The King's Avatar: The Starting

Mysterious Expert

Chapter 4 – Mysterious Expert

“Sister Lucy, you’re eating midnight snacks again… …”

After buying the midnight snacks, Lucy called all of the Internet Cafe employees to enjoy them together. The smell of the dishes recklessly filled the Internet Cafe immediately causing a wave of wailing and protests from the guests. The time for dinner had already passed yet they were being forced to smell the sweet fragrance from the dishes. That wasn't a pleasure. That was a trap.

“Line up orderly if you want instant noodles.” Lucy called out.

“Sister Lucy should eat kitchen food everyday. We’ll eat instant noodles then.” No one rejected the temptation. They could only grab Internet Cafe instant noodles and eat while jealously watching the employees eat their full course meals of six dishes and a soup.

“If you also want to go out and eat, don’t ask my employees to go on an errand for you.” Lucy said.

“Next time, could you tell us in advance? Can’t you help deliver it to us?” A person said.

“The Internet Cafe only has so many people. How could we deliver it all back? Enough of this nonsense, if you really want to eat so much but are too lazy to buy it, go ask for their phone number. Wouldn’t they be willing to deliver it?” Lucy said.

“Sister Lucy, do you have their number? Lend it to me so I can copy it down.” A person said.

“What would I do with their phone number? I have people to run errands for me. Why would I inconvenience the restaurant?” Lucy said.

This time, not only the Cafe guests, but the employees cried together until their cheeks streamed with tears. Natsu found an opportunity and took advantage of it to ask: “Boss is surnamed Hale right?”

“Yup, Lucy. I’ve seen your ID card. You’re not as old as I am, so I don’t mind you calling me sister. You also won’t lose out.” Lucy said.

“Whatever you want… ” Natsu forced a smile.

“Today’s shredded meat with chili sauce is so spicy. Little brat, go eat it all.” Lucy hadn’t eaten much. She only ate a mouthful before throwing away her chopsticks and rushing to the drinking water. After carrying a glass of water back, she kicked Natsu’s stool: “Are you done yet? Hurry up.”

“What’s the rush?” Natsu asked.

“It’s almost time.” Lucy lifted her wrist to let Natsu see her watch. It was currently 11:53 PM. There were only 7 minutes until the opening of Honor’s tenth server.

“You’re also going?” Natsu was a little surprised. After playing Lucy’s account Chasing Haze, a fifth server account, if it had started on the opening of the server, then it would now be a full five years old. Of course, although that account couldn’t compare with his professional peak level account, it was still quite good among ordinary players. It wasn’t that easy to just simply give it up.

“Take a look at the excitement.” Lucy said.

The opening of a new server really was quite exciting. What had originally been an ordinary day became a time when Happy Internet Cafe exploded with business. The area was packed with players. As far as the eye could see, all of the people had already opened up the registration interface waiting with their mice hovering over the still gray tenth server icon.

Entering the server, players rushed to get on the leaderboards, to clear the first dungeon, to be the first to kill a boss, etc. There were too many things waiting for the players. The opening of a new land caused people’s hearts to bounce in excitement. Lucy looked towards these guests and couldn’t help but be aroused by this sort of atmosphere. She looked back at Natsu, who was still picking his food. She was that he was unexpectedly unaffected by this sort of atmosphere, lacking that inner pioneering quality.

“Well what are you waiting for?” Lucy looked as if she were more anxious than the guests.

“What’s the rush?” Natsu truly was calm; he wasn’t faking it. But he couldn’t deny Honor’s successful marketing. Honor’s competitiveness among players ranked high in every category. These relied on genuine skill which couldn’t be casually made up with money and luck. Only, to a famed veteran who had once bathed in glory, these things were only ordinary and mediocre.

Only after seeing how Lucy’s expression was filled with murderous intent, did Natsu begin considering that it was worth it to give the boss some face. Finally, he reluctantly put down his rice bowl and looked for a computer station to sit at.

“F*ck, it looks like I’m forcing him to play. What type of person is this?” Lucy berated Natsu behind his back. The employees all suppressed a laugh. They discovered that this network manager was a little different. To be able to casually make their big boss go into a bad temper, this wasn’t something an ordinary person could do.

Lucy sat at the station beside Natsu and registered her Chasing Haze account. The popularity of the other nine servers hadn’t dropped much because of the opening of the tenth server. The older the server the more this was true. This was because starting in Honor with a new account wasn’t easy. Lucy had played on Chasing Haze for five years until it was considered a fairly good account by ordinary standards. How could it be abandoned so easily? What’s more, later, everyone would try to rush to the cross-server Heavenly Domain.

This Heavenly Domain wasn’t a single map. It was another world. The map was as big as the combined worlds of five other servers. This place had difficult instance dungeons, powerful equipment, precious materials, and also freedom. All experts would meet up there. The Heavenly Domain was a player’s final destination.

It was about to be midnight. In the final ten seconds, the Internet Cafe had people who couldn’t help but begin to countdown. As the sounds grew louder and louder and the final “ZERO” erupted, the dull gray color of the tenth server login window faded away. Everyone in the Internet Cafe united into one. They collectively extended their hands and inserted their account cards into the login device. Their mice clicked on the tenth server.

Lucy turned his head towards Natsu and nearly spurted out blood. While everyone entered the game, this guy leisurely opened up a web page to look at. Raising her eyebrows, she saw that it was some sort of beginner handguide on the sequence of missions to take.

“F*ck, you don’t even know how to do this? Do you even need a guide?” If it wasn’t for that genuine first-edition card, even if she were beaten to death, she wouldn’t have believed this guy had ten years of gaming experience.

“I haven’t done this in so long, there’s no way I could remember!” Natsu slowly and unhurriedly said.

“You’ve never helped someone do it before?” Lucy said.

“This type of experience… I really don’t have any.” Natsu said.

“No sense of community.” Lucy disdained.

“I had no time.” Natsu said.

“People with no time wouldn’t come to play. Gamers are people with spare time.” Lucy said.

“I was busy playing games.” Natsu said seriously.

“Then what’s your job?” Lucy asked.

“Playing games!” Natsu exclaimed.

“Oh, are you a professional gamer?” Lucy said.

Natsu laughed: “I was a pretty high level one too.”

“A pretty high level one? Pro-gamer?” Lucy stared blankly.

Natsu proudly nodded his head.

“Then you’ve retired!” Lucy said.

“How did you know?”

“Obviously, you’re already so old.” Lucy said.

Natsu bitterly laughed.

“I was wondering how you were able to beat that guy in 40 seconds. It turned out you were a professional even if you’re an amateur in a sense.” Lucy said.

“Amateur?”

“I know all of the professional experts. Natsu? I’ve heard of the name. If you’re not an amateur, what are you?” Lucy asked.

“Ha ha, so it’s like this.” Natsu laughed.

“Don’t fake it. You actually haven’t retired. It’s just that you were unable to win a seat back, so you were kicked out right?” Lucy said.

Natsu was speechless.

“No offense… ” Lucy realized that her words had somewhat stabbed at his sore spot.

“It doesn’t matter.” Natsu let out a sigh.

“Don’t be discouraged. 25 years old isn’t that old. If you keep practicing, maybe you can fight your way back.” Lucy said.

“That’s what I plan on doing.” Natsu smiled.

“If that day really happens, then I need to request something from you.” Lucy said.

“What is it?”

“Signature.” Lucy said.

“Why wait until that day? I’ll sign it now!”

“How shameless! Who wants your signature? I only want you to ask for my idols’ signatures.” Lucy said.

“Oh? Who?”

“Mira Jane and also Natsu. Natsu might be a little difficult. That person likes to hide.” Lucy said.

“Oh so it’s like this?” Tears streamed down Natsu’s cheeks. Natsu was currently chatting with you face to face, sister.

“Yup. Only he almost never appears in public. Even if you’re an amateur, I didn’t know you were this out of touch. You didn’t even know about this?” Lucy said.

“I know. Of course I know. Let me tell you a secret. Actually, I’m Natsu.” Natsu said.

“Really? Then let me tell you a secret too. Actually, I’m Mira Jane.” Lucy said.

“I really am Natsu.” Natsu cried.

“I really am Mira Jane.” Lucy said.

“I… ”

“Okay, stop playing around. Let me see your plan!” Lucy waved her hand. She would no longer get angry at Natsu’s slow and unhurried attitude.

But after her line of sight returned to the screen, Lucy still couldn’t help but say: “If you don’t understand something clearly, you can just ask me.”

“I want to research a bit first. I’ll only do missions for attributes or skills. Other missions with rewards such as experience or equipment, it’s faster to go to instance dungeons.” Natsu said.

“Right. This is the type of thinking a veteran should have. Only, you don’t need to research it by yourself. Flip to the last page of that guide!”

“Oh?” When Natsu flipped to the last page and looked, a sudden wave of shame hit. Thinking about it, this hand guide hadn’t changed much over ten years. This was something players couldn’t update any further. For missions that veterans would choose, how could anyone have come up with this type of strategy already? Right now, he needs this type of strategy. Just as Natsu was ready to follow this strategy to take missions, tears immediately began streaming down his face. He was once regarded as a textbook level figure! Now with a beginners guide in his hands, how could he endure this shame?