588 Chapter 588 – Everyone Vomits Blood Together (2/2)
”Just what sort of medicine are in their gourds?” Gu Fei was also confused. He simply could not fathom just what sort of relationship Fleeting Smile, Silver Moon, and Southern Lone Blade's gang shared.
”Where are you?” Gu Fei suddenly sent a message to Fleeting Smile while he pondered on all this.
Ye Xiaowu was reeling. He could just not get used to Gu Fei's straightforward personality. Does he not realize that we are now enemies? Can't he stop speaking so casually with me in his messages?
Nonetheless, as an enemy, he could not totally ignore Gu Fei's message, either.
No one wished to deal with Gu Fei, which only made him feel as if the whole lot of them were all very lacking.
”Hero, why are you still online?” It was considered as a normal practice for Gu Fei to go offline first, but it was practically unheard of for him to exceed his gaming time by half an hour. His old acquaintances in Young Master's Elite could not suppress their wonder and curiosity. Meanwhile, it was the information maniac Brother Assist who rushed to pester him about the matter.
”Holidays,” Gu Fei concisely replied.
”Oh!” Everyone understood.
”So, what are you gonna do now?” Everyone was curious about what would happen now that this person had so much time on him. If he were to level grind night after night, the Five Unyielding Experts might very well see another change. Currently, the positions of the Five Unyielding Experts were all very well-entrenched ever since the moniker was introduced to the game; any change would occur only after someone lost their level, there had never been a situation where a player managed to surge past the five players as a result of surpassing them via the experience points earned.
In the end, Gu Fei's answer gave the five others a bout of dissatisfaction and made them swear in their hearts. Possessing a level of skill that made people envious, along with his indomitable equipment, why could he not spend his time doing something more productive? What was the point of endlessly pestering and tangling himself with that bunch of scoundrels? These experts of course shared the mentality that Southern Lone Blade understood from elite gamers: Lending a hand once or twice along the way was fine, but none of them ever found value in putting so much emphasis to it daily like what Gu Fei's doing. Everybody was here to play the game,not Southern Lone Blade.
What everyone was unsure of, however, was whether Gu Fei was actually here to play the game or to play with people. Having been playing Parallel World for so long, just how many in-game quests had he completed? Could he even list all the skills the different job classes had in their arsenal? Did he even understand how the damage against defense conversion calculation works? Was he even aware just how much we disdained him?
These gaming experts discussed this fervently over the channel, not even bothered that Gu Fei could read what they were typing.
”Ahem!” Gu Fei coughed, proving that he was still present.
”Hero, Southern Lone Blade's men are about to fall apart by all your meddling, so what do you really want to achieve?” Brother Assist and the others began questioning Gu Fei's endgame.
”Would anyone care if people reported them?” Gu Fei was also hoping for there to be a proper channel that could resolve this as he had no wish to waste his days entangling with those people. About half of that seven-man team was at level 40; they acted all fierce in front of Gu Fei but was always so weak when he duked it out with them. It was not even fun PK-ing them, and Gu Fei was purely picking up the tab for his own morality's sake.
”Who f*ck*ng cares?” Brother Assist was pissed when this was mentioned. ”Game employees themselves got into the game, yet I've not gotten even one response after raising the matter to the relevant channels!”
”Are you referring to Fleeting Smile?” Gu Fei asked.
”Of course!”
”That guy said he wants to deal with me, yet he hasn't done anything even now. He's not even replying to me when I message him.” Gu Fei was critical of the man.
The five were speechless. Just how based was this man?!
”He's really incorrigible!” Brother Assist sighed to the four men with him. Because they were in a foreign land, and adding that fact that they were in frequent bouts with Ye Xiaowu's people, the other five members of Young Master's Elite had actually been grinding their levels together recently; all that discussion could have actually been done by them in person, but evidently, they wanted Gu Fei to see their discussion by their use of the mercenary channel. They truly could not stand Gu Fei's avantgarde and non-contemporary manner of gaming.
”Given his expertise and all his equipment, it'll be fine even if he's below a few levels from the average gamer,” Young Master Han commented.
”Then, what's the point of us saying so much for?” Brother Assist was confused.
”Are you dumb?! How much more efficient will our grind become if we have him tag along with us? I mean look at that idiot; f*ck! he's lost again!” Young Master Han pointed to Royal God Call; the boy was getting a little far from their group as he chased after a monster, and his inability to tell even the cardinal directions only caused him to run off even further away.
Brother Assist wiped off his sweat. It felt as if all Young Master Han wanted was to get Gu Fei over here to be their menial laborer. Sure enough, he must never think that Young Master Han could be pure and kind-hearted with his thinking. Still, if we really do have Gu Fei here to help… Brother Assist was a little excited himself thinking about it, momentarily feeling that just Sword Demon, Royal God Call, and War Without Wounds were not enough. There was really no point in upsetting themselves comparing with one another like this.
Gu Fei did not really depart from the Archer Range after leaving out the front door. He still wanted to stay around, but he felt that it was a little foolish camping out there so openly in front of Glue and the others; secretly staking out the place would then give him a clearer view of the situation. After leaving the log-off point, Gu Fei hailed a player who had picked up the cooking profession on the nearest street where players were hawking goods and bought some snacks; he then ran to buy some liquor to drink at a tavern. Walking around the Archer Range thereafter, he chose a good spot and began eating and drinking restfully while he continued reading where he had left off in his book. All along, he was keeping an alert eye for any particular movement at the log-off point. Gu Fei made sure to treat himself well.
Nothing happened at about 2 AM, but he did receive a message from the person he least expected.
”Sir, you're still online!”
Gu Fei had a fright. Quickly checking the sender's name, he found out that it was actually one of his students. These kids that were looking forward to the winter holidays would naturally be more unrestrained than him. Gu Fei pulled out his friends list and glanced at the subcategory where he had placed all his students in. Twenty out of the possible 24 names were lit up.
Gu Fei wiped a handful of sweat, but before he could reply, he received another message. ”Sir, remove your friends list's restriction.”
Gu Fei replied with an 'okay' and instantly received six system prompts. Six players added him as a friend, and they each reported their names after.
As a P.E. teacher, he could not recognize every student of his, so he could barely match their names to their faces. Adding these six players to his students subcategory, he casually looked at their information and saw that some of them had not even reached level 10. They must be thinking of using the winter holidays to delve deep into the game.
Before the winter holidays would obviously be exams, so these students had not gotten online for quite some time to prepare for it. After putting the game aside for such a long time, they were all very enthusiastic at the moment. With all 20 over players each privately messaging him individually, Gu Fei was nearly on the brink of mental collapse.
”Sir, where are you? It's been so long since we've seen you!”
”Sir, we just joined the game; come and teach us!”
”Sir, I heard you're a super expert; come and demonstrate what you can do!”
”Sir, I saw your Moonlit Nightfalls on the forums; it's so powerful!”
”Sir...”
”Sir…”
”Sir, I heard you're now in Baishi City. We're about to head over!” That was the final message that Gu Fei read and saw that it came from Ah Fa, that little sh*t who had sold him out.
”How d'you guys know about that?” There was no way that he could reply to each message sent his way, so Gu Fei could only choose to reply to a select few.
”On the forums, of course! Sir, you have such a piece of great equipment; why did you sell it off?” Ah Fa pried.The original line is part of a song in 1999 for a film adaptation of the classic, Water Margin. This line here shows the ideals behind the common characteristic the characters share of taking action when an injustice is afoot on their journey.
For anyone interested, you can hear it here: turn of phrase about a crippled immortal known by the name of Li Tieguai (sometimes Tieguai Li), who owned a gourd containing medicine that could cure anything in the mortal realm: making the mute speak, prolonging one's life, rejuvenating the old and infirm, etc.
This question was born when an antique collector saw this line of query in an old painting: ”If the medicine is as miraculous as the rumors say, why is he still about as a lame person.”
This phrase seeks to imply that the lame man might not actually have a miraculous medicine on him at all but something or someone purposely trying to be mysterious, instead, and thus is a question that wonders what was really hiding behind a given facade/illusion.