Chapter 119: CH 119

<< Jue Jing >> was the hottest game at the moment, and all related keywords were trending quite high on the charts. Wen Chuo spent half a month fighting monsters and levelling up, successfully rising up to number 2 on the overall ranking chart, and only after that did he have the heart to check how many views he had after uploading onto DK.

32000 views, 8000 comments and 4000 new fans subscribed, which was pretty good for a new uploader. But it did need to take half a month to have these kinds of results, which did not quite meet up to expectations.

Wen Chuo took a look at the comments section and found that besides the ones going “gonna kneel for you king”, more were trying to pry into the person behind the account. They were targeting whether the person in the video was the dark horse K-Da, and one comment on this had about 1000 additional replies.

— Caught the king of the overall ranking charts alive! Hearing his voice in the video, it seems he’s quite young, but his skills are so top notch. There’s no flamboyant showing off, and he successfully avoids that murderous crowd of aggro monsters, giving off so much information for newbies. He’s put in a lot of effort in creating this. Liked! Leaving a comment that I was here before he blows up! 

— Actually I really wanted to see the tutorial for later levels. The beginner ones have already been out for so long now that the tutorials aren’t worth much anymore. << Jue Jing >> already has three new areas. I wonder if he’ll make more tutorials?

— If it’s really K-Da, then that’s pretty crazy! I just took a look at the ranking and he’s number 2 overall. Rising so fast in such a short time, what an unlimited future he’s gonna have! Quick, drag Wan Ye down hahaha. Better than showing off everyday on her stream.

Since he had not uploaded anything new in a long time, the view count on his video was already beaten by new ones, and it had pretty much disappeared like a drop into the ocean. Wen Chuo calculated and it had been about ten or so days since he had last uploaded. So right when there was the largest number of viewers on the platform, he uploaded two more tutorial videos.

They couldn’t really be actually counted as tutorials as many levels higher up were all dependent on technique and skill. Wen Chuo could only point out a few traps in a few places for players, but it did not keep the audience from feeling satisfaction just from watching.

As a gaming broadcaster, a part of their income came from the view count and the other from their fanbase. Wen Chuo updated the game and found that << Jue Jing >> had released a few new areas, and Wan Ye had already passed him by several levels. Much like a head honcho, she tightly grasped onto her number 1 rank.

To the rest of the world, Wen Chuo’s background was a bit mysterious. Always going offline after the game and never revealing any personal information. The high ranked players on the overall chart were basically all known gamers on the big platforms, and so everyone guessed about his real identity on the down low. They sleuthed around and came to point the target at Feng Yun’s1 gaming streamer Xi Ka.

Xi Ka seemed to be in talks with the higher ups of Feng Yun recently, discussing about the end of her contract, so it wasn’t entirely impossible for her to switch to DK, yet she had not appeared online for a very long time.

Perhaps because too many private messages were sent to her, in a rare sight, Xi Ka responded to the allegations: My grandmother has fallen ill recently, so when << Jue Jing >> first came out, I had no time to play and it had been on the back burner for me for a very long time. Only recently did I have some free time, so my name is not on the overall ranking chart /embarrassed. Although that K-Da’s skill is as /nice/ as mine, he’s not me~

Xi Ka has about 300 thousand and more fans, considered to be a small pillar for Feng Yun. When she smiled, her eyes would curve up, and in private, she was a very filial piteous girl. With her high level of fame, her gaming technique and skills were very widely known and definitely above average.

Wen Chuo didn’t really care about any of this and turned on the ability to livestream for his account. After contemplating for a bit, he logged onto his social media account and posted:

Going live Saturday night. << Jue Jing >> Death’s Valley. See you there.

Wen Chuo needed to uphold the quality of his videos, and that would inevitably mean that a lot of time is needed. And with that, he would fall off the tracks, always slower than other people by a step. So streaming is not a bad choice, as it could balance the speed of level progression and also gain some recognition. If he was lucky, he’d have some fans drop some presents2, which could be a source of income.

The moment this was posted, there were people coming in to leave comments with the occasional likes. Wen Chuo gave it a look and found that it was the newbie group he carried, and he smiled. He didn’t really mind it as a new streamer would always be like this, where each step to move upwards was an uphill battle.

It had been a while now and the Wen family news had already been overtaken by other entertainment news. The pop ups were finally no longer sending any of the related content, but as the woman in question was a celebrity, there were occasional exposés of her “outings”, which led a lot of gossip rags to start a new round of guessing and allegations every time.

But Wen Chuo did not have the heart to care about any of these, and seeing that it was still quite early, he went downstairs to go find Bai Yang. He didn’t expect, however, that at this time of day, the restaurant would be quite full. He stayed a distance away, not entering, only choosing to take a glance from far away. Through the glass doors, he could see an honest looking young man beside Liu Meng Meng that looked new, helping out around the restaurant. He thought to himself that this must be a new employee.

There once used to be a lot of bicycle shares in Lin Xian, but most of them had been stolen to be used as personal vehicles. Wen Chuo spent a long while before he was able to find one that was not damaged, and because he had been basically holed up by himself for so long, he called Shan Dian and the gang out to go for a ride.

Shan Dian’s hair had grown out to be quite long, and he purposefully swished it around as he rode on his bike, which garnered a lot of disgusted stares from pedestrians. He himself didn’t care one bit, only laughing and wailing out, 

“WAH WOOOO–!”

Wen Chuo was riding at about the same speed, but it looked like he was quite slow and being quite leisurely. The corners of his shirt were flying up from the wind, which added a bit more coolness and chicness about him. Shan Dian bemoaned at him, 

“What a busy man you are huh. It’s so rare to see you out on the streets now. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought that you’ve turned into a goody two shoes now.”

>> I’m only looking to see what kind of person one could be to be able to pull Wan-zi3 down from her rank. Fighting oh~ Don’t let us be disappointed, young man!

>> Came here to see how great he could be. If he can’t even pass through Death’s Valley, I’m going to motherfucking make him crawl for me!

>> Yo the one above me SB? Have you even passed the beginner levels? Death’s Valley is a new area. Your Wan Ye is still stuck there. If he can’t pass, he’ll have to crawl for you? What a brainless child. Can Wan Ye manage her own fans huh? A group of crazed dogs randomly biting people.

There was a lot of passive aggressiveness in the comment section and Wen Chuo only roughly took a look before closing the screen off. He put on his earphones and entered the game. Death’s Valley was currently the hardest level to pass right now, as besides defending from other players, he’d also have to be careful of the zombies that would randomly pop up. On top of all this, his vision was greatly dimmed which was not an advantage at all, and it was called the most impossible area.

Wen Chuo put on his glasses and focused on his monitor. In the game, his character moved forward in the midst of the strange land of Death’s Valley. Here it looked like a centuries old European castle, situated in a dark and covered forest with their branches grown all crooked. Paired with an eerie BGM, girls who had the lowest level of courage would cry from the scene.

A green poisonous swamp was “gu-lu-gu-lu” bubbling and a bone was silently swaying up and down with it. Wen Chuo knew that if he was not careful, he would immediately be swallowed up, just like how it was impossible to get rid of parasitic leeches once they were attached onto you. It would mean losing at least half his health and so when he was controlling his character, he would purposefully avoid the bones.

He was clean and fast with his bullets and before the audience could even clearly see the enemies hiding in the thick forest, Wen Chuo had already one-shot killed them. Unknowingly, anxiety began to build up in their hearts and their focus was unparalleled.

You are reading story Don't Be a Kept Man at novel35.com

On the charts, Wen Chuo had a rare undefeated battle record. On the road, he had killed countless monsters and when he finally broke through the thick forest into the old castle, his health bar had not even taken a hit by the wandering zombies. Quite a few people in the comment section were saying, they bowed down to his greatness, and knew that his skill was incomparable to Wan Ye.

The castle door slowly began to open, and following the heavy creaking sound, attention was drawn to what was behind the door. It was right at this time that a weird sound began emitting into their ears and following that, a round black shadow suddenly flashed right above the character’s head. On the monitor, it suddenly zoomed in, scaring the audience

Wen Chuo however had already been prepared and he quickly dashed to the side. Then he shot right in midair, and a corroded crow chewing on an eyebrow fell on the ground.

The comment section immediately blew up.

>> AH AH AH MOTHER FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!! I’M FRIGHTENED TO DEATH MOMMY! How could this area be so scary. A crow can even hurt the character, what a scam!!!

>> WOWWOW if it was me, I’d be dead already. If K-Da had fought all the way here and died here, it’d have been so unfortunate. Thankfully, he avoided it.

>> His reaction skill, is so top-notch. Stanning, stanning. It’s so refreshing to see him fight, so much so that I’m filled with so much jealousy.

There were also Wan Ye’s fans and they popped out to say a few meaningless words, but they didn’t exit out of the stream. Following the passing of time, the number of people watching was increasing and increasing.

Wen Chuo took a look at the bottom right corner and found that it was almost time for Bai Yang to be off work. He increased his speed to push forward into the castle and the screen was suddenly filled with zombies being shot and their blood splattering on the screen. The audience were wide eyed as they saw this and they felt that this seemed to be easier than chopping vegetables.

Other people needed to spend an hour, and even with countless revivals, they may not even be able to go pass Death’s Valley. But Wen Chuo only spent forty minutes to pass it in one go. When the sweet voice of the NPC said “Congratulations on passing”, the comment section blew up again.

At the same time, the overall ranking charts refreshed and KKK was number 1, Wan Ye was number 2.

Wen Chuo waited for him to speak up, but he could have never thought that Bai Yang would go right around him and straight towards the bedroom. Wen Chuo closed the livestream, rolled his chair over, blocking the bedroom door, acting more like Cheng Yaojin than Cheng Yaojin could be.4 

Bai Yang paused in his footsteps and lifted his eyes up to look at him, ever still his silent self.

Wen Chuo didn’t let him go, and he didn’t move, silently standing there, just like being punished.

One minute later, Wen Chuo couldn’t handle it and unhappily released his hands. Seeing him turn his head as if throwing a tantrum and not looking at him in anger, Bai Yang slightly squinted his eyes before walking over and lightly hugging him.

Bai Yang’s waist was overly skinny to the point of not being real. Wen Chuo buried his face in his embrace and messily snuggled and mushed his face around, 

“Who was that man today? Why is he so detestable? Always swirling around you.”

The displeasure in his voice was too evident, as if everything he owned was being eyed up.

“Qian Zhi Guo.”

Bai Yang was as his normal self, and he stared at the top of Wen Chuo’s head. He lifted his hand to touch, a bit dazedly asking, 

“You…… are eating vinegar?”

Wen Chuo fake spat, almost jumping up from his chair, 

“I’m eating vinegar? This old man ate a lemon!”5

Notes:

*1 Feng Yun: Another streaming platform where the name is made up of the words “wind” and “cloud” combined

*2 It’s called “scrubbing presents” in Chinese which is pretty interesting haha but in most streaming platforms, kind of like youtube and twitch where these “presents” or really, “donations” get a special notification. It’s like a mini cartoon on your screen. If you have seen livestreams on twitch (or perhaps also youtube), take the sub/follow notifications that some streamers have pop up that says so and so donated/subbed/followed and make it flashier and bigger (dependent on the size of the “gift”/money given).

Unlike on twitch where you can have your own notifications, it’s pretty standardized between the streams (dependent on the platform ofc) where you’d have different special effects like a cruise ship, fireworks, etc. They kind of resemble slot machines with their very fancy graphics designed to capture your attention and when there’s like a bazillion of them, it can get pretty crazy fast. These presents will actually show up a bit later in the chapter.

*3 This is a nickname of sorts for Wan Ye (which is not like in volume 2 where the “ye” means an older man but a part of her name). The “Zi” is kind of “your family”/my little kid/affectionate kind of feeling.

*4 Cheng Yaojin is a famous general that helped establish/found the Tang Dynasty. A common phrase using his name is to mean that something unexpected and sudden is happening, something that you can’t stop and one that’s not welcomed at all.

*5 For this whole exchange, eating vinegar is a euphemism for being jealous while eating a lemon can mean a few things: that the person doesn’t feel good, like suffocating from a wrong, or being rejected, being envious or also jealous, feeling extremely sour over whatever happened, etc.

You can find story with these keywords: Don't Be a Kept Man, Read Don't Be a Kept Man, Don't Be a Kept Man novel, Don't Be a Kept Man book, Don't Be a Kept Man story, Don't Be a Kept Man full, Don't Be a Kept Man Latest Chapter