Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Yui, Proofreader-Woojoo
Nowadays, every move of “Cube Boat” whether inside or outside the game, was highly anticipated.
So, when the players staying at the safe point first noticed the four-leaf clover logo representing “in-game” behind the name of “Cube Boat” the group was instantly filled with excitement and joy.
Finally, they’re gone!
Although they didn’t know which unlucky person would be paired with them, it wasn’t them who would stay at the safe point.
As long as they could send the God of Plague away, everything would be fine!
Inside a restaurant in the [Ancient City State,] two young people sat facing each other, both possessing handsome and refined features.
In theory, two such faces should be very appealing.
However, everyone who passed by them wouldn’t necessarily give them a second glance, as if their presence was naturally faint.
Therefore, no one would know that they were the “Adam” duo currently at the center of attention.
As companions of the high-dimensional people, they could see the tiny cameras floating in the air.
And now, the production team intentionally shut down a large number of cameras around them, giving them some free time.
After all, players, whether inside or outside the instance, needed to eat, drink, use the restroom, and sleep.
These were all unnecessary footage with extremely low attention and little effect even after being broadcasted.
So when the program team turned off the camera at certain times, the audience would not be particularly suspicious.
Therefore, the two people could confidently speak here without worrying about being seen by outsiders.
Watching the “World Channel”, which had been stagnant and self-reliant for several days, finally coming back to life, Tang Song let out a click.
Yuan Mingqing raised an eyebrow. “What, still feeling cheated?”
Tang Song frowned, discontented. “Such a great opportunity wasted like this.”
Yuan Mingqing forced a casual smile and took a sip of coffee, but couldn’t taste anything. Among all the players, no one hated the “Cube Boat” more than “Adam,” who had never crossed paths with them.
Tang Song muttered in a low voice, “They ruined this move for ‘Zhao Hui’!”
The group brought in by the production team wasn’t just “Adam.”
One group was purely casual players, who loved playing games, had a big appetite for them, refused all hints and help, and were still happily grinding instances.
They claimed to be working hard and earning points through legitimate means, but they signed up to play on purpose.
After all, “Universal Gravity” was now the hottest live-action game, and almost all game instance designers were willing to unconditionally open their newly designed world instances to “Universal Gravity,” allowing these free laborers to fully showcase the brilliance of the instances and compete for attention.
Of course, there were also unexpected occurrences.
For example, that famous elite game designer carefully constructed a highly scalable and free-form horror instance that could eventually develop into a global catastrophic level.
Tang Song still remembered that instance was called [Sha, Sha, Sha].
On the first day it was proudly put into use, they encountered “Cube Boat.”
…and then nothing more.
The boss parasitizing behind the non-existent “door” was just getting started, hadn’t even warmed up, and not even a serious player had a chance to take a shot. It was shamefully torn down from the wall and thrown into a warehouse.
That designer and the game officials instantly became the laughingstock of the entire internet.
They heard that although the door was successfully reclaimed, the boss became useless due to being away from the original system for too long.
In a fit of anger, the designer reclaimed all the instances authorized to “Universal Gravity” and declared that there would be no further collaboration in any form with “Universal Gravity.”
The second team was a group of carbon-based life researchers, with no desire to win, wholly engrossed in observing the various manifestations of life exhibited by humans in extreme survival conditions.
Of course, they were specialists in their field, and they came with a mission, “Adam” had no say in the matter.
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.
The third team was just pure garbage.
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They went to try their luck at the Qu Jinsha’s gambling arena but carelessly lost all their points and got knocked out on the spot.
The fifth and sixth groups were just for show.
They deliberately created two pretty faces according to human aesthetics, to provide some sensory stimulation for the audience.
They did get quite a bit of attention.
But their attention was nothing compared to the controversial uncle-niece pair, it was embarrassing.
“Adam” was the seventh group.
None of the groups could reach the heights of “Adam.”
During the six-month beta testing period, they deeply studied the personalities of these carbon-based life forms and created a detailed plan for winning.
They chose “Zhao Hui” and used [Answer] to control Su Meiying and five others to be their henchmen.
The more evil “Zhao Hui” did, the more trust and praise they would receive when they kill “Zhao Hui.”
They wanted to establish the character of a civilian killing the tyrant.
According to their analysis, compared to players in other regions, Chinese players were particularly prone to the practice of seeking retribution for evil.
They were also particularly eager for power.
When they replaced “Zhao Hui’s” points, they could easily present themselves as a savior who could lead players to ultimate victory, and these people would naturally flock to them like dogs.
Even some players who were seen as passionate but simple-minded would willingly give up their points to help them reach the top.
As a result, “Zhao Hui” wanted to rise quickly and joined the 99-player match, feeding “Cube Boat” with kills.
“Adam’s” carefully planned strategy also went down the drain.
In the original plan, they would have personally killed “Zhao Hui” to rid the people of a threat, making the transfer of points more justified.
They could always say they used a certain item to absorb the defeated player’s points.
Anyway, “Zhao Hui” had done so much harm that it would be a waste to leave the points with them. It wasn’t likely that the carbon-based life forms would have strong doubts about transferring the points to someone more valuable.
Who would have thought that “Cube Boat” would suddenly appear and completely disrupt “Adam’s” planned inheritance of “Zhao Hui’s” points?
…At the moment when “Zhao Hui” was completely wiped out by “Cube Boat,” the “Adam” duo saw their points rise to second place, and they were speechless on the spot.
How could they still come out and rally at this point?
With such an inexplicable stain, how could they still be spiritual leaders?
Now, not only had they failed to carry out their planned strategy, but they’d also been put on the spot and felt uncomfortable.
But no matter how uncomfortable they felt, the game must go on.
Seeing Tang Song being nonchalant, Yuan Mingqing had no choice but to bring up other people’s misfortunes to chat and find comfort.
“I heard that the ‘Brain Invasion’ company is very dissatisfied with the outcome of this pursuit.”
“They originally wanted ‘Cube Boat’ to die, so they could take over their spiritual body, and also to eliminate this team that easily causes variables.”
“But not only did they fail, Nan Zhou and the others were eating ice cream with their company logo on it, but there was also no product logo exposure, and the batch of promotional funds injected was equivalent to being wasted.”
“‘I heard that now in ‘Universal Gravity,’ the exposure time of a commercial logo can earn 200,000-star coins per second.”
“Brain Invasion” really took a big hit this time.
Tang Song sneered, “Carbon-based life forms are such a hassle. They have to die once to be recorded and used by us. Otherwise, why go through all this trouble instead of just forcibly encoding ‘Cube Boat’?”
“You think the audience is foolish,” Yuan Mingqing chuckled. “They just want to watch a thrilling, dramatic, and authentic variety show. How can we cheat so blatantly?”
Tang Song sneered, “Where in the world does such a show exist?”
“So,” Yuan Mingqing said, “of course, we have to do it subtly to satisfy them.”
Tang Song tapped the table, “But why don’t they let us deal with ‘Cube Boat’ in the instance?”
“It’s all because of the script, isn’t it?” Yuan Mingqing said, “If we encounter them now, where’s the drama?”
He continued, “The original script was for us to kill ‘Zhao hui,’ then kill ‘Cube Boat’ that players fear, and gain more players’ support…”
As he talked, Yuan Mingqing felt disgusted with himself.
The destruction of their plan by the Cube Boat was far more thorough than they had imagined.
Tang Song, “So, what’s our next move?”
Yuan Mingqing: “I’ve received instructions to live normally, enter the instance, and observe the players’ movements and thoughts within the safe zone.”
Tang Song sneered, “What thoughts could they possibly have? Low-level carbon-based life forms, just having the courage to live is good enough.”
“I don’t think there’s much to it.”
Yuan Mingqing said, “The production team just wants to see if the probability of them turning on each other increases after such a big incident within the safe zone. They have a lot of information to handle every day, it’s impossible to cover everything.”
“I’m not interested in doing a social survey, nor is it necessary,” Tang Song said coldly, “I’m just waiting to kill ‘Cube Boat’.”
Yuan Mingqing was about to say something when a small rice-sized camera slowly floated in their direction.
Both of them became alert, straightened up, and stopped discussing these dangerous topics.
But the camera wasn’t specifically following them.
Yu Tuisi was being pushed by Chen Sufeng as they made their way from the restaurant door.
As they passed by, Yu Tuisi nodded gently to them.
Yuan Mingqing was momentarily stunned, then elegantly returned the gesture.
This was their public image in front of the camera.
He was a gentle and refined strategist with a ruthless heart.
Tang Song, on the other hand, was arrogant and cold, good at planning and responsible for force.
Quite fashionable.
Tang Song glanced at Yu Tuisi, identified his identity by his wheelchair and the dense cameras around, and recognized him.
… That intriguing uncle-niece pair.
But he didn’t remember seeing the woman next to Yu Tuisi, or the two men, one tall and one short.
He quickly ran through the top 100 teams in his mind.
No such person was found.
He used Yu Tuisi as the keyword and finally succeeded in locating who this unknown trio was.
“Nanshan” was a small garbage team with a team ranking of 450th.
They once teamed up with Yu Tuisi to play a copy.
Tang Song chuckled silently, then closed the search interface.
No one would remember what’s special about this woman who is falling below 500.
However, Yuan Mingqing frowned and said, “They have teamed up with ‘Cube Boat’ before.”
Tang Song raised his eyebrows contemptuously and asked, “If you were Nan Zhou, would you care about this garbage team?”
…………..
As for Nan Zhou, Jiang Fang, and Li Yinhang whom “Adam” was so obsessed with, they were currently on a tourist bus filled with a faint scent of tobacco and sweet curry.
The air was warm, the environment was noisy, and there was a babble of foreign languages all around.
The woman with a Southeast Asian face in front of Nan Zhou was munching on a big egg pancake.
This time, because the teleportation range was small, they did not separate from their teammates.
They were teamed up with a young couple and a lone ranger.
The two young people were quite excited and lively, chatting with the NPC passengers on the bus, and quickly located Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang.
The young man familiarly introduced himself, “I’m Cao Shuguang. This is my wife, Ma Xiaopei.”
The girl was very cheerful, nodded, and smiled sweetly at the three of them.
According to Cao Shuguang, they got married just a few days ago and then got teleported to this unlucky place.
But it’s not too bad, both of them are here. It’s better to be together like this than one stuck in a cocoon and the other suffering in the game.
After introducing himself, the guy warmly said, “Why don’t you introduce yourselves?”
Li Yinhang opened her mouth. Facing the overly eager eyes, she felt that her name was hot on her tongue for the first time.
Li Yinhang: “Li Y…Yan.”
Cao Shuguang didn’t understand: “Huh?”
Li Yinhang cleared her throat: “Li Yan.”
Anyway, in PVE, they never proactively introduced their partners, and they could easily make up names.
After saying that, she looked nervously at Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang.
Jiang Fang nodded to her.
This was correct.
The current game situation was not clear.
The young couple didn’t get involved in the chase, and they hadn’t seen the faces of the three.
But their reputation was soaring.
To avoid internal conflicts and suspicions before understanding the situation, using an alias was the most appropriate move.
Jiang Fang smiled and introduced himself in a not-so-fluent mix of English and Chinese, “My name is Noah.”
The name fit well with his mixed-race appearance, and the young couple didn’t suspect anything.
They then enthusiastically turned their gaze to Nan Zhou.
Nan Zhou looked out the window at the exotic buildings, his gaze deep as he pondered his name.
In a little while, he turned back and said to the enthusiastic young couple, “Nanji Star.”
Li Yinhang, “…”
After taking so long, he settled on a lonely name. But, you know, the name “Nanji Star” didn’t seem out of place on someone with Nan Zhou’s appearance.
Nanji Star heard someone calling his name, thinking it was meal time, he enthusiastically wagged his tail, trying to squeeze out from his pocket.
Nan Zhou lowered his hand and silently tightened the pocket seam.
Nanji Star, “…” Huh?
The young couple thought for a moment and said they didn’t have a strong impression of this team.
They had looked through the top 500 ranked teams.
If there was a name as unique as “Nanji Star,” they should’ve remembered it.
The guy asked, “How many times have you done this instance task?”
Nan Zhou counted in his mind and truthfully replied, “The fifth time,” if we don’t count the battle with a thousand people chasing us.
The young couple exchanged a knowing look, understanding in their hearts.
——Oh, they’re newbies.
The guy confidently patted his chest and said, “I’ve completed seven tasks, so I’m like half a senior to you. Follow me, I’ve got your back.”
Wonder what this guy will feel when he finds out he tried to gain seniority on our ZhouZhou. 😂
Thanks for the chapter! It’s been a while.