Thriller Paradise Chapter 48

Professional Gamer: it sounds like a job others would yearn to have, to be able to use games to support oneself and even gain fame and fortune. Who wouldn’t want to become one?

在2055年，这也确实成为了一个被社会认可的职业，行业中的顶尖人才有着与知名运动员相仿的影响力。

In 2055, this has even become a socially accepted profession. In this industry, top talents have influence on par with celebrity athletes.

The age range for professional gamers is between fourteen to thirty-five years old. Of course there are experts who are even a bit younger, it’s just that can’t participate due to some games’ age restrictions.

Generally speaking, professional gamers can be simply separated into two types: one is the celebrity gamer, and the other is the average blue collared gamer.

Generally, celebrity gamers choose to retire around thirty years of age. One or another, they’d play during their spare time or withdraw to become second-stringers. Basically, they’re all preparing to enter the studio’s administrative level. There are some who switch other professions related to the gaming industry. For example, commentators, referees, organizers, etc. Still others who’d earned quite a lot to fill their pockets would set themselves up as business proprietors.

All who’ve tread this path wish to become these kinds of celebrity gamers. But many people who start on this path from the moment after they graduate middle school (TL: This would be after 9th grade, so most kids are around 14-15 years old when they graduate.) and work until their thirties will still not amount to any fame. In the end, they’d still find some way to return to society (the non-gaming sort). You could say that these people made a gamble with their youth and and only they were clearest on how much they won or lost themselves. These nonentity players were just like the blue collars of this industry. They were the backbone strength behind the industry, without their support the studios would basically be unable to function. Those celebrity gamers also need their firm support. (TL: In case no one picked up on that, this is the author’s nice way of say that these players are the nameless grinders for the celebrity gamers.)

And one of the most frustrating things in this line business is the savageness of the competition.

任何能够红极一时的游戏，都必然存在着“对抗”。如果一个游戏中，没有任何途径让两个或两批玩家之间分出个高下，那这游戏根本吸引不了任何工作室的进入，能吸引的玩家群体也极为有限。

Any game that is able to be a tremendous hit all inevitably have this “rivalry”. If in a game there is no way to let two players or two groups of players to separate the stronger or weaker of the parties involved, then this game wouldn’t attract any studio to join and the scope of players it would would appeal to be extremely limited.

以多人在线游戏而言，是不是竞技类都无所谓，就算是打怪练级穿装备，也有PK可以决胜负。

In regards to MMOs, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a PVP character or even if you’re wearing PVE gear, there are still things resolved by PK. (TL: Just in case there are any readers unfamiliar with the abbreviations: MMOs= Massively Multiplayer Online, PVP= Player Versus Player, PVE= Player Versus Environment, PK= Player Kill.)

职业玩家证明自己价值最简单明了的途径，就是一个字——赢。

The most simple and straightforward way for a professional player to prove their worth can be summed up with one word——wi

n.

Unfortunately, in this world, glory is fleeting, no such thing as a permanent general. No one can win forever.

年龄的增加、竞技状态的起伏、某个游戏的没落等等因素……使得无数曾经被玩家们奉为“神”的高玩渐渐淡出人们的视线。那些能够在巅峰时期全身而退的人，屈指可数。

Aging, the highs and lows of a person’s condition during competition, the decline of some game, and other such factors… have caused countless former elites that were regarded as “gods” by the players to gradually fade out of sight. The number of people who were able to fully retreat can be counted on one hand.

越是顶尖的游戏工作室，竞争就越是残酷。他们需要的永远是年轻的新鲜血液……需要一群保持着极高竞技状态，拥有斗争心和进取心的新人……那种随时都可以将高高在上的某位神级玩家拉下神坛的人。

The more outstanding the Game Studios, the more cruel the competition. They always need new and fresh young blood…. They need a horde who are highly competitive, new people who possess ambition and fighting mentality….The kind people that could drag a such lofty god-ranked player down from their their altar at anytime.

简单地说——有野心的天才。比如……吞天鬼骁。

Simply put—an ambitious genius. Such as… Heaven Swallowing Daring Devil.

This time Regulation Studio invested in four labor force groups. Ten people per group, with one to two celebrity gamers per group. The rest of which are mainly veterans, seasoned blue-collar players.

And Heaven Swallowing Daring Devil is the only new player within these four groups under the age of twenty.

秩序工作室对他寄予厚望，所以他才会被编入第一批进入惊悚乐园的玩家名单。组长没有给他任何任务，他只需要按照兴趣去玩就可以了。谁知他在一次杀戮游戏的模式中，偶然遭遇了以勇者无惧为首的三人组，这小子还很不识抬举地把前辈们都干掉了……可以说，他做出这种任性妄为的举动来，被组长“放假”也是活该。

Regulation Studio placed high hopes on him, that’s why he was added to the list of the first players to enter Thriller paradise. The group leader didn’t give him any tasks; it was fine for him to just play according to his own whims. Who knew that during his first time in the mode Massacre Game, he’d incidentally meet the three man group led by Fearless Brave One and this punk killed them all in a manner that showed no consideration of his seniors…. It’s fair to say that since he executed this kind of willfully rash action, he deserved to be “sent on holiday” by the group leader.

当然了，勇者无惧，也确实算不上是“最强”那个级别的。在秩序诸多的明星玩家中，无论是过去的游戏成绩，还是知名度，他都排不进前十。虽然他的小组成功拿下了内测首位二十级玩家的头衔，但秩序的真正实力远不止如此。

Of course, Fearless Brave One also can’t be considered on the level of the “strongest”. Within the many celebrity gamers in Regulation, whether it’s past gaming achievements or reputation, he wouldn’t even be places in the top ten. Although his group succeeded in seizing the title for first to reach Level 20 in closed beta, Regulation’s true strength far more than just this.

目前这四个小组，只能说是“开荒队”，工作室中最强的一批玩家，只是注册了账号，锁定了昵称，就没有再上过线。也就是说……秩序真正的高手们现阶段还没有正式被派遣到这个项目上。工作室高层早已有了决策，保持观望，至少等到梦公司开放货币兑换和收费业务以后，再决定是否把那些最顶尖的人才资源投入进去。

The four groups presently could only be said to be the “scouting squad”, the strongest players in the studio only registered their accounts to reserve their usernames and haven’t gotten online since. In other words…Regulation’s true experts at present haven’t even officially been dispatched to this project. The studio executives had long made a decision to wait and see at least until after Dream Corp. opens the currency exchange and charging service before deciding whether or not to invest in those top talent reserves to go in.

Having said so much, everyone might be a little beyond words; how did you go off tangent there? What about Feng Bujue? What about Nooccar City’s Scenario?

Please stay and I’ll use three measures to bring matters back around.

Having spoke of studios, this time around in Feng Bujue’s Scenario, there was also a studio member.

不过他不属于秩序那种高门大派的麾下，他是前文中我提过的那种三流工作室老板、兼财务、兼玩家……

But he didn’t classify as a lofty big-name subordinate of Regulation, he was the kind I mentioned previously that was a boss of a third-rate studio, simultaneously a manager of finance and a player.

He was【Atobe-sama】.

好吧，相信诸位也猜到了，不错，他的工作室叫“冰帝”。

Alright I believe everyone’s guessed it already. That’s right, his Studio is called “Hyotei”.

迹部少爷在现实中二十三岁，去年大学刚毕业。老爸是开厂的，家中算是小有积蓄，可以让他造……反正开游戏工作室的成本不算高，租个地方，买几台游戏舱而已，人力方面的投入基本不用去计算，员工都是他学生时代的哥儿们。

In the real world, Atobe-sama was twenty-three years old and just graduated from college last year. His dad runs a factory, so his family had a little bit of savings to allow him to set up….In anycase, the costs of opening a gaming studio aren’t high it’s just renting a place and buying a few game cabins, that’s all. It, basically, isn’t necessary to calculate the amount of manpower invested; his staff were all his college buddies.    

Moreover, currently Atobe-sama only had three people in total under his control. One of them was the one currently in the same Scenario as him【Names Are Really Difficult to Choose】and the other two are respectively called【Choosing Names is Really Difficult】and【Really Difficult to Choose Names】. Even though Atobe-sama was deadly earnest in the past in demanding his three buddies to use names like Kabaji, Oshitari, and so on, he’d only met with merciless refusal. When he threatened them with their wages, he was met with Aruba. (TL: I unfortunately don’t have an English link for this, but the other name for this is apparently the Happy Corner. Where basically a victim is lifted, his legs spread open and then forced into a pole, smacking the, uh, happy place. The victim is either smack into the pole or forcibly ground into it. Here’s an uncomfortable picture for better depiction; you have been warned.)

Contrary to the image they give off, their Studio was also aware that they needed two shifts to alternate; that’s why they split into two groups. Presently, the other two people are spending the time they’re not in game to go eat some midnight snacks.

迹部少爷在游戏中的形象是一个长相秀美的白净男子，身材消瘦，整体和他本人的形象差距也不算太大……只不过脸上的改动略明显。

Atobe-sama’s in-game appearance was that of a elegant, fair-skinned male with a lithe body. As a whole, there wasn’t much disparity with his original appearance… just that his face was clearly altered.  

Names Are Really Difficult to Choose was of medium build, slightly shorter than Atobe-sama. This person’s appearance was just like his name giving off a kind of “indifferent about appearance” feeling. Not only did he not change his appearance to be more handsome, but he instead gave himself a bald appearance, saying he’d like to experience for a bit what it was like to be bald in game. (TL: Vexed believes bald is beautiful.)

Atobe-sama’s Title seemed to be a vicious taunt from the System,【A Swordsman】. His weapon was just a sword that looked just like the weapons especially used by miscellaneous bandits in a Wuxia soap opera. It’s grade was Ordinary and didn’t even have any attributes or special effects, but at least it was a decent weapon.

与迹部少爷这路人甲一般的称号不同，名字真难取的称号辨识度很高，四个字——【外强中干】，他那光头的干练形象和他在惊吓值上的表现形成鲜明反差。这位就连正经兵器都没有，行囊里装了两根棒球棍和一根生锈的铁管，也不知他是在哪儿捡的……

And unlike Atobe-sama’s generic passerby-like title, Names Are Really Difficult to Choose’s title was very recognizable. Just four words——【Looks Strong, Actually Weak】. (TL: This is just a Chinese Idiom that means someone who looks strong but is actually weak. Very similar to the paper tiger idiom.) His bald and experienced image clearly contrasted with his Terror value performance. He didn’t even have a decent weapon. He only had two baseball bats and one rusty iron pipe in his inventory picked up from who knows where….

Their luck wasn’t bad, the place they landed was about only a block away from each other so they were able to quickly meet up.

Though these two didn’t look very reliable, they actually were still a little bit better than others. If they really didn’t understand a single thing about games, why the heck would they open a studio for. So Atobe-sama made a very appropriate decision, forget the mission for now, find a munitions store and arm themselves before doing anything else.

One look at the situation in this city, it is immediately apparent that this is the American Empire land of all corruptions, so it’s very likely that there would be an arms store in the city. Even if there isn’t any startling heavy artillery, but regulation pistols, shotguns, rifles, etc., and above all ample ammunition, it would all be extremely valuable.      

The two headed the same way together and frequently ran into groups of wandering Blood Wolf Zombies in twos and threes. But these guys weren’t very threatening. If they couldn’t be bothered to attack they’d go around them, and if the monsters couldn’t be avoided, then the two would just give them a knock to the head. Though, when they get within lunging distance of biting, the creatures’ movement would abruptly accelerate quite a bit. But as long as they were a cautious and aren’t both surrounded closely by three or more monsters, then these guys were still very easy to kill.

经过了两个街区后，迹部少爷进了个电话亭，他拎起电话，线路根本不同，事实上，就算是通的，他也不知道该打给谁，难道拨911吗？他进来的主要目的是翻电话簿。查了三五分钟，迹部少爷就成功找到了最近的一家枪店地址。他和名字真难取（我决定接下来叫他小名）便加快了脚步前往那里。

After traversing past two blocks, Atobe-sama entered a phone booth, he lifted the phone, and the line simply wasn’t connected. Actually, even if it were connected, he wouldn’t even know who to call, could he even dial 911? His main target for entering the phone booth was for the telephone directory. After searching for three to five minutes, Atobe-sama succeeded in finding the nearest munitions store. He and Names Are Really Difficult to Choose (I’ve decided to call him Lil’ Name from now on) then sped up their pace, proceeding towards that place.

Several more minutes later, they approached their destination, but met with an extremely strange scene.

The only things they saw were the corpses of about thirty Blood Wolf Zombies spread. Each corpses’ head were all smashed to pulp and their dead bodies led all the way up to the front door of the munitions store.

Unexpectedly, in the middle of the street in front of the store in broad daylight was a large cylindrical cooler with the Gatorade logo. The cooler was filled to the brim with a red liquid and the on the ground beside it were littered loads of empty plastic blood bags. The smell was so pure and strong that even humans could smell it from a long distance away.

有两台音响被摆在了“血桶”旁边，高声播放着《斗牛士进行曲》，看地上的拖痕，似乎是从街对面的一家音响店里拖出来的。马路边上的一个电箱被拆开，里面的情况看不分明，反正音响的电源线一直延伸到那儿……

Two stereos were arranged beside the “blood bucket”, loudly playing《March of the Matadors》. Judging from the marks on the ground, they were apparently dragged out from the music store across the street. A circuit box on the side of the road was broken open. Its state inside couldn’t be clearly seen, in any case, the stereos’ power cable extended all the way until there.

“什么情况？”小名问道。

“What’s going on?” asked Lil’ Name.

Atobe-sama also had yet to make sense of what was happening, but he didn’t have the time to respond anyway, when he saw a Blood Wolf Zombie come flying out from a corner behind the blood bucket.

紧接着，一个浑身浴血的男人从那儿走了出来。他一手尖刀，一手管钳，双肩各是斜背着一串大蒜，这两串“蒜带”在其身前交错成X形，都已经被鲜血染红了。

Immediately following it came a man soaked completely from head to toe in blood. In one hand he wielded a dagger, a pipe wrench in the other. Around his each of his shoulders was a slanted strand of garlic bulbs. These two “garlic belts” that crisscrossed at the front of his torso, forming an X-shape, had all been dyed red by blood.  

他踏着斗牛士乐曲的节奏，跳着类似《功夫》中斧头帮的舞蹈，嘴里还像嚼口香糖一样啃着白色的不明物体………他踏着轻快的步伐向那血狼丧尸靠近，然后对着倒地未起的怪物头部一阵狂剁，打得是骨碎筋连，血浆横飞。

He stepped to the beat of the March of the Matadors, dancing like the Axe Gang in《Kung Fu Hustle》. It looked like he had something like chewing gum in his mouth, gnawing on some vague white thing…. He danced with quick and light steps toward the Blood Wolf Zombie, then lashed in a crazy burst at the monster that had yet to get up, beating it until bone shattered muscles and blood splattered in the air.

After ending the creature, he seemed to realize something. He suddenly straightened up, spun his head around, and just happened to spot Atobe-sama and Lil’ Name’s dumbstruck figures.

“跑啊！”“快闪哪！”他们两个和封不觉对视了两秒后，同时喊出声来，扭头就跑。

“Run!” “Quick leave!” After their eyes met Feng Bujue’s for all of two seconds, they both shouted at the same time and turned to run.

封不觉也没多啰嗦，拔腿就追。他其实很想吼一句：“你们跑个毛？我是玩家啊！”但由于嘴里全是蒜，根本没法儿高声喊叫。

Feng Bujue also didn’t bother saying anything more and broke into a run, giving chase. He actually really wanted to yell, “The heck you running for? I’m a player!” but since his mouth was full of garlic, there was no way for him to shout.

另一边，一看那煞星用矫健的身姿奔跑着追了上来，小名的惊吓值瞬间激增，边跑边对迹部少爷道：“完了完了完了……被这家伙追到我们就死定了，都是你的错！没事找什么枪店，果然枪店门口被安插了小BOSS吧！”

On the other side, as soon as he saw the harbinger of evil come chasing with a vigorous pose, Lil’ Name’s Terror Value shot up in an instant. He lamented to Atobe-sama while running, “We’re done for, we’re done for, we’re done for…. If this guy chases up to us, then we’re screwed. This is all your fault! Nothing was wrong, why’d we have to go look for a arms store? Sure enough, a mini-BOSS was stationed at the door to the arms shop!”

迹部少爷时不时回头望一眼渐渐逼近的封不觉：“关我什么事！我怎么可能知道有这种状况！”他又回头望了一眼：“话说……这家伙跑得好像比我们快啊！”

Atobe-sama turned his head around from time to time, glancing at the ever encroaching Feng Bujue. “What does that have to do with me! How would I know that the situation would be like this!” He turned back around for another look, “That said… it seems like this guy runs faster than us!”

“我早发现了！快得离谱啊！”小名嚷道。

“I’d long since knew that already! It’s outrageously fast!” blurted Lil’ Name.

Feng Bujue who was approximately twenty meters away from them heard all of their little exchange and thought to himself, “Bullshit. I, your father, am wearing【Jazz Dance】, and you little lambs want to compete with me in running?”

谁知，在这一刻，前方那两人忽然很有默契地、异口同声地道了句：“分头走！”

Who knew, at this time, that the two people in front would suddenly have a mutual understand and speak in unison, “Split up!”

At the next intersection, they split left and right, each going in one direction.

Feng Bujue cried out in alarm to himself. “These bastards still have some tricks!”

He also didn’t give it much thought and turned left, randomly chasing after one of them.

那个正好是迹部少爷……

That one just happened to be Atobe-sama….

“遭了……完全没有让他迟疑啊！”迹部少爷自言自语道：“放着那个死光头这么明显的目标不追，直接就朝我突过来了，一定是我的英俊害了我。”

“Crap… we didn’t force him to hesitate at all!” Atobe-sama soliloquized, “Letting that damn baldy go, not chasing him despite being such an obvious target, and directly rushing at me, I must’ve been screwed over by my own dashing good looks.”   

眼瞅着封不觉越追越近，迹部少爷的惊吓值也越来越高，他知道恐怕要被抓到了，与其被这小BOSS从背后一击必杀，不如回头搏一搏。

Eyes watching the pursuing Feng Bujue get closer and and closer, Atobe-sama’s Terror Value climbed higher and higher. He knew that would probably get caught in the end. Instead of getting one-shot from behind by this mini-BOSS, he’d rather turn around and fight.

Having thought up to this point, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, raised his plain sword, held it horizontal in front of him, and slashed at the high-speed incoming Feng Bujue.

“诶？”当封不觉冲到他面前时，迹部少爷却发现，手上的刀根本挥不动，他的动作被系统制止了。

“Eh?” But when Feng Bujue rushed before him, Atobe-sama discovered the blade in his hands would simply not move at all. His movement was halted by the System.

封不觉来到他面前，停下脚步，喘着粗气，瞪着他，断断续续地道：“我……哈啊……我……我是……自……哈啊……自己人啊！你这【哔——】！”

Feng Bujue arrived before him, stopped, gasped, glared at him, and intermittently wheezed, “I…haah…I…I am…your…haah…one of you! You【Beep——】!”

“白痴”二字终究是被系统给屏蔽了，照理说封不觉根本不能把说这话的意图变为现实，不过既然出现了消音，就说明他讲的时候并没有任何侮辱的意思，只是一种吐槽的语气。

“Moron” in the end this word was blocked by the System. Under normal circumstances, Feng Bujue would basically not be able to even try to say this word aloud, but since he was beeped this proves that he meant no insult whatsoever when he spoke, just meant it in a teasing kind of manner.

“哈？”迹部少爷顺势瘫坐在了地上，脸色煞白，嘴角抽动着，“呵……呵呵……对……对不起。”他居然道歉了。

“Hah?” Atobe-sama just slumped and sat on the ground, his complexion deathly white, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Ah…ahh…s…sorry,” he apologized unexpectedly.

Chapter end