Xu Wei would be the first to admit that he may not be the best at choosing names, but Fearless was 100 times better than his last two name choices.
His first character's name was Illuminated Midnight Flower, the first top-ranked assassin and guild leader of No Boundary.
His second character's name was… I Went For Milk, the second top-ranked assassin and a vice lead of No Boundary. This was the name by which everyone knew Xu Wei.
Fearless, well, it was definitely a leg up! He felt that he sounded badass.
All that was left for him to do was to choose a server, which, ironically took longer than his whole character creation process.
There were four servers in Legends of Xia that were named after mythical creatures. Phoenix, Jiaolong, Xiang Lu and Qilin.
Despite the names, there was nothing special on one server that couldn't be found on the other aside from the fact that each server had its own leaderboard and PVP arena. No two servers would interact unless they visited the forums, used a server-wide megaphone, or there was an event that allowed them to.
The question was: Did Shin Bao create a new character to level up alongside Shin Han or not? If not, he'd definitely be in Qilin since that's where Xu Wei had decided to reign his terror - bring his wholesome soul to.
Truthfully, Xu Wei had no idea. He couldn't remember whether or not Spider was in his server, and he'd never seen Lillly, Grey, or their guild names before.
Xu Wei sighed and took a leap of faith and chose to be born into Qilin, yet also sent a message asking Shin Bao.
Demon Wei: Did you switch servers?
Level 30 was the cutoff for players to be able to switch their servers. An account could only switch one time, on one character, and it had to be within the first 24 hours with a character under the level of 30.
Xu Wei placed his phone on his desk and glanced up.
On his computer stood a weaponless Night Elf with a white sect robe embroidered with light blue silk, but Xu Wei saw something else.
Overlapping the new player stood a tall Night Elf dressed in a fancy black robe with black hair reaching down to his knees, adorning a black mask to hide half of his face with a few silver ornaments hanging off the side, and he held a glowing white long sword with a silver tassel.
His new assassin stood a few steps from the bottom of a mountain, standing on an intricately carved staircase that seemed to stretch past the clouds as even on the furthest parts of the continent, no one would be able to see the peak which was always covered by blankets of clouds. Furthermore, no quests have unlocked past this spawn point. The only direction to go was down.
Xu Wei moved his camera around and cursed. It was only a pretty-looking, useless mountain!
Perhaps it was the fact that it'd been closed for six years, but Xu Wei couldn't help but feel spiteful. He had always been confident that it'd be connected to a hidden quest or a new dungeon, but six years of patches, two new continents, and fifteen dungeons later - there was still no development.
Legends of Xia had a different spawn area for each race, just like it had a special area for each class that would appear further into the quests, but the Night Elf area was unique compared to the others due to one point. It was the only starting zone that wasn't on the first continent, but instead on the second.
Xu Wei sat in contemplation for a moment before he decided to play the game.
'Play' was a broad term for what he was doing, as he clicked auto-quest and directly left his computer to get some food.
Xu Wei didn't even plan on staying home to observe his character; instead, he opted to walk down the street and grab some ramen from the gas station. By the time he walked back into the apartment with his cup of ramen and an arm full of snacks, his character was obediently standing in front of an NPC.
He placed the snacks at the edge of his desk, grabbed his chopsticks, and pulled back the cover to the ramen as he used his other hand to kill off ten mobs for his quest, then continued to auto as he leaned back to eat.
This was the best feature of the game, in Xu Wei's opinion. The first character of an account could auto-quest until level 30, and then they could only auto-path to the next quest. The only things low-level players couldn't auto-through were dungeons, mob killing, and class master quests.
If someone created a secondary account, they could skip until level 30 but they'd still see the flashbacks of their race's backstory which would have been learned had they done the first 30 levels.
The Night Elf backstory was quite tame compared to the others - the elf had gotten separated from his family, ended up in an immortal sect for ten years after being found by an inner disciple, and the part where players began was the Night Elf being abandoned by their sect for breaking a priceless artifact. Honestly, it was a bit boring. The quest up until level 30 was just the Night Elf wandering through the forest between different Elven hideouts, trying to find out where his family went while building rapport with the different village elders by doing menial tasks.
To put how tame this quest line was - the sword master would wake up amongst comrades frozen in blocks of ice and had a time limit of thirty minutes to find their way out of the frozen maze before they had to restart. A maze that constantly moved and had random NPC's and mobs spawning in at every turn. No guide could help them. By the time they left the maze, they'd be blamed by their village elders and cast out - if they ever wandered into the village after the main quest, they'd be imprisoned and their character would lose fifteen levels, no matter if they had reached max level or not.
Xu Wei got up once more and was in the middle of throwing out his garbage when someone banged on his door three times. His arm which was passing over the automatic lid of the garbage can briefly paused before he dropped the ramen bowl and cautiously walked over to the door, careful not to make sounds with his feet.
Just as he reached the door, there were another two knocks, albeit lighter.
It wasn't in that person's MO to knock, let alone five times. He glanced at the floor beneath his feet and breathed a sigh of relief before he unlocked the door and swung it open.
He stared at the person on the other side of the door frame and tilted his head slightly. "Hello?"
The man in front of him was undeniably handsome by any standards but Xu Wei had long been immune to handsome faces. Not only was he handsome, his sister was gorgeous, Shin Han wasn't bad-looking, and all of his previous streaming friends were like immortals walking amongst the mortals.
"Jun Hie." The man reached his arm out for a handshake.
Xu Wei's gaze lingered down to his arm and noticed the edge of a tattoo underneath the suit that had ridden up slightly. He stared at the hand for a moment before reaching his own out with a quizzical expression. "Xu Wei."
Was this a neighbor, stalker, or salesman? Jun Hie had a solid grip on his hands which Xu Wei matched before withdrawing and instinctively wiping his hand on his sweatpants.
Jun Hie stared at him in silence for a moment before he hummed. "Are your parents home?"
Xu Wei was baffled. "Huh?"
"Or the owner of this apartment?"
Xu Wei scoffed as he saw the other's eyes wander down his body and he instinctively wanted to cover his chest as if he were a young maiden but held off on doing so. He glanced at his outfit, and then Jun Hies.
Ah, perhaps he did look like a bit of a delinquent but wasn't it too much to ask for his parents?
He crossed his arms and smiled politely with cold eyes. "I'm the owner."
"How old are you?"
Xu Wei narrowed his eyes and answered. "Twenty-two."
Jun Hie seemed to notice that he'd offended Xu Wei and he apologized. "I'm sorry, I was being a bit nosy… Anyways, could you and your roommate keep things down next time."
Xu Wei listened to the man and nonchalantly waved his hand. "It's fine, I live here alone. Sorry if my friends were rowdy last night, they won't be over often and I'll try to contain them ah."
If he had to be honest, he had no idea what happened the night prior after he agreed to the request. They all drank a lot and he wouldn't be surprised if they were too loud. It was his fault for thinking the walls were better.
The man nodded politely. "Thank you."
The conversation had ended already but Xu Wei remembered something and added. "I still have a few pieces coming in so it might get a bit loud around 4 pm the next few days. As you can see, the place is pretty barren…"
Xu Wei motioned inside and Jun Hie glanced past his shoulder and nodded. It must be this guy's first time moving so he'd need to assemble new furniture.
His deep brown eyes lingered on the computer screen facing the door for a second before he walked off.
As soon as Xu Wei's door closed he sneered. If that man thought he was a young delinquent… Well, then he looked like a mafia underling!
He knew that wasn't true, and he knew that the man had reasons to be surprised but he couldn't help but be pissed. He just liked his earrings and white hair, there's no hidden motive behind it!
He sighed, ran his fingers through his hair to get it out of his face, and stomped back to the computer where his character was mid-conversation with an NPC.
Level 27.
Xu Wei picked up his phone.
Bumble Bee: Why would I switch? We're still on Qilin.
Demon Wei: Alright.
Demon Wei: My neighbor thought I was a kid and asked for my parents or the owner of the apartment.
Bumble Bee: HAHAHAHAHA
Bumble Bee: Please tell me you didn't beat him up.
Bumble Bee: The people who live there are wealthy, don't pick fights - we can't afford it!
Xu Wei chuckled at the message. He could probably afford it but...
Demon Wei: I was polite, probably. Thanks for the confidence. Send me some allowance.
Bumble Bee: ???
Demon Wei: Remember our deal? I made my character.
Bumble Bee: Shit, what's your name? I'll come to you.
Bumble Bee: [Red envelope: 10,000 yuan]
Demon Wei: Thank you gege! ヾ(^▽^*)))
Demon Wei: Fearless.
Xu Wei placed his phone back down and glanced at the computer screen once more.
[Bumble Bee has sent you a friend request]
[Fearless has accepted the friend request]
[Bumble Bee has invited you to a party]
[Fearless has joined the party]
Xu Wei glanced at the UI at the top left of his screen and hummed. It was only he and Shin Han in the party.
[Party] Bumble Bee: Want me to run you through dungeons?
[Party] Fearless: In a minute, I'm just completing the main quest.
Right after he sent that, a long-haired human talisman master appeared next to him on a sparkling golden sword.
[Party] Bumble Bee: I never thought I'd see the day that you were a noob again, Wei Wei my dreams have been answered!
[Party] Bumble Bee: Awwwwww, look how cute you are.
Xu Wei's eyebrow twitched but he said nothing as he loaded his card details into the game and began his shopping adventure.
He pressed I and went into the cosmetic shop and quickly found the long black hair he used to use, which had a white option now. He bought both, and equipped the hair on the cosmetic tab then went to the outfit section and bought the same black robe, mask, sword costume, and mount that he previously owned and equipped all before clicking 'Accept'.
Xu Wei stared at his character and felt a bit conflicted.
He hated Legends of Xia with a passion. He hated the beautiful art style, the dynamic combat system, the in-depth guild system, the addictive dungeons, and the grind to get new gear but most of all… He hated the people.
Shin Bao wasn't kidding when he said Xu Wei would understand his brother's situation best. If anyone understood him, it'd be Xu Wei.
Perhaps the feeling took so long to fester due to him not playing the game, but as he turned in the last quest to hit level 30 whilst in the outfit that reminded him of the good old days…
God, he fucking hated this shit.
He would quit the second he got revenge for Shin Han.
The area around Xu Wei's character glowed blue for a moment to signify leveling up.
[Party] Fearless: Carry me owo