translator: xiin
editor: apricot
Jiang Shi caught a small detail in the system’s welcome message, where the voice stated ‘welcome back’ instead of ‘welcome’.
It was very clear that the message was tailored specifically for returning players, which showed that the developers of Creation Era had really spent a lot of effort on this push to encourage old players to come back to the game.
Jiang Shi’s thoughts only wandered for a moment as he quickly adapted to the sudden change in lighting.
The scene around him was no longer the sleek interior of the holographic cabin and had transformed into a very empty, spacious room. The wooden supports looked quite old, and there was a hanging sign that was positioned almost right in front of him with the words ‘Temporary Reserve Point’ written across it in large, haphazard letters.
Jiang Shi’s gaze shifted away from the hanging sign, and his attention landed on a young man standing nearby.
His elegant western suit and upright posture was rather inconsistent with the current era, but it was inexplicably perfectly suited to the young man’s mature temperament.
It had to be said that this was an old acquaintance.
Jiang Shi recognized him right away as the butler NPC he’d once picked out from the staff market with only a glance, and from the butler’s mournful eyes, he could also feel the other party’s accusation for leaving back then without saying goodbye.
He felt a little guilty and raised his fist to his mouth, coughing twice, “… Si Heng, long time no see.”
Si Heng the NPC looked at him, “Indeed, it’s been a long time. Sir, your new name is really quite unique.”
Jiang Shi laughed. “I think so, too.”
“I didn’t expect to be able to continue to work for you five years later. It’s really such a surprise and honor. When I first received the news from the world consciousness, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat flattered.”
As always, Si Heng’s slightly childish face had a superficial smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “You know, according to the service agreement, I should be able to complete our contract in about a month and return to the market to find a new master. I didn’t expect that you would actually be willing to come back before my glorious retirement and renew your contract. I really have to admire your dedication to honoring contractual obligations.”
Back then, Jiang Shi had taken a fancy to Si Heng completely due to the fact that this brat’s smart ass mouth very much suited his tastes. Not only did he not feel angry about being ridiculed like this after such a long time had passed; he even felt a sense of finally having truly come home.
His ability to accept things was quite high.
Acting as though he hadn’t heard Si Heng’s cold words at all, Jiang Shi looked around, and even the slightest trace of apology he felt before disappeared abruptly.
He raised his eyebrows slightly. “Where is this?”
Although it had been a while, at the very least, Jiang Shi still remembered that the last place where he went offline had been the outskirts of the city rather than this dilapidated wooden cabin.
Si Heng replied respectfully, “Sir, this is a temporary reserve point.”
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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“Recently, the Land of Creation has been quite lively, so the world consciousness gathered all the old travelers who had ‘left temporarily’ from other worlds to this independent Siliya Region. This is your current situation.”
Jiang Shi: “So?”
Si Heng: “So, although this place may look simple, it indeed serves as the access hub for your materials while you are active in the Siliya Region. During this period, I will also be here to serve you. Sir, you may be reassured to know that everything in this access hub is connected to the storage warehouse in your house, and you can still perform all asset management related actions.”
Although the words were a bit roundabout, this explanation was still enough for Jiang Shi to understand what was going on.
The Siliya Region was the initial novice region in Creation Era’s game world.
And this time, in order to streamline the influx of returning players who had been drawn back to the game by the incentives provided by the game developers, it was likely that all old players had been transferred to this region to make it easier to manage their data.
Jiang Shi clicked on the panel and looked over it. As expected, he found a series of densely packed return tasks stuffed inside.
These tasks generally weren’t difficult, but the rewards would be ten or even twenty times higher than that of ordinary tasks. It was obvious that Creation Era’s developers had designed them to allow returning players like him, who were out of touch with the current version of the game, to quickly catch up to the average player.
Jiang Shi closed the task panel and stopped worrying about the issue of his spawn point for the time being.
He looked at the butler NPC standing in front of him, his gaze sweeping up and down. His next sentence sounded rather sincere. “You’ve worked hard these five years while I’ve been away.”
Si Heng glanced at him. The respectful expression on his face was completely inconsistent with his contemptuous attitude. “It hasn’t been hard, sir. I withdraw my salary from your account every month according to the schedule, and this is all part of my job responsibilities.”
Jiang Shi laughed briefly, “No, what I mean by working hard is… with your fairly average memory and brain, it must be really difficult to be asked to suddenly go back to work after lazing around for five years and memorizing a conversation as long as the one we had just now in just a few seconds.”
Si Heng’s expression, which had already been a little ugly, became even worse. “Thank you very much for your concern, sir.”
Jiang Shi didn’t continue with this verbal sparring.
Now that he knew that his materials warehouse was linked to this place, he unceremoniously gave out an order. “Help me open up my warehouse.”
Si Heng: “Yes, sir.”
With Si Heng’s help, Jiang Shi was able to successfully connect to the storage warehouse in his house.
After scanning through it, he finally selected a portion of runes from storage, then added a few more practical items to fill up his empty backpack.
Only after adjusting the weight bearing settings of his body to its optimal state did Jiang Shi look back at his butler NPC. “So, Si Heng, do you have any good suggestions on what I should do next?”
Si Heng replied, “You can look into the new gifts bestowed upon you by the world consciousness.”
Jiang Shi nodded and opened up the notifications interface in his virtual panel.
Creation Era hadn’t become such a hot holographic game and attained such high levels of popularity in recent years for no reason.
‘Game as reality’ didn’t only refer to the way that gamers like him could enter this new world and make a living. It also meant that each NPC in the game had been given a unique and complete life story.
For example, Si Heng’s existence. All NPCs in this world had their own personalities and identities. The holographic world was real to them, and it was what they relied on for survival. At the same time, they were also an important element that ensured that the world could operate in an orderly way.
Having regular conversations with the players, who were known to them as ‘travelers from another world’, had also become routine for these NPCs.
All species from both worlds lived in harmony here, making this holographic world even more authentic and irreplaceable.
Of course, to those who came from different worlds, there were still some differences in perspective.
For example, the ‘world consciousness’ that Si Heng referred to was Creation Era’s official game system to Jiang Shi. And the so-called ‘new gifts’ Si Heng mentioned were the returning player benefits that were now being displayed to Jiang Shi on the notifications interface.
Jiang Shi casually looked them over and discovered that this round of benefits were mainly divided into three parts––
Part One: Returning player gifts. All returning players would receive luxurious gift packs by signing in every day;
Part Two: Exclusive tasks. Players could pick up these special tasks during their stay in the Siliya Region. This was also the main method that the developers had provided for old players to catch up in terms of levels, equipment and other things that were needed in the new version of the game;
Part Three: A limited time event. Currently, this was the most popular activity in the old player return package, bar none.
It had to be said that Creation Era’s developers were very generous.
During this activity, all active players could send out return invitations to friends who had been offline for over 60 days. If their friends were successfully invited back, then they would be considered as bound together. In the future, Creation Era’s game system would reward them with 1% of the returning player’s experience points and crystal coin consumption.
1%.
And each person could be bound to three returning players.
Although it might seem like a very small percentage, if the returning player was a big spender or a leveling maniac, then this percentage alone would become an absolutely terrifying amount.
It was no wonder that everyone was now racking their brains for ways to invite their former friends back to the game. Even Jiang Shi was a little tempted by this benefit alone.
He didn’t think too much about it at all and directly opened up a group in his friends list called Sharing The Same Bad Tastes and clicked on the ‘Invite’ button next to everyone’s in-game ID.
Although they hadn’t quit the game as abruptly as he had back then, looking at their offline counters, the people in this group had all quit around one to four years ago. It was difficult to say what their real life situation was now, but back during the world of Creation Era’s first season, they were all major figures who made others tremble.
And amidst this bleak list of dimmed names, there was only one game ID that wasn’t eligible to be invited back, standing out like a sore thumb.
Gentle Fish.
Offline time: 6 hours.
After clicking his way through the group, Jiang Shi glanced at this game ID and couldn’t help but think of the game he’d just seen in the internet cafe.
At this point in time, this person should still be in the competition server, right?
Based on today’s competition schedule, he probably wouldn’t come back to the game server anytime soon.
His gaze paused for a moment, then Jiang Shi closed his friends list.
His good butler Si Heng was right. For now, he should really start by working his way through the return benefit tasks that the game developers had set up.
After all, there was no reason not to.
Jiang Shi checked over the contents of his backpack one last time and was very pleased. He took great care to add some decorations to the temporary reserve point wooden hut and even remembered to fish out a full length mirror he’d retrieved from his mansion.
The elegantly dressed male elf stood in front of the mirror and methodically tidied his clothing.
The blue thorn tattoo on his face highlighted his long, fine golden hair, and made the facial features Jiang Shi had created with a single click look even more enchanting when paired with the mystical temperament inherent to his game race.
It was evident that Jiang Shi was indeed in a good mood after coming back to the game.
He even smiled and joked some more with the NPC as he pushed open the door to walk outside, “Si Heng, I forgot to mention it, but it’s been almost five years since we’ve met and you’re still the same as always and haven’t grown taller.”
The young butler was caught off guard, having suddenly been poked in a sore spot of his. “… Sir, your personality is also just as bad as ever.”
The only response he received in return was a faint chuckle, “Thank you for the compliment.”
—
The author has something to say:
Regarding the world setting of this novel – in simple terms, it can be understood as a holographic parallel world where the NPCs are considered ‘indigenous’ and the players considered to be ‘travelers from another world’ from other dimensions. It might not be clear now, but the world will slowly develop later on.
By the way, let me say quietly: Sir Jiang is really very handsome =3=
Off to conquer…hahahaha. Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
It’s good to see you back xiin!
Thanks for the chapters <3
thank you~
if jiang shi is the ethereal elf of the cover art, i can’t wait to see a description of gentle fish!
I think I’m going to love Jiang Shi 😁
He is quite memorable 😝
cant wait to see them meet again 😆😆
THANK YOU FOR THE CHAPTERRR
I like this character!!!
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
Oh this seems really fun. Looking forward to the rest! Thank u for translating!