Noob Player

Liu Zhong was a high school student in his last year. The exam was over, and he was accepted into the best university in Shanghai. Thanks to that his parents were willing to buy him the gaming pod.

With his spare time until university admission, Liu Zhong spent his time playing Tribe Online. His father and mother did not prevent him from playing either. They allowed him to play as long as his playtime did not pass ten hours a day.

Liu Zhong had used his quota to play the game today so he was sitting behind his computer. Behind his monitor, there was a big poster. A woman's picture under a tree, smiling brightly. The woman in the picture was Goddess Yue, Sky's brand ambassador. He had followed her since her debut until she retired to play the game.

Liu Zhong was not a fan of the game but because Yue was interested in the game. He decided to play too with hope. He hoped that he would meet with Goddess Yue in the game. That was the reason why Sky chose Yue to be their brand ambassador. Yue's charm was so big that she could draw her fans into the game even though they did not like playing the game before.

Liu Zhong was surfing Tribe Online's official forum. He was investigating Goddess Yue's disappearance. He wanted to know where she was going, "I am sure that she is not retiring from the game or else Sky will remove her as the brand ambassador. Her Official Social Media account also never said anything about retirement. This cheap gossip is fake. She is not retiring to marry,"

Liu Zhong gritted his teeth as he found an article about Goddess Yue. If Yue decided to retire she would post something on her official account, "What most likely happened is that Goddess Yue found a secret of the game that forced her to restart her character, but what is that?"

Liu Zhong closed the forum and opened his PowerPoint. He had collected a lot of data and one of them was an article about the Working Out Maniac who jumped into the Eternal Waterfall. It happened before many people so there was an article about it.

"He had been working out for days so why did he suddenly decide to jump into that waterfall?" Liu Zhong tapped his index finger against the desk as he tried to uncover the mystery of why The Second Noob jumped into the Eternal Waterfall.

He had looked for the Eternal Waterfall that was part of the Ten Wonders in Tribe Online. There were nine other same gorges as the Eternal Waterfall. While they looked different externally, the ten wonders were the same essentially. The deep gorge.

"After he jumped into the waterfall, the second noob was never seen again in the city," The tapping sound was getting louder, "There's no way he quits the game after spending a lot of money to buy the gaming pod. On top of that, not only the gaming pod is expensive but it's hard to get as well,"

"Getting a new character? If so, someone will recognize him. The second noob is free content. Many people would cover him to get views. He is a famous clown on the forum," Sky had set that the players could not change their appearance. Creating a new character changed nothing as people would still recognize him.

Liu Zhong shook his head as he moved down the PowerPoint. It was an article about bullying where the streamer Volt bullied a famous noob from the previous game, Universe Online. People on the forum called him the First Noob after the Working Out Maniac.

"What about him? He fell into God Burial then he also disappeared," Liu Zhong caressed his chin as he thought of the similarity between the two cases. Both fell into the deep gorges that were part of the Ten Wonders then they disappeared.

People believed that The First Noob stopped playing after the bullying. That was most likely what happened to the First Noob. At least people believed so. However, Liu Zhong did not believe that Runner stopped playing the game. Just like he said, the cost of the gaming pod was too expensive for someone to stop playing Tribe Online this early.

Liu Zhong had investigated Volt and watched the stream a lot. Volt might suffer a backlash because of the case but Volt also gained a lot. He was now streaming with fifteen thousand views on average while he only streamed with five hundred views with his peak views being a thousand.

Liu Zhong even paid a few bucks to enter Volt's private server to chat. He later found out that Volt was searching for the first noob. Yes, the backlash was nothing compared to the gain. Volt wanted to look for the first noob to continue bullying the first noob. The streamer had gained a lot of support for that since the first noob was like a common enemy for many.

However, even until now, Volt still could not find the first noob. Runner could not be found anywhere. However, his assumption that Runner did not quit the game was right. There was an account called Big Noob on the forum.

Big Noob acknowledged that he was Runner. He even posted his window status that he was the real Runner. The Big Noob had been posting ten to twenty edited videos about his failure hunting monsters.

Liu Zhong opened the Official Forum once again and found a Big Noob account. He watched one of the videos where Runner was killed by a monster. The monster was a chicken with small hands. It looked like a T-rex with a feather. The Big Noob posted the montage of him being killed by monsters without being able to do anything.

Yes, other players upload a video where they made a sick play and watched by thousands. But this Big Noob uploaded a montage where he was killed by the monsters in a funny way.

Surprisingly, the video took a hit. Now it has three hundred thousand views, meaning at least fifty thousand people paid five Yuan to watch the video if the other viewers watched the video repeatedly like him. Of course, the number could be less or maybe even more than that.

"But where is he now? Volt still could not find him," Liu Zhong muttered in a low voice. Volt was asking his viewers to search for Runner but they could not find Big Noob, "Where the giant chicken with hand spawned at? Fish with legs?"

Liu Zhong had tried to search hunting fields with these kinds of monsters but he could not find the place. The other players also searched the place where they could find those kinds of monsters but no one would be able to find the place.

"Where is he? Where is he?" The tapping noise was getting louder, "There's a chance that Goddess Yue is in the same place as him. I should find that place to meet her,"

He was thinking hard when he noticed that Big Noob was uploading a new video. The new video was different from the beforehand video where he uploaded a funny video where he got killed. This time the title was eye-catching, which might be a clickbait title.

[First Tribe Clash? Ice Vulture Tribe Vs Wrath Troll Tribe!]

The video was locked behind the paywall. Liu Zhong needed to pay five Yuan to watch the video, "No, let's wait for the others to watch it. I want to see the comment first,"

Big Noob had five thunder thousand followers on his account. Those five hundred thousand followers were quickly being notified that Big Noob uploaded a new video. In five minutes, the view soared up to ten thousand views. That was a quick raise for sure.

Then Liu Zhong paid five Yuan to open the comment section.

[Player A: Damn! I thought the title was clickbait but it was real! It was a real fight between Ice Vulture and Wrath Troll!] [1.2k likes]

[Player B: @Player A Me too, I thought the title was clickbait but it was a real battle. I can't wait to watch the continuation.] [713 likes]

[Player A: @Player B Same! I want to watch the continuation. Please upload the continuation @Big_Noob or else I will stalk you in real life!] [3.4 likes]

It was rare that the viewers did not roast the Big Noob. Usually, they would make fun of the Big Noob but not this time. It was a rare moment where people gave Big Noob positive comments. Most of them were asking Big Noob to upload the continuation.

This piqued Liu Zhong's interest to watch the video. He then played the video. The intro was the usual noob where he was being chased by a group of giant trolls.

"Is that Wrath Troll? They are truly unusual for a troll," Liu Zhong muttered in a low voice. Troll normally had green skin not red, and the troll was around two meters but this one reached three meters on average.

Liu Zhong observed the surroundings as he tried to find something unique about the forest. But with how fast Runner ran he could barely see anything, "He is quite fast, don't tell me that he did the same when he was playing Universe Online? Maxing the Agility again?"

Liu Zhong was about to criticize Runner until the scenery changed. The green forest was gone as a snow-covered land unfolded on the screen.

"Snowy Area… Snowy Area…" Liu Zhong muttered in a low voice and slammed his desk as he thought of something, "I know that place!"