If it was any other person, they would have clicked the option that would clear all the emails sent by strangers. Feng Bujue, however, was different. He had that strange habit. He was not crazy enough to read all the harassment emails. He would only look at the title and the first sentence of each email. After reading about two hundred of them, Brother Jue concluded that all the emails he received could be sorted into four categories.
The first was the interrogating kind. This was the kind that Brother Jue had received the most. The senders were those who had not heard of the ID Feng Bujue before. When they saw the list of VIP players, they started to come up with conspiracy theories and sent him many messages to demand clarification. Questions ranged from the following:
“Who are you?”
“Bro, which guild are you from?”
“Are you the second-ranked player on the combat stat ranking?”
“How did you get selected?”
“Are you a sub-account for XX?”
The second was the envious kind. He had received far less of this kind, but they too had that sharp tone to them. Most of them were dripping with sarcasm like “Bro, you are the relative of the game’s boss, aren’t you?” or “Mr. Whale, how much does it cost to purchase this spot?” In fact, someone said, “Karma is always watching.” Most were slanderous and contained many snide comments.
The third was the seductive kind. He had received most of this kind, only after the interrogating kind. The content was similar to the mails sent to him days ago by Regulation, but the content was more strange and varied. For example, one sent him a gift of used chewing gum in the mail, and the title was “Let’s be friends.” Another sent a box of chewing gum with the title “The more the merrier.”
The fourth was the unclassified kind. They came from players who thought “Feng Bujue” was a fake ID. They thought it was a name Thriller Paradise made to lock off a spot. Therefore, their mails were filled with unknown characters, and they just sent them to find out whether the mail would go through or not.
Other than that, there were emails with content like “Haha!” or “Wtf” or “Professional cheater association” or “Hotel? Trivago.” These could be counted as the fourth kind.
Feng Bujue had one solution to these crazy amounts of emails—delete.
He didn’t dare to answer any of them and had no plan to do so. With the aid of batch deletion, Brother Jue deleted the emails page by page within one minute. He also blacklisted everyone who sent him emails of the interrogating kind to prevent him from meeting them in the game in the future.
From twelve midnight to 12:30 am, Brother Jue did nothing else but deal with his mailbox. That was half an hour in real life, but in gaming time, that was five hours. Five hours in the game, Brother Jue sat on the bench and flipped through the pages of emails with interest. He continued to delete them page by page. It felt like he was scrolling the forum inside his own mailbox.
He still had no idea that on the real gaming forum, “The Mysterious Player, Feng Bujue” had become one of the most heated topics.
This was a highly discussed topic, but the players were not really focused entirely on Brother Feng. After all, there were other VIP Players, and there were also threads about the player base’s experience in the preliminary round. Many were also discussing the battle system.
The speculation about the ID Feng Bujue took up about twenty percent of the overall topic in the thread discussions.
There were countless players who went forward wanting to ‘expose’ Brother Jue. Some of them were players who were in the same scenario as Brother Jue before. One such player was Mr. Loneliest, with whom Brother Jue queued at the very start of his journey at Thriller Paradise. Other such players were Doomsday Assault and Final Assault from Zombie Blade. Along the way, Feng Bujue had met quite a number of players on his journey, and with his personality, many people had a lasting impression of him.
But those whom Brother Jue added as friends, including the other celebrity players and gaming studios, kept silent about the issue.
Therefore, a strange situation was formed. Due to the high amount of rumors and speculations, many players ignored what was real. Brother Jue’s identity became more and more mysterious and more and more twisted. Some said he was a cannibal, and others claimed he had eight arms. Others believed he was a ghost that had possessed the server of the game. One even praised the imagination and creativity of the public. Before Feng Bujue showed himself officially in the game, he had become some sort of an urban legend.
“Hey, Brother Jue, how’s it going over there?” After Xiao Tan was defeated, he returned to the log-in lobby and tried to communicate with Feng Bujue.
“I’m still deleting the emails,” Feng Bujue said weakly. Even while he was saying that, his fingers were still working.
Xiao Tan laughed and said, “Looks like your job is not yet done.” The previous night, Xiao Tan had contacted Feng Bujue. At that time, the list of VIP players had just been released on the official website, and Brother Jue’s mailbox was just starting to fill with emails.
“This is pretty much as I expected,” Feng Bujue said. “This time, I have really gotten famous. In the past three days until the last week, I have mentally prepared myself to face the possibility of receiving more than thousands of emails every day.” He paused. “But after a while, when this dies down, it should be much better. But I am afraid it is impossible to return to my previous state of being unknown. I learned from Flashes of Swords that a celebrity player like him receives more than ten emails from strangers every time he logged on to the game, and that had become a normal thing. I believe that too will happen to me.”
“So many people would love to trade places with you right now,” Xiao Tan said in a mocking tone.
Feng Bujue scoffed and said, “Well, there is a benefit to being selected as a seed player. There is no need to waste time in the preliminary round. It is much easier this way.” Feng Bujue continued, “By the way, how did your first preliminary match go?”
“Sigh… I lost.” Xiao Tan sighed.
“Oh.” Brother Jue appeared very calm.
“Hey! What is that reaction?” Xiao Tan roared. “You make it sound like you were expecting me to lose!”
“Losing a battle… it’s not that serious, is it?” Feng Bujue argued. “You need to fight fifty battles for the Battle of the Bug. As long as you do not lose four consecutive battles and get eliminated, you won’t have a problem.”
“You make it sound so simple. There are more than a million players in this game, but only three thousand will get through Battle of the Bug. Those who won fifteen consecutive matches in the Battle of the Bug will advance directly to the next round,” Xiao Tan said as he made the calculation in his mind. “For players who would finish all fifty battles, theoretically, the best result they should get is forty-seven wins and three losses. If one can’t make fifteen consecutive wins, then to move forward, one has to work hard toward this target.”
“Don’t worry,” Feng Bujue said. “40 wins should be enough to ensure that you move on to the next stage.”
“Huh?” Xiao Tan was startled. He was close to Brother Jue, so he could tell what he means just through his tone and manner of speaking. Therefore, when he heard what Feng Bujue said, he knew Feng Bujue meant it.
“How would you know that?” Xiao Tan asked. “This kind of thing… even the internal employees of Dream Inc. wouldn’t know for sure, right?”
“Hypothesis,” Feng Bujue answered.
“That answer…is it a complete answer or is it a synecdoche?” Xiao Tan said with twitching lips.
Feng Bujue knew what Xiao Tan meant, so he started to explain. “We will start the calculation since the start of the open beta. In less than twenty-four days, there will be a limited number of people who will rise to Level 30. You said that the game has more than a million players. That statement is void because the number of players who haven’t reached the qualification to register in the tournament is innumerable. Your main competition, other than the ten seed players, are those players beyond Level thirty and who have already registered. There are far less than a million players that fit these conditions. It is already a wild guess to say there are about one hundred thousand participants. Among them, there are many who use double EXP boosters or hire others to help boost their level. (This is one of the most common jobs for gaming studios. Four to five professional players enter a scenario with one or two paying customers guaranteed to clear the scenario just to make sure that they could reach the qualification to register for the tournament.) These people have free victory points, of course. There will be situations where they will end up fighting each other. But if they run into players who train using the normal method, they will definitely lose. It is just a matter of time before they are eliminated after four consecutive matches.”
Feng Bujue continued, “Theoretically, it is possible for the situation to move forward directly after fifteen consecutive wins. But honestly, it will be very hard. With the randomness of the matching system, anything can happen. For the fifteen matches, if you run into a player who is stronger than you or a player whose mastery is systematically used to counter yours, then the winning streak will be broken. From the perspective of probability, the higher the player is on the combat stat ranking, the great their chance of accomplishing fifteen consecutive wins. For players who are beyond the Top 100, accomplishing this feat is practically impossible. Therefore, if you make all the calculations, the spots that will be taken by those who will have fifteen consecutive wins in the Top three thousand will only be around 100. Most people will need to fight through all fifty battles, and then they will be assessed based on their overall result.”
At this point, he took a pause before continuing. “Now we shall examine the best possible result of forty-seven wins and three losses that you have mentioned earlier. That basically is a super difficult thing to do. It is almost as difficult as achieving fifteen consecutive wins.”
“Hmm…” Xiao Tan answered ponderingly.
“This matching system is quite far. The setup of direct advancing from consecutive wins and direct elimination from consecutive losses will greatly decrease the probability of you running into overly strong or overly weak opponents,” Feng Bujue continued. “Horrible luck aside…normally speaking, if you fight all fifty matches, the chance of you running into a super powerful or super weak opponent will not add up to be more than five times. So for the remaining forty-five times, you will face opponents who are on the same power level as you are. As long as your PK ability is slightly above average, your winning chance will not be lower than fifty percent. That means you have already won twenty-three matches. And whether you can move into the next stage or not…that depends on how many matches in the remaining twenty-two matches you will be able to win. It also depends on whether you will be lucky or unlucky enough to run into more powerful opponents or weaker opponents during those five rare matches.”
“Oh okay. So, in conclusion,” Xiao Tan said. “The chance of moving forward is much more optimistic than I imagined.”
“Yes,” Feng Bujue concurred. “Based on my prediction, the baseline for moving forward is probably at garnering thirty-five wins or perhaps even lower. As long as you do not accumulate fifteen consecutive losses, you have a good chance of moving forward to the next stage.”
“All right.” After hearing Brother Jue’s analysis, Xiao Tan felt calm and comforted. “By the way, speaking of those five rare matches…do you who my opponent in my first preliminary match was?”
“Hearing from your tone, I assume you have lost to a powerful opponent,” Brother Jue said.
“It’s Seven Kills! The Seven Kills from Brother Long’s guild!” Xiao Tan stressed.
“Oh,” Feng Bujue commented. “Then it could be said that you have run into a god-like opponent.”
“Just the thought that you have once beaten a guy like that…I am no longer surprised that you are selected as one of the VIP players,” Xiao Tan said. The Battle of the Cowl was one that Feng Bujue boasted the most about before Xiao Tan, so the latter knew quite a lot about it.
“At your current level, you should be able to hold your own in a battle with Seven Kills, right?” Feng Bujue asked.
“It was fine, but I still couldn’t defeat him,” Xiao Tan said. “It feels like the gap between myself and super powerful experts like you and Seven Kills on the upper echelon of the game is still very large.”
“Hah…If this was ten years ago, you would have easily beaten me,” Feng Bujue said in a mocking tone.
“Huh? What did you say?” Xiao Tan said confusedly.
“Oh, nothing. I was just randomly saying things.” Feng Bujue was too distracted with deleting the emails that he did not realize he had let slip a secret that he should not have. He quickly tried to cover it up. “A movie quote just slipped out of my lips. Don’t mind it.”
“Oh.” Xiao Tan did not think much of it and replied, “Hmm…then have fun deleting those emails. I will go and queue up for a few more matches.”
“Go, go.” Feng Bujue urged him. “I’ll hang up now.” The communication between the two ended, and Feng Bujue sighed. “Phew…that was so close. I was just trying to encourage him and was not thinking about what I was supposed to say.” He stopped what he was doing and took a deep breath. Some memories from his past surfaced before his eyes, and they were filled with wailing and blood. “Back then, the kid must have lost his mind.”
On the other hand, there was something else that we could be focusing on. There was a one versus one Killing Game duel that was happening between two VIP players. They were respectively Zombie Blade Victor and Uncle Worthless.
Uncle Worthless looked like a person who could not care less about his appearance. He had short, unkempt hair, a beard that desperately needed trimming, and a pair of sunglasses. His outfit was a set of brown-colored pajamas, and he wore slippers.
Zombie Blade Victor, on the other hand, wore his guild uniform. It had dark green and black stripes. The guild logo was sewn on the left chest of the shirt. It was an exquisitely forged skeletal curved cutlass. On top of it were the words “Zombie Blade” written in black. The members of this guild were not that special. There was nothing outstanding about them. They had the same short haircut and wore the same guild uniform. Their name had the same style too. They would either be called xx Assault or XX Victor.
Above the maple tree jungle, the bright moon shone coolly. Between the trees and the night, the killing had already started.
By now, the two had fought multiple times already, and one of them was obviously at a disadvantage.
“You must be joking me.” Zombie Blade Victor retreated as he picked up a polearm that had fallen on the ground. That was the weapon that was taken away from his grasp more than several seconds ago.
“I should be the one saying that.” While Uncle Worthless spoke, a cigarette was still dangling on his lips. “You are the number one fighter from Zombie Blade, and you are a man in the Top twenty combat stat ranking. However, why are you so weak in battle?”
“You…” Zombie Blade Victor’s face did not show off much emotion, but internally, his heart was both angered and shocked. He thought to himself, Initially, I just planned on queueing into a Killing Game as practice. Who knew I would run into this monster? How is this man just number five? That’s impossible. I have fought Lying Drunk before, and this Uncle Worthless is so much stronger than Lying Drunk.
“I have heard some rumors about your guild.” Uncle Worthless puffed out a smoke ring and said, “You guys are all ‘medicated,’ aren’t you?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Zombie Blade Victor said as he wiped away the fresh blood that gathered around the corner of his lips. While his opponent was in the mood to chat, he took the time to adjust his own breathing and to find an available opening.
Uncle Worthless, for his part, did not mind giving his opponent a break. He stood casually and continued to smoke as he commented, “Blade Zombie’s guild combat stat ranking is stabilized at number 5, and in the Top twenty player level ranking, you guys dominated most of the ranks. But as the top player from Zombie Blade, your actual combat ability is hugely surprising to me.” He scoffed once before taking another huge puff of the smoke. “It must be some kind of medicine that can suppress the Terror Points, right? It might not be difficult to keep it at zero, but the player should be able to keep it as low as possible. That way, for every scenario that your guild members have successfully completed, they will get a rating review of ‘Praiseworthy Courage’ and above, and from there, they can get more additional EXP from the extra reward.”
“Humph…be careful of what you say. We are living in a society that demands evidence and not baseless accusations.”
“Evidence? Is that really important?” Uncle Worthless said as he laughed. He then said in a lower tone, “I am just a freelancer earning my living off playing a game. Who will listen to me? Even if I see with my own two eyes your people taking the medicine before they get into the gaming hub, what can I do? None of what you guys did are technically illegal by law.” He shrugged. “A small character like myself has nothing going for me other than being slightly better than average at this game. On the other hand, for a big company like yours, if your horde of lawyers sends me some letters, you will easily force me into the corner to beg you for mercy. I know my limits. I know I am no match for big companies like you, and I do not have time to deal with people like you either.” His words were dripping with snarkiness. “The only way I can even survive fighting the likes of you is in the game itself…crushing you guys into meat patties and packing you up neatly in boxes to be shipped off.”
“Don’t push it!” Zombie Blade Victor shouted. He had gotten frustrated with such things. “I will make you see your mistake!” he roared loudly as the polearm shot out three rays of purplish lights that chased after his opponent. Uncle Worthless lifted his arm, and with a slight push of his palm, the energy that elicited was strong enough to form a wall of air to stop the purple lights in their trajectory.
“Looks like you have nothing new to show,” Uncle Worthless said. “It is time to get this over with.” With his decision made, Uncle Worthless prepared his skill. He took half a step forward and punched out a powerful and vicious palm strike. It dispersed the purple lights and rushed angrily at the spot where Zombie Blade Victor was standing.
“Humph… As expected, you fell for the trick.” The fact that no expression showed on Zombie Blade Victor’s face worked in his favor, because his opponent would not have been able to accurately tell what he was planning. At that moment, he used “Cloud Steps,” danced into the sky, and disappeared among the clouds.
Oh? The man is trying to escape? Uncle Worthless thought to himself. No. It is more likely that…
Phew!
The sound of the wind howling was quicker than the player’s thought. The polearm dropped from the top of Uncle Worthless’s left shoulder. The momentum of the weapon was strong enough to tear Uncle Worthless’ left arm right off his body.
The state of the battle was changed in that one move. The situation was looking worse for Uncle Worthless. Zombie Blade Victor used a simple movement skill that was highly effective to corner his opponent.
Or at least that was what he thought.
“Ouch… that does hurt,” Uncle Worthless said weakly as he turned to look at his left arm that dropped to the ground. He was still holding a cigarette in his left hand. “Such a waste of good cigarette.”
“Compared to the cigarette, you should be more worried about yourself!” Zombie Blade Victor turned his body around in the sky, the polearm whipped in an arc, and this time, Zombie Blade Victor was aiming for Uncle Worthless’ neck.
In a split second, Uncle Worthless made an action that confused his opponent. He did not evade or block, he just stood where he was, but his right hand swiftly moved to pick up his sunglasses and toss it away.
With a splat…the head rolled down to the floor.
However, Uncle Worthless’ ‘body’ that was missing his head and arm did not fall. Instead, behind the sunglasses, another complete and uninjured Uncle Worthless grew out of thin air.
“So how was the show? Was it interesting?” Uncle Worthless said as he reached his hand into his pajama pocket to light up another cigarette. He lit it up calmly for himself. “What kind of posture would you like as you are stuffed inside the paper box?”
Looking at his opponent who had recovered at full health, Zombie Blade Victor felt overwhelmed by deep despair. From the start of the battle until the trickery that he had used earlier, he had employed everything he had at his command. Every single time, his attacks would be neutralized by his enemy, who would use some strange and unknown tactic. Until then, Uncle Worthless still had not suffered any injuries.
The next second, Zombie Blade King forcibly disconnected from the gaming server.
Hearing the system announcement that rang in his ears, Uncle Worthless puffed out multiple smoke rings. He scoffed and said, “Forced disconnect…It might look like a way for a player to retain his last bit of pride, but in reality, that is something only a weakling would consider doing.”