MMORPG: Martial Gamer

“I’m coming… What are you guys shouting for? How many times have I told you guys to keep that temper of yours in check…?”

At the moment, a voice resounded from outside the meeting room. A burly man bearing a potbelly came running into the room.

It seemed that this guy was the legendary Old Tong.

Old Tong was about forty to fifty years old. He was big-sized but was a few centimetres shorter than Wang Yu. With his belly, he was particularly eye-catching.

These days, players were die-hard fanatics and rarely left their homes. There were many players who were of similar size to Old Tong in real life but they definitely took efforts to conceal their imperfections. People like Old Tong who paid no attention to one’s image were rare.

Although Old Tong’s appearance was bordering on being comical, Wang Yu did not harbour a single thought of underestimating his opponent. He was instead even taken aback.

Wang Yu had been practicing martial arts for many years and he had a keen eye to judge others ability. With a look, he could see that Old Tong was extraordinary.

Old Tong’s voice was not particularly resonant but it was teeming with vitality. He was as steady as a mountain but his big belly felt a little out of place for an expert like him.

“What is happening? Looking for me?” Old Tong entered the room and glanced at Wang Yu before asking Long Chengfei.

Long Chengfei replied, “Old Tong, this little scoundrel said he is unrivalled, please go teach him a lesson.”

“He he!” Old Tong smiled deeply from the corner of his eyes and answered, “Aren’t the bunch of you pretty strong? How did you guys get beaten?”

“…” Long Chengfei had a tinge of embarrassment in his face and said, “He is way too strong. I am guessing that only you are a match for him.”

“Hmm!” Old Tong chuckled. “Since that is the case, then I will help you this time.”

“Thank you so much, Old Tong.” Long Chengfei then turned towards Wang Yu to introduce Old Tong. “This is our guild’s Old Tong, and he is really the true unrivalled one. At first, I wanted to let this matter come to a rest but since you are so arrogant, I shall let Old Tong teach you what a true expert is. You don’t have to worry, even if you lose here, we will stop pursuing the matter with Peak of Perfection.”

Wang Yu nodded and replied, “Thank you kind Uncles for your consideration!”

After that, Wang Yu walked up to Old Tong and asked, “Do you want the door to be closed?”

Martial arts scene had customary norms whereby doors were wide open when it was time to accept new disciples, as opposed to doors being closed where there were sparring sessions going on.

Old Tong waved his hand and said, “This is no need for that. It is in fact that we have closed our doors that society has forgotten about us.”

Although Old Tong replies seemed to be unrelated to the fight, it was obvious he recognised that both Wang Yu and himself came from a shared martial arts background.

“Old Bull! Please advise!” Wang Yu shouted as he cupped his fist.

“Sea of Knowledge!” Old Tong also cupped his fist in acknowledgement of his opponent.

The two of them were about to start their battle when Old Tong suddenly raised his right hand. He muttered under his breath, “Eh, what is this thing?”

“???” Seeing Old Tong disposition, Wang Yu was also confused himself.

“Do you happen to recognise what this thing is?” Old Tong raised his hand and asked Wang Yu.

“I can’t see it clearly…” Wang Yu could not seem to recognise what was in Old Tong’s hands.

“Come and take look.” Old Tong beckoned Wang Yu over.

Wang Yu was curious and stepped towards Wang Yu. He leaned forward and asked absentmindedly, “Oh? Let me take a look.”

“He He, it is a fist!” Old Tong broke into a wide grin and sent a punch towards Wang Yu’s chest.

“F**k!” Wang Yu was aghast. He quickly raised both hands to block the blow to his chest and jumped backwards.

“Boom!”

Old Tong’s fist had landed on Wang Yu but Wang Yu had softened the blow as he retreated backwards. Thus, Wang Yu did not sustain any fatal damage.

Wang Yu would not have fallen for such a simple trick. He did not expect that Old Tong would have resorted to such dirty tricks.

After his initial blow on Wang Yu, Old Tong did not miss a beat and continued his onslaught. He rushed forward, driving his legs in the ground. He lunged forward and pressed down on Wang Yu’s arm, using his own right arm to attack Wang Yu’s face.

[Arm Lock]!

Looking at Old Tong’s moves, Wang Yu was momentarily shocked. He hurriedly evaded the blow to his face. Old Tong lashed out with both legs and flashed towards Wang Yu’s back. He threw another palm at Wang Yu’s back.

Wang Yu hastily turned around and met Old Tong’s blows with both palms.

Old Tong’s blows were resounding and a makeshift defence from Wang Yu caused him to take substantial damage.

Old Tong honed in onto Wang Yu as he could sense the balance of the fight tilting in his favour. Wang Yu could only retreat in the face of the attacks and stood up eventually.

“Eight Trigram Palms! Old Tong… You are Eight Trigram Palms Tong Yunshan!” Wang Yu cried out in surprised.

Old Tong replied, “It is indeed me! Even though I have seized the advantage early on in the fight, you were able to break away from my suppression so quickly. You are extremely talented for your age.”

“It’s really him…”

As Wang Yu came to the realisation of the immensity of his opponent, all sense of rationality was thrown out of the window. He had anticipated countless possibilities but he had failed to consider the fact that he would meet a true top tier expert. Wasn’t Yunshan City named after this guy?

Eight Trigram Palms was one of the three famed major fist arts. However, the Eight Trigram Palms was much harder to learn because it was much more demanding on the practitioner’s body and comprehension ability. There was also slightly high requirements on one’s individual skills as compared to Taiji.

At this moment, Wang Yu finally understood what Old Tong mentioned at the beginning of the fight about “closing the door”.

Many years before when Kung Fu was just starting to decline, the country had distributed martial arts manuals throughout the country. However, these manuals only detailed the way to cultivate fist arts, and they had neglected the way to cultivate one’s body. The Eight Trigram Palms was based on a having a strong physique cultivation so consequently it was left as a forgotten fist art.

The three famed fist arts were originally not separated as three distinct sets of fist arts. But as time passed, Taiji grew into prominence as compared to the other two fist arts. Even for a martial arts genius like Wang Yu, he was able only to learn a small subset of the true skills from the Eight Trigram Palms.

Before Eight Trigram Palms was almost completely lost, Tong Yunshan, who practiced it, stood up above his peers. He used his fist arts to sweep past all other martial arts school. It was almost reminiscent of Wang Yu now.

In the end, after Tong Yunshan challenged the Wang family, he somehow stopped his perceived crazy actions and stopped going around to fight other martial arts schools. From that incident on, Tong Yunshan became good friends with the head of the Wang family…

When Wang Yu was younger, the patriarch of the Wang Family often recounted the incidents involving Tong Yunshan to him. Wang Yu was awed and inspired by these stories and the moment he turned eighteen, he followed in the footsteps of Tong Yunshan.

Two generations of troublemakers finally met in-game was a truly moving sight. Those who were truly proficient in martial arts all happened to play the game.