Chapter 118 The sound of suona horns brings joy and sorrow; a great god's game was launched at the same time as him...
Jili only found out over the weekend that his evil god had returned. He had been hibernating in the snow cave for seven days. He tightened his blue coat and saw Him cosplaying as the snow mountain peak as soon as he stepped out.
"When did you get back?" He yawned, but there was no puff of steam in the cold weather.
The evil god did not answer.
Jili went back into the cave to get a feather duster and skillfully swept the snow off His mourning cap. Suddenly, "Mountain Peak" moved, slightly raised, revealing a pair of crimson eyes on half of His pale face, with the gloom of a thousand-year-old vengeful ghost.
Geely paused in his furniture-cleaning motion: "...You failed?"
Before He could answer, His needle-like pupils stared eerily at Gilly, twitching slightly as if breathing, yet seemingly not touching him at all.
The world grew colder, the sharp peaks cleaved through the falling snow, and the wind whipped up debris that crashed into the vast white wasteland.
After a long while, He slowly extended his pale hand and gently patted Jili's palm.
Jili, puzzled, unfolded a handful of sunflower seeds: "What's this?"
“…Local specialties.” He spoke with a smile, like a dead man just unearthed from a tomb, his tone strangely ancient, as if separated by several dynasties. “I took it from the head of a dead man.”
Geely stopped his hand, which was about to take a bite, and couldn't understand why there would be sunflower seeds on a person's head. It wasn't a sunflower, was it?
Not knowing whether to eat it or throw it away, he silently put the sunflower seeds into his pocket: "If you're unhappy because you didn't manage to kill it, just sleep a little longer. I'll keep an eye on the dungeon when it reopens."
“She’s dead.” He interrupted him coldly, then, as if feeling it was unnecessary, repeated softly with a smile, “She died a long time ago.”
"Have you already sent a follower to investigate?"
“No need to investigate.” His words were scattered by the wind and snow, cold and desolate. “He will kill her.”
Gilly tilted his head, not knowing who this "he" was, nor could he discern any emotion in the god's seemingly casual tone. It sounded like a casual sigh, but Gilly sensed that He was unhappy.
This great deity of his often displays such childlike behavior.
Gilly looked at Him carefully, thought about His words, and suddenly realized: "You didn't kill Him, you were kicked out beforehand?"
Otherwise, it would surely be He who takes action. He enjoys personally ending the lives of those of His kind, just as He indulges in self-harm in front of a mirror, addicted to drowning.
A strange sense of admiration flickered across Jili's rigid white face and ruddy complexion at the sight of food being snatched from His hand.
The evil god also tilted his head to look at him. The two stared at each other with their necks tilted for a while. He laughed first, straightened his head, and regained his usual smiling expression: "Yes... how ruthless."
Gilly was confused. He was happy to hear the word "heartless," so why was he angry before?
Well, that's just how He is. Calling Him a vengeful ghost that has lived for thousands of years is the most apt description. All His joys and sorrows can be traced back to several lifetimes. It's no longer just His own happiness and sadness, so no one can understand Him.
"Don't go out for the guild tournament next week," Gilly said.
He said calmly, “What is there? Nobody’s coming.”
“But when I drew lots, the divination slips said there would be guests, and there seemed to be some unusual activity in the mountains. Should I contact your followers to find out more?” Gilly knew that He did not like anyone coming to Mount Joy and Sorrow, because something might happen in the mountains.
"No need." His voice trailed off, "If you want to die, then go ahead," as he said, "I'm going to take a nap."
He fell silent, covered by fresh snow, and merged with the highest snow-capped mountain.
Jili stopped bothering Him and returned to the snow cave. There was nothing to do in the snow mountain except sleep, but fearing that he might not know whether the god had left or returned, he would go out to check every day.
On Wednesday, the evil god did not wake up, but he stood by the mountain peak and saw lights shining in the snow-covered mountains.
*
[The coordinates of the secret realm "Joy and Sorrow Mountain" have been loaded for you]
The camera positions in the room merged into one, rotating and zooming out to reveal a range of white, sharply defined mountains, with some incomprehensible symbols nearby—the coordinates.
[Already in standby mode...]
[4 hours, 44 minutes, and 44 seconds remaining until the game starts]
[The host of this game, please proceed to the secret realm! Prepare in advance!]
【04:44:43】
It's normal for senior employees to mentor new ones, and for new employees to call senior employees "master." That's why Marco Polo treated Xue Chao like a junior brother. After he left, he would send Xue Chao messages whenever he thought of something important, and Xue Chao would see his messages at the top of the list the moment he opened his eyes.
For example, how to get to the secret realm.
No one can walk to another independent location because there are "gap zones" between any two places. Some look like black holes, some like mosaics, and some like unfinished layers. Therefore, guilds and companies provide "transportation" for players and hosts.
You can go there as long as you lock the dimensional coordinates of the secret realm.
You can also prepare your own; there are some items that allow you to travel to different places, and company shops and wandering merchants will also sell other means of transportation.
Xue Chao's mode of transportation is rather funny.
It's a children's miniature train, the kind that pulls kids around in shopping malls, with each carriage a different color.
First of all, he was alone, but he was given an extra-long nine-carriage train.
Secondly, given his size, when he sat in the front of the car, his head hit the roof perfectly. It was truly tailor-made; even a centimeter less and it wouldn't have had that perfect fit.
He selected the coordinates on the panel, and a prompt popped up on the only screen of the children's train:
[Dimensional coordinates detected]
Should we visit "Mount Joy and Sorrow"?
After selecting "Yes", the little train starts moving with a whirring sound.
A butterfly with broken wings flew gently and landed on his shoulder. Xue Chao studied it for a week but still couldn't figure out what the little butterfly was doing, so he just let it go.
The train continued forward, its speed increasing rapidly, far exceeding the speed expected of a children's toy train; it was like a race.
The wasteland stretched endlessly, devoid of human habitation. The starry sky overhead resembled a dazzling wasteland, and only the ever-shrinking black giant behind him indicated that he was indeed moving forward, not spinning in place.
Once the hourglass-shaped tower, composed of two pyramids of opposite orientation, completely disappeared, the wasteland instantly snapped, and Xue Chao, driving his little train, plunged into the pitch blackness of the beginning of the world.
It reminded him of the chaotic chasm behind the fog.
Fortunately, he was adaptable. After falling once, he was in his element the second time. When he landed with a thud, he had already entered a tropical rainforest.
After traversing more than ten "different places," his little train finally stopped at the foot of the mountains.
The pale mountains are like blades that fell from the sky and are driven into the ground; the occasional glimpses of red soil beneath the snow are the blood of the earth.
All along the way was a vast expanse of white, with snow falling alone, swept in by the wind and carried away by it. It felt cold on the body and stung faintly on the face.
You have arrived at the secret realm "Mount Joy and Sorrow".
Xue Chao looked up. Climbing such a mountain was like rock climbing on a cliff. He drove the little train around the foot of the mountain for a while and found that because the mountains were so steep, there were gaps between them that allowed people to get in and out.
He chose a narrow path that led between two towering snow-capped mountains. The oppressive feeling of skyscrapers in the real world was nothing compared to the wonders of nature.
For the first time, Xue Chao felt that a road was so long, like walking among the abandoned obelisks of heaven and earth, each inscription representing a lost civilization.
But there was indeed a way to go. He discovered that the mountains were not like knives piercing the ground, but rather like the pointed edges of an arched crystal on a low, gentle giant mountain.
He reached the high point where the "crystal" arched, and there was a village nestled among the mountains.
A stone tablet stood at the entrance of the village, covered in snow. Xue Chao swept it away and found the words "White Head Village" written on it.
[Duplicate has been generated]
A copy of your file has been created.
[File No. 99999]:
BOSS Secret Realm: Joy and Sorrow Mountain
Dungeon Difficulty: Four Stars - Hell [To be updated]
Dungeon opening count: 0
Dungeon Type: Guild Dungeon - Investigation Team
Main Quest: [To be unlocked]
Side Quests: [To be unlocked]
Hidden Boss: [To be unlocked]
Recommended role for the host: Guardian (This role cannot be freely chosen).
Recommended number of guilds: 3
...
Hidden bosses are usually unlockable, but the boss of Xibei Mountain is no secret. He's practically the only one who knows the boss before even entering the secret realm.
Live streaming is now available.
【02:33:56】
Because of the special mode of the guild dungeon, the host will scout out the dungeon in advance, so the audience can watch the room after the dungeon is generated, but there are no camera angles, so they can only wait and chat.
"Ahhh, it's open!!!"
"I was so scared! I thought my brother had run away, but he actually opened the Mountain of Joy and Sorrow!"
"The true wolf slayer, I will crown you king, and I will not allow anyone to disobey you!"
"I was too conservative. I didn't choose Monday or the weekend. I chose an ordinary Wednesday, haha. I'm guaranteed to be number one on the real-time leaderboard (sunglasses)."
The guild "Travel Agency" has applied to join the room.
The guild "Travel Agency" has joined the room.
"What guild is this? Does anyone know?"
"I've never heard of any of these people; they're probably just an ordinary guild."
"I know one of them. Don't ask me how I know. He's ranked 250th on the player leaderboard. I was so curious about who had this account that I remembered it immediately."
"Wow, this ranking..."
"Don't look down on it. The total number is what it is. Can everyone be a master? The remaining people may not be as good as Brother 250."
"Like a randomly matched guild, haha. I knew no one but me would be crazy enough to come to Xibei Mountain."
This guild did indeed say in advance that they would come. According to them, they are a temporary guild, a group of people who wanted to participate in the guild competition but did not have a guild at the moment.
Xue Chao made it clear from the start that the dungeon was very difficult, but they had no choice. They couldn't choose the normal dungeon because they owed a penalty dungeon.
With the guild tournament starting this week, the only options are either being thrown into a random penalty dungeon on Thursday or finding a guild dungeon of similar difficulty to participate in.
The lowest difficulty level for the punishment dungeon is four stars. They figured that since all the dungeons were difficult anyway, they might as well choose the guild dungeon and try to negotiate so they could have some control.
Unfortunately, the high-difficulty dungeons were all pre-arranged high-level games, and they weren't included. In the end, only Xue Chao was left, someone no one dared to go to, so they had no choice but to grit their teeth and go for it.
Xue Chao only knew about the guild; he could only find out which players were in the room by entering it. He never expected that Pu Fengchun was in there.
Temporary guilds also need to apply a week in advance—she had already decided two weeks ago that she would go to Xibei Mountain.
He even tried to persuade him, but he thought they were equally reckless in their pursuit of self-destruction.
Just then, the comments section, which was originally discussing which guilds would be involved and whether there were any major guilds, was suddenly bombarded with news, and the discussion completely veered off course.
"Holy crap, look next door, it's open too! Isn't today Wednesday??"
"The amusement park next door? My little jellyfish!"
"Not only that, holy crap, we matched again! The second one is the Pilgrimage Band!"
"Why is the big guild opening so early?? Did it start ahead of schedule?"
"Aaaaaah! Another match! And the last one was Ruoshui!! Oh my god, am I dreaming?!"
"Ruoshui, the band, the amusement park...? Doesn't that mean the second, third, and fourth-ranked guilds are all here???"
Holy crap!
Holy crap!
...
"Incredible setup! Whose game is this?!"
"Pineapple! Our Pineapple has really made something of herself... Is today really just Wednesday? Isn't this like watching the finals early?!"
"Oh God, I'm going right now!!"
With his previous two dungeon runs, Xue Chao was already famous. He never had to worry about viewers when he went live. There were no guild dungeons that could handle the challenge on Wednesdays, so many viewers flocked to his room. Even before the preparation period was over, his room had already made it to the front page of the real-time rankings.
But soon, the audience dwindled rapidly, and content about other hosts and players was blocked, so Xue Chao couldn't see it, but he had a vague guess.
A top-tier player started playing at the same time as him.
No, not at the same time, but just after he opened his, the other person opened theirs immediately afterward.
Xue Chao didn't say when it would open. Marco suggested he choose Monday to avoid the weekend, but he didn't listen, lest it be a trick to choose Monday or to provoke him to choose the weekend. He deliberately chose an ordinary day, but an extraordinary time—he chose to open the instance during the day.
He observed the data from the previous week and found that viewers were more active at night, while the number of viewers would be lower in the early morning after the game ended late at night. The top players rarely played during the day.
But now it seems that no matter what he chooses, others will find a way to operate them simultaneously.
Regardless of how it was done, there are two main motivations: Marco Polo and the amusement park.
The amusement park is an old grudge, and Marco... wants to step on him to rise to power.
When it comes to the most dazzling new stars recently, it has to be these two. They have the ability, the style, and the achievements. They just need to complete the final "godhood" in the Great God Realm and achieve true fame among players, companies, guilds, and audiences, becoming a figure like Holder.
However, having two people will divert attention, thus reducing the effectiveness.
However, if you were to compete on the same stage and defeat the other person in front of everyone, the effect would be explosive, and you could permanently crush the other person. No matter how you compete in the future, the other person would never be able to shake off the label of "loser".
Ham Sausage is using his teacher's resources and is also using him, who is in a similar situation, as a resource. Is there a better stepping stone than him?
That old fox, Holder, is even more... Although Xue Chao didn't treat him as a teacher, in name, they were all taught by Holder. In the eyes of outsiders, they were all his students. Whoever won, it was his victory.
He doesn't need to worry about anything; he just needs to support the final winner, and he won't lose out no matter what.
The sudden influx of so many spectators must indicate a very strong lineup.
It is known that there is the Pilgrimage Orchestra, an old partner of Holder, and the amusement park may also take the opportunity to cooperate to take revenge on Xue Chao. Adding another guild in the top ten would be enough. The worst case scenario is that the last guild is ranked higher than the first two, which is Ruoshui.
If it's true... "Senior Brother" is determined to ruin him and make him unable to rise again.
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