translator: Oyen editor: Ciel
Wind Color Team, press conference site.
Under the dazzling flash of the spotlight, Qin Mo stood alone on stage. Lowering his eyes, he picked up the microphone, and whispered, “I have decided; from today onwards, I will officially quit the Wind Colour team, and leave the professional league. To my friends who have liked and supported me this far, I am sorry to have disappointed you.”
The teenager’s voice was audibly choked, and his face looked extraordinarily pale.
Upon hearing this, the reporters underneath the stage swarmed, rushing to hand the microphone to him. “Qin Mo, you chose to retire before reaching 18 years old, was the psychological pressure too much of a burden?” “Did losing the last few games cause you to lose your confidence?” “After your master handed over Wind Colour team to you, you choose to leave just like that; how is this living up to your master’s teachings?” “Shouldn’t you be giving the fans who have supported you an explanation?”
The reporters’ bone-chilling questions were like a sharp knife, unceremoniously piercing the heart.
Taking a deep breath, Qin Mo bowed deeply to everyone. “I’m sorry.”
Then he straightened his back, and resolutely walked out from the press conference venue.
“Qin Mo, just what is going on?” Backstage, a blond-haired, black-eyed teenager chased after him with large steps. Stopping in front of him, the teenager asked doubtfully, “You’re leaving the Wind Colour team? Why?”
“I don’t want to be an esports player any longer.” Looking at the teenager, Qin Mo stated quietly, “It is not too late to change careers now, while I am still young.”
“Have you already forgotten our promise?” Placing a hand on Qin Mo’s shoulder, the teenager looked him in the eye. “You lost to me this season, and said that you would beat me next season.”
His face paling further, Qin Mo remained silent.
Seeing this, the teenager couldn’t help but to feel anxious. “Your complexion looks bad, are you ill?” Reaching out, the teenager attempted to touch Qin Mo’s forehead, but was avoided by Qin Mo.
“Xiao Han.” Raising his head, Qin Mo interrupted the other. Looking Xiao Han directly in the eyes, Qin Mo said calmly, “I have my own reasons for making this decision, please, don’t ask about it any more… in your competition, you have to fight well. Goodbye.” His words concluded, Qin Mo turned to leave immediately, as if he could not bear to stay for even a second longer.
“I’ve heard that ‘goodbye’ in Chinese has another meaning——never to see you again.” Turning around, Xiao Han stared at his retreating back. “What did you mean by ‘goodbye’? Are you not planning to come back?”
“……” Qin Mo’s back stiffened. Still, he didn’t answer the question, and continued leaving quickly.
“I’ll wait for you to come back!” Xiao Han shouted, “We’ll meet again one day, and then you can beat me with your own hands!”
“There will no longer be such a day.” Qin Mo’s footsteps did not stop, even as he fled from the long corridor.
The golden rays of the evening sun lengthened the lonely figure of the teenager. Though thin, the figure was still proud.
——He had left, allowing his best friend and rival to see his proud back, yet hid the tears in his eyes from the very same person.
Standing there, Xiao Han watched Qin Mo disappear into the distance.
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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However, the teenager, just like a meteor gliding across the night sky, never truly shined, but instead fell and died ahead of time.
***
Three years later
“The Expedition Guild is preparing for the war in Peerless Jianghu’s new summer holiday area. It’s stationed in the Xijiang Moon server; everyone is welcome to join!”
“Haoran Guild is stationed in the Peerless Jianghu server, welcoming all brothers to join the guild!”
“……”
The news about ‘Peerless Jianghu’ opening a public beta test shocked everyone, causing the game forums that had been silent for a long time burst into a flurry of activity.
Different from China’s other online games, ‘Peerless Jianghu’ made use of the latest VR operating system.
VR, the abbreviation for Virtual Reality, was a high-tech means of using a computer to simulate a three-dimensional space virtual world. This enabled people to immerse themselves in, and have a real-time interactive experience in the virtual world. This technology was originally used in medicine, tourism and other industries, and later with the development of science and technology, VR games gradually entered the market. In recent years, however, VR games were all small single-player games; the market for large-scale online games was still untapped.
Tianyi Game Company’s large-scale online game ‘Peerless Jianghu’ featured a real 3D perspective, and had thus attracted extensive attention in the gaming circles since the project was announced. It was said that ‘Peerless Jianghu’ adopted the latest VR system to connect the terminal, allowing players to feel the game environment more realistically, as well as the images before their eyes to be more vivid, just as if they had crossed into the game world in person.
Today, ‘Peerless Jianghu’ announced the launch of the public beta test.
The game adopted the system of time charge; players needed to purchase an ID card to register an account in order to top up game time. This ID card would be the player’s ID card in the game.
Due to the excellent early publicity, almost all the ID cards on the official website were out of stock. Nowadays, the delivery courier would often find an exquisite paper box when delivering his goods — on the front of the box was printed ‘Peerless Jianghu’, with a card clearly visible through the transparent film in the lower left corner.
With this sort of express delivery, even the delivery couriers could recognise——this was the ID card of ‘Peerless Jianghu’.
“Hello, Mr. Qin, I am delivering your parcel. Please pick it up at the residential complex’s south gate.”
Less than ten minutes after the message was sent, a young man appeared at the door of the residential complex.
The young man was about 1.8 meters tall. He wore a white short-sleeved shirt and light-colored slim trousers; when observed from a distance, his straight legs looked very attractive. His hair was neatly trimmed and gave people a particularly refreshing feeling, with a facial outline almost comparable to that of the big stars in the movie. His facial features were exquisite and beautiful, and his peach blossom eyes were impressive. However, although the young man’s eyes were beautiful, his eyes were particularly cold; there was no expression on his face, causing him to look very difficult to approach.
“Hello, I am here to collect a parcel; the recipient is Qin Mo.” The young man said lightly.
“Oh, is this the one?” The delivery courier immediately handed him the box.
“Yes.” The young man bowed his head and verified the receipt information, before taking the box and signing the receipt.
Just looking at his beautiful appearance and neat dress, much like a corporate executive or a fashion model, how could he be so enthusiastic about playing games? Perplexed, the delivery courier scratched his head and looked at the thin back that was quickly retreating into the building with some doubts.
***
After Qin Mo went home, he immediately went to the study to open the game’s official website. Taking out the identity card in the packet, he registered to activate it, as well as purchased a game time of one year to be charged to the card.
There was still a period of time before the opening of the new district. Carefully, Qin Mo examined the settings of the game on the official website.
Tianyi Game Company had obviously spent a lot of effort in the production of ‘Peerless Jianghu’. The setting of the sects was very novel, and did not follow the more common martial arts sect such as Wudang, Emei and Tangmen of the previous work ‘Wulin’. Instead, a completely new, original sect system had been created.
At present, there were eight sects listed on the official website. Each sect had two kinds of cultivation routes, and the gameplay was very diverse.
In the blink of an eye, it was already noon; Qin Mo went to the kitchen to cook a bowl of Tangyuan to fill his stomach, before opening the downloaded game login account and entering the ‘Xijiang Moon’ server.
The realistic game CG was played in the beginning, much like a movie——the top two players were fighting fiercely in the depths of the bamboo forest. The green bamboo forest, the white sword light, the humming of the weapons, and the rendering of the background music; all of it introduced people into this new world.
After the end of the CG, the crests and a simple introduction of the eight sects appeared before his eyes, followed swiftly by a prompt window——please choose a sect to join.
As a teenager, in order to follow the distinctive lineup of the Wind Colour team, Qin Mo used to play as a Summoner with the ID of ‘Shepherd’, following in his master’s footsteps. His master had once been a world-class summoner player; Qin Mo had learnt much from him. Not only was Qin Mo familiar with the gameplay of a summoner, but he also had a deep understanding of the common professions in the game.
Since it was a new game, he should also start anew and learn the gameplay from scratch.
Having thought of all this, Qin Mo no longer hesitated to choose a completely different profession——the melee swordsman of the Hanhua Sword Sect.
Pressing the confirmation button, Qin Mo selected the male gender option. Watching as a man wearing a long white gown and holding a sword appeared before his eyes, Qin Mo made some simple adjustments to the face, before proceeding to the next step.
——Please enter a character name.
Immediately, Qin Mo typed in an ID of the ancient style: Ink Mark
——Welcome ‘Ink Mark’ to Peerless Jianghu. Entering the novice village; please wait, your queue number is 1,756……
Earlier, it took only a few seconds to create a character, yet the queue was already over a thousand players long. Clearly, there were many players entering the Xijiang Moon server at the same time.
Qin Mo turned around and made a cup of coffee, intent on slowly drinking the dark brew while waiting in line.
He never drank coffee with sugar, for the bitter taste on the tip of his tongue would make him more sober.
Coming to the game of ‘Peerless Jianghu’ wasn’t just a brand-new beginning, but also a brand-new opportunity that he had chosen to give himself.
10 minutes later, Qin Mo’s little swordsman finally managed to squeeze into the novice village.
This village was called Luojia. At dusk, under the sunset, the sparkling rivers seemed to be sprinkled with numerous golden jewels; the sky in the distance was rendered a beautiful golden red by the sunset light. The straw huts were arranged neatly from south to north, giving the village an orderly look, while the cries of sheep on the hillside nearby could be clearly heard.
With the VR system, the scene before his eyes looked very lifelike——green hills, pale waters, rivers, and sheep; it seemed as if everything was close by, almost as if he had come to this ancient world in person.
This sort of picture effect was absolutely top-notch in China; no wonder this game was so popular. The number of people visiting the forum had long exceeded 10 million, with even the giant esport clubs being attracted by the game.
Qin Mo gave the 3D virtual system a good review, admiring the immersive scene of the village at dusk.
——Please follow the system prompts to set the game buttons.
A soft female voice could be heard in his ear, with a prompt window appearing at the same time. Qin Mo took a closer look at the screen pop-up tips; as he had known before, the game had two modes of operation. One was the keyboard and mouse mode, while the other was the relatively new lightscreen touch mode.
Game operations for ‘Peerless Jianghu’ could be equipped with a special lightscreen touchpad. Players could set up custom shortcut keys according to their preferences in order to release a variety of skills, while forward and backward walking operations, as well as the switching of the camera perspective, was all completed by using the finger to slide the touchscreen.
In the online game industry, which was dominated by the keyboard and mouse, lightscreen touch control was a huge innovation. However, it was easy to get distracted during high-intensity combat by swiping a touchscreen to control a character’s movement, while simultaneously releasing various skills. As a result, ‘Peerless Jianghu’ lightscreen touchpad sales were not good; over 95% of the players were still using a mouse and keyboard to play this game.
However, right now, Qin Mo had a beautifully designed touchscreen panel on hand.
The edge of the connected LCD panel glinted with a soft blue sheen, a vivid blue light that made his fingers very slender and white.
The official setting guidelines suggested for players to set the touchpad to a horizontal and vertical 3×3 grid mode, but Qin Mo had set the operating panel to a 4×4 grid, with 16 keys in total.
——There were seven more keys than the official nine-key settings.
A warning immediately popped up in front of him. “If you set too many touch-screen keys, it may result in a highly complicated operation. Do you still wish to confirm this setting?”
Calmly, Qin Mo pressed ‘confirm’.
The LCD screen was immediately divided into four squares by blue thin lines, while the touch panel began to emit blue light, similar the the pattern of water ripples.
The young man’s face looked pale under the blue light, but at this very moment, a trace of long-lost, bright luster rose in his dark and clear eyes.
Thanks for translating this! I just came from GLS chapter 94 and was laughing so much but it starts off with sunch a sad goodbye… 🙁 I really wonder what hapenned.
Thank you for the chapter!
Rereading it on this side~ 🥰
This Peerless Jiangsu VR game sounds familiar. Heard it in another gaming novel but from different author. 🧐
seems interesting! I want to know why he left.
I just finished GLS and the start almost made me cry 😢
Just finished reading GLS, excited to read this!
So how old is he now?
21 I think
I’m here! I’m here! I’m here!!
Loved GLS and throwing myself into this now.
Thank you for translating 🙏
came here instantly after reading GLS but that first scene 😭😭 what the hell happened??? i used to think that qin mo and xiao han would be the next li cangyu and ling xuefeng, leading the new generation of canglan and wind colour as captain and thr next rivals. i’m so curious to know why he retired!!!
Great. Decided to read this next. Thanks for translation. Im confused by the characters, are they from another novel. Their names seem familiar.
So far i like the sound of that game. Its something id definitely like to try
I just realised they are from god level summoner haha. I think
As a VR gamer, I am offended at the idea that we use a keyboard and mouse to play – VR gaming requires a VR headset and open space, not sitting at a computer! #Oculus2
Ah, but I’ve searched it on Google, there are indeed VR Games that used a computer (or PC) but whether they used a keyboard and mouse to play is unclear since I don’t play games lol maybe the author used their creativity? At least it’s quite accurate
Most VR headsets are plugged into a PC or a gaming console which runs the software, but they’re not played with keyboard and mouse – they have their own independent handheld controllers.