Story Of My Life

The episode begins from where we last left off: in the “haunted” well. Steamed Bun attacks with a well-timed Brick but before he can, Concealed Light stops him hastily, saying that he's here to help and that he knows all about Steamed Bun and Lord Grim. Steamed Bun, being the simple air-headed cutie that he is, strikes a cool pose, telling him that he's too busy at the moment to sign autographs. After accepting the friend request Concealed Light throws at him, Bun skillfully jumps out of the well, once again attracting the attention of his pursuers.

On the other hand, Concealed Light struggles to get out of the well himself, resulting in a not so charming faceplant in the dirt.

As Steamed Bun attempts to run away from his pursuers, Concealed Light watches from above. His mathematical genius comes into play and, with his PMed instructions, Bun is able to shake off his enemies.

Inside the building he's hiding in, Bun is surprised by Concealed Light again who has silently caught up to him. As the two of them hide inside, Concealed Light notices that Bun’s weapon was not an Orange weapon like he had predicted in his “Idiot” guides. (LOL is that the only thing you noticed, Light?) When asked, Bun cheerfully tells him that he's never used an Orange weapon before and Concealed Light looks shocked as he wonders how Lord Grim and Co. were able to set such quick dungeon records.

At this point, Bun gets a message from Ye Xiu, asking him if he's gotten away yet. He sheepishly replies that he hasn't. When asked how many are pursuing him, Bun tells him that he'll have to ask his “brother in the well.” Ye Xiu reacts with confusion to this statement but writes it off as Steamed Bun being Steamed Bun and tells him to meet up at Congee Forest. Bun turns back to Concealed Light, asking him if he wanted to join up with him or lead the others away. Light gives him a look (“Why should I have to lure them away when the one they're chasing is you??”) before giving a resigned sigh and telling Bun to follow him.

Back at the Internet cafe, Ye Xiu and Mucheng are talking with each other, with Mucheng telling him that the players chasing and attacking them are all level 33. Ye Xiu reacts to this: as the 10th server has only been released for a few weeks, the chances of one guild having so many high leveled characters is slim. His suspicions are confirmed elsewhere from Blue River’s (Xu Boyuan’s) perspective as he laughs over the title of the new chat group that was created by the various guilds who are after Lord Grim and Co. Within the chat, he finds out that the two rival guilds, Excellent Dynasty and Tyrannical Ambition, are working together, alongside guilds Samsara, Herb Garden, Hundred Blossoms, Misty Castle and Void Walk (all guilds backed by Clubs), with Blue Brook decidedly absent from this lineup. When asked to join, Blue River just laughs…

In-game, Lord Grim shows off his skills while jumping from one tree to another in Congee Forest. His screen is suddenly bombarded by messages as Huang Shaotian logs in, asking for a duel. Ye Xiu tells him that he's busy and that he should try tomorrow. However, at exactly midnight, Shaotian messages him again, asking for a duel. With a sigh, Ye Xiu tells him to come to Congee Forest, as long as he doesn't find it too shameless to duel there.

Tricked by the promise of a duel, Shaotian as Flowing Tree arrives in Congee Forest, only to find out that his target is the group of players currently chasing after Lord Grim. Shaotian reacts with anger and indignation but later dissolves into laughter when he finds out the reason that they're chasing after him. (“Hahah! Serves you right, taking records from new players!”) The look on Ye Xiu’s face as he takes off his headphones while Shaotian continues to laugh at him is priceless.

As the players rush them, they notice Shaotian watching from the side. Recognizing him as one of the players who helped Lord Grim set his records, they begin to pursue him as well before they realize that Flowing Tree’s level (27) was too low to be of any threat to them: in other words, he was just trash! Incensed at being called “trash,” Shaotian chases after them like a maniac, hurling profanities and trash talk at them. Finally, two of them stop to take him on but he easily takes them out, amid a barrage of speech bubbles, even going so far as to take the Orange weapon one if them was holding. And, throughout it all, looking oh-so-cute, even when he's trash talking! (In the novel, he first takes out the player who called him “trash”; later, after taking some mana potions from Ye Xiu, he takes on the other player with the Orange sword.)

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he notices movement and he blocks the attack Lord Grim throws at him. After a seemingly mock battle with him, Shaotian trips not-so-gracefully after running out of mana. Ye Xiu shamelessly mocks him as he hands out a mana potion before he notices more players approaching.

In the group chat, the players complain about Lord Grim and Flowing Tree as they are continually slaughtered by them. Shaotian keeps up with his machine-gun audio interference, choking and becoming dizzy from talking too much as Ye Xiu and Mucheng laugh at him in the background. (“To be able to talk until you get light-headed from lack of oxygen, you must be a genius!”)

Things change when Shaotian notices that the players after them have changed strategies (in the novel, the players become more organized, forming groups of four while wandering around the forest). As the two Gods look from above, they notice one group comprised of mostly cloth and leather wearing opponents (in other words, players with less defence) and decide, with their limited mana, to take out this group first. They shoot forward as a heroic instrumental plays in the background. I love how they even animated Shaotian’s hair, that one antenna-like strand twitching along with his mood.

At Excellent Era HQ, Chen Yehui, Guild Leader of Excellent Dynasty and the mastermind of this joint task force of guilds, is trying to organize all his troops in Congee Forest. Just as he's got Ye Xiu and Shaotian surrounded with the help of the other Guild Leaders, an explosion from behind knocks Samsara’s Guild Leader, Lonely Drink, to the ground.

Mucheng and Yifan to the rescue! Looks like they've caught up! With Mucheng shooting at everyone, the tables have turned! At the same time, Tang Rou, Steamed Bun and Concealed Light also arrive to help out. From the side, Chen Yehui angrily messages his teams but is interrupted by Shaotian as he attacks (in the novel, the first one Shaotian attacks is Lonely Drink from Samsara, not Chen Yehui from Excellent Dynasty). As they fight, Shaotian fills the screen with speech bubbles, causing Ye Xiu to reprimand him.

Suddenly, Shaotian hears mumbling from somewhere and he notices Concealed Light discussing tactics with himself behind a tree. As he continues his rant, his inattention to his surroundings causes him to slam into a tree, making Shaotian laugh his head off. Ye Xiu tells Steamed Bun to fall back and he does, only for him to walk straight into some friendly fire from the nervous Concealed Light. His mistake causes him to walk into a tree again, and Ye Xiu tells them to hurry and form a party to avoid such a mishap again. Noticing the name of the noob-like Summoner, Ye Xiu is surprised at his luck for finding the elusive writer of the Idiot Guides.

However, Ye Xiu’s luck is about to run out as, outside of the game, he starts getting calls from customers in the Internet cafe who need his assistance. As he tries to deal with his in-game commanding and his Internet cafe customers, his conversations confuse not just his pursuers but his team members (we find out that Steam Bun/Bao Rongxing hasn't left the cafe yet and is playing beside Tang Rou).

Guild Leaders Lonely Drink (Samsara) and Cold Night (Tyrannical Ambition) try to get away but are stopped by Lord Grim and Co. Shaotian, regarding the entire battle like some game, asks everyone how many players they've killed, the one who kills the least is the loser! Ye Xiu laughs, saying that Shaotian has already lost as he had already killed 11. Being the competitive guy that he is, Shaotian chatters out an angry battle cry while the Guild Leaders cry for an entirely different reason.

There were quite a few points that I liked in this episode and the main one was the interaction between the characters. I have to admit, the relationship between Concealed Light and Steamed Bun was not only ridiculously funny, it was turning into one hot mess. It's a huge difference when compared to the teamwork of Ye Xiu and Shaotian, or the teamwork of Ye Xiu with Mucheng. Granted, Light and Bun haven't known each other for very long while the other three have been competing alongside each other for years. Still, I'm not-so-secretly shipping Light and Bun together and, with their contrasting personalities, it's going to be a wild and highly amusing ride! I hope to see more interaction with them in the future! Now, what do we have coming up in the next episode?

Looks like the pros of Tyranny are finally coming out to play! I see some Zhang Xinjie and Han Wenqing action! And where is this taking place? Another arena or Line Canyon? The Striker that Han is playing with doesn't look like his Desert Dust, judging from posters previously seen in the series. And is that some cuddle-time for Ye Xiu and MuMu? Well, guess we'll find out in the next (and possibly last episode for this season?) episode! 再見!

Profile of the Week: Luo Ji’s Summoner, Concealed Light  (Look at those baggy pants!)

The episode starts off with the promised PvP battle in the Heavenly Domain between Poplar Beach and Chasing Haze (played by Ye Xiu). Chen Guo looks nervously on as he plays on her character, incensed when he throws her weapon away. Even while playing on another character (and a female one at that), Ye Xiu still looks pretty kickass as he combos the arrogant guy to death while Poplar Beach’s use of Shadow Steps to create four afterimages proves ineffective against our God. The Global Chat explodes with praise after the win.

At Blue Rain headquarters, Liang Yichun (Changing Spring) watches the recorded battle with the captain of the club, Yu Wenzhou and a very nervous looking Huang Shaotian. With his analytical mind, he is able to deduce Lord Grim’s tactics: throwing the weapon to reduce weight, using the extra speed to PK Poplar Beach. At the mention of Lord Grim, Huang Shaotian chokes on his drink, looking even more guilty than ever and Yu Wenzhou glances at him with a smile, asking him if he knows this “pro.” He immediately denies it vehemently. In the novel, he actually falls off his chair (which I would’ve loved to have seen!) and pretends to ignore Yu Wenzhou when he is called, feigning ignorance when asked about the the 10th server records and trying to change the topic.

As Yu Wenzhou goes on to study the records made in the 10th Server, noting the patterns between the main party for Lord Grim and pointing out the temporary “helpers” of Hateful Sword and Flowing Tree, Huang Shao tries to sneak away but is caught by his captain and told to come back to help out with his analysis. Resigned to his fate, he trudges back while Wenzhou deduces that the record for Boneyard was done by pros from Excellent Era, one of them being the vice captain Liu Hao, as it also coincided with the dismal performance of Excellent Era’s competition battle with Blue Rain. Shaotian pretends to come to the conclusion that the reason for the fast record was because a new strategy was used and Yichun reacts with surprise: why would a pro player like Liu Hao not only spend his time to set a record in the 10th server but also create a new strategy? Wenzhou just smiles and says that the strategy was stolen by Hateful Sword, who was actually Liu Hao in disguise, and that the strategy was originally created by Lord Grim.

Shaotian nervously laughs this off, reacting with feigned incredulity while Wenzhou continues his analysis. He goes on to say that during the pro competition battle, Liu Hao had used Berserker skills while playing with a Spellblade account, further deducing that Hateful Sword was a Berserker account. Shaotian continues to laugh it off: “why would Liu Hao go through all this trouble?” Wenzhou continues to mysteriously smile, saying that Liu Hao obviously had a grudge on this Lord Grim character: he obviously feared him enough to spy on him in the 10th server, yet recognized him enough to use the new strategy and trusted that it would be the best way to beat the dungeon. The only conclusion: Lord Grim is Ye Qiu!

Later, Yichun calls up Xu Boyuan (Blue River) and tells him what the captain had said: Lord Grim is Ye Qiu! (In the novel, this actually takes place in the Heavenly Domain) Blue River looks at Lord Grim’s name in his friend list, his eyes shining with awe before his eyes land on a second name, Flowing Tree. If Lord Grim was Ye Qiu, then this Blade Master could only be…

…Huang Shaotian! Said Blade Master is sitting with his captain, looking mighty guilty about everything as he laughs about the familiarity of the Flowing Tree name as Wenzhou continues to talk calmly. He doesn’t look mad, only highly amused about Shaotian’s actions. Things turn serious as Wenzhou questions Shaotian about Ye Qiu’s (Ye Xiu’s) new unspecialized character and changing silver weapon.

Back at the Internet cafe (I wonder where Bao wandered off to, has he gone back to whence he came?), Tang Rou is looking at dungeon guides written by someone called Concealed Light. We get a bit of Zhou Zekai again (lol what is it with all the fan service? *laughs*) before Ye Xiu wanders by, impressed by what he’s reading from the guide and asks Tang Rou to link him to the author’s account. She does so but shortly after, finds out that someone has killed her in-game while she was idle…

In-game, Ye Xiu gets a message from Huang Shaotian from his Flowing Tree account: you’ve been exposed! Ye Xiu laughs it off, saying that if he was exposed, the same would go for Shaotian. Shaotian agrees before realizing that his captain, Yu Wenzhou, was right behind him! Ye Xiu continues to talk: it’s too bad his hands are handicapped! Shaotian lets Ye Xiu know that Wenzhou was with him but Ye Xiu just continues to lament over Wenzhou’s “handicapped” hands. Wenzhou agrees with this statement, unfazed by the trash talk and asks Ye Xiu for a duel!

The two Gods meet up at the Fixed Arena field: Ye Xiu with Lord Grim and Ye Wenzhou with his Warlock, Swoksaar (in the novel, he used Shaotian’s Blade Master, Flowing Tree to go up against Lord Grim). As the two fight and compare notes, they casually talk, Wenzhou remarking how he envied those with fast APMs (his own, very slow hand speed is made apparent during the battle).

After Ye Xiu wins the battle amid the flashy light shows, they talk a bit more about the pros and cons of unspecialized characters. Ye Xiu leaves and Wenzhou discusses the match with Shaotian. They talk about the false combos Ye Xiu made and, after the captain leaves, Shaotian studies a recording of the match in order to figure out how many he could’ve dodged. Fighting spirit ignited, he immediately logs into the game but makes the mistake of going on his main account, Troubling Rain. After briefly being bombarded by messages, he quickly logs off and goes on his 10th server account, Flowing Tree, to bother Ye Xiu, who responds with indifference, making Shaotian mad (in the novel, he actually logs off his main, logs back into his main but hides his status, tries to contact him and Su Mucheng via QQ messenger before bothering him on his alternate account). I have to admit, his ever-changing expressions are so funny!

Meanwhile, Ye Xiu has just finished reading all the “Idiot” guides that Concealed Light has written. Chen Guo is skeptical about the guides but Ye Xiu tells her that the guides have no mistakes, even though they were written by a complete noob. After telling Ye Xiu about Tang Rou being killed in-game, he lets the rest of the group know that they’re going to the next dungeon, Line Canyon. However, before he can do that, a mysterious character in pink arrives in front of his desk. Who could it possibly be?

It’s Su Mucheng! Like our chatterbox Shaotian, she’s bundled herself up to come and play with Ye Xiu! In the novel, this event would have chronologically taken place in episode 9 while they were still playing in Desolate Land and she was supposed to be bundled up in a bunch of fur (kind of sad they didn’t do that for this episode lol). After Chen Guo leaves (originally, GuoGuo wasn’t around in the novel for her appearance), Ye Xiu has her sit beside him to play. His look of exasperated fondness towards her disguise (as if he’s used to her antics) is just so cute and sweet!

However, after logging in, Ye Xiu notices something fishy about his surroundings. It doesn’t take him too long to figure out as he soon finds himself running and attacking players who are appearing everywhere, determined to kill him! Ye Xiu quickly messages the others in-game and finds out that the same thing is happening to them. Su Mucheng remarks worriedly to Ye Xiu from her seat beside him, wondering if this was another one of Liu Hao’s tricks but Ye Xiu is unsure, although it appears that he has his suspicions.

In another area inside the game, players are looking all over for Steam Bun but are unable to find him. A certain turbaned fellow (*cough*Concealed Light*cough*) is also wandering around looking for him before he spots a well. Accidentally falling in, he comes face to face with an evil sounding voice and…a brick!?

Waha, Steam Bun is hilarious! Pretending to be some “Devil of the Well” was just priceless! I wasn’t expecting Concealed Light to look like that to be honest but at least it’s a tad different from all the other plain looking players with their swords and suits of armour! I kind of miss the fact that the series hasn’t animated a lot of the dungeoning and BOSS battles because those are truly interesting in the novel! Oh well…let’s just see what the next episode has in store for us!

Looks like we’ll be in Congee Forest next week! I see a bit more Concealed Light and some inter-guild cooperation against a certain character. I’m excited for the dual-God collaboration though! Seeing two Godly pro players taking on an entire squad of enemies? I hope we get some Yifan though, I’m feeling a bit Yifan-deprived! And I wonder how it will turn out between Steam Bun and Concealed Light? They don’t have the best of relationships in the novel, although their interactions have always been amusing because of their contrasting personalities. We’ll just have to find out next week! Until then, 再見!

Profile of the Week: Yu Wenzhou’s Warlock, Swoksaar