Chapter 20: Chapter 20 Future Challenges
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The next day, Junlin Club.
Zhao Mingwei finished his training and was looking at the news on his phone.
This kind of straightforward internet-addicted youth rarely looked at the news, but since yesterday he had been scrolling through the news on Weibo all day.
News about Jiang City's food street.
But there was nothing… There were no orcs, no abyssal hunting, and there was not even a sign of any damage on Jiang City's pedestrian street.
Weibo only had news about a building fire on Jiang City's food street, with the fire brigade coming to the rescue.
If not for the piece of Light Elf's Memory still quietly lying in his equipment slot, he would have doubted whether everything from last night was real.
"Xiao Ye, what gear did you get from abyssal hunting yesterday?"
Lin Xi brought his lunchbox and approached Zhao Mingwei. Lin Xi's personality was not as stable and straightforward as Zhao Mingwei's; he had a more boastful type, and especially loved to boast.
Judging by Lin Xi's demeanor, he must have gotten some good gear from abyssal hunting yesterday.
"Light Elf's Memory." Zhao Mingwei opened the app on his phone, brought up the equipment display function, and showed Lin Xi his gear.
"Special equipment, forget I asked." Lin Xi smacked his lips. Yesterday, he had gotten a level twenty-five epic hand cannon from abyssal hunting, intending to boast to Zhao Mingwei, but Zhao Mingwei's gear was even better.
Zhao Mingwei did not pursue Lin Xi for details about the abyssal hunt. He had already asked Lin Xi on the night he returned.
Lin Xi confirmed that he had indeed participated in the Abyss Rift, and it was set in a virtual Jiang City food street scenario, but when Zhao Mingwei mentioned 'the monsters appeared in the real world,' Lin Xi's response was that Zhao Mingwei was under too much pressure lately and needed a break.
This made Zhao Mingwei's hair stand on end, to the point that he did not touch the game the entire night.
"Zhao, the gifts from the fans are piling up at the front desk, should I bring them up for you to see?"
A club staff member suddenly poked his head into the training room and asked Zhao Mingwei.
"Bring them all over." Zhao Mingwei said.
The staff member—not just one but two or three staff members—began to move a large pile of variously packaged gifts to Zhao Mingwei's seat.
"Tsk tsk, Xiao Ye... We debuted at the same time, why doesn't any fan remember me?"
Seeing so many gifts, Lin Xi instantly felt a bit envious. The common practice in the club was to let the staff handle all fan-sent gifts, but Zhao Mingwei was one of the rare professional players who personally looked at each gift.
Zhao Mingwei rarely posted on Weibo, barely visible on Tieba, and he was simply a forever lurker on the forums, so he seldom responded to fans online.
But Lin Xi knew that Zhao Mingwei was very attentive to the things fans sent. He would read each letter and keep it well, wear clothes if they fit, and pile them up in the wardrobe if there were too many. As for the food... Lin Xi would taste it first to check for poison, then the rest of the club would join in.
"I remember there are a lot of posts berating you on Tieba; you could consider that a form of memory too." Zhao Mingwei may have been a straightforward guy, but his sarcasm was no less sophisticated than Lin Xi's, especially when it came to jabbing at Lin Xi.
"Damn it, just saying that makes me angry. Yesterday I used a smurf account to curse at an idiot for over a hundred replies, sigh! I'll help you open the gifts." Lin Xi began to rip open the fan-sent gifts, and Zhao Mingwei casually picked up a few and started checking them out.
Suddenly, he saw a packaged fried chicken cutlet. Sending food was a common interaction method for fans living around Junlin Club, but most clubs banned it altogether, even prohibiting fans from sending gifts directly. Junlin Club was the only exception, which even had a dedicated security check station built.
The chicken cutlet was indeed from Zhao Mingwei's frequently visited place on Jiang City food street, but the note on it made Zhao Mingwei's hand freeze momentarily.
The note had simple content, only four words long.
Thank you, keep it up!
Zhao Mingwei stared at the four words for a long time in silence. He didn't say anything and opened the plastic bag to start eating the chicken cutlet.
"Lin Xi, will you join the game tonight?" Zhao Mingwei asked while eating.
"For sure, I have to join. I got a level twenty-five epic hand cannon yesterday but haven't had much chance to use it." Lin Xi suddenly remembered something and added, "Old Song will join too. He contacted me yesterday, his game ID is Mo Shigui."
Old Song's real name was Song Zhenning, a coach for the Upper City Nuclear Team, and he was a former teammate who had established the Junlin dynasty with Zhao Mingwei. Three years ago, he had a disagreement with Junlin Club's management, was forced to retire, and moved to Upper City Nuclear Team as a coach.
"Old Song has an account too? Let's arrange a time tonight to run some instances together." Zhao Mingwei said.
...…
In the morning, Jiang Qiao was still benefiting from the Plane Fragment, considering how to utilize the twenty-two square kilometers of land and to whom the one hundred player slots should be given.
But what really caught Jiang Qiao's attention was that the area of star map exploration had expanded.
"There are so many fragments around Blue Star..." Jiang Qiao held the System Book, which displayed Plane Fragments of different colors.
These Plane Fragments remained stationary, unlike the scarlet and jet-black planes that wandered around, devouring others.
The System Book also included the creator's latest explanation from Jiang Qiao.
'These new Plane Fragments can be viewed as extra instances and side quests in the game, each with its own operating rules. Once the invasion feature is activated, we can let players enter them to gather the energy needed to create worlds and increase the server's player limit. Right now, I highly recommend this Plane Fragment.'
After reading the explanation he wrote, a completely white Plane Fragment quickly zoomed into Jiang Qiao's view.
At this moment, Jiang Qiao saw all the data of this Plane Fragment.
Special Plane Fragment
Plane Category: Magic·Supernatural.
Civilization Level: None.
Plane Size: Ten kilometers.
Creature Level: 30~60.
World Rules: Incomplete time cycle, incomplete life cycle, complete physical laws, intermediate magic laws...
These data were not much, but Jiang Qiao focused on the Plane Introduction attached by himself as the creator.
'This plane is a derivative fragment of a complete world, comprising merely one tall tower. Creatures from another world have spent hundreds of years challenging this tower but none have reached the Tower Master's presence. This plane contains only one self-aware entity, while other challenge creatures resemble in-game monsters with fixed attack patterns. Lastly... Hai Lan's current level is insufficient to detect a complete world plane, but you can bring players to challenge it for further information—Creator, Jiang Qiao.'
"Reading my own notes feels weird." Jiang Qiao finished reading and commented, "Isn't this a Sky Tower? Or... a Tower of Death? Well, I think it's perfect for players to level up, and it can increase the server's player limit. Let's go with this."
Jiang Qiao now needed to achieve four creator metrics: Creation Energy, the server's player limit, the game map area, and the player level cap...
He had ways to obtain the first three metrics by killing creatures from other planes. Players earned experience while Jiang Qiao gathered creation energy, and the server's player limit increased as well.
Expanding the game map required complete absorption of other Plane Fragments. This was simple too; Jiang Qiao could easily swallow one or two small Plane Fragments to expand further.
The tough part was the player level cap, which was essentially the maximum level for all creatures in the game.
For now, Jiang Qiao could only create NPCs and monsters up to level fifty. To raise the level cap, he needed to collect Hai Lan's Divine Fragments.
"I remember there's a Divine Fragment of Hai Lan near Blue Star." Jiang Qiao searched on the star map and indeed found a deep blue Plane Fragment.
Hai Lan's Divine Fragment World·Small.
Plane Category: Magic·Supernatural·Chaotic.
Civilization Level: Medieval.
Plane Size: Thirty-seven kilometers.
Creature Level: 50~60.
World Rules: Incomplete time cycle, incomplete life cycle, complete physical laws, advanced magic laws...
Plane Introduction: Don't even think about it! We need all players at the max level to tackle this instance. There are a bunch of annoying creatures inside, so hurry up and recruit more people, increase the server's player limit, and level up yourself—Creator Jiang Qiao.
Am I roasting myself? Also, shouldn't I be more serious in creator mode?
Jiang Qiao found these notes rather speechless, but they did indeed remind him it was time to publicly reveal this game to Blue Star's players.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone