Chapter 76: Chapter 76 – Silent Treatment
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“We look forward to seeing you again.”
Ren Suo walked out of the TGBus shop with a bag in his hand. He had purchased a new h.e.l.l 4 game controller—he even chose a gold-colored one.
Although the gold-colored option cost 30 dollars more than the most common black and white-colored ones, the golden color naturally made Ren Suo feel like ‘he was more special and unique’. Even though Ren Suo had also purchased a case for the controller which would conceal the color of the controller, he still decided to purchase the gold-colored controller.
Indeed, appearances were hopelessly important to Ren Suo, especially with regards to technology products that were used daily. He would purchase products that looked nicer.
And the reason why he specially came out of the house to buy a new game controller was that he had smashed his old one while playing [Holy Priest: Survival Battle].
In that round of the game, Ren Suo had risen to the top three after a painstaking time directing his character to stay alive and eliminate opponents. He made his character lie perfectly hidden on the snow-covered ground. However, a short and frail white man suddenly walked past in front of his character.
Ren Suo could not help but use his fully automatic “SCAR of the Rain” to send the thin and frail white man to the heavens. At the same time, however, he exposed his character’s position and was similarly sent to the heavens by the eagle-eyed sniper who was behind.
“The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.” The oriole would be the most privileged of the three, followed by the cicada, and the mantis is the most unfortunate—it was clearly just a step away from success but was instead pushed off the cliff at the very last moment.
At that moment, Ren Suo rolled around on the couch in agitation. But as he rolled about, his grip on the controller loosened and flew from his hand right onto the corner of the wall, smas.h.i.+ng it instantly.
Although Ren Suo could also purchase a new controller online, he could not afford to waste any time waiting for the express delivery, which was why he went out to the ACG Star Mall himself to buy a new one.
He had originally intended to return home after buying the new controller, but he changed his mind and decided to have his meal outside after a long time staying at home.
But he simply went to KFC and ordered a fried chicken set with Fatty’s Holy Water (Cola).
The graphics quality of “Survival Battle” was actually comparable to “The Hitman”, but its sound effects were unexpectedly…exaggerated.
Whenever Ren Suo made his character drink cola and eat fried chicken to increase her happiness score, loud chewing and slurping sounds would resonate in his ears. And the chicken of that fried chicken meal had even been fried until the bones were soft.
As Ren Suo watched his character’s glistening white teeth crunch down on the delicious, mouth-watering fried chicken and then, gulp down the cola happily, he could not help but drool.
Ren Suo had almost ordered fried chicken delivery but then stopped himself. He figured that fried chicken was high in calories and also ‘heaty’. For people like him who came from the south, becoming fat was merely a side concern since he could develop oral ulcers or throat inflammation if he was unlucky.
Of course, the more important reason was that ordering fried chicken would cost him an additional delivery surcharge of eight dollars. In comparison, the free delivery from the Jian Ji Noodles Stall below his apartment was more economical.
It was dinner time and there were many people in the KFC outlet. But Ren Suo was alone and could easily find a seat. He ordered a bucket of fried chicken as well a large cup of iced cola and started eating contentedly at one of the rows of seats facing the window.
After some time, a teen girl sat down beside Ren Suo. She plugged her mobile phone into the socket in the wall to charge and gleefully started watching a video with her earphones in.
How could she not buy any food, and yet hog the seats during the peak period while using the wifi and electricity for free…
Ren Suo criticized her in his heart as he shot a glance at her. He noticed the scene in the video on her mobile phone and could not help but stop for a moment.
“How could that be so popular?”
Astonis.h.i.+ngly, the teen girl was watching episode 18 of “Over My Dead Body”, which had been uploaded at 3 p.m. that day. Ren Suo did not imagine that a stranger sitting beside him would also watch that drama series.
But he did not have the right to criticize her either—he had stopped playing [Holy Priest: Survival Battle] to watch the new episode at 3 p.m. sharp.
Undoubtedly, Ren Suo knew all of the content and plot of “Over My Dead Body”, but there were also many things in the drama series that he did not know prior to watching it. For example, he did not know about the training the Ren family members had to undergo before they stepped up as the next head of the family. He also did not know about the many stories of love and hate that the Ren family members encountered when they set out on expeditions…
Like most of the ordinary people, Ren Suo was more interested in the love stories and comical moments in the plot. Admittedly, “Naisser_Ren” actually had decent video-cutting and editing skills. Almost every episode was action-packed and extremely exciting. Furthermore, apart from the main plot, there were also special animations of extraordinary abilities, much like popcorn movies.
Although the spoken language was that of Xuan Nation, Ren Suo could not understand it either (after all, that was the spoken language 2000 years ago). However, there were subt.i.tles in the language of Xuan Nation and in English, which satisfied the needs of the general audience from around the world.
Nonetheless, Ren Suo felt a peculiar sense of pride when he saw the teen girl who was a stranger watching “Over My Dead Body” with such concentration. Perhaps due to his striking stare, the teen girl turned her head and noticed Ren Suo staring at her own mobile phone. She took out her earpiece and asked softly, “Do you watch ‘Dead Body’ too?”
“Dead Body?” Ren Suo said, surprised. But he quickly responded and said, “I watch it too. Do you think that it is nice to watch?”
The girl nodded her head with zest and said, “Yes, it is! Although there are no celebrities that I like in the movie, there is no fanciful clothing, and I can’t fully understand what they are saying, it is actually quite interesting and unique for an ordinary web series.”
Of course, there are no celebrities, the characters are all real people… Ren Suo continued talking to the girl for a short while and found that she actually liked the drama series. It seemed that her friends did not watch the series which resulted in her not being able to discuss the plot with other people, so she earnestly started discussing it with Ren Suo.
And Ren Suo gladly revealed the future storyline to her.
“Ren Nu was unfortunate and would remain single throughout his life, although he would still save a few decent girls before his death.”
“Speaking of Ren Xian, he would leave to join Liu Bei in a few more episodes but quickly die of old age.”
…
Eventually, the teen girl put on her headphones and continued watching the drama silently. Ren Suo also finished his fried chicken and continued on his way home with the large cup of cola in his hand.
However, when he walked past an internet café in the ACG Star Mall, he saw an enormous advertis.e.m.e.nt posted outside. The internet café was organizing a “CrossFire Offline Compet.i.tion”, and not only would the champion receive a 1000-dollars members.h.i.+p card, but he will also receive an MX8.0 mechanical gaming keyboard, as well as a Logitech g502 mouse.
The dream of CrossFire, when it was released, was to have 300 million players, and that was when Ren Suo was in junior high school. But when he never played it before as he always played RPG games when he went to internet cafes.
Who would have known that the game would be so popular now that he had graduated from university?
He glanced into the internet café and saw that many of the screens were in the first-person view, and they were shooting their guns in crossfire on a desert map.
Everyone had headphones on and only the sounds of keyboards and left mouse keys clicking could be heard in the internet café as if footsteps in the dark.
Eh?
It was only then that Ren Suo realized that he seemed to have made a strange mistake. He turned around and looked for a shop selling computer accessories…
…
…
When Ren Suo reached home, he first went to his bedroom and disconnected his wired keyboard and mouse from his computer, then carefully moved the Mini Worlds Gaming Console onto his desk.
Afterwhich, Ren Suo took out the new game controller which he had just purchased, as well as a set of wireless/Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
He placed the mouse and keyboard on the table and was quickly lost.
From the very beginning, Ren Suo was able to use the game controller to turn the game console on because the wireless game controller had a b.u.t.ton used specifically to turn the game console on wirelessly.
But why would the wireless mouse and keyboard have such a b.u.t.ton to turn the game console on?
Ren Suo clicked the mouse. There was no response.
Was I just dreaming of the impossible?
The Mini Worlds Gaming Console had utilized some sort of unexplainable ‘dark magic’ to connect to his television screen and the game controller automatically, and Ren Suo had thought that it was extremely intelligent.
Without much hope, Ren Suo continued pressing all the b.u.t.tons on the keyboard. However, when he pressed the “wake-up” key, the display screen suddenly lit up.
Ren Suo was amused. It worked!
But it had to be attributed to the fact that he wanted to get things cheap and purchased an older version of the wireless keyboard used solely for testing purposes. The current, newer keyboards no longer had the “wake-up” and “sleep” keys.
Without any delay, Ren Suo immediately tried to use the mouse and keyboard to play [Holy Priest: Survival Battle]. While the new game controls took a while getting used to, there was sufficient time in the first round of the game for him to get familiar with it.
Ren Suo very quickly mastered the new game controls. Compared to the game controller, the mouse allowed Ren Suo to pan around much more quickly. Even when he was in a battle with multiple opponents, Ren Suo was able to eliminate other opponents very quickly and decisively with the help of camouflage items.
He had successfully proceeded to the top ten!
In fact, Ren Suo had already mastered the techniques in the previous days, but the game controller restricted his movements. Now equipped with a mouse, he could finally realize his full potential and even fight many opponents alone!
Ren Suo fought well to the final round. When there were only him and one other opponent left, he felt that it was where he would have to concede.
The last round was in a bungalow, and he was right in the center. The other trainee opponent was hiding in a dead-end of the bungalow and could not see Ren Suo’s character from the window. But if he entered through the window, the opponent would definitely be able to react in time.
Ren Suo did not have a hand grenade with him and had no other choice but to force his way in. However, the trainee in the bungalow seemed to know that he had an edge and boasted to Ren Suo, saying, “You already lost, just walk in obediently and accept uncle’s recovery touch of love!”
Ren Suo pulled the corners of his lips as he suddenly thought of something. He turned on his microphone and shouted, “Can you hear me?”
“Obviously, hmph. Are you a scared kid? On the account that we are both from the same country, I will make it quick and send you to the heavens happily and swiftly, so come in,” the uncle said.
“But why can’t I see your position? I can’t hear if you are on the left or on the right.”
“Are you kidding me? Our voices have been enhanced, and what we say would be clearly communicated to anyone in the area. It is the same logic as the increase in our physical ability and enhanced vision—they are all unsaid ‘blessings’. Has no one ever told you about these?”
“Thanks, uncle. I wouldn’t have known if not for you. But don’t think that you will definitely win. Have you ever heard of the Skill of Silent Recovery?” Ren Suo shouted.
“What Skill of Silent Recovery? You added a silencer?” the slightly puzzled uncle questioned.
“I will now let you have a taste of the Skill of Silent Recovery! Wahlalalalalala—” Ren Suo loudly said.
Ren Suo continued screaming as he opened the door. The middle-aged uncle with a large beer belly had indeed not heard the sound of the doors opening and did not notice that Ren Suo’s character had walked in.
“Accept the exceptional recovery of the SCAR of the Rain!” Ren Suo exclaimed.
“What the h.e.l.l, you are one sly—” the uncle said.
“You’re welcome. Have a good journey,” Ren Suo said.
As he watched the middle-aged uncle slowly transform into a handsome, charismatic and healthy man and ascend to the sky, Ren Suo could finally relax his tense muscles.
At the same time, the mission success message also appeared on the screen:
“Welcome back, we apologize for the lack of hospitality!”