Chapter 71: A Pat on the Head
Yang Zhou quickly let the matter go.
He had indeed been furious just now, but Nan Yu had already helped him vent his anger.
Besides, Wuxing Feiwo was a truly despicable person in real life.
Back then, he had secretly gathered those relatives to go after Yang Zhou, all for the sake of openly dividing up Grandpa's inheritance.
Fortunately, Yang Zhou wasn't an idiot.
He had managed to avoid every single trap they set.
Now they were merely trying to force Wuxing Feiwo to quit a game.
Compared to everything Wuxing Feiwo had done to him...
It wasn't even worth mentioning.
As for the other four...
In Yang Zhou's opinion, anyone who could become close friends with someone like Wuxing Feiwo was cut from the same cloth.
Hadn't they enjoyed bullying him earlier?
Then they could enjoy this together now.
"You're right."
"I'm not going to dwell on it."
"They brought this upon themselves."
Only then did Nan Yu take out the food he had bought earlier.
"Eat."
"You've always liked these."
"Let's snack while watching them get slaughtered."
"It's surprisingly entertaining."
—
Meanwhile, Yun Feiyu lay dead on the ground.
He had already been killed more than thirty times.
He had lost over one and a half levels.
If this continued...
There was no way he could endure it.
He tried sending a private message to From South to North.
But there was never any reply.
Had the other party not seen it?
No.
That couldn't be right.
Since From South to North had to constantly check kill screenshots and transfer rewards, he was definitely reading his private messages.
He was simply...
Ignoring him.
Yun Feiyu's guess was correct.
Because Nan Yu was busy checking screenshots, he had indeed seen the very first private message from Shui Zhongyou.
Then...
He immediately blacklisted the account.
Every message afterward vanished into the void.
Nan Yu never saw another one.
Even if he had...
He wouldn't have responded.
After all...
Shui Zhongyou...
Heh.
Ever since being reborn, Nan Yu still hadn't made a move against Bai Zhouyun or Yun Feiyu.
There were two reasons.
The first...
Before becoming a High-Tier Mental Power User, his every action was restricted.
If he acted rashly, he might leave behind evidence and drag the Nan family into trouble.
The second...
Even Nan Yu himself felt it sounded a little melodramatic.
Although those two had already gotten together...
Although Bai Zhouyun had effectively cheated on him...
They still hadn't harmed him the way they had in his previous life.
So...
He was willing to wait.
If those two eventually repeated everything they had done in his previous life...
Then he certainly wouldn't show any mercy.
If they...
Nan Yu picked up a pale pink pastry.
"It looks a bit like the pink Ice Velvet Flowers."
"Look at the color."
Yang Zhou nodded.
"It really does."
"And it's delicious."
Nan Yu continued watching his private messages in real time.
Manually transferring rewards one by one was too troublesome.
He simply handed the task over to his smart assistant.
It automatically verified the screenshots, checked the kill counts, recorded everything, and transferred the money.
No one could cheat the system.
Standing where they were, Nan Yu and Yang Zhou could already see more and more red player names appearing throughout the Ice Velvet Flower Sea.
Not bad.
Only players who landed the very first hit...
Or the killing blow...
Would receive a red name.
Which meant...
Nan Yu suddenly smiled.
"Later..."
"Everyone who gets a red name should also come collect compensation."
"If someone landed the first hit but had the kill stolen at the end..."
"That would feel pretty awful."
Yang Zhou laughed helplessly.
"You really have too much money."
Nan Yu shrugged.
"Yeah."
"Sometimes having money means you get to do whatever you want."
"Oh, right."
Yang Zhou suddenly remembered something.
"Nan Yu, did you know?"
"They say this game actually belongs to Marshal Yu now."
Nan Yu blinked.
"Hm?"
"Isn't Marshal Yu busy commanding the military?"
"When did he have time to develop a game?"
Yang Zhou explained,
"Because of how fair this game is."
"They say he secretly acquired the company some time ago."
"The plan is to turn it into a battlefield suitable for Mental Power Users and Ability Users."
"It'll specifically train people to fight mutated beasts."
Nan Yu nodded thoughtfully.
"So that's how it is."
"Then this is basically another way of discovering talented people."
"Once they find promising players, they can recruit them directly."
"That's actually a pretty smart idea."
No wonder Yu Lanfeng's legion was acknowledged as the strongest in the Empire.
They weren't limited to scouting talent in military academies.
They spread their net everywhere...
Naturally discovering far more gifted individuals.
Nan Yu smiled.
"It looks like this game is going to become wildly popular again."
Then another thought surfaced.
Wait...
Did this happen in my previous life?
Or... did it not?
He couldn't remember.
Back then...
His entire heart had revolved around Bai Zhouyun.
He hadn't spared a single thought for the game.
Most likely...
Yu Lanfeng had recruited plenty of talented people through it even in that lifetime.
Nan Yu took a deep breath.
Just as he was about to stand up...
He noticed two unfamiliar players walking toward them.
The pair stopped beside them.
Both sides stared at each other.
No one spoke first.
Finally, Yang Zhou frowned slightly.
"Can we help you?"
Their character names had been hidden.
The player standing slightly farther back asked uncertainly,
"...Nan Yu?"
Nan Yu paused.
"You are...?"
The man smiled.
"What a coincidence."
"We happened to notice the bounty."
"Your character name looked familiar, so we came over to take a look."
"I didn't expect it really was you."
Nan Yu found that voice strangely familiar.
"...Your Highness?"
So...
Then the person standing in front...
Was Yu Lanfeng?
They had literally just been talking about Yu Lanfeng buying the company behind the game...
And now he had appeared in front of them.
Wasn't that...
A little too coincidental?
Nan Yu and Yang Zhou both stood up.
"So it's Marshal Yu and the Crown Prince..."
Yuan Qiyang quickly motioned for them to sit.
"My uncle and I just came into the game to take a look."
"It's nothing important."
"So don't be nervous."
"Since we happened to run into each other..."
"We might as well chat."
Nan Yu and Yang Zhou exchanged glances before sitting back down.
Nan Yu took out all the food he hadn't unpacked yet.
"Would you like some?"
"The food in this game is actually really good."
Yuan Qiyang smiled.
"I know."
"A lot of people join this game just to see whether the food really is as delicious as everyone says."
"After trying it..."
"Nine out of ten become regular customers."
"The remaining one still comes back every once in a while."
Yu Lanfeng sampled a few bites.
"It really is good."
Nan Yu and Yang Zhou tactfully refrained from asking why they were in the game.
Likewise...
Neither Yu Lanfeng nor Yuan Qiyang mentioned it.
Everyone understood the reason.
It simply wasn't something that could be discussed openly.
Suddenly, Yuan Qiyang asked,
"By the way, Nan Yu."
"Why did you put a bounty on those people?"
Nan Yu answered matter-of-factly,
"They bullied my friend."
"So I'm helping him get even."
"Really?"
Nan Yu glanced at Yang Zhou.
Yang Zhou sighed.
"This actually involves real life too."
"Wuxing Feiwo is someone my age from one of my relatives' families."
"Marshal Yu has already reserved Nan Yu for your legion."
"So I'm sure you've investigated me as well."
"You should know about my family's situation."
"Wuxing Feiwo once joined forces with several others to try and kill me."
"I've only survived because I was lucky enough to avoid them every time."
Yu Lanfeng nodded calmly.
"I know."
"People like that deserve no sympathy."
Besides...
Now that the game was under his control...
The fewer people like Wuxing Feiwo there were...
The better.
Otherwise...
They would only pollute the game's atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Nan Yu continued monitoring his private messages.
His smart assistant had already completed well over one hundred automatic transfers.
In other words...
The five targets had already died more than one hundred times altogether.
Now...
They had simply given up and remained lying on the ground.
Nan Yu suddenly asked,
"You can't log out while dead, can you?"
After reviving...
Players entered a brief invulnerability period.
During that time...
They couldn't be attacked.
But they also couldn't teleport...
Or log out.
The instant the protection expired...
They entered combat again.
And while in combat...
Logging out remained impossible.
Soon afterward...
They would be killed again.
Revive.
Die.
Revive.
Die.
The cycle repeated endlessly.
Of course...
No one could keep enduring that forever.
Repeated deaths gradually destabilized a player's mental state.
Once it exceeded a certain threshold defined by the game...
The system would forcibly disconnect them.
Still...
Anyone who wasn't an ordinary person could usually endure much longer before reaching that point.
After all...
Being forcibly disconnected also left one's精神 exhausted for a while afterward.
Therefore...
Forced logout was always the last resort.
Only when there was absolutely no other option.
It was also one of the game's less reasonable mechanics.
It almost seemed deliberately designed...
To allow players to drive other players out of the game.
Nan Yu, however...
Quite liked that design.
He looked toward Yang Zhou.
"Yang Zhou."
"These five people..."
"They're probably all Ability Users or Mental Power Users in real life."
He didn't know about the others.
But he knew Yun Feiyu.
Although Yun Feiyu hadn't yet reached the level of a true Low-Tier Mental Power User...
He was still considerably stronger than an ordinary person.
Nan Yu looked at Yu Lanfeng and Yuan Qiyang.
"Do either of you know..."
"Roughly how many times they'll be killed before the system forcibly disconnects them?"
Yuan Qiyang, however...
Actually knew the answer.
Yuan Qiyang answered,
"For Ability Users, Low-Tier Ability Users are usually forcibly disconnected after being killed continuously around thirty to fifty times."
"For Mid-Tier Ability Users, it's roughly forty to sixty times."
"As for High-Tier Ability Users, it's generally over one hundred."
"Regarding Mental Power Users..."
"That's harder to say."
"Since everyone plays using their own consciousness, Mental Power Users actually have an advantage in this game."
"But in a situation like this, that advantage becomes a disadvantage."
"A Low-Tier Mental Power User usually won't be in danger of being forcibly disconnected until they've been killed more than fifty times."
"A Mid-Tier one would be over one hundred."
"As for someone like you, Nan Yu..."
"It would probably take over two hundred times."
"And High-Tier Mental Power Users..."
"No one's ever tested that."
No matter how influential someone might be...
No one would ever conduct this kind of experiment on a High-Tier Mental Power User.
High-Tier Mental Power Users were treasures.
The Empire protected every single one of them.
Nan Yu took a deep breath.
"Not bad."
Yu Lanfeng had been sitting quietly beside them without saying a word.
Nan Yu hadn't dared strike up a conversation with the Marshal on his own.
Instead...
The Marshal spoke first.
"Nan Yu."
"I have something I'd like your help with."
Nan Yu blinked.
"What is it?"
Yu Lanfeng said calmly,
"Among all the Mid-Tier Mental Power Users I can currently find..."
"You possess the strongest mental power."
"So I'd like you to help test the development of this game's new module."
Nan Yu was surprised.
"Really?"
"Of course."
"Your compensation certainly won't be lacking."
"I'll give you five percent of this game's profit rights."
He had specifically said profit rights.
In other words...
Whenever profits were distributed, Nan Yu would receive five percent.
However...
He would have no voting rights and no authority to interfere in the company's management.
Nan Yu's eyes immediately lit up.
"Of course that's fine!"
He couldn't even estimate how enormous this game's future would become.
Especially now that someone as influential as Yu Lanfeng was personally backing its development.
Even if it was only five percent...
The annual profits might very well exceed the combined income of the entire Nan family.
Wouldn't that mean...
He could spend money freely forever?
What Nan Yu didn't know was...
That five percent of the profits wasn't coming from the company at all.
It came entirely out of Yu Lanfeng's own share.
It was compensation Yu Lanfeng had personally promised him.
It had nothing to do with the company's ownership structure.
Nan Yu happily signed the contract with Yu Lanfeng on the spot.
Although it was only a virtual contract signed within StarNet...
As long as both parties were present and signed voluntarily...
It carried full legal effect.
Yu Lanfeng nodded.
"Development hasn't started yet."
"When it begins..."
"I'll notify you to log into the game."
Nan Yu smiled brightly.
"No problem."
Meanwhile...
Yang Zhou and Yuan Qiyang watched the entire exchange with mixed feelings.
The two of them had reached an agreement within minutes...
And even finished signing the contract.
Was that really okay?
Or...
Were those two simply incredibly compatible when it came to working together?
Nan Yu took a deep breath.
"Thank you very much, Marshal Yu."
"I know you've always been looking after me."
Yu Lanfeng simply remained silent.
He neither confirmed nor denied it.
That didn't stop Nan Yu from feeling delighted.
Just then...
Yang Zhou looked as though he wanted to say something.
Instead, he suddenly frowned while looking at his private messages.
Nan Yu noticed immediately.
"What's wrong, Yang Zhou?"
"You don't look too good."
Yang Zhou shook his head.
"I'm fine."
"Wuxing Feiwo just sent me a private message."
"He told me to name my price and let him go."
"He also said that people should always leave each other a way out, so they could meet again in the future."
Nan Yu asked,
"What do you think?"
Yang Zhou immediately cursed.
"To hell with him!"
"'Leave each other a way out?'"
"When he hired people to kill me..."
"Why didn't he think about leaving me a way out?"
"This is only a game."
"We're already letting him off easy."
And now...
He still wanted mercy?
The anger that had only just subsided instantly flared up again.
"We should just force him out of the game completely."
"What's the point of letting him stay?"
Nan Yu smiled.
"Still angry?"
Yang Zhou nodded.
"I've always been angry."
"Wuxing Feiwo is human trash."
"Keeping someone like him alive is just wasting air and food."
"He'd be better off dead."
It was the first time Nan Yu had ever heard Yang Zhou curse someone like this.
In a sense...
That alone showed how remarkable Wuxing Feiwo was.
After venting for a while...
Yang Zhou finally stopped.
Mostly because he had run out of insults.
Nan Yu laughed.
"Finished?"
"If you're done..."
"Come eat."
"We paid for all this food."
"It'd be a waste not to finish it."
Yang Zhou looked at him speechlessly.
Just moments ago...
Nan Yu had casually spent tens of millions of credit points.
And now...
He was worried about wasting food worth around a thousand.
Yu Lanfeng wasn't polite either.
He had probably never experienced the delicious virtual cuisine inside this game before.
He ended up eating quite a bit.
After finishing, he simply commented,
"The flavor is excellent."
Nan Yu smiled.
"It really is."
"Later on, you could invest a little more effort into this."
"Have the food designers improve and expand the menu."
"Wouldn't everyone get to enjoy even more new dishes?"
He had only said it casually.
After all...
Yu Lanfeng was renovating the game for military purposes.
He hadn't expected any response.
Unexpectedly...
Yu Lanfeng actually nodded seriously.
"That's indeed important."
"After high-intensity training..."
"A few delicious dishes should help relieve mental fatigue more effectively."
Nan Yu silently nodded.
Exactly.
That made perfect sense.
Yang Zhou and Yuan Qiyang quietly sat off to one side, not daring to interrupt.
Yu Lanfeng, however, didn't think much of it.
There would be plenty of opportunities later.
As for assigning people specifically to improve the food...
It was merely a matter of increasing the budget.
That was something he could easily do.
Yu Lanfeng looked toward Nan Yu.
Then...
He suddenly reached out...
And gently patted his head.
"If anything happens in the future..."
"Tell me."
"Just like before."
"Notify me immediately."
With that...
He logged out together with Yuan Qiyang.
Nan Yu remained frozen where he sat.
His mind still hadn't recovered from Yu Lanfeng patting his head.
Yang Zhou leaned closer.
"Nan Yu..."
"You okay?"
Nan Yu suddenly covered his face with both hands.
Yang Zhou blinked.
Then an extremely meaningful smile spread across his face.
"Oh?"
"Hmm?"
"Ohhhh...?"
Nan Yu lowered his hands and looked at him expressionlessly.
"What are you 'oh'-ing about?"
Yang Zhou grinned.
"Weren't you embarrassed?"
"You covered your face just now."
"I wish I could've seen your real expression."
"I bet your face was as red as a monkey's butt."
Nan Yu rolled his eyes.
"You're exaggerating."
"He only patted my head."
Yang Zhou completely ignored him.
"You should've seen your own expression."
"But what surprised me more..."
"Marshal Yu actually patted your head."
"Was he comforting you?"
"Or encouraging you?"
Nan Yu still felt a little embarrassed.
"Nothing like that."
"He probably just did it casually."
"He's much older than I am."
"He probably just treated me like a junior."
Yang Zhou raised an eyebrow.
"...Or maybe not."
Nan Yu narrowed his eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe..."
"He meant something else."
Nan Yu asked helplessly,
"What else could it possibly mean?"
Yang Zhou immediately replied,
"Think about it."
"Marshal Yu has plenty of juniors, doesn't he?"
"The Crown Prince beside him counts as one."
"But have you ever seen the Marshal pat the Crown Prince's head?"
Nan Yu shook his head.
"...No."
Although...
Maybe they simply hadn't witnessed it.
Then...
The exact same image appeared in both of their minds.
Both of them shuddered simultaneously.
"...No."
"Impossible."
Just then...
Wuxing Feiwo suddenly used another World Horn.
Although they couldn't log out or leave while lying dead...
They could still open the cash shop.
Including...
Buying World Horns.
Wuxing Feiwo: "From South to North! Are you really going to take this so far? Don't forget, we're not just five players. We have an entire guild behind us! Do you really think this won't have consequences? You'd better cancel that bounty. Our guild has hundreds of members. Are you really going to spend enough money to force every single one of them to quit too?!"
Nan Yu laughed.
"He's still acting so arrogantly."
"Looks like he hasn't died enough yet."
Yang Zhou suddenly became worried.
"What if their guild comes after the two of us?"
Nan Yu thought about it.
"Good point."
"Let's leave."
"We'll head back to the main city."
"Inside the main city..."
"Even if they surround us, they can't attack."
Yang Zhou nodded immediately.
"Right."
Nan Yu stood up and returned to the main city with him.
During the journey...
Kill screenshots continued arriving one after another.
Credit points kept flowing out of Nan Yu's account.
Yet...
He didn't feel the slightest bit of heartache.
Sometimes...
It wasn't so bad doing the sort of things rich people were supposed to do.
He was in an excellent mood.
Especially every time he saw another screenshot showing Shui Zhongyou being killed.
For now...
This could count as a little interest.
If Yun Feiyu dared repeat what he'd done in the previous life...
Then...
They eventually found a quiet place near the main city.
A peach blossom forest stretched beside the city walls.
It had once been crowded with players.
Over time...
Far fewer people came.
They had chosen the place partly for its beautiful scenery.
More importantly...
Although technically outside the city walls...
It still lay within the main city's protected zone.
Attacking another player there would immediately attract the city's patrol soldiers.
The guards would begin hunting the attacker.
If someone was particularly unlucky...
They might even encounter one of the generals randomly patrolling the city.
Once a general joined the chase...
Death was virtually guaranteed.
Furthermore...
Players with red names couldn't use teleportation arrays.
They could teleport only into wilderness areas.
Trying to enter a city or village would immediately alert the local guards.
The guards would kill them on sight.
Since most teleportation arrays were located inside towns...
Red-name players had no choice but to remain in the wilderness.
They couldn't enter safe zones.
Even basic supplies like health and mana potions had to be purchased from wilderness NPCs.
Of course...
There were also absurdly expensive pills that reduced red-name points.
Killing one player gave one hundred red-name points.
One pill removed only ten points.
In other words...
Removing the penalty for killing a single player required ten pills.
Each pill cost one hundred credit points.
Meaning...
It cost one thousand credit points to erase the red-name penalty for a single kill.
Yet...
Nan Yu's bounty only paid five hundred credit points per kill.
There was a five-hundred-credit-point deficit.
Nobody cared.
None of the experts accepting this commission would waste real money buying those pills.
Instead...
They simply stayed in the wilderness farming monsters, clearing dungeons, or idling until the red-name value naturally decreased.
It dropped by one point every hour of in-game time.
Offline time didn't count.
As long as they avoided cities and other guarded safe zones...
It made no difference.
For top players...
The money was essentially free.
At that moment...
Big Brother sent a message in the group chat.
"I've already killed them ten times."
"Five thousand credit points earned."
"What about you guys?"
Second Brother replied immediately.
"Big Brother is amazing!"
"I've only earned two thousand."
Sixth Brother said,
"Six thousand five hundred."
Fourth Brother sighed.
"Damn..."
"You guys are incredible."
"I've only made three thousand."
At least...
They no longer needed to worry about living expenses for the time being.
Earlier...
To pay Little Brother's initial hospitalization fees...
They had spent every last credit point they possessed.
There wasn't even much money left for food.
Just as they were worrying about future medical bills...
And wondering how they would survive...
Nan Yu's bounty had appeared.
To them...
It was like a ray of light shining into complete darkness.
Without saying it aloud...
Every one of the Seven Brothers made the same decision.
If they ever met Nan Yu again in the future...
As long as it didn't violate their own principles...
They would help him without asking for any reward.