Qiu murmured coldly with calculation. “Hm, Excellent Dynasty’s turf seemed to be around this Soundless Valley, if I can push them to this coordinate,” he calculated the risk and reward while he stared at the map of Nine-Directions Soundless Valley.

Should he take it? The numbers of people in Excellent Dynasty of Heavenly Domain and normal server vastly differed, if he pissed them off, it might be a headache to deal with later.

Why couldn’t he have I’m A Bear at this time? Why did he have to go hibernate? Two people would have a higher chance at it and Ye Qiu could think up more variations to his strategies.

A message bird suddenly flew towards him and a notification of a message appeared on his screen. He clicked it open and blinked when he saw it was from Life Extinguisher. Oh yes, he did add Life Extinguisher as his friend before exploiting him and didn’t have the time to delete him from his friend’s list.

Oh well.

Life Extinguisher: Senior, are you back? May I know your location?

Ye Qiu looked at the message thoughtfully when an idea popped in his mind. He smiled. He can use this little fresh Mechanic, he seemed to be from a professional team, right? Professional teams have guilds, it should be Thunderclap guild for this guy.

Cool Autumn Breeze: I’m in the village.

Xiao Shiqin sighed in relief when he saw the familiar character standing in front of a kiosk in the village. “Senior, we meet again. You suddenly disappeared yesterday, I didn’t know what to do.”

Cool Autumn Breeze turned to him. “Yes, sorry, my soul connection was disturbed by a spatial hound that cut off my power.”

“Spatial--??” Xiao Shiqin blurted out, confused. He then regretted it. Why did he have to ask? He should just accept the explanation and move on, because he was certainly not interested at all.

“Yes, the earlier me you see was merely a soul reflection, this time I decide to use my real body.”

‘Wait, why do you suddenly enter a XianXia background story???’ Xiao Shiqin sweated. “I see, that’s indeed too bad regarding the spatial hound. But, Senior, you didn’t forget our agreement, right?” he asked directly.

“Of course, I don’t. This prince regards his words as gold, I won’t randomly promise anything without fulfilling it.”

“Senior is wise, of course, I don’t doubt the weight of his promise, I’m just worried due to the disturbed soul connection previously your memories might also be affected and that you forgot,” Xiao Shiqin reasoned.

“...I understand your worry and care for me,” Cool Autumn Breeze sounded impressed which Xiao Shiqin counted as a win. “You are in a guild, correct?”

“Yes...?” Xiao Shiqin blinked.

“Do you have any say in your guild?”

“I do, senior.” Let alone ‘say’, Xiao Shiqin could make any calls and the entire Thunderclap guild would make it happen. He was the highest commander of the guild, being the team’s captain and all.

“I need your manpower.”

“???” Xiao Shiqin blinked. “What for?”

“Have you heard? Calamities have descended into the domain, we have to fight it to save this beautiful domain and push back against evilness, but I cannot make a change alone, that’s where you come along,” Cool Autumn Breeze said dignifiedly.

‘You want to join the event?’ Xiao Shiqin understood. Due to how high the rivalry between guilds in Heavenly Domain, this kind of high-scale event was very competitive. Even though Guildless players could still join in and kill some for themselves, they were certainly not enough to contest with the organized guild power. It was better if the guildless players banded together in a team, but Cool Autumn Breeze had always been known as a solo player, he basically had no chance at all.

“Senior, if you want to use manpower to banish the calamities, I would be glad to help.”

“But I don’t want to join the guild.”

“That’s fine.”

“You’re so kind, Mechanic,” Cool Autumn Breeze said, touched. “I would guide you to the Legendary Workshop absolutely so you can be crowned as its owner as soon as possible.”

A trade offer arrived and Xiao Shiqin calmed his excited heart down. He accepted the trade offer and saw a quaint key that seemed to have been made with many auto parts and small gears.

The trade was completed and Xiao Shiqin exhaled all his worries away.

“Let’s go, Senior.” Xiao Shiqin became more affectionate when he looked at Cool Autumn Breeze again.

“You’re not bad. you’re not betraying me as soon as you got what you want,” Cool Autumn Breeze was impressed.

“Of course, not. You’re an important benefactor,” Xiao Shiqin appeased. Who would want to incite hatred from this person, who’s to say he wouldn’t find more keys in the future? Xiao Shiqin wasn’t the type of person who made enemies randomly. He’d rather not go on the wrong side of things.

[Golden Generation]

Life Extinguisher: I got the key :)

Dancing Rain: Congrats!

Troubling Rain: You found Cool Autumn Breeze? Congrats! I told you you would be much luckier than Senior Sun!

Windy Rain: Congrats, Shiqin~

Immovable Rock: Congratulations. My captain also said you’re not bad.

Sobbing Ghost: How did it go? Also, congrats!

Swoksaar: Congrats, Captain Xiao. It seems like the fourth generation would soon have its first seat-holder. ^^

Troubling Rain: I’m jealous! So jealous! Why did you have to get it first while I’m still at a complete loss on how to find Blade Master’s key???

Dancing Rain: Season 1- Captain Han. Season 2- Captain Sun. Season 3- Captain Wang. Season 4- Shiqin. These are all the seat holders we have so far with the exception of Cool Autumn Breeze who didn’t even debut.

Windy Rain: Huh, all captains and respectively from their own season. Do you think it’s a coincidence?*

Dancing Rain: There’s no way something like this can be arranged, right?

Troubling Rain: That’s fine. I’ll be the next! I’ll go with my own way like Senior Han did!

Sobbing Ghost: Hoho, not so fast, I think I’ll get it next.

Flying Drop: @Life Extinguisher So what are you planning to do now? Did you ask for Cool Autumn Breeze’s assistance?

Life Extinguisher: He offered it himself, in fact, with a price.

Immovable Rock: Price?

Life Extinguisher: He wanted to join the event so he asked for my help in amassing my guild’s resources.

Swoksaar: Oh? Interesting. I wonder if he already wanted to join since Christmas but cannot since the guilds were too dominant?

Life Extinguisher: I don’t know.

Windy Rain: He’s not even in the top 100 of the Leader’s board.

Dancing Rain: Ye Qiu said that he should release his Wild Boss and he would assist him to be in the top 100.

Troubling Rain: Don’t believe what sis Su said, she’s Old Ye’s messenger and he’s shameless to the core.

Life Extinguisher: I’ll get back to you guys later. I also want to focus to get into the top twenty.

Swoksaar: Sure thing ^^

Windy Rain: Good luck for the event everyone! <3

Dancing Rain: You too, YunYun <3

Sobbing Ghost: <3

Peaceful Hermit: <3

Peaceful Hermit: Wait, I just back-read, what did I miss?

Windy Rain: Late as always, Tian Sen. -3- *sweats*

Ye Qiu was very satisfied. Everything was going just smoothly. He got a guild’s backing to join the event and the said guild didn’t ask anything in return from here. From here on, he only needed to follow the current so he could investigate the real location of the Fourth Hero’s secret society-

The door to his study was thrown open and Ye Qiu’s eyes calmly looked up to see his cousin-slash-assistant in the doorways.

Ye Qiu reluctantly took off his headset and arched his brows in question.

“You promised your mother to go to a stone auction today.”

“...” Ye Qiu pulled up his schedule and combed through it carefully, there wasn’t anything about stone auction but he did remember promising his mom he’d accompany her to one because, in her words, he had unworldly luck about guessing which stone was really valuable. “It’s today?”

“Today.” Xiao Lin nodded. “Auntie wants to collect ores and gems from this one auction for her next limited collection on her brand.”

“Can I just go to another auction with her?” Ye Qiu asked.

“Do you want to say that to her yourself?”

No, Ye Qiu didn’t want that.

Ye Qiu sighed and put on his headset back. “Mechanic, I have to go to do something important, continue on your valiant onslaught to guard the realm.” With that said, Ye Qiu withdrew his account card.

He should’ve known this would happen. When you have a plan, expect everything to not go your way, this happened years ago when Ye Xiu ruined his plan to run away from home, and it had been happening constantly ever since.

Fine. Fourth Hero’s secret society could wait. His mom’s feelings and jewelry business deals were much more important.

The Heavenly Domain became very lively as the New Year’s event was nearing its end in just an hour.

[System] Two-Headed Fallen White Tiger <Level 65> has escaped the imprisonment of Mysterious Tiger Colosseum. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Mysterious Tiger Colosseum.

The guilds panicked.

One Autumn Leaf: Old Han, I see Little Zhang hasn’t been a great influence on you. :/

Demon Subduer: Captain Han wants to see everyone distracted and it shows.

Blossoming Chaos: You think you’re the only one who can do that?

Swoksaar: Wait, senior Sun, please don’t.

[System] Nether Blood Crawler <Level 65> has escaped the imprisonment of Blood Arena. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Blood Arena.

One Autumn Leaf: Damn it, Sun Zheping.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Big Sun doesn’t understand a tactical boss release even if I slap it to his head. 3:(

Vaccaria: The two captains are really working hard.

Immovable Rock: Captain Sun is truly a hard worker.

Sobbing Ghost: GG.

Boundless Sea: Oi, don’t just release your special Wild Boss for the sake of owning the event -_-

Screen Killer: @Blossoming Chaos We BEGGED you to release it and you ignored us yet you released it in this kind of situation.

Blossoming Chaos: Is there any better time to release it than now? I’m abiding to my avatar’s name.

Dark Forest: ^Not bad.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: LMAO

Windy Rain: GG everyone.

One Autumn Leaf: I’m having a decision dilemma rn. Give up the top place in Leader’s board or the two bosses in the hands of petty captains of the Alliance?

Desert Dust: Petty? When or why I decided to release my wild boss is none of your business.

One Autumn Leaf: It is, if I want to steal it.

Demon Subduer: This can only be solved in one way. I’ll withdraw from the furious race in the event and just hunt the council’s Bosses as long as you all promise to not get in the way?

One Autumn Leaf: Rejected.

Boundless Sea: Rejected.

Vaccaria: Have to split up the manpower now :/

Troubling Rain: Seniors!!! AAAAAHHHHH Why DID YOU DO THAT?! That’s two wild bosses, you know?!?! aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh Are you trying to trick me into chasing after them?

Blossoming Chaos: Not bad, the loud kid can actually think. Here I thought all the thinking was left to Swoksaar’s third owner.

Wind Guard: I can’t believe it, congratulations to Huang Shaotian of Blue Rain! You’re right! I was wrong about you.

Dancing Rain: Seniors are overpraising, it’s all due to everyone’s hard work that he could grow his brain.

Troubling Rain: Seniors, don’t make me use the Cuss Pass that Captain Fang passed to me to curse at you all, and Su Mucheng, f*ck off.

[System] Abyssal Void Demon <Level 65> has escaped the imprisonment of Magic Castle. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Magic Castle.

One Autumn Leaf: Alright, this is getting out of hand.

Vaccaria: I’m just adding variation.

Screen Killer: Wang Jiexi, what the f*ck?

Demon Subduer: Are you guys flexing your ability to distract others??

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Dammit, I’m actually really jealous of this power.

Troubling Rain: This just motivates me more to immediately get my class’ key and be done with everything so I can weaponize it like what everyone does in this captain.

Troubling Rain: Huh, luckily Shiqin has yet to inherit the seat so he can’t release his BOSS or else I’m going to be so jealous.

Boundless Sea: Oh, come on! Wang Jiexi!

The general chatroom was crowded with the pros laughing and complaining about the chaos the pros created in the Heavenly Domain just for the sake of taking advantage of the muddy situation. It was to be expected for the pros to weaponize their limited resource as the Heavenly Council’s member, however, so no one was really shocked, just helpless.

In the end, when the event’s ending and last challenge was nearing, many guilds’ focus was divided by the event and the weaponized council’s BOSS, creating a more diverse activity within the server.

When the time arrived, only a small part of the organized group remained, the rest already spread around the vast Heavenly Domain to hunt the three Council’s BOSSes the three captains freed.

None of the pros left to lead the hunt, though, it was clear that they already devoted their focus on this event, but the manpower had decreased drastically so the misdirection worked to a degree.

So, everything had led up to this moment where every side wanted to take a bite of the event’s BOSS and chipped it off of its health while they fought each other.

“Alright! Let’s discuss the term, I will swear I will not try to steal any Council’s BOSS for the whole January so you all can have a higher chance to get it, in return, give this one to me, how about it?” Ye Xiu exclaimed his solemn vow.

“LIAR! Don’t trust the shameless guy!” Zhang Jiale yelled.

“Don’t treat those BOSSes as if they’re yours to begin with, YE QIU!!!” Fang Shiqian shouted angrily.

“Why don’t all seniors give this BOSS to Blue Rain, ah? We’re all poor rookies left behind by our shameless first captain who went off to buy soda and never come back, have pity on us! We’re all just rookies trying to guard the foundation of Blue Rain, we haven’t even win that much Council’s boss so let us have this one!” Huang Shaotian was as chattery as always with his speech bubbles repeating some words to put on emphasis on how poor Blue Rain was.

“Old Jiang, you shut your team’s rookie right now!” Sun Zheping yelled at Blue Rain’s Berserker player that debuted in the same season as him.

“Sorry! The only ones who can shut him up completely have all disappeared shamelessly, I’m also suffering!”

“Ehem! Ehem! How about everyone leaves this boss to guild Royal Heritage? Our great and marvelous captain has just retired and the rookie captain needs a prop-up.”

“Old Guo? Is that you? f*ck! You’re using alternate just to deceive us?!”

“Old Guo, you still owe me money!”

“f*ck! He borrowed from you too?!”

Ye Xiu rolled his eyes and then focused his attention on Desert Dust. “Old Han, you’re a grand role model that won your own Council’s seat yourself just recently. You already have that resource, why must you compete with me for this?” He questioned in a helpless tone.

“Are you done?” Han Wenqing asked back coldly.

“Have pity on me?” Ye Xiu asked hopefully.

“I can pity anyone in this entire place except for you.”

Ye Xiu clicked his tongue and smirked. “Then I have to disappoint you because Excellent Dynasty will get this boss.”

“You wish.”

One Autumn Leaf and Desert Dust rushed forward, scissoring the boss, and attacked it with their strongest skill just when Acid Rain fell from the sky, courtesy of Vaccaria, who was trying to fend off Troubling Rain.

The aggro of the boss was decidedly on Excellent Dynasty or alternate to Tyrannical Ambition earlier, at that moment, the boss’ health hit a quarter mark and the boss roared, entering its Rage state.

It slammed its limbs to the ground, creating a shockwave that took everyone off guard.

The ones who were floating, like the Witches, suffered some minor setbacks, but the rest weren’t so lucky. The Clerics prioritized their main fighters so the main power, like the pros, were not affected much as they were instantly healed.

The monster roared in rage and swept angrily around him, the experts easily evacuated but many normal players perished in the rampage.

Zhang Jiale tossed a grenade to cover for Blossoming Chaos, it hit the BOSS too and it instantly zeroed on Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

“Uh-oh.” A perk of being a gunner, Zhang Jiale was quick to evacuate when the BOSS swept at him.

“The aggro reset?” Ye Xiu murmured in shock. The rest of the pro players also reached this conjuncture and immediately acted.

The BOSS moved eerily slow as it swept anything in its path, but it suddenly perked up, as if sensing several prominent figures were targetting it, it shrieked and a scythe appeared in the air. It grabbed the scythe and with a flash, attacked everyone that drew close. Literally a flash, everyone could only see the flashing lines of its attack before getting forced back.

“Holy sh*t! Speed type?! What was that?!” Huang Shaotian exclaimed. Troubling Rain recovered and rushed forward again.

Naturally, as pro players, the thing they feared the least from an AI is speed! Earlier they were taken off guard, now Huang Shaotian returned with caution and speed in mind.

Troubling Rain jumped towards the giant monster, slashing wildly towards the BOSS. It raised its scythe again and slashed at Troubling Rain who quickly evaded out of sheer speed and quick wit, he changed direction and slashed at the BOSS again, the BOSS attacked the Blade Master again at a speed that no common players could possibly rival.

Troubling Rain blocked its counter-attack as Curses began to latch on the BOSS, courtesy of Swoksaar. However, upon being blocked, it seemed to grow angrier and started to throw a tantrum in the form of slashing its scythe repeatedly and forcing even Huang Shaotian to retreat in a panic.

“It has a strong curse resistance,” Zhang Xinjie observed as Swoksaar’s Curse truly didn’t do much against the BOSS.

“Stop Blue Brook from gaining the aggro.”

Battle cries resounded and the players began to fight against each other again. One Autumn Leaf rushed to the frontline, leading his guild with instruction, and wanted to test out the BOSS’ strength personally. When One Autumn Leaf landed a solid hit on the BOSS, it instantly turned to him.

Ye Xiu’s eyes widened in surprise but One Autumn Leaf retreated swiftly under his command. He turned to see Desert Dust also rushing over and attacking the BOSS with all his might, soon, the boss also attacked him.

Ye Xiu frowned.

“The aggro...” Ye Xiu was still a bit unconvinced. “Mucheng, do your best shot!” he ordered to the pretty Launcher.

Dancing Rain raised her hand cannon and fired missiles without any hesitation. Soon, the BOSS turned in her direction and started swiping at everyone in its path in a frantic manner.

“We can’t establish its aggro,” Yu Wenzhou murmured, confused.

“Then, is it following the last-hit best reward?” Xiao Shiqin questioned to himself.

Every pro’s faces turned ugly as they also reached the same theory. If it was the classic “Last hit, get it” things will get even more chaotic, but on the other hand “Last hit, get it” means everyone who landed a hit would be rewarded to an extent according to the ranking of their damage.

“Mucheng, all long-ranged attackers, full firepower!” Ye Xiu ordered as he controlled One Autumn Leaf to jump in and attack. Numerous other factions also barked an order to have the heavy-hitters of long-range do their job.

The BOSS shrieked and it went under another change right in front of their eyes.

Another shockwave hit them and suddenly the BOSS started swinging wildly.

“This is crazy!”

“DEVS!!! DID YOU GUYS FORGET TO ADD LOGIC TO THIS ONE BOSS?!?!”

“Devs, what the f*ck?!”

“GM, GET THE f*ck OUT HERE, I HAVE A COMPLAINT!”

Everyone started blaming the developers and the GM while the pro players all grew grim. Every projectile the long-ranged attackers sent was swept by its protruding limb, doing minimal damage to its health. So far, they couldn’t even chip it past 20% mark of its health.

“The defense stat also increased drastically then,” Ye Xiu observed. “Added with its speed and the fact its hit also became much stronger and devastating...” the rage mode of this beast was no joke, all important stats were raised and left no weakness behind.

Suddenly, a window appeared on the screen, taking everyone off guard.

[Event: It seems like the Sky Demon Calamity has undergone a change. Its left limb has grown numb from explosives and projectiles it swatted, creating a new layer of scales to protect it. It is advised for all the players to not rely on long-range attack]

“DEVS!!!” Everyone raged, especially the gunner classes who felt like this notification was aimed at their weakness.

The pro players were very calm in comparison.

“Left limb, that means as long as the projectiles could hit anything that isn’t its left limb, the damage would be the same,” Zhang Xinjie observed.

The problem was, that the BOSS’s left limb always crazily swatted the air around it to protect itself from projectiles, making it nigh impossible to penetrate its defense, especially with the remaining gunners left.

“That means melee fighters have to step up and make it too busy to use its left limb to protect itself from projectiles,” Ye Xiu concluded.

“I’ll go!” Ever so eager, Troubling Rain jumped in for action again. “Over here you ugly monster! Weeehh! Watch my sword! Watch my sword!” Troubling Rain dived to the side when the boss swiped its scythe at him, the Blade Master’s sword gleamed as he attacked speedily. The creature shrieked and slashed at him crazily.

Troubling Rain blocked, blocked, blocked, and had to retreat again.

“Did that work?” Huang Shaotian cried out.

“You literally only lasted three seconds, did that make any difference?” Zhang Jiale mocked.

“Three seconds is enough for an opportunity! You guys suck at snatching it!” Huang Shaotian complained.

“Shut up!” Zhang Jiale snapped. “My God, what did Old Wei feed this child, so audacious! Big Sun, on two!” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms took a grenade in his hand and prepared his gun, his Berserker partner disappeared from his side and flashed to the BOSS’ left side while Dazzling Hundred Blossoms flashed to right side.

Bang!

Soon, the duo was also forced back.

“That was eight seconds, congratulations you two, you don’t lose face against the rookie,” Ye Xiu said sincerely.

“Shut the f*ck up, Ye Qiu!” came the unified yell from the Blood Blossoms duo.

“Alright, who’s next? Old Han? Big-eye?” Ye Xiu asked.

Vaccaria didn’t seem to have a plan to move whereas Desert Dust was facing Immovable Rock, seemingly in a deep discussion.

Alright. Ye Xiu had a suspicion seeing Huang Shaotian and the duo from Hundred Blossoms earlier but he needed to check it out himself now to confirm it. One Autumn Leaf flashed towards the boss in a speed that was nearly unmatched, the Boss instantly swung at him the moment he came to a certain distance. One Autumn Leaf dodged a few times but had to retreat when a hit landed due to how heavy the damage was.

One Autumn Leaf was healed by the clerics and Ye Xiu fell into deep contemplation. “The AI for this boss is mental.” He reached a conclusion. “It’s gotten faster, I don’t think any other players that are lesser than pro players can land a hit at all.” If they drew close, they’d probably die with how quick that monster reacted, the only thing that saved the pro players from dying a few times was their fast reaction and judgment.

Using normal players as sacrifices to open up its defense was not viable too as it was too fast unless they overwhelmed it with a hundred meat shields. But even that idea was scrapped clean because that wasn’t very cost-effective as there would be too many casualties and dropped items that could possibly rival what would be given to the ultimate winner, and it could be anyone.

“So, what should we do...?” Lin Jingyan asked.

It was at this moment a newcomer strolled in unnoticed and went straight to Life Extinguisher who was observing the monster critically.

“Hey.”

Xiao Shiqin blinked when he heard the familiar voice, he turned Life Extinguisher’s gaze to the side and saw a familiar avatar. “Oh, senior!” He greeted. “You have returned?”

“Mm. What’s going on? Why’s nobody attacking?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked curiously.

“Why don’t you try?”

“Huh?”

“Try it,” Ye Xiu repeated, gazing at the Battle Mage with intrigue. “You see, that boss over there has the principle of “Last hit, get it”, why don’t you try your luck?”

“What is ‘last hit, get it’?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked bluntly.

“Uhh...” Xiao Shiqin dutifully explained the meaning to Cool Autumn Breeze who instantly understood.

“Oh? I’ve never heard of this kind of monster before.” Cool Autumn Breeze was intrigued. “Why isn’t anyone attacking, then?”

“We were in a deadlock of trying to decide who would get the last hit,” Ye Xiu said shamelessly.

“Don’t listen to that guy, we’re trying to figure out how to penetrate its defense,” Han Wenqing immediately stopped Ye Xiu from trying to prank an innocent bystander.

“Old Han, why don’t we let Cool Autumn Breeze try?”

“Is its defense impenetrable?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked.

“It’s really quick, strong, and its defense basically tripled when it gets to its rage mode,” Xiao Shiqin supplied.

“Aren’t you guys quick too?” Cool Autumn Breeze remarked idly.

“The reason the majority of us are still alive despite having tried to draw close is precisely because we’re quick.”

“Hmm... This is the last boss for the event, right?”

“Yes...?”

“I’ll try,” Cool Autumn Breeze said.

All the pro players finally glanced over as they couldn’t hold back their curiosity anymore about the one they’d jokingly called ‘The Gatekeeper’ in the chatroom.

“You will?” Ye Xiu blinked in pleasant surprise.

“Sure, why not? This is to save the domain, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ye Xiu said absently. “Careful, though. It’s really deadly, if you’re just a little quick, it’s better to not go directly,” he reminded calmly.

“Okay.”

This was the first time Ye Xiu could talk civilly with Cool Autumn Breeze without him trying to actively get rid of him, Ye Xiu nodded and withdrew One Autumn Leaf, waiting to watch the show.

Han Wenqing controlled Desert Dust a bit forward, intending to do the control damage if Cool Autumn Breeze failed and dropped something.

Everyone observed intently.

Cool Autumn Breeze dashed off and entered the Boss’ range, the Boss turned and zeroed on him immediately, swinging its scythe in a snap. Cool Autumn Breeze jumped back, missing it by a hairbreadth, and rushed forward again. The Boss took many swings at him like trying to swat away a fly, he dodged several times but soon got overwhelmed and retreated.

“Three seconds...” Huang Shaotian murmured, keeping his eyes on the screen where the Battle Mage retreated.

Cool Autumn Breeze stood for a second with half of his health which was promptly healed by Immovable Rock.

“Oh, thanks.” Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t sound like he expected the heal but thanked Immovable Rock anyways. “It is really quick, I almost couldn’t make it.”

“That’s why we couldn’t draw close.”

“How about long-range attackers?”

Zhang Xinjie decided to fill in what really had happened up till this moment to Cool Autumn Breeze and Cool Autumn Breeze went silent.

“You said there was a divine voice telling you that?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked.

“...Yes,” Zhang Xinjie decided to play along. If Cool Autumn Breeze wanted to call a system notification window as a divine voice, let him be. If his captain could just go along with this person’s whim, he could too.

“Was there any divine voice prior to fighting this monster telling you other things? You know, like an introduction to this Sky Demon Calamity on what kind of a race it came from...?”

“You mean like an introductory window?” Ji Leng asked, frowning. “I don’t think so?”

“Maybe there was one?”

“I don’t know.”

None of the Tyranny’s members were of help whatsoever.

“Sorry, I don’t think anyone would remember that,” Han Wenqing said.

“Oh, that’s alright, I’m already used to people being useless,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly.

“What the...”

“Sky Demon... Sky Demon... Where did I hear about it...” Cool Autumn Breeze ignored the indignant members of Tyranny and began to murmur absently. “Sky Demon... Fourth Hero... hmm...” there was a faint sound of pages being turned, Han Wenqing didn’t know what to make of that.

“Zhang Xinjie, you explain to me about your second plan again and I’ll spread it to the others,” Han Wenqing had Desert Dust to turn to Immovable Rock.

“Wait, not Fourth Hero... The First Hero...” Cool Autumn Breeze said in realization. “Yes... The First Hero!” Cool Autumn Breeze’s voice raised, excited. The Battle Mage ran to another side of the Battlefield to have a look, he found what he looked for.

Han Wenqing was genuinely confused but he still chased after him. “Do you find anything about it?”

“Sky Demon tribes were all once celestial creatures cursed by the nature, due to their crimes in a war of olden times, they were all cursed and had their celestial hearts pulled out of their chests, making them one of the Five Creatures Without A Heart. They try to fill in the void of their heart with treasures that could keep them alive, but it only turned them even more inhumane. Their weak point is their chest.”

“That’s a very great lore and theory, but how are we going to touch its chest?” Fang Shiqian, who came out from Herb Garden’s bunch right beside Cool Autumn Breeze, asked bluntly.

Cool Autumn Breeze turned around and went silent for a while.

Just when Han Wenqing and the rest thought that he also ran out of ideas, Cool Autumn Breeze spoke up. “Why aren’t you barking?”

“...”

Wind Guard turned around. “Wang Jiexi, you talk to this guy, I can’t do this at all,” his voice came out strangled.

Vaccaria calmly floated closer with his Broom. “So, the chest, right?” Wang Jiexi asked calmly.

“The small scar on its chest to be precise.”

“I’ll do it. Fang Shiqian, cover me.”

Vaccaria rushed over in a flash, leaving behind a trail of stardust. Wind Guard marched forward too, ready to heal and protect the Witch in his onslaught.

Vaccaria’s attacks were almost chaotic and fast, the Witch kept on changing his trajectory and dropping vials after vials to the ground around the BOSS. A flash of light shot out of the Witch and straight to the BOSS’ chest, the BOSS reeled back as though it just got a strong punch in the stomach and it wasn’t happy, Vaccaria was hit back mid-air by the BOSS. Vaccaria retreated, hanging by a hairbreadth of his health, everyone who saw it was alarmed.

“Did its stat rise again?” Previously, they only got half-bar health damage, but Vaccaria actually almost lost his life.

“Well that doesn’t work,” Wang Jiexi observed, wincing a little at how lucky he was before Fang Shiqian healed him.

“No, it does,” Cool Autumn Breeze said stubbornly. “You just got hit when it was about to work.” He pointed at the BOSS with his spear.

“The Boss reeled back and open earlier, whatever you guys did work even a little earlier,” Ye Xiu controlled One Autumn Leaf to go to Herb Garden’s bunch.

“Hitting the chest, isn’t it?” Yu Wenzhou frowned and glanced at Huang Shaotian.

Huang Shaotian nodded. “I’ll go!”

“The small scar!”

“I’ll back him up.” Desert Dust also rushed off.

Troubling Rain invaded the BOSS’ attack range again, avoiding its slashes and zeroed on the small scar on its chest. The boss reeled and shrieked when Troubling Rain stabbed the spot, it swung at Troubling Rain, meanwhile, Desert Dust attacked it from another direction. However, this time, everyone noticed that the BOSS seemed to focus one attack on Troubling Rain rather than using its usual wide-range swing to also deal with Desert Dust.

Troubling Rain was hit after dodging twice, Huang Shaotian cried out when his health decreased drastically but was instantly healed by Blue Rain’s alert healer.

Only then the BOSS focused on Desert Dust but out of nowhere, One Autumn Leaf appeared and stabbed the same spot in its chest, it reeled back again and focused its entire aggro on One Autumn Leaf. One Autumn Leaf managed to dodge four of its deadly swipe before getting hit, also hanging on his last 20% of health despite having full health earlier.

It turned to Desert Dust again, Desert Dust dodged its normal swipe and punched the spot on its chest.

Soon, other pros also joined in, falling into a tempo that passed between them in a tacit understanding. They then learned that the deadly swipe was meant for anyone who landed a hit on its chest, the BOSS' stats didn't rise, but it has a trigger on its chest that evoked a stronger attack.

“Great! If we keep doing this, it will be killed soon enough!” Guo Mingyu exclaimed.

“Although it’s a bit time-consuming and very intense, yeah.” Another responded.

“No. Have you forgotten this is an event?” Ye Xiu frowned. “This BOSS would disappear at midnight.”

“That’s right,” Zhang Xinjie narrowed his eyes at the boss. “If only we found this out much earlier. According to the rate of damage output, we could never kill it before midnight hits and the event ends.”

“Eh? Really?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked. “That kind of thing exists?”

“Yes.”

“...”

“Well, we don’t have a back-up plan, do we? Since this is the ‘last hit, get it’ type, it probably already has a list of damage-dealer in the system, we’ll most likely get rewarded still.”

Everyone agreed with that but still felt resentful. They were all pro-players, the cream of the crop, how could they let this BOSS go without having killed it? Wasn’t that just pathetic?

If they lost to another pro player, then so be it! But it was actually to an AI!

“I’ll be the distraction now,” Cool Autumn Breeze suddenly declared.

“You? Sure, go ahead,” Sun Zheping said. He had seen Cool Autumn Breeze’s skill earlier, he was confident that he was pro-level in mechanics and wasn’t just a simple role-player who happened to be so well-versed in the game’s lore.

Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t instantly move, under everyone’s watch, his armors actually started disappearing and replaced by a default appearance of Glory’s male avatar. Everyone blinked when the Battle Mage stripped himself off his armor, revealing a bare chest with only a piece of sinful cloth covering his decency sans his pair of boots, belt, arm-guards, and Spear that was still worn by him.

“W...why did you strip?” Wang Jiexi asked, baffled.

“Are you insane?” Zhang Jiale asked.

“While I have confidence in my equipments, they’re not as good as yours,” Cool Autumn Breeze responded calmly. “If I got hit by that thing even once, I’ll die anyway.”

They finally realized why Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t move to attack the BOSS’ chest too when he was the one who tip-ed them. Yeah, they were all a bunch of pros with terrifying speed and boosted by silver equipments, but even then one hit from the BOSS still had them scrambling back for a heal. If Cool Autumn Breeze went up with his Orange equipments, he’d probably die in just one hit.

What the hell!? They just realized how broken this BOSS was! If earlier the normal players had a very slim and impossible chance, this time they basically had none if the pro players weren’t there to hold the base!

“I’ll need you to hold onto this,” Cool Autumn Breeze gave a trade offer to Desert Dust, the one he knew the best out of the bunch, and transferred all the equipments he didn’t wear to the Striker. “The equipments are heavy and wearing them change nothing if I got hit, so it’s better to get rid of the extra weight in favor of speed.”

The more the pros heard his reason, the more they think it was reasonable. They looked back at the handsome avatar in awe.

“You don’t mind dying?” One of them asked.

“I won’t die as long as it can’t touch me, right?” Cool Autumn Breeze remarked back, completely confident.

With that, the half-naked Battle Mage rushed forward, his speed was noticeably faster without the armors weighing him down. His boots, arm-guards, and belt were traditionally weightless pieces of equipment that boosted speed and attack speed, so they didn’t weigh him down at all, instead, they added to his base speed.

He instantly invaded the monster’s space and hit the scar on its chest, it retaliated but Cool Autumn Breeze quickly moved out of the way.

Every melee pros immediately rushed over. Desert Dust turned to Immovable Rock. “You hold these.” He transferred all of Cool Autumn Breeze’s equipments on him to the Cleric because the weight might affect his own speed, afterwards, he immediately joined the others.

The long-ranged attack, after having no more defense against them by the BOSS, instantly started their onslaught.

Dancing Rain and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms were especially careful so that they didn’t distract Cool Autumn Breeze from dodging.

Three swipes, four swipes... ten swipes! Cool Autumn Breeze was still going strong in dodging and slipping his own attack on the boss, he even slipped in another stab on the BOSS’s scar.

‘He’s good!’ everyone thought in awe.

Cool Autumn Breeze never stopped moving and his Spear never stopped swinging, the BOSS seemed to be going crazy after him. Everyone urged their own people to maximize the firepower against the BOSS.

Finally, the BOSS’ health fell to zero, vacating the health bar from any sliver of red, and the BOSS fell after a shriek of its one last struggle.

Ding!

[Special Event Boss: Sky Demon Calamity <Level 65> has been defeated by all the heroes involved. Thank you for saving the domain from calamity!]

[The calamitous monsters have been banished, the domain-]

Everyone clicked ‘x’ at the extra dialogue after the BOSS died and instantly zeroed on the important thing.

[Rank.....]

As expected, it was individual damage ranking...

They looked at the name above the first-ranker.

[Last Hit of the Boss is from {Cool Autumn Breeze})

They didn’t even catch their breath yet before they all looked towards Cool Autumn Breeze who stood before the BOSS blankly.

“Unexpected...” Everyone smiled helplessly, but they couldn’t complain at all with the result, Cool Autumn Breeze did provide them with the way out to kill this BOSS before the event ended.

“Brother, you’re not bad, ever thought of going pro?” Troubling Rain approached the Battle Mage, there was nothing but sincere worship in his voice. “You were f*cking amazing just now, like, woooo! So amazing!” even he ran out of words to describe his amazement.

Immovable Rock weaved through the crowd and sent a trade offer to Cool Autumn Breeze, he then transferred all the equipments Cool Autumn Breeze gave earlier.

“Oh, thanks...” Cool Autumn Breeze said absently.

“It’s yours to begin with.”

“GG, truly.” Ye Xiu looked at the Battle Mage sincerely. He shook his head and quickly said, “What kind of loot did you get as the last-hitter, I wonder?” he asked half-curiously, half-jokingly.

“What is it? You’re jealous, Old Ye?” Zhang Jiale teased.

“Hahaha, I’m also curious though,” Lin Jingyan said.

At that moment, Cool Autumn Breeze suddenly dropped a bunch of things to the ground. Everyone’s eyes widened in surprise but upon seeing it, they quickly clicked on them all, some snatched one, others snatched two. They all looked at it on their inventory and clicked their tongues in disbelief. Rare materials and level 65 Orange equipments from the BOSS earlier! The BOSS’ rare materials dropped was not its own material, but a material box where you can choose which rare material you needed from it so it was essentially not a dead rare material that could only be earned from this BOSS with no back-up whatsoever which would render it useless for the RnD because they wouldn’t have any back-up of it if it failed, this was already very great!

“Why are you throwing them away?” Han Wenqing asked, furrowing his brows.

“It takes up space in my bag,” Cool Autumn Breeze, now dressed in his armor back, said absently. “You can have it.”

“Are you serious? You didn’t even keep the orange equipments! There’s an orange Battle Spear level 65 here!”

“I already have a Battle Spear that grows with me courtesy of the Council’s privilege,” Cool Autumn Breeze said. “I don’t need those.”

They all gawked at his generosity.

“I’m going off first,” Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t seem to notice their reaction.

“Hey, you truly don’t want to do loot-splitting? Maybe some of us got what you need!” Zhang Jiale reasoned.

“No need!”

Cool Autumn Breeze was gone just like that, everyone looked at each other with their avatars.

“I... I think I’m in love?”

Ye Qiu was very satisfied with his gain today. Sure he directly went online after an exhausting schedule with his mom but he was delighted when he learned the last boss had yet to be killed earlier.

The hidden lore he got from that event’s boss was not bad as well, he even got an event-only Orange equip amongst the useless loots he got, the difference was, this orange Badge had a hinted lore in it.

Ye Qiu nodded, satisfied. “The appearance of a Sky Demon from the Fourth Hero’s secret realm is a deepening plot point... It seems like I was right, the Fourth Hero and the First Hero had a disagreement and the First Hero, the Prince Consort, is actually secretly evil.”

He added it to his note. Originally, Sky Demons were only mentioned around First Hero and his Knights, it was just mentioned in a passing, like a folklore amongst the NPCs, but now he was fully confident that the First Hero was the reincarnated general of the Sky Demons who escaped punishment and went into hiding. The Fourth Hero was probably trying to find evidence against him by going to the dimension where Sky Demons fled to.

“Not bad, now I have more leads.” Ye Qiu put away his note and yawned. “I should go to sleep soon.” He logged off his account and turned off his computer, he went to sleep unaware of just how badly he messed up with many people’s hearts and minds that night.

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

The second All Star Weekend started and the tickets were sold-out after just a day on both online and direct transactions, it surpassed all the critics and predictions that it wouldn’t be as well-received as the first All-Star, perhaps it was because of the new Chairman’s tactic to keep the hype.

Several Fourth Season’s rookies, despite only having been there for a few months, had gained themselves quite a reputation. Added with the three elder generations, they essentially had enough stars to retain themselves despite quite a lot of famous players retiring after the end of Season 3.

So all the All-Stars finally gathered a day prior to the first weekend of the year for a briefing from the organizers that they honestly didn’t really listen to because they were exhausted, having been spending what holidays they had to assist their guilds for more resources.

“Why it has to be the first weekend of the year, though?” Chu Yunxiu complained, having been voted in despite being a rookie and her team’s situation was still considered ‘mid-tier’, but she was one of the Super Rookies of the season. A female captain that appeared without much fanfare and was even overshadowed by her fellow female debutant in terms of beauty, but Chu Yunxiu quickly gained people’s attention the moment she was in the field.

Methodical, calm, fast, surprisingly fierce, and skillful, her presence alone already made several people predict that Misty Rain would be a high-tier team by the end of the season. Her skill already gained praise from the Battle God himself and a nod of approval from the King of Fighting, so naturally no one would look down on her in terms of skills, she rightfully earned her title as one of the Super Rookies of the season.

“This is the only time of the year when people still had their holidays yet no longer in a holiday feast and mood,” Su Mucheng answered for her.

“Well, I still am,” Chu Yunxiu pouted, playing with her phone.

“I must say, you look better than the rest, though,” Su Mucheng mentioned as she glanced at the rest of the All-Stars who all sat impassively as if they were waiting for a verdict.

“Uuuurrggghhh! I can’t take this anymore! Didn’t they say the briefing will start at two? It’s already two-thirty! Half an hour lost to try and win a Wild BOSS!!!” Huang Shaotian finally exploded to no one surprise.

“This is simply a waste of time.” Zhang Xinjie kept on glancing at his watch.

“Calm down, they’re probably on the way,” Tian Sen said.

“I can’t- ahh, I can’t-“ Huang Shaotian moaned desperately, wiggling in his seat like a toddler throwing tantrum. “I can’t take this anymore, this is so boring! If I keep being here like this, I’ll grow moss and die- I can’t die yet, I still haven’t found Boss Wei and dragged him back to Blue Rain for a proper goodbye party- I don’t want to die out of boredom! I haven’t made Troubling Rain the Heavenly Council’s Blade Master yet! I haven’t talked to Cool Autumn Breeze yet!” Once he complained, it all flowed like a waterfall, most of the Fourth Generation’s members covered their faces and pretended they never knew him, while most seniors looked at him in annoyance.

“Speaking of Cool Autumn Breeze...” Wang Jiexi cut through Huang Shaotian’s wailing impassively. “I wonder if he will find the other classes’ keys again...”

“With such skill and knowledge of the game’s lore, I won’t be surprised.”

Coincidentally, the first weekend of the year was only two days after Glory’s New Year event, so their memory of it was still very fresh.

Very fresh.

“I still can’t believe he came up with the idea of stripping down his armor to boost his speed, like, that’s logical but...” Zhang Jiale gestured. “How could it not come up in our minds back then??”

Any of them, especially armor-class players, could do what Cool Autumn Breeze did. Just like he mentioned too, it would erase their defense and made it go to the base state without equipment, but with the weight gone, their base agility stats would also increase. Of course, none of them thought of this because neglecting defense was such a crazy notion while facing a strong offense from the BOSS.

“What did he say again?”

“I won’t die as long as it can’t touch me.”

Everyone sighed dreamily hearing that quote again.

“f*cking cool, I tell ya,” Zhao Yang grunted.

“And then he went straight for the BOSS, naked, with zero hesitation.”

“Truly the epitome of offense is the best defense, right, Old Han?”

Han Wenqing simply grunted, however, his nod of approval expressed a great deal of respect for what Cool Autumn Breeze had done back then to end the event.

“I don’t get it,” Tian Sen said. “What happened?” In the event, he had gone hunting for the Council’s BOSS while his predecessor led Royal Heritage to fight the event boss instead, he didn’t really know what happened in the event. “Former Captain Guo only blushed bashfully when I asked him about the details...” he murmured.

“What happened? Miracle happened,” Xiao Shiqin said, pushing back his glasses that had slid down his nose bridge. “

“A beautiful miracle.”

“It was like a fantasy.”

“...You guys actually make me mad now...” Tian Sen frowned.

“How about I just show you it?” Chu Yunxiu whipped out a flash disk from her pocket. “Since the staff are not here yet, we can use the projector and laptop first.”

“You have it with you?” Su Mucheng asked with surprise.

Chu Yunxiu winked. “I’m an Elementalist, my POV is very clear and focused.”

“Oooh! Play it!”

Chu Yunxiu hijacked the laptop and no one stopped her as she played the video of the event’s siege from Windy Rain’s POV.

She skipped their initial fight and only let the video run by itself when Cool Autumn Breeze started his onslaught.

Some players who weren’t in the location at the time watched curiously whereas other top-tier players leaned in with their hands intertwined together in front of them, eyes focused as though to make a quick analysis of every movement.

“Looking from this angle, you should position yourself a bit to the right, Old Han, you could have dodged the third attack.”

“You’re right.”

“Huang Shaotian hesitated on when he needed to be quick and speed up when he needed to retreat.”

“Urgh, I know, Captain...”

The whole room turned into a discussion about their tactics against the event’s boss and pointing out each other’s flaws, it looked harmonious and the place became much livelier compared to earlier... Until the part where Cool Autumn Breeze stripping appeared, then, everyone grew as quiet as a graveyard.

When the Alliance’s staff finally entered flusteredly due to being late, he saw a group of people seriously staring at the projection.

“I’m sorry, I’m late everyone...” The staff murmured. “What are you all looking at?”

No one responded.

“Uhh... everyone?” His eyes scanned the video being played on the projection, bewildered.

The projection showed a character dropping many things out from his inventory and leaving, only then a sound finally appeared.

Everyone sighed.

“So badass...” Zhang Jiale groaned

“What a man...” Ye Xiu sighed appreciatively.

“Yeah, what a man...” Huang Shaotian sighed dreamily, agreeing with Ye Xiu in place of everybody else.

“He’s very straightforward like that.” Han Wenqing nodded.

Everyone looked at each other as if they were congratulating each other for something great while the clueless Alliance staff stared at them all, bewildered.

Naturally, Ye Qiu didn’t know that he had thoroughly marveled a group of people nor would he care if he had known, what he truly cared about was how to progress the main quest and dig deeper into it. He already made his own theory but he needed to confirm everything first.

So he went to the Fourth Server to retrace back his steps, making sure that he didn’t miss anything. This took him a few days' worth of playing as he rebuilt his understanding of the lore.

When Xiao Lin found him in his apartment on a Saturday night, staring intently at his screen, or precisely at the Prince Consort’s illustration face with a conspiracy board full of printed pictures, sticky notes, pins, and colourful strings emphasizing the connections between each part on the wall, as well as all kind of charts scattered on the table. Xiao Lin knew her boss had gone too deep.

With his appearance right now, one would think he was making a massive bet on several stocks that might change the economic trajectory of the entire Ye Corps in just a day but no. This was all for an online game.

“One day... One day I will rip off that benign naive face you’re showing...” Ye Qiu smirked darkly. That expression could have made the entire branch of assistant managers flee to the toilet to take care of their bladders.

“I-isn’t there a saying of innocent until proven guilty?” Xiao Lin asked doubtfully. “Your current mistrust and extreme contempt for the Prince Consort is a bit too much.”

“Innocence is dead, Xiao Lin. Trust no one. I will not make the same mistake of showing compassion just like what I did in the Four Protectors storyline.” Ye Qiu leaned back solemnly, eyes glimmering with ruthlessness. “If I have to experience that betrayal all over again, I’d rather hate him from the start.”

In the Four Protectors history quest, Ye Qiu learned what a bloody betrayal was and how much he could resent a person that never existed. There had been four protectors of a major sect, each of them were characters that Ye Qiu enjoyed learning. He admired the warmth and kindness of the First Protector, he liked the Second Protector’s uptight and serious countenance, he adored the cheerfulness of the Third Protector, and he was also fond of how supportive the Fourth Protector was.

They were supposed to be friends. Brothers-in-arms, even! Ye Qiu was tricked to love everyone in that line of quests and when the plot twist came up it backstabbed him and left a traumatic scar that could never heal.

The First Protector did everything for the realm but... The Second Protector betrayed his trust, he turned around and let the First Protector’s wife and daughter be killed when the First Protector was lost in a huge battle to protect the realm.

If the scale of the First Hero’s, or the Prince Consort’s, betrayal was anywhere near that level, Ye Qiu would save himself from the feeling of betrayal by hating him early.

“Ai, a heart that’s been hurt is hard to mend,” Xiao Lin sighed dramatically. “Anyway, this is my part, I didn’t sleep to finish this. I’m heading back to catch some sleep.” Xiao Lin was about to slip off when Ye Qiu spoke up coldly.

“Wait.”

“...”

“Sit down.”

Xiao Lin, like a death row inmate counting down her execution, sat down on a sofa tiredly with eyes full of vicissitudes of life.

“According to my theory, the Fourth Hero had a disagreement with the Heroes Team so he left and created his own mercenary army opposed to the ruling of the queen and the Prince Consort. The question now, the quests had emphasised that it’s the disagreement between the First and Fourth Hero that caused them to break off, do you think the queen, also known as the Second Hero, would be deeply involved too?”

“Depends on how you see things. I mean, the queen is the prince consort’s wife, their love story has been famous in the lore, husband and wife are always of one heart and mind.”

Xiao Lin replied concisely, already giving up the idea of going home for the night. Other young women were having fun on Saturday night, yet here she was discussing about a game’s lore and theory with her boss. Her life was too sad!

No! What was even sadder was this guy over here who was in charge of a company but treating a game’s lore like a holy prophecy!

They were both losers!

“This is truly weird!” Li Nanxue, a member of Blue Rain’s RnD department sub-division of map exploration. Even during lunch break, he still couldn’t let go of his work at all, his mind was going back and forth but still couldn’t find the reason at all as he messed around with his pad.

“What is it, Old Li?” Huang Shaotian, always ever curious about other people’s business, turned to the table beside his, asking bluntly.

“Ah, no. Never mind it, Huang Shao.”

“No, no, tell me. You already caught my attention, satisfy me with an answer,” Huang Shaotian said seriously while he picked up another piece of chicken nugget. “Come on, tell meee.”

Li Nanxue sighed and readjusted his glasses. “Well, it’s this... When Glory updated a few weeks ago, the map of Heavenly Domain was also updated, right?”

“Right.” Huang Shaotian, nodded, swallowed his food, and took a sip of his soda.

“Well, we’ve been researching the new maps. But I notice there’s a piece of coordinate in the updated map that wasn’t there before, but no matter how much I tried to dig into the data, I can’t seem to find anything in it which means it’s an empty folder...” Li Nanxue glared at his pad. “But why would the developers add a new island on the map but decided to not even make it exist?”

“Maybe it’s a trash property that they deleted at the last moment. Old Li, you’re thinking too much,” Zheng Xuan said blandly. “If I was you, I’ll just leave it be. Why bother digging so deep for nothing?”

“If it’s an abandoned project, I should at least find the remaining data of it, but I found nothing at all,” Li Nanxue grumbled.

Huang Shaotian picked up a piece of dim sum and ate it. “Didn’t they say the new upgrade means a harder firewall that no normal people could breach?” he said with his mouth full.

“Yeah.” Feng Jin, another member of Blue Rain’s RnD, said. “Because of so many complaints about ‘hacks’ and ‘cheating’ last year, the headquarter spent more budget for the game’s data and code protection. It got f*cking harder this year’s update, I cursed the headquarter’s coders’ seven incarnations and descendants at least ten times a day.”

“Complaints about hacks and cheating? Were there that many mishaps last year?” Huang Shaotian said ignorantly.

“Cool Autumn Breeze,” Yu Wenzhou stated bluntly so suddenly.

“Huh?” Huang Shaotian blinked and then digested what Yu Wenzhou just said. “Oh, right... I guess there should be many complaints about that guy hacking and cheating...” he nodded, being also one of those people who raged at Glory’s headquarter, screaming ‘hacks’ every time Cool Autumn Breeze found other class’ keys.

“It’s interesting how one player could make a very big change, isn’t it?” Yu Wenzhou said calmly.

Huang Shaotian slurped his soda again, recalling his brilliant feat in making the Alliance seriously consider banning chats from dead avatars on stage.

“I’m still very sure there’s something in there, though. I just can’t seem to breach through the firewalls to confirm!” Li Nanxue exclaimed.

“No need to think too much about it, Old Li.” Huang Shaotian finished eating and pushed away his empty dishes. “If it’s meant for the players, we’ll find it ourselves. If it’s an abandoned project, you’ll just be wasting your time.”

“I suppose you’re right, Huang Shao...”

“Of course I am.” Huang Shaotian nodded sagely.

“Wait, Old Han. Let’s talk about it peacefully. Excellent Dynasty was just done with the dungeon, why can’t you just proceed without immediately attacking me?” Ye Xiu said helplessly. “We can open a dialogue and negotiate for this.”

“Who used Falling Flower Palm earlier to push my teammate into the whirlpool?” Han Wenqing said in annoyance.

“It was an honest mistake.” Ye Xiu smiled playfully.

“f*ck off, Ye Qiu!” Ji Leng raged, having returned from the nearest spawning point and was full of vengeance for the one who pushed him to his demise earlier.

“Old Ji, how are you? Sorry for earlier, it was a reflex.”

“f*ck. OFF!”

Boom!

Splash!

The people of Tyranny could only seethe when they saw Ji Leng’s Cold Season got blasted and fell into the water with whirlpool again.

“YE QIU! YOU’RE TOO MUCH!!!”

“Su Mucheng, that’s not nice of you.” Zhang Xinjie gazed at the Launcher with disapproval. “This conflict could have de-escalated and now you’re making it worse. We’ve been wasting five minutes.”

“Sorry, but Senior Ji’s tone scared me,” Su Mucheng said innocently.

“This place is great, it feels like an official match map, don’t you think?” Ye Xiu mentioned to Han Wenqing. “Open space, unique feature, perfect for match map.”

“Less talk.”

Ye Xiu controlled One Autumn Leaf to dodge Desert Dust’s repeated attacks when he noticed troops from Herb Garden coming over. “Ah, we can’t balance it out again, Old Han. The third team is here.”

What were they fighting over? Naturally a Wild Boss. It was just simply pure luck (or misfortune?) that each guild was led by their professional team’s captains.

“If the two seniors want to keep fighting, I encourage you so. But care to give this Wild Boss to us?” Vaccaria hovered leisurely on his newly-upgraded broom which made Ye Xiu feel quite a bit jealous.

“Unfortunately, no.” Ye Xiu shook his head.

“There is Thunderclap,” Su Mucheng told him.

Ye Xiu gazed at the newly arrived troops calmly, it was within his expectation that this place would be full soon enough.

“How about this, all three of you,” Ye Xiu addressed his rivals. “All three of you are already council members, Excellent Era has no Council Member. What if you three do some donation out of the kindness in your heart-“

“f*ckING BULLsh*t, SHUT UP!”

“Old Ji, you’re back. How are you?” Ye Xiu said pleasantly to the Assassin who just returned.

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU!!!”

The Wild BOSS was attacked, the initiator was Herb Garden who saw the chance while Tyrannical Ambition and Excellent Dynasty were spouting abuse at each other. Of course no one would want to let them be so the other guilds started their methodical counterattack to scheme and steal the BOSS.

Soon enough, more guilds arrived. They either stayed to watch if there was a possibility to interrupt or just directly joined the fray to add to the chaos. Of course, with so many pro players fighting each other, more guilds decided to stay and watch the free All-Star performance with melon seeds in hands.

Fifteen minutes later, the Wild Boss died, the winner of it was Excellent Dynasty who managed to shamelessly steal the BOSS under Ye Xiu’s lead. This victory incited dissatisfaction- sorry, rage from Tyrannical Ambition’s members who all shouted for war.

Of course, that was avoided because Han Wenqing hated sore losers and told his guild’s members to shut up. Han Wenqing did still challenge Ye Xiu into a PK, though.

When the excitement was gone, some normal players, who were already satisfied to be in the presence of their idols through the famous avatars, had headed off to continue playing somewhere else.

“Captain Yu, you go off without me, I want to check a Blade Master NPC nearby,” Huang Shaotian informed. Ever since the news were announced officially, Huang Shaotian had diligently done his own research to get the Blade Master key. Although the entire Blue Rain did prioritize him, he knew well that he needed to take things into his own hands. Relying on other people could be useless, he was the one who knew the Blade Master class best.

Yu Wenzhou had no opinion on that and recalled Blue Brook’s troops to go off somewhere else. Troubling Rain also parted off from the group and went to a sword dojo located near the whirlpool lake. The place was basically isolated save for the NPCs placed around the dojo, this was a quite isolated part of Heavenly Domain, after all.

Huang Shaotian made sure to talk with the people outside the gate first before stepping inside to look for the boss of the dojo or any other NPC that didn’t have the standard “Dojo Disciple” as their name.

When Troubling Rain went in, he instantly saw a Battle Mage decked in familiar armor and blood red Battle Spear in his hand.

“Cool Autumn Breeze?” Huang Shaotian blurted out in shock.

Cool Autumn Breeze turned around, staring blankly at him. “Does this prince know you?”

“I was there on the New Year Eve siege, remember!? We didn’t talk much, but I was beside you back then, the most handsome Blade Master. I was the second one who tried to test your theory about the chest-stabbing thing?” Huang Shaotian rambled.

“Ah, yes...” Cool Autumn Breeze deadpanned. “The noisy one.”

“What are you doing here?” Huang Shaotian blinked and realized. “AH! Are you trying to snatch the Blade Master key before me! I’m warning you! I’ve been working hard for that key! Really, really, hard! You better not try and snatch it! You’re a Battle Mage, be satisfied with what you got, will you!? You have no use of the Blade Master key!” He shouted frantically. According to Cool Autumn Breeze’s capability, he would absolutely be able to get the Blade Master key if he tried! That didn’t sit well with Huang Shaotian at all!

“What are you talking about?” Cool Autumn Breeze said, unimpressed. “I have no interest in your class’ key. I’m not as bored to the point I’m looking for a key that does not even have an effect on me.”

Huang Shaotian squinted his eyes in disbelief. “Then, what are you doing here? This is a sword dojo. You’re a mage class, a Battle Mage, not even using swords. You have no business here.”

“I actually have. I’m gathering clues about the Cursed Sword Shi Xie.”

“Shi Xie?”

“You won’t know.”

Fair. Huang Shaotian hesitated. “You’re sure you’re not on Blade Master’s storyline here?”

“...We’ll just have to see.”

“That does not inspire faith in me,” Huang Shaotian pointed out.

“The realm depends on me to find the truth of the Cursed Sword and its location to prevent more people from being corrupted by it.”

“What if you got the Blade Master key inadvertently, wouldn’t that be a waste of my time doing all of these to get it legitimately?”

“How are you sure it will be Blade Master key and not Ghostblade key...?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked back pointedly.

Huang Shaotian paused and... thought about it deeper. Right. Cursed Sword seemed more like Ghostblade’s area.

“Okay... fine...” Huang Shaotian said reluctantly. “It sounds closer to Ghostblade, Li Xuan could beg you for it.” And Huang Shaotian would be there, watching with relish.

If Li Xuan was there, he would be coughing out blood in anger.

“Do you have any advice for me to get to the Blade Master Council’s storyline?” Huang Shaotian asked as he clicked on the dojo head NPC.

“This prince can offer you nothing unless we’re fated.”

“What does that even mean? What should I do to get fated with you? In any case, we met here by chance, so we can already be said to be fated. Look, this is a very isolated place, there are only the two of us here at the same time, this is fate, ah.”

Cool Autumn Breeze was silent for a while, presumably thinking that Huang Shaotian was right. “Alright, walk with me once you’re done.”

Huang Shaotian grinned and quickly finished his business with the dojo. After making sure he had no missing dialogues with the NPCs there, he walked back to Cool Autumn Breeze’s side.

“I’m here, let’s go.” Huang Shaotian said and the two avatars started walking out of the dojo.

“I’m going through my log of travel that includes Blade Masters, let me summarize it for you and you can crosscheck with everything you’ve found yourself,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly.

“Okay, okay, take your time, I will wait. By the way, what’s this about Cursed Sword, are you doing some quests again? Why do you like quests so much? Do you ever get anything interesting from them? Minus being the Heavenly Council’s Battle Mage, of course.”

“This prince does not seek wealth,” Cool Autumn Breeze said coldly. “The true peace of the realm is the true goal.”

Ah, right. Strict role-player. Huang Shaotian kind of forgot about that.

Huang Shaotian cleared his throat. “I hardly believe anyone would do something without getting something in return. If you don’t seek wealth, surely you’re seeking something else. Fame perhaps? Notoriety?”

“No.” Cool Autumn Breeze stated. “I’m here only for my own curiosity.”

Huang Shaotian blinked. “I think I understand now.”

“What do you understand?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked back.

“Never mind.” Huang Shaotian smirked. “So, have you found anything in your log?”

“There’s a wandering swordsman in the Starlight Dune.” Cool Autumn Breeze started.

“Hm, yeah, I talked to him.”

They both did some crosschecks for a while as they walked. Huang Shaotian went on his lists of Blade Master NPCs and possible storylines while Cool Autumn Breeze offered the list of names, some already been talked to, some Huang Shaotian had never even seen.

“I heard that Blade Masters are all noble, perhaps second only after the Knights,” Cool Autumn Breeze mentioned. “Don’t just venture to isolated places, sometimes the answer might be closer than you thought.”

“Alright, got it,” Huang Shaotian added ‘look for noble NPCs’ in his mental note.

Cool Autumn Breeze paused for a bit. “I don’t know if this might assist you. But I once heard above the Capital, unseen by the eyes, there a giant sword hanging over it.”

Huang Shaotian paused and furrowed his brows. “Unseen by the eyes?” He didn’t expect the lore could be that complicated. “I’ll take a look around the capital.”

“Well, that’s about everything I knew,” Cool Autumn Breeze said. “I have my own investigation to do.”

They both stopped at the edge right by the whirlpool lake from earlier. The place was now void of players, Huang Shaotian only saw a lone player jogging away, not even looking over and missed two famous avatars nearby.

Cool Autumn Breeze sighed as they both stood there, overlooking the whirlpool lake.

“Where else should I look for it...?” Cool Autumn Breeze murmured silently.

Huang Shaotian perked up. “What are you looking for?”

“The clue, it’s broken,” Cool Autumn Breeze said and sighed again. “It’s complicated. I probably can find it if I look carefully through every person’s talks, but I’ve talked to everyone around. Which means, I didn’t start at the right place.”

“What is it? Maybe I can help?” Huang Shaotian asked back. “I’m not the most savvy in lore like you, but I’ve been said to be incredibly lucky.”

Silence fell for a while before Cool Autumn Breeze eventually sighed again. “There should have been Seven Mists Flower around here... or two other places that I’ve visited. Its characteristic is it grew in an isolated place where mist would form in the morning, dissipate in at noon, and appear again at night with a darker colour. This is the place most alike with the description, but I can’t find it still.”

“Oh... I don’t know that too...” Huang Shaotian turned awkward. “If you asked me about Wild Bosses or Hidden Bosses, I can tell you. Not this one, though.”

“It’s to be expected,” Cool Autumn Breeze deadpanned.

Huang Shaotian stuck out his tongue petulantly and then direct Troubling Rain’s gaze somewhere else that wasn’t Cool Autumn Breeze’s blank face.

“If you fall there, it’s a death sentence,” Cool Autumn Breeze mentioned.

“I know, someone I knew fell here,” Huang Shaotian said. “Oh...” he looked out to the vast lake filled with dozens of whirlpool, big and small. “Right, this is the place...” he recalled.

Cool Autumn Breeze looked at Troubling Rain, confused. When Huang Shaotian didn’t finish his words, he spoke up in annoyance. “Care to share, Blade Master? This prince finds it off-putting you keep this prince hanging.”

Huang Shaotian blinked and then chuckled. “Old Li said there’s supposedly an island off the coast of this place, right in the middle of the lake,” Huang Shaotian explained. “It’s probably a scrapped-off project.” Troubling Rain turned around carelessly. He needed to return to his guild and help them with the next Wild Boss, if not, he could just return to practice.

Huang Shaotian was about to bid goodbye to Cool Autumn Breeze and thank him for sharing information but Cool Autumn Breeze suddenly exclaimed.

“So, that’s it!”

Huang Shaotian almost jumped in his seat. “What? What is it?”

“Seven Mists Flower is not here, but on that island!” Cool Autumn Breeze said confidently. “Borne in the middle of the mist, surrounded by an everlasting mirage. Lost in time but always exists, protected and camouflaged. Away from the civilization, untouched by bad intention.” Cool Autumn Breeze recited a poem. “It’s meant to be on an island away from the mainland.”

“Uh...?”

“Follow me, Blade Master!” Cool Autumn Breeze whirled around and jumped off the high-raising fake mountain.

Troubling Rain suddenly got a party invitation, Huang Shaotian didn’t think long before accepting it. “Where to?!” Troubling Rain chased after him without a thought.

They soon arrived at an Alchemy master NPC nearby and Troubling Rain stood there awkwardly while Cool Autumn Breeze talked to her.

“Hey, hey, you’re not explaining anything. What are we trying to do? What are you trying to do? What is that you need to do?” Huang Shaotian asked restlessly.

“I’m making the smoke bomb to detoxify the mirage mist.”

“What?” Huang Shaotian blinked.

“I’ve used it wrong before. Had I known there’s an island in the middle of the lake, I would have done this earlier.” Cool Autumn Breeze said and then turned back. “Let’s go.”

Troubling Rain chased after Cool Autumn Breeze again and they were back at the shore of the whirlpool lake.

“What are you-“

“Earth crystal from the Earth Gnome. Earth trumps water.” Cool Autumn Breeze then walked to the trees at the shore, right in between the two pine trees, there was a small pedestal, covered by the tree’s leaves and low branches.

Huang Shaotian didn’t know what Cool Autumn Breeze was doing, but the pedestal glittered brown for a second before returning back to its normal state.

Cool Autumn Breeze then stood back at the shore furthest in. He then took out the smoke bombs and hurled them into the water, letting them go off on the surface of the water.

The greenish smoke slowly dissipated and a loud system notification woke Huang Shaotian up from his shock.

[System: The Lost Island has been found. It can be accessed for the next three hours.]

[Sytem: Congratulations to Cool Autumn Breeze <Battle Mage> and Troubling Rain <Blade Master> for solving the mystery of the Lost Island of Heavenly Domain!]

Huang Shaotian blinked incredulously.

[Reward Has Been Earned]

He glanced at his inventory to find a box of Rare Material that he could choose from. The same one some of them got in the New Year Eve boss fight.

Before Huang Shaotian’s eyes, the whirlpool lake changed. Several platforms rose from the water and float above it, creating a path that wasn’t really a path unless you were skilled enough to use it.

Huang Shaotian’s jaw dropped.

“Let’s go.” Cool Autumn Breeze jumped to the first platform and skillfully maneuvered through, getting further to the lake and towards the silhouette of an island at the distance that also had suddenly appeared after the smoke bombs.

“Wha- what’s happening? Who- what?!” Huang Shaotian was speechless.

“HUANG SHAO?! WHAT THE f*ck HAPPENED?!”

Even through the noise-canceling headset, Huang Shaotian could still hear his teammates’ screaming and rushing to his side.

“I don’t know!” Huang Shaotian roared to them. “Don’t bother me! Wait! Cool Autumn Breeze, wait for me!”

Troubling Rain also jumped to the platform and skillfully chased after the Battle Mage. It took a full minute to get through the platforms, Huang Shaotian’s mind was buzzing all the while. Somehow the commotion inside the practice room had calmed down, Huang Shaotian probably had to thank Yu Wenzhou for that.

When Troubling Rain finally landed on the island and caught up to Cool Autumn Breeze, he gasped out.

“What the f*ck was that?! H-how could a f*cking island appear? What the hell is happening?! Holy sh*t, what are you!?” Huang Shaotian shouted incredulously.

“I had suspected the pedestal earlier, but when I put the earth crystal from the lone earth gnome in the forest, I didn’t see anything special happened. When you mentioned a hidden island, I understood that something should happen but I did it in the wrong order,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly.

“I still don’t follow!” Huang Shaotian exclaimed. “What earth gnome?!” even in a state of disbelief, Huang Shaotian still knew how to gather information from this treasure trove of information.

“An earth gnome in the forest, she’s hidden in between four boulders in the middle of the forest. She looks like a normal creature, but because I was in a bad mood, I purposefully provoked her and she showed her true nature as a monster. I defeated her and got the earth crystal,” Cool Autumn Breeze explained.

“How...? Dude! How about you wrote a damn guide?! Holy f*ck!” Huang Shaotian swore. “I’ll pay you! Really, I will!”

“Stop your nonsense, Blade Master. We only have three hours. I have to find the Seven Mists Flower before the time’s up.” Cool Autumn Breeze dashed on.

Troubling Rain followed. “Okay, alright. I will just pretend that unlocking a hidden location is something normal.” A monster finally appeared in their line of sight and Huang Shaotian input a series of commands while still talking. “I will pretend that it’s normal to find something like this. Where is the flower, do you have any clue where it might be? No offense, but this island is big, as big as a dungeon if not more.”

Troubling Rain and Cool Autumn Breeze flashed past the Tree Bark Ape monster in their way, killing it almost instantly with their attacks without even pausing.

“The most logical answer is the center of it. The thicker the mist, the more likely it is there.”

More monsters appeared but Huang Shaotian took care of them easily with Cool Autumn Breeze. Huang Shaotian quickly reminded, “We have no Cleric, we better not get mobbed.” Although they were doing swimmingly right now, it would fall apart if they got mobbed.

“I know. This will be quick.”

Huang Shaotian finally turned off his mic and took off his headset, letting it dangle from his neck. He then turned his neck to look at his whole team behind him, beside him, right under his armpit even. “What are you guys doing here? Go back to the whirlpool lake we were in before. There are only three hours!” he told them. “I will tell you guys the whole story after Cool Autumn Breeze gets his stupid flower.” He told this while nodding to Yu Wenzhou who was leaning on the wall, not crowding with the rest but still had a solid gaze on Huang Shaotian’s screen.

Ye Qiu smiled when he finally found his quest item and retrieved it. He was relieved to know he wouldn’t need to pause and put aside this quest just because he got stuck. Luckily Troubling Rain knew something about the hidden island, or else Ye Qiu would never be able to do it this quickly. He was only talking nonsense about fate earlier, but perhaps this was truly fate.

Not to mention he managed to rope a helper along the way so he didn’t have to struggle much with the monsters.

Cool Autumn Breeze jumped back and he saw Troubling Rain standing in front of a giant crusty tree hole with a board sign in front of it that said ‘Mysterious Root Underground Dungeon’

“Wanna go in?” Troubling Rain asked him.

“We’ll die,” Ye Qiu answered bluntly. They could survive around the island because it was a wandering zone. Inside a dungeon, they would need more than just two damage-dealers.

“That’s fine. I’ll wait for my teammates. Are you really done, though? Wanna come with us? It’s a ten-people dungeon. The level is designed to adjust to whoever entered it,” Troubling Rain said which intrigued Ye Qiu slightly.

“That’s interesting.”

“I know right? I was surprised too, this is the first dungeon that will adjust to the players’ levels... Oh, sorry, I meant people’s strength. How about it? Wanna go in?”

“I’ll pass, I’m needed somewhere else.” Ye Qiu politely rejected. “We’ll part here, Blade Master. If we meet again, I’ll try to repay you for this favor.” Ye Qiu dissolved their party and they parted away.

“No, I think the whole Heavenly Domain owes you a favor now...” Troubling Rain murmured.

Troubling Rain: Stop DM-ing me for coordinate. It’s in that exact same spot where we fought the Wild Boss. Near the whirlpool lake

Troubling Rain: Also, Cool Autumn Breeze is phenomenal, wtf. Are we sure he’s not a mole from the dev team because wtf. I can’t f*cking swear, damn.

Desert Dust: Is he still there?

Troubling Rain: Nope. He bailed after getting what he wanted, not the slightest bit interested in staying. I was ditched at the entrance of the island’s dungeon

Wind Guard: Okay, so what the f*ck? Spill.

Troubling Rain: I honestly don’t know. We just happened to meet. I goaded him to share some notes so I can get my own class key, but somehow we ended up finding a lost island. I was just telling him that Blue Rain’s research department found a code for an island in the lake but cannot get past the firewall, I just said it’s probably an abandoned project, it was a normal chit-chat

Troubling Rain: Then he suddenly yelled and got me into a party

Troubling Rain: I didn’t even know what were we doing

Troubling Rain: Then he found the island. I was just a mental support through the whole thing seriously.

Troubling Rain: [Pic] The new secret dungeon. Neat, huh?

Sobbing Ghost: Very.

Sobbing Ghost: But are we really going to gloss over the fact that he found a secret dungeon?

Immovable Rock: I’m currently contacting the HQ. If the secret features of the game can only be found by one player, it really means nothing.

Life Extinguisher: @Immovable Rock So, you’re asking them to lower the difficulty too, huh?

Blossoming Chaos: You too? Jiale is currently on the phone

Arrogant Flowers: Vice-captain Zhang is sobbing rn :(

Wintersweet Blossoms: Fr, fr :(

Troubling Rain: right. you guys update us later. Blue Rain is going in first. :d There are only two hours and forty minutes left~ Just reminding you all! :D

Glory (Official) V
We will soon add The Lost Island to our list of dungeons on the official website. Please wait for it.

• Lust For Life: Now, how can I wait? WTF? How can it be Cool Autumn Breeze AGAIN?! You really seriously want us to believe he’s not your agent! How can only he found the hidden features?! Stop hiding the features if there’s only one person who can find them, dammit!

• Li Nanxue: I knew it! I f*cking knew there’s an island there!

• Tears of Youth: The difficulty of finding the hidden features is too hard, please nerf

• Head Over Heels: AGAIN!

• White Snake: You know, at this rate you guys should track down this Cool Autumn Breeze and make him the GM. He seems to be much more knowledgeable about the game’s lore than the GMs.

• Harder Daddy: WOOO Our fourth server’s greatest player did it again!

• Footloose Charmer: All hail brother Autumn Breeze!

• Zhao Yang V: ...Can you at least give some hints instead of just straight-up hiding it?

• slu*tty Summer: Prince Cool Autumn Breeze is thriving as always.

• Chu Yunxiu V: I’m happy there’s an extra dungeon, but now I have trust issues.

• Fang Shiqian V: “Wow! Congratulations! This is such a pleasant and beautiful surprise~” Do you really expect me to say that? Come on now! At least the hints! Tell everyone if there are more hidden features!

Ye Xiu turned off the call and turned to Su Mucheng. “Our mysterious friend truly made a mess this time around. The HQ’s developer team is in shambles, the two lead developers are involved in fistfights.”

Su Mucheng took back her phone and arched her brows. “Isn’t one of the two lead developers a woman?”

Ye Xiu nodded. “According to Yu-mei, she packed quite a punch.” ‘Yu-mei’ was an acquaintance that he had made in the headquarter, all pioneer players knew her as she was a young intern back when Glory Alliance just started, now she had been transferred to the HQ but was always present at any of the meetings in the Alliance.

“What started it?” Su Mucheng furrowed her brows.

Ye Xiu shrugged. “Both are arguing about the existence of the island. Yu-mei said the island was disputed for a few months since before the latest update. One side wanted it to be included, other side wanted to scrape it off since it’s not fully completed yet. But due to complications and that the budget went to making a better security, both agreed to make it hidden until a plan is thoroughly made, probably for the next update or so. But some codes to make it appear were not deleted so this happened. They’re arguing whose fault is it.”

“Wow...” Su Mucheng couldn’t say anything else.

Ye Xiu nodded. “Well, we’ll talk about it again after we run this dungeon. There are only two hours left.” He rubbed his palms together.

The official website finally updated and added the new hidden feature. To get into the Lost Island, you have to have a proper set of skills, not unlike the jumping and maneuvering challenge to go to Heavenly Domain. There was only one dungeon on the entire island with the rest being a wandering zone.

Additionally, the island would only appear for three hours and would retreat back to obscurity once the time ran out.

To appease the crowd, they also now gave instructions on how to access the island. Complete about the Earth Gnome in the middle of the forest nearby that would only spawn once a week. Meaning, the island itself could only be accessed for three hours a week.

It caused quite a strive for the normal players who would have difficulty getting into the island from the manuever challenge alone, let alone the three hours deadline. For the pro players, it was just like an extra Wild Boss... only this was a dungeon. The loots from the dungeon were also quite new and added to their collections of materials. The difficulty was, as expected, very hard, even though it was adjusted to the levels of the people entering the dungeon.

The official website and Weibo account also made an announcement that Glory would enter a state of maintenance for twelve hours afterward, surprising everyone.

A single person caused this. The pro players naturally knew just how much problems arose in the developer team just from one leak. They probably did maintenance to make sure the Lost Island would be safe to be a continual weekly existence from here on because it wasn’t meant to appear at all in the first place.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: That guy is awesome.

Troubling Rain: I felt proud for making the Alliance consider changing the rule of official matches, but this guy sent the entire Glory to maintenance.

Sobbing Ghost: With a guy like that running loose, I feel like an impostor.

Receding Tides: I’m seriously grateful he’s a Battle Mage, the only real competition in that class is Old Ye, seriously. If he’s anything else, it would be hard.

One Autumn Leaf: If he’s anything else, I would have Battle Mage key by now.

Wind Guard: You know at this point he shouldn’t be called The Gatekeeper anymore. We should think of a new nickname for him.

Troubling Rain: I vote for Lore Hunter.

Cold Season: He Who Can’t Be Recruited.

Boundless Sea: ^Kinda like this one.

Dancing Rain: But does anyone really not have anything on him? He seems to be too much of an asset to be left alone.

Swoksaar: You’re right. But what can be done? Pushing it might only do more damage.

One Autumn Leaf: Well, kidnapping is a viable choice.

Boundless Sea: Hahaha

Woven Shadow: Hahaha +2

...: Hahaha +39

One Autumn Leaf: Why are you laughing? I’m serious.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: ...

Windy Rain: Somehow, it reminds me of that one niche period drama I watched. The saying in that drama fits Cool Autumn Breeze perfectly. “He who has Cool Autumn Breeze, owns the world.”

Peaceful Hermit: Is it weird that I feel like I’m witnessing a birth of a legend?

Troubling Rain: @Peaceful Hermit Where the f*ck have you been all this time?

Chapter 11: A Consort

Chapter Text

Things had gotten bigger with Glory. After the explosive end of Fourth Season with Tyranny’s victory that finally stopped Excellent Era’s overbearing grip on the championships, new surge of players flooded Glory in an exciting manner. New favourites were made, the stars bloomed, and a new glorious time was made above the already stable foundation.

It was great news to Glory as a whole be it from the Alliance’s point of view or the game itself. The development of Glory was looking very good from everyone’s perspective.

When summer came, naturally all pro accounts became active as well to help their own guilds to fight for resources, this further enhanced the new fans’ excitement. Even though they can’t physically get close to their idols, they could at least do it in Glory, no?

Everything was generally great.

Except for Tyrannical Ambition and Excellent Dynasty, they were involved in nth war over the result of the competition again, but who cared about those two bitter rival guilds? In fact, it was nice for the two rival guilds to go to war often, it provided more entertainment for the melon-eaters who were fed up with grinding to level up.

However, this kind of thing didn’t really bother nor affect the pro players who were devoted to their own interests in the game. Something like Excellent Tyranny War was like a Sunday’s news to them, completely boring and predictable. World peace would happen sooner before the two guilds dan fanbases stopped hating on each other.

Instead, a bigger news came from Excellent Dynasty which managed to halt the riots across the servers in a shaking manner.

[Congratulations to Dancing Rain for being the Master of Flame Charge Fort.]

[System: One of the Twenty-four Seats of Holy Council Has Been Filled. Congratulations to the Great Hero of Launcher: Dancing Rain]

As though they’ve finally given a cure from their bitterness after Excellent Era’s defeat, Excellent Dynasty was rejuvenated with the news that traveled across Heavenly Domain. Tyrannical Ambition, who had been holding the superiority in the argument of conflict with their team’s victory and Han Wenqing’s position as a member of Heavenly Council, was a bit unhappy with this announcement.

The war didn’t stop however, the news only became new ammunitions for Excellent Dynasty’s people.

“You can shut up now about Han Wenqing being the only pro who got his seat rightfully by himself! Our rookie goddess got it too!”

“So what? It’s only a little Launcher, can she be comparable to god Han?! Besides, need I remind you who was the Best Newcomer of the season? That’s right! It’s Zhang Xinjie! Tyranny’s Cleric!”

“But is Immovable Rock a member of Heavenly Council?! NO!”

“Who the hell cares? Either way, god Han got the seat first, your Launcher only got it after such a long time! It’s obvious god Han is much better than that shameless Ye Qiu!”

“Who said so? It’s obvious if only the developers didn’t hide this, god Ye would have been the first one to be installed as a member of Heavenly Council!”

“f*ck! What are you on, give me some! What makes you so courageous and able to dream in the middle of the day!?”

“Hahaha, this reminds me again, One Autumn Leaf is destined to only be a number two in his Battle Mage category!”

“Being in the Heavenly Council is not a measure of skills. We all know god Ye could destroy Cool Autumn Breeze easily!”

Despite saying so, deep down, the fans of Excellent Era felt it was a pity that the seat of Battle Mage was already taken and hated the fact that it couldn’t be their idol who snatched it first. It was initially a bit okay to bear but since Desert Dust was crowned to be the member of Heavenly Council out of his own effort, Tyranny’s fans had jeered and mocked them so much that it annoyed them so much.

Damn. If it wasn’t because of that despicable casual, would they need to stand Tyrannical Ambition’s disdain?

Meanwhile, the pros didn’t think as much as their fans. They merely dropped a few congratulations in the group chat to express their playful envy and mock others a few bits before asking what kind of Wild Boss Dancing Rain could release. That was it. That was the only thing they cared about.

Su Mucheng had Glory’s Textbook with her after all, it was just a matter of time for her to be crowned as a member of the Heavenly Council. With Han Wenqing being the first to do it independently, the shock value had severely decreased.

“Ugh, the second class of the Gunner path!” Zhang Jiale complained after sending a half-hearted congratulations to the group chat.

“Chill. The mage class also has two seats taken,” Sun Zheping said.

“Mage class is not my class, why the hell should I be worried? Gunner class on the other hand...” Zhang Jiale bemoaned. “Damn it, I was aiming to finally solve it this summer too. Old Ye is just too fast.”

“At least it looks doable,” Sun Zheping said while snacking on some chips. “Nightwalkers and Priest classes have nothing at all. Their side looks bleak.”

After full complete year of finding out about Heavenly Council’s existence, no class of Nightwalker nor Priest ever got crowned as a member and they had nothing to base off of. He didn’t show it but Sun Zheping knew Fang Shiqian was restless, especially since Tyranny’s Zhang Xinjie had a big possibility of finding a seat of Cleric first so Tiny Herb’s best choice would be to focus on the Wind Guard, the Paladin avatar.

“At this rate, I don’t mind if Cool Autumn Breeze found Spitfire’s key first,” Zhang Jiale sighed dreamily.

Before Sun Zheping could respond, his screen suddenly flashed and an unfamiliar window appeared in his Glory interface. Sun Zheping squinted and drew closer.

[A quarter of the council is finally filled. Council’s Assembly feature unlocked.]

[<Cool Autumn Breeze> has initiated an Assembly. Accept Invitation?]

<<Yes>>

<<No>>

Sun Zheping’s eyes widened. “What the hell is this?” he blurted out in astonishment.

“What?” Zhang Jiale turned to look at him curiously.

Sun Zheping glanced at Zhang Jiale’s screen briefly and confirmed it was really only for the Council’s members. “A new feature is unlocked for the council’s members.”

Zhang Jiale’s eyes widened and he quickly jumped out his chair to step behind Sun Zheping’s chair. “What the hell is it?”

“An assembly,” Sun Zheping said simply. “I don’t know what it does, though.”

“Press yes!” Zhang Jiale excitedly urged.

Sun Zheping complied.

After a click, the screen turned white and Blossoming Chaos changed location in an instant. The new location looked like a solemn meeting hall with twenty-four throne-like chairs that respectively had their own uniqueness added to the individual chairs.

A quick swipe made Sun Zheping aware that Blossoming Chaos was sitting on one.

There was nothing else in the hall except for the chairs and a few avatars that had teleported over before Blossoming Chaos.

Across Blossoming Chaos, he could see Desert Dust sitting in a prim yet arrogant posture. To Blossoming Chaos’ left, he saw Life Extinguisher a few chairs down, right beside Life Extinguisher a beautiful female avatar materialized and sat down on her assigned chair. Three seats down from Desert Dust, Vaccaria was also already there with his weapon carelessly put by the armchair, not far from the Witch sat the familiar infuriating avatar that called for this assembly.

In the hall of twenty-four chairs, only six were filled, it inadvertently made the place look a bit too desolate.

“What is going on?” Han Wenqing was predictably the first one to raise a question. Everybody kept quiet and looked straight at the person who called for this assembly.

Cool Autumn Breeze also didn’t say anything and merely turned his head left and right, inspecting the place. After a while, he lightly said, “I was just curious about the feature.”

“How did you call us here?” Su Mucheng asked curiously.

“Of course, since a quarter of seats have been filled, that’s just common sense.”

Sun Zheping decided to not talk, if he talked there was a good chance they would just argue. This guy chose when he roleplayed and when he was talking like a normal human as he pleased. Just a few seconds ago Cool Autumn Breeze said ‘feature’, ten seconds later he acted like it was common sense to know about it as if it was his God-given right to do so.

“It’s over there in the privilege window.” Wang Jiexi came to the rescue, having confirmed it himself. “There’s a new option in there.”

“How do we leave?” Xiao Shiqin asked, mildly concerned.

“I find your timidity somewhat disappointing, Life Extinguisher,” Cool Autumn Breeze said coolly. “Anyway, I’m not only here to do a name check. I also have an important announcement.”

“Announcement? What do you want to announce?” Sun Zheping asked in disbelief. To everyone’s sure knowledge, Cool Autumn Breeze was only a casual, what kind of announcement he could make?

“To start it off, I’ve recently gone through a solo expedition to the southwest region of Heavenly Domain,” Cool Autumn Breeze started solemnly. “After twists and turns, I learned many things and compiled even more things. I’ve come to a sure find that dictates we should gather at least filled half of the Heavenly Council to open the first line of the secret the Domain has for us.”

Everyone furrowed their brows in confusion.

“What does... that mean?” Su Mucheng asked after Ye Xiu encouraged her to speak up.

Cool Autumn Breeze waved his spear carelessly and answered, “It means that the remaining seats of Heavenly Council can’t be left empty for long. Once twelve members are gathered, we can unlock something.”

|Glory Proscene (GENERAL GC)|

Life Extinguisher: [Council Assembly Archive 1.mp4]

The pro players were on fire once Xiao Shiqin impeccably dropped the video. Han Wenqing, as a responsible admin to the general group chat, blocked all messages after the clip was posted.

Instead, the pro players went to another group chat to discuss and freak out. The most popular one was the “Dumptruck of Thoughts” groupchat because several captains ushered them to talk there so everyone just joined along. The goal was to discuss, after all, it was much easier in a groupchat with the big names.

|Dumptruck of Thoughts|

Soul Speaker: Damn. I’m speechless

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Well, so yeah, that happened.

Peaceful Hermit: Do you think he really could find all the keys and leave us in dust?

Immovable Rock: @Peaceful Hermit Statistically speaking, no one else could do that... except for Cool Autumn Breeze.

Sobbing Ghost: So it’s helpless, after all *cries*

Boundless Sea: Is it just me or he speaks like he’s an NPC?

...

Troubling Rain: IT’S EASIER SAID THAN DONE WTF??? Did he think we can just snap our fingers and find the key?!

Troubling Rain: I’m near f*ckING TEARS!!!!!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: +1

Windy Rain: Can confirm. I’m near tears also.

...

Screen Killer: I just want to ask, where is our dignity as pro players?

Wind Guard: Gone. Dusted. This isn’t even our realm anymore. The Heavenly Domain is practically his play spot, we’re just guests here fml

Demon Subduer: The real situation couldn’t possibly be this bad. Cheer up everyone

One Autumn Leaf: Old Lin, need I remind you Cool Autumn Breeze didn’t even try to find the Class Keys before yet still found it anyways?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: I’m already in my acceptance stage. I’m ready to humble myself and beg for the key, it’s not like it will be my first time

Endless Forest: Have some dignity!

...

One Autumn Leaf: Well, there’s nothing to cry over on. We’ll get there when the milk is spilled. Let’s talk about the possible hidden feature Cool Autumn Breeze mentioned.

Wind Guard: Of course you would want to focus there. The seat of Battle Mage is already filled!

Blossoming Chaos: lol

One Autumn Leaf: Least I’m not the one crying over future spilled milk now, right?

Blossoming Chaos: It’s not one hundred percent sure yet that the milk would even be spilled

One Autumn Leaf: Cope

Dancing Rain: Judging from how effective Cool Autumn Breeze is, sorry Senior Sun, there will be a lot of spilled milk.

Vaccaria: We’ll have to split this discussion to another group chat so it isn’t messy.

Life Extinguisher: [[Serious Talks Only]] How about this one?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: ^No. That one is for real life problems

Demon Subduer: Technically, if we want to be logical, this is real life problem. As this is related to our real life profession.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: No. This is even more serious than that.

Wind Guard: Yeah, and that groupchat is already reserved to say goodbye to Old Ji and others who retired this summer.

Cold Season: I’m very flattered and moved that you guys have the decency to reserve a groupchat for me

Wind Guard: Don’t flatter yourself. I did say ‘others’

Cold Season: Don’t be shy. Back when I assassinated One Autumn Leaf in the final, wasn’t it you who said you were on your knees?

Windy Rain: Oh my, scandalous.

Blossoming Chaos: I remember that.

Wind Guard: Wtf?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Guys, pls bring this conversation to [[Trashfire]] that’s where the awkward and moronic conversation goes.

Screen Killer: Can we focus on where to discuss the hidden feature?

Swoksaar: [[Spill It]]

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Ah, there you go! Good job, Yu Wenzhou. You’re adapting fast. This one is for gossip and discussing possible situations.

Flying Drops: Wait, I haven’t joined that one yet. Who’s the admin?

Swoksaar: Me. It’s okay, you can join with the link I shared straight away.

Flying Drops: Wait, oh?

Wind Guard: Don’t be surprised, Yihui. That one is created by first-gen captain of Blue Rain, not surprising to see Blue Rain’s new captain is also an admin. It used to be called Spill It, Bitches.

Swoksaar: Yes. The preceding captains are all admins ^^, also some first-generation seniors.

Sobbing Ghost: Whatever, bring your talk there! I still want to cry here!

...

|Spill It|

One Autumn Leaf: @Desert Dust Old Han, what kind of hidden feature do you think Cool Autumn Breeze saw a glimpse at? Maybe a command feature? A challenge feature?

One Autumn Leaf: So much possibility

Immovable Rock: We can exploit the system.

One Autumn Leaf: Exactly.

Desert Dust: Cool Autumn Breeze roughly said so. But we’ll never know.

Swoksaar: It’s somewhat unrealistic for Glory to create a feature where players can abuse it when working together.

One Autumn Leaf: “Special Wild Boss” privilege .

Swoksaar: Point taken.

Though everyone already got the announcement from Cool Autumn Breeze, they didn’t stray too much from their initial schedules in the game. They did work hard to try and track down the chain of quests to lead them to their respective seats. After all, Han Wenqing and Ye Xiu managed to do it, which meant at least someone outside Cool Autumn Breeze still had the probability to succeed.

Some players came to Ye Qiu in order to woo him to side with them and reserve some keys that he might find in the future. Ye Qiu promised them nothing since he hated making deals with random people. He played Glory to escape making deals, he didn’t want to start doing it here too.

This move didn’t cause much resentment to the open-minded professional players, instead, to be honest, they could respect that. It made them at ease to interact with Cool Autumn Breeze since they knew he wasn’t easily swayed.

Summer Transfer Window kept on progressing. Some players decided to retire quietly, some new players were added to the roosters, and some drifted off uncertainly.

Against everyone’s expectation, none of the pro players saw much of Cool Autumn Breeze in summer, which made them sure that Cool Autumn Breeze was not a student. He must be at least a working adult, such a waste of gaming talent indeed, everyone lamented.

On the other hand, Ye Qiu indeed couldn’t go online as much as he could currently. At first, it was because his father insisted to make him the acting CEO of the company, Ye Qiu spent an entire month resisting this decision, firing several employees that came through nepotism from the board members to offend them but all for naught because it only made his father appreciated his effort to clean up the house.

Now, even though he was already an acting CEO of Ye Corps, he was still actively going against his father at every corner and still had to clean up the mess within the company, managed to trick Yang Qing into signing up for a full five years contract with astronomical breaking fee so this precious assistant wouldn’t go anywhere, he also had appeased and tricked Xiao Lin, who was already an adult, to sign a contract with him, that girl had made his life whole lot harder in turn of making his job easier. It was worth it.

Three hours on weekends was the maximum time he could get effectively to play Glory. Sometimes he spent a bit more if he wasn’t ready to leave the lore on a cliffhanger.

Before anyone knew it, Summer Transfer Window was nearing its end just as Ye Qiu managed to calm down the internal strife within the company.

Gazing at the schedule of the pro scene’s start of season, Ye Qiu could only snort coldly. As expected that guy didn’t go home even after losing.

Not even in his own damn summer break.

Bastard.

Ye Qiu logged in with his card for the first time after a long time and heaved a sigh. Finally. A break.

Cool Autumn Breeze went online. This year had been a hectic year for both Ye Qiu and Glory. The latest update created so more features. Possibly more missions and lore.

This was Ye Qiu’s de-stressing activity, no one can bother him.

So Ye Qiu sat in front of his computer, a cup of newly-brewed coffee beside him and Little Dot by his feet, contently surveying his game. Right now he was doing some quiz from an NPC in the hope to see if he could gain any clues about reincarnation or even the slightest bit more of a lore of the Sky Demon tribe.

[You’ve come this far and you’ve learned many answers that bore many more questions. Let me ask you, what do you think of a change? What do you think of a development?]

• ”Change is something that are often outside humans’ control. Development is always within humans’ control.”

[Precisely. Heavenly Domain existed before the current civilization even appeared. Everything almost stayed the same except for several things. Technology had made its way into power. Which of the profession do you think is the most eye-catching?]

“Oh, it’s gunner, definitely.” Ye Qiu murmured. Out of all classes, the gunner classes were simply out of the line of worldbuilding. Priest classes made sense, mage classes made sense, fighters made sense, nightwalkers made sense, swordsman classes also made sense, then suddenly with all these fantasy-like or body-oriented classes, there were gunners that used arguably much newer technology.

Ye Qiu always wondered why they had gunners but no archers.

He moved his mouse and clicked.

• “The gunners...”

[...] The NPC gazed at him meaningfully with an enigmatic smile.

[You are indeed right, <Battle Mage> Cool Autumn Breeze, the Gunners are eye-catching. They’re the steps of the new era. The first gunner class to ever exist is Sharpshooter, they broke away from their chains and mastered a new art known to men not even two centuries ago.]

The NPC kept on with his monologue while Ye Qiu progressively felt strange. Why were they talking about Sharpshooter? What about the Sky Demons?

Because Ye Qiu was distracted he didn’t really read nor comprehend what the NPC was saying after a few lines and the conversation finished with a new server-wide announcement.

[System: Congratulations to Cool Autumn Breeze <Battle Mage> for his dedication to learn about the lost knowledge of the other class and attained the right to crown the next successor of Sharpshooter’s Revolutionary Range .]

Ye Qiu collapsed in his seat and groaned ungentlemanly. “f*ck...”

[System to Cool Autumn Breeze: Because you’re a Battle Mage, you can’t inherit the seat. Give the key to Revolutionary Range to a Sharpshooter you trust and let them do the Quests of Sharpshooter]

[New Title!: <The Keeper of Revolutionary Range> Will Disappear Once You Choose a Sharpshooter to be the Real owner of Revolutionary Range.]

[Attained! Key of Sharpshooter’s Revolutionary Range < Revolutionary Range’s Bullet Key> that can only be used by Sharpshooter’s guns. Don’t hold onto it too long and pass it to a worthy Sharpshooter, if that Sharpshooter succeeded in the Quests of Sharpshooter, you’ll also receive a reward for assisting them!]

Ye Qiu regretfully drank his coffee till the cup was empty.

He then got a private message from someone from his friend’s list, he clicked it to see Xiao Lin’s Colourful Jade’s voice message.

“Wow, you’re collecting those like pokemons. Leave some to those poor guys, you’re already a member of the council!”

Ye Qiu sighed and typed his message back instead. “Where are you?”

While Ye Qiu was exasperated, the whole Heavenly Domain, especially the Sharpshooters, felt extremely hopeless on top of feeling exasperated.

“It’s him again, damn it all.” Everyone mourned.

The pro players were not even surprised, they were still miffed, but absolutely not surprised.

Wind Guard: GG to all Sharpshooters here (y)

Troubling Rain: GG to all Sharpshooters here (y)+1

Screen Killer: GG to all Sharpshooters here (y)+2

Peaceful Hermit: GG to all Sharpshooters here (y)+3

Sobbing Ghost: GG to all Sharpshooters here (y)+4

.

.

.

One Autumn Leaf: GG+43 You guys are not sh*tty, just severely outclassed.

Ready Set: Thanks, I hate it.

Blossoming Chaos: Whatever happened to that petition you guys signed to propose to the HQ to ban Cool Autumn Breeze from ever getting other classes’ keys?

Vaccaria: We cancelled it.

Troubling Rain: Yeah, many people are not so sure they could find it themselves. If we make Cool Autumn Breeze unable to find it for us, then who will find it for us? Certainly not others. The only ones here who ever found the key is Old Han and Old Ye...

Bullet Rain: Yeah, Huang Shao can rely on the captain’s brain, but what about others?

Troubling Rain: Zheng Xuan, you’re right but out of line, I want to see you finish Z-3 training regimen three times in a row without fail before the summer ends

Bullet Rain: So troublesome... ＿|￣|○

Blossoming Chaos: So we’re that hopeless, huh...

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: You got the seat because Cool Autumn Breeze found the key :/

Demon Subduer: The main topic isn’t ‘what if Cool Autumn Breeze finds the key first’ now, but ‘how can I make sure Cool Autumn Breeze gives me the key’

Wind Guard: That’s an interesting question.

One Autumn Leaf: @Wind Guard You can just bark at him and he’ll give it to you.

Wind Guard: ...Ye Qiu, do you not believe that I can find people to mug you in the fcking alleyway near Tiny Herb’s home stadium when you come for our home game?

Vaccaria: Senior Ye is right, though. You don’t have to be worried.

Wind Guard: Wang Jiexi, whose f*cking side are you on?!

Vaccaria: The right one.

Desert Dust: That person is too neutral. He won’t give a guarantee.

Blossoming Chaos: I agree with old Han. That guy is thick-headed and stubborn af

Dancing Rain: Maybe we can find something he really needs and give it to him in exchange.

Sobbing Ghost: I don’t think he’ll tell us a peep.

Swoksaar: I’m thinking of offering him some things that he might find interesting.

Windy Rain: Like your body?

Troubling Rain: Yunxiu, I will treat that as a typo and I will close my eyes and count to three, the message better be f*cking gone when I open my eyes.

Windy Rain: Oh my, how protective of your captain when he can’t defend himself with his hand speed.

One Autumn Leaf: Yunxiu, tsk. You’re punching down on a handicap, I never expected to know you’re very low like this.

One Autumn Leaf: No wonder I like you. Truly the best female player.

Windy Rain: I learned from you and Mumu.

Swoksaar: ...

Troubling Rain: This is a matter of Blue Rain’s dignity! Stop bullying the captain! If I insult Old Ye in front of Su Mucheng, she would have threatened me with thirty ways to make me a f*cking eunuch!

Dancing Rain: That’s a given.

Screen Killer: What’s the use of dignity anymore? Aren’t we all ready to toss it away if Cool Autumn Breeze finds our respective class key?

Soul Speaker: You’re right, but you can’t say it out loud like that.

Sobbing Ghost: I mean, I will offer my body if Cool Autumn Breeze likes it.

Sobbing Ghost: Say what you want but his personality is hot. I’m sold since the New Year Eve’s event.

Windy Rain: :O

Troubling Rain: Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he’s hot irl. Seriously didn’t they teach you anything about online crushes?! Boss Wei never let me hear the end of it back when I was still a trainee!

Sobbing Ghost: Well, I’m willing to take a risk.

Screen Killer: My God, you’re down bad.

Life Extinguisher: You okay, Li Xuan?

Dancing Rain: Sounds like an unresolved sexual tension brought to this groupchat to me. A’Li, what’s your status?

Windy Rain: Tsk, tsk. Don’t make Cool Autumn Breeze your venting place, XuanXuan.

Flying Drop: @Sobbing Ghost Need someone to talk to, pal?

Immovable Rock: @Sobbing Ghost You can bring it to Golden Generation chatroom.

Sobbing Ghost: ... -_-

While the pros were joking and discussing, Ye Qiu was heaving a headache in the form of his cousin who kept on talking his ears off.

“Stop talking. You’re here to help me scour the Marsh Land of the Dead because Windward won’t be in Heavenly Domain in my schedule.”

“Just the two of us? What about a Cleric? You will need a cure spell to neutralize the toxic substance from the marshland’s mud.”

“Bring a soap to wash it off.”

“You can do that?”

Ye Qiu rolled his eyes. “Of course you can. Features are meant to be explored, what kind of gamer are you? Every NPC knew soap washes toxic substances of the marshland.”

“Well, I’m not an NPC.” Xiao Lin argued. “How many should I bring?”

“Five if you’re smart and clever. Ten if you’re stupid and reckless.”

“Okay, okay...” Colourful Jade went to the vendor and then returned in fifteen seconds.

“How many did you buy?” Ye Qiu asked suspiciously.

“Twelve.” Colourful Jade did a twirl and posed cutely, Ye Qiu stared blankly. “By the way, young master, who are you going to give that Sharpshooter’s key to?”

“No one in particular.” Ye Qiu sighed. He didn’t know any worthy Sharpshooter. After all, on top of the quest, there will always be a test of skill at the end of every quest, only truly skilled players could pass it, so randomly giving it away was not an option. “If you’ve restocked, let’s go.”

Just when they were about to leave, a Sharpshooter ran in front of them and stopped their track.

“Um.”

Ye Qiu waited because the Sharpshooter seemed to want to talk, but after waiting for ten seconds, he thought he might have perceived it wrong and moved again.

“Wait.” The Sharpshooter quietly halted Cool Autumn Breeze again.

Ye Qiu grew impatient and glanced at the name. Cloud Piercer. “Is there anything I can help you with, fellow traveler?” Ye Qiu asked.

“That Sharpshooter key.”

To be honest, Ye Qiu had roughly guessed why he stopped Cool Autumn Breeze. It was just about thirty minutes ago he found the key, it was pretty impressive someone found him this early. Granted, Ye Qiu was not trying to hide.

Well, time for the tradition.

“What makes you think you’re worthy?” Ye Qiu asked dignifiedly.

...

...

...

“What makes you think you’re worthy?” Ye Qiu changed his tone to confusion.

“Maybe he disconnected?” Xiao Lin supplied.

“No...” Cloud Piercer denied her suspicion.

“Why are you not answering?” Ye Qiu asked.

“It’s embarrassing...” Cloud Piercer said shyly, full of honesty.

“...”

“...”

This was the first time someone outright said that it was embarrassing to Ye Qiu’s face, moreover, what was up with that shy tone?

Nonetheless, Ye Qiu was faithful to his role. “If you don’t even have the courage to say you’re worthy, then you’re not worthy. Leave my presence.” Cool Autumn Breeze handsomely walked past Cloud Piercer in a dramatic flair.

“Cloud Piercer, you better be blunt with my royal cousin. He doesn’t like people who waste his time.” Xiao Lin, however, felt pity for the Sharpshooter and immediately encouraged him, also signaling Ye Qiu that she supported this guy.

There was a beat of silence that felt like a drop of a pin could be heard, but Cloud Piercer eventually spoke up. “I...” Cloud Piercer trailed off before a speech bubble appeared on top of his head. (“I need it, please.”)

‘It wasn’t a declaration of worthiness but an admittance of need and a plea?!’

Ye Qiu stared incredulously for a while before reluctantly accepting this answer.

“Every other person who came to me has helped me in many things and offered me a lot more. However, I’ll be generous today, what can you offer me?”

(“I can help you.”) Another speech bubble. “The marshland...” he spoke up softly.

Ye Qiu tilted his head, so this Sharpshooter was eavesdropping on their conversation? How long had he been standing around waiting for them to end their conversation silently? “Are you skilled enough?”

“Enough.”

A very humble answer. “Fight my royal cousin,” Ye Qiu ordered.

“Huh?” Colourful Jade choked.

“Don’t hold anything back. Raise your weapon. Ready. Go!”

Cool Autumn Breeze leaped back, giving them space. Cloud Piercer reacted first, his two guns were drawn in less than a second and he showed his determination by immediately firing at Colourful Jade who reacted much slower.

However slower, Colourful Jade still reacted, she leaped back desperately and cast Ice Wall to cover for her and shot icicles at Cloud Piercer.

Cloud Piercer skilledly dodged Colourful Jade’s counterattacks, while reloading and continued firing at her while drawing closer. Both were long-ranged attackers, but Sharpshooter had more means than Elementalist in a close-range fight, so Cloud Piercer chose to draw closer.

“Fight seriously!” Ye Qiu shouted at Colourful Jade. He knew the little girl was much more skilled than this, but Cloud Piercer was very quick and precise.

Hearing her boss’ shout, Colourful Jade didn’t let Cloud Piercer draw close, she also jumped back, her speed almost rivaled the Sharpshooter. Colourful Jade did a somersault and tossed away the staff in her hand, a staff that mimic a mic stand that she got from an event a long time ago and refused to throw away despite all of Ye Qiu’s scolding.

After the mic stand hit the ground beside Cool Autumn Breeze, Colourful Jade took out another staff from her inventory.

‘So that’s why she moved so slowly?’ Ye Qiu thought in annoyance. He always had complaints about Colourful Jade’s walking speed and had given the female character a few speed-boosting equipments but she was still not fast enough, turned out she kept heavy things in her inventory.

The new staff was much more higher-leveled than the mic stand and Colourful Jade’s damage output became heavier and more severe.

“Oooh! A wild PK, wait, is that her royal highness?”

Ye Qiu was distracted by an exclamation, he turned and saw an old acquaintance. “It’s you?” Ye Qiu’s lips twitched, not wanting to say his name.

“Yo, it’s the Wind Prince, how do you do?” Harder Daddy approached him and said hello. “Long time no see, wanna go to the Fourth Realm? Great guru has been spending awful lot of time there around this hour.”

“Unfortunately no.” Ye Qiu rejected.

“Who is the princess fighting? Does she need help?” Harder Daddy asked with good nature while punching his fist.

“No, it’s a test.”

“Oooh!”

The two avatars dueled desperately for one minute before Colourful Jade threw in the white towel and hid behind Cool Autumn Breeze with only a fraction of her health left compared to Cloud Piercer’s 80% health.

“Asshole, he’s so strong!” Colourful Jade cried out.

“Not bad,” Ye Qiu commented. However, he was quite annoyed. The guy was so quiet and meek, he thought he wouldn’t be strong, if Ye Qiu knew he was strong, he wouldn’t let Colourful Jade go fight him. Feeling a bit like he was scammed, Ye Qiu grew dissatisfied. “But I don’t think you’re suitable.”

Cloud Piercer stood there in silence. Because he was very reserved in the first place, he didn’t know if it was a normal silence or a dumbstruck silence. Either way, Ye Qiu was determined to be unreasonable.

Finder was the decider, after all.

Harder Daddy spoke up. “Huh, I seem to have seen him somewhere...”

Hearing that, Ye Qiu grew curious, he was about to ask when Cloud Piercer finally responded to Ye Qiu’s rejection.

(“I can do anything.”) A speech bubble popped up. (“I’ll prove myself.”)

Ye Qiu disdained. “I don’t discuss with someone who doesn’t even dare to speak out.”

“Give me a chance...” Cloud Piercer spoke up.

Colourful Jade leaned over. “Not just in real life, you make people say this in a game too...” she disdained.

“...” It wasn’t his fault that everybody, both in real life and game, always annoyed him, okay?

However, now he felt bad.

Damn it. No!

“How about bringing him to the marsh land? Three people are better than one, he’s very skilled too.” Colourful Jade persuaded.

Ye Qiu was aware that Cloud Piercer was very skilled. After all, as much as a slacker Colourful Jade was, her skill as an Elementalist was not to be laughed at. Windward Formation once said that she could be very treasured by any team that had her, and Ye Qiu trusted the judgment of an ex-pro player.

Cloud Piercer could corner her so much, that spoke volumes on how talented and skilled the player behind this Cloud Piercer was.

“We can do it just with the both of us,” Ye Qiu said in annoyance. They only needed to cross the marshland to find an NPC and not for anything else.

“What should I do...?” Cloud Piercer asked pleadingly, it didn’t seem he was going to just stay quiet when the key was on the table.

Ye Qiu usually felt satisfied bullying people who came to him for key and even more delighted to see them desperate. But Cloud Piercer... Cloud Piercer only made him feel pity.

Gazing back at the handsome Sharpshooter, he sighed. “Unless...” he decided to make another exception. “Of course, if you offer me your loyalty.” After thinking for a long time, this was the most suitable line for his role. He had rejected Cloud Piercer once, so it wouldn’t be good to give him a task. Loyalty was fit for him, a prince role-player.

Colourful Jade guffawed. “Loyalty.” She giggled. “As your subordinate or consort?”

“Seriously,” Ye Qiu started.

“Yes.” Cloud Piercer stated.

“...”

“...???”

Everyone turned to Cloud Piercer, wondering if it was an auditory hallucination.

“Subordinate? Consort?” Harder Daddy parroted. And then added a speech bubble to be sure (“Subordinate Consort”)

There was a beat of silence before Cloud Piercer hastily responded. “Yes.” Cloud Piercer once again confirmed. “Submit consort.”

“...”

“Subordinate... submit...” Colourful Jade murmured.

Harder Daddy then dubiously gazed at Cloud Piercer and then at Cool Autumn Breeze. “Ooh, I see. The test just now is a test to be the prince’s consort!” he exclaimed in understanding.

‘No, it isn’t!’ Ye Qiu’s mind roared.

“Wind prince, is it a tradition of your hometown? I was almost at a loss just now! Hahaha!” Harder Daddy displayed the unlimited ability of a role-player to make up a background story, he sounded very satisfied with the conclusion he had made.

Colourful Jade snorted loudly and then disconnected her mic, but Ye Qiu could imagine how loud she was laughing at this moment.

“...” Cool Autumn Breeze turned to Cloud Piercer. “You... What are you talking about?” he was too stunned to form anything coherent so he could only question Cloud Piercer.

At this moment, Colourful Jade’s mic reconnected and her serious voice came out. “Royal cousin, your imperial harem is indeed too empty.”

“...”

Harder Daddy grew excited. “Is this the first one to enter the harem, then? Nice to meet you, prince consort!”

After years of being a role-player, this was the first time in a while that Ye Qiu was speechless and started questioning if this was truly a path he ought to walk by.

However, he had committed himself to this when he started off in the fourth server. Ye Qiu was anything but a quitter once he committed himself to it.

“Alright, then. You will be my loyal consort,” Ye Qiu gave his nod.

‘This is a game anyway, no need to take yourself too seriously.’ Ye Qiu thought to himself. Consort or not, it’s still a game and not reality.

Colourful Jade’s mic disconnected again and Ye Qiu reminded himself to cut her bonuses this year.

Maintaining his dignity, Ye Qiu resumed talking. “As I’m your lord now, I will naturally give the resource I have to you. Extend your hand.”

Ye Qiu sent a trade invitation to Cloud Piercer and gave away the Sharpshooter’s key to him and the system announcement appeared server-wide to announce the key had been passed to someone else.

[System: Congratulations to Cloud Piercer <Sharpshooter> for attaining the Sharpshooter’s Bullet Key from < The Keeper of Revolutionary Range > Cool Autumn Breeze and becoming the next candidate for the Seat of Sharpshooter.]

When Ye Qiu blankly saw the notification, he had a feeling that he might be led around too much today. Or maybe he was just fatigued after too much work?

“I have to tell this to the others!” Harder Daddy exclaimed. “I’ll use the server’s chat to be easy.” He went to World Chat where everyone was busy complaining about the recent development of the Seat of Sharpshooter and complaining about Cool Autumn Breeze’s cheat-like ability to gather keys.

Harder Daddy: @Fourth Server Guys, Cloud Piercer is Cool Autumn Breeze’s consort now.

Posting a message in world chat after a key had just been passed would naturally result in not many people reading your message.

But Harder Daddy’s name was truly spicy in the eyes so it caught people’s eyes easily. Additionally, the fourth server’s people had always been on the lookout for fellow role-players. In no time, the world chat was filled by the fourth server’s players.

Meanwhile, the rest of the sane players gazed at the message with absolute confusion.

Who was whose consort again?

What kind of random thought is this?

And then after walls of congratulating messages, Cool Autumn Breeze finally graced them with his rare presence in the world chat.

Cool Autumn Breeze: Thank you.

Cloud Piercer: Thank you.

...

...????

Everyone stared at their screen in disbelief. Why were the two main characters in the stupid ‘news’ just appeared and said ‘thank you’?

What the f*ck is going on in Heavenly Domain today?

Troubling Rain: @Laughing Song FANG MINGHUA FANG MINGHUA! FANG MINGHUA COME OUT HERE! YOUR TEAM’S ROOKIE WTF?! CONSORT WHAT??!?!

Windy Rain: I never expected the rookie who had yet to debut officially could have this kind of scandal, wtf?! Consider me interested and invested! (y) @Laughing Song

Dancing Rain: [Clap clap clap] I’m already a fan of him!

One Autumn Leaf: So someone really did have the balls to offer his body.

Sobbing Ghost: f*ck, I’m jealous

Desert Dust: Which idiot takes an idea from this groupchat and runs with it?

Wind Guard: LMAO WHAT THE f*ck IS GOING ON!?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: I CAN’T STOP WHEEZING. OLD HAN IS PISSED XD

Swoksaar: Every day is always an interesting day here.

Laughing Song: I don’t know anything about this! He acted alone!

Laughing Song: I was also mortified wtf?!

Immovable Rock: I fail to see what’s to be mortified about? They’re two consenting adults.

Laughing Song: Zekai is EIGHTEEEN! He’s impressionable!

Troubling Rain: Tsk, tsk, having a fiancee makes you soft, Minghua. Majority of our genmates were eighteen just last year.

Laughing Song: Well, I wasn’t eighteen last year, and this is my junior!

Peaceful Hermit: What a mother hen. He’s eighteen not eight. Eighteen is adult.

Laughing Song: I don’t see anyone as an adult until they’re 20

Troubling Rain: Then where the f*ck is my new year red packet?! Where’s my new year’s money, MINGHUA!?

Troubling Rain: I DON’T SEE YOU GIVING ME MONEY FOR NEW YEAR?! YOU SAID I’M NOT AN ADULT YET! WHERE IS MY LUCKY MONEY!? I WANT MY f*ckING MONEY WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE MONEY MONEY MONEY

Life Extinguisher: Just because you’re already 20 and engaged... That’s too divisive, Minghua.

Laughing Song: ...I walked into that pit, I gotta admit.

Laughing Song: But Zekai is different! Kid is too quiet and rarely voices his opinions!

Swoksaar: So your rookie teammate is really a ‘consort’ now?

Laughing Song: Idk, f*ck. It’s so hard communicating with him.

Laughing Song: I’m near tears.

One Autumn Leaf: Well, if it works, it works. He got the key out of it, after all. That’s a master of trade.

Immovable Rock: Indeed.

Vaccaria: ...

Laughing Song: ...

Life Extinguisher: ...

Demon Subduer: ...

Blossoming Chaos: ...

On the other hand, in a certain penthouse, a young master was trying to de-stress with a hot bath when his phone rang with an emergency ringtone that will only ring when his assistants contacted him on a certain server set just for emergency.

Ye Qiu picked up his phone and opened the chat from his female assistant.

Emergency #2: f*ck, young master. Your consort is pretty!

Boss: ...???

Ye Qiu debated if it was going to be a serious topic or Xiao Lin just using her relative privilege to mess around again, but if it was an emergency—

Emergency #2: I looked up Cloud Piercer since he’s too strong to be a casual player. I was right! He’s a professional avatar, although he came from a mid-to-low tier team called Samsara so that’s why I didn’t recognize him.

Emergency #2: In any case, its new owner was SO HANDSOME!!!

Emergency #2: You’re not losing out on the deal! ;d (y)

Ye Qiu resolutely turned off his phone and closed his eyes to enjoy his warm bath.

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

The summer ended and the professional league started again with a new season. Everyone had basically recovered from Tyranny’s victory over Excellent Era and the future looked to be much more uncertain than anything else.

A change of pace was nice. Last time Excellent Era’s chain of victories was broken by Tyranny, this time, any other team could snatch that championship, everybody was very hopeful.

The first round passed without much fanfare since each team wanted to test out the water first and to test the hidden capabilities of each team. As professionals, they were not like newbies. Showing off first wasn’t necessary, since anyone who showed off first would be the first one to fall.

Everybody was doing great and stable, the previous update had completely caught up with the bigger teams and once again the gap between high-tier and low-tier team became even further.

Several promising rookies debuted such as Fang Rui from Wind Howl who certainly brought much more flavor to his team, when everyone heard he was an alumni from Blue Rain’s camp, everyone nodded and said ‘it makes sense’.

A piece of quite confusion-inducing news came from Void who made the team’s core double-core. It wouldn’t be new per se, double-core had been a popular scheme since Blood Blossoms duo’s debut, but Void insisted on dual Ghostblade core. Putting aside the limited potential two same-class avatars on the stage, Ghostblade was already a support class to begin with. However, the club of Void seemed to insist, even though it was obvious the captain was not quite happy with this solution. Everybody from the pro’s circle was interested on how this would turn out.

On another note, a newcomer from Samsara shook the stage with his appearance. Zhou Zekai was indeed a pleasing face to look at, but his ability as Sharpshooter exceeded the expectations put on his face by miles.

The pro’s circle scrutinized this handsome newcomer, inevitably thinking. ‘So Cool Autumn Breeze likes this type?’

So Chu Yunxiu unceremoniously added a new trait to their shared note of Cool Autumn Breeze in the group chat; ‘Possibly/most likely face-dog’

Round 2, round 3, round 4, quickly flew and as time passed, each team saw clearer images from each other.

Void was quite a mess, Li Xuan and the new Ghostblade rookie, Wu Yuce, seemed to not even be on talking terms outside the stage- which was later on confirmed by the Golden Generation’s members who did confirm Li Xuan didn’t seem all that thrilled to have a second Ghostblade playing on the same stage as him at the same time. A month passed and they still hadn’t see a clear way out of this situation.

On another hand, a month was enough to prove that Fang Rui was a very dangerous and annoying addition to Wind Howl. It was clear his addition would change the style of Wind Howl in a long run.

On another hand, the rookie from Samsara was too good to be overlooked just because he came from a low-tier team. He completely tossed away any claim that he was a pretty vase, he was basically the most competent one in his team. However, it didn’t seem he had integrated with his team just yet.

It also didn’t help, that despite Cloud Piercer being somewhat invisible initially, but now he was unquestionably a part of the Heavenly Council. The rank of this initially invisible avatar was now on the same rank as Vaccaria, Blossoming Chaos, Dancing Rain, Life Extinguisher, and even the famed King of Fighting himself, Desert Dust.

Those avatars had earned a name for themselves first before being crowned as a part of the council, but Cloud Piercer seemed to have come out of nowhere. Despite already existing even years prior, Samsara had been indeed in the red since the start, they couldn’t climb up past mid-tier rank team in the past and had to alternate between mid-rank and low-rank, they were basically unknown to average Glory’s fans.

Tiny Herb had the luck to meet with Samsara in Round 4. Everybody in Tiny Herb wanted to know what kind of person the guy with the courage to ‘sell’ his body to Cool Autumn Breeze really was behind the stage.

The result had been… quite anti-climatic. Zhou Zekai’s shyness and curtness were really not PR stunt, after all. When Fang Shiqian exercised the power of his ‘senior’ card and tried to probe the guy, Zhou Zekai just stood there, fiddling his fingers and nodding along like an obedient daughter-in-law.

If it was really a PR stunt and Zhou Zekai didn’t get out of his character after Fang Shiqian did all of that, he really deserved that red packet Fang Shiqian inevitably gifted him afterward.

“I can’t just leave after lecturing and wasting his time like that! I’m not an asshole!” Fang Shiqian once claimed to a group of unimpressed pioneer pros and his own gen-mates.

Either way, Season 5 went on as normal. Each team had their own problem to address and fix.

And then came December, Winter Transfer, New Update.

As like the previous years, with the birth of a new server, a new update was launched as well.

The level cap was raised to 70 and suddenly everybody got busy again.

It didn’t help that the Alliance only gave a very little break for the winter, Winter Transfer Window didn’t even have the dignity to deserve a break of its own, after all. To chase the level cap the pro players had to work extra time, not only to maximize their level but also to compile materials for their upgrades.

Sometimes, the pro players truly wished that Glory would stop updating for just one year, they kinda got tired of having to do this every year while also juggling with the pro scene’s competition.

Better yet, why not move the update schedule to Summer? They had time for summer.

Alas. Glory was launched in winter and had to continue by tradition.

When the pro players became active in-game again, naturally they would stumble upon Cool Autumn Breeze once in a while and, as such, Cool Autumn Breeze once again became available to be the topic of their talks in the chatroom.

Light topic such as; ‘Hey, I met Cool Autumn Breeze at such such place’ became quite easy to find and was quite interesting to talk about lightly. Not few people invited Cool Autumn Breeze to play with them or just to do a test run, but Cool Autumn Breeze always rejected them all.

Cool Autumn Breeze really did seem like playing at his own pace, if they were not wrong, as the pro players climbed up on their levels, Cool Autumn Breeze was still stuck at level 65. He didn’t seem to be all that concerned about leveling up.

It must be nice to be that unbothered and casual yet still managed to make the entire pro scene scramble to their feet when he accidentally found a key for the next council member.

However, Cool Autumn Breeze’s leisurely pace truly did make people confused. How was he not rusty yet while he was so uncompetitive?

Immovable Rock: I do wonder how he retained his skill, though. He didn’t seem to have much cred in the Arena.

Vaccaria: Yes, his record is squeaky clean with only victory, but a bit desolate.

One Autumn Leaf: I know how.

Immovable Rock: ?

Troubling Rain: This better not be a joke answer, Old Ye. You’ve got me invested, I’ll be so mad if you’re pulling a fast one on us again.

One Autumn Leaf: Well now I’m tempted.

One Autumn Leaf: No, seriously. Just met him near a dungeon. I told him to join my group.

Swoksaar: You’re missing one member?

One Autumn Leaf: No, I was planning to drop one if he accepted.

Windy Rain: Cruel.

One Autumn Leaf: Anything for data.

One Autumn Leaf: Anyway, he rejected me.

Wind Guard: Yeah, obviously.

Dancing Rain: After he rejected us, he went in by himself.

Wind Guard: ?

Dancing Rain: I’m not lying. He just went in.

One Autumn Leaf: I don’t know his problem. He didn’t seem to be a reserved shy guy but he’d rather walk in alone.

Immovable Rock: What happened after that?

One Autumn Leaf: What happened? Of course, I shrugged and went to do my own run with my team.

One Autumn Leaf: Funny thing is, after I finished my run. I saw him re-entering. Based on my calculation, he must’ve failed the first run and, possibly, second run. So I waited at the entrance to welcome him back for his third failure.

Immovable Rock: …

One Autumn Leaf: Anyway, he succeeded.

Swoksaar: ???

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Really?!

One Autumn Leaf: Yeah, granted, it was level 65 dungeon, not a new one, but he did. It took over three-quarters of an hour longer than the top ten speedrun time, but he still did it.

Desert Dust: So his loner tendency hones his skill.

One Autumn Leaf: Putting bluntly, it is like that. But I do think it’s because he’s much too casual about Glory. He’s just spending his three-times quota to run a dungeon just for the sake of it before going off to do more missions.

Life Extinguisher: I see, so it’s like his bingo checklist for the day.

Dancing Rain: Yeahh

Dancing Rain: I think it’s kinda adorable.

Windy Rain: Yes, adorable.

Vaccaria: He usually has companions. That bear and one female Elementalist. I never see it for myself, but some of Herb Garden’s guild members claimed he was usually also accompanied by a Warlock and a ragtag of group.

Desert Dust: The bear goes into hibernation on winter.

Vaccaria: Seriously…?

Wind Guard: Now, that’s what I call a devotion to a role. I could never.

One Autumn Leaf: @Wind Guard You got told to bark and immediately backed off. Don’t compare yourself to the bear.

Wind Guard: f*ck you.

.

Weeks passed after the update. The professional teams still furiously competed for rare materials to upgrade their equipment and weapons, every week when a Wild Boss respawned, everyone would rush to intercept and trip each other.

Christmas arrived, with it, of course, an event.

An event could cover some expenses the pro players needed for their materials and upgrades so they, of course, had to join in.

This year’s Christmas event involved Santa’s carriage getting robbed halfway through its journey and now all the gifts were scattered across the domain, the players had to defeat monsters to retrieve the gift boxes and take it back to the giant Christmas tree at the center of Heavenly Domain that existed for the event.

The catch?

You can rob other players for the giftboxes as long as the players were still holding onto it, if the boxes had already handed over to the Christmas tree, the boxes would be counted as the said player’s point on the leaderboard.

It was chaos as always. There had never been a peaceful Christmas event in Glory, blood must be shed for the fun of it.

While the pro players were at war where they used the fair saying of ‘Everything is fair in love and war’ to cheat and kill off each other, the most casual players would just sit back and do their own things on their pace.

Ye Qiu was never interested in events, it was tedious and just looking at the competitive nature of it made Ye Qiu exhausted. Perhaps Ye Qiu would have been willing to just join in casually if only it wasn’t so intense between the big guilds. An event in Glory didn’t feel like an event, but an organized warzone.

Ye Qiu had plenty of time in an ‘organized warzone’ when he was taking care of the family company, so he had no desire to also experience it in his escapism.

It was completely by accident he met Cloud Piercer again. After the summer ended, Cloud Piercer was naturally rarely in the public server because he was a professional avatar, as a result, Ye Qiu somewhat had forgotten this ‘consort’ of his over the autumn season.

“Hello.” Cloud Piercer greeted him after running tens of paces away from across the plain.

“Hello,” Ye Qiu automatically responded in a decent manner. “Where have you been, I didn’t see you for quite a long time.” He stuck to his rule of thumb and role-played. As a prince, to have his loyal subject suddenly disappear for months would be quite a concern, after all.

“Um, busy,” Cloud Piercer replied simply. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine, this prince is not going to limit your freedom just because of our relationship,” Ye Qiu said generously. “Are you looking for the Christmas giftboxes? I have found some myself, take it and bring it to the tree.”

So Ye Qiu unceremoniously dumped his burden of weight on Cloud Piercer.

“You?” Cloud Piercer asked with a tone of question about him.

“I’m duty-bound, I can’t go to the tree nor help the old man Santa extensively.” Ye Qiu leaned back in his seat before he remembered something. “Are you level 70 yet?”

“I am,” Cloud Piercer answered honestly.

Ye Qiu initiated another trade and put two pieces of new Orange equipment level 70 for Sharpshooter that he found by luck.

After the trade was done, Cloud Piercer seemed surprised. “These…?”

“For you,” Ye Qiu answered carelessly. As the level cap was raised, naturally more missions and quests were added, he got some orange weapons and equipments for other classes himself, he mostly got rid of it via trade with other people or just dumped it in his bank to wait until he could trade it out when he was free. But since Cloud Piercer was here, it was not so bad to just give it away to him.

There was a beat of silence before Cloud Piercer softly responded. “Thank you…”

Ye Qiu didn’t think much about it. “Alright, this prince will get going now.”

Cool Autumn Breeze moved to leave, it was after he left the plain that he realized Cloud Piercer was following him quietly from behind.

“What are you doing?” Ye Qiu asked, confused.

“Follow you.” Cloud Piercer replied concisely.

“Why?”

“Help you.”

“I don’t need help,” Ye Qiu said. “I’m not going to join the search for giftboxes, you should head back to the tree and drop the giftboxes.”

“Not important.”

Ye Qiu blinked. Although he had interacted with Cloud Piercer, he actually still couldn’t get a read of the guy. He spent approximately two days assisting him with his Quest of Sharpshooter, but in those two days, Ye Qiu did most of the talking while Cloud Piercer was in charge of following his instructions and sometimes saying ‘Yes’ once in a while.

“Alright then…”

Who was Ye Qiu to think too much about it? Since the kid wanted to follow, let him follow. Just treat him as another I’m A Bear.

Cloud Piercer didn’t talk, I’m A Bear only roared. It was practically the same, Ye Qiu didn’t have to hold a conversation with them.

So Ye Qiu took Cloud Piercer with him and went off. Just after he arrived at the destination he wanted, he suddenly got a Private Message from his long-time in-game friend, Windward Formation.

Windward Formation: Yo, got any giftboxes?

Cool Autumn Breeze: You’re in Heavenly Domain?

Windward Formation: The domain’s event is richer than the server’s event. Sides, I already got what I needed from the server’s event.

Cool Autumn Breeze: Not afraid to be found out by your former disciples?

Windward Formation: They will just be focused to the top twenty. I’m fine in the top fifty or something.

Windward Formation: Any giftboxes or not?

Cool Autumn Breeze: I’ll tell you when I got more.

Windward Formation: kk

Ye Qiu smiled. If Windward Formation was in Heavenly Domain, it would be easier for him to ask for back-up when he needed it.

He had told Windward Formation countless of times that he didn’t need to go to the fourth server just to hide. Heavenly Domain was so vast, and when an event like this happened, chaos was usually all over the place, no one would pay attention to one avatar.

Just a few weeks ago, he was wondering how to finish a dungeon and who to contact amongst his fourth server’s friends when his brother’s avatar approached him and invited him. With his pride, Ye Qiu rejected Ye Xiu’s offer outright. With the same pride, Ye Qiu controlled Cool Autumn Breeze to enter alone.

He died twice and lost his pair of boots in there, it was tragic but a necessary sacrifice for Ye Qiu’s pride. He’d rather die than joining that bastard’s party. He barely scrapped the third time out of sheer will to not humiliate himself. Call it a hunch but Ye Qiu just knew Ye Xiu would wait at the entrance of the dungeon to ‘greet’ him if he failed the third time.

It took an entire inventory worth of health potions and mana potions, not to mention the damage it did to most of his equipments that needed a trip to the blacksmith to fix, but it was worth it.

“Come on, Cloud Piercer, let’s round this hill so we can get into the lake.”

Wei Chen was an old veteran through and through, he had been there when Glory first launched, had been there when the pro scene started, had also been there when Glory’s first ever, and currently only, RP server was launched. He had seen the start and end of greatness.

He himself prided himself as someone who easily befriended anyone as long as the other person was not too prude. He initially thought he couldn’t stand Cool Autumn Breeze, but of course he was wrong.

For as much as Cool Autumn Breeze annoyed him and vice-versa, they were a great team when it came to it. At first, Wei Chen suspected that he was a rookie from some team that got into the game to mess around, but so far no team has shown any good Battle Mage rookie. That damn Ye Qiu was still unquestionably the top god of Battle Mage with no candidate to even be worth a quarter of him. If Cool Autumn Breeze was a part of the pro scene, he would at least be in All-Stars ranking and compared a lot with Ye Qiu.

Knowing just how rare it was to see a damn skilled player that wasn’t a part of the pro scene, Wei Chen thought of himself as quite lucky to find him and befriend him.

He really thought they couldn’t get along. After all Wei Chen was rough and rude, Cool Autumn Breeze was calm yet childish (yes, childish, no one willingly goes around RP-ing as a prince spouting ‘benwang this’ ‘benwang that’ if they were not childish), but they just clicked. Perhaps it was their mutually shared trait of saying it like it is that got them to get along, or perhaps the mutual benefit of this friendship got them to stick around.

Cool Autumn Breeze was an interesting guy in Wei Chen’s book, someone to be trusted.

Of course when Wei Chen asked for it, Cool Autumn Breeze would give it as long as he got it. So when Wei Chen got a message from Cool Autumn Breeze to pick up the gift boxes he inevitably gathered from killing monsters that got in his way, Wei Chen set out.

The sight that greeted him was interesting nonetheless.

When he arrived, Cool Autumn Breeze was taking care of a group of level 70 wandering monsters, he was as skilled as always, but the support from a Sharsphooter behind him couldn’t be taken for granted.

The Battle Mage moved decisively and elegantly, and the Sharpshooter filled in the blanks the Battle Mage left out in his battle dance. It was mesmerizing as well as nostalgic.

Windward Formation raised Death’s Hand and cast Death’s Door, the new level 70 skill of Warlock, because, unlike Cool Autumn Breeze, Wei Chen actually cared to raise his level to the level cap.

A part of the monsters immediately got dragged into the door, leaving the rest to be finished quickly by the Battle Mage-Sharpshooter duo.

Wei Chen waited for them to come closer first before speaking up. “I’ve heard that you took in a consort, didn’t think it was true.” He eyed Cloud Piercer, a familiar avatar, he faced this avatar a few times when he still used Swoksaar. He was not familiar with the original owner, though.

“Didn’t know you were following our server’s news,” Cool Autumn Breeze retorted.

“I didn’t. The Thief told me and your cousin came to play and explained the whole ordeal to me.” When talking about Cool Autumn Breeze’s cousin, Wei Chen had nothing to say other than the girl had a knack for chaos and was very fond of making muddy water muddier without even lifting her hands. Countless times the conflicts in the fourth server escalated to a whole different level because she egged it on, no one but Cool Autumn Breeze and Wei Chen could see it, Colourful Jade was simply too skilled as a warmonger, no one realized that every escalation of conflict originated from her. Anytime she was around, dealing with Cool Autumn Breeze became much harder because she kept whispering bizarre ideas that Cool Autumn Breeze happened to find interesting while others found it tormenting.

She and Huang Shaotian would have gotten along like rice and soup.

Cool Autumn Breeze snorted. “I told you to not get too close to her, I didn’t need her to learn more creative curse words, she is already as bad as she is.”

Wei Chen snorted and opted to focus on Cloud Piercer. He stood silently behind Cool Autumn Breeze, like a bodyguard. The dynamic of Battle Mage and Sharpshooter was not new but it was somewhat rare, the last time Wei Chen saw it was…

Recalling a dear friend he never got to meet, Wei Chen sighed wistfully.

“So, why is your consort following you around? Didn’t he have a guild to take care?” Wei Chen asked bluntly.

“He insists on coming along,” Cool Autumn Breeze said carelessly.

Wei Chen snorted and said to Cloud Piercer. “Little brother, I admire your devotion to your role. What do you want from this guy, just say it, I’ll help you to talk it out.”

“You think he’s following me because he wants something from me?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked in annoyance.

“You have a track record,” Wei Chen said bluntly.

“… Fair point.” Cool Autumn Breeze turned to look at Cloud Piercer. “You want anything from me?”

“No.” Cloud Piercer’s answer was short and his tone was crisp, there was no insincerity in that word.

Wei Chen arched his brows. “Anyways, whose idea it is to make him your ‘consort’? Do you know how old is he? He’s not the original Cloud Piercer. Heard the Alliance erased the age limit to join this season, he might not even be an adult yet.”

Cool Autumn Breeze went silent for a while before turning to Cloud Piercer. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

Wei Chen used that chance to quickly browse Zhou Zekai’s age, in case it could be ammunition to ridicule Cool Autumn Breeze.

Wei Chen guffawed. “Wait. His birthday was last month. Happy belated coming-of-age, little consort,” he mocked shamelessly. “Hahaha!”

Wei Chen had to admit he deserved the accurate lightning-like Draconic Crusher from Cool Autumn Breeze that came in the next second. The Barrett Snipe that followed after was a bit too much, though.

Christmas ended and New Year’s Eve event started. The intensity the pro players brought to the game did not recede even a little, they still needed to fulfil the quota of upgrades from their own team. The team with a council member was better, because the council members were destined to upgrade much easier than the rest, but others?

The event’s announcement didn’t have any details on what it would be so every player could only sit by and wait until it started for more details.

When nine p.m hit, the event started, and all of them could open and read the instructions for the event.

It was called ‘A sacrifice to the stars’ event, the players were tasked to kill monsters as a gesture of sacrifice to the stars to pray for a better year next year with less evil and more good.

Killing monsters? That was easy.

But.

There was the f*cking but.

It was a sacrifice to twelve gods, representing the zodiac and twelve months of the year, each ‘gods’ had different preference of monsters to be sacrificed and players had to do it according to the rank of the gods starting from the lowest to the highest. The required number for each god’s sacrifices was four, representing four seasons.

The catch? The system listed the trivia of the twelve gods, it was enigmatic and poetic…

The moment the pros read the poetic trivias, their hearts sank.

‘f*ck it’s riddle mission.’

A riddle mission, four sacrifices to each gods, and time-limited.

How to finish it in three hours?

The pros started discussing in the group chat. In this kind of situation, it would be much more beneficial to share your observations rather than not. The time limit was three hours, after all!

Ten minutes in and nothing of use could come up. Some already decided to do a process of elimination, but there were at least two hundred sub-species of monsters in Heavenly Domain, if they tried the method of eliminations. Not to mention they were not sure if the monsters within the dungeons would be counted too, that would mean the numbers they need to eliminate would exceed four hundreds.

At this moment of dilemma, the empty leaderboard of the event suddenly refreshed and one name appeared domineeringly as the sole occupier of the board.

1. Level 66 <Battle Mage> Cool Autumn Breeze ------------- 1

The number behind his name represented how many god he had finished giving sacrifices to.

Everybody stared blankly before frantically clamored about it in the group chat.

“It’s him again!”

“Well, if there’s anyone who could solve the riddle that fast it would be him!”

“Track him! Track him down so we can see which monsters he killed!”

Some pros felt a bit hesitant, after all it felt a bit too shameless to ask for the casual player just a shy ten minutes into the event.

“Okay, just think! Anyone got any answer yet? What about the elimination team?”

“Nope.”

“Still no!”

The leaderboard refreshed again.

1. Level 67 <Battle Mage> Cool Autumn Breeze ------------- 2

“…”

“…”

“…”

The whole chatroom was silent when the members, who were online in the game, saw the sole occupier of the board gain another number and no one else was there.

One Autumn Leaf: @Desert Dust Old Han, you have him in your friend list, right?

Desert Dust: We can solve this.

One Autumn Leaf: Old Han, let’s be realistic here.

Wind Guard: Are we really going to let the casual get to be ranked one?

Desert Dust: He deserves to be number one.

Wind Guard: I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it! I’m saying do something!

Swoksaar: Anyone has tracked him down yet?

The leaderboard refreshed again.

1. Level 67 <Battle Mage> Cool Autumn Breeze ------------- 3

Troubling Rain: Okay, that’s it. He solved the whole puzzle, no doubt. He already got the whole answer, we’re done here.

Doubtful Demon: This is not fair, is he REALLY not a mole from the development team?!

Troubling Rain: Young man, it is unbelievable, but that guy is just that much of a cheat. Have you not heard that the developers fought because of this guy!?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Maybe if we knew the lore like him, we could have solved it as easily too.

One Autumn Leaf: @Desert Dust Old Han, why didn’t you accept his offer to be disciple back then? We could have a guide written by him now.

Immovable Rock: ‘We’?

(X) Ji Leng: ‘We’?

Mountain Split: ‘We’?

Desert Dust: We?

One Autumn Leaf: We. Sharing is caring.

(X) Ji Leng: [Sneer]

Ye Qiu initially couldn’t bother with events but tonight was a bit different. All his leads led to nowhere and he was bored as a result. Since Cool Autumn Breeze was still level 67, might as well join the event for easy exp while he also had nothing to do.

The riddle was not a ‘riddle’ for him, it was only a reminder. The moment he read it, he knew which monster should be sacrificed for each god so he set out immediately, wanting to finish the event as soon as possible to get that easy exp and level up.

Half-an-hour in, he already finished giving the offering to the seventh-ranked god. Only six more to go.

He stretched and finally realized his private messages were piling in. He opened it to find some of his friends sent him some messages, asking for an answer sheet for the sacrifices.

It was also at this moment he realized he occupied the first place. So far, there were only ten names on the leaderboard, and each only have scored ‘one’, far from his score ‘six’. The leaderboard refreshed and more people entered the ranking but with only one score as the answer to the first sacrifice became public.

Of all the friends in his list, he only clicked on Windward Formation’s name and typed down all the monsters he killed so far in chronological order.

When he was about to close his private message window, Desert Dust’s name caught his attention.

“Huh…” Ye Qiu blinked. “Hm, Windward wouldn’t want to be eye-catching…” He thought back to Windward Formation’s sneaky personality and concluded if no one else could break past the score one, he probably wouldn’t either.

Ye Qiu clicked on Desert Dust’s name, but surprisingly Desert Dust didn’t ask for the order of the sacrifices. He just told Ye Qiu to not be pressured to say the answer and that everybody else could mind their own business, if anyone dared to pressure him, Desert Dust and Tyrannical Ambition would take action.

The corner of Ye Qiu’s lips quirked up slightly.

“Are they really that hopeless? This is an easy quest.” He laughed and replied with a list of sacrificial monsters in chronological order so far and sent it. Out of understanding, he added.

Cool Autumn Breeze: Don’t worry. No one ever successfully pressured me into doing anything except for my royal father. Just spread this list to your comrades, I don’t mind.

Han Wenqing always dealt with things in a clean and clear-cut manner. So when he got the list from Cool Autumn Breeze with a message to feel free to spread it out, Han Wenqing directly sent a screenshot of the list to the group chat.

Desert Dust: [Screenshot00023.jpg]

Desert Dust: Happy?

One Autumn Leaf: :D

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: :D

Troubling Rain: :D

Windy Rain: \(^w^)/ <3

Demon Subduer: [Thank you!~ sticker]

Vaccaria: [Thank you!~]

Screen Killer: :D

Wind Guard: \(^o^)/

Sobbing Ghost: :D [Thank you!~]

Immovable Rock: At this rate, we really going to get dependent on Cool Autumn Breeze.

Swoksaar: That’s true, but Blue Rain’s newly created Lore Department had yet to advance too far.

Peaceful Hermit: Word.

Sobbing Ghost: @Swoksaar Relatable.

Dancing Rain: Same as Excellent Era.

Blossoming Chaos: At the rate of Hundred Blossoms’ Lore Department progress, I don’t think it could catch up with Cool Autumn Breeze in the next few years.

One Autumn Leaf: That’s why I said, the fastest way out of this to convince Cool Autumn Breeze to make his guide public.

One Autumn Leaf: @Cloud Piercer Little Zhou, I have a proposal.

(X) Tong Lin: No.

(X) Tong Lin: Don’t drag my team’s little captain into any of your bullsh*t, Ye Qiu

One Autumn Leaf: Old Tong, I’m hurt.

Desert Dust: Good.

There was a second part of the New Year’s Eve event, which was to gather at five points scattered in Heavenly Domain to wait till the clock hit zero and enjoy the fireworks that would light up at the five biggest cities in Heavenly Domain. It was a simple event and anyone participating in just waiting and watching the fireworks would get a reward from the system.

Naturally, when everyone recognized that finishing the first event of sacrifice was impossible with the remaining time limit, they just went to the nearest big city and sat by calmly to watch the fireworks.

It happened that the majority of pro players who were quick in looking for the sacrifices and got there before anyone else were all near the western capital. This year’s New Year’s Eve event once again had to be given to Cool Autumn Breeze.

The said avatar was easily spotted sitting leisurely near a campfire, waiting for the fireworks show, all the pros that spotted him decided to only glance at him and left him in peace for a bit as they waited for the new year to arrive.

The leaderboard stayed stagnant minutes before the clock hit zero and instantly locked when the fireworks started, followed by a bold system notification to all online users.

[HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!]

A Sacrifice To The Stars Leaderboard

1. Level 69 <Battle Mage> Cool Autumn Breeze -------------- 12
2. Level 70 <Striker> Desert Dust ---------------------------------- 11
3. Level 70 <Battle Mage> One Autumn Leaf ------------------ 11
4. Level 70 <Launcher> Dancing Rain --------------------------- 11
5. Level 70 <Blade Master> Troubling Rain -------------------- 11
6. Level 70 <Witch> Vaccaria --------------------------------------- 11
7. Level 70 <Spitfire> Dazzling Hundred Blossoms --------- 11
8. Level 70 <Berserker> Blossoming Chaos ------------------- 11
9. Level 70 <Sharpshooter> Cloud Piercer --------------------- 11

…

…

…

The firework show was mesmerizing nonetheless for an in-game’s firework show, several people even bought their own fireworks from a vendor and set it off along with the fireworks from the system, making it even more festive.

The fireworks beautifully illuminate the form of each avatar watching it, but the players were much more interested in checking their inventory for their rewards.

Putting the fireworks show’s participation rewards aside, ‘A Sacrifice To The Stars’ already had a list of rewards when it started. The ranking was decided on the number of sacrifices to gods you made and who was the fastest to give it if you had the same scores. The top ten rankers got generous rewards of Orange Weapon Box Level 70, a reward you could choose which level 70 Orange weapon you can get, several rare and uncommon materials, trinkets, and, the most favourited; three Rare Material Boxes to choose a single item of any rare materials you needed which would be extremely helpful because then they wouldn’t need to wait for certain Wild Bosses to spawn.

The top three got even richer rewards. The third-ranked got five boxes of rare material boxes, the second got seven, and the first got a whopping ten.

Not to mention the bonus rewards that corresponded with how many gods you offered sacrifices to.

Every pro heaved a sigh of relief. This would be enough to cover most of their team’s urgent upgrades.

Ye Xiu had calculated the materials they got so far and concluded it would be enough for One Autumn Leaf’s and Dancing Rain’s complete upgrades while also helping out other teammates’ upgrades.

He then glanced at Cool Autumn Breeze, laser-focused. He couldn’t be blamed, last year the guy just tossed away the rewards he got and left without much elaboration outside ‘it’s heavy’.

Should he do it again this year, Ye Xiu couldn’t lose his focus and snatch a few more things.

Naturally, it wasn’t just him who thought so. It wasn’t wrong to have hopes, after all.

Cool Autumn Breeze’s body flashed, signaling he just leveled up. The Battle Mage then stood up and turned away from the campfire, he looked at Cloud Piercer who was standing near a well.

"Cloud Piercer, trade me, take my rewards." Cool Autumn Breeze suddenly stated out loud.

Everyone, who was ready to brave themselves to shamelessly and jokingly ask Cool Autumn Breeze for the materials, almost fainted due to whiplash.

Cloud Piercer ran up to Cool Autumn Breeze naturally and stood in front of the Battle Mage obediently.

A few beats passed and the transaction was done.

"Use it well, don't jump into things too fast, research it well first."

"Yes."

"Also, see if the boots are better suited to you than what you're wearing right now."

"Mm."

“The pocket chain I gave you also has a better ability than what you’re using right now, just wear mine.”

“Okay.”

"..."

Out of nowhere, everybody suddenly felt their throat drying up...

So dry… Like they just had swallowed dog food.

Huang Shaotian choked and coughed furiously first. "C-Cool Autumn Breeze! You're giving the materials to Cloud Piercer for free?! I mean, just like that?!”

Cool Autumn Breeze turned to look at Troubling Rain. "Yes, he needs it for upgrades."

"For free?" Fang Shiqian choked out. "You really did your part as the princely spouse really well." Fang Shiqian tried. He really tried to say the last sentence mockingly but all that leaked out was jealousy.

Cool Autumn Breeze swayed to look at Wind Guard. "Well... He's sworn loyalty to me, he's my person. I ought to treat him well."

"Aaagh!!!" A feminine cry came out from Windy Rain, Chu Yunxiu. "Why can't it be me?!" She was a fan of a warm and kind man like this! She wanted to fangirl but she ended up feeling jealous of Zhou Zekai! This is unfair! She wanted a man who help her upgrade selflessly too!

“I volunteer! I volunteer as a tribute! Please accept me as a tribute!” Li Xuan cried out.

“f*ck, I’m actually jealous!” Fang Rui bit his lips and glared at Cloud Piercer.

For the first time in quite a while, Ye Xiu started to consider his options. The allure of free rare materials was too great for pro players like them. This was the first time Ye Xiu felt jealous of a rookie, he didn’t think this day would actually happen.

The contrast of last year’s ‘free to grab’ and this year’s ‘exclusive gifts to Cloud Piercer alone’ was too much.

Zhang Jiale held his chest and winced. “Suddenly I felt like I’ve been cheated on.”

“Suddenly I feel like I’ve been dropped…!”

“Cool Autumn Breeze, you’ve changed…” It was unknown who said that, but somehow everyone who had been in last year’s New Year's eve event could relate.

“… What is it with everyone…?” Cool Autumn Breeze sounded completely baffled at the turn of events.

At this moment, Cloud Piercer changed his boots right in front of everyone and even the chains that hung loosely from his windbreaker also changed slightly in appearance, no doubt he just changed into the equipments Cool Autumn Breeze gave him.

It was a silent action but it made everyone who was sharp enough to notice felt incredulous.

Suddenly, Cool Autumn Breeze exclaimed. “Oh, you all want to ask for this prince’s blessings for New Year? In short, red packet?” He asked. “You have to say it clearly, this prince is yet to be familiar with the customs here.” He clicked his tongue.

Everyone blinked, but they generally understood that Cool Autumn Breeze understood that they were shamelessly hoping for freebies earlier. It made some of the thin-faced ones feel somewhat embarrassed.

“I don’t have any more things to give,” Cool Autumn Breeze said bluntly.

That essentially confirmed to everyone that he gave away everything to Cloud Piercer.

“Don’t we know that…” Huang Shaotian muttered bitterly.

“But I can initiate Autumn Hunt. It just so happened this prince’s power has reached peak.” Cool Autumn Breeze’s dragon spear flashed red and burst out.

[System] Fierce Bloodthirsty Dragon Wolf <Level 70> has escaped the imprisonment of Soaring Watch Tower. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Soaring Watch Tower.

Everyone tensed up.

The Battle Mage’s Special Boss finally appeared again after over a year!

Last year they only hunted the level 60 one, in line with Cool Autumn Breeze’s level at the time, now it was already level 70.

Cloud Piercer’s revolvers also flashed and he fired to the sky.

[System] Howling Thunder Stag <Level 70> has escaped the imprisonment of Revolutionary Range. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Revolutionary Range.

It was okay for Cool Autumn Breeze to do it, it would even be okay if Cloud Piercer did it separately.

But Cloud Piercer actually used his privilege after Cool Autumn Breeze’s twisted understanding of ‘red packet’ in the game.

Everyone suddenly felt they were being ‘blessed’ by a couple.

Ye Xiu suddenly felt irate, he didn’t even know why, the feeling of irritation just suddenly blossomed from the deepest part of his heart. “Mucheng, release your Special Boss.”

Su Mucheng blinked hearing his order but complied nonetheless. “Okay!”

[System] Flaming Heaven Snake <Level 70> has escaped the imprisonment of Flame Charge Fort. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Flame Charge Fort.

After Dancing Rain released her special boss, new notifications appeared one after another.

[System] Abyssal Void Demon <Level 70> has escaped the imprisonment of Magic Castle. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Magic Castle.

[System] Two-Headed Fallen White Tiger <Level 70> has escaped the imprisonment of Mysterious Tiger Colosseum. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Mysterious Tiger Colosseum.

[System] Nether Blood Crawler <Level 70> has escaped the imprisonment of Blood Arena. Imploring everyone to hunt the <Wild Boss> and return it to Blood Arena.

It seemed that it wasn’t just Ye Xiu who suddenly felt impulsive.

The world chat went crazy with the system notifications one after another. Did the gods decide to grace them with so many special Bosses for the new year? Seemed so!

Of course, the normal players didn’t know nor notice the undercurrents of what was happening.

“M-mine is still in cooldown…” Xiao Shiqin couldn’t believe his eyes when he noticed he was the only council member who didn’t join in. He didn’t even understand. What happened? The others usually released theirs sparingly in a controlled manner, why the sudden actions!?

“You don’t have to worry about it,” Yu Wenzhou replied to him. “It’s just a gesture of polite rejection for the blessing from a junior…” he eyed Cloud Piercer.

“I wish Boss Wei is here…” Huang Shaotian expressed sadly. “I really want him to retract that verdict about online crush…” ‘I’m sure Cool Autumn Breeze is hot too in real life…’ he added inwardly.

Ye Qiu gazed at the row of system notifications and tilted his head.

“Why are they all releasing their special bosses?” he murmured just quiet enough to not be picked up by his mic.

He genuinely felt somewhat compassion for them. He didn’t need the rewards from the system, so he just gave it away to Cloud Piercer.

After all, for some weird reason, after accepting Cloud Piercer as his "consort", Ye Qiu truly felt like he needed to be responsible for him. He didn’t truly think of this whole ‘consort’ idea seriously, but he did see Cloud Piercer as a part of his group.

It was like when you took in an assistant, you naturally want your assistant to be up to your standard so you give him all kinds of upgrades.

Ye Qiu remembered when Xiao Lin brought her a cheap laptop for the internship, Ye Qiu was so disgusted with it and bought her the newest model with far higher specs. Ye Qiu also remembered waiting impatiently for Yang Qing to show him the pdf file of a document but his tablet took too long to load it, The next day Ye Qiu signed a new tablet for Yang Qing.

It was the same with Cloud Piercer.

When he saw Cloud Piercer, he directly looked past his silver equipments, which were quite meager in number, and zeroed in on the orange equipments which were still yet to be up to date. The level cap was now 70, but Cloud Piercer still wore some level 65 pieces.

Although Ye Qiu didn’t need to actually give anything away to the pro players who were hoping for it, he was already conditioned as a leader to give bonuses to people he viewed as ‘beneath’ him.

And they were indeed beneath him in the ranking leaderboard.

It was a new year, after all, although it wasn’t Chinese New Year, he could afford to be a bit more generous so he released his special boss for the fifth time after so long.

Ye Qiu scratched his head, he still couldn’t understand why they were following his lead and released their own Bosses.

He shrugged and logged off peacefully to do a second check for the company’s end-of-year report before going to sleep.

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

Zhou Zekai’s life had been very good lately. He could finally have a reason to play with the person he like and he could fulfill his team’s needs for upgrades at the same time without having to sacrifice his time with Cool Autumn Breeze.

Yes.

He liked Cool Autumn Breeze.

Zhou Zekai had been living in a very simple way about Glory. If they were good in Glory, Zhou Zekai respected them. If they were really good in Glory, Zhou Zekai admired them. It just so happened Cool Autumn Breeze was really good in Glory, additionally he was simultaneously the easiest ‘really good’ player to find in-game and still the most elusive one.

Before Zhou Zekai inherited Cloud Piercer, he had seen Cool Autumn Breeze a few times in the game and each meeting made Zhou Zekai’s admiration just increase. A splendid player, if only he was interested in joining the pro league…

Zhou Zekai naturally wouldn’t admit this to his seniors, he had been half-stalking Cool Autumn Breeze across the Heavenly Domain before he dared to speak up to ask for the Sharpshooter’s key, being a ‘consort’ was a well-worth bonus.

Zhou Zekai thought it would only be a parasocial relationship but the heavens said otherwise when Cool Autumn Breeze found the Sharpshooter's key.

However, naturally, he would never speak this out. He would keep it carefully as his own, just as every single piece of equipment Cool Autumn Breeze gave him was his own personal belonging that he would never hand out to the club.

“Zhou, come on, the bus is here.”

Hearing the call from Fang Minghua, Zhou Zekai turned off his phone after bookmarking Cool Autumn Breeze’s page on the Glory RP website and grabbed his sling bag.

“Old Ye, Old Ye, let’s go eat seafood hotpot tomorrow, I know a place, I’ve done my research, it’ll be my treat. Sis Su, ah, convince him to go.”

“Old Ye, you look shabby as always, did you even wash your face coming here?”

“I did remind him to,” Su Mucheng laughed.

“Damn, no wonder.”

“Li Xuan! Damn, you told me to wait for you in corridor A?! I waited so long!”

“Oh, oops, sorry Tian Sen, I forgot.”

It was always lively when the pro players gathered like this, especially after a Glory update where they no doubt often met and clashed in the game, there were always so many topics to bring up so the moment never went stale. People arrived one after another until Samsara went in.

Voices and sounds ceased to exist almost immediately, all eyes were on the handsome rookie from this season.

Zhou Zekai was indeed eye-catching. No matter in what setting you looked at his face, you would always feel he was more suited for the big screen, as a model or an actor, or a celebrity. His face was extremely handsome and pleasing to look at, his stature was tall and his body was nicely built and fit. If it hadn’t been because of his unmistakably quiet and shy personality, everybody would doubt that he was a true gamer and not an undercover actor.

It was good that his personality was subdued because that face could already make the many people around him feel like a background character, but due to his subdued nature, his aura could barely compare with the older god-tier players such as Han Wenqing, Wang Jiexi, the Blood Blossoms Duo, or even Ye Qiu, the Battle God.

If that face was paired with an arrogant, dominant, or dashing personality, it would be an endgame to everybody here.

But that wasn’t the reason why everybody was looking at him.

This man, although he was quiet and shy, his backing was no laughing matter. The New Year’s Eve event was no longer talked about, but it was still quite fresh in everyone’s mind. Just imagining this handsome man accepting rich gifts from Cool Autumn Breeze just by bearing the title ‘consort’ made everyone still couldn’t recover from the shock.

The smarter ones were already calculating and foretelling that Samsara might soon climb to a top-tier team, not just because their new captain was extremely skilled, but also because their new captain managed to hug such a golden thigh in Glory.

Was it an accident? Was it premeditated? Who initiated the idea? None of them knew how Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer wound up being Cool Autumn Breeze’s ‘consort’.

Some initially were confident it was probably Cool Autumn Breeze’s nonsense and Zhou Zekai just followed along, kinda like everybody else when Cool Autumn Breeze held the rein- they could only play by his rule unless you could say ‘bye-bye’ to the council’s key.

However, some of them now even suspected perhaps it was intentional from Zhou Zekai’s side. If it was true, then the Four Tacticians must rub their chests and bow down to Zhou Zekai’s genius and ruthless way to secure Cool Autumn Breeze’s support.

Finally, after a few moments, Huang Shaotian’s lips twitched and he stopped clinging to Ye Xiu to send a look at Fang Minghua.

“So? Still worried about your impressionable little captain? I never hear you complain about it again ever since New Year’s Eve, why is that?” Huang Shaotian ridiculed.

Fang Minghua coughed awkwardly. “He didn’t approach Zhou at all, no issue, no issue.” How could he complain when his Cleric’s upgrade also used the materials Cool Autumn Breeze gave to Zhou Zekai?

“Ai, money changes people,” Li Xuan came along. “Here I am ready to exchange places with Zhou Zekai in case you’re still disapproving of Cool Autumn Breeze.”

Fang Minghua had a feeling today he would get bullied by his gemmates, he miscalculated, he thought that when no one brought it up in the Golden Generation chatroom that meant they just let it slide, how foolish he was to think so? They were just waiting until they could meet him face to face to ridicule and make trouble with him!

Since her two genmates chose to pick on Fang Minghua, Chu Yunxiu turned to Zhou Zekai. “Zhou Zekai, ah, tell me, did Cool Autumn Breeze give you things normally or the New Year’s Eve event was a first?”

Zhou Zekai shook his head. “Not a first,” he said seriously, recalling the first time in a while he met up with Cool Autumn Breeze again at Christmas event and Cool Autumn Breeze gave his gift boxes to Zhou Zekai, so technically the New Year’s Eve event was not the first, Christmas event was. “He’s nice to me.”

Chu Yunxiu coughed while holding her chest and called for breaks, Su Mucheng slung her arm over her shoulders and helped her sit down. “Mumu, I don’t need a man who will buy me jewels, I just need him to find me materials just because he can.”

“I know, Yunyun, I know,” Su Mucheng comforted her sympathetically, maybe this was not the right time for her to tell Chu Yunxiu that she found a really good fanfic about Cool Autumn Breeze and Cloud Piercer just yet. Su Mucheng comforted Chu Yunxiu even more vigorously.

“And where is my red packet, Minghua?” Huang Shaotian’s eyes twitched as he grasped Fang Minghua by his lapels. “WHERE IS MY RED PACKET?! I’m still a wee child to you so I’m entitled to a red packet! Where is my RED PACKET?!”

“Minghua, you f*cking hypocrite.”

“Stand up for yourself!”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice your Cleric’s cross just got upgraded to level 70, you f*cker—”

“Must be nice to profit from a relationship you didn’t approve, huh?!”

The poor Fang Minghua got dragged to the corner to be judged by the Golden Generation. Although they were messy and could be out of line, there was a clear unwritten and unspoken rule in the alliance that the seniors absolutely couldn’t have an organized bullying towards rookies outside the stage so the entire Golden Generation had to ditch Zhou Zekai and focused all of the irritation they got from their jealousy to Zhou Zekai’s teammate and their genmate, Fang Minghua.

Zhou Zekai’s face didn’t change when they dragged Fang Minghua away, although he felt bad for his senior, it was outside his power to stop them.

Although Fang Minghua was usually decent, towards his genmates he wouldn’t lose out. Being a part of Golden Generation meant you were honed to trash talking as Huang Shaotian simply talked too much in the chatroom.

After a few banters here and there, Huang Shaotian suddenly shrieked.

“XINJIE! XINJIE! Listen! This f*cker just said that when Cool Autumn Breeze found the Cleric’s key, he can ask Zhou Zekai to ask Cool Autumn Breeze for it!”

Fang Minghua sputtered. “I NEVER f*ckING SAID THAT!”

“No! He said that! Believe me, Zhang Xinjie!” Huang Shaotian yelled even louder over Fang Minghua.

Zhang Xinjie shifted his eyes towards them and Fang Minghua gulped, suddenly feeling he was enveloped in a cold freezer.

Huang Shaotian cackled, satisfied that his slander worked.

Despite anything else, within the Golden Generation there were too many people you better not piss off. Amongst them were Su Mucheng, Yu Wenzhou, but the person who wasn’t worth offending the most was Zhang Xinjie. He always looked so calm and rigid but who was in Tyranny who didn’t have an overbearing aura? A wave of his finger could instantly mute anyone in Golden Generation, literally, because he was the owner of the Golden Generation group chat.

“We’ll compete fairly, h-have we forgotten Cool Autumn Breeze’s whole schtick, he’s very into role-playing, he wouldn’t just randomly give everyone a key, everyone who got a key from him had to work for it, no?” Fang Minghua reasoned.

Zhang Xinjie readjusted his glasses indifferently. “It doesn’t really matter. If no one is competent enough to find the key until Cool Autumn Breeze finds it, then Cool Autumn Breeze has all the right on what to do with it.”

Though Zhang Xinjie’s answer was indifferent anyone could feel an undercurrent of competitiveness from his tone.

Again, who was in Tyranny that wasn’t competitive? This was clearly Tyranny’s trait.

Then, a staff came and asked for the All-Stars to go to backstage so the rest went off first to their own assigned seats while the All-Stars had to go on the stage for the opening.

Well, every All-Star except for one.

Ye Xiu had long opted to not go on stage, he would appear and perform but wouldn’t participate in the meaningless talks. That was what make him mysterious, after all. That also made him pay quite a bit in penalty but it didn’t matter when the penalty was cut from his payment to perform in All-Star Weekend.

Ye Xiu waved at Su Mucheng who went off hand-in-hand with Chu Yunxiu and instead turned to gaze at Zhou Zekai thoughtfully.

“Little Zhou,” he called out.

Zhou Zekai perked up and looked surprised that the elusive Ye Qiu called out to him. “Yes…?”

“When it was decided for you to role-play as a consort, who initiated it?” Ye Xiu asked calmly while flicking off the ash of his cigarette. “Did you volunteer? Were you asked? Or something else?”

Zhou Zekai nodded, he didn’t hear anything wrong from Ye Xiu’s question. Perhaps senior just wanted to know how it happened? “Something else.” He picked his answer.

“Oh?” Ye Xiu took a drag of his cigarette and squinted slightly, silently signaling Zhou Zekai to elaborate.

Zhou Zekai caught the signal very well but had a hard time elaborating. “Others advised it…”

“Not Cool Autumn Breeze himself?”

Zhou Zekai shook his head honestly. “No.”

“I see.” Ye Xiu beamed. “Good luck up there on the stage.”

Zhou Zekai blinked and smiled back with a nod. “Yes. Thank you.”

Ye Xiu took another drag of his cigarette until it was short enough before heavily exhaling a cloud of smoke and smothered the amber. “What is wrong with me…?” he didn’t know what compelled him to lower himself and stop Zhou Zekai for that question. He just suddenly felt like asking, he felt the need to get to know the whole backstory behind it.

Learning that it wasn’t Cool Autumn Breeze’s idea suddenly made the restlessness in Ye Xiu’s heart soothe down.

“Sigh…” Ye Xiu took another cigarette from his pack. “Am I really that jealous…?”

Maybe it was Cool Autumn Breeze’s effect, Ye Xiu was usually not this nosy.

Besides, it was just role-playing in the game, Zhou Zekai probably pulled the shorter end of the stick to get labeled that. Who would like to be called a ‘consort’, right?

“Cool Autumn Breeze, I’m here to fulfill our marriage contract!”

The dashing Spitfire with pinkish hair and shining Blossoms Valley symbol on top of his head declared out loud without shame.

Everybody choked on their own spits.

The Battle Mage whose name was called turned to look at the Spitfire. “Huh?” he made a noise of bewilderment before snapping out. “Marriage contract…? You…?”

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms dashingly put away his gun and walked towards Cool Autumn Breeze dramatically. “Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. The direct young master of Thousand Flowers Valley. We’ve met before…”

Cool Autumn Breeze made a noise of acknowledgment. “We’ve met before, indeed. But you never mentioned anything about the marriage contract.”

“I only found out about it recently too. We’ve been promised to each other since you were young and I was still in my mother’s womb before the separation of realms."”

More people seemed to join in coughing incredulously but the two avatars were in their own world, ignoring the surroundings.

“I’ve come to fulfill the contract!” Zhang Jiale declared boldly. Inwardly, he felt confident. He already completely understood the rule of role-playing after talking a lot with the fourth server's guild leader, what he was currently doing was in line with the unspoken rule of role-playing.

Cool Autumn Breeze turned his head slightly, looking into the distance. “The contract is an agreement of our elders. If you’re not willing this prince can give you freedom from it.”

“No!” Zhang Jiale passionately rejected. “We have been promised to each other. I, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, will never take back my family’s vow!”

Everybody gawked at him, too stunned to speak.

“I do know my royal father had prepared me a fiancé, but I was planning to let it go in peace. However, since you’ve found me to fulfill the marriage contract yourself, it is ungentlemanly to let you down.” Cool Autumn Breeze said seriously.

Suddenly from a crowd of stunned avatars, Cloud Piercer emerged and watched the scene unfold quietly. “Autumn Breeze…” Zhou Zekai murmured softly.

“The f*ck is going on…?” From the crowd of Herb Garden’s people, Fang Shiqian murmured baffledly.

“Am I dreaming?”

“Funny, I’m asking myself that too…”

“Holy f*ck…”

“Zhang Jiale…”

While everybody was watching the scene unfolding like watching an impending car crash, Blossoming Chaos had his back turned to the whole thing as its owner facepalmed so hard with second-hand embarrassment from behind the screen.

“Congrats! Congrats~ Dazzling Hundred Blossoms is now Cool Autumn Breeze’s second consort~” A female Elementalist came out of nowhere with a laughing tone and started spreading flowers around Cool Autumn Breeze and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. “Hahaha! Happy life, happy life! Have sons soon, hahaha.”

“The first consort too! Aah, you’re here too. What a happy picture of a family~” the Elementalist emoted to clap her hands when Cloud Piercer walked to Cool Autumn Breeze’s side. “Hahahahahahahahaha!”

“…” Cool Autumn Breeze turned to Cloud Piercer and to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, no one knew what he was thinking of. “Although you both are my consorts, I don’t intend to restrain your freedom.”

Zhang Jiale sighed. “I know, I’m okay to be ranked second. I’m just here to fulfill the marriage contract.” He said dramatically like a valiant prideful female lead in wuxia drama.

“I’ve wronged you.” And Cool Autumn Breeze was every part of the male lead in the said drama.

Everybody became even more speechless.

“I’ll make it up to you.”

Zhang Jiale peered at his screen and disconnected his mic to cheer when a trade invitation was sent to him. “Big Sun! I told you!”

“Shut up, I don’t know you!” Sun Zheping snapped back.

Zhang Jiale ignored Sun Zheping’s snap and reconnected his mic then promptly accepted the trade. He saw Cool Autumn Breeze filled it with a few things, there were two rare materials, the rest were uncommon, he also gave Zhang Jiale a visor that had very good stats that could perhaps replace Dazzling Hundred Blossoms’ current silver visor that still cannot be upgraded yet.

After the trade was done, Zhang Jiale entered his character again. “These… you don’t have to do this.”

Naturally, everybody else became curious about just what Cool Autumn Breeze had given to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms earlier.

“Take it from me as an apology for forgetting the marriage contract,” Cool Autumn Breeze said calmly.

“I’m here to fulfill the contract, not for this,” Zhang Jiale said sincerely.

“Just take it. It’s wearing me down,” Cool Autumn Breeze said bluntly.

So, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms unceremoniously kept it.

“If you need anything, just tell me,” Zhang Jiale made his own promise. This might be a play, but Zhang Jiale’s intention to forge a connection was still there.

“Of course.”

With that, they parted respectfully, and only then did the confusion spell lift up from everybody’s mind.

“My God, senior Zhang must have been a theatre kid,” Su Mucheng said with sweat on her forehead.

Ye Xiu tilted his head to gaze blankly at the ceiling, feeling his horizon expanding. It turned out some people did want to be called a consort.

Wind Guard: Didn’t think you would go so low you would actively sell your body, Zhang Jiale

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: I’m not selling, I’m investing it.

Wind Guard: f*ck!

Two Notes: f*ck! +1

Demon Subduer: f*ck! +2

Screen Killer: f*ck! +3

Troubling Rain: f*ck! +4

.

.

.

…: f*ck! +50

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Why are you all so surprised? I’m right.

Windy Rain: I’m dying…

Sobbing Ghost: Senior, how did you even think up of that idea?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Extensive research of RP-in ofc.

Desert Dust: If only you research extensively for Spitfire’s key as well.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Cough! Cough! Cough!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: I’m researching that too! Hey! >:(

Demon Subduer: Gotta hand it to Jiale, though. I gotta give it for his courage to do that whole performance even in front of countless fans in Glory.

Vaccaria: Do you not feel embarrassed at all?

Screen Killer: Yeah, don’t you think about what will your fans think about you?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: That’s easy to fix. I’ll just say I lost a bet.

One Autumn Leaf: f*ck!

Troubling Rain: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Life Extinguisher: You know it’s overboard when both Senior Ye and Huang Shaotian are speechless.

Wind Guard: That’s really one way to wash your hands clean, wtf since when you’re so insidious, Jiale?

Troubling Rain: I know! That’s Boss Wei’s level of shamelessness there!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: It’s just my talent. [dashing.jpg]

Troubling Rain: [Vomit]

Wind Guard: [Vomit] +1

Demon Subduer: [Vomit] +2

.

.

.

…: [Vomit] +23

Blossoming Chaos: Where have you all been? He’s always good at washing his hands clean.

Blossoming Chaos: Been forced to take the blame ever since I know him.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Bastard! It’s because YOU ARE to blame! Don’t turn this against me!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: If anything, I’ve been the one taking blames for you, wtf?!

Windy Rain: Gotta update my note. I thought Senior Zhang is pure and straightforward :’( It turned out you’re as shameless as Old Ye and Shaotian.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: C’mon, I was just having fun channeling my inner actor out, why am I stamped as shameless all of a sudden.

Demon Subduer: Because you are shameless, though.

Wind Guard: If Old Wei was there, he’d probably clap his hands, shake your hands, and buy you a beer.

Dancing Rain: Has anyone seen the clip from Weibo? It’s on hot topic.

Windy Rain: I’ve seen it. Still as glorious as the first time I have seen it live.

Ye Qiu closed Glory and needed a minute to reflect. Unexpectedly, out of nowhere, Cool Autumn Breeze gained a consort again. His avatar becoming even more and more out of his control in terms of the background story.

A call came in and he saw it from Xiao Lin, recalling the girl who couldn’t stop laughing at the scene of drama, Ye Qiu sighed and connected the call.

“What on earth did you do to make a pro player do that? Hahahahaha!”

“I don’t know,” Ye Qiu said honestly. “We only met a few times, I almost mistook him for someone from the fourth server for a moment back then. His improv ability is amazing.”

There was an unwritten rule in the fourth server. That was, when someone pulled you into a background writing, you absolutely had to respond in a kind, which was why Ye Qiu instinctively didn’t deny Dazzling Hundred Blossoms’ claim and instead played along and made a boundary around it so it wouldn’t be used against him.

The result was still, of course, he gained another consort out of nowhere after a lightning-fast improv act. Ye Qiu just had a feeling that Dazzling Hundred Blossoms probably enjoyed dramatic RP-ing like some acquaintances he made in the fourth server so he was at ease in bantering back. Either case, if things got bad, Ye Qiu could always exercise his right as a ‘prince’ to either annul the engagement or divorce him in the future.

He just hoped Dazzling Hundred Blossoms wouldn’t be the type like Leaning Peach Tree from Fourth Server who first ‘got married’ and then roleplayed a role of unfaithful wife, fitting for her namesake.

That would be a headache and a taint to Cool Autumn Breeze’s name.

“Yes, I was surprised too. I thought it was a character with a similar name earlier. He exercised the unwritten rule of background story writing to the max that I can’t see a way out of it.”

Ye Qiu nodded. “Exactly.” Most players from the fourth server did improv as easily as breathing. They didn’t just respect strength there, but your improv ability. “At least someone found it funny.”

“Who? Me? Pffft- I- I didn’t find it funny-“

“Not you, Windward. I met him earlier and he was crying, turned out he was cry-laughing but sounded more like crying. He can’t even speak.” So Ye Qiu killed him.

“Oooh! Yeah! The Great Guru WOULD find that funny.”

“Either way, congrats on bagging two pretty gunners! Hahahahaha!”

Ye Qiu smiled. “Your bonus will be cut.”

“…Cut! Cut it off! You’ve cut my bonus for the next half a year!”

“I’ll cut it until the next thirteen months.”

“Cruel!”

The line went dead and Ye Qiu shook his head.

“Mucheng, I know you said non-perfume, but I have no idea what you meant by that so I just bought the packaging the most similar to what you normally use in my memory.” Ye Xiu popped his head into Su Mucheng’s room bringing a pack of menstrual pads and stared blankly at Su Mucheng who was giggling on her phone.

“Oh yeah, just toss it there.” Su Mucheng waved him off carelessly.

Ye Xiu dropped the pack next to the door but he glanced over suspiciously to Su Mucheng. “What are you looking at?”

The beauty lifted her head and blinked. “Just some fan arts. Yunyun is in touch with her inner artistry.”

“She draws?” Ye Xiu blinked at the sudden revelation of the greatest female player’s hidden talent.

“No, commissions,” Su Mucheng corrected bluntly. “Yunyun is a writer type, not an artist. But who cares? It’s artistic still.”

“What is artistic?” Ye Xiu asked, almost fearing the answer.

Su Mucheng shrugged and showed her phone screen.

It was a series of fanart of Cool Autumn Breeze with very feminized Cloud Piercer and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

Something cracked in Ye Xiu but he wasn’t sure what. He blinked blearily as Su Mucheng slowly scrolled down. The themes and setting of the fanarts were quite creative.

There was one where both gunners were donned in heavy ancient harem-style hanfu and Cool Autumn Breeze was wearing the yellow dragon robe of an emperor.

There was one where Cloud Piercer and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms stood back to back with their guns ready and Cool Autumn Breeze was ducking down in front of them with his spear swiping sideways coolly.

There was one that didn’t change anything from the avatars’ design but it had the two gunners clinging to Cool Autumn Breeze who seemed protective.

There was also a drawn version of ‘The Thing That Happened’, extremely dramatized with Dazzling Hundred Blossoms looking prideful and longing while Cool Autumn Breeze looking down slightly with guilt, with an extra frame of Cloud Piercer in front of seas of faceless background characters while looking devastated as though his heart was broken to pieces to see Cool Autumn Breeze and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms together.

“I like the last one the most, I’m asking Yunxiu for the artist’s contact information.” Su Mucheng explained excitedly. “They look great, right?” she beamed.

Ye Xiu didn’t know how to tell her that he found every single one repulsive to see.

“It’s only been two days, how do these people move so fast?”

“Inspirations. Besides, this should be the biggest in-game scandal yet,” Su Mucheng giggled. “But compared to fanfiction, fanarts are much slower. I just read five chapters of the love triangle between Cool Autumn Breeze, Cloud Piercer, and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, it’s still ongoing but it’s promising.”

Ye Xiu gave her a sideways glance. “Maybe you should stop shipping them, it’s awkward since you know Zhou Zekai and Zhang Jiale.”

Su Mucheng blinked innocently. “But I shipped the avatars, not the real people.” She tilted her head. “What’s wrong? You look unhappy? Something is bothering you?” Su Mucheng had been together with Ye Xiu for so long, she was sensitive to Ye Xiu’s change of mood even when he didn’t show it outright.

Ye Xiu cleared his throat and shook his head. “It’s nothing. I suddenly got a headache. I’ll head back to my room.”

Su Mucheng nodded. “Sleep it off! Might as well catch some sleep, you’ve been pulling too many all-nighters lately!” she chided.

“Yes, yes.”

Winter passed and Spring arrived with wonder, the amount of online time the pro players did decrease dramatically as the amount of upgrades they needed became sufficient and they turned their focus onto the tournament.

The thing Zhang Jiale did in winter had long passed but yet another shocking news came from Hundred Blossoms.

Sun Zheping got into an accident.

And it was very serious since Zhang Jiale mentioned he might not be able to rejoin for the rest of the season. Just when Hundred Blossoms was proven to be this season’s favourite to win too.

Some pros who were close to Sun Zheping made a plan and booked themselves a flight to K City on weekdays to check up on him and show some support.

“What did the doctor say?” Han Wenqing asked Zhang Jiale quietly while gazing deeply at Sun Zheping’s arm which was bound in a cast.

Zhang Jiale shrugged while eating the fruits that were meant for Sun Zheping. “Doctor said he’s basically fine, but his motor function might get affected.”

“Full recovery is possible physically, but they basically said it won’t be the same as before the accident,” Sun Zheping clicked his tongue. He looked fed up to be there, but no one can blame him.

“Well…” from the other side of the bed, Ye Xiu crossed his arms. “At least you’re alive, that’s a thing to be grateful for.”

Sun Zheping closed his eyes and sighed, Zhang Jiale continued quietly eating slices of apple, no matter how hard both hid it, they looked downcast and dispirited.

“I might retire this season,” Sun Zheping said bluntly.

Hearing that, everyone knew it was the worst possible outcome for Sun Zheping’s career. They then gazed at the casted arm again, It was his left arm that was affected the most, just the bad luck of it.

“But…” From his place beside Ye Xiu, Lin Jingyan spoke up, “They said you can make a recovery, right? The most important thing is to not lose hope.”

“Probably…” Sun Zheping said blankly. “But I’m useless right now. Gonna need therapy for this hand too, the doctor said so.”

A sigh came from Han Wenqing. “You just need to focus to recover, no need to think too much.” That was as nice as gentle advice from a guy like Han Wenqing. “You can rest then rejoin or whatever you want.”

Ye Xiu smiled and supported Han Wenqing’s statement. “Yes, Glory never stopped but you can always rejoin. You’re still young, Sun Zheping, have some hope for the future.”

Sun Zheping nodded. “But Blossoming Chaos can’t wait. I have no successor yet…”

Naturally, it would be weird for Sun Zheping to have a successor now. He was young, after all, no one would ever think of a replacement just yet when he was still kicking ass just a week ago. Moreover, in the current alliance, there was no Berserker player that could even come half close to Sun Zheping’s level yet. Besides, they couldn’t randomly grab people to play Blossoming Chaos, this was the head of Hundred Blossoms, it didn’t deserve mediocrity.

Waiting for a deserving one would take a very long time, nurturing one would be even more complicated and long especially since Sun Zheping wouldn’t be able to do it himself.

Just when everyone was thinking how to resume the topic without breaching too much, a nurse knocked and entered with a pink bouquet of flowers and a small assortment of snacks in a basket wrapped with plastic food wrapping.

“Patient Sun Zheping? There’s a package for you.”

“Oh, I’ll take that, thank you.” Zhang Jiale got up and took the bouquets and snacks, thanking the nice nurse.

Ye Xiu got up and sent the nurse back, opening the door for her to leave before closing it again.

Sun Zheping glanced over. “From who this time?”

Zhang Jiale just put down the package on the side table alongside other packages of fruits and flowers. He picked up the card slipped in the bouquet and read it out loud.

“Bitch Sun, this cost two hundred on a discount. The snacks expired next month, by the way.” Zhang Jiale arched his brows and scowled. “No name. Is this Old Guo? It’s just like him to mention the discount.”

Lin Jingyan arched his brows and frowned. “No ‘get well soon’?”

“No,” Zhang Jiale shook his head.

“That’s Old Wei, then,” Sun Zheping deadpanned.

Ye Xiu laughed and Han Wenqing shook his head in exasperation.

“At least we know he cared. You should take a picture and send this to Huang Shaotian.”

Sun Zheping’s face twisted. “No way, he’ll come here again. I barely managed to shoo him off by pretending to need rest yesterday. He almost charmed his way talking my mom’s ears out.”

Everybody laughed.

Although many people told him to be positive and not think too much about it, Sun Zheping knew his limitations and his body the best. His pride couldn’t allow him to stay around cozily with the promised place always waiting for him while he wasn’t even sure if he was going to recover fully enough to man Blossoming Chaos again.

Zhang Jiale was the captain now and he was leading a Hundred Blossoms very greatly despite having to suddenly become a sole core, Sun Zheping could just leave it to him to take care of the team.

A month later when Sun Zheping could already move his fingers quite normally albeit stiffly, he made up his mind and logged into Glory with Blossoming Chaos.

One last time.

An official goodbye from him to Blossoming Chaos.

Sun Zheping quietly harvested everything in Blossoming Chaos’ Blood Arena so the club didn’t need to work twice. Afterward, he went out to lead an army of his guild members to kill a Wild Boss. His awareness was still there, the skill he honed for years was there but his body was no longer able to follow it.

Still, he killed the Wild Boss.

However, if the Wild Boss was a fellow pro player? Sun Zheping couldn’t even compare with his current state.

Sun Zheping sighed heavily.

“Why are you sighing so much, Berserker?”

The voice in his ears caused Sun Zheping to jump slightly, Blossoming Chaos turned around and saw Cool Autumn Breeze standing behind him. Then, Sun Zheping sighed even more long-sufferingly.

“It’s you…”

“Who else? Are you waiting for someone?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked.

“No.” Sun Zheping answered shortly.

“You haven’t answered my question, why do you sound so depressed?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked bluntly.

Sun Zheping’s eyes twitched. “Why do you wanna know?”

“It is my duty to hear the problems of my subject. Although this place is not my kingdom, I’m still compelled to help out people in need.” Cool Autumn Breeze said nobly.

“I’m not your subject…” Sun Zheping grumbled.

“It seems that you’re unwilling to share your problem, but that’s okay, I wish you all the best to solve it on your own.” Cool Autumn Breeze turned around.

“Wait.”

“Hm?” Cool Autumn Breeze looked back.

Sun Zheping didn’t even know why he stopped him. “Do you think once we become a council member, we’ll forever be a member?” this was a question he raised a long time ago. It appeared when Cool Autumn Breeze just disappeared from the face of Glory for months with Berserker’s key and he raised a strong demand for an answer on what would happen if the character in a council just suddenly vanished or unused.

Now he was asking for himself.

He knew if there was anything like limitations on how long a council member avatar could go online and retain their title, the club would probably make Blossoming Chaos go online periodically.

“I have no idea.” Cool Autumn Breeze said honestly. “The answer might appear once we gathered twelve members.”

So far, there were only seven.

“What’s wrong Blossoming Chaos…?” Cool Autumn Breeze asked seriously. “Does eternity bother you?”

“Nothing is eternal, after all. That’s just flawed,” Sun Zheping said bitterly.

“True,” Cool Autumn Breeze surprisingly agreed. “But life is flawed, so what’s wrong with eternity to be flawed? There’s nothing absolute, after all.”

Sun Zheping unconsciously nodded in agreement.

He was young and set to last for the next few years at least.

But it wasn’t absolute.

“Cool Autumn Breeze, have you ever thought of changing class?” Sun Zheping asked firmly. “Have you tried being a Berserker?”

Every great player would have a natural affinity to a certain class, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be able to exercise their talent in another class. Take Ye Xiu for example, that guy was the number one Battle Mage and had been for years, but he could pick up other classes and excelled in it just fine and even beyond what the ‘best’ in those classes could offer.

Every Berserker pro in the Alliance didn’t make the cut. Asking the more talented ones to change classes was nigh impossible. But Cool Autumn Breeze might be able to.

This man studied Glory’s lore to the roots of cause, that kind of learning ability could also be used to learn other classes, added with his already amazing mechanic, he would be a decent Berserker that could make the cut.

Sun Zheping didn’t wait for long for the answer, Cool Autumn Breeze simply hummed and said, “No.”

“But do you want to try?” Sun Zheping asked again.

“I’m comfortable with my current position and command as a Battle Mage,” Cool Autumn Breeze answered honestly.

“I see…” Sun Zheping exhaled silently.

“You sure you don’t have a problem, Blossoming Chaos?”

Sun Zheping groaned. “I don’t. Seriously, can’t I just sigh?”

“Oh.” Cool Autumn Breeze stared blankly at him. “If you’re free, are you willing to help me clear out the way to the turtle swamp?”

Ah, so that was why he approached Blossoming Chaos in the first place. “Alright.” No matter what, Cool Autumn Breeze did do him a favor when giving the Berserker’s key to him, he could help him with this menial task.

So they set out for turtle swamp. After a particularly bad raid, Cool Autumn Breeze turned to him.

“Blossoming Chaos, you’ve slowed down. Are you not taking this seriously?” He sounded upset and displeased, but all Sun Zheping could do was smile bitterly.

“Sorry.” The apology just tumbled out. “I’m still recovering from an accident.”

“…” Cool Autumn Breeze went silent and stared at him. “I see, why didn’t you say so? I wouldn’t have asked you to come if I knew you were recovering from an accident.”

“I could still do this much, the earlier raid was a bit out of my expectation.” Sun Zheping clenched his hands to release some tension. “But we did it, didn’t we?”

“Yes, we did.” Cool Autumn Breeze walked on to the swamp while Blossoming Chaos stood by.

Not a minute later, Cool Autumn Breeze returned from gathering the moss from the swamp’s surface and they walked back out of the swamp’s peripheral when Sun Zheping suddenly got a trade invitation.

He automatically wanted to click ‘reject’ since there were too many fans doing it to gather his attention but he accidentally clicked ‘accept’ instead and his heart soured. He looked at his right hand on the mouse and sighed in frustration, even his right hand was no longer as precise.

His frustration faded when he saw Cool Autumn Breeze was trading him a white rock. Sun Zheping furrowed his brows in confusion and hovered his mouse on the item.

[Mysterious Healing Stone]
Type: Rare Material (Lv.??)
Difficulty: 77
Trivia: A mysterious mineral that is formed from a natural cause and effect. Only the fae race knows how to attain it and it’s extremely rare. Said to have a healing effect or boost a healing effect, any creature that holds it will be guaranteed eternity free from old age and sickness.

Sun Zheping’s shoulders slumped as he read the trivia. He accepted the trade because he knew it was Cool Autumn Breeze’s goodwill.

“The fae queen gifted that to me after I helped her out with something,” Cool Autumn Breeze explained dignifiedly. “I always brought it everywhere but I still would suffer curses and plagues, so the legend is not true in the slightest.”

Sun Zheping’s lips twitched with humor. Naturally, it didn’t work because it was only in-game lore, it wouldn’t affect those who were not NPCs.

“However, although it’s not completely true for me, it might have a different effect on you.” Cool Autumn Breeze said. “It might not be an eternity, but I wish you get well soon at least.”

“Thank you.” Sun Zheping expressed. “You didn’t have to but thank you.” He never expected a stranger on the game would show this much compassion to him.

Cool Autumn Breeze waved as if signaling him to not mind it. “I’m needed in another place now, let’s part here. Why don’t we be friends? So we can contact each other?”

Sun Zheping blinked. “You didn’t even care enough to accept my invitation back then and now you’re offering?” he laughed mockingly. “There’s really no need.” Even though he said so, he still turned off his ‘friend invitation block’ feature. “I might not be Blossoming Chaos again after this.”

The friend invitation was received and accepted.

“Perhaps I want to be your friend now I know you won’t be a nuisance.” Cool Autumn Breeze chuckled.

“Damn you.” Sun Zheping smirked.

“Alright, I’m going now. See you around.” Cool Autumn Breeze waved.

Sun Zheping nodded. “See you around.”

Tonight was a goodbye to Blossoming Chaos, and a ‘see you around’ to Cool Autumn Breeze.

Chapter 14

Chapter Text

“Cool Autumn Breeze wanted to join Blue Brook guild!!!”

This one sentence announced with such conviction and seriousness sent the Heavenly Domain into a tremor.

Cool Autumn Breeze was not simply a random name in Heavenly Domain like years ago. He had his own notoriety, even his own secret fanbase.

Not to mention, who didn’t know he was now the husband of Cloud Piercer, whose new owner was just crowned as the Best Rookie recently, and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms the number one Spitfire?

Although many fanboys vehemently denied this fact and insisted it was just temporary role-playing (and in Zhang Jiale’s case, he ‘lost a bet’), many fangirls and casuals just ignored it in favor of the chaos.

Fourth Server’s members were even more enthusiastic and basically treated it as reality. They even came up with their own title for these out-server wives of the famed Wind Prince of Fourth Server. Cloud Piercer was crowned with the title ‘Yun Fei’ and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was crowned with the title ‘Hua Fei’ respectfully. Even though a lot still argued that ‘Yun Jun’ and ‘Hua Jun’ sounded much more accurate and the two sides still couldn’t come to an agreement so they just used both interchangeably.

Anyway, now the powerhouse name of Cool Autumn Breeze, the legendary ‘I don’t want to join any guild for it will create misbalance’ man of Glory actually came up and said he wanted to join Blue Brook Guild?

What kind of incense Blue Brook had been burning for this tyrant to come to their doors and propose to join?

In reality, no incense was burned, it just so happened Cool Autumn Breeze’s closest confidant in Glory, Windward Formation, or Wind Guru as the Fourth Server’s runts liked to call him, was in Blue Brook Guild. Out of all guilds, Cool Autumn Breeze considered Blue Brook the most but his personality just made it hard for him to really join any guild at all on top of his ‘Vow of Neutrality’ that he had taken in Fourth Server in the historic “Fateful Day #3” that was listed in the special RP website.

Everybody was genuinely shocked. The higher-ups of all kinds of guilds were shocked, in turn, they quickly notified the management of their own respective Club and soon the news reached the pro players who just finished the season and were ready to take a few days break first before playing on Heavenly Domain again to support their own guilds.

[[World Chat]]

Love Yourself: What’s wrong? The Wind Prince is breaking his Vow of Neutrality?! He’s going against his vow to heaven? May Heaven strike him down!!!!!!!!!

Pantsless King: I can’t believe the Wind Prince broke his vow from that Fateful Day #3 shame shame

Laser Focus: Did the Wind Guru persuade him finally?!

Tie You Up: What happened? Why is it so noisy all of a sudden?

Po Po Po: The gods have descended! The summer solstice has started!

Heartbreaker Queen: Why do they all get online at roughly the same time, though? So many stars too.

The Law: F*CK! I jaw saw Vaccaria getting crowded in front of the Covenant building!

Blue Panda; Anyone who can tell me exactly where Troubling Rain’s coordinate now will get my two orange equipment!

Local Tyrant: F*ck! Anyone who can tell me where god Han’s Desert Dust is will get $$$!!!!

Gu: Hey. Has anyone heard? Cool Autumn Breeze is joining Blue Brook! Come see the live broadcast in front of Blue Brook Guild’s headquarters!

Leaning Peach Tree: The rumor is true?! His Highness is breaking his Vow of Neutrality?! How could that happen?! Then I’m going to him to propose marriage!

Aloe Vera: Impossible, Cool Autumn Breeze-bro can’t possibly just break the Vow, there must be something that forced him!

Separate Yin and Yang: Hehe, or maybe there’s something that seduced him there.

Princess Changle: Who is it?! Which little b*tch seduced my future husband?! I’ll teach that sl*t some respect, there’s an order to everything! I will be ranked third no matter what!

Footloose Charmer: Aiya, Princess Changle, you need to chill. Who said that the Wind Prince might be seduced? Maybe it’s deliberate!

Gorgeous Scale: Aiya, the Wind Prince is expanding his harem!?

Big News More Gun: Hot scoop! Hot scoop!

Turn Back Sadness: Why are there so many fourth server’s madmen in World Chat today?

slu*tty Summer: Oh no, Wind Guru successfully persuaded him! He’s truly the Warlock of all time. Remember everyone! Warlock means ‘Truce-Breaker’ This must be Wind Guru’s influence!

Can You See Me: Boss said f*ck you all

Harder Daddy: Mmh, yes please.

[Harder Daddy has been reported for inappropriate language. Warning Message. Under system’s investigation.]

Harder Daddy: … How much hatred you guys have?! Making the system instantly respond?! How many of you reported this daddy?!

[Harder Daddy is deemed to have broken World Chat’s regulation. Mute Ban times: 24 Hours]

Missing Target: Oh thank God, it works this time.

Upon appearing, Harder Daddy was immediately muted after receiving over one hundred reports in less than two seconds, not only the fourth server’s veterans reporting him, but even average players from other servers couldn’t bear to not report him after seeing his spicy name and reputation.

A sigh of relief was exhaled by hundreds at that moment and the world resumed moving.

Ultimate Idol: What is this I hear about Cool Autumn Breeze joining Blue Brook?

Saving Grace: Are we sure it’s the original Cool Autumn Breeze and not a copy?

Aquamarine: Tag me when the full gossips come out.

While the players on the World Chat decided to squat and wait for melon seeds to be delivered into their hands, Ye Qiu was still the most confused on why everyone knew his careless remark and how it became such a big gossip that people found him over it whilst he was looking for gold on the Temptation River Bank with his cousin that he roped in as a worker slave.

“If you want to join a guild? Why not Blossoms Valley!?” Standing in all his glory as the number one Spitfire in the entire Heavenly Domain and beyond, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was also one of the most beautifully dressed avatars in the entire Glory. Just his mere presence alone would make people look twice and sigh in admiration, so trendy. The said trendy Spitfire didn’t hesitate to go up to the Wind Prince of Fourth Server on the river, seemingly angry.

“Aiya, Hua-fei, calm down. My imperial cousin has his reasons,” Colourful Jade jumped dramatically to defend but in a tone that sounded like she was waiting for a good show.

“Can you not call me Hua-fei?” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms said sullenly.

“Hua-jun?” Colourful Jade, seemingly eager to court death, suggested. “Or do you want me to just refer to you as Second Consort?”

“I’m not joining Blue Brook,” Ye Qiu said before anything could escalate. “This prince was just randomly mentioning it.”

Though his ‘husband’ said so, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was still doubtful. “Are you sure? If you want to join a guild, you can join Blossoms Valley.”

“How can this prince join any guild? That means I’m beneath someone else’s rule and guideline, I’m beneath no one,” Ye Qiu recited absently while looking down at his notes.

“Unless, of course, you want to forcefully push him down, then he’ll be underneath you,” Colourful Jade said playfully to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

Ye Qiu lowered his notes and gazed blankly at Colourful Jade, sometimes, he really wanted to kill this beautiful female character over and over again, but who told her to be remotely useful to Ye Qiu? He couldn’t bear to kill his competent slave and wait for her to respawn and walk back to him.

Xiao Lin, who played Colourful Jade, already long developed a sixth sense of her boss mentally looking for a way to torture her so she quickly changed the topic. “Second Consort, ah. It’s good you’re here. To tell you the truth, my imperial cousin has been under quite a stress lately. His righteous sense is flaring ever so brightly but his investigation seeking the truth has been going nowhere, would you like to assist us in this quest for truth?” Colourful Jade was flatteringly requested.

“What is it that you’re investigating?” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms answered dignifiedly.

Colourful Jade turned to look at Cool Autumn Breeze, she was also genuinely clueless about what they were investigating, she was only following his orders mindlessly on autopilot.

Even though Ye Qiu knew Xiao Lin was asking for his help to answer, he refused to help her which forced her to improvise.

“You will know when you come with us,” Colourful Jade said mysteriously. “It just happens that your long-ranged ability might help us a lot, Second Consort.”

“Very well.”

With a familiar jingle soundtrack, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms joined the party.

Just when the soundtrack was halfway done, a familiar Sharpshooter jumped out of nowhere and stood in front of the group. He didn’t say anything and it wasn’t for the lack of trying.

“Zhou Zekai?”

“First Consort?”

Both Dazzling Hundred Blossoms and Xiao Lin seemed baffled at the Sharpshooter’s sudden entrance.

“Why are you here?” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms murmured in question.

“Where did you come from?” Xiao Lin questioned doubtfully.

Cloud Piercer didn’t answer, but again, for some reason, all of the people present had a strong suspicion it wasn’t because of the lack of trying. The handsome Sharpshooter shifted handsomely on his feet.

“I heard…”

An awkward confusing silence fell.

“Heard what?” Ye Qiu asked. Because there were way too many things to be heard about and too many topics that Ye Qiu felt could be a core of the problem. He wasn’t sure which in the case of what Cloud Piercer just mentioned.

“That you need help,” Cloud Piercer answered crisply. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t talked for a long time or he rarely talked at all, but the handsome Sharpshooter’s voice always sounded hoarse and restrained when he replied to Ye Qiu.

“Huh?” Ye Qiu made a noise of flat confusion.

Cloud Piercer then turned to Colourful Jade as if he wanted the girl to say something.

The beautiful Elementalist was speechless. Although Glory’s avatars were expressionless, for some reason she could feel the expectation in those expressionless eyes. As a young woman with a strong ability to be an assistant and knowing what her boss wanted without he even opening his mouth to say it out loud, the young woman sweated slightly behind the screen. ‘Bro, what do you want me to say???’

Taking in a deep breath, Xiao Lin analyzed what the Sharpshooter actually wanted her to say. Finally, she made a conclusion.

“Does what First Consort mean about my imperial cousin’s distress about his quest of truth?”

“En.” Cloud Piercer responded simply.

“…First Consort, for how long have you been around here?” Xiao Lin voiced out suspiciously while Colourful Jade turned her head around to check her surroundings. It was an open space, but it didn’t mean there were no hiding spots.

Cloud Piercer stopped looking at Colourful Jade and turned to give his devoted attention back to Cool Autumn Breeze. “I’ll help.”

“Well, if you’re free and want to come along, you can come,” Ye Qiu said carelessly. Cloud Piercer was a good support, he had a good awareness, knew his place, didn’t talk much, and rarely dragged Ye Qiu down. He could work with this little Sharpshooter.

Another jingle of soundtrack rang out and Cloud Piercer joined the party.

“Great. One attacker and three long-ranged, where are we going?” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms voiced out curiously.

“Somewhere.” Ye Qiu replied flatly. “You will know when we arrive.”

“Huh? Why are you stealing my lines?” Colourful Jade murmured in complaint.

“Silence.”

So, the Fourth Server’s Wind Prince, along with his two consorts and imperial little cousin, set out on his journey for the quest he didn’t bother to explain.

After taking down the third batch of monsters in complete silence, Second Consort- err… Dazzling Hundred Blossoms spoke up.

“Hey, can we talk while doing this? It’s kinda boring to just kill monsters without talking.”

“Ah?” Ye Qiu gasped in surprise and Cool Autumn Breeze abruptly stopped all operations.

Ye Qiu’s surprised gasp also startled Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. “What? What is it?” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms took out a grenade and looked around, thinking there was an ambush that surprised Cool Autumn Breeze from somewhere.

“Ah, no. I just forgot you guys are playable characters…” Ye Qiu sheepishly admitted.

Silence fell with disbelief. “You treated us as NPC?!” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms said in disbelief.

“It’s because all of you are very skilled,” Ye Qiu praised generously.

Hearing Ye Qiu’s praise, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms’s ire halved successfully. “So let’s talk while we’re going. Why are we so quiet? It’s not fun, I’ll get bored quickly.” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms looked at Cloud Piercer and gave up on him without a second thought, he then looked at Colourful Jade expectantly. “Little lady, don’t you agree?”

A speech bubble floated up from the female Elementalist in response. “(My Imperial Cousin ordered me to be silent…)”

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was speechless.

Ye Qiu was already used to Xiao Lin’s malicious compliance and was not disturbed by it. “You can talk now. Accompany second consort so he’s not lonely.”

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms became even more speechless.

“As you wish, your highness,” Colourful Jade said mockingly to Ye Qiu and then turned to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. “Second consort, what do you want to talk about?”

Coming this far, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms didn’t seem to want to argue and really started talking to Colourful Jade honestly. “How old are you?”

First, gouge out how old your conversational partner was. It would be inappropriate to curse in front of a minor.

“I’m nineteen, born in Dragon year. I was born in danger day, which has a dangerous and volatile aura, it turned out it was really a dangerous and volatile day for my mother because she had to give birth to me that day. My nature is Yang, my hour piller and year piller are—”

“Stop, stop!” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms frantically yelled, cutting off Colourful Jade from telling all of her birth information in one sitting. “You’re nineteen, I get it!”

“You sure you don’t want to know about my bazi?”

“Why would I? Don’t share something like that with strangers online.”

“But you’re not strangers, you’re my cousin’s consort.” Then, in a shy tone, the girl added. “In the case second consort wants to consolidate your power within the harem by matching me with one of your relatives, I’m ready to tank it.”

“…” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms didn’t know what to say. He didn’t expect to meet a female bandit while playing Glory today.

“What about first consort and second consort? How old are you guys? Pardon me for asking you about this now,” Colourful Jade said warmly.

“I’m twenty-one,” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms replied with a neutral tone.

“(Eighteen. Snake. Stable Day…)”

“(Nature is Yin. Constellation is Xing…)”

“(Heavenly Creatures, Vermillion Bird…)”

In contrast with Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, Cloud Piercer listed off his bazi solemnly that it took three speech bubbles to finish. Yet, despite so, Cloud Piercer never paused in shooting and looking out for the enemies. It made people doubt whether he actually typed those all in between really fast or did he already had his entire Bazi noted and just copied and pasted it for whatever purpose when he needed it.

“Oh!” Colourful Jade made a noise of interest while casting several spells to control a crowd of monsters. “You’re a snake! My cousin is an Ox. As expected, you two are very suitable for each other.” She commented gleefully.

“Thank you…” Cloud Piercer replied softly.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms; “…”

Ye Qiu looked back and felt pity to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms who seemed to be unable to follow the trajectory of conversation that he longed for. There was a reason why he told Xiao Lin to shut up. His cousin’s ability to talk nonsense was unmatched in City B. Ye Qiu had yet to find anyone who could talk to her and force her to remain on one straight path in a conversation.

Cloud Piercer… this quiet teen. Although he was quiet, Ye Qiu really couldn’t underestimate him. To be able to match Xiao Lin’s random topic was a testament that Cloud Piercer might not be normal after all.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, on the other hand, Ye Qiu felt compassion for this Spitfire, so he spoke up hesitantly. “Dazzling Hundred Blossoms…”

Ye Qiu had yet to finish his sentence when the Spitfire erupted.

“I’m born in the year of Tiger! Establish day! Although I might not be as good as Snake for Ox, it’s not bad either!” Dazzling Hundred Blossoms ran in between Colourful Jade and Cloud Piercer, declaring his own importance.

“Wow! A tiger!” Colourful Jade clapped like a kindergarten teacher being enthusiastic towards her young students. “Very nice!”

Ah… Ye Qiu expressionlessly controlled Cool Autumn Breeze to turn around, ignoring the three.

Normal?

Ye Qiu had forgotten how Dazzling Hundred Blossoms became his consort.

How could the guy who demanded to fulfil a marriage contract be normal?

Ye Qiu was worried over nothing.

Be it the quiet Cloud Piercer or the friendly Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, none of them were normal.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: It’s a false alarm, guys. Cool Autumn Breeze is not joining any guild.

One Autumn Leaf: You spoke to him?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Obviously. How else do I know?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: I also told him if he really needs it, he can just join Blossoms Valley. What’s the use of Blue Brook?

Troubling Rain: We have a lot of uses, mind you. Blue Brook is doing better than Blossoms Valley recently! Just look at the ranking!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Ranking can change anytime. Brats, do you think you’re better than Blossoms Valley?

Troubling Rain: Of course! Blue Brook’s root is deeper than Blossoms Valley, we’ve been around since the first server!

Demon Subduer: I’m really old. “First server” has become a pass card for veterans o_o”

Desert Dust: Any information where Cool Autumn Breeze is?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: With me rn.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Y?

Desert Dust: With you?

One Autumn Leaf: With you?

Troubling Rain: With you?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Yeah, why?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Isn’t it normal for confirmed fiancés to go on a date?

Windy Rain: With all due respect, Senior Zhang. I think you’re delving too deep into your role-playing and already become delusional.

One Autumn Leaf: +1

One Autumn Leaf: I’m calling Sun Zheping.

Life Extinguisher: I’m very surprised you can type down those, Chu Yunxiu.

Windy Rain: I just don’t like over-shipbait. It gives me too much hope and crushes my expectations.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Don’t care. I got a rare material out of this date...

One Autumn Leaf: Gold digger.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Jealous much?

Vaccaria: Have some shame, you.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: All of you are jealous of my skill in investing.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: By the way, I got a new quest log from Cool Autumn Breeze. The reward is Skill Book and a rare material.

Troubling Rain: Share it. Pic or it never happens.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Call me dad.

Vaccaria: …

Demon Subduer: …

Swoksaar: …

Troubling Rain: Dad.

Dancing Rain: Huang Shaotian, I admire you.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: You’re actually quite flexible. *impressed*

Troubling Rain: What is so hard about it? Boss Wei made me call him dad all the time.

Troubling Rain: Probably called that guy dad more than I called my own dad 'dad' in those years. Just leave this kind of task to me in the future.

One Autumn Leaf: You have my admiration for that.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: You don’t want face

Troubling Rain: Blue Rain has two cores and there’s a reason why. Just like you shamelessly roping Cool Autumn Breeze into an arranged engagement while Senior Sun constantly denying any involvement, I also can call you dad for the entire Blue Rain.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Ai, when you put it like that. It makes sense!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Suddenly I have the affection of a senior to junior for you!

Troubling Rain: Senior!

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Junior!

Doubtful Demon: Suddenly a deep friendship is made?!

Dancing Rain: *wipes tears* it’s beautiful.

Wind Guard: Disgusting. I’m gonna vomit.

Demon Subduer: @Dazzling Hundred Blossoms remember your own age.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: What’s wrong with my age? Cool Autumn Breeze can role-play and spout the most ridiculous thing and he’s a year older than me.

Desert Dust: Cool Autumn Breeze is a year older than you?

Windy Rain: Wait, really?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: He wasborn in the year of Ox. Naturally one year older than me. He can’t be ten years old now, is he?

One Autumn Leaf: Oh that’s surprising. The same age as me. I guess skilled people are all born in the same year.

Sobbing Ghost: Oh wow. He’s always struck me as someone who was born in the year of Dragon.

Dancing Rain: Since when are you interested in horoscope, Xuanxuan?

Sobbing Ghost: I didn’t. Stop calling me XuanXuan it sounds girly.

Windy Rain: Aiya, you guys are already exchanging bazi? Omg

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: No way, the guy was as tight as usual. Even his chatterbox cousin only revealed the year of birth, not anything else.

Doubtful Demon: But… Are we really sure he’s not ten?

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Impossible. He might be immature, but he’s clearly wise enough to spout off complicated words and sound enough to have strategies.

Carving Ghost: The world is crazy. Are we sure it’s not a genius prodigy using a voice changer? Because his voice certainly sounded artificially changed.

Sobbing Ghost: NO! My rich online crush can’t possibly be a CHILD!

Troubling Rain: It’s impossible to be that fast with the hands of a child! Are you asking me to believe ten-year-olds can easily operate keyboards as good as ME who is legally an adult, with grown-up hands and fingers?!

Windy Rain: He’s a 10 not TEN!!!! 3:(

Dancing Rain: That’s not good. Even Yunyun is defensive.

Windy Rain: Of course, Mumu! He’s my ideal man! I might be shipping him with other men but he’s still my ideal man! T_T

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: You’re insinuating the golden thigh I hugged is a child? Get the f*ck out of here!

Wind Guard: If he’s ten all those thirst posts you guys posted here on New Year’s event will be very, very problematic.

One Autumn Leaf: He started in the fourth server, which is around three years ago. If he’s ten, that means he was seven back then. I’m inclined to believe no seven-years-old would be developed enough to be the strongest of a server. He’s obviously twenty-two.

Immovable Rock: I agree with Captain Ye. He’s very eloquent, not at all like a child.

Life Extinguisher: You guys need to stop reading novels. There’s no way someone like Cool Autumn Breeze be a child.

Swoksaar: But there’s a point of concern from Wu Yuce’s statement. Cool Autumn Breeze obviously used a voice-changer. His voice is very artificial.

Peaceful Hermit: Could it be… the legendary genderbend character? Cool Autumn Breeze is actually a woman irl? But due to some reasons, she wants to play as a guy and uses a voice-changer to artificially change her voice?

Swoksaar: …

Windy Rain: …

Dancing Rain: Why tho?

Peaceful Hermit: Idk. Ask her.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms: Wait, don’t just change the gender of my fiancé just because of a ridiculous hypothesis!

Demon Subduer: Why are you angry? Isn’t it good if it turns out that he is actually a she? I mean, it’s a far-fetching possibility but it’s not impossible.

Boundless Sea: Yes, there’s no reason for you to not wish him to be her. You and Zhou Zekai win.

Laughing Song: @Cloud Piercer Little Zhou, see that? It might not be a man but a woman. Haha. What do you think?