Chase Game

Standing in front of Wang Xiangyu's office, Ling Yi organized her thoughts, then raised her hand and knocked three times.

Boom boom boom!

"President Wang, I am Ling Yi."

After waiting for a while, no one responded.

Huh?

Strange, they called me here, but I'm not here. Should I leave or stay?

Just as he hesitated, he heard the sound of two people talking and leaning on their canes coming from around the corner of the corridor.

"Former Chairman, you're not leaving again this time, are you?"

"Sigh, I'm not going anywhere. I'm an old man, I can't leave even if I wanted to."

"Hehe, look at what you're saying..."

As Ling Yi walked out from around the corner, he saw Wang Xiangyu and Chen Yuquan. He had met them once before, so he greeted them naturally.

The two of them also saw him.

"Oh? Ling Yi has arrived."

"Hehe, young people are quick on their feet..."

The three of them entered Wang Xiangyu's office together. The simple and unpretentious furnishings inside surprised Ling Yi.

He thought that given Wang Xiangyu's personality, he would at least make things a bit flashy.

The three sat facing each other. Perhaps because the old chairman was in front, Wang Xiangyu looked much more serious and no longer had the greasy middle-aged uncle look he had before.

After taking a sip of tea, he said to Ling Yi:

"I've called you here to tell you something, which you probably already guessed: it's about 'meetings with the gods'."

"Just as I thought," Ling Yi thought to himself.

Wang Xiangyu continued:

"This is a special reward for players who have achieved an S rating three times. And you, Ling Yi, in your first game, as a novice fugitive, you managed to turn the tables on the veteran hunter. You truly deserve an S rating."

Ling Yi was not surprised. Zhang Haiping had previously asked him, as a novice, if he knew about "meetings with the gods," and his affirmative answer was tantamount to telling the association: my first game score was S.

"Deputy Director Zhang told me that this thing is related to 'the authority over the game'."

"That's right, a meeting with the gods is actually a gift from the gods, and the 'Game Authority' is the most valuable treasure among them!"

You got an S rank in your first game and have now officially joined the association, so I wanted to tell you about it in advance.

Ling listened attentively.

Wang Xiangyu picked up the teapot and poured himself some tea. He was actually a little sentimental, as it had been a year or two since he first received an S rating in the beginner games.

The young man in front of me got an S in his very first game; he's truly a force to be reckoned with.

After finishing his internal monologue, he continued:

"If we express it as a percentage, then the game authority that can be obtained from each meeting with the gods is five percent, which we call a 'first-tier player'."

Hearing this, Ling Yi felt a little strange. The first level is five percent of the power, and the tenth level is fifty percent. Could it be that there are a total of twenty levels?

Or is fifty percent already the limit?

He voiced his doubts.

Chen Yuquan stroked his white beard and answered his question.

"In fact, the tenth level is 49%, and so far, no player's authority has exceeded 50%."

Wang Xiangyu nodded and said:

"Perhaps that deity is unwilling to relinquish more authority, but that's still a long way off for you. If you want to find the answer, then step into the first tier first."

So that's why they called him over for a talk. To advance to the first level, he had to keep playing the game in order to get an S score.

Chen Yuquan and Wang Xiangyu asked him a few questions, which he answered normally. After that, they told him to go back first.

On his way back to the Operations Division, he was still reflecting on the conversation he had just had.

Meeting with the gods, authority in the game, first-tier players...

The chase game still holds many unknowns and mysteries for him, like a vast castle, and he is currently just a gardener outside the castle, inside the garden.

Only after gaining the right to play the game once and becoming a Tier 1 player can he be considered to have stepped into the castle gates.

And the foundation of all this is that sentence—

[A thrilling chase game for the gods!]

The brilliance defined by the gods is a fierce battle between evenly matched forces, a back-and-forth struggle, and a strategic plan to overcome the strong with the weak and turn defeat into victory.

The winner receives the right to play the game.

The loser is deprived of something by the winner.

Ling Yi was also pondering why he felt a disconnect between the game world and the real world, and why he identified with his player identity.

One reason is that they had no other choice.

But what about beyond that?

Just three days ago, he was an ordinary person, someone whose life hadn't experienced many ups and downs, someone with family, friends, and a normal life.

Even though his mother's passing remains a permanent regret in his heart, he still lives a very fulfilling ordinary life.

His life was as blissful as that of Charles Strickland, the protagonist of "The Moon and Sixpence".

Later, Strickland went on to pursue his dream of painting. Even when he was in dire straits, impoverished and ill, on a remote island in the South Pacific, he always believed that he had to paint, just as a drowning person has to struggle.

Ling Yi was also a "drowning person".

Looking back on his two games as a fugitive, where he walked the line between life and death, what are his feelings?

When he asked himself, the answer he received was:

Thrilling, exciting, thrilling, and wonderful!

He thought he must be crazy.

But he also knew clearly that this was his deepest, truest desire.

His past life had been too mundane and ordinary, but now an opportunity was presented to him, one that didn't even require him to abandon his family like Strickland had.

So why not pursue it?

The idea had long been planted in his heart. The chase game was like a belated rain, and now that it had arrived, the seed called "ambition" grew wildly.

He no longer needed to hide his true feelings.

At this moment, Ling Yi felt clear-headed and enlightened.

In the office behind him, Wang Xiangyu and Chen Yuquan were also discussing something.

"What do you think, former chairman?"

"He has a good temperament, is neither arrogant nor impatient, and most importantly, he is wise and ambitious, with the potential to reach the fifth rank."

"Such high praise?"

"Hehe, I'm an old man, and the only thing left that's still clear-eyed is these eyes. I shouldn't say much, but I just feel that he's a really good talent and we can't let him go to waste."

"That's true. If your judgment is second to none, then no one dares to claim to be first. You personally mentored both Yaoling and me, which further proves your excellent eye for talent!"

"Are you praising me or yourself?"

"Hahaha, praise them all!"

"Speaking of which, now that you're back, Yaoling should be arriving soon, right?"

"I'm the deputy, so I don't have much to do. Yaoling is the president, so he'll be staying in the capital for a while, but he'll be back soon, in the next few days."

"Okay, that's good. I'm very relieved to have the two of you taking over my duties at Beiguan..."