Raise the flag

"Really? The one who recently started clearing SS-rank dungeons?"

"He's cleared about two or three? He's almost caught up to Zheng Xun's record, hasn't he?"

"Apparently some highly ranked guilds wanted to recruit him too, but he thinks pretty highly of himself. Unless it's a top-twenty guild making the offer, he won't even consider it."

Zheng Xun had sharp ears and caught every word about this Little Zheng Xun.

He turned to look at Cheng Jie, who was still happily watching the match, oblivious to it all.

Zheng Xun jabbed him in the ribs. Cheng Jie dodged dramatically and cried out.

Fortunately, at the last moment, he remembered he couldn't reveal his identity and hurriedly clapped a hand over his mouth.

"What now?!" he asked Zheng Xun, who had suddenly started acting up.

Zheng Xun had a question for him.

"What's the deal with 'Little Zheng Xun'?"

"Huh? Ah..." Cheng Jie suddenly began hemming and hawing, unlike his usual blunt self.

Zheng Xun straightened his fingers into a knife hand and aimed it at Cheng Jie's ribs.

"I confess! I'll tell you everything!"

Cheng Jie hurriedly surrendered and explained as fast as he could to Zheng Xun, whose mood was a little off.

It turned out that Little Zheng Xun had only recently begun making a name for himself among the players. His real name was Jiang Feiguang. Like Zheng Xun, he had shot to fame in a single battle in the trash zone, then gone on to challenge one high-difficulty dungeon after another. His best result was clearing an SS-rank dungeon without taking any damage.

Though he was "like" Zheng Xun, anyone who took a closer look would find that Jiang Feiguang was actually imitating him. It went beyond turning down guild invitations and signing a loan contract: he also exploited bugs to clear the same dungeon repeatedly, among other things.

Jiang Feiguang was highly controversial. Some people thought he was hyping himself up. None of the high-difficulty dungeons he entered were original dungeons. An original dungeon was one being opened by players for the first time. Because the success rate for difficult dungeons was so low, wave after wave of players had left behind all kinds of video footage from inside after unfortunately failing. A great deal of information about the dungeons Jiang Feiguang entered had long since been posted on the forums, so anyone who wanted to could prepare thoroughly.

But others argued that if the information was available, why was Jiang Feiguang the only one who had successfully cleared them? That showed he did have talent and ability.

If it were just a newcomer who had suddenly shot to fame, it wouldn't have mattered much. A batch of geniuses, great and small, emerged from the different servers every year. But what rankled Zheng Xun's fans, as well as some bystanders, was that Jiang Feiguang claimed he didn't like people comparing him to Zheng Xun, yet measured himself against Zheng Xun at every turn.

Such blatant double standards thoroughly disgusted Zheng Xun's fans. When they argued online, the internet trolls Jiang Feiguang had paid for all stuck to the same line, insisting that Zheng Xun's fans were bullying a newcomer and couldn't tolerate him. They also brought up Zheng Xun poaching Azure Mist's marked dungeon, joining forces with Azure Mist's fans to curse Zheng Xun.

Over time, many bystanders who didn't understand the full story were misled into thinking that Zheng Xun really was suppressing a newcomer.

But Zheng Xun himself hadn't even debuted two months ago. Pinning such a serious accusation on him was a complete injustice.

"Songbird has quietly stepped in a few times already. They didn't dare do it openly, but President Ertao and Brother Xiao both thought they should take action and couldn't just let people smear you. Still, neither of them wanted to bother you with something so trivial. You were still in a dungeon at the time, and you couldn't afford to be distracted."

Cheng Jie was pulling out all the stops, wishing he had eight mouths.

But Zheng Xun looked diagonally down and didn't respond at all.

"Take some advice. Really, you can't let this get to you. Every one of us is in the public eye, and every so often someone dumps a few buckets of dirty water on us. The guild has experience handling this kind of public opinion, so you don't need to worry at all. Honestly, there are way too many newcomers using your name to build hype for themselves. Zheng Xun number one, Zheng Xun number two... They keep popping up like mushrooms after rain."

Cheng Jie was straightforward, with a bit of a mischievous streak. The classic example of him egging Zheng Xun on to poach a marked dungeon showed what he was like: not the easygoing sort.

But he had a reason for earnestly urging Zheng Xun to swallow it. As the aces and star players of their respective guilds, they couldn't let negative public opinion sweep them along, or it would seriously affect their lives and even spill over into their performance in dungeons.

Cheng Jie himself had suffered several major losses and taken some hard tumbles before he learned to rein himself in.

At most, he cursed people out on an alt account and anonymously started hate threads on the forums.

Zheng Xun finally seemed to take in a word or two and stopped deliberately looking away.

He raised his head and studied Cheng Jie intently.

Cheng Jie felt a chill down his back under his gaze.

"What?"

"You're right," Zheng Xun said with a sudden nod, though it was unclear which part he agreed with.

"Which, which part?"

"You can't handle this kind of thing openly."

"...?"

Before Cheng Jie could react, he felt a tug around his neck that nearly strangled him.

His neck was suddenly bare. He looked down and saw that his scarf was gone.

The man in front of him suddenly vaulted over the railing with one hand and landed on the stairs. He bounded down them and ran toward the middle of the arena, wrapping the scarf around his hair as he went.

"Fuck!"

Cheng Jie swore. He wanted to stop Zheng Xun, but feared it would be too obvious. He wanted to call someone over, but didn't know whom to call.

In an instant, he made eight hundred false starts by the stands.

In that short time, Zheng Xun had already taken his place in the arena.

The referee was dumbfounded, and the spectators were just as stunned. Shen Guanyu and Jiang Feiguang both looked in surprise at this figure who had appeared out of nowhere.

He wore black casual pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt he had apparently picked up from some fast-food restaurant. It even said, "Second order of fries half price."

His hair was wrapped in a soft scarf that, judging by the logo, was quite expensive. His sunglasses didn't quite fit his face, so they were probably borrowed from someone else. They were the same brand as the scarf. He held a black baseball cap and was trying hard to fit it over the layers of scarf.

More alarmingly, he wore a black face mask. From head to toe, not a patch of skin was exposed except for his hands.

"Sir...?" the referee ventured.

Zheng Xun nodded.

He paused, took a small utility knife from his pocket, and cut a slit in the middle of the mask so he could breathe when making big movements later.

"I'm here to challenge."

He said.

His voice sounded muffled, perhaps because of all the layers he was wearing, and indeed no one recognized him as Zheng Xun.

Wrapped up so tightly, he was simply taken for a player from some team who had sneaked out for a bit of amusement.

Cheng Jie was already crouching on the floor, pulling at his hair, his face full of regret.

Suddenly, something occurred to him. He changed position and pressed his palms together.

He prayed that Zheng Xun wouldn't cause too much of a scene.

The referee lived up to his experience and quickly recovered.

"But the other contestant, Jiang, stepped into the arena first."

"Is there a rule against three people standing in the arena?"

"In principle, it's one-on-one. If it's two against one, it's unfair to the defending contestant. Of course, if the defender agrees to face multiple opponents, that's allowed too."

Zheng Xun nodded. He understood, and turned to look at Shen Guanyu.

"Do you agree?"

"I..."

Shen Guanyu wasn't decisive by nature, and the scene before him had left him bewildered.

Jiang Feiguang spoke up first, putting on a generous air.

"Since this friend has chosen to step into the arena too, I'll let him have the first chance to challenge. I..."

"No need. I don't need you to give way. I don't want to owe you."

Zheng Xun cut him off.

"I'll take you out first," he said, pointing one finger at Jiang Feiguang. Then he turned to the helpless Shen Guanyu. "And then I'll challenge him."

Finally, he looked at the referee, who was standing there dumbly.

"Does that work?"

"Well..."

"Does it or doesn't it? Give me an answer."

"It wouldn't be against the rules."

"Then that works."

Bundled up tight, Zheng Xun nodded and turned on his toes to face Jiang Feiguang, whose expression had darkened.

"Raise the flag."

He said to the referee.