Chapter 2: Friends from the Start, Opponents for Life (1)
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
December 3rd, Glory!
For a full month now, this logo, with its bold letters, crossed swords, and wings spread as though they would fly out of the paper, was grandly displayed almost everywhere you looked – TV screens, computer screens, physical posters and flyers in every corner of the city.
“One month? December 3rd, that’s exactly six weeks away, 42 days!” Su Muqiu spoke while scrolling through yet another Glory ad that had popped up on the screen. This upcoming ga was invading everyone’s line of sight at any given mont.
Ka ka ka...
But the only answer he got was the sound of a keyboard and mouse, light but rhythmic.
Su Muqiu glanced at the one sitting beside him. The screen was currently displaying flashes from attacks and a river of blood, but the player himself wore a bored expression. Clearly, doing sothing like this didn’t require his full attention.
“Did you hear what I just said?” Su Muqiu complained. The fight clearly didn’t require his friend’s full attention, so there was no reason for him to be oblivious to the outside world.
“I heard, Glory, my ears are bleeding from hearing that word from your mouth so often, can’t you see?” said Ye Xiu. Ever since Glory had begun its advertising campaign, Su Muqiu had talked about this ga almost incessantly. Heaven knew how much he was looking forward to it.
“It hasn’t been announced for too long, but with this kind of explosive montum, this is enough. This is definitely going to be a successful ga,” said Su Muqiu, ignoring Ye Xiu’s apparent disinterest.
“Mm,” Ye Xiu said noncommittally. He really had heard this too many tis.
“I heard this ga doesn’t use a userna and password to log on, you need an account card to swipe.”
“Mm.”
“You need a specific card reader too, for it to work.”
“Mm.”
“But this card reader is still relatively cheap.”
“Mm.”
“But the system requirents for the computer seem to be pretty high!”
“Oh?” This finally got Ye Xiu’s attention – the rhythm of the keyboard got louder for a second, before stabilizing again. He turned to look with a serious expression. “What kind of requirents?”
Su Muqiu didn’t answer. He had two very old computers here; one was in slightly better condition, but even that one barely t the minimum requirents for running Glory. The other computer was so bad that it didn’t wasn’t even worth talking about. Ye Xiu was no computer expert, but he’d played on these computers for several months now, and Su Muqiu trusted that he didn’t need to explain.
“It’s ti to exchange these,” said Ye Xiu, still with that serious expression. Although he wasn’t as excited for Glory as Su Muqiu was, he clearly didn’t want to lose the power of choice. To decide whether a ga was good or bad, you had to play it yourself.
“Yeah, it’s ti to get new ones, but money’s been a bit tight lately...”
Having lived here for several months, Ye Xiu was of course clear on the living conditions of these two siblings. They were orphans with no relatives, and their entire livelihoods depended on the inco Su Muqiu earned from playing gas. After Ye Xiu arrived, they now had a second person earning money, so their situation was a little better off. Still, although they didn’t struggle to get basic necessities, it would be a stretch to just pull out the cash for two new computers. Su Muqiu wouldn’t have put up with these two terrible computers if he had had that luxury.
“Looks like we’ll just have to go to Internet cafés for now,” said Ye Xiu.
“Yeah,” Su Muqiu nodded.
“You’ve already looked around for a good one?”
“Of course, I’ve been investigating for over a week now,” Su Mucheng said calmly.
December 3rd, midnight.
This launch ti wasn’t very kind to the gars. For most people, this was the ti to log off and shut down the computer. But for an event like this, plenty of gars were eager to sacrifice their normal schedules.
Six weeks, 42 days. Glory’s large-scale advertising campaign, as well as the well-tid release of the ga’s details, had really succeeded in building up hype for this ga, such that no one cared whether it was releasing at noon or midnight.
This night, countless people were gearing up for the launch.
This night, Internet cafés in all the major cities turned into lively “nightclubs.”
City H, Excellent Era Internet Café.
Ye Xiu and Su Muqiu had secured two computers in the café early on, and as the launch ti approached, they beca more focused and alert. Many people gathered in the café, but, seeing that there were no empty computers, beca depressed and irritable. Unlike Su Muqiu and Ye Xiu, who went to an Internet café because they didn’t have advanced computers at ho, most people went to Internet cafés just to hang out with other people. Playing gas together in one location was often more enjoyable than playing online separately.
As midnight approached, the café was jam-packed, and those that had failed to get a computer could only leave in disappointnt. The owner of the café, Tao Xuan, was very satisfied with this turnout. He’d invested a lot into this ga, upgrading all the computers as necessary. None of the nearby Internet cafes had done the sa; they were simply waiting and watching to see how successful the ga would be. Although there was a lot of hype surrounding the ga, who knew if it would end up a failure? After so many years, hadn’t there been many gas that failed to live up to expectations?
Of course, Tao Xuan was quite anxious himself. He stared at the clock on the wall, watching the hands tick closer toward midnight. At 11:59, he extinguished the cigarette in his hand and sat down at the computer that he had prepared for himself earlier.
As a gar himself, he wanted to try out Glory as well.
Midnight!
The lively Internet café suddenly quieted down.
Swipe a card to log on? This was a new chanism, and people clumsily tried to figure it out.
Then, everyone sank into thought at the next screen. Account na...
“Let , let !” Su Mucheng had carried over a stool to sit between Su Muqiu and Ye Xiu. Seeing them reach this screen, she jumped up in excitent.
“And then go straight to bed, got it?” Su Muqiu said sternly.
“I know!” Su Mucheng took Ye Xiu’s keyboard and began typing in a na. She didn’t really play computer gas herself, so this was the only way she would participate with Su Muqiu – and now, Ye Xiu as well – in these gas.
Quickly, the na appeared on the screen. It seed that she had prepared beforehand.
“One Autumn Leaf,” Ye Xiu read aloud. “One leaf heralds the coming of autumn” was a well-known Chinese phrase*, but, “Isn’t there a typo there?”
But Su Mucheng had already pressed the enter key.
“Alright!” Su Mucheng returned the keyboard to Ye Xiu, before taking over Su Muqiu’s.
“Hurry up,” said Su Muqiu, impatient to get started.
Su Mucheng typed quickly, and the na jumped onto the screen
“Qiu Mu Su?” Su Muqiu read aloud. “Hey hey, can’t you put a little more effort into this? I’m your blood brother!”
This userna was simply the characters of his real na in reverse order.
However, when Su Mucheng pressed confirm, the system reported back: This na is already in use.
“Damn!” Su Muqiu glanced at the ti on the computer. It hadn’t even reached 12:01 yet, and this na was already taken? How many people were playing this ga at this mont?
Su Mucheng’s hands were fast. One na was taken, so her fingers danced to type another.
“Autumn Tree?” Now, Su Muqiu was speechless for good. The only thing different about this userna was the second character, but it was still pronounced “Qiu Mu Su.” Once again, Su Mucheng hit confirm, and with that, his na was now Autumn Tree.
The young girl nodded, revealing a satisfied expression.
“Alright, it’s bedti for you!” Su Muqiu reminded her. It was getting late, but their ho was close by and the siblings were very familiar with the surrounding area. Su Muqiu wasn’t worried about sending his sister ho by herself.
“In a minute,” the girl replied shalessly, correctly guessing that her brother wouldn’t want to leave the computer to force her to go ho.
“Just a minute!” Indeed, Su Muqiu relented imdiately, and turned back to the screen.
“Hey, Ye Xiu, what class are you going to play? I thought about it a lot and decided on Sharpshooter. Why don’t you play Sharpshooter as well? I think two Sharpshooters could work together really well.”
“I’ll try things out first and see how it goes,” Ye Xiu replied.
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