The team was divided into two, while Feng Bujue and Like Rain were exploring the mountains, Wang Tanzhi and Dispirited was methodically searching the town.
They didn’t have any kind of standard and were just calmly searching. They couldn’t help it if they found nothing during their scavenger hunt. In Thriller Paradise’s map, if you were lucky, then you might be able to find a good piece of equipment in an unremarkable place without any difficulty. But, if you had bad luck, you’d probably get nothing during the whole gameplay.
Their search began on the eastern side of town; house by house, room by room. Though the abandoned houses were almost empty, they couldn’t rule out the possibility of finding items in dusty bottles, tins, wooden boxes, beams, floors, walls, and even broken beds. Games like these must be explored in the spirit of playing Zelda, without looking at the strategy. [1]
“That… There’s something I want to ask you.” Wang Tanzhi said to Dispirited, he was lifting a big wooden lid on the kitchen stove to look inside. No one knew if he wanted to find silver blocks or something. [2]
“I don’t have a boyfriend.” Dispirited was looking through a cupboard full of cobwebs.
“Err… I don’t mean that.”
“Huh?” Dispirited said, not even turning her head, as if absent-minded, “What’s the matter then? Asking me in this weird tone and while we’re alone?” She seemed to think of something, and immediately said, “I warn you, I’m not an unceremonious person!”
“What are you thinking of… “Little Tan said, ” I wanted to ask, if Gu Xiaoling really is your real name?”
“Huh? Yeah, what’s the matter?”
“Is it ‘ancient’ Gu?”
“Right ~ right ~,” Dispirited replied “Stingy Xiao, Spirit Ling.” From the tone of the explanation of her name, Wang Tanzhi suggested that her personality was unusual. [3]
“Well… “Little Tan frowned and looked thoughtful.
Dispirited said: ” I actually used my real the name for my game ID, I just added a word in front of it. When you heard my cousin call me ‘Little Bone’, you might’ve guessed that there is ‘Gu’ in my real name. A girl’s name has this word, it basically should be Gu, Gu, Gu.” [T/L: These family names have the same pronunciation] Nagging to herself, while saying in an impatient tone: “Ah, you’re such a fool. Is your head just for decoration? Think about it. ”
Little Tan didn’t dare to be scolded by her. In fact, he was now thinking about other things, so he didn’t clearly hear what Dispirited said.
“It’s so weird… I have a family motto that says, ‘Don’t make friends with people with the family name ‘Gu’”. Little Tan said.
“Huh?” Dispirited heard that and was frozen, “Ha-ha… “She suddenly laughed out loud, “Oh it’s definitely a coincidence. My family also had an ancestor instruct us and said that as long as we made friends with people with the family name Wang, then there’s no need to treat them politely, just directly punch them.”
“I’m not kidding. “Wang Tanzhi said that with a serious tone.
“I’m not kidding too, I mean it.” Replied Dispirited with an expression of jest.
“But there are so many people with a family name of Wang in China… ” Wang Tanzhi said.
Dispirited stretched her hand out and gently knocked on the skull of Wang Tanzhi, “So… Who would take such a sermon seriously! Idiot!” She had no intention of attacking, so it was not blocked by the system.
Little Tan shrugged: “That’s all right, it should be that one of my forefathers had an enemy who had the family name of Gu, he was a little fool, then he left this… Oh my!” he shouted and got struck by Dispirited again.” What’s wrong now?”
“Do you mean my forefather was a little fool too?” Said Dispirited unhappily.
“Well, just pretend I said nothing then… ” Little Tan replied.
To stop being beaten, he climbed onto the stovetop and leaped towards the roof beam, his emphasis on agility showing. The height didn’t even matter to him.
“Ah, I’ve got something to ask you while we’re alone.” Dispirited queried.
“I don’t have a girlfriend, either.” He returned immediately: “and I am also not an unceremonious person!” [4]
“Ha, ha, ha.” Dispirited laughed awkwardly as a response to his joke, then replied, “Seriously, Did Captain ever spend money for games?”
“We didn’t play games full of RMB players and I haven’t seen him use any RMB item in the few games that we played.” Little Tan moved forward on the dusty beam, hammering on the beam-column inch by inch, checking for hollow spots, “He always bought month cards or even season cards for games that needed you to pay like WOW, he seemed to dislike the constant expenses.”
“Well, so he’s not stingy. Then, it depends on him if he wants to throw money at the game, right?” Dispirited asked.
“Why do you say that?… Jue-Ge is a complicated man and it’s hard to fathom what his principles really are. It seems that whenever he realizes he’s crossing the line, he will set a new border…”
“It’s like refreshing due to the impudence value…” Laughed Dispirited.
“Ha-ha… “Wang Tanzhi was embarrassed, realizing it was the truth…
Suddenly, there was a crack, and the roof beam broke, the middle of the wood was rotten. Wang Tanzhi was kneeling on the beam when it broke so he fell down. His reaction was timely so, he calmly adjusted himself in the air, changing into a standing position before landing. But no one expected that once he touched the floor, he felt something soft on the bottom of his feet; he seemed to have stepped on the empty space. Then there was the incessant sound of the ground collapsing. The original kitchen floor which was less than half a meter thick collapsed due to the passing of time, it would of course, inevitably become vulnerable.
The floor was able to bear with Wang Tanzhi and Dispirited walking around normally, but now Little Tan fell from the beam, stood upright and stepped on the ground. The two broken beams also added considerable weight to the pair, so it just collapsed. Dispirited’s first reaction was quick. She immediately reached out to Wang Tanzhi. However, as a girl, she was much lighter than Wang Tanzhi, so as the floor around them collapsed, so did the floor beneath her feet.
As a result, the two plummeted into a dark abyss at an extremely fast speed. They didn’t know whether it was a hell or a huge wall waiting for them. From the distance of their fall, even if they hit the mud, the result would still be ominous… [5]
[1]Zelda without the strategy: Zelda games, one of the most famous games in history, was highly difficult to many normal players. Also, when they couldn’t find anything they would check gameplay walkthroughs.
[2]In China, there was a period that they used silver block as money. Poor families had no place to hide them, so some families hid them inside pots.
[3]Another name question. Dispirited’s name, Gu Xiaoling, Chinese is 古小灵。Gu is a rare family name in China, meaning ancient. If we pronounce that as another word, it would be 骨, which means bones; Xiao means small, but if we pronounce that as another word, it should be 笑, which means laugh. and Ling means lively or spirit. When they’re combined, we normally say “Tiny and lively” girl. But Dispirited used two derogatory terms, which are stingy and spirit (ghost). It’s weird indeed. (Ok I know I didn’t really explain it that well but it’s okay since it doesn’t really relate to the plot LOL)
[4]This means; I’m a person who can become a lover easily.
[5]It’s related to another book from the author. I won’t tell what it is because it’s a spoiler~
Thriller Paradise 