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Chapter 5 — The outcome was determined!
After Ye Nuan accepted the PK request, a small box immediately appeared before her eyes, displaying a 10 second countdown.
When the timer decreased from 10 to 0, she was instantly transferred by the system to a large arena.
《 Second World 》 was an old-style game. The character appearances were well-done, as were the architectures of the buildings; they were just all archaic in style.
Therefore, the arena’s stage was also simply countless stone blocks piled up — a very archaic stone stage. On the edge of the stage were layers of stone stairs, where the audience could sit.
Not long after Ye Nuan and Four Seas Fragrance entered the arena, their eldest apprentice brother, Hundred Miles Uncrystallized, also entered. He casually took a seat on the stone steps to watch the battle.
Once Ye Nuan entered the arena, her level automatically changed to Level 60, her equipment also switching into the full graduate[1] set for assassins.
Opposite her was Four Seas Fragrance, dressed in a similar set of assassin graduate-ranked equipment.
Without a trace of red and without any eye-catching attire, she felt that her second apprentice brother was quite handsome.
No, rather than calling him handsome, it was better to call him charming.
She felt her Master was also good. Her two senior apprentice brothers were also good. Each and every one of them was handsome, but who knew what they looked like in reality.
This game, 《 Second World 》, had a tyrannically powerful face-altering capability. If the technology was mastered and used properly, everyone would be a handsome guy or a beauty.
But in regards to herself, her in-game appearance was the same as her real one.
Fortunately, she was good-looking, and after beautification, it was not to the point where others questioned the use of face-altering technology. Even though her appearance could not be capable of causing the downfall of a state, it could at least be said to be first-class.
“I’ll say this in advance, ha, that even if you are a woman, I will not let water out,”[2] Four Seas Fragrance suddenly declared.
In reply, Ye Nuan only told him four words. “This should be so.”
She then raised the dagger in her hand after speaking, tossing it into the air once.
The pitch-black dagger did two rotations in the air before she caught it with ease — how handsome, how handsome.
Four Seas Fragrance originally planned to strike first. Seeing her act so pretentious, however, had him want to show off too. Copying Ye Nuan’s trick, he tossed the dagger into the air. It rotated in the air twice before falling down; it also easily……fell to the ground.
Four Seas Fragrance silently picked up the dagger and pretended nothing happened.
Ye Nuan: “……”
Her family’s second apprentice brother was perhaps a bit foolish.
“Alright, let’s start ba!” Four Seas Fragrance gripped his dagger, changing stances in preparation to attack Ye Nuan at any moment.
Ye Nuan stood in place, as steady as a mountain. “Let’s start ah.”
Four Seas Fragrance: “I’m coming ah!”
Ye Nuan: “You come ah.”
Four Seas Fragrance: “Ladies first.”
“Oh, then I won’t be polite.” Ye Nuan, after speaking, no longer felt like playing around with him. Lowering her body, she dashed at him!
Four Seas Fragrance retreated back a few paces using 「 Body Flicker 」, dodging the attack before attacking with a 「 Frontal Stab 」!
Ye Nuan observed his movements. When he thrust his dagger at her, she instantly twisted sideways, evading his attack and taking the opportunity to whirl around 360°. Switching her dagger to her other hand, she brought it up to Four Seas Fragrance’s neck!
Four Seas Fragrance reacted rapidly. Sensing the murderous spirit aimed directly at him, he promptly stooped down before looking up.
Ye Nuan’s dagger nearly swiped the tip of his nose.
“Shit……” Four Seas Fragrance cried out in alarm. After avoiding the attack, he did an aerial cartwheel at once to increase the distance between him and Ye Nuan. He then looked at Ye Nuan, his expression becoming a bit grave.
When you first fight, that is when you learn the other’s depth.
Four Seas Fragrance did not think he would lose because of one exchange of blows, but at least he would truly not dare to let water out.
From what he saw, Ye Nuan’s skill was at least equal to his master’s.
In Four Seas Fragrance’s eyes, Master and his fellow apprentices were ranked in strength like so: Hundred Miles Uncrystallized > Uninhibited > Four Seas Fragrance > Chaotic Reputation
Right, although Chaotic Reputation was their master, his skills were the weakest among them.
Immediately after was him……cough.
Despite Four Seas Fragrance being the next weakest, he was in the Top 50 on the experts list. In this game with hundreds of thousands of players, he could be considered to be an awe-inspiring existence.
By the way, he was now ranked 46.
As eldest apprentice brother said, before reaching Level 60 and thus finishing the apprenticeship, each of Master’s followers must break through the Top 30 on the experts list. Otherwise, they will be expelled out the door.
Therefore, Four Seas Fragrance, who had stayed at Level 46 for a long time, was now a bit agitated. Seeing the little apprentice sister Ye Nuan enter their Master’s door, not knowing the immensity of Heaven and Earth, he could not help but be even more agitated. In any case, sooner or later, she would be expelled out the door, so it would be better to just sever the master-apprentice relationship right now.
Ye Nuan did not know he had such disorderly thoughts roaming around in his head. Seeing her strike fail, she tried once more to attack. As she drew closer, she flashed forward with the「 Body Flicker 」 skill her opponent previously used. She appeared in front of him and aimed for his neck again, not expecting to be guarded against with a dagger he had kept in reserve.
Both of their daggers clashed ruthlessly, a brittle ‘peng’ sound echoing. Ye Nuan instantly used 「 Frontal Stab 」. Her dagger lashed out at Four Seas Fragrance like a meteor streaking across the sky, successfully nicking his throat.
Above Four Seas Fragrance’s head floated a terrifyingly high critical hit damage. He clicked his tongue and backflipped once more to pull away from Ye Nuan. He then immediately released the skill「 Shadow Attack 」.
Sou——
Black shadows in the form of blades flew toward Ye Nuan. Tilting her head to dodge, only a few strands of black silky hair was severed.
At precisely this time, Uninhibited joined the arena.
This youth with a picturesque appearance, his face hidden by a black scarf, quietly emerged behind Hundred Miles Uncrystallized. With a slightly hoarse voice, he greeted, “Eldest apprentice brother.”
If he had not glanced at the system notice, Hundred Miles Uncrystallized would have nearly been frightened out of his skin. He simply pulled a long face and acknowledged, “Mn.”
Since this youth’s ID was Uninhibited, he once more spoke. “Happening?”
Hundred Miles Uncrystallized could not stand this youth’s ancient period drama character design. It took him a while before he gave a response. “Technique is not bad, skills are unfamiliar —— all the skills she has used so far have been demonstrated by Ah Seas.”[3]
Uninhibited kept talking. “Who will win?
Hundred Miles Uncrystallized silently contemplated. Even if he felt he was really letting down his family’s second apprentice, he still chose to tell the truth. “Warm Light at Night.”
As if confirming his words, Ye Nuan’s attacks became increasingly fierce and fluid. Four Seas Fragrance gradually lost ground.
Hundred Miles Uncrystallized spoke correctly. Ye Nuan was not familiar with the skills available. She had only just changed classes and only understood the most basic skills. The other skills could only be put immediately into practice after having just been learnt.
Fortunately, her learning capability was strong enough. Once Four Seas Fragrance used something, she could near-instantly copy him. She could even link the learned skills into combos while fighting Four Seas Fragrance.
Four Seas Fragrance felt like he was seeing a ghost —— how come this woman became more powerful with every exchange of blows?!
This was not good; if it continued along this line, he would lose!
Uninhibited, who had been standing off to the side but still behind Hundred Miles Uncrystallized, watched the battle calmly before suddenly commenting, “Handsome.”
Hundred Miles Uncrystallized blanked out before asking in reply, “Who?”
Uninhibited: “Little apprentice sister.”
Afterward, not waiting for Hundred Miles Uncrystallized to respond, Uninhibited then made up his mind and seriously stated, “I want to take little apprentice sister to level.”
Hundred Miles Uncrystallized: “……”
His family’s third apprentice, everything was good; his brain circuits were just incomprehensible to others.
Nearly after Uninhibited finished speaking, Ye Nuan used her latest learned set of combos — a few displacements and stabs — to trigger continuous critical hits, taking care of Four Seas Fragrance in a wave of attacks.
The outcome was determined —— Warm Light at Night, victorious!
Once the arena battle’s outcome was decided, the room would automatically be dissolved.
Ye Nuan and her two senior apprentice brothers were returned to the village by the system. Uninhibited was also sent back to the field map he had originally been at.
Ye Nuan played with the dagger that reverted back to Level 10, pondering over the battle just now. She somewhat wished to continue —— she had not fought with such alacrity for a long while.
But, she had not played virtual reality games for too long of a duration; her technique was a bit stiff. She made many superfluous actions, to the point where the outcome of the battle dragged on for such a long time…..
Just as she thought this, she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Four Seas Fragrance, only seeing an expression of ‘Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?’ on his face.
Ye Nuan suddenly recalled the bet from before and could not help smiling. She called out, “Second apprentice brother, I won.”
Her second apprentice brother faltered and raised his head, his somewhat deep empty looking at her. He was clearly dazed and had yet to collect his thoughts. How could he dare to believe that he actually lost, to his little apprentice sister who was 13 levels lower at that!
“Still remember the terms of our bet?” Ye Nuan continued to smile as she spoke.
At this very moment, her voice, to Four Seas Fragrance’s ears, sounded no different from the sound of a devil.
With inferior skills, Four Seas Fragrance had nothing to say. Although his appearance appeared demonic, he would still honor the bet made.
Speaking of which, what had they agreed on prior?
Four Seas Fragrance carefully thought back, it seemed to be —— “If I win, then you’ll do whatever I want.”
Fuck! Was this not a tyrannical pact?! How could he agree to this kind of bet?!
Four Seas Fragrance wanted to die.
Finally, he summoned up his courage and asked, “Let me ask first, when you said you’ll make me do whatever you want, did it mean one time, or whenever you……”
“Listen to me in the future.” Ye Nuan did not wait for him to finish speaking before smilingly giving him an answer.
Ask her? Asking her naturally meant listening to her whenever ah!
Her family’s second apprentice brother really was foolish.
“Okay ba.” Four Seas Fragrance accepted his misfortune as decreed by fate. “Then speak, what do you want me to do?
In fact, this was originally the task Chaotic Reputation had said he would have these two apprentice brothers do. Winding around in a circle, it still came back to her saying this, truly……
However, at this exact moment, eldest apprentice brother Hundred Miles Uncrystallized spoke up. “I’m taking Ah Seas with me, wait a while and someone will come take you to level.”
“Ah?” Ye Nuan was stunned for a bit and had yet to react when Hundred Miles Uncrystallized seized Four Seas Fragrance by his clothes and dragged him away.
Four Seas Fragrance passively took two steps before being unable to hold back a complaint. “Don’t pull! If you pull again, I’ll report you for molestation!”
Hundred Miles Uncrystallized: “Vegetarian chicken,[4] shut up!”
Ye Nuan blinked. Before she could decide on whether it would be good to stop them, she received a friend request.
System: 【 Player Uninhibited has sent you a friend request. May I ask whether you will accept? 】
Uninhibited —— Ye Nuan had an impression of this ID. Was this not her third apprentice brother?
After eldest apprentice brother and second apprentice brother ‘tested’ her, her third apprentice brother also wanted to come?
Ye Nuan hesitated for a moment but still accepted the friend request.
Right after, a slightly hoarse voice echoed in her ears, the slow intonation feeling very comfortable to hear. 【 Little apprentice sister, tell me your location. I will take you to level. 】
Ye Nuan did not expect some with the ID Uninhibited to have such a ‘docile’ voice. She blanked out for a second before responding, giving out her map location and coordinates.
A black-attired shadowy figure rode over on a snow white unicorn shortly after.
His face was covered by a black scarf. Violet lines swirled around his left eye and meandered down, the rest hidden by the scarf. Those pair of long and narrow eyes were as if painted from a dream, unexpectedly making Ye Nuan gape.
A second later, this shadowy man leaped down from the unicorn and steadily landed in front of Ye Nuan. He grasped her hand tenderly, and with a determined look as he gazed at her, he said, “Let’s go, level.”
Ye Nuan: “……”
None of her family’s senior apprentice brothers were normal; appraisal completed.
*
Author has something to say:
Quilt: Today has no scene of me, crying in anger QAQ
Footnotes:
[1] Graduate Set — as in the set of default clothes acquired upon obtaining the final job class. In games, you get job upgrades as you level up and hit milestones. Once you reach a certain level milestone, you will usually receive a quest of some kind (like when Ye Nuan had to fight Poisonous Vines to change jobs) in order to upgrade your job class. The final job upgrade for classes in 《 Second World 》 should be Level 60 from what is implied here.
[2] Letting out water — means to throw the game, play at a lower level of skill than usual, not go all out
[3] Ah Seas — a nickname Hundred Miles Uncrystallized has for Four Seas Fragrance. the use of ‘Ah’ (阿) prefix indicates affection/intimacy/familiarity between the two. In Chinese, it is also not condoned to simply refer to someone with a single character title/name. Usually, some form of prefix/suffix is added or some other diminutive is used. One of the many reasons why is because it sounds less jerky/coarse and makes it easier to differentiate names from regular speech.
[4] Vegetarian Chicken — literal translation that means rookie, someone with poor skills/experience/technique, a trashy weakling. Chicken (鸡) is a homophone for trash (圾), while vegetable (菜) is slang for weak/poor skills.
Peng (砰) — sfx for bang/thump
Sou (嗖) — sfx for the sound of whooshing/swishing/rustling
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