San Tian Liang Jiao

Chapter 300 A Record of Ascending the Tower (I)

Chapter 1

The opening CG ended just like that, without even a single word of warning.

Feng Bujue immediately gained the ability to move, and the first thing he did was naturally to observe his surroundings.

At this moment, the other three players had appeared on either side of Feng Bujue (one on his left, two on his right, all four facing the same direction, standing in a line). All three were male, and all in their twenties.

The distance between the four players was almost the same, none of them touching each other. It seemed that all four had entered solo.

Ten meters or so in front of them was the building from the CG.

[Main Quest Triggered] The system prompt arrived just as expected.

With no plot introduction whatsoever, the quest refreshed in the first instant.

Feng Bujue opened the menu and saw that the quest bar displayed: [All surviving players enter the "Reasoning Club."]

"Ha! I never thought that just queuing solo would lead to meeting celebrity players." The player on the far left suddenly spoke.

Feng Bujue turned his gaze towards the sound...

This brother's ID was Qiufeng Se, level 28, title "Wise and Courageous." He was just over 1.7 meters tall, thin, with short black hair, and his appearance was considered handsome. He was wearing a set of dark black clothing, and the badge on his chest showed that his guild was called "Shanhe."

After Qiufeng Se said that, another player on Feng Bujue's right immediately replied: "Heh heh... what celebrity players, just empty fame. But 'Shanhe's' Qiufeng Se is like thunder in the ears."

Feng Bujue turned his gaze to this person as well.

This person's ID was Honghu (the two-character nickname already said a lot), level 29, title "Strategic Thinker." He was slightly taller than Qiufeng Se, also thin, with silver-white medium-length hair, and wore glasses (a costume). He looked like a refined scholar. He was wearing a set of white, magical-style attire, like a medieval magician. There was no badge on his clothes, indicating that he was a guildless solo player.

As soon as Honghu finished speaking, the one on the far right chimed in: "Brother Honghu, you're being too modest... Who in the professional circle doesn't know the name of 'Strategist' Honghu?"

Feng Bujue turned his head and looked at that person.

This time the brother speaking was called Yuzhong Jichang, level 28, title "Steady Strategist." He was half a head taller than Brother Jue, and slightly sturdier than the previous two. His hairstyle was a buzz cut, and his appearance was the kind that would disappear into a crowd. In terms of clothing, he was wearing a set of dark blue custom military uniform, probably the uniform of his guild. The guild badge read "Tiandi."

"Heh heh... when I said 'celebrity player,' I wasn't just referring to Honghu," Qiufeng Se interjected again. "I've heard Brother Jichang's name as well."

"Humph..." The three of them grinned knowingly, enjoying the pleasure of mutual flattery.

This was the feel that people in this circle wanted!

Listening to their conversation, Feng Bujue looked around, feeling like a web novelist who had mistakenly entered a writer's association seminar, not knowing how to even begin to join in...

Feng Bujue did recognize the names of the "Shanhe" and "Tiandi" guilds, both of which hovered around the top ten in the overall strength rankings. But he had never seen the names of these three players before.

After all, Feng Bujue wasn't in the professional player circle. Although he now knew the names of some big shots, the number of people he recognized was still very limited. It was like those fake soccer fans, if you mentioned Messi, Ronaldo, or Van Persie, they would all recognize them, but if you mentioned a name like "Alba," the first thing that would pop into their heads would be a Hollywood actress, not a Spanish left back.

Getting back to the point, the three people Feng Bujue had encountered at this moment were all professional players without exception, and indeed well-known figures, only they hadn't made it onto the level or combat power rankings in Thriller Paradise.

The most famous of them was Honghu, known as "The Strategist." This nickname wasn't something he got after playing Thriller Paradise. As early as several years ago, Honghu had already established his "status in the martial world." In many real-time strategy, turn-based strategy, and virtual epic strategy games, he was among the top players.

Moreover, Honghu was an independent professional player, without studio sponsorship or resource sharing, relying entirely on his own abilities to make a living. It was said that his family conditions were relatively poor when he was young, but by the age of eighteen, he had already gotten rich by playing games.

Including Zhao Yingwang, almost all professional players who made their careers independently knew Honghu's name, and many had even entered the industry because of his story.

As for Qiufeng Se, he could be described as "Shanhe's" brain trust and a friend of the studio owner. He also had other positions in the company and generally wouldn't directly participate in games, but any game he participated in had without exception won champion-level achievements.

Qiufeng Se's specialty was war-themed strategy games, especially modern warfare. He once wrote a famous post on a forum for a Three Kingdoms-themed game—As a modern person, when playing ancient war games, are we still using ancient strategic thinking?

The debate and flame war sparked by that post had yet to cease. In fact, what Qiufeng Se wanted to explain was a very simple principle: war concepts are progressing with the times. Some people think that the generals of World War I, or even the Liberation War, were inferior in command to the strategists of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which was complete nonsense.

The third, Yuzhong Jichang, also had a big background. He was a rare high-achieving scholar among professional players (as the professional system became more and more mature, players became a profession similar to athletes. Due to the particularity of the industry, the age of entrants is generally younger, usually between 14 and 18 years old, the youngest being 12 years old, so professional players generally have junior or senior high school education). He was an overseas student at a famous university, and even won the continental Magic: The Gathering championship while studying in Europe.

Age-wise, Yuzhong Jichang was twenty-five years old this year, a few years older than the other two, but in terms of professional player qualifications, he was still a junior who had only entered the industry for two years. However, this junior quickly made a name for himself in the industry with several high-profile game "championships," becoming a well-known strategist-type player.

All in all, these guys… were all experts.

After the three of them greeted each other with mutual appreciation, there was a brief silence. Then, they all turned their eyes to Feng Bujue.

"Well... I'm just a loser, a nobody, you guys don't need to pay too much attention." Feng Bujue said with squinted eyes. Although he didn't know who these three guys were at all, listening to their conversation, they seemed very awesome...

Thus, another silence began...

After a few seconds, Yuzhong Jichang spoke first: "Uh... this... Brother Feng, you don't need to be so self-deprecating. Since we're a team, everyone can play a role."

Honghu pushed up his glasses and interjected, "Brother Feng, can I ask, are you the type of player who uses force, or do you lean towards puzzle-solving?" He paused. "Because your title is a bit ambiguous, so I want to confirm."

"I'm a casual player," Feng Bujue replied. "The kind who is very weak at fighting and also pretty average at puzzle-solving."

This was obviously bullshit...

Of course, Feng Bujue had no grudges or conflicts of interest with these people, and he wasn't saying this to "play dumb to catch the tiger." In fact, after learning their names, he was pleasantly surprised.

In the past, the teams he had encountered mostly relied on Feng Bujue's planning, but this time it was rare to meet three strategist-type players (as you could tell from their titles), and they all seemed proud and enjoyed it. Brother Jue, this "nobody," could just take the opportunity to relax a little and let others command for once, while he just played support.

"Is that so... that's strange..." Honghu said, stroking his chin with one hand, lost in thought.

"Oh? What's the problem?" Qiufeng Se asked, while also pondering what the "strange" in the other's words referred to.

"This script has no introduction, it just directly throws us a quest," Honghu replied. "There's a feeling of...'we're leaving everything to you to solve.'" At this point, the focus of his vision changed slightly, he must be viewing the game menu. "And the 'Reasoning Club' mentioned in the quest seems to imply something."

"I see..." Yuzhong Jichang continued, "Qiufeng, Honghu, and I are all players who lean towards strategy. If the setting of this script is 'purely relying on puzzle-solving ability to clear,' then all four of us should be strategist-type players..."

At this point, the three of them looked at Feng Bujue together again.

"Okay, if I have to choose one side... I prefer puzzle-solving relative to combat," Feng Bujue said awkwardly. Actually, he could have denied it, but he was worried that the wrong information would affect his teammates' judgment of the entire script, so he admitted it. But he didn't forget to add at the end, "But don't have too high expectations of me... I'm at most an average person. The real difficult problems, you still have to rely on the three of you experts."

"Heh heh... Brother Feng is too polite," Qiufeng Se said. "When it comes to puzzle-solving, more people is always better, as the saying goes, 'two heads are better than one.'"

Despite what he said, none of the three actually took Feng Bujue seriously. They were all thinking in their hearts: If it's a pure puzzle-solving script, I can handle it myself, just watch me perform.

It couldn't be said that their mentality was conceited... because the group of "strategists" has always been like this. As smart people, and the kind of smart people who are right nine out of ten times, they only believe in themselves deep down at crucial moments.

Oh, right, it should be explained here that Feng Bujue can't be counted in that group, he's just purely conceited and narcissistic, and it's already hopeless.

"Hmm... a script set for four puzzle-solving players, huh..." Honghu said, the corners of his mouth slightly raised. "Interesting..."

"From the start of the script, we've been given the minimum amount of information possible," Jichang continued. "What kind of difficulties will we experience next..."

Qiufeng Se also smiled in a similar serious, chuunibyou (delusions of grandeur) tone to them: "I will use my military strategy to dissolve them all!"

Finally, Feng Bujue weakly followed behind them and said: "I support you spiritually..."