Please Sign: Your Runaway Wife Has Been Captured

If someone asked Zheng Xiaoguang what the most exciting part about playing an online game was, she would immediately curve the corners of her lips up 45 degrees into a smile and replied that it was being protected by a capable big brother.

Zheng Xiaoguang's big brother was Blooming Pear Tree. He was the gang boss of the Matchless, which was a major gang on this server.

Blooming Pear Tree was quite a somebody in this zone. He was a highly-skilled player and always at the top of the PK (Player Kill) list. He often splashed out a lot of money on equipment in the shop without even blinking an eye. He was not only good at protecting his fellow gang members but also excellent at fighting and slaying monsters in instances. As such, Zheng Xiaoguang always felt great during a mission.

Nevertheless, this good feeling had ended abruptly last week.

Last week, her big brother had "sold" her to Bluegreen-Clad, the boss of another major gang called the League of Strong Families, as he wanted to ally himself with this Bluegreen-Clad.

Yes, Blooming Pear Tree had sold her out.

What Zheng Xiaoguang was playing was a 3D multiplayer online game named Shiny Sky Online. It was set in a world similar to ancient China, and thus the game characters were all dressed in ancient Chinese clothes. The operator of this game claimed that many stars played this game too, including the one who had become enormously famous recently. The server Zheng Xiaoguang played on was Zone 109 Watery South. Within this zone, there are three major gangs. They were called the Matchless, the League of Strong Families and the Sacred Temple respectively.

As this zone was newly opened, it was impossible to organize a powerful team here to slay some World Boss (a top-notch monster). The biggest problem here was the contradiction between the increasing number of players and the limited number of regions for them to upgrade levels. As such, the players, especially members of the three major gangs, competed fiercely with one another in this zone every day.

The happiest person was of course the game master, since the "Kill and Rob" equipment in the shop remained to be in great demand since Zone 109 Watery South had been opened a month ago. Such equipment included "Virtue Pills" which were used to change one's colored ID from red to white (as a way to cover up his or her crimes), and "Clairvoyant", which was used to check one's coordinates.

At present, these three gangs were similar in strength. In this newly-opened zone, most players were still working to gain levels instead of improving equipment. They usually used skills to fight and never backed off during a melee, which often broke out when they were busy gaining levels. Such melees prevented everyone involved from gaining levels smoothly, and thus no one could benefit from this.

To change this situation, Blooming Pear Tree, the gang boss of Matchless had a talk with Bluegreen-Clad, the gang boss of the League of Strong Families. They decided to form an alliance and work together to fight against the Sacred Temple. Blooming Pear Tree chose to ally himself with Bluegreen-Clad because he did not like the Sacred Temple's gang boss and his wife.

Blooming Pear Tree and Bluegreen-Clad avowed their commitment to their alliance just by sending a message on Public Chat channel to everyone that they formed an alliance now and their gangs would fight side by side and slay monsters together.

When Zheng Xiaoguang and Blooming Pear Tree discussed the alliance on YY①.

she illustrated her ideas with a metaphor.

"Such an alliance counts for nothing. It's similar to the relationship between a couple who call each other husband and wife but aren't legally married. They can hold a wedding ceremony and invite all their friends and relatives to the wedding, so that everybody know that they're a couple. However, when one of them suddenly becomes rich or something and starts to detest his or her partner, he or she don't have to apply for a divorce and can walk out on his or her partner directly. The one who's abandoned can only admit defeat. Without a marriage certificate, he or she can never safeguard his or her legal rights.

"This is nothing new nowadays."

She had a point. Ties between these two gangs were quite weak, as this was a newly opened zone, and players here were not familiar with one another and usually did not have any personal grudge against one another. The League of Strong Families could make an alliance with Matchless after a talk. It could kick Matchless out and form an alliance with the Sacred Temple in breach of its promise at any time. After all, the League of Strong Families and the Sacred Temple were not deadly enemies.

When that happened, Matchless would be placed at a significant competitive disadvantage no matter how strong it was.

Someone suggested merging the two gangs into one, but this suggestion was rejected immediately. The system of this new zone did not allow that to happen, and even if it was allowed, Blooming Pear Tree would never promise. He would rather fight against the League of Strong Families and the Sacred Temple on his own than disband his own gang to join the League of Strong Families. It was also impossible for Bluegreen-Clad to disband his own gang to join Matchless.

As such, Blooming Pear Tree suggested marrying his sister Flowing Light (Zheng Xiaoguang's game name) off to Bluegreen-Clad to strengthen the relationship between the two gangs. That was easy. They just needed a marriage certificate issued by the matchmaking god. Blooming Pear Tree believed that by doing so, he and Bluegreen-Clad would become brothers-in-law and Bluegreen-Clad would never think of forming an alliance with the Sacred Temple anymore.

"What a ridiculous idea. A marriage of convenience? Am I a princess of ancient times? Come on, I remember the Qing dynasty ended a long time ago," thought Zheng Xiaoguang. She hated political marriages. In her eyes, only some useless men in ancient times would choose to exchange some women for peace, and this was a shameful display of cowardice.

"Think about those poor princesses who were married away by her families. Their stories never have happy endings, and most of them were never able to come back," thought Zheng Xiaoguang. If she had been online at that time, she would have never agreed to marry Bluegreen-Clad.

If only she had been online at that time.

Unfortunately, she was not online when she got married off by his gang boss and when she was online the next day, she found that a "husband" had been added to her friend list and she had received a lot of Private Chat messages.

[Private Chat] Half a Cup of Lovesickness: You got married, Flowing Light. Congratulations. But why didn't you notify me in advance? I heard that you had a splendid wedding last night. Alas, I missed it. How could you do that to your friend? ﹥_﹤~~

[Private Chat] Cool Names Taken by Dogs: You're such a dumb*ss, Flowing Light. You told me that you would never get married. Liar!

[Private Chat] Mulberry on the Grave: Congratulations. I've sent you a wedding gift.

...

Most of the Private Chat messages were congratulation messages. Zheng Xiaoguang scrolled down the page and finally saw Blooming Pear Tree's message. "Hey, sis, I've found you a husband. He's a god-like player. You don't need to thank me."

"It was him. He logged into my account and did this ridiculous thing to me!" Zheng Xiaoguang thought angrily.

She had never taken it seriously when Blooming Pear Tree first suggested marrying her off to Bluegreen-Clad. Back then, she had even wanted to bet her big brother 300,000 taels of silver that the gang boss of the League of Strong Families would never agree to such an awkward "arranged marriage".

"Not to mention whether Bluegreen-Clad has a wife or whether he'll abandon his wife for this 'political marriage', as a gang boss, he must have a high enough IQ to understand that Matchless just wants to plant a 'spy' in his gang and bond the two gangs together. Matchless' intention is so obvious, only an idiot will agree to this marriage."

With this in mind, Zheng Xiaoguang had never paid much heed to this thing before. During the past few days, she had just focused on handling her must-do tasks and occasionally teamed up with her friends to gain levels. She never believed this thing until it became a reality. "Maybe Bluegreen-Clad is really an idiot," thought Zheng Xiaoguang.

She suddenly remembered the metaphor she had made up when talking with Blooming Pear Tree on YY. "I did mention 'marriage certificate' at that time. Maybe that inspired him to think of this ridiculous idea. Oh gosh, did I shoot myself in the foot?" Zheng Xiaoguang thought ruefully and felt that she really wanted to slap herself hard across the face.

In a fit of remorse, she earnestly typed a sentence and sent it to Blooming Pear Tree.

Note:

① YY: YY instant messenger is an instant messaging software typically used by online game players to communicate with one another.

[Private Chat] Flowing Light talks to you: I want a divorce.

Upon seeing this Private Chat message from Flowing Light, Blooming Pear Tree was so shocked that his stocky body shook.

[Private Chat] You talk to Flowing Light: No, don't act on impulse. Sis, come to YY896797***. Let's talk it out.

A minute later, both of them got into the YY chatroom.

Zheng Xiaoguang started by asking, "Big brother, did you hold a splendid wedding ceremony last night?"

"Yes, I spent 6,666 gold ingots on that wedding and redeemed a packet of wedding candies for your character. How is it? Your big brother treat you well, right?" Blooming Pear Tree, the ringleader of the whole thing, said smilingly.

Shiny Sky was not a generous game. A character above level 40 needed to pay 100,000 taels of silver to get a marriage certificate at the temple of the matchmaking god, and if this character and his or her partner wanted to hold a wedding ceremony, they had to splash out lots of gold ingots on it. Many players in this zone had gotten married by now, but only Blooming Pear Tree had held a wedding ceremony for Bluegreen-Clad and Flowing Light.

"It's really nice of him to pay for my wedding. Shiny Sky's wedding candies are really great. They can be used to recover one's health and magic power, and during this process, I even have chances to unlock new materials, equipment, and adventurous missions. The official line is that only the newly-wed couple can use gold ingots to redeem wedding candies from the matchmaking lady during the wedding. It costs a character 10 gold ingots to redeem a wedding candy, and 10 gold ingots equal RMB one yuan. Uhm, that's good."

"Wait a minute. What am I thinking about now?" thought Zheng Xiaoguang.

"I still want a divorce even if this wedding cost you lots of gold ingots," Zheng Xiaoguang said affirmatively.

"You silly girl, why do you want a divorce?" Blooming Pear Tree continued to persuade her for five minutes, trying to win her over intellectually and emotionally. He told her that if she divorced Bluegreen-Clad right after they got married, the League of Strong Families would feel that it was played and humiliated by the Matchless and would never ally itself with the Matchless. Blooming Pear Tree said that the League of Strong Families might even work together with the Sacred Temple to fight against the Matchless if Zheng Xiaoguang really divorced Bluegreen-Clad.

Zheng Xiaoguang understood this, but she still whined feebly. "But why does it have to be me? Are you still my big brother?"

"Of course, I'm still your big brother." Blooming Pear Tree nearly clapped his breast and made a promise. "It's because you're my sister that I've decided to marry you off to Bluegreen-Clad. You know our gang members. We don't have many girls in this gang, and I'm not familiar with them. You're my old friend and followed me to leave the previous game for this Shinny Sky. I trust you more than anyone else in this gang."

Nowadays, no online game could stay in business for more than 10 years or keep all of its players. Many gamers knew that no matter how great a game was, they would have to leave it someday for various reasons. Some of them left because they joined the army. Some of them left because of career changes. Some of them left simply because they were bored with the games they played...

Nevertheless, gamers of a gang would never easily part after they left a game. They would always treat one another as brothers and sisters and never forget how they had fought together, gotten red names together and dominated a zone together. Once one of them started to play a new game and told it to his or her fellow gang members, they would gather again.

Take Zheng Xiaoguang and Blooming Pear Tree for example. They lived far apart and had very different lives in the real world. Since leaving their previous game, they had not had many ties in the real world, but one call and one message from Blooming Pear Tree had held them together as a team again. "Sis, let's play a new game together."

Upon receiving that message, Zheng Xiaoguang had promised without hesitation.

Nevertheless, as to this marriage...

"I'm not familiar with that Bluegreen-Clad at all," grumbled Zheng Xiaoguang

She thought, "Even if it's just a marriage in the game and we don't have to be in love, we should be friends before getting married at the very least. However, I've never even played with that Bluegreen-Clad, the gang boss of the League of Strong Families.

"It's really awkward to marry such a stranger." .

"Now you guys know each other, don't you? You're my adorable sister. I know you well and have confidence in your ability." Blooming Pear Tree paused and then added, "By the way, Bluegreen-Clad is a good guy. I've played games for years and seldom met such a capable player."

"Well, you top-notch players really appreciate each other," Zheng Xiaoguang twitched her mouth and said.

Zheng Xiaoguang had never known Bluegreen-Clad as a friend before, but she had heard a lot about him. He was a magician from Floating Cloud Island, and his current level was 100, topping the power ranking of Watery South. Like Blooming Pear Tree, he was often referred to as a god-like player, but he had much more female fans than Blooming Pear Tree did.

Compared to Blooming Pear Tree, who often used foul language and engaged other players in battle on the battlefield, Bluegreen-Clad, the gang boss of the League of Strong Families was more like an "idol" in this game. He had focused on leading his team to explore new regions since the open of this server and never flirted with anyone online. As such, he had a good reputation and was admired by many female players.

These female players sent out lots of Public Chat messages every day, proposing to him. If they had known that Zheng Xiaoguang was not willing to marry him, they would have rushed over to scold her for being hypocritical.

"As Bluegreen-Clad is such a god-like player, will it be great to be known as 'Bluegreen-Clad's wife' around this zone? He has been voted Most Desirable Husband and Most Desirable Lover by the female players of this zone. Now that, I'm his wife, I'll become..."

"I'll definitely become the common enemy of all the female players in this zone!" thought Zheng Xiaoguang.

Apart from the congratulation messages from her friends, she also received many insults and humiliations from a bunch of strangers.

[Private Chat] Happy Little Bird: You've really capable of being shameless just to marry our god-like Bluegreen-Clad. Bah! Shame on you.

[Private Chat] Bluegreen-Clad Lady: You bitch, you stole our god-like Bluegreen-Clad from us.

[Private Chat] Baby520: You bitch, you'll die a miserable death.

...

Thinking about her current situation, Zheng Xiaoguang had goosebumps all over her body and started to cry while sighing secretly, "What did my big brother do? Why did this stranger say that I was capable of being shameless just to marry Bluegreen-Clad?" wondered Zheng Xiaoguang.

"Big brother, tell me what you did after you logged into my account yesterday, except for getting married..." said Zheng Xiaoguang.

"Well, your big brother is busy. I have to go now. I'll talk with you later," Blooming Pear Tree hurriedly said goodbye to her and then added, "if you have time, remember to gain levels for me and buy some more Ghost Recruiting Orders①."

Knowing that she was unable to get an answer now, Zheng Xiaoguang left the YY chatroom and switched back to the game. The moment the opened the game, she saw that everything was in darkness and her pretty 3D character Flowing Light was lying quietly at the South Sea, a region for characters at level 80 to gain levels.

Game Message: You've been killed by Baby520. Please choose the solution that you would like to adopt: going back to the city to resurrect yourself or waiting for help.

Note:

①Ghost Recruiting Order: Ghost Recruiting Order is a kind of equipment sold in the shop. It is must-have equipment for players who are willing to pay for equipment in the game. Once a Team Captain uses a Ghost Recruiting Order, he or she will be able to bring his or her whole team into an instance.

There are many monsters in this instance, and they come in waves. Unlike regular regions for players to gain levels, this instance does not update game date automatically. Once the players slay all the monsters in this instance, the game data will be saved as a separate file automatically. The players will gain 20% more experience in this instance than they do in a regular region, and the monsters in this instance are comparatively weak. Given this, this instance is considered to be the best place for players to gain levels. With the help of this instance, Blooming Pear Tree has reached level 100, which is the highest level a character can have now in this game, when most of the other players are still around level 70-90. He has three extra levels' experience stored in his separate file, so technically he is at level 103 at present.

At present, nearly all the players in this zone were around level 85. The most popular region for players at these levels to gain experience was the Countertide, as it was easy for them to find monsters in this map. The South Sea was a region frequented by players at around level 80 and seldom visited by teams who were seeking to gain levels. Zheng Xiaoguang had begun her game by sending her character Flowing Light, a doctor from Ghost Valley Island, to the South Sea before leaving to have a talk in the YY chatroom.

She had planned to mine at the South Sea and see if she would meet a team who came here to slay monsters and gain levels. Once she met such a team, she would join them to gain experience. Unfortunately, she forgot to send her character to a safe zone before switching to the YY chatroom.

"I was not robbing anyone of his or her monsters just now, and I'm not a red name. Why did I get killed? Wait a minute, this ID looks familiar." With this in mind, Zheng Xiaoguang opened the enemy list of her contact list and searched for Baby520. Soon enough, she got the result. Baby520 was a level 90 female assassin from Blackout Island, dressed in four-star professional costume. She was a member of the League of Strong Families.

"Oh, yes, she's one of the strangers who came to scold me. Is she a fanatical pursuer of Bluegreen-Clad? She clearly hates me for marrying her god-like boss. Did she kill me because of this?"

"Love really blinds people. Netizens often say that you never know whether you're talking to a person or a dog online. No matter how amazing Bluegreen-Clad is, he's just a pile of game data. Who knows if he's a sloppy old man? Why are these girls all crazy about him?"

"These girls are so shallow. I'm different. I'm only crazy about the male stars who have handsome faces and sexy bodies," thought Zheng Xiaoguang.

If she chose to return to the city to resurrect herself, she would lose some experience points and drop to level 80. As it was not easy to gain a level, Zheng Xiaoguang sighed and scrolled down her friend list, trying to find someone to help her.

[Private Chat] Flowing Light: Lovesickness, can you come to save me? I'm at the South Sea [235,114].

[Private Chat] Half a Cup of Lovesickness: Okay.

Half a Cup of Lovesickness was a level 86 doctor from Ghost Valley Island and a member of the Matchless. A long time ago, she and Flowing Light had fought together to gain levels. As Blooming Pear Tree was busy with his work now, Zheng Xiaoguang needed to spend nearly half of her gaming time gaining levels for him. Gradually, Zheng Xiaoguang's level became much lower than that of Half a Cup of Lovesickness, and thus they seldom teamed up together recently.

When Zheng Xiaoguang sent out the message to Half a Cup of Lovesickness, the latter was selling goods on a market stall in the imperial city of the Celestial Dynasty. Upon receiving her friend's message, she swiftly packed up her things and went to the South Sea through NPC transfer.

She displayed "Bringing the Dead Back" skill, and then a beam of green light was shot on Flowing Light.

Game Message: Half a Cup of Lovesickness, level 86 disciple of Ghost Valley Island, is going to bring you back to life. Please choose whether to receive her help: Yes/No.

Zheng Xiaoguang clicked yes, and then her character, Flowing Light, stood up.

Game Message: You've received Half a Cup of Lovesickness's help. You've lost 11000 points in experience and 2306 points in wealth.

As this help was from a physician, the system automatically deducted 10% of the money in her backpack and paid it to her rescuer. The system also deducted 30% of her experience. "Great, at least, I keep my level", Zheng Xiaoguang thought gladly. Right at this moment, she saw a beam of black light come at her.

Zheng Xiaoguang's character Flowing Light had just stood up a moment ago. She fell to the ground again before Half a Cup of Lovesickness could refill her blood.

Game Message: You've been killed by Baby520. Please choose the solution that you would like to adopt: going back to the city to resurrect yourself or waiting for help.

"What? That player guards my corpse②. Why does she hate me so much?"

Upon seeing Flowing Light fall down again, Half a Cup of Lovesickness wanted to save her again. When she was about to resurrect Flowing Light, she got ambushed. She tried her best to refill blood and power for herself but still fell down beside Flowing Light after suffering the damage. Baby520 was an assassin. An assassin's offensive power was much stronger than that of a doctor.

After killing Flowing Light and Half a Cup of Lovesickness, Baby520 strutted over to their corpses and stepped on them. After that, she even tossed their corpses up and down for fun.

Once a character got killed in the game, the other characters could toss his or her corpse up. This behavior was called corpse tossing. A character would do this to humiliate his or her enemy when he or she was not content with just killing the enemy.

As Baby520 was a member of the League of Strong Families, Zheng Xiaoguang did not want to make a fuss about this thing. Besides, she was no match for Baby520. As she had to help Blooming Pear Tree gain levels, her own character did not have a high level or a piece of good equipment now. "Baby520 has gone too far this time. She not only guarded my corpse but also killed my friend, Half a Cup of Lovesickness. If I tolerate this, how can I continue to play this game in the future?"

With this in mind, Zheng Xiaoguang planned to use Blooming Pear Tree's character to get back at Baby520. When she was to about to log out of her own account to log into Blooming Pear Tree's account, she saw a startling message.

Game Message: Your husband Bluegreen-Clad is online.

[Private Chat] Bluegreen-Clad: Hello, honey. Where are you?

[Private Chat] Flowing Light: ... Hehe, I'm enjoying the scenery.

Before Zheng Xiaoguang was able to tell him that she was getting offline, she saw the god-like player fly to her corpse through couple transfer.

Bluegreen-Clad was indeed a rich and god-like player. When most players' characters were still dressed in professional costumes, he was dressed in "Carefree" fashionable clothes. He wore a blue-green outfit, a flowing white belt, and a casual jade headpiece. Zheng Xiaoguang had heard about him but had never met him (technically, his 3D character Bluegreen-Clad) before. Now suddenly seeing him flying here on the back of a shining white phoenix, she somewhat felt that he really looked like a carefree immortal.

[Private Chat] Bluegreen-Clad: Didn't you say that you were enjoying the scenery?

[Private Chat] Flowing Light: Uhm, I'm enjoying the scenery right now~

As she was killed by a member of the League of Strong Families, Zheng Xiaoguang did not want Bluegreen-Clad to know about this. Nevertheless, Bluegreen-Clad happened to get online at this moment. "Will he believe that I'm really enjoying the scenery when he sees me lying here?" wondered Zheng Xiaoguang.

"It seems that he has just seen Baby520 toss my corpse..."

[Nearby] Half a Cup of Lovesickness: the god-like Bluegreen-Clad, your wife was killed by your gang member Baby520. I came to save her but got killed by Baby520 too. ﹥_﹤~~

[Nearby] Bluegreen-Clad: Honey, is that true?

"Hey, wait a minute. Why do you suddenly get so used to call me honey?" wondered Zheng Xiaoguang.

[Nearby] Flowing Light: @_@ a fragile character has nothing to say.

What Zheng Xiaoguang meant was that she was just a fragile doctor, and it was not surprising that she got killed. She wanted to remind Bluegreen-Clad that this was her own business by saying this, but Baby520 clearly distorted her words.

[Nearby] Baby520: Shame on you. Knowing that you can't defeat me by yourself, you go to find a god-like player. What makes you think you're such hot stuff? You bitch never deserve our gang boss. Shame on your the Matchless! Boss, don't get hoaxed by this bitch.

Note:

① Four-Star Professional Costume: Professional costumes are wearable equipment for different professions. For instance, an assassin can only wear a professional costume designed for assassins. Four-Star refers to the forging level of the professional costume. The more stars a professional costume has, the better its performance will be. A character above level 40 can use Forging Stones to upgrade his or her equipment. Upgrading a piece of equipment from one-star to two-star costs two Forging Stones, and the equipment must reach level 40 before this forging process. Upgrading a piece of equipment from three-star to six-star costs two Forging Stones, and the equipment must reach level 80 before this forging process. Upgrading a piece of equipment from seven-star to eight-star costs four Forging Stones, and the equipment must reach level 100 before this forging process. There is a chance that one will fail during this forging process. If one fails to upgrade an equipment which has one to four stars, it will remain the same after the failed attempt. If one fails to upgrade an equipment which has four to eight stars, it will lose a star after each failed attempt. As such, the shop also sells Guarantee Talismans, which can be used to ensure that the equipment will not lose a star after a failed forging process.

②Guard One's Corpse: When a character guards another character's corpse, he or she is planning to kill this character again when this character comes back to life.