Chapter 24: The Slow-Rising Resident Evil Hype
Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations
Soon, it was the afternoon, and the earliest batch of players reached their playtime limit. Fang Qi was just wondering if he should play for a while himself when he heard a shriek, “Hey, Zixin! There are open spots!”
Then, two flashes, one green and one purple, charged past him.
“Sir, we finally got seats!” Shen Qingqing chuckled.
Fang Qi looked at his shop and found no seats; they took the only two open spots!
“Uh… seriously?” Fang Qi froze for a second.
“Sir, do you want to play?” Shen Qingqing laughed like a sly little fox. “Let us play for a few more hours today, and I’ll let you play first, okay?”
“…You’re threatening me?” Fang Qi replied angrily, “I can close the shop right now and play by myself the entire day!”
Shen Qingqing looked like a hen trying to protect its babies as she put her arms around the computer. “Don’t you dare!”
To ‘protect’ her computer, she quickly clicked open the game and shouted, “I’m starting the game now. If you close the shop, you’ll lose credibility!”
Fang Qi almost laughed aloud upon seeing her nervous expression. Good business meant rewards from the system. Therefore, he wasn’t about to drain his own pond of fish. He was just trying to scare her a little.
There was a giant armchair that his father left in the shop, so he brought it in, sat down, and closed his eyes to rest.
Originally, Fang Qi thought that those here to play Resident Evil were all warriors. If he were lucky, he would bump into a couple of cultivators.
At that moment, a short man around 30 years of age walked in. He was wearing a black robe and had a mustache on his face.
From the way he was dressed, the young man looked neither like a warrior nor a cultivator.
He was handsome and had distinct facial features, his upward brows giving him an aura of confidence.
Two people followed him. Fang Qi could tell from the way they walked that these two people weren’t commoners either. However, they intentionally walked behind the man with the mustache.
“This is the magical shop the other warriors were talking about?” He frowned in disappointment; the shop looked clean and was nicely decorated, but it was a little too small.
“Who’s the owner?” His voice was deep and magnetic.
“I am!” Fang Qi said as he pointed at the blackboard, “Before you ask questions, read this first.”
The man with the mustache glanced at the blackboard before smiling. “Interesting.”
He picked the perfect time to come; most of the players had reached their playtime limits and were leaving.
Therefore, he found a spot and sat down. “What next?”
Fang Qi clicked open Resident Evil and showed him the basics.
After entering the game, the man with the mustache’s eyes lit up; he was obviously curious about this new world.
He seemed to know what to do when faced with zombies. Therefore, he didn’t panic upon encountering the first zombie and stabbed its brain with extreme preciseness.
Although he didn’t look like a warrior or cultivator, his combat skills were still extremely sophisticated, even more so than Song Qingfeng and the others.
When warriors couldn’t use their qi, they had to rely on their combat skills.
However, the warriors in this world paid attention to martial arts techniques rather than combat skills.
In addition, most players would feel uncomfortable or scared in the beginning, making it harder to defeat zombies.
It was obvious that this man with the mustache didn’t have any of the aforementioned problems.
“This is a game?” His voice was calm, only because he hid his shock well. However, Fang Qi could still tell that he was surprised.
The more he explored Resident Evil One, the more he began to understand what ‘zombies’, ‘epic storyline’, and ‘unsolvable mysteries’ entailed!
Games were like this. The players could achieve heroic undertakings and accomplish the missions to complete the story. They would gain precious memories, whether it was the feeling of fulfillment or regret. Then, new players would join in the game and continue exploring this world, feeling its charm.
Without a doubt, Resident Evil had a good storyline. Unlike the other players at Fang Qi’s shop who were scrambling to finish the game, the man with the mustache was passionate about everything he saw.
“This is a game that only smart people can pass!” He exclaimed upon seeing the delicate traps inside the mansion.
“This is unimaginable!” He looked at every detail of the game as if he were enjoying a piece of artwork. “It’s just a game, but it involves architecture, trap designs, and even intrigue plots! Moreover, these weapons are extremely reasonable, and their structures are even more meticulously made than the spiritual artifacts created by forge masters! This entire game is filled with master-level works of art!”
– Yunshan Tavern –
“Brother Liang, you’ve been playing Resident Evil the longest. Can you tell us how you passed the hallway with all the paintings?” A warrior wearing a black outfit sat across from Liang Shi; it was Blackie.
They knew each other from before. However, not only were they not close, they even held grudges against each other. Now, Resident Evil had brought them together.
Ever since they began playing the game, they felt like they didn’t have anything to talk about with people who didn’t play.
Liang Shi said, “The art gallery? It’s not that hard. The sequence of the painting is infant, child, young man…”
Blackie poured himself a cup of wine and chugged it. “I’ve never seen a room with so many traps in my entire life! If it weren’t a game, I would bow to anyone who dares to walk in that hallway! I don’t even know where the zombies came from…… They can even infect people! I’m glad that those things only exist in the game. It’s too scary to even think of them existing in reality…”
“If evil cultivators create something like that, Jiuhua City would’ve disappeared a long time ago!” Wu Shan exclaimed, a little scared by that thought. “As long as the player bleeds, he or she will be infected and be used as a weapon to kill. The blood serum is the only antidote! These zombies are scarier than a pandemic! I’m glad they only exist in the game.”
“…”
Weird conversations like that slowly attracted the attention of more people. Sitting at the neighboring table was a warrior wearing a blue-greyish robe who had a metal sword on his back. Upon hearing Liang Shi and the others talking about Resident Evil, he became curious and asked, “What are you talking about? Did something big happen in Jiuhua City over the past few days?”
They turned around and saw a bunch of people stick out their ears, afraid of missing any important information.
Liang Shi was a straightforward man. He laughed and explained, “We’re talking about a shop in the east of the city named Origins Internet Club.”
“A virtual reality world?”
“An epic story?”
“Monsters that can arise from the dead?”
“What are you talking about?” Everyone was confused, and the warrior with the sword on his back looked at Liang Shi and the others with an extremely muddled expression. “The more I listen to you, the more puzzled I become…”
“Although I can’t understand it, it sounds really good…”
Liang Shi laughed, “I can’t explain it here. Should I take you there to see it for yourselves?”
“Thank you, brother!”
“This is the tiny shop you were talking about?” The warrior in the blue-greyish robe who had a sword on his back was named Fu Jianghe. He moved to Jiuhua City recently.
“Humph! What can there be at a small shop like this?” Someone else retorted; it was Li Kuan, a square-faced man with a brown set of armor on his body.
Upon seeing the small shop that was located so remotely, his anticipation turned into disappointment and disdain. “Were Liang Shi and the others exaggerating?”
“You’re right, Brother Li. They made the place sound amazing, and I thought it is some kind of magical shop. However, it’s no more than a tiny, remote place.” A skinny man chimed in. “Although we trust you, Brother Liang, this shop is still… unworthy of its name, isn’t it?”
“It really is!”
“You made it sound much better than it actually is.”
“Hey, there’s a lot of people!” As soon as they walked in, they noticed the number of people inside.
However, their expressions immediately changed upon seeing the price on the blackboard.
“It costs seven crystals to play for the first time?” Fu Jianghe immediately protested, “This is a money-duping shop, isn’t it? Who’s the owner?”
Li Kuan was unhappy too as he looked at Liang Shi. “Brother Liang, why did you take us here? If you’re joking with us, it isn’t funny!”
Liang Shi, however, replied calmly, “Don’t be like that, brothers. Try the game out for yourself if you think I’m just joking with you. I wouldn’t dare to trick you out of such a large sum of money!”
The others thought about it and realized that what Liang Shi said made sense.
Li Kuan patted Lin Shao, who was busy playing the game, and asked, “My friend, sorry for disturbing. You were willing to pay seven crystals to try out this game?”