Chapter 11: The Beginning Of A Contradiction

Shen Jingchen's long explanation had left his mouth dry.

Seeing Shen Jingbin nod her head, he felt that the trouble he'd gone through to explain things had been worth it.

Shen Jingchen cheerfully laughed and rubbed her head before sighing, "As expected, you wouldn't be stupid since your big brother is smart."

Shen Jingbin threw him a supercilious look and immediately left.

She'd seen shameless people, but she'd never seen someone that shameless.

However, she couldn't leave just yet.

The storm of gossip that she'd inadvertently raised beforehand was now in blazing in full force, preventing her from leaving!

A gloomy smile tugged at her lips. It was a smile that made Shen Jingchen feel as if hell had frozen over in his heart.

"What's going on? Does Slight Chill have a grudge against you? Is her hostility due to some unforgivable thing you did to her, like fooling around?"

"Screw off! What kind of nonsense are you on about? Your brain is practically filled with shit! I'd never think of getting into a relationship with a woman like that!"

"Then why is she so against you? Even if you said that you and her aren't at odds, based on the way she acted, I wouldn't believe you even if I were blind."

"She had some feelings for the leader in the past but lacked the courage to confess. I couldn't help but pity her, so I tried to help her out by letting the leader know. Who would've thought that he'd ruthlessly reject her, which ended up making her hate me. After that, I found out that she, intentionally or otherwise, made up various falsehoods to slander the female players that were even a little close to the leader. She even worked together with other players to pressure them. Slight Chill was pretty and had a fair bit of skill. This, coupled with the good relations she held with others, led to many of our female members bitterly suffering in silence. It was a miserable existence. To save them from their predicament, I raised this matter to the leader out of the kindness of my heart, but little did I expect her to stare at me like a madwoman who wanted to tear me apart."

Bullshit. You'd definitely be hated by every woman if you smeared their name multiple times in front of their sweetheart.

Shen Jingbin was dumbstruck by her brother's low EQ.¹ It's no wonder he's still single.

After a pausing for a few seconds, Shen Jingchen rubbed his nose, "Also, she previously tried to admit her female cousin into the guild, but I rejected her based on her low level, shoddy equipment, and lack of control over her character."

"…Shen Jingchen, in truth, you'd long since anticipated this, so you prepared these stories for me, right?" Shen Jingbin's head was filled with black lines² as she stared at him. F*ck, you're obviously trying to screw me over!

As a new player, even if she received the best equipment available from a hidden quest, with the amount of silver and medicine she had, Shen Jingbin was still a pauper. In view of this, Shen Jingchen brought her to a system owned shop and bought her a large pile of red and blue medicine, along with some equipment that she could use.

Although Shen Jingchen's warehouse held many nice things, Shen Jingbin's level was still low, rendering them unusable.

The two of them stood in front of the shop and perused its wares in hopes of finding anything else that might be useful. At this moment, a carrier pigeon flew over while flapping its wings and landed on Shen Jingchen's shoulder.

Shen Jingchen clutched the pigeon and retrieved the letter. After glancing through it, he said, "The guild is planning to enter an instance dungeon to farm some materials and I'm needed to lead them. Do some quests on your own, I'll help you out again once you've gained some levels."

Shen Jingchen was one of the executives within Jade Sea Pavilion and was tasked with many duties on a daily basis. One shouldn't look at it as just a game. With a number of interpersonal relationships and other matters to manage, it was definitely no less demanding than real life.

Shen Jingbin waved her hand to indicate that he needn't worry about her, and that he should handle his own matters.

Seeing Shen Jingbin turn her back on him, Shen Jingchen couldn't help but nag her a little more before he summoned his mount and left.

With the annoyance gone, Shen Jingbin could finally have some peace and quiet.

Walking out of the shop, she thought about her current predicament as she strolled along.

Although she'd managed to easily get into Jade Sea Pavilion with her identity as the disciple of White Cloud Temple's Sect Leader, regardless, Jade Sea Pavilion was still the number one guild in the game. The puny amount of strength she possessed was an issue that she couldn't neglect.

And, based on her years of experience from reading novels, a guild that was able to develop to such an extent would definitely have some enemies. In that case, a small fry like her would be the first to kick the bucket if both sides were to clash one day. Who knows, she might even become a laughingstock of Jade Sea Pavilion.

Which is why her top priority was to train herself up and increase her strength so that she'd be able to put up a fight a little sooner.

There were three ways to level up quickly in <<Legends of Celestials and Demons>>. The first was through quests, the second was hunting on the field, and the third was instance dungeons. The first method was a safe way of leveling, but only afforded an average rate of leveling. The second boasted the most efficient leveling, but required the help of a pro player to work. As for the third method, her level wasn't high enough to start on instances just yet.

Until now, the only pro player Shen Jingbin knew was Shen Jingchen, but he had to participate in an instance dungeon with his guild. With all other avenues closed to her, Shen Jingbin could only do some quests on her own to raise her level.

River City had a fair amount of quests. She managed to pick up some pretty good rewards from them after wandering around the city, bringing her level up to 25.

1. Emotional Quotient ↩
2. It's the black lines that appear in anime when a character sees or hears something depressing. http://hz-xin.com/t-1959801860105144540.html ↩