Chapter 168 – City of Lei Feng (Part 2)
by Salted FishLittle Lucky Charm had logged off near the lifeboat area at the stern. Red and white rubber boats were neatly stacked and tied with ropes, surrounded by scattered wooden crates, clearly marking this as a storage zone.
Players on the deck rarely noticed this spot, and even if they did, no one would bother idling here. That’s why, when everyone was calling for his head yesterday, Your Uncle had come to this secluded place with Spring Field Blossom, watching the angry mob rage in World Chat while secretly enjoying the show.
As the saying goes, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” How true. Watching the little Spirit Master slowly materialize between the red and white boats, Your Uncle thought gloomily—now karma had come for him.
As the resolution stabilized and the screen stopped flickering, another figure gradually came into focus.
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: Hey.
Your Uncle froze. They had parted ways here yesterday, but they hadn’t agreed to meet up again. Moreover, Spring Field Blossom hadn’t just logged in—the 489 chips floating above his head were each earned through sweat and time.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Were you waiting for me?
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: Went on a winning streak and got too hyped. Came here to smoke and calm down.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Are you bragging right now TAT
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: ╰(￣▽￣)╮
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Been playing all day?
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: Yep. Almost at 500. No more debt soon, whew.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Impressive…
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: [Flips hair] Just that OP!
The gesture was too flirtatious for Your Uncle to handle. =_=
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Then keep playing, don’t mind me. Otherwise…
Afraid of jinxing it, he trailed off with ellipses.
Spring Field Blossom understood instantly. =_=
But—
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: It’s just 500 chips, not 5 million. Winning and losing is part of the fun.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: But you stop winning as soon as you’re near me.
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: I never win against my boss at cards either.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Oh, I can relate to that.
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: No wonder you could be someone’s boss…
Spring Field Blossom was the only bright spot Your Uncle had found in this ship-shaped world, but the smog here was too thick—a single flower couldn’t lift his mood from the grave.
Especially when all sorts of demons and monsters started stirring again—
[Casino City] Jade Dragon Snow: I see the hacker’s name in the online list! Where is he? Can’t find him!
[Casino City] Alchemy Master: Poker group here—no sign of him.
[Casino City] Seagull Ah: Russian Roulette area clear.
[Casino City] Purple Tassel: Blackjack tables clean.
[Casino City] Cold Water Taoist: Not even normal players at the Big or Small tables.
[Casino City] Clinton: Probably too busy drafting his appeal to play LOL
Your Uncle forced himself not to look at World Chat, but the words seemed to come alive, crawling out from the bottom-left corner until they filled the entire screen.
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: I read that post.
Those few words were like makeup remover, instantly wiping away the ghosts on his screen.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Did you reply?
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: No.
Actually, Spring Field Blossom had replied—and was immediately muted for a week due to the excessively crude nature of his response.
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: Since Huaxia’s open beta, permanent bans have always come with solid evidence. They won’t make rash judgments just because of some rabble-rousing.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: I know, but I’m still scared. Pretty pathetic, huh?
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: You don’t know—I got hacked once before. Only got Lucky Little Charm back because of a server merge and a version update. I had to grind dungeons with my guildmates over and over to get to where I am now. I don’t want to start over.
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: Rebuilding is tough.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: It’s not the grind I’m afraid of. It’s letting go.
Letting go of all the memories tied to this account. Letting go of all the emotions poured into it.
Spring Field Blossom wasn’t the “wise older brother” type, so at this point, he didn’t know what else to say. All he knew was that he was furious—furious enough to buy a hundred megaphones and curse out every single ancestor of every poster in that thread.
[Whisper] Little Lucky Charm: Alright, go play. I need some time alone.
[Whisper] Spring Field Blossom: Yeah.
Negative energy was something you had to deal with yourself. Little Charm needed space, and he needed to cool off.
After Spring Field Blossom left, Your Uncle crouched motionless among the lifeboats.
He wasn’t in the mood to do anything—no, scratch that. He might not even have the right to do anything in-game anymore. Hah.
If someone spotted him now and zoomed out, they’d see Your Uncle enveloped in a dense aura of gloom. Soon, that thick layer shattered into countless tiny black particles, radiating outward from him and dissolving into the air, carried by the sea breeze across all of Las Vegas…
[Beijing Time 21:07, Texas Hold’em Area]
[Local] Purple Lily: FFS, over a dozen rounds with no one calling!
[Local] Sky Street Brother: Which table? Table 13 here—same shit!
[Local] X-Brother: Table 18 too!
[Local] Zhao Handsome: For real? Table 22 as well!
[Local] Lonely Void: Table 7…
[Local] Green Sleeves: Table 33 reporting in…
[Local] Winter Solstice: Is the system bugged?
[Local] Golden Cicada: The system can’t force you not to call. Just bad luck.
[Local] Sky Street Brother: This is ridiculous! Can we even play this game?!
……
[Beijing Time 21:39, Russian Roulette Area]
[Casino City] Bao Daren: Country bumpkin here—what’s Russian Roulette?
[Casino City] Miss Zhao: A revolver with six chambers, one bullet. Two players take turns shooting themselves. Lucky? Click on an empty chamber. Unlucky? You know the rest. No one knows where the bullet is—last one standing wins.
[Casino City] Bao Daren: So there’s no pattern?
[Casino City] Miss Zhao: Obviously. That’s the thrill—every trigger pull could mean a headshot.
[Casino City] Bao Daren: THEN WHY DOES THE FIRST PLAYER ALWAYS DIE EVERY ROUND?!
[Casino City] Miss Zhao: Huh?
[Casino City] Fat Leopard: My whole guild can confirm—first shooter always dies. No exceptions.
[Casino City] Childhood Carousel: Been spectating for 20 mins. Can confirm—dozens of rounds, first shooter always dies instantly.
[Casino City] Miss Zhao: That’s BS. If that were true, no one would go first.
[Casino City] Wind Cannon: Mahjong player here—roulette tables are empty. Enough space for two square-dancing groups now.
……
[Beijing Time 22:18, Slot Machine Area]
[Local] Young Master Xue: Did the GMs rig the machines?! Dropped 200 chips—nothing!
[Local] Emerald Song: Try 300, buddy.
[Local] Azure Sky Waves: Tonight’s cursed. Poker, mahjong, blackjack, Big or Small—no one’s winning.
[Local] Flowing Clouds: At least people are still playing. Russian Roulette’s a ghost town. =_=
……
[Beijing Time 23:00, Las Vegas]
[Casino City] Vast Starry Sky: Am I hallucinating?! CHECK THE LEADERBOARD!
[Casino City] Ancient Praise: Rain Through the Woods has been #1 since launch. Normal. Newbie?
[Casino City] Vast Starry Sky: Newbie?! Open your damn eyes! Sure, Rain’s first—but only at 777 chips. Minus the system’s advance, that’s just 277. Second place? 499!
[Casino City] Vast Starry Sky: Thought I was just unlucky tonight, but everyone’s in debt except Rain!
[Casino City] Bao Daren: WTF?! Are we all gonna enter Lover’s Constellation with negative points?! Did they even balance this?!
[Casino City] Green Sleeves: The imbalance started today.
[Casino City] Miss Zhao: Now that you mention it—after sunset.
[Casino City] Pretty Cute: Stop talking, I’m scared… TAT
[Casino City] War-God’s Follower: We’ve been cursed.
[Casino City] Ancient Praise: Cute girls can play pretend. You, sir, need not participate.
[Casino City] A piggy bank falls from the sky, hitting Rain Through the Woods. +1 chip.
[Casino City] Vast Starry Sky: …
[Casino City] Wind Cannon: Did the piggy bank hurt?
[Casino City] Rain Through the Woods: Not until it shattered and only had one coin inside.
[Casino City] Rain Through the Woods: God’s Follower, whisper me.
[Beijing Time 23:07, Huaxia Online Technical Monitoring Department]
“Xiao Li, why are you still here?”
“Ah, boss, just one more report to handle, then I’m done.”
“Young people should work hard, but health comes first. Working late now means lower efficiency tomorrow. Gains tonight, losses tomorrow—”
“Boss, you’ve been working late too, several days in a row, hehe…”
“I’m old. Don’t need much sleep.”
Thirty-five isn’t old! Stop acting like you’re retiring! You’re just desperate for a promotion!
“What was that?”
“Ah, nothing! Just… this report’s tricky, hehe.”
“Tricky?”
“Someone reported a player for hacking, but backend checks show no attacks or plugin tampering. Data’s clean.”
“Then case closed. False reports happen all the time.”
“But not all data is normal…”
“Enough. Your technical skills and communication skills are inversely proportional. Show me the data.”
Ten minutes later—
“Xiao Li, use common sense. Even without the data, think—who would hack a game just to make themselves lose constantly?”
“But the system keeps rolling triple sixes…”
“Xiao Li, stop being a tech hermit. Coincidences exist. The world’s beautiful because of randomness. The first fish crawled onto land—humans. First caveman used fire—civilization. First brave soul ate a crab—seafood feasts…”
“Boss I’ve handled the report suddenly feeling sleepy is Bus No. 2 still running whatever I’ll just take a taxi no big deal boss goodbye boss good night—”
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