Zhan Long
chapter-256

Morning in the ZGTV lobbies.

I turned my head up gazing at the structure; this building couldn’t be considered luxurious at all; at least it was a lot less formal looking than the building next to it. Downstairs, a vivid lifelike bronze statue of a barbarian Berserker stood guarding the floor while holding a battle axe. The words Destiny 08/27/2017 were written on its’ pedestal. That was the date on which Destiny first opened its servers.

……

Wan Er wore a cream colored short skirt with a nice dress shirt and jacket. She exuded a gentle and refined grace while carrying her white purse. Looking at the building, she laughed, “ZGTV’s gaming culture seems to be doing fine…”

Continuing, she happily said, “I was interested in video games ever since I graduated from junior high. Wu…if I had the choice, I would not have sung Heart of Time these past years but would have gone to work for ZGTV or possibly Destiny. Even if I was stuck at a small time desk job, it would still be like working at a place of my dreams. Li Xia Yao, what do you think?”

I was wearing a western black suit. Looking at her hope filled gaze, I laughed merrily, “I don’t have the ability to make a choice.”

“Why not?” Wan Er looked at me dumbfounded.

I answered after thinking for a bit, “Because everyone’s life is different, the moment I joined my teacher on the path of martial arts, I was destined to live a life full of death and murder. What I learned was not for entertainment or for show, it was… to kill people…”

Wan Er frowned, a trace of doubt flickering within her beautiful eyes, “You…you really have killed people before?”

I turned around to avoid looking at her and gave a small chuckle, “Let’s not talk about this, it’s almost time to go. We should head upstairs; Fei Er is probably waiting for us in the lobby…”

“Oh…”

Wan Er was smart, and she didn’t continue to press on about my past. She knew I wouldn’t talk about it anyways.

……

In the ZGTV lounge. Fei Er had changed into a coffee colored uniform dress; smiling, she got up from the sofa and greeted us, “You two finally came; I was almost afraid of being stood up. If that happened, then my poor salary for this month would had been a travesty to see…”

“How could we, we are honest players that keep our promises…” Wan Er laughed.

Fei Er looked at Wan Er’s powdered face silently, “Ai, an interview with the legendary Heart of Time singer, Lin Wan Er. The pressure is too big. You’re so pretty too, I’m already feeling weak in the knees…”

I pounded my chest, “Don’t worry, you have me as a support actor here. Being beautiful is something that should be left up to you two; I’ll focus on being mediocre.”

Fei Er laughed, “Xiao Yao Zi Zai is such a jokester. You are the leader of [Zhan Long], and the new handsome player of Ba Huang City. You are in no way the support role; you and Lin Wan Er will be today’s leading roles. Let’s go on, the broadcasting station is on the 9th floor. I’ll take you all there.”

“Alright.”

……

As the elevator slowly rose towards the 9th floor, we watched as the broadcasting hall came into view. The lights were already lit and five cameraman were already working on the set. With Fei Er as the sixth member, she gave me and Wan Er the manuscripts for the interview. On the script were all sorts of topics regarding Destiny; that way, the interview would not run out of topics to discuss.

“Need some light makeup?” Fei Er asked us, “Otherwise when the light shines on you, you won’t look as good.”

Wan Er asked, “I already have some on, just some minor foundation. It won’t be that noticeable to anyone else.”

“That’s good, what about Li Xiao Yao?” Fei Er continued.

My mouth twitched, “No thanks, I’d rather die…”

Fei Er laughed, “So be it; if you think you’re that handsome, then be prepared. During Destiny’s Future Outlook, I interviewed [Flying Dragon]’s Guild Master, Soaring Dragon. That one was one heck of a clown, he put on so much make up before appearing on screen. I bet he made small kids cry the moment the TV was switched on. Ah, I have sinned…”

Me: “……”

…..

We sat on the sofa of the broadcasting setting; it was actually more like a chat-type interview. Fei Er was extremely professional and experienced. With the manuscript on her side, she smiled softly, “Welcome to this episode of ZGTV Famous Person interview. Today we have invited two people who have shaken Fan Shu City and Ba Huang City with their names and reputations. They are – the beauty on my left is Fan Shu City’s number one beauty, also [Hero’s Mound] Vice Guild Master and number one Assassin beauty Cang Tong. In real life, she’s known as Lin Wan Er, whom I think many of our audiences would know. Three years ago, a beautiful girl called Lin Wan Er sang a song Heart of Time that swept up a storm in Asia. It is indeed the same person as the beautiful Cang Tong in front of our eyes here…”

Lin Wan Er made a slight smile and gracefully said,“Hello everyone!”

Fei Er then continued, “The other person, the handsome guy sitting beside Lin Wan Er, is someone whom I think many would already know of just by looking at his appearance. He is indeed Ba Huang City’s number one player in fame right now, with the nickname of “Strongest Healer Swordsman”, [Zhan Long]’s Guild Master, also the first one to own a Valkyrie Tier weapon, Emperor Qin’s Sword, Xiao Yao Zi Zi! In real life, he’s called Li Xiao Yao, with an unknown background. He is a mysterious handsome guy, heehee..”

Even when faced with a sniper rifle I was still calm, so of course there was no problem when faced with a camera. I was just a little bit nervous and I nodded my head and smiled, “Hello everyone…”

Fei Er laughed lightly, “Continuing on, we shall enter our interview segment. Firstly, I would like to ask. Wan Er is Fan Shu City’s number one beauty and Xiao Yao is also Ba Huang City number one bachelor; how did you two know each other? In real life, what is the nature of your relationship?”

“How do we know each other…”

Lin Wan Er looked like she was remembering the first time we met, where I barged in into her changing room while she was changing clothes. Her oval face immediately turned beet red, “It’s nothing much, we are just normal friends; we knew each other normally…”

I nodded, “Yeah, Wan Er and I were schoolmates, we studied in the same University together. We are also classmates who played Destiny together. That’s how we met each other…”

Fei Er turned her gossip girl mode on as she laughed naughtily, “What? Why do I feel there is something else hidden? I am counted as someone who crawls through Destiny’s forums and I saw a lot of threads about the two of you. There are even a lot of speculations that you guys are lovers in real life; is that right?”

“We are not…” Lin Wan Er seemed powerless as she tried to explain.

Fei Er continued to ask, “Then how did you two actually meet?”

Wan Er with her face blushing and had totally forgotten everything all about her mind-reading abilities; her mind and heart was in absolute chaos, “That…that…actually there was one time I was shooting for a commercial, and then I met Li Xiao Yao, that was all…”

Having succeeded in getting her way, Fei Er laughed happily, “Oh oh, so that’s how you guys actually met. But the word “meet” has a lot of meanings you know. Beautiful Wan Er, how did you two actually meet?”

Wan Er’s heart was in absolute chaos as she began to stutter and mumble. She didn’t know what to say to Xia Fei Shuang any more.

I gritted my teeth and said, “Actually…Wan Er was changing clothes, and then I accidentally went into her changing room. Cough, cough, it was a misunderstanding! Director, please cut this scene out, otherwise I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth!”

Fei Er couldn’t help but laugh, “Alright, alright, sorry I pushed you guys too far… Director, just cut these few lines; it’s no big deal.”

The director signaled OK with his hands, “No problem!”

……

Continuing to chat, we talked about everything related to the game from about Ba Huang City to Jian Feng Han and from Jian Feng Han to [Wrath of the Heroes]. Then it went from [Wrath of the Heroes] to [Zhan Long]. [Zhan Long] moved to [Hero Mound] to Dong Cheng Yue. And then it changed from Dong Cheng Yue to Yue Qing Qian to Yue Wei Liang. Fei Er explained that Dong Cheng Yue, Yue Qing Qian, Yue Wei Liang, General Li Mu and General Wang Jian are all famous individuals of the main cities. In the future, the anchors of ZGTV would have many people to interview and would have many chances to invite them all to the broadcasting studio.

After 1 hour of interviewing, the first half of it was over. After drinking some of the water, I noticed that the mineral spring water next to me hadn’t even been touched.

Wan Er stood by my side and gave a pat on my shoulder, “I’m going to the restroom for a bit…” She whispered.

“Got it!”

……

After chatting with Fei Er for almost 5 minutes, I still didn’t see any signs of Wan Er. Immediately my heart stilled as I became fully alert. At the same time, my phone vibrated with a single text from Wan Er saying, “Come quickly, there’s people here…”

“Ah?!”

I immediately stood up and cried out to Fei Er, “Don’t leave from this spot, I’ll be right back!”

“Eh, what happened?”

“It’s nothing…”

……

Rushing out of the broadcasting lounge’s grand doors, I turned right towards the women’s restroom.

After turning the corner, the faint shadow of a man turned around. A black barrel suddenly pointed itself at my forehead. The heck, it was a gun!

Immediately increasing my qi, I leaned towards the side as the sound of the muffler on the gun was heard. As the scorching hot bullet grazed past my face like a meteor, I stared intensely at the person in front of me. The shooter was very tall, with high set cheekbones and eyes that were sunk in. This guy was not a chinese person!

My legs kicked into motion as I moved forward but this man’s speed wasn’t all that bad, and his knee came up to strike me. Unfortunately for him, his speed was slower than mine. With a single chop, his shoulder became dislocated and as he recoiled, I took advantage of the moment by using my left leg to kick him twice. There was no way a regular hitman would be able to take on a blow like this. He howled in pain as he suffered fractures in both his legs. Kicking once more, the gun went flying out into the corridor far away from us.

Not even bothering to finish him off, I ran off to the front of the woman’s restroom and barged inside.

The door to the women’s restroom had already been kicked open, so I rushed through the opening when all of a sudden my heart trembled. My mind saw the faint image of Wan Er; I could almost hear sounds coming from the image as well. Was this…was her using her mind reading abilities to warn me?!

I ducked automatically as a military knife swept past where my head was, cutting off a few strands of my hair. Punching out, I heard a satisfying “pow” as I saw another black suited foreigner. His stomach had taken my fist, causing him to fall over!

“Pa!”

Grabbing the dagger that fell from his hands, I raced to the side of the sink stands where Wan Er was whimpering. Behind her, a sturdy black special agent c*cked a pistol to the side of her head. In fluent Chinese, he stated, “Kid, put down the blade or else the girl dies…”

Wan Er slowly shook her head, “Don’t do it…Li Xiao Yao…don’t do it…”

……

My eyes went bloodshot as I held the army knife parallel to my chest. Immediately letting go, the knife fell to the floor!

“Hey!”

The moment the knife hit the floor, the black man lifted his gun at me. It fired by the time I moved to the side to dodge and I felt a burning sensation in my right arm. Gritting my teeth, I lashed out with my right leg!

“Bang!”

The army knife went flying and nailed the special agent in the neck, pinning him to the wall. The ceramic tiles behind broke into pieces as his blood splashed onto it.

Wan Er escaped from the dead man’s grip towards my direction but as she noticed the blood flowing freely from my shoulder, tears began to flow just as freely from her eyes, “You…are you an idiot?”

I stared coldly at the special agent lying on the floor behind me. After confirming that there were no more remaining threats, I lightly pressed my head against Wan Er’s shoulder and lightly smiled, “Everything’s fine now. Call your old man and tell him to dispatch some people here.”