Chapter 11 November Sixth

Ten o'clock in the morning, November 6th, Thriller Paradise game world, in Wang Tanzhi's conference room.

"Hey ~ Brother Jue, you're here." Seeing Feng Bujue walk into the conference room, Xiao Tan put down the snacks in his hand and waved to greet him.

"Why are you the only one here? Where's Xiaoling?" Feng Bujue asked, noticing that only Xiao Tan was in the room.

"She has an interview this morning, so she probably won't be online until the afternoon," Xiao Tan replied.

"Interview?" Feng Bujue questioned, "With her family background... does she even need to go for interviews? She could just go to her own family's company and be a leader."

"It's not that simple..." Xiao Tan replied, "My family also owns a lot of businesses, but I'm still working for someone else, aren't I?"

"Hmm... that's true." Feng Bujue pondered.

Xiao Tan then added, "Besides... the unit she's interviewing for is a government department. It's said that her grandfather is a leader there..."

"Alright, alright, alright..." Hearing the words "her grandfather," Feng Bujue already knew where Xiaoling was going for the interview. He immediately interrupted Xiao Tan with a quick and impatient tone, "I already know where she's planning to work. You don't need to say any more."

"Huh?" Xiao Tan was stunned. "I don't even know. How would you know?"

"Ask your wife yourself. Don't ask me about this." Feng Bujue didn't want to explain the Nine Divisions thing to Xiao Tan.

"Oh..." Xiao Tan responded, then seemed to remember something. "Right, Brother Jue... Xiaoling and I haven't registered our marriage yet, so calling her 'wife'..."

"What?" Feng Bujue interrupted him again, asking in a rhetorical tone, "You wouldn't dare not marry her?"

"Uh..." Xiao Tan replied almost without hesitation, "I wouldn't dare..." He paused. "Of course, it's not a matter of daring or not. I'm just waiting for the right opportunity to bring it up..."

"Okay, stop!" Feng Bujue stopped Xiao Tan from continuing, "I'm not going to give you advice on this. It's a matter between you two." Having said that, he immediately changed the subject, "Let's talk about our opponents in the next round."

"Eh?" Xiao Tan replied, "Are we talking about it now? Shouldn't we wait for Sister Yu and Sister An to come?"

"Your Sister Yu has gone home to visit her parents, as for my editor..." Feng Bujue shrugged. "She's busy because of some of the things I said in the first match..."

"It's about Corpse Blade, right?" Xiao Tan replied.

"Yeah..." Feng Bujue said, "The legal department of Corpse Blade Studio said... as long as I publicly apologize for the 'false statements' I made in the match, they won't pursue the matter."

"Damn! How arrogant!" Xiao Tan revealed a look of indignation. "They still want to 'pursue' the matter? Do they think it's reasonable to drug their employees?"

"Hehe... it's not a question of whether it's 'reasonable' or not." Feng Bujue replied with a relaxed tone and a smile, "They're not talking about reason, they're talking about the law..." He paused for half a second. "Legally speaking, I publicly spread negative information about Corpse Blade without any evidence and caused a considerable impact. So they can sue me for defaming their reputation and demand compensation for the corresponding losses."

"What do you mean 'no evidence'?" Xiao Tan was still unconvinced. "If we let the judicial department investigate whether they used drugs, wouldn't the truth come out?"

"Ha!" Brother Jue chuckled dryly, "Do you own the 'government'? In civil litigation, the person who makes the claim has to provide the evidence, understand? If investigations were as easy as you said, I'd go to court every day to sue people, say whatever I want, and have civil servants knock on people's windows for me every day."

"According to what you're saying..." Xiao Tan said, "Are you really going to apologize?"

"How~ could~ I~" Feng Bujue's tone was full of ups and downs when he replied, "If I want to apologize, the premise is that I really did something wrong..." He paused for a second. "...and that I don't have the ability to cover up or reverse that mistake."

"You could just say you'll never apologize." Xiao Tan narrowed his eyes.

"Who says? I often say 'sorry,' okay?" Feng Bujue said.

"The kind of 'sorry' you often say... never expresses apology..." Xiao Tan complained, "It's more like saying the line 'Sorry, I'm a cop' in that tone... it always sounds like you're giving the other person a death flag."

"Don't worry about those details." Feng Bujue changed the subject with a classic meaningless sentence. "In short, I won't meet the demands of Corpse Blade." As he spoke, he touched his chin. "I already consulted Ouyang Jian yesterday about the technical details and aftermath methods of this 'extortion.' He told me from the dual perspective of a professional and a friend... this deal can be done."

"Ah?" Xiao Tan was a little confused when he heard this. "What 'extortion'? At most, Corpse Blade's behavior is considered 'intimidation.' They haven't asked you for..." He stopped halfway, and something suddenly flashed in his mind. He immediately widened his eyes and exclaimed, "...Wait!"

"Wait for what..." Feng Bujue replied weakly, "You stopped halfway... want me to wait for a skewer?"

"Hey!" Xiao Tan exclaimed, "You're planning to extort them?"

"Is that strange?" Feng Bujue said, striking a pose like a European lyrical poet reciting a poem, emotionally, "I remember~ in that place where dreams die... extortion~ is my only entertainment and spiritual sustenance~"

"First of all, you think... 'school' is where dreams die." Wang Tanzhi's mouth twitched as he repeated Brother Jue's words, "Secondly, you think the shadows you brought to countless people in your childhood were just side effects of entertainment activities; thirdly, under the premise that you might be sued by the other party and lose, you're thinking about... extorting the other party..."

"Well, good summary." Feng Bujue nodded and calmly admitted.

"So... is Ouyang Jian your lawyer or your crime consultant?" Xiao Tan continued to ask.

"Of course, he's a lawyer." Brother Jue replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "If there wasn't 'lawyer-client privilege,' we wouldn't be so unscrupulous."

Xiao Tan shook his head, already too lazy to say anything to them. "If you two are ever thrown in jail together... remember not to ask me to testify."

"Don't worry, if there's a case that can get us both arrested, the lightest sentence would be life imprisonment." Feng Bujue laughed. "You don't need to testify for us, just go get a tattoo."

"Why would I get a tattoo for no reason..." Xiao Tan hesitated, then suddenly realized and replied, "Oh... and then help you break out of prison, right? I spit on that!"

Brother Jue smiled. "Alright, let's not talk about this. We've drifted off topic again..." He grabbed the snacks Xiao Tan had placed on the coffee table and started eating them without any politeness. "It doesn't matter if it's just the two of us. I'll tell you about our opponents in the next round first..."

...

November 7th, midnight.

The second round of the All-Star Melee began on time.

In this round, the opponent of [Hell Front] team was the [Twin Wanderer] team. Like the [Scrap Alliance], this team was composed entirely of individual professional players. The captain and vice-captain of the [Twin Wanderer] team were also two very well-known individual professional players, with IDs [Purple Wanderer] and [Azure Wanderer] respectively.

In terms of skill, these two weren't bad, but compared to大神 Zhao Yingwang, Honghu, and others... they were still a tier lower. (Note: 大神 is a common term for "expert" or "pro" in this context.)

However, what 紫游 Ziyou and 青游 Qingyou were most praised for... was their seamless "coordination" ability.

They were twins, and fraternal twins. The older sister, 紫游 Ziyou, served as the captain in most games, while the younger brother, 青游 Qingyou, always served as her assistant. Years of cooperation, coupled with the unique tacit understanding of twins, made them invincible in games. Their combined combat power far exceeded the "one plus one" effect.

In addition to the two siblings and their nominal substitute coach, the other two members of the Twin Wanderer team were also masters who had been famous in the gaming circle for a long time. Although I don't have the energy to think of names for these two extras, I hope everyone can understand... there won't be any weak links in the teams that make it to the second round of the rematch, so the strength of these two is also beyond doubt.

Now back to Hell Front...

After their crushing performance in the first round, Feng Bujue, Wang Tanzhi, Si Yu Ruo Li, and Bei Ling Xiao Gu, the four starting members, had undoubtedly become the focus of the competition. The sharpness of their skills was no less than that of the professional star players.

Most valuable was that... although they had left some S2 competition recordings, each of their performances was unfathomable, with unknown limits...

Therefore, in this second round of the rematch, although Hell Front didn't face a seeded team, they still received a lot of attention. Whether it was their new fans or studio personnel who wanted to scout the enemy, no one wanted to miss the performance of the Hell Front team.

However...

As if to mock these people, Feng Bujue, the most interesting captain, actually put himself on the bench in this second round...

...

On the other hand, another strong showdown in the second round of the rematch... was about to begin.

That was—[Scrap Alliance] vs [Warring States Second Team].

Whether it was a coincidence or fate, only two days later, Honghu really faced that Toyotomi Hei in the match.

Whether Honghu would teach the other person how to be a human, or whether the Warring States Second Team would slap the former in the face... it all depended on this victory or defeat.

[Scrap Alliance]

[Scrap Uncle, Level 50]

[Honghu, Level 50]

[Zhao Yingwang, Level 50]

[Juan Menghuan, Level 50]

[Bi Laoshi, Level 50]

[Please select the game mode your team wants to join.]

[Confirmed, please select the observer for this battle.]

The lineup of the Scrap Alliance team was also quite luxurious. There was no doubt that the four main players were all top players with S-level specializations. And their substitute [Bi Laoshi] held a similar position to a "coach" like the substitutes of most other teams, and almost never played in person.

Therefore, the observer they chose this time was naturally still that Bi Laoshi.

[Confirmed, your team has entered the queue and is waiting for your opponent to be ready.]

[Match completed, coordinating neural connections, script generating...]

[Loading begins, please wait.]

"The flames of war have just settled, the blood is still warm, the melee restarts, people do not wait. The stars gather in the Four Realms, heroism soars beyond the Nine Heavens."

[Loading complete, welcome to Pinnacle Battle S2-All-Star Melee.]

[This mode provides a script introduction and has the chance to trigger side hidden quests and special worldviews.]

[Script victory reward: Advance to the third round of the rematch.]

[The script introduction will be played soon, and the match will begin immediately after the playback is complete.]

After a familiar voice prompt, the opening CG appeared in front of the players.

It was the sea, a sea of oily green.

The sea shouldn't be this color, but at this moment, the sea that the players saw was like this.

Whoosh--whoosh--

The sound of the wind and the sound of the waves came one after another, sounding like a suppressed wail.

[The cause of the matter was that a group of scientists declared with certainty... that they had solved the energy crisis on this planet.]

As the narration sounded, the camera moved slowly forward along the surface of the sea.

[But they were wrong...]

[The "special bacteria" they created failed to turn water into oil. Instead, they turned it into an energy disaster.]

[Those "special bacteria" turned all the liquids they came into contact with into a greasy, toxic concoction that was completely useless to humans.]

[The water supply institutions were the first to be paralyzed, followed by rivers and lakes...]

[In the end, even the sea could not escape.]

When the narration reached this point, a coastline suddenly appeared in the CG picture...

[People's lives have not only not improved, but their living space has been constantly compressed due to the lack of water resources.]

[To this day, human figures can only be seen on some small islands at sea...]

The opening CG ended here. The four players of the Scrap Alliance regained their ability to move on an orange beach. At the same time, the familiar system prompt sounded in their ears—[Main quest has been triggered].

The four of them opened the game menu and took a look. The task bar clearly showed the quest [Kill the four members of the "Warring States Second Team."].

"Everyone... although it may sound a bit emotional to say this now..." The next second, Honghu was the first to speak to his teammates, "However, I still want to say..." He paused. "For some personal reasons... in this match, I hope everyone will 'absolutely obey my arrangements' and help me eat up the opponent with my strategy..."