Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Slander
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At this moment, Mogul Mine was empty in the mirror image of the Beginner’s Village where Li Yao was. The monsters in this mine had been mostly vanquished.
Since the boss wouldn’t respawn, the contract had become Li Yao’s and no more monsters would respawn. Li Yao smoothly ventured into the second layer.
The door to the charging room had been closed, but Li Yao used a key to open it, and began to clear out the items inside.
This place was rather like a workshop, accommodating all kinds of tools and engineering tables that the engineering process required, along with a furnace to smelt ores.
There were unused metal ingots in the room. Most of them were copper ingots, with a few iron ingots. Although there weren’t too many, for the current Li Yao, it was more than sufficient.
To bring his proficiency in engineering education to intermediate level and then fabricate a Fire Eagle Puppet was a relatively time-consuming process.
It took Li Yao an hour to clear out the charging room, and he also discovered that he could get a new Hearthstone that would allow him to teleport directly back here, which delighted him beyond measure.
This way, he could return here at any time. Only he could enter the charging room, so it could perfectly serve as a secret base.
Even if a thief could unlock the door, no thief, even those at level 40 or 50, could come in. Li Yao could easily use this room as a warehouse.
Li Yao decided to buy some furniture like boxes and cabinets, with that, it would be even more convenient. The cost of warehouse expansion was too high, and storing some items in the warehouse wouldn’t be worthwhile. However, he had no such concerns with this place.
Feeling quite pleased, Li Yao began to practice mechanical engineering and crafted the Fire Gun.
Right when Li Yao began making the Fire Gun, a video of him defeating the boss at the mine was uploaded online.
This was the only copy of the video, and the chief editor directly put it at the top of the page in eye-catching large font, making it impossible to miss. Also, Shadow Trace’s high profile approach led many to wonder and the video received explosive clicks.
Although there were videos online of players fighting bosses that were mostly failures, this was the first video showing a successful solo takedown of a field boss.
As soon as the video was uploaded, those who saw it started spreading it everywhere, and all in-game channels were flooded with this news.
If the Starlight Dungeon video was slowly fermenting, then this video was an explosion, swiftly climbing to a high-ranking position in a short time.
Everyone who watched the video voiced their denouncement of Shadow Trace’s shamelessness.
That was because Prairie Fire had unfairly edited the video to include the two failed attempts of Carefree Immortal.
After Carefree Immortal’s two failed attempts, shots of them using their Hearthstones to return to the city were played three times. The implication was clear: Carefree Immortal had given up on taking down this boss, admitting defeat.
Then came Li Yao, whose assembly of a Crossbow drew amazed gasps, and his exploiting of the Crossbow to trap the boss’s arm, which caused many to claim a new technique learned. What followed were shots of the boss with low health and Carefree Immortal shamelessly attempting to steal the boss. Many voiced their disdain: Carefree Immortal’s attempts at stealing the boss would have been fair enough, but their failure to even manage that had brought shame on them.
When they watched Li Yao using Arrow Tower and breaking through techniques, many people claimed this was a bug. They immediately reported it, while also secretly planning to explore this bug after the boss respawned at other Beginner’s Villages.
Countless players started leaving comments under the video, with compliments, contempt, and envy. However, because of Carefree Immortal’s involvement, the nature of the comments altered.
1st floor, Sky Tiger: “I claim the top comment. Everyone below this can eat sh*t.”
2nd floor, Unintentional Insert: “While worshiping the gods, I curse the entire family of the person above.”
3rd floor, I’m a small bunny rabbit: “I just want to know if this bug will be fixed.
4th floor, Endless Battle: “Why are the two strong players both Hunters? Are Hunters really so strong? I feel like deleting my character and starting over as a
Hunter.”
5th floor, Cute Pet Hunter: “Welcome to the pitfall. Then you will know, teamwork is unwanted, no one will invite you to dungeons, basically it becomes a single-player game. Of course, there’s one good thing about being a Hunter, the equipment is cheap.”
6th floor, Not Serious People: “You’ve gone off topic. I want to know where Prairie Fire monster’s Arrow Tower skill book came from.’
7th floor, A Little Naughty: “What I’m more interested in is, what was the expression on Carefree Immortal’s faces when they saw the video.”
8th floor, Carefree Endless: “Prairie Fire is shameless and despicable. The boss was ours at Carefree Immortal, but it was snatched away by this base person.
Then, with the help of the two backstabbing reporters, they framed our studio. That’s the truth.”
9th floor, Bitter Sea Sweet: “You guys are the shameless ones, okay? Do you think everyone is a fool? You are contemptible for making up slanders to confuse people.”
10th floor, Cute knight: “Carefree Immortal really has no shame. They couldn’t even steal the boss. This is too humiliating.”
11th floor, I’m a good person: “Dear brother, I am very grateful. We’ll meet again next time.”
12th floor, Serious people are the cutest: “I do not care about all this. I just want to know why he is so much stronger than us.”
13th floor, Carefree Regret: “Exactly, we all know the situation with Hunters. Why is he so much stronger than ordinary Hunter players? Additionally, don’t even mention Hunters, other classes can’t deal hundreds of damage either.”
14th floor, Carefree Immortal: “I’m an MT with green equipment and only 300 health. I believe that I wouldn’t last a second under his attacks.”
15th floor, Ignorance is not terrible: “Everyone, don’t be led astray by Carefree
Scum.”
16th floor, Carefree’s Third Brother: “I hope for a fair gaming environment.
Spark can solo kill a boss. To be honest, after seeing his video, I was impressed. But this Prairie Fire guy is not just despicable, he didn’t even kill the boss using his skills. Instead, he relies on an unreasonable amount of damage, possibly exploiting a bug. You all must have seen his damage. A Hunter inflicting hundreds of damage with a single three-stage slash. I want to ask, can a Warrior or Death Knight who specializes in big swords deal this kind of damage? A hunter using a greatsword deals two to three times the damage of a melee player. What kind of game is this? How are we supposed to play? I hope everyone will report this kind of disgusting behavior on the official website.”
17th floor, No Justice in this World: “The third brother is absolutely right, what kind of expert could single-handedly kill a boss using a bug? I think the Carefree Studio did the right thing, taking the boss from such despicable people is just. We should be supporting the Carefree Studio’s righteous actions, why is everyone still blaming them?”
18th floor, Scarecrow not Tiger Devourer: “The building has been overrun by spammers, identified as such.”
105th floor, Spring Meng Fan: “I don’t understand, what’s going on with the world?”
1058th floor, Silent: “I don’t care who’s right or wrong, I just want to know why Prairie Fire is so much better than us? From when the game started till now, I barely left the game, fighting tirelessly every day, and my damage is just a fraction of his. Why is that?”
5898th floor, Idiot Warrior: “We want a fair and just gaming environment, we request an official response. If this trash doesn’t get dealt with, I will quit the game.”
12589th floor, Finishing Touch: “There’s no skill involved, I could do the same.”
258965th floor, This Winter is Not Too Hot: “Seeing someone play like this makes the game boring. Bug exploiters should be kicked out of the game.”
As the Carefree Studio stirred things up, the sentiment completely turned against Prairie Fire. A bunch of people started popping up demanding that Prairie Fire’s account be deleted, saying that such accounts shouldn’t exist.
At the same time, a snowfall of complaints were lodged with the officials. In the game world’s evening, Li Yao’s engineering proficiency level was just a few dozen points away from intermediate, 968/1000.
However, Li Yao went back, turned into Spark, and then continued to lead people to earn money.
During this time, several players asked him about his opinion on Prairie Fire soloing a boss. Li Yao dodged the questions, just focusing on helping them earn Gold Medals.
After completing five dungeon rounds, Li Yao’s account had an additional 75,000 credit points. He was very happy, he finally had real money and no longer had to be so frugal. His life could be improved a little.
However, Li Yao had not disconnected to celebrate. Dazed and Adorable suddenly messaged him: “Big brother, did you see the video? The comments under it are really annoying.”
Li Yao asked in confusion, “What comments?”
Dazed and Adorable discontentedly remarked: “Of course it’s the video of you soloing the boss. I watched it, it was really amazing, I didn’t know the game could be played like that. You should teach me in the future.”
Li Yao said with a laugh, “No problem, Adorable is so smart and quick, you will get it right away. You will definitely be much better than me.”
“Of course, do you know who I am?” Dazed and Adorable replied excitedly, then frowned and said, “But those guys have a terrible eye, saying big brother used a bug, they have poor vision. No wonder they can’t even beat an Elite Monster.” Whilst Li Yao was dealing with Adorable’s words, the witch also sent a message. Li Yao decided to connect with all three of them at the same time.
The Witch said, “You heard that Carefree Studio is deliberately slandering you, didn’t you?”
Li Yao had hurriedly read it just now and saw the torrent of people accusing him, with those defending him being drowned out.
He couldn’t be bothered to deal with people who were jealous of him.
“I’ve just seen it.” Li Yao replied unbothered.
The Witch worriedly said, “The current situation is unfavorable to you, more and more people are filing complaints to the officials against you. As far as I know, other administrative regions have started to systematically slander you, applying pressure to the officials to delete your account.”
“A bunch of jumping clowns, I can’t be bothered with them.” Li Yao scornfully replied.
“You’re oversimplifying things, a friend in the official department told me that over a hundred million people have complained about you, and the number is still rising. I’m afraid the officials won’t be able to control it, my friend said they have already reported and asked for action to be taken.”
“Hmm, I know.” Even so, Li Yao wasn’t concerned. Not to mention that Li Yao had killed the boss using his own strength, even if he had exploited a bug, the officials would not penalize the player. Importantly, the system was self-operating, and the game company didn’t even have the right to amend the data. The key point was, the company was currently promoting the game, and they would actually hope for a few star characters to appear, as it would make promotion easier.
Similar episodes had occurred in his last life. Not only were there no penalties, but the company had also actively clarified and promoted the player. The 10th largest team in China in his last life was promoted in this way.
The Witch knew Li Yao’s character well and said, “This is how it is, I contacted the Carefree Studio. Knowing that I know you, they want to reach an agreement with you.”
“An agreement? What agreement?” Li Yao asked out of curiosity.
“Do you know about the New Area Opening Live Stream competition?” The Witch asked.
“I heard about that.”
“They want you to join the competition too. The results of the competition will decide who will back down.” The Witch revealed.
Li Yao laughed coldly, “They sure know how to scheme.” ….