Chapter 56: New Death Penalty
“He’s a player!”
“And he speaks Chidragon. Southwestern accent, in fact. I think he’s a new guy who came back after dying.”
The other players present had already figured out who this tattooed man was by listening to his words.
“d.a.m.n. I thought he was a Jaipenese.” An Quan the programmer and game designer looked excited at first but soon grew disappointed. “Why would a Chidragon man write Jaipenese words on his skin anyway?”
“Hey, what’s wrong with my tattoo? Can you even read what these words mean? And who the fu*k are you to judge what I do with myself?” the man yelled back at An Quan with an irritated look. The way he spoke suggested that he always had such a character.
The man rolled his eyes, pointed to someone in the group, and laughed.
“Compared to me, you’re the funny one, with that kind of stuff on you! That big dude has like, peony flowers all over his back! And such simple colors. Someone from a cheap workshop sent his student to practice on you, I bet?”
“…”
The new players with Ji Ye, or the first group of new players, saw where the man was pointing with blank looks.
Apart from him, there was only one person in the shrine who also had tattoos, which was “Flowery Monk” Lu Zhishen, the strongest settler living at Twin Dragon Mount.
“Mister Jiang? Drag him out and tell him how to shut up,” Ji Ye spoke with an offended expression, which was rare for him.
Previously, he believed that the second group of players would also be elite professionals of mankind. It appeared he wasn’t entirely correct about that.
It could be that Twin Dragon Mount was lucky enough to receive people with great achievements, or, it could be that this was an invisible bonus for completing the settlement quest with a perfect rating. Ji Ye used to cling to the latter.
This tattooed young man, however, was clearly not an “elite.” After his first death, he had wait for roughly 24 Earth hours to re-log. Judging from this, this man had only stayed alive for half a day during his first try. Then, without waiting for more information from the forum, he hastily made the second entry.
It would be a shame to call this man a “human elite.”
“Right on it.” Jiang Wenming nodded.
“I’m going too. I always wanted to kick suckers who put Jaipenese on their bodies!” An Quan also declared.
“What do you—do you know who I am—FU*K! MY HAND!!”
Jiang Wenming was already an Ordinary Rank-6 player who had also studied Iron Skin, while An Quan was… a mostly useless programmer. Though those two combined were more than enough to deal with the tattooed man. With a few moves, they knocked him onto the ground and pulled him out of the building.
“Kill me if you want, a**holes! Don’t blame me for not telling you! I’m ‘Mister Bug’ from Mian City. Ask around when you log off next time!”
Though beaten up, the tattooed man had no intention of staying quiet. He was still shouting angrily.
“Mian City, you say?”
Those words surprised the others slightly.
An Quan, who was still trying to land several hits to vent out his frustration, also stopped moving.
“Ha, remember me now?” The tattooed man smirked, which looked rather funny when his left eye was badly swollen.
“This is the settlement of Yang City, idiot. It was the right decision to whack you after all!”
Eyes widened in rage, An Quan punched the man in the right eye, before he stomped the man’s arm where the Jaipenese characters had been inserted.
In their province, the provincial capital Guan City was undoubtedly the biggest city. Below it, the rest of the cities were always competing for second place. Yang and Mian were neighboring cities with many of their qualifications overlapping, so they had been close rivals for a long time.
Of course, such “compet.i.tion” was mostly about economical and cultural races that didn’t affect the citizens in any way. People were free to use the geographical convenience to communicate or even find marriage with someone from the other city.
At least that was the case in real life. However, this was the Land of Inheritance. A new player from Mian City was being a c.o.c.ky b.a.s.t.a.r.d in front of a bunch of Yang citizens? Of course he’d get thrashed.
Ji Ye had a question in his mind after hearing the tattooed man’s speeches.
Someone from Mian City had been rea.s.signed to the settlement of Yang City after death?
Could it be that, once settlements became available, dead players would receive more penalties upon a “game over”? Apart from a downtime ten times longer than before, they’d also be revived in settlements controlled by players from other cities in the same province?
If so, would a player end up at an even farther city in the country next time? And the fourth time, a city in a foreign country? Then leave Earth at the fifth time?
There was currently no need to think that far since the fifth “death timer” would be longer than 30 years. Though the previous four deaths were worrying nonetheless. Just think, if a handsome, white dude with beautiful skin as delicate as a woman’s who came from the west had just endured through the fourth death penalty by waiting three years. Then he entered the Land of Inheritance in great excitement, only to see a bunch of black men around him grinning by showing their white teeth brighter than his skin…
What would that feel like?
Would it be safe since nothing particular would happen between guys? Not exactly. It would be even more dangerous, because those black men could very well be from a cannibalistic tribe.
Those strange ideas crossed Ji Ye’s mind all of a sudden, probably because of the effect of the Earthen Elixir that granted him divine knowledge.
He stopped those distracting thoughts soon because the real welcoming ritual in the shrine had already started. Just like the last time when Lu Zhishen showed up, two golden dragon heads were created out of the power of fortune; they floated above the tall Shrine of Faith building, which was a rebuilding project of a monk’s temple.
Whoosh!
The heads spat out two yellow beams of fortune power at the wolf skin and the Heart of Enlightenment. The beams looked thinner compared to the previous time.
Injected with power, the black Heart of Enlightenment grew brighter quickly, as if on fire.
Crack!
The offering item, which was the wolf skin, shattered in the process, while also unleashing a gray beam of light which sank inside the Heart of Enlightenment.
The new players held their breaths as they curiously stared at the sight.
The Ordinary Rank-7 Heart of Enlightenment changed shape, until it resembled a tall, slim human with muscular arms and a pair of sharp-looking eyes.
[Pei San]
[Level: Ordinary Rank-7]
[Rarity: Elite]
[A sub chief of Twin Dragon Mount. Captain of Liang Shan Marsh infantry. Knows 72 different varieties of “Cloaking Bladework” as well as basic tactical formations.]