Back at the workshop, 4 pm in the afternoon.

I was lying on top of the bed doing nothing because I didn’t feel like logging into the game or grinding. When I clicked on the forums, I saw a stickied thread that was highlighted in red. It was none other than the petition thread to restore Lin Yixin’s account. Countless people had chipped in their signature including Warsky, Farewell Song, October Rain, Ling Xueshang, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Luo River God of the Capital, Moonkiss, Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties and more. Countless CGL Hall of Famer emblems had graced the thread.

I took the opportunity to add my own signature to the petition. Practically every active CGL Hall of Famer besides those from Candle Dragon had signed the petition, and even those who were retired—Frivolous Scholar, Windy Snow, Wind That Touches The Moon, Iced Tea, Zhi Yun’er, Seven Star Lamp and Lonely Grave—had chipped in their signatures. It needed not be said how many people were moved by Lin Yixin’s God’s Tear.

I was sure that Ling Xue was the one who requested those retired experts to throw in their support. With this, almost every expert in the entire China server was joining forces to put pressure on Eternal Moon Corporation. This amazing level of support should give Shusheng more cards when he negotiates with the New York HQ as well.

……

Next, I checked the latest news regarding the war of Dawn City and learned some useful information—

The war of Dawn City had resulted in the annihilation of the Northern Alliance. The 120 million players who entered China’s domain were all dead, and Dawn City was rewarded handsomely because of it. Their walls were strengthened, their size was increased, and a lot of NPC troops were added to their ranks. Although it was still a tier 2 city, its actual defense was on par with a major tier 1 city.

Moreover, Princess Karinshan herself had ordered her best generals to travel to Windy Trail. They had reshaped the canyon, built a military fortress called the "Fortress of Iron Halberd", and even garrisoned several powerful NPC armies there. This meant that the Northern Alliance couldn’t even consider a second attack because attacking an NPC fortress without preparation was folly at best. The cost would be disastrous, and the payout, a big fat zero.

Speaking of which, the name of the fortress was generated by the system. Hot and Sour Noodles had left behind a message stating, "The MVP of this Nation War, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, stood in front of the palace entrance and stalled millions of enemies for almost two hours all by himself. He truly deserves to be called the Divine General of China. For the same reason, the name of the fortress was generated from his ID. Lu Chen is the pride of the China server and the patriotic Divine General who protects his homeland!"

The news after that was regarding the Avengers. Thunder, Wings of Awakening and Silver Soul had kidnapped Candlelight Shadow the Martial God and forced him to lead the siege on Burning City. The battle lasted for 17 hours, but in the end they were unable to overcome the enemy’s defense. Worse, reinforcements from Hero City, Titan City and Seven Star City marched a great distance to save their ally, and they were able to slaughter the Avengers to the last man and woman. Candlelight Shadow, Thunderbolt, Bloody War God and Wind Slayer were all KIA, and all tens of thousands of riders of Greedy Wolf Cavalry, Ice Leopard Cavalry and Fire Lizard Cavalry were cut into pieces. They had proven themselves to be incapable of threatening Burning City at all.

It was clear that Candlelight Shadow had made the wrong bet this time. He thought he could save Candle Dragon’s reputation by conquering Burning City, but all he got was a terrible defeat because he severely underestimated the enemy and overestimated the Avengers’ power. Almost all of the most elite forces of China were deployed at Dawn Valley, meaning that the follow-up parties from Wind City and Vanished God City were second-rate at best. Of course they wouldn’t be able to conquer Burning City.

……

As a result, countless players expressed their disdain for Candlelight Shadow and petitioned for the cancellation of his title, believing him to be unworthy of the name "Martial God" anymore. In the end, the cries of disapproval drew a thread from Blue Sky Scar—

Sorrow of the King: "Candlelight Shadow, the Martial God of China once commanded an army of tens of millions and conquered countless main cities. Today, the tables were turned, and the Northern Alliance was the one who invaded our homeland with several times our numbers. It was Candlelight Shadow who commanded Candle Dragon’s million-strong army and fought at the frontlines. It was Candlelight Shadow who fought Vienna’s Sorrow for two days and nights. In the end Candle Dragon was decimated completely, but not a single one of our men had withdrawn out of cowardice. Ask yourselves this: Who was the one who fought the enemy’s strongest on the frontlines? Who was the one who stopped Hero City’s blades with their flesh and blood? Who was the one who fought to the last man and woman in defense of Dawn City’s honor? No matter what the dissenters might say, Candle Dragon deserves its title as the king of this battle!"

……

All too predictably, Blue Sky Scar’s statement drew scornful retaliation from countless reputable players—

11737th comment (Player Warsky): Pooh! I can’t believe you had the snake to say that! It was us, Warsky Alliance, who stopped the enemy’s first and strongest assault until our numbers had dwindled to tens of thousands! All you fuckers did was order your shield formation to block our only retreat in a despicable attempt to use us as your cannon fodders!

17363th comment (Player Stranger of Three Lifetimes): Pooh! When your Viper Dragoon Cavalry was trashed by the enemy’s Behemoth Cavalry, who was the one who came up with the genius tactic of luring them into Sunset Swamp and wipe them out with a terrain advantage? It was Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, not Candle Dragon or Candlelight Shadow! Pooh pooh pooh!

21737th comment (Luo River God of the Capital): Pooh! It’s amazing how people can keep a straight face after lying out of their ass these days. Did you really deploy your main forces to do anything? Back in the canyon, you fuckers blocked our retreat with your formation and forced our cavalry to fight at the frontlines for 24 hours straight! All this time, your Viper Dragoons were simply chilling at the side and doing nothing! There are many ways to preserve your strength, but you just had to choose the most despicable and disgusting way to go about it, didn’t you? Pooh pooh pooh!

26716th comment (Beiming Xue): Pooh! In defense of Dawn City my ass! Who was the one who protected the supply line between Dawn City and Sky City? You knew that Titan God was powerful, so why didn’t your so-called four War Gods of Candle Dragon deal with him? Why did you make our dragon warrior challenge that monster with less than a tenth of his army? Pooh pooh! You’re so shameless even I feel ashamed for you!

28717th comment (Li Chengfeng): Pooh!

28771th comment (Gui Guzi): Pooh!

28934th comment (Chaos Moon): Pooh!

29110th comment (Wind Fantasy): Pooh!

30198th comment (Moonkiss): Pooh! Oooh, Beauty Lin just appeared in the 29110th comment! Anyway, Candle Dragon is so shameless. They rallied the Avengers, but instead of saving Dawn City, they went to attack Burning City instead. This is not how you besiege Wei to save Zhao, you idiots!

31837th comment (Farewell Song): Hehe, this is fun. I bet Candle Dragon must be busy wiping away all the saliva on his face right now. But girls, you really shouldn’t have done that. He doesn’t even deserve your salivas, he might actually like it...

34722th comment (Hot and Sour Noodles): Ahem, please calm down, everyone. While certain parts of this Nation War were rather unseeming, Candle Dragon’s heart was ultimately in the right place. Plus, Candle Dragon did fight to the last person, so please just calm down, okay? Ai, I don't know what to say anymore.

……

Clearly, not even Zhang Chun could really bring himself to defend Candlelight Shadow. Out of all the missteps he took in this battle, abandoning Dawn City to attack Burning City with the Avengers was clearly the worst of them all. Not only did he fail to earn points with the public, he managed to earn the scorn of practically every player within the country. The eyes of the spectators weren’t clouded, and the truth was open for all to see.

On an unrelated note, it looked like Lin Yixin was feeling pretty good today, or she wouldn’t be logging into her account and posting a reply. The fact that she could post a reply also meant that her account wasn’t fully deleted, or she wouldn’t even have an account to log in to.

So I carefully clicked her avatar and sent her a message: "I miss you, Yiyi. Where are you right now?"

Lin Yixin replied with a smiley emoji and nothing else.

I continued messaging her. "Yiyi, I received your gift. The model of Dark Moon City looks amazing, but why did you make it so that you were pulling at my ears? I… I really miss you…"

There was nothing from her for a very long time.

Ten whole minutes later, Lin Yixin finally replied to me. It was still an emoji, but this time it was the crying face "ToT."

She didn’t respond no matter what else I sent her afterward. I supposed that she hadn’t forgiven me yet.

……

Speechless, I continued checking the forums before I saw yet another important news. Apparently The CGL Hall of Fame would be adding two new players to their ranking and refresh it in two hours. The results would be posted on the game’s official web page.

This was surprising because the CGL committee was a serial offender when it came to keeping their promises. They could announce something for this year’s spring, and wait until next year’s winter before they actually came through. It was completely unusual for them to announce an update to the CGL Hall of Fame in two hours!

Something must have happened to make them change their mind, but that didn’t matter to me. What really concerned me was who were the two new entrants to the prestigious CGL Hall of Fame!

I mulled over the possibilities before coming to the decision that our Li Chengfeng had the highest chance out of everyone to enter the CGL Hall of Fame. Leading 10000 riders of Ancient Sword, the dragon warrior had transformed into a Divine General at Breeze Canyon and slaughtered ten times the number of players before he ultimately fell. Even then, he killed a super expert like Titan God, so that was definitely enough merit for him to enter the CGL Hall of Fame. Even if I disregarded that, Li Chengfeng already had the skills, level, equipment and even the status—a Divine General—to qualify as a CGL Hall of Famer, so I had no doubt that his efforts would be rewarded.

I had no idea about the other person, however. Oh well, the answer will reveal itself in two hours!

……

I continued checking out the forums in search for a reliable leveling map. Right now I was a Level 70 noob, and Lin Yixin—assuming that she got her account back—would most likely be a Level 0 no-equipment noob when she came back to the game. It would be prudent to prepare now since I would have to carry the both of us back to Level 160.

I searched the database for two hours, and finally, the new ranking was displayed on the Heavenblessed homepage—

1-5: Frivolous Scholar, Vegetable Tofu Soup, Murong Shanshan, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, Wind Fantasy

6-10: Candlelight Shadow, Seven Star Lamp, Windy Snow, Zhi Yun’er, Luo River God of the Capital

11-15: Farewell Song, Wind That Touches The Moon, Power Cooker, Ling Xueshang, A Dust

16-20: Moonkiss, God’s Dance, Legendary Brave, October Rain, Blue Sky Scar

21-25: Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Come See The Snow Tonight, Lonely Grave, Transient Smoke and Clouds, Transient

26-30: Blood Red, Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties, Predestined, Tempest Shadow, Laughing At The Heavens

……

Two new players joined the CGL Hall of Fame, and they were Li Chengfeng and Stranger of Three Lifetimes. It was well deserved all things considered. Li Chengfeng’s achievements were supernatural, and Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ efforts during the Nation War didn’t go unseen. Moreover, Li Chengfeng had started right out of the bat at the 18th spot, which was a rare achievement for sure.

Finally, I had jumped from the 7th to the 4th spot, and Lin Yixin had surpassed Candlelight Shadow and entered the 5th spot on the CGL Hall of Fame. It was her God’s Tear that turned the tables and allowed her to surpass the Martial God. Speaking of which, Candlelight Shadow’s placement hadn’t changed one bit even though he, the Martial God and his guild, the number one guild in China, just fought an unprecedented Nation War. It was ironic to say the least.

Candlelight Shadow must be so ashamed right now...