FIMA Ch137: Smurf

Gu Siyuan finished all his preparation work, loosened his fingers, and began testing the character’s movements and skill casting.

In his original life, due to extreme poverty in his youth, he never had the chance to play games; later, when he achieved fame and success, he had absolutely no interest in playing them. Strictly speaking, this was actually his first time playing an online game.

However, after getting the hang of it, Gu Siyuan nodded in relative satisfaction.

There are two main factors in gaming:

One is Combat Awareness. Having been tempered through real blood and fire in many worlds, and possessing a super-brain capable of photographic memory and strategic planning, he naturally didn’t lack this.

The other is Mechanical Skill. The ability of finger speed to perfectly keep up with the brain’s reaction time. Perhaps due to the advantage of being a transmigrator, this area—which he had originally been somewhat hesitant about—turned out to be a pleasant surprise. He even felt as though he could directly control the in-game character with his mental energy, executing commands with absolute precision and unparalleled smoothness.

Gu Siyuan tested killing quite a few monsters on the nearby map. After confirming there wouldn’t be any unexpected hiccups, he steered the character with the ID ‘Smurf’ (Xiao Hao) toward the entrance of the Level 10 Nightmare Dungeon.

‘Smurf’s avatar was a wild, disheveled brute carrying a massive broadsword. It was entirely different from ‘Hero Gu’s cute girl avatar, but Gu Siyuan was much more satisfied with it.

When he arrived at the dungeon entrance, a dense crowd of people greeted his eyes, mostly newbies around level thirty.

Great Wilderness was an incredibly popular game, opening a new server every six months. The server he was on had already been active for three years, but even now, new players joined every day, and plenty of top-tier veteran players were leveling alt accounts.

Perhaps seeing his high level, ‘Smurf’ instantly received a flood of party invitations. Gu Siyuan randomly picked one that looked acceptable and clicked agree.

Immediately, the screen shifted, and the five-person party appeared in a vast, white snowy landscape. This was the Level 10 Nightmare Dungeon map: Valley of Wind and Snow.

“Everyone follow me, and be careful on the way,” the party leader spoke up.

“The boss here isn’t hard to fight, but there are a lot of traps. If your luck is bad, half your HP will be gone instantly,” reminded a teammate with the ID ‘Beauty Overthrows Cities’ (Meiren Qingcheng).

“Thanks bro, I’ll pay attention.”

“Alright, please carry us, Great God!”

Two level thirty-something teammates immediately chimed in. They were likely newbies experiencing this Nightmare Dungeon for the first time. Out of the five-person party, four had now spoken—except for Gu Siyuan.

In their party, the leader was already level 46 and had the highest combat power; judging by his behavior, he was a veteran. Gu Siyuan’s ‘Smurf’ was level 80, and ‘Beauty Overthrows Cities’ was level 60+. However, anyone could tell with a single glance that these two were blank accounts. They were dressed in rags with absolutely no equipment, and their combat power stats were exactly the same as the two level 30 newbies. It all depended on how good their actual mechanics were.

The group of five walked slowly through the vast snow valley, heading toward the Ice Snow Forest up ahead where the final boss awaited.

Although the Valley of Wind and Snow was only level 10, it was a Nightmare Dungeon after all. The path alone was riddled with traps and venomous creatures. Stepping on one carelessly could literally drain your blood dry. Therefore, while everyone in the party had been chatty at first, once they truly entered the valley, they went dead silent, fully on high alert.

Gu Siyuan observed the map’s environment as he moved forward, confirming it was exactly identical to the guide video he had watched.

Suddenly, his gaze narrowed. He typed: “Watch your step on the right.”

The teammates stared at the words floating above his character’s head, momentarily stunned.

In the very next instant, the level 30 teammate walking on the far right saw his health bar plummet rapidly, losing more than half in the blink of an eye.

“It’s an Ice Profound Snake disguised as a rock.”

Everyone immediately realized that their previously silent teammate had suddenly spoken up to warn them about this.

“F*ck, why is it this thing?! Ice Profound Snakes usually don’t appear alone, there’s gonna be a whole pack of them in a minute!”

“Damn it, did we trigger the hidden boss today?! The probability of that is one in ten thousand!”

“Look on the bright side, if we can survive this, our party might get a massive haul!” the leader said, sounding caught between despair and excitement.

Sure enough.

Just as the group whittled the disguised Ice Profound Snake down to low health, they turned around to find the vast expanse of white snow suddenly dotted with dozens of black rocks. Because their camouflage was too perfect, it was impossible to distinguish which were actual rocks and which were snakes.

“Damn, how are we supposed to fight this? If things get chaotic and we take a sneak attack bite, we lose half our health instantly. How is this playable?”

Words floated up above Gu Siyuan’s head: “Get ready to charge forward.”

“Ah…” The teammates were slightly dumbfounded.

Charge forward how? You want us to commit suicide?

Suddenly, everyone watched as this teammate of few words brandished his broadsword and shot forward at a speed entirely unfitting for his burly avatar. Moving like a leaping hare and a swooping falcon, the broadsword flashed with icy silver light, slashing down on several of the black rocks scattered across the snow.

Because his speed was so absurdly fast and the intervals so short, for a split second, everyone hallucinated that the blade lights had struck simultaneously.

“F*ck, an expert! Those mechanics, that hand speed (APM)!”

“Holy crap, is this actually a top-tier player’s smurf account?!”

“So fast!”

However, soon after, an even more shocking scene occurred.

Every single black rock that had been slashed sprang to life in the next instant, shooting simultaneously toward the sword-wielding man.

The wild, curly-haired brute rapidly chained out evasion skills, dodging the attacks at teleportation-like speeds. Then, with a high-speed ricochet, he landed halfway up the snowy mountain side and continued sprinting rapidly forward.

Infuriated that their strikes missed, the pack of Ice Profound Snakes immediately gave chase.

“F*ck, he pulled all the Ice Profound Snakes!”

“God, I must be dreaming, every single slash he just made hit a real snake!”

“How could he tell the real ones from the fakes? Those damn snakes disguise themselves so perfectly!”

“The snakes have been kited away, charge through quickly, what are you spacing out for!” the teammate ‘Beauty Overthrows Cities’ immediately reminded them.

Controlling his shrine maiden character, he dashed swiftly across the snow valley while turning his head to look at the ‘Smurf’ teammate who was currently being hunted by the pack of mutated snakes.

It was as if he could perfectly predict the landing spots of the Ice Profound Snakes in advance, while simultaneously knowing every inch of the map’s layout by heart. The curly-haired brute utilized the old trees, cliffs, and mountain crevices ahead to advance at a speed barely slower than the four people running below.

Leaping back and forth, he sharply evaded every attack from behind, as well as any potential traps lying ahead. He even cleverly leveraged the traps and terrain to effortlessly snare several of the pursuing Ice Profound Snakes.

By the time the snakes had been whittled down to only seven remaining, the Ice Snow Forest finally appeared before them.

The teammates breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank god.

Because of the game’s mechanics, the Ice Profound Snakes couldn’t enter the Ice Snow Forest; they could only stay in the snow valley. This journey had been way too thrilling.

Just then, words floated above ‘Smurf’s head: “Take one each. I’ll take three. Attack.”

Ah?

Everyone’s brains short-circuited.

Attack… we’re attacking the Ice Profound Snakes?

“Attack!” the leader took the initiative. “I finally get to kill this thing once! Do you know how many people these have scared off?”

“Alright, if it’s just one, I can handle it.”

“Let’s do this.”

A moment later, all seven profound snakes were slain simultaneously.

The Ice Profound Snake was a Nightmare Elite monster; the materials it dropped upon death were second only to the final boss. Everyone looted their respective materials and eagerly looked up at Gu Siyuan, seemingly hoping for some sort of praise.

However, they were only met with a meteor-like retreating figure.

Even though ‘Smurf’s curly-haired brute had to kill three, he finished faster than all of them. Kicking off a dead pine tree on the cliff face, he violently vaulted forward, shooting into the Ice Snow Forest like a rocket.

“Let’s go in too,” the leader said helplessly.

They had barely reached the middle of the Ice Snow Forest when an earth-shattering roar erupted.

Everyone’s hearts trembled: “This commotion… f*ck, we really did trigger the hidden boss! Our health from fighting the snakes hasn’t even regenerated yet! Let’s wait outside for a bit before going in!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, a massive disturbance unfolded right before their eyes. Everyone looked up.

In mid-air, the familiar curly-haired brute was locked in fierce, intense combat with a gigantic snow eagle wearing a golden crown.

Tsk…

The group smiled helplessly, but didn’t feel the slightest bit surprised.

A god-tier player will always be a god-tier player.

Just as they were preparing to step forward and help…

At that very moment, the scene on the screen warped and shifted at a pace that almost exceeded the human eye’s ability to track. In an incredibly short time span, the curly-haired brute unleashed a fluid, non-stop barrage of combo skills. The ultimate moves chained perfectly together, flawlessly synchronized, with every single strike accurately piercing the snow eagle’s vital weak points.

[Kill Successful! Congratulations to Party XXX for slaying the Hidden Boss Azure Profound Snow Eagle. Dropped rare materials: Ice Snow Heart, Ice Profound Feather, Skill Book…]

As soon as this system announcement broadcasted, the World Channel immediately exploded in a frenzy.

“Oh ho, a hidden boss spawned in the Nightmare Dungeon today! Rare sight, our server hasn’t seen one in a long time!”

“Holy crap, godly luck! Not only did it drop an Ice Profound Feather, it actually dropped an Ice Snow Heart?! I remember Great God Xie has been wanting that thing for ages!”

“I don’t know who cleared it, but their luck is insane! Are they selling?!”

…

The teammates rushed forward and cleared out the normal boss and the other elite monsters.

Catching the chatter on the World Channel from the corner of his eye, Gu Siyuan typed: “I want the Ice Snow Heart and the Ice Profound Feather. You guys split the rest.”

Even if everything else was added together, it couldn’t compare to the value of the Ice Snow Heart. However, if it hadn’t been for the ‘Smurf’ god, they wouldn’t have gotten a single thing anyway.

Everyone immediately expressed their agreement:

“No problem.”

“The Great God has the final say!”

“We’ll listen to the Great God.”

“Thanks for the hard work, Great God!”

Gu Siyuan said nothing more and directly clicked ‘Exit Party’. He opened his character’s inventory, looked at the two ultra-rare materials sitting inside, and raised an eyebrow. His luck had always been quite good.

In N City, inside a certain gaming live stream.

The viewers’ emotions had reached an absolute climax.

“Holy crap, holy crap, I just saw a living god in action!”

“My god, I’m going to go back and replay that a hundred times. That godly game sense, those godly mechanics!”

“That top-tier player’s ID is literally ‘Smurf’ (Xiao Hao). It’s probably a real Great God logging onto an alt account just to flex!”

“Fck, I originally came here to watch Great God Qianfan’s stream, but ended up getting completely flexed on by an unknown god!”*

“Damn, Qianfan finally streams once, and while leveling his smurf, he actually runs into a real god’s smurf and gets hard carried the entire way.”

…

Sitting in front of his computer, Lu Qianfan smiled helplessly. With a light tap of his finger, the account ‘Beauty Overthrows Cities’ also exited the party.

Tsk, my spotlight got completely stolen.

He turned his head to look at his friends list, clicked on an ID named ‘Chasing Wind Lightly’ (Zhu Feng Qing), and sent a message over: “I was in the party that just killed the hidden boss. Do you still want the Ice Snow Heart?”

Tao Xiangwen came out of the bathroom and passed behind Gu Siyuan once more. Seeing that his character had already equipped a few pieces of gear, he laughed: “Tsk, looks like you cleared the level 10 Nightmare Dungeon. How was it?”

Gu Siyuan’s expression was indifferent: “It was alright. Not too difficult.”

Tao Xiangwen smiled: “Haha, keep it up. Rely on yourself to grind for gear, stop being a sugar baby.”

Gu Siyuan thought of the Ice Snow Heart in his inventory, his eyes flashing slightly. That was a required crafting material for god-tier Ice-element weapons. Xie Fengqing’s divine bow weapon seemed to be Ice-element.

Perhaps he could pay back all the favors the original owner had leeched…

Just then, another message popped up on the announcement board.

It was Xie Fengqing leading a team to secure the First Clear of the new Christmas Dungeon.

The World Channel instantly grew lively again, entirely filled with praise for Xie Fengqing, interspersed with derogatory curses aimed at Gu Siyuan. Things like ‘leaving a man to focus on his career…’

Gu Siyuan acted as if he didn’t notice. Moving his mouse, he clicked on ‘Chasing Wind Lightly’s avatar, preparing to use the Ice Snow Heart to negotiate terms and tell him to stay away from Ying Ning in the future.

However, just as he clicked in, he realized Xie Fengqing’s avatar was already dark. He had logged off.

Gu Siyuan raised an eyebrow slightly, logged out of the game account as well, and turned to open the programming forum to take on a few freelance mini-program commissions.

Time to make some money.

When they went to class the next day, Gu Siyuan and Tao Xiangwen arrived relatively early, so they didn’t sit close to Xie Fengqing again. However, Gu Siyuan could still feel Xie Fengqing’s gaze sweeping over him from time to time.

It seemed this deep-seated hatred couldn’t be resolved easily.

After the two periods ended, Gu Siyuan walked outside carrying his books. The mini-program he wrote yesterday was only a little bit away from being ready for delivery.

It was already the end of December. Aside from one or two major courses, the rest of their classes had finished. They only had an average of two periods a day, and everyone spent the rest of their time preparing for the upcoming final exams. This wasn’t unique to them; it was practically the same for all students across the university.

Of course, among them were some who didn’t care much about their coursework, using this free time to slack off, fool around, and wander about.

Just as he walked down the stairs and turned into the first-floor corridor, Gu Siyuan felt a wave of whispers and all sorts of appraising gazes directed his way.

The entrance to the teaching building seemed exceptionally lively today. A large crowd had gathered, looking at him with disdain while simultaneously checking out the flashy red sports car parked on the apron next to the building.

Gu Siyuan ignored them, walking coldly through the crowd toward the exit.

However, he had only descended a few shallow steps from the doorway when a frivolous, laughing male voice drifted over: “Siyuan, why are you walking so fast?”

Someone he knows?

Gu Siyuan’s expression didn’t change. He turned his head to look over, his gaze sharp.

Qi Yue had originally been leaning lazily against the car door, smiling. But now, swept by that single glance, he felt a stinging pain wash over his entire body, as if he had been scraped by a blade.

However, worthy of someone who navigated seas of lovers, he quickly recovered his usual smile and stepped toward Gu Siyuan.

“Siyuan, didn’t you see me just now?”

Gu Siyuan had already recognized the person in front of him. He said indifferently, “Qi Yue?”

This was none other than the original owner’s affair partner, the playboy.

Qi Yue smiled radiantly: “It’s only been two days since we last saw each other, how did Siyuan become so cold? Let’s go out and have some fun later?”

He hadn’t originally come for Gu Siyuan today, but for a little beauty in the English department. However, looking at Gu Siyuan now, after not seeing him for a few days, he seemed to have suddenly gained a lot of flavor. He was much more interesting than his previous money-hungry, stupid, and rigid appearance.

In that case, temporarily changing his mind was no big deal.

Xie Fengqing, Qiu Yu, and Ying Ning came downstairs together, and the first thing they saw was this very scene.

Qiu Yu’s eyes widened in a glare: “What a pair of fcking cheap slts, actually daring to hook up right here. I swear I’m going to call people to hack them to death today.”

Xie Fengqing’s expression also turned incredibly ugly. Even though he told himself he no longer had feelings for that scumbag Gu Siyuan, these two acting so arrogantly was basically stomping his pride straight into the dirt.

Gu Siyuan was inherently vigilant and instantly sensed the gazes from nearby. He turned his head to look over. When he saw Ying Ning standing next to Xie Fengqing, his eyes couldn’t help but darken slightly.

Beaming with a bright smile, Qi Yue followed his line of sight. His tone carried a lingering smugness: “Hehe, Xie Fengqing’s face looks really awful. The winner takes all, why can’t he just accept it?”

He had known Xie Fengqing for years, and they had been at odds for a long time. The reason he chose to play around with Gu Siyuan in the first place was precisely to slap Xie Fengqing in the face. Heh…

But right at that moment, an utterly freezing, severe male voice rang directly in his ear.

“Idiot, f*ck off.”

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