CH 9

Chapter 009 – The Three of Them

Su Er was the first to recover. “Do you have a pen?”

The Shamate was stunned for a moment and subconsciously asked one for him from another table.

Su Er quickly filled out the registration form and stretched out his hand. “Nice to meet you.” (1)

The Shamate began to re-examine him. As a newcomer, the other party may not realize what it meant to unlock achievement points. Usually, the major organizations would scramble to rob such a person, no matter if he is good or evil. However. Su Er did not wait for a price. Instead, he immediately chose “Return to the Grave” in public. (2)

“Everyone here has hidden motives,” Su Er said, “but it’s really needless for everything to be covered up. Since I chose you, it’s better to be forthright.”

Being gazed at by frank and trusting eyes, the Shamate was moved. “This friend, it’s settled!”

The tall man interrupted their budding friendship and turned to walk in the direction from where he came. (3)

The Shamate asked Su Er to keep up.

“Su Er!” Li Li chased him, gasping, “Thank you.”

Su Er glanced at her. “Live well.”

After saying that, they went their own ways.

The Shamate smiled and said, “All right! I thought you’d want to exchange contact information.”

Su Er shook his head. If it wasn’t necessary, he would rather avoid intersecting players in reality.

The older man tutted “To be honest, when I watched you through the water curtain, I only thought you were smart, but I didn’t expect you to be upright to the bone.”

Su Er frowned slightly as the Shamate continued with a smile, “Don’t worry, in front of everyone, you didn’t hesitate to choose Return to the Grave…”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a light sneer. (4)

The Shamate: “Boss, what’s the matter?”

The tall man didn’t stop, but his voice floated over clearly: “He joined for another reason.”

The Shamate ‘ahhed’ and looked over Su Er again, but his face exposed nothing unnatural.

Those who can survive here are not stupid. Their boss opened his mouth, so what he said must be true. The Shamate began to explore other reasons for the opposite party to join.

Su Er took the initiative to speak: “The political teacher always says things have two sides to them. Just as having your force value surpass a critical point can help you kill ghosts, having your force value below a critical point can also kill you.” (5)

The introduction in the brochure is clear that if the force value and spiritual value was below 1, they will be obliterated. What about the charm value?

The Shamate finally reacted and quickly looked down at his badge. The new charm value column was engraved with a bright single number: 6.

“…”

There were two main reasons why Su Er chose to Return to the Grave. The other organizations that had just been recruiting members would subconsciously stay away from these two people, with fear in their eyes, which confirmed their strength. But what really urged him to make a decision was when the prompt sounded just now. At the time, most players were in a state of shock, but Su Er noticed the values on the badges of the other recruiters for the first time… none of them exceeded 20. (6)

After that thunderbolt of realization, the Shamate’s eyes trembled as he looked at Su Er. He then caught a glimpse of the other’s badge number and couldn’t help stretching out his arms to strangle Su Er’s fragile neck. “59!! Are you still human?!” (7)

I did not have as much change as others.

Look at my boss, 19 points! There is a trace of strange satisfaction in this sadness. (8)

The issue with achievement points was only briefly mentioned in the brochure. Su Er let him pinch his neck and wanted to ask for more details, but the Shamate interrupted him and said “We’ll discuss it when we get back to the supply point.” (9)

There were several small black flies lingering around. Su Er didn’t like these creatures very much and tried to dispel them by hand from time to time. (10)

The Shamate spoked as he looked into the distance, his tone revealing a sense of pride. “All the areas in the west belong to our camp.”

Su Er was thinking from another aspect. The organization is called Return to the Grave and lives in the west. (11) This is the kind of place that would make someone want to ascend to heaven. (12) On the road, he met several people in a trance, some with blood on their faces and some with their heads in their hands crying. He couldn’t help but glance at them a few more times.

“They just came back from a game,” the Shamate said without squinting.

Su Er: “Will you die if you fail to pass?”

The Shamate shook his head. “I don’t know. There are also many real-life bigwigs here. Some have investigated for a long time, but those who died in the game are just missing.”

Su Er remembered Zhu Yun’s pale and panicked face. “That is to say, they may still be alive.” (13)

“Don’t take chances.” The Shamate’s voice instantly turned cold. “After all, those people really did disappear.”

What’s more, the process of death itself is so painful that no one wants to experience it.

Naturally, Su Er wouldn’t risk his life to experiment. He didn’t know how far the supply station was, so he immediately said, “I can’t delay too much time. There will be a mock exam next Tuesday.”

“…” Shamate didn’t notice the stone under his foot and nearly tripped. “Time in the outside world stands still while we are inside this world.”

Su Er immediately grasped the key point: “If you don’t leave, can’t you gain eternal life?”

The Shamate shook his head. “If you stay for more than 4 days, you will automatically be transferred to a difficult game.” (14)

As they went further, they could hardly see anyone. The weather is always gloomy and the sun can never be seen in this world. For a few moments, Su Er even had the illusion that he was still trapped in the previous game.

“Here we are,” the Shamate stopped.

Looking up, there were several scattered white tents ahead. Su Er saw the buildings of some other organizations along the way, which were all tall and imposing. In contrast, this was like a row of low shrubs in a tall forest. After entering, all he could see were some ordinary daily necessities.

“How very unique.”

“The Shamate shrugged. “The boss said that it’s not home, so there’s no need to decorate it warmly and spaciously.” He briefly introduced two places that were not mentioned in the brochure. “There is a place where daily necessities are automatically supplied. You can pick them up if you need them, but only take what you need.” After all, you can’t bring anything into the game, and people prefer to live in the real world on weekdays.

Just as he was talking, a few people walked into the tent. They seemed to be under thirty years old. They were silent, which felt completely at odds with the childishness in their appearance. (15)

Shamate: “Please understand, they have just left a game less than half a day ago.”

Half of the sleeves of one of them were stained with blood, and you could imagine he suffered a lot of injuries in that game. The only setting in this world that was favorable to players was that no matter how severe your injuries were in the game, as long as you survive with values higher than 1, you can fully recover.

“New member?” One of them asked hoarsely.

The Shamate nodded with a smile.

When the man saw Su Er’s badge, his expression stiffened slightly. “Were you the one who created the precedent for the charm value?”(16)

No matter how calm Su Er was, he couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed at the moment. “It was by accident.”

“Six?” The man looked away from him and caught a glimpse of the Shamate’s badge with some contempt.

Shamate: “You’re not much better”

“At least they broke ten,” the tall man who had been silent suddenly said. “You should pay more attention to yourself when you enter the next game.”

The Shamate nodded bitterly. Even though there were names on the badges, he introduced the members present to Su Er one by one and finally said, “I am Zhao Sanliang, you can call me brother Sanliang. As for the boss, Ji Heng. His nickname is Ghost’s Sorrow, which literally means ghosts worry when they see him.” (17)

Su Er noticed that the force value column on his badge was “?”

“It was concealed using props,” Zhao Sanliang explained.

Su Er: “Why cover it?” (18)

Zhao Sanliang: “The boss has his own considerations when doing things. There are still a few more members, but I haven’t completed a game recently, so you can’t see them for the time being.”

“Let’s get down to business first.” Ji Heng interrupted the chattering Zhao Sanliang and looked at Su Er. “I will use team props to guide you through the next game.”

Before Su Er could reply, a team member frowned and said, “Will it be beneficial?” With Ji Heng’s presence, the difficulty of the next game won’t be low. (19)

Ji Heng: “59 should be a critical point. I have a hunch that once it exceeds 60, you will be able to cause harm to the undead.”

With the boss with him, Su Er was not afraid of taking some risks and nodded. At the end of the last game, his forced value and spiritual value combined only increased by six points. It was a thousand miles away from the separation value of 10,000. (20)

Seeing his depressed mood, Zhao Sanliang said: “It’s already a lot. You will see there is no more hope in the future.”

Su Er no longer struggled, and asked about achievements.

“As of now there are only three with achievement points, including you.”

Su Er was surprised.

”If you want to get an achievement point, you have to complete a hidden condition in the game setting, and it can only be obtained by the first person who completes it.” Zhao Sanliang smiled bitterly. “There were players who tried to kill all the others in a game just to test whether they could get achievements through this method.”

“What happened?”

“Failed.”

Su Er: “The two other people who got achievement points…”

“The boss has an achievement point called【Going from afar】and the remaining one is Qi Yun. He is the only player with a spirit value of more than 100 in the game. However, I suspect that guy has long since been turned into a ghost, so remember to avoid him if you meet him later.” (21)

【Going from afar】?

Su Er pursed his lips. “Last question, is the content in the brochure credible?”

“Credible,” Zhao Sanliang nodded. “It is compiled by the top players. After all, new people come in every month with a hundred thousand ‘whys.’”

“…”

Zhao Sanliang and Ji Heng had stayed for three days, and if they stayed for one more day, they’d be forced into a game, so everyone left their contact information with each other and prepared to return to the real world. Following the method in the brochure, Su Er pressed hard on the depression on the badge and the familiar feeling of numbness came instantly. It was very difficult to bend his fingers for a while, and in the end Su Er simply closed his eyes and let the energy swipe through his body. When he recovered, the clock on the wall was still pointing at the same numbers he’d last seen before he left: 3:45 in the morning.

In the familiar room, there was the unfinished set of mock university exam papers in front of him, as if everything before had just been a dream.

Su Er touched the taser in his pocket and was about to study it in depth when he suddenly thought of the classroom mock exam next week. After he thought for a moment, he sent a message to Zhao Sanliang: [Can I choose my own time to enter the game with team props?]

Zhao Sanliang was online and quickly replied back: [It’s too precious so I haven’t used it yet, but I think that’s alright.]

Su Er: [Can you do me a favor? Tactfully suggest to Ji Heng to enter half past ten next Tuesday.]

Zhao Sanliang: [Is there any special meaning for this time…]

Su Er: [It is like this, at that time I will be just halfway through the exam. I can write down the questions I couldn’t do at first and study them on the other side. If it really doesn’t work, I can find someone to ask advice from.]

No matter how much time passes in the game, you will still return to the same moment you left.

Ten minutes passed since the message was sent, but he still didn’t received Zhao Sanliang’s reply.

Su Er sighed. As expected, he still has to be down-to-earth and continue brushing the last set of test papers before climbing into bed.

In the hotel.

Zhao Sanliang lay on the comfortable big bed, shocked by Su Er’s request. After thinking it over and over again, he still called Ji Heng and informed him that Su Er wanted to choose a game at that time.

“Reason.” Ji heng Has always been concise.

Zhao Sanliang conveyed Su Er’s original words, and then summarized: “He wants to use you to cheat in the exam.”

“…”

The author has something to say:

Su Er: I’m such a clever soul.

Warm Reminder: Be down-to-earth and don’t learn from Su Er. He can’t succeed.

PS: Let’s talk about the time difference. If you want to do bug things with the time difference in the game, you won’t end up well. I will write about it later.

FOOTNOTES

请多多指教 – “Please advise” or “I appreciate your advice and guidance.”He didn’t wait for an organization to give the highest bid for him to join them before choosing Ji Heng’s organization“知己” – confidant, bosom friend    话没说完，便被一声含着轻嘲轻嘁打断。- latter half is “interrupted by a sneer” “The political teacher said that everything has two sides. Just like when the force value reaches a certain level, it can deal with ghosts, and when it is low to the critical point, it can kill people.” Values below 1 = annihilation促 – prompted, but it sounded to say “but what really prompted him to make a decision was the prompt sounded in the end.” I changed “In the end” to “just now” as well.瞥见对方胸牌上的数字，没忍住伸出双手掐向脆弱的脖颈 – “He caught a glimpse of the badge number on the other side, and did not hold back stretching out his hands to pinch the fragile neck”I am not sure how to phrase this line and the one before it, but I think the Shamate (please give us his name already) saying he’s satisfied that at least he wasn’t alone in having a low charm valuePreviously, I translated it as just “achievements” because there already were regular points you would need to accumulate to leave the game, but I think now it should have been “achievement points”驱散 – disperse, break up, dispel, drive awayWhat I could find was a 3rd century BC poem calling back the souls of the dead (Link here), where the narrator pleads “O Soul, go not to the West” and “come back to idleness and peace” in “the lands of Jing and Chu). So the West probably refers to the afterlife, and the organization name is “Return to the Grave” lol. Please correct me if this information is wrong. I’m not a native Chinese speaker, so I’m not sure if this is what Su Er meant when he said this.这是分分钟要升天的节奏 – I don’t quite understand what this is referring to. I kept getting “the rhythm of ascending to heaven every minute” so I assume it means something like “makes someone want to die?”“Pale and panicked face” was added by me. Call back to Zhu Yan’s appearance in chapter one when she gave Su Er the taser. 副本 – translates literally to “copy” or “a duplication” – you can consider each copy as an “instance,” “dungeon,” “game,” etc. The previous translator called them “rounds” (end of chapter one). I will translate this term uniformly to “games” because it is most related to the previous translation and throughout the mtl these settings were translated as either copy or game interchangeably. Personally, I’m more used to calling them copies though…I suppose they mean that these people looked very young and not mature, but because of their experience in the game worlds, they’ve grown to act more subdue and mature for their age.This was probably the meaning behind the last chapter’s title “Precedent.” 绰号鬼见愁 -”nickname sorrow ghost” or “worried ghost”这不是欲盖弥彰? – “Isn’t this trying to cover up?” – meaning of this still isn’t clear to meI believe they mean the presence of more experienced players may increase difficulty level. Or more experienced players will end up being drawn into more difficult games.Wasn’t sure how else to say it. Basically needing the 10k points to leave this game. In the original sentence, the author said Su Er had “a total of 35 points” (“积分三十五”), but before the first game concluded, Su Er had a force value of 50 and a spiritual value of 14. Because of this, I removed the 35 points bit. In the start of the next arc, his force value also decreased to 49, so I am not sure what the 35 is supposed to be referring to.“路遥知马力” – Ji Heng’s Achievement