Chapter 41: Your Conscience Is Guilty
This time, the randomly selected map was a Ruined Garden. Broken walls and crumbling stonework stood amid overgrown weeds. Withered vines coiled around dead trees whose barren branches clawed toward the sky.
The setting sun stained the horizon blood-red, and every so often, a pair of crows flew overhead, cawing ominously.
The two teams spawned at opposite ends of the map, one in the east and one in the west. As soon as the battle began, they cautiously made their way toward the center.
Endless Time and The Light Boat Has Passedsplit up, one moving left and the other right, racing toward the middle.
"Go Easy on Us, Big Brother," however, took a completely different approach. They advanced slowly, constantly using the ruins as cover and making no hurry to encounter the enemy.
Yuzu Tea and Lemon Ice were both ranged classes. Normally, melee classes struggled against ranged opponents at the start of a fight. Ranged players could simply kite them from a distance, and once that gap opened up, the melee fighters couldn't hit them at all. It was infuriating.
So the two of them figured that, although the enemy had the legendary Sword Cultivator Endless Time, they shouldn't get instantly killed. They should at least be able to survive for a while by weaving around the map.
The Spirit Cultivator, whose burst damage wasn't especially strong, looked like the obvious weak point. If they focused him down first, then teamed up against Endless Time afterward, they might still have a tiny chance of winning.
As the two calmly discussed tactics over YY voice chat, they simultaneously acted cute in the Nearby channel.
All warfare is based on deception. Ancient wisdom.
If the opponents were two straight guys, this was the Honey Trap. If they were Dao companions, it became the Sow Discord strategy. If the opponents happened to be two actual girls… Then it was simply pretending to be something you're not.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Yuzu Tea and Lemon Ice had been around the Moonfall Starsinking server for years. They were notorious gossipmongers who lived for stirring up drama and knew every major piece of server gossip by heart—especially everything involving The Light Boat Has Passed and Endless Time, whose names had dominated the forums over the past month.
Creating chaos was one of their guiding principles in MMORPGs.
Otherwise, why would they bother playing female characters as renyao?
They knew The Light Boat Has Passed was a game streamer and was almost certainly live right now. So they immediately slipped into character.
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: Big Brother, is your teammate a streamer?
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: Is he live right now? Are people going to laugh at us for being so bad?
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: Go easy on us, okay?
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: Wanna add each other afterward? Let's queue some 5v5 together!
[Nearby] The Light Boat Has Passed: Why isn't Lemon Ice saying anything? Busy sneaking around to ambush me? #Smile
After sending the message, Xiao Chi suddenly drew his weapon. He leapt high into the air and unleashed Falling Shadows with the Wind directly at one of the garden's decorative screen walls.
It was the Spirit Cultivator's large-area ultimate. One cast consumed a full third of his mana.
The livestream audience was dumbfounded. He hadn't even confirmed whether anyone was actually hiding behind the wall. He'd just opened with an expensive ultimate?
Was he planning to fight the rest of the match with no mana? The ultimate crashed into the already crumbling wall, reducing it to rubble. Amid the explosion of dust and flying stones, a figure dressed in white tumbled desperately out from behind it. Too late. Lemon Ice was blasted into the air by the attack. Without missing a beat, The Light Boat Has Passed followed up with Cold Qi Condensation, inflicting damage along with a Weakened debuff. Before Lemon Ice had even landed, The Light Boat Has Passed had already bent down to pick up chunks of broken masonry from the ground.
The young Spirit Cultivator displayed astonishing strength. He hoisted a massive slab of the collapsed wall over his head...and slammed it directly onto Lemon Ice's slender figure.
Lemon Ice was completely stunned.
The Spirit Cultivator showed absolutely no mercy. One rock. Then another. And another.
When the Weakened debuff wore off, he simply rooted her in place instead.
Only then did Lemon Ice realize what had happened. She was pinned beneath the rubble. She couldn't get up.
Quest for the Azure Heavens prided itself on its powerful physics engine, simulating even the smallest details of a character's condition.
Characters became weakened in extreme heat or cold. Their condition also deteriorated as their HP decreased. At full health, they suffered no penalties. But as their health bar dropped, their movements grew increasingly sluggish and feeble.
Lemon Ice had already taken heavy damage, leaving her at only one-quarter HP. Then she'd been crushed beneath the stone. With both the low-health penalty and the Weakened debuff stacked together, she simply didn't have the strength to push the enormous slab off herself.
The Light Boat Has Passed calmly drew his weapon.
[Nearby] Lemon Ice: Big Brother, please have mercy!
Cold. Heartless. Completely unmoved. The Light Boat Has Passed ignored her plea without hesitation and struck her down blow after blow until she died.
Lemon Ice lay on the ground, utterly bewildered.
[Nearby] Lemon Ice: Seriously... I've never died like this in my entire life.
On the other side of the map, Yuzu Tea was being completely suppressed by Endless Time and couldn't make it over to help.
[Nearby] Lemon Ice: Tea, stop fighting. Come over here and help me figure out how I died.
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: ?
Yuzu Tea was still desperately defending herself against Endless Time and didn't dare stop. Unexpectedly, after hearing Lemon Ice's message, Endless Time actually sheathed his weapon and headed over as well.
Yuzu Tea followed, clicking her tongue in amazement.
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: Holy shit.
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: That's insane, Big Brother. You can actually play like that?
Of course players knew they could pick up rocks in Quest for the Azure Heavens and throw them at monsters or enemies. The tutorial even taught that mechanic during the leveling quests. But in PvP, almost nobody ever thought to use it. After all, throwing rocks dealt far less damage than using a powerful skill—unless the rock was exceptionally large and heavy. The problem was that the larger and heavier the rock, the longer it took for a character to lift it. Sometimes, before you could even throw the thing, your opponent's ultimate had already landed.
Only a fool would ignore skill damage and resort to something as primitive as throwing rocks.
But this time...
What Xiao Chi had destroyed wasn't just a pile of rocks—it was a screen wall. A screen wall was, fundamentally, a wall. When it collapsed, it didn't break into round boulders. It fell into large, flat slabs. If it had been an ordinary round rock, it would have bounced off a character after hitting them. But these flat slabs pinned Lemon Ice to the ground, leaving her unable to move.
It was brilliant.
If even one condition had been missing—for example, if the rubble hadn't been flat, or if The Light Boat Has Passed hadn't immediately lowered Lemon Ice's HP and stacked two debuffs on her—the trick never would have worked.
[Jaw dropped.]
[The game designers are probably smacking themselves on the head right now: "A genius! An absolute genius!"]
[This is a signature move. It really is. Fruit Can donation in salute.]
[Even Endless Time looks stunned.]
[Wait, I still don't get it. How did Xiao Chi know Lemon Ice was hiding behind the wall in the first place?]
Lying on the ground, Lemon Ice voiced the very question everyone in chat was wondering.
[Nearby] The Light Boat Has Passed: Your shadow gave you away. The sunset was behind you.
[Nearby] Lemon Ice: This damn game engine... does it really have to be that realistic???
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: Ice, watch your language. Calm down, calm down.
[Nearby] Lemon Ice: 0.0
[Nearby] Yuzu Tea: Well, we ran into a team of experts. Can't help losing. Guess I'll just lie down and let Big Brother kill me. >_<
[These renyao are so dedicated I'm actually crying.]
[Yuzu Tea is such a refined lady. Love her.]
[Keeping the game community civilized—renyao are doing their part. #Grateful]
Instead of finishing off Yuzu Tea, Endless Time slowly walked around the collapsed screen wall. Then his amused voice sounded over YY.
"You're amazing, Brother Xiao Chi."
Xiao Chi scratched his ear. "I'm not..."
Endless Time continued praising him. "That was a completely unexpected way to play the game. Seriously impressive. I never would've thought of it."
Xiao Chi was genuinely embarrassed. "It's nothing... I just... I've killed so many monsters that I picked it up from experience. Wh-when I farm crafting materials in the open world, I often deal with mobs like that..."
Endless Time circled The Light Boat Has Passed once before saying, "Playing with Brother Xiao Chi is a truly extraordinary gaming experience."
Yuzu Tea and Lemon Ice couldn't bear to watch anymore. They surrendered and automatically left the match.
Beneath the setting sun, the shadows of the young Sword Cultivator and the young Spirit Cultivator stretched long across the ruined garden.
[What the hell? Are you two admiring the scenery?]
[Why aren't you queueing for the next match? Are you dating on the battlefield map?]
[Oh my god! Xiao Chi's blushing! He's blushing!]
[Stop scratching your face! We can all see it!]
[If I were Endless Time, I'd fall for Xiao Chi, too. Every time I watch him play, it's like, "Wait... you can play the game like that?"]
[Only a hardcore life-skills player like Xiao Chi could know every little detail about the world of Quest for the Azure Heavens.]
[I came here expecting a romance drama, but the streamer's gameplay completely blew me away.]
[Every time I remember he's this handsome and this good at games, I want to bite my keyboard in half.]
After leaving the battlefield, Endless Time didn't queue for another match. "It's almost noon. Let's eat first."
Xiao Chi glanced at the clock. Without realizing it, it was already past eleven.
Endless Time asked, "You're not ending the stream for lunch?"
Xiao Chi nodded. Then he remembered Endless Time couldn't see him. Just as he was about to answer aloud, Endless Time spoke first. "Got it. I'll eat first, then log back in."
He didn't actually log out. Instead, his character simply sat down to meditate on the spot.
Although Quest for the Azure Heavens charged by playtime, it only cost a few cents an hour. Most players couldn't be bothered to log out whenever they stepped away from their computer and simply left their characters meditating.
Seeing Endless Time meditate, Xiao Chi didn't think much of it. The Light Boat Has Passed also sat down to meditate.
Then Xiao Chi picked up his phone and ordered lunch. After finishing his order and setting his phone aside, he looked back at the stream— The troublemakers in chat had already started up again.
[Report! Endless Time has your stream open on Pineapple Live! Xiao Chi just nodded instead of answering!]
[Think about it: they're already playing together. There's no reason to open another stream and watch a second screen... unless... he's watching camera-on Xiao Chi!]
[Well, well, Endless Time! Secretly watching a handsome guy, huh?]
[Caught red-handed!]
[You two even meditate face-to-face while you're both AFK eating lunch?! I can't watch this!]
Xiao Chi froze.
He stared at the screen. Well... technically the two characters weren't exactly face-to-face. They were slightly offset. But still...
Panicking, he hurriedly made The Light Boat Has Passed stand up, moved him a short distance away, and sat down to meditate again.
The chat exploded even harder.
[Aha! So your conscience is guilty, isn't it?]
[This is the very definition of "The silver wasn't buried here!" leans back]
[Xiao Chi, I really didn't want to become one of those CP shippers, but you... ]
[This is so good. Please stay professional, streamer. Don't let us down later by turning into a creepy straight guy whenever a girl appears in-game.]
[Don't worry, he's not straight. #doge]
Xiao Chi didn't dare move his character another inch. Instead, he hurriedly said, "It... it wouldn't look very nice to eat on camera. I'll turn the webcam off for a bit. In the meantime, I'll play some gameplay videos I edited."
With that, he hastily switched off the camera and started playing one of his edited videos.
Only after finishing everything did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Then he picked up his phone. At a glance, he saw a brand-new message from Endless Time.
[Shi: Streamer Xiao Chi, play the video where you caught fish in Zhuyu River. I like that one.]
...Endless Time was still watching the stream?
Which meant… He'd seen all those chat messages.
Xiao Chi collapsed in despair.
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