VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

In the meadow of the Viridian forest, a group of Immortals sat, waiting for the next match to begin.

Long Hei looked at Frost from the corner of his eyes in intervals.

Frost sighed. "What is it, Hei?"

Long Hei laughed. "Well…I just wanted to ask you something…"

"What?"

"Are you nervous?"

Everyone turned to look at him.

Long Hei panicked. "I didn't mean to offend you! It is just that…well…she did defeat 4 Immortals."

Frost shrugged. "I don't know and I don't care. All I want to do is finish this battle and go home."

Long Hei tilted his head. "Why? What happened?"

Frost sighed. "One of my family members had a heart attack."

"Oh?" Long Hei looked at her for a second. "I'm sure he will be okay."

Frost nodded. "I hope so."

She turned to Yue, who came sat down beside her and put her arm around Frost's shoulder.

"It will be alright."

Frost relaxed against her side. "Did you contact Crow?"

Yue nodded. "I did. He is alright but…well, he seemed to have lost a bit of his sanity. He sounded…obsessed. I don't know if-"

"Really?" Star Phoenix asked into a talisman. He nodded and the talisman turned to dust. "I just got two updates. One more bizarre than the other."

Long Hei looked at him with curiosity. "What is it?"

"SelaXiu has been playing this game for a month," Star Phoenix said. "Her earliest one is the Scroll Delivery Quest given in the outpost. Quiet high Quest for a player of Level 1, but not unmanageable."

San Zhe frowned. That wasn't right. He was guiding Cheng Xu to her first Quest, which was the Rock Pit. The fact that it seemed to have changed…and she had only played for a week or so. There wasn't a reason for her to lie to him about it. So why did Star Phoenix lie about it? Or was there something else at work?

He thought for a moment.

Could it be that Cheng Xiu used some kind of an item to change her questing time so that the Immortals wouldn't find out about it? If she did, he would have to commend her foresight. Maybe that was the difference between an S Rank and a B Rank like him.

The Immortals turned to San Zhe.

He backed away. "W-what?"

"You said that she was playing the game for only some time now. That was why we had the speculation that she was Cheng Xiu of all people," Long Hei said. "And you did not even try to say otherwise. You even acted like it was her, saying that Sister would never lie when we speculated that Cheng Xiu could have cheated in the Alliance test."

"You seem to have been agreeing with her identity back then," Lotus said as well. "Why is that?"

Frost sighed. "It is either that your speculation about her being Cheng Xiu was correct or it is that she is an S Rank player, but just not the one we know."

"Why are you so sure she is an S Rank though, Frost?" Yue asked with a frown. "And when did you guys speculate her real identity?"

Everyone else gave her a strained smile.

"Her learning capability and her fast reflexes are a clue to her rank, especially with the way that she handled EverHill's Weaving technique," Frost said.

"Why are you all so sure she was 18 anyway?" Yue asked. "She could have de-aged herself in the game."

"But San Zhe said that she is 18, and he did not seem to be lying when he said it," Matchstick argued.

Yue scowled. "You guys speculated so much about her identity and you did not even think of informing me even a bit about it?"

"We were not sure of it, so we sent a few of the other guild members to check out the facts," Matchstick said. "We thought that her being an S Rank could mean that she was Cheng Xiu."

Yue frowned. "Who is Cheng Xiu?"

The others looked at her in confusion.

"Don't you watch the news?" Matchstick asked.

Yue frowned. "I have better things to do than to pay attention to speculative fiction."

Matchstick sighed. "Cheng Xiu is the 18-year-old girl from Earth who had a very high score in the Alliance Test."

Yue raised an eyebrow. "And you thought someone of that calibre would be wasting their time playing a VR game instead of focusing on their work?"

Matchstick scoffed. "You can't be saying that. Crow is an Alliance Topper himself, and so is your brother."

Yue glared. "Brother Xing is different. He has a high Ranked Mental Capacity!"

Matchstick rolled his eyes. "It is like you are not listening to me. I said that SelaXiu could be an S Rank!"

"Why?"

"Because Cheng Xiu is speculated to an S Rank."

Yue frowned. "Which country does she belong to?"

Matchstick shrugged. "Who knows. All I know is that she is from Earth."

Yue scoffed. "Don't you think that those Earthlings would have declared this for all the known Universe to know that they have an S Rank?"

Matchstick shrugged. "I am not part of the Earth Alliance. I don't know what their leaders are thinking. But most experts are sure that Cheng Xiu is an S Rank of 18-years-old."

Yue pondered. "S Ranked and 18? That is a powerful potential."

Matchstick nodded. "There is also the fact that we don't know when her Mental Capacity increased to S Rank either. If it was a recent development, it is still an achievement but if she had that capability at 16 or 17, that would mean that she might become SS in the next 10 years."

Yue gasped. "No…that…that kind of potential…"

"And that is why we were so shocked when we speculated that SelaXiu might be Cheng Xiu. When San Zhe did not protest against our speculations, I was even more sure," Star Phoenix sighed. "So, San Zhe…which is it? Is she or is she not Cheng Xiu?"

"And if she isn't," Long Hei warned, "Why did you keep quiet when we speculated that she is?"

San Zhe pursed his lips.

He did not know what to say or do at that moment. If he said that she was Cheng Xiu, then Sister Cheng's effort to create a false trail for herself will fail, but if he said she wasn't, then he would have to give these people an explanation as to why he kept quiet, even though he knew that their speculation was wrong.

San Zhe avoided eye contact with them as he thought of an excuse.