I'm Really a Superstar

In the suburbs.

In a conference hall.

During the meeting"s intermission, Wu Zeqing suddenly overheard the people beside her whispering while holding their cell phones. There were mentions of Weibo, Zhang Ye, poetry, and something about a request for leave?

She went online to check.

The poem "Rainy Alley" appeared before her eyes.

The colors of the lilac.

The fragrance of the lilac.

A girl who is…like the lilac?

She read this poem five times over before breaking out into a grin. A lot of people around her were stunned from reading this poem as well.

Her cell phone rang.

It was a call from her family.

"Zeqing."

"Dad."

"What time will you be back this afternoon?"

"4 or 5 PM."

"Alright, drive safe."

Noon.

Back at home.

Zhang Ye"s parents called to say that they were at a relative"s place and would not be coming home for lunch. Zhang Ye ended up eating leftovers again for lunch. He sighed to himself at the sorry state of things. He looked at his watch and saw that it was still too early for Old Wu"s meeting to have finished. Moreover, she still had to go back to her parents" place in the evening, so it would have to be at least 8 PM before he could get to see her today.

So what should he do in the afternoon?

As a matter of fact, this fellow did not really have any hobbies at all. Ever since he"d graduated, he had always been working, day in and day out. Even when he took leave from his work, he did not really know what to do.

It"s time for the lottery then.

Zhang Ye had so many Reputation Points right now that it was even shocking to him.

He activated the Lucky Halo (Upgraded) and chose the Lottery Draw (One) option to play. He decided to place 1,000 additional stakes to see if he could get any new items!

100 million Reputation Points were spent just like that!

The lottery draw began!

The wheel started to spin!

Soon after, the needle came to a stop in the Skills Category region!

[Go Skill Experience Book] × 1001.

Go1?

What would I need this for?

Zhang Ye was speechless. Had the Lucky Halo lost its effect? But thinking about it, similar situations had happened too. The luckiness effect of the Lucky Halo was not 100% effective. Out of a few hundred times, there would be an occasional, ineffective occurrence. So he wasn"t too bothered by it. He started to study the Go Skill Experience Books as he "ate" them one by one. When he came to the last skill experience book, a familiar looking notification popped up, just as he had expected. He had encountered this before!

The Go skill has been maxed out!

He was unable to learn it any further!

Zhang Ye decided not to play Lottery Draw (One) anymore. Since he hadn"t tried his luck in Lottery Draw (Two) for quite a while now, he decided to spend another 100 million Reputation Points on it.

He opened the Lottery Draw (Two) interface.

A familiar looking slot machine appeared.

This was the lottery draw that required 10 million Reputation Points per try. If he placed nine additional stakes, that would expend 100 million Reputation Points immediately. But Zhang Ye did not feel the pinch anymore since he had a ton of Reputation Points.

The draw began!

The slot machine started cycling!

One by one, the icons slid past the screens!

Then it slowed, slowing and slowing!

Zhang Ye"s Lucky Halo (Upgraded) was still activated. He did not mind what items he would get from the draw as long as it didn"t turn out to be empty. Otherwise, these 100 million Reputation Points would go down the drain.

The slot machine came to a stop. The result came out!

Skills Category Treasure Chest (Medium)!

The medium-sized golden chests were about twice as big as the small chests. When he opened them up, the Skill Experience Book inside turned out to be much larger than the ones in the small treasure chests. It seemed that this was the first time Zhang Ye got a skill experience book from Lottery Draw (Two). But when he saw the name of the skill experience books, he was dumbfounded!

[Go Skill Experience Book] × 10.

Your sister!

It was still Go?

He immediately gave it a try and flipped open the first skill experience book. The book dissolved into glowing light particles and surged directly into Zhang Ye"s mind. He could clearly sense that his skill had leveled up, and there was no system notification to say that it couldn"t be learned. It looked like his previous guesses were right. For the Lottery Draw (One)"s Skill and Stats Category items, some of them would max out at a hundred, while some would max out at a thousand. But in Lottery Draw (Two), the enlarged skill experience books in the medium-sized treasure chests would still continue to increase his experience. However, that increase would no longer be exponential and the effect lessened the more he "ate" them. The 1,000 smaller Go Skill Experience Books that he had just studied cost the same as the 10 larger ones, at 100 million total Reputation Points each. But the 10 larger skill experience books clearly did not have as great an effect as when he "ate" the smaller ones.

This was actually quite normal. To cite an example: A weightlifting beginner could easily go from lifting 25 kg to 50 kg. But to get to lifting 75 kg from 50 kg, it would only get more difficult. Then, to get from lifting 100 kg to 125 kg, it would be even harder. Once it got close to human limits, it would almost be impossible to achieve. The great thing about Lottery Draw (Two)"s prizes was that it could allow the user to continue increasing the skill level even though the base limits had already been reached. It might seem like the growth rate was negligible, but the actual growth was not the same. This was a really important discovery!

Stamina?

Strength?

This meant Zhang Ye could still get to a higher level in those stats!

Zhang Ye was rather happy to have gained a further understanding of the game ring. But still, he felt that this skill experience book for Go was a bit of a scam. Oh right, the Lucky Halo was still activated.

Just as he was about to deactivate the Reputation Points sucking item, he heard a shuffle of footsteps at the door. With a swish, an ad pamphlet was slotted in through the gap at the bottom of the door.

He deactivated the Lucky Halo and walked to the door to pick up the pamphlet.

Xuanwumen Go Club?

Recruiting members?

Play for free for two hours by showing this pamphlet?

Zhang Ye suddenly realized that there was something going on. Logically, the Lucky Halo would not usually fail. Moreover, the Lucky Halo he was using was an upgraded version, so the effects should be much stronger. Even if it had failed to work properly once, it shouldn"t happen twice in a row. Further, someone had even handed out a Go club pamphlet through the door?

Could there be some deeper meaning to this?

Since he did not have anything to do, he immediately decided that he would head there to have a look.

Later that afternoon.

Xuanwumen.

As it wasn"t far away, Zhang Ye slow jogged over so that he could get some light training in as well. But as he got recognized by people three times along the way, he quickly turned into the alleyways to hide from the attention. Very soon, he reached his destination.

A traditional air exuded from the Go club building that spanned two stories.

He pushed opened the door and entered the building. It wasn"t a large place and felt more like a café.

An old man sat at the reception desk.

"h.e.l.lo, young man."

"h.e.l.lo."

"Is this your first time here?"

"Yes. This pamphlet says that I can play two hours for free?"

"Let me take a look, please? Oh yes, you can play for free. It"s on the second floor."

Clack, clack. He could hear the clink of the Go stones being played upstairs.

Zhang Ye went upstairs to take a look but saw that there weren"t too many people at the club. Those who were here were basically just the elderly, so he took off his sungla.s.ses. Since his fanbase did not include the elderly, he thought that it would be fine to just wear his surgical mask as he probably wouldn"t get recognized by anyone here. If he had been wearing his aviators inside, it would have made him stand out even more.

He found a spot where no one was at and sat down. Then he started laying out the stones based on agame record2.

Zhang Ye had learned about Go way back then. Of course, he didn"t learn it professionally. He only joined those compulsory interest-based cla.s.ses where they made you learn activities likeXiangqi3, badminton, and soccer during elementary and middle school. For some reason, he chose to learn about Go back then. It was because of those cla.s.ses that he had gained a basic knowledge of Go, although his knowledge was just on how to play it. Though he"d read many game records, he still couldn"t grasp many of the basic concepts and wasn"t exactly interested in the game either.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

He sat there by himself. No one came to look for him to play him, nor did he go to anyone seeking to play them. He simply wanted to find out what was going on with the Lucky Halo today.

Suddenly, someone came upstairs.

He turned to look and saw an old man in his fifties. He was wearing in a Chinese tunic suit and dressed very smartly. His eyebrows were pretty bushy, and he looked like he had quite the temper.

When he arrived, the people in the Go club immediately stopped playing.

"Yo."

"Teacher Changhe."

"What a rare guest!"

"What brought you here today?"

"Did you argue with your daughter again? Haha!"

"Or did you get chased out of your house by your wife?"

The several old men were definitely old acquaintances from the looks of it, bantering the moment he arrived.

That old man who was addressed as Teacher Changhe scowled and rolled his eyes. "You all better keep it down. Do you think I won"t slaughter all of you on the Go board? Who wants to have a go? Come on, I"ll let you have a handicap of three stones!"

A middle-aged man laughed and said, "We wouldn"t dare to play against you even if you gave us a handicap of five stones. Who hadn"t heard of your great name all those years ago, Changhe 9-dan?"

Teacher Changhe did not like what he was hearing. He harrumphed, "You make it sound as if no one knows who I am now!"

An old man said in amus.e.m.e.nt, "You have students everywhere, and so many of them are even national players. I"m sure the entire world knows who you are. Does that sound better to you? There"s a popular saying that goes "a good man does not harp on past glories." You"ve been retired for so many years. Why are you still so compet.i.tive?"

Teacher Changhe said with a laugh, "But I"m still stronger than the several of you old fogies. You tried so hard all those years ago and still couldn"t make it as professional Go players. At most, you"re known as dominant players among amateurs!"

9th dan?

A Go 9-dan?

Zhang Ye was taken aback. There was actually such a highly skilled player in this small Go club?

A 9th dan is one of the highest honors in the Go world. Even if one was old or retired, a 9th dan"s strength was still at the level of a professional and would definitely be considered a person of distinction in the Go world. What was such a high ranking person doing here in a small, amateur Go club like this one?

Changhe 9-dan said, "I"m not going to continue bantering with you all. I still have something to handle here. Where"s Old Lu? We arranged to meet at this time, so where is he?"

"Old Lu just left."

"Ah?"

"I think his wife fell sick."

"That old fogey! I told him that I had something important to discuss with him! How can he delay me like this!"

"What"s the matter, Teacher Changhe?"

"Nothing, it"s nothing."

Changhe 9-dan was looking pretty unhappy.

Where else could he go to find someone at a time like this?

Suddenly, he glanced over in Zhang Ye"s direction. "Eh? Who"s that young man?"

An old man looked over. "We don"t know him. He just came in a short while ago, I think he"s here to play Go? But he didn"t approach anyone to play against and has just been laying out stones from a game record all this while."

In this Go club that basically consisted of only the elderly, a young man walking into the premises naturally caught their attention. However, no one went over to interact with him.

Changhe 9-dan walked over to him and had a look at the Go board. His curiosity was piqued and he took a closer look at it. His eyes lit up. "Why have I never come across a game record like this one before?"

Zhang Ye looked up at him and said with a smile, "I was placing them down w.i.l.l.y-nilly. I forget where I saw it."

Of course he wouldn"t have come across it before. That was because this game record was from a match between two Go masters from Zhang Ye"s previous world. Zhang Ye was just replaying that match.

Changhe 9-dan sat down across from him and scrutinized him "You"re a beginner?"

Zhang Ye smiled. "More or less."

Changhe 9-dan asked, "How good are you?"

"I"m OK, I guess," Zhang Ye said conservatively.

The several old men in the Go club were all amused at this reply. OK? How confident!

Changhe 9-dan narrowed his eyes. "Alright, let"s play a match."

Zhang Ye thought a little. "Sure."

"I"ll let you have a handicap of two stones. Come on!" Changhe 9-dan took the whites stones for himself.