Chapter 22: The Sweeping Declaration
Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations
As soon as Liang Shi opened the game, he put away his handgun and switched to a dagger.
Influenced by Fang Qi, Liang Shi and a couple of other people all began to use their daggers instead of handguns.
“…” Fang Qi glanced at the players. “Do you all plan to pass the level with daggers?”
“Hahaha… My hands are itchy for the dagger!” Liang Shi chuckled as he scratched his head.
“You don’t have to be in such a hurry,” Fang Qi laughed. “Later on in the game, you’ll have a lot of chances to practice your knife skills during ‘Knife-Only Speed Runs’.”
Ever since they began playing Resident Evil, Song Qingfeng and the others had seen obvious improvements in their strengths. Moreover, this game was much more fun than practicing martial arts, which was both boring and exhausting in comparison. Therefore, they had become daily customers to Fang Qi’s internet café.
“Knife-Only Speed Runs?” Song Qingfeng, Lin Shao, Xu Luo, Li Xi, and Ping ran over to Fang Qi’s shop early in the morning. As soon as they heard a new term, Song Qingfeng immediately asked, “What’s that?”
“It’s a mode that forces the player to pass the level with pure skills,” Fang Qi explained. “You’ll understand when you pass the game.”
He remembers that in his previous world, the official Resident Evil One Remake offered the player two modes after they passed the game: real survival mode and invisible enemy mode. Knife-Only Speed Runs, on the other hand, was a suicidal challenge that players invented themselves.
This required the main characters to play the entire game with just a dagger; no one would do anything like that in real life, but games were different. After passing the game, many advanced players were unsatisfied by its difficulty. Therefore, they came up with a more brutal challenge for themselves.
That was how the ‘Knife-Only Speed Runs’ came to exist.
However, the System’s Resident Evil One: Virtual Reality Remake would force the players to play under the ‘Knife-Only Speed Runs’ mode right after he or she finished the game!
Of course, those who could finish the game with just a dagger under virtual reality mode were unquestionably the best of the best!
This was because fighting with just a dagger required immense combat skills! Or else, with the hunters’ incredible attack powers, the players would die almost immediately!
“I guess I have to practice using my dagger more!” Song Qingfeng laughed out loud as he opened his game.
Soon, a horrific-looking monster with scales on its body appeared on his screen!
A hunter!
“Young Master Song, you finally encountered the hunter?” Lin Shao and the others immediately glanced over.
“A hunter!”
More and more people turned their attention to Song Qingfeng; encountering the hunter meant that the player was more than half way through the game.
“Does that mean he’s going to pass the game soon?”
“You guys enjoy.” Fang Qi rubbed his empty belly and remembered that he hadn’t eaten yet.
The transformation by the T-Virus could be seen as a type of evolution; evolving the human body to a state of perfection. That was what the T-Virus did!
In the history of Resident Evil, almost no one evolved perfectly! Almost everyone who was infected mutated into monsters.
Fang Qi’s evolution, however, didn’t cause any mutation at all! It was a perfect evolution!
However, this evolution consumed a lot of his energy. Therefore, he felt extremely hungry.
“Auntie Wang, I’d like a basket of pork buns!”
“A… basket?” Warriors had bigger appetites, but this was a little over the top, no?
Auntie Wang, the owner of the shop next door, stood there in surprise.
These weren’t Xiaolongbao! (TL Note: Small soup dumplings)
“Should I buy… two baskets?”
“… It seems like the young men who went into your shop didn’t have breakfast. Are you buying some for them as well?” Auntie Wang finally came back to her senses and asked, “Two baskets coming right up!”
As soon as she opened the steamer, Fang Qi took two buns and began stuffing his face with them.
“Slow down, they’re hot!” Auntie Wang couldn’t help but laugh. “Qi, what have you been doing recently? Your business is much better than when your dad managed it.”
Then, she gossiped, “The young master in purple is someone with a noble background; even the city guards treat him with respect. Don’t offend him.”
“I won’t!” Fang Qi ate his buns as he replied in a hurry.
Buns in this world were big and made without preservatives and additives, and the meat was a perfect balance of fat and lean. Moreover, his body was still recuperating from his breakthrough, and he ate more than ten.
Only then did his hunger weaken a little bit.
Shocked, Auntie Wang laughed, “Do all people who practice martial arts eat this much? I’m glad my son went to school, or else I might become poor because of his appetite!”
Fang Qi laughed as well and asked casually, “By the way, do you know where Grandpa Zhou,
whose shop used to be beside my shop, went?”
“Did you need him for something?”
“Nothing much,” Fang Qi replied, “If I can, I want to buy his shop.”
“I see,” Auntie Wang thought about it and said, “I think Zhou is trying to sell his shop; I’ll ask around for you.”
“Great! Thanks, Auntie Wang,” by the time he finished breakfast, he saw Xu Zixin and Shen
Qingqing walk toward him from the intersection. Upon seeing Fang Qi, the beautiful girls waved happily at him.
“Sir! We’re here so early today; can we play a little while longer?” Shen Qingqing was still craving more of that new game. However, not being able to play for as long as she wanted was quite annoying.
“No, each person only gets six hours.” Fang Qi wasn’t easily persuaded. He pointed at his shop and added, “Plus, it’s not early.”
“Not early?” Confused, Shen Qingqing walked into the shop before suddenly shrieking. “Why aren’t there any seats left?”
“There are no more seats left?” Xu Zixin immediately walked into the shop and noticed that all 11 spots were taken, and more people were already standing around, watching!
“Sir, why are there so many people today?” To their surprise, the shop was at full capacity already. Xu Zixin was furious. She thought she was here early, but there weren’t any seats left!
“I don’t know either…” Fang Qi was confused as well. Everyone came so early today; even his own seat was taken while he was having breakfast.
“… You don’t know?” Xu Zixin was so angry that she laughed out loud, “Sir, does anyone run their businesses like you?”
“I’m sure there is.” Fang Qi pointed at himself.
Upon seeing his innocent expression, Xu Zixin felt the urge to beat him up. After suppressing her anger, she snorted, “I’ll let you off this time.”
But… was she and Shen Qingqing supposed to wait there?
They glanced at each other and thought, “Six hours is a long time to wait…”
Shen Qingqing stomped her feet and asked, “Sir, can’t you change the time limit to three hours?”
Fang Qi replied, “I thought you were just complaining that six hours were too short…”
“Sir… I apologize, okay?” Shen Qingqing felt like crying.
Xu Zixin, on the other hand, sighed, “No wonder you set the time to be six hours; you must’ve anticipated that something like this would happen.”
Fang Qi shrugged and replied, “I told you that every rule in here makes sense.”
“Should we… come back later?”
“This is infuriating!” Shen Qingqing was so angry that she stomped her feet on the ground repeatedly. She glared around the shop and declared, “I’m going to wake up at 6 AM tomorrow! I will be here earlier than anyone!”
After this sweeping declaration, Shen Qingqing finally compromised and said to Xu Zixin, “Let’s come back later!”
“Your business is great, young man!” Auntie Wang couldn’t help but laugh, “What do you sell? They’re all people of high status. Aren’t you afraid that they’ll fight each other for the limited spots?”
“There might not be a lot of people outside my shop right now, but sometimes people stand long lines waiting for the food!” Auntie Wang droned on and on, “I still remember that a few young men cut in line last year, and a fight broke out in front of my shop. Tsk, tsk…”
Even now, Auntie Wang was scared about what happened.
Fang Qi was originally just listening to be a good sport, but he quickly understood that this was a potential problem for his shop as well.
Sure, the players at his shop abided by his rules, but it was only because they could all play at one time during the day. When the seats were all taken up, those waiting could pass time by discussing the plot of the game with their friends.
However, if more customers came to his shop, would the incident that happened in front of Auntie Wang’s shop happen in front of his shop as well?
Before coming to this world, he often went to internet cafés. People there looked for trouble and got into fights easily, ruining the mood of all customers.
Therefore, he was determined not to let anyone cause trouble at his shop!
“Should I add another rule?” Fang Qi rolled his eyes and thought as he walked back into his own shop.