Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Abo Dammen, Proofreader-adjective
Although the appointment with Ren Jianmo was at 8 p.m, Ji Dong consciously didn’t want to let people wait for him as a kind of etiquette, so he arrived at the gates of ‘Lian Ge’ twenty minutes early.
From a structural standpoint, Lian Ge, just like its name, was indeed very similar to the corridor style attic of the Han Dynasty, but it was not the antique carved beams and painted buildings and cornices that Ji Dong had imagined, but rather a cluster of steel spheres, staggering high and low, interlinked by many intricate floating linkages.
After waiting for a while, Ji Dong saw the two best friends he had met in the [City of Ashes] come hand in hand.
When Zhang Ying and Min Qingqing saw him, they were naturally overjoyed and sincerely invited him in, but Ji Xiao’niao declined because he needed to wait for his friends.
Despite their disappointment, the two girls did not force him, and they entered the corridor’s hemispherical entrance with a nervous expression.
Ten minutes before eight o’clock, Mo Tiangen also came.
Teacher Dagen obviously washed up in his room and changed into a simple V-neck T-shirt and jeans. He looked at least five years younger. He didn’t look like a high school teacher at all, but rather like a social newcomer fresh out of university.
“Oh, ho!”
Before Ji Dong opened his mouth to greet him, Mo Tiangen raised his eyebrows at him. “Okay, Ji Xiao’niao is so handsome after cleaning himself!”
“What, no…”
Ji Dong scratched his nose in embarrassment.
He didn’t want to admit that he did purposefully dress up.
He spent half an hour in front of the mirror in the room before coming out here today, taking out the new clothing from the closet and matching them one by one, and then using his tough straight male eyes to choose a pair that would look good on him. He also used hair spray to keep his hair in place, giving his wool head a soft and obedient appearance, which was continually curling up.
He pocketed his two invitations when he was finally satisfied. He went out nervously, as if he was a high school student dating his sweetheart for the first time.
“Yes!”
Ji Dong didn’t want Mo Tiangen to continue to focus on his clothes. He quickly changed the topic. “Ren Jianmo said he would come too!”
“Oh, yo!”
Teacher Dagen cracked a joke, “You deserve to be his boyfriend. You got in touch so soon!”
Ji Xiao’niao’s face turned red.
From the tip of his nose to the roots of his ears.
He hurriedly covered Teacher Dagen’s mouth and opened his to deny it. “I’m not. Don’t talk nonsense and make things up. Are you trying to destroy other people’s reputations?”
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.
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Ji Dong quickly separated from Teacher Dagen and subconsciously pulled the small curls on his head.
Ren Jianmo was dressed in a black long sleeved shirt, a pair of beige casual pants, and a pair of white canvas shoes. He wore his long hair in a ponytail that was about to reach his waist. His clothes were so simple that one could easily see that he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible.
Unfortunately, Ji Dong felt that Ren Jianmo’s efforts were meaningless.
When a person’s face and body were both in good shape, he would effortlessly attract everyone. Even if he wore a burlap bag with an expressionless face, he’d still give the impression that he was a representative of the Paris show’s high-level face.
Ren Jianmo nodded calmly at them.
“Let’s go in,” he said.
—————————–
Ji Dong, Ren Jianmo, and Mo Tiangen submitted the invitation letter at the entrance of ‘Lian Ge’. Three minutes later, they were directly sent to a gallery by the floating corridor of the connecting ‘Lian Ge’.
More than ten people have gathered in the room.
Ji Dong glanced around. In addition to Zhang Ying and Min Qingqing, he saw Zhao Zhui and the pair of sisters who he had met outside the ‘Colosseum’.
When the beautiful sisters saw them approaching, they both got up and warmly greeted them before escorting them to their seats. At the same time, their gaze was drawn involuntarily and lingered on Ren Jianmo’s somewhat surreal and handsome face for a long time.
“Well, now that we all have gathered here, we can start.”
In the circular conference hall, Zhao Zhui walked to the circular conference table.
In this briefing, they picked up a total of eighteen newcomers from the three [Films].
On the 3rd of the month, two groups of people exited the Colosseum in the morning and one group around midday. Whenever people left the [Film], Zhao Zhui and the twin sisters persuaded them to join their guild.
In the [Peach Blossom Spring], the date was just a simple unit used to measure when to enter or leave the [Film].
That was because the passage of time between [Peach Blossom Spring] and various [Films] was not equal.
In some [Films], especially those with higher difficulty, the players might have to stay in them for more than a month to complete the tasks assigned by the plot.
But when they leave the [Film] and return to the [Peach Blossom Spring], they would find that the calendar showed only the 16th of the same month, which meant, only one day has passed in the [Peach Blossom Spring].
Similarly, in F-level [Films] with a low level of difficulty, there may be novices participating in the [Film] for the first time, along with the experienced players who have participated in one or two [Films].
Even if they complete the [Film] together, according to the rules, when the experienced return to the [Peach Blossom Spring], it would be the 16th of this month, while the rookies wouldn’t come out of the Colosseum until the 3rd of next month.
It was initially difficult for newbies to adjust to this weird time-speed experience at first. They’d occasionally stumble into logical paradoxes such as wormholes and black holes.
However, if they could make it through two or three [Films], they’d become accustomed to it and disregard this illogical Pandora’s box. They would only think about how many days they had to prepare until the 15th of the next month.
Because of the time difference between experienced and novice players, Zhao Zhui and others had already received the assessment of surviving rookies of the same [Film] from experienced players half a month ago.
Zhao Zhui thought the newcomers’ performance was extremely mediocre if it were compared to the best friend group Ji Dong encountered in the [City of Ashes], and that they belonged to the average level of novices.
However, for Zhao Zhui and others, these novices who didn’t understand anything were akin to a herd of bleating sheep. It would be simple for them to collect a handful of wool first. As for the rest…
The corners of his mouth curled up, revealing a gentle and harmless smile.
——Wait until they live through the next [Film].
“Welcome to our newcomer briefing. First of all, our guild is called Compass.”
“As the name suggests, our guild gathers players who want to return home. We work together towards this goal.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the expressions of most of the eighteen newcomers present changed.
Most of them had been unable to accept the fact that they were actually dead. They still thought of themselves as ordinary people who lived and breathed. They had a tremendous yearning after hearing the words “return home.”
Zhao Zhui’s simple opening remarks hit the crux point, and it was more effective than any inflammatory words.
When several young girls among the newcomers heard the words “go home”, their eyes turned red involuntarily.
Ji Dong also sat up straight.
“I know you’ve just entered [Peach Blossom Spring], and I’m sure you have a lot of questions that our experienced players can help you with.”
Zhao Zhui, “Don’t worry, I’ll answer it for you one by one.”
…………
After that, Ji Dong finally knew what a ‘prop’ was.
In fact, this was a nickname given by the players and was not in the rules of [Peach Blossom Spring], so the artificial intelligences such as XiaoBai would not mention it to newcomers who had just entered the [Film].
Before entering the [Film], the participants could redeem their points from the [Peach Blossom Spring] for the props they thought would be helpful for customs clearance-such as the gun that Brother Jie brought into the [City of Ashes].
Ji Dong, on the other hand, had personal experience with it. When he awoke in the little black room in the ‘Colosseum’, the gun he had taken from Brother Jie had disappeared.
Not only the gun but also the bow bag, which Ji Dong remembered to carry with him when he was in the [Film], but which he couldn’t bring back from the [City of Ashes].
Now after Zhao Zhui’s explanation, he finally understood what was going on.
In fact, any items brought into the [Film] by the players would be treated as disposable consumables that could only be used in the current [Film] and couldn’t be carried into any other [Film].
But sometimes players would get some ’collectibles’ in the process of customs clearance.
If these items were not destroyed by the plot, the players would return to the [Peach Blossom Spring] to find that the prop had returned with them and had transformed into a portable prop that could accompany them into any [Film].
Such items were called ‘collectibles’ by the players.
Their collections in various [Films] were a very important resource for them.
Although they could not be directly converted into points, they could become bargaining items circulating among the participants.
For example, if someone obtained a curse-immune collectible in a [Film] with a European medieval background, as long as the players published this information, many other players who would face witches, demons, or vampires in their next [Film] would come in admiration and exchange points or other collectibles of equal value for the player.
One of the prerequisites for drawing recruits to Zhao Zhui’s Compass guild was to hand over the collections they got in previous [Films] to the other members of the guild for a unified distribution, to accomplish the most efficient use of all sorts of props.
“Of course, the guild won’t want your things for nothing.”
Zhao Zhui said with a smile, “We will reward the winner with points according to the level of the collectible.”
Ji Dong vaguely felt something was wrong.
Different from the game guild in the online game, there was no real guild task in the [Peach Blossom Spring]. Whether it was “Compass” or other so-called guild organizations, they were all spontaneously formed by the participants.
So, where did these points used to maintain the operation of the guild come from?
Ji Dong could only think of the truth that wool comes from sheep was applicable everywhere.
The public points of the guild must be collected from the members of the organization.
“Wow… Isn’t this a shortcut to customs clearance?” Ji Dong muttered in a low voice.
He still remembered the ranking of players on the Obelisk.
These organizers didn’t even appear to have to work hard to earn points. They only needed to consistently absorb enough new people, and then take some points from other members in the name of running the guild and exploit them to their advantage. This way, they could easily dominate the Obelisk list.
“No, they won’t do that.”
Ji Dong’s ear picked up on Ren Jianmo’s response.
He looked up with a surprised expression.
Just now his voice was so light that Ji Dong thought he was just talking to himself.
“Because the risk is too great, it will only kill yourself.”
Ren Jianmo bowed his head, his lips almost touching Ji Dong’s auricles, and whispered in a breathy voice, “[Peach Blossom Spring] will not allow such opportunistic tricks.”
😍
Thank you for the chapter!
Lmao dressing up n arriving early for the boyfriend. Very cute
Ji Dong your steel straightness isn’t so straight anymore hshs
‘ tough straight male eyes’… mhm…