Chapter 179: Undercurrent II

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

People were everywhere inside the training base. Sadly there were hardly any of them in the actual training room. Countless pillars stood at the lobby of the NR training base, with countless people surrounding them. Everyone left and returned, as they tapped to activate the partially transparent interface again and again. A swift glance over the list and disappointment stormed upon their faces.

…

"Excuse me, De Gong, if it was not for your harmless act of submitting the visual of that ludicrous YC guy online, we wouldn't have to suffer like this now," ranted one of the members of the maintenance department at the NR training base.

The staff whose name was addressed as De Gong laughed bitterly as he replied, "How would I think this much ahead? I got so hyped up that I just clicked the "submit" button on a whim. I seriously did not reckon these maniacs going this mad, riding their spaceships and traveling all the way here! If I would have foreseen such insanity, I would have clicked to cancel. Just to save the trouble for us." Well, that was what he said, though his expression contained a dash of honor.

"Sigh, that aside, what on Rique do you think these people were doing?" inquired another member from the side.

"I know right! No one would know who the heck that YC guy truly is as long as he stayed quiet about it!" agreed one of the members to that statement.

In the virtual world, the appearance of the character would have about 80 to 90% similarity to the actual person in reality by default. That was not applicable however, since people could always modify their appearance after logging into the virtual world. So the definite appearance of the person online holds no direct relation to the appearance offline. As the staff had mentioned, it would be indeed a difficulty to determine one’s identity online.

That was why the conversation happened.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk!" De Gong snatched the spotlight as he spoke, "Both of you are quite new here I supposed. Of course you wouldn't know this place well enough! Heh! Regarding your issue of identification, our center, this very base, has its own perks you know," the answer came off flaunting.

"Oh really?"

"How?" both of them hurriedly asked.

"Hehe, well, all users must have a name registered at the MPA before using the NR facilities, like ‘YC’ for instance. Hell knows what his real name is, but as long as he is in the facility, he would be known as ‘YC’. As you are aware of, every NR training base is interconnected with MPA. To even own the rights to use the NR facilities, one must have their names registered," while jiggling his head, he said playfully.

"That was why we could not tell who he really is!" one staff replied.

"Yeah, it's not like there would be a nameplate written ‘YC’ floating on top of his head," added the other staff.

"Well, looks like both of you aren’t aware of it. If this YC guy logged in and only took a stroll at the facility, no one would recognize him, even if he spent a week loitering at the lobby. The catch is, the moment he picked a room and accessed it, disregarding what training he was going to participate, he would be exposed! Anyone who have spent long enough at the training base would know, that very second you made your entry, you would be found on the terminal at the lobby. This is why all of you have never heard of people impersonating this YC, since no matter how hard the person claimed to be YC, his or her identity would be uncovered when the access was done, which justified the crowd at the lobby all day long. Didn’t you see them refreshing the data on the terminal constantly? Yes, they are trying to find YC out using such a way," De Gong explained patiently.

"Well, aren’t they stupid? For they are blind-waiting."

"If you say so, so be it. They are blind-waiting, they only wanted to test out their luck," shrugged De Gong as he spoke.

…

The moment when Ye Chong woke up was the morning after that. He had already recovered from the fatigue last night after a whole night of sufficient sleep. The unaware boy never expected the chaos occurring at the Shang family currently after that historical lick he committed last night.

The family meeting among the Shangs ended at 3 o’ clock… in the morning! And the attendants were none other than Shang Zhangming and his wife, Shang Ling and Shang Xin. For Shang Lan, she did not participate the meeting this time for some reason.

That knotted brows of Shang Zhangming had hardly loosened since then. He glanced upon his wife, "Xin, how do you see this Wang Xing?"

His wife was in her fifties, a well-maintained fifties specifically, as she looked like in her thirties - poised, grand and amiable - which gave off a friendly vibes to people around. They were a loving husband-and-wife.

"What’s the worry, my Ming?" chuckled the lady.

Shang Zhangming forced a smile, "The happening tonight is terrible. I no longer know how to deal with it!" Shang Zhangming had always been pampering his youngest daughter, Shang Lan. Regretfully, Shang Lan had always been extremely introverted. Other than the brothers and sisters in her family, she had barely interacted with the outside world. The two heads of the family were wondering if she had psychological disorder of some kind at the beginning, they had sought consultations from numerous psychologists. She had undergone various treatments, counseling sessions… none of them worked. Shang Lan remained her withdrawn self, which explained how the entire family spoiled this little princess a lot.

Shang Zhangming’s descendants, there were 5 of them. The eldest son died after contracting a strange disease at the age of 1. The second eldest being his daughter, Shang Yue; the third being Shang Xin, the fourth would be his son, Shang Ling. And Shang Lan was clearly the youngest among them.

Shang Zhangming was rather satisfied of his children. Shang Yue was calm and resourceful, wise and capable; Shang Xin was strong and dignified, tenacious the whole time; Shang Ling was talented, a gentleman of nobility with a sensitive mind; Shang Lan, however… was the most of his worry. She often was in a stance of melancholy, a heart-wrenching sight to behold.

"Apparently, Sister Lan was the one who initiated the dance." It took a moment of hesitation of Shang Xin to spit out the truth.

"Oh? Lan, my daughter actually invited someone else for a dance?" the lady of the family was shocked, while her husband was in utter disbelief the first time he heard the news. Throughout the aftermath, he had been assuming that Wang Xing was the wolf who proactively spoke to his daughter, which gave off a dubious vibe of his motive to Shang Zhangming… but then if it was initiated by his daughter, the whole dance should not be part of some diabolical master plan.

Still… Lan my beloved invited someone for a dance… and it’s a man? A man she never came across before in her entire life? Shang Zhangming could feel his nerves getting a short-circuit.

"I had seen that Wang Xing before during our course. What a way he ate…," spoke his wife, in bit of interests. Both Shang Ling and Shang Xin put up a grin upon hearing their mother said so. Shang Zhangming was having an awkward expression at the side.

"Wang Xing’s appearance, I must say, is merely average. I have no idea which part of his attracted my Lan…," his wife sounded curious as she spoke.

"Me neither. Supposedly our daughter should have never met the man before… but why this now…?" Shang Zhangming could not get it despite all these while he had been thinking.

"Background of this man… may I ask?" His wife shifted her focus to Shang Xin, as her eyes expressed inquiries. Shang Xin was technically in charge of the security and information management in the family.

"It’s unknown they say!" Shang Zhangming seized the mic, "I had asked our men. They only managed to find out the fact that he’s from Fedar, Fal. The odd thing about this man is he did not have any record of assessment on his skills. No other information was found other than these."

"Impossible!" Shang Xin was not convinced. She and her brother Shang Ling were busy dragging their younger sister Shang Lan back to her room right after the event. The mistress of the family rushed to the place and began inquiring them. So they never had the chance to check out details about this Wang Xing.

"Why? What’s the matter?" hurried the mistress.

"Wang Xing is exceptionally skillful in combats. How could there not be records of any form of assessment before?" Shang Xin could still reminisced that epic toss by Wang Xing. Conquering a distance of 68 meters by a simple throw of dagger while retaining the strength and accuracy, a man capable of this had no record of assessment? The society was well-facilitated with assessments suitable for all sorts of expertise from all walks of life, which was the essential requirement for any occupation in the market. And an oddity like Wang Xing who lacked record of assessments would be a creepy sight frankly…

"Not a problem." Shang Zhangming did not find it as weird, "A lot of the descendants of aristocrats hadn’t ever taken part in those assessments. Even families that lasted ages would not be surprising to have such a tradition. It’s just that you had not seen enough, my daughter," he waved his hands as he stated.

"Ah." Shang Ling somehow recalled something of that night, "Assuming that he is truly a descendant of the aristocrats… or even someone from an ancient family, it is actually not far-fetched. I have seen him using the Double Knife Ceremony back on that night during the course. Such ceremony is only used among some of the truly ancient families," stated his judgement.

Shang Zhangming turned his head to Shang Xin, "Ask the men to inquire about the aristocrats on Fedar, Fal, including families which had existed a long time ago, especially those with the surname Wang." He literally never thought of the possibility that Wang Xing could have been a result of modification of personal information…

Shang Xin responded with a nod, keeping that in her mind.

"Excuse me…" A key question suddenly came into the mistress’s mind, "Have any of you asked Lan her thoughts on this?"

Shang Xin and Shang Ling looked at each other, they expressed peculiarity towards the question. It took them a while before Shang Xin decided to reply, "After that jerk Wang Xing kissed Sister Lan, she collapsed in his hold! We were so afraid that this terrible beast would do something more outrageous on our sister so we rushed to the scene and grabbed her away. On the way back to her room, she did not say a word." Since they were farther away from the scene, the licking of Ye Chong looked more like kissing.

"What was her expression?" asked the mother in panic.

"Hmm…" Both of them pondered a little, Shang Ling was trying to put his thoughts into words, "It seemed like… she was not really angry…?" He turned his face to Shang Xin, awaiting confirmation from his sister. "Mhm…" Shang Xin tried recalling it as well, showing approval, "Sister Lan did not look really angry in fact…"

"Hmph!" Her father seemed angry though, as his face tightened. Anyone could tell how exceedingly angry the man could be upon seeing his precious being kissed by a stranger like Wang Xing.

"Don’t do anything funny, honey." His wife gave him a stare. The atmosphere brightened somehow, as the wrath on his face faded away. Shang Xin was smirking along with her brother, thinking of how amusing it was to see their father behaving like the hero at the public, but was well-trained by his delicate wife at home. "Lan is a headstrong girl. If she really has something to that man, whatever all of you did to him would only hurt Lan eventually."

"As expected from my lovely Xing, thoughtful and kind!" Grinned Shang Zhangming, that brave and bold self of his was nowhere to be seen…

"Sighs, we've got to wait for Yue first. Lan had only been talking to Yue by heart slightly… Fortunately she’s coming back in two days." The mistress then lifted her slender arms, as she pointed to everyone in the room, "Before Lan’s thoughts on this get unfolded, none of you are allowed to make a move. Watch that man carefully and make sure he is in one piece instead!" She looked a little naive as she spoke.

"Xing my dear, no worries! I shall guard that man till the end!" Shang Zhangming made his promise right away. He did it so fast that it made both Ling and Xin smiled smugly again.

If Shang Zhangming’s men ever saw their leader being so underwhelmed, imagine their reaction…