Chapter 439: Chapter 424 – Let me introduce, this is my wife (4000 words! Request for monthly passes!!)

The next quarterfinals match was between Juan Canyun and a high-scoring casual player called “Brocade Hidden Blade.” Juan Canyun won with a dominating advantage, having half his health left.

But after winning this match, Juan Canyun found himself caught in a vexing public opinion vortex: the entire net was denouncing the Lady of Calamity.

There was actually nothing wrong with the Lady of Calamity fighting Fureya, but the video playback made it look like a massacre of Fureya.

This provoked the players who had crowdfunded ladder points for Fureya into a state of revolt–there’s no saint who doesn’t like Fureya, and if there is… they surely haven’t reached max level!

The collective revolt of the saint players also stirred up the pace on Weibo and various player communities. Aside from denouncing the Lady of Calamity, they also planned to gather a mob and cause trouble in the Pirate City, home of the plane pirates.

The players’ rage was burning fiercely, and the huge momentum left Jiang Qiao stunned. Originally, Jiang Qiao had blocked the exchange between Fureya and the Lady of Calamity to avoid some… issues related to the real world.

But now it seemed that this blockage had backfired. After a year of game operations, Jiang Qiao, as a game designer, finally had a point that players could latch onto and curse about.

However, Jiang Qiao apologized quickly and clarified even faster. After confirming there was nothing inappropriate in the exchange between the Lady of Calamity and Fureya, she immediately released the video of their conversation in its entirety.

Along with the release, she included screenshots of the conversation. After this series of dialogues and videos were released, the forum veterans of the saint forums were reasonable people.

They all realized that Fureya wasn’t being slaughtered by the Lady of Calamity but rather had her hopes carried on. The Lady of Calamity was almost shouting with Fureya’s relic in hand, “Fureya!”

Therefore, after clearing up the situation, the forum veterans started posting, calling on those unaware players to stop the mob action against the pirate faction.

But public opinion inevitably spread further. While there were forum veterans defending the Lady of Calamity, some naive players and cloud players thought the Lady of Calamity’s actions were too brutal and continued to vilify her relentlessly.

This was the situation in the forums, but it was even worse on Weibo, where the majority were cloud players.

Once the narrative was set that the Lady of Calamity had slaughtered Fureya, it was like a queen shouting in front of countless tribes, “The tribes are all garbage!” plunging the Lady of Calamity into an abyss of negative public opinion.

But so far, all this was still the affair of the saint players, even if cloud players who followed and liked the saint players were added to the mix — they were discussing and arguing about the content.

Yet what fueled the flames of public opinion even more… was Juan Canyun joining the Weibo battleground!

He didn’t just join the Weibo battleground; he went into battle as the leading vanguard general!

After all, Juan Canyun was just a nineteen-year-old kid. He could control his emotions and understood that the Lady of Calamity was actually carrying on Fureya’s hope.

But the barrage on Weibo denouncing the Lady of Calamity made it unbearable for Juan Canyun, and he didn’t know why he couldn’t stand it.

It was just a game NPC being slandered, right? It’s normal for players to badmouth NPCs.

But the more Juan Canyun thought about it, the more suffocated he felt inside. This feeling was like when the Lady of Calamity was once surrounded by players… the same sense of oppression and depression.

The worst part was that those who were smearing the Lady of Calamity collectively swarmed into Juan Canyun’s Weibo, incessantly asking things like “Can Juan Canyun, the great god, score a perfect kill in the next match?”

“Online recommendation of a hundred ways to die for a lance!”

Because Juan Canyun’s next opponent was none other than the Lady of Calamity, those in the know were hoping Juan Canyun could avenge them.

All of this made Juan Canyun somewhat lose control, and eventually, he made a big mistake–he reposted one of the most popular articles denouncing the Lady of Calamity on Weibo.

The article wasn’t from the saint players, but from a marketing account… After a lot of conjecture, this marketing account wrote an article that completely intensified the conflict.

“Holy Spirit: In-game Pirate NPCs Slaughtering Players’ Wives? Hundreds of Thousands of Holy Spirit Players Draw Swords on the Path of Revenge.”

After sharing this article, Juan Canyun added, “Can the haters give it a rest? What has the lady done wrong?”

This share… Juan Canyun had truly brewed a disaster! It spread the discussion among Holy Spirit players throughout the entire Chinese e-sports community.

Originally, this game marketing account didn’t have much popularity, with only about a million followers, and whether those followers were genuine was questionable.

But who is Juan Canyun? The most dazzling player in the Chinese Dissension professional scene this year! Juan Canyun, who had just won the honor of Dissension World Champion, saw his Weibo followers skyrocket from the initial three million to fifteen million!

This follower count could rival some national celebrities! Even Zhao Mingwei, once the number one player in Dissension, had only seven million followers.

At the peak of his career, Juan Canyun’s fame meant that with this one share, the entire Chinese e-sports circle, and even some fans who didn’t play games, now knew about this matter.

The most lethal aspect was Juan Canyun’s female fans who swarmed his Weibo, pressing him with questions…

“Who is ‘the lady’?”

“Does that little bitch deserve to be called ‘the lady’ by our Mingwei?”

“No wrong in slaughtering Fureya, the world champion is so badass.”

Chaos… Juan Canyun, looking at his phone, watched as the number of replies under his shared post shot up from one thousand to two thousand, and after a refresh, it instantly surpassed ten thousand. He was dumbfounded.

On the field, he always maintained his composure, but faced with the overwhelming tide of netizens and public opinion, Juan Canyun started to feel a headache.

A large portion of Juan Canyun’s followers were female, and the situation in the Dissension professional circle was becoming more like the celebrity circle, to the extent that some players didn’t dare start relationships to ensure their female fan base’s popularity.

For a professional player like Juan Canyun, with a significant proportion of female fans, choosing this path was probably the only way to maintain his commercial value.

But Juan Canyun made a mistake… a huge mistake! The surging fans began to inquire about who the Disaster Lady was, and what had happened to Fureya?

Initially, the fans took a sigh of relief after hearing that Disaster Lady was just a character in the game, which couldn’t steal their idol, Mingwei, from them.

But, unfortunately, a well-known marketing account posted an article titled “Players Speak Up for In-Game NPC Characters! The Relationship Between This Player and the NPC Might Not Be as Simple as You Think.”

This article analyzed the relationship between Juan Canyun and the Disaster Lady in the game, revealing all the deeds Juan Canyun did to save Disaster Lady, and it also included some video clips.

The article itself went viral instantly with the support of Juan Canyun’s popularity, and fans flooded in to read, not needing to have played Holy Spirit to understand.

This wasn’t Juan Canyun treating Disaster Lady as an in-game NPC; he was treating her like his beloved!

In just a few short hours, the question “What exactly is the relationship between Mingwei and Disaster Lady?” arose.

Juan Canyun’s fans were rational, but only to the extent that they believed Disaster Lady was just an NPC in the game and had nothing to do with a real-life romantic partner. However, another large portion of fans didn’t think the same, and a small fraction of fans were worried that Holy Spirit might affect Juan Canyun’s competitive state.

Without realizing it, Juan Canyun was pushed into the eye of the public discourse storm as he sat on the couch watching the ever-increasing comments and waves of discussion.

Juan Canyun, somewhat frightened, wanted to delete the article he had shared, but… the moment he was about to delete it, his arm was held down by Black Pot Boiled Meat sitting next to him.

“Delete what? We rely on skills to make a living, not on fans,” Black Pot Boiled Meat said to Juan Canyun.

“But won’t this damage the club’s reputation?” Juan Canyun was genuinely scared now, as there were already people on Weibo questioning whether Jumping Nuclear’s management had issues.

“If Weibo can bring down our club, President Yin might as well resign and go sell pork floss buns.” Hei Guo Zhu Rou plopped back down on the sofa and said, “If it were me, I would’ve already fought with these trolls for three hundred rounds on Weibo!”

“Xiao Wen, don’t learn from him.” Mo Shigui also knew about the Weibo incident, and he agreed with Hei Guo Zhu Rou’s approach in the first half but forbade the latter part.

“I… won’t, but it still feels kinda bad.”

Juan Canyun couldn’t stop scrolling through the comments on Weibo, and still, a large number of them were hurling abuse at the Lady of Calamity.

All these people were bashing the Lady of Calamity, but for some reason, Juan Canyun felt choked up.

“Feeling bad? Xiao Wen, don’t tell me you’ve actually fallen for that female pirate? I know players like her for her great figure, but she’s just a game character. If you really want to date, I could introduce you to a few.” Hei Guo Zhu Rou said on the side, like a seasoned pro.

“I… haven’t! It’s just that I care about these things a lot.”

Juan Canyun didn’t know how to reply in that moment. He could only keep refreshing his phone’s Weibo, then look at other smartphone apps.

Now, Juan Canyun’s mind was a mess. Did he like the Lady of Calamity? Juan Canyun didn’t know… Maybe he just felt some kind of fondness for this valiant female pirate.

But she was a character in a game! Even if he did like a character in a game, what was the use?

Cant get married, can’t bring her home to meet the parents, could he really play ‘Spirit’ game for a lifetime? As the game updates, the Lady of Calamity character would probably be phased out, wouldn’t she?

In his subconscious, Juan Canyun still treated the Lady of Calamity like an item, a non-player character defined as an item, just as Fureya was like a doll.

No matter how he dated, he could never truly see the Lady of Calamity as his girlfriend.

As Juan Canyun was thinking this… he logged into the Spirit*Cloud Gamer APP and suddenly discovered a new feature, something he had never seen before.

NPC Message Box.

Juan Canyun opened the message box and found a stack of unread emails, all signed by the Lady of Calamity!

At that moment, Juan Canyun was stunned. The earliest letter was from twenty days ago, on his first departure from Hua Country to compete abroad. Since that day, he hadn’t logged into ‘Spirit’ for twenty consecutive days.

Juan Canyun’s hands trembled as he opened the earliest unread email, and then he proceeded to read through the messages from the Lady of Calamity one by one.

6/10/6:11–I caught a big fish, kid. Where did you run off to?

6/10/8:21–I don’t like playing hide and seek, and I don’t want to ask about the doll in your room! When you see the message, come out immediately!

6/11/12:21–Alright! You win, I’ve asked your friends, you’re prepping for some kind of competition? What competition is more important than raiding a relic’s treasure? Nevermind, where’s the competition venue? Maybe I can come to watch. I know you can see the message, reply quickly…

6/13/5:00–I’ve never heard of Eagle Country in the world of Biland Island, but as the greatest pirate on the star map, finding a way to this country should be easy.

6/15/12:12–Your friend keeps saying I am just a virtual character, nonexistent in reality. I understand what they’re saying, the most straightforward explanation is that in their eyes, I am nothing but an item, an interactive doll, and a doll has no right to interfere with its owner’s life. I can’t stand these absurdities, but kid… I want to know what you think! Reply soon!

6/16/6:42–Maybe in your eyes, I really am just an item? A doll? An NPC? There are some things I can’t say on here, but it’s really not the case. Look at me… I’m right here, why can’t you feel it? Just because I can’t go to your so-called reality?

Look at me, I’m right here…

Juan Canyun’s hands were trembling so much while reading this line that he could barely hold onto his phone. What’s the difference between virtual and reality?

He could touch the Lady of Calamity in the Spirit Realm, and he could also feel her body temperature.

Was this any different from reality, merely despising her for being an NPC? Was she just a bundle of data?

But how could the person who wrote those words possibly be just a bundle of data! The Lady of Calamity had her own thoughts and feelings.

It was just that Juan Canyun couldn’t feel it.

Juan Canyun forced his hand to calm down, took a deep breath, exited the “Spirit Realm: Cloud Player” program, and then opened Weibo. He searched through his phone gallery for the screenshot he took when the Lady of Calamity changed into the clothes he gave her.

Afterward, Juan Canyun composed a Weibo post, attached the photo, and sent it out.

‘Let me introduce, this is the person I like!’

This Weibo post was like a nuclear bomb, causing an epic explosion amid the already tumultuous waves of public opinion; everyone was stunned.

But Juan Canyun’s fans thought he was joking, just like a character from an animation saying ‘Look, this is my wife,’ which the fans took as a joke.

Because… she was a virtual character.

‘Xiao Wen, don’t be so angry, we’ll help you clap back at whoever’s making fun of you!’

‘Juan Canyun, are you serious? I also say the Lady of Calamity is my wife.’

Looking at this comment, Juan Canyun seriously replied, ‘No, I may truly have fallen for her. I’ve seriously considered pursuing her, it’s not a joke.’

The player who was replied to just typed a string of question marks and then answered, ‘Juan Canyun, are you joking, or has your brain broken?’

‘Xiao Wen, don’t give up on yourself! There are many beautiful girls in reality who like you!’

Looking at this comment, Juan Canyun responded, ‘I haven’t given up on myself, I am serious!’

‘That’s it! Xiao Wen has finally gone mad playing Spirit Realm, taking a game character as his wife!’

‘I’m not crazy!’

Juan Canyun kept replying to a string of skeptical comments below, but in the end, no one believed Juan Canyun truly viewed the Lady of Calamity as a partner he wanted to pursue.

Everyone thought Juan Canyun was joking, making fun of the previous rhythm, even though Juan Canyun replied to every skeptical comment saying he was serious.

But still, no one believed him.

“Xiao Wen! I know it’s normal for someone of your age to have a bit of a chuunibyo! If you really want to fall in love, just tell me!” Hei Guo Zhu Rou, who also learned about this, rushed over to say to Juan Canyun, “I can introduce you to a couple of pretty girls! Your choice!”

“I am serious, senior,” Juan Canyun said.

“It’s all over! Completely over!” Hei Guo Zhu Rou, looking at Juan Canyun’s expressionless face, felt as if he were looking at a lunatic. “Coach! Come quick! Xiao Wen has reached that age!”

But Mo Shigui, after scrolling through Juan Canyun’s Weibo, exchanged looks with Juan Canyun, who finally shrank back a little in fear, and whispered very quietly, “Coach, I’m serious.”

Faced with all this, Mo Shigui could only sigh softly and walk away without saying a word.