CH 3

Lin Xiao didn’t know what was happening on the opponent’s side. However, the little monkey master would never have imagined that his nonsensical method of tossing out his summoned beasts, and the very eye-catching tenth division logo had him silently labeled as a noob.

Having walked some distance away from the murder scene, Adorable Ghost found a large tree nearby and after jumping up, sat cross legged on one of its branches. Such a remote hideout could prevent him from being exposed easily as well as give him more time to respond to messages.

The threat from the Little Monkey Master was displayed on the map channel: “Just you wait!” 

Lin Xiao glanced at the other party who was desperately trying to save face with his low mana bar with great interest. He leisurely replied: “Relax, wait where you are.” After a while, he added another sentence: “You won’t get lost, right?”　

After hearing these ‘concerned words’, the old blood from the little monkey’s chest suddenly surged. Was that a threat? Threaten your sister! Do you think you’re coaxing a child? Last time it was ‘Don’t think too much’, but now you care about whether or not I get lost? With such an obvious coordinate there, am I an idiot?

The Little Monkey Master shuddered and decided to give up on communicating with the opponent. The original phrase ‘Are you a trumpet?1’ that he’d begun typing was silently deleted. After all, there were so many viewers in the live broadcast. Asking this was obviously seeking death even if the other party admitted that he was a trumpet. However, if he did accept it, wouldn’t the face-slapping be too loud? 

After the character re-spawned, he found the coordinates again. Chef Lu did not approach directly this time, but lurked behind a large tree. While silently summoning the green mushroom, he controlled it to go toward the coordinate points.

However, after waiting a while until the end of the summon time for the green mushroom, there was still no fighting.

Then came the second summon, the third, the fourth, the fifth…

Summons were released one after another, and a carpet-like search was conducted over the area near the coordinates, but not even a shadow of the Ghost Priest was seen.

Did the opponent change location? Was there an ambush nearby?

Little Monkey Master became vigilant.

Having lost the first match, he’d already confirmed that the opponent was an expert. With only the last drop of blood left, he prioritized safety and decided to carefully hide first.

The jungle was very dense, and after considering the terrain, he began climbing a tree.

Accuracy and fluency in climbing was enough to show a player’s strengths and weaknesses. Little Monkey Master’s tree-climbing skills were superb. Every move he made was very quick, and every where his foot landed was extraordinarily accurate. He didn’t even use much physical strength and quickly moved upwards toward the crown of the tree. This operation was naturally seen by his fans, which almost made up for the loss of face caused by his death in the last match and he was applauded for it.

The original intention of the Little Monkey Master was to climb to the top of the tree so he could have an aerial view of the terrain. Yet, after the last leaf blocking his view was pulled away, a red-colored thing fell in front of him and the last drop of blood he had been protecting so dearly finally sprayed out.

The little splash of red within the green forest was certainly not the game designer’s idea of adding colour to the map. Although now it looked like a thousand year old fruit tree, it was the one and only adorable Ghost Priest! No wonder the summoned beasts he had assigned to investigate had found no one present. How dare he hide above my head and watch me play on my own for such a long time.

As the staff came closer, he thought that such a scene was particularly familiar and sighed solemnly, this wasn’t fun at all!

Originally, when Lin Xiao saw the other party exploring the path, he was speechless. Once he saw the opponent climbing up the tree, he thought his hiding place had been exposed and became alert. Only then did he find that this was not the case at all.　

The series of tree-climbing operations that came next were obviously the opponent intentionally showing off his prowess, which made Lin Xiao quickly realize that the summoner turned out to be a pro-player. This caused him to feel increasingly speechless; it was true that the other was an expert, but regrettably a bit on the stupid side.

Initially, he wanted to stall to give the mana enough time to be refilled, but who would have expected that the other party would just seek death on his own. It was as if a gorgeous woman was walking towards him seductively, disturbing his little heart. He couldn’t hold back any longer and cast a frost spell and sent his staff right through the ‘beautiful woman’s’ figure.

The frost spell exploded in Chef Lu’s body, blocking all means of defense. The avatar was happily propped up on the cudgel for a while, going stiff afterwards.

Within the span of 0.2 seconds, the body plummeted head first towards the ground like a meteorite with Adorable Ghost’s help, of course. On the way down, leaves from the tree blocked his sight, and after crashing heavily on the grass, the avatar was held firmly in place by an adorable, little girl. This action caused whatever remaining HP to be completely drained. A large image of a small but charming little girl filled the entire screen.

Little Monkey Master suddenly went silent and laid there motionlessly. He could only watch as the little girl thrashed the corpse to and fro in the grass. 

[System] Second Blood!

[System] Defeat!

Just looking at the word ‘Defeat’ in the centre of the screen, Little Monkey Master sucked in a breath of cold air while his sadness lingered in the remaining mist.

On the other side, Lin Xiao carefully inspected his spoils in the victory reward interface, and after going through several equipment attributes he finally chose to receive the ‘Vampire Scepter’. The equipment rewarded by the tenth-tier ladder were common and could hardly be thought of as the best. The Vampire Scepter had only one special attribute, which increased the ‘life-steal’ spell by 10%. However, it was this special blood-sucking property that Lin Xiao liked the most.

Little Monkey Master exited the battle interface and returned to the game’s lobby. He ignored the explosion in the live broadcast room and sent out a friend request.

[System] Sorry, the player you are looking for is offline.

Nima 2, even his offline speed is faster than mine!The Monkey Master entered another queue reluctantly.

The atmosphere within the live broadcast room was a bit chaotic. Although the matches that followed afterwards all ended in victory, they still weren’t enough to keep the audience’s attention. All the messages seemed to revolve around the first match. Whenever a newcomer entered the live broadcast room, the old viewers who were present for the entire show would always take the time out to bring them up to speed. After seeing the newcomers’ reactions change from curiosity to laughter to distressed and finally comforting, he gradually became used to it. 

The live broadcast finally ended and Little Monkey Master turned the camera off. He lay on the sofa feeling tired and unloved.

At this time, the shelved QQ3 account lit up and a familiar profile picture was displayed.

Chef Lu: Hou Hao, is the live broadcast over? Did you record everything today?

Lu Xing was a popular video editor in the esports circle and also the original owner of the summoner account used earlier. Since he was a pure PVE copy player4, he obviously wouldn’t go to the ladder seeking his own death. As a result, his account had always been in the tenth division. However, he didn’t care much about his own position, so he often lent it to Little Monkey Master when the latter needed it for live broadcasts.

Hou Hao quickly stabilized his mood and drew closer to the keyboard.

Big Monkey: Recorded, but can I not give it? ╯﹏╰

Chef Lu: What’s wrong? Victory was too easy, no excitement?

Big monkey: Uhh no, it’s hard to say…

Chef Lu: ?

Big Monkey: Forget it ah… why don’t you see it for yourself. [System file, please receive]

Lu Xing received the video while Hou Hao stared at the screen in a daze. 

After about twenty minutes…

Chef Lu: Hahahahaha ~~!!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! !! !! [Slaps Table] [Slaps Table] [Slaps Table]

Big Monkey: Can’t your laugh be a bit more composed… [Depressed]

Chef Lu: Where is this expert from? The monkey play you put on is so fascinating!

Big Monkey: Blame my bad luck!

Chef Lu: No what I’m talking about is monkey magic

Big Monkey: … Forget I said anything (┬_┬)

Hou Hao was depressed and prepared to close the chat. He didn’t understand before but now that he did, a fiery gleam appeared in his eyes. 

Chef Lu: My precious little monkey, isn’t this what you want!

As a pro-player in the league, Lu Xing would not easily say this idea would work undoubtedly unless he was very certain. Although his popularity on the live broadcast platform had always been among the top tier anchors, he knew what Lu Xing was referring to was beyond that.

So Little Monkey Master, isn’t this what you want? 

The little monkey’s blood began to boil and the sullen atmosphere from earlier disappeared completely. He quickly sent out a message expressing his gratitude. 

Big Monkey: Ah Xing5, you are my heaven, my earth, my light in a tunnel of darkness. Even if this monkey becomes rich and famous, I won’t forget you! ~ \\\\ (≧ ▽ ≦) // ~　

On the opposite side, Lu Xing who was in the midst of drinking water directly sprayed it across the computer screen. He coughed a few times after looking at the excited words. He could almost imagine the other’s expression when saying those words.

After wiping his mouth, his lips gently hooked up in a smile. Won’t ever forget me? Of course, that is to be expected.

***

Lin Xiao didn’t realise that he’d accidentally caused a huge ruckus in the gaming world. Just as he exited the game, there was a knock on the door.

Opening the door, a tall man appeared. He was neatly dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans that made his appearance look clean.

Lin Xiao hadn’t fully grasped all of the original owner’s memory and paired with the fact that this person was wearing a peak cap6, he had no recollection of the man, “Who are you?”

The man did not show dissatisfaction towards Lin Xiao’s slight disregard. He took off his cap, revealing a bright and handsome face that held an aggrieved expression, “Lin Xiao, there’s no need to pretend to be dumb. Just be honest. Did you really confess to You Jing?”

Lin Xiao stared at the man’s face that started to look somewhat familiar and could vaguely recall that he and the original owner grew up together in the same hometown. His name was Yan Lingjiang.

Although they were both childhood friends, the other was much luckier than Lin Xiao. With his outstanding talents, it wasn’t long before Yan Lingjiang was considered important in his guild and had later become a professional player in the club. With his steady performance and likeable face, he could now be considered a popular player that had many fans.

The current esports players were like celebrities that were constantly followed. It was no wonder that he came dressed in a peak cap looking like a thief.

Not only did your family’s Lin Xiao confess to others, he also committed suicide for love! Lin Xiao glanced at him and decided to clarify the relationship between the two from earlier in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, “I no longer like men.”

The words Yan Lingjiang were about to say came to a stop so suddenly that he almost choked on his own saliva.

T/n:

Nobody at all: …

Lin Xiao: I no longer like men.

*silence*

Plat: Should we tell him?

Sleepy: Real life image of Lin Xiao: 

Are you a trumpet?: Just like asking ‘why are you tooting your own horn?’– To brag about one’s own talents. 

Nima: ‘尼玛’ The two characters don’t make any sense by themselves. They are homophonic characters of 你妈, which means ‘your mother’. Can be used in cases to mean Come on!, God!, Really?

QQ: An instant messaging software service and web portal developed by China.

PvE copy player: This is a characteristic used in games. The copy characteristic allows player copy output of equipment, props and game resources from different player to satisfy another player’s game progress

Ah Xing:  Used as a shortened form of a person’s name and used to express familiarity. Usually placed in front of the person’s given name.

Peak Cap: I think he’d wear something like this, since LX described him as looking like a thief.