Chapter 59: Wherever You Go, There Is Jianghu

Chapter 59: Wherever You Go, There Is Jianghu

Hearing the servant boy call out to me as “you there,” I knew at once that my standing here could not be very high.

I glanced down at myself. Sure enough — a plain blue-green Hanfu, cut short in the workman’s style, not unlike the dress of the Song dynasty.

I went over to the servant boy. He was struggling under a large flowerpot, so I helped him lift it, and as we carried it together I asked, “What’s your name? And who’s the young lady?”

He looked at me in surprise. “You’re new? That can’t be right. Song Chenfeng, you’ve been with our sect a good while now. Why’d the person change?”

“The person changed? What do you mean? I really am new. I’ve never set foot in here before.”

“Never been in here?” the servant boy said. “Aren’t you an elite person? Elite people have all been coming in since they were children. You ought to know the rules.”

“To tell you the truth, my family’s marginal, and poor. The adults don’t even have enough achievement points for themselves, so where would the money come from to let us in? This time, the family finally scraped together just enough, and that’s how I got to come experience it.”

“No wonder,” the servant boy said. “Then let me teach you a few things. Everyone in here has a role. The body’s fixed — only the soul can change. Once your soul settles into this body, you ought to be able to sense the memories the body’s left behind. Take you, Song Chenfeng, for instance. Even though the old Song Chenfeng is gone, you should still be able to sense all of his memories. That’s how everyone keeps doing their jobs.”

“How do I receive them? Why haven’t I gotten any of the old memories?”

“That can’t be right. Haven’t you merged your consciousness into this body’s brain?”

“Merge how? Just use my mind to take in all the sensations?”

“That’s it. Don’t resist it — you have to take in all the memories sitting in the original brain. Then you’ll understand everything.”

“No wonder. My consciousness only just parasitized its way in. I didn’t dare merge yet — afraid something might go wrong — so I shielded myself.”

“Well, of course you won’t receive anything shielded. Open up now, and you’ll understand everything.”

I followed the servant boy’s instructions and began merging with the memories of this body. Sure enough, the past came flooding in like a tide. It turned out this Song Chenfeng was nothing more than an ordinary guard of the Ziyun Sect, charged with keeping the peace in this quarter. The great hall from earlier was called Tianmen Hall — the only way through to the Grandmaster Hall.

“Your name’s Liu Tanzhuang, right? Let me ask you something. Why isn’t my role some wealthy lord or high official? Why just a guard?”

“How much did you pay? Pay little, and of course it won’t get you much. Only people who spend more than five thousand achievement points get to parasitize into a Great Grandmaster. The young lady’s role starts at eight hundred points, at least. If you want to become a Great Grandmaster, you can cultivate here, or earn enough points for it. But it’s hard. Very hard.”

“How hard?”

“Well — a Great Grandmaster has immortal pills of his own, so his cultivation runs high. A guard, obviously, has none. But if you’re lucky, and you do something meritorious, you can earn immortal pills too.”

“What are immortal pills good for? Can they be traded for achievement points?”

“Of course they can. You can also swallow them to raise your cultivation — your abilities here would rise to a higher level, and you’d have a better chance to earn more money. If you ever want to leave this place, you can cash them in for achievement points and go experience some other metaverse. One blue-patterned immortal pill trades for ten achievement points, one red-patterned pill for thirty, and one gold-patterned pill for a hundred. Right now you’re a guard, so you only earn wages, and not much of those either. Maybe three thousand yuan a month.”

“And how many immortal pills would three thousand yuan buy?”

“Immortal pills?” The servant boy laughed. “What are you dreaming about? One blue-patterned immortal pill costs ten thousand-plus yuan at the very least, and you’ve still got to eat and spend along the way, haven’t you? So even working a full year on wages alone, you might not scrape together enough for a single blue-patterned immortal pill.”

Hell. It was that hard? Even if I skipped food and drink entirely and worked myself to the bone for three months, I’d only clear nine achievement points. And the moment I actually spent anything, it came out about even with doing scientific research back in the real world — no better off at all. Du Xiaoran had told me the yearly quota back home was twenty points. You could earn points in the virtual world too, sure, but there was nothing here that resembled enjoyment.

“It’s that hard? Then why do elite people love diving into the virtual world so much?”

“You’ll never earn much through plain labor. In the real world, it’s scientific achievements that pay. But in here, you can enter competitions, win merit, take part in assassinations and other activities. Win, and you’re rich. People with money come here for pleasure, for entertainment. People without money come here looking for a chance. And there’s no shortage of chances in the virtual world — it’s all down to what you can do.”

“You said a moment ago that after leaving, I could go to other metaverses. Isn’t the metaverse just the one place?”

“Of course it isn’t. If there were only one metaverse, and everyone was crammed into it together — different temperaments, different wants, different tastes — it’d be no fun at all. The metaverses are split into tiers, same as the dynasties of Huaxia: Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, Republican, modern, future — each one its own tier. Right now you’re in Song. If you wanted to move up to the future tier, you’d be stepping into a world nobody knows. Though that metaverse costs plenty too, and I hear it has ability requirements on top of it. You haven’t even cleared Song — money or not, they won’t let you anywhere near the future.”

Huh. So that was how it worked.

“And if someone clears the future world too — then what?”

“All I’ve heard is, they get picked up by the Shadow Pavilion, brought into the upper ranks of the elite people. Reach that level, and your life is spent looking down on everything else, because you’ve become the rules themselves — whatever you say becomes law. But don’t go dreaming about that. You haven’t even cleared Song. How would you get anywhere near it?”

“What counts as clearing it?”

“Isn’t that in your memories? It ought to be. Either you cultivate up to Grandmaster, or you gather ten gold-patterned pills.”

Ten gold-patterned pills — a thousand achievement points. That was fifty years of work in the real world. No wonder.

Seeing the trouble on my face, the servant boy went on, “But don’t get discouraged over it. Coming in here doesn’t mean you have to clear the tier and level up. You can just earn some points and leave — they’re good back in the real world too. Say you earn two hundred points — that’s ten years of research work right there. That’s plenty good on its own. Why must everyone clear and level up? Don’t underestimate me just because I’m only a servant boy. The maids and the rest of us underlings actually earn a bit more than guards like you, because the masters tip us now and then, and we spend little living in the residence. That way, we come out ahead of doing research in the real world.”

That made sense. No wonder elite people loved diving into the virtual world.

“Then what’s the point of clearing tiers and leveling up at all?”

“Plenty,” the servant boy said. “Every higher tier of metaverse is backward compatible. The higher your tier, the more metaverses you can enter — go wherever you like to earn your money. Isn’t that something?”

I had to admit, he had a clear head on him.

As I helped carry the flowerpot, I asked, “What exactly is it you do?”

“Are you asking about the real world or in here? Never go asking about someone’s real-world identity — it’s rude, and no one will tell you anyway. Same as asking someone how much they have in savings. In here, I’m just a menial servant. My family’s got no money either, so this was where I had to start.”

Talking as we went, the two of us arrived at a great hall called Xingyue Palace. The young lady, Yuan Lingliang, was walking out just as we approached. Seeing us, she said, “Song Chenfeng. My father wants you to represent the Ziyun Sect in the rank-three match. You’ve had a full day to think it over. Have you decided?”

“I have. I’m willing to represent the sect in the rank-three match.”

She looked up at me. “Oh? Come around, have you? You should’ve seen yourself yesterday, quaking like some spineless little coward. My father already said — win, and your reward doubles, plus you take the other side’s points too. Added together, that’s thirty points. Lose, and you only pay half. And still you hesitated? Hardly seems like much of a man.”

I found it privately amusing. So this was all you people were good for — bullying some poor, unranked kid.

In Song Chenfeng’s memories, the enmity between the Ziyun Sect and the Jianghai Gang ran deep, with a wagering match held every quarter. From rank one to rank nine, each rank had to compete against the same rank. The Ziyun Sect had a gap at rank three. The rules forbade fighting down a rank, and though a rank-two disciple could fight up, that meant a certain loss, so none of the rank-two disciples were willing to step in. In the end, there was nothing for it but to push forward this unawakened, unranked Song Chenfeng. Since the loss was assured either way, the sect had already resigned itself to giving up the slot — but by the rules, they still couldn’t refuse to compete. The other side, after all, wanted its winnings.

The original Song Chenfeng had no wish to throw away his own money for nothing — ten achievement points, half a year’s labor. Though the sect promised to reimburse half, he himself would gain nothing at all, and still lose five points in the end. He turned it over and over in his mind, decided against it, exited, and left.

What remained in my account happened to be exactly ten points, so the system slotted me in to fill the gap. Had my balance fallen short, I might never even have gotten this guaranteed loss of an opportunity.

Seeing how readily I’d agreed, the young lady turned to the maid beside her. “Go tell my father Song Chenfeng has agreed. Have him send in the roster.”

The maid acknowledged the order and left the hall.

The servant boy nudged me, signaling me to follow. I set the flowerpot down with him and took my leave.

Once we were clear of the young lady, he said, “You’re really going through with it? That rank-three fighter on the other side is a vicious piece of work. Last time he fought, he’d already won — didn’t need to do more — but he beat his opponent to death anyway. That’s probably why Song Chenfeng wouldn’t fight this time. Get killed and knocked out of the system, and the sect’s half-loss compensation never has to be paid at all. You’d simply be out half a year’s points, clean and total.”

That underhanded? It seemed this sect master was no good person either.

“I don’t really understand ranks,” I said. “Never been ranked myself. What kind of level is rank three?”

“Ranks get decided through fighting. I don’t know martial arts myself, so I can’t say exactly. Since you’ve never gone through a ranking assessment, you count as unranked. The old Song Chenfeng tried a few times and never passed, so everyone knows him for that. They picked him precisely because he’s got no backing.”

“I understand,” I said. “I’ve never competed, but I feel like I’m not so bad. Either way, I came here for the experience. If I lose, I’ll take it.”

“If that’s how you see it, I won’t try to talk you out of it. Good luck to you.”