Chapter 12 June 12th

June 12th, 7:00 PM.

"Another mountain of emails..." The first thing Feng Bujue did upon arriving in the Login Space was check his inbox.

"Hmm..." He looked at the page numbers at the bottom of the inbox, then smiled. "Fortunately... compared to a while ago, the number of emails is surprisingly pleasing!"

For Brother Jue nowadays, only a few hundred emails accumulating in his inbox after being offline for several days was something worth celebrating.

This also showed... the fervor surrounding the Peak Contenders' War was gradually fading, and players' attention was shifting away from him.

Of course, there was another reason contributing to this situation, which was... the revised "Player Comprehensive Strength Ranking" had eliminated the "anonymous" setting and directly changed it to "not displayed on the list." As a result, the avenues for new players to learn about the ID [Madness Doesn't Awaken] had been greatly reduced.

Speaking of which, one had to complain about the old ranking. The original "anonymous" setting was really a bit of a charade... As long as the intelligence networks of the major studios were cross-referenced, it wasn't difficult to deduce the anonymous person's identity.

The result was often... the uninformed masses would see a high-ranking [Anonymous] player and then try to find out who it was, eventually searching online and finding out... Oh, it's so-and-so.

But now the situation was different. There were no more anonymous players on the list. Players were either on the list or not. People not on the list... might be hiding, or their strength might have declined, or they might have even deleted their accounts and stopped playing... Over time, no one would bother to inquire specifically, at least not casual players...

In addition, there was another noteworthy thing—the new ranking's confidentiality setting made the implementation of "secret weapon" tactics possible.

In theory, those powerful studios could start right now... secretly cultivating one or more skilled players. And from beginning to end, they shouldn't let them participate in external Slaughter Games; all team modes should also be teamed up with people from the same studio. That way... when the Peak Contenders' War S2 came around, these people could become a dark horse.

In fact... some studios had already started doing this, but the appearance of that group was a story for later, so we won't go into it here...

Let's go back to Brother Jue. To meet the mid-June submission deadline, he had been working behind closed doors at home these past few days. He drank coffee like crazy during the day to write with all his might, and he went to bed on time at night, refusing to play games.

After four days of this, he had finally completed ninety percent of the workload, and the remaining ten percent could be finished in five or six hours over the next two days.

So, after finishing dinner and washing the dishes today, Brother Jue entered the game pod comfortably and logged into Thriller Paradise.

"Okay... easily done." Feng Bujue spent less than ten minutes dealing with the emails.

He then opened the social menu to see if any of the people from Hell Front were online.

But he made an unexpected discovery...

"Eh? Who's [Shi Shang Hua Jian]..." The first thing Brother Jue noticed was that there was one more person in the guild.

Although this person was currently offline, their nickname was clearly displayed in the [Guild Members] list.

"No way..." After thinking for a few seconds, Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly. It seemed he already had the answer. "Shou wu shi shang yue, xi heng hua jian qin. Guo ci yi hu wai, you you fei wo xin..." (Dancing with the moon above the stones, a zither across the flowers. Beyond a pot of wine, my heart wanders free.) He muttered, "Hmm... her memory's pretty good..."

After guessing the identity of the new member, Brother Jue immediately felt a chill run down his spine. Because he immediately thought... the person who brought that Miss An into the guild was undoubtedly Li Ruoyu.

Currently, only two people in the guild had the authority to recruit and expel members: Feng Bujue himself, and Li Ruoyu. Simply put... one was the guild leader, and the other was the political commissar. As for the remaining two, Xiao Ling didn't want the authority, firstly because she found it troublesome, and secondly because she could just ask her cousin to do anything; and as for Xiao Tan... even if he asked for the authority, Brother Jue wouldn't give it to him. If he insisted on asking why, Brother Jue would definitely respond domineeringly with a nonsensical reason like, "You're the bottom!"

"These two girls..." Feng Bujue paced back and forth in the elevator alone, muttering to himself, "Their relationship is developing really fast... This atmosphere of meeting late and sharing a common hatred... isn't a good sign..."

He hesitated for a while, but couldn't come up with any good countermeasures. It seemed that being monitored by his boss was unavoidable... Fortunately, he hadn't been online at all these past few days, showing a state of working hard and not having time to play games. Even if he ran into her today, he could confidently say... I've finished the manuscript.

"Sigh... why do I feel like an elementary school student... The subtext seems to be 'I've already done my homework, can I play now'..." Feng Bujue thought to himself, then mused, "Over time... I'll enter a rebellious phase and say lines like 'Leave me alone! Or I'll die to show you'..."

Brother Jue shook his head and drove the messy thoughts out of his mind. "Tch... never mind, the great writer can bend and stretch, can stand and kneel..." As he muttered, he entered the storage room. "... How did Han Xin get through it? How did Goujian get through it? How did Sun Bin get through it? Sima Qian... hmm... let's forget about that one..." As he spoke, he had already arrived in front of the storage box. "In short... let's take it one step at a time..."

As he spoke, he had already taken out all of his puzzle cards from the storage box, a total of seven: Puzzle Card-Strawberry, Puzzle Card-Banana, Puzzle Card-Plunger, Puzzle Card-Ping Pong, Puzzle Card-Father, Puzzle Card-Spider, Puzzle Card-Countdown.

Then, he went to the Login Space for a transfer, and then entered the Mall.

Feng Bujue's target was none other than the "Puzzle Card Exchange."

The Exchange was located in a corner of the Mall Space, embedded in the edge of the huge dome. Its overall shape was like a fragmented sphere. After entering the main entrance, you could see rows of two-way counters, as well as many players shuttling back and forth between the counters. No matter how you looked at it... the interior of this Exchange looked a lot like an arcade.

"What is this... is everyone playing slot machines..." Feng Bujue muttered and continued to walk forward.

After the version update, this was his first time coming to this place. After these ten days or so, most players had already familiarized themselves with how to use this new facility, while Brother Jue... could be considered one of the very few bumpkins.

"Ha! Brother Feng!" Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out.

Feng Bujue turned his head upon hearing the voice and said, "Oh, it's Sword Shadow, long time no see."

"I heard from the Blade team that I might run into you in Area 101..." Sword Shadow said as he walked towards Brother Jue. "I didn't expect to actually meet you today."

"If you have something to ask me, you can just contact me or send me a message..." Feng Bujue was right; the two of them had already added each other as friends.

"Haha... actually, I don't have anything to ask you." Sword Shadow laughed. "Oh, right, let me introduce you..." As he said that, he turned sideways.

Brother Jue had noticed earlier that behind Frenzied Trace Sword Shadow was a skinny young man who hadn't lost his childishness. His clothes were also a set of chivalrous garb, and there was a "Jianghu" (martial world) badge on his chest.

"This is our rising star we brought in from 'Star Plaiter.'" Sword Shadow introduced, "Bu Tiange."

"Hello." Feng Bujue casually greeted him.

"Wow! You're Feng Bujue?" Bu Tiange widened his eyes and stared at Brother Jue with the gaze of someone looking at a monster. "You look a lot more real than you do in the videos."

"Idiot!" Sword Shadow flicked the kid's head with his finger. "Are you stupid? Would you say that to someone's face? Where's your manners?"

"I'm sorry..." Bu Tiange covered his head and looked up at Feng Bujue with a rather aggrieved expression. "Brother Feng, hello."

Before he could finish speaking, there was a "thump" sound, and Sword Shadow fed Bu Tiange another roasted chestnut, and then said, "Did you just call him Brother Feng? Call him 'Brother Jue'!"

"Yes, Brother Jue!" Bu Tiange obediently changed his address.

"Hmm... you've brought out the feeling of a Triad thug in this rising star..." Feng Bujue complained expressionlessly. "Speaking of which... with your one attack and one defense like this... aren't the system guards going to come and do something about it?"

"It's okay, his sister asked me to take good care of him." Sword Shadow replied. "Oh, I forgot to say, he's 'Not Afraid's' younger brother."

"Oh..." Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly, and he turned to Bu Tiange and said, "Little Bu, it's not easy for you to have lived this long..."

"You can say that again..." Bu Tiange replied with a look of vicissitudes.

"Alright, Little Bu, you go play over there first, I have something to say to Brother Feng." Sword Shadow said at this time, intending to send Bu Tiange away.

"Oh." Bu Tiange responded, shrugged his shoulders, and turned to leave.

After he had walked a little further away, Sword Shadow said, "Brother Feng, I'll tell you quietly, this kid is very talented and may become a very powerful expert in the future."

"I know." Feng Bujue replied calmly. "I remembered about sixteen seconds ago that he fought with Xiao Tan in the [Bug Fight]. Xiao Tan told me about that match."

"Yeah, yeah, he told me too..." Sword Shadow continued, "Saying that... he almost beat that Wasted Lament in the Peak Contenders' War finals." He shook his head. "I criticized him on the spot... what do you mean almost won? Doesn't that mean you didn't win? What's there to be proud of?"

"I've noticed that you've been getting more and more naggy lately." Feng Bujue basically ignored the other party's words and responded to Frenzied Trace Sword Shadow with a contemptuous look. "Are you constantly indulging in the pleasure of being hit with martial arts techniques by a young lady, causing an abnormality in your hormone secretion..."

"Hehe... don't make fun of me, I just embarrassed myself in front of you once, right?" Sword Shadow replied with a dry laugh. "I was just letting her win in front of outsiders..."

"The lewdness and anticipation in your eyes have already betrayed you." Feng Bujue added another stab calmly.

"Hey... why can you keep complaining about me like this! Is the system's shielding function malfunctioning!" Sword Shadow said unhappily.

"I didn't say anything dirty." Feng Bujue said. "The only word that might be a sensitive word is 'lewdness', but it wasn't blocked... which means the system also agrees with my view."

In terms of verbal ability, Sword Shadow was naturally no match for Brother Jue, and he quickly became enraged. "Tch... so what if it is! What's wrong with that! I'm just so happy! Hahaha!" He spread his legs apart, put his hands on his waist, and laughed three times up to the sky.

Feng Bujue was silent for two seconds. "Okay..." he sighed. "There's something I wanted to tell you."

"What?" Sword Shadow asked.

"When you said 'I criticized him on the spot', your Miss Not Afraid walked into the hall." As Feng Bujue said this, his gaze had already shifted to behind Sword Shadow. "When you said 'What's there to be proud of?', she brought Little Bu over to you." He paused for a moment. "Then, she stood behind you the whole time, listening to us talk... now her eyes don't look too good."

When Frenzied Trace Sword Shadow heard this, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva with difficulty. His face was pale, and he slowly turned his stiff neck to look behind him.

A few seconds later, a smiling face appeared in Sword Shadow's vision.

This was an expression that Only Fear rarely showed. The corners of her mouth were upturned, but she couldn't hide the murderous intent in her eyes...

Bu Tiange looked at Sword Shadow with a sympathetic expression. "I wanted to remind you... but my sister wouldn't let me."

The corners of Frenzied Trace Sword Shadow's mouth twitched, and he turned his head to look at Feng Bujue. "Wh... why..."

"A rare opportunity, so I tricked you a little." Feng Bujue spread his hands and smiled evilly.

"Huangfu Mingkang!" Only Fear said sternly at this time.

"I'm done for... she called me by my full name..." Sword Shadow's eyes already revealed the color of resignation to death.

"Interesting... should we add the line 'If I call your name, do you dare to answer?' here?" Feng Bujue laughed gloatingly.

"Come to my conference room, I need to talk to you." Only Fear didn't say much and dragged Sword Shadow out by the back of his collar.

"Ah, the mountains are high and the water is long~ The road ahead is vast~ Ah, friends, goodbye~ Goodbye~ Goodbye~..." Feng Bujue waved his hand, sang a song, and watched Sword Shadow's figure gradually disappear into the distance...

"What song is that?" Bu Tiange was still standing in place, looking at Brother Jue and asking.

"There's a movie from former Yugoslavia called 'The Bridge', you can go watch it when you have time..." Feng Bujue turned around with a smile. "Oh, and... I'll give you a friendly reminder... the first step to becoming a strong person is to stop letting people hit you on the head so easily." After saying that, he slowly walked away, leaving behind a silhouette, deeply hiding his merit and fame...

Bu Tiange looked at Brother Jue with an expression of reverence and muttered, "Although I don't understand what happened... he seems to be very powerful..."

Fifteen minutes later, Brother Jue returned to the Login Space.

He did some research into the rules in the Puzzle Card Exchange and then became a master. Before long, he had replaced all seven of his cards.

Right now, the seven cards he had brought back were: Puzzle Card-Sheep*2, Puzzle Card-Ox, Puzzle Card-Scorpion, Puzzle Card-Crab, Puzzle Card-Fish and Puzzle Card-Lion.

It was obvious that the deck Feng Bujue wanted to assemble was... the Zodiac series.

Once he had a basic concept, he had a target and purpose when exchanging cards. Anyway, the exchange was done through the self-service counters in the Exchange, so there was no need to haggle. He just had to use the "search" function to find cards that fit the characteristics of the Zodiac, and the condition was "one for one, no type restrictions", and then confirm the operation.

There were two main types of players who put cards up for exchange in the Exchange. The first type was: those who were too lazy to spend the time and effort to select, so they simply hung the cards they had collected randomly in the Exchange, came back in a few days to collect them, and see if the replaced cards could be pieced together into any combinations; the second type was: those who already had a combination plan, but couldn't find the card type they wanted to exchange, so they hung up some junk cards there, set a condition, and hoped to exchange for a specific card.

And Feng Bujue... belonged to the type of person who only had seven cards in his hand, but was already thinking about assembling a twelve-card combination...

However, Brother Jue also understood that with his current number of puzzle cards, it was still too early to collect a complete set of the Zodiac... Because, according to market conditions, if you want to exchange for a set of five cards, you need to prepare at least seven cards. If you want a set of ten cards, it's best to prepare around fifteen cards.

This was a very simple principle; who wouldn't want to build a multi-card combination? But the further you went, the greater the difficulty. For example, with this Zodiac, what if you only had one or two cards left to complete the set, but there were none in the Exchange? What could you do? The only way was to put up a card and wait for someone to take the initiative to exchange with you. But since you chose to exchange for a specific card, the other person might not be willing to do a one-for-one exchange. So, people who wanted to exchange for specific cards would usually hang up two cards they didn't want in exchange for one. There was also a lot of knowledge involved in this... perhaps something that was a junk card to you was something that another person couldn't get enough of.

In short, there were many tricks in the Puzzle Card Exchange. If you had the patience to spend the whole day soaking in there, and you were good enough at it... theoretically, you could get more and more puzzle cards. After becoming a "card tyrant", you could engage in offline transactions and make a profit. Because there was also a type of player called a "tycoon". As long as they had money, let alone a twelve-card combination... why not put together a Water Margin 108 Generals combination? They could directly post a task on a trading website, collecting cards according to the price of each card in RMB, and they would eventually collect them all.

"Hmm... the space in the warehouse is gradually getting a little tight..." Feng Bujue muttered as he looked at his box with only ten storage slots while storing the cards. "[Jazz Dance] will be destroyed sooner or later, but [“Poker Hero” Hero ID Card] will probably take up one slot forever. My inventory is currently just barely enough, there's no extra space; putting a bunch of puzzle cards in my clothes pockets is obviously not appropriate..."

Thinking of this, Brother Jue made up his mind, called out the storage box operation window, and then purchased five storage slots through the quick access channel.

Like the price of inventory slots, the price of storage slots was also 1,000,000 game coins for every five slots. This money would have to be spent sooner or later, so he might as well take this opportunity to get it done. What if he was rewarded with a lot of puzzle cards again after coming out of a scenario next time? That would be a bit awkward.

"Okay..." Feng Bujue looked at the game coins disappearing from the menu, turned around and walked towards the elevator. "Going to grind scenarios to make money."