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syncogon · 2 years

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[QZGS Prequel TL] Ch 11: The Hopes of the Ordinary (3)

(info post and links for the official QZGS Prequel, For the Glory / 巅峰荣耀)

summary: The third and final part of the 2022 new Samsara prequel chapters.

wordcount: 3.7k

Written by Butterfly Blue, translated by Syncogon.

This is Part 3/3.

PART 1 HERE

PART 2 HERE

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One week later.

Glory Professional Alliance Season 4 Round 7, Samsara finally ended their losing streak and achieved a hearty victory. As captain, Zhang Yiwei was in a good mood. Even though their opponent today wasn’t very strong, he believed that the meeting he’d held on the last rest day morning was useful. After all, he’d been paying attention to everyone’s mood this week, and as far as he could tell, ever since that day, everyone was feeling positive and working hard.

“Keep it up!” he said to his teammates.

But after that in Round 8, Round 9… Facing off against Excellent Era and Tyranny, who were currently at the top of the leaderboard, Samsara was instantly beaten back down.

Then in Round 10, Samsara met the team that had fought their way into the finals against Excellent Era last season—Team Hundred Blossoms.

“Hold it hold it hold it hold it…” Zhang Yiwei muttered under his breath. It was the critical moment during the team battle. But Cloud Piercer’s health couldn’t withstand the opponent’s barrage, and he died in an instant.

“What’s wrong, didn’t I tell you to watch my health!” When he saw Cloud Piercer fall, Zhang Yiwei slammed his mouse on the table and furiously typed out a message.

For now, Fang Minghua couldn’t pay it any mind, since the match hadn’t ended yet. But it didn’t last for much longer.

“What’s wrong with you today? No, not just today. Your performance has been off these days.” After the match, Zhang Yiwei didn’t even wait until they returned to their prep room before he started tearing into Fang Minghua.

“I…” Fang Minghua wanted to explain himself, but a hazy feeling rendered him unable to form words.

Zhang Yiwei was already beginning to list out all of Fang Minghua’s mistakes during this match, like stringing beads one by one.

“Well, it’s not just that.” Suddenly a voice came from the side. It was Team Hundred Blossoms. As the victors, they took a little longer to exit the stage, and now they ran into Samsara in the player passageway. The Samsara players all looked toward the source of the sound, and saw that the one who’d interrupted was Hundred Blossoms’ captain, Sun Zheping.

“Don’t go pointing fingers at one person. It’s not like it’s an individual problem,” Sun Zheping said.

“What do you mean by that?” Zhang Yiwei looked at Sun Zheping. They had entered the Alliance in the same year, but the Sun Zheping of today was already strong enough to wrestle the greatest gods like Ye Qiu or Han Wenqing.

“In the end, you guys are just overall weak,” Sun Zheping said.

“You…” Zhang Yiwei had no idea that Sun Zheping would speak so directly, so mercilessly.

“Right?” Sun Zheping twisted his head to look at his partner, Zhang Jiale, who was much more popular than even him.

“I don’t know.” Zhang Jiale wasn’t happy about this, but when he looked at Samsara his words were very sincere: “The above statement represents Sun Zheping’s individual opinion. If you’d like to PK in real life, please only target Sun Zheping.”

The other members of Hundred Blossoms revealed expressions of agreement, all of them hastening their steps to leave with Zhang Jiale.

“Tch.” Sun Zheping was unimpressed.

“See you.” He actually waved goodbye at them, before catching up to his teammates and leaving.

Samsara’s members stood around awkwardly. No one would be happy hearing an opponent say “you’re not strong enough,” yet none of them could step forward and retort. They watched Hundred Blossoms leave, watched as Sun Zheping caught up and whacked all of his teammates before walking with Zhang Jiale at the front of the team.

Everyone looked on in envy.

Samsara didn’t lack enthusiasm, didn’t lack effort, didn’t lack teamwork. What they lacked was someone with absolute strength, someone who could stand on the battlefield and take on the world.

Such a person… Everyone exchanged looks, and they all knew it wasn’t any of them.

“Let’s go.” Zhang Yiwei suddenly spoke, his tone much heavier.

He was Samsara’s captain, using the best character in the team. He was supposed to be that Samsara player that the opponents most dreaded. But when Sun Zheping said that they were weak as a whole, that statement without a doubt included himself too. And in fact his weakness was the most obvious, because he was Samsara’s captain, the team’s core, the one who would be compared to the likes of Ye Qiu, Han Wenqing, or Sun Zheping.

With a bitter smile, Zhang Yiwei shook his head. How could he compare. Never in this whole lifetime could he compare.

He turned back, looked at Fang Minghua.

Fang Minghua immediately stopped in his tracks.

“What about that Sharpshooter that you mentioned could help us? When will he come?” Zhang Yiwei said.

Everyone was stunned.

Fang Minghua’s jaw fully dropped.

“Captain asked you a question.” Tong Lin patted him.

“I’ll reach out, see when he’s free,” Fang Minghua rushed to say.

Zhang Yiwei nodded without saying much else. He continued to walk on ahead. The rest of Samsara hung back, gathering around Fang Minghua.

“So this person actually exists?”

“What’s his name?”

“How old?”

“What kind of person is he?”

Curious, the teammates all began questioning Fang Minghua.

“His name is Zhou Zekai, his username is his real name, he’s seventeen. Personality, how to put it…” Fang Minghua thought for a bit, then said, “Absolute strength, a good person, talks very little.”

“So the strong stoic type.”

“But that’s just in-game…”

“Minghua, have you fought him in the Arena?” someone suddenly asked.

Fang Minghua made an awkward face, and everyone else looked at that person like he was an idiot.

“Oh oh oh,” that person remembered. Fang Minghua was a Cleric, a standard, professional Cleric firmly in charge of healing. How irresponsible it’d be for him to run off and 1v1 in the Arena! If the captain found out, that’d mean a whole new round of reprimand.

“Alright, let’s move along here! Think about Captain’s feelings!” said Tong Lin, stepping forward. Everyone looked over and saw Zhang Yiwei standing lonely in front, truly a cruel sight. They all hurried to catch up. But Tong Lin himself hung back with Fang Minghua.

“So these days when you’ve been playing in-game, you’ve usually been playing with him?” Tong Lin asked.

“Only during free time, and I haven’t been playing too much,” Fang Minghua said.

“I’m not trying to scold you. I’m just saying that these past few weeks, you’ve gotten stronger,” said Tong Lin.

“Me? Stronger?” Fang Minghua’s eyes grew wide. He couldn’t help but look toward his captain. Just earlier, Captain Zhang Yiwei had been criticizing his recent poor condition, and in the match that had just ended, Fang Minghua himself felt that there were a few places where he hadn’t been able to keep up with Captain’s rhythm.

Tong Lin smiled, but didn’t explain further. He just clapped Fang Minghua on the shoulder: “Hurry and call your friend over, I’m looking forward to it.”

“Okay.” Fang Minghua nodded.

In the blink of an eye, another week passed.

Glory Professional Alliance Season 4 Round 11, Samsara versus Blue Rain.

Among the shining rookies that had emerged this season, it was Zhang Xinjie who currently had the best statistics. But the most eye-catching rookies were the ones from Team Blue Rain.

This was because the team that Zhang Xinjie had joined was Team Tyranny, which had always been a strong team. Captain Han Wenqing was a presence that, for many people, didn’t lose to Battle God Ye Qiu. Without a doubt, Zhang Xinjie had a platform that was very advantageous for his growth.

Blue Rain, meanwhile, had been devastated last season after the departure of Captain Wei Chen. They hadn’t even made it to playoffs. But after just ten rounds this season, with two new rookies put on the roster, Blue Rain was once again in the running for the championship.

Rookie Yu Wenzhou inherited the team’s core, Warlock Swoksaar, and became Blue Rain’s new captain. But then, just as everyone thought that he would be Blue Rain’s new generation ace player, Blue Rain sent out an even greater surprise.

Blade Master wasn’t originally a class in Blue Rain’s main roster. But with the addition of this other new rookie, Blue Rain’s main roster now had a position for a Blade Master, and it was the brightest and most brilliant position.

Huang Shaotian, Blade Master Troubling Rain. After a few rounds of competition, everyone recognized that he was Blue Rain’s sharpest spear, vanishing into shadows, waiting for opportunity, ending it all in a single slash. All while sending full screens of trash talk into the chat.

Apparently his abnormal chattiness had already drawn the attention of the higher-ups of the Alliance. But it would be unfair to mute only a specific player, so it was said that they were currently discussing banning all dead characters from sending messages. From this it could be seen just how terrifying Huang Shaotian’s trash talk was. For other people, death was the end. For him, he could use the power of words to continue to attack the opponent.

According to unofficial reports, the Alliance had recently sent out a survey to all of the pro players asking if they found this level of trash talk disruptive. As it turned out, only one person responded “no”.

Keeping in mind that this survey was sent to Blue Rain along with all the other teams, this meant that even Huang Shaotian’s teammates all responded “yes.” As for who was the individual who said that they weren’t disrupted, the source said that it was unknown.

As of today, the rule change was still under discussion. But for the Samsara who faced Blue Rain this round, it didn’t matter. They weren’t even able to turn Huang Shaotian’s Troubling Rain into a corpse in the first place. Instead, in an instant where the attackers and defenders switched, Huang Shaotian seized the opportunity and instantly knocked out two of Team Samsara.

Cloud Piercer, Laughing Song.

One was Samsara’s core, one was the indispensable healer.

At that moment, it could be said that the match was already over. Team Samsara swiftly fell in defeat.

Blue Rain won easily. Yet Samsara was already numb to defeat.

Captain Zhang Yiwei, in particular, was ashen-faced.

He could only look up to the first generation’s Ye Qiu or Han Wenqing. They had never been teammates.

Sun Zheping and Zhang Jiale, debuting the same season as him, had swiftly risen to the top and left him in the dust.

Last season’s rookie Wang Jiexi had been an unstoppable force as he ground many of his seniors, Zhang Yiwei included, into dust.

And then this season, another rookie. When Troubling Rain’s lightsaber had slashed toward him, he’d been slow to react. Even Fang Minghua had fared better than him—he vaguely remembered seeing Fang Minghua squeeze out a few heals even under the disruption of Huang Shaotian’s attacks, trying to help him stabilize the situation. But his own performance had just been too, too poor. He hadn’t managed to do anything effective.

“Four-step Gun Fu? Not enough not enough not enough!!”

During the slaughter, the endless stream of chat messages became knives stabbing into his heart.

“Captain.” Seeing Zhang Yiwei still sitting there blankly, Samsara’s members surrounded him.

“I’m fine.” Zhang Yiwei waved his hand and stood up.

“This round, we lost again,” he said.

Everyone was silent.

“Are we really… just not strong enough?” Zhang Yiwei said.

Everyone thought back to Sun Zheping’s brutally honest words last round. They could only smile bitterly.

Blue Rain’s players walked toward the center of the stage, greeting the audience and joyously soaking in their victory. Samsara could only look on from afar with envy as they walked back toward the player passageway.

There weren’t many in the audience looking at them. It could be said that even other members of the audience were receiving more attention than them.

Fang Rui, as a trainee in Blue Rain’s training camp, was currently exultantly discussing this victory with his friends, mocking their opponents with abandon.

“That Sharpshooter is trash! If that’s the level of the Alliance’s current best Sharpshooter, then let’s be real, I could do that too!” Fang Rui lamented.

But before his companions could agree, there was a commotion from behind.

“What happened, what happened?” Fang Rui loved excitement, and in an instant his attention had shifted. He leaned over to see what was going on behind him—bumping right into someone hurrying past.

“Ow.” Fang Rui, with his body half-twisted, almost fell over. Fortunately, his hands were fast as he grabbed onto the back of the seat. Instead of admitting his own fault in suddenly popping into the aisle from his seat, he accused the other party first: “What, are we just walking into people now?”

“Sorry…” The person who bumped into him apologized as he quickly grabbed Fang Rui to steady him.

“What’s going on?” Still interested in the commotion, Fang Rui continued to look around, but he didn’t discover anything big, just a few young women in the audience pointing in this direction. Their target, it seemed to be the one who’d just bumped into him. So Fang Rui studied this person, and instantly grew jealous.

How could someone be this good-looking?

Fang Rui was vexed.

And this person was still holding him up, looking thoroughly embarrassed.

“Alright, you come with me,” Fang Rui said to him.

“Ah?” That person was taken aback.

“We can go this way too.” Fang Rui took the lead.

“This way?” That person looked at the direction Fang Rui was walking. Toward the stage?

“I’m with Blue Rain, I can take you through the player passageway. You coming or not?” Fang Rui was starting to get impatient.

“Oh,” that person answered, and caught up.

Those female audience members were just pointing out to each other an unbelievably attractive pretty boy they’d found in the audience. They didn’t try to do anything else, and once they saw he was going the opposite direction from them, they presently began to leave the stands.

Seeing this person beside him let out a long sigh, Fang Rui was unimpressed. “Seriously? Not like they did anything.”

That person scratched his head and smiled a little, without saying anything.

“You also came to watch the match?” Fang Rui asked.

“Yes.” This person nodded.

“For which team?” Fang Rui asked.

“Uh…” From this person’s hesitation, the answer was self-evident.

“Too bad,” Fang Rui said sympathetically.

“It’ll get better.” The other person suddenly said this.

“Better than Blue Rain?” Fang Rui said doubtfully. “Next year when Blue Rain has me, they’ll be even more terrifying.” He shook his right hand around.

The other person smiled again without saying anything.

“But supporting Samsara, that’s pretty brave. Say, what do you like about Samsara?” Fang Rui asked.

“A friend there,” the other said.

“Then there’s nothing more to say.” Fang Rui nodded, acknowledging this reason.

“There’s the competition stage, want to go up and take a look?” As they passed the stage, Fang Rui suddenly had an idea.

“Okay.” This person nodded.

The two of them walked onto the stage. There were already workers here, methodically tearing everything down.

Fang Rui strode toward the center of the stage, striking a bold stance as he swept his gaze around.

“Next year, it’s my turn,” he proudly bellowed.

“Fang Rui!” Then, someone loudly called his name.

Fang Rui instinctively shrank down as he turned to look—it was someone from Blue Rain.

“I have to go! You just keep heading that way toward the exit.” In a rush, Fang Rui pointed out the path, before hurrying to rejoin Blue Rain.

“Thank you,” he heard that person say from behind him.

“What’s your name?” Fang Rui turned, jogging backward as he called out.

“Zhou Zekai,” that person said.

“Go and debut, and remember me when you’re famous.” Fang Rui waved toward him, then turned and dashed off.

Zhou Zekai stared after him, lifting his hand and waving.

He was the only one left onstage. He looked all around him, at the empty stands—by now, the audience had already mostly left. This allowed him to relax, and he let out a deep sigh. Then he turned around and looked at the competitor booths where the pros played. He wanted to go closer to take a look, but when he saw how the workers were already rushing to disassemble everything, he ultimately stayed back.

At this moment, two people had suddenly run onto the stage wearing Samsara uniforms. They ran straight toward Samsara’s competitor booths, where the computer and seat were already partially taken down. The person in front instantly grew even more panicked. He began to find a worker to ask something. The one who was with him looked down and did a sweep of the area, and then shook his head at his companion. Then, his gaze fell upon Zhou Zekai, who was looking at them.

Zhou Zekai smiled.

Fang Minghua was caught off-guard, but he still gave the person a polite nod before he went over to the panicking Tong Lin.

“What’d they say?” he asked.

“They’re asking.” Tong Lin looked toward the worker, who was off to the side making a phone call.

“They’ll find it,” Fang Minghua comforted him.

“The card doesn’t matter, but there are two important things in that account, they can’t be lost or ruined by someone else,” Tong Lin said. “No, I need to report it lost right now.”

Tong Lin scrambled for his phone. Meanwhile, Fang Minghua turned, and saw that the youth who’d been standing in the center of the stage was now walking toward them.

Fang Minghua looked at him.

“Fang Minghua.” The person walked closer and actually called out his name.

“Ah? You are?” Fang Minghua hesitated.

“Zhou Zekai,” the other person said.

“Ah?” Fang Minghua’s eyes widened. After last week’s match, he’d already mentioned to Zhou Zekai that he hoped he could visit Team Samsara when he got the chance. But he’d never imagined that they would meet right here.

“Why are you…” Fang Minghua only managed three words before he was interrupted by Tong Lin’s cry of joy.

“You found it? Thank you so much, where can I pick it up?” A delighted Tong Lin was speaking to the stadium worker.

“He needs to come here, he’ll bring it over right now, please hold on for a moment,” the worker said.

“Thank you, thank you!” After giving his profuse thanks, Tong Lin only now noticed Zhou Zekai standing next to Fang Minghua.

“Your friend?” Tong Lin asked Fang Minghua.

“This is the Sharpshooter that I wanted to introduce to the team,” said Fang Minghua.

“Oh?” Tong Lin began sizing up Zhou Zekai.

“Hello, I’m Zhou Zekai,” Zhou Zekai introduced himself.

“Team Samsara, Tong Lin.” Tong Lin extended his hand, and they shook.

“I hear your Sharpshooter is really good?” Tong Lin then asked.

“I’m okay,” Zhou Zekai said.

“Did you bring your account card?” Tong Lin asked.

“I did,” Zhou Zekai nodded.

“’Scuse me, are you taking this all down right now? Will we be in the way if we use the computers for a few minutes?” Tong Lin turned and asked a nearby worker. After obtaining permission, he sat down in front of a computer.

“Come on, let’s have a round,” Tong Lin said.

“Oh.” Zhou Zekai walked over.

Two minutes later.

“Huh?” Zhou Zekai found that his movements were suddenly no longer having any effect.

“Internet’s down.” Tong Lin stood up. He looked toward Zhou Zekai, looked toward Fang Minghua behind him. Fang Minghua was trying to suppress a grin. He had never doubted Zhou Zekai’s strength, and after seeing him directly fight against a pro player like Tong Lin, he felt even more confident.

“Whose account card is this?” called a worker who’d just arrived, as he raised a Glory account card.

“Mine, mine.” Tong Lin rushed over and retrieved the account card with deep gratitude.

“You played well.” Fang Minghua took the opportunity to praise Zhou Zekai. Even though they’d only played two minutes of an incomplete match, the strength that Zhou Zekai displayed was unquestionable.

“I’m okay.” Zhou Zekai still used this same phrase.

“Let me ask you,” Tong Lin said to Zhou Zekai, after returning with his account card. “Three-and-a-half-step Gun Fu, is that your limit?”

Zhou Zekai thought about it seriously for a moment. “Should be able to go half-step closer.”

“Three-step Gun Fu.” Tong Lin looked overwhelmed with emotion. “I was too conservative.”

“Hehe.” Fang Minghua grinned like an idiot.

“Need some big adjustments,” Tong Lin muttered.

“Ah?” Fang Minghua didn’t follow, and he saw Zhou Zekai wearing a similar expression of confusion.

“Not you,” Tong Lin said, waving the card in his hand. “I’m talking about the things in here.”

“What things?” Fang Minghua asked.

“You’ll find out later. No, all of the Alliance, all of Glory will know.” Tong Lin smiled. He gripped the account card in his hand. Within it was the result of his blood, sweat, and tears, the Silver weapon, dual revolvers Wildfire and Shattered Frost, specially built for Cloud Piercer. This youth standing before him, his three-and-a-half-step Gun Fu already surpassed the vast majority of pro gunner players, let alone the fact that he believed he still had a half-step’s room to improve.

Wasn’t this exactly what all of Samsara had been hoping for all along? As he thought about this, Tong Lin suddenly began to tear up.

“What’s wrong?” exclaimed Fang Minghua, alarmed.

“I see the future,” Tong Lin said.

Fang Minghua immediately understood. From the first moment he laid eyes upon Zhou Zekai’s Sharpshooter, he had also thought of the future. He patted Zhou Zekai’s shoulder, and Zhou Zekai smiled.

Team Samsara, ready for takeoff.

[end]

#quan zhi gao shou #the king's avatar #qzgs #tka #全职高手 #qzgs prequel #mine #translation #sorry for delay!#additional notes to come in a reblog possibly.

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hedgehog-moss · 1 month

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Welcome to the great donkey contest of 2024

I must confess that I, once again, forgot the date of the yearly donkey contest, so I had to leave early (I had a restaurant reservation in another town) and have no idea what was the jury's verdict on each of these donkeys. Therefore, you are the jury. It will be heartbreaking, but I will ask you to vote at the end of the post, setting aside the known fact that all donkeys are the best donkey.

There were Poitou donkeys, Berry donkeys, Bourbonnais donkeys, Provence donkeys, Andalusian donkeys, and common donkeys who seemed to have no distinguishing features other than being acceptably donkey-shaped. I can't possibly post all my photos, so I have chosen 4 noteworthy contestants (or 3 and half, one is very small) for you to vote on. I'll add that I only stayed long enough to watch 2 donkeys demonstrate their skills, so in a spirit of fairness I will not mention anyone's job. You won't be voting based on how good they are doing their specific donkey job but on how good they are at being a donkey.

Donkey #1 — CHEWBACCA.

Chewbacca is big, and he has ears. These are his most salient characteristics. Each one of his ears looks like a separate fluffy ferret-sized mammal attached to his head, gently twitching or napping. Chewbacca's hooves are the diameter of a medium pizza and he looks very formidable but he is extremely kind. I know the most pressing question is "Can I scritch Chewbacca's ears?" and the answer is yes, but then he will immediately appoint you ear-scritcher in chief and will look very sad when you walk away to meet other donkeys.

Chewbacca's ears on their own could be enough to let him win Hairiest Donkey in any contest—but he is mixed breed, and there were purebred baudets du Poitou in attendance. Their entire identity is "the hairy one", and giving the Hairiest trophy to another donkey would result in massive spread of existentialism among Poitou donkeys.

(He is not a contestant, as I didn't have time to get a good aperçu of his personality.)

(Same for this shiny black donkey, pictured here canoodling with a Poitou lady—unfortunately I don't have photos of him in motion, but believe me when I say he was the glossiest donkey I've ever seen. When walking or trotting he shone in the sun like a freshly-polished dress shoe.)

Back to our contest.

Donkey #2 — UGOLIN.

Ugolin (who seems to go by "Glin") is a shaggy, gangly teenage boy whose main characteristic is being utterly love-starved. Left unattended, Ugolin would wander about the donkey contest, stopping in front of every child or adult he encountered, hoping someone would love him.

I was initially the only human Ugolin did not want cuddles from, because he was scared of Pandolf and seemed to think of me as his minion. Then I tied Pandolf to a tree and crouched down a few metres away from Glin, unsure if I had a chance now—and after hesitating for about 2 seconds he came over to kiss my forehead. My friend was so touched by this moment that she (somehow) got her phone to turn her photo into an impressionist painting.

"Can I scritch Glin's ears?" Yes. He is desperate for someone to pet his ears.

Donkey #3

—no, sorry, it's Ugolin again. It's very hard to get rid of him.

Donkey #3 — THE BABY.

The baby has no name. The baby has no skills. The baby is not good at anything other than being tiny enough to walk under her mum's belly. In the absence of any other qualifications she was happy to show off what is possibly the most low-effort limbo dance in the world.

"Can I scritch the baby's ears?" No. Big point against her, here. She will, however, come over if you say "awww le petit ânon <3" and let you pet her tiny nose. (More nose photos in this post if you missed it)

Donkey #ah no wait here's Ugolin again

He actually overcame his intense fear of Pandolf to come trap us in his forcefield of infinite neediness! I'm proud of him.

Donkey #4 — MYRTILLE.

Myrtille is in her mid-thirties, and did not come to the donkey fair to demonstrate any particular skills or be admired by us, but because she likes to meet new donkeys. She was not tethered to the rope and yet did not wander around to mingle with humans like other untied donkeys did; she shuffled from one end of the rope to the other like a friendly pensioner at a continental breakfast buffet, making small talk with everyone. It was hard to approach Myrtille (as a human) without feeling like a third wheel.

I don't mean to gossip, but she spent quite a while flirting with the glossy black donkey.

I love her. She's my favourite. I was not able to pet her or take a good close-up photo of her but that's okay. Myrtille is like a tempting rollercoaster at an amusement park that you are barred from by the sign that says "You must have ears THIS long to go any farther." I wish her only good things.

#crawling along #i dedicate this post to my barn owl friend who has been patiently waiting for it for years #sorry for the delay this took so long to write!! well it mostly took me a while to pick the 4 contestants #and sorry for how long the post is. you understand now why i had to drastically reduce the number of contestants #i love them all but i have a soft spot for old ladies and animals who just do their own thing<3

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