Extraordinary Player

Qin Guan was puzzled. ‘What? Was this man a programmer before he changed jobs to become a flyer distributor? Is he around thirty years old?’

Qin Guan looked at the flyer in his hand. “Sir, I’m here to join Chenxing Esports Club. You don’t have to give me any flyers.” He then looked at the flyer in his hand. “And, um… this is a flyer about swimming and staying fit. Did you get the wrong flyer?”

“Really? Oh, I’m sorry. I have too many flyers in my hand, so I gave you the wrong one.”

The man flipped through the vast number of flyers in his hand as if he was looking for the flyer for Chenxing Esports Club.

Qin Guan gave him a flat stare. The man truly had a lot of flyers, and among them were some for swimming, some for restaurant openings, some for building openings, and even a few for high-class clubs…

Qin Guan had to admit that he actually wanted to read them…

He was a little perplexed though. “Sir, you have so many flyers. Which company do you work for?”

The man laughed. “My main job is a concierge for Chenxing Esports Club, and my side job is a flyer distributor. I do this to earn some extra money. Oh well, since you’ve come for Chenxing Esports Club, I won’t give you any flyers. Go on in.

“By the way, the person on duty as concierge right now is Young Zhang, just tell him that Mister Ke sent you!”

“… Is your name so useful?”

‘You’re rather suited for the job, but the problem is, your surname is not Qin [1]!’

Qin Guan walked inside and turned his head around to look at Mister Ke. He sighed when he saw that the man had to distribute flyers despite the scorching sun.

‘He has to do such a thing even when he’s at such an age. Life is so harsh on him… Hang on a second, didn’t he say that he’s a concierge? He’s working two jobs at once? Does he distribute flyers in the morning and watch over the club at night?

‘His life is simply too difficult! If I have a chance, I’ll try to give him some money to help relieve some of his burden when my salary is given to me…’

While Qin Guan thought about this, he saw an employee of the club run toward him. “Mister Ke, I was just looking for you. I have some personal matters to attend to, but my car is under driving restriction today [2]. May I use your car for the time being?”

Mister Ke fished out his car keys from his pocket. “Sure, take it and use it. Just don’t run into any accidents with my car.”

“Alright, thanks!” The employee took the car keys and ran to the underground garage.

Qin Guan was speechless.

‘And here I was thinking that he has a harsh life, but the one who has a harsh life is me! He already has a house and a car…’

Qin Guan was very shocked…

While he walked inside, he observed the place. The building of the club very stylish decorations, making it obvious that it did not lack money.

There were plenty of games in different genres in the market, and since there was still no game that held the title of Game of Games, the large clubs had a lot of divisions.

Each division had a large number of players, coaches, leaders, and logistics officers. There were also studios and guilds that trained characters in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) before they sold them to others. If the building was small, it would definitely be unable to accomodate so many people.

Now, the clubs had basically turned into places for Transcended Gamers to stay. The gaming divisions had all been dissolved.

Of course, most of the professional gamers had turned into Transcended Gamers. Since they still felt connected to the clubs, they stayed in them and became their core members.

Once Qin Guan walked into the building, a middle-aged man dressed in a suit led him to the reception room in a very hospitable manner.

“Hello, my surname is Liu, and I am one of the leaders of Chenxing Esports Club. We spoke through the phone earlier, but I will still need to verify your status as a Transcended Gamer. May I request for proof?”

Leader Liu’s attitude was quite nice, so Qin Guan switched into the useless person for him to take a look.

“Oh, it’s another useless person, huh? Oh, well.” Leader Liu hesitated for a moment before he asked, “When did you switch into the useless person, and how long is your CD (Cooldown)?”

“Huh? CD?”

Qin Guan had a flabbergasted expression. ‘As expected of a leader of an esports club, I guess? When he speaks, his speech is chock full of gaming terms. But there’s a problem, what’s with that “Oh, well” just now? Are you looking down on the useless people?’

Leader Liu looked a little bit embarrassed. “Please do not mind me. Recently, many Transcended Gamers have come to join our club, and most of them use the useless person character. But this is where things turn strange. These people’s attributes are simply too bad, and few of them can pass our tests.

“Once I noticed this, I asked them about what happened, and I learned that all of them had imitated the pro ranked at first place and changed their characters. But in the end, they became such noobs that the results are just tragic…

“So forgive me for speaking out of turn, but I would like to know when you changed to this character. Can you still clear Medium Mode now?”

‘Okay, so I ended up duping these people, huh?’

Qin Guan coughed a little to mask his guilt. “Um, I started the game using the useless person character, so I never changed. I don’t quite know on what areas you’ll be testing me, but I think I shouldn’t have too much problems with it.”

Leader Liu was a little puzzled over Qin Guan’s reaction, but he still nodded. “Alright. Then please come with me.”

Qin Guan walked deeper into the building with Leader Liu. They soon arrived in an indoor arena.

It was very huge, but Qin Guan could vaguely tell that this place had been recently renovated into an indoor arena. He could not tell, however, what purpose it had previously served.

There were quite a lot of people in the indoor arena. Transcended Gamers fought against each other in pairs of twos and threes. There were some even practicing their sword-fighting skills with wooden swords.

Qin Guan looked around. He did not find any special monitors.

“Where will I receive my test?” Qin Guan asked. 𝒇𝔯e𝚎𝘄𝑒𝑏𝙣𝑜𝚟𝗲𝑙.c𝘰𝚖

“Over there.” Leader Liu summoned a strong man who was nearly 6.2 feet tall to their side. “Little Li, come over here.”

Qin Guan had an unamused look on his face. ‘This “Little” Li is not little at all, you know…’

Leader Liu introduced him. “This is Li Junwei. He is a member of our official combat force. In a moment, you two will fight each other with wooden swords. Last for five minutes, and you pass.”

Qin Guan felt that the rules were not very clear. “Are you asking him to last for five minutes, or am I supposed to be the one lasting for five minutes?”

Li Junwei laughed, “Bro, you’re a funny one. Come, catch.”

Qin Guan reached out and caught the wooden sword Li Junwei had tossed to him. He found that the wooden sword was basically the same length as the weapons in the trial, making it clear that the Transcended Gamers usually switched to using these wooden swords when they sparred against each other because they were worried that something would happen to the weapons they obtained from their trials.

Qin Guan looked at the wooden sword in his hands. “Do you have something shorter?”

Li Junwei did not quite understand what Qin Guan meant. “Shorter? No. These are all made with uniform specifications.”

“Oh, okay then.” Qin Guan asked, “These wooden swords don’t cost much, right? I don’t need to compensate if I break it, right?”

Li Junwei laughed, “No. There are plenty of wooden swords around.”

“Alright. Now I’m not worried any longer.”

Qin Guan switched to the useless person character and rammed the wooden sword against his knee. A sharp crack was heard, and the wooden sword was broken…

Li Junwei was a little taken aback. ‘What does he mean by doing this? Is he testing his strength before we fight? Or is he trying to put on a demonstration of power?’

Qin Guan waved his hand a little. He felt that the length of the broken length in his sword was about the same as his fruit knife.

“I’m ready. Let’s begin.”

Note:

[1]The joke is that if the man’s job (concierge) allows him to do whatever he wants, then he might as well be an emperor, since then he’ll have even more room to do whatever he wants. (The Qin mentioned by Qin Guan is Emperor Qin Shi Huang who was known as a tyrant that didn’t have to think twice about any of his actions since the whole court feared him.)

[2] Driving restriction: transportation demand management regulation aimed to reduce traffic by restricting automobile travel through means such as restriction of cars that could enter common road space based upon the last digits of the license number on certain established days during certain periods in Beijing.