Chapter 78 Returning What Was Lost

Although Canmeng Si had been forcibly disconnected, he still held onto a sliver of hope.

While the official line stressed the potential losses from forced disconnections, rumors circulated that these losses mainly stemmed from data rollbacks, similar to forgetting to save in a single-player game. Upon reloading, the game would naturally revert to the previous state.

At first glance, it seemed like a reasonable explanation, but if it were that simple, it would be a major game exploit. In Canmeng Si's situation, if the game simply reloaded the data from his last login after a forced disconnection, wouldn't his equipment and level return intact? Could he then transfer the equipment to someone else, force another disconnection, and then reload to duplicate the equipment?

Many people had considered this, but such incidents had never occurred. So far, the occasional flaws in Parallel World were due to unforeseen issues arising from the first use of holographic simulation technology. Exploits like this, common in normal games, were rare.

Nevertheless, this remained Canmeng Si's last hope. After a long wait offline, filled with anxiety, Canmeng Si logged back into the game…

Forced disconnection was indeed not a simple save/load exploit.

Simply put, Parallel World's servers had too many users to manage individually. Unified planning and management were not just more effective, but essential. When a user was forcibly disconnected, the system saved their data, but, as the official statement said, "there might be oversights."

"Oversights" meant that your data was recorded incompletely.

"Incompletely" meant not more, not wrong, just incomplete. Players would only lose things: experience, items, anything that could be lost. It was impossible to gain inexplicable equipment or have their level mistakenly recorded as higher.

Therefore, what Canmeng Si hoped for was impossible. When he re-entered the game after a short delay, his level and equipment were as they were when he logged off. The rollback was just a faint hope; its absence didn't disappoint him too much. He was more surprised that his level hadn't dropped further. He had assumed that even if the system hadn't caused him any losses due to the forced disconnection, Gu Fei, Jian Gui, and the others were right next to him and would have killed him, costing him at least two levels!

Canmeng Si was drawing on his experience from previous games, where characters would remain in the game for a short period after a forced disconnection, vulnerable to attack. He hadn't expected Parallel World to be so quick; the disconnection happened instantly. It was indeed a game that never lagged, as promised.

Canmeng Si checked his level, experience, equipment, and skill proficiency, finding nothing missing. Relieved, he then reached into his pocket, his expression suddenly changing. He pulled out his money bag, opened it, and counted…

"Fucking hell!" Data loss had occurred after all. Canmeng Si's wallet was short by one digit. Enraged, he kicked out, only to have his foot caught in a trap with a "snap."

"Those bastards!" Canmeng Si roared, "They left traps even after leaving! Die, all of you!!"

This was actually a misunderstanding. In Parallel World, traps only had an effective duration after being triggered. Before that, they could remain in place indefinitely. The owner could dismantle their own traps at any time, while others needed specific skills. If a trap wasn't triggered, the owner had to dismantle it themselves, otherwise they couldn't set another one, as everyone could only set one trap at a time.

The trap Canmeng Si triggered was simply one that had been carelessly left behind.

Before he logged in, Bai Ye Ruo Yu had been puzzled by his inability to set a trap, while his teammates chuckled. They had each set a trap, and when Canmeng Si triggered one, someone naturally didn't need to dismantle theirs. So, his friends had tricked Bai Ye Ruo Yu into believing his trap was the one that was sprung. Infiltrators loved deceiving each other like this, their greatest joy being to see a teammate throw a trap eight kilometers away and then have to return in a panic to dismantle it. Bai Ye Ruo Yu was the most amusing of them all, often taking a long time to realize what had happened without a reminder. His nickname, "Little White," was well-deserved.

He was about to report it as a bug to the online GM when Canmeng Si suddenly logged in and triggered the trap, causing Bai Ye Ruo Yu to be immensely grateful, in stark contrast to Canmeng Si's curses.

From his bounty mission, Canmeng Si knew that Gu Fei had logged off. Canmeng Si wasn't even dreaming of getting his Chang Zhu Duan Tan back anymore; he was just thinking about how to avoid Gu Fei. Seeing that Gu Fei wasn't around, he quickly contacted his studio brothers to help him clear his PK value from the bounty mission. Canmeng Si was now naked and level 36, with virtually no combat power. His brothers were shocked by his sorry state, offering words of comfort to the dejected Canmeng Si.

"We'll find a chance to get back at him!" everyone declared. Studio members were different; they were more united and disciplined than guilds, and more skilled than regular players. They were professional gamers. Gu Fei had indeed demonstrated great strength, but he hadn't intimidated them.

However, when the group went to the bounty mission office, they discovered that Canmeng Si couldn't clear his PK value with a bounty on his head. Canmeng Si was still somewhat dazed and hadn't remembered this. He was wondering how to deal with the Chang Zhu Duan Tan situation. Should he confess and seek leniency? Canmeng Si wasn't one to give up until the last moment, so he shelved the matter for now, clinging to a final glimmer of hope. He went to jail to clear his PK value.

As a result, he didn't see any news about it on the forums that day.

Indeed, showing off a dropped item to familiar friends was one thing, but boasting about it to everyone on the forums wasn't Gu Fei's style.

Gu Fei's style was different. Just as he had helped Jian Gui reclaim the Frost Memories from Xi Xiao Tian, Gu Fei was now thinking that such a superb item should be returned to its owner.

At the Little Thunder Tavern, the assembled experts were astonished to hear of Gu Fei's intentions. The spirit of returning lost property was usually tied to its value. Someone who virtuously returned ten yuan might need to deeply consider their attitude if they found a million.

The same was true in games. Returning a couple of random belts was one thing, but for a super rare item like the Chang Zhu Duan Tan, people would turn against their friends. How much more so for Gu Fei, who had no connection to the original owner? The main issue was that this wasn't even returning lost property. In the eyes of the experts, this was a reward from PK, clear labor income! Even the virtuous Jian Gui thought so. This was the prevailing value system of online games, and Gu Fei's idea seemed absurd to them.

"Who knows who it belongs to? Are you going to ask Canmeng Si?" You Ge said.

"That's a possibility…" Gu Fei nodded.

You Ge paused, then said, "What if it really belongs to that Canmeng Si guy?"

You Ge thought this question would give Gu Fei pause, but Gu Fei's level of ideological awareness was clearly more mature than You Ge had imagined. Without hesitation, he replied, "Then, of course, I'll confiscate it."

Everyone was silent. While they might feel Gu Fei was being too pedantic as online gamers, from a moral standpoint, they had to admit that what he was doing was very harmonious and correct. No one dared to try to dissuade him.

"Then go ask Canmeng Si! See if he'll tell you," You Ge said.

"That's difficult. He's already cleared his PK value today. If he was easy to find, he would have been chased to the ends of the earth by all the players in the city!" Gu Fei said.

Back when he had discovered Canmeng Si's name, You Ge had promoted it on the forums. At that time, everyone posting was righteously indignant and vowed to hunt him down for life.

The activities of Canmeng Si and his group had slowed down for a while because of this, but ultimately, no one could hunt him down. Although the main city in the game wasn't as vast as a real-world city, it still had hundreds of thousands of residents. Finding one player among them was extremely difficult. A name alone was useless, without a photo or home address. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so the hunt gradually died down. Canmeng Si continued to live a comfortable life, and like the majority at the forefront, he was also level 40 when he faced Gu Fei.

"Let You Ge post something. The owner will contact you if they see it," Yu Tian Shen Ming suggested.

"That way, a lot of 'owners' will appear," Han Jia Gongzi said.

"Let them describe the item's stats! Who but the owner would know?" Yu Tian Shen Ming said.

"We know, Canmeng Si and his group know… Young man, you haven't seen enough of the world, you're not experienced enough!" Han Jia Gongzi mocked Yu Tian Shen Ming.

"Or are you saying that Qian Li is planning to do this, and then you'll find someone to pose as the owner and get the Chang Zhu Duan Tan?" Han Jia Gongzi asked.

"That's too despicable and shameless!" everyone exclaimed.

"He said it, I didn't think of it!" Yu Tian Shen Ming pointed at Han Jia Gongzi.

"We know." Gu Fei patted Yu Tian Shen Ming's head. "Only he could think of such a method so quickly."

"May God protect this sinful fellow from going to hell after death," Zhan Wu Shang piously prayed for Han Jia Gongzi.

"Tch, I was just reminding him that finding the owner is very difficult. Why not just take it and exchange it for some good liquor?" Han Jia Gongzi disdainfully said.

"I'll think of a way myself!" Gu Fei stood up.

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It's been a long time since I updated at noon, ha ha ha～～～

Also: Those of you who are considering what to do with the Chang Zhu Duan Tan, your hearts are not upright enough. Quickly repent with all your heart. The most effective way is to fiercely smash Hu Die with votes.