Chapter 150 A Little Flower on a Stone

June 12th, 7:00 PM.

"Another pile of emails..." The first thing Feng Bujue did after arriving in the login space was check his mailbox.

"Hmm..." He looked at the page number at the bottom of the mailbox, then smiled. "Fortunately... the number of emails is blessedly small compared to the previous period!"

For Brother Jue these days, only a few hundred emails accumulated in his mailbox after being offline for several days, which was practically something to celebrate.

This also shows from another angle... that the heat of the Peak Tournament is gradually fading, and players' attention has shifted away from him.

Of course, another reason for this situation is that the revised "Player Comprehensive Strength Ranking" has cancelled the "anonymous" setting and directly changed it to "not displayed on the list". As a result, the ways for new players to find out about the [Feng Bujue] ID have been greatly reduced.

Speaking of this, I have to complain about the previous ranking. The original "anonymous" setting was really a bit of a sham... as long as the intelligence networks of the major studios were crossed, it was not difficult to guess who the anonymous person was.

The result was often this: the masses who didn't know the truth saw a certain high-ranking [Anonymous] player, and then they would try to find out who it was. Finally, they would search online and find out... oh, it turned out to be so-and-so.

But now the situation is different, there are no anonymous players on the list. Players are either on the list or not. People who are not on the list... may be hiding, or their strength may have declined, or even they may have deleted their accounts and quit playing... Over time, no one will bother to inquire, at least not casual players...

In addition, there is another thing worth mentioning—the confidentiality setting of the new list has made the implementation of "secret weapon" tactics possible.

Theoretically speaking, those powerful studios can completely... secretly cultivate one or more powerful players from now on. And from beginning to end, do not let them participate in external killing games, and all team modes are teamed up with people from their own studio. That way... when the Peak Tournament S2 comes, this group of people can become a surprise force.

In fact... some studios have already started doing this, but the appearance of that group of people is another story, so we won't go into details here...

Let's go back to Brother Jue. In order to meet the submission date in mid-June, he had been working hard at home these past few days. During the day, he drank coffee like crazy and wrote with all his might. At night, he went to bed on time and refused to play games.

After four days of this, he finally completed 90% of the workload, and the remaining 10% could be completed in five or six hours in the next two days.

So, Brother Jue finished his dinner and washed the dishes today, then peacefully entered the game pod and logged into Thriller Paradise.

"Okay... easily done." Feng Bujue spent less than ten minutes processing the emails.

He then opened the social menu to see if any of the people from Hell Front were online.

But he made an unexpected discovery...

"Eh? Who is [Shi Shang Hua Jian]..." Brother Jue noticed at first glance that there was one more person in the guild.

Although this person is currently offline, his nickname is clearly displayed in the [Guild Members] list.

"No way..." After thinking for a few seconds, Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly. It seemed that he already had an answer. "Shou Wu Shi Shang Yue, Xi Heng Hua Jian Qin. Guo Ci Yi Hu Wai, You You Fei Wo Xin..." (Dancing with the moon on the stone, a qin across my lap among the flowers. Beyond this pot of wine, nothing is in my heart.) he murmured, "Hmm... my memory is still pretty good..."

After guessing the identity of the new member, Brother Jue felt a chill down his spine. Because he immediately thought that the person who brought that Miss An into the guild was undoubtedly Li Ruoyu.

Currently, only two people in the guild have the authority to recruit and expel members, one is Feng Bujue himself, and the other is Li Ruoyu. Simply put... one guild leader, one political commissar. As for the remaining two, Xiao Ling doesn't want the authority, first because she finds it troublesome, and second because she can directly ask her cousin to do anything; and Xiao Tan... even if he asks for the authority, Brother Jue will not give it. If he insists on asking why, Brother Jue will definitely respond domineeringly with some inexplicable reason like "You are the eternal uke."

"These two girls..." Feng Bujue paced back and forth in the elevator room alone, talking to himself, "Their relationship is developing really fast... this atmosphere of meeting late and sharing a common hatred... is not a good sign..."

He hesitated for a while, but couldn't come up with any good countermeasures. It seemed that his actions being monitored by his boss was already inevitable... Fortunately, he hadn't been online at all these days, showing a state of working hard and not having time to play games. Even if he ran into her today, he could confidently say... I've finished my manuscript.

"Sigh... why do I feel like an elementary school student... The subtext seems to be 'I've already done my homework, can I play now'..." Feng Bujue thought of this and couldn't help but wonder, "Over time... I'll enter a rebellious phase and become 'Leave me alone! Or I'll die for you to see!' kind of line..."

Brother Jue shook his head, driving the messy thoughts out of his mind: "Tch... whatever, a great writer can bend and stretch, can stand and kneel..." He muttered as he entered the storage room, "... How did Han Xin get through it? How did Gou Jian get through it? How did Sun Bin get through it? Sima Qian... um... let's forget about that one..." He said, already arriving in front of the storage box, "Anyway... let's take it one step at a time..."

As he spoke, he had already taken out all of his puzzle cards from the storage box, a total of seven: Puzzle Card-Strawberry, Puzzle Card-Banana, Puzzle Card-Plunger, Puzzle Card-Ping Pong, Puzzle Card-Father, Puzzle Card-Spider, Puzzle Card-Countdown.

Then, he went to the login space for a transfer, and then entered the mall.

Feng Bujue's target was none other than the "Puzzle Card Exchange".

The exchange was located in a corner of the mall space, embedded in the edge of the huge dome. The overall shape was like a incomplete sphere. After walking through the main entrance, you could see several rows of two-way counters, and many players shuttling back and forth between the counters. No matter how you look at it... the interior of this exchange looked a lot like an arcade.

"What is this... is everyone playing slot machines..." Feng Bujue muttered, and continued to move forward.

After the version update, this was the first time he had come to this place. After these ten days or so, most players were already familiar with how to use this new facility, and Brother Jue... should be considered a very small group of country bumpkins.

"Ha! Brother Feng!" Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded.

Feng Bujue turned his head upon hearing the voice, and looked at the person who came and said, "Oh, it's Sword Youngster, long time no see."

"I heard from the Blade people that you might be in Area 101..." Sword Youngster said as he walked towards Brother Jue, "I didn't expect to actually meet you today."

"If you have something to ask me, you can just communicate or send a message..." Feng Bujue was right, the two of them had already added each other as friends.

"Haha... actually, I don't have anything to ask you." Sword Youngster smiled, "Oh, right, let me introduce you..." He said, turning to the side.

Brother Jue had already noticed that behind Traceless Sword Shadow, there was a thin, childish teenager, whose clothing was also a chivalrous costume, and there was a "Jianghu" badge on his chest.

"This is the rising star we introduced from 'Starsea'." Sword Youngster introduced, "Bu Tiange."

"Hello." Feng Bujue casually greeted.

"Wow! Are you Feng Bujue?" Bu Tiange widened his eyes, staring at Brother Jue with a look as if he was looking at a monster, "You look much more real than in the recordings."

"Idiot!" Sword Youngster flicked the kid's head, "Can't you see this is useless speech? Is there any manners, or not?"

"I'm sorry..." Bu Tiange covered his head, and looked up at Feng Bujue with a grievance, "Brother Feng, hello."

Before he finished speaking, there was a "dong" sound, and Sword Youngster gave Bu Tiange another roasted chestnut, and continued: "Did you call him Brother Feng? Call him 'Brother Jue'!"

"Yes, Brother Jue!" Bu Tiange changed his words obediently.

"Hmm... you've turned the rising star into a feeling of a gangster underling..." Feng Bujue complained with a blank expression, "Speaking of... aren't the system guards going to care about you guys going one offensive and one receptive..."

"It's okay, it was his sister who told me to teach him a lesson." Sword Youngster replied, "Oh, I forgot to say, he is 'Not Afraid's' younger brother."

"Oh..." Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly, and he turned to Bu Tiange and said, "Little Bu, it's not easy for you to live this long..."

"Isn't it..." Bu Tiange replied with a vicissitudes of life on his face.

"Okay, Little Bu, you go play on the side first, Brother Feng and I have something to talk about." Sword Youngster said at this time, wanting to send Bu Tiange away.

"Oh." Bu Tiange responded, shrugged his shoulders, and turned to leave.

After he walked a little further away, Sword Youngster said: "Brother Feng, I'll tell you quietly, this kid is very talented, and may become a very powerful master in the future."

"I know." Feng Bujue replied calmly, "I remembered about sixteen seconds ago, he fought with Xiao Tan in [Bug Fight], Xiao Tan told me about that match."

"Yeah, yeah, he told me too..." Sword Youngster continued, "Saying... he almost won against that Wang Tanzhi from the Peak Tournament finals." He shook his head, "I criticized him on the spot... what does it mean to almost win? Doesn't that mean you didn't win? What's there to be proud of?"

"I've noticed that you've been getting more and more nagging lately." Feng Bujue basically ignored the other party's words, and responded to Traceless Sword Shadow with a contemptuous look, "Are you abnormally secreting hormones all day because you are addicted to the pleasure of being subjected to martial arts by a girl..."

"Hehe... don't make fun of me, didn't I just make a fool of myself in front of you once?" Sword Youngster replied with a dry laugh, "I was just letting her in front of outsiders..."

"The lewdness and anticipation in your eyes have betrayed you." Feng Bujue calmly added another knife.

"Hey... why can you keep complaining about me like this! Is the system's shielding function malfunctioning!" Sword Youngster said unhappily.

"I didn't say any dirty words." Feng Bujue said, "The only thing that might be a sensitive word is lewdness, but it wasn't shielded... which shows that the system also recognizes my view."

In terms of language ability, Sword Youngster was naturally no match for Brother Jue, and he quickly became embarrassed and angry: "Tch... even if it is! So what! I'm just happy as hell! Hahaha!" He split his legs apart, put his hands on his hips, and laughed three times up to the sky.

Feng Bujue was silent for two seconds: "Okay..." He sighed, "There's something I want to tell you."

"What?" Sword Youngster answered.

"When you said 'I criticized him on the spot', your Miss Not Afraid walked into the lobby." Feng Bujue said this, his gaze already shifted to the rear of Sword Youngster, "When you said 'What's there to be proud of', she brought Little Bu over to you." He paused, "Then, she has been standing behind you, listening to us talk... now her eyes don't look too good."

When Traceless Sword Shadow heard this, he swallowed hard, his face pale, and slowly turned his stiff neck to look behind him.

A few seconds later, a smiling face appeared in Sword Youngster's sight.

This was an expression that Cai Bufa rarely showed, the corners of her mouth were raised, but it was difficult to hide the murderous intent in her eyes...

Bu Tiange looked at Sword Youngster with a sympathetic look: "I wanted to remind you... but my sister wouldn't let me."

The corners of Traceless Sword Shadow's mouth twitched, and he turned his head to look at Feng Bujue again: "Wh... why..."

"A rare opportunity, so I'll trick you a little." Feng Bujue spread his hands and smiled mischievously.

"Huangfu Mingkang!" Not Afraid said sternly at this time.

"It's over... she called my full name..." A look of resignation appeared in Sword Youngster's eyes.

"Interesting... should we add a sentence here, 'I'll call your name, dare you answer'?" Feng Bujue gloated and laughed.

"Come to my conference room, I need to talk to you." Not Afraid didn't say much, grabbed the back of Sword Youngster's collar and dragged him out.

"Ah, the mountains are high and the rivers are long~ Looking ahead, the road is vast~ Ah, friends, goodbye~ Goodbye~ Goodbye..." Feng Bujue waved his hand, sang a song, and watched Sword Youngster's figure gradually disappear...

"What song is this?" Bu Tiange was still standing in place, looking at Brother Jue and asking.

"There's a movie from the former Yugoslavia called 'The Bridge', you can go and watch it when you have time..." Feng Bujue turned around with a smile, "Oh, and... I'll give you a friendly reminder... the first step to becoming a strong person is to stop letting people hit you on the head." After saying that, he slowly walked away, leaving a back view, deeply hiding his merits and fame...

Bu Tiange looked at Brother Jue with a look of admiration, and muttered: "Although I don't understand what happened... he seems to be very powerful..."

…………

Fifteen minutes later, Brother Jue returned to the login space.

He studied the rules in the Puzzle Card Exchange a little, and became an expert. Before long, he had exchanged all seven of his cards.

Currently, the seven cards he got back are: Puzzle Card-Sheep*2, Puzzle Card-Ox, Puzzle Card-Scorpio, Puzzle Card-Crab, Puzzle Card-Fish and Puzzle Card-Lion.

Obviously, what Feng Bujue wanted to form was... the Zodiac series.

With the basic concept, he had a sense of purpose and direction when exchanging cards. Anyway, it was a self-service exchange through the counters in the exchange, without having to haggle over the price. He just had to use the "search" function to find cards that matched the characteristics of the twelve zodiac signs, and the condition was "one-for-one, unlimited types", and then confirm the operation.

There are mainly two types of players who list cards in the exchange. The first type is: too lazy to spend time and effort to select, so they simply hang the cards they have collected in the exchange, and come back in a few days to collect them and see if the cards that have been replaced can be pieced together into a combination; the second type is: they already have a combination plan, but they have not found the type of card they want to exchange, so they hang some useless cards there, and limit the conditions, hoping to exchange for a specific card.

And Feng Bujue... belonged to the type who only had seven cards in his hand, but was already thinking about forming a twelve-card combination...

However, Brother Jue also understood that with his current number of puzzle cards, it was still too early to collect a complete set of zodiac signs... because, according to market conditions, if you want to exchange for a set of five cards, you have to prepare at least seven cards. If you want a combination of ten cards, it is best to prepare about fifteen cards.

This is a very simple principle, who doesn't want to build a multi-card combination? But the further you go, the greater the difficulty. For example, this zodiac sign, when you get to the point where there are only one or two cards left, there are none in the exchange? What can you do? The only way is to list the cards and wait for someone to take the initiative to exchange with you. But since you choose to exchange for a specific card, people may not be willing to do a one-for-one exchange. So people who want to exchange for a specific card usually hang two cards they don't want to exchange for one. There is also a lot of knowledge in this... Maybe something that is a waste card to you is something that another person is eager to get.

All in all, there are many tricks in the puzzle card exchange. If you are patient and spend all day there, and play well enough... in theory, you can make your puzzle cards more and more. After becoming a "card overlord", you can make a profit by doing offline transactions. Because there is also a type of player in this world called local tyrants. As long as they have money, let alone a combination of twelve cards... what's wrong with collecting a hundred and eight heroes of the Water Margin? People directly post a task on the trading website, and collect them according to the price of each card in RMB, and they will be collected sooner or later.

"Hmm... the space in the warehouse is gradually becoming a little insufficient..." Feng Bujue muttered as he looked at his box with only ten storage slots when storing the cards, "The [Jazz Dance] will be destroyed sooner or later, but the [Poker Hero ID Card] will probably occupy a slot all the time. My inventory is currently just barely enough, there is no extra space; it is obviously not appropriate to carry a pile of puzzle cards in my clothes pocket..."

Thinking of this, Brother Jue made up his mind, summoned the operation window of the storage box, and then bought five storage slots through the quick channel.

Like the price of the inventory slots, the price of the storage slots is also 1,000,000 game coins per five slots. This money will have to be spent sooner or later, so it's better to take this opportunity to get it done. In case I get a lot of puzzle cards as a reward when I come out of the script next time, it will be a bit embarrassing.

"Okay..." Feng Bujue looked at the disappearing game coins in the menu, turned around and walked towards the elevator, "Going to farm instances to earn money."