Chapter 177 – Battle of Immortals (Part 1)

“… Games, to Practitioners, are much like romance novels to scholars of the past; they are products that can satisfy their deepest desires and wildest fantasies, but they are not available to them.

Many ancient romance novels revolve around a poor scholar who traveled to Tianjing City for the imperial examination. Along the way, he would encounter the young daughter of a wealthy family and steal her heart—10% with his talent and abilities, 30% with his looks, and the remaining 60% with his lecherous intentions. She would definitely pay for his expenses along his journey, and might even vow not to marry anyone else but him.

Subsequently, the scholar would emerge as the champion in the examination and be thought highly of by the daughter of the grand chancellor. In the end however, he would decide to marry the young lady who had waited for him for a long, torturous time. The daughter of the grand chancellor, on the other hand, would be extremely touched by his decision and be more than willing to be his concubine, so both ladies would serve the scholar…

Well, such novels are still very common today, and there are even games related to such stories, though they are generally all rated R18.

Successful officials and royalties would not read such novels, because they already possessed far more than that of the protagonists of these novels. Ordinary civilians would not read such novels either, because they were not scholars who could be freed from their poverty anyway.

Simply put, they did not feel for the protagonists as they were not similar to each other.

However, according to collated statistics, the large majority of ordinary Practitioners preferred to play games instead, especially games related to extraordinary abilities. This was because they happened to be the ‘scholars’ described in such games—they were not as powerful as the character in the game, but were also not ordinary people who were powerless.

Moreover, the role of one with extraordinary abilities was precisely the goal of Practitioners.

For this reason, Practitioners should not be addicted to games and should instead be diligent in their practice…”

Xie Qiansi placed the internally-circulated magazine down and yawned. He turned around and asked, shouting, “Is anyone going online? If there is no one I would be heading off work to the training facility now.”

“Come over here!”

“Come online, come online!”

Although Xie Qiansi was transferred to the Countermeasure Department, he did not work in the Countermeasure Division of Lianjiang City, but instead in the Countermeasure Office of the Public Security Bureau in Yuexiu District.

The main job of the Countermeasure Department personnel stationed there was to assist the police in hunting down criminals with extraordinary abilities. Criminals who escaped the search of the criminal investigation system or displayed an extraordinary combat ability would then be referred to the Countermeasure Division Headquarters. In addition, they had to search for and group any extraordinary phenomena which occurred in the area under their jurisdiction, which would then be handed over to the Countermeasure Division Headquarters.

After all, Lianjiang City had a resident population of over 10 million. There was only one Countermeasure Division HQ in the past as there was insufficient manpower, but as more civil servant Practitioners took on their roles, a comprehensive network of Countermeasure Division personnel covering the entire city was formed.

Nonetheless, Xie Qiansi and the other personnel at his branch were relatively free. They usually vetted intelligence about ‘extraordinary phenomena’ when they were in the office, and they had fewer chances to work on the field. After all, mobile payments were extremely prevalent now. Who would bring a large sum of cash with them and give others a reason to commit crimes…

Xie Qiansi typically Practiced immediately after work, although there were occasional times when he needed to relax, such as by playing games with his colleagues. Their offices were completely soundproofed and doors to them also had to be closed (this was a rule), so playing games in their offices would not affect others’ perceptions about them in any way.

“Chairman, let me assist you.”

“I’ll take the top lane; otherwise I’ll feed.”

“No way, unless you call me ‘father’.”

“Grandson.”

After an intense argument, Xie Qiansi formed a five-member team with his colleagues and started playing League of Legends.

The ADC he chose was Ezreal. Xie Qiansi only looked at the appearances of the characters when he played games, and never cared about their pros and cons. To this end, he had saved up a few hundred dollars to buy character skins…

Five minutes after the start of the game, the office was silent.

Ten minutes later, someone had exited the game to browse the web.

Fifteen minutes later, someone said, “Let’s just surrender.”

Indeed, while they were a group of Practitioners, they did not play well. When they matched with other teams in the ordinary queue, their win rate was 50/50.

Of course, their reaction speeds were marginally quicker than that of ordinary people, but it had little effect in such competitive games—understanding the mechanisms of the heroes, awareness, and employing appropriate tactics were the keys to victory.

Xie Qiansi looked at his score of [1/3/2]. He nodded in his heart as he agreed to surrender.

Watching a duo from the enemy team tower dive and killing his hero yet again, Xie Qiansi shook his head in helplessness and rubbed his temples.

For some reason, Xie Qiansi felt like he was growing too old; he grew tired very quickly when playing games.

However, he felt that it was because he had Practiced too much, and as long as he returned to the battlefield, his fatigue would disappear completely.

As he watched his hero revive in his team’s base, Xie Qiansi noticed that he had sufficient money to upgrade his armor, so he opened the in-game shop—

Pssh——

Suddenly, Xie Qiansi heard a strange sound. He closed the shop menu and discovered that his base was under attack by a creature with a black, misty figure!

In League of Legends, as the last bit of dignity for both sides, their respective revival bases were impossible to be destroyed. The bases fired shots that traveled at the speed of light, which could kill enemies instantly. Although fully-leveled characters could be equipped with legendary armor to kill enemies inside the base, they had to have extremely high HP or would be characters who could evade attacks well.

But it was less than 20 minutes into the game and the second turret had not yet been destroyed. How did an enemy suddenly appear inside their base?

Then, when Xie Qiansi looked carefully, he realized that it was a character he did not recognize at all—it was not one of the heroes, nor was it one of the minions!

Moreover, for some reason, he did not suffer any damage even though the base was definitely attacking him. On the contrary, Xie Qiansi’s hero, Ezreal, was being depleted of his health very quickly!

A colleague sitting next to Xie Qiansi asked, “Chairman, what’s wrong with you, how did you die in your own base? Why isn’t the kill message appearing?”

“Hurry, look at what’s happening in the base!” exclaimed Xie Qiansi as he looked at the silhouette of the black, misty figure on the screen. He yelled, “There’s a bugged monster!”

“Bugged monster?”

“What the hell, what is this creature? Stop fighting outside and return to the base quickly to surround the creature and kill it.”

“Take a screenshot, take a screenshot! This is definitely going to blow up next time!”

Although they were Practitioners, Xie Qiansi and the rest of them were nonetheless still teenagers. When they saw such a rare situation, their eyes lit up. They could not help but be amazed as they quickly left their respective spots and returned to their base.

However, the monster with a black, misty figure had no intention to remain there to be a boss. Instead, it shot a shadow trail towards the outside of the base, and then, stepped on the shadow trail to move away extremely quickly. All damage due to physical collisions were ignored!

“It’s running away!”

“It can’t run away!”

At that time, Malzahar, the Prophet of the Void, who was in the mid lane had just revived. When he reached the second turret, he heard what Xie Qiansi said and quickly rushed back to their base, coincidentally meeting the black mist monster.

Malzahar cast his ultimate ability the moment he encountered the monster — [Nether Grasp], which could suppress enemy heroes for 2.5 seconds!

“As was foreseen,” said Malzahar as he cast his ultimate ability.

The player who controlled Malzahar thought, ‘My ultimate attack could hit this monster, it must be truly extraordinary.’

However, although the ultimate ability was cast, a blue barrier suddenly appeared before the black mist monster, and it did not suffer any damage.

“A boss monster with its own magic barrier?!”

“Find a way to stop it!”

“There’s no way to stop it!”

The other players had rushed over at that time and were desperately casting skills at the black mist monster. The black mist monster was already about to leave the base when Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem, successfully grabbed the monster and pulled it back!

“Nice!” exclaimed the players who had already returned to the base. They quickly tried to think of ways to stop the black mist monster. Although the black mist monster’s magic shield could still resist directional skills, it could not withstand basic attacks and battlefield-wide. Moreover, the black mist monster appeared to be heading out of the base, but it could only go through the main entrance and would be attacked by the defense turret!

[Fish On Land has been slain by ***]

[Will You Pick Me Up has been slain by ***]

[African Penguin has been slain by ***]

[NaisserRen233 has been slain by ***]

The black mist monster had not done anything at all, but Xie Qiansi and his four teammates were all killed!

“This monster is too problematic!”

“What happened!”

Everyone in the team was stunned. Suddenly, Xie Qiansi heard a chair falling from behind him. One of his colleagues stood up and looked at the computer in surprise. He exclaimed, “Look at this, it’s so strange! This isn’t a hero from League of Legends!”

“It’s Mercurial from DotA!”