Chapter 35: Outstanding in Every Way
The chaos lasted all the way into the evening.
It was the first time Chi Zhen had ever felt that playing games for ten straight hours was torture.
Normally, when he wasn't streaming, he could do whatever he wanted and hours would fly by. But now, he'd finished all his dailies, gathered materials, spent ages crafting gear with his Tailoring profession until his stamina bar was completely drained...and it still wasn't dark outside.
His stream was still full of people who had come just to look at him. The chat was flooded with questions asking why the streamer wasn't talking. Was it because no one was sending gifts? Then they started throwing gifts at him.
Chi Zhen was stunned. He even felt guilty continuing such a laid-back stream, so he decided to queue for a random ten-man raid.
There weren't many pickup groups looking for a Spirit Cultivator, but he eventually found one.
"Let's run Lingyang Marsh. This dungeon's actually pretty interesting because you fight the bosses in a marsh. If anyone's interested, I'll explain the mechanics while we're fighting," Chi Zhen said. "Why this dungeon? Because it requires decent positioning, mechanics, and awareness, so pickup groups have a harder time filling spots. Spirit Cultivators have an easier time getting in. Most other dungeons don't really want Spirit Cultivators because people think our DPS isn't high enough."
The moment he joined the party, he was subjected to merciless gawking.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: Oh my god! It's The Light Boat Has Passed!
[Party] Flooding: No way, no way! I'm literally watching your stream right now!
[Party] Thirteen: What's going on? Did some celebrity join us?
[Party] Still Dashing: Heh. That famous streamer everyone's been talking about lately? The one hunted by the two biggest guilds?
[Party] Xiaoxiao: This is the closest I've ever been to a celebrity! Screenshot! I need a screenshot! You're so handsome, streamer!
[Party] Floating Cloud's Sorrow: The Quest for the Azure Heavens forums have been completely flooded with posts about this big-name streamer today. #Smirk
[Party] End of Season: I didn't look carefully when I accepted your application. So this is the number one handsome guy on the server.
[Party] The Light Boat Has Passed: ...
Chi Zhen was so embarrassed he nearly crushed his mouse in his grip, helplessly letting everyone gather around him at the dungeon entrance to take screenshots.
The raid leader, End of Season, called everyone into YY voice chat before saying over the mic, "Big Streamer Xiao Chi, I'm a game streamer too. Small streamer, though. I'm live right now. You don't mind, do you?"
Something about his tone immediately gave Chi Zhen a bad feeling.
[Party] The Light Boat Has Passed: You're the one leading the group. Do whatever you want.
End of Season chuckled. "Alright! Everyone's basically here. Let's head in."
[Report! I just came back from spying on the stream next door! This End of Season guy really is a game streamer. He's live right now!]
[Why does this guy's tone feel so weird...?]
[Report! He just changed his stream title to: 'Carrying the Server's Most Handsome Guy Through a Ten-Man Raid.' Uh...]
[Is he doing this on purpose? I mean, Xiao Chi is handsome, but the way he's saying it feels so sarcastic.]
Chi Zhen had no idea what was happening. He'd already closed his stream chat overlay and was following the group through the dungeon, preparing to focus on the raid. As they walked, he explained the mechanics of the first boss in Lingyang Marsh to his viewers.
By the time the ten of them cleared the trash mobs and reached the first boss, End of Season simply said, "No need to explain this one. Just faceroll it. Easy."
Then he had the party's Buddhist Cultivator pull the boss.
End of Season played a Sword Cultivator and clearly prided himself on his DPS. While attacking, he chatted confidently with his audience over voice. "This patch, Sword Cultivators are completely broken. I'm always number one on the DPS charts in raids. Does leading the raid distract me? Hah. Of course not. Only noobs get distracted. Besides, this raid's too easy. What's there to lead? Just watch the boss's mechanics. Dodge when it enrages later. Super easy."
Halfway through the fight… The entire raid wiped.
End of Season immediately exploded over YY. "What the hell is that healer Xiaoxiao doing?! Are you daydreaming?! The whole raid's HP dropped to zero and you still didn't use your big heal! Stop dumping all your heals into The Light Boat Has Passed! What about me?!"
Xiaoxiao, the Alchemist Cultivator healer, was obviously unhappy. Instead of speaking on voice, they typed in party chat.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: Raid leader, your group's healer is Qing Xuexue.
Normally, a ten-player raid was divided into two five-man parties. Each party had its own healer, and members were expected to stay close to their assigned healer for easier healing.
It wasn't that Party One's healer couldn't heal Party Two—it was simply much easier when responsibilities were clearly divided.
Four members of the raid belonged to End of Season's guild. Qing Xuexue was one of them.
Instead of asking why his own healer hadn't healed him, End of Season immediately blamed Xiaoxiao. It was obvious he was playing favorites. Realizing he was somewhat in the wrong, he awkwardly added, "Well... didn't Qing Xuexue heal your group too?"
Xiaoxiao was annoyed but didn't continue arguing.
The first boss eventually went down after two shaky attempts.
End of Season gave a brief explanation for the second boss. That one took three attempts. After the second wipe, before the third pull, End of Season completely lost his temper and started blaming everyone.
One moment he complained the healers were bad. The next he said the Buddhist Cultivator wasn't holding aggro properly. Then he criticized other DPS classes for dealing too little damage. Basically, whenever something went wrong, it was always someone else's fault. Neither he nor the four members from his own guild had done anything wrong.
"Big Streamer, what's with that DPS? Dead last. You're only beating the healers."
Finally, after clearing the second boss, while the group was heading toward the last encounter, End of Season turned his attention to Chi Zhen. He continued mocking him the entire way.
"Spirit Cultivators just aren't good enough as a class. Weak DPS. As healers, they only have a couple little heals—not even enough to keep themselves alive. They're nowhere near as mobile as Ghost Cultivators either. The whole class is awkward. Honestly, it's a complete design failure."
[Party] Flooding: Raid leader, I recommend applying for a job on the Quest for the Azure Heavens design team.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: Otherwise all that ambition would go to waste.
Whether End of Season was pretending not to notice the sarcasm or genuinely didn't realize it, he just kept talking.
"You know, the developers probably don't even understand their own game."
[What's this guy's problem?]
[I can't take it anymore. Xiao Chi, roast him already!]
[What's with all the passive-aggressive nonsense? Xiao Chi's a hundred times better than you. Fight a Spirit Cultivator one-on-one if you've got the guts.]
Chi Zhen couldn't be bothered responding. He'd seen plenty of game streamers like this. Some of them would say absolutely anything for traffic. It wasn't that they didn't know people would find them annoying. They did it on purpose. Controversy brought attention. Attention brought viewers.
"Big Streamer, I'd advise you to give up on Spirit Cultivator as soon as possible and reroll Sword Cultivator. I guarantee your viewership will shoot through the roof! Sword Cultivators are just too strong. Number one DPS in raids. Absolute killing machines in PvP. Of course," he added smugly, "Sword Cultivators are difficult to play. Not just anyone can handle them."
He continued chatting with his own audience.
"Me? I'm not bragging, but I'm pretty good at Sword Cultivator. Can't you tell? Usually raid leaders are either tanks or ranged classes. Melee raid leaders are rare. Know why? Because melee is hard. Ranged players can zoom their camera way out. Tanks just have to hold aggro. But melee? You have to keep attacking and keep track of the entire battlefield. It's difficult. So whenever you see a melee player leading a raid, treasure them. They're all top-tier experts."
"Heh... Endless Time? Sure, Endless Time's incredible. But half of what makes him incredible is that Divine Weapon of his. If I had one too, I'd be number one on the server in DPS."
"Yep, I'm planning to get myself a Divine Weapon. I never miss the weekly large raids, but one still hasn't dropped."
"I'm telling you, the developers are idiots. The drop rate is ridiculously low, and they're all character-bound, so you can't even trade them. I want to whale, but there's nothing to spend money on. If anyone ever puts up a character with a Divine Weapon for sale, I'll buy it no matter how much it costs. Of course… It has to be a Sword Cultivator."
Listening to all that, Chi Zhen couldn't help rolling his eyes.
[Xiao Chi, did you just roll your eyes? Huh? How can someone with a face that handsome roll their eyes?! ...Although, to be fair, even your eye-roll looks handsome!]
[Xiao Chi can't stand hearing anyone say even the slightest bad thing about Endless Time. I get it now.]
[The cold, handsome guy completely failed at keeping a straight face. I'm shipping them so hard.]
[I've realized Xiao Chi only likes one Sword Cultivator—Endless Time. He doesn't even spare the others a glance.]
[He's completely whipped.]
Chi Zhen had never been in such a miserable pickup group before. Everything about it was agonizing—the raid leader's endless rambling and the constant wipes.
He thought all he had to do was survive until the final boss. Instead, the third boss, Ranyi Fish, turned out to be where the real nightmare began.
They spent two full hours wiping on Ranyi Fish. No matter how many attempts they made, they simply couldn't clear it.
The raid leader, End of Season, was so angry he nearly stomped his feet. "Can you all just pay attention to my calls when I'm leading instead of running around however you want?!" he shouted over YY. "If you're all scattering everywhere, how's Xuexue supposed to heal you?!"
Some of the party members finally lost their patience and fired back.
[Party] Flooding: If your guildmate Floating Cloud's Sorrow could interrupt the boss's ultimate even once, we wouldn't all be getting blown across the arena. #smile
[Party] Floating Cloud's Sorrow: What's that supposed to mean?
[Party] Flooding: It means if you're tired, let someone else do the interrupts. You're not tired, but the boss is probably tired of blowing us up already.
[Party] Floating Cloud's Sorrow: If you're so amazing, you do it.
[Party] Flooding: Let the Spirit Cultivator do it. Spirit Cultivators are way better at it than Demon Cultivators.
End of Season replied in a mocking tone. "Oh? Fine then. Since you're obviously a fan of Mr. Handsome here, and you think Spirit Cultivators are so great, let the Spirit Cultivator handle the interrupts."
Interrupting meant using crowd-control skills—stuns, roots, and similar effects—to stop the boss from channeling its ultimate attack.
For a Spirit Cultivator… It was child's play.
Without much effort, Chi Zhen successfully interrupted the boss's ultimate over and over again.
The problem was that End of Season either genuinely had no idea how to lead a raid, or was deliberately sabotaging it. Every time the boss's ultimate was interrupted, instead of calling for everyone to burst the boss down during the opening, he led his own party and their healer running laps around the arena, hiding as far away as possible. By the time he finally ordered everyone to regroup and attack...the boss was already preparing its next ultimate.
This happened over and over. Then he blamed everyone's DPS for being too low. Once again, he singled out Chi Zhen.
"The Light Boat Has Passed, if you don't know how to DPS, then stop pretending to! Your damage is so low we'll still be fighting this boss next year!"
[Holy shit, I can't take this anymore. What kind of complete idiot is this raid leader?]
[Of course Xiao Chi's DPS is low! He's been interrupting the boss the whole damn fight!]
[How is this moron so confident???]
[Can we please just let Xiao Chi lead instead?!]
[Report! I'm seriously starting to think this guy's doing it on purpose. His chat is full of people calling Xiao Chi a pretty boy! It's just a bunch of average dudes jealous of someone handsome~]
After struggling for two straight hours, some of the random players had had enough. They didn't even care about wasting their weekly dungeon CD anymore. They simply left the party.
Things had already been difficult with ten people. Now they were missing players. It was hopeless.
Since the group had already killed the first two bosses, any new player joining could only fight the final boss. Hardly any random player would be willing to join under those conditions.
For everyone there, this week's Lingyang Marsh CD was basically ruined. End of Season continued cursing nonstop.
Most of it was directed specifically at Chi Zhen.
Flooding and Xiaoxiao immediately argued back.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: If we're wiping over and over, maybe instead of blaming the Spirit Cultivator who's interrupted every single mechanic successfully, you should reflect on your own raid leading.
[Party] Flooding: The biggest mistake I made today was assuming every Sword Cultivator was as good as Endless Time. #smile
[Party] Qing Xuexue: You're bad at the game and still blaming the raid leader?
[Party] Still Dashing: I told you not to recruit randoms. See? The randoms ruined everything.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: I'd suggest your guild just runs raids internally from now on. Random players aren't worthy of your amazing leadership.
[Party] Flooding: Whatever. I'll just pretend I fed this week's CD to a dog.
The two girls' razor-sharp sarcasm nearly drove End of Season and his guildmates insane. The party chat quickly filled with rows of censored asterisks. If swearing on stream didn't risk getting his channel banned, End of Season probably would've been cursing nonstop.
[I love these two girls.]
[Xiao Chi, hurry up and add them as friends! Someone as socially anxious as you needs sharp-tongued friends like them whenever you go out, otherwise you'll get bullied!]
Sure enough, both girls sent him friend requests. Xiao Chi immediately accepted them.
[Friend] Flooding: Xiao Chi, are you leaving the party? If you leave, Xiaoxiao and I are leaving too. If you're staying, we'll stick around with you a bit longer.
[Friend] The Light Boat Has Passed: Let's leave. This raid leader's hopeless. It's just wasting time.
Chi Zhen then typed into party chat. [Party] The Light Boat Has Passed: @End of Season Endless Time isn't amazing in just one area—he's amazing in every aspect. His mechanics, his game sense, his shot-calling... every single one is top-tier. You're still a long way off. You've barely learned half the basics and you're already showing off. A simple ten-man raid has you completely stumped. Go home with your guildmates and practice more before you embarrass the Cangming Sect.
The moment he hit Enter— He instantly left the party. Then immediately disconnected from YY.
That single comment was already the limit of his trash-talking ability.
If he actually had to argue with someone face to face for more than a sentence or two... He'd be completely outmatched. The two girls immediately quit as well and sent him party requests.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: Holy crap, Xiao Chi—you were so cool!
[Party] Flooding: That comeback was so satisfying! It practically killed... whatever-his-name-was, "Loneliness."* (*"End of Season" (季末) sounds similar to 寂寞, meaning "loneliness," so she's deliberately mocking his name.)
Xiao Chi scratched his head. He was just about to say it was already seven o'clock and he was logging off for dinner— Before he could speak, Endless Time's party request popped up.
Xiao Chi blinked in confusion. When did Endless Time log in? Why was he online so early today?
He clicked Accept.
[Party] Endless Time: Thanks for speaking up for me, Brother Xiao Chi. #smile
[Party] Endless Time: Since you think so highly of me... how about carrying me through Ranyi Fish?
Before Xiao Chi had even processed that message, his game notification started chiming nonstop.
[System] [Blue Sky Beyond] has requested to join your party. Accept?
[System] [Lime] has requested to join your party. Accept?
[System] [If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It] has requested to join your party. Accept?
[System] [Thousand Feathers] has requested to join your party. Accept?
"I'm telling you, the developers are idiots. The drop rate is ridiculously low, and they're all character-bound, so you can't even trade them. I want to whale, but there's nothing to spend money on. If anyone ever puts up a character with a Divine Weapon for sale, I'll buy it no matter how much it costs. Of course… It has to be a Sword Cultivator."
Listening to all that, Chi Zhen couldn't help rolling his eyes.
[Xiao Chi, did you just roll your eyes? Huh? How can someone with a face that handsome roll their eyes?! ...Although, to be fair, even your eye-roll looks handsome!]
[Xiao Chi can't stand hearing anyone say even the slightest bad thing about Endless Time. I get it now.]
[The cold, handsome guy completely failed at keeping a straight face. I'm shipping them so hard.]
[I've realized Xiao Chi only likes one Sword Cultivator—Endless Time. He doesn't even spare the others a glance.]
[He's completely whipped.]
Chi Zhen had never been in such a miserable pickup group before. Everything about it was agonizing—the raid leader's endless rambling and the constant wipes.
He thought all he had to do was survive until the final boss. Instead, the third boss, Ranyi Fish, turned out to be where the real nightmare began.
They spent two full hours wiping on Ranyi Fish. No matter how many attempts they made, they simply couldn't clear it.
The raid leader, End of Season, was so angry he nearly stomped his feet. "Can you all just pay attention to my calls when I'm leading instead of running around however you want?!" he shouted over YY. "If you're all scattering everywhere, how's Xuexue supposed to heal you?!"
Some of the party members finally lost their patience and fired back.
[Party] Flooding: If your guildmate Floating Cloud's Sorrow could interrupt the boss's ultimate even once, we wouldn't all be getting blown across the arena. #smile
[Party] Floating Cloud's Sorrow: What's that supposed to mean?
[Party] Flooding: It means if you're tired, let someone else do the interrupts. You're not tired, but the boss is probably tired of blowing us up already.
[Party] Floating Cloud's Sorrow: If you're so amazing, you do it.
[Party] Flooding: Let the Spirit Cultivator do it. Spirit Cultivators are way better at it than Demon Cultivators.
End of Season replied in a mocking tone. "Oh? Fine then. Since you're obviously a fan of Mr. Handsome here, and you think Spirit Cultivators are so great, let the Spirit Cultivator handle the interrupts."
Interrupting meant using crowd-control skills—stuns, roots, and similar effects—to stop the boss from channeling its ultimate attack.
For a Spirit Cultivator… It was child's play.
Without much effort, Chi Zhen successfully interrupted the boss's ultimate over and over again.
The problem was that End of Season either genuinely had no idea how to lead a raid, or was deliberately sabotaging it. Every time the boss's ultimate was interrupted, instead of calling for everyone to burst the boss down during the opening, he led his own party and their healer running laps around the arena, hiding as far away as possible. By the time he finally ordered everyone to regroup and attack...the boss was already preparing its next ultimate.
This happened over and over. Then he blamed everyone's DPS for being too low. Once again, he singled out Chi Zhen.
"The Light Boat Has Passed, if you don't know how to DPS, then stop pretending to! Your damage is so low we'll still be fighting this boss next year!"
[Holy shit, I can't take this anymore. What kind of complete idiot is this raid leader?]
[Of course Xiao Chi's DPS is low! He's been interrupting the boss the whole damn fight!]
[How is this moron so confident???]
[Can we please just let Xiao Chi lead instead?!]
[Report! I'm seriously starting to think this guy's doing it on purpose. His chat is full of people calling Xiao Chi a pretty boy! It's just a bunch of average dudes jealous of someone handsome~]
After struggling for two straight hours, some of the random players had had enough. They didn't even care about wasting their weekly dungeon CD anymore. They simply left the party.
Things had already been difficult with ten people. Now they were missing players. It was hopeless.
Since the group had already killed the first two bosses, any new player joining could only fight the final boss. Hardly any random player would be willing to join under those conditions.
For everyone there, this week's Lingyang Marsh CD was basically ruined. End of Season continued cursing nonstop.
Most of it was directed specifically at Chi Zhen.
Flooding and Xiaoxiao immediately argued back.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: If we're wiping over and over, maybe instead of blaming the Spirit Cultivator who's interrupted every single mechanic successfully, you should reflect on your own raid leading.
[Party] Flooding: The biggest mistake I made today was assuming every Sword Cultivator was as good as Endless Time. #smile
[Party] Qing Xuexue: You're bad at the game and still blaming the raid leader?
[Party] Still Dashing: I told you not to recruit randoms. See? The randoms ruined everything.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: I'd suggest your guild just runs raids internally from now on. Random players aren't worthy of your amazing leadership.
[Party] Flooding: Whatever. I'll just pretend I fed this week's CD to a dog.
The two girls' razor-sharp sarcasm nearly drove End of Season and his guildmates insane. The party chat quickly filled with rows of censored asterisks. If swearing on stream didn't risk getting his channel banned, End of Season probably would've been cursing nonstop.
[I love these two girls.]
[Xiao Chi, hurry up and add them as friends! Someone as socially anxious as you needs sharp-tongued friends like them whenever you go out, otherwise you'll get bullied!]
Sure enough, both girls sent him friend requests. Xiao Chi immediately accepted them.
[Friend] Flooding: Xiao Chi, are you leaving the party? If you leave, Xiaoxiao and I are leaving too. If you're staying, we'll stick around with you a bit longer.
[Friend] The Light Boat Has Passed: Let's leave. This raid leader's hopeless. It's just wasting time.
Chi Zhen then typed into party chat. [Party] The Light Boat Has Passed: @End of Season Endless Time isn't amazing in just one area—he's amazing in every aspect. His mechanics, his game sense, his shot-calling... every single one is top-tier. You're still a long way off. You've barely learned half the basics and you're already showing off. A simple ten-man raid has you completely stumped. Go home with your guildmates and practice more before you embarrass the Cangming Sect.
The moment he hit Enter— He instantly left the party. Then immediately disconnected from YY.
That single comment was already the limit of his trash-talking ability.
If he actually had to argue with someone face to face for more than a sentence or two... He'd be completely outmatched. The two girls immediately quit as well and sent him party requests.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: Holy crap, Xiao Chi—you were so cool!
[Party] Flooding: That comeback was so satisfying! It practically killed... whatever-his-name-was, "Loneliness."* (*"End of Season" (季末) sounds similar to 寂寞, meaning "loneliness," so she's deliberately mocking his name.)
Xiao Chi scratched his head. He was just about to say it was already seven o'clock and he was logging off for dinner— Before he could speak, Endless Time's party request popped up.
Xiao Chi blinked in confusion. When did Endless Time log in? Why was he online so early today?
He clicked Accept.
[Party] Endless Time: Thanks for speaking up for me, Brother Xiao Chi. #smile
[Party] Endless Time: Since you think so highly of me... how about carrying me through Ranyi Fish?
Before Xiao Chi had even processed that message, his game notification started chiming nonstop.
[System] [Blue Sky Beyond] has requested to join your party. Accept?
[System] [Lime] has requested to join your party. Accept?
[System] [If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It] has requested to join your party. Accept?
[System] [Thousand Feathers] has requested to join your party. Accept?
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