Earth’s Best Gamer

“It seems to be floating out of the foggy area ahead of us. Is there a human settlement up ahead?”

Ruan Xiaoqi seemed slightly surprised.

“Stop sailing for now and keep stealth!”

Ji Ye, on the other hand, slightly frowned.

He waved his hand, and a Mirage Cloud Mirror appeared in midair before him, displaying what was on the sea.

It was worth mentioning that this Mirage Cloud Mirror wasn’t created by the power of the Mirage Dragon Pearl, but the power within the Mirage Dragon Warship!

Such Mirage Cloud Mirrors, which could be activated by anyone who mastered the Mirage, were one of the warship’s advantages. Their vision was broader than a radar’s.

On the Mirage Cloud Mirror, there were soon reactions from the foggy area.

Splash…

A hazy shadow gradually approached the warship from the fog. It soon broke out of the fog and revealed itself in front of the Twin Dragon Island’s warship that had stopped sailing.

It was a purple-red wooden ship. Compared to the Mirage Dragon Warship which was more than fifty meters long, this ship was too small. It was only about fifteen meters long.

However, oddly enough, the ship was built in the shape of a seven-string guqin¹, and ripples were spreading out on the surface of the sea as if someone were playing the ship.

Also, the ship seemed to be boosted by the music at a relatively high speed!

Ting! Ting! Ting!

Apart from that, there was a metallic sound from the cabin of the ship that looked like the body of a guqin. It invoked invisible soundwaves in midair in a certain rhythm.

“They’re truly human beings!”

On the picture that was taken from the sky, the people of the Twin Dragon Island saw that the creatures on the guqin ship were truly human beings.

There were about a dozen of them. Apart from the few people who were playing “strings” that span the whole ship, all of them were carrying musical instruments rather than weapons in their hands, including green flutes, brown sheng, and black pottery xun.

One of them was even holding a bronze suona¹.

“Aren’t they all the classic musical instruments of Chidragon? So to speak, this guqin ship is from a settlement that’s set in ancient Chidragon!”

Su Ming, the ship engineer, was a little bit excited.

Even though he was a boring middle-aged engineer, he was once an important member of the music club back when he was in college twenty years earlier.

He knew those musical instruments rather well.

Of course, the more important reason for his excitement was that if those people were truly from Chidragon, they would be the first Earth settlement that the Twin Dragon Island met on the Land of Inheritance!

“They’re not necessarily a settlement of players…”

Ji Ye shook his head.

Considering the Land of Radiation they ran into half a month earlier, it was possible for a settlement to happen upon an associated settlement in the phase of “Strive for the Best”.

However, it was not yet possible to determine the strangers’ identities with those ancient musical instruments alone.

There was still the possibility that the people on the guqin warship were villains!

Furthermore, those people could even be “aliens”.

Just like the illusion created by the Mirage Dragon Pearl, this might just be a collective misconception caused by certain Transcendent powers.

“Keep stealth and control them after they get closer!”

Ji Ye solemnly gave an order.

…

“We’re finally out of their attack range… We should be safe now…”

On the red guqin warship, a person who was holding a bamboo flute that had a few fresh leaves remarked with sweat popping up on his forehead.

“However, isn’t it slightly immoral that we’re doing this?”

A man who was holding a pottery xun, which was black and glittering and looked like an ostrich egg, seemed quite uneasy.

“There aren’t many resources on the guqin ship in the first place, and it isn’t large anyway. If we had taken everybody with us, it would’ve been destroyed halfway. It was the only choice to let those natives stay behind and buy us more time…”

A middle-aged player, who had a bronze suona hanging from his belt and long thick eyebrows, gloomily glanced at a body that was floating on one side of the ship.

“That’s right. The enemy’s settlement has already reached Extraordinary Rank-7, and ours is only Extraordinary Rank-5. We even failed to advance into Extraordinary Rank-6. The gap is too huge. We’ve already done a great job persisting for such a long time… Should we really have stayed and fought the aliens until we died?”

The other two people nearby looked at each other and agreed.

Obviously, those people were all players, and this ship was indeed from a players’ settlement.

To be more exact, it was from a players’ settlement that was about to fall under the attack of aliens.

“Indeed. After they die, they can still be directed to other settlements. The worst they can expect is a loss of memory and a level drop. But if we die, all our hard work will be for nothing!”

A player who was holding a pair of beast bone drumsticks gnashed his teeth next to a drum made of yellow beast hide that was two meters tall.

“Everybody on this ship has a wealth of more than two million on Earth. Every time we log off, the magnates and corporations that were high and mighty in the past will seek to cooperate with us. We’re never short of money or power… But it’s all on the premise that we’re strong on the Land of Inheritance and we can exchange for resources on the planet. If we die on the Land of Inheritance…

“Even if we can be reborn into another settlement, the resources and power in that settlement must’ve been claimed by other people. I don’t need to tell you what new players are faced with…”

Looking at the dozen players around who were holding assorted musical instruments, the middle-aged suona player remarked gravely.

“Those natives were just unknown Mr. Nobodies in history who already died. It was already very lucky for them to live another life on the Land of Inheritance. Besides, they were unlikely to be the originals but only duplicates…” the half-naked player next to the beast hide drum murmured.

“But we can’t even log off without the settlement core!” the player with the black pottery xun said worriedly.

“Then we can look for another one. According to a thread on the forum two days earlier, although a player will lose Honor and cannot disconnect after their settlement is taken, they will be able to establish a new settlement based on the settlement core that they conquer from aliens. It might not be as good as their original settlement, but it’s still much better than building up everything from scratch,” the player who was holding the green flute said unconcernedly.

“Besides, someone on the forum revealed to us that we have another choice, which is a settlement of ‘villains’ of our own settlement.

“Such settlements of ‘villains’ are as good as those of players, but they cannot welcome players or perform rituals without the Chosen Ones. So, they are unlikely to refuse us… Besides, our ‘Musical House’ is a rare music-type settlement where everybody knows the skills to attack with music. We’re valuable to any villain settlement!

“Worst comes to worst, we can still kill ourselves and be reborn.”

The other players also nodded in agreement, trying to convince themselves that it wasn’t wrong of them to abandon their settlement and flee with all their settlement’s resources.

“Yi He, are you sure this is the way we should go according to your divination?”

At this moment, the middle-aged suona player turned around and looked at a man who had been silent the whole time.

“That’s right. The divination with the ‘Mystic Shell’ tells us to go in this direction…”

A player whose face was sickly pale spoke with an ancient tortoiseshell that was full of cracks.

The player who was holding the green bamboo flute frowned and said, “Can’t it be more accurate? Like what we might run into, and if it’s going to be dangerous…”

“I can’t do that. This ‘Mystic Shell’ is a piece of Special equipment. It isn’t so easy to use.”

“You know that ‘divination’ is never encouraged in Chidragon. I only learned the basics from the seniors of my family when I was little. I have to transform my vitality into ‘True Fire’ to power the ‘Mystic Shell’ every time… There isn’t much recovery resource on this ship. If I perform divination a few more times, you’ll have to start preparing my funeral,” said the sickly-pale player unhappily.

“Who says that we don’t have resources? We packed all the remaining resources in the settlement with us. They’re all in the cabin…”

The player who was standing before the beast hide drum intended to say something.

However, when he looked at the cabin from which metallic knocks were echoing nonstop, he shut his mouth in fear.

Clang, clang, clang…

It was because the metallic knocks became loud and exciting at this moment. An invisible power leaked out of the cabin and formed two rows of large translucent bronze bells above the guqin ship.

“Ding dong… Ding dong…”

The bronze bells shivered and created a rather enjoyable piece of music as they were knocked. Invisible power was melted into the soundwaves and spread out, causing circles of splashes on the surface of the sea.

The body that had been floating on the surface of the sea was sunken into the sea by the soundwaves.

“Huh? Has Boss Zhong made a breakthrough?”

“So to speak, he has really made it to Extraordinary Rank-8 with the bronze bells. Together with this Extraordinary Rank-8 Seven Note Guqin Ship, he can even fight Extraordinary Rank-9 monsters!”

On the guqin ship, most players who were holding musical instruments seemed delighted!

“According to the Confederation Office, apart from the Perfect and Superior heroes who are talented in training, most heroes haven’t reached Extraordinary Rank-8 yet, not to mention the players. We’ll definitely be appreciated if we join a villain settlement right now!”

The middle-aged suona player stared at the bells and remarked with hidden gloom and coldness in his eyes.

“Huh, wait, something is wrong up ahead!”

After that, the middle-aged player’s eyes suddenly changed, and he took off the suona on his belt.

He laid his finger on the suona warily as if it were a sword.