[1] 东方不败 (Dong Fang Bu Bai): A character from one of the cla.s.sical wuxia novels, The Smiling Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖) by Jin Yong. What was notable about this character was that he had invincible martial arts abilities that came from the Sunflower manual (葵花宝典) but which required him to castrate himself. Eventually, he was only able to get killed because he was distracted by his injured lover who was also being attacked.
[3] 落霞峰: 落霞 means sunset, so the real name is Sunset Peak or Sunset mountain.
Chapter 10 Evil, Too Evil
Du-du-duel?!
Wei Wei was so shocked she couldn’t type. After a beat she said: “Zhen Shui was willing to duel?”
In no way did Zhen Shui seem like that kind of irrational person.
In 《Dreams of Jianghu》, a one-on-one battle could be two types. One type was informal sparring, which was commonly called PK. The other was duelling. In sparring, losing wasn’t very important, no loss of experience or drops in levels, but just sparring points. Duels were different. Each loss in a duel was a one level drop. If the player was a lower-level one, than it was still okay. The one level drop can be made back easily. For higher-levels, like Wei Wei and Zhen Shui Wu Xiang, a one-level drop was the loss of more than half a month’s work.
Zhen Shui Wu Xiang was the type to spend money to play the game. All the equipment were top-level and he always willing to spend more to get stronger. But in a duel with Nai He Da Shen who would have used the same level equipment … …
It was akin to suicide!
Wei Wei had partnered up with both of them before, so she understood their strengths very well. Here it has to be said that they were just too far apart in skill level. Nai He Da Shen was out of the atmosphere, a stunning galaxy, inhuman. Zhen Shui Wu Xiang was just on par with Wei Wei.
So Wei Wei was strongly suspicious that Zhen Shui Wu Xiang couldn’t think it through and wanted to die.
Yu Gong replied to her: “It’s not whether he wanted to or not, Laosan announced the challenge on the World Channel. That announcement, it was so underhanded, if he didn’t take it, he couldn’t ever play in this server again.”
And there was a written challenge, how formal … … We Wei was mortified and asked: “What was the challenge?”
Hou Zi Jiu: “He wrote that he wanted a three-battle match. Said if Zhen Shui Wu Xiang won even one battle, it would be considered that Zhen Shui won. He won’t ask about the video again. And in the duel, he won’t bring his pet. If Zhen Shui didn’t go to battle with this kind of conditions, Zhen Shui couldn’t be considered a man. Losing is better than not coming.”
Not using immortal level pets … …
You could win this way?
Wei Wei was still mortified. It was said that Da Shen was inhuman. This proved it one again. And this kind of conditions was really really ~~really didn’t allow anybody to say anything. If Nai He had just asked for a fair duel with Zhen Shui, then even if Zhen Shui didn’t fight, admitting that he wasn’t as good as Nai He, it wouldn’t have given him any embarra.s.sment. But provoking a battle this way made it so that Zhen Shui had to battle. Otherwise, he really would be shamed by everyone.
Hou Zi Jiu said: “Afterwards, I started to pity Zhen Shui Wu Xiang. Poor guy. If it was one match to determine victory, then he only loses one level. If it was best two out of three, after losing two, he could immediately admit defeat and lose two levels. But Nai He had to play it so that everybody, including, knew that he would lose the third round. He still had to suffer through it for his honor.”
Yu Gong Pa Shan: “Evil, underhanded, too evil.”
Nai He said: “You guys are reading too much into it. I just didn’t want to waste time talking.”
Wei Wei thought that it was true and Nai He’s reason made sense. If it had been a fair challenge, Zhen Shui would have found an excuse not to fight and try to argue. Talking back and forth would have wasted time. Da Shen’s challenge was a fatal strike.
Mo Zha Ta: “Well, Zhen Shui Wu Xiang was somewhat brave, he didn’t battle with his pet either. Did you already consider this point?”
Nai He dismissed him. He said: “Why would I consider him?”
>ooo
Hou Zi Jiu: “Totally regretful.”
Yu Gong Pa Shan: “If he didn’t delete, we would, hehehehe.”
Hou Zi Jiu: “Hack his computer.”
Yu Gong Pa Shan: “Bankrupt his account.”
Mo Zha Ta: “What do I do? Sell his wife?”
Yu Gong Pa Shan: “But since he deleted, we don’t have a reason to act.”
Wei Wei: “= = You guys are too despicable.”
Yu Gong Pa Shan played the modest card: “You flatter us. Compared to Nai He, it’s nine cows to our one hair [2]”
Wei Wei sweated, could “nine cows to a hair” be used this way?
Nai He: “Wei Wei, we’re leaving.”
“En, where?” Wei Wei asked as she joined his team.
“Somewhere without them.”
Just after joining the team, the landscape changed in a blink and Wei Wei found herself standing on top of the peak of Sunset Mountains [3].
On Sunset Peak to watch the sunset.
This was one of the most unpopular places yet most beautiful places in the game. Because there were no monsters, no quests and therefore no experience to be gained at this place. But since meeting Nai He, this was one of the places that Wei Wei frequently came to.
The sun was half hidden behind the clouds, the rays shooting in all directions. It highlighted the red-clothed xia to be more bright and beautiful but the white-haired musician became more aloof and out of the world.
Wei Wei set her chin on her hand and watched. Slowly she typed: “This place is really beautiful.”
Nai He: “En.”
For a time, n.o.body said anything. After a long while Nai He said: “This incident should have waited for you to solve. Too many people were paying attention though, so I thought it would be better to get it over as fast as possible.”
In front of the computer, Wei Wei blinked. She blanked for a long time before realizing that he was explaining to her why he invited Zhen Shui to duel.
In reality, he didn’t need to explain anything to her. He solved it very well … .. but she didn’t know why, Wei Wei felt there arose in her heart a sliver of feeling similar to being emotionally touched.
This kind of feeling didn’t arise when he had given her that spectacular wedding, nor when he was taking revenge for her, but at this time, under such picturesque condition, because of the fact he was simply just explaining this to her.
Wei Wei didn’t know what to say to him, her fingers hanging over on the keyboard. In the end, she sent a smiley face.
Nai He didn’t say anything else. Wei Wei stood silently at his side, she didn’t move or leave, just looking at the silent picture. She felt that this moment in time was tranquil yet distant.