Chapter 412: Chapter 399 Who is Our Enemy? (1st Update)

Leaping Nucleus Club.

“Feeling any better?”

President Yin moved a chair and sat beside Hei Guo Zhuo Rou’s bed. Now, Hei Guo Zhuo Rou couldn’t even lie down; he could only sprawl on the bed.

“Seems a bit better.” Hei Guo Zhuo Rou hugged his pillow and looked extremely miserable. Last night, after he logged off, he found that his back hurt so much that he couldn’t stand up.

The club had a designated doctor who informed Hei Guo Zhuo Rou that it was a serious soft tissue contusion in his spine. The doctor advised Hei Guo Zhuo Rou that he must rest in bed for a week.

“I’m sorry,” President Yin suddenly said after a moment of silence.

“Boss, why apologize… It’s just that I got too excited playing the game. Professional VR players have many occupational diseases, and this can only be considered a minor illness,” Hei Guo Zhuo Rou’s tone seemed somewhat indifferent. While saying this, he glanced at his teammates standing behind President Yin. “You guys have to win the World Championship of Dispute. Without me, it won’t all collapse, right?”

“No way, I feel the substitute is stronger than you,” joked one player, but a glare from Mo Shigui nearby immediately shut him up.

“The tactics and team level haven’t changed much. Don’t worry, the championship is still ours,” Mo Shigui replied.

“That’s good.”

After hearing Mo Shigui’s response, Hei Guo Zhuo Rou let out a small sigh, hugging his pillow and stared at his phone on the bedside, lost in thought.

Tomorrow, all members of the Leaping Nucleus are flying to California, Eagle Country, to participate in the World Championship of Dispute. Due to a waist injury caused by improper operation during a fight with Denghis Xisi, Hei Guo Zhuo Rou had to withdraw from this championship, begrudgingly giving his spot to a substitute.

Having struggled for a year to earn this opportunity only to have to withdraw because of an injury from playing another game–only Hei Guo Zhuo Rou could understand this bitter feeling.

“Any plans for the holiday? Want to go traveling somewhere?”

President Yin felt a great sense of guilt at the moment. While it was Mo Shigui who picked the members, the idea of forming the Beheading Squad was his. He had also pulled Hei Guo Zhuo Rou to join the squad, so he believed a significant reason why Hei Guo Zhuo Rou couldn’t join the world championship was due to him.

President Yin was thinking of ways to make it up to Hei Guo Zhuo Rou…

“Vacation… Does continuing to play Saint Spirit at base count?” said Hei Guo Zhuo Rou.

“Hei Guo… I remember you’ve maxed out your Saint Spirit, right? Recently, you’ve nearly maxed out Black Tide Island too; there aren’t many instances left to play… How about traveling around the world for a change?” one teammate persuaded Hei Guo Zhuo Rou.

“And then come back to find that Saint Spirit is still more fun?” Hei Guo Zhuo Rou knew this meme well.

Mo Shigui shared similar opinions to that teammate.

“The Black Tide Island version has already stabilized, and regional conflicts aren’t as intense as just before the ultimate battle. I remember you got all the gear you wanted from the instance guides. Even if there’s an update increasing the level cap soon, you don’t need to rush to level up,” Mo Shigui said.

“This has nothing to do with gear or levels,” Hei Guo Zhuo Rou recalled the scene of his fight with Denghis Xisi, “Have you guys read martial arts novels?”

“I’ve read them, but what does that have to do with Saint Spirit? You aren’t playing Swordsman,” said Mama You Gou Jiao.

“I don’t know… during my fight with Denghis Xisi, I felt like I had realized something, just… just… Did you guys know about the second awakening in the background settings of Saint Spirit?” Hei Guo Zhuo Rou brought up this setting term.

“I know, Fureya mentioned it to me,” Mo Shigui said.

He wasn’t particularly interested in the settings of Saint Spirit, but since they matched the game mechanics, like the breeding issues of Fureya, Mo Shigui would ask Fureya.

“At that time, I felt like I had touched the threshold of the second awakening, or maybe… experienced the feeling of a second awakening?” Hei Guo Zhuo Rou couldn’t find the right words, as he was better at flirting and making gloomy remarks, describing this kind of feeling was somewhat hard for him.

“Saint Spirit’s first awakening just came out not long ago, and even if they update for a second awakening, probably just some difficult missions would trigger it. How come there’s something like an experience card for this? Could it be that you experienced the skills of a second awakening?” Mama You Gou Jiao still viewed the awakening from a player’s perspective.

Awakening, in the eyes of most gamers, is a common setting–that is, the character’s ultimate move. It’s an interesting setting how Saint Spirit ties this ultimate move with the character’s promotion system.

In the future, the level cap of Saint Spirit will continue to rise, and introducing the second awakening is a common occurrence.

But from the perspective of the players, the second awakening seemed likely to be just like the first… Simply completing some tasks was all it took, maybe the tasks were extremely difficult, but where was there anything mysterious like ‘enlightenment’ or ‘realm breakthrough’?

“Maybe…”

He couldn’t think of any words to refute his teammate, but he truly felt the second awakening… wasn’t just an increase in game stats or the addition of a ‘power move’. It felt more like transcending to a higher state, surpassing his own limits.

Now, he still had a vague feeling about the experience, but what seared into his memory was that pitch-black feather… the one he hadn’t been able to grasp.

“The guest you invited has arrived, sir.”

The secretary of the Silver President suddenly walked into the players’ lounge and knocked on the door, reminding the President that there were matters to handle.

“I’ve arranged for a doctor. Just call if you need anything, Coach Song, let’s go.”

The Silver President stood up from his seat and left the lounge, walking with Mo Shigui and following his secretary to the club’s main entrance.

At the entrance, two extremely nervous figures were glancing around…

“Hello.” The Silver President directly greeted the man and woman, with the man being too tense to speak, while the woman kept nodding and handed over her business card to the President.

“Hello, hello, my name is Lu Ya, and my ID in ‘Holy Spirit’ is Frontline Reporter. Thank you for inviting us to visit the club, Mr. Lyu! This is from the Starlit Scholars team, we’ve met before at the Uptown Gymnasium.”

After handing over her business card, the Frontline Reporter tapped the head of Starlit, prompting him to make a somewhat awkward self-introduction.

Starlit was very talkative in the game, but in real life, he became somewhat introverted.

“Nice to meet you… We’ve been waiting for you, just come with me.” After a brief introduction, the Silver President personally led them into the Thriving Nucleus Club.

Along the way, the Frontline Reporter was so excited she almost had a heart attack–such exclusive opportunities to interview top domestic clubs were rare!

With the Silver President’s permission, the Frontline Reporter frantically snapped photos along the way, she almost captured every corner of the Thriving Nucleus Club.

However, this thrilling experience lasted only about half an hour. When the Frontline Reporter came to her senses, she and Starlit were led by the Silver President into a very secluded room…

The room’s lighting was very dim, causing a vague sense of danger to emerge within the Frontline Reporter, and the next phrase from the Silver President intensified her uneasy premonition.

“Coach Song, close the door,” said the Silver President.

Mo Shigui, who had been trailing at the end of the group, immediately closed the room’s door and then… locked it from the inside.

No way! Upon hearing the sound of the lock, the Frontline Reporter felt her hair stand on end like a frightened cat.

As the producer of “Holy Spirit Pitfall Moments”, she had captured plenty of embarrassing moments of Thriving Nucleus players in the Holy Spirit, and she had also gathered a lot of such material.

Could it really be as the internet jokes said… ‘If you keep this up, UP, Thriving Nucleus might want to silence you!’?

Was she really about to be silenced?

While the Frontline Reporter was feeling anxious, the Silver President turned on the room’s lights, and the sudden brightness around her was a bit hard to adjust to.

But as she got used to the light, the Frontline Reporter saw the setup in the room, and her eyes lit up again.

“The reason I invited you here today isn’t for anything else.” The Silver President lightly tapped a giant whiteboard behind him, which had photos of various Holy Spirit faction characters attached to it, and with pins and thread mapping out their relationships–someone unaware might think they had walked into a detective show.

But this was no detective show, it was a characters and factions relationship map that the Silver President had spent a long time putting together of the current stage characters in Holy Spirit.

The Silver President then placed his hand next to Queen Mei’s photo, turned to the still silent Starlit and said,

“I want to know, now… who are our enemies!”