Chapter 190 – Level 2 Researcher, Keyboard Warrior (2-in-1)

“Even though Teacher Dong is no longer teaching me, I will visit her everyday, so do not think that there would be any opportunity for you to be alone with her!” Gu Yueyan said.

After they finished their meal at Dong Chengling’s house, Ren Suo and Gu Yueyan left. Just before they parted ways, Gu Yueyan warned Ren Suo in a vicious tone, “This time, and only this time, for Sister Qiao’s sake, I will not continue harping on what happened last night. However, I will be watching you closely at all times, you emergency doctor!”

Ren Suo was completely unbothered by such a threat. He replied, “In any case, study well in your third year of high school and get into university as soon as you can.”

Ren Suo’s words penetrated deep into her heart and her entire face turned red. She was thinking about something, then she left without a word.

Ren Suo had intended to ask her: “Would you be willing to take a nap at my house (while I retrieve the key from you)?”

However, judging from Gu Yueyan’s personality, he was afraid that she would pretend not to hear what he said while secretly activating the recording function on her mobile phone. She would then ask Ren Suo to repeat what he said and use the recording as evidence to accuse Ren Suo of sexually harassing female students.

“I really wonder how Qiao Muyi managed to tame her…” Ren Suo to himself muttered.

Ren Suo turned his head and saw the black cat basking in the sun at the bottom of the block, as usual. A wave of anger immediately rose in his heart and he lost it. He walked over to the cat and rubbed the cat’s head forcefully in anger. Before the cat could react, he swiftly slipped into the building and laughed loudly as he ran up the stairs.

Ren Suo was in a very good mood, perhaps because he rubbed the cat’s head, or perhaps because he witnessed the anguished Gu Yueyan, or perhaps…

——————

Moments ago at the dining table, Gu Yueyan asked Dong Chengling if she had returned to teach, to which Dong Chengling nodded, then shook her head.

She said, “I will remain at the Heavenly Institution of Lian, but I will no longer be a teacher of the high school. Instead, I will be a lecturer at the university, which specializes in Practitioner cultivation.”

As she spoke, Dong Chengling was slightly apologetic towards Gu Yueyan. She said, “Although I would not be able to continue teaching you in class about Practicing and cultivation, you may still approach me directly if you have any questions, Xiaoyan.”

At that juncture, Gu Yueyan was already bursting in tears. Ren Suo interrupted their conversation and asked, “You have such a powerful Awakened Ability, is Tianjing not stopping you from leaving?”

“Of course, the Tianjing side wishes for me to remain there, but it is not a must,” Dong Chengling replied.

She continued, “Although my Awakened Ability is powerful, there are not many opportunities when my ability is required, under normal circumstances. If there is a disaster, or if they require emergency movement between locations, I can return to Tianjing directly by activating the Space Door. They have already set a fixed pair of coordinates for me as the destination location.”

“At all other times, I can continue Practicing or performing research as per usual. The Practitioner Institution of Tianjing also invited me to become a lecturer there, but I…”

Dong Chengling looked at Ren Suo and then at Gu Yueyan before completing her sentence, saying, “…I still choose to come back here.”

Gu Yueyan was extremely emotional upon meeting Dong Chengling’s gaze, but Ren Suo caught the main point of her reply. He asked, “Is a new Practitioner University going to be built in Lianjiang City?”

“It is the university of the Heavenly Institution of Lian,” Dong Chengling said.

She explained, “This summer, the Heavenly Institution of Lian will be upgraded to a higher education institute. It will only open majors related to Practicing and cultivation. Although the detailed regulations are still being discussed, it will definitely be established before September this year. It is currently already accepting high school graduates.”

Curious, Ren Suo asked, “Are the majors approved by the nation? Is a degree awarded?”

Dong Chengling replied, “They are all bachelor degrees.”

Gu Yueyan seemed unwilling to let Ren Suo interact any more with Dong Chengling. She asked, “In that case, would students at the university learn more powerful abilities, unlike us who only practice [Clothes] all day long?”

“Of course, those who major in Practice and cultivation will be taught more powerful abilities. Those who are interested in becoming combat Practitioners of the Countermeasure Division would also learn combat abilities in university,” Dong Chengling replied.

She smiled and added, “And I am the lecturer who will be in charge of imparting combat abilities.”

Gu Yueyan asked, “Combat abilities… Is that [Lock]?”

Dong Chengling replied, “[Lock] is the most basic combat ability; there is a more advanced version of that ability.”

She turned to Ren Suo and said, “You should be able to acquire this ability if you log in to the Knowledge Web now. I definitely recommend that you learn and practice using this ability.”

——————

When Ren Suo reached home, he immediately logged in to the Knowledge Web and navigated to the Abilities Universe.

Although it was not yet the purchase period, the Ability Stars could still be accessed, and Ren Suo could still see information about them.

Indeed, in the Abilities Universe, Ren Suo found the spell Dong Chengling recommended—

—[Tame Head].

It was exactly the ability amulet which Ren Suo had exchanged from the Northern Mang Earth Elf in “The All-Devouring Soul”. In the end, he had given the Countermeasure Division of Xuan Nation the ability amulet as a gift, through the pangolin, by claiming that it was a “Tablet of Treasure from the Heavenly Palace”.

That ability was exactly what Ren Suo needed; it could knock people unconscious from far away, and the target would either remain unconscious and have to be supplemented with glucose for the next eight to ten days, or otherwise have to receive Reiki treatment. Such a treatment was exactly what Ren Suo could do, which made that ability an easy way for a healing Practitioner like him to rise through the ranks.

Initially, when Ren Suo realized that the number of tier 2 Practitioners increased, he was concerned that he could become unemployed as a result (tier 2 Practitioners with average affinities could already learn [Heal]). However, after consulting Yu Kuangtu, he realized that his worries were unfounded.

That was because not everyone had the Mini Worlds game console. Those who did not have it had to spend precious time learning abilities—or rather, they had to spend time to build and form the Reiki channels of the various abilities.

If a tier 2 Practitioner with an average affinity truly wanted to learn the ability [Heal], the Practitioner had to spend days or even weeks to master it. Otherwise, they would merely be able to make a tiny glow, just like Ren Suo had when he first attempted casting the ability.

Under such circumstances, the nation recommended that Practitioners be adept and proficient at a particular ability and need not know a wide range of abilities. As such, a tier 2 Practitioner would only be required to learn the ability [Heal] if a team in a particular area did not have a single healing Practitioner. Moreover, tier 2 Practitioners would also be eager to try out tier 3 abilities which required a higher level of affinity.

“This is unexpected…” Ren Suo muttered as he scratched his head.

At first, he had only wanted to make [Tame Head] known so that he had more opportunities to be in contact with Awakeners. However, he had not expected that the nation would value the ability so much that it would become the main ability learned by those who majored in Practice and cultivation in the university.

As yet, [Tame Head] had not been classified into a corresponding ability tier, and was described as a ‘tier 1 or 2 ability’. Its purchase price was unexpectedly cheap as a result.

Perhaps it was because the Countermeasure Division believed the ‘nonsense’ that the pangolin said, which led them to believe that there was a huge secret hidden within [Tame Head]. That could have been why they shared the ability widely and urged people to learn it.

Ren Suo had received his remuneration, in the form of Reiki stones, for the month, so he casually bought the ability.

He experienced another cycle of dizziness. When he regained his consciousness, he quickly understood why Dong Chengling said that the ability was a more advanced version of [Lock]—it was too complicated.

Ren Suo cast [Tame Head], but the next moment, he felt that his Reiki energy dissipated as it flowed midway through the Reiki meridian channel.

Having already known the concept of Reiki meridian channels, Ren Suo naturally understood that it was because the meridian channel of the ability was too complicated. Before his Reiki could complete flowing through the entire channel, all of the energy had dissipated. It was similar to rolling a thin piece of paper into a straw to drink a cola, only to realize that the straw broke due to the dampness as the cola was being sucked up using the straw.

The ability did not require much Reiki energy, but it required extremely precise control. Although it seemed like a tier 1 ability, it demanded even more from the Practitioner than a tier 2 ability.

‘Regardless, such an ability must be extremely prone to accidents…’ Ren Suo thought to himself.

Almost sinisterly, Ren Suo hoped that the university students who majored in Practice and cultivation would learn the ability well, and even practice the ability diligently in order to become the top student.

At that juncture, Ren Suo’s mobile phone rang and a message popped up:

[Please log in to the intranet.]

Ren Suo cheered and quickly logged in to the intranet to check it out.

As he had expected, the 17 reports of “information about the existence of an unknown entity intruding into games” which he uploaded had all been verified to be true!

The impact of the video “Intrusion” was actually not huge, as the most widespread effect it caused was the disappearance of chat groups for just over ten hours. However, it was nonetheless a video uploaded by ‘Naisser Ren’, and the fighting scenes in the video were absolutely thrilling. Propelled by QQ, the video spread like wildfire on the internet and became extremely popular within a few hours of its upload. Naturally, the Countermeasure Division would have verified the authenticity of the video immediately.

On the other hand, the editing of the video “Intrusion” was exactly what Ren Suo needed, ensuring that the existence of Irina and a player was not exposed.

The hunter who endlessly intruded into different games and who chased down the ‘evil monster’ in the game with the help of characters from other games had only one name—Keyboard Man.

At that point, when the Countermeasure Division performed their investigation, they would quickly realize that a researcher had actually noticed the presence of Keyboard Warrior from the very beginning!

Looking at the list of “Verified” seals, Ren Suo rubbed his palm in glee. He opened the notification within the intranet.

[You have received 1000 researcher points for your verified report “Situation Report 1 on Game Intrusion”.]

[You have received…]

[Congratulations, Researcher Ren. You have been promoted to a Level 2 Researcher. Please click here for the details of your benefits.]

[Researcher Ren, you may now use 3000 points to start a new discussion thread. For each valuable reply in a discussion thread, the original poster will receive an additional 30% of the researcher points from the particular reply.]

Ren Suo’s face lit up. When his reply was verified to be the truth in the “Zhao Zili Investigation Report” discussion thread, he had received a whopping 7000 points. Although he had received more points as his reply was only verified after the actual event took place, 2000~5000 points would still be awarded in general if a reply was deemed to be the truth in a regular discussion thread.

In other words, as long as there were three or four valuable replies, the initiator of the discussion would benefit and earn greatly.

If the researcher was more fortunate, he could even prosper and rise through the ranks for being ‘good at initiating discussion questions’!

Ren Suo naturally wanted to increase his rank as a researcher. After all, following his promotion to be a Level 2 Researcher, his salary increased, and so did the number of wristband points and Reiki stones he received!

Furthermore, the replies Ren Suo posted in the future would also receive more acknowledgment, and the information he uploaded would also be more highly valued!

Ren Suo had also intended to look through what was being discussed about “Intrusion” on the intranet that day, but when he opened the mystery section, a message from the intranet appeared:

[The discussion section is currently undergoing maintenance and being upgraded. Please log in again after 10:32:31.]

“Isn’t this exactly the time when a discussion is the most important, why did they decide to upgrade the page at such a time…” Ren Suo thought to himself, slightly puzzled.

Although it was a slight pity that he could not see what strange reasons other researchers had come up with to explain the actions of Keyboard Man, Ren Suo had always felt that the serious discussions between the researchers were actually the best shield for ‘Naisser Ren’.

Without the other researchers, Ren Suo had absolutely no idea that there were so many reasons to explain the actions of Keyboard Man!

“Since there is nothing for me to do now…”

Ren Suo looked at the date in the lower right corner of his computer screen—July 1. He returned to the living room and turned on the game console.

The start-up tone still remained ever so pleasant:

“Mini worlds of endless fun await!”

“Let’s begin… Onward to a new game!”

——————

“Finding people is indeed our specialty, but finding 2D characters… It is really beyond our abilities.”

…

Within the Practitioner Institution of Tianjing, Gu Yuexuan walked out of a large office. He told his team, “Let’s pack up and head back.”

Although the members in his team were all slightly puzzled, it was only after they had left the school when Wen Junjie asked, “Weren’t we called to the school to assist a Practitioner to find someone? Why are we going back now?”

“She wants us to find Keyboard Man,” Gu Yuexuan replied in a muffled voice.

“Keyboard Man?” the team members said as they looked at each other. Cheng Xiao asked, “Isn’t that a keyboard warrior? Can’t the cybersecurity and surveillance department handle that?”

“It’s not a keyboard warrior,” Gu Yuexuan said. He took out his mobile phone and navigated to the video “Intrusion”. He said, “Have a look at this and you would understand what I mean.”

The team members huddled together to watch the video.

After a short while, they exclaimed, “Can the 7.26mm bullet penetrate the shield of qi?”

“I’ve always wanted to drive a tank over them everytime I watch a ghost movie, this feels absolutely satisfying!”

“I’m not convinced, how could all the abilities and items be used, the Great Dragon lost!”

“This is so realistic: the chat group is the battlefield, and the sticker packs are ammunition.”

After the teammates finished expressing their thoughts, Gu Yuexuan said, “The person in the video who controlled the game characters to intrude other game and software servers is called Keyboard Man.”

Wen Junjie asked, “Captain, does that mean that the person controlling the game characters is Keyboard Man?”

“That is what most people think, and it is also what our superiors think. Our task later is to find a way to analyze the behavioral traits, gender, personality, and residing location of the Keyboard Man,” replied Gu Yuexuan, looking sullen.

He continued, “The lady just now who specially called us here through the Countermeasure Division was Director Gu. She wanted us to find Keyboard Man. The problem is that she believes that Keyboard Warrior is not a real person, but a 2D character who is constructed with data blocks and can be represented as a jpg image.”

The team members laughed and said, “Our imaginary target to track down does not possess any virtual data.”

Gu Yuexuan said, “Forget it, let’s get back to work. Finding Keyboard Warrior would be no easier than finding the Earth Elf. The only thing we know at this point in time is that he/she is from Xuan Nation because the term Keyboard Warrior is an Internet phrase that is used locally.”

…

“Truly, I can only rely on myself.”

In an office, all of the curtains were drawn despite it being daytime, making it extremely dim inside. A young girl in a white coat, who was wearing headphones, sat in a gaming chair with her legs propped up. She pushed her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose and stared intently at the three 27-inch 144hz UHD displays in front of her. Data streams scrolled past the screens and the bright light from the displays illuminated her silky white and delicate face.

She bit her thumbnail as she muttered to herself, “Even if I can’t find you, I am still in charge of the Xuan Nation intranet. Don’t you dare intrude into my property, Keyboard Man!”