777 Chapter 777 - Barbecue Gathering (1/2)

\”Oh?\” Gu Fei could tell that Southern Lone Blade still had more to say. Compared to other players, the emotions of these men were evidently a lot more composed, none of them looking to be in high spirits.

\”The seven of us have a purpose for playing the game, so we're not exactly the same as them,\” Southern Lone Blade gazed out at the overjoyed players as he said this, giving an involuntary sigh. \”Before, I thought that turning a hobby into a job was a fortunate thing, but after working for long, I realized that hobby and work really shouldn't be mixed. If a hobby becomes your job, the pressure you put on yourself becomes too great, and the enjoyment that you once possessed for your pastime would slowly become lost.\”

\”You're talking about playing games?\” Gu Fei asked.

\”Yup,\” Southern Lone Blade nodded.

\”Indeed, there's nothing to play in games,\” Gu Fei agreed gravely.

The seven men were stumped for words. Every player in this game, even Sword Demon and the others that Gu Fei had been acquainted with, would often find themselves abruptly running out words to say to Gu Fei sometimes.

\”If there's nothing to play, then what are you still playing the game for?\” Flame Singed Clothes finally could not hold his tongue any longer and asked.

\”I'm not here to play the game…\”

\”Are you just passing time?\” Flame Singed Clothes had a sudden impulse to finish Gu Fei's sentence.

\”Nope,\” Gu Fei shook his head. \”I'm here to beat people up.\”

The conversation came to a standstill once more. Truly, even if this was in the real world, there were also plenty of people who would find themselves in a similar situation of suddenly having nothing to say.

\”Beat… Beat people up?\” Southern Lone Blade had thought that larceny was already a frowned upon practice, he did not expect to actually cross paths with someone who would play the game to directly beat people up.

\”Beating people up is just a more crude and easier explanation. If I were to be honest, it is more that I'm looking for a place where I can use to demonstrate all the kung fu in me; I couldn't possibly just walk down the street and beat people, can I? But it's fine if I use the game's Bounty Missions to achieve this. I thought you guys knew this?\” Gu Fei had the impression that these men should already know about his attitude toward gaming.

\”Ohhh…. We know…\” The seven men were sweating. They of course knew about it, but when Gu Fei suddenly talked about 'beating people up', their minds were momentarily unable to make the connection.

\”Yeah, I remember that I've mentioned this to you guys before,\” Gu Fei nodded.

\”Yes you did,\” The seven answered in unison, with a pregnant pause right after. Were they not discussing their problem with Gu Fei just moments ago? How did the topic end up going to Gu Fei instead? Southern Lone Blade was the leader of his squad and the person in charge of speaking for them all. At this time, he quickly stepped out and handed Gu Fei a skewer of raw meat, directing the conversation right back to their topic, \”So, how should this guild be developing?\”

\”Guild? I don't know anything about that. I don't get anything of it at all,\” Gu Fei said as he squatted down to cook the meat by the fire. Asking as he barbecued, \”It's fine if I cook it like this, right? I don't have a profession skill.\”

\”It's fine,\” Southern Lone Blade nodded. \”Players without the skill could still do some things by themselves, it's just that the meat that you cook would lack the additional attributes that those who had picked up the cooking skill would have.\”

\”I see…\” Gu Fei nodded meaningfully, his eyes trained on the meat once again. He was rolling the meat above the flames, and just as Southern Lone Blade was about to continue on his topic, Gu Fei blurted out all of a sudden. \”Who cut the meat?\”

Southern Lone Blade was momentarily stunned before turning his head around. Blackwater stepped up, very puzzled as well, \”I did it. What's the matter?\”

\”Your knife work is rather unpolished! Look at this cut here. It's obvious that you relied too much on your finger strength at the start, and you ran out of strength cutting it halfway through. Thus, you started to add in your wrist strength, which caused the initial incision to tremble more, making the back end of your cut smoother thanks to the added wrist strength. Actually, that's still not enough. When it comes to force, merely using our own bodies won't be enough. What we call strength comes from the ground up—\”

\”Boss, what are you talking about?\” The seven were all confused.

\”I'm talking about the meat you cut here!\” Gu Fei said.

\”You're talking about the meat? Weren't you talking about force?\” Blackwater asked.

\”I'm looking at your force through this meat you cut. Was what I said before correct?\” Gu Fei asked.

\”Sorry! I'm trying my best to recall, but I really can't remember how much finger strength or wrist strength, or if I used my finger strength followed by my wrist strength,\” Blackwater said.

\”That's normal too,\” Gu Fei nodded. \”After all, it's not like you've been trained by the system, so this might just be a tiny detail to you, quite possibly something you've never realized.\”

Blackwater truly had no way to carry on this line of conversation, and looked to his six comrades pleadingly. Southern Lone Blade had tried to lead Gu Fei to a different topic twice, and this was already the third attempt. Drumming up the courage, he took a deep breath and promptly said, \”What we are meaning to say is that we need to earn money through the game in order to make a living, but now that we've joined Extremely Heaven Defying, there's simply no avenue for me and my brothers to earn money like how we were previously teaching the efficient monster grinding routine the last time when we were working in the workshop. Without it, even though we really wish to play with everyone in the guild, we'll still have to find some other way to solve the issue of our livelihood.\”

Southern Lone Blade had said everything in one go, and Gu Fei was staring blankly at them as he went on, only opening his mouth after a brief pause, \”You spoke really fast. What did you just say?\”

Southern Lone Blade nearly spat a mouthful of blood right in Gu Fei's face, but at least he had shown his concern by asking 'what did you just saying' at the end, so Paddy Scented Pastures took this chance to step up and took over Southern Lone Blade's role, repeating what he had just said about their present predicament.

\”Oh! That's what you're talking about,\” Gu Fei nodded. \”You're right, but I have no idea about matters pertaining to guilds and such. What did Sword Demon and the others say?\”

\”Those guys?\” The expression on Southern Lone Blade and his squad changed slightly. \”We talked to them about this last night, but it wasn't very successful. Truthfully, we're well aware that players like us are a little more utilitarian, while Boss Sword Demon and the others are purely gaming for fun. They are the sort who truly love gaming, while they would probably see us as defiling the game since we're the kind that depends on the game to make a living. Boss Sword Demon had presently said that their focus would be on how to ensure the guild could be properly established for future growth, and he did not seem to care for us talking about profits and the ilk straight away. I know that it isn't appropriate either, but we don't have a choice! My brothers and I have got to earn enough money to eat, after all.\”

\”You've still got quite a bit of money from what we earned the last time we taught the efficient monster grinding routines, right?\” Gu Fei said.

\”It's true that it is enough for all of us to sustain ourselves for a while, but playing the game is a livelihood for us. We still wish to know if there's a clear future for us so that we could at least feel reassured,\” Southern Lone Blade said.

\”Don't worry!\” Gu Fei said. \”I believe it is not that Sword Demon is unconcerned, but that he has yet to come up with a way to deal with things. This is the first time that he's setting up a guild here in Parallel World too! We're all friends here, and Sword Demon isn't the sort that would not take his friends into consideration.\”

Gu Fei said this even as he handed that meat skewer to Southern Lone Blade.

The look on Southern Lone Blade's face was half of doubt and belief, taking that skewer from Gu Fei and took a mouthful. He chewed it a few times and felt something was off, so he took it out of his mouth and took a look, crying out, \”It's not cooked through yet!\”

\”Is that so? Then let me barbecue it some more,\” Gu Fei took the meat skewer from Southern Lone Blade's hands and began turning it in the fire once again. Southern Lone Blade hurriedly spat the meat from his mouth as he asked, \”Do you know how to do it?\”

\”Somewhat,\” Gu Fei answered. He had learned a little from Coward's Savior, as he had done a similar barbecue quite some time ago with Coward's Savior, and what he vaguely remembered was the need to keep turning the meat like what he was doing right now.

\”Shall I come and take over?\” Blackwater offered as he stepped up.

\”No, let me try again,\” Gu Fei continued to focus on the barbecue.

The seven of them were currently all afraid however, and wanted to quietly sneak off. Unfortunately for them, Gu Fei's spatial awareness was at such a standard that he was able to immediately sense what they were doing, pointing his finger straight at Southern Lone Blade, \”Don't you go! You're the only one who can eat this since you've already bitten into it!\”

Tears were streaming down Southern Lone Blade's cheeks. You've already got me once, why don't you just let me go? You sure live up to your namesake as the number 1 killer in Parallel World; you're already well versed in ways to kill people, be it with your blade or through means other than your weapons. Are you trying to kill me to death by force-feeding me bad food!? The six others were looking at Southern Lone Blade that spoke great tragedy through their eyes.