Chapter 1 The Mailbox of Horrors

Even though Feng Bujue had been mentally prepared before entering the login space, he was still somewhat taken aback when he opened his mailbox.

"The last time I received this many emails... was probably during the S1 Butterfly War when I fought her..." Jue-ge muttered, looking at the five-figure number of emails with resignation.

After numerous updates, Thriller Paradise's social system had naturally become more enriched and improved; accordingly, some related rules had also changed.

In the current version, sending and receiving emails between players was very free, but the system's "supervision" had become stricter; the current system's ability to distinguish "spam" was leaps and bounds ahead of what it was in the early days of the game, almost to the level of real-person review.

In addition to swear words, disgusting remarks without swear words, garbage information consisting of various garbled codes, and advertising emails, the system could now filter and block some more complex methods... such as acrostic poems, veiled criticisms that incorporated current events, and specific graphics composed of various symbols.

Once a player sent a blocked email, they would not be able to send messages to the other party for a long time; also, even if they did not send an email that the system determined to be malicious harassment, if a player's email to another party did not receive a reply within a certain period, they would not be able to repeatedly send multiple emails to the same person.

In summary, the game's anti-harassment mechanism was quite effective.

But... even so, Jue-ge still received tens of thousands of messages; it was not hard to imagine that if the system hadn't intervened, he would have received not five figures, but seven...

"Hmm... 'I'm very unhappy, you're a bad person'... 'I hate you'... 'Could you please stop your heartbeat for a moment'... 'Xu Huai Shang's Guard reporting for duty, the following omits a hundred million words that may be censored, you better watch out'..."

Feng Bujue quickly browsed through the emails, and the content of most of them made him laugh and cry.

Because of the system's review, these people had to rack their brains to find words that would not be blocked in order to get their messages through; the result was... that the things sent over were extremely "harmonious," making people feel not angry at all, but even a little cute.

Ding—

Jue-ge had only been looking for two minutes when a notification sound suddenly rang, indicating that a friend wanted to talk to him.

He looked at the window and, sure enough... it was [Xu Huai Shang].

After thinking for two seconds, Feng Bujue selected "Audio Communication Only (video is possible, but Jue-ge usually doesn't select it, because he doesn't think it's necessary)," and took the initiative to speak after the connection was established: "Hello there."

"Hello," Xu Huai Shang replied.

"Your surprise attack today was really smooth," Jue-ge continued in a teasing tone after greeting her. "Acting first and reporting later, huh?"

"Heh..." Xu Huai Shang naturally knew what Jue-ge was talking about, and she was amused. "I presume you're currently dealing with threatening emails?"

"Yes, these threatening emails that range from kindergarten senior class to kindergarten junior class, and look like they're just acting spoiled are a nightmare," Feng Bujue complained.

"Just bear with it for a few days, it'll decrease after a while," Xu Huai Shang said. "It's not like me... I'm subjected to this kind of harassment every day; in addition to threatening emails, there are also confessions, attempts at flirting, and the most outrageous thing is that some people even confess the bad things they've done in their daily lives..."

"You are you, and I am me," Feng Bujue said. "Why don't you mention that you can often get away with not paying and not waiting in line when you go out?"

After he said this, Xu Huai Shang was visibly stunned for two seconds before replying, "Hey, how do you know I can often get away with not paying and not waiting in line when I go out?"

"Don't worry, I'm not a stalker," Feng Bujue said, knowing that the other party had probably misunderstood. "I'm just making a reasonable deduction."

In the next second, Xu Huai Shang's voice raised, "I go to a store to drink coffee, and everyone from the waiter to the shift leader says I'm a lucky customer and don't need to pay... that's not my problem, is it? I go to an amusement park, and people at the front of the line always want to invite me to join them, that's not my problem either, is it? I'm also very troubled by it!"

"What does that have to do with me!" Feng Bujue said. "Go tell your parents! Wear a mask and sunglasses when you go out!"

The two of them inexplicably yelled at each other a few times, then fell silent for a few seconds.

After that, Xu Huai Shang brought the topic back, "Okay, let's get down to business, I want to join your club, is that okay?"

"No," Feng Bujue replied without even thinking.

"Why?" Xu Huai Shang asked.

"Our club is very low-key," Feng Bujue said.

"Huh?" From Xu Huai Shang's tone... she seemed to want to laugh, but forcibly restrained herself, "Do you know that you alone are already more famous than all the players in many studios combined? Besides, your Hell's Frontline is the S2 champion, how much more low-key can you be?"

"So, you want to directly increase our club's popularity by more than two times?" Feng Bujue asked rhetorically.

"I don't really care about those things," Xu Huai Shang said. "I only know that your club is super strong, and I also think the team atmosphere is very good."

"What else?" Feng Bujue continued.

Xu Huai Shang was stunned by the question, "What else?"

"There's one more key reason you didn't say, right?" Feng Bujue said.

"Um..." Xu Huai Shang hesitated for a moment, after some consideration, she felt that she couldn't hide it from Feng Bujue, so she said, "Okay... I think there's a good chance of winning the S3 championship if I follow you."

"Aiya~ that's right," Feng Bujue said in a smug tone, "Just say you want to leech, be honest from the beginning, and maybe I would have considered it."

"So, how far have you considered it?" Xu Huai Shang seemed a little impatient and immediately followed up with a question.

"Still no," Feng Bujue's cheapness was on the rise.

"Why..." Xu Huai Shang said word by word, "Still, no?"

"Because our club is not only very low-key, but also very democratic," Feng Bujue replied. "I don't have the right to decide whether you can join on my own, I have to ask the other members before I can give you an answer."

"If they all agree, you'll agree?" Xu Huai Shang said.

"Yes," Feng Bujue said, "But... it has to be unanimous agreement from everyone in our club, even one veto is not allowed."

"There are only five people in your club, right?" Xu Huai Shang said.

"Yeah, so every vote is very important," Jue-ge replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "Just imagine our place as the United Nations Security Council, every member has a 'veto power'."

"Ho~ Although I've never heard of our club having such rules, since you've said so, I hope you can do the same in the future."

Just then, another person's voice came from the communication channel.

This person's tone of voice was ninety percent similar to Jue-ge's, but their voice was much nicer than Jue-ge's.

"Eh?" Jue-ge's first reaction was that he had misheard, "What's going on? Ruo Yu?"

"Jue-ge, actually, the four of us have been here from the beginning..." Then, Xiao Tan's voice came from the other side.

"Been in... where?" Feng Bujue asked as he thought.

"In Shang-jie's conference room..." Xiao Tan replied.

"You've already recognized her as one-jie again so quickly?" Feng Bujue instinctively complained, "Speaking of which, you got home fast, didn't you? After you finished eating hot pot, didn't you take a crap before going online? You logged in earlier than me!"

The more he spoke, the louder his voice became, because he had realized that his conversation with Xu Huai Shang was being conducted entirely under the observation of his four Hell's Frontline teammates, although he hadn't said anything out of line, the feeling of being secretly monitored without knowing it was not very good.

"So... you basically know the situation, right?" After a few seconds, Xu Huai Shang's voice came back, "If your vote is no problem, then come over to my conference room and add me... Guild Leader."

…………

When Feng Bujue was invited to enter Xu Huai Shang's conference room, Ruo Yu, Xiao Ling, Xiao Tan, and An Da Xiaojie had all been waiting for a long time.

To Jue-ge's surprise, Goddess Xu had arranged her conference room into an environment similar to a "training room," with basically no entertainment facilities; apart from the area around the conference table, there wasn't even a comfortable place to sit in the entire room.

"Hmm... so this is the conference room of a professional gamer... it's indeed something to learn from," Feng Bujue said without any politeness after entering, looking around as he walked to sit down next to the others.

"Not all professional players will arrange it this way," Xu Huai Shang said. "At least the studio I was in before didn't make any requests for players' activities in the rest area..." She paused, then continued, "The current layout is just my personal preference... because sometimes I have to wait for people in the conference room to start a meeting, and I feel like I'm idle anyway, so I might as well use that time to exercise."

It was obvious that Xu Huai Shang, whom [Meng Jing Chan] called a "genius," was not only outstanding in her gaming talent, but also a very hardworking player.

In fact, she was probably the most hardworking of the active professional players.

From the earliest era of e-sports development using keyboards and mice to the future of increasingly popular holographic games, discrimination against female players in the professional gaming circle has never stopped; although people's attitudes are gradually changing with the times, even today, there are still many people who hold the inherent impression that "female players' gaming skills are necessarily weaker than male players," and whenever female players are mentioned, the focus of their attention will first be concentrated on the other party's appearance, and then on some hyped or distorted tabloid news.

Admittedly, since the creation of "video games," the overall strength of male players has always been overwhelmingly strong, and this is even more so after the gaming field began to professionalize; for a long time, it was extremely rare for male players to lose to female players in professional competitions, and if a well-known male player lost such a match, he would basically be ridiculed until he retired, and even after retirement, he would continue to be ridiculed...

However, in the era of Feng Bujue and his contemporaries, who played games using neural connection technology, the number and overall strength of female players have significantly improved, which has brought some changes to the above situation.

Xu Huai Shang can be said to be a flagship figure of this era.

She is the first female professional player to have won multiple individual championship honors in international competitions that do not distinguish gender, and at least in the mid-21st century, this is still an unprecedented achievement.

Perhaps, in the eyes of outsiders, a girl like Xu Huai Shang only needs to rely on a face to live a very "easy" life, but in reality, her appearance has made her path as a professional player even more bumpy.

Undoubtedly, even if Xu Huai Shang herself doesn't want to, she will inevitably be "treated differently" on various occasions; therefore, when she first started playing professionally, in addition to being subjected to all kinds of harassment, she was also subjected to all kinds of doubts.

She has more than once been treated unfairly for refusing some unreasonable demands.

The honors she earned through hard work have also more than once been attributed by some people to being obtained by "relying on appearance" and "relying on connections," and... many people are willing to pay for those rumors.

However, she still made it through... in the end, the game itself will not lie.

She used ten times, or even dozens of times more effort and dedication than others, to finally gain the recognition of players at the game level, and finally let people shift their gaze from her appearance and realize that... she is a professional player, and one of the top players.

The hardships and bitterness she has gone through along the way are only understood by Xu Huai Shang herself.

Now, as a professional player, she no longer needs to prove her strength, but... she still has one regret, which is that she has not yet won the honor of "team victory"; therefore, this time she joined Hell's Frontline, which is equivalent to betting on Feng Bujue and his teammates...

Of course, Feng Bujue is not aware of these experiences and thoughts of hers; after all, Jue-ge does not understand Xu Huai Shang.

But... as a woman, Ruo Yu's feelings in this regard are much more delicate and sensitive than Jue-ge's; when she saw the news of Xu Huai Shang's contract termination, she had vaguely thought of something... after that, after some intentional or unintentional probing, although Xu Huai Shang still kept her mouth shut, Ruo Yu understood that the fuse of Xu Huai Shang and Hong Ying's contract termination incident was precisely the decisions she made in the S2 match between Hong Ying vs. Hell's Frontline.

After learning this, Ruo Yu naturally felt some unspeakable emotions in her heart...

"Speaking of which... the character in your account, and these resources, will they all belong to you after the contract termination?" Feng Bujue did not make too many comments on Xu Huai Shang's "personal preferences," and quickly asked a question that he was more interested in.

"Yes, they all belong to me personally," Xu Huai Shang replied. "However... during the time before the contract termination, the studio has also used various means to recover the resources that can be recovered, and has also greatly hindered my normal game... so even though the level cap has been opened for so long, I haven't been able to level up much."

"Oh~" Before the other party finished speaking, Jue-ge had already figured out a few doubts that he hadn't figured out before in Lin Lu Town, and murmured, "No wonder..."

"Well... anyway..." Then, Feng Bujue glanced at the partners present, "Since everyone has no objections, I'll invite Goddess Xu to join the guild?"

"How about you change your address for me first?" Xu Huai Shang said.

"Hehe..." When Feng Bujue heard this, a cheap look appeared on his face.

"If you dare to say that word that starts with 'Four'..." Ruo Yu has now reached the point where she can discern the slot points of Jue-ge's trash talk before it even comes out of his mouth, "Tomorrow morning when we say hello, there may be uncontrollable events such as physical conflicts."

"Uh..." Feng Bujue, who was seen through, swallowed the trash talk that was already on his lips with some discomfort, and then looked at Xu Huai Shang and said, "Then you tell me what I should call you."

"You're older than me, just call me Xiao Shang," Xu Huai Shang replied.

"Then the question comes..." Feng Bujue said seriously, "In front of your brain-dead fans... such as those Guards or something, should I prepare another address?"

"No need, no matter what you call me, their attitude towards you will still be nothing more than 'death penalty,' 'must kill,' etc..." Xu Huai Shang also rolled her eyes and complained.

"Hehe..." Jue-ge smiled, "Okay..." As he said that, he summoned the game menu and extended a guild invitation to Xu Huai Shang, "Welcome to the Hell's Frontline family." He paused for half a second and added, "Of course, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to lead you to win the S3 championship."

"No." Unexpectedly, before Xu Huai Shang could respond, Ruo Yu interjected in a very firm tone, "We will definitely win..." She looked at Xu Huai Shang, "It's not that we 'help' you win, but that everyone goes together to win... the S3 championship."