IMAO Chapter 65

TLN: A bit late notice: I am not proficient with game terms (since I only play rhythm games lol) so there will be a lot of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in game terms. I tried to search for appropriate terms to use but at some point I got lazy, so if you see anything wrong just let me know.

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A flood of private messages suddenly exploded in Jiang Yuan’s inbox, all begging to buy hacks. He immediately ignored them all and blocked every stranger.

Li Wenfeng, who was still lying on the ground, spoke up: “You two are obviously using alt accounts. It’s true that you wouldn’t feel bad getting banned on alts, but what’s the point?”

He then sent a private message to Mu An: “Mu An, just switch accounts and leave the server. If you do that, this whole thing ends here. I know you’re not involved, but I can’t stop Xiao Li. He’s hired people to hunt you daily, and I can’t do anything about it. Why be so stubborn?”

“Your account isn’t worth much anyway. I’ll give you 100,000 privately as compensation, how about it?”

Hearing Li Wenfeng’s voice message, Mu An’s lips trembled. “No need. I won’t leave the server!”

Li Wenfeng sighed, “If you don’t leave, how will you play? I know I wronged you, and I didn’t know Bai Li was spreading rumors behind my back, but can you really say things were innocent between you and Armand?”

“We’re the same, so why fight it?”

Mu An was furious, almost sick with anger. “Who the hell is like you?! Stop being disgusting! When I was with you, I never cheated!”

Li Wenfeng: “Fine, let’s not talk about that. I’m serious. You can switch accounts and play just the same. No need to fight him to the death. You probably don’t know, but Bai Li’s family is very rich. If he really targets you, you won’t be able to play at all.”

Mu An: “Shut up!”

Li Wenfeng: “You’re using two hackers… When the game detects these hacks, you’ll get banned sooner or later. After the ban, you’ll still end up buried…”

Mu An cursed, “What fucking hacks?! You’re the one hacking, your whole family are hackers!”

Li Wenfeng: “…Fine, fine. Even if they’re not hacking, when they’re not around, you’ll still get beaten up in-game. Why not switch accounts? 100,000 can buy you an even better one.”

Mu An closed the private chat and switched to map voice chat: “Li Wenfeng, let me tell you. I won’t switch accounts, I won’t delete my character, and I won’t leave the server.”

Li Wenfeng: “Mu An, be reasonable. They can’t protect you forever. They can’t log in every time you do, right?”

Jiang Yuan heard this and said coolly: “Indeed, we can’t.”

Li Wenfeng: “See? Even they agree!”

Mu An gritted his teeth, understanding that he couldn’t stay by Jiang Yuan’s side forever. Jiang Yuan’s group needed to use Star Wars for practice. They couldn’t be his bodyguards forever.

Should he really switch accounts? Quit the game?

He couldn’t swallow this anger!

Li Wenfeng: “Mu An, just quit the game.”

Although Bai Li was still lying on the ground, seeing Mu An’s unhappiness made him extremely pleased. “Hmph, enough talk. Your account’s worth maybe 20-30,000 at most. I’ll give you 200,000 to quit! Nothing personal, I just don’t want to see your ID anymore.”

“Fuck, that’s rich!”

“Rich guy, hug me!”

“Easy ten thousand extra, damn, this is awesome! Little Koi’s loaded!”

Mu An: …

Fuck off!

Although Armand couldn’t see Mu An in person, he was certain his senior must be crying from anger by now. His eyes were probably red. This thought made Armand’s heart ache.

“Senior, ignore them, these idiots…”

Mu An suddenly sighed softly, cutting off Armand’s words: “But they’re right. If only I were as skilled as you all. I’ll just keep getting buried whenever I log in.”

Mu An felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

He felt very uncomfortable. He’d been cheated on, and now the third party was forcing him to delete his account.

Mu An: “Thank you all for today, I…”

Just as Mu An was about to quit the game in despair, a pleasant voice suddenly reached his ears.

A clear, clean voice.

It was Jiang Yuan.

“No need to quit.”

Jiang Yuan’s voice was cool and steady.

“Wait.”

Mu An froze but stopped his motion to quit. Although he didn’t know what Jiang Yuan planned to do, a spark of hope ignited in his heart.

He really felt very aggrieved. This homewrecker and that scumbag were driving him mad. If this weren’t in-game, he might have really broken down crying.

A few minutes later—

[World] Black Earl: What hacks are you selling?

[World] Black Earl’s Fangirl: Ahhh! The great Black Earl is online! [Love][Love][Love]

[World] Ghost Picture: It seems like there’s some new hack. It’s really powerful. It can handle all sorts of high-difficulty content. It’s a godlike hack! The game system hasn’t detected it yet!

[World] You and Me Under Stars: I haven’t played ranked games recently because I’m afraid of encountering these godlike hacks, wuwuwu!

[World] Common Folk Eating Melon: The great Black Earl is online, kisses!

Arlo had just finished class at school when he saw a new message in their grade’s group chat, sent by Jiang Yuan who had left school long ago.

Jiang Yuan: I want to form a team. Anyone interested, come join.

Arlo: Me!

Yang Kai: Me!

Bai Ming: Me _(:3」∠*)_

Yang Kai: Bai Ming???

Bai Ming: What?

Yang Kai: I can see your chrysanthemum  [smile]

Bai Ming: …

Bai Ming: Get lost.

Lin Zhongshi: +1

Other grades had students forming teams too, but those teams usually had five or six students at most, mainly because no one would submit to anyone else’s leadership. Usually, it was just a few skilled players grouping together.

But their Class 7592 was different. Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong were like two mountains, completely overwhelming everyone else. They commanded genuine respect, the kind of absolute respect!

So when Jiang Yuan mentioned forming a team, everyone responded enthusiastically.

Following Jiang Yuan’s call, Arlo rushed to log in. After asking a casual question upon logging in, he didn’t even wait for an answer. He transferred the team leadership to the vice-captain, then directly left the team with just an “I’m leaving!”

[Black Obsidian Team]:

“??? What’s happening???”

“The great Black Earl left the team?”

“Emmm what happened? Why did the boss leave? What have you all been doing lately?”

As soon as Arlo left, he received countless private messages. He couldn’t be bothered to reply. Anyway, he’d already explained his reasons to the vice-captain, trusting they would understand.

After leaving the team, Arlo checked his friend Jiang Yuan’s coordinates and flew straight there.

Assassin Guild members: Holy shit! A boss has arrived!

Could it be that he thinks the Number bosses are using hacks, so he’s here to represent the world and eliminate them?!

Li Wenfeng and his group, who were still lying on the ground, felt hope rising. This Black Earl was on the ladder rankings!

[Local Chat]:

“Hahaha, Black Earl’s here, looks like he can’t stand these two hackers either!”

“You know what, I just asked about what happened. Actually, the Peak team was wrong first, the original partner was cheated on…”

“Damn, this is juicy! But even so, they shouldn’t use hacks. Everyone who uses hacks in Star Wars is an orphan[mfn]I forgot to add tl notes hehe: 孤儿 means “orphan”. And an orphan have no parents. So this is just a way of saying that your opponent or your stupid teammate’s parents died (Compare to NMSL, “Your mom died”).[/mfn]~ Don’t @ me!”

“Holy shit, another one! God Pingye!”

Suddenly, dozens of top players appeared on the map. Almost all of them had done the same thing before coming, which was leaving their original teams.

The spectators who came to see the five hundred corpses were stunned.

[World] Lemon Milk Tea: So many top players! Were they all drawn here by these orphans?

[World] Just One Cutie: Just watched the recording. Sure, it’s a godlike hack, so everything makes sense, but also nothing makes sense.

[World] Warm Flower: @[7592101] I want to interview this hacking orphan. How do you feel right now? Trembling with fear being surrounded by all these top players?

…

Seeing the world chat flooded with Jiang Yuan’s ID, accusing him of hacking, Arlo was dumbfounded.

[World] Black Earl: [7592101] This hacker you’re talking about, it’s him?

[World] Warm Flower: Yes, that’s him! Take him down, boss!

[World] Black Earl: Can’t beat him…

Arlo rubbed his forehead. He really couldn’t win! Besides, how could Jiang Yuan possibly use hacks…

The Peak team members, who were still lying on the ground, gradually noticed the arrival of these ‘top players.’ Looking around, they could name almost every one of them. All were famous names from the ladder rankings! Only one or two were unfamiliar.

“Ahhhhh, Arc de Triomphe! I’m your fan! Love you so much!”

“God Snow Silver, your mech is so beautiful!!”

“Pingye—”

“Save us, gods! Kill this hacker!!!”

Arlo requested to join Jiang Yuan’s team and was accepted.

It was Arlo’s first time seeing so many people in Jiang Yuan’s team. Usually when he found Jiang Yuan online, it was just Ji Rong and Jiang Yuan in a team together.

Wuji, who had been silent all along, suddenly poked Jiang Yuan: Holy shit, why did you let them in?

[Private] 7592101: I thought Assassin A’s confession gave you a heart attack…

[Private] Wuji: I’m pretending to be disconnected.

As he spoke, Wuji saw another message from Assassin A and immediately typed back: Sorry, network connection lost, attempting to reply.

[Private] Assassin A: …

[Private] Assassin A: You made a typo.

[Private] Wuji: …

So desperate, I don’t want to talk to Assassin A anymore.

Wuji turned back to continue talking with Jiang Yuan: “Aren’t you afraid of getting killed by letting them in?”

7592101: “Teammates can’t kill teammates.”

Wuji: “Oh right!”

While Wuji was thinking, system notifications suddenly started popping up one after another. All the top players in the area were joining their team!

[Team] 7592101: “Wait a moment, I’ll invite you all.”[Team] Black Earl: “Okay, Okay!”

[Team] Arc de Triomphe: “Fine, but choose a good name, not some random ID like yours!”

[Team] Mu An: “What name?”

[Team] 7592101: “A guild name.”

Mu An froze for a moment. Seeing Jiang Yuan’s reply, he understood. Jiang Yuan wanted to form a guild. True, Jiang Yuan couldn’t be online all the time, but with enough members, the guild would always have someone active!

And all these people were invited by Jiang Yuan!

Jiang Yuan quickly began following the prompts to create a guild. However, when it came time to fill in the name, he fell silent…

Choosing a guild name was hard.

[Team] Wuji: “A guild? If you create one now, it can only hold 20 people. You’ll need contribution points to upgrade it for more members. Why not just use my guild instead?”

…

Others who didn’t know what was going on were waiting for the top players to kill Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong. Instead, they saw the elites quietly standing by, not making a move. Everyone was bewildered.

Meanwhile, the Federation’s Star Wars forums were exploding with activity, and countless guild chat groups were in an uproar.

[[Screenshot] “What’s happening? Why are the top players leaving their guilds?]

[So many elite players suddenly quit their guilds, what’s going on? Does anyone know why?]

[Ummm really quite a lot of them, it’s so sudden, and they all left at almost the same time! Is something big about to happen that we don’t know about?]

[I’m getting nervous!]

While everyone on the forums was confused, the players in-game were equally baffled!

And Wuji was completely dumbfounded.

He swore he only made a casual suggestion to join his guild because he saw that 7592101 was taking forever to move, struggling with choosing a name. Besides, his guild wouldn’t be taking assassination contracts anymore anyway.

But not only did Jiang Yuan agree…

The people who joined his guild left him completely stunned.

Wuji glanced at the guild roster and felt his world spinning. They were all top players…

Wuji swallowed hard and silently transferred guild leadership to Jiang Yuan.

While Black Earl and others were joining, they asked about the situation. Once they finally understood-

[World] Black Earl: Just heard what happened… 7592101 and 7592102 using cheats? You’re overthinking it.

[World] Arc de Triomphe: Really overthinking it. They ARE the cheats themselves, why would they need to use any? PS: Let me explain. 7592 is our class year, 01/02 are student numbers. These two are ranked first and second in our grade.

[World] Xing Ye: Little Shepherd is under our protection now. Anyone who dares to take a contract on him, we’ll kill you [smile]

[World] Little Grass: ???

[World] Little Lemon: ???

“????”

“????”

“????”

The world chat was instantly flooded with question marks.

After settling everything, Jiang Yuan turned to Mu An: “Is this okay?”

Mu An: “Okay? It’s more than okay! I absolutely must treat you to dinner! Love you!”

Armand: “…” I feel like I’ve been cheated on.

Mu An: “Eh… Ji Rong, why did you PK me?”

Ji Rong: “…My hand slipped.”

Mu An: “Oh, okay.”

Because of Mu An’s situation, the online forums went crazy:

[So who is this Little Shepherd? Must be someone amazing to have so many top players protecting them!]

[Pfft, these elites are obviously doing it for 01/02’s sake!]

The guild members who had their top players poached could only grind their teeth in silence!

Is getting killed three times really a good reason to recruit all our elite players for your guild? How are we supposed to rank up now?! Damn it!

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