Heroes' Prison

Chapter 958 - 906: It’s Not the Game, It’s the Memory

The young man proactively lit his lighter, offering Huang Yi a cigarette, and smiled, "It’s okay, Legendary is easy to play, not like those 3D games like The Second World or World of Warcraft, where spinning around makes you dizzy, it’s too complex, can’t figure it out. I’ve been playing Legendary for five years, haven’t gotten into other games." This young man seemed to realize Huang Yi’s accent didn’t sound local, and started speaking in Mandarin.

"Alright! I’ll give it a try." Huang Yi couldn’t find the clue to this trial anyway, so he agreed to this young man’s suggestion to try this game from over a hundred years ago.

"You click on the ’Dragon’ shaped icon, underneath the game menu." The young man enthusiastically started guiding him, "First, register an account, then enter this district. I’ll take down the private server now and go to the official server to find you. Oh, by the way, let me introduce myself, I’m Li Qiang."

Listening to Li Qiang, Huang Yi immediately went to the official site, registered an account, then entered the district Li Qiang mentioned, casually creating a mage number named ’Little Huang’ and entered the game.

Soon, his mage character appeared next to a big tree, with a circle of talismans hanging on the trunk, giving off an antique aroma.

After waiting a while, Li Qiang controlled his character to arrive at the Novice Village, and his character ID was "The Old City", giving off a sense of sadness.

"Monsters spawn too slow here, let me take you to the Pig Cave to grind, stay close." Li Qiang said, starting to lead the way.

Huang Yi immediately controlled his character to keep up, moving around on the map.

Along the way, he only saw wandering monsters everywhere but didn’t see any players, making the area appear quite desolate.

"Why can’t I see other players?" Huang Yi casually asked.

"Sigh!" Li Qiang sighed, feeling emotional, "This game has been around for five years, a lot of people used to play it. Back then, our entire internet café was playing Legendary, when attacking Sabak everyone would shout and scream, very enthusiastic. But later, new games kept coming out, and Legendary seemed outdated, not many people played it anymore, those who did would go to private servers. Recently, World of Warcraft came out, it’s beautiful scenery, trendy 3D game, international bestseller, so everyone went to play World of Warcraft, even fewer people play Legendary now."

Li Qiang’s words carried a sense of sorrow, his gaze revealing a hint of nostalgia, as if reminiscing about that Legendary era.

"Why do you still keep playing then?" Huang Yi continued to ask.

"I’ve tried playing other games too, but they never quite capture the essence of Legendary, maybe I’ll never forget Legendary for the rest of my life." Li Qiang said this, taking a deep drag on his cigarette, and sighed, "I really miss those days, those brothers have all left, only I remain here. Sometimes, when I look at those familiar sceneries, I’ll remember the scenes of grinding monsters with them, back when I was still studying, even reluctant to eat breakfast, saving it to play Legendary, getting excited over a piece of trash equipment for a long time. Unconsciously, it’s been five years, I don’t know where those brothers who used to play together have gone."

After saying this, Li Qiang reached out to stub out his cigarette in the ashtray, giving a bitter smile, "Maybe, what I’m playing isn’t a game, but a Memory."

The two continued to chat, gradually reaching their destination, Li Qiang found a spot for Huang Yi to stand firmly, then he started spawning monsters. Li Qiang seemed to have stirred up his memories, recounting his past Legendary experiences to Huang Yi, endlessly speaking, as if he hadn’t found anyone to confide in for a long time.

Listening to Li Qiang’s stories, Huang Yi couldn’t help but recall The Second World.

Now, The Second World is bustling and lively, with no worries about anyone leaving, good friends are all there. Perhaps after the next generation of Virtual World opens, Huang Yi will also have this kind of nostalgic feeling like Li Qiang.

Thus, the two continued chatting for several hours, until it was past five o’clock, the internet café suddenly bustled, many students wearing school uniforms almost raced in, quickly occupying the vacant machines.

At this moment, Li Qiang looked up at the entrance of the internet café, his gaze suddenly settled on a student, reaching out and calling loudly, "Monkey, there’s a machine here."

A student immediately dashed over, sat in front of the machine next to Li Qiang, panting, skillfully booting up.

Monkey turned to look at the Legendary game on Li Qiang’s computer, laughed, "Brother Qiang, stop playing Legendary, come play World of Warcraft with me! Legendary’s so outdated, everyone plays World of Warcraft now, gotta keep up with the times!"

Li Qiang picked up the cigarette pack on the table, pulled one out and lit it, saying, "World of Warcraft will get old too! In ten years you’ll see, by then new games will emerge, then World of Warcraft will be as outdated as Legendary. By that time, how many of the brothers playing World of Warcraft with you will be left? Maybe by then you’ll be like me, logging in without seeing a familiar face, wandering through empty maps, reminiscing the old days."

"Hehe! World of Warcraft will never get old, it’s always the best game." Monkey chuckled.

Soon, Monkey’s computer finished booting, he skillfully clicked open World of Warcraft, while waiting for the game’s startup, he turned to focus on Li Qiang’s screen, and only then noticed Huang Yi, who he hadn’t seen before, asking, "Brother Qiang, haven’t seen this brother before! Another one you’ve dragged to play Legendary?"

Li Qiang nodded, "Yeah! He’s called Little Huang, first time playing Legendary, nowadays few are willing to play Legendary, I definitely have to take him under my wing."

Monkey’s eyes twirled, turned to Huang Yi, enthusiastically saying, "Buddy, let me take you to play World of Warcraft, everyone’s playing this game now. As for your Legendary number, just leave it there, Brother Qiang’s got you covered, you don’t need to do a thing."

"Alright, I’ll give it a try." Huang Yi nodded, immediately maneuvering his mouse to click the World of Warcraft icon.

"I’m in the Dark Void server of the Seventh District, this district just opened, I have two accounts, let me give you one to experience first, if you find it fun, then go buy some point cards." Monkey excitedly said, immediately getting up, walking to Huang Yi’s side, entering the account and password.

"Seems like whether it’s Legendary or World of Warcraft, you have to choose a server first to play, so troublesome!" Huang Yi sighed slightly.

"You’ve never played a game before?" Monkey asked skeptically, but quickly explained patiently, "A lot of people play this game, but one server can only accommodate a limited number, so the game divides into districts, each playing separately. If you don’t enter the same district as me, even though we’re both playing the same game, you won’t see me. Also, district division can prevent too big a gap with veteran players, those players have good equipment, while we play in new districts, can get equipment anew, everyone on the same starting line."

"I see, I thought everyone could play together!" Huang Yi nodded, realizing, having a deeper understanding of the rules from games over a hundred years ago.

"Hehe! You thought it was like the Virtual World written in online novels, where everyone worldwide can be in one district! I wonder if I’ll live to see such games!" Li Qiang quipped, flicking ash off his cigarette.

"Hmm? District... district..." Huang Yi hesitantly murmured, suddenly staring in his seat, murmuring these two words.

His mind seemed to flash a light, grasping a thought!

"Alright, login successful, it’s not the peak time now, fewer people in queue, patiently wait and you’ll get in soon." At that moment, Monkey’s voice interrupted Huang Yi’s thoughts.

Huang Yi regained his senses, indeed seeing a queue message on screen, ahead of him were 322 people.

He didn’t rush, just sat there, staring at the numbers, contemplating.

Meanwhile, Monkey returned to his seat, also logged into his account, queued up. He seemed to grow impatient waiting, switched to desktop, opened the browser, logged onto Starting Point Web, and started reading a novel named "Inch Mango".

Minutes later, Monkey sighed, "Sigh, serialized novels are unsatisfying, painstakingly waiting a day, read it in minutes."

Li Qiang turned to see Monkey’s webpage, slightly surprised, "Inch Mango? When did Tomato release a new book?"

"Just came out not long ago!"

"Too bad it’s not a gaming novel, I only like reading gaming novels, when can I play true Virtual World games!"

In the midst of Li Qiang and Monkey’s conversation, Huang Yi’s computer screen suddenly flashed, finally finished queuing, successfully logged in, entered the character creation interface.

Huang Yi snapped back to reality, slowly created a number, chose Night Elf for race, Hunter for profession, entered the game, then step-by-step accepted quests, following the prompts to defeat monsters, gradually sinking into this game from a hundred years ago.

At this moment, he wasn’t motivated by any gains, just with the purest mindset to play, wandering in this brand new world.