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Chapter 9 — You’ll take me to level?

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Four Seas Fragrance: “Little apprentice sister, your mouth is a bit poisonous ah.”

“Second apprentice brother, many thanks for the compliment.” Ye Nuan laughed slightly.

Four Seas Fragrance rolled his eyes. He had the least amount of skill in dealing with people like Ye Nuan.

Jabbing at a person’s sore spots so ruthlessly and accurately, yet such a person could still laugh so pure and innocently.

Four Seas Fragrance, however, had always been ‘shameless’ in the game. Thus, continuing such a performance, he not only did not get angry, he instead very magnanimously showed off his clothes to Ye Nuan.

—— He turned around in a gorgeous manner for Ye Nuan’s eyes. While doing so, he accidentally stepped on the swishing hem of his robe, tripped, and fell to the ground, lying on his stomach.

Ye Nuan: “……”

“Hold on, do-over!” Four Seas Fragrance blatantly rose from the ground and once again walked in a circle in front of Ye Nuan. He then assumed an extremely enchanting pose as he asked her, “Aren’t I beautiful?”

Ye Nuan silently brushed past him, not wanting to admit that this man was her second apprentice brother.

“Hey, little apprentice sister, hey!” Four Seas Fragrance, unresigned, caught up to her and grabbed her shoulder so that she would face him. “Don’t ignore me ah! Look at how good-looking I am! If you look for a long time, you would certainly get it. Even eldest apprentice brother said I look increasingly pleasing to the eye the more he looked!”

Ye Nuan: “……That is due to eldest apprentice brother’s good temperament.”

She wanted to beat him up the more she looked at him.

“I think many people actually want to wear such attire, but simply do not dare to; that’s all.” Four Seas Fragrance spoke as if making a show of being very much in earnest. “In reality, no one dares to. I also do not dare. People who do are seen as being mentally ill, but this is not the case in the game. Who knows who I am? If I cannot wear what style like in the game, then life is too miserable.”

Ye Nuan side-eyed him. “In the end, it is still your aesthetics that is questionable.” She paused, suddenly realizing who Four Seas Fragrance’s character reminded her of. She asked on the spot, “Are you cosplaying Dongfang Bubai?”^[1]

Four Seas Fragrance rolled his eyes. “I won’t castrate myself, nor do I like men!”

“I did not say you castrated yourself ah.” After Ye Nuan said this, she could not help laughing.

Although she very much disdained her family’s second apprentice brother’s choice to look like a lovely scene of blossoming plants swaying in the breeze, she did not at all dislike his character.

How come? Even though he was a bit foolish, as well as a bit flirtatious, she felt he was very frank.

Ye Nuan did not dislike frank people.

*

Four Seas Fragrance was now Level 36, so he took Ye Nuan to a Level 35~ training map.

While he pulled in a mob of monsters, Ye Nuan minded her own business and opened up the experts list, scanning it to see what his rank was.

Ranked 46, a ranking that did not make Ye Nuan feel even the slightest surprise.

This was because they had exchanged blows. Ye Nuan therefore had a clear understanding of where Four Seas Fragrance’s skill would roughly rank.

—— Quick reaction speed, flexible skill usage; the average player would unconditionally say he was a gaming god.

However, his weapon did not switch between hands that much, and his skill combos also had rigid patterns. In Ye Nuan’s opinion, these combos were very easy to crack after a handful of rounds.

Visibly, Four Seas Fragrance’s rank on the experts list had already reached a bottleneck. If he could not comprehend more techniques and gain more variety, he would be stuck at this rank for a very long time.

*

A while later, through Four Seas Fragrance’s great efforts, Ye Nuan successfully rose to Level 20.

Four Seas Fragrance then said, “You go train by yourself ba. I’m going to work.”

Ye Nuan looked at the time; it was not yet 7 o’clock.

Going to work so early? She still could not pin down what Four Seas Fragrance’s job in reality was.

Speaking of which……

“You won’t send me to a safe area?” Ye Nuan looked around at the nearby Level 35 monsters, a bad premonition arising.

Sure enough, Four Seas Fragrance’s response was: “If I do, I will be late to work la, you go back yourself ba! Refuel, you can do it!”

After he said this, he did not wait for Ye Nuan to respond and immediately called out to the system, logging off where he stood.

Ye Nuan: “……”

How vicious of you.

The game 《 Second World 》 does not have a ‘one click return to town’ function or something similar. If players wanted to return to town, they could only run back.

But as players rose in level, their mount’s speed would also hasten.

The currently Level 20 Ye Nuan, riding by herself on her unicorn, would not find it difficult to ride toward town.

She feared, however, that if she went by herself, halfway through the journey, she would run into player killers like she had yesterday.

Fortunately, the entire journey this time was very favorable. She had not run into anyone, probably because it was so early in the morning.

After Ye Nuan returned to town, the first thing she did was to clear up her inventory. She then went to the pet breeding teacher to buy experience potions, allowing her family’s Quilt to rise to Level 20.

Once these matters were dealt with, she returned to the inn and sat down on the bed. Opening the functions interface, she found a competition matchmaking button as she had expected. Below the button was the setting 「 Currently Accepting Matches 」. At the moment, it showed ‘No.’ 

Ye Nuan hesitated for a moment. She felt that since she had nothing to do anyway, she might as well. It would be better to match immediately to take a look. She thus switched ‘No’ to ‘Yes.’

She soon received a system notice. 【 Player King of Ten Thousand Bones has chosen you as their opponent in the competition matchmaking. You will automatically enter the arena in 10 seconds. Please prepare for battle! 】 

Ye Nuan: ???

Well, Ye Nuan understood at last. As it turned out, this was the meaning of agreeing to match requests —— she would appear on other players’ list of possible matches. If chosen by someone else as an opponent, she would automatically enter the battle and have no power to refuse.

To verify her guess, she tapped 「 Matchmaking 」.

As expected, a list of possible matches appeared before her eyes, displaying a dozen or so players around her competition rank. Beside each individual’s name was a 「 Challenge 」 button. 

Beneath this, in tiny font, was a description. To sum the main idea:

When challenging players of a higher rank, a victory awarded 10 points, a loss deducted 1 point. When challenging players of a lower rank, a victory awarded 1 point, a loss deducted 10 points. Successive victories awarded bonus points; two successive victories gifted 1 point, three successive victories gifted 2 points, and so on, with the highest bonus being 10 points.

Ye Nuan looked at the points of the top-ranked player — over 8000.

Fucking hell, how many matches was this? The winning streak must also be over 400 matches ba?

Before she could examine this carefully, the 10 seconds countdown ended.

Ye Nuan and Quilt were sent to the arena together.

When she arrived at the arena, her equipment automatically changed into the assassin graduate set.

It must be said that this black-robed set was very handsome. A close look would reveal meticulous ash gray floral designs embroidered on the robe. If unrobed, the color of the inner layer would be revealed to be red.

But all this made Ye Nuan feel a bit baffled —— one could see that 《 Second World 》 strived their utmost to ensure fair matches through their competition matchmaking system, so why did her Quilt also follow along?

Ye Nuan felt something was amiss, but she did not say anything.

Her opponent, not allowing her to ponder for long, dashed over to her with a raised double-edged, straight sword.

Ye Nuan, with no better option, stuffed Quilt into her belt and withdrew her dagger from her waist as fast as she could, using it to block her opponent’s attack.

Her opponent in this match was a warrior, with a head of short, blindingly bright silver hair.

Just a moment ago, she had nearly been unable to distinguish where his sword was because of how dazzling his silver hair was. Fortunately, she still had her perception to rely on.

Her opponent did not start off leniently because she was a woman. On the contrary, this made her have a rather favorable impression of him.

Just as she thought of this……

“Yi? A woman?!” Her opponent suddenly exclaimed in shock. It seemed he had only just discovered this fact.

Ye Nuan: “……”

Brother, are your eyes too poor, hah?

Ye Nuan did not feel like dealing with her opponent’s nonsense. Pulling her dagger away from his sword, she charged forward and killed him in less than a minute with the combos she had comprehended while battling with Four Seas Fragrance previously.

—— This stage’s matched opponent was, as one could well imagine, very weak.

Right after, Ye Nuan fought in over 20 matches in one breath. Some matches were challenges from others, while others were challenges she issued. In addition to the bonus points given for successive victories, her points soared at an inconceivable rate.

Soon, Ye Nuan’s competition points broke 400, ranking within the top 2000 on the experts list.

《 Second World 》’s players were numerous, but of those mixing in the arena, there were about several thousand. Therefore, Ye Nuan’s rank was not considerably high.

But, she had only fought twenty-something matches. At present until now, her winning streak was 100%.

This was an accomplishment any ordinary player would be proud of.

Ye Nuan, however,  had her own thoughts. —— The opponents at this stage were truly weak ah. She could win with her eyes closed……

At precisely this time, her eldest apprentice brother Hundred Miles Uncrystallized went online.

System: 【 Your eldest apprentice brother Hundred Miles Uncrystallized has connected. 】 

On Hundred Miles Uncrystallized’s side, he also received a similar system notice the moment he went online. 【 Your fourth apprentice sister Warm Light at Night is currently resting in an inn. 】 

Inn……

In the eyes of countless players of 《 Second World 》, inns had long been an aspect that could not be discussed.

After all, players in the game did not feel fatigued or drowsy. They did not need to rest at all. In general, they only would go to an inn when they needed to deal with personal matters.

Hundred Miles Uncrystallized frowned. He tried to send his family’s little apprentice sister a team invite.

He originally thought he would receive a notice along the lines of ‘recipient is already in a team,’ not expecting his team invite to be accepted less than a second later. This meant Ye Nuan was not teamed up with anyone at the moment. —— In the inn room, there was only her.

“Eldest apprentice brother?” Still in the inn room, Ye Nuan raised a brow. Hundred Miles Uncrystallized’s offered team invite was a surprise to her.

She had felt, up till now, that her family’s eldest apprentice brother did not like carrying people at all.

Sure enough, Hundred Miles Uncrystallized’s first message was not ‘I will take you to level,’ but instead: “What are you doing in an inn?”

To be in an inn, it was obviously to rest ah. What else could one do?

Hundred Miles Uncrystallized fell silent. He obviously had not expected her to respond in such a pure way.

Simply to rest?

“If you want to rest, go offline.” Hundred Miles Uncrystallized said.

Ye Nuan froze —— yeah, yeah, yeah; in the game, standing, sitting, even lying down, all these actions were the same. None of these would cause players to feel fatigued. To truly rest, it was only natural to go offline to rest.

But she could not go offline ma……

Ye Nuan had already intended to stay in the game for a lifetime. She would naturally have a ‘home’ that gave her a sense of belonging.

The places in the game 《 Second World 》 that could be seen as a home, there was only the inn. She had no other options.

These words, Ye Nuan could not directly say. She had no choice but to find other reasons. “Actually, I wanted to find a peaceful area to fight in the arena. Eldest apprentice brother, I have already broken through the two-thousandths rank oh~”

Hundred Miles Uncrystallized was stunned. “You’re already Level 20?”

While he asked this, he opened up his friends list to find Warm Light at Night’s profile. —— Sure enough, already reached Level 20.

Yesterday afternoon when they first met, she was merely Level 13. Today, it was not even noon, yet she was already Level 20.

This levelling speed was undoubtedly fast.

Ye Nuan did not hear the amazement in Hundred Miles Uncrystallized’s voice. After a simple “Mn” in reply, she switched the 「 Currently Accepting Matches 」 setting to ‘No.’ She then walked downstairs before leaving the inn, inquiring, “Eldest apprentice brother, you’ll take me to level?”

Although level did not influence her fighting in the arena, she would not be able to go to other maps if her level did not rise. Additionally, her ability to familiarize herself with the assassin skills would remain hindered.

More importantly, she did not want to continue being so passive and continue being hunted everywhere.

But would eldest apprentice brother agree to carry her?

Just as she thought of this, Ye Nuan heard Hundred Miles Uncrystallized reply. His clear, chilling voice indifferently said one word. “Okay.”

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Footnotes:

[1] Character from The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Jin Yong. See Wikipedia Article for more info (beware of spoilers).

 

Ma (么) — typically an interrogative particle, but in this case, an exclamatory one

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