Chapter 17 The Storm Before the Final Battle

After the match with Xu Huai Shang, the general player base formed an impression and opinion of Feng Bujue that was... quite obvious.

One could say it was... a mix of aversion and fear, contempt and admiration.

Needless to say, Xu Huai Shang's die-hard fans and devoted followers must have wanted to shout, "Eat my [bleep]!" at Jue-Ge.

And the average players generally commented on Jue-Ge like this: "That bastard is so ruthless~ ah~"

It wasn't hard to see that very few players developed positive feelings toward Feng Bujue after the match. His supporters were either insightful or had skewed morals, hence they resonated with him...

In such an environment, it was bound to raise eyebrows when [Madness Doesn't Awaken] suddenly showed unusual activity on the level rankings.

If the person gaining twenty to thirty million experience points a day was [Devouring Sky Ghost Howl] or [Shiva], probably no one would have complained. The reputations of "Order" and "Gods" were there, and anyone attempting to speculate or slander them would have to consider the weight of their words...

But if it were a player of [Crazy Tracker Sword Shadow]'s caliber, a portion of people might dare to comment and speculate presumptuously.

As for Feng Bujue... let's put it this way, if someone like him were alive in the 1960s or 70s, he'd be beaten to death ten times over just by walking down the street.

He exuded an aura that made him seem like he wouldn't be missed if he was killed on the spot. No matter how you looked at him, he was a "bad guy." As mentioned earlier, they wouldn't even let him volunteer in the community...

If Feng Bujue's rapid level increase had happened before the Butterfly Battle, things might have been better... but now, people's aversion to him had solidified and transformed into prejudice. In this context, the truth didn't matter because people were happy to believe that [Madness Doesn't Awaken] was a cheater.

Countless denunciations erupted on the forums. Aside from pointless personal attacks, the most popular demand was "Disqualify Madness Doesn't Awaken and let Xu Huai Shang join the Peak Tournament."

In their minds, Feng Bujue's cheating was already confirmed, and the only thing left to discuss was how to deal with him.

This situation... started on the third day after the Butterfly Battle and continued until May 29th. The denunciations not only didn't disappear but intensified. Perhaps as the finals approached, Xu Huai Shang's supporters grew more anxious.

As for Xu Huai Shang herself... she did believe in Jue-Ge. In fact, she had been trying to talk to Feng Bujue about this for days, but he didn't accept her friend request or reply to her emails... She couldn't reach him.

Xu Huai Shang didn't respond to her fans' actions. She understood... that at this point, anything she said was irrelevant. Even if she publicly declared that she believed Feng Bujue hadn't cheated, it wouldn't help. Her fans might even think she was too naive and kind, and intensify their attacks on Feng Bujue.

So, the denunciations against Jue-Ge continued...

Until the afternoon of May 29th, when a powerful voice finally stood up to speak for Feng Bujue.

Dream Inc., which had always ignored rumors, actually responded this time...

At two o'clock that afternoon, an announcement appeared on the official website: [Recently, claims that "a player has been gaining a large amount of experience points through illegitimate means" have been widely spread on the forums, and the company's customer service department has received a large number of related reports and complaints. The company hereby solemnly declares: These rumors are completely unfounded. All experience sources for the player in question are legitimate and can be verified in the database. We urge all players to filter information rationally and not to easily believe rumors or be incited by others.]

When Feng Bujue saw this message, he instantly guessed whose work it was.

Although Jue-Ge didn't really care about the public opinion, it felt pretty good to have a big shot protecting him...

However... this announcement also brought some follow-up problems...

People began to wonder... if [Madness Doesn't Awaken] really wasn't cheating, then wasn't this guy too terrifying? Players had limited daily game time. How efficient was it for him to gain twenty to thirty million experience points every day? It was simply insane!

Of course... they would never have imagined that even this efficiency was the result of Jue-Ge's deliberate restraint...

For the past five days, Feng Bujue had been grinding solo survival mode on normal difficulty, because this mode had the highest completion rate, and for Jue-Ge, completion... meant extra rewards.

Every day, he only took two experience point rewards. After that, he chose equipment for all the extra rewards. He kept the ones with decent stats and used the mediocre excellent-grade items to feed the [Zero-Type Magic Energy Pulverizer]. If he hadn't been restraining himself, wouldn't it have been easy to become the level king in five days?

…………

May 30th, 12:54 PM.

The previous announcement indirectly solidified Feng Bujue's image as a great demon... By this point, people were still discussing it.

On the eve of the final battle, Feng Bujue became one of the most favored players among the top fifty, second only to Devouring Sky Ghost Howl.

In this atmosphere... some of Jue-Ge's fans finally revealed their ferocious fangs...

In the past few days, these guys had been forced to hide among the general public due to the pressure of public opinion, afraid to admit that they supported Feng Bujue. Now, they were eager to make a move.

A group of oddball men and women marched into the tenth merchandise mall (rumor had it that Feng Bujue often appeared in this area). They came from different guilds and wore different clothes, but they were holding the same banner, which read two big characters—"Most Mad."

The onlookers who didn't know what was going on complained, "They're poisoned by Yu Yu Hakusho..."

…………

At this moment, Feng Bujue himself was in the login space, staring with dead fish eyes and pulling the lever of the [Zero-Type Magic Energy Pulverizer]...

The machine rattled and the convex lens began to focus the light again.

He had seen this scene dozens of times. Every time, the white light formed [de-energized residue]. But Feng Bujue firmly believed in the slot machine theorem: "I give you one chance, you give me a pile of holy crap; I give you ten chances, you give me ten slaps; I give you a hundred chances, you have to at least give me some respect for probability, right?"

Sure enough... Heaven rewards those who persevere.

When Jue-Ge filled the manufacturing success rate to 63.01%, his terrible luck finally showed some grace...

Under the condensation of white light... a legendary-grade equipment was born.