Chapter 47: Qianli Jiangling
[Wujin Shi, Master of Schemes.]
[Shameless Wujin Shi.]
[When did you start lurking in the stream?!]
[Now I'm actually worried about our sweet little Xiao Chi.]
Chi Zhen's face felt like it was on fire. He desperately wanted to say something—do something—to stop the situation from spiraling further, but his mind had gone completely blank. He couldn't think of a single word.
Wujin Shi, meanwhile, casually answered the viewers on his behalf. "I wasn't lurking. I just logged into the game and dropped by the stream while I was at it, to contribute one more viewer to Xiao Chi-ge's stream."
"'Cheapskate'? I did send gifts. Who said I'm stingy? Which username? Mm... find them yourself."
"The WeChat group? Let me take a look... Oh, Xiao Chi's worried about whether to upgrade to a bachelor's degree?"
The moment the words "bachelor's degree" came out of Wujin Shi's mouth, Chi Zhen's face burned even hotter.
Was he the least educated person Wujin Shi knew?
Chi Zhen had never believed a person's education determined their worth. But standing before someone as outstanding as Wujin Shi, he suddenly found himself caring about something he'd never cared about before.
He hurriedly cut in. "Ah, it's fine, it's fine. I'll ask my teachers and my family when I get back. It's not that big of a deal! I just went with my classmates this afternoon to sit in on some classes at a tutoring center. I've been thinking about whether to sign up with them. If we register together, we get a group discount. Otherwise, the tuition's sixteen thousand yuan, which is pretty expensive, hahaha..."
He didn't even know what he was saying anymore. The words poured out of him without passing through his brain.
Fortunately, the viewers' attention was immediately drawn to the "sixteen thousand yuan" part. The chat quickly turned into discussions about tutoring fees and curses directed at unscrupulous education companies.
Wujin Shi also fell silent, seemingly busy with his daily quests.
Chi Zhen quietly let out a sigh of relief.
Only then did he truly make up his mind. He was going to take the bachelor's upgrade exam. He was going to earn a bachelor's degree.
Otherwise… In front of someone too exceptional, he wouldn't even have the confidence to speak.
The water babbled gently. The night breeze in the game almost seemed to brush across Chi Zhen's face, carrying his thoughts far away.
He remembered himself before he turned seventeen. Thin and scrawny. A head of messy, bleached-yellow curls that he never bothered taking care of. His homeroom teacher had repeatedly ordered him to dye it back to black. After all the bleaching and perming, his hair had become like dried straw—dull, lifeless, tangled into knots atop his head. His classmates joked that he looked like he had a bird's nest on his head. He didn't care. He didn't talk to anyone in class anyway.
He didn't talk to anyone.
When he was in the third year of middle school, his parents divorced. Not long afterward, both of them remarried. Soon after that, both started new families and had new children.
Everything happened so quickly that he never had time to process it.
His parents had never gotten along very well. They argued all the time and rarely paid much attention to him. Still, life had somehow gone on.
Then one day, they suddenly announced they were divorcing. From then on, they would take turns supporting him.
"You should apply to a boarding school for high school," they both said. "Boarding schools are good. They'll keep you from playing on your phone and make you study properly."
But Chi Zhen knew perfectly well. The real reason they wanted him to attend a boarding school was because neither of them wanted the trouble of looking after him.
Their new families... Their newborn children… Left them with no time or energy for anything else.
Nor did Chi Zhen have much room to object. His grades had always been terrible. He'd completely bombed the high school entrance exam and could only attend a vocational school. If he'd been good enough to get into the prestigious No. 1 High School near home, neither of his parents would have sent him away to a boarding school in another city.
He found everything about real life unbearably dull.
Parents who couldn't be bothered with him. A run-down school. Classmates who swore constantly and secretly smoked. Teachers who lectured the worst-performing students in the city about studying hard. If they were capable of studying, would they even be attending this dump?
Games were far more interesting.
How could a fictional fantasy world be so much fun? Monsters. Magical beasts. Bosses. Difficult dungeons. Bizarre architecture. Landscapes that felt real and unreal at the same time. And, most importantly—
Inside that world, he could completely forget reality.
His first year of vocational school passed in a blur. Because he spent the entire year playing on his phone.
Secretly.
Gaming through the entire night. Sleeping on his desk all day.
Teachers spoke to his parents several times. No one had the time to care. As long as he still showed up at school, that was enough.
By his second year, he was still alone. He hadn't made a single friend. No one else lived like he did—gaming all night long, then collapsing over their desks like a lifeless puddle and sleeping through every class.
Even his fellow vocational-school students looked down on him.
At least they chatted and laughed with each other. Besides playing on their phones, they'd occasionally play basketball. They might not like studying, but vocational-school coursework was easy. Most of them could at least pass their exams. Some were even praised by teachers for being smart enough to aim for a bachelor's degree.
Chi Zhen didn't care. Once he got his diploma, he'd find a job.
After saving enough money, he'd buy himself a computer. Then he could finally play PC games.
The turning point came during his second year.
He downloaded a newly released mobile game. An MMORPG. A martial arts fantasy set in ancient China.
It was his first MMORPG. He'd played single-player RPGs before. MOBA mobile games. Tower defense games. Management sims. Action-adventure games. Card games. Shooters. Racing games. Pretty much every genre—Except MMORPGs.
The game became wildly popular as soon as it launched. And it really was fun. After creating an account, Chi Zhen chose an archer as his class and immediately threw himself into leveling and completing quests day and night.
To encourage player interaction, the game had a system where joining a guild sped up leveling. So before he even reached the level cap, Chi Zhen found a guild to join.
It wasn't a large guild. There were usually only a few dozen people online, but those few dozen chatted and joked constantly in the guild channel. As Chi Zhen worked through his quests, he would quietly read their conversations, and for the first time, he felt the urge to join in. These people all shared the same hobby as him. They loved playing games. One day, someone in the guild happened to mention him during a conversation and said, "Hurry up and hit max level. Once you do, we'll take you through some dungeons."
Chi Zhen was delighted. For the first time, he spoke in the guild channel. "Okay. Thank you."
Then he reached max level. Just as promised, the guild members took him into a dungeon.
The moment they met...His nightmare began.
Someone immediately criticized his class. "Why on earth did you level an Archer? Their damage isn't even that high, they're squishy as hell, and their HP melts the second they get hit. They're the weakest class in the game."
Someone else laughed at his username. "Jinse Shouhu? Seriously? How can your ID be so cheesy?"
Chi Zhen was already stunned.
Then the dungeon began. He had only just reached max level and had excitedly joined the guild members without ever researching endgame builds or learning the dungeon beforehand. He had no idea how to play. He didn't even know which way to go inside the dungeon.
For the entire forty-minute run, his four teammates took turns mocking and complaining about him. By the end, one of them completely lost their temper. "Why did we even bring a newbie? Now look at the mess we're in!"
The party broke up on bad terms.
Then people started complaining in the guild chat. "Jinse Shouhu, if you're this bad, stop playing a squishy Archer already. Please have some mercy on everyone else. The healer's hands are cramping from keeping you alive. You couldn't even be bothered to watch a dungeon guide beforehand. You have zero sense of teamwork."
Someone else chimed in. "We were just trying to help a new player. Didn't expect newbies these days to have such a terrible attitude. Bad at the game and too lazy to do any homework."
A third person added, "Archers are a trash class anyway. Just reroll."
Chi Zhen was completely dumbfounded.
He had never imagined… That in the game world he loved most... He would be looked down on. Blamed.
Just like in the real world.
He wanted to explain himself. But his whole body was trembling. Even his hands were shaking so badly that he dropped his phone.
I'm uninstalling the game right now, he thought.
If I can't play this game well, I'll just play another one.
It's fine. I'm good at lots of other games.
He picked up his phone. Just as he was about to uninstall the client, he noticed a username he'd never seen before speak in the guild chat.
[Guild] Qianli Jianling: An Archer? I've heard an Archer's Repeating Crossbow is insanely strong.
[Guild] Qianli Jianling: Come on. I'll carry you, and we'll steamroll them.
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