Chapter 49 - Old Men Who Suffer from Eighth-Grader Syndrome
“I think this is the place.”
The old men had white hair, but their footsteps were strong and steady, unlike other people of their age.
The elder who walked in the front was skinny, but he had thick bone structure and a plump forehead. His solemn expression and meticulous movements gave others a sense of a powerful presence.
The aura he emitted was different from officials who were rewarded a lot of treasures after wars. The latter showed off their new nobility with utmost arrogance while this man looked like someone who was born to be a nobleman; prestige ran in his blood.
Everything about this old man proved that he wasn’t someone of ordinary status!
The tall and big elder behind him pushed open the glass doors. Then, that elder bowed down and waited on the side.
Nalan Hongwu walked in, and Elder Fu shouted, “Who’s the owner?”
Fang Qi pointed at the little blackboard and replied, “What would you liked to play?”
Elder Fu looked at Fang Qi up and down; all he saw was an ordinary young man. Therefore, he faintly waved his hand and said, “Tell the owner to come out here. My master would like to meet him.”
“…” Fang Qi was at a loss for words. He had never seen people act with such high status.
He frowned and said, “I’m the owner of the shop, but I don’t do meetings with my customers.”
Upon hearing this, Elder Fu’s expression darkened, and Fang Qi immediately felt an overbearing pressure approaching him.
With a grim expression on his face, Fang Qi said, “If you’re here to cause trouble, I’ll have to deal with you like so!”
Elder Fu froze, surprised that Fang Qi’s expression remained unchanged in front of the pressure he exerted. It was impressive for a young man his age!
This shop really is something special!
“Elder Fu.” Just then, Nalan Hongwu opened his mouth and said, “Let’s go by the rules and check out the spiritual artifact they call computers; see if they’re really that magical!”
“Yes, Master!”
“Kid!” Nalan Hongwu pointed at the computer in front of him and asked, “Is this a computer? How do I use it?”
“First, decide what you want to play, then I’ll tell you how to use it,” Fang Qi replied emotionlessly.
“Then… Diablo.” The elder tapped his cane on the small blackboard.
“It’s simple.” Just as Fang Qi was about to explain to them how to use the computers, the tall elder grabbed his right hand and smiled. “Kid, I’d like to make things clear first. If the spiritual artifact here is really that magical, then fine. But if it isn’t, a simple apology isn’t going to cut it!”
“Another person who doesn’t know anything?” As soon as he finished speaking, a voice filled with disdain muttered, “Don’t be shocked by what you will see.”
Upon hearing this, Elder Fu’s face darkened.
The person who said that was An Cheng.
He and his friends heard that the owner was publishing an official novel, and they listened to Fang Qi when he told Shen Qingqing about the plot. Right now, An Cheng and others were discussing it amongst themselves, and that was why they were still there.
Nalan Hongwu sneered. “They are just spiritual artifacts that create illusions. Why would I be shocked?”
In the past, he would have slapped a young man like An Cheng out of the room. But today, he didn’t. To him and Elder Fu, Diablo II was just an illusion created by these spiritual artifacts that were called computers.
The surroundings may seem real, but they are all fake. The cultivator who created spiritual artifacts like this is indeed powerful, but it shouldn’t be that magical , they thought.
“Back then, when I barged into the Blood Smelting Faction’s Wild Sand Blood Sea Array and I saw a desert that stretched for miles and a bloody ocean that was endless. If my power was any lower, I wouldn’t have made it out alive. Can a small spiritual artifact like this really compare to what I’ve been through?” Nalan Hongwu snickered.
“Blood Smelting Faction? Wild Sand Blood Sea Array? What are those?” An Cheng and the others glanced at each other in confusion.
Through Fang Qi’s guidance, the two old men finally began playing the game. Out of the two warrior classes, the Paladin was more prestigious compared with the Barbarian, so that was exactly who they picked to be.
Upon seeing the animation on the computers, they nodded their heads in satisfaction. “It’s interesting.”
But it really is just a spiritual artifact that creates illusions. It may be able to fool normal people, but to us, this is nothing…
However, when they entered Diablo World and began playing the game…
The two of them looked at the life-like world in front of them with dry mouths. They felt the howling wind and falling raindrops and saw the clouds in the sky, grass on the ground, and pedestrians on the streets.
“Is this really just an illusion-creating spiritual artifact?”
As he looked through the memory of the paladin’s back story that suddenly appeared in his head, Nalan Hongwu felt like he had been reborn into another world!
Everything felt so real!
What was different was that this place possessed everything that a world needed! It wasn’t an unstable world within an illusion where only boring elements like sand, oceans, and flames existed!
“Good day! It’s nice to meet you, prestigious paladins,” a pedestrian dressed in weird clothing greeted them, shocking them to their cores!
“It’s impossible! Impossible!” Nalan Hongwu was stunned as he muttered to himself, “How can there be an illusion this realistic?”
He carefully asked the man in front of him, “You are…?”
“My name is Warriv. As you can see, I am a caravan leader…”
Nalan Hongwu and Elder Fu were completely dumbstruck as they talked with this NPC.
Is this really just an illusion? It feels like a real world! It is shocking that a spiritual artifact can take things this far! Neither of them had seen or even heard of anything like this!
Their disdain quickly turned into shock!
Through talking to Warriv, they slowly understood the background of the world they were in. At that moment, they felt like they were young paladins from the west, seeking adventure by helping this encampment which was hanging by a thread!
Yes, young paladins instead of old men!
“Fu, when was the last time that we fought side by side?” Nalan Hongwu felt his body being injected with youthful energy. Outside the internet café, he was a dying old man. But inside the internet café, he was a young man in his twenties or thirties with a body made of steel!
He waved his weapon in the air, stirring up a sharp wind and creating whistling sounds within the encampment.
“I think… a few hundred years ago…” Elder Fu took in deep breaths of fresh air as the weapon in his hand shook with his hands. His strong physique and high spirit made him feel like a man in his twenties or thirties as well; that was when he first stepped his foot into the chaotic world back then!
As elders who had been through bloody wars and fought all over the region, they never lost their pride and passion. However, the empire was now peaceful and didn’t need heroes anymore, so they had nowhere to place their sentiments and aspirations.
Therefore, they had to live the rest of their lives in seclusion and hand the future over to their successors.
Nalan Hongwu looked up and howled, “My long sword will sweep away all obstacles! Do you have what it takes to bathe in blood with me again?”
Upon hearing this, Fang Qi’s face twitched as he thought, Can the elderly suffer from Eighth-Grader Syndrome as well?
TL Note: Chunibyo is a Japanese colloquial term that translates to “middle-school second-year syndrome” or “eighth-grader syndrome”, typically used to describe early teens who have delusions of grandeur, that desperately want to stand out that they have convinced themselves they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. – Wikipedia