“Mm, I said ‘we’. That is correct. That is indeed what I said.” Mr San was silent for a moment. “Just like the companions that you have with you right now. Back then, I made some companions as well.”
A ridiculous idea suddenly rose up within Chen Xiaolian’s mind.
“When you said companions, does that also, also include… include… Bai…”
“Bai Qi. Yes, Gongsun Qi,” answered Mr San with a smile. “More accurately, he was the strongest among us.”
Bai Qi!
The God of Slaughter, Bai Qi!
He was not just an NPC from history!
He was…
The same as Mr San, an Irregularity?
“Back in those days, there were not as many instance dungeons. It’s probably because the structure of this world was still changing. The old instance dungeons were completed and new instance dungeons begin to slowly appear…
“Well, in short, we experienced a great deal of interesting events.
“Regretfully, we began having differences in opinions.
“The starting point of those differences was… some of us began realizing that this whole process of fighting through the instance dungeons over and over again seemed…
“Infinite!
“We were simply repeating a process that will never stop!
“This conclusion made us very depressed.”
Chen Xiaolian murmured. “Yes… it’s very depressing…”
“Thus, some incidents occurred and Bai Qi left us. He believed that it would be pointless for us to continue down this path.
“I have to say this, but Bai Qi was a bigot. Maybe that’s why he was the strongest among us.
“Bai Qi believed that in order to change the state that we were in, we have to take a decisive action.
“His idea was to completely change the world! In other words, do something that could disrupt the balance of this world!
“If this world is set to be balanced, then his decision is to flip it!”
“You, you mean…”
“Bai Qi began to go crazy. He believed that the things he did would be able to disrupt the balance of the world.
“I myself am uncertain on how to describe that approach of his.
“Back then, he did those things with a suicidal mind set.
“He felt that there was no hope for the future. Thus, he wanted to use his all to throw this world into chaos, the worst the better! It would be best if he could successfully destroy the balance of this world.
“Then, he would not mind dying together with it.
“In that era, the world was very different compared to the present.
“We from those ancient times… mm, in your view, we should be ancient people.
“We have never seen a computer, never known the world wide web. We do not understand concepts such as these.
“We had a simplistic view, thinking that we were like a group of beasts who were trapped inside a ‘valley’ and forced to prey on each other.
“We were unable to run away from this mountain valley and can only be remain inside and kill each other.
“That means there will certainly come a day where we eventually die. If so, we might as well destroy that ‘valley’!
“Even if we were to die, at least we died with a bang!
“Thus… Bai Qi became the Bai Qi in history.
“His method of destroying the game setting was… KILL HUMANS!”
Chen Xiaolian was stunned.
Kill humans?
This approach seemed far too… naïve? Simplistic?
However, after carefully considering it, he realized that there was actually nothing wrong with this approach.
Take an MMORPG game for example. If some force managed to kill off all the NPCs within that game…
Then, wouldn’t that doom the game?
In history, Bai Qi killed many people!
“I have seen the history of China. As far as I can tell, in these last 2,000 years, no other fellow have killed as many as Bai Qi did.
“Theoretically speaking, every one, every NPC is produced by the system.
“Killing one was the equivalent to destroying part of the system.
“The more you kill, the more you destroy.
“Although this was a very naïve approach, back then, he was a madman who could no longer see hope.
“This was seemingly the only thing he could think of.
“Thus, he left our small guild and proceeded to do what he wanted to do.
“He killed more people than anyone else in history!”
After saying that, Mr San faltered for a moment before saying, “Unfortunately, his method failed. Truth be told, meeting him here was a huge surprise for me as well.
“I was surprised to find that he actually did not die.
“Of course, this matter with him… what happened to him and what he encountered… I have no way of telling you.
“Additionally, I found that Bai Qi’s memories seemed incomplete. Perhaps… only he can answer those questions.”
Bai Qi’s memories are incomplete.
Chen Xiaolian’s mind raced as he recalled the words that Bai Qi had told him back in the battlefield.
After three more layers of Heaven, I shall become me!
Does that mean… have him level up three times and Bai Qi will recover his memories?
“This is actually one of the reasons why I am willing to stay here and wait for you.”
Mr San slowly said, “I do not know why Bai Qi would be here with you. Additionally, it seems he had become part of your personal system.
“Thus, the most important reason why I was willing to stay here and wait for you was because I wanted you to promise me something.”
“Please speak.”
“It’s about Bai Qi. In the future, once things begin looking up with Bai Qi… I hope that you can inform me about it.
“I am very curious myself. Back then, after leaving our guild, what did Bai Qi encounter? Truth be told… I had always thought that he had died.”
“I promise you!” Chen Xiaolian nodded his head. “Then… just now you said that Bai Qi left your guild. So, what happened later on? What did your guild do?”
“If we are to view Bai Qi’s ideas as suicidal and destructive, then the rest of us, me included… compared to him… we were just a bunch of cowards.
“We chose… to escape, to hide.”
Escape? Hide?
Chen Xiaolian was incapable of understanding those words.
“Let me put it this way.
“The structure of this game world is one that is slowly built and perfected.
“Back in our era, the structure of the game was relatively simplistic. It was a different era after all.
“Take the things you experienced for example. The London instance dungeon with Jack the Ripper, King William’s War for the Throne…
“In my era, such instance dungeons do not exist. Because the time in which those events occurs happened after our era.
“In other words, back then, this game was still very young.
“The instance dungeons of this game in those days were limited.
“Now, I believe you know of this common occurrence. Any game that has just been released will also feature a considerable number of BUGs.
“As the game develops, its aspects would be improved and its architecture becomes more strict. Those BUGs would be identified and patched or eliminated.”
“… I understand that.” Chen Xiaolian nodded his head.
This concept was not difficult to understand. It was not a complicated one either.
“Talking about it in detail would take too long,” said Mr San as he shook his head. “I’ll just make it short. Those of us who were left believed that going out with a bang was not a smart move. Thus, we chose to escape.
“As I said before, we believed we were like a group of beasts that were locked up inside a mountain valley. Those people who created this valley then made us fight to our deaths.
“We wished to fight against them, but we have no ability to escape from the valley.
“But we also lacked the courage to die.
“What should we do?
“It was very simple… we found an early game BUG.
“Using the concept of our present world, our guild found an early game loophole within the system’s programming, a BUG, a virus, or perhaps you could say it’s a redundant value…
“At any rate, what you name it does not matter.
“Furthermore, the process was very complicated. I have no intentions of telling you about it in detail.
“Most importantly, by using this thing, we successfully did what we wanted to do.
“We dug a hole in that ‘valley’ and got ourselves a hiding spot.
“We were a bunch of pitiful and cowardly creatures. We do not wish to fight in the valley. Thus, we dug a hole to hide in! We lived our days in darkness like mice!
“Finally, we were no longer forced to participate in instance dungeons to struggle and die!
“We… seemingly obtained our freedom!
“We seemingly managed to exempt ourselves from the laws of the system!
“We seemingly… attained freedom!
“Because, as long as hide inside that ‘hole’, as long as we are inside it, we can escape the constraints placed on us by the system. It cannot even find us.
“Because, the power that created this ‘hole’ was an early game loophole, a program of the system itself.”
After saying that, Mr San looked at Chen Xiaolian and smiled. He said, “If I have to guess, even though you are a rookie, you should know quite a bit. This hole that I was referring to… you should probably have heard of it.”
Chen Xiaolian’s face appeared calm. However, his heart was pounding furiously!
Mountain valley… dig a hole to hide in.
The hole can escape the detection of the system.
By hiding in the hole, one can avoid being found by the system and will not be thrown into the instance dungeon…
Hearing those words, the concept…
Chen Xiaolian inhaled deeply, his face incomparably solemn.
“Zero City!”
Chen Xiaolian stared into Mr San’s eyes and spoke in a laborious tone, “You are telling me… you and your guild… you fellows are the founders of Zero City?
“You fellows founded Zero City!”
“Yes,” Mr San said in a light tone of voice. “We founded Zero City.”
Chen Xiaolian felt as though his mind was insufficient to process all these information.
The things that Mr San had told him…
The significance of it was overwhelmingly huge!
The intricacies of it were simply shocking!
The amount of information involved here was too much!
Additionally…
“Wait! There is one matter that I do not understand!” Chen Xiaolian stared at Mr San. “I am not doubting you or think that you are lying. But… the GM had told me that I am the first Irregularity! A first-generation Irregularity! There had been no other Irregularities like me before this!
“Thus, he had been constantly helping me… trying to delay the moment that all the instance dungeons of this game gets cleared in order to delay the moment of his reset!
“GM had never had any cooperation with anyone like me before this!
“But now, according to what you had just told me, you, Bai Qi and several others are Irregularities that existed far earlier than me!
“2,000 years ago, you fellows had already entered a cooperative relationship with the GM!
“So, how do I believe what you are saying?”
A hint of sorrow suddenly appeared from within Mr San’s eyes.
With a melancholic voice, he softly spoke out.
The words he spoke left Chen Xiaolian gaping.
“Chen Xiaolian, are you certain… that this GM you met had never been reset?”
“… … …!!!”