Once he opened the official website on his phone, he immediately saw the pinned announcement, “Questions Concerning The Meditation Spell Bug.”
“Roughly two hours ago, a mage player, Roland, reported a bug concerning the mage’s specialty, Meditation Spell. After we were informed, we verified it immediately. It is indeed as Roland described; the mage’s specialty Meditation Spell can’t be learned in-game. Therefore, we made a difficult decision. In the future, Meditation Spell will become a unique specialty for NPCs, while the players’ Meditation Spell will be changed to Roland’s Zeal. As a passive specialization, its effects will be as follows: Mages with this specialty will have mental power regeneration of two multiplied by the player level and possess three times the player level of psychological spell resistance.
“At the same time, the nature of this specialization will be changed to a unique specialization—the player Roland will default as the creator of this specialization and enjoy twice the effect of this specialization. A statue of Roland will be uploaded somewhere in the outskirts of Hollevin’s capital. It will be set as a special structural unit, indestructible and immovable. Mage players who want to learn this specialty can obtain this specialty by tossing a gold coin at the basin of the statue of Roland. This gold coin will naturally appear in the player Roland’s Backpack after a certain amount of time, serving as tuition. This is the only unique specialty that Mages can learn on their own with a ding[1]. Please cherish this.”
After Roland finished reading this post, he knew that he’d become famous—no wonder Schuck specially gave him a call.
He sighed, sensing a slight oncoming headache.
Although becoming famous could be considered a good thing, to become famous in this way, it almost felt as though the planners wanted to push him into a pit of fire.
He didn’t know if the other Mage players would isolate him.
Roland didn’t really want to see the game’s forum right now, but after a moment’s hesitation, he still opened it.
Escape was no use, he had to face them sooner or later.
Just as expected… the players of other classes were all watching the show, while the majority of the Mage players were complaining.
Why?
The price of a single gold coin was now driven up to almost 16,000 soft girl coins[2]. Although Roland also received quite a lot of tips on the forum, he obtained these tips from thousands, even tens of thousands of players in each thread.
However, now what the game producers did was tantamount to directly taking out 16,000 from every Mage player’s wallet.
It would be strange if the players didn’t complain.
Just think about it—there were 500,000 players, even if there were fewer and fewer Mage players, but if a little over ten thousand Mage players learned this specialty, this would be the amount of two small goals[3] rounded up.
It would be strange for players not to eat lemons[4].
The atmosphere on the forum was foul. Some people were envious, some people rebuked the decision angrily, and some people said that Roland was a gaming official who deliberately conducted tests to rake in money in a roundabout way.
Of course, there were also some relatively richer players and nouveau riche that expressed this wasn’t a big deal.
It was quite profitable to exchange a practical specialty with 16,000 yuan.
One could only say that the worldviews of normal people and the rich were too different.
Feeling that he’d been played by a certain game planner surnamed Ma, Roland had a constipated expression as he turned off his phone and put it in his pocket.
Then, he walked to the young man who was waiting for him. “Coach, what do you go by?”
“My surname is Qi, I’m called Qi Shaoqiu,” the young man said in a dull voice. “You can take a look at our training before deciding whether you want to come learn or not.”
Roland was startled for a moment. Before coming here, he also did some simple investigation. It was said that miaodao techniques were called Xinyou sword techniques before the establishment of the Republic of China. Reportedly, when Qi Jiguang[5] fought the pirates of the Wa people, he absorbed the Wa people’s sword techniques and created this sword technique for killing enemies on the battlefield.
This young man was also surnamed Qi… was there a connection here?
Roland looked at the four students under the large shed, shook his head, and said, “There’s no need. I know you teach the genuine skills here. However, I still have to consider for a while. After all, 30,000 yuan is certainly a little expensive.”
“All right, you take your time.”
Under normal circumstances, when someone says they’ll consider, they’re declining in a disguised way—it’s merely a relatively tactful way to talk.
Qi Shaoqiu felt that Roland was also this type of person. He nodded and said, “All right, then I’ll go back to the training club now, take your time to consider.”
With that said, Qi Shaoqiu returned under the large shed. The girl, who was sprinkling water, walked in front of Qi Shaoqiu, put down the bucket, stood with her arms akimbo, and said something fiercely. Qi Shaoqiu, who never quite showed any expression, actually revealed an ingratiating look, almost nodding and bowing his head.
Is… is this person reliable?
Roland started to feel a little worried.
This young girl looked average. Her skin was quite white, which made her appear a little pretty.
After all, a white complexion is powerful enough to hide seven faults.
Seeming to sense that someone was watching her, after the girl reprimanded Qi Shaoqiu with a few words, she suddenly turned to look at Roland.
The distance between the two wasn’t considered far. Roland could clearly see a beautiful and indistinct shine flickering in the girl’s eyes.
It was quite enchanting.
Roland nodded slightly as an expression of farewell, and then left on the public bike.
After Roland was far in the distance, the girl quickly withdrew her gaze. She looked at Qi Shaoqiu and asked, “I just saw that you guys were about to come to blows.”
“It was just a test.” Qi Shaoqiu still hadn’t completely wiped off the fawning look on his face. “That guy’s reaction speed is quite fast, it seems like he has trained in boxing for at least five years or more. However, judging from his age, he hasn’t trained for over ten years.”
“Are you his match?”
“Maybe not empty-handed.” Qi Shaoqiu wiped off the fawning look on his face at this moment. He said in a tranquil and calm voice, “However, if I had a miaodao, even with three of him, I could still cut them all in half.”
“There’s nothing impressive about using weapons to bully empty-handed people!” the girl said harshly.
Qi Shaoqiu chuckled. “Using tools is a skill that only we humans have.”
The girl snickered. “Who was it that kept mumbling something like, ‘Since the era of firearms, it’s been an age of grief for martial artists’?”
Qi Shaoqiu’s face wrinkled at these words. He said somewhat awkwardly, “Little sister, I’m your older brother anyhow, save me some face, will you?”
The girl snorted and said unhappily, “I told you before, your 30,000 yuan tuition is too high a price. See, even a real expert ran off after hearing that number. If things continue like this, we’ll really just be spending money and not earning any.”
At this moment, Qi Shaoqiu lit up another cigarette for himself, took a puff and held it in his mouth, and then breathed it out lightly.
The light white wisps of smoke rose straight up. Qi Shaoqiu said seriously, “Don’ worry, if I still can’t recruit any outside students in half a year, I’ll close this training club. I’ll earn money by being someone’s bodyguard.”
The girl’s expression eased. “I’m not forcing you to close the training club, I only want to remind you to be mentally prepared for failure.”
“I understand.” Qi Shaoqiu smiled, but there was a hint of disappointment in his smile.
The girl said no more. She picked up the bucket again and resumed spraying water on the cement floor.
[1] The sound of a gold coin; as in buy
[2] Ruan Mei Bi, lit. soft younger sister coins is an internet slang for RMB
[3] A small goal is an internet meme made famous by Wang Jianlin, Chinese billionaire, who said a small goal was to make a 100 million, often used sarcastically
[4] Refer to ch. 65
[5] military leader
