This is an unprecedented experience for Deep Well Ice Player.
The wind was gentle that day, the sky was blue, and he was running through the lush forest with a group of crazy hamster chickens.
He ran, they chased, he kept running, and they kept chasing.
They were frolicking, playing, chasing, pulling… The whole world seemed to be filled with laughter, and this overly harmonious scene was incredibly frustrating!
Even in the chaotic battle that made Deep Well Ice Player, he had never felt so exhausted with just his own efforts.
It was exhaustion from the inside out, a heartfelt weariness.
Unbeknownst to them, a cloud of dust had spread throughout the entire forest.
Because the scene was so spectacular, it attracted the attention of passersby and wild boars, and their uniformly aligned gazes gradually filled with astonishment.
Where the hamster chicken horde had passed, the vegetation was sparse, and the landscape was desolate.
The only consolation, perhaps, was the steadily rising score of hatred.
Jiang Shi: “How’s it, old buddy? Not bad, right?”
Deep Well Ice Player: [I never want to see these sharp-beaked creatures again, and I don’t want to see you again!]
Jiang Shi chuckled, “Don’t say that, it hurts my feelings.”
Deep Well Ice Player tried to give this shameless guy the middle finger, got distracted, and was hit with a barrage of chicken attacks from behind.
D*rn it!
An hour later, the two of them successfully herded the chicken horde back to the village of Belfas and finally closed the last gate of the chicken coop.
The whole world finally became quiet.
The village chief, with a smile, said, “Welcome back anytime.”
The corners of Deep Well Ice Player’s mouth twitched a few times, but he didn’t have the courage to swear in front of the old man. Instead, he sent a barrage of gibberish messages to Jiang Shi in their friend chat and left, carrying his heavy cannon.
If you observed closely, you could see a hint of awkwardness in the way the Deep Dwarf left.
Although the full-immersion game couldn’t replicate pain like in real life, it still conveyed all sensations to the player to a certain percentage.
Not to mention anything else, the piece of meat on his butt had been subjected to a series of malicious attacks, and Deep Well Ice could still feel a lingering numbness.
Once they left the village and felt the gaze behind them disappear, their nerves relaxed, and he flopped onto the grassy hill.
With a “plop,” he lay flat on his back in the grass.
Jiang Shi glanced at him and casually lay down beside him.
With five rounds completed successfully, each consisting of 1500 hatred points, the handful of chicken feathers left on the two of them now symbolized another form of honor.
The sky was clear, and the weather was beautiful.
Looking at the two figures motionless on the hillside, everything seemed peaceful.
In this harmonious atmosphere, Jiang Shi suddenly spoke, “Old buddy.”
Deep Well Ice Player clearly still had some emotions: [Don’t bother me!]
Jiang Shi’s lips curled slightly, “Let’s talk.”
Deep Well Ice Player: [Go away!]
Jiang Shi asked, “Why did you quit the game back then?”
Deep Well Ice Player: [Why does it matter? Just like you, if I wanted to quit, I did.]
His response was quite casual, but Jiang Shi raised an eyebrow and remained silent.
Then he received a message from a friend.
Deep Well Ice Player, in his state of zen-like enlightenment: [Honestly, the full-immersion game is nothing like the old keyboard games. It’s too realistic, not at all friendly for those of us with social anxiety.]
Jiang Shi turned his head and looked at him, “So, during this time you were gone, you were playing keyboard games?”
Deep Well Ice Player: [Yes, you got it, and I was having a great time. I can only say that the game world doesn’t need socializing at all!]
Jiang Shi chuckled, “Isn’t it the same as coming back now?”
Deep Well Ice Player: [Isn’t it because of your recall invitation?]
Jiang Shi responded casually, “Well, I’m giving you face.”
Deep Well Ice Player: “…”
After a while, he typed: [Alright, I admit it. Keyboard games are not as fun as full-immersion.]
Jiang Shi finally chuckled.
Deep Well Ice Player was annoyed: [What’s so funny? Don’t laugh.]
“I didn’t laugh.”
Jiang Shi turned his face back, and the bright blue of the sky was deeply embedded in his eyes. After a pause, he asked, “Old buddy, do you think there will be others like you coming back?”
Deep Well Ice Player answered truthfully: [I don’t know, and I don’t care, anyway.]
Jiang Shi couldn’t help but smile.
The corners of his mouth hung loosely on his face. “Anyway, I seem to be looking forward to it.”
With this feat of accumulating hatred points, Deep Well Ice Player seemed to have remembered that Jiang Shi was once a certain type of player. He kept a safe distance from him, loving life, and never boarded that crazy ship again, no matter how much Jiang Shi tried to coax him.
This vigilance left Jiang Shi somewhat regretful, and the following days of the game became a bit boring.
The day he logged in, Jiang Shi sent a team invitation to Deep Well Ice Player, thinking he would receive the usual system feedback rejecting the team request. However, this time, the message “The other party’s team is full” appeared.
Jiang Shi was slightly stunned and checked twice to make sure he wasn’t mistaken.
But… Deep Well Ice Player, his team was full?
This kind of thing would probably be enough to make it onto the international version of the show “The World is Truly Amazing.”
[Material Main Account: You joined a team?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: I’m doing the returnee’s instance mission.]
[Material Main Account: Did your social anxiety get cured?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: No, it’s just that the team leader is pretty good, and she communicates with me via text for the whole team. It’s like the treatment of keyboard games!]
[Material Main Account: Is your team leader also socially anxious?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: …No.]
[Material Main Account: Oh, she just knows how to interact with someone with your condition.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Cut to the chase, what do you want?]
[Material Main Account: Just a reminder, your progress these days is good, it looks like you’ll reach level 75 soon. When that happens, don’t rush to do the third job change task. Consider whether you want to stay at this level.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: I’m already there, I haven’t even done the second job change task.]
[Material Main Account: Anyway, just be careful.]
With these final words, Jiang Shi continued with his tasks.
As his task list gradually cleared, he had now reached level 72. If all went well, he would advance to level 75 today, one step ahead of Deep Well Ice.
The new 3.0 version had levels ranging from 75 to 110, and therefore, for returning players, level 75 was a threshold that determined whether they could continue to enjoy the benefits of returning. If they wanted to continue leveling up, they had to complete the third job change task, which would also mean the complete loss of the returning player’s BUFF.
This was clearly a little trick played by the Genesis official planners. You can’t have both fish and bear’s paw. It had the meaning of “We’ve brought you here; the rest is up to you.”
For top-level players, advancing in levels was an urgent matter. However, the returning BUFF had many benefits. Especially after leaving the novice village and entering other instances, many teams were willing to take an extra returning player to make use of their BUFF effect for additional drops. This alone was enough to make many returning players willingly stay at level 75.
This was what Jiang Shi meant by “staying at a level.”
Jiang Shi didn’t need others to take him along, but regardless of how he did it, his returning BUFF was more convenient than looking elsewhere.
Now, the runestones in his warehouse were still low-level stones from the 40-level stage. Not to mention the materials needed to create 110-level runestones, just researching the forging of 75-level runestones would be a significant expense.
It was well-known that the strength of a runemaster was directly related to the quality of the runes.
Jiang Shi had a full warehouse of materials from the first season, and he wasn’t lacking. However, the later versions updated common materials that could be purchased on the market, but some rare materials were often unavailable for purchase and had to be farmed.
At this time, even one extra drop was precious.
After Jiang Shi completed a few more tasks, Deep Well Ice finally filled his five-instance mission limit.
If it was incredible that this socially anxious brother was willing to team up with strangers to complete instances, the friend’s message he sent next took an unexpected turn.
[Deep Well Ice Player: I randomly joined a guild, are you coming?]
[Material Main Account: You joined a guild?]
[Material Main Account: If You are kidnapped, will you blink an eye?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Get lost, it’s just a casual retirement guild for some top-ranked players. Are you coming or not?]
[Material Main Account: Is that your team leader’s guild? I suddenly got curious what magic this fairy has to make you, a fellow fairy, willing to join a guild.]
Originally just a playful comment, Jiang Shi was surprised when the message suddenly went silent.
He was just about to receive a response.
[Deep Well Ice Player: This girl is the guild leader.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: When we interact, she gives me a very special feeling.]
[Material Main Account: What kind of feeling?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Like I’m talking to customer service, a very friendly feeling. #Shy.jpg]
Jiang Shi, who was fishing by the river, couldn’t help but chuckle, nearly scaring away the fish that was about to bite the hook.
However, it seemed there was no problem. As far as he remembered, Deep Well Ice was the only one he could communicate with without any mental burden, much like the official customer service in “Genesis.”
[Deep Well Ice Player: Are you coming?]
[Material Main Account: Coming, what’s the guild number?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Guild 266, Seven Silver Coins.]
Jiang Shi’s idea was simple. Joining a guild was secondary; the main thing was that he could take guild tasks once he joined.
He reeled in his fishing rod and headed straight to the nearest city, Richborough.
Main cities like Richborough were spread across the “Genesis” continent, with ten cities in total, located in the central areas of zones one to ten. They served as the territorial seats of power for the chief guilds governing each zone.
Because of the unique guild system in “Genesis,” the basic holders of governing rights in these ten regions were professional guilds with strong financial backing. This increased the level of formality in the guild system.
However, these rules mainly applied to the top players who were part of the core guild structure. For ordinary players, there weren’t many procedures. As long as the [Join Guild] function was available, they could apply for membership at the union management counter in the main cities and wait for the guild management to approve it.
As Deep Well Ice Player had said, Guild 266, the Seven Silver Coins guild, was clearly an informal retirement guild with no specific requirements for guild members. Notably, whether for joining or leaving, it was all automatically approved by the system, without any barriers.
So, as soon as Jiang Shi submitted his request, “Seven Silver Coins” instantly appeared in his guild list.
Guild Channel:
[Traveler of Liangshan: Welcome, welcome, welcome to the new friend!]
[Happiness Invincible Cutey: Wow, another returning player.]
[Leveling Up Effortlessly: Wah, I can’t beat the wild rabbit here. Can someone help?]
[Red Carnation: Listen to me, welcome, I love you, hearts.]
[Dreams in the Distance: Happy, it seems there are many returning players recently, we now have 35 people online!]
[Falling into the Future: Newcomer, why not say hello?]
…
[Material Main Account: #Smile.jpg #Smile.jpg #Smile.jpg]
Posting a few emojis in the guild channel, Jiang Shi opened the chat with Deep Well Ice Player: [This small guild does seem very warm.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: I blocked the guild channel, didn’t see it. Why, did you join?]
[Material Main Account: I did, now I’m looking for that friendly customer service representative.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: …]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Get lost!]
Jiang Shi chuckled and pushed open the doors of the Guild Union Management Hall, walking out and brushing past a few people as he left.
A newcomer handed a form to the counter staff, saying, “Hello, we’d like to apply to join the Crusaders Guild.”
The counter staff took the form with a smile. “It seems like a lot of people have been applying to join the Crusaders in the last couple of days.”
A player waiting at the counter chuckled, “Of course, when the God Yu personally recruits people, wouldn’t there be a lot of applications?”
Someone nearby looked surprised and asked, “The God Yu? Wasn’t it said that he and the leader of the Crusaders, Warlord Bahbah, didn’t get along?”
“I don’t know about that. Anyway, if you don’t believe it, you can go check Zone Six. The central square of the main city, they’ve been recruiting for three consecutive days.”
“Never mind, the big guilds are all recruiting now. Every main city is packed with people. Zone One is more comfortable.”
“That’s true. The Love and Peace Guild, even though it has average strength, at least manages to hold onto governing rights in Zone One. Besides, they never join in with those big guilds. In a way, this laid-back attitude is quite likable. At least, there won’t be any stampedes in Richborough City now. I specially came from Zone Six to process my registration here; the queues there are crazy.”
“Brother, you’re amazing. You actually got an application for the Crusaders Guild!”
Praising him, the player cleared his throat and said in a low voice, “Right, not just anyone can join the Crusaders. When you think about it, I didn’t work as hard even for a job offer.”
Others nearby laughed in unison, “Real life, my friend!”
The conversation was cut off as the doors closed, isolating it within the hall of the Guild Union Management.
Jiang Shi, who had already walked some distance away, didn’t hear the content of their conversation. Instead, he opened the newly added section on the system panel.
Joining a new guild finally allowed him to do guild tasks.
Author’s Notes:
Yu that carries a big grudge: Light Elves, any Light Elves coming to register?
Jiang Shi: Thanks for the invitation, but I already have a guild. ^_^
P.S. The attack (top) is really coming out this time, the entangled and heart-wrenching love story! Also, remember that the Seven Silver Coins guild has a pure and inexperienced appearance now, but in the future… hmm!
thank you so much for the update! looking forward for the future updates 💜