Chapter 20 – Better Left Unseen

The night Fang Zheng received his payment, the Mirage Server squad didn’t make it to the City of the Dead. After waiting left and right, they still couldn’t assemble a full team. Among the five of them, two were healers, two were tanks, and only Polly was a pure DPS. Forcing their way through wasn’t impossible, but their prospects wouldn’t be much better than if they’d brought Your Uncle along. So by midnight, everyone had dispersed.

For the next two days, the squad still couldn’t get together. Finally, on the third day, they managed to recruit 438 the Demon Refiner, thinking they now had enough DPS. But neither Blood Bull nor 2B Fighter Jet showed up—the former for unknown reasons, the latter because he claimed to have met a girl he fancied on Huaxia Summit and couldn’t tear himself away. Fang Zheng couldn’t even be bothered to mock him, but Polly considerately chimed in, “A girl who’d take a liking to 2B is rarer than a wild Siberian tiger in China. Let’s cut him some slack.”

Later, Fang Zheng looked it up—there were fewer than twenty wild Siberian tigers left in China.

Strangely, Your Uncle never showed up again. Had he sensed he was being disliked? Fang Zheng wondered but couldn’t imagine Your Uncle possessing that level of emotional intelligence. With no other explanation, a faint sense of guilt began to rise in his heart.

Having gone to bed early for several nights in a row, Fang Zheng woke up a little past eight on Saturday.

The weather at the end of April was lovely, the warm sunshine like a sexy man luring you into its embrace. Unable to resist, Fang Zheng, for once, tidied his room, did laundry, went to the nearby supermarket to stock his fridge, and even made himself a pot of braised beef with tomatoes.

As a foodie, Fang Zheng wasn’t half bad in the kitchen. It was like his love for gaming—his skills weren’t lacking. The two were essentially the same principle. But between his two greatest loves, one took precedence over the other, so most of the time, food had to make way for gaming. Making a proper meal like today was purely on a whim.

They say good food deserves the right way to enjoy it—you can’t exactly wear a tank top and flip-flops to a French fine-dining restaurant.

But Fang Zheng could.

Plonking a pot of braised beef with tomatoes on his computer desk, bowl in one hand and mouse in the other, he logged into the game.

No need to log in—his alt on Huaxia Summit had been idling for days and was now nearly level 40. With nothing to do on the ghost server, Fang Zheng figured he might as well level the alt. This didn’t mean he intended to switch to Huaxia Summit, though. Unless absolutely necessary, he genuinely didn’t want to abandon the account he’d poured his heart into for over four years—Milk is Mom. Once the alt hit max level, he planned to sell it on the marketplace. A max-level empty account could fetch around three hundred, cheaper than power-leveling services purely due to market forces. Sellers weren’t just business-minded folks like Fang Zheng; many were regular players who’d fallen out of love with the game. Since they weren’t relying on this for income, they’d sell for peanuts (unless the account came with top-tier gear). To compete, Fang Zheng had to keep prices reasonable.

So why would anyone still opt for power-leveling when max-level accounts were cheap? First, power-leveling services didn’t just level you up—they could farm gear for you too. Second, a power-leveled account was ultimately still the client’s own. The character’s ID, appearance, and even social network were all cultivated by the client. That was far more comfortable than buying a random account. Imagine logging in to find several girls calling you “hubby”—that might be fine, but if several guys called you “homewrecker,” the situation would be decidedly less optimistic.

True to its rising-star status, even though it was the weekend and still early morning, the main city was bustling with activity.

Fang Zheng maneuvered his little healer to snag some bargain materials on the marketplace, then relisted them at standard prices. This buy-low-sell-high strategy wouldn’t yield massive profits, but every little bit helped. After that, he started spamming LFG¹Looking for group messages—

[Huaxia] City Toppling Beauty: Level 39 skilled healer LFG for Shaolin Temple~~ Level 39 skilled healer LFG for Shaolin Temple~~

For an account to sell well, sometimes the ID mattered more than the gear. Picture two female characters—one with no gear named “Light Dancing in the Breeze,” the other fully geared but named “Your Uncle.” Which would you pick? So Fang Zheng put serious thought into naming his characters.

[Huaxia] Kill Gods If They Block Me: How skilled are you, hehe~~ Shaolin Temple has eighteen bronze men, you think you can handle them all?~~

See? An ID that screamed soft, delicate girl, combined with a female avatar—getting teased was only natural.

[Huaxia] City Toppling Beauty: Huh? I’m just looking for a group for the Shaolin Temple’s Eighteen Bronze Men dungeon. My skills are solid, don’t worry [smile]

Playing innocent? Fang Zheng was a pro at that~\(≧▽≦)/~

[Huaxia] Kill All Who Block Me: Old Gods, stop embarrassing the guild and get back here.

[Huaxia] Kill Gods If They Block Me: Hard to find a pure girl these days. Beauty, hurry up and grow up so I can marry you!

Fang Zheng was just wondering why this tone felt so familiar when the original version popped up—

[Huaxia] 2B Fighter Jet: Screw that, get in line behind me!

[Huaxia] 2B Fighter Jet: Beauty, I’m calling dibs on you~~~~~~~~~~

Fang Zheng grinned, setting aside his meal to reply immediately—

[Whisper] City Toppling Beauty: Sure, I’ll wait for you, little Jet ^_^

Half a second later—

[Huaxia] 2B Fighter Jet: Oops, my bad—first come, first served. Dear Fei Fei, I won’t fight you for her. Beauty is meant to be yours. We just weren’t fated~~ I wish you a lifetime of happiness, many children, and a house full of joy and grandchildren~~~

[Huaxia] Kill Gods If They Block Me: Something feels off…

[Huaxia] Kill All Who Block Me: Yeah, he wrote “Fei Fei” instead of “Gods.”

[Huaxia] Kill Gods If They Block Me: That’s not what I meant.

[Huaxia] Kill Gods If They Block Me: Damn it, you’re the Fei Fei!!!! Your whole family’s Fei Fei!!!!!!

[Huaxia] 2B Fighter Jet: Tsk, with reflexes like yours, I’m really worried about Meteor Blitz’s future.

Fang Zheng facepalmed, thinking, You’re this much of a fool and still have the nerve to worry about others?

But what the hell was Meteor Blitz?

Opening the leaderboards for Huaxia Summit, Fang Zheng found the name in third place on the guild rankings. The top two spots were still held by Huaxia Dominion and Five Peaks Pavilion, so Meteor Blitz must be a rising star. No surprise there—with Huaxia Summit’s player base growing, it was only a matter of time before the server became a battlefield.

Sigh. Thinking about Mirage Server again—what a tragedy.

Fang Zheng didn’t wallow long before a party invited him. The group was all guys, and they doted on their healer “girl” the entire dungeon run, which went smoothly. Afterward, they even offered to power-level him. Fang Zheng was more than happy to oblige, spending the afternoon alternating between dungeons and open-world grinding, with five burly men playing bodyguard the whole time.

Oh, right—during this period, Mad Lad’s name popped up twice on Huaxia Summit.

First at 2 PM—

[Huaxia] Heartbroken Night: Mad Lad spotted in Sichuan Basin! Coords XX, XX

Then at 4 PM—

[Huaxia] Mad Lad: What’s the point of a whole guild ganging up on one guy? Just trying to farm some mobs on Mount Huang—why’s it so damn hard!

The first time, Fang Zheng felt a twinge of guilt and concern for his client.

The second time, he could practically see the client’s smug face screaming, “I’m on Mount Huang, come kill me, come kill me!”

Aside from his client, other big names made appearances on Huaxia Summit. For instance, Drink Till You Drop, guild leader of Five Peaks Pavilion, posted two announcements, but neither was juicy enough to draw much attention. The guild leader of Meteor Blitz, Greatsword, also posted an announcement, declaring they’d defeat Huaxia Dominion in tomorrow’s Desert Stronghold battle. This triggered a flood of trash talk from Huaxia Dominion, but their guild leader, My Blood for Xuanyuan, never showed up.

Of course, Fang Zheng’s past grievances with that person had been packaged and sold along with the account. So after a mere two seconds, he tossed Xuanyuan to the back of his mind and focused on playing the delicate flower.

What Fang Zheng didn’t know was that, as the afternoon drew to a close, the Xuanyuan he’d been thinking of quietly logged into Mirage Server.

At the time, Meng Chudong was farming monkeys on Mount Emei. The internet café attendant came over to ask if he wanted anything to eat, and only then did he notice the fiery sunset staining half the sky outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

He casually asked the attendant to grab him a boxed meal from nearby—Meng Chudong’s dining standards always matched his customers’. Eating didn’t interfere with gaming; Polly, operated one-handed, was still beating the monkeys to a pulp.

Then a notification popped up in the chat box—

Your friend My Blood for Xuanyuan has entered the game.

Meng Chudong’s hand jerked, causing his zombie to miss a dodge and lose a chunk of HP to a monkey’s swipe. But he recovered quickly, finishing off the monkeys in a few hits, then stared at that line of text in a daze.

To his surprise, not long after, another message appeared beneath the system notification—

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Still farming the Golden Hoop?

Meng Chudong barely registered the question, because the moment he saw “Local,” he instinctively rotated his camera and soon spotted the familiar figure he’d once fought alongside in the distance.

Familiar ID.

Familiar gear.

He could even recite how each piece was obtained and what gems were socketed in them.

Instinctively reaching for a cigarette, he realized he was still holding chopsticks. Meng Chudong sighed lightly.

[Local] Polly: Got nothing better to do.

Xuanyuan approached, stopping in front of Polly. Meng Chudong knew he was inspecting his gear.

But after looking, Xuanyuan continued the earlier conversation—

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Must be really boring. I didn’t expect this server to be this dead.

Meng Chudong lit a cigarette anyway—otherwise, he felt he might spiral into depression.

[Local] Polly: You wouldn’t have transferred if you didn’t know.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Same as ever, never leaving any room for face.

[Local] Polly: Face doesn’t pay the bills.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Sometimes it does.

[Local] Polly: That’s why we split.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: You know it wasn’t just that.

[Local] Polly: Let’s talk about something else. Why’d you come back here?

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: There’s an Assassin on Huaxia Summit who’s been challenging Huaxia Dominion lately.

[Local] Polly: Too many people hate your guild. Not every one of them is my alt.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: ……

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Has anyone ever told you you’re like a mind reader?

[Local] Polly: Not to my face. Behind my back or in their heads, probably.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Actually, I didn’t think it was you. That guy bought the Red Ribbon.

[Local] Polly: Whale.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: If you’d bought it back then, you wouldn’t have been level-wiped.

[Local] Polly: I was waiting for you to gift me one.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Fuck!

[Local] Polly: ^_^

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: ……

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Are you really Polly?

[Local] Polly: Do I look like a Fighter Jet?

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: A bit.

[Local] Polly: Heh.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Most people’s “heh” makes me think. Yours is just a “heh.”

[Local] Polly: I think your words require more brainpower.

[Local] Polly: Stop wasting time with me. I don’t have an account on Huaxia Summit, and I never will. Rest easy.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: What exactly am I supposed to rest easy about?

Meng Chudong narrowed his eyes, took a deep drag, and exhaled slowly—

[Local] Polly: Whatever you want. Whatever you’re thinking.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: What if I’m thinking of you coming to Huaxia Summit? Joining Huaxia Dominion?

[Local] Polly: Change my ID?

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Polly’s reputation isn’t exactly great.

[Local] Polly: If I could ruin one, I can ruin another.

[Local] Polly: But I survived one guild’s level-wiping. Might not survive a second.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Knew you’d remember.

[Local] Polly: Hard to forget.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Yet you’re still farming the Golden Hoop.

[Local] Polly: At this point, I want to call customer service and ask if this thing even exists.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Stop farming. Even if you get it, what then?

[Local] Polly: Sell it.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: Who’d buy it on this server?

[Local] Polly: Then keep it for myself.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: What use is a healer headpiece to you?

[Local] Polly: I’ll say—one guild isn’t enough for you to manage, so you’re meddling in other servers now?

[Local] Polly: Relax. The world keeps turning with or without you.

[Local] My Blood for Xuanyuan: But this server’s a wasteland. You planning to play with NPCs all by yourself?

Polly was never at a disadvantage against My Blood for Xuanyuan, just as Meng Chudong never felt inferior to Xuanyuan, even if he’d once liked this person—or maybe still did. But Mirage Server versus Huaxia Summit? That was a whole different level of disparity.

I’m not alone—I have a team to run dungeons with. The words weren’t hard to say, but where was the proof?

On his second cigarette, Meng Chudong was officially depressed.

Then the system delivered a warm, cozy surprise—

[System] Your friend Milk is Mom has entered the game.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Birdy~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dim lightbulb in Meng Chudong’s heart flickered to life amidst the tide of tildes, complete with sound effects—click!

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