Chapter 89: Will You Come Tonight?

How great, exactly, is the leap from four-star to five-star?

It was like moving from section chief to department head, from department head to bureau chief, from bureau chief to minister—and doing so without any deputy post in between, a kind of promotion so irregular it practically bordered on abuse of power.

Four-star level had once been rare, but in recent years it had grown increasingly common, to the point that someone of his stature, a bona fide four-star, could only humble himself as a grade-level director, because every seat was already taken.

Now that he had reached five-star, at the very least he would start as a principal. Soon after, he would be acquiring titles like standing council member and committee member across the inner and outer cities. If his qualifications were a little older and his luck a little better, even becoming one of the three great powers of the city-state was not impossible...

After all, six-star level was already the alliance’s top combat strength, and there were only a handful of such people. In all of River City, there were only two. As for anything above seven-star, each one was a legend!

So five-star was the highest ordinary combat strength in River City.

His fate had been completely changed by this promotion, even if it had come a little late!

Three years of mediocre study at a top academy was still a top academy, far better than three years at an ordinary one.

Indeed, with one more five-star, River City’s overall combat strength had risen a little as well, since River City only had a dozen or twenty five-stars to begin with.

So, if everything went normally, someone ought to be knocking on his door very soon, congratulating him, blessing him, drumming and clashing gongs, seeking connections and trying to ingratiate themselves...

But why was no one coming yet?

One cigarette had already burned down. The warning light on the aircraft had gone out. Guan Junyuan stared toward the doorway from afar, puzzled, and lit another.

“Life’s three great illusions: the phone is vibrating, someone is knocking at the door, she likes me... Most people are fooled by the last one, but you’re fooled by the second. Truly one of a kind, Old Guan!” The crested cockatoo had been kept awake by Guan Junyuan’s antics and simply woke up as well.

Man and bird sat facing each other, smoking in silence.

Hmm, the bird did have a point. As for becoming five-star, there were advantages and disadvantages to both high-profile and low-profile approaches.

If he made a big show of it, people would immediately know that he had become a newly promoted five-star, flashy and impressive, but the matter of the full-sensory helmet would certainly not stay hidden—especially not from those direct rivals, the first, second, and fourth academies...

By the time the college entrance exam arrived, the advantage of the third academy might no longer be so obvious...

If he kept it quiet, the five-star identity would definitely remain under wraps until after the exam, but the performance advantage would be even greater. By then, with achievements in hand and strength at his side, though he came later, he would surely arrive first!

Keep it low-key, then. For now, low-key. When people come later, he would have to remind them carefully.

Guan Junyuan nodded silently and made up his mind.

The crested cockatoo, cigarette in beak, sat dumbly: Did this lord just say that? Isn’t that just you talking to yourself? Well, fine—you’re the poop-scooper, so your word goes.

With a few lackluster flaps of its wings, as if fanning a quilt: “Makes sense! Makes sense!”

So the man and the bird continued sitting face-to-face, waiting, chatting about nothing in particular, tossing around all sorts of irrelevant nonsense.

Then, before they knew it, the morning bell rang, and dawn broke...

Guan Junyuan truly could not bear it any longer. He raised his hands in surrender, and with bewilderment, confusion, and uncertainty, he took the initiative and went to the homes of several of his subordinate teachers.

After dragging the few still fighting on in their single apartments offline and asking around, he finally understood what had happened...

It turned out he was not the only one who had advanced to five-star last night.

Not long after he had been kicked offline—practically back-to-back—Ximen Qiong had also leveled up...

Ximen Qiong, with those bold brows and large eyes of yours, so you really can’t stand it when someone else steals your spotlight for even a day!

In any case, the teachers and soldiers who had participated in the battle had all gone mad.

The full-sensory helmet really could assist in cultivation? No risk to life, and the effect was this obvious?

Everyone basically knew Guan Junyuan’s and Ximen Qiong’s backgrounds. They had been high school classmates, both graduates of West County War Academy. Their aptitude could not be called mediocre, but it certainly was not exceptional either.

Ten years ago, West County War Academy did not yet have the reputation it now enjoyed as one of the four great academies of Cloud Province; at best, it had only just begun to distinguish itself.

After graduation, the two of them had spent years on the frontlines, only returning to River City two or three years ago, so to speak, as veterans discharged from service. For years, they had been stuck at four-star. With age creeping up and their peak long past, promotion had become impossible...

It was much like a doctoral student or a resident physician who, while still young and full of fire, had burned off their hair, worn down their looks, and drained their blood and heart to the dregs, only to finally learn the limits of their ability and resign themselves to fate.

No longer dreaming of becoming a master in some field, bursting onto the scene and stunning the world. They would simply work honestly, lower their heads, and do their jobs in silence.

No longer hoping to publish in the great journals, only caring whether an academic title could be useful. If a second-rate or even third-rate Chinese journal required a page fee, so long as it was not too expensive, that too could be tolerated.

In the end, one entered the school system, and the other the military.

If even those two could use the game through the full-sensory helmet to advance to five-star, then ordinary people certainly could as well, right?

Even if they could not rise from four-star to five-star, then going from three-star to four-star would do too.

Even if they could not advance by a whole major level, three-star could still be divided carefully into early, middle, late, and peak stages, and four-star as well; even a small advance would be wonderful.

Once such thoughts took hold, who still had time to curry favor with the two newly promoted five-stars? Everyone was playing like mad, day and night, without rest.

After checking on his subordinates, Guan Junyuan went to find Ximen Qiong.

And when he looked, the handsome devil was clearly kicked out of the game around the same time as he had been, yet he too had dark circles under his eyes and a dispirited air...

The two exchanged knowing looks; some things needed no words.

As for keeping it secret for now, once everyone had successfully withdrawn from the game and understood what Guan Junyuan meant, they all gave it frenzied approval.

Secrecy was good. Low profile was good. There were only so many helmets. If word got out and the whole of River City came to try them on, how were they supposed to play? Too many monks, too little porridge; too many wolves, too little meat!

It could be said that they wanted this matter kept secret even more than Ximen Qiong and Guan Junyuan did. Since Ximen Qiong had proposed it first, how could they possibly disagree?

==========

“This is going to be difficult...” Guan Junyuan and Ximen Qiong had been forcibly kicked offline. Here, facing the increasingly frantic battles among the remaining people, Alpha Girl was deeply troubled!

She had once told Ye Chao that the most efficient way to promote something was to set up an example and create a hit.

Now there were examples—two at once!

One could be explained as luck, but two were certainly no accident.

To be honest, even Alpha Girl was stunned—this was not part of her plan at all!

What came next, she could already imagine: with Ye Chao’s old, battered, secondhand laptop, there would surely be a continuous influx of newcomers, a continuous stream of requests for intercity battles, because that yielded the best results. After all, both five-stars had been born this way.

As someone who possessed a subspace and could connect several cities with a few hundred or even a thousand people without breaking a sweat, doing this should have been child’s play.

But... she really could not do it.

Open an alternate identity every time? That would be far too tiring... One or two teams, she could handle. Ten teams, eight teams— even with a dual-core, four-thread, eight-star, eight-arrow setup, she still would not be able to keep up!

Refuse every time? Then suspicions would inevitably arise...

She had to think of a way to open a new server and bring in new players.

Alpha Girl lifted her gaze to the sky, and a bold idea began to take shape in her heart.