[FLOTG] Chapter 19: Negotiation

At noon the next day, Shen Huai boarded his plane under the cover of Song Xue-Yang. After the plane took flight, Shen Huai found a card in the bag of snacks Song Xue-Yang had prepared for him. The handwriting on it was beautiful and refined...

"No one can predict how far you can go, including yourself."

Shen Huai felt warmth flow through his heart. He posted a short Weibo: "The road ahead is endless. No regrets. @Shen Nuo"

This post finally settled the matter of Shen Huai's retirement from the entertainment industry.

The mass of anti-fans rejoiced. They had waited for so long to see Shen Huai leave the entertainment industry!

They would never have to suffer any more of his zombie acting! How liberating!

The anti-fans thronged to leave comments under Shen Huai's Weibo post, expressing their joy and excitement at triumphing at the end of their long battle.

[ You really aren't suited to be an actor. You quitting the entertainment industry is good for everyone. ]

[ Shen Huai's story tells us that without skills, face and family background can only take you so far. Where are the face lickers now? No one wants to come kneel and lick their husbando's face now? ]

[ This is the best decision you've made in your life. Uncle Shen is old now and cannot take the shame you give him anymore. ]

[ Hahahaha, Shen Huai finally quits! So is this Weibo account going to be sealed? I get annoyed just seeing this name! ]

Amidst the flood of hurtful comments, Shen Huai's friends in the entertainment industry began reposting his Weibo post and offering their blessings. Under the lead of these stars, the atmosphere on the net improved significantly.

Among the many reposts, one surprised Shen Huai greatly.

<(V)BattleGod-Aphrodite>: Those who say that Shen Huai relied on his family background to get to where he's at today, you all should stop and think. Shen Huai signed on with his own family's entertainment company. If he was really relying on his background, would he just let you all scold him as you like? I do not see an arrogant prince throwing his weight around. All I see is a good actor who kept quiet and focused on acting despite being scolded all the time, and a bunch of bastards who only know how to slander him.

This "Aphrodite" was Hu Nana, captain of BattleGod, a pro team playing "City of Despair". She was decisive, practical, and capable, and she was also the only female captain among the professional teams.

Shen Huai had watched her games before. In the professional arena, her qigong master was graceful and agile, ruthless when attacking and resolute when retreating. Her play style was extremely calm.

Hu Nana was very popular among the professional players, and her fans were well-mannered and very united under her lead.

As expected, when he clicked open her Weibo, the comments below the post were all along the lines of "You go, Nana!" and "Goddess, good luck in the games!".

Further down the page, the members of Maple Moon also conveyed their blessings. The fan were surprised and couldn't help but speculate. Could it be that Maple Moon and Shen Huai were cross-industry friends now after Shen Huai had jumped into the team's car?

That night, Shen Huai logged into his own little assassin account. Song Xue-Yang's ID was still greyed out, but he had already accepted Shen Huai's friend request. His apprentice was online though.

[ Friend ][ Falling Sleet ]: Master, where have you been? Why haven't you come online for the last few days? QAQ

Amused, Shen Huai replied: [ I was out. Just came back. ]

[ Friend ][ Falling Sleet ]: Oh, oh, Master, while you were gone I 22112

Less than a minute after this bizarre message came through, the system notified him that: Your apprentice <Falling Sleet> has been killed by <Ride the Wind> at Yellow Sands Island!

This <Ride the Wind> was a member of <Drunken Snow>'s clan, who had been hunting Shen Huai all this time. Shen Huai instantly knew something was up and he immediately used the master-disciple teleportation skill to fly to <Falling Sleet>'s side.

Standing in front of <Falling Sleet> were four people. The team leader was <Ride the Wind>, and behind him were <Mysterious Cloud>, <Drunken Snow>, and <Chaotic Rain>. To Shen Huai's surprise, there was another body lying beside <Falling Sleet>. It was <One Leaf Skiff> who had ran a dungeon with them before.

Shen Huai's brow furrowed. He had not been on the game for the last few days, and he had not thought much about the overactive clowns of <Drunken Snow>'s clan. He had not expected them to be this brazen and arrogant, gleefully taking revenge on his companions while he had been offline.

[ Current ][ Ride the Wind ]: Oh, the main character is here. Great God, are you here to avenge your apprentice?

[ Friend ][ Falling Sleet ]: Master they have too many people. Go away for now. I'll resurrect at the resurrection point later when they leave.

Song Xue-Yang had let this happen on purpose. No matter how weak a sniper was at fighting solo, he was not so weak that he would have been killed by these people. However, when he noticed <One Leaf Skiff>'s body not too far away, he abruptly changed his mind.

<One Leaf Skiff> had clearly died because of Ash Wing. Ash Wing needed to know about this.

And so he intentionally slipped up on his positioning and let the other side kill him off. The system would notify a master if their apprentice is killed by others in the wild, and sure enough, Ash Wing flew over here as soon as he received the alert, no questions asked.

After seeing <Falling Sleet>'s message, Shen Huai could guess that the other side had people staking out the nearest resurrection point as well. <One Leaf Skiff> and <Falling Sleet>'s bodies were both here, so they clearly had not run here from the resurrection point. Therefore, they could only know this because they had been informed by...

Coming to a realisation, Shen Huai turned around and started running to the resurrection point. <Drunken Snow> and company chased after him. When Shen Huai finally made it to the resurrection point, as expected, he found two enemy players stationed there, and on the ground laid the body of a little healer. It was the healer from the same guild as <One Leaf Skiff> — <Desert North>!

He clicked open <Desert North>'s and <One Leaf Skiff>'s personal profiles. Just as he suspected, both of them now had blanks for their guild affiliation. It was unclear whether they had left their guild voluntarily to avoid causing trouble for their guild, or if their guild had been threatened into kicking them out.

Whichever the case, Shen Huai's fury was mounting rapidly.

His expression had never been this ugly. Just thinking about how <One Leaf Skiff> and <Desert North> had been hunted and harassed for the past few days while he had not been around, he found himself no longer caring about maintaining good relations with Primo Wolf{Reminder: <Drunken Snow> and company are part of the guild serving under the pro team Primo Wolf.}.

Shen Huai activated Sprint to run over to a nearby public boss and threw a Shuriken into its face. The attacked boss immediately raised its heavy fist and slammed it into the ground. "Yellow Sands Island" was a max-level map, so the boss was of course a level-100 boss too. Its damage was horrifying, but Shen Huai did not evade its attack, receiving damage from two of the boss' skills.

Seeing this, <Mysterious Cloud> was baffled. "What's she doing?"

<Ride the Wind> said mockingly. "Maybe she went mad and is trying to kill herself." 

After taking two blasts from the boss, Shen Huai had only 10% HP remaining. Just as the group thought that they were about to witness Shen Huai being killed by the boss, Shen Huai suddenly turned back towards them with his remaining sliver of HP!

[ Current ][ MuWanGe ]: I'll give you all a handicap of 90% HP.

"This damn bitch!" <Ride the Wind> cursed and then went into killing mode. He raised the sword in his hand and charged at Shen Huai.

This was the swordsman skill with the highest damage ― Wave-Stepping Sword!

The skill had three waves ― one, stab; two, sweep; three, knockback ― and featured high damage with the addition of crowd control. However, <Ride the Wind> clearly hadn't fully mastered his Wave-Stepping Sword yet. Shen Huai dodged, barely skating by the tip of the sword, and then in the blink of an eye, he had slipped through the group and was directly behind the enemy holy priest.

Shadow Mark was followed by Blood Blade, and his extraordinary hand speed even managed to slip in basic attacks in between without breaking the combo chain! Half of the holy priest's HP was gone just like that, and when she finally realised and scrambled to heal himself, Shen Huai swiftly hit her with a Soul Steal!

After that, almost no one could tell what skills Shen Huai used. They only saw the assassin flying around with her dual blades, blood splattering everywhere she went. In the end, the holy priest died without even managing to heal herself one bit!

The now dead <Chaotic Rain>'s palms were filled with sweat. She had heard from her clan members that this assassin wasn't easy to deal with, but she had not taken it too seriously. A character class which had been nerfed to sh*t by the patches, no matter how skilful the player, it's not like they would be able to fight 1v6, right?

But right now, the fierce killing pursuit of the assassin on the screen sent chills running through her! She had never seen an assassin with damage so off the charts, and his killing speed this time was more than twice as fast as when the 30-man team had killed him previously!

She suddenly had a bad feeling that they had provoked someone they shouldn't have this time.

The high-level maps of "City of Despair" were usually further away from the main cities. When a player dies, they cannot choose to resurrect in the city and can only choose an external resurrection point instead. This was why a player had to wait 60 seconds before resurrecting in a high-level map.

Seeing that their healer was dead, the remaining clan members instantly focused fire on the assassin. But just as the mob's skills were about to crash down on the assassin, the assassin suddenly created 2 clones. One of the three assassin figures started running towards the way he came from, while the other two figures stood foolishly in place, attacking the warrior with basic attacks.

"Fire mage and spellcaster, to the resurrection point. The rest will chase after him with me!"

Under <Ride the Wind>'s command, the group instantly chased after the running figure, the short-legged ice mage at the rear. As soon as the group started accelerating, he had been left behind by a large margin.

He was running with all his might when he was caught of guard by a knife slashing across his back. The blood-soaked blades of an assassin sliced into him like a sinister flywheel.

It turned out that the figure running away was a clone while the real one had been behind them all along!

The ice mage quickly typed out: [ Behind behind! ]

But by the time he sent out the message, his character was already on the ground.

Without any hesitation, Shen Huai immediately turned to run towards the resurrection point. By the time <Ride the Wind> turned back with his teammates in pursuit, the mage and spellcaster guarding the resurrection point were also dead.

This was a steamrolling in both skill and intellect!

<Ride the Wind> was outraged. Four out of his 6-man team was dead in the blink of an eye, but it was more difficult for him to admit he had been duped than for him to admit that Shen Huai had better skills. He wished desperately that he could charge onto the screen and rip that agile assassin into shreds!

Those guarding the resurrection point were dead, so <Desert North> finally dared to click on the option to resurrect. She remembered very clearly that Shen Huai had asked her not to heal him previously when they had been in the dungeon, so when she stood up again, she immediately cast her ultimate skill "Light of Dawn".

A crimson sun rose slowly from behind her, its golden rays radiating across the earth. Like the sacred light that blesses the brave, all party members within range are immune to all damage for 3 seconds!

Three seconds was enough for a true expert. This time, Shen Huai did not have to worry about his skills being interrupted, he instantly unleashed his combo with the greatest damage output — "Backstab - Pierce - Dark Razor - Wild Blade Dance"!

Dozens of blades fluttered through the air, their cold light flitting across the sky like rain, overwhelming the group. Under his ferocious attack, <Ride the Wind> and <Mysterious Cloud> could only duck and run, and by the end of the 3 seconds, they were all HP-Critical.

At this moment, <One Leaf Skiff> who had been alerted and had resurrected at the resurrection point rushed over. He heaved up an axe and with a "Shattering Earthquake", he split the ground in two. <Mysterious Cloud> and <Ride the Wind> were simultaneously stunned, and Shen Huai swiftly put an end to them with a burst of hand speed.

In the blink of an eye, Yellow Sands Island was littered with corpses. The bodies of the group all remained on the ground, none of them choosing to resurrect.

<One Leaf Skiff>, who had always been good-tempered, burst out swearing. [ You b*stards have been chasing me for so many days, why are you all lying down now? ]

None of them responded. Perhaps after some internal discussion, the holy priest who had died first disappeared in a wisp of smoke, soon followed by the rest of the group in similar fashion.

They had clearly purchased sometime from the city which allowed them to teleport straight back to a particular city to resurrect.

Having vented his anger, <One Leaf Skiff> invited them into his party.

[ Team ][ One Leaf Skiff ]: It's been 3 days! Finally I feel better!

<Desert North> did not say anything. This girl was very stubborn and tough, unwilling to cry or make a fuss no matter how much she had been bullied. Shen Huai's rage had not abated however — he used a loudspeaker for the very first time in his gaming lifetime.

[ Loudspeaker ][ MuWanGe ]: Come out.

Just two words without even a subject, but everyone could tell he was truly enraged.

With a smile on his face, Song Xue-Yang curled his fingers and tapped them lightly against the surface of his desk. Things have finally reached a head — the net was about to close. Never ever attempt to anger a good-tempered person, because once you finally cross their bottom line, their counterattack would not be something the average person could handle.

[ Loudspeaker ][ Mysterious Cloud ]: What you barking about, crazy dog? Do liars have rights now?

Shen Huai used another loudspeaker.

[ Loudspeaker ][ MuWanGe ]: Come out.

The other side went silent. As if sensing that this boss was in the heat of his anger, even Shen Huai's party did not dare say a word.

Seeing no reply from <Drunken Snow>'s side, Shen Huai directly opened up the details for the Primo Wolf guild and contacted the guild leader <Phantom Wolf>.

[ Your guild's <Drunken Snow> and company killed my friends. I want an explanation. ]

<Phantom Wolf> had been clearing dungeons with his guild members when he saw this message. His hands shook, and he wiped the sweat from his brow.

<MuWanGe> coming to him for an explanation was clearly just out of courtesy. If he didn't handle this well, their guild might thoroughly offend this great god.

Recalling that amazing shot back at Cloudfall Peak, <Phantom Wolf> dared not delay. He immediately called the captain of their associated pro team, Guan He.

"What is it?"

The icy tone made <Phantom Wolf> shiver. He quickly reported the situation in the game.

"So?" Guan He leaned back into the sofa, his emotionless eyes making him seem rather unapproachable. "Do I also need to take care of things inside the game?"

"No, no," <Phantom Wolf> hurried to explain, "The main thing is that this assassin seems to be connected to Captain Song. When we were chasing him before, Captain Song saved him, and isn't Maple Moon still recruiting new players? I was just wondering if this assassin might be..."

Guan He's eyes darkened. Assassin, Song Xue-Yang... a possibility instantly sprang to mind.

"I'll be online tomorrow night. Invite them into a party."

<Phantom Wolf> asked softly, "Is this assassin really a new member of Maple Moon?"

Guan He did not reply. He hoped the answer was no, because this person was most likely Ash Wing!

ryuxenji: Aaaaand I'm back! For now. I hope to be able to post regularly again, but I can't say for sure right now. The work project is going well but still hasn't ended... though things have calmed down a bit? 🙃

In any case, I'd like to say welcome to the new readers and thank you as always to those who have been leaving comments. I hope you all have been keeping well. Enjoy the chapter!

P/S: I haven't edited this as thoroughly as my previous chapters, so if you catch any errors or weird spots, please do drop me a line in the comments or on my Discord server. Thanks!

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Previous: Chapter 18: Training
Next: Chapter 20: Guan He

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