The King's Avatar 《全职高手》- Episode 9: Public Enemy
The King's Avatar 《全职高手》- Episode 9: Public Enemy
Ye Xiu's finally done it. He's pissed everyone off good. Luckily he got himself a new buddy and just in time too! We also meet a whole bunch of new Blue Brook/Blue Rain people XD.
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| Starry Eyed |
Zhou Zekai's add is very successful, everyone is talking about it, he's happy, the diabetes ice creams are selling well and the days pass peacefully.
Another day training session with Tiny Herb. This time Wang Jiexi ends the training early after seeing Ye Xiu's condition slip - he only wants the best training for his team. Ye Xiu calls him "willy as a bandit" for being so astute. Sitting next to him, Tang Rou knows it's just Ye Xiu not having any interest in easy opponents - they're probably three-legged cat to him.
Having setup camp at the internet cafe, Bao Rongxing joins the two and asks Ye Xiu about what Boss they'll be stealing today =D. Just as Ye Xiu was going to make arrangements he receives a message from Seven Fields tentatively asking Lord Grim if he could help the Full Moon Guild with something...
~*~
Blue River is chatting in game with Bound Boat regarding Lord Grim's latest activities. Apparently the guy has agreed to help the Full Moon Guild set a dungeon record for the price of 4 pieces of the "Scarlet Moon" armor set -- basically a ridiculously low price when compared to what Lord Grim has been charging the other major guilds.
Game Meta: In GLORY armors comes in 6 pieces - helmet, shoulder pads, upper armor, waist, leg armor and boots. Ye Xiu is not even charging a full set of armor just parts of it. "Scarlet Moon" is a level 30, Blue tier armor set for Battle Mages (easy to get really).
The group chat for the server 10 guild leaders flashes and Blue River brings up the chat. Cold Night has also heard about Lord Grim's deal with Full Moon and is asking around for details. Several other guild leaders quickly join the chat but no one knows whats going on - Full Moon guild is such a small guild that no one has paid them any attention. Lonely Drink, the guild leader of guild Samsara tells the group that he had tried to outbid Full Moon by offering 5 full sets of the Scarlet Moon armor but Lord Grim still refused him.
Cold Night thinks there's a conspiracy - maybe Lord Grim is trying to drive up the price or something. Lonely Drink then suggests the group to hold back and see what happens next, everyone agrees. However another message pops up in the chat and it's Lonely Drink offering Lord Grim 8 Scarlet Moon sets. Lonely Drink quickly retracts it, but everyone saw anyway, lol. (JY: *shakes head*, saying one thing and doing another.)
To everyone's surprise Lord Grim really does help Full Moon set the record for Desolate Lands dungeon. Lonely Drink is beyond annoyed and suggest the guilds form and alliance to counter Lord Grim who has a strangle hold on the dungeon records.
The record announcement also causes a wave in game and the world chat goes nuts with Full Moon guild members fawning over their new record while people from other guilds shame them for hiring outside help. Full Moon people retort back pointing out that both Blue Brook and Tyrannical Ambition hired outside help too (namely Lord Grim). The whole argument quickly gets goes out of whack as people start cursing and shaming Blue Brook and Tyrannical Ambition and anyone who've hired mercenaries. Bound Boat suggests to Blue River that as things stand they need to set a record by their own efforts if they want to restore their guild's reputation. Blue River agrees, but with Lord Grim's skills he'll easily beat it. Helpless, Blue River decides to take a trip back to the Heaven's Domain server.
JY: The Heaven's Domain server is a cross server domain. It's basically a server for high/max level players. The head quarters of most large guilds is in this server. Large professional team backed guilds will often send people to newly opened servers and establish branch guilds in order to build up a presence, farm for material and gather new recruits. Keeping up a certain level of reputation through dungeon record setting is vital for maintaining popularity.
In Joyful Flourish internet cafe, to celebrate Steam Bun's arrival Lord Grim decides to buy some weapons for his friends, so the trio take a trip to Congee City, a trading town. Steam Bun is ecstatic and runs all over the place. In the markets Lord Grim runs into Bound Boat who's managing Blue Brook's guild store. Ah, good opportunity to sell some materials and get some hard cash. Bound Boat is not so ecstatic - is Lord Grim selling stuff he won from Blue Brook back to them?? (JY: hahaha no, it's stuff he won from Tiny Herb.)
JY: The Chinese characters for the city name if translated literally means "Empty Savings" (空积), an apt name for a trading town.
Blue River logs onto his main account Blue Bridge Spring Snow and arrives at Mount Brook City, Blue Brook Guild's head quarters in Heaven's Domain (JY: that's an impressive looking castle...).
Inside he meets up with Blue Brook's guild leader Changing Spring, and Poplar Beach a skilled member of the guild and reports back on the recent happenings in server 10 - specifically Lord Grim and his strangle hold on dungeon records. Poplar Beach doesn't believe Blue Bridge's assessment of Lord Grim's skill and disparages the Blue Bridge's 10th server team as 'inexperienced whelps'. (JY: This Poplar Beach is annoying and has a stupid hair cut to boot.) On the other hand Changing Spring studies the records intently and agrees that some of them are quite crazy. He tells Blue Bridge to prepare some 10th server accounts and he'll bring more skilled members from the Heavenly Domain to help server 10. Returning to server 10, Blue River contacts Bound Boat for the spare accounts only to be told that the poor guy is still haggling with Lord Grim, LOL. Ah but what's this? Some people spying on Lord Grim from across the streets? Did Lord Grim notice?
Having bought upgraded weapons for his friends, Lord Grim leads his little group to the Desolate Lands for some leveling. Suddenly Steam Bun's hackles raises, he senses murderous intent! Doubling back Steam Bun manganese to finds a person among the ruins. The two exchange blows, but this person is good and manages to knock Steam Bun back. From out of the dust and flashes of purple glowing magic a Ghostblade appears, it's One Inch Ash! He's come to the server 10 to practice with the new character.
One Inch Ash had been studying recordings of the best Ghostblade player in GLORY, Li Xuan with his character Sobbing Ghost from team Void which Ye Xiu had previously recommended, however he's still not quite getting some things. No worries Lord Grim assures him, it will all come with time. The Phantom Ghostblade class is most effective in team battles. Yifan is welcomed to come practice with them anytime :).
So the murderous intent Steamed Bun sensed was not from Yifan but then who could it be from? Was Steamed Bun wrong? Of course not, it's from another group from above. Realizing that they've been spotted the group attacks with a Battlemage at the lead. Bound Boat, Plantago Seed and Cold Night have are all briefly seenspying spectating from the sidelines. No one knows who this group of assailants are, although Ye Xiu finds the Battlemages's fighting style familiar.
There was nothing to be done about it, Lord Grim tells Steam Bun to charge straight in against 4 of the enemies. Just as the two sides are about to engage a large magical boundary field lights up below them infusing Steam Bun with magical energy and amazingly Steam Bun was able to knock back all of his opponents! It's a sword ring - the Sword Phantom Protection a Ghostblade skill, it provides a large buff to any ally within it's boundaries. (JY: Go Yifan!!!!!!)
Game Meta: Sword Phantom Protection provides int and str buff. At this level it practically doubles str and int - super effective.
However the ring soon disappears, but then, drawing a sword from the handle of his umbrella (JY: OOOH new transformation!!) Lord Grim casts a sword ring as well! Dual Linking Phantom Rings! Qiao Yifan immediately recognizes the tactic in use. Steam Bun is still fighting the enemy and Soft Mist cannot hold back any longer, she charges in as well! Lets team kill them! Steam Bun suggests and Lord Grim thinks it's a brilliant idea. Jumping into the fight Lord Grim reminds Soft Mist and Steam Bun to take note and work with the sword rings.
Game Meta: Sword Phantom Protection (SPP) lasts 20 seconds and has a 30 second cool down timer. When you have two characters who can cast SPP, they can cast one after the other to cover the 10 sec blank due to cool downs to provide a continuous buff to all allies. Hence it's named "Dual linking Phantom Rings". You can link other types of rings and skills of course and get different effects.
One Inch Ash and Lord Grim's sword rings flash one after the other and the team fights effortlessly within them annihilating the attacking group in one fell swoop. One Inch Ash was able to independently decide when and where to lay down the AoE buffs fully displaying his team work skills and ability to observe the tides of battle. JY: What a fight! I love it! Especially the dual linking and how everyone was in on the fight! Team Effort!
Finally the last enemy, that Battlemage is killed, but what's this another shadow flits out from the ruins right above Lord Grim. A sword flashes, Falling Light Blade! The skill lands, exploding the ground around Lord Grim. As the dust clears Steam Bun and Poplar Beach are caught in a dead lock. Poplar Beach proudly declares his identity and the two duel. Steam Bun is not his match but Lord Grim quickly takes over. On the sidelines another two people have shown up, it's Changing Spring and Blue River. Bound Boat makes his way over and asks why Poplar Beach is dueling Lord Grim, weren't they here to set the Desolate Land dungeon record? The record has been set already Blue River answers, Poplar Beach is just over confident (JY: and an idiot, I agree with Bound Boat XD).
Down below Poplar Beach is unsurprisingly no match for Lord Grim. Changing Spring steps in and stops the fight before it's gets more out of hand. The two chat for a bit and Lord Grim tells Changing Spring that he should have taken Blue River who's better at team work and pve on the record setting party instead of Poplar Beach who's good at pvp. Poplar Beach still frothing at the mouth publicly challenges Lord Grim to a duel on the world chat. Blue River and Bound Boat watches on in worry unable to do anything. If Poplar Beach looses the pvp match Blue Brook guild's reputation will be badly damaged. Bound Boat is even more pessimistic, Poplar Beach will definitely loose, didn't he see how Lord Grim's team wiped out the previous group of attackers? But really who were they??
JY: A joke lost in adaption. Even though the smurf accounts Changing Spring and Poplar Beach use on server 10 are not called their usual names, they still introduced themselves with the names of their main accounts leading Steam Bun to think they're illiterate.
In Excellent Era's office Chen Yehui, surrounded by a posse of his goons, glares at his computer. They've failed to kill Lord Grim. The group discuss among themselves what they should do. Was there any point in killing Lord Grim just once or twice? Could they even do it by themselves? However Excellent Dynasty has invested too much into server 10 to let 'Ye Qiu' ruin it all that. A quick flashback shows that Chen Yehui also has a personal grudge against 'Ye Qiu' who had previously denied Chen Yehui entry to Excellent Era's professional team. Scrolling through a friends list full of guild leaders of professional team backed guilds, a plan forms in Chen Yehui's mind.
The next morning Changing Spring's player Liang Yichun makes his way to Blue Rain's office looking to speak with Blue Rain's Captain Yu Wenzhou...
I really like Qiao Yifan's story arc here. His condition in his team is quite precarious but in this episode he's enjoying himself, laughing, building up his confidence and in a team that actually has team work. It must have been so long since he's just enjoying himself.
There's often a case when I watch this show and realized how badly I was playing MMOs before. While you won't be able to use any of the tactics shown in this show to any real life MMOs they can definitely inspire some thinking in this manner.
Novel Tracking: At the end of Chapter 178, we skipped a LOT in the donghua.
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| Blue River says "I'm hen", Mandarin homophone for Cantonese "I dunno" |
Cold Night thinks there's a conspiracy - maybe Lord Grim is trying to drive up the price or something. Lonely Drink then suggests the group to hold back and see what happens next, everyone agrees. However another message pops up in the chat and it's Lonely Drink offering Lord Grim 8 Scarlet Moon sets. Lonely Drink quickly retracts it, but everyone saw anyway, lol. (JY: *shakes head*, saying one thing and doing another.)
To everyone's surprise Lord Grim really does help Full Moon set the record for Desolate Lands dungeon. Lonely Drink is beyond annoyed and suggest the guilds form and alliance to counter Lord Grim who has a strangle hold on the dungeon records.
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| For ppl who couldn't read the captions fast enough XD |
The record announcement also causes a wave in game and the world chat goes nuts with Full Moon guild members fawning over their new record while people from other guilds shame them for hiring outside help. Full Moon people retort back pointing out that both Blue Brook and Tyrannical Ambition hired outside help too (namely Lord Grim). The whole argument quickly gets goes out of whack as people start cursing and shaming Blue Brook and Tyrannical Ambition and anyone who've hired mercenaries. Bound Boat suggests to Blue River that as things stand they need to set a record by their own efforts if they want to restore their guild's reputation. Blue River agrees, but with Lord Grim's skills he'll easily beat it. Helpless, Blue River decides to take a trip back to the Heaven's Domain server.
JY: The Heaven's Domain server is a cross server domain. It's basically a server for high/max level players. The head quarters of most large guilds is in this server. Large professional team backed guilds will often send people to newly opened servers and establish branch guilds in order to build up a presence, farm for material and gather new recruits. Keeping up a certain level of reputation through dungeon record setting is vital for maintaining popularity.
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| Scenery porn~ |
~*~
In Joyful Flourish internet cafe, to celebrate Steam Bun's arrival Lord Grim decides to buy some weapons for his friends, so the trio take a trip to Congee City, a trading town. Steam Bun is ecstatic and runs all over the place. In the markets Lord Grim runs into Bound Boat who's managing Blue Brook's guild store. Ah, good opportunity to sell some materials and get some hard cash. Bound Boat is not so ecstatic - is Lord Grim selling stuff he won from Blue Brook back to them?? (JY: hahaha no, it's stuff he won from Tiny Herb.)
JY: The Chinese characters for the city name if translated literally means "Empty Savings" (空积), an apt name for a trading town.
Blue River logs onto his main account Blue Bridge Spring Snow and arrives at Mount Brook City, Blue Brook Guild's head quarters in Heaven's Domain (JY: that's an impressive looking castle...).
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| Blue Brooks Headquarters in Heavenly Realm |
Inside he meets up with Blue Brook's guild leader Changing Spring, and Poplar Beach a skilled member of the guild and reports back on the recent happenings in server 10 - specifically Lord Grim and his strangle hold on dungeon records. Poplar Beach doesn't believe Blue Bridge's assessment of Lord Grim's skill and disparages the Blue Bridge's 10th server team as 'inexperienced whelps'. (JY: This Poplar Beach is annoying and has a stupid hair cut to boot.) On the other hand Changing Spring studies the records intently and agrees that some of them are quite crazy. He tells Blue Bridge to prepare some 10th server accounts and he'll bring more skilled members from the Heavenly Domain to help server 10. Returning to server 10, Blue River contacts Bound Boat for the spare accounts only to be told that the poor guy is still haggling with Lord Grim, LOL. Ah but what's this? Some people spying on Lord Grim from across the streets? Did Lord Grim notice?
~*~
Having bought upgraded weapons for his friends, Lord Grim leads his little group to the Desolate Lands for some leveling. Suddenly Steam Bun's hackles raises, he senses murderous intent! Doubling back Steam Bun manganese to finds a person among the ruins. The two exchange blows, but this person is good and manages to knock Steam Bun back. From out of the dust and flashes of purple glowing magic a Ghostblade appears, it's One Inch Ash! He's come to the server 10 to practice with the new character.
One Inch Ash had been studying recordings of the best Ghostblade player in GLORY, Li Xuan with his character Sobbing Ghost from team Void which Ye Xiu had previously recommended, however he's still not quite getting some things. No worries Lord Grim assures him, it will all come with time. The Phantom Ghostblade class is most effective in team battles. Yifan is welcomed to come practice with them anytime :).
So the murderous intent Steamed Bun sensed was not from Yifan but then who could it be from? Was Steamed Bun wrong? Of course not, it's from another group from above. Realizing that they've been spotted the group attacks with a Battlemage at the lead. Bound Boat, Plantago Seed and Cold Night have are all briefly seen
There was nothing to be done about it, Lord Grim tells Steam Bun to charge straight in against 4 of the enemies. Just as the two sides are about to engage a large magical boundary field lights up below them infusing Steam Bun with magical energy and amazingly Steam Bun was able to knock back all of his opponents! It's a sword ring - the Sword Phantom Protection a Ghostblade skill, it provides a large buff to any ally within it's boundaries. (JY: Go Yifan!!!!!!)
attributes or 'stats' - a piece of data that describes the extent
a character posses a natural, in-born characteristic which are
then used to calculate various other things in game E.g.
attribute strength (str) used to calculate attack power, weight
carried. Attribute intelligence (int) used to calculate,
attribute strength (str) used to calculate attack power, weight
carried. Attribute intelligence (int) used to calculate,
magic attack power etc.
AoE: Area of Effect
Game Meta: Sword Phantom Protection (SPP) lasts 20 seconds and has a 30 second cool down timer. When you have two characters who can cast SPP, they can cast one after the other to cover the 10 sec blank due to cool downs to provide a continuous buff to all allies. Hence it's named "Dual linking Phantom Rings". You can link other types of rings and skills of course and get different effects.
One Inch Ash and Lord Grim's sword rings flash one after the other and the team fights effortlessly within them annihilating the attacking group in one fell swoop. One Inch Ash was able to independently decide when and where to lay down the AoE buffs fully displaying his team work skills and ability to observe the tides of battle. JY: What a fight! I love it! Especially the dual linking and how everyone was in on the fight! Team Effort!
Finally the last enemy, that Battlemage is killed, but what's this another shadow flits out from the ruins right above Lord Grim. A sword flashes, Falling Light Blade! The skill lands, exploding the ground around Lord Grim. As the dust clears Steam Bun and Poplar Beach are caught in a dead lock. Poplar Beach proudly declares his identity and the two duel. Steam Bun is not his match but Lord Grim quickly takes over. On the sidelines another two people have shown up, it's Changing Spring and Blue River. Bound Boat makes his way over and asks why Poplar Beach is dueling Lord Grim, weren't they here to set the Desolate Land dungeon record? The record has been set already Blue River answers, Poplar Beach is just over confident (JY: and an idiot, I agree with Bound Boat XD).
Down below Poplar Beach is unsurprisingly no match for Lord Grim. Changing Spring steps in and stops the fight before it's gets more out of hand. The two chat for a bit and Lord Grim tells Changing Spring that he should have taken Blue River who's better at team work and pve on the record setting party instead of Poplar Beach who's good at pvp. Poplar Beach still frothing at the mouth publicly challenges Lord Grim to a duel on the world chat. Blue River and Bound Boat watches on in worry unable to do anything. If Poplar Beach looses the pvp match Blue Brook guild's reputation will be badly damaged. Bound Boat is even more pessimistic, Poplar Beach will definitely loose, didn't he see how Lord Grim's team wiped out the previous group of attackers? But really who were they??
JY: A joke lost in adaption. Even though the smurf accounts Changing Spring and Poplar Beach use on server 10 are not called their usual names, they still introduced themselves with the names of their main accounts leading Steam Bun to think they're illiterate.
~*~
In Excellent Era's office Chen Yehui, surrounded by a posse of his goons, glares at his computer. They've failed to kill Lord Grim. The group discuss among themselves what they should do. Was there any point in killing Lord Grim just once or twice? Could they even do it by themselves? However Excellent Dynasty has invested too much into server 10 to let 'Ye Qiu' ruin it all that. A quick flashback shows that Chen Yehui also has a personal grudge against 'Ye Qiu' who had previously denied Chen Yehui entry to Excellent Era's professional team. Scrolling through a friends list full of guild leaders of professional team backed guilds, a plan forms in Chen Yehui's mind.
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Arisaema - Herb Garden Guild leader
Wandering Peak - Tyrannical Ambition Guild leader, currently smurfing as "Crowd Lover"
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Later that night, Ye Xiu recruits Qiao Yifan into breaking the record Blue Brook set for Desolate Lands. Yifan was unsure of himself at first but after some encouragement from Ye Xiu, the team succeeds :). Yifan, no matter how 'bad', is still a professional player! Before retiring for the night, Ye Xiu asks to borrow Chen Guo's Chasing Haze account for a duel (JY: ah hahaha eat dirt Poplar Beach!)
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| WAaaaaah :D |
Conclusion
Firstly lol, poor Lord Grim. His reputation with the 10th server guild leaders is so bad now that people think he's up to no good even when he's not doing anything. But he seems to have a team now which is good.I really like Qiao Yifan's story arc here. His condition in his team is quite precarious but in this episode he's enjoying himself, laughing, building up his confidence and in a team that actually has team work. It must have been so long since he's just enjoying himself.
There's often a case when I watch this show and realized how badly I was playing MMOs before. While you won't be able to use any of the tactics shown in this show to any real life MMOs they can definitely inspire some thinking in this manner.
Novel Tracking: At the end of Chapter 178, we skipped a LOT in the donghua.