Chapter 233: The Internet Is Activated! Watching QQ!
Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations
“Girl, the people outside are not all good, but do you mean that the people here are all good?” Fang Qi asked helplessly as he observed this valiant girl who was dressed neatly in red warrior clothes and black boots.
“This lady… must be a good person…” Zou Mo said shyly.
“What good person!” The girl in red glared at Zou Mo and snorted, “Listen up! I killed more people than I can count, and their bones could fill a room! Someone once offended me, and I cut off his head and kicked it like a ball! You guys, humph! You better be polite in front of me!”
“You… You…” Zou Mo almost cringed and his face turned pale.
“Nice to meet you.” Fang Qi cupped his hands. “I have a nickname ‘Bloody-Handed Human Butcher’ Ning…”
“Sorry, I misspoke.” Fang Qi rubbed his nose and was embarrassed that he almost said the name of a scholar, who’s family name was Ning.
[TL Note: This is referring to a famous Chinese novel Zhui Xu. It is not being translated fast…]
The girl in red’s face twitched a little.
The bold girl in red was named Ruan Ning, and she would be Fang Qi’s neighbor for a long time. She owned a shop that sold materials for making artifacts.
It was heard that most of the residents of Half City were born here, and Ruan Ning was one of them.
This shop that Fang Qi bought had two floors. Together with the warehouse that Senior Mo used to store spiritual artifacts, this place could accommodate 100 computers and had room for more.
When Zou Mo walked out of his bedroom the next morning, he almost couldn’t believe his eyes. “Boss… These…”
“Today is our first day in business, and I’ll write down the rules on the small black board on the counter.” Fang Qi looked at the short young man and patted him on the shoulder.
…
Meanwhile in the main shop, Su Tianji, Nalan Hongwu, Song Qingfeng, Jiang Xiaoyue, and the others all sat on the couches. Nalan Hongwu ate instant noodles and wondered, “What’s that kid doing lately? He’s been out for days and hasn’t sent back a message.”
“Xiaoyue, come and sit with Big Sis!” Happily, Lan Yan held the loli in her arms while they enjoyed the noodles together. “Has your boss disappeared? How come he didn’t send back any messages?”
Lately, Jiang Xiaoyue was very happy. Since Fang Qi left before the weekend, she enjoyed a bowl of instant noodle on the weekend, and she could eat it again today since it was the new week!
“How would I know?” Jiang Xiaoyue pouted and drank the noodle soup and said, “I couldn’t reach him with the communication jade; he is out of the range. I don’t know where he is now!”
“He said that he would find places for a branch, but now he doesn’t even play games!” Su Tianji complained, “I couldn’t even find him in Counter Strike; I checked all the rooms.”
“He doesn’t play Diablo either!” Nalan Hongwu said, “He said that I must pass Nightmare to enter Hell. I’m on the Nightmare difficulty level already!”
…
Meanwhile, in the shop in Half City.
Dumbfounded, Zou Mo read the rules that Fang Qi wrote on the small blackboard.
“Play if you want, but get out otherwise?” Fang Qi used different tones in different cities. In Jiuhua City where things were in good order, he used gentler and milder words and tones.
In this place, he was direct and blunt.
“Boss, aren’t your afraid that people will smash our shop if they read this?” Zou Mo was at a loss for words. Even though he knew that Mr. Fang, who had come to Half City with him, wasn’t an ordinary person…
“Yell if someone tries to smash the shop.”
“Yell what?”
“Just yell that someone is making trouble!” Fang Qi said while stretching and glancing around at the 100 or so bright computers. “I’ll get online now; I’ve been offline for a long time.”
Pointing at the small blackboard which had the following lines [The Legend of Mir 2: 38 crystals for monthly activation, and 10 crystals for weekly activation. 2 crystals per person per hour.] Fang Qi said, “Remember, they must pay in full to play. If they don’t want to pay, tell them to get out and don’t waste your breath on them.”
…
– Jiuhua City –
“Damn! The shop has a new item!” The moment that Lin Shao got online, he saw a logo of a penguin on the screen, and his eyes lit up. “QQ! It’s free!”
[TL Note: QQ is a messaging software made by Tencent, and its logo is a penguin. Its original name is OICQ, inspired by ICQ, a cross-platform instant messaging and VoIP client originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996. QQ is the short hand for OICQ.]
“Free?!” Many people had just finished eating instant noodles and were about to get on computers; they all went behind Lin Shao to watch.
Lin Shao opened QQ and saw that the screen seemed to be scanning something.
“Loading data…”
“Logging in…”
Then, a beginners’ manual appeared. After seeing the manual, people asked, “What is this penguin? We can search and add friends from other cities?”
“Other cities?” They looked at each other and took out their communication jade. “We can use our communication jade for that. What’s the use of this thing?”
“Let’s try it.” At this moment, Song Qingfeng, Su Tianji, and the others all stood behind him to see the new item of the shop.
Lin Shao clicked the options of cities, and two names appeared: Jiuhua City; Morning Star Sea Realm.
There were only two options.
“Morning Star… Sea Realm?!” Lin Shao turned to look at the others in confusion. “What’s this place?”
Su Tianji also looked baffled. “This name sounds weird.”
Ye Songtao said, “I’ve never heard of this place in the South Sea or beyond. Is it in the North Sea or the East Sea?”
Nalan Hongwu said, “I’ve never heard of it before either!”
Immediately, Lin Shao clicked open Morning Star Sea Realm, and there was only one person in there: Mr. Fang.
Lin Shao followed the instructions and added him as a friend.
Meanwhile, Fang Qi was still exploring this new QQ and trying to see if there were some differences from the version that he used before he traveled between worlds. Then, he heard a prompt of aa friend request.
Fang Qi looked and saw that it was Lin Shao.
He clicked [Add].
“Damn! It’s connected!” People were pleasantly surprised.
The new version of QQ had two ways for input, one with keyboard and the other with voice. The latter could only be used with a virtual reality headset
At this moment, Lin Shao said, “Where… are… you…”
Soon, the words ‘where are you?’ appeared in the chat box.
[Morning Star Sea Realm 😁] Fang Qi added an emoji.
“Morning Star Sea Realm?]
“Hey! What’s this round face?”
“It looks silly!” Jiang Xiaoyue pointed at the screen and giggled.
“Ask him where the Morning Star Sea Realm is!” Su Tianji yelled from behind.
“Where… is… Morning… Star… Sea… Realm…” Lin Shao said slowly while he watched the words appearing on the screen.
[You don’t know it?] Fang Qi replied, [Senior Nalan and the others should know it 😅.]
“Boss sent another round face expression!” Jiang Xiaoyue asked, “Can you do it?”
“Let me see…” Lin Shao searched around and soon found the emoji box.
“Hey! Here it is!” Seeing the grinning squinting face emoji, Jiang Xiaoyue clapped her hands and yelled, “Choose this one! This is the silliest one!”
Lin Shao felt cold sweat popping out on his forehead.
Then, he sent Fang Qi the message. [They don’t know that place either 😁😁]
“Master! Master! This round face is so funny!” Fenghua and Yuexin watched from behind with curiosity.
“We’ll get this thing later!” Dong Qingli said.
[Where on earth are you? Even Senior Nalan’s ultimate communication jade can’t reach you!]
[I don’t know.] Fang Qi replied, [I only know that this place is called Half City, and it is in the Morning Star Sea Realm. There are as many cultivators as dogs, and Nascent Souls are all over the place.]
[TL Note: Nascent Soul Realm which is common in cultivation novels doesn’t exist in this world, but this last phrase is common in China after the cultivation novels got popular.]
“Nascent Soul?” All the people froze.
“Oh, it’s a typo.”