VRMMO: The Unrivaled

Gui Guzi bowed his head but kept sneaking glances at the black Lamborghini. “Wow, the driver’s a girl! Tsk tsk~~”

Du Thirteen snorted disdainfully. “Tch! A woman who drives a brand car like that has to be a rich kid or the mistress of some rich bastard!”

Mamate suggested. “You guys wanna show her what we think after she drives past us?”

“Yeah!”

…...

Unfortunately, the car slowed to a stop in front of them and foiled Gui Guzi and Du Thirteen’s plans, but that was just the beginning. They were shocked when Murong Mingyue climbed out of the driver’s seat. Their shock turned to disbelief when He Yi appeared from the passenger’s seat and refreshed their view of women. Finally, when I exited the car after He Yi, the duo turned to stone completely.

A while later, Gui Guzi finally muttered, “Fuck! The woman isn’t the mistress, our boss is…”

I walked up to him and slapped him across the head. “What the fuck are you talking about!?”

Murong Mingyue and He Yi chuckled together.

Beiming Xue blinked once at the new arrivals before smiling. “Boss, can you introduce them to us?”

I gave her a nod and pointed at He Yi. “She’s the leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and our future boss. Her ID is ‘From Water’, and her real name is He Yi. You can also call her by her pen name, Eve, if you want to.”

He Yi nodded and gave everyone a refreshing smile. “Good day, everyone!”

Everyone nodded back in unison. Mamate and Du Thirteen especially looked like their breath had been stolen away from their lungs.

Next, I pointed at Murong Mingyue. “She’s the vice leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Murong Mingyue. Her real name is the same as her in-game ID.”

Everyone nodded again, but this time their reaction was a bit reserved. One didn’t need to see to know that the owner of a Lamborghini was anything but ordinary, especially when they were as beautiful as Murong Mingyue and He Yi. Gui Guzi and Yamete were shut-ins, so naturally they had never met a woman like that in their lives. Du Thirteen had a fair bit of experience, but none of his female friends could be classified as successful women. As for Beiming Xue, she was just a girl, and there was a world separating her and women like He Yi or Murong Mingyue.

“Do you want to come up and talk?” I suggested.

Still holding onto my arm, He Yi nodded. “Mn!”

…...

We all went up. It was a good thing we bought two new sofas for the workshop recently, because there were barely enough seats to accommodate all of us. However, no one knew how to begin the conversation as we clustered around our tiny table.

In the end, it was Beiming Xue who broke the ice and smiled. “Sister He Yi, how did you come to know our boss?”

He Yi acknowledged the question before taking a moment to think. “Lu Chen was doing poorly at the time, and Candlelight Shadow was hunting him all over the world. It was around that time I recruited him into Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls.”

“What happened after that?” Beiming Xue asked curiously.

Murong Mingyue replied expressionlessly, “We got on Candlelight Shadow’s kill list and got hunted all over the world too.”

“...”

He Yi straightened her skirt before suddenly rising to her feet. She stared at each and everyone of us seriously before saying, “Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls has rented an office slash hostel building at the New District, and we’re planning to hire 100 professional players as our core. If you don’t mind, I’d like to invite you all to join us!”

Dazed and startled by the passionate offer, everyone in Bloody Mercenaries looked at me and waited for my decision. I was the backbone of our workshop, and clearly they had made up their mind to follow my lead no matter what my decision was.

Murong Mingyue asked me, “What do you think, Lu Chen?”

I mulled over the offer for a moment before answering, “We can join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, but I don’t want to disband Bloody Mercenaries. Gui Guzi and Beiming Xue and I will join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, while Du Thirteen will stay behind in Bloody Mercenaries and keep the guild together. Does that sound like a reliable plan to you?”

“It is!” He Yi nodded with a smile on her face. “So, when are you guys planning to move over?”

“Move over?”

“That’s right~~” He Yi said. “I paid a ten-year rent up-front for that building and created a private IT company. If Bloody Mercenaries are moving to the company hostel, then Mingyue and I will be there as well.”

Murong Mingyue smirked meaningfully at me. “It’s your chance to live together with beautiful women! Plus, Eve and I are planning to hire more pretty and professional female players in the near future…”

Du Thirteen’s eyes lit up like a pair of light bulbs. “Lu Chen, this isn’t the time to pretend to be a saint. Just accept the offer already…”

I let out a cough before replying, “Cool your jets, brother. From what I know, there is a serious lack of beautiful and professional female players in this landscape. Even if such players do exist, they’re almost certainly lacking in looks, body shape or both.”

Murong Mingyue immediately jumped to her feet and patted He Yi on the shoulder. “Are you implying that Eve and I aren’t beautiful?”

I nodded. “Of course not. But to call you two pros would be a travesty...”

“Fuck!”

Murong Mingyue shot me a look before saying, “Anyway, this shouldn’t even be a choice, right? Just pack your things and I’ll send someone to drive you all to the company tomorrow. The company has a private cafeteria, a private recreational area, and more. It’s much better than what you have here at least…”

I fell into deep thought again before I finally said what was really stopping me from accepting the offer right away. “I know you mean well, but… I’m worried about the Ego workshop.”

He Yi raised her eyebrows at this. “The Ego workshop? Those people, hmph!”

Murong Mingyue said, “Even if we pretend Bloody Mercenaries didn’t win first place in the ‘Who Will Fight Me’ tournament, you just wiped out Mad Dragon yesterday. If even you aren’t qualified to join us, then who is? Don’t worry, Eve and I will personally vouch for Bloody Mercenaries. Worse comes to worst, we’ll kick the Ego workshop out of our doorstep!”

He Yi nodded. “Yes. We hired the Ego workshop to work for us, but that is the extent of our relationship. Unlike them, you’re one of us…”

The last of my worries solved, I finally nodded. “Alright, we’ll officially join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and head to your company hostel tomorrow. Boss, you and I should make a joint announcement tonight and declare that Bloody Mercenaries is a subguild of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls from now on!”

He Yi smiled. “Mn!”

…...

He Yi wasn’t willing to leave even after we had dinner, and it took everything Murong Mingyue had to change her mind. If our workshop literally didn’t have a spare room to accommodate her—which Murong Mingyue pointed out repeatedly until He Yi gave in—I suspected that she would’ve stayed the night here.

When nighttime I arrived, I logged into the official forums and contacted He Yi. A while later, He Yi posted a thread with the title: “The Return of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ Divine General!”

It was a bombastic title. I clicked open the thread to find the passage: “It has been a month or so since the start of Heavenblessed, but our Divine General, Falling Dust, has finally returned to us! Falling Dust had changed his ID to ‘Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand’, and he and his guild, Bloody Mercenaries, will be officially joining Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! I hereby promise on my name that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will fight and bleed to the last drop to defend the honor of our city borders and server!”

I quickly pasted my own statement that I had prepared a while ago and claimed the first post before anyone else could: “I’ve decided to bring Bloody Mercenaries under the banner of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls after some consideration. Be it yesterday, today or tomorrow, we swear to always defend the honor of our guild! We will slay anyone who challenges it even if we have to travel a thousand miles to carry out our vengeance! Please support us for many years to come, and thank you everyone for reading this!”

The thread lasted three minutes in obscurity before it was gilded and stickied!

Countless players responded to it.

2nd comment: No wonder Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand fought all seventeen pros of Gods of Destruction alone back at Silver Moon Valley! It was all for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Holy shit, this is how a real man should act, people! It’s just like From Water says, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand truly is their greatest Divine General!

3rd comment: Haha, it’s getting spicy here in Floating Ice City. Now that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Bloody Mercenaries have merged as one, they’re the equal of Snowy Cathaya and Gods of Destruction. Will there be a Three Kingdom drama taking place in Floating Ice City in the near future?”

4th comment: You’re overthinking this, 3rd commenter. My Fruit Knife Goddess is invincible!

5th comment: I agree with the comment above. Wind Fantasy, I love you~~

…...

Whoever was monitoring the forums worked quickly and efficiently, because it only took a couple more minutes for He Yi’s thread to be added to the headlines. The clicks were endless, and it wasn’t long before the entire China server was talking about the merger between Bloody Mercenaries and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. It was exactly what He Yi and I was hoping to see. Both our guilds were now famous throughout the China server, and that could only be a good thing.

After that, Bloody Mercenaries formed a party and farmed wild bears hanging around at the edge of Frost Forest. The goal was to collect some high-level pelts for Yamete to craft some armors. However, we didn’t burn the midnight oil because we were moving out of our apartment starting tomorrow. The drifters had returned home, and they now had a truckload of capital to play with. I was filled with hope for the future. We could hardly wait to achieve something big under the name of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!

I logged off at exactly 11:30 pm and lay down on the bed. It was at this moment I received a phone call.

Doo doo...

I checked the number and noticed that it was He Yi. She had asked for my number right before she left.

I accepted the call and greeted her, “Good evening, boss~”

He Yi let out a chuckle before asking, “Have you packed your stuff yet, Lu Chen?”

I shot the belongings lying next to my bed a glance before nodding. “Yep. Everything’s ready!”

“Good. Your rooms are 003–007. I’m not going to go into details, you can see for yourself when you come here tomorrow. If there’s anything you’re dissatisfied with, talk to me and we’ll work it out.”

“Got it. Speaking of which, who’s staying in 001 and 002?”

“I and Mingyue. Is there a problem?”

“Not at all. Quite the contrary…”

“Hehe.”

He Yi chuckled again. Suddenly, she let out a sigh before asking quietly, “How… how have you been during this time?”

I recalled everything that had happened since that fated day. The virus, the pain. It was a recollection of things that I would rather forget.

“Not very good, to be honest…” I replied.

He Yi fell quiet for a moment, giving me the impression that she wanted to say something but didn’t know where to start. A while later, she finally said, “I’m sorry…”

“Come on, let’s talk about something else. This is way too heavy for both of us right now…” I said with a smile.

He Yi hummed in agreement before saying, “Can you guess where I am right now?”

I was surprised. “Where are you?”

“Go to the balcony and look to the other side of the street~~”

“Ah?”

I got up and walked to the balcony. I immediately spotted He Yi’s sports car beneath a street lamp and the woman herself leaning against the car. She waved at me twice with her left hand while holding her phone with her right.

I was speechless. “It’s almost midnight. Why aren’t you back home yet?”

“Go back? I’m on my own right now, and I don’t feel like going back…” He Yi laughed. “I booked a room at a nearby hotel, and I’ll be staying there for the night. I’ll guide you to the company myself in the morning. What do you think?”

I asked, concerned, “Are you sure it’s safe? Where are you staying?”

“Oh, I’m staying at Hanting Express. It’s right next to the university…”

“...”

Wait a second. Didn’t Lin Yixin stay at a hotel next to the university as well?

My heart suddenly skipped a beat.