Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
“VIP players will enter the Battle of the Butterfly directly.” That meant that no matter how these ten ended up on the ranking, they would have taken up ten of the Top One Hundred spots already. On this day before the preliminary, this malicious announcement issued by Dream Inc. was bound to garner plenty of grouse from the players. There were players who believed that they had a good chance of being picked or chosen as a VIP player, but many other players knew that their chance of being chosen was close to zero.
They had to work so hard to fight in the Battle of the Bug, and it depended on luck whether they would survive. However, people squeezed into the top one hundred without doing anything more than just registering. They would be able to get the top one hundred without even doing anything. How was that fair? Therefore, just as expected, the forum exploded with complaints.
Thankfully, Dream Inc. was prepared for this, and the forum users were limited to releasing only a few posts within a certain period of time. However, even so, the number of posts after five o’clock grew tremendously, and it did not slow down even as it approached midnight. Many conspiracists appeared out of the woodworks. Threads like “Dream Inc. Overlooking Fairness and The Placing Has Been Fixed!” or “Whales Buying Top Ranking With Money?” or “The Tournament is Nothing But A Promo Between Dream Inc. and the Famous Gaming Studios.” They came one after another. Even though they were completely baseless, they had garnered more than enough traction.
During that period, the customer service of Thriller Paradise was basically half-paralyzed. The online customer service was overwhelmed by a huge influx of messages. If the operator had to reply to them one by one, they would have to work endlessly for three days. The phone operators didn’t have it easy either. All the lines were occupied, and any person calling the customer service line only had a ten percent chance of getting through.
Obviously, the player base wanted an ‘explanation.’ Finally, at 8 pm, after three hours of hard work by the players, the Dream Inc. made an additional announcement regarding “VIP Players” on the official website.
“The VIP Players are akin to seed players in sport leagues. In other words, they are ten players whose elimination rate in the current matching system are closest to zero. Removing seed players from the Battle of the Bug and Battle of the Cocoon was a way to protect the normal players. The VIP Players will be selected by the system. The photon computer will finish the calculation and announce the name list by midnight on the 1st of May. For more details, please follow the announcement on the official website.”
In a way… this announcement was even more malicious than the previous one. The player base was already resentful toward these ten, and now the gaming company was basically saying, “This group of people are players with the highest possibility of being chosen by the system, and they will get into the top one hundred. Removing them from the preliminaries is a way of safeguarding the interest of all the other regular players.”
This was basically placing targets on the seed players. If these ten were incredibly strong, then so be it. But if they were less than advertised or did not live up to their names, then they would be viciously slandered online and targeted by antis. Thankfully, it was later proved that these ten players were indeed all monsters.
At 8.55 pm, Feng Bujue logged into the game in non-sleeping mode. The first thing he did after logging on was to look through his email. For the past few days, there were many strangers who sent Brother Jue friend requests. There were emails with greetings and those who tried to get into his good book were mostly members of Regulations. On the 24th, after Understanding Death parted from Feng Bujue at the market, he returned to have a discussion with Zen Dream. The two soon reached a conclusion and confirmed that Brother Jue was indeed the second-ranking player on the combat stat ranking. Then, they reported this to their superiors, and this was treated as highly classified info within Regulation.
Therefore, from midnight of the 24th, Brother Jue was harassed incessantly by people from Regulation. Facing with this, Feng Bujue ignored them. He deleted all the emails and rejected all the friend requests. His answer was simple. Before the other party made any request, do not give them any chance to do so. However, the other party did not give up. They kept trying to bridge a connection with Feng Bujue.
Regulations’ style was different from Brahmans. Once Brother Jue said no, they stopped with the futile interactions. The Regulations’ side was different. Feng Bujue was certain that they had a department similar to ‘public relations,’ because in the friend requests and emails that he had received, there were more obviously female and sexualized IDs. The content of the email ranged from “I am xx from Regulation. Can I chat with you?” to “Big Brother Feng Bujue, can xx please be given a chance to speak to you?” to “I just want to get to know you. Why are you being so hard to please?”
When Brother Jue saw these emails, he had goosebumps. It felt like he had taken down a stroll at the red light district. To his surprise, after these female lures failed, there came emails from IDs like “A King’s Man” and “Wiggy,” as if Regulations suspected that our Brother Jue played for the other team. In any case, it looks like Regulations desperately wanted to get in touch with Feng Bujue, and they would stop at nothing.
“Ah… There’s a new announcement?” After deleting all the emails, Feng Bujue opened the official website. “Hmm…Seed players?” he said. “Speaking of which, according to this announcement…Doesn’t this mean that since I am at the top of the combat stat ranking, I have a good chance of being chosen as a VIP player? If that really happens, then my name will show up on the official website, and I will instantly be thrown into the spotlight before millions of players.”
Brother Jue scratched his chin. “But since I’ve joined this match, it’s only a matter of time until my true power is exposed. Even if I don’t end up being one of the VIP players, with my current ability, there’s a high chance I can swim through Battle of the Cocoon and Battle of the Butterfly. During the battle, there will be a live feed and a recording, and the names of all the participating players will be shown.” He sighed. “This is the end of my low-profile life. In either four hours or half a month, I too will become a celebrity player. This is going to be so troublesome.”
At that moment, a request for communication popped up. It was from Passing Rain. After Feng Bujue clicked accept, he said, “You sure are early today.”
“Laughing Soul and Xiao Tan went dueling in Killing Game again,” Passing Rain replied. “Why don’t we do something?”
“Oh? The two of them have been spending so much time together lately,” Feng Bujue commented.
“What are you trying to say?” Passing Rain asked in her usual detached manner.
“Nothing. Just a casual observation.” Feng Bujue became strangely nervous when he blurted this out, and he chuckled to hide his nervousness.
“Humph.” Passing Rain responded with a chuckle, but it didn’t sound like a condescending one. If anything, there was a trace of joy behind it.
At the same time, in the real world, at the headquarters of Dream Inc. and inside the largest office in the whole building, Woody leaned comfortably on an antique chair, watching an international chess game on a 70-inch TV set.
“What’s so interesting about normal humans playing chess?” Vincent suddenly appeared across his table.
“Hue hue… I’m not watching them play chess,” Woody replied. “I’m observing and predicting their thinking patterns.”
“You wish to capture the ‘human heart’?” Vincent smiled. “I don’t think that’s possible through a TV screen.”
“Are you here just to infringe on my TV time?” Woody asked.
“I came to confirm something with you,” Vincent began. “Do you have confidence in this setup?”
“Don’t you think you’ve asked a very boring question?” Woody said then laughed.
“Indeed, confidence is not something you’ve ever lacked.” Vincent sighed before he continued, “But have you forgotten something?” He paused. “The spirit of competition is the human being’s most dangerous potential. Aren’t terms like ‘VIP players’ and ‘seed players’ a bit too eye-grabbing? If you allow those ten to fight to the top openly through the battles, they would have reached the top fifty with ease regardless. But now, you have used this method to open a way for them directly to the Battle of the Butterfly, and that might cause troubles.”
“No, no no,” Woody said as he wagged his finger. “There is nothing in this world that can be called an accident.” He closed his mouth then laugh wickedly. “Hue hue… Whether they’re looked down on or paid special attention to by the others, a battle is a battle. The stronger party is the victor.” He turned to Vincent. “Since the start of time, through the many worlds, those who step on others are those blessed with supernatural gifts. The weak have no choice but to attach themselves to the strong, and they hope to mimic and worship them. If they ever dare to wish to pursue the top spot, then it depends on whether they have that talent or ability or not.”
“Hmmm. I guess,” Vincent said. “From the perspective of the referee, it will be unfair to the other players if we allow those ten to start fighting from the Battle of the Bug.”
“Hue hue hue… Therefore, instead of worrying about those ‘accidents,’ I’d rather you pay more attention to what Origin might bring to the table this time,” Woody said as he pushed on his glasses with his middle finger. He looked at his two colleagues and continued, “I’m sure you would also like to see whether Feng Bujue will be able to do it or not, right?”