614 Chapter 614 - Observing the Lamb (1/2)
”Prophetic Emperor?” Gu Fei repeated in his confusion.
”Drunk bro, have you not heard that name before?” Sakurazaka Moony asked.
”Nope.” Gu Fei shook his head. It was unfortunate that Brother Assist was not around; otherwise, he would surely have the most comprehensive information about forum matters.
There was already someone who opened up just as Sakurazaka Moony was about to introduce Gu Fei to the Prophetic Emperor, ”The IGN for the Prophetic Emperor is One Autumn Leaf, and was originally one of the moderators for the official forums of Parallel World, specifically the board for gossip and rumors. His prophecies actually never begin in threads but his posts, especially when it comes to the more contentious topics in the game. Aside from meaningless conversation, it was discovered that the things this person said would ultimately be verified as reality. As for the nickname of Prophetic Emperor, it started because there was once a player who started a thread, self-proclaiming to be an emperor of prophecies, saying he was about to make several deductions toward the game development trend. Later on, One Autumn Leaf replied criticizing these deductions the original poster made. There's no need for me to explain what ended up happening, right? Anyway, the nickname Prophetic Emperor stuck with the user One Autumn Leaf. Because of his identity as a moderator, everybody had always been guessing he must be an internal employee of the game company. We once attempted to contact this Prophetic Emperor for an interview, but he politely rejected. However, quite a little while ago, One Autumn Leaf was no longer a moderator for the gossip and rumors board.”
Sakurazaka Moony had originally wanted to give a detailed account of everything, but had never expected someone to snatch the opportunity from right under his nose. He saw that this person was following behind Gu Fei, but he did not recognize him at all, so he casually asked, ”Who are you?”
”The name's Dommu, a reporter from Good Games Network,” Dommu introduced himself.
”Dommumudou!!” Someone yelped. Sakurazaka Moony felt that wave of sadness that just came over him when somebody stole his thunder all the more prominently. After straightening out his equipment, he approached Dommu in an upright posture, ”So it's reporter Dommu. Sorry for my lack of respect there. I'm the guild leader Sakurakazaka Moony of the guild Forever in Flowers, from Yunduan City. The aim of our guild is—”
Before Sakurazaka Moony could even finish, Gu Fei had clasped his hand over his mouth and pushed him aside. He could already imagine that the aim Sakurazaka Moony was about to espouse would surely be something unspeakable.
But who would have thought Dommu would actually demonstrate his depth of knowledge in gossip, not only knowing about Forever in Flower, that man even nodded as he smiled, ”Is it to 'sticking an arm out from amidst the flowers, leading on the ladies we touched”, that Forever in Flowers?”
The moment Sakurazaka Moony heard that this person had actually heard of them, he was instantly beside himself with joy as he called out while struggling to push Gu Fei's hand away, ”Yup yup yup. We also have another mission statement—”
”Okay, that's enough…” Vast Lushness quickly came to help stop Sakurazaka Moony from saying anything else. Her one quip was far stronger than Gu Fei's kung fu in this scenario, as Sakurazaka Moony immediately shut up, not even asking why as he flashed a pleasant smile at Dommu, ”We can chat later.”
Both Gu Fei and Vast Lushness were embarrassed seeing that look he gave, while Blue Ease and his men did not get along with Sakurazaka Moony and his bunch, so they were all laughing like it was a joke. But Dommu did not seem fazed by it, actually nodding his head and returning his smile.
Dommu had seen all kinds of people from all walks of life in his line of work, as long as it was a topic he was interested in, he did not care how reprehensible or noble someone was. Besides, people nowadays were very interested in reprehensible things; Dommu once interviewed a kind-hearted person who found looting dropped equipment distasteful and refrained from doing so; Dommu thought that the subject would receive a round of praise after doing a detailed article about that man, but he ended up being called a fool by the masses instead, and even Dommumudou were lambasted as idiots for covering said report. This caused Dommu to feel the extent of society's moral degeneracy, and from then on, he only focused on topics that were interesting to people, no longer caring about ethics anymore.
Forever in Flowers… Yes, doing an article on this should resonate with plenty of people. The look he had on his face was very skeevy as well, looking very Forever in Flower-y.
”Ahem!” Gu Fei coughed heavily, as everyone came back to their senses and Dommu spoke after that bout of excitement, ”Oh, where were we?”
”Prophetic Emperor,” Gu Fei said.
”Ah yes. That's more or less everything about the Prophetic Emperor. Since he was the one who had released information about Silver Moon and No Smile's location, then how did he know the movement of the two men? Actually, why don't we ask Silver Moon and find out,” Dommu said.
The crowd was stunned. They watched as Dommu squeezed through the crowd and stood before the pitiful Silver Moon huddled in the Trade Exchange.
”Silver Moon, how do you do. I'm the online reporter for Good Games Network, Dommu. I wonder if you mind me taking up a few minutes of your time to ask a few questions?” Dommu was very professional, and this was something he often repeated to others, completely unchanged no matter who he was speaking to, expressing it with the utmost sincerity each time.
Silver Moon had been through a period of time when he spent very little time in-game, spending a lot of time on online forums and the like, so he was very familiar with Dommumudou. However, he was obviously not in the mood to answer this question right now, as he was still trying to brainstorm a way out of his predicament, and thus he ignored Dommu.
Dommu did not seem to be a stranger to such an attitude. If someone ignored him, he would just take it as silent consent, especially since he was in a safe zone, so there was no way he could be killed if the person was unhappy about it. Thus, he took out his paper and quill and asked, ”According to an informed source, you and No Smile's appearance here was information provided by One Autumn Leaf, from the official Parallel World gossip and rumor forum, better known for his nickname as Prophetic Emperor. May I know if you are aware of this matter?”
Silver Moon originally did not intend to acknowledge Dommu, but he froze up when he heard this and could not stand but ask, ”The Prophetic Emperor, One Autumn Leaf?”
”That's right, looks like you know this IGN, does that mean you know his real identity? Why would he be aware of your actions today? People could accept that One Autumn Leaf was able to make accurate inferences about the game's development, but it's just a little too fantastical for him to be able to prophesize the actions of two specific players like this. Do you, perhaps, have an explanation for this?” Dommu began his explosion of questions.
Only Fleeting Smile and Broken Water Arrow were aware that No Smile and him would appear at this place, and the two had been very careful with hiding themselves once they arrived, to the point it was impossible for any passerby to identify him. Taking a step back, even if someone did recognize him, the same could not be said for No Smile! After all, that man was hiding in Stealth back then, so even if somebody had equipment which detected Stealth, all they would know was that there was a Thief present, but there was no way people would know who the Thief really was.
”It's Fleeting Smile! That guy is the Prophetic Emperor, One Autumn Leaf!” Silver Moon blurted out.
”Fleeting Smile?” Dommu very quickly recorded it down, lifting what he had written before Silver Moon and showed him, ”Is this how it's written? This a player? What's his job class? What level is he at? This person's a he, or she? Are you close to him? How did he know you'll be here???”
Silver Moon's expressionless face stared at Dommu, ”You m*th*rf*ck*r!”
Dommu sure lived up to his name as a reporter who had seen all sorts of winds and waves. The man disregarded that expletive and continued to solemnly say, ”I hope you would answer the questions I just asked.”
Silver Moon was ruffled, and was about to continue cursing when even Gu Fei squeezed into the crowd and asked, ”Fleeting Smile?”
Silver Moon was startled yet again when he saw Gu Fei, but he quickly recovered before he instantly and impatiently divulged everything, ”That's right. That guy had been secretly plotting against you all this time; you should hurry and slay him!!” There was no reason Silver Moon would still protect Ye Xiaowu's intentions after everything that happened, so the moment he saw Gu Fei, he made sure to blurt out the truth and throw the man under the bus. To him, Gu Fei and Ye Xiaowu were each other's nemesis, so he would be most delighted if the two fought with one another.
In the end, Gu Fei had merely thrown a withering gaze at Silver Moon with great contempt when he heard this, ”I don't need you to tell me that. I already know.”
Silver Moon was stunned. When Dommu heard that Gu Fei knew the person in question, he immediately ignored Silver Moon and slid right up beside Gu Fei once more and asked, ”You know Fleeting Smile? What sort of person is he? What level? Man or woman?”
”He's a man!” Gu Fei confidently said, but he soon began to scratch his head, ”Job Class… Level… I've never really noticed.”
”He's a Priest, currently level 37. The man knows plenty of things behind the scene about this game. It's very likely that he's an internal employee of this game company, which would explain why he could be the Prophetic Emperor. No wonder…” Silver Moon said this loudly, as he had suddenly discovered another avenue of revenge he could take. He had yet to confirm if Fleeting Smile was really a company employee or not, but Dommu has an ability that not even expert gamers had: The ability to assess and steer public opinion. If he were to treat this as the truth and make an article about it, then attention would naturally be drawn to Fleeting Smile, and the game company will have no choice but to investigate it. If this turned out to be a bust, then Dommu's report would be wrong; but if it were true, then Fleeting Smile would be in deep trouble. Thinking about this, Silver Moon got very excited, even beginning to sigh why there was no such information on Thousand Miles Drunk that would kill the man when it came to light.
”An internal employee? Is that true?” Dommu perked up several times over when he heard this. This could be considered as huge news.
”Yes, it's true,” Gu Fei nodded.
F*ck! This guy's pretty sinister to have said it with such conviction; he's way better at acting than me. Silver Moon discovered that Gu Fei must be sharing the same thought as him and could not help but feel a little appreciation for the man.
”Oh, why are you so certain?” Dommu asked.
”Because he told me!” Gu Fei said.
”He? Who?” Dommu pressed.
”Fleeting Smile himself, of course,” Gu Fei smiled.
Everybody was shocked by this revelation. Silver Moon was all the more discomfited, for he felt that this lie that Gu Fei had said was a little too outrageous.
”Why would he tell you that?” Dommu felt there was a little problem. If Fleeting Smile was really an internal game company employee, he should be doing his utmost to keep it under wraps.
”Uh, he ran into some problems back then, and I lent him a hand. He casually mentioned that he received a few problematic reports from the game company and decided to come into the game to have a look for himself,” Gu Fe said.
”Ah, is he a GM?” Mudou was disappointed, for if this would be very common for a GM to get online and deal with such problems.
”I'm not so sure about that,” Gu Fei said.
”No, he's definitely not a GM,” Silver Moon hurriedly came to life once more. ”I've been hanging around with that guy recently, and he's just like any other normal player, being online for several hours, doing quests, grinding his level, trading… Are these things GMs should do?”
”Oh? You've been together with that person recently?” Dommu heard this and came up beside Silver Moon again.