Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 314: 312: He Really Gave Too Much

At the same time, the famous civil expert Warehouse Bird yawned, leaving a last comment in Cathy’s comment section: “Ah, yeah yeah, you’re right.”

Then he closed his Spiritual Rhinoceros and logged into the virtual world.

Since Cloud Dream announced the opening of “Assassins’ Alliance” national competition, in which the first round of registration required only a five-member team and had no other restrictions, the intrigue and battles have begun within the “Noob Chat Group” that Warehouse Bird is in.

Warehouse Bird has joined many player groups, but “Noob Chat Group” is the most special one.

What doesn’t match the group’s name is that there isn’t a single noob player in this group…

Instead, it’s filled with players who have played for a long time, hold high enthusiasm, and possess excellent skills.

The history of this group can be traced back several years—group members frequently run into each other in games and have a good understanding of each other.

With the previous Freedom Day event, almost all members participated in the competition.

In the competition, these heavy-duty players basically showed how much of their skill in VR gaming could be transferred into the virtual world.

Some of the once top-tier gods lost their luster, becoming ordinary experts.

But other players, whose strength was always at the lower end, suddenly shined in the virtual world.

And so, the battle for the strongest teammate began!

Warehouse Bird has both skills and reputation, along with his last battle achievements, so he naturally received countless invitations within these two days.

But he didn’t accept any of them; instead, he started recruiting others himself.

He wanted to form the strongest team!

The reason his five-man team hadn’t been formed even after a day and a night was simple: he wanted to try recruiting the cold-weapon expert Xu Chun.

Since Xu Chun had looked for teammates through random matching last time, that meant he didn’t have a fixed team before and might not have one this time, either.

Besides, with their previous teamwork, there might be a chance of success, right?

You should know that although Xu Chun was sanctioned last time, he was sanctioned by the champion team!

Even the incredibly powerful champion team didn’t have an advantage against Xu Chun when it came to a cold-weapon combat.

How could he not include someone like this in his team?

The problem was that Warehouse Bird and Xu Chun were just netizens who happened to form a team in the game, and their only connection was being in-game friends.

Naturally, he didn’t have Xu Chun’s phone number.

Adding to that, Xu Chun’s recent online time was short and unstable, and Warehouse Bird didn’t catch up with him even once in a whole day.

However, he was not willing to give up just like that, so he set his mind—

Friday would be the last deadline. If he couldn’t contact Xu Chun by then, he would give up.

After all, the first round of the competition would start on Monday. They didn’t have any delusions of making it straight into the top three, so they would just have to make do without a top player!

Their mindset was not much different from most players who were “focused on participating.”

Given the precedent of the “Tomato Trophy,” players generally felt that no matter the outcome, at least participating was worth it.

Warehouse Bird and his group only hope to be promoted for a few more rounds, prove their strength as much as possible, and accumulate some bragging rights.

Finally, hard work paid off.

Today, when Warehouse Bird logged into “Assassins’ Alliance,” he saw Xu Chun’s name lit up in his friend list just a few minutes later.

Warehouse Bird hurriedly dialed a voice call, fearing that Xu Chun might suddenly go offline a few seconds later.

On the other end, Xu Chun handed a simple longspear to his friend who had just logged into the virtual world for the first time.

This friend was just persuaded by him to experience the virtual world today—a martial arts expert named Lori.

Xu Chun had also been keeping in touch with this good buddy after returning to his hometown.

In order to add persuasive power and leave an impressive impression, he even planned to demonstrate, with his actual skill level, a technique practically impossible to achieve in the real world with similar skill levels:

[Single Blade into Spear].

Xu Chun intended to make Lori, who never played games, question his own life.

As Xu Chun was about to throw the longspear, a friend’s call came in.

He glanced at Lori, who had just accepted the longspear and was getting used to the feel of it, deciding to give him some time to adjust, lest he had excuses for losing later.

So he accepted the call: “Warehouse Bird, you’re the real god here! What’s up?”

“No way, no way, you’re the big god, boss!” Warehouse Bird denied repeatedly.

“How could that be? Warehouse Bird, you’re a top-tier god! What do you need from me?”

After passing each other a few compliments, Warehouse Bird quickly got to the point: “Boss, do you want to participate in Cloud Dream’s latest event? If you’re interested, how about joining my team? I promise we’re all experts!”

Xu Chun was briefly confused but quickly reacted: “No, no, I’m too busy recently. I won’t be participating.”

“What? Really?” Warehouse Bird was very surprised. He had expected Xu Chun to refuse but didn’t think Xu Chun would abstain completely.

“Isn’t it a pity if you don’t participate?”

“Well, I have no choice. I’m really busy.” Xu Chun still refused.

——The truth was, being busy was just a part of it. Lincoln hadn’t urged him to work, and now he could arrange his work time according to his wishes.

If he really wanted to participate in the competition, it wouldn’t be impossible to squeeze out time.

But he felt that, as an official of Cloud Dream, even though he wasn’t a part of the “Assassins’ Alliance” project team, participating in the competition would still feel like “taking an official position.”

It wasn’t appropriate.

So he never contemplated it.

After exchanging a few more polite words, and expressing his “strong regret,” Xu Chun hung up the phone.

“How are you doing, Old Lori? Used to it?”

“Used to it? Yeah, I guess.” Lori asked uncertainly, “But are you really sure you want to fight me with a knife? You don’t know that fighting longspear with a knife is like fighting against your own son? We’ve tried it before, haven’t we?”

These words immediately brought back painful memories of when Xu Chun had studied martial arts at various martial arts schools.

“Forget about our past glories! Don’t bring up the past! Today, I’ll let you witness my true power!”

Xu Chun raised his knife, focused his gaze on Lori, who had assumed his stance, and his expression became serious.

Lori also adjusted his expression and held a longspear.

The duel was about to begin!

Relying on the longspear’s range advantage, Lori made the first move. His spear swiftly lunged through the air as if it were a dragon, bursting with lethal intent!

But with an almost imperceptible curve to the corner of his mouth, Xu Chun activated his skill at the critical moment!

[Assassin Bloodline Lv.10]!

In an instant——

The world slowed down in Xu Chun’s eyes.

And the outcome was set!

Xu Chun stepped forward, twisted his body, raised his knife, and slashed at Lori’s throat!

One breath!

After Lori disappeared in the light, he quickly returned.

——They were fighting just outside the spawn point, and Xu Chun didn’t give Lori any time to level up.

Lori picked up the long spear on the ground, touched his neck, and began to doubt his life.

Xu Chun suppressed his laughter and said, “I’ve mastered my blade skills. How’s that? Do you admit defeat? If you don’t, I can play a few more games with you.”

“Fine, I’m in.”

As soon as Lori saw Xu Chun’s look, he knew that he wanted to take the opportunity to beat him a few more times, so he resolutely denied him the opportunity.

On the other end, Warehouse Bird, who had lost a powerful player, hung up the communication in disappointment.

But a great expert is still a great expert. Warehouse Bird immediately pulled himself together and began contacting his backup players.

“Hey? Old Zhang, do you want to join our team?”

“What? Not coming, you’ve already got a team? Alright, good luck!”

“See you at the finals, haha!”

After hanging up the phone, Warehouse Bird didn’t care; everyone was actively looking for a team.

If one doesn’t work out, just move to the next.

How could a successful man be deterred by such a small setback?

He had prepared a full five backups, not fearing anything!

“Hey? Old Fang, what do you think, do you want to join our team?”

“Oh, you also have a team? When did that happen?”

“Last night? What a shame, good luck!”

“We’re all rising up! Hahaha!”

After hanging up the phone, Warehouse Bird persisted and dialed the next number.

“Old Li, do you want to join our… What? You already have a team too?”

“Old Wang? Do you want to… ”

“Old Xing? Do you have a team… ”

After making five consecutive calls, Warehouse Bird suddenly fell silent.

What’s going on?

All five of them have teams already?!

How is that possible?

Should he call out in the group chat again?

Just as Warehouse Bird was hesitating, his teammate [Wandering the World], who had already agreed to team up, suddenly sent Warehouse Bird a text message: “Warehouse Bird, I’m sorry, I have to quit the team.”

Warehouse Bird immediately sent a series of question marks.

It’s not that he had trouble finding a new teammate, now his original teammate is leaving too?

“Is it because you suddenly got busy? Or did you find a stronger team? Or is it some other reason?” Warehouse Bird sent an anxious series of questions.

But after a long silence, the other party gave him an unexpected answer: “He just gave too much.”

This time, the question marks came straight out of Warehouse Bird’s forehead.

Am I being undercut while just playing a game?

“Who was it?” Warehouse Bird was not convinced.

[Wandering the World] didn’t conceal it and directly mentioned the name of a well-known Pay-To-Win Lord anchor.

Warehouse Bird was speechless and just left a few full stops.

He thought about the five players he had contacted earlier and the reason became clear. He immediately sent a few text messages to inquire.

Soon, his thoughts were confirmed.

All five of them had been invited by different Pay-To-Win Lord players! And it was all paid invitations!

Warehouse Bird was now genuinely panicked!

He quickly contacted the remaining three teammates, urging them to stand firm in their faith and not be swayed by evil money!

However, when chatting with the third teammate, this teammate suddenly pushed a business card to Warehouse Bird, saying that this person wanted to add him as a friend, and asked him to approve it.

Warehouse Bird opened it and saw: [Chasing Wind].

“Well, you failed to dig my teammate, and now you dare to come and dig me?”

Warehouse Bird was furious, but luckily his teammate resisted temptation, otherwise, the team would have disbanded before the competition even started!

Wouldn’t that mean dying before the battle even began?

Warehouse Bird found the friend request, approved it, and immediately scolded angrily: “Before you try to poach someone, won’t you consider their identity? I’m the team captain! You’re poaching me?”

“What?” Chasing Wind replied confusedly: “I didn’t intend to poach you.”

“Huh?” Warehouse Bird was startled, but immediately added, “Digging my teammates isn’t okay either!”

“But I didn’t intend to poach your teammates either?” Chasing Wind continued to express his confusion.

Chasing Wind’s two denials left Warehouse Bird at a loss for words, “Then why did you add me?”

“You’re short of people, right? Add me then!”

“Huh?” Warehouse Bird didn’t know how many times he had said “huh” by now.

As the well-known Pay-To-Win Lord player, [No. 0001 Gold Key Owner], Chasing Wind, suddenly pulled a reversal!

This truly caught him off guard.

Chasing Wind saw that Warehouse Bird wasn’t responding and thought he might be unwilling.

He could understand, after all, the team was all experts, and he hadn’t even maxed out his skill levels——there was no choice, the last few levels of skills were really hard to level up, and he was playing rather casually.

But giving up was impossible.

He promptly threw in his bargaining chip, “For all my teammates, 20,000 yuan as a joining bonus. For every win, add another 10,000 as a reward. How about that?”

Warehouse Bird opened his mouth, suddenly forgiving his teammate [Wandering the World] for leaving.

At the same time, he understood the feeling of the other party when he said those words——

“He gave too much.”