Chapter 28: Did You Forget to Water It?
Chi Zhen was a little dazed throughout the entire day of classes, as if he were dreaming.
What if, by the time class ended, Endless Time and the other two had already left his tiny newbie guild? Or when he logged in that evening, they would regretfully tell him that a major guild had extended an olive branch with excellent terms, and they were planning to leave.
Well, he would respect their decision and wish them the best.
Lost in these thoughts until class was over, Chi Zhen originally planned to rush to the cafeteria for dinner. It was peak post-class hours, and the paths were packed with hungry students charging toward the dining hall.
Just seeing the crowd, Chi Zhen could already imagine how packed the cafeteria would be.
His major's classes were held on the old campus. The campus wasn't large, and the apartment he rented, the academic buildings, and the cafeteria formed a rough triangle, all within walking distance of one another.
He had intended to grit his teeth and line up for food, but then he remembered that he was now making four figures a day. Instantly feeling a little rich, he abandoned the cafeteria plan and headed straight back to his rental apartment.
Then, grinning happily, he opened a food delivery app and ordered a deluxe crab roe rice bowl. With double crab roe.
After placing the extravagant order, Chi Zhen opened the livestreaming app on his phone and checked his backend statistics. Quietly, he wondered how long these profitable days would last.
His major was Digital Media Technology. To him, being a gaming streamer and editing gaming videos fit perfectly with his field of study. Many of his classmates had accounts on various new media platforms and managed them in their own ways, but most saw mediocre results. As far as he knew, only Luo Song, his roommate, was doing fairly well. Luo Song had accumulated followers and traffic through short videos before transitioning into livestream sales. He wasn't a top-tier sales streamer, but according to him, he could still make six or seven thousand yuan a month.
Among students in their major, that already ranked near the top three.
Most of their classmates uploaded videos they'd filmed and edited, only for them to perform worse than stones dropped into water—not even a splash before sinking into the vast ocean of the internet.
Among his classmates, Chi Zhen wasn't particularly outstanding. Only a few former roommates knew he worked as a gaming streamer. Even Luo Song had no idea that his streaming numbers had recently been skyrocketing. He hadn't told anyone.
Because he didn't know how long this wave of popularity would last. Whether it would be like countless stories that unfolded on the internet every day—briefly rising, only to disappear just as quickly.
He didn't believe his growth came from his gameplay being especially entertaining. The obvious increase in traffic had begun with that misunderstanding a week ago.
And if the protagonists of that incident hadn't been Endless Time, the number one player on the server, and the beautiful player Misty Autumn Rain, he didn't think it would have attracted nearly this much attention.
After that, through a series of strange coincidences and accidents, Endless Time had appeared in his streams almost every day, bringing in huge amounts of traffic.
And now Endless Time had actually joined his guild.
If he were one of his own viewers, he might also suspect: Was this all a script the streamer had written?
While waiting for his food delivery, Chi Zhen secretly logged into the game. Only one guild member was online— The Light Boat Has Passed. He opened the guild roster and checked.
Mm. Endless Time was still there.
Ah, well, he probably hadn't gotten off work yet.
Feeling reassured, Chi Zhen ate his meal and quickly started his stream.
Final exams were approaching. For the next half month or so, he wouldn't be able to guarantee a stable streaming schedule. Better to stream more now, in case he failed to meet his monthly streaming hours requirement.
The moment he went live, three to four hundred viewers poured in.
[Streaming this early today? Missing Endless Time already?]
[Did you forget to water it yesterday?!]
[Did you forget to water it yesterday?!]
[Nameless Seed! Danger! Critical danger!]
Chi Zhen remained calm. "I watered it."
Question marks immediately flooded the screen.
Chi Zhen explained, "After ending the stream yesterday, I pulled a surprise move. First, I pretended to log off. Then, after waiting a while and letting the two major guilds lower their guard, I quickly logged back in, sprinted up the mountain, and hurriedly collected a flask of snow."
And mailed two million spirit stones to Endless Time.
[Legend.]
[I thought you forgot to water it. I was so worried I couldn't sleep last night!]
Chi Zhen fell silent. "..."
[Guys, it's only six-thirty. When is Endless Time getting online? I'm dying here.]
[If Endless Time isn't around, Baby Thousand Feathers is fine too.]
Chi Zhen became even quieter.
Silently, he harvested his crops, collected fruit, fed the chickens, ducks, and fish, loosened the soil, watered, and fertilized. Finally, he couldn't help speaking up. "Um... Endless Time and Thousand Feathers aren't gaming streamers. It's fine if everyone jokes around and makes memes about me, but maybe don't do it with them..."
[Xiao Chi, I've noticed you care about this a lot. You've brought it up several times.]
[Honestly, you're a gaming streamer. If you're bothered by jokes and memes, then maybe they just aren't suited to playing with you.]
[Streamer, do you realize comments like that are a total mood killer? We're just internet meme lovers. Everyone knows what's going on. Every time you bring it up, it sounds like you're trying to distance yourself from shipping content. But you did capitalize on the ship. Otherwise, where would this traffic come from?]
[What nonsense is the guy above talking about? Isn't Xiao Chi's popularity obviously from his sharp gameplay?]
[Give me a break. There are tons of skilled players in the gaming category. Everyone in this stream knows exactly where the traffic came from. I'm out. Boring.]
[Xiao Chi, I think you're overthinking it. Blue Sky Beyond hangs around your stream all the time and jokes about this stuff harder than anyone. There's no way Endless Time doesn't know what's being said. He hasn't complained once. Yet you're the one getting anxious first.]
[Friendships happen naturally. You're a gaming streamer. If they join your guild and play with you, viewers are inevitably going to watch them too. If they can adapt, you'll keep playing together. If they can't, then you'll part on good terms. Just focus on doing your own thing. The friends who suit you will naturally appear.]
[Holy crap, who is this wise big sister? That makes so much sense!]
[Just a little life experience, that's all. #doge]
Chi Zhen was stunned. He read the message carefully and felt that it actually made a lot of sense.
Soon, other viewers started asking the "wise big sister" for advice on getting along with classmates and friends. Chi Zhen quietly lurked and watched the discussion, until the chat flooded with accusations that he was slacking off during the stream—he hadn't said a word, and his character hadn't moved an inch.
Left with no choice, Chi Zhen got moving. He headed to the Trading Hall to check today's market prices and started estimating which materials might be profitable recently.
Then he visited the courier NPC to check his mail and collect payments from materials he had sold on the market.
The moment he opened his mailbox, the entire stream was shocked.
Chi Zhen had received a letter from Misty Autumn Rain.
Chi Zhen was even more shocked than his viewers. He opened the letter and became even more stunned.
[Since Endless Time and his friends have already left the guild because of the grudge between us, let's consider this matter settled. From now on, Way of Heaven won't deliberately camp or hunt you anymore. If we run into each other on world maps, we'll leave it to fate.]
Attached to the letter were seven Migu Flowers.
The exact seven flowers Chi Zhen had once mailed to Misty Autumn Rain as an apology.
Chi Zhen was dumbfounded.
He couldn't make sense of the logic behind this letter at all. Misty Autumn Rain's forgiveness was just as inexplicable as her vendetta had been.
But at least it had arrived.
Chi Zhen accepted it and clicked to retrieve the seven Migu Flowers.
[Wait, you're just accepting that?]
[That's way too much! She decides to hunt you whenever she wants, and now she decides it's over whenever she wants? Why? They were the ones bullying the weak with numbers!]
Chi Zhen remained calm. "There's no benefit in continuing to fight with Way of Heaven. Besides, Endless Time, Blue Sky Beyond, and Thousand Feathers—three top-tier players—have all left their guild. That's a huge loss for Way of Heaven already. Sure, they outnumbered us, but they didn't come out ahead. Didn't Endless Time completely style on them?"
At seven-thirty in the evening, Thousand Feathers logged in first, followed by Blue Sky Beyond.
The moment they logged in, both of them took a tour of the guild secret realm. Then, as if by prior agreement, they both fell silent.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Chi Zhen quickly explained, "I've already started preparing to develop the guild realm and drafted a preliminary plan. Of course, if a larger guild with better conditions invites you, you're free to leave anytime. This is really just a little farming guild..."
Blue Sky Beyond immediately turned on his microphone in YY. "Building a guild realm together sounds fun!"
Thousand Feathers was more practical. "I've already read a guide for guild realm construction. The first step is chopping trees."
"Chopping trees? How do you do that?" asked the PvP-focused Blue Sky Beyond, who knew absolutely nothing about life-skills gameplay.
"...With an axe," Chi Zhen answered.
"An axe?" Blue Sky Beyond searched frantically. "Which dungeon drops that weapon? Why can't I find it?"
Chi Zhen was speechless. "...You buy it from the guild handyman NPC. Ten spirit stones each."
Blue Sky Beyond was embarrassed.
In Quest for the Azure Heavens, players could purchase basic life-skill tools from the guild handyman NPC. Axes for logging, hoes for farming, watering cans for flowers, fishing rods for fishing—everything cost ten spirit stones. Cheap and practical.
Every player automatically knew the basic life skills: logging, farming, fishing, herb gathering, and mining. More advanced professions such as construction, cooking, alchemy, and smithing required learning from specific NPCs.
The game imposed no restrictions on life skills. Players could learn every single one if they wanted. The problem was stamina. A character's stamina bar was fixed, and even the maximum guild realm bonus could only increase it by thirty percent.
Basic activities like logging and farming consumed stamina, just as advanced skills like construction and cooking did.
Stamina refreshed daily, and the amount available each day was limited. Even if a player learned every life skill, they couldn't use them all because they simply didn't have enough stamina.
Most players chose one or two life skills and purchased everything else from the Trading Hall.
It saved both time and effort.
Only the truly hardcore life-skill enthusiasts learned every profession and exhausted their stamina bar every day.
And some players had absolutely no interest in life skills whatsoever. They learned none at all. For example—
"Uh, where do you even learn life skills?" Blue Sky Beyond shouted. "Wait, what?! Building the lowest-level guild realm requires a hundred logs?! How long are we supposed to spend chopping trees? We should've made Endless Time pick up all those trees he blew up yesterday! Is it too late to go collect them now?"
Chi Zhen sighed helplessly. "You can't. Trees you blow up yourself can only be picked up by you."
Otherwise, he would've secretly collected all of them long ago.
Meanwhile, Thousand Feathers continued studying the construction guide and discovered the important part. "It's not a hundred logs. It's two hundred. Because Xiao Chi already built the basic house by himself. Now we need to upgrade it. The upgrade materials are... let me see..."
"Two hundred logs; four hundred and fifty stones; six hundred lumps of clay; one hundred loads of plant ash; and one hundred twenty buckets of rice paste."
Blue Sky Beyond let out a miserable wail. "Have the game designers lost their minds?! I came here to play a game, not become a laborer! When are we ever going to finish this house?!"
Chi Zhen comforted him. "No need to finish it immediately. We can gather materials slowly, a little each day..."
Thousand Feathers calmly continued reading from the guide. "The guild hall, kitchen, farmland, pond, and other facilities all require separate upgrades."
Blue Sky Beyond nearly lost his mind.
When Endless Time entered the YY channel, he was greeted by exactly this kind of chaotic uproar.
[Guild] Endless Time: ?
----------
If you like my translation, please support me by buying me a coffee:
No comments:
Post a Comment