Player Association, 3V3 Battle!

"Our information has probably all been passed along by now," Shen Xing said calmly.

"True. In this age of big data, individuals don't really have any privacy to speak of."

Qin Lang nodded in realization, then something else occurred to him. "Looks like I'll have to put some study materials in a secure space when I get back. I don't want people finding out what I've been watching."

The three chatted as they walked into the lobby.

The moment they stepped through the doors, they were stunned by the sight before them.

Chapter 33: Player Association, 3V3 Battle!

People came and went through the first-floor lobby, where numerous sofas and coffee tables stood around the room. It looked more like a leisure club than a mysterious organization.

There were several service counters off to the side, with lines of people waiting at them.

Shen Xing and the others made their way through the crowd, snippets of conversation reaching their ears.

"Isn't your Anomaly Handling Bureau a bit too slow? I accepted a bounty last night and ran down to the river to kill that Transcendent Rank monster. I uploaded the photos ages ago, too. When's the 200,000-yuan reward going to hit my account?"

"Hello, sir. We've confirmed that you completed the bounty, but you damaged a yacht during the battle. Repairs are estimated to cost 270,000 yuan, so you still need to pay 70,000."

"Huh? I have to fucking pay out of pocket?"

Elsewhere, several men were gathered around a table, talking loudly.

"I'm telling you, once you reach the midgame, you should get an insect race nest and start pumping out troops. The insect race has low recruitment requirements and a high reproductive rate. They're practically the perfect troop type!"

"Bullshit. What good is a high reproductive rate? They're still just a bunch of cannon fodder. You're better off raising the undead race. You can recruit troops straight from corpses, and the stronger the corpse, the stronger the undead you get. They blow the trash insect race out of the water!"

"You've got the nerve to show off a trash troop type like the undead race? Wouldn't my light priests blow you up?"

"Stop arguing. The sand race is number one! They're immune to physical attacks. Scared yet?"

"What kind of trash is the sand race? I could piss on them and they'd all be fucking done for. The blood race is the strongest. Anyone who disagrees can come up to the fifth-floor battle area and have a go at me."

"Fine, let's go! Who's afraid of you?"

As the argument grew more heated, more and more people joined in.

Everyone thought their main troop type was the strongest, and quite a few had already arranged to go upstairs and fight.

The three watched from the side, clicking their tongues in amazement, and couldn't resist adding fuel to the fire themselves.

"I didn't expect there to be so many players in Jiangcheng," Shen Xing remarked.

"Yeah, I was shocked too when I first came here to buy a troop nest."

Qin Lang nodded, then added, "But it's a normal number."

"Didn't Zhou Zheng say nobody knows how many years the game Mist Reincarnation has been around? By now, it must have accumulated quite a lot of players."

"Some veteran lords even have sons who've entered the game. They're genuine second-generation lords."

"With someone backing them, they start out ahead of other players and develop at rocket speed."

Shen Xing nodded slightly. "Speaking of which, how do we find Zhou Zheng?"

Qin Lang was a little lost too. Zhou Zheng had only told them to come to the Times Building, not where to find him.

They looked around and were about to find someone to ask when a text message arrived on their phones.

"Huh? It's from Zhou Zheng," Qin Lang said in surprise. "He says he saw us enter the building and that we should go to the office area on the fourth floor."

Shen Xing nodded, having seen the message too. "Then let's take the elevator straight up."

Qin Lang pushed the wheelchair toward the elevators, with Xu Jiayi following beside them in pink rabbit-ear pajamas and rabbit-ear slippers.

Their group didn't look particularly out of place here. If anything, they were a little conservative.

There were plenty of people in the lobby who looked stranger than they did.

Someone wore a mage's robe and a wizard hat, cosplaying Gandalf. Someone else wore a black hoodie and a black mask, cosplaying Jiahao... No, that one was probably just being himself.

There was even someone wearing a thong and a pair of cat ears, cosplaying a beast-eared girl. And the person was a fucking man.

If a passerby wandered in, they might have thought this was some huge cosplay event.

Inside the elevator, they saw that the buttons were labeled with information about each floor.

The first floor housed the general office area and the lounge area.

The second floor was the trading area, where players could trade freely, though they had to pay a handling fee.

The third floor was the battle area. Simply put, it was a PK arena where players could solo one another.

Ding!

The elevator soon reached the fourth floor, and its doors opened to reveal a wide corridor.

It was much quieter here than on the noisy first floor, with offices lining both sides of the corridor.

Shen Xing and the others headed down the corridor and soon found an office with a sign reading "Zhou Zheng."

The door stood open, and the three looked inside from the entrance.

A middle-aged man in a gray trench coat and sunglasses was lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, resting.

At the desk beside him, a young woman in a black suit, her hair tied in a neat ponytail, was tapping away at a keyboard. Clack, clack, clack.

Her teeth bit lightly into her lip, and her oval face wore a gloomy expression. The resentment of a working woman was practically spilling out of her.

"Brother Zhou Zheng." Qin Lang knocked on the door.

Hearing the call, the middle-aged man on the sofa took off his sunglasses and looked at the figures in the doorway.

"You're here. You three are pretty early."

Zhou Zheng smiled, then said apologetically, "Sorry. I was out on a mission all night and didn't get enough rest, so I forgot to send someone to pick you up."

"Heh... By 'out on a mission,' do you mean going to a married woman's house in the middle of the night and spending the night there?"

The woman with the ponytail gave Zhou Zheng a cold look, then turned to the three at the door. Her gaze landed on Shen Xing, and she looked slightly startled.

Zhou Zheng's expression stiffened, and he gave an awkward laugh. "Haha, that's not important. Come on in and sit down."

Qin Lang and the other two didn't stand on ceremony. They entered the office and sat on the sofa.

Zhou Zheng poured each of them a cup of hot water, then sat down across from them and got straight to the point.

"I called you here about the Mist Void Realm slots we talked about last time."

"What is it, Brother Zhou Zheng? Have we lost our slots?" Qin Lang asked directly.

"Not exactly."

Zhou Zheng shook his head. "It's just that no Void Secret Realm has appeared in Jiangcheng for two years, so quite a few players are stuck at Tier One without the materials to break through to Transcendent Rank."

"Right now, over two hundred players qualify to enter the secret realm, but there are only a hundred slots."

"And for certain special reasons, some of those slots have already been reserved."

"So the higher-ups decided to pick the best of the best and send in the strongest group."

"Does that mean we aren't strong enough?" Shen Xing asked.

"No, you're quite strong. At least for newcomers, you're already very good."

Zhou Zheng explained, "But the number of players has surged over the past two years, and quite a few new players have raised one-star and two-star elite troops."

"Especially those who have been at Tier One for a long time. They now have Elite Three Stars troops."

"After all, you haven't been in the game very long and haven't had enough time to develop. The higher-ups originally said you should spend more time building yourselves up."

"But after I argued your case and pulled some strings, I finally managed to get you a chance."

Shen Xing looked at him thoughtfully. "Just a chance? So it isn't guaranteed?"

"That's right."

Zhou Zheng nodded frankly. "I believe in your strength, but those people upstairs don't."

"So next, I'll arrange a match for you to fight other players and prove your strength."

"As long as you win, the slots are yours."

The three stared at one another in a daze, finally understanding why Zhou Zheng had called them here.

"So you called us here to fight other players?" Shen Xing asked instinctively, struggling to process it.

"I'm not asking you to fight them yourselves. You'll summon your troops to battle."

Zhou Zheng corrected him. "Also, Transcendent Rank experts will be there to protect you throughout the sparring match and ensure there are no serious casualties."

After a pause, he suddenly said meaningfully, "Besides, sparring with players in real life is also a form of training for you."

"The situation around the world isn't very stable right now, and anomalous incidents are occurring frequently in every country. You should get used to it as soon as possible."

Hearing the implication in his words, the three fell silent for a moment.

"Are you sure one match is enough?" Shen Xing asked again.

None of them had ever summoned troops to fight other players before, so they felt a little unsure.

Although they fought often in the game and never hesitated to cut down monsters, this was reality, after all.

"Of course, provided you win. If you lose, there's nothing I can do." Zhou Zheng leaned back against the sofa as he answered.

Shen Xing pondered for a moment, then took a deep breath. "All right, we'll participate."

"Good."

Zhou Zheng smiled with satisfaction, then asked, "Will you choose 1V1 or 3V3?"

"What? We can choose the match format?"

All three wore baffled expressions.

"Of course." Zhou Zheng spoke as though it were obvious. "Early on, novice lords aren't strong enough and can only materialize a limited number of troops, so their battle tactics are limited."

"But if they cooperate with other players' troops, the result won't be one plus one greater than two, but one squared!"

Everyone: "..."

The entire office fell briefly silent.

"Captain Zhou loves telling those kinds of lame jokes. Please don't mind him," the black-haired woman at the desk said calmly, seemingly used to it.

"Ahem..." Zhou Zheng cleared his throat and said seriously, "In short, our country strongly encourages players to team up and fight in real life."

"Not only does it reduce casualties, it also helps them improve their coordination."

"You can also team up to explore inside the Mist Void Realm."

"So... which format do you choose?"

Qin Lang and Xu Jiayi said nothing, both turning to look at Shen Xing between them.

Shen Xing thought for a moment, then replied, "We choose 3V3."

"All right." Zhou Zheng smiled, seemingly having expected their choice.

"Let's go to the third floor. I'll arrange your match for today."