It was nearly noon, and the sun shone brightly.
In a hotel parking lot in the Capital, an old Off-Road Vehicle sat in a corner with its engine off and dark tint on its windows.
Inside, Yao Sen leaned back in the driver's seat, his arms folded, staring expressionlessly across the road at the entrance of a bar called Tree Rings.
The informant Old He had introduced said that the ordinary man named Ren Daguo would definitely come out of this bar.
Lying in wait was tedious work, and it easily brought back memories...
Yao Sen's expression was vacant, his eyes lifeless, his face steeped in dejection.
He looked like someone who had given up, already rotting away in life and waiting to start stinking. Everything about him said "defeat."
But Yao Sen had not always been like this. Three years ago, he had already been a Second Tier Star Gate player. Under the normal course of personal development, he should now have been attempting his Third Tier Stage Class Inheritance mission, or already have succeeded and reached the Third Tier.
Every advance to a new major tier meant a qualitative transformation for a player. It unlocked new inheritance abilities, brought enormous changes to the body, greatly strengthened Mystical Abilities, and granted access to higher-ranking Star Gates, with a chance of obtaining extremely precious items, among other things.
In short, he should have had a dazzling, colorful future, just like other players.
But Three Years Ago's Contest had utterly crushed him, leaving him hopelessly mired in memories of the past.
Yao Sen had originally been a Free Faction player. He had founded an eight-person player team whose guiding principle was mutual assistance and benefit: tackling multiplayer-clearance Star Gates together and banding together for support so players from other forces could