The King's Avatar

When Ye Xiu came back with the cooked instant noodles, he saw that Su Mucheng had moved a wooden stool next to his seat. She had changed the settings for the game to a windowed screen. Her hand moved the mouse as if she were searching for something.

“The noodles have arrived.” Ye Xiu announced.

“Put it here!” Su Mucheng tapped the table beside her. The reception desk at Happy Internet Cafe had two layers. The outside layer was the front desk, while the inner layer was a regular table that things could be set upon.

Ye Xiu put the noodles on the table and went back to his seat. He saw that Su Mucheng was looking for something on the Internet.

“What are you looking for? I’ll help you look.” Ye Xiu put his hands on the keyboard.

“That Year We Were Holding Hands.” Su Mucheng said.

“The new drama?” Ye Xiu said as he typed it in. With one search in a video platform, several links popped up.

“It’s not really new. Yunxiu recommended it. I hadn’t seen it before.” Su Mucheng said. Chu Yunxiu, Team Misty Rain’s ace player. She was also the player that Ye Xiu regarded as the number one female player in terms of tactics and skill. The Alliance didn’t have many female players. Compared to the male players, they belonged to a disadvantaged group, causing them to be relatively close to each other. They had their own special circle. They also had their own exclusive QQ (similar to Skype) group, which had all the female Alliance players; from those who were retired to those who still played to those who were new.

Ye Xiu obviously didn’t have the qualifications to join the QQ group, but since he was close to Su Mucheng, he would sometimes see it. If no one knew anything about it, they wouldn’t think that it was a gathering of Glory pro-players. They talked about clothing, makeup, celebrities, astrological signs, and gossip in the Glory community…… At least, during the few times Ye Xiu had snuck a peek at it, he hadn’t seen any discussions about serious things like tactics and techniques. It couldn’t even compare to a normal guild in Glory. At least in those, experts would sometimes exchange pointers!

“What episode are you on?” Ye Xiu asked.

“12.”

Opening up the 12th episode, Ye Xiu handed the earphones over to Su Mucheng.

“I’ve worn them for so long, that my ears are already hurting.”

“Then turn up the volume, so you won’t need to wear them.”

Su Mucheng turned up the volume. The first sound that came out was clearly from Glory’s lifelike sound effects as well as Steamed Bun Invasion’s voice. Ye Xiu opened up the settings and closed the game’s sound and voice. He then typed: “Steamed Bun, let’s practice our hand speed. To do so, if you’re going to say something, type it out instead.”

“Yes! I like this practice. Wanna compete to see who can type out the most words in a minute?” Steamed Bun Invasion immediately went into serious mode.

“Line Canyon!” Ye Xiu declared and then headed towards it.

The game was quiet, though it seemed like Ye Xiu was very suited for this. A song drifted from the headphones hanging on Su Mucheng’s neck.

“This song sounds awful.” Ye Xiu said.

“Yeah, skip ahead.” Su Mucheng said.

“How much?”

“2 minutes 43 seconds.”

His mouse moved and the cursor flashed from the game to the web browser. He skipped ahead exactly 2 minutes 43 seconds.

The screen was then split in half. One half was a TV show while the other half was a game.

With Ye Xiu’s skill level, this dungeon was too easy. He would glance at the TV show from time to time. As for Su Mucheng, she was just watching the TV show, so she didn’t need to completely focus on the game. She would glance to see the battles in-game from time to time.

“Are the noodles ready to eat yet?” Su Mucheng said.

“Go ahead!”

“Are you going to eat?” Su Mucheng took the noodles and asked.

“I’ll drink two sips of soup.”

“I’ll wait till you finish these two monsters.” Su Mucheng saw that Ye Xiu was busy dealing with two wild monsters.

The two monsters were defeated quickly. Ye Xiu made his Lord Grim move forward as he took two sips of the soup.

“Not bad. Whoever cooked these instant noodles is quite good.” Ye Xiu said as he handed the bowl back.

“It’s not bad!” Su Mucheng took it and began eating.

In game, Lord Grim arrived at Line Canyon and partied up with Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion. Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon had also run over to join the party. Those two would almost always mix in with Brother Expert when a chance came. They didn’t really play with their guild anymore. Even today, when their guild came together as one happy family, the two didn’t think much of it.

The dungeon went by smoothly and in the blink of an eye, they reached the first BOSS.

The romance in the TV show still hadn’t made any headway. The female lead knew from episode one that the male lead was her childhood friend, but the male lead still thought of the female lead as a newly-made friend.

“Tsk tsk. This guy’s so stupid.” Ye Xiu commented on the male lead.

“Mine, mine! Light Source set!!” Su Mucheng saw that the fallen BOSS had dropped the Light Source Top. Light Source was a Level 30 Launcher set.

“Got it!” Ye Xiu chose to roll for it and the others immediately renounced it.

“It’s just Level 30 equipment.” Ye Xiu felt that Su Mucheng had been too excited. She was a pro-player, so besides self-made equipment, it didn’t make sense for her to be so excited about any other equipment.

“It looks so pretty.” Su Mucheng said.

Ye Xiu was speechless. For god-level experts like him, their skills are amazing, their knowledge is exceptional, but towards Glory’s clothing, hairstyle, fashion, etc,any random female player would be better than them. In this area, female players were gods and they were noobs.

The speechless Ye Xiu threw the Light Source upper-garment into his backpack. The dungeon continued as did the TV show.

Line Canyon took the five of them around for 30 minute runs. It was a bit shorter than the 45 minute episodes.

After two runs, the episode had finished. Just as the next episode was playing, Ye Xiu felt his left shoulder drop.

“You falling asleep?” Ye Xiu asked.

“Yeah……” The head on his shoulder made a noise.

The third run continued. Ye Xiu’s movements became steadier. His movements were so steady that even the smoke from the cigarette ash in his mouth wouldn’t tremble.

They advanced through the dungeon while the TV show continued playing.

After killing the final BOSS, the three dungeon runs were completed and the TV show had finished as well. The ending song played from the headphones, but Su Mucheng didn’t tell Ye Xiu to turn it off. Ye Xiu turned his head and looked. The furry girl’s eyes had already closed.

“Ha ha ha ha, today’s luck is pretty good! Three parts of my Dark Mark set actually dropped! Are you guys jealous of my luck?” Steamed Bun Invasion swiftly typed out, practicing his hand speed.

“Not bad, not bad. Soft Mist, shout out the Scarlet Moon upper-garment you got in the world channel. You should be able to trade it for the shoulders or shoes that you still need.” Ye Xiu said. A part from the Battle Mage Scarlet Moon set had also dropped, however, Soft Mist already had it. Luckily, equipment could be traded, so everyone could trade for the parts they needed.

“Okay.” Tang Rou answered. In a short moment, Soft Mist sent a message for a trade to the world channel.

“Keep sending them out until someone contacts you.” Ye Xiu instructed. Tang Rou really needed this type of instruction too. She was completely new to games, unlike Steamed Bun Invasion.

“Are we still going to Boneyard?” Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon asked.

“Hmm, not now!” Ye Xiu replied.

“Okay!” Everyone answered. Right now, Boneyard wasn’t worth it for the experience. Ye Xiu also didn’t need any materials from the dungeon. Besides, getting the materials for the Thousand Chance Umbrella by himself wasn’t practical.

“Okay.”

Everyone scattered. Those who wanted to dungeon went to dungeon. Those who wanted to Arena went to the Arena. Those who wanted to trade equipment went to trade equipment. Ye Xiu had Lord Grim randomly clear monsters in the nearby area.

“I’ve traded it!” Tang Rou messaged.

“Good. You’re only missing one now.” Ye Xiu said.

“It really is better than normal equipment.” Tang Rou said.

“Of course!” Ye Xiu replied, “Level 30 sets won’t need to be switched until Level 40.”

“Oh.” Tang Rou answered without saying anything else. After a short while, she got up to move around. She went to fill up her tea cup and as usual, walked to pay a visit to the receptionist desk. But this time, she jumped in fear. What was that furry thing leaning on Ye Xiu? Tang Rou’s face stared in astonishment. Ye Xiu turned and gave her a helpless look.

“Who’s that?” Tang Rou finally figured out that it was a person.

“Uh…… Mu Mu.” Ye Xiu used the nickname Tang Rou liked.

“Ah?” Tang Rou was astonished, “So she was playing here?”

“Yeah!” Ye Xiu said.

“She fell asleep?” Tang Rou asked.

“Yeah.”

“She should go upstairs to sleep. She can sleep in my room.” Tang Rou said.

“Don’t worry about it. Here is good!” Ye Xiu smiled.

“Make sure she doesn’t catch a cold.” If she were Chen Guo, she would have grabbed her sister and carried her to bed, but Tang Rou didn’t make him. After saying this, she went back to her seat.

“Mu Mu sounds disgusting when it comes from you.” Su Mucheng looked like she was sleep talking.

“Yeah. I almost vomited those instant noodles.” Ye Xiu said.

“The instant noodles are in my stomach.” Su Mucheng said.

“I also ate a bowl tonight.”

“Really? What flavor?”

“Simmered Beef.”

“Was the cook good?”

“Very good. The same as your bowl.”

“That’s good.” Su Mucheng finished and then became silent.

“When are you planning on going back?” After a long while, Ye Xiu asked.

“When are you off your shift?’ Su Mucheng asked.

“Seven.”

“Then me too!”

“Okay……”

“It’s kind of cold……” Su Mucheng shivered.

“Obviously. Everything you’re wearing is just a disguise!” Ye Xiu said as he took off his jacket and put it on Su Mucheng.

“Where was I in the show? I kind of forgot.” Su Mucheng said.

“It’s not your fault. The show sucks.” Ye Xiu said.

“You’re looking down on Yunxiu’s tastes again.” Su Mucheng said.

“I remember all of my opponent’s weaknesses very clearly.” Ye Xiu said.