The mysterious person did not want to appear before him. That was a feeling that the Ice Emperor could relate to.
“They want you to appear in public, Jian Lin”, HoneyBadger said. Her pretty white dress and the flower wreath on her head had zero defense, but she was a GameMaster – no one could attack her in the first place. It made her look like a flower spirit, especially since she was an elf. “It’s an interview. They want to know your plans and everything, is what they said anyway. In truth, they’re all just wondering if you’re really a player.”
The Ice Emperor pursed his lips and leaned on his knees. Due to being both an ice mage and a Moonlight Elf, he preferred the snowy area around the mountain. His level was high enough that most of the weak monsters in this particular corner avoided him, allowing him to simply sit and enjoy the scenery for a while.
HoneyBadger had appeared while he was resting. He didn’t want to play, but he wanted to escape his apartment. That was why he was here, and it was also the perfect time for a GM to approach him about his work.
Because the Ice Emperor was famous but reticent, people had started getting suspicious. Was he really a player? Or was he an NPC? Or worse, someone the company sent to lead the plot along?
All the advertisements were filmed and photographed in sandbox areas, the playground of the developers. He had never once appeared in his true body.
“I’m not interested.” He rejected the GM directly and focused his attention on his fingers. The ice crystals he had wasted a mana point to summon were hovering in the air. Not useful, but pretty to look at.
“Consider it. They want to know more about one of the game’s most famous players. We can also talk about what reward you want. Maybe a new pet?”
The woman tried to coax him carefully, but Ice averted his eyes away from her.
He did not want a new pet. It was stupid, but he was still sad about the last pet he had lost. An ice wyvern he had pain-stakingly tamed, dead because a group of high-ranking players had wanted to goad him into a duel. He was the type to grow attached to these kinds of creatures.
“I’m not interested”, he repeated, this time harsher.
His title had become his name, but that did not mean he was happy to have it. He was even unhappier about the attention it got him. Originally, he hadn’t even wanted to equip the title, but it force-equipped itself and couldn’t be changed.
He remembered all too well how he had gotten it. Prince Altair had been happy to give it to him, but he wasn’t happy to get it.
The description of the title, a description he was hiding carefully from everyone else, was a mocking existence that never left his side. That this title was not even his.
【The Ice Emperor
Title – Unique
Granted by Prince Altair】
【Effects:
+5% Damage when using ice attacks
+10 Mana
+1 Intelligence
Raised cold resistance
Lowered heat resistance】
【The Ice Emperor lives inside his frozen castle, looking at the world through tired eyes. With only the stars to accompany him, the Ice Emperor is the second-most loneliest person.】
He knew that it was his nickname now, and he accepted that, but that did not mean he was proud to carry it.
Peeved, Ice jumped off the branch and walked away without another word.
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.
“Ice!” The GM shouted his name and the man paused for a moment, despite not turning around. The GM smiled wryly. “Next month… Next month, they are going to open up the mountaintop. You should get ready if you want to explore it first. Both you and Bloody will be allowed to enter two days earlier than the public, just like some selected players and the other rankers. Use that time wisely.”
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In a corner of his view, a little light blinked. The mage opened the message.
“Gooood morning! Are you free?” The little wolf beastman tilted his head at the corner of the chat, a questioning expression on his face.
Ice’s face softened. “I’m free. Why?”
“I’ve emptied out my quest log. Want to do one of yours?”
“Sure.” With a couple of hand movements, he checked his open quests. “The egg?”
“Let’s go with the egg.”
It was a sidequest, which meant that other players might have gotten it in variants. Ice hadn’t checked it, but Bloody had gone through the forum and confirmed that the quest would be easy for the two.
“Let’s meet in two hours near the path into the Red Woods?”
Ice responded by sending an empty message that had his character nod. He opened his map and after making sure where he had to go, went to a nearby street and joined a group with a carriage to go over.
He did not expect there to be a third person at the meeting point.
“I am so sorry.” Bloody mouthed the words, his face an expression of pain.
Ice’s eyes wandered away from the beastman, over to the unknown assassin. The character was human, male, and a bit smaller than either of them. The young man looked like he might just have reached legal age, with a stubborn and childish glint in his brown eyes.
The assassin cleared his throat and jabbed his elbow into Bloody’s side. He glared at the taller beastman and nudged into Ice’s direction with his chin.
“Ice”, Bloody began with an exhausted voice, “this is Dead Rabbit. Like, you know, when the hare dies, the fox grieves.”
Silence fell over the group. Dead Rabbit rolled his eyes and jabbed the beastman again. He whispered something under his breath, but Ice could hear it anyway. “Goddamnit, Brother Yang. Say a bit more.”
“Rude brat”, Bloody hissed back. He rubbed his forehead and, with his eyes lowered awkwardly, looked at Ice. “I’m sorry. This is my younger brother, Xi Yun, written as cloud. He insisted on coming over now that he has also reached level 70. He’s been begging since-”
Another jab. Dead Rabbit shot an exasperated look towards his older brother.
“What?” Bloody frowned and crossed his arms. “Jian Lin knows my name. I’ve even got his phone number. Of course I’m gonna give him a full introduction if you already force yourself into joining us.”
Ice thought he heard a hint of smugness in Bloody’s words, but he wasn’t sure if he wasn’t imagining it.
“I’m Jian Lin”, he greeted back courteously. “My nickname is Free-Flowing River, but everyone refers to me as Ice Emperor.”
“I know!” Dead Rabbit nodded like a chicken. “You’re an amazing player! I’m looking forward to playing with you!”
“No one invited you”, Bloody grumbled under his breath. “Anyway, Ice, don’t worry about him. If he dies, he dies. This brat can endure some pain. He won’t even be useful.”
An air of hostility rose between the two brothers. It had been a while since he had seen this stubborn side of Bloodless Sunset, usually he only saw his cheerful happy-go-lucky side.
Ice let his gaze wander between them.
Bloody was as tall as Ice. Although his character’s dark skin and brownish hair could be adjusted during character creation, Ice knew from photos that the real Xi Yang was also tanned with darker hair. He was also almost as trained in reality as he was inside the game. There hadn’t been too much adjustment.
As for Dead Rabbit, his face only had vague similarities to Bloody’s due to their race difference. He was, however, clearly smaller and thinner. It worked well enough for an assassin, but when the barely-average tall Dead Rabbit glared up at the tall and trained Bloody, it looked a bit ridiculous.
“How are your stats?”, Ice asked after considering a while. Dead Rabbit perked up.
“Strength 16, Agility 20, Intelligence 17 and Luck 13. No Mana.” Dead Rabbit puffed his chest out proudly.
… A bit painful that this child had higher strength than him. Much higher. Alas. At least it was less awkward than the agility gap.
Now it was time for Bloody to clear his throat uncomfortably. “He meant only the rough area. You know, below average, average, advanced, expert…”
Dead Rabbit’s smile froze. You usually didn’t give people your exact stats, that made it too easy to plan against you. The more details you could keep hidden, the better.
In general, people had gotten used to a certain scale.
12 and below was considered below average for a player. 13 to 17 was average, 18 to 22 advanced, 22 to 26 expert, and everything beyond that was called master.
“This is a display of trust”, he rushed to defend himself.
“You’re an assassin talking about trust”, Bloody commented and clicked his tongue.
Before things derailed further, Ice opened his quest log. The prince’s quest was done, now he wanted to focus on the Blue Egg quest. He shared the quest directly with Dead Rabbit, invited him to the party and waited for the young man to read it.
【Side quest – The blue egg
A little village in the middle of the Red Woods has found a blue egg. They are trying to find a way to dye it red.
Help the village dye the egg red.
Shareable quest
Duration: 11 days
Reward: 1000 Gold, Misa’s thanks
Failure: The blue egg’s destruction】
Although the quest sounded beyond ridiculous, Ice and Bloody had enough experience to recognize that it sounded like this was a quest that would raise your relationship with the village NPCs.
It would surely be a returning quest in the future, considering it was a sidequest that could be shared. The more private a quest, the higher its rarity. This was not a rare quest, but the relationship increase would be good.
It wasn’t a unique quest or anything, but the only reason why Ice had gotten it was that another elven village’s chief had recognized him being above level 65. There weren’t that many players that were elves, above that level and acquainted with NPCs from that place. In time, many players might find this quest, but not at this point.
The advantage of being a high-level player. Haven had no actual level cap, but levelling got slower and slower the higher you went. The main point was that except for rare story monsters, there were no enemies beyond level 75 yet. Probably in the new area.
Right now, reaching level 70 was the cap for most people. The jump that every level after that needed was enormous due to the difficulty of the level 75 enemies. It was no hard cap, but a natural cap that the game placed in front of them. Ice had been at level 79 for three months now, and Bloody was stuck at level 78.
The player with the highest level was 82. There were three 81 players, and everyone else in front of Ice was stuck at 80.
They were all skilled players that spent their whole day inside the game, only to be thrown out when the capsule registered you playing for too long. Their daily lives were perfectly adjusted according to their playtimes. That was how, with sheer time and grinding, they increased their levels.
But sooner or later, these players would spend more time acquiring skills than experience points when they ran into a wall.
Each job had an academy that taught you about it. You could change jobs, but NPCs did not like seeing that.
The academies had various teachers who would teach you the skills needed to be proficient in your job. For example, magic spells for a mage, or stealth based skills for an assassin.
The skills were separated into passive and active skills.
Passive skills were, unlike in other games, basic skills you learned. That included using a sword, or using mana, or sneaking. You did not exactly activate any of these, you could use them at any time by actively moving. They had no skill level and their proficiency simply depended on your talent and how much you practised it.
Active skills were more like the common games since you activated them. You also needed someone to teach them to you, where the academy came into use.
Magic was the odd one out, however, since spells were all about language. The academy there only helped you with the passive language skills and how to activate your mana. Or at least they called it activating mana, but for players it automatically activated the moment you used a spell. It felt a lot like holding a hose spurting out water that you tried to control so the water would flow where you wanted it to.
They did have dictionaries, though. Very helpful for new spells.
For other jobs, active skills used common word activations. It looked like right out of an anime when people started screaming all kinds of skill names, although some – especially assassin skills – activated with motions rather than words.
Learning a skill without an actual teacher was annoying, as a NPC teacher increased your chance of learning the skill by 30%. Considering the chance of acquisition lowered further and further the better the skill, this was truly a good bonus.
Finding a way to convince these people to teach you without changing your job or finding all kinds of hidden teachers and convincing those needed a lot of time.
Not that it mattered to Ice.
With his stats, he couldn’t do anything other than magic. Hooray for specialized mages.
Author’s Note
Yes, magic is very weird. 
Anyway, if you guys find something that sounds like a logic hole, you are very welcome to notify me of it. Some things might be on purpose, but if it’s an actual issue, I can fix it.
Also, do you people prefer me writing “Brother X”, “Little Y” or “X-Ge”, “Xiao Y”? I’m personally fine reading and writing both…
Little Theater
Bloody: “I’m a wolf, and this is a chihuahua.”
Bloody: “… No, wait.”
Bloody: “Chihuahua’s are dangerous. They bite.”
Bloody: “You’re more of a… pug.”
“You’re an assassin talking about trust” I laughed hard xDDD
New area opens soon, does that mean the second Ice Emperor appears soon? And I’m fine with both (brother/ge) too :’D
Thx for the ch ٩( >ヮ<)۶
That… entirely depends on your definition of “soon”, I guessssss…….
“Soon” is the same as “recently”, which can mean yesterday or several years ago xDD So, I can wait as long as it takes.
The Little bro is so amusing hahaha, and OMG calling out attack names!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 So chunni! Though I would be too shy 🙈🙈🙈
[ Ice thought he heard a hint of smugness in Bloody’s words, but he wasn’t sure if he wasn’t imagining it. ]
Hmm, does Bloody already like Ice? 🤔
Thank you for the chapter 💜💜💜
Thanks for the chapter! <3
Merci for the chapter! (๑•ᴗ•๑)♡
Indeed, chihuahuas are ferocious little beasts 😰
Hm, I’d prefer “Little” and “Brother” in comparison to “Xiao” and “Ge”, but I don’t mind either way.
I like the writing style. It’s pleasant to read.
Than you for the chapter 😊
Sounds like a very interesting game, really