Before continuing with the next quest chain, Yin Huaichen logged out of the game first.
It was already evening in the real world.
He climbed out of the full immersion pod, pushed open the door to the holographic gaming room and headed downstairs.
Only Butler Zhang was in the first floor hall. The moment he saw Yin Huaichen coming down, he immediately stood up to greet him.
“Did Big Sister come back earlier?”
Yin Huaichen’s nose twitched slightly, catching the lingering scent of Cloud White Pine Needles tea still hanging in the air. That scent had not been there when he returned earlier. In the entire Yin household, only his eldest sister, Yin Hanshan, enjoyed drinking that bitter stuff.
“Yes, Eldest Miss returned briefly just now.”
Butler Zhang nodded.
“When she saw you were in the holographic room, she didn’t disturb you. She went to the study to retrieve some documents before returning to the company.”
After hesitating briefly, he cautiously added,
“Young Master… are you planning to go out?”
“Oh, no.”
Yin Huaichen snapped out of his thoughts and replied casually.
“I just logged off to find something to eat.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he very clearly saw the relief appear on Butler Zhang’s face.
Yin Huaichen raised an eyebrow.
“Ah… suddenly I really feel like taking the bike out for a ride.”
The moment Butler Zhang heard that, his heart immediately leapt into his throat again. His mind began spinning rapidly, trying to think of some excuse to stop him.
Yin Huaichen grinned mischievously.
“Just kidding.”
Butler Zhang sighed helplessly.
“I’m already this old, Young Master. Please stop teasing me…”
Then he asked,
“So, how’s 《Eternal Universe》? Are you enjoying it?”
Yin Huaichen had only recently been discharged from the hospital butler Zhang genuinely feared that the young master might suddenly get restless and run outside recklessly again. Seeing that Yin Huaichen seemed genuinely interested in 《Eternal Universe》 he finally relaxed a little internally.
At the very least, it seemed the young master might behave himself for a while.
“It’s pretty good,” Yin Huaichen said.
“Very fun.”
After dinner, the private doctor that Butler Zhang had arranged in advance arrived and conducted a full body examination for Yin Huaichen.
Once it was confirmed that there were no further problems, Yin Huaichen obediently took his medicine under Butler Zhang’s supervision and received his injection before returning to his room.
He did not rush back into the game immediately.
Instead, he opened his computer and began browsing the forums.
The forums were unbelievably lively.
The first day performance of 《Eternal Universe》 had completely exceeded everyone’s expectations. The immersive experience was practically indistinguishable from reality itself. The NPCs possessed astonishingly advanced interactive intelligence and the combat system was exceptional.
For a time, the game’s popularity became utterly overwhelming.
The arrival of major gaming clubs also revealed the commercial potential of 《Eternal Universe》.
Yin Huaichen had spent most of his first day grinding levels alone and had not paid much attention to outside matters but even through the overwhelming flood of forum discussions, he could still feel how explosively popular the game had become.
Including Thousand Mechanism City, where he currently was.
It was also one of the hottest regions being discussed on the forums.
Aside from countless small and medium sized gaming clubs and guilds, even four of the Federation’s S rank clubs had chosen Thousand Mechanism City as their starting location.
The competition there was extremely fierce.
Yin Huaichen also spotted news regarding his eldest sister on the forums.
It was a gaming guild called 【Yinqiu】.
The thing Yin Hanshan had been busy with recently was precisely this matter. She had acquired resources from several A rank and unaffiliated B rank clubs across the Federation, then consolidated them into a newly established S rank scale gaming club.
Because it was backed by the Yin family and supported by enormous funding, the project had generated considerable discussion throughout the gaming industry when it was first announced.
The guild was also located within Canglan Continent.
However, Yin Huaichen was in Thousand Mechanism City in the eastern region of Canglan Continent, while Yin Hanshan’s 【Yinqiu】 Guild was based in Qinglu City in the west.
The distance between them was unimaginably vast.
Yin Huaichen briefly skimmed through the situation in Qinglu City.
The gaming industry had always been a winner takes all environment. To most ordinary players, veteran gaming clubs themselves were golden signboards.
Although 【Yinqiu】 possessed a powerful background, it had ultimately only just been established. Standing out in Qinglu City, where numerous top tier clubs were entrenched, would not be an easy task.
Still, Yin Huaichen was not particularly worried about that.
After all, in his memories, ever since childhood, there had never been anything Yin Hanshan wanted to accomplish but failed to achieve.
When Yin Huaichen was ten years old, the Yin family parents had both passed away in an accident.
At the time, when Yin Hanshan inherited the Yin family business, she had only just turned twenty and had only recently graduated from business school.
Faced with such an absurdly young successor, the outside world had overwhelmingly viewed her with skepticism.
Yet eight years had passed.
Under her leadership, the Yin Corporation had not only continued flourishing but had grown even stronger than during their parents’ era, eventually becoming one of the Federation’s top hundred elite conglomerates.
【Ten Thousand Signatures Petition! Strongly Demand the Devs Buff Martial Artists!】
While scrolling through the forums, a particular thread suddenly caught Yin Huaichen’s attention.
Curious, he clicked into it.
【Did the devs balance this game with their feet? Is anyone actually going to address how garbage the Martial Artist class is? Fragile body, tiny attack range, ridiculously difficult controls, pathetic damage output and nobody even wants them in parties. How are we supposed to play without buffs?!】
The thread meticulously listed every weakness currently plaguing the Martial Artist class.
On the very first day of launch, Martial Artists had undoubtedly become the class with the highest number of players deleting characters and rerolling.
Most people had chosen the class because of its stylish appearance and the elegant, overpowered image shown in the promotional trailers.
But after actually playing for a day, huge numbers of Martial Artist players had completely broken down mentally.
【Seriously, devs, look at this class yourselves. Is this even meant for humans to play? Other classes can stand safely at long range throwing fireballs at monsters, while we have to rush in and fight monsters face to face. Low damage AND easy to die. Are these difficulty levels even remotely comparable?!】
【You’re right, Martial Artists do look cool as hell but they’re literally fragile little scratch damage clowns! Run into melee and die in three seconds flat. Their normal attack combos feel like a massage therapist giving monsters a spa session. Burst damage isn’t even as good as a Warlock’s basic attack. Boss sneezes once and your HP bar evaporates into dust. If you get desperate enough, all you can do is perform some intangible cultural heritage military boxing routine. After an entire combo, the boss gets so moved it practically wants to hand you a premium wellness massage membership card!】
【If your life’s been going too smoothly lately, I highly recommend trying Martial Artist in Eternal Universe. If you don’t develop depression after two days, you’re officially built different. (thumbs_up.jpg)】
【Well said. I’ve already reincarnated into the noble and glorious Warlock class. Activate skills and the heavens change color, the sun and moon lose their light. Basic attacks come with built in aim assist hacks. My burst damage can blow Martial Artists into fireworks ashes and when I use crowd control, the entire boss family stands still crying for their mothers.】
Amidst the flood of Martial Artist complaints, one lone dissenting reply abruptly appeared.
Very quickly, the player who posted it was immediately besieged by everyone else.
【A Martial Artist soloing a Level 3 wraith beast flawlessly and instantly killing it? Are we even playing the same game?】
【That’s beyond exaggeration at this point. My entire team nearly got wiped by a Level 3 wraith beast today. How could a sewer tier class like Martial Artist possibly do that? What’s he killing it with? His therapeutic scraping massage techniques?】
【Likely the dying hallucination of a Martial Artist player】
“……”
The person they’re talking about…
Couldn’t actually be me, right?
Setting aside the absurd bug like existence that was the Formless Impermanence Heart Method, Yin Huaichen honestly had not felt that the Martial Artist class was weak at all after playing for a full day.
On the contrary, the class possessed an absolutely terrifying upper limit.
It was simply that the server had only just opened and most players had not realized it yet.
Yin Huaichen was even considering whether he should casually share some Martial Artist tips on the forums when his communicator suddenly rang.
“Xiao Chen, are you home?”
The call was from his second brother, Yin Minghui.
“Yeah,” Yin Huaichen replied.
After receiving confirmation, Yin Minghui immediately said,
“Do me a favor. Go to my study. On the third shelf of the bookshelf, left side cabinet, there’s a document bag there. Bring it over for me. The address is…”
Yin Huaichen froze briefly.
“Weren’t you supposed to be on a business trip in the neighboring city?”
His eldest sister handled business affairs, while his second brother had always worked in research.
During the early development stages of the 《Eternal Universe》 project, Yin Minghui’s research institute had also participated in part of it.
Just a few days before Yin Huaichen’s hospitalization, Yin Minghui had supposedly left on a business trip.
That was why Yin Huaichen had not seen him recently.
Yet now this phone call…
So Yin Minghui never even left Chen Harbor City at all?
“Shh, keep your voice down…”
Yin Minghui lowered his voice cautiously.
“Just help your brother out this once, okay? Absolutely don’t let Big Sister find out.”
Yin Huaichen spoke with complete disapproval.
“We’re family. How can we hide things and deceive each other?”
Yin Minghui gritted his teeth.
“Wasn’t there that limited edition motorcycle modification kit you’ve always wanted? Help me this once and I’ll buy you a set afterward.”
Yin Huaichen pondered seriously for a moment before righteously rejecting the proposal.
“Make it two sets.”
Yin Minghui: “……”
So this is how you treat family?
After successfully extorting his second brother, Yin Huaichen’s mood became extraordinarily pleasant.
He went to the study, retrieved the item Yin Minghui requested and happened to encounter Butler Zhang downstairs while heading out.
“It’s already so late, Young Master. Where are you going?”
Faced with Butler Zhang’s fully alert and suspicious expression, Yin Huaichen answered calmly without changing expression in the slightest.
“Oh, Second Brother said he forgot to water the Fenri Clivia he planted in the courtyard, so he asked me to go water it.”
As he spoke, Yin Huaichen reached into his pocket and pulled out a fruit candy, handing it to Butler Zhang.
“For you.”
Butler Zhang accepted it without suspicion, visibly touched.
Ever since returning from the hospital, Young Master really did seem much more mature and sensible than before…
But the moment he tore open the candy wrapper, he suddenly remembered,
Fenri Clivia was a drought resistant specialty plant.
At this season, it absolutely did not need watering at all.
At that exact moment, the roaring hum of a modified motorcycle engine suddenly erupted from outside in the courtyard.
Butler Zhang immediately rushed toward the entrance at top speed.
Yet by the time he reached the doorway, all he could see was the thin silhouette of a young man riding a black motorcycle disappearing rapidly into the night.
The three silver earrings on his ears shone like arrogant stars beneath the darkness.
“Since you accepted the hush money, you can’t report me now, alright?”
Yin Huaichen’s voice gradually faded into the distance alongside the engine roar.
Butler Zhang lowered his head and stared bitterly at the fruit candy in his hand, his face filled with helpless misery.
Young Master’s ability to pretend to be well behaved was becoming more and more advanced…
After following the route Yin Minghui had given him all the way to the destination, Yin Huaichen finally stopped the motorcycle.
The first thing he did after getting off was check the heart rate monitor strapped to his wrist.
The numbers were… not exactly pretty.
Still, at least they had not crossed the red line.
Yin Huaichen quietly let out a sigh of relief.
The monitor was directly connected to the hospital system. The moment his readings exceeded the warning threshold, a professional emergency medical team would arrive within ten minutes based on his real time location tracking, tie him up if necessary and forcibly drag him back to the hospital.
Yin Huaichen could not help but miss the body he possessed inside the game, the body that allowed him to move freely and fight however he pleased…
Even if it was only virtual.
The building before him looked somewhat familiar.
Without thinking too deeply about it, Yin Huaichen parked the motorcycle and followed Yin Minghui’s instructions upstairs.
Only after entering what appeared to be a reception room and seeing the striking company logo displayed on the wall did he finally realize why Yin Minghui had sounded so secretive and suspicious earlier.
“You seriously aren’t afraid Big Sister’s going to chop you to death?”
Yin Huaichen lowered his voice as he handed over the document bag.
“You actually came to the Wei Corporation?”
The Wei family and the Yin family could practically be considered each other’s greatest business rivals.
Not long ago, one of Yin Hanshan’s projects had apparently been intercepted by the Wei family midway through negotiations.
Although Yin Huaichen did not pay much attention to the business world, even he knew that Wei Wanzhou, the current head of the Wei family and his eldest sister had never gotten along.
Whenever Yin Hanshan was home, she spent no small amount of time criticizing Wei Wanzhou in front of Yin Huaichen.
“Keep it secret for me.”
Yin Minghui smiled brightly and reached out, intending to rub Yin Huaichen’s head, only for Yin Huaichen to step backward and dodge.
“Tch. You used to let me do that when you were little.”
Yin Minghui looked genuinely disappointed.
“You said it yourself. That was when I was little.”
Yin Huaichen rolled his eyes.
Then his gaze shifted toward the other side of the room.
A figure sat behind a desk there, half obscured by a translucent holographic display screen, making the person’s face difficult to see clearly.
Curious, Yin Huaichen lowered his voice.
“Who’s that? Your friend?”
“Wei Wanzhou,” Yin Minghui replied casually.
“…Hiss.”
Yin Huaichen immediately sucked in a sharp breath.
Are you trying to get yourself killed by Big Sister?! If you’re tired of living, don’t drag me down with you!
Perhaps the movement had been slightly too dramatic.
The seated figure lifted his head and glanced in their direction.
“Wanzhou, let me introduce him.”
Yin Minghui secretly tugged at Yin Huaichen’s sleeve.
“This is Yin Huaichen, my younger brother. I mentioned him before.”
Then he whispered,
“Call him Brother Wei.”
Only when the man looked up did Yin Huaichen finally see his appearance clearly.
Just as the rumors said, Wei Wanzhou did indeed look remarkably young in person.
However, the elite aura created by his tailored suit and metal framed glasses added an additional layer of cold maturity to him.
The lines of his face were sharp and clean. A chilling air seemed to gather beneath the turning point of his brow ridge.
His dark, ink colored eyes were pressed beneath thick, straight brows, while the slight protrusion along the bridge of his nose, paired with the taut line of his jaw, resembled the edge of an unsharpened blade.
The overwhelming aura of a cold and domineering CEO struck directly at one’s face.
At first glance, he looked extremely difficult to approach.
In that regard, he was actually rather similar to Eldest Sister.
No wonder they were such fierce rivals in business.
Yin Huaichen silently complained inwardly while putting on an obedient and polite expression externally.
“Hello, Brother Wei.”
Yin Minghui smugly patted Yin Huaichen’s shoulder as though proudly showing off a prized collectible figurine.
“So? My little brother’s well behaved, right?”
Wei Wanzhou’s deep gray eyes calmly examined Yin Huaichen.
His gaze paused briefly on the three silver earrings adorning Yin Huaichen’s ear.
Well behaved?
Wei Wanzhou’s expression barely changed at all, yet Yin Huaichen inexplicably felt a strange pressure descend upon him.
The sensation was remarkably similar to the feeling of facing Yin Hanshan.
The carefully maintained expression on Yin Huaichen’s face almost cracked on the spot.
“Hello.”
Wei Wanzhou withdrew his gaze and gave a small nod in greeting.
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
A tiny coffee can be a surprisingly nice “thank you.” ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Remember to keep a positive moodChapter 2 · Have fun playing the gameChapter 3 · Skill completion rateChapter 4 · Strange and malevolent creatures roam outside the cityChapter 5 · 90% complete!Chapter 6 · Serving the sect is my dutyChapter 7 · First meetingChapter 8 · Fang LecangChapter 9 · A prestigious and righteous sect!Chapter 10 · Kill Chi BantuChapter 11 · Spoils of warChapter 12 · We’ve made a fortune!Chapter 13 · Thunder and fire extinguish goldChapter 14 · You found it?Chapter 15 · The so called degree of freedomChapter 16 · The secrets of life and deathChapter 17 · A minor leader of the first rank.Chapter 18 · What kind of luck do you have?Chapter 19 · Let’s Do itChapter 20 · The BOSS escapedChapter 21 · “A wound to the heart is also a wound.”Chapter 22 · Good people are always blessed.Chapter 23 · The Old Man of the Valley of BonesChapter 24 · It’s me, young master!Chapter 25 · Take it slow and steadyChapter 26 · The older they get, the stingier they becomeChapter 27 · You know this person tooChapter 28 · I saw Wei Wanzhou againChapter 29 · You’d better keep having this kind of luckChapter 30 · “Password lock” crackedChapter 31 · We’ve come to punish you!Chapter 32 · A boorish country bumpkin who knows no manners.Chapter 33 · You have crossed the lineChapter 34 · Now that we’re here, do you think we can leave?Chapter 35 · A trivial skillChapter 36 · Actually, I was just kiddingChapter 37 · Upgrade mission complete, rating: SSS!Chapter 38 · AwardChapter 39 · I have always been law-abiding and law-abidingChapter 40 · Are you coming back for dinner tonight?Chapter 41 · Purple Lightning Square Seal.Chapter 42 · A money-grubberChapter 43 · BetChapter 44 · Four Continents Chamber of CommerceChapter 45 · This was my third meeting with Wei WanzhouChapter 46 · Oh, you want to hit on me.Chapter 47 · The angry drizzle has stoppedChapter 48 · Thunder SpearChapter 49 · “Are you a devil?”Chapter 50 · The Impermanent Lord!?Chapter 51 · Loot everywhere..Chapter 52 · His identity remains a mystery.Chapter 53 · Why not show yourself?Chapter 54 · He confronted Li Mingrui.Chapter 55 · Auction