Whoosh whoosh…
A lightning strike awoke me from my slumber. It was raining heavily outside. A rhythmic rumbling also resounded from beside my feet—it was Gui Guzi leaning against the bottom side of the bed and snoring away with his thunder-like snores. I checked the time and saw that it was already evening, so I kicked him awake and said, "Wake up, drunkard. Are you going back to Suzhou today or what?"
Gui Guzi rubbed his nose sleepily before jolting awake all of a sudden. "Oh shit, what time is it? I haven’t missed today’s WEL, have I?"
I shook my head. "No, but did you bring your gaming helmet with you? If you left it back at Suzhou then you’re definitely missing today’s WEL."
He smiled. "Nah, I brought it with me just in case. It’s in the car right now. I’ll grab it, find a hotel around town and log in from there."
I nodded. "Good idea!"
……
Gui Guzi grimaced when he saw the dark clouds and terrible downpour outside the window. "The heavens just gotta rain when the roof is leaking[1]…"
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I rolled my eyes at him. "It’s not leaking though, is it? Now cut the bullcrap and go check if there’s an umbrella or two around the corner. It’s highly unlikely the landlord will be able to buy the groceries necessary to cook our dinner tonight, so we should take him to a nearby restaurant instead."
"Yeah!"
There was a pair of old umbrellas in the house, but Gui Guzi still ran back to his car and grabbed a big umbrella we would all fit under. The landlord tried to turn us down claiming that he was way too old for an outing like this, but we eventually succeeded in dragging him into the car. Gui Guzi kicked the gas pedal and vroomed deeper into the town.
A while later, we paused in front of a small fish restaurant and sat down at a corner on the second floor. There was hardly anyone in the restaurant because of the weather. Gui Guzi was now a rich man, so he didn’t hesitate to order a ton of delicious food. Stunned by his lavishness, our landlord asked, "Lu Chen, what does your friend do?"
I thought for a moment before answering, "Oh, he’s the backbone of a tech company. He dabbles in source code."
"Oh, what a successful young man you are! How much do you earn per month?"
Gui Guzi answered a bit embarrassedly, "About 200k or so…"
I rolled my eyes at him again. Was he trying to give him a heart attack? As expected, the landlord was speechless for a very long time. Gui Guzi probably looked like a god to him right now. When he recovered, he asked again, "Lu Chen is your colleague, right? He should be earning a lot of money as well?"
Gui Guzi said, "Oh, him? He’s just the security guard. He earns 2,000 RMB per month at our company…"
I stared at him. Someone’s getting their ass kicked once I recover my strength!
……
We were chatting about random stuff when suddenly, I received a call from Xu Ning. I had sent him my new phone number earlier. As usual, he wanted to talk about my condition.
"Are you busy right now, Lu Chen?" Xu Ning asked.
"Nah. What is it, Uncle Ning?" I replied smilingly.
"I have a couple of news to share with you regarding your sickness. First, the University of California has joined the research program. Second, during this afternoon’s seminar, the world’s most prestigious scholar in the field of genetics declared that after repeatedly analyzing your virus, he managed to discover a pattern using some sort of asymmetric algorithm[2]. According to his findings, your virus will never stop damaging your genetic structure, making it impossible to heal you completely via medication."
It was shockingly bad news. "Does… does that mean there’s no hope for me?"
"No," Xu Ning said in a reassuring tone, "he has come up with a different solution. He wishes to build a never-before-seen machine. Theoretically, the machine will kill the cancerous cells in your body using gamma rays between 450 to 700 rem while another machine repairs your genes continuously at the same time. Supposedly, the chances of this method curing your permanently are over 40%. There is a prerequisite that must be fulfilled before the method can be attempted, however. First, they must fully analyze the genetic code of your virus, and that will take some time…"
I sucked in a deep breath. "So, you’re saying that I must survive until they can give me the help I need?"
He nodded. "The company has already negotiated an agreement with the research institutes. We have allocated them 500 million USD to finish the analysis as soon as possible. What I want to say is… we are all doing our best to save you, so you’d better do your best to live until then too. Once the analysis reaches 100% completion, we’ll be able to give you the treatment you need right away."
I nodded smilingly. "Got it, Uncle Ning[3]. You scared me at the beginning, but I guess your news wasn’t bad after all!"
"Of course. We held three board meetings in three days, all to keep you alive, you know? No one wants our young CEO to pass away so soon, so you too should do your best to live as long as possible, okay?"
"Haha, yeah. Thank you, Uncle Ning!"
"Mn. I’ll contact you again as soon as there is any progress!"
"Okay!"
……
Gui Guzi smiled after I hung up. "It sounds like there’s a new breakthrough or something."
I nodded. "Yeah. The new plan is to kill the virus with a 700-rem gamma ray…"
Gui Guzi looked surprised. "Seriously? I heard that 700 rems is enough to kill a man directly…"
I smiled. "I know, that’s what I thought too. It feels like a bit like a scam to be honest, but if I’m going to die anyway, I may as well try out the one that gives me the best chance of recovery, no matter how dangerous it may seem!"
Beside us, the landlord looked completely confused. "Boys, why can’t I understand a word of what you’re saying?"
I chuckled. "It’s nothing, uncle. We’re just talking about some company business!"
"But aren’t you a security guard? Has the bar risen so high that even security guards have to learn some deep stuff these days?"
"Er… I’m guarding the server room, so I need to have some knowledge too, you know…"
"Oh, I see…"
……
At night, Gui Guzi stayed at an express inn while the landlord and I returned to the house.
At the study table, I surfed the internet using the brand new notebook Gui Guzi had brought me. As I was checking the China server forums, I found a popular thread where the main character was none other than Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls—
[Stickied post] Lu Chen is gravely ill and soon to pass away. Where will Ancient Sword go from here?
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Content: During the previous Nation War, the Little Heavenly King, Lu Chen, stunned the entire world by conquering all four tier 1 main cities in one fell swoop. However, he was forced to log out of the game prematurely due to an unknown illness. It is rumored that he had caught an extremely dangerous viral disease, and the fact that he fainted during the WEL briefing seems to corroborate that rumor. Lu Chen is the symbol of an era and the leader of the China server. While we are all praying for Lu Chen’s safety, we cannot help but notice that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ very existence is under threat right now. Even their guild leader, From Water, has not logged into the game for some time.
Not long ago, Cyan Earth City’s Breeze and Rain and God of War and Burning City’s Tear Stain had declared that they would flatten Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ headquarters, the Rank 11 Dark Moon City. Will Legendary Brave, Gui Guzi and more be able to defend Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ honor without Lu Chen?
There were a ton of replies under the post—
1st comment (Player "Tian Zheng"): I pray for the Little Heavenly King’s safety and swift recovery!
2nd comment (Player "Naughty Yao Yao"): I wuv the Little Heavenly King. May he be safe and sound!
3rd comment (Player "Warsky"): Ancient Sword is the eternal champion of the China server!
4th comment (Player "Stranger of Three Lifetimes"): I wuv Lu Chen…
5th comment (Player "Rose Thorn"): We may have been opponents in the past, but I still wish that Lu Chen recovers as soon as possible!
……
I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at the screen. The Nation Wars we had fought weren’t in vain after all. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was now the sun of the China server, and it should be fine even if He Yi and I weren’t available to manage the guild. Even enemy guilds such as Warsky Alliance and Candle Dragon had ceased their hostility toward us. Perhaps I could even trust them to fight with us when Cyan Earth City and Burning City launched their inevitable assault against Dark Moon City.
Plus, we still had the 1,000 Bone Dragons I had obtained from Sophie. Their dragon breaths should be enough to thwart anything God of War and Breeze and Rain might throw at us.
I checked out the WEL preliminaries next. A lot of matches had already been played out, and, as expected, the first seeds of Warsky Alliance, Candle Dragon, Blazing Hot Lips, Snowy Cathaya and so on had been able to enter the offline qualifiers without troubles. In fact, our team was the only team that defied expectations and fell to the loser’s bracket. We might not even be participating in the national qualifiers, much less the international tournament. I couldn’t say I hadn’t expected this though. The girls were incredibly demoralized after my sudden departure. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had chosen to forfeit the competition already.
Beep!
Suddenly, I received a forum private message from Stranger of Three Lifetimes. It wasn’t a particularly long one: During the briefing, you said ‘I have achieved my aspirations, and I have no regrets’. You were right. In life, you bloomed as bright as the flowers of summer. In death, I expect you to wilt as artfully as the leaves of autumn as well. Not that I expect that to happen until many, many decades later. You will always be our Little Heavenly King, Lu Chen!
I smiled and sent her a reply: "Thanks, Momo. Fight well in the WEL. You must enter the quarterfinals no matter what! I believe in you!
……
After that, I logged into the game.
Swhoosh!
I inspected myself after appearing in Sky City. Everything was as it should be. I then sent Li Chengfeng a message: "You busy, Chengfeng?"
He replied, "Nah. You finally came online. Are you doing well?"
I smiled. "I am. Can you come to Dark Moon City’s territory hall right now? I’ll be waiting for you there."
"Sure!"
I teleported over to Dark Moon City and entered the territory hall. Then, I stood next to the throne and waited for Li Chengfeng to arrive. Just a few seconds later, the dragon warrior strode in in silver armor and the Cyan Peak Halberd in his hand. He was ridiculously handsome as usual.
"Yo! What is this about?" Li Chengfeng greeted me smilingly.
I waved my sword before saying, "I can’t compete in the WEL anymore. You already know about this, right?"
"Yeah."
"I have a serious question for you." I suddenly trained my eyes on Li Chengfeng and asked, "Do you still loathe Candlelight Shadow?"
The dragon warrior was caught off-guard by this. "I, er…"
"Please answer me honestly."
"Fine…" Li Chengfeng sat down on the skeletal stairs before murmuring, "When I first found out about everything, I wanted to murder the bastard with my own two hands. Now though, after I’ve had the time to process everything, I realize that the whole matter wasn’t entirely his fault. Sometimes, things happen, one thing leads to another, and at the end, there’s no villain you can put all the blame on. Life is all about the shades of gray. That being said, there is one thing I’ve never changed my mind about…"
"You still wish to defeat him, don’t you?" I asked.
The flames of ambition burned in his eyes. "Yeah. I will make him kneel before me with my own power!"
I smiled. "Good. This WEL will be your best chance to do so!"
"Yeah!" Li Chengfeng nodded strongly. "I will give it my all!"
Crack…
After confirming Li Chengfeng’s resolve, I removed the Song of Freedom, Scarlet Dragon Armor, Flying Dragon Wristguards, Pity of the Purgatory Gods, Cloak of the Divine Fervor, Rising Cloud and the rest of my equipment and passed them all to Li Chengfeng. I said, "I’m in no condition to use these items right now, so I thought I might as well lend them to you to win the WEL. This is all I can do for you though. In the end, it is up to your skill to defeat himand take back the champion trophy to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"
Li Chengfeng trembled. "Lu Chen, you…"
"Just think of it as safekeeping if you find it difficult to accept it. I should recover in a month or so, so I’ll take them back once I’m back. You’d better not play dead and ghost us when the time comes, yeah?"
"No problem…"
Li Chengfeng accepted my equipment and equipped the Xuanyuan Sword. Then, he declared with determination, "Don’t worry, Lu Chen. With this weapon, I promise to defeat Candlelight Shadow and seize the MVP title! No one will be able to stop me!"
"Yeah. Do your best! I’m logging out to take my suppressant now…"
"Yeah. Live until I return with the trophy, okay?"
"I’ll try…"
"Fuck trying! You will live and return to all of us, you hear me!?" said the dragon warrior, his eyes crimson red.
1. T/N: the english equivalent is "when it rains, it pours" ☜
2. E/N: Okay, what I think author is trying to say here, it works like an MD5 hash, or asymmetric cryptography. Just knowing the result doesn’t help. Hashing is one-way only, and in asymmetric cryptography result and public key aren’t enough to decode the message. Basically, this virus is some alien shit rewriting his genetic code with a one-way hashing function, so it can not be reversed. ☜
3. T/N: no you didn’t. If you did you would be at a fucking hospital where medical personnel could respond to debilitating symptoms immediately and keep you alive for as long as they can ☜
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