Chapter 22 – Ye Qiu’s Retirement (1)

Chen Guo still didn’t understand. Even if Ye Xiu didn’t mind, why would the other person accept him into the party?

“What exactly happened?” Chen Guo asked.

“I reckon that when they first admitted me in, they had a plot set up for me. But after seeing that I played well, they felt that I would be helpful to them, so they let me go. Ye Xiu said.

“Then you just happily worked for them without any benefits?” Chen Guo felt extremely on Ye Xiu’s behalf.

“It’s nothing. It’s okay.” While Ye Xiu said this, on the screen, a lance flashed by killing off the Spider Lord that had been surrounded by the five of them. Chen Guo saw a bunch of system messages typed out neatly in the chat box. The party members Seven Fields, Sleeping Moon, Sunset Clouds, and Drifting Water all chose to renounce the equipment dropped from the Spider Lord.

“What is the meaning of this?” Chen Guo was astonished.

“I was very helpful to them, so they forced me to choose which equipment to take first. Sigh, there’s nothing I can do!” While Ye Xiu said this, he decisively chose to renounce them. Through these priority picks, he had already collected a set of Blue equipment long ago. But these guys still wanted him to take a look first.

Chen Guo was dumbstruck. She felt that what Ye Xiu described was too modest. How was this working for them? Wasn’t he the boss? Only the core of the party was qualified to have priority picks after finishing a BOSS,. Not only that, but the precondition was that they were all a group of friends that recognized each other. Only then would they let the player who did the most work have priority. But these party members? Before she had slept, it seemed like they were enemies. When she work up, how did they all suddenly become his little brothers?

“Clearly tell me how exactly this happened.” Chen Guo wouldn’t drop this matter and would ask until results came forth.

“It’s because I helped them a lot!” Ye Xiu said.

“How much?”

“I carried them through the Spider Cave and Spider Emperor first clears.” Ye Xiu said.

“You completed three first clears in one night?” Chen Guo was shocked. She had played Chasing Haze for five years, but she didn’t have a single first clear under her name. He only played throughout the night and a morning, not even 12 hours, but obtained three first clears. This was too dazzling.

“Good luck.” Ye Xiu said. He lazily stretched and stood up from his chair. The party members on the screen had already logged out. A faint farewell could be heard from his headphones. Ye Xiu took the headphones from Chen Guo’s hands. He put it up to his mouth shouting “See you later!” and then logged out of the game.

“I’m so sleepy. I’m going to sleep.” Ye Xiu said.

“Do you want to eat something before sleeping?” While Chen Guo said this, she sized up Ye Xiu. Truthfully, when she looked at Ye Xiu’s face, she couldn’t see any signs of the word “sleepy”. This person had pulled an all-nighter plus a morning. He did look a little listless, but the problem was that yesterday, when they had first met, he looked depressed as if he were half-dead. She really couldn’t tell that he had been wounded by the weapon of no sleep.

“No need! After I sleep, I’ll eat !” Ye Xiu shut down the computer and ran. Chen Guo had given him the keys to the second floor storage room last night. After opening the door to that pitifully tiny storage room, he covered his head with a pillow and fell asleep. As for this room, it actually suited sleeping during the day very nicely. When the door was closed, the small light that slipped through the window wouldn’t disturb him at all.

Ye Xiu fell asleep quickly. He slept extremely well. When he awoke, the day turned dark again. It was hard to imagine that someone who had just recently experienced such a great rise and fall could sleep so simply. Sitting up from his bed, Ye Xiu didn’t turn on the lights. He lit up a cigarette and after quietly smoking it, he got up and left the room.

The doors to the two small bedrooms were all locked up. Ye Xiu knew that one of these rooms was occupied by Chen Guo and the other was occupied by young lady named Tang Rou. He heard that Tang Rou was a long-time employee at Happy Internet Cafe. She had already worked there for almost two years, but in these past few days, she had taken a break. As for other Internet Cafe employees that needed a living place, they lived in the nearby neighborhood. Chen Guo had rented an apartment for all of the employees to live in. Ye Xiu’s place was a place for waiting until a vacancy opened up. Chen Guo indicated that as soon as a person stopped working, he would have the opportunity to obtain his own bed.

When he went to the bathroom at a convenient time, Ye Xiu saw a sticky note on the mirror. Bored, he took a glance and discovered that the sticky note was actually written to him. Chen Guo had already prepared a towel and toothbrush for him.

Ye Xiu tore down the sticky note and was somewhat at a loss. Mainly, he didn’t think that the boss was so attentive. As for whether he was moved, this type of trivial matter wouldn’t be enough, grateful would be more accurate.

After tidying the towel and toothbrush, Ye Xiu left and looked around for a bit. It was already 9 o’clock. He hadn’t eaten food all day. Leaving the small inner rooms, he entered the Internet Cafe and felt a little abnormal. Even though the second floor was a more costly higher quality area, it was a little too empty. Ye Xiu headed downstairs baffled. In the end, unexpectedly, the further he went, the darker it became. The Internet Cafe’s first floor actually had no lights turned on.

“Did something happen?” Ye Xiu glanced around at a loss. He discovered that although the first floor lights weren’t turned on, there were a lot of people, so much so that there were quite a few trying to squeeze in. To wall in the south, a 200 inch diagonal projection hung high up. The projector streamed a scene and the sound echoed throughout the entire Internet Cafe. Everyone was extremely quiet, whether they were sitting at a computer or standing in the passageway. It seemed as if they had all forgotten what the purpose of an Internet Cafe was and treated it as a movie theatre, quietly gazing at the projection. Ye Xiu also quickly heard a voice commentating on the scene. Five words that he couldn’t have been more familiar with appeared.

Ye Qiu, One Autumn Leaf.

The projection that was being streamed, to his shock, was a movie segment on the history of his professional career in Glory. The commentator also movingly described the series of accomplishments he had gained in his career in Glory.

Three time league champion, three time MVP, two time Rising Star, one time One Hit One Kill.

No matter if it was his team or other players, Ye Qiu was at the peak of the Glory Professional Alliance. He was the goal of every professional Glory player.

“Next, let’s all commemorate the Battle God One Autumn Leaf that Ye Qiu controlled through these series of marvelous images.” The commentator used a downcast sorrowful tone to cast. On the projection, invincible images of the Battle God One Autumn Leaf began showing on the screen. Before, any picture would have made the crowd go wild with excitement. But now, the Internet Cafe was silent. There was no yelling or cheering. Everyone just silently looked as pictures flashed by one by one. They knew, from today onwards, everything there would be a thing of the past.

On that day at noon, Excellent Era Club called for a news conference and announced the retirement of their team captain Ye Xiu.

This ever mysterious expert didn’t even participate in his own retirement news conference. Everyone only saw the Excellent Era manager take out Ye Qiu’s signature on the agreement stating his retirement. The Excellent Era manager soon after proclaimed, that the retired Ye Xiu had tactfully declined the club’s other positions and left the Excellent Era Club by himself.

The screen continuously flickered. Duels, slaughters, records, the commentator timely made progress and gradually made his way to Ye Qiu and Excellent Era’s dismal situation. Within the Internet Cafe crowd, faint sobbing could be heard.