Chapter 11 – Approximately at the level of a professional

editor: musk

proofreader: pidgon

As part of the management of the official guild under the umbrella of the Black Rose club, Black Dawn, Black Night had the same ‘Black’ prefix in his name. In fact, most of the management consisted of staff members who handled the administrative affairs of the Black Rose club. Currently, the guild had developed to such a scale that they periodically had to clear out the inactive accounts due to the large number of Black Rose fans who were on the waiting list to join the guild. Presently, the guild was more or less full and not just anyone could join the guild.

As the guild leader, Ye Chen received a large number of member recommendations every day. Originally, he did not pay much heed to the Ghost Priest that Red Alert had mentioned. It was only after he saw the last message that he couldn’t help but place some importance on the matter.

As per the saying “the outsider sees the excitement, while the insider sees the entrance”¹i.e. the people without knowledge or expertise only sees things superficially, whereas those in the know will be able to see things clearly (for e.g. understand the situation being observed, know the required, be able to appraise the quality of the subject, etc…), the video that appeared to be very simple in the eyes of an ordinary player was completely different when viewed by the professional staff of the clubs. Although it could not be considered as something earth-shattering, at the very least, it was undeniable that when compared to the entirety of Zone’s playerbase, as well as considering how the equipment effects had been matched up and utilized, then the other party was definitely an expert.

“How about this, you give his ID to me. Once he comes online, I will talk to him one-to-one.” After a moment of contemplation, Ye Chen finally made this decision.

“En, his ID is ‘Adorable Ghost’, and he should come online before nighttime.” Red Alert knew that it was difficult to request for a place in his guild, and he could understand the difficulties that the guild leader was facing. Finally, while harboring bad intentions, he added, “Yesterday, it seems that Brother Adorable Ghost encountered Broken Sky and Happy Thoughts’ team in the 3v3 arena ladder. Leader, why don’t you ask them about it? After all, both sides have gone up against each other, so they should more or less have a good understanding of his skill level.”

Having calmly rubbed salt into the wounds of the pair who had already suffered from internal injuries²Literal words used here are to have stabbed people who are already suffering from internal injuries. I changed it a little here to make it easier and more intuitive to understand., he logged off and went to sleep feeling satisfied.

Over at the guild, Ye Chen shouted to Broken Sky and Happy Thoughts, calling them into a voice chatting room. Going straight to the point, he asked, “Did both of you fight in the 3v3 group arena yesterday?”

Broken Sky paused for a moment, then sheepishly said, “Guild leader, we merely went to the group arena to get closer with a girl. You didn’t have to call us over for a one-to-one chat in such a serious tone, did you? You never mentioned that we were not allowed to pick up girls in the guild previously…”

Ye Chen said grumpily, “Who was asking about how you were picking up girls? What I wanted to ask about was whether or not you bumped into a Ghost Priest while in the arena?”

Happy Thoughts said, “We fought in the arena ladder for the whole night yesterday. There were Ghost Priests in many matches. Who is the one that Leader is referring to?”

Ye Chen said, “The one who was wearing a little red hood.”

After he said this, the voice chatting room immediately fell into complete silence.

Once Broken Sky and Happy Thoughts, who were sitting in front of their computer screens, heard the three words “little red hood”, an incomparably pained expression appeared on their faces due to the unpleasant memory.

Finally, it was still Happy Thoughts who reigned in his fluctuating emotions and replied, “We ran into him…Leader, do you know him?”

Ye Chen said, “I don’t, but someone recommended him to join our guild, so I came looking for you guys to understand the situation.”

Speechless, Happy Thoughts said, “…Leader, you sure are good at looking for people.”

Ye Chen felt that his tone of speech was strange. “What, did you lose that match?” 

Happy Thoughts took a deep breath, trying his best to comment on the match objectively. “At that time, we were carrying³Gaming term which refers to how the two guys were doing all the work and helping Love Affair to win the match. Sister Lovely⁴Referring to Love Affair (风花雪月). He calls her by nickname (雪月), which if translated alone becomes completely different from the original name. Thus, I’ve changed it to “Lovely”. through the group arena. Then, we bumped into that Little Red Riding Hood’s party. On our team, we had myself, Broken Sky and Lovely. On the opposing team, there was Little Red Riding Hood, an assassin, and a priest. We did indeed lose that match.”

“When carrying girls, you will definitely lose some matches.” Ye Chen expressed his understanding, then casually asked, “What was the level of skill of the opposing assassin and priest?”

Happy Thoughts immediately choked out, “This, unfortunately I’m not too sure.”

Ye Chen said, “Didn’t you battle with one another? How could you be unsure?”

Happy Thoughts said, “That…we spent the whole match chasing after the Ghost Priest, so we didn’t exchange blows with them.”

Ye Chen noticed the phrasing they used. “We? You and Broken Sky did a 2v1?”

Happy Thoughts inexplicably blushed. “Yes, 2v1…as a result, the other party still managed to get a double kill.”

This time, the resulting silence was even longer than the one that came before it.

Because Happy Thoughts and Broken Sky felt embarrassed, they definitely would not take the initiative to speak, but for Ye Chen, it was because he was too stunned at this result. It was only after a long period of silence that he asked, “By your estimation, approximately what level is that Ghost Priest at?”

This time, the one who answered was Broken Sky, who had not spoken at all in the later parts of the conversation. “It should be…approximately at the level of a professional.”

“Got it.” Leaving behind these words, Ye Chen left the voice chatting room. He hesitated for a moment, then entered the ID “Adorable Ghost” and sent a friend request. What he received was a system notification of the other party being offline.

He felt slightly out of sorts as he stared at the screen. After some time, he called over the Assistant Guild Leader’s assistant, Zhou Zhi, and said, “Xiao Zhi, do you remember that face-slapping video from the Tenth Division that went viral online a few days ago? Download it and give me a copy.”

Zhou Zhi curiously asked, “Brother Ye, didn’t you say that there was nothing worth considering in the Tenth Division? Why are you suddenly interested in it again?”

Ye Chen said, “The newcomers’ camp of the club has been lacking people recently. Being able to dig out one more is yet another member for them. Act a little more quickly, it’s urgent!”

Although Broken Sky was considered an expert with decent skills in the online game, he could not exclude the possibility that he had overestimated the enemy due to him losing to the other party. Although the game did not lack passerby kings with high skills, players had long become familiar with those passerby experts. Finding a new face who possessed professional level skills was not such an easy feat.

Of course, Ye Chen would not make such a simple judgment based on their words alone. It was just that after putting the various sources of information he had together, he had already ascertained that this person at the very least possessed considerable skill, which was sufficient to convince him to include him in the guild’s ranks. As for whether or not he was at a level where he could be allowed to enter the club to be cultivated further, he could only decide again after he had established closer contact with the person.

…

Lin Xiao was not a person who could frequently pull an all-nighter. Although he had only huddled in front of his computer for an entire night, for him, who was naturally lethargic, it was already very exhausting. He fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the bed, and by the time he woke up, it was close to night time. He slowly took his time to eat his dinner and logged into the game, and almost immediately received a friend request.

Once he saw the other party’s name, he couldn’t help but smile. Oh, Black Night, wasn’t this the great leader of Black Dawn?

He selected the friend confirmation option and sent a smiling emoji in the chat box. Who knew that the other party would be even more direct, immediately sending him a guild invitation.

Lin Xiao did not stand on ceremony and immediately chose to accept.

Almost immediately after he had joined the guild, the guild channel, which had always been empty, was immediately bombarded with notifications. The amount was so great that it almost caused his old and laggy computer to crash.

Lin Xiao glanced through them and discovered that his entry had not attracted others’ attention at all. He was about to hide the guild channel when he suddenly saw someone yell, “Who added this Ghost Priest in!”

Once he saw the ID, he immediately felt joyous. Clear Sky, wasn’t this the female priest from the other day who had been so angry at him that she left? Thus, he reciprocated her words by replying, “Sister Clear⁵To be precise, he’s calling her younger sister Clear. LOL, what a coincidence, we meet again. ^_^~”

Clear Sky felt like spitting blood after seeing this smiling emoji. “Who is your Sister Clear! Who was the one who let in this newbie account with 3200 point equipment, how could you just invite any old person into the guild!”

Lin Xiao said, “This is where you are wrong. I’m not a newbie, my current equipment has already reached 5200 points. [Smoking emoji]⁶I can imagine Lin Xiao is trolling with an emoji like this:



”

Clear Sky said, “Even my side account has already hit 5800 points, okay!!! What’s there to be proud about for 5200 points!!! Where’s the moderator? Who on earth added him!”

Black Night said, “I added him, does anyone have any opinions?”

Clear Sky: “…”

Lin Xiao asked, “Look, I have such great backing. Sister Clear, have you suddenly started to admire me now? [Smoking emoji][Smoking emoji][Smoking emoji]”

Clear Sky: …

The inner thoughts of the audience: …

Since the leader had appeared, the guild channel, which was originally very lively, had suddenly gone silent. This made Lin Xiao’s shameless harassment even more eye-catching.

Broken Sky couldn’t help breaking the silence. “I say, bro, so you don’t just stop at harassing men, but also harass women as well! You go for both men and women, respect, respect. [Clapping emoji]”

The spectating people had never expected that the newcomer was not only personally invited into the guild by the leader, but had even made Broken Sky, who never appreciated anybody, use such a polite tone. Immediately, they became full of curiosity with regards to Lin Xiao’s origins. But immediately, their focus was drawn away by the next announcement made by Black Night. This week’s guild battle was once again about to begin.

Black Night said, “There will be a guild battle at 8pm this Saturday. This time, the enemy we have been matched up with is the guild Horizon. Later, we will be announcing the list of players who will be participating in this week’s guild battle in the Announcement page. The participating members are not allowed to take leave in the absence of special circumstances. Anyone who is absent without valid reason will be kicked out as per the usual rule. Please pass on this message among yourselves.”

After the information had just been released, Zhou Zhi brought a namelist, submitted it to Ye Chen, and said, “Brother Ye, the changes among our ranks were rather significant last week. This time, the namelist is short of a few people. Furthermore, we just had to be matched up against Horizon this week, and I don’t dare to randomly assign a few people to make up our numbers. What do you think we should do now?”

Ye Chen received the namelist and glanced at it. He frowned and thought about it for a moment. He kept glancing at that particular name in the group channel out of the corner of his eyes. He paused, raised his pen and added the words “Adorable Ghost” to the list. Then, he returned the list to Zhou Zhi and said, “You should first make the announcement based on this. As for the remaining spots that are missing, leave them empty for now. Some people from the club…they might want to come over and play this week.”

After hearing this, Zhou Zhi was stunned, and his eyes immediately lit up. “People from the club will personally participate? Oh my god, then wouldn’t we win for sure? Who will be the ones who will come!? Captain You!? Will Captain You come!? Or Vice Captain Shen?”

Ye Chen was rendered speechless by this fanboy-like response. He looked at him and laughed. “About this, I’m currently not too sure either.”

________________

TL comments: Lin Xiao is such a troll and I love it xD

• 1
  i.e. the people without knowledge or expertise only sees things superficially, whereas those in the know will be able to see things clearly (for e.g. understand the situation being observed, know the required, be able to appraise the quality of the subject, etc…)
• 2
  Literal words used here are to have stabbed people who are already suffering from internal injuries. I changed it a little here to make it easier and more intuitive to understand.
• 3
  Gaming term which refers to how the two guys were doing all the work and helping Love Affair to win the match.
• 4
  Referring to Love Affair (风花雪月). He calls her by nickname (雪月), which if translated alone becomes completely different from the original name. Thus, I’ve changed it to “Lovely”.
• 5
  To be precise, he’s calling her younger sister Clear. LOL
• 6
  I can imagine Lin Xiao is trolling with an emoji like this: