Chapter Eleven: Where Are You Headed?
[Outsider, I heard this game uses Tianhai City as a template. Is life in your place really that exciting?]
[Is it possible that the world is the same everywhere, and the age of spiritual energy has already arrived, but you just don’t know it yet.]
[Be glad that your city’s leader took the trouble to turn the inside story into a game and tell you all about it. We have no idea what’s going on here; when there’s an explosion, they just say it’s due to old gas pipes.]
[She seems pretty nice though.]
Then the topic shifted to Yuan Xiaoling.
[I heard your leader is an ultra-cute girl. Are the main character APC in the game and the blonde-haired buxom maiden given for first recharge modeled after her?]
[It’s true, absolutely true. But let me correct you: the first recharge gives you one ascension level, while the character herself is free after signing in for three days. Besides, she can also be drawn from this period’s limited gacha pool.]
Yes, initially, it was planned to put her in the limited pool so players could either grind or spend real money to get her—a limited UP. But Yuan Xiaoling reconsidered: what if someone spent 180 pulls without getting her and couldn’t accept it, then later came back to kill her?
So she changed it to giving one for free upon sign-in and another with the first recharge, just like Lexington used to do. Don’t ask why—let’s just say it’s good karma.
[Is it really that good-looking?]
[Although the art style is slightly different, I must say the real person looks even better than the game character.]
[Impossible, I don’t believe it. You’re probably paid to say that.]
[Let’s bet 100,000 credits! I’m Ru Feng, captain of Tianhai Mobile Unit One, willing to bet under my real name online. Come on, or shut up if you dare not!]
Uh, my subordinates are indeed impetuous youths.
Yuan Xiaoling recalled that this Mobile Unit One seemed to be the group that came to support during the Dongdong Road incident. The squad leader must have been quite impressed when he saw her at the time.
After browsing some of these gossip comments, Yuan Xiaoling switched to another gaming forum and finally found feedback on the game itself.
[The production quality is indeed meticulous, feels like a lot of budget was poured in, but the stats are terrible. I just want to ask, why is the gap between three-star and four-star characters so huge? The balance is completely off.]
There weren’t many replies to the comment, but it had a high number of likes because most of the responses were in agreement, without any arguments.
[Yeah, yeah, the balance is terrible.]
[A single four-star character can take down over ten three-stars. I wonder how the developers calculated that.]
[While the blonde-haired buxom maiden is great, her stats being this powerful makes me think the developer lost their mind while filling out numbers.]
Sigh, there are indeed such doubts.
Yuan Xiaoling hesitated for a moment, logged into the official account, and replied below:
[Heart’s Sea (V): Because a battle-type fourth-tier is capable of taking down more than ten third-tiers, with clear combat records.]
Then she continued scrolling down and saw another issue raised: [After claiming the first recharge character ‘Water Dragon Lord Lemon,’ I still can’t beat the boss fight in Xiangshan. What should I do?]
[Heart’s Sea (V): It’s normal. When I first hit fourth-tier, I couldn’t beat Xiong Mian and his thirty-plus third-tier subordinates. After you claim the sign-in bonus later, you’ll be able to defeat him.]
Ascension level 1 increases the “True Dragon Manifestation” stats and damage, Ascension level 2 adds +3 to the maximum number of water constructs, levels 3 and 5 increase skill ranks, level 4 unlocks a special jellyfish water construct, and level 6 adds a water cannon attack skill.
[What does “to be continued” after Ascension level 6 mean?]
[Heart’s Sea (V): Once I break through again, new ascension levels will be added.]
Within minutes, everyone who was following the discussion learned about this. Those who weren’t paying attention also found out through screenshots forwarded by friends.
In an instant, Yuan Xiaoling’s backend was flooded with countless @mentions—
[Holy cow, it’s the blonde-haired buxom maiden herself!!]
[Hahahahahaha.]
[Did she… come?]
[Did you kill the ability guild member? Isn’t that against heaven’s harmony…]
[Wife wife wife wife wife wife wife]
[Are you there, sis? Let’s exchange V coins.]
Snap, the forum crashed.
Of course, besides these large forums, there were smaller internal ones that didn’t collapse under the sudden surge of traffic.
For example, the circle of spiritual energy manipulators in Tianhai City, where people either had a group chat or a friend circle.
There was a super-clear picture of Yuan Xiaoling in her cheerleader outfit from the gymnasium incident placed in the group.
[Who would’ve thought that the Water Goddess reigning over Tianhai City is just a girl in her third year of university.]
Her identity, within the spiritual energy manipulator community in Tianhai City, wasn’t exactly common knowledge, but at least everyone had heard of her.
If you’re in Tianhai City, an ability user, and you don’t know Yuan Xiaoling, it means you have terrible social skills.
[So the question is, where do we go to join her?]
[On Lihai Road in the west district, there’s a Grand Hotel. Look for places where there are fewer ordinary pedestrians and where ability users act as guards.]
[Thank you, big bro. By the way, do you have an invite code… sorry, invitation letter?]
[I don’t have one, but previously, that captain of the Mobile Unit posted online. If you help him argue with netizens and then ask him for an introduction, it might work.]
…………
Yuan Xiaoling realized that the few casual replies she made caused quite a stir online.
After the forum server was repaired, even though she had handed the official account back to operations, they complained that the backend was still full of frenzied private messages.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do,” Yuan Xiaoling muttered to herself, “That’s just how operations and customer service work.”
Might as well pay them more.
Switching to her personal account, she continued browsing. Sure enough, after her “realistic” explanation, no one discussed the balance anymore.
Hmm, all they did was go crazy over her instead.
“Wow, now there are so many new catchphrases.” Yuan Xiaoling flipped through them with interest and eventually stopped at a post.
A rare serious post with lots of likes.
[Just finished the main storyline and verified many in-game details. According to the Water Dragon Lord himself, the game reflects much information about real-life ability users.
For instance, one fourth-tier is at least equal to over ten third-tiers, and since no one has refuted it so far, it’s temporarily considered credible.
More importantly, from the plot outline, we can understand the trajectory of events that happened back then.
Initially, the Water Dragon Lord was not a match for the Guild. When she first reached fourth-tier, she didn’t win against Xiong Mian, until later…]
In the analysis within the post, Yuan Xiaoling’s battle against the Guild unfolded slowly, enriching her image in the players’ hearts… although she was already pretty curvaceous.
A blonde-haired buxom maiden leading the scraps of Tianhai City to fight against a Guild that covered the sky. Though weak at first and repeatedly defeated, she gradually grew stronger and ultimately overturned the evil Guild power.
It’s incredibly inspiring and vivid.
Before this, ability users were somewhat mysterious to the public, especially high-tier ones. Seeing a third-tier ability user was already difficult, and fourth-tiers only existed in rumors.
The last fourth-tier they witnessed was He Shiyong. Although he was a tragic hero forced into his situation, burning himself alive in a building was still pretty terrifying.
Now this “Water Dragon Lord” is completely different, with the appearance of a blonde-haired buxom maiden, interacting with people online, and available to draw as a character in the game—so approachable.
The only problem is that if you idle too long, the character calls you lazy. If you lose in battle, it curses you as a minnow.
Emmmmmm… maybe that’s actually better for some people.
Before evening, Yuan Xiaoling received a congratulatory call from Wu Bian.
“It’s blowing up! Blowing up! Miss Yuan! Blowing up!”
“The number of concurrent online players and active players has skyrocketed, and revenue is very high. Today’s income in the first eight hours of launch is already…”
After reporting the visible earnings, Wu Bian mentioned other gains: “Also, starting from noon today, ability users have been coming to the Grand Hotel to join us. We’ve assigned them to reserves for now and will redistribute them later. In a while, our team will definitely expand.”
All the expected effects were achieved. Everyone in the hotel was celebrating, and even Yuan Xiaoling at Tianhai University could hear the sound of champagne being popped through the phone.
“Oh, where’s Bai Ling?” Ningning suddenly remembered, “Wasn’t she with you today?”
“Yes, Miss Bai came to inquire about the data situation and said she’d visit you at school later.”
…………
At that moment, in the Grand Hotel, Bai Ling sat on a chair, her slender legs crossed delicately.
She could hear the cheers downstairs, but joy and sorrow are not shared among people; she didn’t understand those otaku games.
Currently, there was a headache-inducing issue.
“Still no news?”
“No, we’ve managed to find seven or eight others.” Xiao Su said.
Xiao Su was the office staff Bai Ling had commissioned from the municipal government to help locate the family information of those individuals, but until now, there was no trace.
“They’ve protected their privacy too well,” Xiao Su said helplessly, “Even the confidential records vary, meaning they definitely concealed themselves without following our initial advice.”
Bai Ling closed her eyes, imagining a scene:
A man dragging his luggage, preparing to leave his wife and children, stood at the door and told his wife: “The leader said, in our line of work, retaliation is inevitable, so we must protect our family information, just like spies in movies. So follow the leader’s arrangement to hide for now, but if I go missing for over a week, immediately hide.”
In modern society, hiding one’s identity may seem hard, but if money and supplies aren’t an issue, it’s still possible, especially since Sifang Academy had prepared many fake identities for them beforehand.
The more important people they were, the more likely they would be hidden. Therefore, those who could serve as Wu Bian were concealed, whereas those families who could be found didn’t value them enough to be Wu Bian.
Bai Ling understood this logic and couldn’t help but press her temples.
“Understood. You can go home now. Contact me if needed.”
After Xiao Su left, she glanced at the sky outside the window. It was getting late, time to return to the school and find Yuan Xiaoling. Perhaps Ningning’s clever little head could help her come up with a solution.
Speaking of which, she heard Ningning made a big splash online today. She wondered what happened.
Bai Ling picked up her mobile phone, logged in online, and saw:
[Water Dragon Lord is my wife! I love you so much!]
[Ahhhhhhhhh wife wife wife!]
[I’m Miss Water Dragon Lord’s dog, woof woof woof woof woof woof!]
Bai Ling furrowed her eyebrows slightly, placing her delicate fingers on the screen and started typing.
[Ling: Stop dreaming, you bunch of immature kids. She’s my wife, not yours.]
Not long after sending it, her phone buzzed continuously. Upon checking, it was filled with comments and replies.
[Guy, that’s uncalled for.]
[You’re fantasizing too, huh? Who do you think you’re looking down on?]
[Mine mine mine, I’ll say it loud and dream it loud. What can you do about it?]
“…!”
Angry, she threw her phone and stormed downstairs.
In the hall, the crowd celebrating with champagne heard a series of hurried footsteps. Looking up, they saw the white-haired maiden storming down the stairs in a huff.
“Bai, Miss Bai,” Wu Bian bravely asked, “Where are you headed?”
“Yuan Xiaoling!”
