Waiting For You Online

055. Bamboo Forests’ Lurker

Once again, He Jin couldn’t sleep because of Qin Yu’s remarks.

Qin Yu was right. His problem wasn’t laid in his financial aspect, but in his relationship with his mother, or, bluntly said, because of his mother.

His mother was the power holder in his life, even his financial was controlled by her. Meanwhile his father was someone who couldn’t beat one person with three sticks– a boring and truly honest man. At home he would always listen to his wife. Whatever his mother said, his father would follow them without question..

All his life, He Jin witnessed his father giving all his monthly wages to his mother. He only asked for 10 yuan every three days to buy a pack of Camel cigarettes. He Jin remembered that on one occasion his father bought Yellow Crane Tower cigarettes, which was more expensive than the Camel, and his mother questioned him about it all night. Later on they learned that his father had been hiding some of his wages. The whole house was turned into chaos that night.

His mother wasn’t angry because his father bought different cigarettes, but because his father was out of her control.

He Jin also remembered something that happened to his grandpa. He Jin’s grandpa was still alive, a retired cadre with a very high retirement wages. In their home, his grandma was also the one who manage the household money– as if it was an hereditary trait, passed from generation to generation.

Grandpa had no hobbies and only liked to read newspapers. He Jin heard that every morning, grandma would give grandpa five cents to buy a local daily newspaper. Then, he would go home and read it with a magnifying glass, even the ads in the middle was not left out by him. In the past few years, he had gotten a few bonuses from the newspaper company for finding typos.

He Jin’s mother always had such a proud expression on her face every time she talked about it. Saying how grandpa was such a dependable person, that letting women be in charge of money would make a peaceful home. Then, she’d continue by giving example of various households which had men gambling money, or those with men spending money outside on some woman.

But He Jin didn’t think so, he always felt that grandpa and father were pitiful. He secretly vowed that he wouldn’t become like them when he grew up. A man whose financial independence was bound to others, like a bird with its wings cut, was not like a man at all.

But he rarely said these ideas in front of his mother. The few times he tried to, his mother always used a bunch of other people’s experiences to refute him, making He Jin felt particularly powerless.

Being controlled since childhood had made He Jin forgot about his inner instinct to resist. He kept on waiting– waiting for a redemption, or waiting for his mother to realize the wrongness in this situation. For her to let go of her control and give him more freedom. But deep down he also feared that these “fantasies” would never happen…

***

He Jin was startled awake from his nightmare. A look outside showed it was only dawn.

Last night, because of Qin Yu’s words, He Jin was restless and went to sleep very late. But unexpectedly he still woke up early…

He felt tired, but because there was something in his mind, he did not intend to go back to sleep.

Shrinking in the quilt, he saw the helmet on the desk. He thought for a bit before he finally got up and had putted it on.

He laid back down on the bed and landed in the game’s interface smoothly – Eh, He Jin was surprised, we can play while lying down? This is quite nice!

Since it was only five o’clock in the morning, Fire wasn’t online. Even the world channel which was usually so noisy with people chatting felt a bit quiet now, only a few messages emerged from time to time.

With less people around, He Jin decided not to use a stealth coupon. He rode Poor Flame alone to continue their husband and wife task of collecting 99 bluebell flowers. They could be collected even without Fire, because at the end of the task only one of them needed to hand them over.

Completing this kind of task was like doing homework in high school, it didn’t necessarily need much thinking. He Jin was so focused that he forgot the time. His lying down position didn’t help either, he was so comfortable, and it showed by how lively his character – Ah Jin – was…

While collecting, a green monster suddenly appeared not far from He Jin. Its body was thick, with a pointy head, and “Bamboo Demon (30)”written above its head.

……What is this? Monster? Why is there only one?

Don’t tell me … it’s a wild boss? And it’s a level 30-boss!. (⊙o⊙)

As a spiritual pet character, the level of his human form would increase gradually following his ferret form, and now he had reached level 87. However, he could only use up to level-30 skills in his human form, the attack power wasn’t high. If he were in his ferret form, he’d still have the confidence to try fighting the monster… But Fire wasn’t online now, he couldn’t switch shape!

Or should he ask around the world channel to see if anyone’s up to forming a team? No, no, then most likely those people wouldn’t gather to kill the boss, but to kill him! (=_=)

Watching the bamboo demon wandering around in his vicinity, He Jin was itching to fight, but it’d meant certain death, yet he also couldn’t watch it go away!

He Jin touched his inventory bag, he had enough medicine. Then, while holding his dagger – which had been left unused for such a long time – he rushed over. The helmet made Ah Jin yell, conveying his mood in real life: “AH–!”

The Bamboo Demon was stabbed by He Jin. It roared and turned back, his thick lower body shook the ground like an earthquake. The monster’s pointy head revealed two scarlet eyes and an opened mouth full of sharp teeth. It swept its sword in a fast movement, He Jin was caught off guard and wasn’t able to dodge. In an instant,  his blood bar was down by one-half!

Boy! Although this boss is only level 30,  it’s still very powerful ah!

He Jin grabbed a pill from his bag and stuffed it into his mouth. His blood bar was filled instantly. He then moved left and right, dodging the bamboo demon’s attacks. Because of his ferret’s agile nature, even in his human form, his dodging speed was still relatively fast. Coupled with his practice with Fire these days, even if his attack damage wasn’t that great, his dodging ability in face of danger had greatly improved.

By relying on the defense, He Jin slowly stabilized his condition. He began to attack the bamboo demon, stab after stab patiently. When the cool down on his medicine pill reached zero, he quickly ate some to return his blood. By doing this, He Jin saw that Bamboo Demon’s blood bar had dropped to half. He Jin’s confidence doubled! But after that, the demon repeatedly sent two big attacks which almost sent He Jin straight to the King of Hell!

In his shocked state, He Jin suddenly saw a black shadow hiding deep in the Bamboo Forest, the shadow also had a pair of light green eyes… What the hell is this? There are other monsters behind the bamboo demon, aren’t there?

He Jin shouted bravely: “Who is there!?”

There was only silence for a moment, before a wretched laughter was heard coming from the forest: “He he…”

He Jin: “…” It’s a lurking player! He Jin immediately knew what the other player planned to do – to wait until the last moment to gain fisherman’s benefit! [1]

The wretched voice said again: “You are still a child ah!”

Your voice sounds like someone in middle school, yet you dare to judge? He Jin didn’t say it out loud, and merely said: “Hey come out, let’s play together.”

“What good is it for me to kill it with you?” The man asked slyly.

“Then what good is it for you to just squat there? You are not just going to appreciate me killing monsters, are you?” The boss-killing reward in Demon God was not given by distribution system. Instead, to those who took a part in the killing, there would be packages they could pick up randomly. Whatever they picked up had no connection with their characters. He Jin continued,”If you are planning to wait until the last minute to attack me, then at worst I just wouldn’t get anything. But I’d have seen your name then, and if there are some opportunities later, I’ll come to take my revenge on you.”

Lurker: “I already hid my name, you won’t see it.”

He Jin was speechless: “Don’t be silly, boss-killing will always be announced on TV.” Although he wasn’t interested in the world channel, he still had the common sense to know this.

Lurker: “No way…”

He Jin detected that the other guy seemed a little childish in his mindset and continued to say: “Not to mention, I now know of your intentions. If you really want to continue doing so, I’ll just release the boss’ coordinates in the world channel. You’ll be in trouble then…”

Lurker: “Fuck off, you grade school child, how can you be so sinister!”

The things He Jin said, how could this be called sinister? I am so upright and honest, always acting on intelligence and wisdom. My words are straightforward, never beating around the bush!

Lurker: “But I like it, hehe …”

He Jin: “…”

Then, from the Bamboo Forest *swish* sprang out a black and white thing. Startled, He Jin looked intently at the thing – this is, this is… A panda?

The panda looked at He Jin and said, “Though I am alone is enough to kill this bamboo easily, looking at you being so wise, this elder brother will befriend you and help you kill it!”

After saying this, the other guy sent over a team application.

He Jin looked at the transparent frame that appeared in his sight– “The player ‘Twig Fence’ invites you to join the team.” No matter if this guy was a person or a demon, He Jin immediately chose to accept!

With the “Panda” helping, the Bamboo Demon’s health went straight down. The panda’s way of attack was quite interesting. Like ferrets, it also rushed over directly to bite its enemies. He Jin finally realized, is this guy also playing as a spiritual pet? Before being domesticated, spirit characters could change their shape freely. This “Panda” might be Twig Fence’s prototype.

It might be because panda’s naturally loved to eat bamboo, but the Bamboo Demon lost blood again and again in a loop. Just like what Twig Fence said, he really could kill it easily!

In the end, the giant green bamboo monster was killed by them and changed form into a small cut of bamboo shoots. It died under He Jin’s dagger and Twig Fence’s teeth.

World Channel: Congratulation to players Ah Jin, Twig Fence for defeating level-30 wild boss – Bamboo Demon!