Chapter 181: Brief Moment
ASK HIM FOR FREE GOLD
HE BANNED A CHEATER HIMSELF LMAO
Shen Tian stared.
"...How do they know I pressed the button?"
Xu Ning responded.
[Someone leaked a photo.]
"What photo?"
She showed him.
A blurry employee photo.
Shen Tian stood at the anti-cheat console.
Finger touching the ban button.
His expression looked extremely satisfied.
Text had been added.
WHEN SOMEONE CHEATS IN YOUR GAME SO YOU GO TO THE COMPANY YOURSELF
Shen Tian closed his eyes.
MoonPetal laughed so hard she had to sit down.
Jiang Feng joined the stream voice channel.
He saw the photo.
Then laughed too.
LittleMaple arrived.
She immediately saved it.
Shen Tian stared.
"Why did you save that?"
LittleMaple smiled.
"Blackmail."
"Against me?"
"Maybe."
Jiang Feng patted her head.
"Bold."
Shen Tian sighed.
Then a donation appeared.
MoonMoon donated $1,000.
Message: Please use this money to recover from the trauma of being rich.
MoonPetal froze.
Shen Tian slowly looked toward her.
She covered her face.
"I hate myself."
Chat exploded.
MOONMOON RETURNS
SHE’S DONATING TO A BILLIONAIRE AGAIN
QUEEN
Shen Tian laughed.
"Thank you."
MoonPetal groaned.
"Stop thanking me!"
"Streamer etiquette."
"YOU DON’T HAVE STREAMER ETIQUETTE!"
Jiang Feng laughed.
"This is better than the dungeon."
Several days passed.
The group settled into a rhythm.
Jiang Feng.
LittleMaple.
MoonPetal.
Shen Tian.
Sometimes Shen Yan joined.
Occasionally members of Shen Tian’s harem appeared and immediately transformed an ordinary quest into chaos.
Jiang Feng continued collecting guild fragments.
Shen Tian competed for other opportunities.
Sometimes he won.
Sometimes...
He deliberately stepped back.
One quest rewarded a legendary sword technique.
Jiang Feng found it first.
Shen Tian let him keep it.
Xu Ning stared.
[Host.]
"What?"
[That’s worth six thousand Fate.]
"I know."
[You’re letting it go.]
"He’s a swordsman."
[So?]
"I’m a Ranger."
She stared.
[You stole a sword inheritance in another world.]
"That was different."
[How?]
Shen Tian smiled.
"I wanted that one."
Xu Ning rolled her eyes.
Other opportunities...
Shen Tian absolutely stole.
A hidden Ranger trainer Jiang Feng would have accidentally discovered?
Shen Tian reached first.
Fate stolen: 2,500.
A rare mount quest intended to boost Jiang Feng’s travel speed?
Shen Tian completed it.
Fate stolen: 3,000.
A world boss chest?
Shen Tian rolled higher.
Fate stolen: 1,500.
Jiang Feng’s Fate decreased.
Slowly.
Not catastrophically.
186,500
184,000
181,000
179,500
But unlike before...
Shen Tian found himself enjoying the process for reasons beyond the system.
Jiang Feng adapted every time.
If Shen Tian found something first...
Jiang Feng searched elsewhere.
If Shen Tian topped damage...
Jiang Feng changed his build.
If Shen Tian discovered a strategy...
Jiang Feng studied it.
The rivalry became productive.
And the community noticed.
Videos appeared.
SHENTIAN VS FALLENWIND DAMAGE RACE
BEST NEW PLAYERS IN ETERNAL REALM?
RANGER VS SWORD WANDERER
ARE THEY RIVALS OR FRIENDS?
The answer...
Was both.
Then one evening...
After a dungeon clear...
Jiang Feng sat beside a campfire.
LittleMaple was offline.
MoonPetal had gone to repair equipment.
Shen Tian remained.
For once...
The two were alone.
Jiang Feng looked toward him.
"Can I ask something?"
"Sure."
"Why do you play?"
Shen Tian raised an eyebrow.
"That’s random."
"Maybe."
Jiang Feng stared toward the fire.
"You have everything outside."
Shen Tian smiled.
"Not everything."
"You know what I mean."
"Yeah."
Jiang Feng continued.
"You don’t need streaming money."
"You don’t need esports."
"You don’t need the game’s economy."
"You don’t need recognition."
He looked toward Shen Tian.
"So why grind this hard?"
Shen Tian thought.
The real answer...
Was impossible to give.
Because you’re carrying nearly two hundred thousand Fate and my system pays me to steal parts of your destiny.
Probably not good friendship material.
So...
He gave another truthful answer.
"It’s fun."
Jiang Feng blinked.
"That’s it?"
"Mostly."
Shen Tian leaned back.
"Outside..."
"Everything is complicated."
"Families."
"Business."
"Cultivation."
He stopped himself.
Jiang Feng didn’t react to that word.
Perhaps he assumed it was slang.
Shen Tian continued.
"In here..."
"I shoot monsters."
"I compete."
"I hang out with people."
"Pretty simple."
Jiang Feng smiled.
"Yeah."
Then Shen Tian asked,
"What about you?"
Jiang Feng became quiet.
Longer.
Finally...
"I got fired."
Shen Tian looked toward him.
"From Titan?"
Jiang Feng’s eyes narrowed.
"...You figured it out?"
"FallenWind."
"Former pro."
"People online aren’t subtle."
Jiang Feng laughed.
"Fair."
He stared into the fire.
"They dropped me."
"Replaced me."
"After I played injured for them."
Shen Tian didn’t interrupt.
"I was angry."
Jiang Feng admitted.
"Still am."
"But..."
He looked toward the world around them.
"Eternal Realm feels like a reset."
"No team reputation."
"No sponsors deciding whether you’re valuable."
"No management choosing which player gets marketed."
"Everyone started at Level 1."
Shen Tian smiled.
"Except your Unique Class."
Jiang Feng laughed.
"Okay."
"Not entirely equal."
Then his expression softened.
"But..."
"I haven’t had this much fun playing anything in years."
Shen Tian looked toward him.
That...
He understood.
Jiang Feng smiled.
"So..."
"I’m going to make the guild."
Shen Tian’s eyes sharpened.
"Finally?"
"Three fragments."
"Need two more."
"I know."
Jiang Feng looked toward him.
"Still making your own?"
"Probably."
"Good."
He extended a fist.
Shen Tian bumped it.
"Don’t make a weak one."
Jiang Feng grinned.
"I was about to say the same thing."
MoonPetal returned moments later.
She stopped when she saw them.
"What happened?"
Jiang Feng looked confused.
"What?"
"You two look suspiciously friendly."
Shen Tian smiled.
"Secret meeting."
MoonPetal narrowed her eyes.
"About?"
"Men."
"..."
Jiang Feng covered his face.
MoonPetal stared.
Then slowly raised her staff.
Shen Tian stood.
"Run."
Jiang Feng immediately followed.
MoonPetal chased them across the campsite.
"You idiots!"
And for a brief moment...
There were no protagonists.
No villains.
No Fate.
No systems.
Just three friends inside a virtual world...
Laughing.
Unfortunately for Jiang Feng’s destiny...
Shen Tian was still keeping score.
. . .
Several days passed inside Eternal Realm.
And during those several days...
One thing became increasingly obvious.
MoonPetal had a problem.
A very serious problem.
She liked Shen Tian.
Far more than she wanted to admit.
At first...
She had convinced herself it was admiration.
That explanation had been reasonable.
Shen Tian was ridiculously good at Eternal Realm.
He was funny without trying to be.
He never became arrogant whenever thousands of people praised him.
He treated LittleMaple normally.
He respected Jiang Feng.
He never demanded MoonPetal’s attention.
And strangely enough...
Learning his real identity had only made everything worse.
Before...
Shen Tian had simply been ShenTian.
The Ranger she’d met inside a VRMMORPG.
Now?
She knew exactly who he was.
Young Master Shen.
The son of one of the country’s most powerful families.
A man who could walk into the headquarters of the company behind Eternal Realm and personally ban the cheater who killed him.
Yet...
The next morning...
He had logged back into Eternal Realm and spent twenty minutes helping LittleMaple find mushrooms.
MoonPetal genuinely couldn’t understand him.
And unfortunately...
That made her want to understand him even more.
Eternal Realm
Silverbrook Region
Whispering Highlands
A massive stone golem collapsed.
BOOOOOOM!
Dust exploded across the hillside.
Its enormous body broke into glowing fragments.
A system notification appeared.
[Stone Guardian Defeated!]
[Experience Gained!]
[Party Contribution Calculated!]
LittleMaple immediately raised both hands.
"YES!"
Jiang Feng lowered his sword.
"You did fourteen damage."
LittleMaple froze.
"..."
MoonPetal covered her mouth.
Shen Tian looked toward the damage statistics.
Then...
He made the mistake of reading them aloud.
"Actually..."
"Thirteen."
LittleMaple slowly turned.
"..."
Shen Tian smiled.
"Sorry."
"YOU’RE BOTH BULLIES!"
Jiang Feng laughed.
"We’re stating facts."
"I PARTICIPATED!"
"You threw a dagger."
"It hit!"
"The ground."
"The ground was close to the boss!"
MoonPetal finally burst out laughing.
LittleMaple pointed accusingly at her.
"Don’t laugh!"
"I’m sorry!"
"You aren’t!"
"No."
MoonPetal continued laughing.
Jiang Feng shook his head.
Then...
He opened the loot window.
His expression immediately changed.
"Oh."
Shen Tian noticed.
"What?"
Jiang Feng shared the drop.
Stone Guardian Core
Epic Quest Material
Associated Quest: Foundations of Glory
Everyone became quiet.
LittleMaple’s eyes widened.
"Captain..."
MoonPetal looked toward Jiang Feng.
"Is that..."
Jiang Feng nodded.
"Guild fragment quest."
Shen Tian’s golden eyes narrowed slightly.
Xu Ning appeared beside him.
Invisible.
A familiar golden thread emerged.
[Host.]
How much?
Xu Ning examined it.
[This is one of the major ones.]
A system panel appeared.
Destined Opportunity Detected
Target: Jiang Feng
Destiny Chain: Windfall Guild
Original Outcome: Jiang Feng uses the Stone Guardian Core to unlock the fourth Guild Foundation Fragment.
Associated Fate Value: 6,500
Shen Tian’s eyebrow rose.
Six thousand five hundred?
[This fragment originally attracts three skilled independent players to Jiang Feng.]
[They become early officers in Windfall.]
Important people?
[Moderately.]
Shen Tian looked toward Jiang Feng.
The protagonist was examining the quest description.
Then...
Jiang Feng smiled.
"Looks like we’re going underground."
LittleMaple’s smile disappeared.
"...Underground?"
"Ancient mine."
"Spiders?"
MoonPetal laughed.
"You’re still traumatized?"
"I hate spiders."
Shen Tian smiled.
"Maybe there aren’t any."
LittleMaple immediately pointed at him.
"Don’t."
"What?"
"Don’t say things like that."
Jiang Feng nodded.
"She’s right."
"Why?"
"Because now there will definitely be spiders."
Shen Tian sighed.
"Superstitious."
Xu Ning floated beside him.
[There are spiders.]
Shen Tian stared at her.
Seriously?
[Very large ones.]
He looked toward LittleMaple.
"...You’ll be fine."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Why did you pause?"
"No reason."
"SHEN!"
The ancient mine was worse than expected.
Not because of spiders.
Those existed.
LittleMaple screamed.
Repeatedly.
But the real problem...
Was the dungeon mechanic.
[Ancient Mine of Kareth]
Recommended Players: 10
Party Size: 4
Warning: Undersized Party
Jiang Feng stared.
"Recommended ten."
MoonPetal looked at Shen Tian.
Shen Tian looked at Jiang Feng.
LittleMaple looked toward the exit.
"I know what I’m voting for."
Jiang Feng smiled.
"We’re going."
"Captain."
"We’re already here."
"CAPTAIN."
MoonPetal examined the dungeon.
"We could recruit six players."
Jiang Feng considered it.
Shen Tian immediately spoke.
"Or..."
MoonPetal closed her eyes.
"No."
He smiled.
"You don’t even know what I’m going to say."
"Yes, I do."
Jiang Feng smiled too.
"Four-man it."
MoonPetal pointed at him.
"You’re becoming worse."
LittleMaple looked betrayed.
"Captain!"
Jiang Feng laughed.
"Come on."
Shen Tian stepped forward.
"We’ll be fine."
LittleMaple stared at both men.
Then looked toward MoonPetal.
"Why are they like this?"
MoonPetal sighed.
"Ego."
"We can hear you."
"Good."
Twenty minutes later...
MoonPetal had to admit something.
Their egos...
Were somewhat justified.
Shen Tian and Jiang Feng completely destroyed the dungeon.
Jiang Feng controlled the frontline.
Shen Tian controlled everything beyond it.
The synergy between them had become frightening.
Jiang Feng didn’t need to call targets anymore.
He moved.
Shen Tian understood.
Shen Tian fired.
Jiang Feng knew where the enemy would dodge.
MoonPetal adapted her spells around both.
LittleMaple...
Did her best.
"LEFT!"
Jiang Feng shouted.
LittleMaple jumped right.
"...Maple."
"I PANICKED!"
A hammer slammed down.
Shen Tian fired.
The monster staggered.
Jiang Feng caught LittleMaple by the back of her armor.
Again.
He pulled her away.
She looked up.
"Thanks."
"Stop trying to die."
"I’m not trying!"
MoonPetal laughed.
Shen Tian finished the enemy.
The party continued.
Then...
They reached the final chamber.
A massive forge occupied the center.
Molten metal flowed beneath grated floors.
Ancient statues lined the walls.
At the far end...
A warrior sat upon a stone throne.
His armor was completely black.
A massive sword rested across his knees.
The moment they entered...
His eyes opened.
Red light filled the helmet.
[Fallen Forge Knight Kareth]
Level 27 Hidden Boss
HP: 680,000
LittleMaple stared.
"..."
She slowly stepped behind Jiang Feng.
"Captain."
"Yeah?"
"I’m contributing emotionally."
Jiang Feng laughed.
"Accepted."
The knight stood.
BOOM.
The floor shook.
Shen Tian drew his bow.
MoonPetal raised her staff.
Jiang Feng lowered his stance.
Then...
The boss disappeared.
Shen Tian’s eyes widened.
"Move!"
CLANG!
Jiang Feng barely blocked.
The impact launched him backward.
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(Author’s Note: IMPORTANT!)
SEND POWESTONES!!!
ALL SUPER GIFTS (Magic Castle, Space Ship, Golden Gachapon) = MORE ChapterS!