½ Prince

CHAPTER 1: The Birth of a Prince

It is the year 2100 AD. As a result of technological advancements – such as the advent of virtual reality, and the creation of sleep-based game machines – online gaming has rapidly developed over the years.

Thus, the realism of online games has increased from 50%…60%…70%…to 80%. The current market is dominated by two MMO giants –The World and Life – both of which have achieved a realism level of 85%. With over 80% of the human population making up the number of players, the first thing that anyone asks of a new acquaintance is, “Are you from The World or Life?”

However, things have begun to change. The world’s largest technology company has caused a huge stir with its revelation: after ten years of research, they have created Second Life, the latest game with a realism level of 99%.

And now the entire world waits with bated breath…

Online, in The World…

“Bro, look, what do you think this is?”

I, Feng Xiao Xiao, raised the “Blue River Goddess” wand, showing it off to my younger twin brother. Haha! With a magic power of 102, and the property of raising the power of ice-based attacks by 20%, the “Blue River Goddess” was definitely a mage’s treasure. It had taken quite a bit of effort to wheedle my husband into buying it.

“The ‘Blue River Goddess’? What the heck, Sis; doesn’t this wand cost a hundred thousand gold? Where did you get the money? Did you win the lottery or something?” Feng Wu Qing – who happened to be my real life younger brother – asked, staring at the wand in my hand.

“My husband gave it to me, obviously,” I replied smugly, still showing off.

“Another gift from my brother-in-law… It must be nice to be a woman, with equipment delivered to your doorstep automatically, and no need to work hard for it on your own,” Feng Wu Qing muttered.

“What did you say?!” My eyebrows furrowed as I focused. A bolt of ice – a mid-level spell – flew towards him.

Being a warrior, Feng Wu Qing’s magical resistance was insubstantial. His HP instantly decreased by half. Considering that the amount of pain felt in-game was only 20% of what one would feel in reality, this ice bolt would probably have been about as painful as being cut with a kitchen knife. Wait, wouldn’t that be…very painful?! I realized.

“Hey, that hurts like hell! Cut it out, will you?” Seeing that he’d lost half his health, Feng Wu Qing had no choice but to start gulping down health potions. “b***h…”

“What…”

You dare to call me a b***h? Or I should say: If you – a mere level 95 warrior – dare to mouth off at me – a level 115 mage… You must want to DIE! Enraged, I completely forgot that the person before me was my brother and cast a high-level spell, blasting him away with a blizzard. All of a sudden, I realized what I had done. s**t, Wu Qing couldn’t have died now, could he?

“Urgh…” From the sound of my brother’s pitiful groan, it must have hurt really badly… Sorry, Bro.

“Damn b***h, crazy woman, stupid Sis! Are you trying to kill me?!” Feng Wu Qing wheezed, lying on the ground in half-dead state. Seeing that he was still alive, I felt overcome with relief.

“Who told you to call me a b***h? Besides, your level and equipment are too pathetic, if you collapse after a mere bolt of ice and a blizzard. I could just step on you and you’d have the fortune of becoming the first warrior ever to be stomped to death by a mage.” Seeing that Wu Qing was still alive, I couldn’t resist mocking him further.

Lying on the ground, Feng Wu Qing seemed to have been shamed into anger, for he answered coldly. “Who wants to be as shameless as you?! Always asking guys to give you equipment or to help you level, always hiding at the back of a party, always ninja-ing the good loot… It’d be ridiculous if you were still low-level and wearing crap gear!”

Infuriated, I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks. “I… I…” feel a bit guilty…

Seeing that I was speechless, Feng Wu Qing decided to rub salt in my wound. Being so blunt, is he really my brother? “I’m not done talking yet. You women only know how to beg others to give you gear and to help you level, always picking classes that will allow you to hide and gain experience from afar.”

I stamped my foot on the ground. “Fine, why don’t we reroll and see who levels up faster?”

Feng Wu Qing sneered. “Forget it. What’s the point of rerolling? Brother-in-law will still help you and there will still be a horde of guys who would power-level you and give you equipment.”

“That’s because they want to, it’s got nothing to do with me!”

“Then just don’t accept it and train on your own!”

“But it’d be such a waste…” I said in a small voice.

“Hmph!” Feng Wu Qing looked at me coldly.

I felt my anger rise, but just when I was about to open my mouth and continue arguing with him, an extremely fast boss fire monkey suddenly appeared from behind my brother. Rushing towards us at lightning speed, it struck my brother’s head with a powerful blow. Could it be a grudge, I wondered…

Stunned, I watched helplessly as my brother turned into a pillar of light and shot off into the sky. After dying in the game, one would always turn into a pillar of light and fly back to the rebirth point.

Oh s**t, my brother died… I was in deep trouble. According to The World’s sick rules, if killed by a mob, one’s level would return to level one.He is so going to give me grief, I thought, breaking out into a cold sweat. I had clean forgotten, however, that the boss was still in front of me – except now I was a mage without a warrior for a meat-shield…

“Urgh…” I, who had never died before, tasted death for the first time. So death feels this horrible… I hurriedly removed the game helmet and began to hurl.

“You died?” I raised my head and saw my brother looking at me with an expression of incomprehension. He had rushed over from his room in order to scold me for causing him to revert to level one, but now…he was still going to scold me anyway. “You i***t! Why didn’t you use a scroll of recall when you saw me die?”

“I was too stunned to react when I saw you die!”

I looked at him miserably. How could I have known that in the few seconds that I froze up, that damn monkey boss and his monkey descendants would turn me into a pillar of light in the blink of an eye?

“My bad for getting you killed…”

“Forget it; after all, I’m not going to play The World anymore.”

“Huh? You’re not playing? Why?”

My little brother – I guess I should mention this: His name is Feng Yang Ming, and mine is Feng Lan – looked at me with an exasperated expression. “Don’t you know that Second Life is coming out?”

“Second Life?” I repeated, confused.

My brother immediately stared at me as though I was an i***t.

“Second Life is the latest virtual reality game, with a realism level of 99%. It’s said that you can even feel the wind blowing on your face and hear the soft chirp of insects, to the point where it feels like you’re in the real world.”

I frowned, my eyebrows furrowing. “Then wouldn’t it be really painful? If you get hurt…”

“Gah! You women are always scared of pain. With a realism level of 99%, who gives a damn about the pain?” That damn brother of mine looked at me with an irritatingly superior expression, and added, “Don’t worry, the pain felt has only been raised to 30%.”

I went, “Oh,” but still I couldn’t help thinking, Hmph, to think that you were crying out from the pain just now. If they’d really raised the bar to 99%, I doubt you could still say that you don’t give a damn about the pain! However, since I’d only just gotten him killed, I didn’t dare to make so much as a peep. “So you’re not playing The World anymore then?”

“Please. Everyone who’s playing The World and Life now is just waiting for Second Life to come out. Once Second Life is out, both The Worldand Life will probably just shut down!”

“Then I guess I’ll go play that too.” A realism level of 99% did sound rather attractive and since I was going to have to retrain, I might as well start over in Second Life.

“You’re going to use that ‘give me equipment and help me level’ skill again, huh.”

Now I was pissed off. “Feng. Yang. Ming. I’m warning you… This time I’m definitely not going to get anyone to help me or give me equipment, so don’t come complaining to me if you level up slower than me.”

“As if I would level up slower than you.”

We two siblings glared lightning bolts at one another.

I picked up the game cartridge, muttering darkly to myself. Stupid brother, I’m so going to out-level you and I’m going to leave you with absolutely no room to complain. I jammed the game cartridge vengefully into the game helmet and glanced at the clock. Seeing that it was time, I put the helmet on and was planning to rush straight into the game and train so fast that he couldn’t even catch up. I had forgotten, however, that I’d adjusted my clock to be five minutes earlier than the actual time, so that I would always be punctual for appointments…Why is it pitch black? Just as my head was bursting with questions, a bright light flooded in before my eyes and an extraordinary beauty appeared before me. Hmph! Not another beauty! It’s damn annoying! Don’t these game developers know that girls also play computer games? Why don’t they ever make some eye candy to welcome us girls?

“Hello, and welcome to Second Life. This is your first time playing, so please give us a moment to scan your body and record your vocal frequency. That way, you will be able to immediately enter the game once you put the game helmet on.”

I waited silently for the scanning process to complete.

“Right, now you may begin to create your character. Before you proceed, I must remind you that you will only have one chance to create a character. Once created, your race, name, and appearance cannot be changed.”

“Then I can’t recreate my character?” Aren’t they overdoing it with such strict rules?

“In order to preserve the realism of Second Life, each person may only have one account and one character, without exception.”

“Then what happens if my character dies?” Don’t tell me that I’ll never be able to play again…?

“If your character dies, you will be returned to the rebirth point. As a penalty, you will be demoted a level.”

What bizarre rules, I thought, dazed.

“Would you like to begin creating your character?”

“Oh, sure. Begin!”

“Please select a race.” The ultra-beautiful NPC had barely finished speaking when the originally empty scene was suddenly filled with tons of seemingly living characters, all posing in front of me. The races ranged from humans, elves, dark elves, dwarves, demons, holymen, beastmen (sub-species included wolves, birds, wildcats, etc) to spirits (with ten sub-categories, including tree spirits, flower spirits, etc). My eyes began to spin. Good grief, what am I to do! And why is there such a wide variety of races?

Seeing my overwhelmed expression, the gorgeous NPC kindly offered, “Pick whichever race you like first; I will explain it to you. And take your time, since you won’t get to reroll!”

I looked at the beauty gratefully; she suddenly seemed even lovelier than before…

“What are the racial characteristics for humans?”

“Humans’ racial characteristic is their all-roundedness. For example, their physique may not compare to beastmen and their agility may not compare to elves, but their agility is higher than beastmen and their physique is stronger than that of elves.”

“I see…”

Seeing that it was about the same as in other games, I began to fret. Since race is something that cannot be changed, I thought, what should I pick?

This time I want to be a warrior, I thought, still provoked by my brother’s words… That damn brother of mine, actually saying that I am scared of pain and only know how to hide! Just you wait and see; I’ll play a warrior.

From what I’d heard, humans and beastmen were the best for this class… “In that case, can I see what I’ll look like as a human and as a beast?” It was never good to judge a book by its cover, but a girl couldn’t help wanting to look pretty…

“Sure,” said the beauty, and two versions of “me” appeared. As expected, the human “me” was much better looking, but just as I was about to say that I wanted to play as a human, my dratted brother’s words came floating back into my head.

“Forget it, what’s the point of rerolling? Brother-in-law will still help you, and there will still be a horde of guys who would power-level you and give you equipment…”

Damn it, if I appeared before him looking all nice and pretty, he definitely wouldn’t believe that I did all the hard work myself. With that thought, I blurted out on impulse, “Could you make me more masculine?”

“You want to be a guy?” The beauty looked rather astonished and attempted to persuade me to recant my request. “You’d better think this through carefully. You won’t be able to change how you look.”

I began to waver…

“Plus girls have an easier time leveling up, with guys willing to help them and take care of them.”

Hearing that, I got even more pissed off. “I don’t care.”

“Give me a moment. I’ll need to talk this over with the higher-ups.” With that, she suddenly froze, not moving so much as a muscle.

So she’s actually a GM…Her expression was so stiff that I actually mistook her for an NPC!

What’s going on? I wondered. I’d better log off and see what the ruckus is about.

The instant I removed the game helmet, I heard my brother roaring thunderously. “GAAAH! Sis, when on Earth are you going to start cooking? It’s already 9PM. Do you want me to starve to death!?”

I should explain here that, at the time, it was summer break. My parents had gone abroad for yet another holiday, leaving my brother and I to fend for ourselves. Also, if the question were to arise, I would much rather eat a man-eating slime than something prepared by my brother – and I’m sure he feels the same. So the chore of cooking three meals a day fell largely on me.

“Fine, I’ll go and cook noodles!”

Twenty minutes later, I sat across from my brother and, as we ate our noodles, we began discussing the game.

“Sis, I’m already level fifteen! What level are you?” You damn Yang Ming, only daring to provoke me after getting your noodles…

Reluctantly, I replied, “I’m level eleven! But I’ve been training on my own…”

He laughed. “As I said, it’s impossible for you to level up faster than me!”

“Che, if not for the fact that I’m too handsome, you wouldn’t have been able to train faster than me!”

“Huh? Too handsome? What are you talking about?” My brother looked confused.

Then, I told him the entire story…and got scolded, again. Waaah!

“Are you an i***t? You had one wish and, just like that, you used it to change your gender? Honestly, you could have wished for a godly weapon, or a godly pet, or for more skill points, but nooo, you went and used it to become a tranny!” my brother fumed, his expression both mournful and incensed.

“Hey, you should look at it this way: sooner or later someone will have a godly weapon or own a godly pet, and anyone can get more skill points so long as they level up, but there’ll never be another tranny aside from me!” I answered with a laugh.

“…Sigh, I can’t be bothered with you.” My brother’s face was still the picture of sorrow. I bet that he’s wishing that he was the one who received that wish…

“What’s your nick? I’ll PM you tomorrow when I log on.”

“Not telling.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll use it to blackmail me… Like for instance, if I refuse to cook for you, you’ll probably threaten to reveal my identity as a transvestite, so on and so forth.” I know you too well, Bro.

“How did you guess– Ah, no, how could you possibly distrust your own brother so?!”

Stupid brother, putting on that sad expression, che! You might be able to deceive those naïve little girls into falling for you, but trying to trick the sister who has known you for nineteen years? Forget it!

“Hmph!”

“Fine! Forget I asked then.” Feng Yang Ming thumbed his nose at me; looked like his plan to blackmail me had failed.

“Wash the bowls once you’re done, or else you won’t get to eat breakfast tomorrow!”

“You’re going to play Second Life?”

“No, I’m going to play ‘King of Fighters 100’ on your PS13.” I’m going to properly research, so as to develop more moves and become a genuine Chun Li.

My brother stared at me in disbelief. He watched as I really took out the PS13 and started playing, muttering, “Odd… When did Sis start to like fighting games? In the past it was only because I couldn’t find anyone else to play with me, so she was forced to play as well.”

After experimenting for over two hours as “Chun Li”, I confidently returned to Second Life, planning to begin leveling up like mad. Heh heh, just you wait, you stupid brother. I’ll out-level you soon and we’ll see if you still dare to laugh at me! Time to go and cook some wolves – ah, no, kill some wolves, I mean…

However, just as I was about to pass through the western gate, I was suddenly given a solid cuff on the head and began to see stars.

Huh? Lolidragon… Bloody hell, the GM is assaulting people! I want to complain! Unfortunately, before I could so much as speak, Lolidragon had begun to berate me loudly.

“I told you to PM me, but nooo, you just had to forget to, finally forcing me to search all over for you – and why are you even wearing that silly mask? If not for the fact that we argued for two hours, deciding your height and hairstyle, I would never have been able to recognize you!”

I turned around to look at Lolidragon, only to see an ultra-beauty wearing the newbie outfit and looking not at all like a GM. I found myself wondering, Why do the GMs look so ordinary in this game? If they look like this, then how are we supposed to distinguish the GMs from the players?

“Lolidragon, why are you dressed like this? Aren’t you a G—” Without waiting for me to finish my sentence, Lolidragon hurriedly covered my mouth and hauled me to the nearby woods. My god, what are you trying to do!?

“Shh! Are you trying to tell the world that I’m a GM?” Lolidragon fumed.

A GM who’s afraid of being recognized as a GM? What sort of situation is this? My head was nearly bursting with questions.

“Listen up. I’m actually a hidden GM!” Lolidragon, knowing that I hadn’t so much as looked at the official website, began to explain in detail.

“A hidden GM is generally no different from a regular player, except that we have an important task: We are to report any shortcomings in the game – player complaints, bugs etc. – during the course of our gameplay. Moreover, because we’re mingling with ordinary players, we can find stuff out that’s not easily discovered by regular GMs.”

“But wouldn’t that be extremely unfair?” I protested. In that case, wouldn’t all the top players be hidden GMs?

“As if. We may be hidden GMs, but the company doesn’t offer us any special privileges, so we’re just like normal players.” Lolidragon swatted my head again.

“Oh…” I get it. That is to say, Lolidragon is no different from a normal player, hahaha. Then I won’t have to be afraid of pissing her off, heh heh heh!

“Did you have some bu