Chapter 311 - 201: Why Is the Nether Dragon Venerable a God? (Happy New Year)

Truly reprehensible!

On the Top Ten List of Game Jerks, Wang Wei ranks second, showing how much other players hate him.

What? Who’s first?

Of course, the first place goes to Ba! He’s the one who made this game, and the NPC rebellion is his doing behind the scenes. Who else could be first?

...

Chen Ba is unaware that he’s been listed as the number one "Game Jerk."

It’s not that he’s pretending to be deaf and dumb; he’s genuinely been too busy these past two days to check popular posts in the community, so naturally, he hasn’t heard about it.

While "Global Evolution" was erupting into a human-NPC war, players and NPCs clashing fiercely on both sides, he was at the airport picking up his father.

According to the agreement he had with Old Chen, they wouldn’t be returning to their hometown for the New Year this year. Instead, Old Chen would fly to Jiangning to spend it with him.

There are two reasons for not going back.

First, work is too busy. Both "Global Evolution" and "I Am a Big Influencer" are critical, and he can’t just leave them unattended.

Second, he doesn’t want to face those relatives, to avoid being the sucker who spends money and effort without even getting a good reputation.

As for his relatives and those people in the village, Chen Ba really doesn’t know what to say.

At the beginning of the year, a big flood hit the village, washing away a stone bridge. The villagers called Chen Ba for sponsorship to rebuild the bridge, and Chen Ba gritted his teeth and agreed.

A couple of days later, the village organized some event that sounded uninteresting, but they insisted on having Chen Ba sponsor it, and he did.

Then a relative’s child was getting married, and they were short on dowry, so they borrowed money from Old Chen. Chen Ba lent them fifty thousand yuan...

Back and forth, Chen Ba got fed up.

He certainly wasn’t short of money, but money doesn’t grow on trees for anyone. Why should he always be the one paying?

With Old Mr. Chen staying in the hometown, people always thought they could get to Chen Ba through Old Chen. The more this happened, the less Chen Ba wanted to go home.

Honestly, the only attachment he has to his hometown now is Old Chen.

If Old Chen were willing to move to Jiangning to live with him, who would care about the relatives and neighbors back home?

"Alright, Dad, don’t take it to heart. I didn’t mean to blame you..."

Seeing Old Chen looking glum as soon as he got off the plane, as if he had some unspeakable suffering, Chen Ba comforted him, "I can understand you’re used to living back home and you don’t want to leave."

"But it’s better to have less contact with those people. They envy you when you have money and laugh at you when you don’t, so don’t be their cash machine."

"After the New Year, I’ll go back to handle the house and land, and then I’ll live with you!"

Old Chen also figured it out; the village is unbearable. If he continues living there, his son will be bled dry by people, which is something he doesn’t want to see.

Moving to Jiangning is quite good.

His son makes money and bought a large flat, and there’s no worry about food and drink. Plus, he can help him solve some life issues nearby. As for the hometown... just return during holidays to sweep the graves and worship ancestors.

"You’ve figured it out?"

Chen Ba was greatly surprised. He didn’t expect his usually stubborn dad to finally come around and be willing to move in with him.

Great, great!

Tomorrow I’ll go look at houses, and hire a nanny for Dad, so he won’t have to worry about the small plot of land back home all the time.

Chen Ba has a house in Jiangning.

But that was bought two years ago, and it’s not very large, just conveniently close to the studio, good enough to live in.

Since his father is moving to Jiangning, he has to carefully select a new house. After all, he doesn’t need to be picky about where he lives, but he can’t be casual when it comes to honoring his father.

Driving away from the airport.

On the way back, Old Chen looked out the window and suddenly asked Chen Ba, "By the way, when are you going to buff Nether Dragon Venerable?"

What’s up with that?

While driving, Chen Ba was momentarily stunned when he heard this term, then realized: "Dad, you play ’Star Emperor’ too?"

"Can’t I play?"

Old Chen was speechless: "The computer was installed by you during the New Year, and the game was also taught to me by you. Have you forgotten so quickly?"

Indeed!

Chen Ba remembered that the computer at home was indeed installed by him when he went back for New Year, and he taught Old Chen to play a few games, although Old Chen played terribly.

He didn’t expect Old Chen to still be playing...

He thought that as a middle-aged man, he’d be uninterested in games. It seems he underestimated Old Chen’s addiction level?

"I’ve even reached Immortal Emperor!"

Old Chen expressed strong discontent. How could he be called terrible? He’s already reached Immortal Emperor; is that still called terrible?

Even though his Immortal Emperor status is likely due to the top-tier graphics card his son installed, which contributes more than his own skills, a hardware Immortal Emperor is still an Immortal Emperor!

"I only know how to play Nether Dragon Venerable. And it’s been so long without you buffing him, causing my win rate to drop like crazy. You’re such an ungrateful son!"

Chen Ba: "..."

So, in your eyes, being filial means buffing your favorite character? And not buffing is ungratefulness?

Then what’s a nerf?

Chen Ba looked dismayed, deciding to tell the operations department immediately to buff Nether Dragon Venerable to T1 level.

Don’t ask why...

This has reached the level of "ungratefulness," how can we not buff it? Nerf anyone but Nether Dragon Venerable, remember that!

Well let’s see!

With "Star Emperor" maintaining its fair competition for so many years, it’s now completely ruined. All because Ba said: My dad only plays Nether Dragon Venerable; you do the math!

"Alright, alright, I’ll buff him when I get back! But he can’t be too strong; we still have to maintain the appearance of fair competition..."

"Then give me some Source Stones!"

Old Chen negotiated: "Your game is fun, but the skins are too expensive. One skin costs enough to buy a pack of cigarettes."

Alright, we can give that out!

Chen Ba thought Old Chen would ask for something excessive, but he just needed Source Stones to buy skins. This caught him off guard.

"Dad, do you play any other games?"

"Yes! I also play whatever ’Marble Storm’, earn some ad money to buy skins. And that new one you released, ’Evolution’, I also play..."

"But I must say, the best one is ’Love Advisor Department’! The game is well-made, and I’ve made many new friends!"

Sudden brakes.

Chen Ba turned his head to look at Old Chen, astonished: "You aren’t telling me you’ve found a stepmother for me in the game at your age, are you?"

Oh no!

If he’d known Old Chen played games too, he should have made provisions in ’Love Advisor Department’ to prevent Old Chen from playing.

Now look!

He made a dating game, helping countless singles solve marital issues, even finding a wife for Old Chen...

Now here’s the problem!

Why is it that he got nothing, still being single himself?

Chen Ba felt dejected.

When he learned that even Old Chen, a middle-aged greasy divorced man, could find someone in ’Love Advisor Department’ and he couldn’t, he fell into this state of disarray.

"Ba, please buck up!"

Lu tried to comfort him with suppressed grief: "Although you didn’t find a girlfriend, you did find a stepmother, which isn’t nothing..."

"What stepmother, that’s an old wife!"

Chen Ba rolled his eyes: "I can’t believe even people my dad’s age are playing ’Love Advisor Department’?"

"It’s normal!"

Out of nowhere, Zhong Shengwei appeared, holding a cup of coffee and smiling: "According to statistics, besides 20-30-year-old single men and women, middle-aged divorced or widowed individuals are also main player demographics."

"Oh, by the way! There are quite a few cases of people over 55 finding partners through this game..."

"Are there cases of people below the legal marriage age?" Chen Ba frowned and asked.

"Uh, yes."

At this point, Zhong Shengwei’s expression turned serious.

Although Tianba Studio protects minors strictly, there are still quite a few minors active in various games.

There’s nothing to be done, such as minors using their parents’ computers or phones to play games, where real-name information doesn’t match. This situation is impossible to fully prevent.

So, in ’Love Advisor Department’, there indeed exists a number of underage "early love" couples...

Still, examples where both parties are minors are quite rare; more often it’s one party just turning 18, while the other is in their twenties, like sister-brother or brother-sister relationships!