Martial Arts Master

To Li Xiaoyuan’s aspirations, Lou Cheng indubitably offered his encouragement and blessings.

The arrival of his old acquaintance and the surreal fact that they were still in the same profession made him reminisce on the past. He remembered his excitement when he first went in the arena and realized that his dreams were no longer dreams.

That put him in an excellent mood. He was giddy, a feeling he used to have before he quit drinking. After seeing Li Xiaoyuan off at the mansion he was assigned to by the Longhu Club, Lou Cheng took a stroll to the bridge over the river. Gazing into the distance from above, he took a picture of the beautiful, scintillating city that never slept and sent it to Yan Zheke.

The next day, in the van on his way to Longhu Club, Lou Cheng sat upright with his eyes half closed in meditation.

Auman, flipping through her notebook, stole a peek at him. Softly, she said,

“Mr. Lou, you have a meeting at 9:10 AM. The guests will await you in the conference room on the fifth floor.”

“What sort of guests are we expecting?” asked Lou Cheng evenly without opening his eyes.

Auman was prepared for that question. Smiling, she said,

“They’re from a game company.”

Lou Cheng uttered a single syllable to express his perplexion.

“Hm?”

Why would a game company look for me?

Is it a shareholder meeting between the boards of directors?

“It’s like this,” explained Auman with a smile. “The External Affairs Team has been handling all your endorsements and personality rights, and recently, they signed two game contracts in your name. The first is a console fighting game called Mighty Martial Artist. It allows the average joe to fight for the top-tiered titles using avatars of different Mighty Ones. The publisher has spent hefty sums to acquire the authorization of the majority of Physical Invulnerability experts.”

“So they need me for their model molding and action design?” Lou Cheng, familiar with this genre of game, had a hunch. He had played similar games in the past, including the Street Fighter franchise that was once hugely popular.

“Most likely,” said Auman. “The other game is called League of Mighty Ones, a mobile-based MOBA game, if I’m not wrong”

Lou Cheng nodded slightly.

“Then help me inform them not to take up too much of my time.”

This sort of request was, of course, abover her pay-grade.

“Sure,” replied Auman calmly.

…

After morning practice and breakfast, Lou Cheng changed into a clean set of clothes and headed for the conference room. Arriving promptly, he saw the game company representatives sitting at both ends.

A man with frameless spectacles stood to greet him.

“Good morning, Mr. Lou. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule.”

“Of course,” said Lou Cheng humbly. Smiling, he asked, “What do you need from me?”

“We have already made your in-game model and recreated the effects of your skills by referencing your recent Physical Invulnerability battles. However, given that you have yet to attend many matches, we are afraid that we might miss out on something. Therefore, we must trouble you to assist us with some simple data collection. Rest assured, we won’t go too deep into the details.”

The man wearing frameless glasses smiled. “Also, we need more data on your 3D model and the design of your victory emote.”

“Sure,” said Lou Cheng after a slight hesitation.

After all the issues were settled. His unique victory emote was set to a long roar at the sky with galaxies shooting out of him.

When the company representatives had accomplished their mission, they made sure not to overstay their welcome and promptly excused themselves.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Lou. This is a copy of our game in its internal testing phase. Um, you can treat it as a demo version. Please feel free to give it a go and send us your opinions, especially in the areas that concern your avatar, so that we can adjust it in time,” the man wearing half-framed glasses bowed to present the disk, on which “Mighty Martial Artist” was written.

From their conversation earlier, he sensed that Lou Cheng was a gamer as well.

“We’ll make sure to send a demo version soon,” said a production staff from the League of Mighty Ones anxiously.

“Sure.” Taking the items, Lou Cheng saw them off.

When the door was shut and the conference room was empty again, he remained silent for a while. Then, with great interest, he walked to the projector and slotted the disk into the console.

Heh, I wonder if my avatar has strong stats…Lou Cheng sat down with his legs crossed. The screen brightened and the logo popped up.

He went into the selection interface, where he saw portraits of more than a hundred Physical Invulnerability Mighty Ones.

Without a doubt, he selected his own avatar.

“My face looks a little stiff…” He made a face.

Scanning across the screen, he pressed the “random” button. After a round of flickering, the selector stopped on the Dragon King character.

“What a coincidence…hmm…the Dragon King must be one of the stronger characters, so it’s a great opportunity to find out where I stand…” Delighted, Lou Cheng began battling.

“What the…he’s so strong!”

“Even my control abilities lose to him…”

“This game doesn’t do justice to my unique fusion of martial arts and cultivation…”

“This won’t do! I’ll have to get serious.”

…

After seven or eight rounds, he raised his arms, brandishing them in excitement. On the screen, the battered and bruised Dragon King slowly fell as the on-screen Lou Cheng put a finger to his lips.

The door suddenly opened and in came Chen Qitao clad in navy-blue. From ten meters away, his eyes stopped on the projector screen.

Um…Lou Cheng froze.

I didn’t realize someone was coming.

As expected of the Dragon King, Chen Qitao glanced at the screen, then looked towards Lou Cheng slowly. His face was impassive, but there was a pause in his gait.

“Would you believe it if I told you it was randomized…?” muttered Lou Cheng blankly, mouth twitching.

…

On the flight from Brutale to Huacheng, Yan Zheke reclined in a seat in the first-class cabin. She was about to cover herself in a blanket and hit the sack.

By the time I wake up, she thought, the flight should be close to its destination.

According to her initial plan, she was first going to make a trip back to Xiushan and spend some time with her family. However, on the day when she ordered her ticket, as if possessed, she chose Huacheng instead.

His longing must have had put a curse on me! Mhm, it must have been that, she thought as she emptied her mind and fell asleep.

After sleeping for an hour or two, she woke up. Flipping her wrist, she consulted her watch. This cycle repeated a couple of times.

Eventually, she adjusted her reclined seat to a sitting position, took out a book, and browsed perfunctorily. The frequency of her checking her watch increased.

After a while, she took out some notes from her backpack and solved questions to kill time. Unable to focus, she got stuck at one of the questions.

Huff…Breathing out, she looked out of the window at the light on the plane’s wing blinking amidst the dark clouds. It was a serene sight.

…

In his silver-gray van zooming along the road, Lou Cheng looked exhausted. There was a bandaid on the corner of his mouth.

Even in a spar, the Dragon King’s serious and brutal. Don’t tell me he’s nursing a grudge over the video game? Lou Cheng felt like covering his face and sighing.

Glancing out of the window, he suddenly remembered something. Sitting up laboriously, he said,

“Get Old Zhao to drive to the nearest supermarket. The one with imported goods.”

His mom and dad used to shop there when they were in Huacheng.

“Uh…” A little taken aback, Auman said, “What do you need, Mr. Lou? You don’t have to go there yourself. I can get the groceries for you.”

“It’s fine. I feel like moving around a little after being cooped up for so long,” smiled Lou Cheng.

After running into some traffic jams, the van arrived at its destination. Putting on a pair of black-framed glasses and a knitted hat, he casually walked to the entrance of the supermarket. Auman watched him with disbelieving eyes.

When he was inside the supermarket, he found a cart. He ambled through the raw food section, just like when he was in Connecticut, throwing packaged meat into his cart whenever he saw good ones.

At the same time, he was thinking of the dishes he would make and which ingredients and condiments he lacked.

After leisurely making one round through the supermarket, he pushed the fully laden cart to a check-out lane. There were a number of elderly people before him who sometimes walked off to pick up more goods, and other times made the tough decision to part with some.

Lou Cheng paid through his phone after a long, patient wait, and trotted out of the supermarket holding three large bags of food. He didn’t look much different from the milling passersby, apart from his effortless mannerisms.

Auman watched while waiting in the car. For a moment, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

This was a side of Lou Cheng previously unknown to her.

How unexpected…