Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Humiliating the Sect Master, Minus 1 Point
"How’d he die?"
Song Jiulai was about to scream.
She’d considered the possibility of players having accidents for all sorts of reasons, but she never imagined one would actually fall to their death!
A Cultivator, falling to their death!
It was so absurd you could laugh your head off, wasn’t it?
System: "He went up the mountain to map out a resource chart, lost his footing, and fell."
Cultivators in the Early Stage of Qi Refining can’t really fly yet. The player’s sensation of falling was completely real, and since the cliff was so high, he really did fall to his death.
Song Jiulai stared blankly for three seconds.
Then she touched her forehead and temples. "My condolences."
As the Sect Master, all she could do was offer a moment of silence online.
Of course, whether she mourned him or not didn’t matter. What mattered was that as soon as Zhen Weida fell to his death, an announcement went out to the entire Sect.
[Ding! Player ’Zhen Weida’ has fallen into an abyss and died. May this be a lesson to all players.]
Su Daqiang: "Huh?"
Zhou Xiao was instantly stunned. "Holy shit, you can actually fall to your death?"
Han Tian was also surprised. "That actually counts as a death? Is this game for real?"
The moment he spoke, his livestream’s chat feed exploded.
[What happened?]
[Who fell to their death? Don’t tell me someone in your game actually fell and died?]
[Bro, put some effort into your script. A Cultivator falling to their death? Don’t you think that’s ridiculous?]
[That’s outrageous. A Cultivator falling to their death.]
...
Yeah, who would believe it?
The players couldn’t believe it.
Some even logged off immediately.
Meanwhile, the player named Zhen Weida had already spammed the group chat with hundreds of messages.
[Zhen Weida: FUCK AHHHHHH I FELL TO MY DEATH, GODDAMMIT AHHHHHH]
[Zhen Weida: My account is really banned, I can’t log back in ahhhh I don’t want to live anymore!!!]
[Zhen Weida: I’m going to buy cigarettes right now, and I’m not taking the elevator or the stairs.]
[Zhen Weida: Shit, this trash game’s appeal system is useless. I just went up the mountain to survey some coal deposits, on what grounds did they judge that I fell to my death!!]
He raged in the group chat; after all, the penalty of having your account banned upon death was just too severe.
None of the players poked at his sore spot; they just let him vent.
At the same time, they grew even more cautious.
’Shit, death really does get your account banned, and the rules are so goddamn unfair.’
’Falling to your death counts? Who would’ve thought?’
Su Daqiang once again recalled the time he was poisoned, and how it had merely discolored his skin.
’What a relief. Thank goodness, thank goodness.’
He patted his chest, feeling thankful for the millionth time.
’It’s so great I didn’t die. I’ll never run my mouth again.’
After Zhen Weida had just about cried himself out, Su Daqiang popped up and asked a question.
[Su Daqiang: Coal deposits? What coal deposits were you surveying? There are coal deposits in Wang’an County?]
[Zhen Weida: Yeah, of course there are, it’s all natural terrain. I wouldn’t have even run up that mountain if I wasn’t looking for this stuff. AHHHH, I’m so pissed! My grand ambitions, GG’d before they even started!]
[Yang Meimei: You were looking for coal deposits? You’re really planning to industrialize?]
[Zhen Weida: What else? You think I was joking? Forget everything else about industrialization, some of the things we could build would make a ton of money. Think about it—even if we just made a simple steam train, we could use Artifact Refining techniques to build the engine if our tech isn’t up to snuff. We could open up a route from First Mountain to Wang’an County, and then connect to other Sects. Imagine how many Spirit Stones we could earn from that.]
[Zhen Weida: I heard their Teleportation Arrays are crazy expensive. Anyone below the Golden Core Stage can barely afford to use them. Our railroad might be slow, but it’d be cheap.]
[Yang Meimei: That doesn’t seem very realistic. It seems like the Major Sects create all these divisions specifically to stop the lower ranks from advancing. Even if we could build it, are you sure they wouldn’t just mess with us?]
[Zhen Weida: That would depend on what the Sect Master thinks. But that’s not the point right now. The point is, I’M DEAD!!!]
[Yang Meimei: My condolences.]
[Su Daqiang: My condolences.]
[Wu Dahu: R.I.P]
[Zhen Weida: Condolences my ass! R my ass! I’m too lonely out here in the real world, you guys hurry up and come keep me company!]
...
Unfortunately, no matter how much Zhen Weida raged, his death was a settled fact.
But Zhen Weida was extremely unwilling to accept it.
There was no telling when the next batch of slots would be released, so all he could do was watch Han Tian’s stream.
At this point, the stream chat was already roasting the "Cultivator falling to death" plot point for being completely illogical.
Zhen Weida: "..."
’Yeah, who could have possibly guessed?’
’Who could have guessed he’d actually fall to his death?’
’Good thing I still had accomplices in the game—no, wait, partners.’
’But now that I’m done for, it’s a fatal blow to the team. We can still contact each other in reality, but I don’t know if they’ll still be motivated.’
In any case, a player dying would definitely make the rest of them more careful.
But no matter what, the mission had to go on.
Song Jiulai didn’t know about Zhen Weida’s plan yet. If she had, she might have softened up and pulled some strings to get him a spot in the next batch.
What a pity.
The fighting on First Mountain was heating up. With the Sect providing supplies, the way she and the players were beating up demon beasts was a bit unusual.
And then, Song Jiulai received what could be considered a piece of good news.
With a few days left before the event ended, the first disciple to reach the Qi Refining Middle Stage appeared.
It was Mu Qiu.
This female cultivator was a real badass. She had chosen to go solo from the very beginning, and had even faced battles against groups of three demon beasts.
And she had managed to take them all down.
Of course, she’d chugged potions just like Song Jiulai, but her combat instincts were still impressive.
It was no surprise that she was the first to advance to the Qi Refining Middle Stage.
Song Jiulai always had a reward for firsts.
And since cultivation was quite important, after some thought, Song Jiulai awarded Mu Qiu 100 points.
[Ding, congratulations to player Mu Qiu for becoming the first disciple in the Sect to reach the Qi Refining Middle Stage. You have been awarded 100 points.]
"Holy shit!"
The Daoist and the others, who were still fighting demon beasts, nearly jumped out of their skins. "That awesome?"
"Ah, Mu Qiu." Wu Dahu and the others from the first batch quickly realized who it was. "The master who ranked second in talent. Can’t mess with her. It’s normal for her to be the first."
Ma Xiaoniao was a little surprised. "I thought it would be Master Han Tian and his group. Isn’t the person with the top talent with them? Too bad we can’t watch livestreams in-game, or we could see how fast they are."
Wu Dahu hissed. "Grouping up to fight is faster, but there’s less room to shine. Mu Qiu fights solo. A true heroine. I wouldn’t dare, anyway."
Daring to go solo in a game where death means a ban... just that courage alone set her apart from ordinary players.
The Daoist said, "We can’t fall behind either."
Ma Xiaoben chuckled. "Hey, at least we’re riding on someone’s coattails. It’s normal that we’re not progressing as fast as others."
They might not be as badass as the masters, but they had a cheat code!
They were killing a ton of demon beasts!
Wu Dahu was still muttering in amazement, "100 points... I can’t believe our cheapskate Sect Master actually paid out."
System: "Insulting the Sect Master. One point deducted."
Wu Dahu: "..."
Hey, wait a minute!!
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