DSMC Chapter 177.2

Yan Jiyun: “You’re currently a Hard-level  player.”

He Yuanle nodded. “Yeah. Aren’t we all the same?”

The three of them looked at him simultaneously.

Gu Wenzhu sighed. “Before trying to join us, couldn’t you at least do a little background check?”

He Yuanle: “Aren’t the things I just mentioned the background check? There’s nothing wrong with that. I personally verified your strength. I just want to join your team.”

Just then, someone came in to serve the dishes. The three of them said nothing. After the server left, He Yuanle felt that the expressions on their faces did not look like they were unwelcome toward him. Instead, they looked as though they were staring at a sucker.

But there was no way he could be a sucker.

He Yuanle: “Say something already. Can I join you or not?”

Yan Jiyun picked up his chopsticks and reached for a cold beef dish. He even rinsed the seasoning coating the beef in a bowl of clear water. “It’s not that you can’t. It’s just that you don’t know enough about us. Of course, our understanding of you is also rather shallow.”

He Yuanle was surprised. “I don’t know enough about you?” They had already cleared a Level 4 instance together.

Yan Jiyun raised his chin. “Then let’s get to know each other again. I’ll introduce Zhu-ge and Qiu Xi first. The previous instance was their second Easy-level instance, and they’ve just been promoted to Intermediate-level players. As for me, I’ve done one more Peak Competition than they have. I’m also an Easy-level player who has just been promoted to the Intermediate level. Your turn, Senior He.”

He deliberately concealed the fact that he was already capable of entering instances above Hard-level. Being strong enough was all that mattered; there was no need to be too high-profile. Besides, they really were not very familiar with He Yuanle.

After hearing him, Senior He was momentarily dazed. “Are you kidding me? Other than Qiu Xi-ge, none of you look like newbies.”

Yan Jiyun said, “You can still regret it while you have the chance.”

He Yuanle rubbed the space between his eyebrows, then his gaze became resolute. “No regrets. If I cared about you still being newbies, I wouldn’t have come. Let me introduce myself again. I’m He Yuanle, 26 years old this year, unmarried and single.”

Yan Jiyun interrupted his pointless self-introduction. “We don’t really care about that.”

He Yuanle: “When you encounter a couple instance in the game, you’ll realize that your teammates’ relationship status is very important.”

Yan Jiyun: “I was specifically talking about you. I can smell the single-dog aura coming off you.”

He Yuanle: “Thank you very much. I take back what I said about not regretting it!”

Gu Wenzhu said, “Continue.”

Qiu Xi was too busy laughing beside them to get a word in. His gestures were relatively easy for Gu Wenzhu to understand quickly, but they still had to be translated for the others, so he tried his best not to give his own opinions. Being together with his teammates was just too much fun.

He Yuanle: “I’ve been in the instance for seven months and I’m currently a Hard-level player, but progressing any further is relatively difficult. I’ve never found teammates I was truly satisfied with. What I value about you is the unity and cooperation you show in instances, and that fearless spirit of yours. It really suits my tastes. The atmosphere is great. In the real world, I’m just an honest laborer making a living through hard work. After entering the game, I had no choice but to hide my true abilities to protect myself.”

Gu Wenzhu asked him, “What are you best at?”

He Yuanle suddenly froze. Clearly, he was the high-level player here, so how had they somehow made him feel like a newbie? Still, being around Yan Jiyun and the others was surprisingly relaxing.

He Yuanle thought about what he was good at. “I’m good at pretending to be weak and sneaking into other people’s teams.”

Yan Jiyun became quite interested in this particular skill, his eyes lighting up. “Does it work every time?”

If that was the case, then besides having pretty good luck, He Yuanle would also make excellent undercover material. If they made good use of him, he could help increase their speed at clearing instances.

He Yuanle nodded. “Sometimes it doesn’t work when I encounter a particularly united team. There’s still some genuine camaraderie between teammates in this game. With a team like Qi Feng’s, no matter how weak I pretend to be, it’s useless. They just do what they need to do.”

Yan Jiyun: “Why would you even need to pretend when you encounter them? They’re already extremely strong.”

He Yuanle shook his head. “It’s not quite like that. Qi Feng is very strong on his own, but if you put him in a team, it actually ends up concealing his brilliance.”

Yan Jiyun loved hearing other people praise his excrement-scooping officer. “Tell me more. You seem to have a pretty good impression of Qi Feng.”

He Yuanle unceremoniously took a spare bowl and chopsticks for himself, eating as he spoke. “Of course. Although I haven’t been in the game for very long, I’ve heard quite a bit about Qi Feng’s performance in instances back then. People made him sound almost mythical.”

Yan Jiyun had been wondering where he could find out more about Qi Feng, and now He Yuanle had practically delivered himself right to his doorstep.

He guided He Yuanle into gossiping, pretending to casually bring up the topic. “I’ve only heard that he had a falling-out with a friend. What happened between them?”

He Yuanle: “I only heard it from a senior who can enter a Top-level instance. As for Qi Feng and that vice president of the Fenghuo Guild, aside from the people involved themselves, no one can really explain it clearly. Their situation was pretty complicated, and it can’t be explained in a few words.”

Yan Jiyun: “We’re just having lunch anyway, so let’s chat casually. The three of us newbies haven’t heard about it before. It’d be bad if we accidentally touched a sore spot when dealing with Qi Feng and the others in the future. That wouldn’t be worth it.”

He Yuanle thought that made sense. Qi Feng and Yan Jiyun had a pretty good relationship, and perhaps the two teams would have a chance to enter an instance together in the future.

He said, “Let me think about how to put it. Anyway, I’ll just tell you what that senior told me.”

Yan Jiyun understood. He could only listen to half of what He Yuanle said next and then extract the truth himself. “Mm. Since you know about it, we don’t have to ask around outside anymore.”

Gu Wenzhu glanced at Yan Jiyun and could tell that he was quite interested in Qi Feng. Ever since Qi Feng came up in the conversation, his eyes had been shining. But that was perfectly normal. Young people tended to admire the strong. Wasn’t there even a term for it in the real world… sapiosexuality? Anyway, the general idea was that people naturally tended to admire those who were strong.

He Yuanle began telling them about the grudges and entanglements between Qi Feng and his former teammate.

“It’s said that Qi Feng broke the instance record as soon as he entered the game. Back then, though, most of the newcomers who entered had already been selected by the system as particularly capable people. Su Qiuming was one of them. Both of them were probably strong players, and perhaps it was that mutual admiration between two strong men. After entering the same instance together, they became friends.”

Yan Jiyun summed it up in his mind: ‘Qi Feng and Su Qiuming were the two strongest newcomers back then.’

“The game has actually been running for five years from the beginning until now. During the first two years, players were still figuring things out. But as the number of players grew, factions naturally appeared, and guilds emerged as a result. After Qi Feng and Su Qiuming entered the game, their instance records were exceptionally outstanding. But they were both newcomers, and some veteran players would bully newbies in instances. During their newbie period, the two of them helped each other and also helped quite a few other people. Later, after they rose from the Newcomer-level to the Easy-level arena, they directly established their own guild — the Fenghuo Guild we have today.”

Yan Jiyun did not understand why the two of them had fallen out, yet the Fenghuo Guild had never changed its name.

Gu Wenzhu asked for him, “Why didn’t they change the name after they fell out?”

He Yuanle: “I don’t know about that. That senior didn’t mention it either. Maybe the guild’s reputation was too strong at the time. The Fenghuo Guild became the largest guild in terms of membership in just one month, and the other guilds were all envious. My guess is that they didn’t change the name later because they wanted to attract more newcomers to join, so they kept it?”

Yan Jiyun asked, “Was Qi Feng more famous than Su Qiuming back then? Did a lot of people join the Fenghuo Guild because of him?”

He picked up a piece of steamed fish that had not been dipped in soy sauce and put it into his mouth, while inwardly mulling over the matter.

Two equally outstanding people entered the game at the same time, but Qi Feng’s reputation was clearly greater than Su Qiuming’s. Was it possible that, little by little, their friendship had become twisted? Su Qiuming had tasted the pleasure of being a leader, but there was always someone above him blocking his path. Perhaps he gradually became more and more dissatisfied with Qi Feng. They had clearly done the same amount of work, yet all the fame went to Qi Feng. Once comparisons and a sense of unfairness arose between the two, jealousy would naturally follow.

He Yuanle: “That’s right. As the guild grew larger and larger, the two sides began to have disagreements over management. Some people started saying that the Fenghuo Guild was a one-man show dominated by Qi Feng. Gradually, the guild split into two factions — one supporting Qi Feng and the other supporting Su Qiuming.” His tone shifted, and he lowered his voice. “Finally, when Qi Feng and Su Qiuming entered their first Hard-level instance, the conflict escalated.”

Gu Wenzhu: “What kind of instance was it?”

He Yuanle: “I remember the senior telling me it was a zombie instance. If a player became infected inside, they were genuinely infected. If they didn’t receive an injection of serum within twelve hours, they would turn into one of the zombies in the instance. It was an instance where players often ended up with no survivors.”

Yan Jiyun: “Couldn’t they choose a different instance? There was no need to enter the zombie instance.”

He Yuanle shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. Back then, the instances were all called ‘first-clear’ instances. The names of the instances had absolutely nothing to do with their actual contents. In the Hard-level instance, two hundred players might enter and fewer than ten could come out. They were extremely difficult. The [Mermaid] instance you entered together already had a relatively high survival rate.”

Yan Jiyun understood. The instances in the past had all been extremely difficult. He knew what “first-clear” meant. There was no information about the instance at all, and they did not even know what props they should bring. It was basically a blind selection. The prop-selection stage was practically useless. Players who attempted an instance for the first time had it much harder than those who entered later.

Nowadays, the guilds were highly successful, offering a complete information-buying service. The survival rates of players ranging from the Newcomer-level all the way to the Hard-level arena had also increased.

Yan Jiyun had a feeling that there was some information hidden here. He just could not connect the dots yet. What was it?

At this point, he was no longer particularly fixated on the grudges between Qi Feng and Su Qiuming. What he wanted to know was why Qi Feng had been delaying his entry into the Top-level instance. 

He clearly had the ability to enter, and every one of his teammates had their own strengths. Why?

He really could not figure it out.

Yan Jiyun frowned. “What happened to them in the zombie instance?”

He Yuanle: “I don’t know exactly what happened either. There are all kinds of versions of the story about the ultimate reason they fell out. Some say Qi Feng was injured and Su Qiuming threw him out of the vehicle, leaving him to fend for himself. Others say Qi Feng was infected with the zombie virus in the instance and Su Qiuming abandoned him there. There’s another version that says Su Qiuming pushed Qi Feng forward to use him as a shield against the zombies, causing him to get bitten. In the end, Qi Feng relied on himself, found the serum, and survived the instance.”

“After they came out of that instance, Qi Feng left the Fenghuo Guild with his people and remained an independent player from then on. One thing is strange, though. Neither of them has ever mentioned the zombie instance, nor have they ever explained exactly why they fell out.”

Yan Jiyun lost his appetite for the chicken, duck, and fish in front of him. If Qi Feng had really been infected with the zombie virus back then, wouldn’t he have almost died in the game?

He glanced at the Master-Pet System notifications. Other than the three notifications from earlier, there had been nothing else.

It was really worrying.

By the end of the meal, they had gained one provisional new teammate. Provisional, because they still did not know He Yuanle well enough.

That night, Yan Jiyun stayed overnight at their base and entered his personal space.

He slept in a daze until the early hours of the morning, when a system notification shook every player from their dreams.

[New Instance Launch Announcement.]

[To all players: We are honored to bring the game <Destiny> to all of you. In order to provide players with more fresh gaming experiences, multiple old instances from the Newcomer level, Easy-level, Intermediate-level, and Hard-level will soon be taken offline. In addition, new instances for those difficulties will all go online simultaneously at 12 PM tomorrow. We wish all players a pleasant night. See you tomorrow at noon.]

Yan Jiyun: Fuck!!!

This damned game!