In Virtual Reality

"Clean freak?" Celestial Master hesitated for a moment. He never expected an NPC in an online horror game to have such an attribute.

Xu Jin Yi cleared her throat and said solemnly, "We have the strictest physics engine."

【Including the NPC's personality.】

【Including germaphobia.】

【I don't know what to say... Is the actual physics engine used for this?!】

【Focus! Are we still commenting?】

【Is that the main point?】

【I can't shake the feeling that this Excelsior and the cool Excelsior on the forum aren't the same people...】

【Because the forum Excelsior is so excellent, the real Excelsior is unexpectedly a little malicious.】

【Stay away from your idols' private lives, fans! I'm talking about you, host!】

Celestial Master, strongly condemned by the barrage of comments, looked particularly aggrieved. "I didn't do anything!" he muttered softly. If you ignored his hands moving restlessly behind Xu Jin Yi's back, his words were quite convincing.

【What are you doing?! What are you doing?! What are you doing?!】

【There it is! The scream of Excelsior-fans!】

【What is the host planning with that sinister smile?】

【So that's it. Is it a psychological journey all fans must go through, where the more profound the love, the darker it becomes?】

As they walked, Excelsior abruptly halted, pivoting to face Celestial Master with a shifty movement. There was something nefarious in the way he looked.

The Celestial Master returned the stare in a tense silence.

"Are you a werewolf?" Xu Jin Yi asked, her tone peculiar as she looked up and down at Celestial Master, considering some action that could not be explicitly stated on Jinjiang.

Celestial Master withdrew his hand at lightning speed, wildly shaking his head, wishing he could pull out his identification card to clear his name.

"I, um...just wanted to take a photo." The young man's voice faltered with shyness.

Xu Jin Yi struggled to comprehend the thought process of this new fan. She blinked and hesitated before offering, "Well, then go ahead and take one."

The fan's eyes lit up. He eagerly retrieved a small camera from his interdimensional bag, nimbly snapping photos beside Xu Jin Yi from various angles. The movements were ostentatious, but the end result was quite impressive.

Observing the inexplicably exuberant Celestial Master, Xu Jin Yi's tone was both amused and perplexed. She contemplated their upcoming journey and decided to learn more about this new fan. "Is it necessary to be this ecstatic?" She inquired cautiously.

The sensation was sublime - two strangers who had never crossed paths before had become "idol" and "fans" thanks to a post and video shared on the gaming forum. Xu Jin Yi wasn't an active gaming community member; at best, she just perused the platform during its initial launch. Her impression of forum users was mainly limited to silly memes and vivid fan art. Each time she ventured onto the forum, she had to be wary of being ambushed by an emoticon. She even stumbled upon the library! 【Name redacted】 was inside!

If Officer Ye were still alive and had witnessed this spectacle, he would have risen from his grave and given the original poster a good slap. Just the thought of it made Xu Jin Yi let out a sigh. Had Sir Ye been that ruthless, things would have turned out differently. 【TN: So Ye was seme in the story XD, poor Wang Jin Long】

While Xu Jin Yi ruminated, Celestial Master was still awestruck. It was more accurate to say that his emotions had not settled since he'd laid eyes on Xu Jin Yi. The barrage of comments was worried about his elevated blood pressure.

"That's it! Excelsior, you are my Idol!" Celestial Master was so animated that his eyes sparkled. Once he'd finished fidgeting with his phone, he followed Xu Jin Yi. He delved into his history of becoming a fan of Excelsior. "I became your devoted follower seven years ago!" Celestial Master still reminisced about that winter when he'd argued with his family and sat weeping while scarfing down instant noodles and searching for electronic pickles on the video website. "But, Excelsior, your videos at the time...well, they were a bit clumsy." 【TN: I have zero ideas what are those electronic pickles but it so ambiguous that I left it there XD】

Xu Jin Yi: "...you became a fan rather early."

[Hey, somebody copy pasted my translations on another site! Please show some love by liking my work on https://puukkiss.wixsite.com/inkydragon. Without it, I may think that nobody is reading my work and consider abandoning it, which means you won't be able to find it anywhere else.]

Not everyone can ascend to great heights from the get-go. Xu Jin Yi was no exception.

Seven years prior, she couldn't have been more than thirteen or fourteen, right? Her understanding of horror games was partial at best, and she hadn't a clue about the platform of the first game she played. She stumbled through it, posting her gameplay video online out of curiosity and a desire to show off.

As fate would have it, the video never gained traction, sinking into the depths of obscurity. As a young and inexperienced gamer with little editing skills, her gameplay video was average, and few people would watch it. That was the first time Xu Jin Yi posted a video about a single-player horror game, treating it as a mere hobby for the next few years.

"But pray tell, how did you discern it was me?" Xu Jin Yi pondered, attributing it to the Celestial Master's good memory.

Celestial Master's response was an eerie silence that lingered for a few moments before he finally spoke, "Excelsior, you never changed your ID, did you?"

Xu Jin Yi: "......"

She had a gift for naming things or a terrible lack thereof. The woe of being bad at naming things was all too familiar to her. "Excellence in excellence" ("精益求精" (jīng yì qiú jīng)) was the most outstanding pun she had ever devised for a gamer ID.

'Apologise to the name 'Excelsior' for me!'

"Anyway," Celestial Master hesitated before speaking, "while many people fancy Excelsior's video style nowadays, personally, I prefer Excelsior's videos from a few years back."

Xu Jin Yi asked inquisitively, "Do you remember the game's name?"

"It was a foreign indie game," the Taoist recalled, "but I don't recall the specific name. However, in that video, you died hundreds of times without any editing."

Xu Jin Yi went silent for a prolonged moment before finally blurting out, "Just shut up."

Celestial Master: "?"

【So that's why! Hilarious!】

【Does that mean the streamer was Excelsior's earliest fan?】

【Is he Excelsior's keeper of dark secrets? Won't Excelsior silence him?】

"How could that be a dark secret?" The celestial Master spoke confidently. "It was Excelsior's unwavering perseverance that gave me hope for life again!"

【Who remembers the streamer who got hooked on the game website because of Excelsior's Ghost Ship?】

【"Ghost Ship"! That's the "Ghost Ship"!】

【Excelsior's old stomping ground! The graphics were as good as a movie!】

【Who could refuse Excelsior's Ghost Ship?!】

For the first time, Xu Jin Yi felt weak and breathless. "Thank you so much," she said.

"Don't mention it! Being Excelsior's fan and seeing his models is a great honor for me!"

"I wasn't complimenting you...never mind."

【LOL】

【This helpless tone...you're so fond of him!】

【Let me go! I can take it! I'll knock him down!】

The barrage of comments giggled and seemed to not take the horror game seriously.

【Honestly, the atmosphere feels so much lighter with Excelsior around.】

【I remember Excelsior using their bare hands to fend off monsters and doing backbends to dodge them.】

【But with so many videos from Excelsior, they must be making a lot of money, right? Just click on any video to see the number of views and coins. They should be able to afford a mere character skin.】

【Although the original character design looks pretty good, it doesn't quite match E's actual voice...】

【I never thought E was a cutesy girl, to begin with...】

【Really? Thank goodness for that. E's voice isn't particularly sweet-sounding; it's more like a unique and clear tone】

【What?! Is it the system's default voice?! I thought that was just how E sounded naturally!!】

The barrage of comments left the audience speechless.

As Xu Jin Yi sauntered down the shaded path, her hands sunk deep into her pockets. Celestial Master, now recovered from his previous state, began noticing something was amiss in their surroundings.

The atmosphere was eerily still and cold. Luckily, the blue moon shone bright overhead, illuminating their path. Although it wasn't dazzling, it was enough to show them the way ahead. Celestial Master walked by Xu Jin Yi's side, hesitantly surveying their surroundings before asking, "E, have you noticed... something staring at us?"

Xu Jin Yi replied instinctively, "Something?" As she looked towards their destination, which was drawing closer by the minute, she caught the Celestial Master's gaze wandering around in the same spot and suddenly realised. "Oh, you mean the 'Watcher'?"

"T-the 'Watcher'?" stuttered Celestial Master.

Celestial Master's panel was plagued by a persistent pop-up warning that someone or something was watching him. Though it appeared only fleetingly, he couldn't shake the feeling of being scrutinised during the ten-plus-minute journey.

'What's a watcher? Is it a new character card from a gaming website?' he wondered.

Despite the apparent emptiness of the surroundings, Celestial Master stood stock-still, listening intently for any clue that might betray the presence of someone or something.

"What are you doing?" asked Excelsior, breaking his concentration.

Still on high alert, Celestial Master strained to pick up any hint of a clue with his own ears when he noticed Excelsior standing outside the small wooden door, staring at him strangely.

"I'm looking for the watcher," he said with a note of urgency. "I won't slow us down, Excelsior!"

Xu Jin Yi's face was expressionless. "Come on, we're about to enter the dungeon, and you're still babbling." She raised her hand and knocked politely on the wooden door. "Excuse me, is this the 'Nine Springs Laundry Chain'?"

Heavenly Master: "?"

【?】

Confused, the bullet screen and the anchor were stunned for three seconds.

Eventually, a bullet comment popped up in the blank comment section.

【Hmmm... who came up with the name "Nine Springs Laundry Chain"? Do they really get customers here?】

【No, I think it's precise because of a name like this that they're able to stand out in an environment like this.】

【Hold on, have any of you ever questioned why there's a laundry shop in the middle of a park?!】

【Well, isn't it common knowledge, like the physics sword in Horror Games?】

【"Where's that common knowledge come from? Apologize to the common folks like me for your nonsensical 'common knowledge'!!!】

Celestial Master's mind briefly rusted, but reading the barrage area felt like using a lubricating oil; his thinking became smooth as if he had an epiphany.

He hurriedly ran up to Xu Jin Yi and whispered, "Excelsior, are we traversing an in-game internal passage?"

After contemplating for a moment, Xu Jin Yi knocked on the door and nodded. "That's a fair way of putting it."

【This thigh hug came just in time!】

The barrage began to rain with praise.

It was hard to imagine that these people had initially looked down on the host for being a sycophant.

"After all, we still have one task to complete."

Celestial Master nodded knowingly. "Oh, I see... a task?" He blankly scratched his head. "What task?"

"The robe hasn't been cleaned yet." Xu Jin Yi grinned and gazed at the small wooden door as it swung open. Without hesitation, she stepped inside. "Sorry for the interruption!"

The idol had already entered, so Celestial Master clenched his teeth and followed suit.

Hopefully, nothing unexpected would happen-- Ahhh! What is this!

As soon as he entered, a colossal tree trunk came face to face. Tianshi's eyes focused and then narrowed.

A fierce Cyclops eye was staring at him on the trunk without blinking.

Celestial Master was tongue-tied when he heard Excelsior's voice from afar. "Mhm? It's impolite to stare at a lady like that."

"Lady?" he repeated in disbelief as he stepped back and saw the tree trunk before him. The fierce, monster-like trunk blinked shyly.

"You're not talking about that thing, are you?" Celestial Master spoke in desperation. "That thing?!" he exclaimed.

What kind of trash modelling group was this?!