Chapter 20

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Tangtang, are you there?”

“There was an idiot being a sore loser, he even tried to fight me 1v1. In the end, I beat him so badly that he was practically calling me daddy.”

“Tangtang, I’ll carry you!”

“Did something happen recently? If there’s anything, you can always tell me.”

“Tangtang, are you there? Why haven’t you been online in the past two days?”

“Tangtang…”

…

Li Yuncheng glanced at the gray name in his game’s friends list again and slumped onto the computer chair, letting out a long sigh.

Dissatisfied, he fired up the chatroom as well. He looked at the familiar profile picture of a female anime character. Similarly, his chat box was filled with messages that he had sent, and the person who always played as his support had been offline for two days.

In the past two days, whenever he logged into the game, he would leave messages for her. Sadly, they were met with silence.

“Sigh…does this mean we’re broken up? F*ck, I never should have taken it seriously!”

Li Yuncheng lit a cigarette. He had initially thought that he would be able to find love in that game. However, now he knew how fragile that type of relationship was. If the other person did not come online, then there would be no way to contact them at all.

“Forget it, if she doesn’t want to reply to me then it means that she doesn’t want to reply to me. If I keep sending her messages, then I’m the simp.”

After he stubbed out the cigarette, Li Yuncheng inhaled deeply, adjusting his emotions. He had decided to log into the game with his side account. Yep, the side account was still in the Silver rank and had a relatively low level. He could use it to torture some new players and soothe his emotions.

“Time to show off my true skills! I want to play 1v9!”

He switched his accounts with practiced ease and logged into the game. His side account was in a popular server, so very quickly, he was added into a team with four other teammates.

He played ADC in the bottom lane, he played this position best. The hero he selected for this round was the one he was most skilled at using too. It was just enough for him to carry this round and soothe his feelings.

[Sit tight, the master will bring you guys to victory!]

Li Yuncheng typed noisily into the chatbox.

Very quickly, his team members’ replies popped up:

[Let me worship you!]

[Stop bluffing, those who boast are usually trash!]

[I’m just begging you not to feed. Other than that, you can do whatever you want.]

[Call me daddy1 or I’ll feed.]

[To all dads, I’m counting on you!]

…

[To whoever’s queued against me, it’s your misfortune. Get ready!]

Li Yuncheng lit another cigarette and moved his character into the jungle, getting ready to help the jungler, who was going around calling everyone “daddy”, to get the buff.

[I’m counting on you, master!] The jungler replied playfully.

The minions have spawned!

The game’s background music sounded!

Li Yuncheng clicked on the jungle’s monster, hitting it with the normal attacks. He glanced at the support player and noticed that he had already hidden inside the tall grass. Li Yuncheng pursed his lips. “We have no chemistry at all, Tangtang’s support was so much better.”

Ding dong!

At that moment, Li Yuncheng suddenly heard the familiar notification sound from his chatroom.

That was the sound he had set for his “favorite” users, and there was only one user in that group.

Li Yuncheng immediately hit the ctrl+alt+z shortcut, and a window popped up. In the cute chat bubble of the user with an anime girl profile picture, there was a string of words. 

[I don’t want to play games anymore!]

“Don’t want to play games anymore?”

Li Yuncheng stared at her reply, momentarily stunned.

Then, his fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed: [Tangtang, why don’t you want to play games anymore? Even if you don’t want to play games, I can still go find you.]

However, the moment he sent the message, her profile picture had already turned gray once more. There was no response.

At the same time, in the game world behind the chat’s window, the jungler who was calling him “master” and “daddy” just a moment ago was already cursing. 

[Dumb*ss ADC, why did you steal my red buff!]

[Master? As if. Easy win? Easy win my *ss!]

[He must have been disconnected!]

[Let’s leave quickly, I want to restart the match!]

…

Li Yuncheng was too lazy to care about the string of messages in the game’s window. He just sat in the computer chair, stunned. Then, he suddenly thought of something, and quickly took out his phone and went through the messages from the past few days.

Very soon, he had found one particular voice message. He clicked it, and a cute voice spoke from his phone:

“I just participated in a closed beta and played a virtual online game called ‘Journey to the Other World’. It’s so realistic and interesting! It’s so fun, too bad it’s under maintenance right now! ”

Li Yuncheng listened to it carefully, there was a hint of excitement in her cute voice, he could even hear her voice turn slightly hoarse towards the last few words.

“How is it possible that you’d stop playing games?”

Li Yuncheng smiled ruefully. In the past few months which he had spent playing with her, he could tell that the girl on the other end was an avid gaming fan, just like he was.

How is it possible that a girl who spends a few hours online every day suddenly wanted to stop playing games?

‘The reason must be that she already has other simps!’

Yup, that must be it!

“‘Journey to the Other World’, was it?” Li Yuncheng listened to the voice message again and confirmed the game’s name. Then, he quickly started searching for it.

Very soon, he found an official game interface through the search engine. He clicked into it, and he was suddenly met with a strong rustic feeling.

“Not this?”

Li Yuncheng clicked into a few other “Journey to the Other World” interfaces, but none of them seemed right. They were all either related pages or just websites with similar keywords.

In the end, he returned to the somewhat simple and crude official webpage again.

The first thing he saw was a dark GIF of a pig-headed monster, it was tearing into a bloodied corpse. The corpse was dismembered, blood and flesh flying everywhere. Then, at the most bottom part of the page, a notification showed that the closed beta testing had been completed.

It was followed by two other simple animations. One was of a weird creature that resembled Nasus, and the other was of an animal that looked like a saber-tooth tiger from a sci-fi documentary, roaring ferociously.

Even though the website’s interface was simple, the animations looked very realistic and extraordinary.

At the same time, Li Yunchen saw that there were quite a few comments left by netizens in the discussion area:

DoNotSkidFirst_181: I was brought here by a pop-up window!

Kappa312: Pop-up window +1

NaturalSong: Pop-up window +2

LoyalLinglingLover: Xiaoling’s army reporting for duty! Waiting for the servers to open.

…

PhilosophicalSpeculation: I participated in the first closed beta testing, you can say it was a wondrous journey. Everyone must play it no matter what, truly. I never thought that I’d be able to play such a realistic virtual online game in this lifetime.

RoyalProtagonist: The guy above is a liar, identification complete!

AimlessArmy: This game is trash, f*ck the pop-up window!

AreYouCryingAreYouTired: @PhilosophicalSpeculation are you Old Xu? Hahaha, I can’t believe I’d encounter you here. The stupid operations are still under maintenance. I still want to continue butchering that pig-headed monster.

GoddessApproves: My goddess said she participated in the closed beta testing too and she was shocked. I want to be shocked too…

PhilosophicalSpeculation: @AreYouCryingAreYouTired, I’m afraid the story has already progressed to the next scene.

AreYouCryingAreYouTired: Sons, if “Journey to the Other World” is not fun, then daddy, I, will eat three jin 1of sh*t!

…

CatChan: Your appetite must be amazing!

SeaSpirit55: The one who eats free meals is here again!

TheCloudsBeforeYourEyes: That’s right, liars! Those above are bluffing, they’re are all liars! 100% virtual reality, extreme open-world freedom, who do you think you’re fooling?

IAmALoneDrunkTraveler: @AreYouCryingAreYouTired eat it at home. The sh*t outside is expensive, you can’t afford it!

AreYouCryingAreYouTired: @IAmALoneDrunkTraveler If you play this game without even exclaiming once about how amazing it is, then you win.

IAmALoneDrunkTraveler: @AreYouCryingAreYouTired I don’t recall you being a son of mine1.

…

Li Yuncheng scrolled through the players’ reviews and messages, looking at them one by one. He thought it was really interesting, and he momentarily forgot that he had initially scrolled to the comments area to look at the players’ feedback.

As a self-proclaimed “high-end gamer”, he had dabbled in many games. However, he had never joined any flame wars in the discussion forums or comments sections. Now, looking at the comments, he thought it was quite interesting.

At that moment, a message window popped up on the official webpage:

[Second limited closed beta testing now open, register now!]

Li Yuncheng casually clicked “register”, and he saw another string of words appear:

[Please connect your virtual reality equipment.]

“So fast? That’s a little interesting!”

Li Yuncheng was slightly surprised. He stood up quickly and started rummaging through the cabinet beside his computer table.

VR equipment had advanced very quickly over the years. Even though some games or movies were still in its early stages, as a gaming fan, he bought one. However, he did not get the immersive experience he wanted with it and had tossed it aside in the end.

Very quickly, he put on the virtual reality equipment. Li Yuncheng’s vision suddenly blurred, and countless images started flashing before his eyes.