The twelfth plane, the capital
The person in first place was a renowned player. Her score was above the second player’s with tens of thousands of points, and she was in the process of finishing the last level. All she had to do afterwards was to solve the last puzzle and she would be the first player to win the championship in three consecutive years.
As her fingers hit the keys with swift movements, she spared a glance at the rankings tab. There was a new player in second place. Although she was surprised, her hands never stopped moving.
That was the difference between a good player and a winner. One of them knew when to accept things for what they were.
The new player gained points quickly. He got closer and closer to her score, but she didn’t give up.
Three thousand points, two thousand, one thousand..
Eight hundred, six hundred, four hundred..
The distance between them kept decreasing.
At this time, she was already halfway through the last puzzle. She grit her teeth, and averted her gaze that kept wandering to the rankings. She was almost done. Just a little more, and the championship would be hers..
The moment before she hit the last key and jumped up from her desk, the main chat broke out in an uproar. Those who could see what was going on all typed madly, most of their words ending up incomprehensible in the haste.
As the scores between first and second place evened out, Asterium leaned back in his chair and put his hands down.
Nightglow‘s end score was higher than his only with a ridiculously low total of five points. But in the end, she still won first place.
Barely audible laughter came from the loud-speakers under the monitor in the middle. Asterium had left the broadcast in less than a minute after the end results were announced. While other players were still in a daze, his window completely disappeared from the rankings and all that was left was a blank rectangle.
Only those who were watching his stream knew that the loading screen of another game was already pulled up on his screen. Luckily, the man in the chair chose to open his stream instead of simply enlarging the small window.
‘I told you I could do it, didn’t I? Did I lie?’ He grinned as he chose an online server in the game he opened. He opened a bottle of water as he waited for it to load. ‘Anyhow, what are we doing today? Highest donation decides.’
A barrage of donations flooded the chat. The most conspicuous one was a blue row of text with over a hundred-thousand gems. These could be exchanged for quite the amount of money in real life.
[Flowers Hidden In The Fog: finish last time’s deal. A promise is a promise!]
The youth laughed again, ‘Your wish is my command. Let’s get to it! Chat, who remembers what I promised?’
The comments were already running quickly, although the bar hadn’t reached Jupitersfall’s speed yet. Now they were even quicker, but it wasn’t hard to read what they said. Most of them were the same couple of words.
This was when the girl with red ponytails finally came back from her daze. She grinned as she turned to one of her coworkers, ‘Truly too awesome! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes..’
She had long forgotten about why she went to the wire-cubicle in the first place. Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t want to bother her again, and instead tried to push his way to the very front of the crowd.
The man who handled the screens sat at the foremost, a pile of documents on his left and a pile of full food containers on his right. Zhai Xiaoyi touched his shoulder and the man looked at him lazily.
He had a band shirt on and a chequed, knitted cardigan. Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t wait for him to ask what he wanted, he got straight to the point. ‘Hey, I’d be really thankful if you could help me. I was told to come down here to get an app installed, and I’ve been..’
This guy didn’t let him finish either. He extended his hand clearly asking for his phone, ‘It’ll take a couple of minutes.’
As he spoke, his chewing gum almost fell out of his mouth. Zhai Xiaoyi handed him the phone, and waited patiently.
The man connected his phone to the computer and hit a row of keys before he turned back to watch the stream.
Asterium was in the process of trying to convince online players that he needed their help as he tried his hardest to make his voice sound like a young girl’s.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He switched off his in-game mic for a moment as he leaned closer to his microphone and whispered, ‘Today’s crowd is more difficult than last week’s. I think they’re onto me.’
Lf rklamtfv tlr nblmf delmxis jr tf aegcfv tlr wlm yjmx bc, ‘Glv jcsbcf tfjg wf? Xbrt la’r tjgv ab erf atfrf nblmf mtjccfir. P jiwbra ifoa atf ujwf agslcu ab rff lo jcsbcf kjr tfgf.’
Itjl Wljbsl: ‘……’ Glv atlr lc-ujwf ubv gfjiis atlcx jcsbcf kbeiv yfilfnf tlw?
Ktf wjc tjcvfv tlw tlr qtbcf jcv abiv tlw, ‘Tbe mjc ibu lc erlcu sbeg rfglji cewyfg obg ybat erfgcjwf jcv qjrrkbgv. P reuufra mtjculcu sbeg qjrrkbgv joafgkjgvr.’
Zhai Xiaoyi thanked him and took his phone as he tried to push his way out of the middle of the crowd. His phone buzzed in his hand and he accepted the call, ‘Yeah?’
‘It’s me. I’m done with the contract, are you still downstairs?’ Tian Xihua’s voice sounded from the speaker.
‘Yeah, I’m down here. Should I wait for you?’
‘If you don’t mind. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.’
‘Okay, see you then.’ Zhai Xiaoyi ended the call. He was standing towards the back of the crowd, looking down at his phone.
He looked for the white circle icon he saw on Nan Zhi’s phone and found it quickly. He followed the other’s instructions and logged into his account. The first thing he saw on the forum was his balance, a total of eight points.
The number was in the color red and as he tapped it, another window opened up with a row of grey icons and a short line of text in the bottom of the screen, ‘Not enough for shit.’
Zhai Xiaoyi, ‘……..’
The icons looked a lot like achievements in games. As the number of his experience points advanced there would be things he could spend them on.
Of course, this was nothing but a well-thought out sales tactic from the department. When the hope of quitting seemed so far away, most players would rather spend their points on things they felt weren’t out of reach.
This was a win-win situation in a sense; the players could get items they had no other way of obtaining and the bureau could keep its actors for a longer time.
Zhai Xiaoyi counted in his mind as he closed the window. With a rate of getting eight points after an instance, he would need to survive at least twenty five of them to get a total of two hundred points.
Of course this was without taking into account the fact that instances with different ranks might give different amounts of points, as well as without spending any points on additional purchases.
If he could get instances with higher difficulty, he might be able to resign before time, he thought. He had a sudden idea.
Nan Zhi’s username was indeed the one he had mentioned. Zhai Xiaoyi found him quickly, and after sending him a friend request he started composing his message. Nan Zhi didn’t need to accept his request to see what he wrote, so he could text him right away.
‘Can you control what type of instance I get pulled into next?’
His request was accepted right away, and he didn’t have to wait long for a reply after that. ‘I can’t choose the instance itself, but I have some control over choosing the genre. What do you want to do?’
‘Can you make my next instance more difficult?’
Nan Zhi wasn’t in his office anymore. He had left the building not long after he finished with Zhai Xiaoyi and was currently doing damage control in a high level instance.
His eyebrows shot up as he read the message. He typed quickly before putting his phone away and raising an old fashioned handgun to help the unlucky players who got pulled into an A grade world with only two veteran players in their ranks.
‘If you die in-game, there is no guarantee for your survival in real life. It already counts as luck if you survive, there are no rewards afterwards. It is better to build it up slowly and steadily until you can rely on your skills instead of luck.’
‘I won’t die.’
No reply came, even after minutes had passed. Zhai Xiaoyi closed the chat window reluctantly, opening up the rankings instead.
This page had an ‘archives’ title that could be switched to. Zhai Xiaoyi noted that both Shi Mingdu and Chu Anzhi were amongst the top fifty players. He looked at the archives list next.
Next to each name there was a number representing the players’ efficiency rate. The first three players on the list had the same yellow dot next to their names. Zhai Xiaoyi felt that it looked familiar, but he couldn’t exactly place the feeling.
The first player on the list had over a hundred thousand efficiency points. Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t know if these could be exchanged for anything, but he thought it would be logical.
The player’s name was Shi Qichen. Zhai Xiaoyi stared at this name for a while as a bad feeling blossomed in his chest. What was this ‘archives’ list after all? Were the players on here those whose records were hard to break even after they resigned? Or were they dead?
Shi Mingdu said that something had happened to his brother and the rest of his team in their last instance together. It was very likely that this Shi Qichen was the brother he had been talking about. Then the rest of the people with the yellow dot, were they the missing teammates?
Why didn’t Shi Mingdu have a dot next to his name then? Was it that after his teammates disappeared, the team got broken up? But that wasn’t right. Only the first three players on the list had the little yellow dot, the one next to the fourth one was orange. So where exactly was the fifth player?
Zhai Xiaoyi put this issue aside as he felt someone touch his shoulder. He looked up, only to come face to face with Tian Xihua’s smile.
The other’s gaze was calm as still water and there was a certain sense of gentleness to it. He seemed too pale under the dim lights. Zhai Xiaoyi felt a bit dazed, probably because of the previous topic he had been thinking about, but he quickly gained his composure back.
‘You’ve already finished?’ He asked, looking around. The crowd around the desk had more or less dispersed, only a few workers were still watching the broadcast.
Tian Xihua shook his head, ‘Not yet, I just arrived.’
‘Okay, then the guy in the front is the one you need,’ Zhai Xiaoyi pushed him lightly in the direction of the wire-cubicle, ‘It’s surprisingly quick.’
Tian Xihua hummed as a sign of his understanding as the two made their way over to the table again. He handed his phone over and glanced at the screens.
Asterium was still playing the same game he started when Zhai Xiaoyi was watching, but it seemed that he had already managed to fool enough people, and was currently looking for another goal.
‘You already know how it goes, highest donation gets the say..’
It was Flowers Hidden In the Fog again. This time the donation was a bit more, and the request was bolder too.
[Asking brother Asterium to ask the streamer Jupitersfall about the championship’s results..]
Asterium saw that and couldn’t help letting out a laugh as he watched the chat run wild.
‘You know I’d love to do that, but.. The truth is, it really wouldn’t be good for publicity. Have you guys seen his fanbase these past few months? Really really wouldn’t be good for either of us!’ He joked before asking again, ‘Flowers, it’s you again. Ask something else, will you?’
For a couple of minutes, no answer came. Asterium went back to playing the game as he waited for the new request. He chatted with his followers to pass time, ‘It wasn’t good? No, I think it was hilarious.’
This was in reply to a message that said that speedrunning the championship’s game was an unprofessional and boring idea.
‘[Being too arrogant again!] The barrage of comments were filled with people scolding him.
He glanced at them, but even these couldn’t wash away the grin from his face. ‘Arrogant, and what if I am? Did I get two hundred thousand gems to do it, or did you? What’s more important, If it were you in my place, would you be able to do the same?’
The passion of those scolding him only flared up.
He shook his head regretfully as he read the barrage, but his character’s moves on the screen never stopped. ‘It is a pity that the broadcast has already ended. Do I have the need for all these black fans?’
‘It’s not like I’d get anything for almost winning. I’m probably not even in the official rankings. It doesn’t matter, we didn’t do it for fame. We did it for fun!’
He kept replying as he read the comments. ‘Yeah, it is my fault. I sold my reputation for only two hundred thousand, that’s on me. Come on guys, let’s make it up to them. How much do you all think I’m worth?’
The double of the first donation’s sum quickly came together, and Asterium only laughed at his anti-fans’ anger.
‘Is it good to be so temperamental? I read somewhere that too much negativity can shorten one’s life expectancy. Calm down you guys, and let’s have fun together. Flowers, have you got anything? Let’s show these new fans how we party!’
It seemed that Flowers Hidden In the Fog had indeed had enough time to think.
[Asking brother Asterium to choose then; either cook for us or play the new HT game.]
Asterium thought about it. He wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about either of these things, and would have liked something more hardcore a bit more.
On a second note though, HT was a famous company that specialised in developing horror games, and this new one called Tricks was one he had planned to play on stream before, he just never got to it. Even if he didn’t want to, it was a great opportunity.
He still asked his followers first, directly ignoring the never ending wave of scolding, ‘You’ve heard it, choose one. What are we doing today, Tricks or lunch?’
All of his fans knew that Asterium was a good cook. But this game was something they had been waiting for ever since it came out.. Ah, it was truly hard to be the fan of a talented person!
The comments couldn’t decide and Asterium was forced to choose by himself. ‘Then let it be Tricks. I’ve already promised to play it a long time ago..’
This particular game was about supernatural events. The game started in the basement of a residential building and the player had to fight their way to the very top, defeating ghosts, monsters and other players on their way.
What was special about the game was that even though the premise was defeating all kinds of supernatural entities, this wasn’t a fighting game. The player had to defeat them by using logic and tricks, hence the name of the game.
Tian Xihua sighed as he turned to Zhai Xiaoyi, his phone back in his hand, ‘It is an interesting game.’
‘We can play it later if you want to?’ Zhai Xiaoyi asked him as they headed towards the corridor, leaving the department behind.
‘That’s not what I meant. I mean, sure, it’s interesting as a game too, but don’t you feel that it’s somewhat similar to our situation?’
‘No.’ Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t think as much as him. ‘Mainly because it is a game and this is reality. Also, the only common point is the existence of the supernatural.’
Tian Xihua, who was trying to sound poetic: ‘…….’
Outside, the corridor seemed darker than it was when Zhai Xiaoyi first came down. The blue neon lights were still bright, but he couldn’t shake the strange feeling of being watched, although there was no one else outside.
Zhai Xiaoyi pushed the elevator’s ‘up’ button, and it arrived in less than a minute. It seemed that someone was already heading upwards.
Tian Xihua looked at his wristwatch before asking, ‘How about going out for lunch? Or do you already have other plans?’
‘No, lunch sounds great. Do you have any place in mind, or..’ Zhai Xiaoyi took a step forward towards the elevator’s opening doors and just barely managed to swallow the string of swears that wanted to leave his mouth.
Under the bright lights, there already was a person inside the elevator, at least if the thing standing not even a metre away from them could still be called a person.
Tian Xihua didn’t have the same problem as Zhai Xiaoyi. He directly got to the point, ‘……Fuck.’
The author has something to say:
In the next chapter the dear readers will have the misfortune of realising what I mean when I say that I absolutely hate ZXY’s personality in the beginning. But there’s no need to worry, although there is a long way for him to go until he becomes somewhat more likable, isn’t it all for a logical character arc..? He’s a bit childish right now, but he’ll mature with time. I promise that he’ll turn out just fine. A promise is a promise after all, and I do keep the ones I make~
For a small, sort-of-spoiler look at who they met in the elevator;
This is a design I did a while back for the same sort of creature, although this is an au where they’re monks instead of miners..
I chose to put this here because although I love this character he’ll only get a brief mention at the beginning of the next chapter. I thought it would be more appropriate to mention him here.
Тhanks for the chapter ヾ(＾-＾)ノ
Thanks for the chapter <3
Sounds promising~
Thank you for the chapter 🥰