San Tian Liang Jiao
Chapter 349 Peak Tournament
On April 20th, An Yueqin came to his door. There were still twenty-five full days until Feng Bujue's next deadline, so there was plenty of time.
However, Jue-Ge had a habit of procrastinating when it came to writing. Except for the occasional flash of inspiration, his attitude toward deadlines was like that of an elementary school student toward summer vacation homework: in July, he'd think, the vacation has just started, I'll write it in August; when August arrived, he'd think, there's still a month left, I'll write it in the middle of the month; in the middle of the month, he'd decide to leave it until the end of the month; and when the end of the month came, he'd count the days in his head, there are still five days, no rush, there are still three days, no rush, no rush... This would develop to the point where, usually on the night before school started, he'd enter a desperate mode and rush to finish the homework overnight.
Of course, Feng Bujue had hardly ever encountered this situation when he was in elementary school. Because in the third grade, he discovered that the so-called "winter and summer vacation homework" was all just dogshit that wasted youth.
The teachers were very enthusiastic when assigning homework, but when it came to grading it, they either didn't bother to look at it at all, or they'd have a few lackeys (class officers) check the completion status for them. After all, there were dozens of people in a class, and if they were to seriously grade the huge pile of stuff that everyone turned in, they wouldn't be finished grading even by Teacher's Day.
So, this thing became a twice-yearly routine, where one side wasted their youth and the other side went through the motions.
To put it bluntly, vacation homework was just meaningless garbage that the school created to show that it was responsible. Academic masters didn't need to rely on this garbage to consolidate their knowledge, and people who didn't like to study were even less likely to improve with this garbage. This pile of garbage was like a big bubble rising from the surface of the cesspool that was exam-oriented education, and it was still making its presence known.
And what was even more disgusting was that some teachers who were full of themselves would add their own homework on top of the vacation homework issued by the school. This behavior only conveyed two pieces of information: first, this person's life was very unsatisfactory; second, this person lacked an outlet for venting.
After Feng Bujue saw through all this bullshit, he also began to deal with the homework in a perfunctory manner, and he insisted on interspersing such content in every year's winter and summer vacation homework: "Clearly, you won't be grading anyone in our class's vacation homework this year either, you're just forcing us to waste precious time and ballpoint pen ink.
"These printed materials, which are as good as waste paper from the moment they're bound into a booklet, make me feel annoyed and pathetic.
"According to the results I obtained after reconnaissance, you either don't look at it at all, or you just take a cursory look to see if we've filled this boring booklet. Since that's the case, I'll just fill it in casually; when I see a math problem, I'll fill in 250, when I see an English problem, I'll write 'youarefool' or something like that, and when I see a Chinese problem, I'll write a few impromptu doggerel poems, and by the way, break this passage into short sentences and fill them in one by one.
"If one day, you can discover the content that I've split up and filled in, it will prove that you are really grading the vacation homework seriously. At that time, I will definitely do these problems seriously. But I personally think that there won't be such a day, so here I want to say, may the youth that every student in our class loses due to filling in the vacation homework accumulate into the term of torture you suffer in hell. May your soul be able to compensate for and redeem the sins you have committed in this pain."
This was Feng Bujue at the age of nine... Five years later, when his peers were entering their chuunibyou (middle-schooler-with-delusions-of-grandeur) phase, he would always say in a been-there-done-that tone, "When I was playing rebel, my personality was very aggressive, much stronger than your silly behavior."
Unknowingly, we've digressed. We'll talk about Jue-Ge's childhood stories when we have the chance in the future, let's get back to the present.
In all fairness, his former editor, Lao Chen, was a good guy. In the past, Lao Chen always helped him deal with the problem of Jue-Ge being late with his manuscripts. Although he often put on a life-risking act in front of Feng Bujue, Lao Chen never complained to Jue-Ge about being a pushover and getting scolded by the magazine's leaders. That's why Feng Bujue couldn't understand why Lao Chen would be "under too much pressure."
But now that he had a new editor, Jue-Ge naturally couldn't mess around like he used to. He also understood that this Miss An was a new broom sweeping clean, and if he didn't know what was good for him and made things difficult for her in the first month, he would definitely get burned. Considering the other party's identity, the consequences of this fire would be unimaginable...
Therefore, at least this first manuscript had to be submitted on time, with guaranteed quality and quantity, without the slightest carelessness or flaw... Any mistake could become a fuse.
On the afternoon of the 20th, after Feng Bujue saw An Yueqin off, he sat in front of the computer, deep in thought.
In fact, he could write even when he had no inspiration. After all, he was a professional writer, so he definitely had that much skill. It's just that writing like that... was painful.
Perhaps that adjective wasn't very appropriate, but that was roughly the state he was in.
The more responsible an author was for their work, the more painful it was to force themselves to create.
If Feng Bujue was writing as a ghostwriter for someone else, writing casually, then he wouldn't care. Wasn't it just filling the word count? He could even write ten thousand words about the trivial matter of getting up and going to the bathroom. But now, he was writing his own work, and before he could put pen to paper (or tap the keyboard), he had to get past himself first.
"Ah..." Feng Bujue stared at the May manuscript for a full half an hour, but he hadn't typed a single word for the June content. He first let out a long groan, then it turned into a roar, "Ah—"
"Sigh, this isn't working. I can't squeeze out a single plot point," Feng Bujue said. "Hmm... How about I go to the game to find some inspiration?" He quickly shook his head and denied the idea. "No, no, no... I can't do that. Once I get into the game pod, there's no telling when I'll come out." He muttered, "Anyway, Si Yu probably won't be online these few days either. I might as well wait until her cold gets better before going online. I'll use all this time to write the manuscript."
"Hmm..." Feng Bujue stroked his chin and pondered. "I think I'll just go to the game forum to take a look. Slightly shifting my attention might help." With that thought, he moved the mouse, temporarily closed the document, and opened the browser, then clicked on the website in his favorites.
After the forum page loaded, what immediately caught his eye was a line of large, red characters: 【Peak Showdown, War is About to Ignite, Are YOU Ready?】
Below that, in normal font, was written: The *Thrilling Tales of Terrors* Peak Showdown (Spring 2055) is about to begin. Click to view details.
"What's going on? The game has only been running for fifteen days... What's with this decisive battle-like atmosphere?" Feng Bujue couldn't help but think of the short two-day closed beta test.
He immediately clicked on the link, and a page with explanations about the competition quickly appeared on the screen.
After reading a paragraph, Feng Bujue understood that Dream Inc.'s plan was to hold a large-scale competition twice a year, in May (spring) and November (autumn), and that this competition was called the "Peak Showdown."
"Since it is currently in the open beta phase, this competition will only open the 1v1 event. All players level thirty and above are eligible to register, with the deadline being 23:59 on April 30, 2055. Players can complete the registration process in the login space." Feng Bujue read from the screen, "The preliminary queue system will be activated at 00:00 on May 1st, and participants can participate in the selection process by queuing."
Jue-Ge read to this point and said thoughtfully, "Hmm... Posting the news so early is to give players plenty of time to register, and also to make those level twenties desperately rush to level thirty." He sneered, "Hmph... In the next ten days, the sales of double experience cards will probably increase several times over."
He continued reading, and below the first paragraph, there weren't any detailed rules for the competition, but rather a list of prizes.
【Players who rank 100-51 will receive double experience card (24 hours of game time) *10, 200,000 game coins, and a limited edition t-shirt.】
【Players who rank 50-31 will receive 2 random excellent-grade equipment corresponding to their level *2, and 2000 points of skill value.】
【Players who rank 30-11 will receive 1 random perfect-grade equipment (type selectable) corresponding to their level *1, and 3000 points of skill value.】
When he read to this point, Jue-Ge was still calm, but the rewards for 10-4th place almost made his eyes pop out...