Chapter 1582: I Have Achieved My Aspirations

"Beauty Lin had taken out Breeze and Rain and Flowing Cloud at the same time during the battle of Swallow Ear Canton. I wonder what she thought about that fight? And why is she working so hard to find you?" Li Chengfeng said wistfully while holding his new cup of coffee. "That was such a brutal battle too. Top-tier experts died like dogs, and even a senior-level CGL Hall of Famer like Lin Fan was pulled out of retirement. It’s too bad his level was low, and his equipment was lacking. Otherwise, he might’ve pulled off an impossible comeback[1]…"

Chaos Moon blinked. "By the way, Piglike Opponent is Little Piglet, right? Hmph, I knew it was him almost from the get-go. Who else possesses the skill to kill Lui Lok and make him drop the Scepter of Divine Flame with the Crimson Dragon Arm? And thank goodness for that. Otherwise, our number one mage, Lian Xin, wouldn’t have gotten the most powerful magic weapon of the Twelve Divine Armaments, heehee…"

Gui Guzi clenched his fists. "I declared that I would defeat Lin Yixin back then, but now… Ahem, it looks like I’m still far, far away from achieving my goal. I don’t think I have the skill to defeat Breeze and Rain and Flowing Cloud alone…"

Chaos Moon shot Gui Guzi a cheeky grin and said, "Boy, if you think that killing two top-tier experts solo is the limit of Lin Yixin’s skill, then all I can say is that you are too naive. There’s video footage of that fight already, and from what I’ve seen, Lin Yixin was at least part of the reason Lui Lok, God of War and Red Maple were defeated in that battle. Also, have you seen anyone dodging Breeze and Rain and Flowing Cloud’s pincer attack repeatedly with just slight balancing and pirouettes alone? You might think it’s impossible, but Beauty Lin did it. That video became the top hit in the forums in just three days, and there are foreigners who even think that Wind Fantasy is the most talented player in the entire history of Eternal Moon[2]…"

I set down my cup and said, "Don’t praise her too much. She’ll grow conceited…"

Chaos Moon giggled. "But I thought girls like—ahem—a lot of ‘benefits’ in bed?"

I shot her a look. "Like hell they do…"

"Looks like someone is still a pure, unblemished boy…"

"It’s good to be honest, but excessive honesty is just annoying, girl. Don’t make me wipe the floor with you…"

"..."

……

Li Chengfeng asked me a serious question, "Sky City’s Attack and Defense have grown considerably after this Nation War, and the King of Cities’ buff is double what it used to be. As a result, players of Sky City are now much stronger than any player of the same level and equipment. It’s all thanks to you and everyone, of course. My question is, how should we continue growing our strength? The Northern Alliance and Cyan Earth City are sure to launch another assault in three months…"

I smiled. "It’s simple. Continue scrounging as many territory resources as you can and aim to make every cavalryman in both main and subguilds a Dragonlight Cavalryman. Ideally, no one can touch us if our number of Dragonlight Cavalrymen grows to a million. At the same time, we need to improve Dark Moon City’s rank to 12 as soon as possible. Also, we need to convince Song of Cloud and Water, Song of Ice and Fire, God Bone and Ringwraith to move to the gaming base since they’re our guildies now. Constant interaction is critical in facilitating a harmonious relationship."

Li Chengfeng nodded. "That’s a good idea, but you should know that Song of Ice and Fire was already a top-tier expert back in Spirit of Grief. It’s the same for God Bone and Ringwraith. They are as skilled as they are prideful, so I’m sure we’ll encounter many bumps as we grow to know one another. When that happens, should we side with our brothers, or should we side with them?"

Chaos Moon echoed in agreement, "You voiced my thoughts."

Li Chengfeng added, "Soul Battle Robes only joined Ancient Sword because of you. In fact, you are the only one Song of Ice and Fire and Song of Cloud and Water will obey. I’m worried that we’re inviting unnecessary trouble into our base if you aren’t around to keep them obedient."

I nodded smilingly. "I get it, I get it. I’ll remain in Ancient Sword and keep them under control. Relax, I’m not going to die so easily."

"Good. I’ll make the arrangements then!"

"Yeah!"

"So, tomorrow’s the opening of the WEL. Have you guys received your invitation yet yet?"

"Mn. All of us are going to take the morning flight tomorrow. Are you going?"

"Yeah. They said I need to be there to give a speech because I’m Eternal Moon’s CEO. However, I have to give a second speech because I’m also the player representative. Have you ever heard anything as bullshit as this?"

"Nope. Please accept my condolences!"

"Condolences your sister. Anyway, I’m not logging into the game today, so wanna eat lunch together?"

"Sure!"

……

The day passed by in a lively and cheerful manner. In the evening, I watched TV with Xinran, Lin Yixin, He Yi and the rest of the girls before going to bed.

The next day, a private car came to fetch us to the airport. I packed some simple luggage, grabbed my gaming helmet and went out of the workshop. Lin Yixin didn’t join us because she had returned to Snowy Cathaya’s workshop earlier.

On the plane, I fell asleep while holding Xinran’s hand. I started sleeping more and more ever since the virus returned.

"Big brother…"

Some time later, Xinran shook me awake and stared at me with her big, glittering eyes. "Your hand is really cold…"

I personally couldn’t feel it, but I smiled at her and said, "Is it? Maybe I caught a cold last night…"

"Oh…" Xinran was quite easy to fool sometimes.

……

We were received by none other than Xu Ning and his men when the plane arrived at the capital airport. We traveled straight to China branch headquarters because it was more convenient, and because the opening ceremony would be held in the afternoon. After eating a casual lunch at a restaurant, Xu Ning passed me a script and said, "This is the speech you need to give as the CEO. All you need to do is to recite it. I can’t help you with your player representative speech though. The other two player representatives, Flowing Cloud and Tear Stain, will be giving their speeches as well…"

I nodded. "Don’t worry, it’s no problem."

"You’ll have to handle the local and foreign media as well."

"I got it!"

The opening ceremony began some time after 2 pm. I couldn’t help but look left and right for someone.

"What’s wrong?" He Yi asked me.

"Where’s Yiyi?" I frowned. "She said she would attend the opening ceremony as well, didn’t she? Where is she?"

"Should I give her a call?"

"Yeah, why not…"

A while later, He Yi hung up her phone and said, "Yiyi said she won’t be attending because she’s feeling unwell. She said you’d better perform well since she’ll be watching you on the TV…"

I rolled my eyes. "I bet she’s looking forward to seeing me embarrassing myself live…"

He Yi burst into a giggle. "Yiyi’s not as bad as you think she is!"

There was a sea of people at the main hall of Eternal Moon’s headquarters. Besides the reporters, players and employees, there were a lot of fans as well. In fact, so many foreign fans had flown over to attend this opening ceremony that there were less than 25% Chinese fans at the scene. They had to be hardcore players who had come to witness the superstars of Heavenblessed in the flesh.

A beautiful host stepped on the stage[3] and recited the opening speech in three different languages—Chinese, English and Korean. Then, she requested the CEO of Eternal Moon to give a speech in excellent Chinese and English.

I was wearing a high-class western suit Xu Ning had prepared for me. I had no idea what the brand was, but it was probably extremely famous. As I walked up the steps leading to the stage, a ton of female players went crazy and screamed, "Ah… ah… is that Lu Chen? Ohmigosh he’s so handsome! Is he the CEO of Eternal Moon now? That makes him both rich and handsome!!"

I pretended that I couldn’t understand them and walked up to the podium. Then, I let out a cough and began reading the speech. There was a problem, however. There was fucking English on the script! I tried to read it as best I could until I suddenly realized that the entire script was basically just a boast about Eternal Moon’s development in the past couple of years, the game’s glorious development and more blahs that no sane gamer could possibly be interested in…

Plop!So, I threw it on the ground, gave everyone a bow and beamed. "Anyway, all of that doesn’t really matter. What Eternal Moon can do is to develop a fun game that everyone can enjoy, so please continue to enjoy our games, everyone!"

A thunderous applause erupted from the crowd. It was ironic that the simple sentence won more claps than all the blahs I had spouted until then. Beneath the stage, Xu Ning muttered to himself with a grimace, "Sigh, our new CEO is such a colorful character…"

……

As I walked down the stage, I suddenly discovered a beautiful woman and a group of players pushing their way through the crowd toward me. It was none other than Flowing Cloud and her subordinates. I should’ve known this, but Flowing Cloud was an exquisite beauty in real life as well. She was no traditional Indian who wore a headscarf and a nose ring either. She was the living example of an elite white-collar, and I even heard that she was the leader of a big company. In short, she was a very impressive woman in real life as well!

"Flowing Cloud is here. Protect the boss, men!" Li Chengfeng stood in front of me and said smilingly, "Now come at me, girl…!"

Flowing Cloud was caught off-guard by his appearance, but she said in broken Chinese, "Move… aside. I speak with… Falling Dust, not you…"

I was about to say something when the host announced that it was time for the player representatives to give their speeches. The first person to go on stage was none other than Flowing Cloud herself. She looked at me and said, "We’ll speak later…"

I nodded.

Flowing Cloud went on stage and gave her speech in English. Naturally, I didn't understand a single word of it.

Not far away, Tear Stain was holding her script and staring intently at Candle Dragon’s group. Specifically, she was staring at Candlelight Shadow, God’s Dance and Ye Yuse. A while later, she suddenly looked at Candlelight Shadow and asked, "Who is this woman to you, Candlelight?"

Ye Yuse puffed up her underripe breasts and retorted, "It’s none of your business!"

Tear Stain immediately exploded. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

Candlelight Shadow hurriedly stepped between the duo. "You misunderstood, Pae Meng. Allow me to start from the beginning…"

A far distance away, Li Chengfeng pointed at Candlelight Shadow with his chin and said, "Beginning my ass. If I had to guess, the two of them have already done it…"

High Fighting Spirits smirked. "The guild leader of Candle Dragon sure knows how to have fun…"

Me: "..."

……

A while later, Flowing Cloud finished her speech and walked down the stage. She tried to speak with me again, only for the host to announce that it was my turn. She could only wave me on with a resigned look on her face.

I hadn’t actually prepared a speech, so I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to the public. Instead, I spread my arms and offered, "The Nation War has just ended, and I’ve been quite busy as of late. As a result, I haven’t been able to prepare a speech. How about you ask me a couple of questions, and I try to answer as many of them as possible?"

An American reporter immediately rose to her feet and asked a question in English. I didn’t understand a single word of what she said. Thankfully, He Yi hurried up the stage and translated the question for me, "She’s saying that Vienna’s Sorrow and several hundred thousand Hero Alliance players had deleted their accounts as an apology to their server. As the one who directly caused their drastic actions, do you have anything to say to Vienna?"

I nodded at the reporter and replied, "I consider his decisiveness worthy of utmost admiration. He is a most respectable opponent!"

He Yi translated my reply, and the reporter sat down in satisfaction.

Then, another Western reporter rose to his feet and asked in slightly broken Chinese, "Lu Chen, you’ve led the China server in multiple Nation Wars. Each one was won by a narrow margin, but you were able to make your opponents taste the bitter taste of defeat. However, it has been rumored lately that you’ve logged out of the game prematurely during the last Nation War because you were sick, and that you may pass away within a month’s time. Assuming that you are passing away soon, is there anything you would like to say to the public[4]?"

I trembled visibly. Everyone was looking and waiting for my answer.

I held up a fist and smiled at everyone. "There’s nothing much to say, to be honest. I have resisted the invasions and protected my homeland. I have done everything that I had set out to do. If I have to say something, then I guess it will be—I have achieved my aspirations, and I have no regrets left!"

……

Right after I said this, a drop of blood suddenly dripped on the podium. Then, the trickle grew stronger and stronger. Is my nose bleeding?

My head spun, and I was falling backward before I could find that out.

1. T/N: that he managed to grind to fucking Level 240+ at all while still working is already unbelievable ☜

2. T/N: could be the case. If she hadn’t decided to forego some of her glories to Lu Chen, she definitely could’ve become his equal in terms of achievements ☜

3. T/N: somewhere, Fei’er audibly breathed a sigh of relief ☜

4. T/N: knowing reporters, probably not even the Top 100 most offensive questions ever asked in the history of journalism ☜