Chapter 128 The Earth’s Wastelands 1

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Chapter 128 The Earth’s Wastelands 1

"Flashes of Sword, level 17.

"Feng Bujue, level 16.

"Please select the game mode that your team wants to join.

"You have selected the Killing Game (2v2), please confirm.

"Your team has joined the team queue. Currently searching for other readied players or teams.

"Adjusting nervous connectivity, generating the scenario...

"Please wait a moment. Downloading."

This was the system announcement that Feng Bujue received on his end. It was slightly different from the one that he got when he was the team leader. This time, he heard the system say in a Beijing accent, a hoarse, male voice, "Make your opponents cower in fear, have them understand the true meaning of terror!"

"Download complete. You are currently in the Killing Game mode.

"This mode comes with introductory cinematic and the chance to unlock side/hidden missions and special world-building.

"Reward for victory: 30% of current maximum EXP.

"The introductory cinematic is going to begin soon. The game will start immediately after the cinematic is over."

In the cinematic, a voluptuous woman wearing a white coat walked down a dim corridor.

"In the year 2000, in the Crystal Lake lab, an unkillable murderous fiend was detained—Jason. The government’s science team wished to turn him into an experiment, conducting research on the body’s recovery on a cellular level."

Following the narration, the female researcher walked through a door. The camera did not follow her and stopped in the corridor.

"But Jason was not so easily detained. Any careless mistake, a lowering of one’s guard, would lead to irrevocable and unimaginable results."

The cinematic skipped over most of the shots in the movie. It used darkness and screams to skip over the scene where Jason went out of control and when he was frozen by that female researcher.

"In the year 2455, human beings entered the space age, and the humans’ former home became known as ’Old Earth’, a place filled with savage storms, toxic swamps, and polluted oceans.

"So, it’s the assaults..." Flashes of Sword claimed with a frown.

Feng Bujue astutely noticed something from his teammate’s expression. "Do you know them?"

"I can’t say that I know them personally, but I’ve encountered similar IGNs before," Flashes of Sword said. "They should belong to the gaming studio, ’Zombie Blade’... The members of Zombie Blade mostly have their names end with either Assault or Victor."

"Oh? I remember seeing their guild in fifth place on the combat ranking," Feng Bujue said.. "Higher than your Jiang Hu."

"And that is where I’m annoyed at them..." The man’s tone was laced with helplessness. "Actually, these goons are not that powerful, but they have their ways of squeezing to the top."

"Oh? You mean..." With Feng Bujue’s brilliance, he understood the words that was left unsaid. Therefore, he merely urged the man to continue.

"It might not be appropriate for me to say this, and it is up to you to believe me or not," Flashes of Sword explained. "There is a shared consensus among the industry that Zombie Blade is bunch of cheaters."

"Cheaters? You mean, the members from that whole studio are..."

"They have many tricks. Basically, anything that you can think of, they have done," Flashes of Sword said. "Like coming up with some illegal support hardware, and in terms of software, they have apps like aimbot and so on... The normal players wouldn’t know about these things, and at most, it would merely be a rumor. However, for us professional gamers, after a few fights with these guys, we pick up on these things."

"The gaming companies allow them to cheat like that?" Feng Bujue asked.

"It’s too hard to police activities like that, and it’s not worth it." Flashes of Sword sighed. "The gaming companies’ main target is to earn money, and for many gray areas, they choose to close half of their eyes as long as it does not cut into their profits or raise too big a fuss.

"After all, one need to invest plenty of resource, manpower, time and technology to police these things... From how I see it, unless you can present the company with the evidence of their crime, they are too lazy to mind this thing."

Flashes of Sword was suddenly reminded of something and added, "Oh, there’s one more thing. Like I said, the people from Zombie Blade have many tricks, but they might not be limited to the games alone. Sometimes, they might hire fifty cent armies to do some little tricks like releasing fake info on the forums to vilify another guild or purposely go to the official websites of the studios who are in direct competition with them to leave negative reviews. All in all, they’ll ruin other people’s reputation.

"The memory that stuck with me the most was during a previous game. The gaming company organized an open election for all the players to select the most powerful ’gang’. Zombie Blade allegedly used money to purchase the votes and thus beat Regulation and Brahman. But no matter the result, the gaming company would earn money from this event, so do you think they would get involved or not?"

"Is that so? Sounds like you’re harboring plenty of resentment," Feng Bujue observed.

Flashes of Sword shrugged and laughed sadly. "You won’t understand it. Only those in our field will understand this feeling. Many times, even if you think you’ve grown stronger, only failure awaits. Losing to cheaters like this is very demoralizing, but such is the reality of life."

He paused and looked up at Feng Bujue. "I’m sorry. You probably think I’m being too biased in my assessment of the enemy..."

"No, I believe you," Feng Bujue said. "And I believe Jiang Hu would not stoop to their level.’

"Of course, that’s a guaranteed." When Flashes of Sword said that, he sounded like a young hero from a wuxia movie.

"And my philosophy has always been," Feng Bujue said, "either join the dark side or step forth to vanquish the evil.

"Therefore... we should pick up some slack and make life kind of a living hell for these two to have them understand the true meaning of power."