Earth’s Redemption: Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Most Ruthless Player: Cheng Yuxue

Proofread by Cloud Chip Cake

Calm down, Ning Buwen; you’re not someone who hasn’t seen the world.

There are too many strange things in this world. With Cheng Meiren being the king of this psychiatric hospital, it’s not impossible for his room to be filled with three giant flowers.

In fact, upon closer inspection, these three flowers were quite beautiful, with petals layered on top of each other, displaying a gradient of colors. The outermost layer was a light pink, gradually turning a deeper red toward the center. If taken to a competition before the apocalypse, they might’ve even won a few awards. However, no matter how beautiful or lovely something is, once it becomes gigantic, it ceases to be cute and instead becomes frightening.

Ning Buwen didn’t dare get too close and instead took out the [River God’s Blessing], ready to water the flowers and immediately leave.

Everything here felt off, making him a bit scared.

Just as Ning Buwen was about to use the item card, the three giant flowers suddenly started shedding petals.

A single petal fell, almost enveloping Ning Buwen completely.

What… what’s going on?

Ning Buwen didn’t dare waste any time and hurriedly used the item card to water the flowers.

As the card was activated, it transformed into the blurred image of a female water deity, gently blowing a breath toward the roots of the three flowers, causing water to flow continuously into the roots.

This should be fine, right?

Ning Buwen looked up, only to be struck directly by a falling petal.

The strong fragrance nearly knocked him out.

How strange; he hadn’t noticed how fragrant these flowers were just a moment ago.

Crawling out from beneath the petal, Ning Buwen saw that the three flowers were now completely bare. Even without knowing the specific attributes of these plants, he realized that the flowers were done for.

There were only stems and leaves left—no flowers at all!

Oh no! The petals are scattered everywhere! 

If that Cheng Meiren came out of the game and saw his flowers in this state, his fate would…

As Ning Buwen thought this, he broke out in a cold sweat and rushed toward the security office.

As the saying goes, “The law does not hold the masses accountable.” The people in the security office surely bore some responsibility; they must know something.

The security office was gathered together, playing mahjong.

“Great, I’ve got a self-draw…” The team leader was about to push his mahjong tiles forward when he saw Ning Buwen rushing over in a panic.

“Bro, did you water the flowers well?”

“Haha, don’t worry. The flowers are quite obedient; other than being a bit tall, there’s nothing wrong with them. They don’t eat people.”

“Why not join us for a game? I’ll give you an item card as a gift!”

…

“Those flowers, cough, those flowers have wilted and keep shedding petals. They’re left with just the stems now.” Ning Buwen briefly explained the issue. “After I watered them, they ended up like this. Is this normal?”

Smash!

The security team’s leader crushed the mahjong tiles in his hand to dust.

“Just so you know, I didn’t do anything; I didn’t even touch it!” Ning Buwen quickly distanced himself from the situation. “You’ve all been here as security, so you should have been taking care of that flower, right?”

“We need to go check it out right away.”

“Stop playing!”

…

Ning Buwen and the security team raised their heads to look at the three bare flowers, as if just gazing at them would somehow make them bloom again.

When Ning Buwen felt his neck starting to ache, the team leader broke the silence in the room.

“Lao San, don’t you usually like taking care of flowers and plants? Can you take a look and see if these flowers can be saved?” The team leader pointed out one of his brothers and asked about the three flowers.

“B…Boss all the petals have fallen off. It doesn’t look good,” Lao San said, shrinking back, stammering. “I think it’d be better to just replace it.”

“Ha, if we replace the King’s flowers, when he comes back, he’ll probably want to replace our heads too.” The leader rolled his eyes so hard they almost reached the ceiling. “So, do you have any ideas?”

“Boss, how about we catch this guy and hand him over to the King when he returns?” One of the younger team members raised his hand, glaring at Ning Buwen with malice.

That suggestion was undeniably tempting.

It truly was a case of fortune reversing, and everyone had the same thought.

“If that’s the case, I’ll drag you all down with me even in death,” Ning Buwen said calmly. “How about we give it a try?”

“What a terrible idea!” The team leader stepped in just in time to stop the team members from continuing. “The King doesn’t care about our relationships when he goes mad. Right now, we should focus on how to save this flower!”

“Boss, how can we save it now? Why don’t we just hide in Pandora? No matter how powerful the King is, he can’t possibly find us among thousands of instances.”

“…Isn’t it faster to die in Pandora? Our levels are so high now; I almost died in the last instance. If I hadn’t split myself in two beforehand, I’d have a grave with grass a few meters high by now.”

…

As they were about to argue, Ning Buwen finally realized these guys were pretty unreliable.

No, he should have realized that much earlier.

“With such big flowers, they definitely aren’t of Earth’s varieties. They might have been brought from Pandora. Why don’t you look for those with special abilities to control plants and ask them for help?” Ning Buwen suggested a plan.

“Hey, yeah, that’s worth a try.”

“Haha, in the heat of the moment, I forgot about that.”

“Who among us can control plants, anyway?”

Once that question was raised, everyone fell silent.

“Let’s go to the mission hall and post a mission,” Ning Buwen sighed. “By the way, how much money do you all have on you?”

“Not much, probably around twenty to thirty million.”

“I’ve spent all my money.”

“I think I still have three thousand yuan, Boss.”

“I probably still have about a million left.” 

“Boss, how do you have so much money?!”

…

In the end, they managed to scrape together a total of sixteen million.

“Are you sure you want me to take the money to submit the mission? Aren’t you afraid I’ll run away with your money?” Ning Buwen finally asked this question.

The security team members absolutely refused to go to the mission hall, so the task of submitting the request for plant manipulators fell to Ning Buwen.

“Not worried at all. If you run away, we’ll feel even more at ease,” the captain said sincerely. “That way, when the King comes out, you’ll attract all the firepower.”

As the security captain said this, there was a hint of anticipation in his eyes.

What else could Ning Buwen say?

“Please describe the requirements of the mission in detail. It’s best to specify the appearance and type of the plants you want to save so that we can quickly find someone who meets your needs,” the receptionist said, providing excellent service to Ning Buwen. People around began to look over at him.

As a newcomer who unlocked three B-Level item cards after clearing the game for the first time, Ning Buwen had quickly replaced Mo Xiaoyou as the most talked-about newcomer in just a few days.

However, unlike Mo Xiaoyou, there was hardly any information about Ning Buwen, making him seem like he had appeared out of thin air. This led many to believe he might be a relative of someone in a major Legion, as it was unlikely he could be this impressive right off the bat.

This was also considered one of the benefits of joining a Legion.

As long as someone from the family entered a Legion, the family of the Legion member could undergo some basic training to prevent their accidental deaths in the game from affecting the Legion member’s progress.

“Okay, I’ve finished writing.” Ning Buwen quickly completed the requirements and the reward. “Will this mission automatically go to the phones of those who can control plants?”

“Yes,” the receptionist confirmed. “If someone is willing to accept it, they’ll message you right away to come back together. By the way, Mr. Ning, two Legions have sent you invitations to join. Would you like to take a look?”

“Which two?”

“The Eleventh and Ninth Legions.”

Due to Ning Buwen’s impressive achievements in his first run, combined with his outstanding computing and reasoning abilities demonstrated before the apocalypse, he was quickly targeted by higher-tier Legions. Those in lower-tier Legions, realizing they couldn’t compete, simply didn’t send invitations.

“Hmm, I’ll think about it. But right now, finding someone to complete the mission I need is more important,” Ning Buwen replied with a smile.

“The message has been sent; please wait a few minutes.”

At the same time, the Pandora players within the forty-nine Legions who could control plants and weren’t clearing instances received mission emails.

Some set a mission amount, while others don’t. It depends on what the players require from the mission.

“Sixteen million in rewards—what a big spender!”

“Let me see. Healing a plant? Twenty meters tall, six meters wide? What the heck kind of plant is this?”

“…From that description, it sounds like those corrupted plants.”

“Pfft, what a joke! Corrupted plants start at least at fifty million; this must be some clueless newbie randomly posting a mission.”

“111 Changjiang Road, what kind of place is this? The First Legion’s base?”

…

In a certain Legion.

“Cousin, look at this person; he’s so funny! Offering sixteen million for such a huge corrupted plant, haha. It’s like switching fields; some players always want to bring out strange plants from the game, and then they won’t even know how they died.” A young man said to his cousin at the dining table. “Cousin, can you please help me inquire about the Legion’s recruitment requirements…”

“Your special constitution is suitable for the Sixteenth Legion.” The man referred to as ‘cousin’ casually replied, “There are many people with similar constitutions there.”

“Cousin, don’t you still have an invitation slot for joining the Legion?”

“I’m just a minor squad leader; I don’t have that kind of power to help you. Your performance in the last instance wasn’t good enough; if you rush in, I can’t guarantee your safety. The instances we conquered are at least several times harder than the ones you tackled; can you survive?”

The young man fell silent.

“By the way, about that mission you mentioned, let me take a look.” The cousin felt he had been a bit harsh and changed the subject; after all, the younger man was his only family.

“It’s only a reward of ten million,” the man shrugged. “Cousin, your worth is much more than this! Look, it’s at 111 Changjiang Road?”

Thud.

The cousin’s chopsticks fell onto the table.

“111 Changjiang Road?” His voice immediately rose, completely different from his earlier calm demeanor. “You didn’t misspeak, did you?”

“C-Cousin, what’s wrong? Don’t scare me! It’s this place; the requirement is to heal three large plants that are twenty meters tall… Hey, cousin, you haven’t finished your meal yet! C-Cousin, even if you have money, you shouldn’t casually use a teleport card; it’s expensive!” The young man’s words trailed off as his cousin vanished without a trace.

“Do the people from the Second Legion have so much money? Who needs to spend a few million on a teleport card just to accept a ten million reward mission?”

Ning Buwen waited in the mission hall for over ten minutes but still received no response.

No one answered, how could that be!

“Y-Your mission description might not be precise enough.” The receptionist offered a professional smile. “Perhaps the plant controllers are just too busy at the moment. Please wait a bit longer.”

“No, it’s probably because my reward amount is too low.” Ning Buwen had already figured out the problem; there was no way that plant could be saved for such a meager sum.

Damn it, if he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have paid back that money. He should have dealt with this task first.

“To increase the reward, I can take people through for free,” Ning Buwen decided to raise the reward a bit to make it more appealing.

By using certain special teleportation cards, one could appear in an instance with specific individuals. Many squads in the Legions did this; having enough companions made clearing instances smoother and reduced their difficulty.

“Are you the one who posted the mission?”

The light from the teleportation card illuminated the entrance of the mission hall, and a lean, gentle-looking man walked straight toward Ning Buwen. “111 Changjiang Road, that’s your mission, right?”

“That’s me.” Ning Buwen nodded, momentarily dazed as he noticed the red star badge on the man’s chest.

How can someone from the Second Legion be here?

“I’ve accepted your mission; let’s leave immediately.” After speaking, he pulled Ning Buwen and they vanished from the spot.

The receptionist blinked, taken aback for a moment before realizing, “So Mr. Ning was noticed by the Second Legion? Isn’t it said that the Second Legion is even harder to enter than the First Legion?”

Ning Buwen was teleported directly to the hospital entrance by this unexpectedly appearing elite from the Second Legion.

“Where’s the flower? Hurry up.” The elite seemed even more anxious than Ning Buwen.

“Wait, let me talk to the security first.” Ning Buwen couldn’t figure out whether this person was there to help or to seek revenge; he needed to communicate with the security personnel first.

“Go ahead, brother; this is definitely someone from the Second Legion,” the security captain appeared from nowhere and waved at Ning Buwen. “Good luck; our lives are in your hands.”

What?

Aren’t you guys a little too good at shifting responsibility?

Ning Buwen was completely bewildered, but he still led this mysterious appearance to Ward 001.

“These really are Overlord Flowers.” The elite looked at the room filled with fallen petals and pulled out a strange item from his pocket, sprinkling it over the roots. The black granules were instantly snatched up by vines which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Before long, tender buds emerged from the bare flower heads.

“What… what is going on?” Ning Buwen felt he might never understand these plants in his lifetime.

“I just sprinkled some seeds from mutated plants. As mutated plants themselves, they only consume seeds of their kind and fresh blood and flesh; that’s what we call ‘watering.’” The elite sighed in relief. “The flowers are merely the organs these mutated plants use to trap prey, so when they’re starving, they’ll discard these useless things to conserve nutrients. If we had come a few days later, it would have resorted to indiscriminate predation to sustain its life. Luckily, it’s been trained well and wouldn’t dare to eat humans randomly.”

Ning Buwen felt a bit guilty; he could have come earlier, but he completely forgot about it once he got caught up in the game.

That said, Cheng Meiren didn’t explain anything clearly, so who knew he meant this kind of watering? But thinking about it, he himself had a muddled mind, so it was unrealistic to expect Cheng Meiren to clarify everything.

What other choice did he have but to admit his mistake?

“Thank you. If it weren’t for your help, we might have ended up as its food.”

“I’m doing this for my own good too. If these Overlord Flowera really die, Cheng Yuxue, that lunatic, will cause us trouble again. If it weren’t for my colleagues in the First Legion being out on missions, I wouldn’t have come here either.” The elite sighed, a bit shaken.

“So… you’re saying Cheng Yuxue is the big boss here?” Upon hearing that name, Ning Buwen felt a bit dizzy.

“If it weren’t him, I wouldn’t have come.” The man looked at Ning Buwen with confusion. “Cheng Yuxue lives at 111 Changjiang Road; only a few people in the top three Legions know this. His every move is closely monitored by us. If he goes crazy, we won’t be able to handle it.”

Ning Buwen suddenly felt his legs go weak and had to lean against the wall to avoid losing his composure.

“You really don’t know it’s him, do you?” Seeing Ning Buwen’s reaction, the man quickly understood. “That makes sense; his appearance has never been made public. It’s normal that you wouldn’t think of him right away.”

Among all the Pandora players, there exists a globally recognized ranking list, featuring only the top 1,000 players. These players are almost all affiliated with the world’s top Legions and represent humanity’s most crucial hopes for reclaiming Earth. People have the opportunity to maintain their current way of life largely due to the efforts of these players.

But there are always some people who drift outside the major Legions.

Among them is one particularly special individual, known as the most insane player.

When he first appeared on the leaderboard, he ranked 201st. It’s said that he didn’t like this ranking, so he used an SS-Grade item to trap a hundred players ahead of him in the same game instance.

The difficulty of that instance was unprecedentedly high. The remaining players were still struggling to clear it while Cheng Yuxue, stepping over those hundred players, directly shot up to eighth place globally.

His rapid rise in rank still stands as a world record to this day.

No, it can’t be…

Why should such a deranged person be allowed to wreak havoc on innocent citizen like him?

He was just trying to play a newbie instance!

So Ning Buwen never considered connecting Cheng Meiren to Cheng Yuxue.

The odds of that happening were as unrealistic as finding a lottery ticket on the street and winning ten billion.

“He was originally named Cheng Yuxue ¹ , but he felt that name didn’t suit his temperament, so he changed it to Cheng Yuxue ². In short, this lunatic is a ticking time bomb. He was already a classic case studied by the medical community before the apocalypse; he is a thorough patient, so it’s best not to provoke him.” The man patted Ning Buwen’s shoulder, understanding him very well. “It’s fine; once you water the plants, you can leave. Don’t worry; he’s not interested in ordinary people.”

Ning Buwen felt like crying even more.

“So… what happened to those who once liked him?”

The man’s face turned pale with horror, and his finger trembled as he pointed at Ning Buwen. “You… you confessed your feelings in front of him?”

Ning Buwen really didn’t want to nod but found a way to justify himself. “Actually, I didn’t say it; he just figured it out.”

“Brave one, want to join the Second Legion?” The man looked at Ning Buwen with admiration. “The title holders of ‘First Legion’ have already changed over three times, but we, the Second Legion, have always been the second eldest child. Our motto is to enjoy the same benefits as the First Legion and shift all responsibilities onto them; our perks are definitely top-notch among the Legions.”

The man thought for a moment and added, “You’re one of the few unlucky people left in the world. Our Legion Commander loves to collect strange individuals, so you’d definitely fit in.”

Hearing this, Ning Buwen had absolutely no desire to join.

“Once you’re in, if Cheng Yuxue ever takes an interest in you again, we can at least help you out and collect your body, at the very least.”

“Okay, do I need to fill out a form?”

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Translator Notes

1. 欲(yu) – longing/desire 雪(xue) – snow[↩]
2. 浴血 – Blood-soaked[↩]