FIMA Ch136: Game

They were college students, after all.

Old Wu didn’t actually make Xie Fengqing stand for the rest of the class. He simply scolded the two of them together, gave the whole class a brief lecture, and then turned back to continue teaching. However, for Xie Fengqing, his dignity was utterly shredded.

Consequently, during the next two periods, Gu Siyuan only felt an invisible, icy, murderous aura hovering right at the back of his neck. Tao Xiangwen, sitting next to him, was caught in the crossfire and barely dared to breathe.

When the bell finally rang, signaling the end of the major course, Tao Xiangwen immediately urged Gu Siyuan to flee. Gu Siyuan was inherently cold and indifferent, naturally paying no mind to the glares sizing him up. However, he was slightly worried that his mission target sitting behind him might literally die of a rage-induced aneurysm if he stayed this mad. He figured he might as well do a good deed—out of sight, out of mind.

The students left the classroom one after another.

In the empty room, only Xie Fengqing, leaning lazily against his chair, and his friend Qiu Yu remained. Qiu Yu looked at a message he had just received on his phone, his expression turning strange. He secretly glanced at Xie Fengqing.

Xie Fengqing lifted his eyelids. “What’s wrong?”

Qiu Yu twitched his mouth: “How come we didn’t know before that Gu Siyuan, that scumbag, could fight so well?”

“Fight well?” Xie Fengqing narrowed his eyes, staring at the person next to him. “What did you do?”

Qiu Yu played with his phone, his tone flippant: “What else could I do? Didn’t we say it last night? I just found some people to ruthlessly teach this scumbag a lesson…”

Xie Fengqing frowned and said coldly, “Didn’t we agree to leave it at that? I don’t want to be involved with that guy anymore.”

Qiu Yu patted his shoulder: “Hey, we have no choice but to leave it at that now. Who would have thought that scumbag Gu Siyuan… actually has such good skills. Damn, the guy I hired said he brought 10 brothers with him, but they were all taken down by that scumbag in a minute. They’re still lying in the hospital right now. Holy shit, does that guy fight in underground boxing matches?!”

His tone was full of disbelief.

Xie Fengqing’s attractive brows twitched slightly. For some reason, he suddenly remembered the strength of the hands gripping his arms when he was pinned against the wall before class. The grip had been so hard and overbearing that he couldn’t move an inch.

He raised his eyebrows and feigned disdain: “Maybe he just has brute strength and nothing else.” With that, he picked up the textbook on the desk, stood up, and walked out of the classroom.

“True, if he actually had real ability, he wouldn’t have eagerly been your sugar baby.” Qiu Yu immediately followed.

When passing the classroom door, Xie Fengqing subconsciously glanced at it. Suddenly, his gaze froze. He saw a few distinct cracks on the glass door, temporarily held together by clear tape.

Could it be that earlier, that guy pulled him away because…

How is that possible, from a scumbag like him?

Gu Siyuan and Tao Xiangwen left the classroom together and went to the nearest cafeteria for dinner.

While eating, Tao Xiangwen kept nagging at Gu Siyuan: “Tsk, that was too thrilling, too exciting. Siyuan, you’ve got some serious guts… to actually dare to provoke Xie Fengqing like that?”

Gu Siyuan’s expression remained unchanged: “Are you very afraid of him?”

Tao Xiangwen: “…”

Shouldn’t the one who is afraid be you, considering you’re the scumbag here?

Actually, Tao Xiangwen’s relationship with Gu Siyuan wasn’t that great normally. It would be more accurate to say that Gu Siyuan had an average relationship with everyone. It was just that their dorm was a mixed four-person room; he and Gu Siyuan were from the Computer Science department, while the other two were from the neighboring Finance School, so their schedules rarely overlapped. Therefore, he interacted with Gu Siyuan the most, plus they gamed together.

But today, for some reason, although this guy had become colder, he seemed more comfortable to be around, making people willing to approach him. To the point where Tao Xiangwen almost forgot the fact that this guy was essentially a scumbag.

Tao Xiangwen smiled: “You have no idea. During class, I was really afraid Xie Fengqing would lose control, jump up, and smash your head in.”

Gu Siyuan’s sword-like eyebrows arched slightly, and he said indifferently: “He’s so thin, and his waist is so narrow, how could he smash my head in with one blow?”

“…” Tao Xiangwen.

What does being thin or having a narrow waist have to do with anything? Is that the main point? Why does that sound a bit off?

However, Tao Xiangwen, being a massive straight guy, decided to ignore this implication. He stared at the person in front of him and said: “The main point is that you’re too awful. Not only did you cheat on him and give him a green hat, but you also set him up and teased him in the classroom today. That’s Xie Fengqing, our N University’s Great God Xie. He’s usually so aloof and highly respected. If I were him, I’d definitely beat a scumbag like you into a pulp.”

Gu Siyuan glanced at him and said coldly: “First of all, you wouldn’t be able to beat me; I’d definitely kill you before you even tried. Secondly, don’t say such disgusting things while eating.”

With that, he stood up, took his tray to the designated spot, turned around, and left the cafeteria.

“Hey, why are you leaving already…” Tao Xiangwen immediately stuffed the last bite from his plate into his mouth, then hurriedly ran after him.

When the two returned to Dorm 406, their other two roommates from the Finance School were also there. Both were sitting intently in front of their computers, fingers flying across their keyboards, clearly engrossed in an online game. They didn’t even lift their heads when they saw Gu Siyuan and Tao Xiangwen return.

Tao Xiangwen was a veteran online gamer. Seeing this scene immediately triggered his addiction. He tossed his textbook aside and hurriedly turned on his PC. He didn’t forget to urge Gu Siyuan at the same time: “Come on, hurry up too. After you did something so scummy, Xie Fengqing definitely won’t carry you anymore. With your noob skills, you can only rely on your bro here now. I’ll find someone to party up with you.”

Gu Siyuan shook his head: “No need, I don’t play games.”

He had no interest in playing online games with these young kids.

Tao Xiangwen turned to look at him and nodded: “True, you scammed Great God Xie so badly, you’d get cursed to death if you logged on. Better to lay low for a while.”

Gu Siyuan’s expression remained unchanged. After turning on his computer, he first entered a programming forum, then opened the stock market page. In this “Domineering CEO Mary Sue” world, he needed to have basic economic self-protection capabilities first, lest he suffer the classic ‘The weather is getting cold, let the Wang family go bankrupt’ CEO treatment.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Tao Xiangwen’s shouting rang out again: “Oh wow, Great God Xie is actually streaming today! Oh, it’s Christmas today, the game updated with a new dungeon…”

Gu Siyuan was fully immersed in the red and green stock market charts and completely ignored him.

Tao Xiangwen continued: “Great God Xie is going to lead a team to run the new dungeon. Oh, they added an unfamiliar newcomer to the team, called something like ‘Bu Zhan’ (No War)…”

“‘Bu Zhan’…” Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes and finally looked up.

Tao Xiangwen nodded: “Yeah, the name is pretty interesting, using an ID that rejects fighting.”

“‘Bu Zhan’ naturally implies ‘Ying Ning’ (Peace/Tranquility)… Ying Ning?” Gu Siyuan’s sword-like eyebrows arched slightly.

‘Bu Zhan’ was the ID of the protagonist shou, Ying Ning, in the game Great Wilderness. However, according to the original plot, Xie Fengqing was supposed to meet Ying Ning three months after breaking up with him. Why was it pushed forward so much now?

Gu Siyuan exited the stock market page and returned to his desktop. An ink-brush text icon with floating clouds in the background reading “Great Wilderness” in the upper right corner caught his eye. He hesitated for a moment, moved the mouse to click on it, followed the login steps, and after waiting for a moment, the original owner’s account ID ‘Hero Gu’ automatically logged in.

Before Gu Siyuan even had time to look at the game’s interface, the background was bombarded with continuous private message notification sounds. Many of them were voice messages.

He directly clicked one open. The autoplay began.

“You dead scumbag leech, men really ain’t shit!”

“Damn it, never seen someone so shameless. A useless sugar baby actually dared to cheat.”

“Your mechanics are so trash. If Great God Xie didn’t carry you, what are you?”

“This piece of garbage, from now on, I’ll slash him every time I see him.”

“Fcking scumbag, trash…”*

… All sorts of creative, non-repeating national curses echoed in the quiet dorm room.

Instantly, the other roommates who had been fully focused on their games fell into an inexplicable, awkward silence. After a long while, Tao Xiangwen frowned, wanting to say something comforting: “Siyuan, didn’t you say you weren’t playing today…”

“Not bad cursing.” Gu Siyuan nodded, his expression unchanged. They were cursing the original owner anyway.

The developer of the game Great Wilderness was a former famous alumnus of their N University, and the company’s headquarters was also located in N City. The gaming culture in N City was very deep-rooted, with an exceptionally large number of offline events and perks. Capitalizing on this atmosphere, students from over a dozen universities in N City started holding inter-university PK tournaments three years ago.

Therefore, for the convenience of teaming up, the university students in N City all joined their respective university guilds in Great Wilderness. With a group of educated young people gathered together—many of them highly skilled players—it was considered a grand spectacle on the server.

And Xie Fengqing was the vice-president of their N University guild.

Xie Fengqing not only had excellent gaming skills but was also a multi-talented rich heir in reality. He had always been a prominent figure at N University. Later, after participating in an offline game event, someone leaked his photo onto the Great Wilderness forum, instantly making him one of the top “male god” level figures in the entire game. Even if he occasionally hosted a faceless tutorial stream, the viewing room would be packed to the brim.

It was precisely because of this game that the original owner got to know Xie Fengqing.

The original owner came from an average family background. After going to college and arriving in a big city for the first time, he was immediately dazzled. In particular, his roommates had quite good family backgrounds; their food, clothing, and lifestyle were all things he had never experienced before. A single meal out together could empty half a month’s worth of his living expenses. The original owner was desperately concerned about his pride, so he forced himself to keep up appearances.

To fit into everyone’s conversations, he also started learning to play games, naturally picking up N University’s most popular game, Great Wilderness.

During one of the school’s offline game events that he attended with Tao Xiangwen and a few others, Xie Fengqing was also present. While going to the restroom, the original owner accidentally overheard Xie Fengqing chatting with a friend, saying that the original owner’s looks were exactly his type.

Indeed, although the original owner had a rotten personality, his physical appearance was highly attractive. Upon hearing this, the original owner’s eyes lit up, feeling that his chance to change his destiny had arrived. After returning to school, he began his pursuit of Xie Fengqing.

After they started dating, the original owner naturally became famous at N University and in the game. The two of them even played as couple accounts. At first, when everyone saw their photos together, they felt they were evenly matched in looks and a match made in heaven.

However, after watching a few game streams, everyone realized that the original owner’s gaming skills were truly too garbage to be shown in public. His high ranking and combat power were entirely boosted by Xie Fengqing. After clearing dungeons and bosses, Xie Fengqing didn’t hesitate to gift him rare materials and weapons.

This was blatant leeching.

However, Xie Fengqing was willing, so others couldn’t say much. At least the original owner was handsome; just looking at their faces was enough to satisfy the shippers.

Yesterday had been another offline gathering for Great Wilderness among universities in N City. The original owner attended. It was at this gathering that the original owner secretly hooked up with Qi Yue, the guild president of the rival university next door.

Qi Yue was a famous playboy in the game, with quite a reputation among the local universities. He had hooked up with countless men and women. However, he was good-looking and very generous with his money—the latter being the key point. Therefore, there was always a continuous stream of people throwing themselves at him.

The original owner was no exception. Although Xie Fengqing was also rich and generous, he believed that since they were in a relationship, gift-giving should be mutual. If he gave something too expensive, the original owner would definitely have difficulty returning the favor and might even feel humiliated. Therefore, in the game, Xie Fengqing was very generous to the original owner; but in real life, he rarely gave him anything particularly expensive. He had only lent him a few thousand yuan twice under the guise of an emergency (which was never paid back).

This made the original owner extremely dissatisfied.

Thus, after being lured by a massive cash envelope from Qi Yue last night, he didn’t hesitate to give Xie Fengqing a green hat. In the end, by a twist of fate, they were caught red-handed, letting all the students attending the gathering know, and the news quickly spread back to the game.

The original owner thus became a universally despised scumbag.

Gu Siyuan opened the world map. Thinking that Xie Fengqing was going to lead a team to run the new dungeon, he controlled his character, ‘Hero Gu’, and headed over there as well.

However, as soon as he moved, he immediately attracted a crowd of onlookers. Then, the world chat channel started broadcasting.

“The scumbag is here…”

“The cheating bastard actually dared to log in today!”

“Hack him to death!”

Gu Siyuan’s game avatar was a cute girl. Being instantly surrounded by a mob of people, she truly looked somewhat pitiful.

Tao Xiangwen got up to drink water. Seeing this scene, he said helplessly: “Siyuan, how about you temporarily abandon this account and play on a different one? I just saw someone selling a blank account on the forum. It’s over level 80, it just has absolutely no equipment, so you’d have to grind for it again…”

Hearing this, Gu Siyuan nodded immediately. He mainly logged into the game to observe Xie Fengqing’s emotional state, to prevent him from straying onto the wrong path with the protagonist shou, Ying Ning. Using an unfamiliar account would definitely be more convenient.

Tao Xiangwen sat down at his computer and sent him the forum post. Gu Siyuan spent a little time contacting the seller and negotiating a price. He soon had a new account and changed the ID to ‘Smurf’ (Xiao Hao).

Tao Xiangwen stood behind him, looking at this ID name, and only one phrase came to mind: Simple and crude…

After changing the ID, Gu Siyuan opened the character interface to inspect it. It really was wiped clean. Any equipment worth even a little money had been stripped, leaving only the original starter items given by the game.

Tao Xiangwen couldn’t help but burst out laughing: “This account is too blank. You’ll have to start grinding from the level 10 Nightmare Dungeon little by little, just to scrape together some decent-looking weapons and clothes.”

Dungeons in Great Wilderness were divided into two types. One was the main storyline dungeon, primarily for leveling up and gaining experience, which was relatively simple. The other was the Nightmare Dungeon, which dropped various rare items, and the difficulty increased drastically. For the average player to clear a level 10 Nightmare Dungeon, their character level usually needed to be around 30.

Gu Siyuan didn’t lack patience. Since he was going to play, starting from scratch was actually better to help him understand the game comprehensively. Thinking about it, he simply went to the game’s homepage first, opened the official beginner’s guide, and started reading it bit by bit.

About three minutes later, he had memorized it word for word.

Next, he went to the game forum and searched for veteran players’ records and guides for the level 10 dungeon, as well as several live-stream video clears. He watched for a while and pretty much memorized the complete map and the key mechanics.

Tao Xiangwen stared dumbfounded at this series of operations. He patted Gu Siyuan’s shoulder: “Bro, you really were purely a sugar baby for Great God Xie in the past. You’re a veteran player for crying out loud, but running a damn level 10 dungeon, you act like a complete noob. You even have to read so many guides and walkthroughs. If someone didn’t know better, they’d think you were planning to activate some hidden boss or break the server’s speedrun record!”

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