The city’s temperature in May was neither high nor low, and the air was humid and comfortable.
However, Ye Xiu was the type who stayed indoors for long periods of time, so his reaction towards the difference in the climate was quite slow. He didn’t realize that there was any change. After arriving from the plane, he called for a taxi and went straight to Club Samsara, not even stopping at the hotel beforehand.
The unsuccessful trade with Loulan Slash caused Ye Xiu to be much more careful with the upcoming discussion. After discussing the issue with Wei Chen and the others again and again, they came to the conclusion that Samsara had no reason to reject their offer. Their intentions on becoming the champion this season was very obvious. It could be seen from their marketing during the two week break before the playoffs.
It was impossible for them to reject this guide for skill points. The only possibility was that they might refuse to buy it out completely. As for this problem, Ye Xiu had been discussing it with the team these past few days. If they didn’t buy it out, it meant they would be letting Ye Xiu go to another team to sell the guide. If that were the case, then Samsara wouldn’t have any advantage over the other teams. After thinking about it over and over again, everyone felt that the possibility of Samsara buying it out was the highest out of all the teams.
Ye Xiu would arrive at Club Samsara soon. Of course, he wasn’t planning on breaking through their front entrance. After all, he couldn’t use his face as a pass. Wei Chen’s worry wasn’t for nothing. He had a high chance of being driven out by the security guards before even entering.
Ye Xiu made a call from a public telephone booth outside the Club and then paced back and forth in front of the entrance. Not long afterwards, a person jogged out from within the Club building and glanced around outside the gate. When Ye Xiu waved towards him, that person hurried over.
“Long time no see.” The two greeted each other.
Tong Lin, an ex-pro gamer of Glory, was currently employed at the Club. He had retired three years ago and worked in Samsara Club’s technology department.
The professional circle for Glory wasn’t too big. There were around 200 people total. In the initial stages of the professional scene, the scale had been even smaller. There weren’t even 20 teams and not all the teams had ten people, so at that time, there were even fewer people, so the pro gamers were much more familiar with each other. Ye Xiu had been in the scene from the very start until now, so it was evident that he knew everyone in it. It was just a matter of how deeply he knew everyone. Some people he only nodded his head at, while some he could chat well with.
Tong Lin belonged to the latter.
Although he wasn’t a God, his love for Glory wasn’t any less than any other pro. After retiring and joining the technology department, he continued to work diligently and tirelessly. Ye Xiu contacted his old friend for his trip to bring in his message and enter the gate. Tong Lin was far from having the influence to make any decisions in the trade though.
As the two chatted, they walked through Samsara’s entrance. With Tong Lin there, the security guards by the door didn’t ask any questions. When Ye Xiu had previously been walking around the entrance, they had cautiously kept an eye on him. After all, the playoffs were coming up. They couldn’t risk distracting the pro gamers, who were vigorously preparing and training for the upcoming competition. The Club’s work requirements in various departments had become much more strict these past few days.
“What business do you have here? You were so secretive on the phone.” Tong Lin asked as he guided Ye Xiu along.
“It’s definitely something good for Samsara.” Ye Xiu said.
“Ha ha, what good could you possibly bring to Samsara?” Tong Lin laughed.
“You’ll know when I show it to you later.” Ye Xiu said.
“Alright!” Tong Lin didn’t ask any further. He directly brought Ye Xiu up to the Club’s third level, which was where his office in the technology department was located.
“Tell me! What are you going to show me? I’m waiting!” After telling Ye Xiu to sit down, Tong Lin smiled.
“You have spare Glory account cards here, don’t you?” Ye Xiu asked.
“Would you believe me if I said no?” Tong Lin spoke, “What class do you need?”
“The class doesn’t matter, but the fewer quests completed, the better.” Ye Xiu spoke.
“We haven’t been keeping track of that.” Tong Lin said.
“Then just give me any two!” Ye Xiu said.
Tong Lin opened the drawer and randomly grabbed two account cards.
“Is here okay? Or do you want to head for the lab?” Tong Lin asked.
“Lab?” Ye Xiu laughed.
“That’s what everyone calls it. It’s a force of habit now.” Tong Lin explained.
“Here is fine!” Ye Xiu stood up and walked over. Tong Lin immediately stepped away from the computer and left the two cards there.
“These two accounts are yours or?” Ye Xiu casually picked one up and asked.
“Mine.” Tong Lin said.
“Then how lucky of you.” Ye Xiu smiled.
Tong Lin was still confused as Ye Xiu quickly logged onto the game. Ye Xiu didn’t care about what Tong Lin’s character was called, which server, which class, or what equipment he had. Ye Xiu only checked the character’s location and immediately looked up a direction to run towards while asking Tong Lin: “Do you still remember what sort of tasks this character has completed?”
“This…… I don’t really remember.” Tong Lin said.
“Then I’ll just try a few!” Ye Xiu said.
“What on earth are you trying to do?” Tong Lin asked.
“Don’t worry. You’ll know soon enough.” Ye Xiu kept him guessing without revealing anything. He controlled Tong Lin’s character, while sprinting towards a place that he remembered that had one of the select quests.
After talking to the NPC with the quest, it seemed like Tong Lin hadn’t completed this quest before.
After seeing Ye Xiu accept the quest, Tong Lin hurriedly moved closer to look: “Which quest is this?”
Ye Xiu opened the quest’s panel for Tong Lin to see the quest’s name.
Tong Lin looked at it and tried to recall this quest in his head, but he couldn’t remember anything odd about this quest. He then watched Ye Xiu continue to play. He followed the quest chain and completed it step by step.
“You came here to help complete quests for my account?” Tong Lin laughed.
“Don’t get so worked up yet. What’s worth the excitement has yet to come.” Ye Xiu said.
“What are you trying to do? Stop hinting and just tell me!” Tong Lin was getting anxious!
However, Ye Xiu didn’t hurry. In actual fact, he was afraid of making mistakes. After all, this had to be done precisely according to the calculations that Concealed Light and his mentor had made, so he couldn’t be careless.
“Pay attention!!” At last, the quest had reached the last stage when Ye Xiu immediately called out to Tong Lin.
“I’ve been paying attention this whole time!” Tong Lin said from the side.
After clicking the character, the task was completed and a row of congratulatory words flashed by. Ye Xiu wasn’t let down. The skill book was rewarded. The task he chose to show obviously had a high succeeding rate. For this particular quest, after being analyzed over and over by Concealed Light and his mentor, they had found that there was a 57.258% chance of a skill book being dropped upon completion.
For skill books, a percentage like that was high enough to scare a person to death.
“Skill book!!!” Tong Lin was patient and had been paying attention the entire time. The reward that flashed by didn’t escape his eyes. He clearly saw these two words. He immediately realized that the skill book must have been what Ye Xiu had been hiding from him the entire time. Apart from this, there was nothing else to see.
“A skill book with 25 skill points, how about that? Aren’t you excited?” Ye Xiu started to open the inventory of Tong Lin’s character. A 25 skill point skill book was laying there.
“It wasn’t a coincidence?” Tong Lin’s mind started to churn.
“It was a coincidence, but the same time, it wasn’t.” Ye Xiu spoke.
“Stop with the suspense and mystery! Just tell it to me directly!” Tong Lin yelled.
“It’s a coincidence because the skill book isn’t guaranteed. It wasn’t a coincidence because I used a method for a skill book to have an increased chance at dropping. If not for me, I don’t know how many times you would have to complete this mission in order to receive this reward.” Ye Xiu said.
“Stand aside and let me see!” Tong Lin pushed Ye Xiu aside and controlled his character. He checked the inventory once again and confirmed that it was a skill book without a doubt. He scrolled through the records and confirmed that this skill book, was in fact, the reward from the previous task.
Soon afterwards, Tong Lin checked a website and found the quest. In the end, he couldn’t pick out any related information that connected the quest to a skill book.
“Don’t waste your time. We were only able to get this thanks to an old friend’s many years of research.” Ye Xiu said.
“Who?” Tong Lin hurriedly asked.
“Wei Chen.” Ye Xiu spoke.
“It’s that guy!” Tong Lin was also a pro gamer from the older generation. How could he not know the former captain of Team Blue Rain?
“What you’re saying is that he found a special way to complete certain quests that give a chance for a skill book to be rewarded?” Tong Lin was in the technology department, so he figured it out quite quickly.
“Correct.” Ye Xiu nodded.
“How high is the drop rate?” Tong Lin asked.
“Around 50%!” Ye Xiu said.
“How did you come up with this number?” Tong Lin asked.
“I might scare you to death by telling you the truth, so I shouldn’t tell you.” Ye Xiu said.
Tong Lin rolled his eyes: “If you don’t say it now, someone else will definitely ask about it later.”
Tong Lin was a senior figure in the industry. After figuring out how it worked, he immediately had a rough prediction of Ye Xiu’s intentions upon visiting Samsara.
“We have an outstanding student with us. He used his mathematical knowledge and whatever to calculate this. You know that we wouldn’t be able to understand that kind of stuff. In any case, we listened and did as we were told. We don’t have the ability to perform large scale tests to confirm the drop rates. If you’re interested, you can perform these tests at a later time. Don’t you have a ‘lab’ or something?” Ye Xiu said.
“The drop rate isn’t actually too important. What’s important is its effectiveness. Do you know what I mean?” Tong Lin said.
“I understand.” Ye Xiu smiled calmly: “I believe that it’s effective.”
“It only has a 50% chance of being rewarded. As long as it’s not 100%, then it could prove to be ineffective.” Tong Lin said.
“But this is only one quest, you wouldn’t think that I would only take one task and excitedly run to Samsara to sell just this, did you?” Ye Xiu said.
“Then how many do you have?” Tong Lin asked.
“If you add all of the tasks together, it’s worth an additional 1000 skill points!” Ye Xiu said.
“F*ck!” Tong Lin’s eyes went wide. In the next second, he rushed over and grabbed Ye Xiu, fearing he would run away: “Go, go, go, let’s go!”
“Go where?” Ye Xiu deliberately asked.
“Where do you think?” Tong Lin didn’t answer the obvious.
After dragging Ye Xiu out of his office, he went down from the third floor to the second floor and walked to the end of the building.
Midway through, they passed the practice room. A Samsara pro player was holding a cup of water and was walking loitering near the entrance of the practice room. When he saw Tong Lin come over, he naturally recognized him and politely called out “senior”. Tong Lin smiled and nodded, while he was grabbing onto a guy tightly as if he had caught a robber. That guy being grabbed was even walking in a weird way as a result. That guy also smiled and gave him a nod.
Who was this guy? Why did he answer me when I said “senior”? He seemed really familiar. Was he a waiter at a restaurant?
The pro player didn’t say anything, but he made a lot of guesses. Suddenly, he remembered who that person was. The surprise caused his hand to tip. The boiling water in the cup spilled out and the burn immediately caused him to loosen his grip.
“Pa!” A crisp sound was made as the cup shattered. The pro player was at a loss. He was still gazing at the silhouette that was being dragged away by Tong Lin.
After hearing the sound, Ye Xiu and Tong Lin turned back to take a look. After seeing that it was just a broken cup, they continued to walk. On the other hand, when the other pro players inside the practice room heard the noise coming from outside the door, they all came out to see what had happened. In the end, they only saw a pro player standing stupidly outside the door.
When they realized that it was only a cup being broken, everyone was about to leave, but before leaving, they saw the pro player lift his right hand and point at the silhouette that had already turned around the corner: “Ye…… Ye Qiu!!”
“What?” The pro players didn’t hear clearly.
“Ye Qiu. It’s Ye Qiu! I saw Senior Tong Lin dragging Ye Qiu away just a moment ago.”
“Senior Tong Lin, dragging Ye Qiu?” All the pro gamers were stupefied. As for Tong Lin, they obviously wouldn’t find anything strange with him, but Ye Qiu! Why would this guy appear at Samsara at this time? Their gossipping spirits had been kindled.
“Which way did they go?” Vice-Captain Jiang Botao asked.
“That way.” The pro player pointed.
“The manager’s office?” After turning that way in the hallway, there was nowhere else to go apart from the manager’s office.
“Let’s go have a look?” Jiang Botao turned his head and spoke to Zhou Zekai. They were the captain and vice-captain. At this age, only those with some status would be able go and have a look.
Zhou Zekai didn’t say anything yet, when the practice room phone rang. A pro player hurriedly ran over to receive it. He said a few words before hanging up. He ran over to Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao: “Captain and vice-captain, the manager is asking for you two to head over.”
Jiang Botao and Zhou Zekai looked at each other in the eye. Everyone thought that it had to be related to Ye Qiu’s visit. The two were prepared to go, when the phone rang again. The same person ran over to receive it, he hurriedly dashed out again to face Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao: “The manager says to bring your account cards with you.”
“Bring our account cards?” “What for?” Everyone made wild guesses. Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao didn’t understand, but nevertheless, they returned to the practice room and grabbed their accounts cards with them.
“Please enter!”
After knocking on the manager’s door, they heard the manager’s voice and entered. The manager wasn’t sitting in his office chair. In the guest sofa, he and Tong Lin sat there with another person in the middle.
“I don’t need to introduce them to you, do I?” The manager laughed.
“It’s Little Zhou and Little Jiang! Haha, you two are doing pretty well this season!” Ye Xiu smiled as he greeted the two.