Chapter 1 Something to be Startled About

Although Feng Bujue had made ample mental preparations before entering the login space, he was still a bit startled when he opened his inbox.

"The last time I received this many emails...it was during the S1 Butterfly War when I fought her..." Brother Jue muttered helplessly, looking at the five-figure number of emails.

After many updates, Thriller Paradise's social system had naturally become richer and more complete, and some related rules had also changed accordingly.

In the current version, players can send and receive emails very freely, but the system-level "supervision" has become stricter; the system's ability to distinguish "spam" is now a quantum leap from the early days of the game, almost to the level of human review.

In addition to swear words, disgusting remarks without swear words, garbage information composed of various garbled codes, and advertising emails, the system can now filter and block some more complex methods...such as acrostic poems, veiled criticisms that combine current events, specific graphics composed of various symbols, and so on.

And once a player sends that kind of blocked email, they will not be able to send messages to the other party for a long time; in addition, even if they do not send that kind of email that is judged by the system as malicious harassment, if a player does not receive a reply to an email sent to another party within a certain period of time, they will not be able to repeatedly send multiple emails to the same object.

In summary, the game's anti-harassment mechanism is still very much in place.

But...even so, Brother Jue still received tens of thousands of messages; it's not hard to imagine that if the system hadn't stopped them, he would probably be waiting for a seven-figure number instead of a five-figure number...

"Hmm...'I'm very unhappy, you're a bad guy'...'I hate you'...'Can you please stop your heartbeat?'...'Xu Huai Shang's Honor Guard is here, the following omits one hundred million words of phrases that may be blocked, you know what to do'..."

Feng Bujue quickly browsed through the emails, and the content of most of them made him both laugh and cry.

Due to the existence of system review, these people had to rack their brains to find words that would not be blocked in order to get the emails delivered, and the result was...in the end, the things sent were extremely "harmonious," making people not angry at all, and even feeling a little cute.

Ding--

Brother Jue had only been looking for two minutes when a prompt suddenly sounded, indicating that a friend wanted to talk to him.

He looked at the window, and sure enough...it was [Xu Huai Shang].

After thinking for two seconds, Feng Bujue selected "Audio-only communication (video is possible, but Brother Jue usually doesn't click it because he doesn't think it's necessary)," and took the lead in speaking after the communication was established, "Hello."

"Hello," Xu Huai Shang replied.

"The surprise attack you pulled off today was really smooth," Brother Jue continued in a teasing tone after greeting, "Acting first and reporting later, huh?"

"Heh..." Xu Huai Shang naturally knew what Brother Jue was talking about, and she was amused, "I suppose you're dealing with threatening emails right now?"

"Yeah, these threatening emails with a strength between kindergarten senior and junior classes, looking like they're just being spoiled, are simply a nightmare," Feng Bujue complained.

"Just bear with it for a few days, anyway, it'll decrease after a while," Xu Huai Shang said, "Unlike me...I'm suffering from this kind of harassment every day; in addition to threatening emails, there are also confessions of love, pick-up lines, and the most outrageous thing is that there are people confessing the bad things they've done on weekdays..."

"You are you, I am me," Feng Bujue said, "Why don't you say that you usually don't have to pay or wait in line when you go out?"

After saying this, Xu Huai Shang was obviously stunned for two seconds, then said, "Hey, how do you know that I usually don't have to pay or wait in line when I go out?"

"Don't worry, I'm not a stalker," Feng Bujue knew that the other party was probably thinking crookedly, "I'm just making a reasonable deduction."

The next second, Xu Huai Shang's voice rose, "I go to the store to drink a cup of coffee, and everyone from the waiter to the supervisor says I'm a lucky customer and don't have to pay...that's not my problem, is it? I go to the amusement park, and there are always people in front of the line who want to invite me to join them, that's not my problem either, I'm also very troubled!"

"What does it have to do with me!" Feng Bujue said, "Go tell your parents! Wear a mask and sunglasses when you go out!"

The two people roared at each other for no reason, and then fell silent for a few seconds.

After that, Xu Huai Shang brought the topic back, "Okay, let's get down to business, I want to join your guild, is that okay?"

"No," Feng Bujue replied without thinking.

"Why?" Xu Huai Shang asked.

"Our guild is very low-key," Feng Bujue said.

"Huh?" From Xu Huai Shang's tone...she seemed to want to laugh, but forcibly restrained herself, "Do you know that you alone are already more famous than all the players in many studios combined? Besides, your Hell Frontline is the S2 champion, how much more low-key can you get?"

"So you want to directly increase our guild's popularity by more than two times now?" Feng Bujue asked rhetorically.

"I don't really care about those," Xu Huai Shang said, "I only know that your guild is super strong, and I also think the team atmosphere is very good."

"What else?" Feng Bujue continued.

Xu Huai Shang was stunned by the question, "What else?"

"There's one more key reason you didn't say, right?" Feng Bujue said.

"Um..." Xu Huai Shang hesitated for a moment, and after some thought, she felt that this matter could not be hidden from Feng Bujue, so she said, "Okay...I think there's a good chance of winning the S3 championship if I follow you."

"Aiyo~ that's right," Feng Bujue said in a triumphant tone, "If you want to latch onto a strong team, just say it directly, if you were honest from the beginning, maybe I would have considered it."

"Then how are you considering it now?" Xu Huai Shang seemed a little impatient, and followed up with a question.

"Still no," Feng Bujue's cheapness was on the rise.

"Why..." Xu Huai Shang said word by word, "Still...no?"

"Because our guild is not only very low-key, but also very democratic," Feng Bujue replied, "I don't have the right to decide whether you can join by myself, I have to ask the other members before I can give you an answer."

"As long as they all agree, you'll agree?" Xu Huai Shang said.

"Yes," Feng Bujue said, "But...it must be that all of our guild members unanimously agree, and not even one veto is allowed."

"There are only five people in your guild, right?" Xu Huai Shang said.

"Yeah, so every vote is very important," Brother Jue replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "Just imagine our place as the United Nations Security Council, each member has a 'veto power'."

"Ho~ although I've never heard of our guild having this kind of rule, but since you've said so, I hope you can do the same in the future."

At this moment, another person's voice came from the communication channel.

The tone of this person's voice was ninety percent similar to Brother Jue's, but the voice was much more pleasant than Brother Jue's.

"Eh?" Brother Jue's first reaction was that he had heard wrong, "What's the situation? Ruo Yu?"

"Brother Jue, actually the four of us have been here from the beginning..." Then, Xiao Tan's voice came from the other side.

"Been...where?" Feng Bujue asked as he thought.

"In Sister Shang's conference room..." Xiao Tan replied.

"You've already recognized a sister so quickly, huh?" Feng Bujue complained almost instinctively, "Speaking of which, you got home fast? After you finished eating hot pot, didn't you go take a crap first? You got online earlier than me!"

The louder he spoke, the louder his voice became, because he had realized that his call with Xu Huai Shang was completely conducted under the watchful eyes of his four Hell Frontline teammates, although he didn't say anything out of line, the feeling of being secretly monitored without knowing it was always not good.

"Then...you basically know the situation, right," After a few seconds, Xu Huai Shang's voice came back, "If there's no problem with your vote, then come to my conference room and add me...guild leader."

…………

When Feng Bujue was invited to enter Xu Huai Shang's conference room, Ruo Yu, Xiao Ling, Xiao Tan, and Miss An were already waiting here for a long time.

To Brother Jue's surprise, Goddess Xu had actually decorated her conference room into an environment similar to a "training room," with basically no entertainment facilities, and other than around the conference table, there wasn't even a place to sit comfortably in the entire room.

"Hmm...so this is the conference room of a professional player...it really has some reference value," Feng Bujue came in and didn't stand on ceremony, walking to sit next to the others while looking around.

"Not all professional players decorate it this way," Xu Huai Shang said, "At least the studio I was in before didn't make any demands on the players' activities in the rest area..." She paused, then said, "The current layout is just my personal preference...because sometimes I have to wait for people to have meetings in the conference room, and I feel like it's better to use those times to exercise."

It was very obvious that Xu Huai Shang, whom [Meng Jing Chan] called a "genius," was not only outstanding in gaming talent, but also a very hardworking player.

In fact, she was probably the most hardworking active professional player.

From the earliest era of e-sports using keyboards and mice, to the future where holographic games gradually became popular, discrimination against female players in the professional gaming circle has never stopped; as times have changed, people's views have also gradually changed, but even today, there are still many people who hold the inherent impression that "female players' gaming skills must be weaker than male players," and whenever they mention female players, the focus of their attention will first be on their appearance, and then on some hyped or distorted scandalous news.

Admittedly, since the creation of "video games," male players have always been overwhelmingly strong in overall strength, and this is even more so after the game field began to professionalize; for a long time, it was extremely rare for male players to lose to female players in professional events, and if a well-known male player lost such a game, he would basically be criticized until he retired, and even after retirement, he would continue to be criticized...

However, in the era of Feng Bujue and his team playing games using neural connection technology, the number and overall strength of female players have both significantly improved, which has made the above situation somewhat changed.

Xu Huai Shang, then, can be said to be a flagship figure of this era.

She is the first female professional player to have won multiple individual championship honors in international competitions regardless of gender, at least in the mid-21st century, this is still an unprecedented achievement.

Perhaps to outsiders, a girl like Xu Huai Shang only needs to rely on a face to live a very "easy" life, but in reality, it is precisely because of her appearance that her path as a professional player has become even more bumpy.

Undoubtedly, even if Xu Huai Shang herself doesn't want to, she will inevitably be "treated differently" on various occasions; therefore, when she first started playing professionally, in addition to being harassed in various ways, she was also questioned in various ways.

She has been subjected to unfair treatment more than once for refusing some improper requests.

Those honors she earned through hard work have also been attributed by some people to "relying on appearance" and "relying on relationships" more than once, and...many people are willing to pay for those rumors.

However, she still survived...in the end, the game itself will not lie.

She used ten times, or even dozens of times more effort and dedication than others, to finally gain the recognition of players at the game level, and finally let people shift their eyes away from her appearance to realize...she is a professional player, and one of the top players.

Only Xu Huai Shang herself understands the hardships and bitterness she has experienced along the way.

Now, as a professional player, she no longer needs to prove her strength, but...she still has one regret, that is, she has not yet won the honor of "team championship"; therefore, this time she joined Hell Frontline is equivalent to betting on Feng Bujue and his team...

Of course, Feng Bujue is not clear about these experiences and thoughts of hers. After all, Brother Jue does not understand Xu Huai Shang.

But...as a woman, Ruo Yu's feelings in this regard are much more delicate and敏锐 than Brother Jue's; when she saw the news of Xu Huai Shang's termination of contract, she had already vaguely thought of something...after that, after some intentional or unintentional probing, although Xu Huai Shang still kept her mouth shut, Ruo Yu already understood that the trigger for Xu Huai Shang and Hong Ying's termination of contract incident was the several decisions she made in the S2 Hong Ying vs. Hell Frontline match.

After learning this, Ruo Yu naturally felt some unspeakable emotions in her heart...

"Speaking of...the character in your account, and these resources, will they all belong to you after the termination of the contract?" Feng Bujue did not make too many comments on Xu Huai Shang's "personal preferences," and he quickly asked a question that he was more interested in.

"Yes, they all belong to me personally," Xu Huai Shang replied, "However...during this period of time before the termination of the contract, the studio has also used various means to recover the resources that can be recovered, and has also greatly hindered my normal game play...so I haven't been able to level up a few levels since the level cap was opened."

"Oh~" Before the other party could finish speaking, Brother Jue had already figured out a few doubts that he hadn't figured out before in Linlu Town, and muttered, "No wonder..."

"Um...anyway..." Then, Feng Bujue swept his eyes over the partners present again, "Since everyone has no objections, I'll invite Goddess Xu to join the guild?"

"How about you change your title for me first?" Xu Huai Shang continued.

"Hehe..." When Feng Bujue heard this, a few traces of cheapness appeared on his face.

"If you dare to say that word starting with 'four'..." Ruo Yu now has reached the point where she can discern the point of Brother Jue's trash talk before it even comes out of his mouth, "There may be uncontrollable events such as physical conflict when we say hello tomorrow morning."

"Uh..." Being seen through, Feng Bujue reluctantly swallowed the trash talk that had already reached his mouth, and then looked at Xu Huai Shang and said, "Then you tell me how I should call you."

"You're older than me, just call me Xiao Shang," Xu Huai Shang replied.

"Then the question comes..." Feng Bujue said seriously, "In front of your brain-dead fans...like those honor guards or something, should I prepare another title?"

"No need, no matter what you call me, their attitude towards you will still be nothing more than 'death penalty,' 'must kill,' etc..." Xu Huai Shang actually rolled her eyes and spat out a complaint.

"Hehe..." Brother Jue smiled, "Okay..." As he said that, he summoned the game menu and made a guild invitation to Xu Huai Shang, "Welcome to join the big family of Hell Frontline." He paused for half a second and added, "Of course, I can't guarantee that I can lead you to win the S3 championship."

"No," Unexpectedly, before Xu Huai Shang could respond, Ruo Yu continued in a very firm tone, "We will definitely get it..." She looked at Xu Huai Shang, "It's not that we 'help' you get it, but that we go to get the S3 championship together."