translator: Oyen editor: Ciel
Qin Mo had a strange feeling in his heart—— This ‘Thousand Miles Ice’ was really similar to Xiao Han.
Although he had no problems typing and looked to be fluent in Chinese, the battle yesterday kept reminding Qin Mo of when they were teens.
At that time, he was only seventeen years old, and was the apprentice of Wind Colour’s team captain Ling Xuefeng. Xiao Han was half a year older than him, and was the apprentice of Canglan’s team captain, Li Cangyu. Their masters were close friends, and he knew Xiao Han well because of this. Since their masters were usually busy, the two young apprentices often chatted with each other, which eventually became a daily occurence. In fact, Qin Mo’s status as his ‘sparring partner’ contributed to Xiao Han’s growth, from a rookie to an excellent professional player. Naturally, Qin Mo was very familiar with Xiao Han’s personal style.
In yesterday’s match, Thousand Miles Ice’s flexible positioning skills and fast pursuit was a complete replica of Xiao Han’s playstyle.
Furthermore, ‘thousand miles of ice, thousand miles of snow’ was a phrase from the poem 'Qinyuan Spring • Snow' which Qin Mo had once taught Xiao Han.
If this person really was Xiao Han, then he was likely bringing the club’s newcomers to Peerless Jianghu, in order to train for next year’s professional league. This could also explain the situation in the Leisurely Villa Treasure Mine yesterday, when the players withdrew without complaint once the captain lost.
From yesterday’s encounter, he should have guessed that Ink Mark was a professional player, but he definitely wouldn’t have associated Ink Mark with Qin Mo.
Firstly, Qin Mo had been away from the professional league for three years, and had returned without telling anyone. Secondly, Qin Mo had previously played a summoner, using his pets to kite his opponents. This time, he played a swordsman in Peerless Jianghu, following a different playing style from the past. Even if his master showed up in person, Ling Xuefeng might not necessarily recognise him.
Of course, Qin Mo was only speculating that the operator behind ‘Thousand Miles Ice’ was Xiao Han. He had no real evidence to prove it.
Regardless of whether this guess was right or wrong, Qin Mo had no intentions on letting anyone know his identity for the time being.
The sun gradually rose, illuminating the beautiful scenery of Qingcheng Mountain. Looking down from the top allowed one a wider field of vision than on flat ground. In the game, there would also be differences in the scenes registered when one ‘looked up’ and ‘looked down’, just as it would be in the real world.
Qin Mo was carefully calculating the differences in the field of vision, when a system message popped up in front of him—— chivalrous man [Thousand Miles Ice] has asked to duel you. Do you agree?”
Qin Mo asked doubtfully: “You want to duel again?”
Thousand Miles Ice: “Just learned a new skill, let’s try it.”
Ink Mark: “You can go to the city gate and hit a wooden dummy.”
Thousand Miles Ice: “The wooden dummy can’t move, let alone use qinggong the way you do.”
Ink Mark: “So? You want to use me as a guinea pig for your new skill?”
“En.” Thousand Miles Ice’s answer was very straightforward. “You learnt a new skill for level 30 too, right? Why don’t you try it out?”
Staring at the duel application that had appeared in front of him, Qin Mo hesitated for a few moments, before finally pressing ‘agree’.
——Just as the other party said, he had just learned the new skills of level 30, and might as well try them in the actual combat.
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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But Thousand Miles Ice hadn’t been controlled by this skill.
In yesterday’s duel, he had been caught off guard by the other side. As a professional player, Xiao Han definitely wouldn’t make the same mistake a second time, and as a result, was especially vigilant in today’s match. As soon as he saw Ink Mark’s actions, he immediately operated Thousand Miles Ice into retreating quickly, narrowly avoiding the fan-shaped attack range and successfully avoiding Ink Mark’s control skill.
Qin Mo was not surprised. After all, the other play was an expert; catching him twice with the same tactic would not be so easy.
Seeing him withdraw, Qin Mo did not hurry to pursue. Instead, he cautiously kept a distance between them, using a number of mid-range group attacks to slowly consume his opponent’s blood.
Thousand Miles Ice’s blood volume soon hit 80%, and Xiao Han finally began to counterattack——
A short distance away, the assassin suddenly split into three black shadows, rushing towards Ink Mark from the left, right, and middle at the same time!
The movement of the three black shadows seemed disorganised, but an expert would recognise that this sort of pattern made it extremely difficult to find any flaws. The black shadows moved quickly, blinding the eye and making people confuse the real and the false, causing them to be unable to guess the path of attack.
Before Qin Mo could respond, one of the shadows had come quietly behind him——
The sharp dagger pierced Ink Mark’s heart in an instant, and his blood volume fell to 70%.
Just then, the three shadows around him vanished. Not far away, the black-clothed assassin stood calmly in place, seemingly watching a good show.
Qin Mo: “……”
Splitting into black shadows to attack quickly, then returning to one’s original position in an instant– Qin Mo had to admit that not only was the effect of this new skill shocking, but this person’s operation was also very handsome.
Still, Qin Mo wasn’t about to admit defeat. The attack range of the new skill ‘Unrivalled Sword’ was very far; in fact, it was far enough to hit Thousand Miles Ice from here. Qin Mo did not hesitate to use the skill. The sharp sword in his hands flashed with a cold light, before flying straight for the assassin nearby!
Seeing this, Xiao Han immediately controlled Thousand Miles Ice to dodge, but to his immense surprise, the sword continued to chase him, and directly stabbed him in the chest!
——It turned out to be a targeting skill.
The sound of a sharp sword piercing through flesh could be heard; the wound in Thousand Miles Ice’s chest bled profusely, lowering his blood volume by 30%. Obviously, this skill caused considerable damage.
After the pursuit ended, the sword automatically returned to Ink Mark’s hands, as if it were a spiritual being.
—— The sword flew to hit the target before quickly returning to the owner’s hand. Somehow, the effect of this skill looked very handsome.
Xiao Han halted Thousand Miles Ice’s movements, before quickly typing out a message: “Is this the swordsman’s level 30 skill?”
Seeing that the other party did not intend to continue the fight, Qin Mo also paused. “Unrivalled Sword, targets an enemy and pursues them if they run, launches an attack that cannot be evaded.”
Xiao Han was full of praise. “This skill is very good to use. An attack that cannot be dodged can harvest heads in the arena.”
“Yes,” Qin Mo agreed. “What was that skill you used?”
“The assassin’s level 30 skill is Thousand Lights Ghost Walk,” Xiao Han replied. “Increases agility, and allows the player to split into shadows to attack the enemy.”
“How many shadows can be split at most?”
“In theory, as many shadows as you want. But the skill only lasts three seconds, and people with slow hand speeds cannot use so many shadows.”
“Given your hand speed, how many can you split into?”
“At the present moment, I can handle three skillfully. The visual range of this game is very limited, so I’m still practicing,” Xiao Han admitted honestly.
“Does the shadow return to its original position after attacking the target?” Qin Mo was quite curious about the specifics of the skill.
“You can choose not to return to the original position, and instead move to the location of one of the shadows,” Xiao Han carefully explained. “This skill is very flexible. Thousand Lights Ghost Walk, together with Meteor’s pursuit, can instantly complete a long-distance movement, which makes up for the weakness of an assassin’s short attack range.”
“It looks like this game’s cold dagger assassins are different from the close-combat assassins of other games. They seem to be better at fast-moving combat?”
“Yes. They can attack from near or far, and have many displacement skills.”
“This means that the operation is more complicated, doesn’t it?”
“En, if you don’t react quickly enough, you’ll end up getting stunned by yourself.”
As they chatted, they began to analyse the data and effects of various skills, as well as how to utilise them, just like old friends who hadn’t met for years.
As soon as the newcomers of the Dragon Song club came online, they happened to see a strange scene——
Under the bright sunlight, in a clearing on top of Qingcheng Mountain, a swordsman in white pointed his longsword straight at his opponent’s chest. His opponent, the assassin in black, had his dagger concealed behind him, but couldn’t hide the terrifying bloody glow from the blade. Both of them were in a state of residual blood, seemingly at the end of a fierce battle, but at this very moment, their movements stopped. Instead of fighting, they stood there chatting, as if no one else was present.
Ink Mark: “The way the system judges a combo is quite complicated. This should be studied further, after there are more skills available to us.”
Thousand Miles Ice: “The skill cooldown will have an impact on the combo. People with slow hand speeds won’t be able to form a combo at all.”
Ink Mark: “Have you figured out any rules?”
Thousand Miles Ice: “The system’s judgement has an error range of 0.2 seconds. As long as the next skill is used within this range, the combo can continue.”
Ink Mark: “I calculated this also, and reached the same number.”
Watching both people talk about these high-end topics, the newcomers dared not to speak, and could only silently watch them chat.
A few moments later, Qin Mo realised that a few familiar IDs had shown up. They were the same ones he saw in the Leisurely Villa Treasure Mine yesterday with Thousand Miles Ice. Obviously, his teammates have woken up and came online. Judging from the simultaneous login of the four people, his speculation about them being in a club was pretty much proven.
Qin Mo immediately changed the subject. “Your teammates are here.”
Turning his head to check, Xiao Han found that the newcomers had been sitting quietly in the training room, waiting for his arrangements. Checking his watch, Xiao Han realised that it was already 8:30am in the morning, the set time agreed on last night. To his surprise, he didn’t even hear the footsteps of the newcomers as they entered the room; neither had he noticed their characters appearing behind Thousand Miles Ice in the game.
——Obviously, it was because he had been too engrossed in the conversation just now.
It had been a very, very long time since he last met someone who could chat amicably with him in such a manner.
In the past few years, he had been team captain, and no one dared to refute his opinions. In addition, he didn’t speak much to begin with, so the people who were willing to chat with him were few and far between.
But today, he had actually said so many words with Ink Mark in the online game.
There were many interesting discoveries in the new game that he wanted to share with this person. They also told him a lot about the visual scope, which was what he needed most at the moment.
——What he wanted to say, was exactly what the other person wanted to ask; what he wanted to ask, was exactly what the other person wanted to say next.
——It was like meeting an old friend he has known for years.
This strange tacit understanding made Xiao Han feel very comfortable chatting with Ink Mark, and even reminded him of the past, back when he talked with Qin Mo all night long.
If it hadn’t been for his teammates coming online, he would probably have spent the entire morning chatting with Ink Mark on top of the mountain.
As the first VR first person perspective game in China, there were too many unknown things that they needed to explore. It was, in fact, a very rare blessing to meet a friend with such similar interests.
If it were just a simple online game, then maybe he could have watched the scenery with Ink Mark while slowly studying the game’s details. Unfortunately, the burden on Xiao Han’s shoulders was not light. Because the Dragon Song club entered Peerless Jianghu late, he needed to study the game as thoroughly as possible at the fastest speed. After that, he needed to select a group of excellent newcomers from the training camp, form a new team, and fight in next year’s professional league.
Thinking of this, Xiao Han could only send a private chat message: “I’m going to upgrade, I’ll chat with you later.”
Ink Mark replied: “Me too, goodbye.”
Once again, Xiao Han sent a friend request; this time, the other party did not refuse.
Looking at the first name on his friend list, ‘Ink Mark’, Xiao Han felt a little happy, and offered the other party a smile, before leading his team away from Qingcheng Mountain.
Thank you for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter!
well they have progressed alright.
Thanks for the chapter.
it’s so good to see that even though xiao han doesn’t know that ink mark is actually qin mo, the tacit understanding is still there
Dang.. its a reunion but y am i crying.. 🤧😭
Ay my heart, I can’t 🤧💖 The two chatting away and forgetting everything else is just too sweet