Chen Guo actually didn't have a habit of pulling all-nighters. Only, today was the opening of a new server, so she came to see the liveliness. After seeing it, she quickly grew sleepy and fell back on her chair only half-conscious.
This type of sleep quality was obviously quite poor. It was just that Chen Guo was too lazy to get up. In this half-asleep half-conscious state, her ears couldn't help but drift to the frantic keyboard tapping and mouse clicking sounds. To a boss at an Internet Cafe, these sounds were very familiar to her. But the sounds Chen Guo heard were somewhat different. These sounds were hurried and then slow, gentle and then heavy. Hearing this mechanical rhythm, Chen Guo had never thought that the tapping of a keyboard and mouse could sound like drums. Was she dreaming?
Chen Guo suddenly woke up and listened again carefully. It seemed like it truly wasn't a dream. These sounds came from beside her — from that newly hired network manager, Ye Xiu.
Chen Guo sat up wanting to see and the jacket slid off of her body. She promptly grabbed it at it and recognized it as Ye Xiu's jacket. It looks like this person's quite attentive." Chen Guo said secretly. Only, how long has this jacket not been washed? It's kind of smelly.
Chen Guo picked up the jacket and sat down. Right when she was about to talk to Ye Xiu, she all of sudden sat there dumbfounded.
A pair of hands that made people's cheeks stream with tears appeared in front of her eyes — Ye Xiu's two hands.
These two hands looked extremely thin. His fingers were long and slender and his joints weren't rough like ordinary male's were. His fingertips were thin and his fingernails were clean and tidy. This was completely inconsistent with his sloppy outer appearance.
Chen Guo had originally never been a very attentive person. But after a lady with extremely beautiful hands came to the Internet Cafe, she became influenced and gradually began paying attention. Now, she was astonished by Ye Xiu's two hands.
The hands were beautiful hands. The tapping sounds were also like music. But his actions… …Ye Xiu's left hands bounced around on the keyboard. Cheng Guo only had one feeling: his hands moved extremely slowly.
Hand speed, the amount of actions done in a certain amount of time, usually counted in minutes, were abbreviated as APM. Glory wasn't a strategy game. Players only controlled a single character, but skill usage was complicated. As a result, the number of fine actions that needed to be done were high, so high hand speed was a must.
A player with a high hand speed made quick and meticulous moves. The strength and duration of each keystroke all directly influenced the extent that the in-game character moved. These changes added further complexity to battles. Only, these types of good or bad changes had differences. For example, some people only raised their APM to look good and never stopped making actions. But making every action count and having high APM, only pro-level players could do.
200 APM. This was the publicly recognized skill level divide in Glory. When ordinary players tried to go above 200 APM, they were basically hitting their keys randomly. Even for pro-gamers, going above 200 APM needed a certain battle scenario. The level of the opponent couldn't be too weak, so that they needed to go over 200 APM to fight.
For ordinary players, 70% of the players were between 80 to 120 APM. 25% couldn't even reach 80 APM and the other 5% exceeded 120. Though among experts(5%), it is said that there was no lack of players that could reach 200 APM, that professional level of skill.
Chen Guo's hand speed hovered around 120 but could exceed that under certain circumstances. Therefore, Chen Guo believed that she was among that 5%, an expert among ordinary players.
But for Ye Xiu, Chen Guo didn't doubt that his APM hadn't even reached 80. Right when she noticed this, Chen Guo suddenly found that that rich rhythmic tapping sound also disappeared. The sounds she had heard could only be heard so distinctly because of his slow movements.
"Am I dreaming again… …" Chen Guo shook her head. She wanted to hear that previous dreamy sound, but found that it wouldn't appear no matter how hard she listened. The hands she noticed now operated as if they were disabled, yet were also hands that made people jealous.
Chen Guo was now engrossed in these two hands so much that she even forgot to look at the screen. But soon, Ye Xiu's two hands stopped. Only then did Chen Guo react and look at the screen. She immediately widened her eyes: "Midnight Phantom Cat?"
After saying this, the Midnight Phantom Cat had already fallen down from up above dropping numerous items.
And at this moment, Chen Guo saw an eye-grabbing system announcement flash through the screen: Tenth Server, Midnight Phantom Cat First Hidden Boss Kill: Stolord.
"D*mn!!" Chen Guo slapped her hands onto Ye Xiu's back: "You have real skill!" It didn't matter whether his hands were disabled or not. To be able to be the first one to kill, this was something that Chen Guo had never achieved before. " Right when Ye Xiu was about to look at the dropped items, this slap truly came unexpectedly. It almost made him swallow the cigarette in his mouth. In the end, only a strand of silver-white smoke fell freely onto the keyboard. Chen Guo, who had originally been peeking at how Ye Xiu worked, saw this scene. Everything about being the first to kill the hidden BOSS had already been completely forgotten. She pulled at Ye Xiu's headphones and snarled next to his ear: "Who let you smoke here?"
"Huh?" The cigarette in Ye Xiu's mouth hadn't been extinguished yet. He didn't really understand what Chen Guo meant.
"NO SMOKING, did you not see that!?" Chen Guo pointed at the wall.
Ye Xiu turned his head and carefully examined the two words on the wall: "Are you kidding me? No smoking at an Internet Cafe?"
"This area is no-smoking. The smoking area is on the other side." Chen Guo pointed. . "Then let's go over." Ye Xiu said.
"No, smelling smoke makes my head hurt." Chen Guo said.
"Then what do we do?" Ye Xiu looked as if he had encountered an impossibly difficult problem.
"You can't smoke one less cigarette?" Chen Guo furiously said.
"I can't or my head will hurt." Ye Xiu said.
"You you you… …" Chen Guo discovered that she had begun to understand this Ye Xiu. Although he could casually accept living in that tiny storage room, he was definitely not an easy person to deal with.
"I'll go to the smoking area myself then. Boss, you should go rest." Ye Xiu said at this moment.
"Wait a second, you never said how you got the first kill!" Chen Guo said.
"Nothing much. The team all died. The BOSS's life was low. It was easy pickings." Ye Xiu said quite casually.
"Oh so it's like this." Chen Guo's tone still carried admiration. The reward for being the first one to kill this sort of low level hidden BOSS wasn't special. It was at most some extra experience and money. There wouldn't be any top quality equipment. But this would be forever recorded on the standings and he would be a legend on this server. A lot of players liked this sort of feeling. To the majority of ordinary players, getting on this sort of standing could only happen in the beginner levels. Once the dungeons became harder, no matter if it was a regular or a hidden BOSS, killing it required a certain amount of skill to beat. When they got to the heavenly domain, even those highly skilled teams had no chance. All of the records there were set by professional teams.
"What did it drop? Envious, Chen Guo moved closer to see what the Midnight Phantom Cat dropped, "5 Cat Fingernails, trash; 1 Cat Fur Breastplate, might as well wear it, low-leveled equipment aren't important; 2 Midnight Cat Nails, 1 Midnight Cat Claw, 1 Midnight Opal. Okay, okay, not bad. Hidden BOSS materials are definitely worth a lot of money; one skill book… …Damn, what type of luck is this?"
Although Chen Guo had yelled it, Ye Xiu was also astonished. For a low-leveled hidden BOSS to drop a skillbook, what type of good luck was this?
What was a skill book? It wasn't used to unlock new skills. It increased skill points. Its value could be seen just by looking at the orange colored words. This was one method to exceed 4000 skill points. But this item couldn't be traded, so using money to buy it wasn't possible. It could only be obtained through luck. The book Stolord picked up didn't add much, only 5 points. But to have it drop from a hidden BOSS, it was still ridiculously lucky.
The skill book that had just been dropped was used in an instant. Among the materials dropped from the Midnight Phantom Cat, the Dark Opal and the Midnight Cat Nails were materials needed to complete the Kaleidescope Parasol. Ye Xiu's mood was good. He unexpectedly let Stolord immediately leave the dungeon.
"You're not going to finish it?" Chen Guo astonished. Although Stolord was the only remaining member of the party, this type of newbie dungeon could easily be soloed. Even though she knew of Ye Xiu's disabled level APM, Chen Guo didn't think that his skill level was that low. For him to destroy her opponent that she lost to 52 times in 40 seconds, this accomplishment had just recently happened!
"I need to change computers!" Ye Xiu had already been prepared to leave the game. Chen Guo glimpsed at the screen and suddenly shot her hand to stop him: "Wait a second, what situation is this?"
She only saw on the chat window a wall of identical messages.
"The shameless novice Stolord, in order to steal the hidden BOSS for himself, didn't heal the party members on purpose and let them die. Everyone be careful."
"The shameless novice Stolord, in order to steal the hidden BOSS for himself, didn't heal the party members on purpose and let them die. Everyone be careful."
These identical messages mixed together with other anger and hate. Although the system automatically blocked profanities, people's intelligence were boundless. They used same sounding words to complete their mission.
Ye Xiu looked at them carefully and found the name Sleeping Moon among these spammers. He even saw the other party members Shutting Sun and a mage. Because he was the first one to come out, he actually reversed what was right and wrong.
"How could it be like this?" Chen Guo asked Ye Xiu.
Ye Xiu, helpless, could only explain it to her.
"D*mn. Shameless! How shameless!" Chen Guo raged when she heard this.
"Yeah, too shameless." Ye Xiu Said.
"Why aren't you mad?" Chen Guo was baffled.
"I'm very angry." Ye Xiu said.
"Are you angry? How come I can't see it at all?" Chen Guo was puzzled. This Ye Xiu stared at the screen looking at the wall of slander but his face hadn't changed at all.
"Just because I'm angry doesn't mean I have to show it." Ye Xiu didn't look angry. He was even smiling. While doing so, he logged out of the game and shut down the computer. Changing over to the smoking area was still his current ambitious dream.
"What type of person are you? I turn my head and then there are suddenly so many events. You meet a hidden BOSS, a skill book drop, and even formed enemies. Tomorrow morning I'll see if you're dead." Chen Guo said.
"See you later boss!"
Chen Guo went to rest while Ye Xiu went to the smoking area. As expected, a blanket of smoke lingered around in this area. Even the high-frequency frantic ventilation had no way to purify the air around here. It could only limit the smoke's assault on the non-smoking area.
These smokers also didn't have any emotion towards second-hand smoking. Ye Xiu also lit up a cigarette at once blending in with the sea of smokers. Sweeping across the area, he saw that this place was clearly more crowded than the non-smoking area. When pulling all-nighters, very few could do so without the stimulation from a cigarette.
It was good that the Internet Cafe was large enough. Ye Xiu turned around and found an open computer. Without choosing carefully, he went over and sat down. Deme-Cybercafé was relatively high-class. There was a small wall between every computer station to protect people's privacy. Even if they didn't, everyone was wearing headphones and immersed in Glory. No one payed any attention to outside matters.
Ye Xiu re-logged into the game and put on his headphones.
Stolord was still sitting outside Green Forest. Even though the place was overcrowded with people, it wasn't so noisy that he couldn't hear anything from his earphones. There was no difference between walking here and walking into a bustling market. It wasn't so lively that he couldn't hear what others were saying. As for those players constantly spamming to join a party, those could be drowned out.
Ye Xiu's eyes sweeped over the chat box and saw that the messages about Stolord had already disappeared. Finding out when a character went offline was possible through a certain game function. Sleeping Moon was a veteran, so he was already familiar with these sort of methods. After Stolord had gone offline, he stopped with the messages. Only players over level 20 could leave the beginner area. When that happened, PK'ing would be opened up. In the meantime, those level 20 and under could only point fingers and argue.
But Sleeping Moon was now being quite malicious. Stolord appeared on the First Hidden BOSS Kill announcement, so everyone learned about him. When Sleeping Moon raged using his name, it was very easy for people to take note of it. As a result, Stolord couldn't find a party to join. All of his requests were all totally denied. Even if players didn't actually believe in Sleeping Moon's remarks, they had already started to defend against Stolord.
Ye Xiu could only helplessly laugh. When he formed a party, he truly only came for the hidden BOSS. He needed those materials. But now that he couldn't form a team, his leveling speed would only increase.
In Glory's dungeons, the fewer the people the more the experience. Efficiency had to be considered though, so in the end, having more people was more effective. But Stolord was different. He held the Silver Level 5 Kaleidescope Parasol. For regular players, they mostly relied on Blue and Green equipment. When compared to the Kaleidescope Parasol, Blue and Green equipment were inferior by three to four grades. In Glory, every grade was equal to five levels. In other words, the Kaleidescope Parasol was equivalent to a level 20 Blue or a level 25 Green weapon.
This superiority in the low-level stages of the game could be considered overpowered. Because the damage done by Stolord's weapon was equivalent to four or five weapons. Adding in the influence by a character's attributes, Stolord was equivalent to three people. Furthermore, with Ye Xiu's skills, he wouldn't be slower in clearing a dungeon than a five man team. He might even be a bit faster.
Stolord began walking, ready to enter the dungeon. But after a few steps, a player suddenly blocked his way. Ye Xiu looked and it was actually Sleeping Moon. To be able to find him in this crowd of people, this guy has sharp eyes.
"Hello hello." Ye Xiu lifted his headphones up and down testing to see if the message went through.
"Hello my a**!" Sleepy Moon wasn't polite in the slightest.
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