Chapter 103 The Calm Before the Storm

The impression and opinions that the vast player base would have of Feng Bujue after his match with Xu Huai Shang… were self-evident.

One could say it was… a mix of loathing and fear, contempt and admiration.

Those die-hard fans and loyal supporters of Xu Huai Shang, needless to say, the one sentence they most wanted to say to Brother Jue was, "Eat my [bleep]!"

And the general opinion of Brother Jue among the average players was, "That bastard is seriously ruthless~ ah~"

It wasn't hard to see that very few players developed a favorable impression of Feng Bujue after the match. His supporters were either discerning or morally questionable, and therefore, they resonated with each other…

In this kind of environment, the sudden surge in the ranking of the ID [Feng Bujue] was bound to be met with skepticism.

If the person gaining twenty to thirty million experience points every day was [Swallowing Sky Ghost Brave] or [Shiva], probably no one would complain. The reputation of "Order" and "Gods" was there; anyone trying to speculate or defame them would have to consider the weight of their words…

But if it were a player of [Mad Tracker Sword Shadow]'s level, then maybe some people would dare to comment and make presumptuous conjectures about them.

As for Feng Bujue… let's just say, if this kind of person were to walk around in the 1960s or 70s, he'd be beaten to death ten times over.

He exuded an aura that suggested he wouldn't be missed if he was casually offed. No matter how you looked at it, he was a "bad guy." As mentioned before, they wouldn't even let him volunteer in the community…

If Feng Bujue's sudden rise in level had happened before the Butterfly Battle, perhaps the situation would have been better… but now, people's dislike for him had already solidified and turned into prejudice. In this context, the truth was no longer important because people were happy to believe that [Feng Bujue] was a cheater.

Countless denunciations erupted on the forums. Apart from meaningless personal attacks, the loudest demand was to "revoke Feng Bujue's qualification and let Xu Huai Shang join the Peak Tournament."

In these people's mouths, Feng Bujue's cheating was a foregone conclusion, and the only thing left to discuss was how to deal with him.

This situation… from the third day after the Butterfly Battle, continued until May 29th. The denunciations not only didn't disappear, but intensified. Perhaps as the final match drew closer, Xu Huai Shang's supporters became increasingly anxious.

As for Xu Huai Shang herself… she did believe in Brother Jue. In fact, she had been trying to talk to Feng Bujue about this for the past few days, but he hadn't accepted her friend request; he didn't reply to her emails either… She couldn't reach him, so there was nothing she could do.

Xu Huai Shang didn't respond to her fans' actions. She understood… at this point, anything she said wouldn't matter. Even if she publicly declared that she believed Feng Bujue wasn't cheating, it wouldn't help the situation. Maybe her fans would even think she was too naive and kind, and go even further in targeting Feng Bujue.

So, the denunciations against Brother Jue continued…

Until the afternoon of May 29th, when a powerful voice finally stood up to speak for Feng Bujue.

The Dream Company, which usually ignored rumors, actually responded this time…

At two o'clock that afternoon, the following announcement appeared on the official website: [Recently, rumors that "a certain player has been obtaining large amounts of experience points through illegitimate means" have been widely spread on the forums, and the company's customer service department has received a large number of related reports and complaints. The company hereby solemnly declares: These rumors are purely fictitious. All experience sources of the player in question are legitimate and verifiable in the database. We urge all players to rationally filter information and not to blindly believe rumors or be incited by others.]

When Feng Bujue saw this message, he instantly guessed whose handiwork it was.

Although Brother Jue didn't really care about the public opinion, it felt pretty good to have a big shot backing him up…

However… this announcement also brought some subsequent problems…

People began to think… if [Feng Bujue] really wasn't cheating, then wasn't this guy too terrifying? Players have limited game time each day. If he's gaining twenty to thirty million experience points every day, what kind of efficiency is that? It's insane!

Of course… they would never have imagined that even this level of efficiency was the result of Brother Jue's deliberate restraint…

For the past five days, Feng Bujue had been farming the single-player survival mode on Normal difficulty, because this mode had the highest clear rate, and for Brother Jue, clearing meant extra rewards.

Every day, he only took two experience point rewards. He chose equipment for all the extra rewards. He kept the ones with decent stats, and the mediocre Superior-grade items were used to feed the [Zero-Form Magic-Conducting Pulverizer]. If he hadn't been so restrained, wouldn't it have been easy for him to become the Level King in five days?

…………

May 30th, 12:54 PM.

The previous announcement had indirectly solidified Feng Bujue's image as a great demon… Even now, people were still discussing it.

On the eve of the final match, Feng Bujue had become one of the most favored players among the top fifty, second only to Swallowing Sky Ghost Brave.

In this atmosphere… some of Brother Jue's fans finally showed their ferocious fangs…

In the past few days, these guys had been forced to hide among the general public due to the pressure of public opinion, afraid to admit that they supported Feng Bujue. Now, they were eager to make a move.

A group of strange men and women marched into Shopping Mall No. 10 (it was rumored that Feng Bujue often frequented this area). They came from different guilds, wore different clothes, but held the same banner in their hands, which read two large characters: "Most Mad."

The onlookers who didn't know what was going on complained, "They've been poisoned by Yu Yu Hakusho…"

…………

Meanwhile, Feng Bujue himself was in the Login Space, staring with dead fish eyes, pulling the lever of the [Zero-Form Magic-Conducting Pulverizer]…

The machine clanked and whirred, and the convex lens began to focus light again.

He had seen this scene dozens of times. Each time, the white light condensed into [Residue of Spent Energy]. But Feng Bujue firmly believed in a slot machine law: "I give you one chance, you give me a piece of holy sh*t; I give you ten chances, you give me ten slaps; I give you a hundred chances, you have to at least give me some respect for probability."

Sure enough… Heaven never fails those who have a heart.

When Brother Jue filled the manufacturing success rate to 63.01%, his terrible luck finally showed some mercy…

Under the condensation of white light… a Legendary-grade equipment was born.