Chapter 12 An Yueqin's Visit

An Yueqin's visit fell on April 20th. Feng Bujue had a full twenty-five days until his next deadline, so he was actually in good time.

However, Brother Jue was a procrastinator when it came to writing. Apart from the occasional flash of inspiration, his attitude toward deadlines was like that of an elementary school student with summer vacation homework: in July, he thought, the vacation has just begun, I'll write it in August; in August, he thought, there's still a month, I'll write it in the middle of the month; in the middle of the month, he decided to leave it until the end of the month; and at the end of the month, he would count the days in his head, there are still five days, no rush, there are still three days, no rush, no rush... This would develop until, usually on the night before school started, he would enter desperate mode and rush to finish the homework overnight.

Of course, Feng Bujue hardly ever encountered this situation when he was in elementary school. That was because, in the third grade, he had discovered that so-called "holiday homework" was just a waste of youth.

The teachers were enthusiastic when they assigned the homework, but when it came to grading it, they either didn't bother to look at it at all, or they let a few of the teachers' pets (class officers) check the completion. After all, there were dozens of people in a class, and if they seriously graded all the things they handed in, they wouldn't finish grading until Teachers' Day.

Thus, the matter became a twice-yearly routine of one side wasting their youth and the other side going through the motions.

To put it bluntly, holiday homework was a meaningless piece of trash that the school authorities came up with to show that they were responsible. Academic aces didn't need this trash to consolidate their knowledge, and people who didn't like to study couldn't possibly improve with this trash. This pile of garbage was like a big bubble rising from the surface of the cesspool that was exam-oriented education, and it was still showing its presence to this day.

And what was even more disgusting was that some teachers who thought they were all that would add another portion of homework to the holiday homework issued by the school. This behavior only conveyed two pieces of information: first, this person's life was very unhappy; second, this person lacked avenues for venting.

After Feng Bujue had seen through all this crap, he began to deal with this homework in a perfunctory manner, and he insisted on inserting the following passage into every year's holiday homework: "Clearly, you won't be grading anyone in our class's holiday homework this year, either; you're just forcing us to waste precious time and ballpoint pen ink.

"These printed materials, which are like waste paper from the moment they're bound, make me feel annoyed and sad.

"According to the results I obtained after reconnaissance, you either don't look at it at all, or you just take a quick look to see if we've filled this boring booklet. Since that's the case, then I'll just fill it in casually, I'll fill in 250 for math problems, I'll write sentences like 'youarefool' for English problems, and I'll write a few impromptu limericks for language problems, and by the way, I'll break this passage into short sentences and fill them in one by one.

"If one day you can find this content that I've split and filled in, it will prove that you're really grading the holiday homework seriously. At that time, I will definitely finish these problems seriously. But I personally don't think that day will come, so here I want to say, may the youth of every student in our class that is lost due to filling in holiday homework accumulate into the term of torture you will suffer in hell. May your soul be able to compensate for and redeem the sins you have committed in this pain."

This was Feng Bujue at nine years old... Five years later, when his peers were entering their chuuni phase, he would always say in an experienced tone, "I was very aggressive in my personality during the years when I played at being rebellious, much stronger than your silly behavior."

Unknowingly, he had strayed far from the topic. There would be opportunities to talk about Brother Jue's childhood stories in the future; let's get back to the present.

To be fair, his former editor, Old Chen, was a really nice guy. In the past, Old Chen had always helped him carry the burden of Brother Jue's delays. Although he often put on a desperate act in front of Feng Bujue, Old Chen never complained to Brother Jue about being a pushover and getting scolded by the magazine's leaders. It was precisely because of this that Feng Bujue couldn't understand why Old Chen would be "under too much pressure."

But now that he had changed editors, Brother Jue naturally couldn't mess around like he used to. He also understood very well that this Miss An was burning three fires upon taking office, and if he didn't know what was good for him and made things difficult for her in the first month, he would definitely get burned. Considering the other party's identity, the consequences of this fire were unimaginable...

Therefore, at least this first manuscript had to be submitted on time, and it had to be of good quality and quantity, without the slightest bit of carelessness or flaw... Any mistake could become a fuse.

On the afternoon of the 20th, after Feng Bujue had seen An Yueqin off, he had been sitting in front of the computer, racking his brains.

In fact, he could write even when he had no inspiration; after all, he was a professional writer, so he definitely had this bit of skill. It was just that writing like this... was painful.

Perhaps this adjective wasn't very appropriate, but that was roughly the state he was in.

The more responsible an author was for their work, the more painful it was for them to force themselves to create.

If Feng Bujue was being a ghostwriter for someone and just writing casually, then he wouldn't care; wasn't it just padding the word count? He could even come up with ten thousand words from something as simple as getting up to go to the toilet. But now, he was writing his own work, and before he could put pen to paper (tap the keyboard), he had to get past himself first.

"Ah..." Feng Bujue stared at the May manuscript for a full half hour, but he still hadn't typed a single word for the June content. First, he let out a long groan, and then it became a roar, "Ah—"

"Sigh, this won't do. I can't squeeze out even a bit of plot," Feng Bujue said. "Hmm... Or, should I go into the game to look for inspiration?" He quickly shook his head and denied this idea. "No, no, no... I can't do that. Once I get into the gaming pod, there's no telling when I'll come out." He muttered, "Anyway, Si Yu probably won't be online these few days either. I might as well wait until she recovers from her cold before going online. I'll use all this time to write the manuscript."

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue stroked his chin and pondered, "I'd better go to the game forum and take a look. Shifting my attention slightly might help." With that thought, he moved the mouse, temporarily closed the document, then opened the browser, and clicked on the website in his favorites.

After the forum page loaded, what immediately caught his eye was a line of large red text: \[Peak Showdown, War is About to Ignite, Are You Ready?!]

Below that was a paragraph in normal font: *Thriller Paradise* Peak Showdown (Spring 2055) is about to begin. Click here for details.

"What's going on? The game has only been running for fifteen days... What's with this decisive battle-like atmosphere?" Feng Bujue couldn't help but think of the short two-day closed beta.

He immediately clicked on the link, and a page with explanations about the competition quickly appeared on the screen.

After reading a paragraph, Feng Bujue understood that Dream Inc.'s plan was to hold a large-scale competition every year in May (spring) and November (autumn), and this competition would be called "Peak Showdown."

"As it is currently still in the open beta phase, this competition is only open for 1v1 matches. All players above level thirty are eligible to sign up. The deadline is 23:59 on April 30, 2055. Players can complete the sign-up process in the login space." Feng Bujue looked at the screen and read, "The preliminary queueing system will be launched immediately at 00:00 on May 1st. Participants can participate in the selection process by queueing."

Brother Jue read this and said thoughtfully, "Hmm... Announcing the news so early is partly to give players plenty of time to sign up, and partly to make those level twenties work their asses off to reach level thirty." He sneered, "Hmph... In the next ten days, the sales of double experience cards will probably increase several times over."

He continued to read. Below the first paragraph, there were no detailed rules for the competition; instead, the prizes were listed first.

\[Players who make it into the top 100-51 will receive Double Experience Card (24 hours of game time) *10, 200,000 Game Coins, and a Limited Edition T-shirt.]

\[Players who make it into the top 50-31 will receive 2 Random Fine Grade Equipment items corresponding to their level, and 2000 Technique Value]

\[Players who make it into the top 30-11 will receive 1 Random Perfect Grade Equipment item (selectable type) corresponding to their level, and 3000 Technique Value]

When he read this, Brother Jue was still relatively calm, but next, the rewards for 10th-4th place almost made his eyeballs pop out...