Online Game: My Decay Drives the Entire Server Crazy

Chapter 59 Qin Wentian completely quits the game, and the Heavenly God Palace is officially disbanded.On the night the speedrun finals ended, Qin Wentian did not log off. He stood alone in a corner of the Main City Square, staring at the seven-colored glow of the space-time judgment in Lin Ye’s hand for a full hour. People came and went across the square; casual players were laughing, playing, and rushing to buy cheap materials. No one noticed him. The former guild leader of the server’s top guild stood there like a ghost, without a single person even greeting him.

He opened his character panel. Level 35, a full set of Epic gear, a Legendary weapon, and over three million gold coins left in his bag. Judging by the data, he was still a top-tier player ranked in the top fifty of the server. But he knew this data was meaningless. He couldn’t beat Lin Ye—it wasn’t just a small gap; they were in different dimensions.

He opened the guild channel. It was empty. The last message was sent three days ago by Po Jun: ”Guild Leader, take care.” He hadn’t replied. He didn’t know what to say. Say sorry? He’d said it too many times. Say he was wrong? Even if he was wrong, he couldn’t fix it now. Say he missed them? He didn’t have the face to say that.

Qin Wentian closed the guild channel and opened his friends list. There were hundreds of names, but most of the avatars were gray. Some had already quit the game, some had deleted him, and some were online but didn’t want to talk to him. He scrolled down one by one. When he reached Po Jun’s name, he stopped. Po Jun was online, chatting with his brothers in the Dawn Guild’s channel. Qin Wentian clicked on Po Jun’s private messages, typed a line, then deleted it. Typed again, deleted again. After repeating this a dozen times, he ultimately sent nothing.

He closed his friends list and opened the forum. The forum was filled with posts about the speedrun finals. The top trending post was a video of Lin Ye clearing the dungeon in one minute and one second, which had already surpassed ten million views. The second trending post was a screenshot of the space-time judgment’s attributes, with the comment section flooded with ”Brother Ye is awesome.” The third trending post was: ”Qin Wentian spent ten million real-world currency on gear, only to finish dead last.” He clicked on that post and looked at the comments below.

Floor 1: Hahaha, ten million for last place. Kai the Leek is officially confirmed.

Floor 2: Not just a leek, he’s an idiot. Better to have donated that money to Project Hope.

Floor 3: Stop bashing him, he’s miserable enough. Guild’s gone, brothers are gone, money’s gone.

Floor 4: Miserable? When he was monopolizing materials, why didn’t he think about how miserable the casual players were?

Floor 5: Exactly. He deserves it. He brought this on himself.

After reading these comments, Qin Wentian wasn’t angry, nor was he sad. Because he knew they were telling the truth. He did deserve it, and he really had brought it on himself.

He closed the forum, logged out of the game, and took off his helmet. The rental room was very dark, with only the indicator lights of the gaming pods flickering. He sat in his chair, looking at the row of gaming pods. Twenty pods, twenty slips of paper, twenty names. Po Jun, Ling Tian, Kuang Zhan, Ying Ren, Mage, Priest, Archer, Assassin, Knight, Summoner... He looked at them one by one, reciting each name aloud.

He remembered when they first founded the guild three years ago; there were only five of them. Five people squatting in the Novice Village square without even a proper guild territory. Back then, Po Jun said: ”Guild Leader, one day, we’re going to make the Heavenly Temple the number one guild in the server.” Ling Tian said: ”Guild Leader, I’m sticking with you.” Kuang Zhan said: ”Guild Leader, I’ll hit wherever you point.” Ying Ren said: ”Guild Leader, you’re the only person I’ll ever respect in this life.”

Back then, he felt like he owned the world. But now he realized that all he owned was data. Money was data, gear was data, and the guild was data. The only things that weren’t data were those brothers. But he had turned his brothers into data as well.