Ch7 - Accident

Editor: Decembery

With two gods of Death like Qiu Yu and Mu Feibai, Li Ji didn’t even leave the jungle and their team already rushed to the third point, achieving a total-annihilation of the opposing team almost in the blink of an eye. 

Waiting for the points to be processed, Mu Feibai leaned towards Qiu Yu’s ear, laughing, and spoke in a deep voice, “My fans are really curious, they’re telling me to ask if you’re an Omega.”

As expected, although he couldn’t add him as a friend, this question was still asked.

But this time Qiu Yu was even calmer. “I’m not.” 

Mu Feibai was curious, “Are you an Alpha as well?”

Qiu Yu chose the most unobtrusive answer: “Beta.”

In the entire Star Alliance, Betas occupy 93% of the population. In Century’s Finale’s e-sports and broadcasting circle, there was also a higher ratio of Betas. As opposed to disguising as an Alpha, which only occupied 5% of the entire population, it was much less likely to pose as a Beta. 

“Oh, Beta.” Mu Feibai nodded thoughtfully. 

After a moment, he suddenly leaned close to Qiu Yu, asking, “Wu Song?”

Qiu Yu paused for a moment, before fragments of memory floated to the surface of his thoughts—Wu Song, the captain of team Unlimited, an assault soldier, Beta, and ranked second on the pro-league’s archery leaderboard. 

Ranked first was Mu Feibai. 

According to the original body’s memories, Wu Song used an avatar of a similar build to his. No wonder Mu Feibai would make a guess like this.  

Shame though, he guessed wrong.

Qiu Yu shook his head, “I’m not.”

The pro-league’s circle wasn’t too big, and players from each club communicated quite often with each other. Hence, there was no need for Qiu Yu to tell a lie that could so easily be seen through. 

“You’re not Wu Song?” Mu Feibai rubbed his chin, “Then I really can’t think of a Beta who can snipe me with a bow and arrow to such an extent… are you from the youth training camps?” 

Without waiting for Qiu Yu to answer, he rejected his own conjecture. “No way. With your skills, even if you were in the youth training camps, you’d be able to debut in the Spring Youth Championships. Also, there’s no way you’re some under sixteen kid…”

After talking to himself for a couple of sentences, Mu Feibai raised his eyebrows at Qiu Yu, a gleam of excitement in his eyes; “No way, are you really just a player?”

Qiu Yu looked up slightly at Mu Feibai, “Why not?”

Mu Feibai was momentarily floored in shock. “But your strength—” 

Immediately after, his shock turned into joy, his words instantly changing, “—Then do you have any interest in going pro?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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The moment Mu Feibai just opened his eyes, he lunged forward into the space before him, but only gripping thin air. “No—Come back! How could you bear to abandon me like this! At least add me as a friend!!!”

For a while, the barrage was filled friendly teasing:

[god Mu has once more been possessed by an actor’s soul, as expected of him.]

[“This god of war is actually super strong but also extremely sha diao”] 

[Because he was rejected by Ghost, our god Mu internally collapsed and started throwing a tantrum, wuwuwu… poor him ah~]

After getting his fill of drama, Mu Feibai cleared his throat and helplessly spread his hands, “See, I told you there’s no way he’s an Omega.”

The barrage:

[What a shame, we won’t get to see god Mu propose on the spot.] 

[But perhaps you could consider arranging a live broadcast specifically for washing your hair in a handstand?]

[Yeah, yeah! Hurry up and arrange it!] 

Mu Feibai: ……

Has he been spoiling his fans too much? 

All of them… why do they all build their happiness and joy upon his social deaths and flipping the car?

……

After meeting Mu Feibai twice in the rank-deciding matches, Qiu Yu did not encounter him again in the couple of games afterwards.

Perhaps it was because Qiu Yu won quite a number of straight wins, the games became more and more taxing for him. Often his teammates were holding him back, while the enemies remained fierce like wolves and tigers—he almost flipped the car a couple of times, but thanks to his unruffled and rational mentality, he eventually achieved victory in every rank-deciding match, and was immediately granted the three-star “Legend” rank and badge.

Players at the “Legend” rank could only queue together in games with others at either “Honour” or “Legend”, and their opponents were also limited to those in higher ranks. When both sides were adequately skilled, the game had a higher spectating value, and thus would be more interesting for audiences. 

Qiu Yu had great skills and can pretty much maintain a winning streak—it was just that his luck was sometimes subpar, occasionally losing a round or two when chancing upon deceptive teammates and celestial opponents at the same time. Moreover, although he lost, his exceptional operations worthy of a standing ovation during the game allowed the number of fans in his broadcast room to shoot up.  

After the three days of front-page promotions, the number of subscribers in Qiu Yu’s channel broke past the million mark and continued to increase. Hundreds of those subscribers also bought executive privileges.

To become a broadcast room’s executive, one had to pay more than a hundred star coins every month. Qiu Yu didn’t want to streamline his channel, therefore the only privileges his room’s executives had was getting priority spots on his team in games, and even that depended on if he was in the mood to carry some fans. Therefore, the price-to-reward ratio of being an executive in his channel was quite low, yet there were still hundreds of people willing to spend the money.

Qiu Yu’s popularity soared, and the platform also paid more attention to him. Quickly, they sent a room manager and moderator to deal with any issues that may arise. 

Of course, it also brought some troubles. 

“Will you really not consider showing your face?” On the screen, the manager’s face revealed their inner conflict. “Or if you put up a verified ‘Omega anchor’ tag in your channel, your fans could double. There would be more executives and rewards as well, so your income could be even higher.”

Qiu Yu was not at all tempted. “No. I don’t wish to reveal any more personal information online.”

After combing through the original body’s memories, he knew how dangerous it was to expose personal information online. At a previous house, the original body had received blades through the mail from his readers. He was so frightened that he immediately moved places, changed his pen-name, and cancelled his social media accounts. From then on, he never dared to kill off popular characters in his mangas ever again. 

Omegas must learn to protect themselves online. 

Pretending to be a Beta was a really good idea.

The manager rubbed their temples, their head hurting a little. “Then, can you increase the length of broadcasting time? Although full-time anchors are only required broadcast 8 hours per day, you—”

The longer the broadcast, the more views and rewards there would be. Seeing such a fresh, new anchor who soared into popularity scraping the hours to barely meet the minimum standards, the manager was almost worried to death. According to his understanding, this child is so popular in such a short time because of his earlier interactions with Mu Feibai. There was no saying how long this popularity would last, and as Qiu Yu’s manager, they had to be cautious.

“—You’re getting a lot of views these days, so you should broadcast more during this time. Looking across the entire Star Alliance, a million fans isn’t really that many. You should take a hold of this chance to let more people see you, and remember you. There may not be chances like this in the future.” The manager attempted to persuade him. 

Unswayed, Qiu Yu rejected. “Eight hours a day is already my limit.”

Although he has been continuously undergoing physical training, and this Omega’s body is now fitter than it was when he first arrived, he still got tired quickly. 

Moreover, the full-dive helmet was directly connected to the nerves, so his body would also be affected after continuous intensive movements in the game. Everyday, when taking off the helmet after spending eight hours in the game, his body would always experience slight nerve pains.

Qiu Yu had checked online that this condition was quite common and normal for Omegas with weak bodies.  

In the game, every player’s avatar had the same base stats, meaning that the game effects when running, jumping or fighting were all the same. Because of the special nature of the device that connects directly to the brain, it was difficult to prevent actions in the game from placing strain on one’s nerves, hence parts of the strain would be carried back into reality, which then acts upon the body.

Therefore, if a player’s physical body is too weak, they wouldn’t be able to stand the feedback due to movements in the game, resulting in a period of physical weakness and symptoms of nerve pains.

This was also the reason why there has not been a single Omega player in the full-dive professional league—because Omegas’ bodies are too weak, not only can they not complete tactical training in reality, they are also unable to withstand the intensive team training in-game. 

The manager knew Omegas would be easily affected by full-dive games, but they were unable to sympathise, due to their Beta physique. Hence the manager was a little disappointed and casually spoke a sentence or two of encouragement before hanging up the video call.  

Qiu Yu turned off his bracelet and stretched as he stood up. He picked up the newly-bought smart jump rope from the table beside him, and headed out into the apartment’s corridor to begin the day’s physical training. 

After 500 consecutive skips, his frail body was already exhausted and breathless. Qiu Yu had to stop, he slowly walked two laps in the corridor and waited for his breathing to become regular, before he was about to begin another 500.

However, before he had finished his break, Xu Qingqing, who was next door, suddenly pushed open her apartment door, her face slack in shock.

Seeing Qiu Yu leading against the walls of the corridor, she paused for a moment, and then gripped his wrist, hard. “Qiu ge have you seen the news? God Mu had an accident!” 

Qiu Yu was also shocked. “What happened to him?”

Xu Qingqing’s eyes immediately reddened, “He—the Eagle Riders team had a shuttle accident, the specifics of the situation are currently under lock. They’re speculating anything and everything on the hot search right now, I’m really worried! Do you think… nothing will really happen to god Mu, right?”

 A shuttle accident?

Frowning, Qiu Yu turned on his bracelet and clicked into the social media’s hot search ranking list, and quickly got some information on the situation.  

Yesterday was the quarterfinals of the Star Zone Regular Spring Invitationals for “Century’s Finale”. The Eagle Riders team headed to their opponent’s city for an away game, and obtained victory. However, as they were returning to their base today, they were involved in a shuttle accident, and it’s said that there were many emergency vehicles dispatched on-site.

Information regarding the conditions of the players after entering the hospital were currently still locked down. There has also been no information so far from the Eagle Riders club’s official social media account. 

In the hot searches, a group of people discussing heatedly:

[This guy, he didn’t even get to touch the Star Alliance cup before something happened to the Eagle Riders?] 

[No way, is the curse of the three consecutive Star Alliance cups real? Mu Feibai is too strong, none of the other teams can get one over him, so the heavens forcefully arranged his exit through a shuttle accident?]

[Um… wouldn’t that be a little too metaphysical? Damn, it’s a little terrifying when you think about it!]

…… 

At the same time, in the Star District’s hospital 608, Mu Feibai had just been carried out of the treatment cabin when he saw the coach, wearing a neck brace, looking towards him with a grave expression.

“What’s the situation?” Mu Feibai had an ominous premonition.

Indeed, the coach helplessly sighed, his voice noticeably hoarse, “Liu Jinrong’s lumbar spine is completely shattered. He needs an artificial replacement and also nerve repair.” 

Although the medical technology today is capable of fully curing nerve damage, it was still a slow and gradual progress. The shortest possible recovery period for severe lumbar spinal damage was still almost a year, and during the recovery period, one was not allowed to be in contact with any sort of nerve-connected equipment.

Of which, full-dive games were naturally included. 

Translator’s note: Heyo, I’m currently on holiday these days, and I only have my phone with me—so if the formatting of these chapters or pop-up notes are a little weird, I’ll try to fix them when I get back, so sorry! Also, big thanks to Decembery, who is always there to fix my fat-fingered typos and grammatical errors whenever I translate!