A Prince No More - Half Prince 5

Yu Wo

Series:

Half Prince [5]

Published:

2012

Tags:

Volume 5
Volume 5ttt

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SYNOPSIS:

“You are no longer a carefree Prince, but a responsibility-laden sovereign!”

Facing the companions who now knelt before me, the earth-shaking roar of “Your Lordship!”, and everyone’s expectations, I felt so weighed down that I could hardly breathe. I am only a little girl. All I want to do is have fun with my friends in this game…Can’t I do that?

In a fit of anger, I left Infinite City by myself, but Doll caught up with me. She attempted to persuade me, but I thought angrily, How can the carefree Doll possibly understand my feelings? To my surprise, Doll told me that… She was a princess!

Doll followed me as I went everywhere to train, and with my usual crappy luck, I met a BOSS and Doll was kidnapped by the BOSS… Oh god, what should I do?

As assassins came again and again to kill me, our strongest suspicions fell on the rulers of the other four continents. Who exactly is the one behind it all? And just what is his motive?

Wu Qing has fallen in love for Lolidragon? Hehe, how can that be? Is today April’s Fool? To actually crack this kind of joke… WHAT! It’s for real? How. Can. This. Be!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Yu Wo:

Who am I? Sometimes I am like a warrior, wielding a sword on the battlefield with limitless passion and energy. At other times, I resemble a mage, with a mind devoted to research, completely absorbed in the things I like. Or I might be like a thief, leading a free and easy life, letting fate lead me to distant and unfamiliar lands. Occasionally, however I am similar to a priest, with a gentle heart, filled with compassion towards the living things of this world. Ultimately, I am a kindly Fantastical world

A Prince No More

HALF PRINCE VOL. 5

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)

Table of Contents

Disclaimer! ------------------------------------- 3

Chapter 1: The Title of the Undefeatable King - 5

Chapter 2: Conflict -------------------------- 25

Chapter 3: Neurotic and DanDan ------- 36

Chapter 4: The Terrifying Side of a Self-aware NPC - 48

Chapter 5: A Man’s Daily Trifles -------- 60

Chapter 6: The Bloody Overlord -------- 74

Chapter 7: A Cougar’s Unimaginable Love - 91

Extra Chapter: The Classified Files of the Five Continents’ Overlords - 98

Disclaimer!

Please take note of the following:

- The following translation of ½ Prince is by Prince Revolution! and is a “by fans, for fans” translation.

- This translation is completely FREE of charge, so if you have paid for this, you have been ripped off!

- Prince Revolution! does NOT ask for donations, payment, or anything else of the sort. We do not benefit monetarily from our translations AT ALL.

- We only ask that you do NOT steal credit or attempt to profit monetarily from our translation. Please also inform us if you come across any individuals or groups stealing credit or profiting monetarily from our translation.

- Copyrights to the ½ Prince novels are held by Yu Wo, the author of the novels.

- Copyrights to the ½ Prince novel artworks are held by Ya Sha and Zhan Bu Lu, the cover artists for the first and second editions of the novels respectively.

- Copyrights to the ½ Prince manhua artwork are held by Cai Hong Zhong, the artist for the ½ Prince manhua.

- Prince Revolution! has received permission from Yu Wo to translate the novels into English. However, this is NOT an official translation of the novels!

- As such, please cease distribution of this PDF once an official ENGLISH version of the novels has been published.

Links

Prince Revolution!

http://www.princerevolution.org/

Yu Wo’s Blog

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/kim1984429

CREDITS

Translators:

Akakuroi (chapter 6)

Amgine (chapters 3 and 7)

Erihppas (chapter 2)

Evangeline (chapter 1)

Raylight (chapters 4-5)

Starie (extra chapter)

Proofreaders:

Bridget (chapters 1 and 5)

BurntSugarCookie (chapter 3)

CJFrost (chapters 1-4, 6-7)

EvlNabiki (chapters 2, 4, 6 and extra)

Formedt (extra chapter)

Mustsleep (chapter 1)

Shadow Rebirth (chapters 2-7 and extra)

C/E Editors:

Amgine (chapter 1)

Anglestagium (chapters 2 and 5-7)

Eilinel (chapters 1-3, 6-7 and extra)

zoNa (chapters 1-2 and 4)

PDF and eBook Formatter

Katerina

Chapter 1: The Title of the Undefeatable King

“Fairsky, have your feelings really changed?”

“Gee, I never realized that Sunshine was such a charmer. He had Fairsky in his grasp before we even noticed.”

As soon as we returned to Infinite City, everyone gathered around us and bombarded Fairsky and Sunshine with questions. The embarrassed and cornered couple had no choice but to answer the rush of interrogations. Everyone’s faces were grinning with their blessings for Sunshine and Fairsky. Only Lolidragon, who knew the whole story, wasn’t grinning. I spied her sighing from the corner of my eye.

“In any case, we wish the two of you all the best!” Everyone laughed joyously.

“Th-thanks everyone,” Fairsky stammered.

“Okay, that’s enough. Stop embarrassing Fairsky and Sunshine, everyone. Now come and listen to Lolidragon’s explanation of the latest patch for Second Life.” Wolf-dàgē grinned and beckoned to us.

Everyone quieted down and looked at Lolidragon, and so she started to explain the details of the patch. “The main focus of this new patch is making Second Life more realistic. Some common aspects of everyday life that weren’t necessary before are now required. For example, previously in the game, you didn’t have to shower or bathe because your body would never get dirty, but after the patch is installed, if you didn’t shower after a day of fighting, the stench would become unbearable.”

Take a bath? I suddenly remembered, Even though I am a guy, I have never seen my “manhood” before. If we have to start taking baths, wouldn’t I have to look at it? Ahem… I never thought that the first time I would see one of those things (not including the incident where I collected the dragon ones for gold), would be on myself. Whoa, I can’t even begin to explain my emotions…

“Prince, if you are afraid to wash that part of your body, I can help you! Just relax and spread your legs…” Lolidragon’s sarcastic remarks drifted over the PM channel.

“Hey!” Spread my legs?! I thought, Are you delivering a baby? I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes at Lolidragon.

“But you still have to go to the toilet by yourself,” Lolidragon muttered to no one in particular.

What? I need to go to the toilet too? My mind went blank for a moment. So I would have to experience using my XXX when I go to the toilet as well?

“Second, except for the ones involved in training, the NPC population is going to be decreased. For instance, the NPC shopkeepers in the Sun, Moon and Star cities will disappear eventually and be replaced by real players.” When she saw that I was still mulling over the previous topic, Lolidragon giggled to herself and then continued her explanation. After she had finished her sentence, Yu Lian-dàsăo frowned.

“Although it wouldn’t cost any more money to hire players over NPCs, they will be harder to manage.” Yu Lian-dàsăo muttered, wondering to herself whether the patch was good or bad news.

Finally, Lolidragon uttered the most important part of the explanation. “I think the most important change in the patch is that Sun, Moon and Star City will be open for conquering by players.”

“So, the rumors are true.” Wolf-dàgē grinned. “What does everyone have in mind?”

“That’s obvious! Of course we should go and conquer them!” A spark danced in White Bird’s eyes, as if she had been waiting for this moment all her life.

“Conquer the three cities; unite the Central Continent!” Nan Gong Zui tossed down the eight words strongly. The determination and passion which shone clearly in his eyes had infected the others as well, causing everyone’s heartbeats to speed up with joy and excitement.

Ugh! Another war? Looks like my dream of getting some rest isn’t possible anymore…Sob! Why am I so unlucky?! I had just completed my work and then another pile of tasks appeared. I’m going to die from overwork!

I listened morosely to everyone else discussing how to take down the cities. Thankfully everyone knows that I am a military idiot, so it makes no difference whether or not I listen to the discussion… But, as the Liege Lord, I can’t just go and take a nap, right? Though I really do want to….

“The first thing we should do is to decide on a plan of attack. With the three cities open for conquering, there are probably a lot of other players who are planning to take them down too, but we have a very significant advantage over them – Infinite City’s military is making very quick progress these days. This is all thanks to the Infinite Band, and especially to our lord.” White Bird bowed to me graciously, which shocked me enough to make me sit upright and nod my head slightly in return. This is weird; it gives me the creeps every time I see White Bird’s respectful attitude towards me….

White Bird continued, “I think that if we take down one of the cities first, it will only be a matter of time before we conquer the other two cities as well.”

“Hmm, if we are attacking just one city, which one would be the best choice?” Broken Sword thought out loud.

“How about Moon City?” Nan Gong Zui suggested. “Moon City used to be the Righteous Blades’ base, so it’s familiar territory to us, which would be a great help in battle.”

“Yeah! Let take down Moon City!” Everyone roared excitedly.

“Moon City, is it?” I stood up, looking in the direction of Moon City. So that venerable city with the ancient Chinese themed atmosphere is also going to be baptized with the fires of war? How sad….

Lolidragon’s insensitive voice echoed out, “If you are trying to look in the direction of Moon City, then I am sorry to inform you that you are looking in the exact opposite direction.”

“…So, what should I do?” Automatically ignoring Lolidragon, I turned to ask Nan Gong Zui.

“Prince, what’s your current level?” Zui suddenly asked me.

“Let me see.” Gee, it’s been so long since I checked my own level I almost forgot that such a thing exists. I called up the system menu and read out truthfully, “Level 76!”

“Level 76? That ranks around the hundredth place in the player rankings.” Nan Gong Zui thought out loud, and then he turned to me, “I don’t think your level is high enough.”

“Of the five liege lords who won and gained their own land in each of the East, West, South, North and Central Continents, your level seems to be the lowest,” White Bird said carefully with a frown, as if she were worried that her words would anger me.

“Is that so?” I laughed foolishly. It’s not my fault! After the tournament, I went to East Continent and during the time I spent there, I was either helping Jing and Yun level up or I was running around the continent trying to solve hidden quests. I barely gained any levels during that time. What’s even worse was, during the month of the busking tour, I didn’t even manage to train half a level’s worth…. Actually, finding out that I had only dropped down to the hundredth place in the list, I should be chuckling secretly.

“Hence, my lord, please raise your level. We will arrange for some people to dedicate themselves to helping you train,” White Bird requested very politely.

“Arrange for some people? Can’t I just go train with Odd Squad?” All in all, I was more familiar with the members of Odd Squad and having our natural coordination would be best.

White Bird looked troubled. “The members of Odd Squad have important roles in the military and administrative departments, so they may not have the time to train with you.”

“Is that so?” I felt a little down. I wonder how long it has been since I last trained with everyone in Odd Squad?

“Prince, don’t be disappointed. We will come and find you once we have some free time.” Wolf-dàgē laughed and slapped me heartily on the back.

“Well, at least Gui, Wicked, and Phoenix will go with me, right?” I asked, turning toward those three.

“I want to go with His Highness–” Gui didn’t even finish his sentence before Fairsky and Sunshine gagged him and dragged him away.

“You’ve got to be kidding! The amount of work piling up in the Construction Department is enough to bury me, and yet you want to sneak out? Sunshine, make sure you grab Gui firmly; if he dares to move so much as a finger, bombard him with magic until he cannot move again!” Fairsky ordered Sunshine with self-righteous indignation, and Sunshine followed her orders obediently like a whipped husband. This harmonious couple shares such deep bonds…

“I…” Wicked had barely spoken a word when suddenly Nan Gong Zui and Broken Sword both rested their hands on his shoulder and smiled warmly. Is it just me, or are their eyes saying ‘Don’t even dream about it; you will never step out of this castle! Surrender to your fate!’

Phoenix didn’t even dare utter a single word. Though in all fairness, even I wouldn’t dare go against Yu Lian-dàsăo’s feminine prowess!

“So, I will be training alone?” I looked at the trio, the disappointment obvious in my eyes.

“Liege Lord, we will arrange for some other players to go with you,” White Bird said once again, looking slightly troubled. “But I hope that my lord can exude an aura of royalty in front of those people so as to avoid disappointing our subordinates.”

I showed a troubled expression as well and asked in confusion, “How do I exude an aura of royalty?”

“Basically, just put on your blood elf façade, and you’ll be fine,” Lolidragon explained.

“Maintaining that tiresome pose for the entire time?” I sighed. The blood elf isn’t even the real me! Why does everyone like the fake me?

****

“It’s an honor to train with you, Liege Lord!” Looking at the five pairs of eyes sparkling with adoration and reverence, I wondered how many times I had sighed in my mind. Luckily, XiMen Feng, who was standing to the side, wasn’t also sending looks of adoration at me. Unfortunately, his/her hateful expression wasn’t exactly soothing, either.

“By Commander White Bird’s orders, we have to give all we have in order to help our lord level up, so our first and primary focus is the Liege Lord. Does everyone understand?” the leading warrior called out to the rest.

“Of course! Our lord is the most important person, so in times of danger, I will heal the lord first. Don’t blame me if the rest of you die in the process.” The one speaking this time was, of course, a priest. The excessive reverence in his eyes made me feel that I was in the shrine of the Goddess of the Sea[1].

“Don’t worry my lord, we will protect you carefully and will prevent any monster from even touching you!” The archer vowed to me with unflinching determination.

Hey! You’ll prevent any monster from touching me? How the heck am I going to level up then? I felt absolutely exasperated in my heart.

“Hmph! The Liege Lord doesn’t need protection from the likes of you; the best you could possibly do is not to be a burden to our lord.” The mage glanced past the others with a frosty glare, and then turned to fix a fiery, fervent look upon me. “After all, our lord is the strongest and undefeatable king. He has never lost before.”

“You’re right. My lord, please excuse our indiscretion.” Unexpectedly, the others weren’t angered at all. They just continued to fix their adoring gazes on me.

Undefeatable King? Are those people lying through their teeth? I couldn’t even count the number of times I had died. Plus, I even died twice in front of the audience during the tournament. Is this what you call undefeatable? Not to mention the strongest! I can’t even guarantee that I can win when fighting against Wicked or Nan Gong Zui, and don’t forget about Kenshin who could dissect me like a living specimen with a casual wave of his hand. Moreover, didn’t White Bird say that currently out of the five liege lords, my level is the lowest?

Sob! The more I think about it, the more I feel my own weakness. I better go level up! Ignoring the five adoring gazes coming from their hosts, I said blandly, “Let’s go.”

“Pretty boy, I for one, would never concede that you are undefeatable.” XiMen Feng whispered disdainfully, “One day, I will beat you, but before then, you better not lose to anyone else.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I waved my hand, irritated.

XiMen Feng snorted and then fell silent.

The serpent king, the so-called king of all snakes, is not quite a boss-level monster. However, deep in the snake abyss, there are many of these physically imposing, surprisingly strong, lightning-fast and venomous-fanged serpent kings. I decided to take on this kind of annoying monster because it would be a challenge to defeat and since I had been out of practice for so long.

After all, in a game like Second Life, it’s not all about leveling up. The most important thing is making the best use of one’s own abilities.

“This kind of monster is strong and hardly gives any experience points… Ya sure this is what you wanna take on, kid?” XiMen Feng looked at the serpent king doubtfully.

“Yep, I want to practice. The serpent king is not easy to kill and doesn’t give much experience points, so there aren’t many players here. When there isn’t anyone around to steal your prey, isn’t it the best time to cut loose and enjoy yourself?” I raised my eyebrows at XiMen Feng. In the meantime, I had already targeted an isolated serpent king.

“No wonder he’s the lord! He even thinks differently from normal people.” I don’t know who said that, but all five people nodded their heads and then five pairs of admiring gazes turned on me again.

Overcome by a splitting headache, I was almost at my limit. All I could do was pretend that the gazes of admiration were invisible and wave to XiMen Feng, who was the only one not staring at me with glittering eyes. “Hey hot babe XiMen Feng, time to train.”

“Damn! Does the pretty boy here not understand human speech? I’m a guy, you brat! How many times do I need to tell you?” XiMen Feng roared unhappily as usual while raising his sword to advance upon the serpent king with me.

“May I ask, my lord, how might we assist you?” The warrior of the group asked me, surprised and confused.

“You guys can go off to practice too. If I need healing, I will come and find you,” I replied apathetically.

“Wouldn’t it better if I just follow you, my lord?” The priest added quickly.

“No need,” I said dismissively with a wave of my hand. Are you kidding? Being followed by that pair of admiring eyes, I will feel uneasy from head to toe, so don’t even mention doing any more training under that gaze.

“If the lord says so, then very well.” The five showed very disappointed expressions and then walked away very slowly while glancing back at me with “grieving” expressions. If a stranger walked by at that moment, they probably would have guessed that I had just rejected five lovers.

Finally, when the five-man team was out of sight, I heaved a sigh of relief, messaged my frozen facial muscles, and then changed back to my normal, lax expression.

XiMen Feng looked at me and shook his head with exasperation, “Gee, I really want to show this expression to those five idiots. If they see this, I refuse to believe that they would continue to admire you and say, ‘my lord this’ and ‘my lord that.’”

“Sure, go call them over.” I yawned lazily and added, “That is, if you’re not afraid of White Bird giving you the axe.”

“Sonny, I ain’t afraid of that female bird,” XiMen Feng snorted.

I raised my eyebrows. “White Bird and Yu Lian-dàsăo are very close!”

As I thought, as soon as Yu Lian-dàsăo’s name was mentioned, even XiMen Feng stopped arguing back and began to sulk quietly; he didn’t even dare to utter “sonny” one last time.

Now that we’re on this topic, I have to go off on a bit of a tangent. Why is XiMen Feng so afraid of Yu Lian-dàsăo?

Think back to when XiMen Feng joined Infinite City. His first job was given to him by Yu Lian-dàsăo. Remember what I mentioned before? I don’t know why, but the fans absolutely loved the little unexpected fight scene during the first concert, so XiMen Feng was ordered to go on stage and challenge me at every subsequent concert.

I remembered that when XiMen Feng first received Yu Lian-dàsăo’s order, he said, “Not a chance, sonny!”

Yu Lian-dàsăo smiled that faint, menacing smile of hers… As I stood off to the side, it made me think that XiMen Feng had just met his end. Yu Lian-dàsăo said, “Hmm? I thought that you came to Infinite City to challenge Prince? That’s why I arranged this job for you – I had thought that you would be delighted to accept! Or… perhaps you have been beaten into submission by our undefeatable Prince already, and are afraid to challenge him ever again?”

Hearing that, XiMen Feng exploded in a fit of anger, “That’s blasphemy! The word fear is not even in my vocabulary, sonny!”

Thus, XiMen Feng became the concert’s biggest clown. He got pummeled by me into a pulp every time, and there were even people in the audience who yelled, “Harder!” and “Not enough blood!”, etc., forcing me to use more and more force on him every time.

The second incident that made XiMen Feng realize that the deadly Yu Lian-dàsăo was not someone who could be trifled with occurred when the book shop had finished being constructed. Yu Lian-dàsăo thought that there weren’t enough books in the shop. Since Fairsky and Phoenix are girls, they couldn’t expose too much for the sake of attracting more male readers. So, someone who looked pretty good as a babe in the daytime was roped into making a swimsuit edition photo album.

And that’s not all. Yu Lian-dàsăo thought that since there were no muscle men in the Infinite Band, we wouldn’t be able to attract any readers who love muscle men. So, she roped in someone who looks muscular at night to snap a second photo album. It’s actually kind of disgusting, seeing all those bouncing chest muscles. I really don’t know why anyone would like that type of body…  Ahem, I didn’t peek on purpose! I really, really didn’t!

Thinking of those incidents, I turned around and looked at hot babe XiMen Feng, barely suppressing my laughter.

“Pretty boy! What the hell are you laughing about?” XiMen Feng looked suspiciously at my weird expression.

I quickly straightened up my face. “N-nothing at all, let’s continue training!”

Finishing my sentence, I ignored XiMen Feng’s confused expression and headed off to attack another serpent king. I felt much better. Oh well, at least my situation is still a bit better than hot babe XiMen Feng’s.

Walking up behind the serpent, I felt the excitement build up as I watched its towering stature. I caressed Black Dao gently, “My friend, it’s being a long time since you’ve tasted fresh blood. Sorry for putting you through that, so now, enjoy the feast!”

With a “swish” I unsheathed Black Dao, and then suddenly thought up a mischievous idea. With one foot, I casually stepped on the serpent king’s tail, making it stick its long tongue quite far out as it winced from the pain. It turned around with its mouth wide open. When it saw me, it narrowed its slit-like eyes a little and then lunged towards me, intent on biting off my head.

I laughed coldly, and effortlessly escaped the blow by dodging to the left. Afterwards, I caught a glimpse of its tail sweeping towards me with full force. With a pivot of the toes, I leapt over the tail, and fiercely stabbed Black Dao towards the serpent’s head. Before I could cut its head open, the serpent king turned and lunged towards me again. In one motion, I lowered my head to dodge while simultaneously using Black Dao to cleave the serpent king in two equal halves from the throat down.

Finally, I turned back and also cut off the head, closing my eyes and letting the warm blood spray on my face. I opened my eyes, wiped off the blood from my face, and sighed. At long last, I get to fight to my heart’s content again.

“Damn! Are you retarded, kid? Why would you make yourself dripping with blood all over?” XiMen Feng stared in astonishment at the blood covering my entire face and body.

I wagged a finger and asked him impishly, “Do you recall what my nickname is?”

“Blood Elf…” XiMen Feng replied automatically, and then scratched his head. “Oh, so that’s why you are called the blood elf. So, the pretty boy has this kind of perverted hobby.”

“Who’s perverted? This is called blood lust, and it’s cool, got it?” I replied, puckering my mouth.

XiMen Feng gave me a universal hand signal – a fist with only the middle finger sticking up. “Cool? If anyone calls that cool, I will cut off my own head to make soup for you, damn it.”

“Ultra-cool….” the words echoed out from behind me.

I turned around to see that the five-man team was back. The female players’ eyes kept popping out as hearts, and the guys stood with clutched fists and eyes full of admiration and excitement. All that was left for them to do was to kneel down and yell, “All hail the king!”

I sighed in my heart. It looks like I won’t be able to train freely today. As I thought, I couldn’t help but talk down to XiMen Feng, saying, “Hey, go make that soup!”

****

“Liege Lord, how goes the training?” Just as we arrived at the foot of Infinite City, we saw Lolidragon and Kong Kong busy with their planting…of traps, that is. Lolidragon was so worn out that she only gave me a supercilious look as a greeting. Despite being quite weary himself, Kong Kong still waved and asked after me cheerfully.

“Not bad,” I replied stuffily and walked past, followed by the five-man team of admirers and XiMen Feng, who was still considering whether he should keep his promise of lopping his head off to make soup for me.

Kong Kong looked at the five people, and yelled, “It’s not every day that you get a chance to go train with our Liege Lord – did you guys make yourselves useful? And did any of you learn anything after seeing our lord in battle?”

“Of course! We examined very carefully the Liege Lord’s every move!”  The warrior replied quickly.

“The lord is so powerful! He really deserves the title of undefeatable king!” the female mage’s fiery passionate eyes never strayed from me.

“The undefeatable king? What a fitting name!” Kong Kong’s eyes sparkled, as if that phrase were used to describe himself. He gloated with pleasure, “I don’t mean to brag about our lord, but the day the Blood Elf falls is the day that gold rains down from the sky.”

The five people nodded their heads in earnest as soon as the words left his mouth.

Lolidragon’s voice drifted over the PM channel, “Undefeatable king? If Kong Kong’s words were true, I would probably would have gotten my skull cracked open from all that gold a long time ago, and Yu Lian-dàsăo wouldn’t have any more financial problems.”

“Hey, at least we never really suffered an actual defeat. Don’t we always win in the end?”

Lolidragon smirked coldly, and asked nonchalantly, “Anyway, what’s wrong? I noticed that you looked a little pale when you came back. Were those five players too weak? Were they being a burden? Should I tell White Bird to pick a different group for you?”

Distressed, I replied with a sigh, “It has nothing to do with their strength. It’s just that they admire me way too much, and it makes me feel uneasy all over.”

“Hah, White Bird picked them to help you train precisely because she saw that they all admire you deeply and weren’t all that weak. Has that decision backfired?” Lolidragon asked, holding back a laugh.

“Oh please. Do you realize they were just one step shy of buying me some incense and fruit to worship at my altar?” I groused. Who would want to be given offerings as if they were the Jade Emperor?[2]

“I can see what you mean.” Lolidragon and I listened to the five of them having a heated discussion with Kong Kong about my ‘miracles’, wondering whether they were actually talking about me or about the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the end, Lolidragon said, “Well, if you don’t like this team, you should take it up with White Bird.”

“Yeah,” I said as I listened to the group beside me saying how during one particular instance, I had parted the Red Sea[3]. I thought to myself, I have to get White Bird to change this team for me.

“Liege Lord!” White Bird dashed over the moment I arrived at the castle. She didn’t wait for a reply and instead hastily but respectfully continued on, “Liege Lord, there are two adventurers’ teams that wish to join us. Please go meet the team leaders!”

“Oh, okay,” I said with a hint of disappointment. I was originally planning on taking a break at the Infinite Restaurant.

“Liege Lord, please go find Phoenix and get your new cape first.” White Bird bowed and rushed off to who knows where.

I didn’t know what my dream cape will be like, but I suppressed my excitement and rushed off to find Phoenix.

“Phoenix!” I charged into the office, yelling her name.

Phoenix, who had been working hard with her head buried in the accounting record, turned and looked up at me with surprise. Then, she asked exuberantly, “Does Prince need anything from me?”

With sparkling eyes, I asked in suspense, “The cape! Where is my cape?”

When Phoenix heard what I wanted, she let out a disappointed, “Oh,” and took out a big parcel from her antique bag and gave it to me. Even though Phoenix’s expression seemed a bit off, I wasn’t too bothered. I snatched the parcel and started to rip it apart.

“Whoa!” I exclaimed in surprise. This cape is nothing like the superhero cape I had in mind. Instead, this thick, velvety red cape lined with white fur is exactly like- like the kind that a king would wear to his coronation, the ones that trail a few meters behind the person!

“I chose the fabric!” Phoenix announced happily.

“Oh… But, isn’t this overdoing it?” I finally said only after taking a very deep breath.

“Don’t you like it though?” Phoenix asked.

“It’s not bad,” I answered with a shrug.

“Is that so?” Suddenly Phoenix’s spirit seemed to sink a whole new level, and she became dead silent.

At that moment, Yu Lian-dàsăo came in and asked me with a smile, “How is it?”

“It’s…” I hesitated, “Isn’t it kind of over the top?”

“It will bring out your aura of royalty!” Yu Lian-dàsăo finished and then added with a hint of exasperation, “It was made to suit White Bird’s tastes. I would have preferred to just use a simpler fabric, you know, to save money.”

“But it’s fine like this. After all, you will be meeting plenty more people in the future and there will be a whole mess of ceremonies and such, so it would be good to have a cape that looks more dignified,” Yu Lian-dàsăo said thoughtfully.

Ceremonies? When I was just about to ask, White Bird charged up to us with a panicked look. Without a word, she helped me put on the cape and then praised me respectfully, “The cape suits you, Liege Lord. Please go meet the two adventurer team leaders in the main hall now.”

“Oh.” I replied absent-mindedly to White Bird while carefully inspecting every detail of the cape that I was now wearing.

White Bird panicked even more, “Liege Lord, please hurry. They have been waiting for a long time.”

“Alright, then let’s go.” I shrugged and walked towards the main hall with White Bird following closely behind.

“Please don’t forget about your demeanor, Liege Lord.” White Bird looked at my lazy expression with worry.

“Yeah, I know.” I stretched lazily, closed my eyes and breathed deeply. When I opened my eyes again, I had a shadow of a smile on my face, but my eyes had an intimidating stare capable of freezing three feet of air: my famous blood elf look.

When I walked into the hall, I saw a band of roughly ten or so people drinking tea. I scanned the crowd with a calm smile and sat down on my throne.

Everyone’s eyes were on me as I sipped with composure from the cup of tea White Bird presented to me. Then I looked at everyone and started my official welcome speech. “I am the Infinite City’s Liege Lord, Prince. On behalf of Infinite City, I welcome you all—”

I didn’t even finish when someone interrupted, “Wait!”

This was the first time someone had ever dared to interrupt me in my many welcome speeches. I looked up with curiosity at the one who had interrupted me. He was a calm looking fellow. In his eyes I could definitely see that he did not believe in my strength.

“Yes?” I asked with that half smile of mine. Maybe this time the welcoming meeting won’t be as boring as the ones before.

The calm fellow bowed with his hands, and started speaking with a very imposing manner, “I’ve heard rumors that Prince, the lord of Infinite City, with whom I have the good fortune of meeting today, is a legendary man whose strength is unrivaled, with innumerable capable subordinates. From this meeting today, it is clear from your imposing demeanor that you are no ordinary person. But that alone is not enough proof for me and my brothers to join Infinite City. We want to witness for ourselves the proof of your strength.”

I couldn’t help roll my eyes conspicuously at him. Hey man, is there really a need for you to spout all that bombastic drivel? Do you think that this is some kind of ancient Chinese martial arts novel? Or is it just that you’re stuck in the wrong book? Are you a lost sheep from one of Jin Yong’s novels?[4] I had thought that White Bird was the only one who speaks like this. But having met this fellow today, I realized that White Bird’s manner of speech is nothing compared to his.

“Liege Lord, answer him!” White Bird’s panicking voice drifted over the PM channel.

I smiled and gave a straightforward reply to the Jin Yong fellow, “What do you propose? Say it directly, no need to beat about the bush.”

“Good. As expected, the lord of Infinite City is direct and to the point.” The Jin Yong fellow gave me a thumbs up and a look of respect.

He gestured towards a man clad in all black, and then said with a face full of pride, “This is our team’s best fighter, Cold Fox.”

I looked at Cold Fox. Hearing that name alone, one could infer that he would be an icy guy, and I was not disappointed. He had jet black hair, black eyes, black clothes – basically black all over. He even wore a face that said ‘Annoy me, and I’ll kill you; don’t annoy me, and I’ll still want to kill you.’ No wonder he’s called Cold Fox. If my eyes were described as being able to freeze three feet of air, his would definitely freeze eight feet, and he was staring at me with all eight feet’s worth.

“If the Liege Lord or any of his subordinates can defeat Cold Fox, then we will all stay in Infinite City and pledge loyalty to you forever.” Though even as he was saying this, the Jin Yong fellow had a look that clearly showed his confidence of Cold Fox never losing.

Feeling the brunt of Cold Fox’s icy cold stare, I suddenly had the urge to give him a sound beating, so I stood up eagerly to take on this challenge.

“Don’t challenge him!” At this moment, Nan Gong Zui’s voice drifted over the PM channel. I looked up to see that Zui had just walked in, and I gave him a confused look. He continued over the PM, “Cold Fox, Second Life’s third strongest player, is at least level 92. He uses one of the three legendary weapons, Bloodlust. I’m afraid you might not be his match, Prince.”

Hearing that, I laughed heartily… and promptly sat down. Damn! Where did Kenshin wander off to?

Zui was putting it mildly when he said that I might not be his match. I am definitely not his match! I still have at least that much self-awareness. Even though we are not sure of his actual level, a difference of sixteen levels is just too much. Plus, going against Cold Fox’s legendary weapon and with his stance that could only belong to a battle maniac, is there any way that I could win? Well, not unless Cold Fox had a sudden attack of stomach flu… but we don’t get sick in the game, so I better stop hoping for miracle like that to happen.

“Since you have selected your strongest player, I suppose I will select mine as well!” I said to the Jin Yong fellow with a forced look of indifference. I said this knowing that I had already told Kenshin to come, and that he was in the castle and was probably already on his way.

A quick explanation: pets cannot send PMs, and only the pet owner can chat with the pet over long distances. I had already told everyone in Infinite City that Sunshine and Kenshin are my personal guards and that they will never listen to or obey anyone else. Thus, nobody had any suspicions about this so far. Even if people did try to send PMs to Kenshin, they would probably just think that he didn’t want to answer.

“Strongest player? I thought that the Liege Lord was Infinite City’s strongest player,” the Jin Yong fellow asked in confusion.

I smiled again, “You are praising me too much. There is always a higher mountain. Besides, I’ve been buried in work and unfortunately have been negligent on my training. Why would the strongest player be me?”

The Jin Yong fellow didn’t seem to mind much, probably because he was completely confident in the third-ranked Cold Fox. He just said, “In that case, may the strongest player of Infinite City please step forth!”

I caught sight of that brilliant head of red hair from the corners of my eyes and said with relief, “Kenshin, you will be the one dueling Cold Fox.”

Everyone turned their eyes towards the door, looking at Kenshin doubtfully. Kenshin never says anything unnecessary, so he just gripped his sword with his left hand and walked towards Cold Fox. Cold Fox seemed to sense that Kenshin was going to be a strong opponent and his eyes shone with excitement.

This is…the battle of the cold-blooded! I sighed, why are all strong players cold-blooded? Could it be that training too much makes your blood start turning into ice?

I leisurely awaited for the start of this once-in-a-century battle. Why was I so relaxed? Well, I had 200% confidence in Kenshin. There’s no need to even mention that he is the prize of a hidden quest. Just consider the fact that he is the boss of the Demon Cave. It’s no simple quest for someone to defeat a boss alone. Have you ever heard of anyone succeeding?

Also, Cold Fox is only level 92… well, the level 76 me is in no position to say “only” level 92. But still, against the level 100 Kenshin, level 92 is on the weak side. Also, Kenshin’s skills are beyond those of a regular level 100 player anyway. I doubt that even a level 120 player would be able to beat him alone, and the highest level on the rankings right now is only 95. So, if Kenshin were a player, then he would be Second Life’s strongest player.

So, what do I have to worry about? If it weren’t for my image as a lord, I would be having popcorn and a soda right now.

Down below, everyone had already formed a clearing in the middle for the two of them to fight. Neither of them had said a single word since the start, but I could clearly see Cold Fox’s cold expression starting to waver. Just as I thought that Cold Fox should be ready to make his move, he did.

Cold Fox darted quickly towards Kenshin with a speed that would leave me trailing in the dust. In a heartbeat, Cold Fox was right in front of Kenshin and Bloodlust was being thrust forward. Kenshin barely moved. He just flicked half of his blade out of its sheath and blocked the attack. Cold Fox’s reflexes were incredibly fast, so when the two blades touched his leg also went to sweep towards Kenshin’s lower body. However, Kenshin was no easy target. He sidled a bit, and Cold Fox’s leg collided with Kenshin’s knee… In a battle of shin versus knee, I think everyone knows the result! Even if you don’t, I wouldn’t recommend for you to try it for yourself. I won’t take responsibility for the results.

Seeing Cold Fox’s icy face had actually twitched a little, I could tell that it must have hurt tremendously! Ignoring the pain, Cold Fox quickly brandished his sword for another attack. However, Kenshin already had his blade out, and I could only hear the constant clanging of metal and see flashes of silver between the two.

“Howling Wolf!” Cold Fox cut many crescent-shaped slashes right at Kenshin. He then followed closely behind the slashes, going for Kenshin in person. There was no way to avoid this attack, and I stood up from my throne in surprise. I really wanted to dive over there to save Kenshin.

Kenshin is a pet, and pets can be resurrected, but if Kenshin died and got resurrected, would he still maintain his self-awareness? Even Lolidragon wasn’t quite sure about this. I don’t want to take any chances and risk Kenshin losing his self-awareness.

“Void Piercer!” Kenshin said coldly. Before I could even see what was happening, he was already standing behind Cold Fox and his Howling Wolf slashes. After freezing for a second, Cold Fox unwillingly collapsed to the ground, staining the spotless floor with a large pool of blood. However, he didn’t turn into a column of white light and fly off. Looks like Kenshin had been careful not to kill him.

Everyone, including myself, froze on the spot, not sure of what had happened. How exactly did Kenshin manage to avoid Howling Wolf? And since when did Cold Fox suffer such heavy wounds? That was amazing…. I had a whole lot of questions, but I wasn’t stupid enough to inquire Kenshin about his secret attack in front of all these people. Why would I let anyone else know about my own pet’s secret abilities and let them figure out its weakness?!

I sat down slowly and calmly said, “The battle is over, you guys may go and help Cold Fox heal.”

That calm fellow’s expression changed drastically and he shrieked at Cold Fox with loud insults. “Bastard! You said that you wouldn’t lose to anyone except for the top-ranked Undying Man! Now that you’ve lost to some unknown little brat, what use do I have for you?!”

The calm fellow cast away his calm façade and with a violent expression, drew out his sword to attack Cold Fox, who was lying defenselessly on the ground. I was so shocked that I couldn’t utter a single word in time, just watching helplessly as Cold Fox was about to get slaughtered right in front of my eyes.

“Soaring Dragon!” A life flashed away with a soft murmur from Kenshin. The calm fellow didn’t even get a chance to utter a single wail before he turned into a pillar of white light in the sky.

I was somewhat shocked. This was the first time that Kenshin had interceded on his own without my orders.

“Dàgē!” The calm fellow’s teammates gasped and then looked fiercely at Kenshin. After Kenshin surveyed them back, they backed away fearfully and looked away.

One of them turned around and started shrieking at me, “Lord of Infinite City! What’s the meaning of this? Our two teams came all this way to join Infinite City, and yet you’ve killed our Dàgē!”

I sneered coldly, “If you had really intended to join Infinite City, then you wouldn’t have found the third-ranked player, Cold Fox, to challenge me. It’s clear that you just want to stir up trouble!”

After I said that, the people in front of me all turned pale, but they held their ground, “We never did! We just wanted to see if Infinite City is worthy for us to join.”

“That doesn’t even make half a bit of sense. Get out of my sight. I will let today’s incident slide, but if you ever come here again looking for trouble, Infinite City will show no mercy towards any of you.” I replied coldly and waved to White Bird impatiently. “White Bird! Show our guests out!”

“Yes, my lord.” After responding to me respectfully, she turned on the band of people with a fierce look, “How dare you come to Infinite City to play your dirty tricks. Guards!”

“Here!” A bunch of guys wearing identical armors suddenly swarmed in from the side and responded in unison.

I almost spat out my tea. Since when did we have things like guards? Even I, the Liege Lord, didn’t know about it. I will tell them to yell “Wei Wu~”[5] a bit later.

“The Liege Lord has ordered that these people be escorted out!” White Bird yelled, staring coldly at the unwelcome guests.

“Yes!” the guards shouted again in unison, and started to carry out the order, shooing the guests out of the main hall with waves of their daos. The so-called guests realized that the situation was looking grim for them, and so they hurriedly backed out of the hall, but not before giving me evil looks before they left.

“I am very sorry, Liege Lord,” White Bird suddenly turned around, and apologized with a face full of remorse. “I should have investigated first if they had really wanted to join Infinite City or if they were just looking for trouble. I apologize for making the Liege Lord deal with this himself.”

“It’s no big deal,” I answered White Bird, unconcerned. My eyes were on the scene below. Kenshin and Cold Fox were staring at each other coldly. Any onlookers would probably think that they wanted to kill each other. But from my experience with Kenshin’s facial expressions, the conversation actually went something like this:

“Okay?” Kenshin’s first stare.

“Okay.” Cold Fox’s answering look.

“Help?” Kenshin’s second look with eyebrows slightly raised.

“No.” Cold Fox lowered his eyes and started to drink a red potion.

Cold Fox slowly stood up. Even though the red potion couldn’t heal his wound completely, it should be enough for him to be able to move around again. He glanced at me, and then at Kenshin. That look was probably asking, “Can I leave?”

Kenshin looked up at me, asking for my orders. I creased my eyebrows in disapproval, and Kenshin frowned lightly. He looked back at Cold Fox before answering “no” with his eyes.

Cold Fox did not seem surprised. He looked straight at me with a look that said, “Kill or torture, do whatever you wish.” That look fired up my temper, so I spoke in an unfriendly tone, “You sauntered in here looking for trouble, so tell me, what should I do with you?”

“Up to you.” Cold Fox’s indifferent tone made it sound like we were discussing someone else’s fate.

Looking at that apathetic expression, I thought, He probably wouldn’t even blink if I give him a lashing or even kill him. So what’s the point of punishing him? I would rather go beat up Gui. At least he would howl out for me to hear.

“Oh well, forget it, since you were dumped here by the leader of your team,” I said lazily.

Cold Fox smirked, “I’m not a part of any team.”

Hearing that, my curiosity was piqued, “Then why did you come today?”

“To challenge the strongest!” Cold Fox’s eyes sparkled with the light of a warmonger.

Hmm? Interesting. I suddenly came up with a plan to make Cold Fox stay. Why should I allow him to stay? Well, if there were another strong player that I could send out to battle, then I wouldn’t need to rely so much on Kenshin alone.

“Join Infinite City!” I skipped the formalities and got to the main point.

“No!” Cold Fox also gave a clear-cut response.

I faintly revealed a sly smile. ”Join me. After you join, I promise that you can challenge Kenshin whenever you want.”

Hearing that, Cold Fox’s eyes wavered. Though the look that Kenshin is giving me right now is a bit too harsh.

I put my trump card into play. “Or are you afraid to challenge Kenshin again? Well, I can understand. Kenshin is so strong that he doesn’t even seem human. It’s no surprise that you are afraid.”

“Nonsense!” Cold Fox narrowed his eyes dangerously.

I laughed impishly. This ruse never fails, no matter whether it’s Yu Lian-dàsăo using it against XiMen Feng or myself to lure in Cold Fox.

Cold Fox’s expression suddenly turned ugly, “I do not follow orders.”

“Then you can take the same role as Kenshin and be my personal guard. You won’t have to listen to anyone else except me. And, except for calling you out to challenge strong opponents, I basically won’t give you any orders,” I smiled softly.

“Um…” Cold Fox hesitated, but when he turned and looked at Kenshin, the look he wore was as if he had seen his beloved. He examined Kenshin from head to toe, and then again from toe to head. After that, his expression of agreement seemed to overpower the one of disagreement.

I didn’t feel like waiting for an answer, so I continued, “Okay, that settles it. When I have no orders for you, you can follow Kenshin around, or he can follow you. You both can go anywhere, but just don’t leave the Central Continent.”

Before leaving the hall, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Kenshin. That look…I was 100% sure that it meant he wanted to send me to the Demon Cave as a ghost!

Chapter 2: Conflict

“It seems that there are plenty of people in the Central Continent who refuse to recognize Prince as a superior.” Nan Gong Zui frowned thoughtfully after listening to White Bird’s description of that day’s events.

“I think that this is due to several factors: First, Prince’s level isn’t high enough; second, during the final battle of the Adventurer’s Tournament, Prince did not survive; and third, being a spokesperson not only garnered the admiration of many,  but also the jealousy of many others,” Wicked explained in detail.

Nan Gong Zui’s frown deepened. He looked at me worriedly, “Prince, the only thing you can do right now is train hard and raise your level.”

I shrugged. “That isn’t a problem. Compared to administrative work and military stuff, I’d rather train.”

“What’s even more important than leveling is building up your reputation!” White Bird declared decisively.

“Reputation?” Everyone was staring at White Bird, and apart from me, everyone appeared to agree with her. Really? Was I really not being respected enough?

“Wait a minute—how can I be lacking in reputation? Haven’t I always used the Blood Elf image in public?” I quickly argued. What kind of joke is this? I don’t want to be more esteemed! I would not be able to stand it if everyone worshipped me the way the five man band did.

White Bird looked at me with uncertainty and then hesitatingly explained, “My lord, your lack of reputation may be due to your appearance.”

“Appearance?” I was startled for the moment. What could be wrong with my appearance? Am I too handsome to be respected?

Yu Lian-dàsăo interjected suddenly, “You mean that Prince looks too young?”

White Bird hesitantly nodded her head. “If I may boldly ask, my lord, how old are you this year?”

At White’s Bird question, everyone shifted their gazes towards me, as though as they were measuring me up. Feeling uncomfortable under their scrutiny, I quickly answered, “I’m twenty.”

“Twenty? That’s older than I thought, but it’s still very young. Among the four other lords, it is said that the youngest is twenty-four. Not to mention that, my lord, you look like you are only seventeen or eighteen.” White Bird sighed with a disheartened expression.

Gui did not seem to agree. “His appearance is fine. More importantly, Prince rarely involves himself in the city’s day-to-day affairs. A lot of people have seen the other department leaders in the flesh, but they have only seen Prince as a photo on Second Life’s official website.”

I could not help but roll my eyes at Gui’s words. “It’s not my fault. Everyone pushed me into doing the concert tour before, and now I have to train hard. Where would I get the time to involve myself in the city’s day-to-day affairs?”

Everyone sighed at my words, and each of their faces held an expression of helplessness.

“This cannot go on. Our lord’s reputation must be established,” White Bird said, unusually determined. “And I will definitely think of something!”

For some unknown reason, I suddenly shuddered.

****

When I saw everyone kneeling before me, including the members of Odd Squad, Dark Emperor, Rose Team and others, I was totally at a loss on what to do. It didn’t make any difference that White Bird had already informed me of this event, this so called Oath of Allegiance ceremony.

As a preparation for the upcoming update, as well as the invasion of Sun City, Moon City, and Star City, it had been decided that we would hold a ceremony for everyone to swear fealty to me, as the Lord of Infinite City. Firstly, the ceremony would announce to the general public Infinite City’s intention to conquer the official cities, and secondly, it would establish that reputation thing that I never really understood.

“I, Ugly Wolf, swear to serve the Lord of Infinite City, Prince, with undivided loyalty.” Wolf-dàgē was looking at me with a solemn expression. Of course, he was also kneeling, and yet when I heard his declaration, I felt a bit…unhappy? Why must Wolf-dàgē kneel before me?

“I, Yu Lian…”

“I, Guiliastes…”

“Doll…”

”Lolidragon…”

“Wicked…”

“Nan Gong Zui…”

“Rose…”

One by one, my close friends swore fealty to me. Shouldn’t I be feeling happy? Why does my heart only feel as empty, as though I have just lost something important?

After everyone finished swearing fealty, I followed with the words that White Bird had told me. Replying in a solemn tone that I had never used before, I said, “I, Lord of Infinite City, Prince, accept your oaths. From now on, all of you are my loyal subordinates. I swear to lead you all to fame and glory throughout Second Life.”

Everyone exclaimed in unison, “All hail Infinite City!”

“All hail…Infinite City,” I repeated, with a mild sense of emptiness, both in my words and in my heart.

****

After the ceremony, everyone’s expressions were of happiness and pre-battle excitement. I had a forced smile on my face, but the bottom of my heart felt a bit heavy.

“My lord, how goes your training today?” Wolf-dàgē patted my back with a smile.

I smiled dryly when I heard his words. “Wolf-dàgē, why are you calling me ‘my lord’ as well?”

Wolf-dàgē scratched his head, shrugged and explained, “It’s because White Bird has ordered us to address you as such from now on in order to build your reputation as the Lord of Infinite City. That was the point of today’s Oath of Allegiance ceremony too.”

“I’m not used to this,” I said dejectedly. “Why does even Odd Squad have to kneel before me? I’d rather you guys bully me like before instead of kneeling before me.”

“Prince…” Wolf-dàgē called out hesitantly.

“It’s ‘my lord’!” Lolidragon reminded Wolf-dàgē as she ruthlessly whacked me on the head. “Wolf-gē, don’t forget White Bird’s order.”

She then turned and shot me a fierce glare. “Don’t think that I wanted to kneel before you. If it weren’t necessary to establish your reputation, I wouldn’t have kneeled before a brat like you.”

“Lolidragon! Don’t speak to our lord like that,” White Bird lightly reproached her, obviously dissatisfied with Lolidragon’s tone.

“Why must I establish my reputation?” I could not help but be angered as the suppressed resentment from these few days flared out all of a sudden. “Wouldn’t it be better if we were all friends? Why worship me as if I’m some kind of god?”

“My lord,” Wolf-dàgē and Lolidragon were looking at me with a shocked expression, as if they were startled by my sudden burst of anger. The noisy laughter from the crowd around us had quieted down as well and the people slowly started looking in our direction one after another.

“My lord…,” White Bird panicked, sweeping her eyes at the crowd who turned their attentive gazes towards us while frowning at me.

After seeing the members of Odd Squad together, Rose Team, Wicked and everyone’s expressions filled with concern. Seeing their expressions along with Nan Gong Zui’s and White Bird’s frowns, my heart suddenly felt like a deflated balloon, as though as all energy had been taken away from me. I tiredly waved my hand, “Sorry, I’m just too tired. I’ll go get some rest.”

I turned and left, without looking at anyone’s expressions anymore. I reached the main hall before realizing suddenly that I didn’t know where to go. Yun Fei and Jing—I’ll go look for them then, they would definitely understand my feelings.

I walked towards Lü Jing and Yun’s cottage in low spirits and kicked the door open with force. As expected, Yun Fei’s screaming followed.

“Prince, I have told you ten thousand times before, doors can be broken! And you’re paying for it if it breaks!” My mood suddenly brightened at the way Yun Fei spoke to me. He was the same as before, and he didn’t call me ‘my lord’.

“Is the Oath of Allegiance ceremony over?” Mom’s voice suddenly trailed into my ear.

“Dad, mom, you’re all here.” I turned, surprised. Not only were Jing and Yun there, but both of my parents were in the room as well.

“Of course, everyone was going to kneel down and swear fealty to you, but you can’t expect your parents to kneel before you too, can you?” Jing asked helplessly.

“Speaking of that ceremony, I’m starting to feel mad. Why must everyone kneel and pledge their loyalty!?” I could not suppress my feelings any longer and started shouting, wanting to vent out all my frustration. “They are my friends, why must they call me ‘my lord’, and why must they honor me!?”

Everyone was shocked by my outburst. It was only after a moment of silence that Jing spoke. “But it’s necessary.”

“Rubbish, we didn’t do that before, and we were okay, weren’t we?” I quickly argued. There was no need for me to establish any reputation.

“Xiao Lan, it is necessary.” Dad looked at me with a serious expression. “Infinite City is growing stronger, and more and more people are joining Infinite City. What they need is a king they can follow, not a friend.”

King… Why do I keep hearing this word? Why am I always being crowned with such a heavy word?

“Xiao Lan, you’ve already embarked on this path, and unless you want to abandon everything, you can only continue to walk onward,” Mom said to me in all earnestness.

“I… I’m willing to walk onwards. I just don’t like how my friends have transformed into subordinates. Is even this too much to ask for?” I could not help but choke out.

“Xiao Lan!” Yun grabbed hold of my shoulders. “What the heck are you doing? You’re not acting like yourself. You’re supposed to be someone who boldly moves forward and doesn’t withdraw regardless of the difficulties! You’re the heart of this group; tears and confusion aren’t things you should be expressing.”

“But I do shed tears! I do get confused!” I closed my eyes and cried, “I’m not god, I’m not that great!”

“Xiao Lan…” Everyone stood up in surprise, all wanting to come over to comfort me.

I desperately freed myself from Yun’s grip, wiped my tears away, and walked out of the house without looking back.

The four shouted in surprise, “Xiao Lan, wait up!”

I did not even turn my head as I shouted back, “Don’t follow me, I don’t want to listen to anything now!”

Using the fastest speed that I could muster, I fled like a wind away from the place I originally thought I could find some comfort. I hadn’t anticipate that even Jing and Yun, as well as my mom and dad, would be unable to understand my feelings. Who else would be able to understand? I smiled humorlessly, looked up, and realized that I was standing in front of Infinite Restaurant.

Naturally, I stepped into the restaurant. Just as I decided to find a corner for a silent drink, I saw Kenshin and Cold Fox sitting by the balcony, quietly drinking with some side dishes on the table. I arrogantly strode forward, sat down, and immediately grabbed Cold Fox’s flagon, downing it in one gulp.

Cold Fox watched silently as I snatched over the flagon. After I downed it all at once, he mildly said, “That’s a vodka and whiskey cocktail.”

As Kenshin raised his eyes to meet Cold Fox’s, the latter then added, “Very strong. A normal human being would be drunk after a few cups.”

Kenshin and Cold Fox stared at me together. As I met their stares, I started to get mad again. “What are you looking at!? Don’t you know I’m the Lord of Infinite City? Start ordering more wine for me.”

Kenshin withdrew his gaze and calmly said a single sentence: “He’s drunk.”

“Mm.” Cold Fox also responded calmly.

Godamnit, they’re not ordering wine for me! I couldn’t suppress my rage and slammed my fist on the table. “Waiter, bring more wine and all the side dishes you have to this table immediately!”

“Have you decided to throw your life away? To waste money like that, you’d better be careful of Yu Lian-dàsăo’s wrath,” Lolidragon’s lithe voice came from behind.

I did not turn my head, nor did I wish to reply.

Lolidragon released a sigh and sat on the seat beside me, “What’s wrong? Why are you so angry? It’s only an Oath of Allegiance ceremony; you don’t have to take it to heart.”

I was so furious that I loudly retorted, “What do you mean by only an Oath of Allegiance ceremony? All of you are my friends; you weren’t supposed to kneel before me in the first place!”

“It’s true that we’re your friends, but we’re also your subordinates. What’s wrong with subordinates kneeling before you to pledge their loyalty?” Lolidragon gazed at me with furrowed brows.

“What do you mean subordinates… All of you are my friends! Friends!” After roaring until my voice was hoarse, I grabbed the wine flagon the waiter had just delivered and drank madly, as if only this action could wash away the unhappiness in my heart.

I seemed to have frightened her, as Lolidragon was speechless for a while. She wordlessly watched as I madly gulped down the wine.

Finally, she spoke in an earnest, solemn manner. “Prince, you’re no longer a carefree prince, but a king who shoulders heavy responsibilities.”

I stopped my drinking. Why do these words feel so heavy? King? Me? I said in all bitterness, “Lolidragon, I don’t like the current situation, I don’t like how everyone’s treating me, and those, those lordly titles.”

Lolidragon slowly stood up, took a deep breath and said, “Prince, you wanted to create a legend. Are you relishing the moments of happiness of the legend, but refusing to shoulder the responsibilities and pain?”

I was rendered speechless, and I could only watch as Lolidragon left the restaurant without looking back. I lowered my head and looked at the flagon blankly. The bottom of my heart felt so twisted up that even I did not know what I felt at the moment.

“Prince… Are you okay?” a female voice asked from behind me. My heart tightened, Did Lolidragon come back?

Before my eyes Phoenix’s worried expression appeared. My once hopeful feelings died within me, and my heart became even emptier. I waved an impatient hand at Phoenix and adopted an extremely harsh tone. “Stop bothering me!”

After that, I turned my head and continued drinking and eating…but then I noticed Kenshin and Cold Fox staring over my shoulder, frowning. I quickly turned my head to have a look. Phoenix was silently shedding tears.

I was stunned, totally at a loss on how to react. But Phoenix was already speaking, and despite the two streams of tears trailing down her face, her tone was abnormally calm. “Prince, you have never actually cared for me, have you?”

“I…” What could I say? If Phoenix had not loved me, perhaps we could have been good friends, but since she just had to fall in love with me, she was destined to get hurt… Was it the right choice to have let her fall in love with me in the beginning? I suddenly realized in horror that I had never given any thought to the aftermath.

I found myself unable say anything and Phoenix did not seem to be expecting an answer. She closed her eyes, still silently crying, and turned and began walking away. “My passionate feelings of love burn like the flames of the phoenix, and yet the ones I meet always smother me with the chill of an iceberg!”

“Phoenix…” I could only numbly watch Phoenix’s extremely sorrowful retreating figure. Even after I could no longer see her, I still could not turn my gaze away.

“Prince…” Two voices called out to me at the same time, and at the door appeared the two silhouettes I knew best—Wicked and Gui.

Both of them came up to me at the same time, and I looked at them in a daze.

“Prince, you don’t have to bear those responsibilities. If you think it hurts, then don’t do it,” Wicked stroked my head comfortingly.

“Can I really?” I smiled wistfully. To leave just like that? To lose all my friends? To abandon the promise of creating a legend with everyone from Odd Squad?

“Xiao— …Prince.” Wicked sighed softly and said nothing after.

“Your Highness, if you want to shed tears, then please do so on Gui’s shoulders!” Gui compassionately pulled me into an embrace. I was startled for the moment, but then I raised my head and looked at him. He was taking advantage of me[6] as usual, but suddenly, I felt as if I understood something.

“Are you doing it on purpose?” I asked him.

“What?” Gui’s expression changed for a split second, and quickly returned to his normal, overly dramatic expression.  “Oh, I just can’t control myself when I’m around you, Your Highness!” Gui said.

“You are always taking advantage of me—are you purposefully creating a reason for me to hit you?” I stared Gui in the eye, not allowing him to act dumb. “You are allowing me to hit you, so that I can vent my frustrations, right?” I cried out hoarsely, “Why do you need to sacrifice yourself like that? Why do you endure such pain and even humiliation?”

I grabbed hold of his collar and glared at him, not giving him an opportunity to escape. “To go to that far of an extent for me, is it really worth it? You don’t even know my real name!”

Gui’s expression suddenly became gentle. He lightly caressed my cheeks, and his eyes bore such pain and happiness that I felt confused after looking at them. “If my tears can be used to exchange for your smile, then it’s more than worthwhile.”

Suddenly, Gui was fiercely dragged backwards onto the ground. Although Wicked was trying desperately to glare at Gui, he could not conceal the hurt in his eyes and expression. Gui fearlessly returned Wicked’s gaze, his eyes conveying a regretless determination.

“Why do I keep hurting people?” I mumbled. My eyes were as empty as a black hole. “Will there be people who get hurt no matter what I do?”

“Prince?” Wicked and Gui gazed at me in shock. Their eyes were heavy with concern.

In a daze, I stood up and walked towards the door. Gui and Wicked followed behind, and I suddenly stopped, turned, and spoke to them, “Don’t follow me, I want some time alone to think. Please don’t follow me.”

Gui and Wicked both stopped, and even though they were both so different, their eyes revealed the same worry and compassion towards me at the exact same time.

Those two who love me so deeply, which one should I hurt? Which one could I heartlessly hurt? Zhuo-gēgē, who waited for me for eight years? Or Gui, who sacrificed even his dignity for me? The answer was difficult, so difficult!

Stepping out of the restaurant and walking on the streets of my own city, I was suddenly reminded of a conversation I had with my brother in the online game The World that we used to play.

****

“Aiyo, why do others have money, land and fame but we don’t have any no matter how hard we train?” After grinding an endless amount of incoming monsters, I could not help but complain.

Shielding me from the front, my bratty little brother rolled his eyes. “You call that training hard? You don’t know just how much effort people might have to put in before they manage to pull it off!”

“Are you sure? They might have just bought all of it with money,” I answered in disdain.

“Right, stop envying others already. Owning a city is not necessarily a good thing. Why don’t you think of the responsibilities they have to shoulder?” Wu Qing actually replied in a happy-go-lucky way.

“What responsibilities? You mean the responsibility of lying down and collecting rent?” I could not help but retort.

Wu Qing looked as though he was teaching a hopeless child. “Sis, you just don’t understand. My friend has a city. Every day, he worries about losing the city, about loss and debts, about tension among his companions, and about the people who don’t accept him and want to usurp his throne. Also, once you own a castle, you must have a second, and a third… Finally, you won’t be happy until you dominate the whole game, and that is a very heavy responsibility.”

I replied thoughtlessly. “I don’t want a second castle, I just want one. Why is it a must to dominate the whole game?”

As he was almost sliced apart by the monsters, Wu Qing dared not continue the debate. He only mumbled one last thing in return—words that I did not to take to heart at that time but which were now clear as day to me. “There are some situations that leave you with no choice. Only the people who have not walked the same path can speak so lightly.”

****

“Indeed only the people who have not walked the same path can speak so lightly!” I closed my eyes, allowing the tears to trickle from the corner of my eyes.

“Prince-gēgē…” Doll’s hesitant voice reached my ears.

Not wanting to let the young Doll see me like this, I did not turn to face her. “I’m alright. I just want to be alone for a moment. You don’t have to worry about me, Doll.”

“Prince-gēgē, can Doll take a walk with you?”

“I want to be alone for the moment…” I relentlessly rejected.

Instead, Doll stepped forward and grasped my hand, and using a quiet tone which I had never thought would come from her, she said, “Don’t dwell on it alone, you will only be going on a wild goose chase. At least let me accompany you. I think I can understand your pain: the pain of a ruler.”

I first stared, followed with an unbelieving, bitter smile. “How could you understand?”

“How could a real life princess not understand?” Hearing that remark, I turned to Doll in shock, and was met with her regal expression, which exuded elegance. She smiled lightly as she said, “Let me take a walk with you now, you will feel better about being a ruler.”

I will feel better about being a ruler? A princess is telling me that I will feel better about having the identity of a king? Before today, I would definitely have said that this would never happen, but now… I could only smile bitterly. “There’s no way I could feel better as a ruler; I have… entered a quagmire. I cannot advance, nor can I turn back!”

”That’s because you’re focusing only on the pain of advancing or the pain of withdrawing, and forgetting the joy that can be had in both choices,” Doll replied. She spoke in a resolute manner, and yet her words felt vague to me. “Nevertheless, let’s just take a walk. There will always be a way, as long as you don’t stay in a corner and simply brood over things.” Doll strongly pushed me from the back, and in the blink of an eye, we had reached the city gates.

“Where are we going?” I asked in astonishment.

“The sky is endless, the world is vast; we can go anywhere we want!”

****

Meanwhile, in Infinite Restaurant…

Cold Fox asked coolly, “What happened?”

“Something that does not concern us.” Kenshin drank his tea with indifference. Human emotions were far too complex; it was not something he would understand.

“It’s not entirely unrelated to us,” Cold Fox sighed.

“Even though he is our Liege Lord, we have no need to care for his private matters,” Kenshin ruthlessly replied.

“No, it does concern us.” Cold Fox frowned as he looked at the table full of food and wine. “We have to pay for his bill.”

“…”

Chapter 3: Neurotic and DanDan

“I want to go somewhere secluded to train. Is that okay with you, Doll?”

I had thought about this for a while. How should I explain it? I didn’t want to wear a mask, but I didn’t want to get caught up in trouble either.

“Doll is okay with whatever you decide,” Doll replied, laughing. Her previous dignified air of a princess had disappeared off to who-knows-where. I rubbed my chin, replied with a vague sound of “mm”, and walked along quietly. Doll scrutinized my aloof reaction but she didn’t say anything and just followed behind me. Thus, the two of us pressed onward with our journey with barely any words exchanged. I intended to reach the Valley of Wandering Nymphs as soon as possible and vent out my frustration through battle.

It was not until we reached the valley that Doll finally spoke up, gasping in surprise, “It’s so pretty here! What is this place?” The scenery was indeed stunning. I gazed off into the endless field of flowers. Some were sparkling and immaculate like snow, while others were pink enough to instill feelings of adoration. Still others were a soft and mysterious shade of violet. Amongst the flowers stood several cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Their petals fluttered about the entire valley, intensifying the portrayal of a utopian beauty.

I answered Doll’s question softly, “The Valley of Wandering Nymphs.”

“What a befitting[7] name… Wait a second, the Valley of Wandering Nymphs?” Doll’s original infatuated expression suddenly changed, and she turned her head to look at me in fright, “Prince-gēge isn’t planning to train inside the Den of Wandering Nymphs, is he?”

I nodded. Doll looked like she wanted to say something but stopped herself, and eventually continued following after me silently.  Of course, I knew why Doll was apprehensive. The nymphs in this valley were all rare beauties beyond compare. When the game was newly released, perverts kept swarming here to gawk at them. Yet, all those perverts, whether they had come alone, in pairs, or in teams, would never make it out alive… Although the perverts wanted to ogle continuously at beautiful girls, they couldn’t just throw away their lives, and so they all gradually stopped coming to the Den of Wandering Nymphs.

Moreover, the number of regular players training here had been dwindling as well for two reasons. First, all males were invariably affected by the nymphs’ physical appearances and would hold back their attacks or would even start daydreaming with saliva dripping from their mouths. How could one continue fighting under these conditions? Second, nymphs were not your run-of-the-mill monsters. Nymphs fall into three subcategories: the level 60 ones, who wore red robes, the level 70 ones, who wore blue robes, and the level 80 ones, who wore purple robes. There were also rumors of a boss called Celestial[8], though nobody had seen it to this day, and only one or two pictures of purple-robed nymphs could be found on the Internet, and their beauty could rival that of Lolidragon’s, so they weren’t really a good target for males to train on. As such, the Valley of Wandering Nymphs barely showed any signs of human passing…

“Don’t worry. I only plan on attacking up to the blue robed nymphs. Even though they are always in groups of two or three, I should be able to manage with your skeleton summons.” I couldn’t help but console Doll a bit. Doll nodded, following me into the Den of Wandering Nymphs.

As expected, the red-robed nymphs were elegant and refined beauties. It’s no wonder men couldn’t attack them – who would be willing to fight against girls as beautiful as these?

In one clean strike, I attacked one of the nymphs. Seeing the nymph’s shocked expression, I chuckled coldly. I am not one of those gentlemen who believe in chivalry towards women, after all. By now, the two other nymphs nearby had begun to close in, making me a bit clumsy while parrying their attacks. But Doll immediately summoned eight Fire-armored Skeletons, changing the situation from three versus one to nine versus three. With utmost ease, I sent the three lovely nymphs to nirvana and continued further into the cave, preparing to find blue-robed nymphs and have a great time beating them up!

Doll and I continued fighting in this manner through the entire way. Apart from battling, we only stopped to eat our rations when we got hungry and to use this opportunity for some rest. Eventually, we had logged on and off so many times that we lost count, and yet, during this entire time, the two of us had barely spoken half a sentence.

While back in the real world, I saw Professor Min Gui Wen and Zhuo-gēge on campus, and both looked like they had a lot on their minds. Is it from worrying about me? I suddenly thought, Should I at least PM the people back at Infinite City? Isn’t it too irresponsible of me to take Doll along and just vanish without a trace?

The next time I went online, I discussed the issue with Doll. While chewing on her rations, Doll said to me, “Doll has already explained it to Wolf-gēge.”

“Oh, so you told him that you came with me to train?” In that case, it should be fine, since my original task was to concentrate on leveling up anyway.

“No. Doll said, ‘Doll and Prince-gēge ran away from home.’”  Doll’s innocent eyes glistened.

Ran. Away. From. Home? I felt my knees giving way. This… this is even worse than not saying anything at all. No wonder Gui and Wicked looked like they were worried to death, I thought.

“And then Wolf-gēge told Doll to follow Prince-gēge properly, or else Prince-gēge would get lost and end up who-knows-where.” Doll’s innocent words hit me with a thud.

“Let’s go, it’s time to train,” I said stuffily. As we were walking, my eyes lit up as a purple-robed nymph unexpectedly appeared in front of me, and it was alone to boot. There was no way I would pass over such a magnificent, once in a blue moon opportunity. I promptly announced, “Doll, I’m going to go one-on-one with that purple robe, so don’t interfere.” Doll nodded obediently. I raised my Black Dao, and right as I was about to attack to my heart’s content…

“Chains of Ice!” Along with that shout, a chain of ice coiled around the body of the purple-robed nymph, who struggled to break free.

“Hurry up honey, hit her with a fatal strike before she breaks free.”

“No problem, darling.”

I frowned upon hearing this exchange and leaned my head out of the passageway to investigate the situation. Then I saw a man carrying an intimidatingly large claymore walking towards the nymph who couldn’t move a single step.

While waving around his claymore, he muttered, “Hey gorgeous, don’t blame me for showing no mercy. The only one to blame is yourself for being so pretty that my lovely darling couldn’t resist but have you as a pet…” Two or three hits were enough to make the pitiful purple-robed nymph fall flat to the ground.

“Capture! Yay, we’ve caught it! Honey, you’re the best.” A woman wearing a magician’s robe was cheering. Looks like she was the one who cast the Chains of Ice spell. After she called out “capture”, the purple robe had disappeared without a trace.

I can’t believe someone stole my kill[9]. It’s a shame, but there is nothing I can do about it. Just as I was about to walk away…

“Honey, look, there’s a very handsome person next to you!” the woman shouted while pointing at me, making the claymore wielding warrior turn his head towards me and stare in bewilderment.

The warrior suddenly shouted in shock, “The rumors were right, the legendary Celestial really is a male!”

What? The legendary Celestial is a male? This is news to me.

“Right, that’s just splendid. Honey, it looks like we didn’t come all the way here to the Central Continent in vain; Celestial really is very handsome.” The woman gazed intensely at me, her face gushing with excitement.

“But do be careful, darling. Rumors has it that Celestial is strong beyond belief, and he is one of the top three bosses!” The man scrutinized my every move very carefully.

Wait a second. I frowned a bit. Don’t tell me these two are mistaking me for Celestial? How can this be? I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Are my pointy ears not proof enough that I’m an elf?

“Chains of Ice!” The woman yelled loudly as a snow woman suddenly appeared right in front of her and started casting its own magic… So she’s a summoner? I faintly recalled that such a class existed.

But wait a second! W-why did an ice chain appear around my body? I looked up. Oh heavens! The claymore wielding warrior was getting ready to hack me to death with that intimidating sword, and being wrapped up by the chains, I had no way of pulling out Black Dao to defend myself. I had no choice but to hop to the side, but I lost my balance instead and fell to the ground. Spotting an opening, the claymore warrior spared no time in swinging his sword, directing another blow towards me.

“Prince-gēge!” As Doll let out the most desperate scream imaginable, she threw her entire body on top of me, intending to block the attack for me.

“Doll, get away from here now!” I shouted, terror-stricken by the possibility of Doll getting any injuries. Surprised, the claymore wielding swordsman promptly shifted his attack, and his weapon smashed into the ground just beside us, stirring up a large cloud of dust. We stared at each other, the claymore warrior’s large eyes reflecting off of my smaller ones for quite a while before I declared coldly, “I’m a player.”

On the spot, large beads of cold sweat appeared on the claymore warrior’s face, and the chains of ice wrapped around my body disappeared. Looking behind him, I could see the female summoner smiling with embarrassment.

“Hmph!” I snorted coldly and got back up on my feet, while Doll, clinging to my chest, was still trembling with fear.

“My sincere apologies – this is all a misunderstanding. My wife and I are here to find out whether the rumored Celestial is a male or not. Moreover, my wife is a summoner, so if possible, she would really like to capture Celestial as a summoning pet. That’s the only reason we attacked you, so please don’t be offended!” the claymore wielding warrior apologized with a sheepish smile.

“Oh my, you forgot to introduce yourself, honey. Greetings, my name is DanDan[10] and I am a summoner.” DanDan smiled brilliantly. Her oval-shaped face was indeed as cute as her name suggested. Next, she gestured towards the claymore warrior, explaining, “This is my hubby. His name is Neurotic[11] and he’s a warrior.”

“A warrior with the strength to move mountains, with a huge claymore nobody else can wield as weapon. This is my claymore, Ultima Sword.” As if afraid that his in-depth clarification wasn’t clear enough, Neurotic started brandishing the claymore flamboyantly, stirring up wind with each impressive swing. Unfortunately, Neurotic was about the same height as myself, and his build was not that much stockier than my own slender elf body either, giving him the impression of a small child fooling around with a large sword.

“We’re leaving.” I carried Doll in my arms and walked away without looking back.

“Bide a moment, brave champion,” DanDan cried out in surprise.

I halted. Brave champion? Why is everyone I met lately fond of speaking in ancient prose? Though I couldn’t do anything about their way of speech, I still didn’t want to have anything more to do with them. My mood was bad enough already, and the fact that they knocked me flat on the ground was just adding fuel to the fire.

“Wait a moment, ultra-handsome fellow, strong and charming young lad, honorable and righteous warrior, uh…luckiest man alive with the world’s cutest wife…” Having completely exhausted his supply of titles, Neurotic has no choice but to start babbling rubbish.

I suddenly stopped in my tracks and turned around to angrily rebuke them. “What nonsense are you spouting? This is my little sister, not my wife.”

Those two were evidently quite shocked, but recovered their senses right away. Neurotic even replied with a sickly sweet smile. “Oh, in that case, luckiest man alive with the world’s cutest little sister, can you please tell us of your exalted name? It gets pretty exhausting referring to you like this.”

Doll, who was still being carried in my arms, suddenly spoke out. “How could you two not recognize him?”

Neurotic scratched his head. “What? Is our esteemed brother actually quite famous in the Central Continent?”

DanDan even let out a “oh my,” her face full of penitence as she said, ”We are truly sorry then. My hubby and I have just arrived from the Western Continent, and we are still not quite familiar with Central Continent. We probably haven’t heard of your renowned name yet.”

“It doesn’t matter where you came from. As long as you’re a player in Second Life, then it’s impossible for you not to know the spokesperson of Second Life, Prince!” Doll proclaimed, brimming with confidence.

The two of them breathed a sound of puzzlement upon hearing that. DanDan muttered to herself, “Second Life’s spokesperson? I haven’t been on the official site for a while, so now Second Life actually has a spokesperson!”

However, Neurotic asked me skeptically, “I haven’t been on the official site for a while either so I don’t know about this spokesperson business, but Prince is a name that I’ve heard many times before. Are you the Blood Elf of Infinite City?

I kept my expression cool, not wanting to say anything, but Doll replied on my behalf, “That’s right, Prince-gēge is the lord of Infinite City.”

“Fancy finding by sheer luck what one has been searching for far and wide.” Neurotic suddenly said neurotically, as he and his wife both stared at me intently with bright eyes. “Besides confirming that the rumored Celestial of the Valley of Wandering Nymphs is a male, our second reason for coming to the Central Continent was to check out the man who is famous throughout Second Life for his handsomeness – the lord of Infinite City.”

“Don’t refer to me as the lord of Infinite City!” I shouted rudely.

“Uh, how about Blood Elf?” Neurotic asked with hesitation.

“Don’t I have a name?” I replied in my coldest tone.

DanDan gulped, and very cautiously asked, “Prince?”

I snorted coldly, gestured to Doll, and promptly turned to leave. Behind me, Doll hesitantly explained to the other two, “I’m really sorry about this. Prince-gēge is in a bad mood, but do come and visit us at Infinite City some other time!” As she finished her explanation, Doll ran in small steps to my side, and took my hand.

“But I still haven’t seen enough yet.” The sound of DanDan’s regretful voice could be heard from behind.

“Oh come on darling, he’s in a bad mood, so let’s not bother them anymore.”

“But…”

“This is why we should just quietly follow them from behind. We won’t bother them with our chit-chat anymore.”

“That makes sense. I only wanted to see what Prince looks like anyway, so not speaking is fine.”

Hearing their discussion only made my anger rise with every sentence. What do they take me as, a monkey at a zoo to gawk at for their viewing pleasure? But I didn’t want to speak to them again either, so I could only let things be.

The situation lasted until Doll asked timidly, “Prince-gēge, aren’t we going a bit too far inside? It seems a bit dangerous here.” Oh right, I got so pissed off that I forgot where I was going. I looked to the left, and then looked to right, and there were purple-robed nymphs close to us no matter where I looked. If I were to continue going forward, they would definitely attack us in groups.

I couldn’t help but gulp a little, very carefully turning around and backtracking my steps.

“Wow, you really are deserving of the title Blood Elf, even when you are walking around such a dangerous place, you are still calm like you’re strolling in your own backyard.” DanDan smacked her lips in admiration.

Neurotic also shook his head, praising, “Simply miraculous. We were both attacked by the nymphs several times already, but Prince here is actually able to maintain his distance and stay safe the entire time, not getting attacked by a single nymph. This ability to determine the safe distance is just too astounding.” (Author’s Note: Every type of monster has a different safe distance. Once the player gets too close to the monster, passing the safe distance, the monster will then automatically go on the offense and attack the player.)

Eh, I guess this is what people would call the devil’s own luck… Lolidragon always rolls her eyes and says, Prince, it’s ridiculous how much devil’s luck you have. Imagining Lolidragon’s astonished, jaw-dropping expression, I couldn’t help but to raise the corners of my mouth.

“Hey, he looks even more handsome with a smile.” DanDan stared at me, drooling.

Upon hearing that, I immediately wiped the smile from my face, and glared at her a little.

“That angry glaring expression is not bad, either.” Neurotic and DanDan furiously nodded in agreement. The two of them sighed in unison, “Ah, this trip is really proving to be worthwhile.”

I couldn’t help but blurt out, “I can excuse DanDan’s behavior, but what is wrong with you, Neurotic? Don’t you realize that I’m a guy?”

Neurotic said matter-of-factly, “Beauty can be appreciated by anyone! My darling and I are both obsessed with beauty, which is why we joined hands in search of beauty together! This time is no different; we’ve come all the way to the Central Continent in search of the nymphs and Celestial of the Valley of Wandering Nymphs, and of course you as well.”

“Crazy couple,” I said while scratching the side of my face helplessly.

“You’re finally willing to talk to us. The risk of being killed by the surrounding nymphs that we took in persistently following you was not wasted,” a deeply moved DanDan exclaimed while looking at me.

“Hmph!” I obstinately turned my face away, no longer looking at them.

“Hehe, so the rumored Blood Elf turns out to be a big stubborn boy,” chuckled Neurotic.

“What are you talking about, a big stubborn boy? I…” Just as I was planning my retort, Doll suddenly let out a shriek of alarm. I could only see a flash of a white shadowy shape before Doll, who had been holding my hand just a moment ago, disappeared without a trace!

I looked frantically all over the place. Not far away from me, I found a person with a bewitchingly androgynous face embracing Doll tightly. Doll was turning pale with fright.

“Beautiful…” that thing with an ambiguous gender murmured in a mesmerized way, and then even had the nerve to stick out its tongue to lick Doll’s cheek. Doll herself was looking quite nauseated, struggling vigorously to break free from the hands of this pervert, but to no avail.

Furious, I started to charge towards them, but Neurotic grabbed my hand to stop me. I turned back to glare angrily at him. However, he was looking with uncertainty at the androgynous being.

“Celestial?” asked Neurotic.

This is Celestial? My expression changed drastically. I have absolutely no chance of winning against one of the top three bosses, pervert or not, but Doll has fallen into his hands now…

As I realized this, I became very somber, since this was entirely my fault. Everything would have been fine if I hadn’t brought Doll to the Valley of the Wandering Nymphs.

“Fair maiden, why don’t you become my bride?” Celestial said while rubbing his face against Doll’s cheek.

Doll was petrified with fear. “Waaaaa! Prince-gēge, hurry up and save Doll! Doll is very scared of this person.”

Damn! Who the hell designed this perverted NPC? He even knows how to sexually harass Doll!

I turned to Neurotic and DanDan, my eyes pleading, “I beg you guys, please help me save my teammate!”

Neurotic scratched the back of his head and said, “No problem! DanDan and I came here specifically to challenge Celestial anyway.”

DanDan even laughed confidently, saying, “Don’t worry, Prince. My honey is actually an elite warrior who is ranked ninth in the official ranking. He’ll definitely help you save that cute girl.”

“I am nothing compared to you, darling. You’re an elite summoner ranked fifth in the official ranking.” Neurotic replied with a face full of reverence.

I was jumping with joy. Looks like Doll might be saved after all. “Then I’ll be depending on you two.”

“No problem!” DanDan and Neurotic shouted together in harmony.

Their goofy expressions were replaced with a serious countenance. DanDan started chanting some incantations and then a living suit of armor appeared, separated automatically, and pieced itself back together on Neurotic’s body. Waving around his huge sword and roaring violently, Neurotic charged towards Celestial. I also scrambled to pull out my Black Dao and sped towards Celestial.

“Ha!” Celestial suddenly laughed scornfully. After reciting a phrase that I couldn’t understand, roughly ten purple-robed nymphs suddenly appeared in the space between us and Celestial.

We all gasped in surprise. Neurotic and DanDan also muttered upon seeing this. “This is going to be bad.”

“Flame-armored Skeletons, hurry and help.” Even captured, Doll was not one to sit idle. She hastily summoned her skeletons.

“Necromancer?” DanDan and Neurotic opened their mouths in surprise.

As I saw they were stunned, I shouted out to them anxiously, “Hurry up and save Doll!”

“Right!” Neurotic snapped out of it after hearing my urging. After roaring loudly, he got into a heated brawl with the ten purple-robed nymphs. It was a good thing Doll’s Flame-armored Skeletons were there to help, making it possible to slowly eliminate them one by one.

I could tell that the ten purple robes would not be a problem for Neurotic, and so I kept searching for a chance to rescue Doll. On the other side, DanDan was living up to her reputation as a fifth ranking elite summoner. Upon seeing my intention to save Doll, she summoned the snow woman as well. The snow woman activated her Chains of Ice in an attempt to tie down Celestial so that I could successfully rescue Doll.

“Chains of Ice!”

“Dispel!” Celestial snorted coldly. With just one word, not only did the snow woman’s Chains of Ice disappear, but she was also hit with an intense counterattack, making her spit out a mouthful of blood.

Ignoring the fact that Celestial did not get restrained, I still charged forward to rescue Doll anyway. As I almost reached Celestial, a white shape suddenly flew out, brutally hitting me in the chest. The impact was so great that I flew backwards, forcefully smashing against a wall. I coughed up fresh blood as I struggled to suppress the sharp pains coming from my chest. Several of my ribs seemed broken.

“Prince-gēge!” Doll shouted in shock.

DanDan was surprised too, and she called back the snow woman, and summoned forth another one, this time a katana covered in blood.

DanDan glared furiously at Celestial, shouting, “Let’s see if you can deal with a level 95 summoning – Blade of Blood.” Blade of Blood hovered in midair, and then flew like lightning towards Celestial. Good thing Neurotic and DanDan are not my enemies here… I was secretly dripping with cold sweat as I watched Blade of Blood’s evil aura surging through the air.

Celestial’s fury was radiating as he angrily shouted, “Celestial Satin!”

That white thing flew out again, blocking the Blade of Blood. Only now could I see it clearly. It turned out to be a strip of silk. Blade of Blood and Celestial Satin squared off against each other in midair, each trying to drive the other back. Blade of Blood desperately tried to cut Celestial Satin in half, but unfortunately, Celestial Satin’s ability to change from being fluidly flexible to being as stiff as steel negated all of Blade of Blood’s attacks.

“Pierce!” I suddenly heard Celestial command, and another white shape sprang forth, targeting… DanDan?

“Dodge it, DanDan!” I screamed loudly, and then knocked her out of the way with my body as the white fabric mercilessly pierced into my shoulder. I groaned roughly and was forced down on one knee.

“Darling?” Neurotic looked back worriedly as he heard moans of pain. When he saw that DanDan was fallen on the ground and I was heavily injured, he shook off the purple-robed nymphs with great force. He sprinted back towards us, and pulled out a red health potion for me to drink.

Without Neurotic, the pressure on the skeletons increased greatly. Doll could only direct the skeletons to temporarily hold off the attacks of the pursuing purple-robed nymphs.

Celestial laughed once again, reciting the same incantation that I couldn’t understand earlier. As I cursed in my mind, sure enough, another ten purple-robed nymphs appeared in front of us. Including the ones that Neurotic still hadn’t finished off, there were now a grand total of seventeen purple robes. All four of our faces changed drastically.

As the situation worsened into this, I prepared myself. I calmly said to them, “You guys run away right now. If it’s just escaping, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you two.”

“Then what will you do?” Neurotic asked in confusion.

“I’m going to stay. Even if I die, I will not abandon my teammates,” I said with determination.

“Good!” Neurotic gave me a thumbs-up, and waved around his claymore. “Then hurry and finish up your red potion, so we can charge at them together.”

Startled, I asked, “You guys?”

“Don’t be silly. I, Neurotic, would never ever abandon my teammates, except by dying in battle.” Neurotic laughed without restraint.

I creased my brows. “We don’t count as teammates, though.”

“Ah man, don’t sweat the small things! We have spoken together, so we count as teammates now—” Before DanDan could finish her sentence, she suddenly pointed towards Celestial’s direction in fright.

This time, Doll also let out a startled scream. I quickly turn my head and look, only to see Celestial actually grabbing Doll and flying up. Only now that I realized that there was a strange looking magic circle on the ceiling. From the looks of Celestial flying up… Don’t tell me he intends to fly inside? As soon as this thought entered my head, I immediately made a mad dash towards Celestial and jumped with all my might, but I couldn’t even grab a corner of his clothes. Celestial and Doll had already disappeared inside the portal….

“Doll!”

Chapter 4: The Terrifying Side of a Self-aware NPC

“Calm down, you have to calm down,” I muttered frantically to myself.

First, let’s see whether PMing works. Trembling, I opened the PM channel.

“Doll?”

“Prince-gēge,” Doll replied anxiously.

Thank goodness that PMs still works. The load weighing on my heart finally lifted a little.

“Doll, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, but Celestial keeps rubbing his face against Doll’s cheek, which feels really disgusting.” Doll sounded as though she was about to cry.

WHAT?! That perverted NPC… I was so angry that I nearly rushed up into the portal.

“Doll, you wait for me, I’m coming to save you!”

Doll stopped me quickly. “Don’t come up, Prince-gēge. Celestial is too strong; you guys won’t be able to defeat him. Just let Doll fly back to the rebirth point. Prince-gēge, your level is important to me, so whatever you do, don’t lose any levels.”

I was silent for quite a while. What Doll had said was indeed the truth, and even if I combined powers with Neurotic and DanDan, I was afraid that we might not even be able to grab the ends of Celestial’s clothes. However, can I really just abandon Doll? After all, it was me who had brought her here to her death.

I sat down on the ground, discouraged. As expected, my strength is still too low. I couldn’t even protect my own companion.

Neurotic and DanDan stood to one side, also unsure of what to do. They only stared at me, and I was lost in thought.

It was not until Doll messaged me with sobs, that I was roughly awakened.

“Prince-gēge, Celestial said that he wants Doll to be his wife, and he isn’t willing to kill Doll. Also, it’s strange that Doll has no way to go offline.”

“What?!” I was so shocked that I jumped up from the floor, even giving Neurotic and DanDan beside me a huge scare.

I was simply beside myself with panic. Doesn’t that mean that Doll is trapped? No way, I have to go save her! After I had made up my mind, I started calmly considering Doll’s rescue. After all, if the three of us went up, and were not only unable to rescue Doll but also became trapped there with her, then we would really be up the creek without a paddle[12].

“Neurotic, DanDan…” I explained what Doll had just told me. They too started furrowing their brows, and DanDan appeared to become even more worried.

“I intend to get help from Infinite City. Neurotic, DanDan, would you lend me your strength?” I was practically pleading as I looked at them.

“No problem! Even if we have to climb a mountain of knives or jump into cauldrons[13] of hot oil or even if the enemy in front of our eyes is Celestial, the two of us will rescue that cute little girl,” Neurotic roared with heroic spirit.

“That’s great,” I replied. “With someone leading the way, I won’t be afraid of not being able to find this place.”

“Leading the way?” Neurotic repeated blankly.

I nodded my head embarrassedly, and laughed, “Because I have no sense of direction, I’m afraid I won’t be able to find this place. Therefore, I’ll have to ask you guys to help bring my companions and me to this place later on.”

Neurotic’s whole face looked lifeless, while DanDan let out a laugh. “Okay, okay, my husband and I will act like a GPS device this once.”

After I finished talking to them, I immediately PMed my invincible pet, Kenshin. “Kenshin, matters are really serious. Hurry over to the Den of Wandering Nymphs and bring along Sunshine, Cold Fox, and XiMen Feng. Take note to use the flying carpet and hurry over. I’ll be waiting for you at the cave entrance.”

Kenshin was speechless for a moment, and then asked me, “The others aren’t needed? Wicked, Nan Gong Zui, and even Broken Sword are all stronger than XiMen Feng.”

I was silent for a moment. Right now, I really don’t want to see them! …I threw a tantrum and then I willfully ran away. Now that I have landed Doll into this predicament, how could I have the nerve to see them? Stubbornly, I said, “I don’t want to see people that I know well.”

“Understood. I’ll go look for them now.” Kenshin didn’t say much, and after saying that he’d look for the others, nothing else was heard from him.

After instructing Kenshin, I turned my head around and looked towards Neurotic and DanDan. “Please help bring me to the cave entrance to wait for support.”

“No problem!” Neurotic gave me a thumbs up.

As Neurotic brought me toward the cave entrance, he absent-mindedly told me, “You look a lot better now, not like a little while back when you had a ‘living people stay away’ appearance.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t in a very good mood,” I apologized, full of sincerity. Being that impolite to them, it’s surprising that they are still willing to help me.

“Ooh, not in a good mood? Come, tell big sister what’s the matter, and big sister will comfort you.” DanDan had the kind of glint in her eyes that appears whenever females see a cute small animal.

“Your husband would be jealous, right?” I hung a helpless expression on my face, for I hadn’t imagined that this face of mine would even tempt married woman.

Neurotic turned his head to look at me, and his eyes had the kind of glint that appears whenever a guy sees a cute girl.

“That won’t happen; I will comfort you together with my wife.”

This terrible pair of husband and wife…

“We’ve reached the cave entrance. Are those your companions?” DanDan pointed at the few shadows in front.

I looked over to where she was pointing. As expected, it was Kenshin. Beside him were the people that I had just requested, Cold Fox and such.

XiMen Feng reproached loudly, “Sonny, what kind of nonsense were you taking care of, missing for that many days, and leaving yer daddy without anyone to fight.”

“Don’t you know how to find Kenshin and Cold Fox? The both of them should’ve been quite idle,” I said angrily, yet finding it hilarious. Could it be that XiMen Feng had fallen in love with the feeling of having his ass kicked by me? Why does it seem as though everyone who has been beaten up by me becomes addicted to it?

XiMen Feng flinched as he glanced at Kenshin and Cold Fox. Looking highly embarrassed, he grumbled, “I did, but the red-haired sonny ignores yer daddy, and though that damn fox was willing to fight with yer daddy, his attacks were so heavy. Last time he even caused yer daddy to fly into the sky. Who would dare to look for him for a fight? It’s not as if I resent my level being too high and want to lose a few levels, eh.”

“Prince, just what happened? Why would you suddenly ask us to come over? Fairsky originally told me that you had a falling out with us, and you wouldn’t appear for ten days to half a month.” Sunshine questioned me confusedly. He even smilingly added, “Fairsky even spent a really long time explaining to me what ‘fall out with’ means!”

Sunshine is so straightforward that it would make people want to cry. I could only automatically overlook the three words ‘fall out with’, and directly explain the situation.

“Doll has been captured by a boss named Celestial. For unknown reasons, she is unable to go offline, so we have to go rescue her.”

Once I had said the word ‘boss’, Cold Fox’s eyes suddenly lit up. Straight and to the point, he said, “Let’s go then!”

This battle fanatic… Helplessly, I hoped that he would not forget that my main objective was to rescue someone. I gestured to Neurotic and DanDan to lead the way.

“Neurotic, DanDan, sorry to trouble you to lead the way.”

“No problem. I’m going to run, okay? After all, the sooner we rescue Doll, the better. If you guys cannot catch up, let me know.” The moment Neurotic finished his words, he immediately started running, and our party followed behind.

“Sprint forward, I think all of us can catch up!” When I thought of Doll trapped in the hands of the perverted Celestial, I wished that I could teleport there to rescue her.

“Prince,” Kenshin shouted to me, and then he pointed to the mage Sunshine, who was full of innocent smiles, as well as the beefy warrior XiMen Feng.

“Uh, Kenshin, you carry Sunshine. XiMen Feng… You better run faster.” I glared at XiMen Feng ferociously.

“F***, sonny, that’s discrimination!” Though grumbling, XiMen Feng still had a face of resignation as he prepared to use all his might to run.

With some difficulty, we ran back to the place where Celestial and Doll had disappeared. I gazed at the magic formation above and held in the urge to charge in to save Doll. Although there are this many strong people to help, Celestial is still someone who should not be trifled with. Let’s first PM Doll and check the situation before doing anything. Without further ado, I opened up the PM channel.

“Doll, how are you doing? Were you bullied by Celestial?”

“No,” replied Doll vaguely. It made my heart pump vigorously once. What has happened?

I took on a tone of worry. Has Doll been beaten up so badly that even speaking is difficult?

“Then we are going up to save you, okay?”

“Mhmm…” Doll gave another vague reply.

My heart was heavy. It looks like Doll really has been beaten up. How hateful!

I immediately changed my facial expression, and the look of the blood elf appeared once again. Full of rage, I used a dangerous tone as I said, “Nobody can bully my friends!”

Using all my strength to kick against the mountain wall, I took the lead and jumped into the magic formation, and the rest of them followed me. I glanced left and right in worry, searching for Doll. However, in the great hall full of snow-white pillars, other than the throne in the center and the scattered and gleaming treasures made of gold and silver everywhere, there was no trace of Doll. I couldn’t help but urgently shout, “Doll? Doll, where are you?”

“Who are you?” A voice came from behind a pillar and my eyes snapped towards it. As I expected, the one who appeared in front of our eyes was the androgynous pervert Celestial.

I gave a snort. “Hmph, you just captured my companion and now you don’t recognize us anymore?”

“So it is you, my wife’s former companion.” Celestial had a face of indifference, as though that was already the past tense. Seeing that, I was really infuriated. What do you mean ‘former’ companion?

“Return Doll now!” I bellowed.

Celestial narrowed his eyes dangerously and coldly said, “You want to snatch my wife?”

I too, replied coldly, “She is not your wife. You’re not worthy!”

“I said she is my wife, thus she is my wife!” Celestial was so angry that as he roared a length of white satin shot towards me.

I did my best to roll to the side and dodged the tattered cloth that had once made me break a few ribs. As I did that, I yelled at everyone, “Why are you just standing there? Start fighting!”

They returned to their senses and immediately drew their weapons to vigorously attack Celestial. Kenshin, whose speed was the fastest, was already in front of Celestial in the blink of an eye. Celestial revealed a shocked expression on his face, and hastily shot a few lengths of white satin to act as a shield between him and Kenshin. However, Kenshin indifferently shouted, “Void Piercer.”

“Urgh,” Celestial let out a groan of pain and Kenshin, who had abruptly appeared behind Celestial, took the chance to attack. Once Celestial turned around, Kenshin sliced again. Celestial was unable to dodge it, and was once again given a wound on his right shoulder.

Celestial was staring at his own wound with disbelief, an expression of rage on his face growing with each passing second. Following that, he flew up high in the sky to put some distance between him and Kenshin, his mouth spitting out that sound that I couldn’t understand.

Oh no! I shouted loudly inside my heart, but purple-robed nymphs had already appeared before my eyes. The difference this time round was that their number was so great that they were like a miniature army. Serious expressions appeared on our faces. Although it was not as though we couldn’t win against this bunch of purple robes, behind them there was still Celestial, who was eyeing us with fury!

Seeing the situation, I came to a decision. “Sunshine and DanDan, you guys will be in charge of using magic to force Celestial back toward the floor. Kenshin, you prepare to pursue and attack Celestial. The rest of you surround the two of them, and be sure to protect them well.”

Hearing my words, DanDan immediately stood beside Sunshine, and Neurotic and XiMen Feng also stood at both of their sides to protect them. However, Cold Fox stared at Celestial with his face full of longing instead, looking as though he was itching to have a fight to the death with him. I rolled my eyes. As expected, he is a fox that doesn’t follow the crowd. I could only open my mouth in exasperation to say, “Cold Fox, Celestial is not a warrior. Even if you fight him, you won’t find pleasure in it. Listen to me first and act accordingly. When we get back, you can have as many rounds of combat with Kenshin as you please.”

Cold Fox didn’t say a single word, but he obediently stood to the side of Sunshine and DanDan. Looks like Kenshin is not just ordinarily useful—besides being able to battle, he can still be used to ‘tempt’ battle fanatics.

Battle, start!

Sunshine immediately started to recite an incantation and wind blades shot towards Celestial. Unfortunately, they were all blocked by Celestial’s white satin. The superb summoner DanDan was not to be outdone, and while she summoned blood blades to fly into the air and fight with Celestial, she also summoned a stone giant to help us fight the purple robes, greatly reducing the pressure on us.

Kenshin prowled continuously underneath Celestial. The moment Celestial was forced to descend to lower heights by the blood blades and magic, Kenshin immediately used his astonishing jumping ability to jump between the pillars, frequently catching Celestial unprepared.

The rest of the warriors spared no effort in battling the purple robes that swarmed like ants. Swinging his claymore, Neurotic frequently chopped the purple robes into half through their waists and Cold Fox would appear and disappear unpredictably to strike a blade right into their hearts. I too, specialized in hitting crucial areas. The neck, the heart, and the forehead were all my favorite places. XiMen Feng, who was comparably lacking in power, instead adopted a strategy of fighting slowly, taking them on one at a time.

Killing them continuously, our bodies were drenched in unknown amounts of blood; our sight was a sea of red. Our hands had swung our blades an unknown number of times and we only knew that with every swing of a blade, there would be a fountain of blood spurting. Our bodies…had unknown amounts of injuries, but the pain had long since disappeared, leaving only numbness behind. However, the nymphs still continued to come at us like a tide and I didn’t have any time to check the situation with Celestial. Will Kenshin and the others be able to kill Celestial? I anxiously wanted to go check on Kenshin’s situation, but the moment I showed a little bit of hesitation, my left shoulder immediately received a heavy blow.

I knelt with a knee on the ground, wildly coughing up blood. When I raised my head once again, I saw both Neurotic and Cold Fox were already standing beside me, blocking the attacks of the purple robes in my place. If they hadn’t been there, I’m afraid I would have already flown back to Infinite City!

However, both of their bodies were also riddled with scars, and I could see that they were at their limit. Still the purple robes surrounded us in groups. Could it be that there is no end to Celestial’s summonings? Does his magic have no limit? My heart was half chilled. At this moment, I focused in Kenshin’s direction. His originally neat body was now covered in blood; his clothes had actually been torn in a few areas. Could it be that he is injured?

Damn, I actually forgot again—if Kenshin and Sunshine die, their consciousness might not remain. I definitely can’t let them die.

“Kenshin, Sunshine, if the situation turns critical, you guys should immediately escape,” I instantly PMed Kenshin and Sunshine.

“What is considered critical?” Kenshin indifferently asked.

“As long as your life is endangered, it’s considered critical,” I replied anxiously.

Kenshin gave a bitter smile. “But, I think I can no longer escape.”

What? I stared at Kenshin in fright, and at this moment then I realized that both of Kenshin’s legs had actually been bounded by countless lengths of white satin, making him unable to move. He could only block off attacks while standing in that spot. Moreover, surrounding Kenshin were ten or more purple robes, and Celestial was eyeing him covetously. Although Sunshine and DanDan frantically tried to distract Celestial, the white satin attacking Kenshin didn’t even stop once.

“Sunshine, hurry and help Kenshin!” I turned my head to look at Sunshine, and was once again shocked at another scene. As Neurotic and Cold Fox were standing within my vicinity to protect me, it caused the pressure at DanDan and Sunshine’s side to increase. DanDan not only had to command a stone giant to block off the purple robes, Sunshine still had to continuously use his magic to deal with Celestial’s white satins. The critical status of their situation was not at all lower than Kenshin’s.

Was it me who burdened everyone? Thinking this, I decided that I couldn’t care less that my body was in so much pain till I was numb, and forced myself to stand up. I shouted to Neurotic and Cold Fox, “I’m fine, you guys hurry and go help the magicians.”

Neurotic and Cold Fox gave me a worried glance, but under my firm gaze, both sped back to Sunshine and DanDan’s sides to help block off the attacks from the purple robes.

I want to go help Kenshin! Dragging my suddenly heavy body, I still did my best to swing Black Dao in my hands, using the speed that I was most proud of to weave in between the purple robes, and rush towards Kenshin’s side step by step.

“Kenshin, I have come to help you.” After reaching Kenshin’s side with much difficulty, I continued to swing my blade non-stop to hack at the white satin that was binding Kenshin’s feet.

“Mhh,” Kenshin grunted in reply. He started to concentrate even more on dealing with the surrounding purple robes. After quite a while he had cut down a large group of purple robes and I had also finally reduced the number of white satin strips on Kenshin’s feet to one.

“Prince, you guys be careful; I don’t have any more magic to continue the blood blades summon to fight with Celestial!” DanDan shouted anxiously.

What? I turned my head to look at Celestial. Without the blood blades, Celestial had no more concerns. With a wave of his hand, the white satin that I had chopped once again wound onto Kenshin’s legs. Another ten or so lengths of white satin floated behind Celestial, and then all of them shot towards Kenshin. It seemed that Kenshin’s body was going to have ten or so more holes…

“No!” I gave a roar and I threw my whole body towards Kenshin, determined to protect him at the cost of my own life.

“Rebound Barrier!” a familiar voice suddenly rose, and as I turned my head to look I saw that the lengths of attacking white satin had actually rebounded back to Celestial’s body. Unfortunately, Celestial had evaded it in time, and didn’t take any serious damage.

“Prince, are you alright?”

Lolidragon’s voice? Once again, I turned my head to look in shock. The people I saw were not just Yun and Lolidragon, but there were many more companions. The whole group of Odd Squad was assembled, and Rose Team was also here. Ming Huang from Dark Emperor was already looking at me with a face that revealed his bad mood and of course Nan Gong Zui and Kong Kong were not absent.

I was dumbfounded, and could only ask with a stammer, “Everyone… Why have you all come here?”

Lolidragon snappily replied, “Seeing that Kenshin was searching for people everywhere, I instantly knew that you must have gotten into trouble again. I PMed XiMen Feng to ask what had happened and found out that you guys were in trouble.”

“Afterwards, once I told everyone about this matter, no one said a single word and just rushed here.” Lolidragon said pointedly.

While Lolidragon was explaining, Wolf-dàgē’s healing white light had already enveloped me. Gui and Wicked had also long since run over to help me up and Nan Gong Zui and the others had run to battle with Celestial.

Within my heart, I felt warmly touched, and was a little at a loss as to what to do. I merely said, “Everyone, be more careful. Celestial is very strong.”

However, it seems that I was thinking too much. Although Celestial was a little strong to an exaggerated extent, facing this many people helping on my side, there was only defeat left in store for him. The purple robes on the ground were being massacred for fun and with the huge amounts of magic being released from our side, Celestial barely had any space to dodge the attacks. Mostly he could just use his white satin to block them, but gradually, many wounds were inflicted onto his body.

At last, Celestial was eventually unable to endure it any further, and dropped down from the air. Nan Gong Zui gestured for everyone to stop, and then walked in front of me. “Liege lord, go and kill off Celestial. Once you have killed him, you should be able to level up.”

“Oh.” I seem to be a little useless like this? But after stirring up a load of troubles, how could I dare to protest. I could only obediently walk in front of Celestial, and then pull out my Black Dao, intending to slice Celestial into half.

However, I suddenly thought of Doll, and I hurriedly asked him fiercely, “Where did you imprison Doll?”

“Kill me then. I definitely will not let you take away my wife.” Celestial was lying on the ground soaked in blood, but his face still had that determined expression.

In my heart, a strange feeling suddenly arose. This expression seems to be very familiar? Almost like…the resolve that Kenshin had when he was digging Kaoru’s grave.

At this moment, Neurotic who was beside me started muttering to himself, “This boss is sure strange. Although I have fought many bosses before, I still haven’t met a NPC that is so much like a human. Could it be that the stronger the bosses, the higher their intelligence?”

My heart thumped in surprise. True, Celestial’s reaction is really too human, and is the exact same as Kenshin’s and Sunshine’s. Could it be that Celestial has also become self-aware? I threw a dumbstruck look towards Lolidragon, who also looked back at me. On her face, she wore a serious expression.

“Kill him, Prince.” Lolidragon’s voice came from over the PM channel.

I was dumbstruck. “But, do you think he might have become self-aware?”

“That’s precisely why we have to hurry and kill him. If not, when everyone becomes suspicious towards Celestial, they might also become suspicious of Sunshine and Kenshin. Surely you don’t wish for any mishaps to happen to them, right?” Lolidragon said, agitated.

Kenshin and Sunshine definitely can’t meet any mishaps! I hardened my heart and flipped my Black Dao around to stab downwards into Celestial, who was on the ground. Softly, I muttered, “Sorry.”

Just as my Black Dao was about to penetrate through Celestial’s body, his body actually faded away in a flash, like particles dissolving. I was stunned for quite a while. Did I kill him? I raised my Dao and looked at it suspiciously, but I didn’t even think that the Dao had stabbed him. What was that?

“What happened? Prince, have you killed Celestial?” After a long moment, Nan Gong Zui came up to inquire.

Uncertain, I replied, “I don’t know—”

Before I could finish my words, Lolidragon’s voice came from over the PM channel again. “Say that you killed Celestial. I’ll go look for the people in the company. After a while, they’ll supplement you with the experience and loot. Right now, just focus on saying that you have already killed him.”

I was filled with doubts, but as I looked over, I saw that Lolidragon had already gone offline. Just what is going on? But since Lolidragon had instructed as such, I could only tell Nan Gong Zui, “…Should be dead, though his way of dying is sure strange.”

“Why is there no loot? This is really strange,” Nan Gong Zui muttered in incomprehension.

“Let’s not care about that, and hurry and look for Doll! I wonder if she’s alright now?” I said worriedly.

Just as I finished my words, I immediately heard a familiar voice. “Prince-gēge, you’re so slow!”

Seeing Doll walk over alone as though she was talking a stroll, and her hands even holding two packets of biscuits, my eyes nearly popped out.

“Doll, are you alright?”

Doll grabbed a biscuit and put it in her mouth, saying unclearly, “I’m alright, didn’t Doll tell Prince-gēge that I’m fine?”

The corner of my mouth twitched a little as I asked, “Then what have you been doing just now?”

“Eating, and also playing ball games with the purple-robed big sister!” Doll answered happily.

Thump!

Doll ran over in a hurry. “Prince-gēge, what happened to you? Why did you suddenly fall over? Your head is even spurting blood! Wolf-gēge, hurry and come over, Prince-gēge is about to die!”

Rubbing my head, I stood up and sighed. I turned around to face Neurotic and DanDan. “Neurotic, DanDan, my apologies. I’m deeply sorry for making you guys worry along with me.”

“Haha, it doesn’t matter. It’s on your account that we were able to meet Celestial today and even being able to fight a round with him is to your credit. Otherwise, I don’t know how much longer the both of us would have had to search for him.” Neurotic gave an unrestrained smile.

“Neurotic and DanDan?” Nan Gong Zui abruptly said with shock, “The winners of the Western Continent’s Adventurers’ Tournament? The couple from Wandering City?

I looked at Neurotic and DanDan in shock. They were the Liege Lords from the Western Continent’s Wandering City?

Neurotic embarrassedly scratched his head. “We’ve been discovered?”

“Then let us re-introduce ourselves! I am DanDan, a summoner who is fifth in the rankings. This is my hubby Neurotic, a warrior who is ninth in the rankings. We are the winning team of the Western Continent’s Adventurer’s Tournament, Wandering Team. After that we constructed Wandering City, and currently we are in the process of honing our strength for the big push, preparing to conquer the whole of the Western Continent. Hopefully, we will be able to become the region’s Overlords, just like you, Prince,” DanDan grinned at me.

“Me? Overlord?” I asked with shock.

DanDan’s eyes sparkled as she looked at me. “That’s right, Central Continent’s Bloody Overlord, Prince, is currently one of the most established names of the Overlords within the five continents.”

“Bloody Overlord?” I let out a small sigh, not knowing how to feel about that.

Chapter 5: A Man’s Daily Trifles

“It’s really going to be patched…” I suppressed the nervousness in my heart and prepared to go online to welcome the arrival of the new patch.

Speaking of which, that day Neurotic and DanDan followed us back to Infinite City to look around. Along the way they kept staring around at Infinite City dumbfounded, praising Infinite City as well as me. My heart filled with pride, but I also felt a twinge of embarrassment upon hearing the undue praise. At last, I couldn’t help but ask, “Neurotic, it’s going to be time for the patch soon. Is it fine for you two to still be wandering around the Central Continent?”

Neurotic scratched his face and said, “Of course it’s not! It should be about time to go back to make preparations for attacking cities! The group was calling us frantically with their mobile phones, and they just stopped short of making wanted posters for us.”

“Don’t you think that it’s very restricted like this?” I asked, slightly agitated. Without even waiting for his reply, I started mumbling, “In the past, our squad went wherever we pleased, and did whatever we wanted to. Everyone treated me as a friend or even a little brother. But now they always call me ’Liege Lord’, and last time they even kneeled down to pledge their loyalty to me… It really makes me feel, feel…”

“Unused to, it eh?” Neurotic asked simply, with both hands propped behind his head.

“Yeah, when friends all become subordinates, it feels really lonely,” I murmured.

“But they’re still friends. If you look closely, you will realize that actually no one has changed.” Neurotic looked at me with a serious expression.

“They haven’t?” I asked, a little perplexed.

“Yes.” Neurotic seemed to be incomparably resolute as he looked at me.

Still, I sighed in confusion. Neurotic used his large hands to rub my head and ruffle my hair as though he was comforting the neighborhood little boy. As he did so, he said, “It’s too bad that I didn’t get to see you in your full glory this time. I hope that the next time I see you, you’ll have already figured things out.”

“I hope so…”

Waking up from my flashback, I sighed. Resigned to my fate, I put on the reality helmet and entered Second Life.

Once I opened my eyes, I stared blankly at Lolidragon who stood before me. In her hands was a water bucket that was astonishingly big, but there was no water inside because the water…was all on my body. Wet silky hair stuck to my cheeks, and was dripping water non-stop. The originally stylish clothes were also soaked thoroughly and if I removed my shoes, there was an eighty percent chance that I could even raise goldfish in them.

Expressionless, I questioned, “What are you doing?”

Lolidragon replied to me seriously and solemnly, “My apologies, I originally wanted to mop the floor, but my hand slipped and all the water ended up on you. But relax, for I was coincidentally going to take a bath just now and have already prepared the bath water. Therefore, you can go have a comfortable hot water bath right now.”

“…”

“Don’t be shy, hurry and go wash! If the water cools down, bathing in it won’t be as comfortable,” Lolidragon continuously urged me.

“Do you want to bathe together?” I suggested.

Hearing that, Lolidragon’s eyes immediately sparkled like a ten-carat diamond. “I can? Then I won’t refuse!”

“Of course…not!” I replied fiercely.

Lolidragon pouted her lips in dissatisfaction. “Fine then, go wash by yourself.”

Wordlessly, I retrieved some rope from my backpack, and started tying Lolidragon to the pillar. All the while she kept on shouting, “Hey, what are you doing? Why are you tying me up?”

After ensuring that the ropes were secure and Lolidragon would be unable to escape in any way, I elegantly extended my middle finger with poise and pointed it at her.  “You better not be thinking that I don’t know about your plans to peek inside while I’m bathing, Lolidragon, you damn nympho, you better stay right here and leave your sweet talking to that pillar until I finish my bath.”

“You misunderstood, I didn’t think about peeking in during your bath, I swear! Hurry up and help me loosen these ropes,” I heard Lolidragon shout to my back as I walked out of the great hall.

“Aiyah, I’m doing this for your own good. You are scared to wash your little XX, right? I can help you!” Hearing that, I raised another middle finger at her. “Grrr, like letting me see it for a while would kill you. It’s rare that I, the great Lolidragon, actually want to see your small XX.” Hearing this coarse language from Lolidragon, I continued to walk out of the great hall without looking back.

“Bathroom, where’s the bathroom?” I shivered while I looked for the bathroom that I had never gone to before. Looks like this patch has really changed the game to be closer to reality this time, for I was not merely soaked but I actually felt cold.

There it is! I looked at the two big words Bath house and dashed into it happily. Looking at the gents at the left and the ladies on the right, I hesitated for a while. Should I go into the gents or the ladies? Since it’s in the game, then it should be the gents, right? Without any further thought, I arrogantly kicked open the main door and sauntered into the gents with huge strides.

“Is the liege lord here for a bath too? Hurry up and get in, it’s really comfortable.” A fully naked Kong Kong waved at me. I only smiled at him foolishly with my eyes fixed on his upper body, not daring to wander below.

I swallowed my saliva, and looked at the bunch of handsome men that were currently bathing in the bathhouse…Nan Gong Zui was leaning at the poolside with his eyes closed. Hearing my arrival, he opened his eyes and smiled at me. Combined with that lean, muscular chest and shoulders, it caused me to drool uncontrollably. Broken Sword… No no no, I can’t look at him anymore. Don’t kid with me, he’s my cousin-in-law, how can I take advantage of my cousin-in-law?

Sunshine is so cute! Kenshin, seen it already. Wolf-dàgē’s whole body is full of fur, so I can’t see much. As for Feng Wu Qing, I have seen it since I was young, there’s nothing good to see… My eyes swiped from the left to the right like this, and then looked from the right again, my saliva just barely short of a waterfall. Oh my god! Could it be that I’m the same as Lolidragon, as in we’re both really perverted females?

“Pretty lad, why are you in a daze? Your whole body is soaked, hurry and remove your clothes and go in, or you’ll catch a cold. I heard that after Second Life’s update, players can become sick as well.” XiMen Feng also entered the bathhouse and was also naked from head to toe. The only difference was that it was currently daytime and ‘he’ was actually a ‘she’… How horrible, she’s actually swinging her chest that is bigger than mine by two cups in front of me, it’s simply looking down on me.

However, I turned my head back to look at the male organisms in the pool, and about ninety percent were holding their noses…. Was it really so serious? Is it possible that Second Life is so realistic that one can even have a nosebleed?

“Hey, pretty lad, you have a nosebleed,” XiMen Feng mentioned carelessly.

Eh? I extended my hand to wipe under my nose, and a whole handful of blood immediately appeared on my palm. God, I looked at guys until I had a nosebleed? “But then, lad, you seemed to have a nosebleed even before you saw me.” XiMen Feng looked at the men in the pool, and smiled wickedly. “Lad, your fetish seems to be a little strange.”

Once XiMen Feng said that, I saw from the corner of my eye that the people in the pool had all lowered their bodies deeper into the water, and kept looking at me as though they had been violated.

“Prince, you bastard! You actually tied me up on the pillar, and came here to see for yourself first!” Lolidragon shouted as she kicked open the bathhouse’s front door, and then like me her eyes wandered from the left to the right and back again. However, unlike me she had a nosebleed that sprayed out like two waterfalls.

“This is really tooooo nourishing for the eyes.” Lolidragon skipped to the poolside, while salivating and scrutinizing the handsome guys there as though she was selecting a piece of pork. If she weren’t afraid that the guys would be scared off and run, I think there was a great chance that she would’ve stuck her head in the water to look.

In the end, I dragged Lolidragon out as the faces of the guys in the pool looked pale. After that, I saw clothed males fleeing from the bathhouse’s doors.

For some reason, nobody seemed to be interested in going to Infinite City’s incomparably luxurious male bathhouse from that day on. I was the only one who would occasionally visit and soak in the waters after tying Lolidragon up in chains and throwing her in jail.

Speaking of which, after the crowd of males escaped, I monopolized the huge bathhouse by myself. After a comfortable bath, I suddenly discovered a very urgent problem, and thus, I bustled about finding someone who could help me solve it.

“Wicked, you’re finally online.” I sprinted in front of Wicked, breathless, and looked at him with an unmatchably touched expression.

Wicked looked at me, full of smiles. “You were in a hurry to find me?”

“Yup, it’s super urgent.” Without waiting a moment longer, I pulled him with me and ran.

We ran into an empty room, and I locked the door behind me and put both my hands on Wicked’s shoulders, looking at him with unmatchably seriousness.

Wicked was blushing a little nervously, and asked quietly in a cautious tone, “What’s the matter, Xiao Lan?”

“A very grave matter.” I opened my mouth to say with incomparable caution, “Zhuo-gēgē, hurry and teach me how males go to the toilet.”

“This…”

“Hurry up and teach already, I’ve been bearing it for so long,” I urged him, wanting to cry and yet unable to do so.

Wicked revealed an awkward expression and stuttered, “J-just, just pull down the zipper, and then… Urgh, take….take it out, and then support it and aim…”

“Oh, understood. Then I’ll be going to the toilet.” I practically was barging through the door and running all the way to the toilet, ignoring Zhuo-gēgē at my back who was wailing in anguish, “I actually taught her this kind of stuff…!”

I rushed into the toilet in a hurry and followed Zhuo-gēgē’s step-by-step instruction. Finally, I was relieved of the agony of holding in one’s pee. After that, then what? I entered a new predicament that I didn’t know how to solve, for I seemed to have forgotten to ask the steps afterwards.

“Stuff it back in and then pull up the zipper and you’re done.” A life-saving voice came from the side, but I was a little hesitant, and looked at my innocent hand as well as the small XX that I had not dared to look at the entire time. I have to use my hand to touch that thing? Ew, the thought itself is really scary. However, I also can’t let it sway around like that outside, right? Gathering up my “do or die” determination, I extended my right hand and stuffed it back in at the speed of light, as though touching it any longer would make my hand corrode away.

Whew… At long last, I settled a huge problem. However, I have to wash my hands thoroughly. Although it is my own small XX, it is still rather disgusting. I frowned, staring at the hand that had just stuffed my small XX back in.

“Stupid sis, even stuffing your small XX back in makes you look like you’re going to die as a martyr.  I really don’t know how you are going to continue acting as a male in the future.” Wu Qing’s voice rang again.

Expressionless, I turned my head to look at him, but Wu Qing didn’t even glance at me directly, only caring about pulling up his zipper and then running to the sink to wash his hands. I too walked to the sink to wash my hands rather calmly, while saying helplessly, “When did you find out?”

“During the Loyalty Pledging Ceremony. Your tantrum-throwing expression was the exact same in real life,” Wu Qing replied nonchalantly. I think the shock he received when he discovered the truth was probably lower than when he woke up in the morning and discovered that he had grown a pimple.

“Oh.” It’s about time he found out. All those who know that I’m a tranny have discovered it, except for my brother who had actually known about it first… If he was still unable to find out, I think I really would have to take him to the hospital for a good check-up on whether the part of his brain that recognizes people really has a problem.

Wu Qing couldn’t help but say, “But still, you don’t seem to be acting like yourself lately, sis. You look like you’re really lost, which is not in accordance with your personality of acting first and thinking later.”

“Stop nagging, I am actually a VIP with many troubles!” I retorted resentfully upon hearing my brother’s straightforward words.

“Sure, sure, you’re the VIP,” Wu Qing said in a half-hearted tone.

I was feeling pissed and was about to refute…

“But still, the stupid big sister who doesn’t use her brain to do stuff is much cuter.” Wu Qing’s two hands encircled his head and he walked out nonchalantly.

I suddenly thought of something. “Yang Ming, don’t tell others of my identity.”

“Okay, okay,” Wu Qing replied without even looking back.

“Pig-headed brother, can’t you directly tell me if you are concerned for me? Being this awkward, your personality is practically the exact same as me,” I murmured to myself with a broadening smile only when my brother was out of sight.

“Can’t believe that your brother actually has this side of him, even I thought that he was purely a playboy aching for a beating,” Lolidragon told me as she lazily appeared from beside the toilet door, as soon as Wu Qing’s hind leg disappeared from sight.

I shook my head. “The fact that he has this side isn’t surprising. I’m more curious about why you came to the male toilet, Lolidragon.”

Laughing, Lolidragon said with a whole face of innocence, “Going to the toilet.”

I said coldly, “If I remember correctly, aren’t the female and male toilets on opposite sides of this corridor?”

“Oh…” Lolidragon scratched her head, and after sneaking a peek at my lower body, her eyes revealed an expression of disappointment. It is unknown if I had read her lips wrongly, but I kept feeling that Lolidragon was silently chanting obscene language such as “Like a peek would kill you…”

With a “Humph”, I intended to leave so as to put some distance between me and this completely perverted female.

“Okay, okay, I won’t toy with you anymore. I was looking for you regarding some serious business,” Lolidragon said in a hurry.

“What business?” I asked, bewildered.

“Take it.” Lolidragon tossed something to me. I caught it easily, looked at my hand, and saw that it was a gemstone. I was just about to ask Lolidragon what this was, but she had already opened her mouth and started explaining.

“This is the reward for killing Celestial. Although the company and I busied about for a few days, we couldn’t discover what the problem was, so we can only compensate you with the reward and experience first before doing anything about it.” Lolidragon looked worried, which was rare.

Seeing Lolidragon acting out of character, it seemed like matters were really grave. I didn’t even check how much experience was actually added, and only asked at once, “Is it serious? Maybe it is only a small bug, and every game has them.”

Lolidragon’s expression changed from worried to slightly more relaxed. “Perhaps it is only like that. Maybe I’m worrying too much.”

I seized Lolidragon’s shoulder and joked with her, “Anyway, you’re only a small GM, you don’t have to care about it that much. At most, just change your job.”

Lolidragon let out a small grunting sound and then switched the topic as she smacked my shoulder in return. “Hurry and go to the great hall, everyone’s waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me?” I was a little stunned. What was the matter?

“Yeah. After you protested by leaving, everyone has done some reflection and wants to chat with you about how to solve your problem,” Lolidragon said.

I showed a guilty expression. I left home impulsively and let Doll land herself into trouble. In the end, it was still everyone’s hasty help that solved the problem. Now everyone is saying they have actually done some soul-searching? I sighed. The person who truly needs to self-reflect is me.

Without waiting for my reaction, Lolidragon gave me yet another smack to the shoulder. “What are you thinking? Just hurry and go.”

Uttering an “Oh”, I walked through the long corridors with heavy footsteps. Although I had already gone to the great hall countless times, my heart was still nervous, as though it were filled with rocks from the manure pit.

As I neared the great hall, I felt even more anxious. At long last, I turned a corner, and the great hall was just at the other end of the corridor. However, I halted my footsteps in nervousness. Maybe I should think about how to apologize to everyone first? Also, I hope that I can make everyone understand that I want them to treat me as they did in the past.

Just as I was about to burst my brain from all the thinking, a cold voice broke the silence of the corridor. “Prince?” they asked me with the indifference of a machine.

I was stunned for a moment, and replied in reflex. “Yes…?”

After I answered, I realized that something was wrong. The other party didn’t reply and only an abnormal glint of silver appeared. Having the experience of being assassinated by XiMen Feng, I ducked to the side by reflex, and then looked backwards. As expected, the glint of silver was emitted from the dagger in someone’s hand.

I looked closely at the dagger’s owner. It was a woman with a delicate figure who was clad in a tight black bodysuit. However, because she was wearing a mask, her true identity could not be seen. Her two beautiful eyes showed no expression at all, and without even saying a word the dagger moved with shocking speed, once again threatening my life.

I yelled in shock, and didn’t even have enough time to pull out my Black Dao. I could only roll to the side to protect my little life. Turning back to look I thought, Oh my god! It’s that deadly dagger again! How can its speed be so fast?! The thought had just flashed through my mind and my body had already shifted ten centimeters to the side, but the dagger still stabbed into my shoulder. I groaned in pain.

However, I didn’t let her stab me in vain. My right fist swung, and violently punched her in the nose, which led to the sound of breaking bones that I heard with much satisfaction.

Taking advantage of the time after breaking her nose, I immediately tried to pull out my Black Dao. The blade was only pulled out halfway when the female assassin looked back. The dagger once again lurched towards me, as though she was only pushed back slightly, rather than breaking her nose—the most vulnerable body part of human that, once hurt, can give someone so much pain that they’d rather die.

I could only use the half pulled out Black Dao to block the dagger, and simultaneously, my right leg also swept towards the female assassin. However, she seemed prepared for it. As she jumped, the dagger in her hand headed towards me again. I had pulled out my entire Black Dao by this time, and neatly avoided the incoming dagger by turning around. At the same time, I discovered that the female assassin’s strength was alarmingly high. My hand was shaking violently. I actually had to block it by forcing myself. Could it be that the female assassin is a warrior and not a thief? But her speed is also very frightening.

At this moment, shadows and sounds came from the other end of the corridor. I looked back and saw that it was the crowd waiting for me at the great hall. They seemed to have realized that something was wrong, and had decided to go check it out. I felt relieved at this point.

The female assassin had also seemed to notice the sounds of the crowd. She actually revealed a strange, faint smile. Using that voice that was like a robot, she said, “Don’t think that they can stop me, you will still have to die.”

I took in a sharp breath. Did I do something so unforgivable that made her so determined to kill me, a 20-year-old, cute, beautiful, and delicate young girl?

Once the female assassin finished her words, she didn’t hesitate further. Two gleaming daggers stabbed at me again. I roared once, and after an ugly-looking dog-style roll, my left hand was left with a long gash.

Lying on the ground, I spit out two mouthfuls of blood and then lifted my head toward the female assassin. I had already prepared to be killed off; however, I saw that several semi-transparent arrows had forced the female assassin to retreat and dodge. At this time, the fellows that had arrived stood in front of me one by one, protecting me.

Nan Gong Zui questioned with an air of fury that was hard to cover, “Who are you? Why do you want to hurt Prince?”

The female assassin didn’t even reply. With a sudden flash of her silhouette, she appeared directly in front of me.  I was deeply shocked, and the crowd standing in front of me had not yet responded. In the moment where I thought I was really going to lose my life under the dagger, a black shadow moved in front of me. Wicked had actually used his body to block the stab, and he released a painful groan.

“Wicked?” I exclaimed in shock.

When everyone saw Wicked had been injured, they all unsheathed their weapons and without another word, attacked the female assassin. But her speed was simply too fast. Although she was having some difficulty fighting us, she still managed to dodge most of our attacks.

“You have to pay the price for hurting Prince!” Gui lifted his guqin and several Supersonic arrows shot at her. The female assassin, who had been besieged by people, finally got hit as her thigh and arms were promptly stabbed with arrows.

The female assassin halted, glaring at her surroundings with unparalled coldness. At last, when she looked at me, she spoke with a tone of extreme disdain. “Which part of this kind of childish liege lord is worth your protection?”

“I will not allow you to hurt him, just as he would not allow anyone to hurt his friends.” Nan Gong Zui held his sword, determined, as he stood in front of me.

“Childish? Do you know that, even if he was covered in blood from head to toe, this childish person would still not retreat a single step backward, but would stand in front of his companions to protect them?” Yu Lian-dàsăo was steaming with anger, and her hands had already prepared her magic to attack.

Doll had hurried to my side with two streams of tears. After she looked heart achingly at my bloodied upper torso, her eyes burned with fury as she looked at the female assassin and chanted an incantation that I had never heard before.

“The black inferno of hell, in the name of Doll, I command you to forge into chains, and burn on this enemy of mine. Torture as much as you can, inflicting pain beyond death, but let them be unable to seek death – Chain, Endless Torture.”

However, they are still friends. Look closely, and you will realize that actually, everyone hasn’t changed. Neurotic’s earnest expression and words suddenly appeared in my mind. Everyone really hasn’t changed! My heart was suddenly filled with comfort. Although my body was in terrible pain, I couldn’t help but smile.

Once Doll’s incantation was finished, several black chains sprung up beside the female assassin’s foot. Before anyone could respond, the chains tightly bound onto her body, and the sizzling sound of BBQ meat could be heard. She was in so much pain that she released piercing screams and in the air lingered the disgusting smell of grilled human meat.

“Doll, don’t kill her yet, there are still things I want to ask.” Seeing the situation, Nan Gong Zui hurriedly stopped Doll.

With a face of solemnness and seriousness, Doll looked at the female assassin screaming in pain and agony. In a voice of pity, she said, “She won’t die. Chain, Endless Torture has no attack power, thus it will not let the player die. However, it will give the player so much pain that they would rather die than suffer through it.

Looking at the terrible situation of the female assassin, everyone was feeling distressed as well. From their expressions, I guessed that they were thinking about the same thing as me in their hearts. In the future, I’d rather commit suicide by jumping off a cliff and having my carcass splattered into pulp than suffer Doll’s wrath.

“Why do you want to kill me?” I asked as I walked to up to the assassin, enduring the pain from my wounds.

The female assassin ignored my question and instead began to laugh crazily. She shouted, “I have failed, but it doesn’t mean that others will. Just wait, you little imp. You better not count on being able to stay at Infinite City forever and be the liege lord.”

When she finished, she raised the two daggers in her hands, and without hesitation, she stabbed them into her heart. Before anyone could react and stop her, she had already become white light and flown away.

At this moment, my tense body finally relaxed and, leaning against the wall, I slid powerlessly onto the ground. However, the nervousness in my heart increased as many, many questions flooded in… Still, right now the main objective is to wait for Wolf-dàgē to come over and heal my wounds. I was in so much pain that my face had distorted, and my eyebrows had furrowed together as I looked at the fresh red blood spurting from my shoulder like a fountain.

“If Second Life were to have a vampire race, they would definitely love me—someone who is covered with blood so often—to bits.” This was the last bit of nonsense that I thought before I fainted.

Your Highness…Prince…Liege lord…

“Hmm?” I opened my eyes a little hazily, wanting to see which bastard was disturbing my sleep. However, as I opened my eyes, everyone’s concerned faces immediately sprung into view.

“What exactly happened? Who was the one who has harmed you?” Gui asked with a cold expression.

“That assassin was female, and by matter of principle, women wouldn’t want to kill Prince,” Wicked thought as he scrunched his eyebrows.

“I too have no idea what is going on.” I stood up steadily and, as expected, the wound on my shoulder had already been healed.

“Actually daring to assassinate the Liege Lord in front of us, they’re simply belittling Infinite City. If her assassination were a success, then the Liege Lord’s reputation would be—” White Bird started indignantly.

Nan Gong Zui suddenly stopped White Bird from continuing. “Don’t talk about it anymore, White Bird. Right now, what’s the most important isn’t the Liege Lord’s reputation, but how Prince’s life was threatened.”

Nan Gong Zui turned toward me abruptly, and with an apologetic tone said, “This time we were the ones who were at fault, for we’ overdid things and almost totally neglected your original personality, and we haven’t taken into account your opinions.”

Hearing Nan Gong Zui say that, I was just about to refute that it was me who was too impulsive when Nan Gong Zui waved his hand instead, expressing that I should let him finish. “Perhaps because of this, although Prince is the Liege Lord, he has always been following our commands. To tell the truth, Prince, you have never given us any orders.”

Finally, Nan Gong Zui stated profoundly, “Reputation is not obtained just by having your subjects kneel down and swear loyalty to you, Prince. When you are genuinely able to assume your personal responsibility, your prestige will naturally be there.”

“The growing up process may be unbearable, but the final fruit will be very sweet.” Yu Lian- dàsăo smiled as she looked at me and at last she extended her hand to stroke my head. “Relax; our Prince will definitely have no problem.”

I was silent for quite a while. Considering Nan Gong Zui’s words, I recalled grudgingly that I was really a submissive person. No wonder White Bird was always saying that we had to build my reputation, though she had never really convinced me.

Seeing Nan Gong Zui’s encouraging smile, and thinking about my brother’s words, I finally settled on a decision. Who cares, I’ll be whatever kind of Liege Lord that I’d like to be.

Lifting my mouth into a faint smile, I said, “Then, from now on, everyone is not allowed to call me Liege Lord anymore. Prince is my only name.”

“But—!” White Bird hurriedly tried to retort.

“I said,” I continued in a calm voice that brooked no argument, “Prince is my only name.”

White Bird was stunned, her face carrying an utterly shocked expression, while the others smiled.

I did a big stretch, as though I had just awakened from a deep sleep. It’s strange how just one difference in one’s way of thinking can change how someone feels. The disparity between my feelings right now and my feelings just before, when I was walking to the great hall, makes it seem as though I was another person.

As I finished my stretch, I straightened my body solemnly. “Now, let’s talk about the assassin from a moment ago. Having such a strong woman coming to kill me for no apparent reason is already very strange. What is even stranger is that before she died, she said she had failed, but it doesn’t mean that others would.”

Hearing the words that I said, everyone’s faces became serious. Nan Gong Zui said gravely, “If it’s like this, there should be even more people who want to kill you.”

I nodded. “Should be, though no matter how hard I think, I can’t seem to think of anyone that I have offended recently.”

“It’s possible that it’s not a personal grudge,” Lolidragon explained, not feeling surprised at all. “Prince is the person who has the most ability to unite the whole of the Central Continent right now. Moreover, the battle for the cities is close to hand. Just from this fact, the number of people that want to kill you until you’re back at level 1 is probably as plentiful as the carp swimming upstream during mating season[14]. After all, there are many people who want to become the liege lord.”

I scratched my face, and was just about to ask when the battle for the cities starts. However, there was an eighty percent chance that Lolidragon had already seen my questioning expression, for she rolled her eyes at me and explained, “There are only two more weeks until the battle for the cities. While you were away everyone has already made preparations to attack the cities.”

I scratched my face in embarrassment. “Oh, then should I hurry and train to gain a few levels so as to change how I can’t match up to the other liege lords’ levels right now?”

Lolidragon smiled mysteriously. “War is the best way to gain levels.”

“How?” I asked blankly.

“In this patch there were too many changes, so I didn’t have the time to tell you guys. Actually, killing people can also increase your experience points. Usually, by killing others, you would receive a heavy punishment. After willfully killing others, you would be listed as wanted for a week, so one wouldn’t be able to meet the NPC wardens in the city, and also wouldn’t be able to buy or sell items in the city. However, this penalty does not apply during the battle period. Which also means, Prince, you can go on a rampage and kill your enemies to raise your level during the battle.”

Lolidragon looked at me with a smile. “To kill several tens, hundreds, or even several thousand people during the battle should be an easy feat for the Blood Elf, right?”

Hearing this, I couldn’t help but smile the Blood Elf’s wicked grin. “Looks like I’m going to have another nickname, the ‘Killer Demon King’.”

“You just go and be your ‘Killer Demon King’, our Foreign Affairs group will definitely find out the real culprit behind this assassination issue,” Lolidragon said with great energy, clenching her fist.

“Oh, do your best, Lolidragon,” Feng Wu Qing said while enjoying the cool air at the side.

In high spirits, Lolidragon turned her head with a fierce glare. After pulling Feng Wu Qing’s ear, Lolidragon pretended not to hear my brother’s wails, and dragged him along. Mocking him, she said, “I seem to remember that Young Master Feng Wu Qing is also part of the Foreign Affairs group. I, Lolidragon, will grudgingly allow you to investigate with me.”

Chapter 6: The Bloody Overlord

“Come on everyone, break down the city gate!” I shouted with all my might. Besides inspiring the warriors from Infinite City who were pushing the battering rams to break down the gates of Moon City, I also had to raise my shield in order to block all the arrows showering down from the city wall and swing my sword together with Nan Gong, Wicked, and others to keep away the waves of players coming to snatch the city away from us after we’d done the hard work of killing the NPC guards.

There were countless brave warriors of Infinite City here. Some were desperately ramming the gate, trying to bring it down faster in order to proceed with conquering the city and even more were on the ladders trying to scale the city’s walls, ignoring the showers of arrows as they climb. The blood of the warriors almost stained the whole wall red.

The mages at the back of the army only had two things to do: casting spells and gulping down mana potions. From this I could tell how successful Yu Lian and the others were at training the mages. If it wasn’t for the fear of having to pay a huge sum of money later for the reparation of Moon City, the mages alone could have blasted the whole city apart. However, in order to keep Moon City as intact as possible, they could only use medium and lower level spells to blast the NPC guards off the city wall.

During the battle for the city, the NPC guards were nothing. The real trouble was the players coming to snatch the city away. Not only was the number huge, they were coming along in unending droves. What was even more unbelievable was that players who had become a pillars of white light and flown away a scant minute ago were now running back fearlessly for a second round. The situation was in a such ridiculous state that apart from the warriors pushing the battering ram that was tearing down the gate and the mages in charge of blasting the NPC archers off from the city wall, the rest of us had formed a semi-circle in front of the Moon City’s gate to prevent other players from sneaking into the city amidst the confusion.

Luckily Yu Lian and Phoenix had come up with the plan of making the army of Infinite City wear the same uniform instead of their normal gear. If it wasn’t for that plan, we never would have been able to tell our allies apart from our foes.

With Nan Gong fighting on my left, Wicked on my right and Wolf-dàgē at the back to heal, I hacked the players apart like there was no tomorrow, following my “kill and you get exp, kill more and you get more exp” rule. When one came I’d kill one, when two came I’d kill three! Eh? …Oh, I accidentally killed the spectators at the side who were just watching? Sorry…

“Prince! The gate will be down soon, so hurry to it now! You must be the first to enter the central tower and break the city gem!” Gui yelled as, under the protection of several warriors, he ran through the dangerous shower of arrows, magic spells, and clashes of swords and spears.

“No problem!” I shouted back. After signaling to Nan Gong and Wicked to head for the city gates, they immediately nodded and moved forward with me.

“Pure. White. Inferno. Rhapsody!” I roared, dashing towards the already cracking gate. With that, a blast of flame immediately burst out of my Black Dao. Unlike the normal fiery red flame, the flame that surged out this time was a blazing white fire of the purest heat.

Why were the flames produced different now? Actually, not only the color of the flame had changed, but the shape of my Black Dao was different as well. As it turned out, the gem Lolidragon gave me the other day—the prize for killing Celestial—was a gem that could increase a weapon’s fire affinity. When I affixed the gem on Black Dao, the weapon had changed drastically. The original pure black sword blade and scabbard were now adorned with patterns of flame. When I held the Dao in my hand, a gauntlet would automatically appear, covering the whole of my right arm. The thin blood red armor was so strong that up until now, there was no weapon or magic spell I’ve tried that could cause any damage to it.

After coming in contact with Pure White Inferno Rhapsody, just about nothing could survive. Hence, the cracked gate simply shattered into pieces of wood. When everyone saw that the gate had been broken down, there were sounds of alarm coming from the players, but there were even more ear-splitting cheers from the army of Infinite City.

However, I knew this had yet to end. As long as the city gem remained intact, the city wasn’t in the bag. I looked at Nan Gong Zui and shouted, “Zui, hurry and take me to the central tower!”

After I saw Zui nodding at me, I turned around towards White Bird and ordered, “Guard the gate well and don’t let anyone in. Tell Gui to lead archers and warriors up the city wall and prepare to defend the city.”

White Bird nodded to me. I immediately turned to follow Nan Gong Zui to the central tower without looking back once.

With Nan Gong Zui leading us, we soon found the central tower. I broke the central tower door with another Pure White Inferno Rhapsody and then followed the stairway straight to the top of the tower, where the city gem was located.

“Prince, go on, we’ll look out for you,” Wicked said calmly.

“Right,” I said. Just as I was about to slash the city gem, I caught a glint of silver light from the corner of my eyes. I immediately turned around to defend myself, and the sound of clashing blades reverberated throughout the central tower.

Nan Gong Zui and Wicked, who were originally guarding at top of the stairs, whipped their heads around, shocked. I, on the other hand, was totally unsurprised as I came face to face with yet another assassin dressed in black fitting clothes. This time, it’s probably a male assassin.

A pity for him though, for I was no longer the person I had been before. In these two weeks, the number of assassins targeting me was so numerous that from the moment I opened my eyes I was prepared to face the assassins. Since it was them who initiated the attacks and I was merely defending myself, I had no worries at all about getting my name on the wanted list. Moreover, after having to face so many sneak attacks in every single day, one definitely becomes frustrated. Naturally, abusing these assassins became my daily pastime. As a result, my level skyrocketed, not to mention how much they had trained me in my reflexes and agility.

Although my level was still not as high as Neurotic who had gone back to the Western Continent, I was already level eighty-six. This, along with my superb, inhuman reflexes trained by the assassins… Even Neurotic might not be able to beat me.

My eyes shone with the glint of excitement, the glint of meeting a strong opponent. After all, the assassins nowadays were really too weak and were totally not comparable to the previous female assassin. From the conclusion of the Foreign Affairs department, those weaklings were probably not the female assassin’s accomplices. However, I’m sure that this person in front of me, who was dressed in the same tight black bodysuit, was her accomplice.

“Rwaahhhh!” I gave a low bellow and charged towards the assassin. The rapid exchange of blows between our swords was so satisfying that I forgot about everything around us.

“I think Prince has utterly forgotten what he’s here to do.” When Nan Gong Zui’s voice floated into my ears, I instantly and automatically pretended that I hadn’t heard it.

“Never mind, just let him fight. The situation outside the city is under control and according to Broken Sword who stayed behind to protect Infinite City, those who went to attack Infinite City are just some nobodies who want to create a minor disturbance.” Upon hearing Wicked’s words, my tiny little bit of conscience immediately disappeared and I fought even more enthusiastically with the male assassin.

The male assassin knew that the situation was definitely against him. He was unable to overpower me, plus he saw that Nan Gong Zui and Wicked were just chilling on the sidelines. It seemed that he has no desire to drag out battle either, as with a back flip he jumped onto the window ledge he had entered from and prepared to leave.

When I saw this, I immediately shouted, “All of you are so strong; why do you want to assassinate me?”

After a silent pause, he replied coldly, “It’s because you’re much more dangerous than any of the others.”

I’m dangerous? Which part of me is dangerous? It’s not like there’s a sign saying “Dangerous beast, do not feed” hanging around my neck. Although coming near me now might mean getting slashed into halves due to my reflexes, that was all trained by you assassins and not part of my original personality. I scratched my cheek helplessly, unable to understand how I was dangerous.

“I wonder how long it’ll take for Prince to remember that he’s actually here to break the city gem…” Nan Gong Zui finally softly asked Wicked after watching me frown to myself for a long time.

Looking helplessly at me, Wicked replied, “That’s too hard a question, I have no answer for you!”

After a while, I finally snapped out from the ‘you’re dangerous’ remark and back into reality. After throwing an embarrassed look at Nan Gong Zui and Wicked, who were now reading the newspaper and drinking tea off to the side, I started striking the city gem and was on the verge of singing “Hey ho, hey ho, pull the radish[15]” …No, I mean I just calmly hit the gem.

While striking the gem, I listened to Nan Gong Zui’s report on the situation of the two other cities. Leisurely drinking tea, he said, “Lolidragon and Feng Wu Qing have already researched the other players who took down the other two cities. Basically, they are all within our limits and nothing we can’t handle. After the Moon City is stabilized, we will proceed with conquering both the Sun and Star City.”

“Isn’t monopolizing all the cities too much?” I continued hitting the gemstone while unknowingly voicing the complaints that other players had.

Zui picked up his teacup and started sipping gracefully while Wicked took his turn to explain. “We have no choice,” he said. “If we don’t conquer the Sun and the Star cities, then as soon as they get a foothold, they will definitely attack us. In order to guarantee Infinite City’s safety, conquering all three major cities in the Central Continent is a must.”

“I see… But won’t people be dissatisfied in the long term if we monopolized these cities?” I questioned.

“Don’t worry. After the patch, players will be able to purchase their own piece of land for development. They still can build their own cities; we are only conquering Sun, Moon and Star cities in order to save the time and money needed to buy land and construct a city.” Zui explained, putting down the teacup.

“Oh,” I replied in acknowledgement and turned around to continue hacking away at the gemstone. It was still intact even though I’d been striking it for a while. Just looking at it I felt impatience welling up in my heart like a fire and blazing pure white flames billowed out from the patterns on my Black Dao again.

“Hyaaaaa!” I charged at the gem and started slashing at it erratically, constantly shouting, “Let’s see if you’ll break this time!”

With a final BOOM, the gem shattered into powder and dispersed into the air, causing me to inhale a few mouthfuls of powder. Coughing profusely, I waved my hand around to clear the dust. I turned around and tell Zui and Wicked that we could leave, only to be confronted with two “powder men”, both kneeling on the floor holding their teacups motionlessly. White powder covered them from head to toe and only two pairs of eyes were left untouched, looking helplessly at me while constantly coughing up more powder.

After breaking the gem, deafeningly loud cheers could be heard the moment I stepped out of the central tower. Thousands of people gathered outside the central tower and from their attire I could tell they were all Infinite City’s warriors. Holding my Dao high above my head, I happily cheered with them. As I walked down the stairs, all of the Infinite City’s warriors suddenly charged towards me and tossed me up, throwing me up into the sky over and over.

When I saw how highly Infinite City’s warriors regarded me, I was extremely touched. I started fooling around and partying with everyone until they became too tired to move, before making my way to tour the sights of Moon City, the city which we had just acquired under my name.

“What took you so long when you were hitting the gem? We almost fell asleep waiting for you outside,” Lolidragon followed me and complained unhappily.

Scratching the back of my head apologetically, I replied, “I met an assassin. Plus, this assassin probably is the accomplice of that female assassin from the first time.”

“What?” Upon hearing that, Lolidragon immediately stood up straighter and asked seriously, “How strong was he?”

“On par with the female assassin from last time,” I replied honestly. If Nan Gong Zui and Wicked weren’t at my side, it was doubtful who would have won the fight.

Frowning, Lolidragon paced back and forth. “How is this possible? Since the number of elite players with that level of skill are so rare, it’s almost impossible to find them on the Central Continent anymore; we have ruled out most of the possible suspects.”

“What about players from other continents?” Feng Wu Qing suddenly popped out from nowhere and cut in.

Both Lolidragon and I looked towards Wu Qing in confusion. Would anyone actually travel all the way to another continent just to assassinate someone?

With a wave of his fan, Feng Wu Qing said charmingly, “If there are people who want to take over the whole continent, then there’ll be people who want to take over the all of Second Life. In order to achieve that, getting rid of the infamous and strong spokesperson of Second Life, Central Continent’s Bloody Overlord, Prince, is of the utmost importance.”

“I see, so that’s why I’m more dangerous than others?” I muttered to myself.

“In that case, the suspects are the overlords of the four other continents?” Lolidragon asked as she furrowed her brow.

“Overlords of the four continents?” I asked with a bit of excitement. Neurotic should be the overlord of the West Continent right? I wonder what the other overlords are like…

Without a moment of hesitation Lolidragon replied, “The Smiling Overlord of East Continent, Winter Triumph. The Carefree Overlord of West Continent, Neurotic.”

“The Undying Overlord of South Continent, Undying Man; the Floral Overlord of the North Continent, Northern Flower; and of course, including you, the Bloody Overlord of Central Continent, Prince,” Wu Qing added in perfect synchronization with Lolidragon.

I was utterly stunned by what I had just heard. Why do all the overlords sound so strong?

“Who could the suspect be?” Lolidragon considered carefully.

“It definitely can’t be Neurotic and his men,” I replied resolutely. If they wanted me dead, they could have just let me die in the Valley of Wandering Nymphs instead of helping me.

“We are ruling the West Continent out then. It seemed like we’ll need to thoroughly investigate the overlords of the North, South, and East continents,” Lolidragon mumbled.

“How are you going to investigate? You can’t even PM between different continents. Are you going to spend ten plus days just to travel back and forth from one continent to another?” Feng Wu Qing replied in disapproval.

Without holding back, Lolidragon pinched his ears with all her might, allowing me to see the wondrous sight of my flirtatious brother crying out in pain again. At the same time, Lolidragon shouted into his ear, “We have Sunshine’s flying carpet!”

Ignoring Wu Qing’s look of suffering, Lolidragon said to me, “I will go with this guy to the different continents and gather information. Prince, be careful.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t get myself killed by assassins,” I replied while waving goodbye to Lolidragon.

Mouth twitching, Lolidragon said, “That’s not what I meant. I mean, don’t abuse the assassins so much or the Human Rights Association will come knocking on your door!”

“I’ll…try.”

With help from Sunshine, Lolidragon and Feng Wu Qing travelled between continents. During this time the people of the Infinite City didn’t slack off either. Upon entering Moon City the Military, Finance, and Construction departments immediately started working. They repaired the damage caused by the war, built more essential facilities that the city lacked, and arranged the guards and army for the city. In fact, it got so busy that I had no time to look at anything else and at one point I nearly wanted to leave once and for all. But I had already made a decision to become a good overlord. How could I give up halfway now?

Thus, apart from the times when Sun and Star city were attacked—at which point I would take advantage of to go train a little by secretly killing attackers—most of the time I was just battling with the huge pile of paperwork submitted by each department. After I graduate from university, I might have an extremely high potential of running for the job of city mayor.

“It’s decided: I’m going to develop the Moon City into an art and cultural hub,” I stated my vision with clenched fists as I watched the peaceful scenery outside the window.

The very next day, I told Yu Lian-dàsăo my decision. She only thought about it for a moment before she agreed to fund it. Then I cheerfully went to look for the Construction department, and told Gui and Fairsky, “I want to transform the Moon City into a city of art and culture. Furthermore, Yu Lian-dàsăo has already agreed to fund the project!”

However, Fairsky just ferociously grabbed my collar and bit out through gritted teeth, “You just sent my darling hubby Sunshine away for a tour around the world, leaving me here alone waiting for him, and now you’re going to increase my work load? Are you tired of living and feel that the number of assassins targeting you is not enough?”

“Ah? This will increase your work load? But after conquering the Sun and the Star cites, I still want to turn the Sun City into a commerce city and Star City into a world of entertainment!”

Hearing that, Fairsky let go of my collar and stared blankly. “Are you really Prince?” she demanded disbelievingly. “No, no, that’s impossible; Prince would never be so clever. You must be an assassin who’s disguised as Prince. Spill it, where’s the real Prince?”

Oi! What kind of attitude is that?!

“Prince was always very clever. He is so wise that he looks dumb to other people,” Gui said, making goose bumps immediately appear on my skin.

“Anyway I’m leaving this matter to the Construction Department. I’m going to the Military Department to see when we can attack the Sun and Star cities.” Humming to my own tune, I skipped happily towards the Military Department.

Behind me, Fairsky muttered, “Why is this guy so happy? He has so much administration work to do, not to mention that he gets attacked by at least three assassins per day and still has to worry about conquering the Sun and Star cities … Could it be that he is so busy that he’s gone crazy?”

Gui replied frankly, “Recently, the standards of the assassins have been rather high, and Prince was really happy to fight with them. And every assassin is being ruthlessly taught a lesson by Doll’s Chain, Endless Torture after the fight, so Prince…”

“I see, so it’s because he gets to release his sadistic tendencies…”

“Zui, Wolf-dàgē, are you guys here?” I stuck my head into the Military Department office and looked around. Indeed, aside from Broken Sword who was in charge of training the soldiers, everyone was there.

A hand landed on my shoulder, accompanied with a ghostly voice, “Why didn’t you mention my name?”

Keeping up my smiling face, I turned around to face Wicked’s gloomy expression and said, “Good morning, Wicked!”

“What is it, Prince?” Wolf-dàgē smiled and walked towards me, ruffling my hair with his hand as usual.

“I wanted to ask when we can attack Sun City and Star City,” I said frankly, not hiding the glint of eagerness in my eyes.

“Actually, both Sun and Star City are willing to surrender to us provided that we agree to their conditions,” Nan Gong Zui replied. “We have already discussed the conditions with Star City and there should be no problem; I was going to tell you about it later. The Star City players’ only demands are to have the biggest estate in Infinite City for free, and that after joining the army of Infinite City they should have at least have the post of team leader. These conditions are really simple and should be easy to fulfill. But as for the Sun City… Their conditions might be a problem.”

“How so?” I asked. But even if there really were problems, I didn’t really care. If we couldn’t reach an agreement, then we’d just initiate a war. Right now I’m completely unafraid of war!

Nan Gong Zui went silent. After a moment Wicked continued, “It’s Fan.”

“And a few teams that are hostile towards us,” Wolf-dàgē added. “Perfect Princess Team, Team Phoenix, Hell’s Murderers, and another person sponsoring them that I’m not familiar with. I heard he holds some grudge against you too. He’s called Huang Wei.”

I was taken aback by what I heard. Huang Wei came to the Central Continent too?  Frowning, I mentally prepared myself, for their conditions of surrender must be related to me and definitely related in a negative way as well. “What are their conditions?”

The three of them went completely silent as Wolf-dàgē took a frighteningly long sheet of paper from the table and passed it to me.

I took it and began reading from it, “One: Let Prince disappear forever from Second Life; Two: Rip Prince’s stomach open; Three: Gift Prince to me, Perfect Princess; Four: After killing Prince up to a thousand times, bring Lü Jing back to me; Five: Return Fire Phoenix back to me, and then throw Prince and that damned meat bun into the sea to feed the sharks…” Without any expression, I tore that piece of paper full with nonsense into pieces. In a stern and commanding tone, I asked the Military Department, “When will the troops be ready?”

“We need to take hold of Star City first and then we can send the troops out a week later,” Nan Gong Zui reported.

“Then in one week, someone is going to be in big trouble,” I said as I clenched my fist fiercely.

A week later, I rode on top of a horse, pacing back and forth before the army of Infinite City while staring at the far-off walls of Sun City. According to my assessment, the number of archers on the city wall was far less than the numbers of NPC archers sent out by Second Life when we first tried to conquer Moon City.

“Looks like the battle for conquering the city this time will be a piece of cake…” I muttered to myself.

“But Fan isn’t an average player. You can’t be sure that this isn’t a trap,” Nan Gong Zui reminded me concernedly upon hearing my muttering. “Fan holds a deep grudge against you and it’s possible that his target might be you alone. Prince, you must be careful.”

That’s right; Fan definitely isn’t someone who would allow himself to play an insignificant role. Rousing myself a little, I replied, “I understand, I’ll be careful.”

With that, I pulled the reins and changed the direction of the horse to face the warriors of Infinite City while holding my Black Dao high above my head. Everyone remained silent, waiting for my words. I roared, “Take down Sun City! Unite the Central Continent!”

Upon hearing that, everyone was excited into a wild frenzy. A chant that burst out from the mouth of Infinite City’s warriors was so loud that it nearly shook me, their city lord, off of my horse. “Unite the Central Continent! Unite the Central Continent! Unite the Central Continent!”

I kicked the sides of my horse, riding straight in the direction of Sun City, and shouted, “Charge!”

“The city lord…is leading the attack…” Wicked pressed his hand against forehead as though he had a headache.

Nan Gong Zui looked on, equally helpless, and said, “Shall we hurry up and catch up with him?”

Besides the archers on the city wall, the Sun City defense line consisted of three rings of warriors surrounding the city gate. But this was exactly what had my blood boiling with excitement. I could swing my precious Black Dao however I wanted to my heart’s content, something that I definitely could not enjoy on daily basis.

“Heeeeh! Yaaaa!” I held my shield high above my head to block the arrows coming from the city wall as my other hand continuously slashed at one soldier after another. At first I would still get a few cuts here and there, but the priests in the back were so efficient that the moment I got a tiny little cut, over ten white healing lights would land on me.

The mages on the city wall couldn’t hurt me either. Although I couldn’t see them, I could guarantee that there were at least ten protective shields above my head. When Nan Gong Zui and Wicked caught up with me and both stood by my side to protect me, I smiled faintly. It’s time to go into total offensive mode!

The horse seemed to sense my excitement too, for it followed my lead and galloped back and forth amongst the enemy, allowing me to kill to my heart’s content. After a few charges the area around me started to empty. Curling my lips in dissatisfaction, I was about to say a few provoking words to the enemy to see if anyone would be agitated enough to come and let me cut him up.

Then Nan Gong Zui’s helpless voice rang out, “Prince, stop playing. The city gate is already down, hurry up and enter the city!”

“Ohhhh…” Looking at Zui and Wicked who were both panting, I thought of how tiring it must be to cover for me just now. Feeling a little guilty, I didn’t dare to continue playing anymore and rode on toward the city gate.

After entering the city I looked around, trying to locate the central tower.

A shadow suddenly landed before my horse and with a glance I realized it was actually Kong Kong. He had probably watched too many ancient Japanese dramas, for he was actually dressed like a ninja. Not to mention that he was kneeling on one knee with his hands clasped together as he reported to me in a reverent and respectful tone, “My lord, the central tower is just up ahead to the left. Please follow your humble servant.”

With a roll of my eyes I asked, “Did you take the wrong medicine today?”

Feeling slighted, Kong Kong curled his mouth a little and twisted his index fingers together uneasily. “What’s wrong? Isn’t this what they do in comics?”

Another person who’s addicted to comics! I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at his actions, so I said, “Whatever makes you happy is fine, as long as you can take me to the central tower.”

“No problem my lord, please follow me.” Switching back into ninja mode, Kong Kong pointed in the main direction of the tower and started running. I exchanged a glance with Wicked and Nan Gong Zui who were now commanding the troops and then everyone followed us, proceeding toward the tower.

After a short while the central tower was right before my eyes. As expected, the rest of the army was guarding it, just like the tactic we used when Fan attacked us.

“Whoa, everyone’s here.” I was a little surprised. In front of the central tower, I recognized many familiar faces: Perfect Princess Team, Team Phoenix, Hell’s Murderers, and Huang Wei. One thing all of them had in common was that they looked as though they couldn’t wait to tear me into pieces, chew me up, and spit me out. Weird, where’s Fan? I felt a little confused by his absence.

“Prince, you’re the first man who dared to look down on me! I’ll definitely make you pay!” Perfect Princess said while biting on her handkerchief with eyes full of resentment.

“Prince! This time I swear I’ll roast you into barbeque!” the leader of Hell’s Murderers bellowed. If I remember correctly, I think he’s called the Blood-soaked Demon King?

“Return my darling Lü Jing back to me!” Huang Wei’s glittering old fashion look had yet to change.

“Prince, if you don’t hurry and return Fire Phoenix to us, you’re dead!” shouted a group of pretentious men in white shirts and white pants. You could tell they were the Team Phoenix with just one glance. However… What was the speaker’s name again? How come I don’t have any impression of who he is?

Feeling a little embarrassed, I asked, “I’m sorry, the leader of Team Phoenix, but I truly have forgotten what your name is. Would you please tell the readers yourself?

Upon hearing that, the men in white…no, I mean Team Phoenix, revealed expressions of devastation and disappointment, and cried to the sky, “Of course you won’t remember our names, because the author never gave us names at all!”

I was dumbfounded. So they didn’t even have names! How pitiful. I shook my head and said, “What a pitiful team. Since you don’t even have names, I’ll send you guys away first.” Twisting my lips up into a wicked smile, I uttered a few orders to Nan Gong Zui. Zui immediately signaled to the warriors of Infinite City behind us and the attack began.

“All of you will regret writing that damned request,” I said with a ferocious look. I’d overlook that you wanted to throw me into the sea to feed the sharks, but you even included my cute lil’ Meatbun! Fine then, I’ll let you have a taste of Meatbun’s power!

Taking out my cute lil’ Meatbun, I told him, “Meatbun, come and help your mama beat some evil people.”

“Evil People! Mama, there’s evil people?” Meatbun looked around eagerly with its big watery eyes.

“Yup, there, right in front.” Grabbing hold of Meatbun, I turned him around to face the team that didn’t even have names, yet would have still dared to throw Meatbun into the sea to feed sharks, aka the Phoenix Team.

“Evil People!” Meatbun suddenly broke free from my hand, a bamboo copter appearing on its head as it flew into the sky. After making a seven hundred and twenty degree turn in the air, it shouted, “I stand for love and justice!  In the name of Meatbun, I’ll triumph over evil!”[16]

Doll…just what have you been teaching Meatbun? Facepalming, I was too sad for tears.

“Love and Justice’s Fermentation Final Blow!” Meatbun suddenly shouted a move I’d never heard of before. I looked at Meatbun curiously, amazed that it had gotten another new skill. That’s my Meatbun, with a wisdom level of ten.

Meatbun then closed its eyes tight, looking like it was concentrating as hard as he could, so much so that its cheeks became inflated… No, wait, not only were its cheeks inflated, but its whole body was increasing in size! I watched with a dropped jaw as Meatbun got bigger and bigger, larger and larger. Soon, Meatbun filled the sky like a huge cloud, covering the whole area with its shadow. Weird, how is that Bamboo copter supporting a meat bun of this size?

By this time both enemies and allies had stopped in their tracks and were staring dazedly at the gigantic meat bun in the air. Someone even muttered, “Oh god, how long will it take to finish eating a meat bun of that size?”

Just what move is this? I suddenly had a very bad feeling about it and immediately shouted, “All Infinite Warriors, fall back now!”

But it was still too late as, without any warning, Meatbun fell suddenly from the sky. When it landed there was a massive booming sound and the earth shook as if there was a level nine earthquake. As for me, facing the meat bun wall which was less than five centimeters away, I broke into a cold sweat. What a terrifying blow, not even sparing our allies! If not for my luck, would my body be even five centimeters thick now?

“So Meatbun was never fermented before,” Wicked suddenly said from beside me.

Shocked, I looked towards him… He’s, telling a joke? Wicked is telling a joke? That can’t be possible!

Frowning, Wicked pressed his hand against Meatbun’s thick wall and concluded, “The ratio of the size of Meatbun before and after the fermentation is too abnormal. No yeast can ever ferment and turn such small dough into this size.”

Is…is this considered a common problem between all science students?

By this time, Meatbun had changed again. It slowly shrunk back to its normal size before hopping back into my hand, looking exhausted. After a while, Meatbun could no longer keep its eyes open and started sleeping soundly. I had no choice but to stow it back in my bag.

Looking back at those unlucky souls who got squashed, I calculated that around eighty percent were from the enemy and another twenty percent were people from my side who had charged in front. They were all now lying flat on the ground. The initially smooth ground now had countless human shapes imprinted onto it. Frowning, I asked, “Infinite Warriors who were squashed please report, how much HP was lost?”

A warrior, who was wearing uniform from our side, lifted up a trembling hand and signaled a number five. With an equally trembling voice, he said, “Fi…fifty percent!”

How terrifying… Those who hadn’t gotten squashed, including me, were all shocked.

“Prince, hurry and go to the center tower. I will help to block the enemy,” Nan Gong Zui said urgently.

Looking at the flattened enemy who were now starting to squirm, I agreed and rushed with all my might towards the center tower.

“Mages attack the tower gate, and be careful not to hit the lord!” Wicked bellowed.

Before I reached the tower gate thunder bolts, fire balls, and ice bolts were being thrown randomly at the tower gate, causing a huge commotion. As I reached the tower gate I yelled without any hesitation, “Pure. White. Inferno. Rhapsody!”

With that, the tower gates fell apart and I quickly rushed up the stairs. I left the responsibility of protecting my back to Zui and Wicked, since getting the city gem was my main responsibility. Upon finally reaching the top with great difficulty, I jumped up and into the tower. However, besides seeing the city gem, I could also see that another weird scene was about to unfold.

“Why the rush, Prince? Why don’t you sit down and have a cup of tea?” Fan asked calmly, giving me a friendly smile while brewing a cup of tea.

I frowned and my right hand cautiously reached for my Black Dao. “What are you planning?”

“Nothing much, I just have a little request for you.” Fan put down the teacup and slowly stood up. He threw his sword aside and it landed in the corner as he stood, unarmed, to show that he posed no threat.

Uneasiness rose from my heart. Just what is Fan planning to do? Even though he has thrown his weapon aside, maybe there are others lying in ambush nearby? With that, I immediately started scanning the surroundings from the corners of my eyes.

Smiling faintly, Fan said, “Don’t worry, there’s no ambush waiting.”

“Just what do you want?” I calmed myself down. Even if there was an ambush, I was not afraid of him.

“I want you to return Phoenix to me,” Fan replied in a serious tone.

“Phoenix?” I repeated blankly, a little confused about the situation.

“Ice Phoenix!” Fan said reproachfully. “I admit that in the past, I did not treat her well, but humans never learn to treasure the things they have and instead take them for granted. Only when they lose it, do they learn how important it is to them.”

Looking extremely lonely and bitter, Fan forced a smile at me, “Prince, will you please return Phoenix to me? I know that you never cared about her. To you, she’s even less important than Wicked and Gui. If that’s the case, why are you still bringing sadness to her?”

I stood there blankly, Fan, who treats women like clothes, is actually saying this kind of thing? I became very suspicious. My thoughts must have been reflected in my expression, because before I said anything, Fan had already opened his mouth to reply.

“Please believe me, I’m really serious this time! Please return Phoenix to me and stop hurting her feelings! Let me bring her happiness!” Fan shouted agitatedly.

“I’ve hurt her feelings?” My expression dimmed. That’s right, I almost forgot; last time I had made her cry and after that the case wasn’t settled either. Since I haven’t seen Phoenix. Thinking back to it now, I started getting really worried. Where could she be now?

“Is the number of times you’ve made her cry any fewer than the number of times I have?” Fan asked coldly.

“I…” I sighed. “No matter our situation, let Phoenix decide this herself. She’s not an object. She should make her own decisions.”

“You…!” Anger and hatred were immediately written all over Fan’s face. Did I say anything wrong? I was utterly confused.

“Thank you, Prince,” Phoenix’s voice suddenly appeared. Surprised, I watched as Phoenix walked out from behind the city gem. “Although you still don’t love me, at least you didn’t push me away to others.”

“Phoenix!” I cried out blankly.

“He doesn’t love you, don’t you get it?!” Fan abruptly ran up and tightly grabbed Phoenix’s shoulder. Phoenix was shocked by his actions, but her facial expression soon became one of pain.

“Let go of her!” I dashed up and punched Fan aside.

Lowering her head with shame, Phoenix said timidly, “I’m sorry, Prince. When Fan said that you were just treating me like a burden and guaranteed to me that as soon as he asked, you would immediately unburden me onto him unconditionally, I… I couldn’t help but want to know if that was what you’d really do, so…”

Shaking my head, I replied, “That’s okay, it was my fault, I shouldn’t have said those words to you previously.”

“Prince!” Fan stood up. The initial look of gentleness and deep affection was now replaced by ferociousness.

Without waiting for him to finish, I said, “You disappoint me, Fan.”

Upon hearing that, Fan stood in his place, surprised.

Gritting my teeth, I asked in the coldest voice I could manage, “I was actually looking forward to you leading troops to face me. Yet in the end, you still chose to use Phoenix against me?” Just how long does this guy plan to use Phoenix’s feelings? Is letting go of a girl that hard?

“You’re dead! This time, I definitely won’t let you off.” Lifting my Black Dao, I threateningly approached Fan step by step.

“Wait, Prince!” Zui’s voice suddenly rang from behind me. I turned around to see Zui wearing facial expression that was even colder than mine. Inside those eyes of his there were no emotions at all. “Go and shatter the gem, Prince. That’s your responsibility. As for Fan, that’s my responsibility!”

“I understand,” I said with a nod.

I decided not to care about Zui and Fan’s battle. If calculating how to make use of a woman is what Fan is thinking about all the time then the result of this battle is too obvious, so why do I still have to watch it?

Holding my Black Dao, I turned around to face the gem. Just when I was about to ruthlessly initiate the first blow a spell suddenly hit the gem. I turned around to see that it had actually been Phoenix’s spell. Does…she want to snatch the city? Did Fan actually successfully make use of Phoenix again?

Just when I was still entangled in my own trail of thoughts, Phoenix smiled and said, “Let me help you to get rid of most of the gem’s HP. Don’t worry, I will definitely leave the last hit to you, Prince. I don’t want to end up with a city out of the blue.”

“The last hit? I thought I would have to deal all the blows personally?” I asked blankly.

Surprised, Phoenix said, “Of course not! If that’s the case, wouldn’t it take up too much time? It’s fine as long as you get the final hit.”

Veins started popping on my head. It seemed that last time when I was desperately hitting the city gem two people were slacking by my side, drinking tea!

With a cough, Wicked said, “About that, we only learned about it after conquering Moon City ourselves.”

“Well then come and help!” I glared at one of the two people who had been drinking tea at that time.

After destroying the gem, everything was covered in dust and powder again. But this time, learning from past experiences, Wicked had already ran away to hide, leaving behind me, who had to strike the last blow, and Phoenix, who knew nothing about the whole experience, to suffer in the powder.

“Finally, the Central Continent is now united as one!” Suddenly feeling relieved, I smiled from the bottom of my heart.

Chapter 7: A Cougar’s Unimaginable Love

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask: what are our plans after unifying the Central Continent?” I asked White Bird and the others with a face brimming with curiosity.

I received many scornful looks in response. White Bird in particular couldn’t resist complaining loudly, “Only you would ask about something like that, Liege Lord. We are already being worked to the bone just from managing the city.

I scratched my head thoughtfully. “But I really don’t have anything to do! You guys rarely even give me any paperwork these days.”

“That’s because all you ever do is edit them into nonsense!” White Bird yelled, on the verge of spitting fire at me. It looked like ever since I forcibly rejected the idea of being treated with the dignity of a liege lord, White Bird’s respect for me had completely disappeared.

Feeling wronged, I replied, “No way, I have been assessing them very carefully.”

“You have been assessing them very carefully? Just take a look at this document, ‘The City Walls Reinforcement Project’. You actually gave the response, ‘Considering that the city walls have been worn down by the fires of war, and are now disheveled beyond belief, a special allowance is granted to repaint the walls, preferably in pink, my favorite color. Signed, Prince, the Liege Lord.’”

“What’s wrong with that?” I asked, puzzled.

“…” Everyone was silent. White Bird took out another document. “‘The Lack of Senior Level Management’ – to which your response was, ‘There’s not enough people? Eh, perhaps there are not as many players in Second Life as I thought? Alright, I’ll respond to this issue after consulting with a GM. Signed, Prince, the Liege Lord.’”

“Oh…right. I haven’t asked a GM about that yet,” I replied while twiddling my fingers nervously. But you can’t really blame me for forgetting about this with all the recent attacks launched on other cities!

White Bird didn’t respond to me, but reacted in kind with everyone else—pressing her forehead with a look of hopeless resignation.

I bit my fingernails. It’s rare that I’m starting to be addicted to amending documents! I begged desperately, “White Bird, please give me some more documents to edit!”

“No. Way.” White Bird responded firmly.

Immediately, I put on my best grieving-victim face, complete with pouting lips and even tears in the corner of my eyes. I muttered with reluctance, “How did things turn out like this? I spent so much time and effort doing paperwork without receiving an ounce of praise and now I’m not even given any more to work on.”

Wolf-dàgē walked over to my side and patted my head as though he were coaxing a child. He cooed, “Good boy Prince, run along now and play outside for a bit by yourself. When we find something for you to do, we’ll call you back.”

“Oh.” Since even Wolf-dàgē was saying things like this, I had no choice but to resign myself to ‘playing outside by myself.’

After just barely passing through the city gate, I quickly cast off my sulking look and started debating on whom to play with. Should I go find Kenshin and Cold Fox and steal some of their tea? Or bully some monsters? Or perhaps I could find Infinity City’s army and investigate Meatbun’s Fermentation Technique? I walked along, considering all the possibilities.

“Prince!”

Lolidragon? Suddenly hearing a voice I hadn’t heard for a very long time filled me with happiness as I looked up to the sky, searching for the source. Indeed, I could see the trails left by a flying carpet.

“Lolidragon! You guys are back!” I called out loudly while happily waving my hands.

Lolidragon, Feng Wu Qing, and Sunshine all hopped off the flying carpet, but the first two both carried a heavy expression. Puzzled, I asked, “What’s wrong? Are the results of the investigation bad?”

“Yes, extremely bad. We found out that of the five overlords of each continent, the Eastern, Western, and Southern Continents’ overlords were all targeted by assassins. Worse, the Northern Continent’s Flower Overlord and her five teammates all mysteriously disappeared last week. The citizens of the Flower City are all in pandemonium since none of them could be contacted at all,” Lolidragon reported with a grim expression.

“Are Neurotic and the others okay?” I asked with concern, hoping that they hadn’t been assassinated.

“They’re okay. In fact, the overlords from the other four continents are all fine right now,” Feng Wu Qing said.

“Except the Northern Continent’s missing Flower Overlord.” Lolidragon retorted with lips pursed and brows creased.

Deep in thought, I wondered out loud, “So the Northern Continent is the most suspicious right now?”

Lolidragon and Feng Wu Qing were both quiet for a while, until Wu Qing finally broke the silence. “That’s how it seems based on the current situation, but there’s also a lot of information that doesn’t add up. For example, how they could abandon their own Flower Capital that they have been working so hard to maintain and make it public that they’ve disappeared? This particular turn of events is strange indeed.”

“To top it all off, according to our investigation, Northern Flower isn’t someone who would have lofty ambitions of unifying all of Second Life,” said Wu Qing.

Lolidragon continued the explanation, “In my opinion, she seems to be the type that would worry more about the blemishes on her face than her overlord status. She probably would rather be putting on face mask than marching off to war.”

So she’s one of those completely vain types… I couldn’t help but asked in confusion, “If that is so, then what’s really going on with the assassinations?”

“We still don’t know for sure, but we’ve already spoke to the three other overlords and it’s agreed that they will all travel to the Central Continent by boat in a week’s time to discuss this together.”

Lolidragon raised her voice to emphasize her point, “That means in a week’s time, Infinite City will host a meeting of the overlords.”

A meeting of the overlords, eh? I couldn’t help but feel a bit impressed. “One would have to be pretty amazing to become the overlord of an entire continent, right? I wonder what these leaders are like.”

“Ahem, in theory they should all be amazing, but of course there are always exceptions,” Lolidragon replied while furtively glancing at me.

“Exceptions? What exceptions?” I asked curiously.

But Feng Wu Qing who was at the side was already trying to stifle his amusement and it wasn’t long before both of them were howling with unrestrained laughter. I, on the other hand, was left scratching my head fishing for the punch line. Strange, what are they laughing at?

After Lolidragon and Feng Wu Qing finished laughing at their inside joke, they both suddenly fell suspiciously silent with a strange atmosphere surrounding them. I stared at them, still in the dark about what was going on, but the two before me seemed hesitant to meet each other’s gaze. The questions in my head just kept piling up.

“I- I will go look for some other people to discuss this and get more opinions. The more heads the better right?” The normally calm Lolidragon appeared unusually flustered as she said this and quickly fled without looking back.

“What just happened?” I asked with suspicion while looking at the trail of dust left behind from Lolidragon’s sudden escape.

“Prince, I have something important to tell you,” Wu Qing suddenly said to me, still standing on his original spot.

Bro has something to discuss with me? How rare! “Let’s talk this over at Infinite Restaurant,” I said as I pointed to it.

Wu Qing nodded and Sunshine, whose presence had long been forgotten, smiled faintly and announced, “Then I’ll go look for Fairsky.”

As usual, I sat down at my favorite corner and ordered dishes for the two of us. I silently waited for Wu Qing to start talking about whatever he wanted to discuss, but after all the food was served, I couldn’t wait any longer and started stuffing my face.

“Sis, I’m in love with Lolidragon,” my brother said to me matter-of-factly, in a tone that he might use to announce that he ate an egg on toast for breakfast, while conveying a message that would frighten the gods and make devils cry. The situation was no less grave than if the president of the United States had accidently pressed the button that would launch their nuclear missiles, bringing endless disaster thereafter.

I turned towards him in slow motion, tossing aside my chopsticks along with the next bite of food that was already by my mouth. Placing both hands on his shoulders, I said with all seriousness, “Dear bro, there’s an influenza pandemic going around and it looks like you’re already infected pretty badly, seeing as how you’ve already lost your mind from fever. But not to worry, your sister will immediately take you to see the doctor and after a few shots you’ll soon be as good as new.”

Wu Qing unceremoniously brushed my hands aside and replied peevishly, “My mind is fine, thank you very much.”

The atmosphere was dead quiet for a few minutes. Suddenly, in a flash of understanding, my right hand curled into a fist and landed on top of my left palm. “I understand now! You must have fallen in love with the beautiful and otherworldly Lolidragon from Jin Yong’s novel![17] My dear bro, she is but a character in a book and doesn’t actually exist. You should just perish the thought, and besides, even if it were possible, Yang Guo and his Melancholic Palms are not to be trifled with.”[18]

“The one that I love is the Lolidragon from Second Life, a member of Odd Squad who works with me in the Foreign Affairs department. Did that get through that thick head of yours yet?” Wu Qing’s words once again shattered my delusions.

My hands started shaking uncontrollably. I asked my brother incredulously, “Are you really in love with Lolidragon? How’s that possible? Didn’t you say that you’d never fall for anyone older than you? Not only was she born before you, but she looks very mature as well, so how…”

“Horses can misstep, and people can be misspoken. It’s a proven fact that you can fall in love with someone who is not necessarily your type.” Wu Qing shrugged casually.

I was at a loss for words. “How could you possibly have fallen in love with her? Didn’t you hate her not too long ago?”

“I’m not sure either. Perhaps it happened while we were investigating the assassination, or maybe it was earlier, while she was stomping me to death,” Wu Qing replied honestly. He then furrowed his brows and added, “It might even be when I saw her for the first time with you outside Star City, or else even if you had stolen away Fairsky and Rose I wouldn’t have gotten so unreasonably angry. Maybe the real reason I was angry was because of my jealousy at you, who was with her.” Finally, Wu Qing laughed wanly. “In any case, love always starts from hatred.”

Looks like my brother really has fallen in love with Lolidragon…

“What are you going to do?” I asked again.  Lolidragon is no pushover and I fear that my brother would run off and do something stupid after getting heartbroken, like letting slip the fact that I am a transsexual or something.

Wu Qing’s next words hit me like a bolt from the blue, for the second time. “I already confessed to her.”

I was left speechless for a while, with my mouth agape. No wonder Lolidragon was acting so strangely earlier…I finally forced out my next two words, “The result?”

“She called me an idiot.” Wu Qing shrugged again.

I sighed and patted him on the back. “There are plenty of fish in the sea, so one little rejection is not a big deal. You can easily find a better match. Just don’t do anything stupid, especially something like revealing my true identity.”

Wu Qing laughed several times, looking like a hooligan. “I’m not the type to get heartbroken, hmph.”

Not get heartbroken? Weren’t you the one who lost Rose and Fairsky to me…? I wouldn’t dare say that out loud though. Instead, I could only foolishly ask, “But she rejected you, right?”

Wu Qing gave a mysterious little laugh and wagged his fingers. “When a woman hears a confession and calls you an idiot with her face beet-red, that is definitely not a sign of rejection.”

“What else would it be?” I asked naïvely.

Wu Qing laughed loudly several times again, and irresponsibly let out a, “You won’t understand!” before swaggering off.

But, I couldn’t tell whether it was a coincidence or an understanding between them, for as soon as Wu Qing was out of sight, I saw Lolidragon angrily running towards me. Weren’t you looking for people to get more opinions from? She frantically said, “Prince, what did your brother just tell you? Was it about his confession?”

“Yeah,” I said honestly.

“I can’t believe that punk would go around telling everyone. Not only does he spill the beans to Sunshine, he now goes and blabs to you about it as well. I bet it won’t be long before the entire world knows about it!” Barely containing her anger, Lolidragon continued, “That fool better not think that I don’t know that he’s just trying to rile me up!”

I scowled.  “Wu Qing is not trying to rile you up – he’s being completely serious.”

Lolidragon stared blankly for a bit before asking with hesitation, “He… is serious? How can that be? He’s obviously just trying to piss me off.”

I tilted my head and thought deeply before finally concluding, “I believe my brother is being serious. Before, when chasing girls, he would never tell me anything. For him to actually talk to me about it this time, it seems like he might really like you a lot.”

According to the romance novels I have read, when the female lead hears the male lead made a serious confession to her, her face should flush red, her heart might skip a beat, and she should be looking quite embarrassed, perhaps even dumbfounded.

It’s a shame that this book is obviously not a romance novel, and Lolidragon most certainly wasn’t the female lead of such a novel. Instead of looking embarrassed, her facial expression was full of killing intent and it looked like this book had a really good chance of turning into a horror novel.

For some reason Lolidragon, fuming with rage and gritting her teeth, pulled out a knife and started waving it around wildly while howling violently, “Watch as I slaughter that bastard!”

I was dumbstruck.  Even if she did dislike my brother, that’s not quite enough of a reason to slaughter him, is it? “Why are you going to slaughter him?”

“You won’t understand,” Lolidragon fiercely repeated the very same words my brother had said to me earlier before running off in the same manner as him.

I scratched my cheek, not quite understanding the situation. Normal couples like to get matching outfits or rings, but you two have matching actions and manners of speech. Although I really didn’t know what my brother and Lolidragon were planning, it looked like I had a good idea of who my future sister-in-law might be.

I muttered to myself, “I better start watching out for myself, or else once Lolidragon becomes part of the family, she might really lay the smack down on me.”

Extra Chapter: The Classified Files of the Five Continents’ Overlords

– translated by starie

Current Location: Eastern Continent

Nickname: Smiling Overlord – Winter Triumph

Described by Others As: A wolf in sheep’s clothing

Famous Quote: “Smiling is to earn even more money!”

****

It is said that Winter Triumph became the overlord of the Eastern Continent because of one fateful day when he returned home in real life.

“Gē, will you play Second Life with me?” His younger sister, brimming with youth, implored her older brother.

Disregarding the pleas of his cute sister, Winter Triumph put on a bitter, unwilling smile. “No way! There’s no money to be earned, and you even have to spend money to play it!”

“You can sell the in-game currency; this game will definitely be popular so there will be people fighting to buy the in-game currency,” said the little sister, who was very familiar with her brother’s weak spot.

There’s money to be earned! Winter Triumph’s eyes sparkled. “Okay, I’ll play with you.”

****

In order for Winter Triumph, who had chosen to be a warrior, to fight mobs more efficiently and earn money, he formed a party with his sister and recruited four other teammates along the way. Under Winter Triumph’s policy of picking up even half a copper coin to combine two halves into a whole copper coin, the team quickly became incredibly-rich-but-poor-people – their bank accounts were bursting at the seams, but their in-game wallets held only mothballs.

The furious little sister could no longer take it. After she had ordered the other four team members to tie her brother to a rock with chains, she grabbed Winter Triumph’s wallet, which he valued as much as his life… “No! Lives are precious, but the wallet is worth even more! I’d rather die than let go of it!” Winter Triumph cried.

Ignoring her older brother, who was wailing loudly enough to wake the dead, the younger sister ran into the city and spent all the money, buying the best armors and weapons for the team. Faced with the already purchased equipment, Winter Triumph was in a situation where what was done was done and having to make the best of what had happened, he was quite unwilling to sell off the equipment at cheaper price.

“Pig-headed sister, buying such expensive items; no matter what’s the price I sell them for, I’d lose money! No, I can’t sell them.” Winter Triumph cried a martyr’s blood and tears, shaking the now-empty purse.

The team, having finally obtained good equipments, could now play at their full strength: constantly challenging bosses, leveling at an insane rate, sweeping away all competition and becoming a powerful team famous throughout the entire Eastern Continent.

“Since we have good equipment, let’s just go kill bosses, which drop ultra-rare items! This way we can quickly earn back the money!” – Winter Triumph

On the eve of the Adventurers’ Tournament, all the team members aside from Winter Triumph decided to participate in the tournament.

“Winter Triumph, why don’t we take part in the Adventurers’ Tournament?” the team asked their warrior.

Winter Triumph laughed, holding up his middle finger at his teammates. “I won’t do things where there’s no money to be earned. We should be discussing which boss to fight.”

Immediately, the other five team members palmed their faces. If you want to point middle finger, just point it; you don’t need to smile like an angel at the same time!

“The prize is pretty good; it’s a piece of land!”

“Land?” Winter Triumph’s smile froze on his face, his entire person stopping as if in a trance, mentally calculating at lightning speed. If the first piece of player-established land was well defended and well managed, then the amount of tax received would be astonishing. Even if they didn’t want to run it, if the land were to be sold, the profit wouldn’t be bad at all. Good, very good. How could he, Winter Triumph, miss out on such a profitable opportunity?

“My fellow teammates, how can Second Life’s Adventurers’ Tournament be without our team? We will definitely participate until the end, and promote our team’s reputation.” Winter Triumph revealed an extremely confident smile.

It’s for that lucrative land isn’t it? the teammates secretly thought, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Men die for riches, birds die for food, and with the temptation of the land, Winter Triumph transformed into a smiling Asura in the arena. Even when facing the strongest opponents, he never backed down.

“Those who try to steal my money will all die!” This quote from Winter Triumph was voted as the scariest sentence of the year in the Eastern Continent.

For even greater monetary prospects, monopolizing the Eastern Continent’s commerce was the best path, so Winter Triumph decided to unify the Eastern Continent. Thus with the philosophy of ‘money is invincible’, Winter Triumph became the Eastern Continent’s overlord, nicknamed the ‘Would Die for Money’ Smiling Overlord.

****

Current Location: Western Continent

Nickname: Wandering Overlord – Neurotic

Described by Others As: A respectable gentleman who is joined at the hip with his wife, like Siamese twins

Famous Quote: “Honey, what beautiful object do you want to see next?”

****

“Aiyah, this game is getting boring, fighting mobs non-stop. Even though I’ve become strong, what is my strength for?”

Neurotic had played Second Life for over a month, leveling like crazy until he was on the top players list. On this day, he suddenly found himself fed up, wondering why he’d been making such an effort to level up.

“Ahhhh! Save me! Could the brave warrior over there please save me?” a high-pitched female cry came from a remote area.

Neurotic looked uncertainly towards the sound and saw a pretty female mage running over. As soon as he saw the beauty, Neurotic was immediately roused from his thoughts. He picked up his frighteningly huge Ultima Sword and prepared to be a hero saving a damsel in distress.

“Don’t worry, I’ll save you…” Before he could even finish his sentence, Neurotic suddenly saw that behind the beautiful woman there was a giant group of mobs that looked as though they were rioting. He froze on the spot, thinking, That’s a bit too many mobs, isn’t it?

“Warrior, you might want to run, otherwise you’ll be trampled to death!” In the end, the beauty ended up dragging the hero who had come to save her and the two quickly fled for their lives.

“Huff, huff!” After the hundred mile marathon, Neurotic asked, gasping, “How come… How come there were so many mobs?”

The beauty, also huffing, answered, “It- it often happens. Don’t be too surprised.”

Neurotic looked at her uncomprehendingly. This beauty is probably a mage, and mages usually don’t attract mobs. Also, mages often fight best in a party. However, the woman before his eyes had not only drawn an army of mobs, but she was also alone. It really was unusual.

“In order to see beautiful things, even if I get chased 1000 miles by mobs, I’ll still be satisfied.” The beauty’s eyes shone with determination and longing, leaving Neurotic to look on, astounded. “This time I was targeted by those mobs because of this Rainbow Chrysanthemum, which only exists in the Heaven’s Mountain Cave.” The beauty enthusiastically presented a flower, and when Neurotic saw it, another stunned expression appeared.

The Rainbow Chrysanthemum was a flower about the size of a fist that had hundreds of fine petals, and every petal comprised of several colors. Multicolored and bright, the entire flower even exuded a faint rainbow light, making it appear even more flawlessly beautiful.

“This flower is so pretty.” Neurotic looked on in a daze, unable to believe that such a flower existed.

The beauty tenderly stroked the beautiful flower. “I originally didn’t want to pick this flower; beauty should be appreciated, and definitely not destroyed! Unfortunately, when the mobs were drawn to me, they trod on the stalk and broke it, so I could only take this little treasure and flee.”

“Beauty should be appreciated, and definitely not destroyed… I like the sound of that.” Neurotic mulled over the beautiful girl’s words with great interest.

“Really? I have finally found a companion. My name is DanDan, what’s yours?” DanDan ecstatically looked at the companion in front of her.

“Neurotic.”

“Neurotic, do you want to admire all of Second Life’s beautiful things with me?” Dan Dan’s eyes shone with hope. After all, she was only a summoner, and couldn’t travel to very dangerous places. Unfortunately, beautiful things always seemed to be in dangerous areas.

“Admire beautiful things?” Neurotic thought about it. It sounded like a good idea and it would definitely be much better than his currently aimless way of playing Second Life. “Ok, DanDan, let me come with you, and we’ll go see beautiful sights all over Second Life!”

Thus, Neurotic and DanDan traveled all over Second Life together and, as with many a case of one man and one woman, they quickly became husband and wife. As a pair, they went to highly dangerous places, putting on brilliant displays of self-defense in order to see beautiful objects, and as a result, the pair’s levels and tacit understanding of one another increased at lightning speed.

One day, when Neurotic and DanDan were in a city buying supplies in preparation for going out and finding wondrous things once again, they were stopped halfway by a team.

“Excuse me, are you the legendary expert couple?” a warrior questioned.

Baffled, Neurotic asked, “How did you know?”

The warrior chuckled, gesturing towards Neurotic’s huge sword and said, “A slim warrior holding a massive sword; that’s your trademark. Would you be interested in joining our team? We happen to need two more people to participate in the Adventurers’ Tournament. Trust me, our team is very strong.”

“Adventurers’ Tournament…” Neurotic rubbed his chin, and looked towards his wife with a questioning expression.

DanDan’s expression radiated light. “The Adventurers’ Tournament! There will definitely be a lot of people there, and there will also be a lot of handsome guys and pretty girls to look at.”

“That’s right, honey. We’ll participate!” Neurotic eagerly grasped his wife’s hand, heart overflowing with admiration. His wife was indeed smart, even managing to think of the beautiful people there would be to see.

“…” The team who had invited them was speechless.

Hence, Neurotic and DanDan joined the Adventurers’ Tournament. By upholding their philosophy that only by fighting until the very end would they be able to see the most beautiful things, they became the eventual winners of the Western Continent’s Adventurers’ Tournament.

“We’ll just leave the operation of the city to you. DanDan and I are going to the Central Continent to find the famous bishonen, the Infinite City Liege Lord, and the Den of Wandering Nymphs’ Celestial,” Neurotic told his teammates after the city had been built.

The teammates continued to be silent. Truthfully, no matter what they said, it wouldn’t dull this couple’s determination to find beautiful things, so they could only allow them to go.

“Honey, do you think Prince or Celestial will be more beautiful?” Neurotic excitedly asked his wife.

“Beautiful things do not need to be compared or ranked,” DanDan said sternly to her husband.

Once again astonished by his wife’s words, Neurotic only managed to speak after a long while, “Honey, you really are great. I will go searching for beautiful things with you for the rest of my life.”

****

Current Location: Southern Continent

Nickname: Undying Overlord – Undying Man

Described by Others As: A cockroach that can’t be killed

Famous Quote: “Only I kill people, nobody kills me!”

****

“Hahaha, I, Undying Man, swear to the heavens that I will definitely become Second Life’s strongest man, and then get together with all of Second Life’s beauties!” Undying Man yelled fiercely at the sky.

A nearby teammate explained to another teammate, “That guy just confessed for the 3,657th time and was refused again.”

“So that’s what happened…”

It’s said that, after Undying Man’s 3,657th confession was rejected, under his oath to the heavens to become the strongest man, or perhaps due to extreme provocation of the refusal, he started to train like crazy. Living only on steamed buns and water, he spent all of his time training, returning to the city only once a week for supplies. Even when his teammates weren’t online he still madly trained by himself, guzzling red health potions.

With his resentment towards his 3,657 rejections, Undying Man endured the loneliness of his solo training. These past few weeks Undying Man had been training particularly hard because he had to gain only three more levels in order to become the number one player on the ranking charts. Unfortunately for him, he met a boss.

“Damn it, don’t you even think about killing me, don’t you know how important this period is? I only need three more levels, how could I let myself drop a level right now? You stupid boss, do you know how exhausting it is for me to train up one level?! Do you know the pain of being rejected over three thousand times? You don’t know anything, and you expect to kill me!” Undying Man, attacked to the point where he was almost a pillar of light, yelling at the boss and crying two steady rivers of tears.

However, this boss couldn’t have known about those things, and simply charged forward to tear Undying Man in half. Undying Man used all his strength, and climbed atop a tree to take refuge. Luckily, this boss couldn’t climb trees, and could only use its sole ranged spell to attack Undying Man up in the tree. Undying Man perseveringly moved from tree to tree to dodge attacks, and occasionally even dropped some coconuts down in retaliation.

With Undying Man’s undying determination, three days later, he slid down the tree trunk, completely exhausted, kicked the boss’ corpse and arrogantly laughed, “Hahaha, dead, right? Some boss, I just used a few coconuts and I smashed you to death.”

“Wow, what just happened? We followed the coconut road all the way here, and we ended up finding Undying Man,” called out one of Undying Man’s teammates in surprise.

Undying Man turned around to see his teammates walking along a coconut-paved path towards him.

“Why don’t we participate in the Adventurers’ Tournament, Undying Man? Nothing good will come of you being so dejected. ” A teammate advised him, seriously.

“I want to train and become Second Life’s strongest man!” Undying Man yelled angrily.

“You’ve just became number one on the ranking table; it seems like that boss was really strong!” the teammate informed him.

Undying Man froze. He was already the strongest man? Then… He could pick up all of the beauties now?

“Let’s go! The Adventurers’ Tournament will definitely be very lively; you can start searching for the next target for a rejected confession,” the teammate said, holding back laughter.

And so Undying Man participated in the Adventurers’ Tournament, upholding the philosophy that if he wanted to pick up girls, then he couldn’t afford to lose in front of girls. Undying Man led his team members to the final match and became the victors of the Southern Continent’s Adventurers’ Tournament.

“Undying Man, build the most luxurious city. After you become the liege lord, there will definitely be many beauties who would fall for you,” the teammates said as they comforted the victim of a 3,658th failed confession. As soon as Undying Man heard this, he stood up, spirits high, and roared, “That’s right! I’ll definitely become the strongest liege lord, unite the Southern Continent, and get together with all the Southern Continent’s beauties!”

****

Current Location: Northern Continent

Nickname: Flower Overlord – Northern Flower

Described by Others As: The most beautiful flower under the sun

Famous Quote: “Aiyah, my bra can’t even hold my breasts in anymore… Ah, no! I mean, it’s that there is no man that cannot be seduced by such a flower as me!”

****

“Ahh! Has my skin become rough? Husband No. 5, come and take a look for me!” Northern Flower used her sickeningly sweet voice to call softly.

That so-called Husband No. 5 walked over, and, with unparalleled affection, lightly caressed Northern Flower’s cheek, which was as smooth and soft as tofu. “How could it be rough? Flower, your face is the smoothest and most delicate in the world; even the slightest breeze could break it.”

Northern Flower’s slender, delicate hands held Husband No. 5’s large ones. Her fingers drew circles on the back of his hand as she used a bashful tone to rebut, “So annoying; if you say it like that, Flower will be embarrassed.”

Husband No. 5 chuckled and saw with keen eyes that the others had returned. He asked, “You only went to buy food, how come all of you were so slow?”

“We heard news of an Adventurers’ Tournament. Do you have any interest in participating?” Husband No. 4 replied.

“Let’s ask Flower!” Husband No. 3 chipped in.

Northern Flower gently bit her lip and her eyes misted over as she said, “Adventurers’ Tournament? It sounds like it will be very interesting!”

“Seeing as Flower likes it, why don’t we participate? We will definitely present the victory as a gift for Flower,” said Husband No. 1, filled with heroic spirit.

****

When a beautiful girl stands behind cheering, any man can give 200% of their ability—not to mention Northern Flower’s husbands, who genuinely are skillful! Thinking back to the fight for the Northern Continent’s number one beauty, Northern Flower, the competition truly had been unprecedented, with a huge turnout. Only the six hundred person melee at the Adventurers’ Tournament could even slightly compare to that spectacle.

After three days and three nights of rough hand-to-hand combat, the warriors’ blood had created an area later known as the Red Earth Plain. The sight of the white pillars of light constantly flying away as players died had contributed to the name of the pavilion where Northern Flower had awaited the competition’s results: Beacon Platform. All the fallen warriors were collectively called ‘The 7200 martyrs in the fight for Flower’.

In the end, only five people remained alive. As these five people were all sprawled on the ground, unable to move and couldn’t even distinguish up from down, they finally agreed that they would all become knights protecting the Flower.

How could such a team possibly be weak?

****

Thus, through the efforts of her five husbands, Northern Flower, who was a priest became, out of all the five continents, the first and only overlord who wasn’t a warrior: the Flower Overlord.

“Ah, hubbies, I really want a castle like Cinderella’s!” Northern Flower said coquettishly to Husbands No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 after receiving the piece of territory.

“No problem!” Faced with a maiden’s charm, the hero becomes the prisoner and the five husbands immediately started to prepare Cinderella’s castle.

“Hehe, my hubbies really treat me so well. I should definitely find more husbands later.” Northern Flower lazily reclined on the long throne, delicately trimming her already flawlessly beautiful fingernails.

****

Current Location: Central Continent

Nickname: Bloody Overlord – Prince

Described by Others As:

Female: So handsome, so cool, so want to be his wife!

Male: (grinding teeth) Try being more handsome and see what happens.

Famous Quote: “I’m hungry.”

****

“Why is there no record of Prince’s experience?”

Who asked that question? Somebody, come and drag this person off to test Doll’s Chains of Endless Torture!

[1] Goddess of the Sea: The Māzǔ (媽祖) is the Goddess of Sea who watches over the seafarers and fishermen. As Taiwan is an island country, the ancestors of the Taiwanese will have to rely on the sea for their food and income, hence why 媽祖 is especially venerated there. Please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazu_%28goddess%29 for more information.

[2] Jade Emperor: In Taoist folk culture, the Jade Emperor is one of the most important and supreme gods, ruling over Heaven and all the realms of existence below, including Man and Hell. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Emperor for more information.

[3] Parted the Red Sea: This is a biblical reference. Moses had parted the Red Sea as he led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. It’s not clear whether this is supposed to be entirely separate from the earlier reference to Jesus Christ (who performed many miracles, but did not part the Red Sea) or is a misconception of Christian traditions by Yu Wo.

[4] Jin Yong: As mentioned in one of the previous chapters, Jin Yong is a famous modern Chinese wuxia novelist. The character “Lolidragon” was originally a character in his novel The Return of the Condor Heroes. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Yong for more information.

[5] Wei Wu: The phrase 威武 (wēi wǔ) literally means “formidable / military prestige”. It originated from a saying from Chinese philosopher Mencius, “Military prestige cannot be swayed” (威武不能屈) and has been adopted as a standard opening call in Chinese courts of law.

[6] Taking advantage of me: In Chinese this phrase was this phrase was 吃豆腐 (chī dòu fǔ), lit. “eat tofu”. This phrase is said to come from this: In olden times, Tofu shops are usually opened by married couples. The husband would make the tofu at night and the wife would sell them during the day. As they frequently eat tofu, their skins are naturally soft and smooth. This attracts lots of customers (mainly males, considering that the wife is doing business during the day), and the males would use the term ‘eat tofu’ as an euphemism for going to the tofu shop and flirting with the Tofu Shop wife. Hence, jealous wives usually reprimand their husbands with “Did you eat tofu today again?” Now, it’s used to describe perverted males or, well, males who want to take advantage of females.

[7] It would be befitting for nymphs, being such beautiful creatures, to live in an enchanting place such as the one described.

[8] Celestial: 天仙. This can literally be taken to mean “Immortal of the Sky”, but can also be construed to mean a “Heavenly Beauty”.

[9] Kill-steal: A term in online games describing the situation when someone lands the finishing blow on an enemy and gets credit for doing so even though the enemy was already being targeted by another player. It is generally a frowned-upon practice, though there are generally no explicit rules against it.

[10] DanDan: Her name (蛋蛋) literally means “egg” or “oval-shaped”. Chinese names often repeat the same word as a sign of endearment.

[11] Neurotic: His name (神经兮兮) literally means “having a nerve disorder” but colloquially is used to describe someone who is “overly sensitive, and reacts or takes offense unexpectedly at seemingly innocuous things”. The manhua refers to him as “Wacko”, but we feel that “Neurotic” is a more suitable name and closer to the author’s original intent.

[12] “Up the creek without a paddle”: 叫天天不应，叫地地不灵 (jiào tiān tiān bù yìng, jiào dì dì bù líng). Literally: Cry out to the heavens, but the heavens don’t respond. Cry out to the earth, but the earth is impervious.

[13] Climb a mountain of knives, go into the oil cauldrons: Actually refers to some of the punishments depicted in Chinese Hell. There are eighteen levels of hell, each incorporating a different kind of torture/punishment meant for different kind of sinners. These two are some of the most common ones. For more info, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyu (Warning: Not for the faint-hearted).

[14] Carps lay their eggs in freshwater rivers, and must swim up the river during the mating season.

[15] Hey ho, hey ho, pull the radish: A famous nursery rhythm about how everyone’s coming together and working hard to pluck out a gigantic radish from the ground. The lyrics basically go like this: Hey ho, hey ho, pull the radish, hey ho, hey ho can’t pull it out, hey ho hey ho, little granny, faster come and help me pull the radish… (repeat, with different people helping each time, from granny to sister/brother to cat/dog.)

[16] “I stand for … triumph over evil!”: A famous quote from the manga series “Sailor Moon”, often said by sailor moon when she’s fighting.

[17] “Lolidragon from Jin Yong’s novel”: This is a reference to The Return of the Condor Heroes, one of Jin Yong’s wuxia novels about martial arts. She was an orphan who was left at the doorsteps of a palace and was eventually taken away by a woman to the Ancient Tomb Sect. She was raised as a disciple and was taught and mastered the sect’s martial arts. Having never left the tomb, she grew up to be an innocent beauty but was cold to the point of being unsociable and emotionless.  The Lolidragon in this novel is most likely a name borrowed from Jin Yong.

[18] “Yang Guo and his Melancholic Palms”: Yang Guo was Lolidragon’s only disciple and they eventually fell in love, but master-apprentice relationships were highly taboo at the time. Due to quarrels with their peers and misunderstandings, they were separated for 16 years before being reunited at the end of the novel. During that time, Yang Guo learned kung fu from various elite martial artists. His Melancholic Palms is a hybrid skill that he developed that incorporates elements from his various masters.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Title of the Undefeatable King

Chapter 2: Conflict

Chapter 3: Neurotic and DanDan

Chapter 4: The Terrifying Side of a Self-aware NPC

Chapter 5: A Man’s Daily Trifles

Chapter 6: The Bloody Overlord

Chapter 7: A Cougar’s Unimaginable Love

Extra Chapter: The Classified Files of the Five Continents’ Overlords