Zhan Long

The next day, at 11am, there was still an entire hour before ‘Destiny’ officially opened. I ate a boxed lunch early and sat there in the bedroom with glasses boy just waiting for time to pass. What’s more, I managed to squeeze out all the details from glasses boy. Apparently this guy is an online site operator who opened several black market stores and earned upwards of 10000RMB a month. He paid 3000000RMB to study here in Liu Hua University, reason being he wanted to become educated and talented. No matter how I look at it though, this guys seems to want to just play here for four years and rot to death after graduating like me.

On the desk, there was a Destiny magazine that was distributed, which included a lot of information about the game. I took a quick look, but nothing really stood out. However, the game had one master designer, four executive designers and an additional 150 other designers. One of the executive designers looked extremely familiar – it was Lin Cheng!

Body trembling a little, I sat there dazed. Don’t tell me it’s that old geezer?

I quickly pulled a chair out and opened Tang Gu’s computer. “Hey glasses boy, let me use your computer for a while.” I said.

“Ah, what’s wrong?” Glasses boy got shocked and said: “I’ll let you, don’t be so sudden next time though. What’s wrong with you, Li Xiao Yao?”

I opened a browser and quickly searched the web using the keywords ‘Destiny’ and ‘Lin Cheng’. As expected, the information appeared. Lin Cheng was the main designer of Destiny. There was also a picture of him with that always-smiling face. I laughed in disbelief – it really was that stupid old geezer!

Glasses boy looked at me, surprised. He said: “Oh, what’s up? This Lin Cheng, you know him?”

I nodded my head but didn’t say anything. How could I not know this guy? From 14 to 19 years old, I was always by his side, constantly practicing and training my body. Who knew this geezer would run off to game design and design this super popular game?

Knitting my eyebrows, I said: “Glasses, this Destiny is obviously a game right? Why did they choose this old man to be part of the main design team? I really don’t understand…”

Glasses boy smiled: “Obviously you won’t understand, Destiny was announced really early on, and it’s major selling point is that it invited all the big names in each profession to join the design team. For example, the world’s best blacksmith, the world’s best archer, even a herbalist and a martial artist were invited. This game could be considered the closest to reality ever. The mental aspect like attitude and spirit all took a major step forward, and additionally, you can create your own skills and styles. Whatever it is, this game is heaven for game addicts.

“Create your own skills and styles…” I muttered. “So it’s like this, huh?”

“Why, have you seen a ghost?” Glasses boy hit me.

I shook my head while smiling, saying: “I’m fine, let’s prepare to enter Destiny.”

“Mm, wait till I get higher leveled, I’ll carry you!”

“Carry your dad, just focus on not getting clobbered by monsters. The information says the monsters are extremely ferocious, if you die once you’ll lose a level. Be careful!”

“I know already, I was ranked 7000+ in Conquer, and I’m considered a pro. How could I mess up Destiny?”

“Stop gloating already.”

My lips curled into a smile as I thought of what Dong Cheng Yue said. She was ranked 79th in Conquer. She definitely is a top tier player. What’s more, apparently Lin Wan Er was ranked even higher than that. These people really invested a lot of money into game. One by one they all become so ferocious.

At 11.50am, I put my helmet on. It scanned my iris, confirming my identity. As expected, it could not find any information on my previous account, so I had to create a new account and choose a class. However, at the moment there was only a timer counting down to the launch of Destiny. There was nothing I could do for now.

I waited impatiently as the 10 minutes slowly trickled by. Apparently glasses boy says that the very first person to enter the game will get a prize. I won’t bother since I’ll definitely make my character look handsome, and then I can achieve my life-long goal – finding a girlfriend.

“3!”

“2!”

“1!”

Finally, as I counted down, Destiny launched. A scene of a desolate temple and ruins appeared in front my eyes. The camera panned in the sky, and a big Sun shined viciously down upon me. At the foot of the mountains, there was a battlefield. The neighs of the war horses could be heard. There were thousands of arrows whizzing past, and in the background was a gigantic tree that grew into the sky, beyond human vision. Below the tree, calvalry rushed forward and bodies were slaughtered. One by one the barbarians holding battle axes let out a savage roar, their teeth horribly disordered.

On the mountain top, a beautiful young woman sat there, body fully plated with armor. She looked at the entire battle field with her beautiful eyes and suddenly stood up. Her pair of heavenly legs slightly bent. Teng The sound of her springing into the air could be heard. As she flew down the mountain top, her arm pressing onto an umbrella. Swish the blood-red umbrella sprang open, stopping her fall. She unsheathed her blade and slashed.

Bang

Her blade shone as she charged at a group of barbarians and she turned them into a pile of meat. She smiled confidently and with a swing of her sword, the battlefield around her combusted into flames, rapidly killing everything.

Roar!

In the midst of the roar, a huge body towered over her, casting a shadow down on her. That was a special barbarian who had a golden axe. It was a legendary-level barbarian hero. The axe was covered in flames and it swung down at her.

The girl’s reaction was extremely quick, stepping backwards to avoid it. At the same time, she reached for the blood-red umbrella on her back and quickly opened it. It sprang open with a swish and turned into a defensive shield. Bang, a bullet was fired from the umbrella and it shocked the barbarian with electricity. The axe still hit the umbrella and the loud clang sound was imprinted into the girl’s heart.

She widened her pretty eyes and her pupils had flames dancing in them. With one flash of her dagger, she left a wide cut on the barbarian’s neck. Violently, she killed the barbarian. She then proudly soared up towards the World Tree.

The scene suddenly shrank, supposedly this was a opening cutscene. The entire Destiny map was shown on the screen. At the south side was the human population and their seven main cities. In the middle the Bu Gui Ocean1 was occupied by the Sea Nymphs. The North was fully uncharted, and icons of monsters like dragons, undead and barbarians were displayed. After that the the sky was filled with a giant word – Destiny. This game’s art was truly breath-taking!

After that, a menu appeared and the system notice said: Please pick your race!

5 races appeared before my eyes, being the Human race, Undead race, Moon Spirit race, Barbarian race and the elf race. As I looked through each one of them, I realised: The undead looked too undesirable, which conflicted with my goal of creating a super handsome character. The moon spirits looked really tempting, but it was limited to girls only, because the race’s name was moon spirit girl. The barbarians were too crude. The wind elves had wings they could use to fly, but they were too squishy and died easily. As a result, I chose the human race in the end. The human race is good because it looked identical to real life people.

I confirmed my selection of the human race, after which the system showed an image of a male who slowly morphed to match my features. He was wearing simple villager clothing and held a wooden sword. To be honest, he looked pretty handsome already so I didn’t customize the character look at all. After that, the system notice changed, saying: Please select your class!

There’s not much to talk about here, the class I wanted to be the most was the healer. To each his own, the healer provided healing, which could be said to be our youth generation’s most important aspect!

I smiled lightly, but when I thought about how I was going to train my healing and levels, I felt I was too near-sighted…

Oh well. I confirmed the selection of the healer class, and before me stood a character in cloth , about 1.8m tall. I fit the ‘tall, handsome and wealthy’2 branding.

The system notice changed once again, now saying: Please enter your name!

I thought of this long ago.

A panel appeared in front of me with a text box in it, indicating for me to type in my name –

Diao Chan of the Three Kingdoms3

Ding

System Notice: The name you selected is already in use!

I clenched my fists tightly, saying: “What in the world, such a weird name and it’s already taken!”

It’s fine, I thought of a backup name just in case something like this happened. This time, I typed the letters in –

Miss, Please Stop4

Ding

System Notice: The name you selected is already in use!

Again a system notice, my heart almost shattered into pieces, this is too hard, all the names I want are taken! Continuing on, I typed yet another name. This time, I made it less cool-sounding, hopefully it’s not taken already.

Brother Xiao Yao Takes on the World5

System Notice: The name you selected is already in use!

“What the?”

I almost coughed up blood. I gritted my teeth, focused my will and decided to use a name I’ve used for a long time but eventually decided to abandon –

Xiao Yao Zi Zai6

Ding

System Notice: The name you selected is not in use, do you want to use this name?

Oh, finally. I managed to select a name, who cares about anything else?

After selecting the ‘confirm’ button, a character was created, just like that. System Notice: Do you want to enter the game world immediately?

After selecting ‘yes’, shua a flash of light blinded me as I entered Destiny. Flashing lights whizzed past me, and before long I finally got put on a simple and slightly broken platform. Looking around, I saw several broken pillars. There were also confused noobs around me. System Notice: You’ve been assigned to the 19th Beginner Village, [Straw Dog Village].

Straw Dog Village, what a good name!

Standing on the platform, I didn’t rush to exit this place. Beside me, tons of people drew their swords and charged into the plains surrounding the village. Mm, it seems they really wanted to grind their levels.

Reciting the words ‘Player Information’, there was a screen full of information that was brought up in front of me. Indeed, it was the player stats.

Xiao Yao Zi Zai (Novice Healer)

Level: 1

Attack: 1-1

Defence: 2

Health Points: 100

Magic Points: 50

Charm: 0

What great attacking power, 1-1. Can I even defeat a chicken? Seriously…

In my hand was a old broken wood staff. I glanced at it. Mm, it seems the 1-1 attack power was because of this lousy weapon. Walking out, I decided not to rush out and grab some mob kills. After, I don’t think I’ll be able to snag any. Being a healer, I must gathers lots of information. I won’t stick with the group of noobs outside and try to kill grass dogs.

Walking to the blacksmith, a tall and bulky guy greeted me. He smiled and said: “Boy, do you want to buy weapons?”

I nodded my head, and quickly started to browse through the selection. There was metal sword that only required level 1 to equip and it had attack power 1-3. However, it costed 15 copper coins and I only had 10 in my wallet. Damn it!

After thinking about it for a while, I decided. I took out my old wooden staff and sold it for 7 coppers. I had 17 coppers now and I happily bought the sword. It wasn’t a high class sword, and the requirement and stats weren’t that high either. Whatever, I’m a healer, some times I need to rely on my knife when I’m doing an operation, and some times I need to rely on it to eat7. It’s attacking power was good enough.

Sword in hand, I walked on.

不归海, directly translating means ‘Ocean of No Return’. Which do you prefer?

高帅富, it’s a term used to refer to the ideal boyfriend in the current Chinese society. http://www.chinasmack.com/glossary#高富帅 for reference.

三英战貂蝉 not sure about exact translation, but it’s supposed to be Diao Chan.

姑娘请留步, which is supposed to mean please stop and chat for a while, lady.

逍遥哥哥战江湖 ridiculous to translate, I have no idea what 战江湖 means. Direct translate means ‘Brother Xiao Yao Fighting the Lakes and Rivers’ but it’s obviously not supposed to be translated directly. 战江湖 is a game in China that’s very popular, so I think it’s supposed to mean something like enters the game or starts the game, something like that. Again, please inform me if you know what it means.

It’s a pun on the chinese word 刀, because it can mean the scalpel that surgeons use, as well as a sword. (Basically what it means is Xiao Yao is justifying his buy by saying that as a healer, when he ‘operates’ on people he uses the 刀, and when he’s trying to earn money by killing mobs he’s also using the 刀.