The King's Avatar

”I once had a friend….” Ye Xiu’s tone was severe, a smoking cigarette between his fingers. Everyone went silent, thinking that this would be an very unique, heart touching story. Chang Xian hurriedly moved closer with his recording pen, afraid of missing even a single word.

”Who was good at Glory.” Ye Xiu said.

”And then, he died.” Ye Xiu sighed, flicking ash from his cigarette and looking back at Chang Xian.

Having done some interviews and being quite a social person, Chang Xian wasn’t unfamiliar with this sort of look, but it’s appearance now was odd. It said that they were done speaking, and ”it’s your turn to speak”. Chang Xian doubted his understanding of the look and couldn’t help but ask, ”That’s all?”

”That’s all.” Ye Xiu said.

Everyone exchanged glances. It sounded like a randomly made up joke! Was this guy messing with that poor reporter?

That was what everyone including Chang Xian thought, but what could he do about it? He couldn’t point at the other party and say that it was bullshit. As a reporter, he had to interact with all sorts of people. He had to be able to tolerate them. Chang Xian had been on the edge of his seat with anticipation, and then he heard a story of ”I once had a friend who was good at Glory and then he died,” his emotions instantly changing to tearful.

”Ehem….” Chang Xian coughed lightly, self-consciously retracting his recording pen. The story made his brain short-circuit a little, unsure of how to continue.

Chang Xian pretended to sip his water, taking the chance to organize his thoughts. It wasn’t until there was only a quarter left in his cup that he recovered fully.

”To play as an unspecialized character, you need a lot of experience in Glory, or so I understand. How long as big brother Ye been playing Glory for?” Chang Xian asked.　”Ten years,” Ye Xiu said.

”Ten years….” Chang Xian was startled by this. A Glory player with ten years of experience had to have started from when the game was first launched. Even in the pro circle, only Han Wenqing and a few other veterans had experience like that. Players who could play a game for ten years like that were few and far between.

”What’s so impressive about that? I have ten years of experience, too!” Wei Chen cut in.

”Amazing!” Chang Xian continued to exclaim. Wei Chen being the ex-captain of Blue Rain was a great topic, but Chang Xian hadn’t known anything about this beforehand, so he hadn’t done any research. Ex-Blue Rain captain? Wei Chen? These names were unfamiliar to him. As a worker in media, this wasn’t supposed to happen, but Chang Xian had only officially started working last year, so his research wasn’t that broad or deep. So when he spoke to Wei Chen, Chang Xian was very careful, afraid that he would anger the other.

”Um….Senior Wei, I’m a newbie in this line of work, so I haven’t read up on your background. Is it okay if you tell me about it?” Chang Xian hesitated, but eventually decided to be honest in his curiosity and ask.

”Hahaha, you want the tales of Glory of my youth? I could talk about that for days on end. You planning to stay the night?” Wei Chen said.

”No, no,” Chang Xian sweatdropped, ”Why don’t you pick a few interesting parts to tell?”

”Interesting? Then I would have to mention some big names. Like Ye Qiu, you know him, of course?” Wei Chen said.

”Of course!” Chang Xian hastily nodded. He was especially happy if these stories could allow him to further understand the other Gods; that information was very valuable. Chang Xian was so focused on listening to Wei Chen, that he didn’t notice everyone glancing at a certain someone when Ye Qiu was mentioned.　”I’m not just talking behind his back, but Ye Qiu really isn’t anything great!” Wei Chen said.　”Ah….” Hearing this, Chang Xian’s hands shook a little. Though pro players were enemies on the field, there were rarely any that would speak about another pro player like that. Chang Xian felt like he had struck gold.

”You know why he always refuses to appear in public eye?” Wei Chen asked.　”I don’t!” Chang Xian was excited! This was one of the great mysteries of Glory; would he be the one to solve it after all these years?

”The reason is…. That guy is very despicable, very shameless, very immoral. If he came under public eye, there’s no telling if he’ll survive the aftermath.” Wei Chen said seriously.

”Um….” Chang Xian paused, ”Why do you say that?”

”Because that’s the kind of person he is.” Wei Chen said.

”How do you know this?” Chang Xian asked

”Thinking back to that time….” Wei Chen looked to be in deep thought, his other hand motioning towards Ye Xiu, asking for a cigarette. How shameless! Asking for a cigarette from the very person whose name you were blemishing!

The representative of justice, Chen Guo, was annoyed, standing up, even with the pain in her leg from the collision, ”Don’t listen to his nonsense, Little Chang.”

”N….nonsense?” Chang Xian stared in disbelief.

”This poor reporter came all the way over here, so be serious, don’t make things up,” Chen Guo said.

”Make…. Make things up?” Chang Xian cried. He had thought he had gotten valuable information, but it was actually just a made up story. In comparison to this wretched looking older dude, Chang Xian was one thousand percent more willing to believe Chen Guo’s words.

”Eheh, I was just trying to make the interview contents more interesting! This way he could write a draft that would become the center of attention. We can let the readers try to figure out what’s true and what’s not,” Wei Chen said.　

Chang Xian turned away decisively. It was better to interview someone other than this old guy. He had to do some more research and formulate some more specific questions; this guy’s bullshitting skills were just too damn good.

Turning his attention, Chang Xian’s gaze fell onto Qiao Yifan and his eyes lit up. A player originally from Tiny Herb, wasn’t that also a great topic? He hurriedly started to chat with Qiao Yifan.

Qiao Yifan was such an honest person! In an interview, he was quite uneasy, but only said what was true. Chang Xian ended up a little disappointed by what information he had obtained. Though Qiao Yifan was from Tiny Herb, his story wasn’t that soul-stirring. He was a player who hadn’t gotten his contract renewed by a champion team or received any offers from other teams. A person who had been eliminated by the pro circle. In the end, he had found his place in a grassroots team like Happy. This… could be described as persistence, but if he really wanted to write about something inspiring, Happy hadn’t gotten any real accomplishments yet, so that wasn’t really possible.

Though there wasn’t anything soul-stirring about the contents, he could still write about his identity as a once-member of Team Tiny Herb. Chang Xian comforted himself with that before turning his attention to Tang Rou.

Her beauty made Chang Xian feel nervous as a budding young man, so he sipped his water and organized his emotions before speaking, ”Before coming here, I had been wondering what kind of player the Battle Mage Soft Mist was. To be honest, I hadn’t expected them to be someone so beautiful.”

”You flatter me,” Tang Rou smiled.

”So, how long have you been familiar with Glory for?” Chang Xian asked.

”If we’re talking about just trying out the game, I had fought a few matches before. I only started seriously playing when the tenth server opened.” Tang Rou said.

”You’ve only played seriously for half a year!!!” Chang Xian was shocked. What was up with Team Happy? If it wasn’t a monster from the early days, then it was a newbie from the new server. Were they purposefully trying to walk the extremes?

He hadn’t managed to digest his shock when Steamed Bun cut in like how Wei Chen had after ”Ye Xiu’s ten years”, interrupting them and further shocking Chang Xian with a ”I started in the tenth server, too!”

”You, too…” Chang Xian was a little dumbstruck.

He suddenly realized that he didn’t need to get stories from these members of Team Happy in this interview. Just some background info was good enough to introduce them. How these people started playing Glory, got together, these topics were dull in comparison. Chang Xian knew that no tales of serendipitous meetings that would be more eye catching than their backgrounds.

This was just the beginning….

The phrase suddenly surfaced in his mind’s eye. No matter what, Team Happy had only gotten to the second round of the Challenger’s League so far. Though they had defeated the ex-pro Team Everlasting, no one could be certain of how far they would go. There was no need to look into it any further before they established their strength. Just the simple information he had gotten today was enough.

”May I take a group photo of you all?” Chang Xian was satisfied of his gains today after making that realization. He thought that Happy had potential, so he shouldn’t try to dig up everything he could get. Some, he should leave for the future, allowing for them to establish a stronger, longer relationship. Chang Xian was learning new things as he went.

”A group photo…. I don’t think that’s necessary? Some of our members aren’t even here today!” Ye Xiu said.

”Uhn, Cold Hands and Concealed Light, right?” What Chang Xian had looked into he had looked closely at.

”That’s right!” Ye Xiu nodded.

”Then…. How about a photo with just the owner?” Chang Xian asked.

No one here was stupid, they all knew that a topic like ”beautiful boss” was a good one, so Chang Xian probably had such plans. Ye Xiu wouldn’t decide on his own for something like this, looking towards Chen Guo for her decision.

”Heheh, that’s fine, take one if you want!” Chen Guo didn’t mind. The title of beautiful boss was something she had in the Happy Internet Cafe too. Chen Guo didn’t boast about it or refuse. After all, she really was a beauty!