Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editors: alamerysl & Pyromancer

Unfortunately, something was bound to happen to Tyron today.

He had just opened his book when his AI housekeeper suddenly popped up with a very striking notification box: "Dear master, someone in the real world is looking for you! Warning, please deal with this information immediately as your life maintenance device is currently failing!"

As mentioned before, Pei Rong's body had been relying on machinery to live due to his hereditary mental disease. He would die if he wasn't careful, which made him afraid to even go offline.

Tyron had no choice, and could only choose to turn on the video device that linked to the real world and speak with the person who had come to see him.

.

It was Pei Rong's younger sister, Pei Ying.

As soon as Pei Ying saw that the video had turned on, revealing her elder brother's virtual face, she immediately started to whine, "Elder brother, why didn't you answer any of my communications or reply to my emails?"

Tyron had already changed Pei Rong's mailbox address and communication number. He really hadn't wanted to be reached at all.

But he hadn't expected this younger sister of his to be so cruel as to directly come and look for him in the real world, and attempt to turn off the machinery keeping him alive in order to force him to show up regardless of whether or not it would endanger her elder brother's life.

Tyron spoke, "Turn the machinery back on. What's the matter with you?"

The first sentence was directed towards the AI housekeeper, who immediately began to check the life support device and reported to Tyron; Fortunately, Pei Ying did not know how to operate the machinery, so Pei Rong's body had not been affected.

.

Pei Ying didn't notice anything else at all. She got straight to the point and said, "Brother, why did you send me the passwords for all the game characters?"

Tyron's words carried a double meaning. "Your elder brother has already given you all the money and anything of worth. Your name has also been written on the property ownership certificate. On the off-chance that your 'brother' dies, you will inherit all of it."

Pei Ying said, "That… Brother, did you reach the top four in the competition? That player number 419 is you, right?"

Tyron was most annoyed by this kind of circuitous conversation and said, "If you want something, just say it straight."

Pei Ying bit her bottom lip and said, "Elder brother, you're going to fight with Lu Chaofan next, right? He wants to talk to you about doing some business, but you didn't reply to his email. You can't be reached any other way, so he ended up asking me about it. I was thinking… I think that since our family is currently short on money, I wanted to come and ask you about it."

By now, Tyron had already understood what was going on.

.

Hey, the little fraudster Lu Chaofan really came to look for him. Did he want to stage a fake battle together?

Tyron was amused once again, but it did not show on his face. He said to Pei Ying, "One million, right? How much do you need?"

Pei Ying was a little surprised and bowed her head as she spoke, “You already know about Sixian’s matter, brother. I need money. The more, the better. I want 500,000&#k2026;”

“Oh.” Tyron said, “I’ll give you a mailbox address. Have Lu Chaofan contact me.”

Pei Ying said, “No, no need, brother. I’ve already talked to him many times. If you agree, I’ll send you the contract tomorrow!”

Tyron could tell that she had accepted an intermediary fee, and the urge to laugh increased. He spoke again, "It's too tiring for you to be in the middle. I'll negotiate this matter myself."

Pei Ying said quickly, "No, no. Brother, I'm not tired at all! You're already ill, just let me handle these things."

The corner of Tyron's mouth curved slightly. "I see. Send the contract for me to look over tomorrow then."

Pei Rong had never lied to his younger sister before, so Pei Ying immediately relaxed.

Pei Ying finally began to inquire about Pei Rong's well-being, but after a couple sentences, she pretended that she had to go catch up with work. She said goodbye and left with an overjoyed expression.

.

—One million. And she wanted half a million?

Tyron returned to the virtual world and opened up Lu Chaofan's personal page once again.

After looking at it for a while, Tyron touched his chin and showed an evil smile.

"This business is not bad."

.

Half an hour later, Tyron registered a new mailbox address and wrote to Lu Chaofan's public mailbox, declaring himself to be #419 and attaching the league's official identity card.

Before long, Lu Chaofan wrote back and asked him to meet at a virtual restaurant.

Judging from the speed of his reply and how quickly he set up the appointment, Tyron could guess that he was probably particularly anxious now. He hadn't been able to get in contact with #419 for a long time, and they were already about to compete.

Tyron didn't stand him up. He was very much at ease as he went to the appointed place.

.

Less than half an hour later, the two of them met in a private room. Because it was the virtual world, it was guaranteed that their conversation would not be overheard nor recorded.

After sitting down, Lu Chaofan was indeed very anxious. He immediately began to explain the contract that they were about to sign in detail.

"As we previously agreed, it's a total of three million." Lu Chaofan continued, "Five hundred thousand as deposit, and the rest will be given to you after the competition."

Three million. Pei Ying was really fierce. She had cut it down to one million before even telling him about it, and then tried to take another half after that. She only planned to leave one sixth of the total for her older brother.

Tyron curled his lips up and there was a faint smile on his face as he inquired, "When have we talked about this?"

Lu Chaofan became anxious. "You can't deny this. Your little sister agreed to it yesterday!"

Tyron drank a sip of water and said, "You were cheated. I don't have a younger sister."

Lu Chaofan: "…"

A few seconds later, Lu Chaofan finally realized that the self-proclaimed #419's younger sister was actually a female fraud!

Then he gritted his teeth and scolded angrily, "Fuck! I've been deceived! Lao Tzu will deal with her when I get back!"

.

Lu Chaofan discussed his contract with Tyron again from the start. The general gist of it was:

#419 was required to act, and lose to him according to the script that Lu Chaofan had written.

And he started with a deposit of 500,000 dollars, leaving 2.5 million dollars to be paid in full after the competition ended, and Lu Chaofan had won.

There was also a penalty for breach of contract. If either party failed to fulfil their obligations, or disclosed any information regarding the contract, there was an additional penalty of 20 million dollars.

Tyron said, "The championship prize for the Earth District's Individual World Championship is five million, but your contract is only worth three million?"

Lu Chaofan said, "You are only one of the top four. You have a 25% chance of winning the championship, but you now want five million?"

Tyron spoke indifferently, "Based on you guys? Probability is just something that the weak use as an excuse. As long as I want it, the championship will definitely be mine."

Faced with his arrogance, Lu Chaofan gritted his teeth so hard they hurt. He sneered, "Did you think that I relied on nothing but buying my way up? I'm telling you, you have to sign this contract even if you don't want to!"

Tyron: "I don't see anything that you can threaten me with."

Lu Chaofan took out his mobile phone and showed him a video.

.

This video was a video of Lu Chaofan abusing small players in the preliminary competition. Within the competition arena, his opponent's reaction speed was particularly slow. As long as Lu Chaofan made a move, his opponent would be hit; on the other hand, whenever his opponent made a move, he seemed like an old man who needed to aim for half a day before locking on to Lu Chaofan.

Tyron began to have an inkling as he watched.

Lu Chaofan said, "I'm not afraid to tell you that the assistant director is on my side for the finals. If you dare to try and go against me, I can let you try what it feels like to have your reactions delayed by 0.2 seconds."

Delay was a parameter of network speed.

If the delay was high, it indicated that the network speed was slow—when the opposing party used a skill that was only sensed half a second later, a skill that could originally have been avoided would become unavoidable. How limited would they be?

People's reaction speed was usually between 0.3 and 0.4 seconds. The higher the level of the contestant, the faster their reaction speed; the interstellar champions of this era's reaction speeds generally wouldn't exceed 0.3 seconds.

It was no exaggeration to say that after adding on an extra 0.2 seconds of delay, melee players would drop by at least two ranks. The world's top 500 would fall to become second-rate masters, and second-rate professionals would directly disappear from the public. What would they have left when competing against their opponents?

.

Lu Chaofan watched Tyron with great relish, and said, "Do you know what happened to this person? After watching the game, the audience demanded a refund, saying that he was as slow as a tortoise and his use of abilities was just like a grandmother pushing a baby carriage… I never imagined that the netizens would be so talented with their comments - I almost laughed myself to death. If I were to be the one flamed like this, I would have no face left to live in this world! Do you know what the expression on his face was like at that time? I love watching this kind of humbled look that seems to want to stab Lao Tzu to death. But the result is that they still suffer a crushing defeat."

Tyron thought for a moment and said, "If I hadn't shown up here today, would tomorrow's competition have ended up like this?"

Lu Chaofan grinned fiercely and said, "What do you think? If it wasn't because I wanted the finals to follow my script, would I have come over to sign a contract with you?"

A glimmer of a thought flashed across Tyron's eyes. He then said, "In that case, this three million dollar contract is the best choice for me, right? I can sign the contract, but there is an additional condition."

Lu Chaofan: "You still dare to talk to me about conditions?"

Tyron laughed and said, "I want to see the venue. Since you know the deputy director, it should be easy for you to go in ahead of time."

Lu Chaofan's gaze stopped on Tyron's face for a moment. Although his face could not be seen from within the hood, Tyron's dark golden eyes looked neither angry nor hateful — it seemed that he was really satisfied with the contract.

Since he was bringing up a condition, it showed that he was sincere about signing the contract.

Lu Chaofan thought about it. "I can take you to see the preparations."

.

Lu Chaofan's relationship with the deputy director was genuine. The deputy director specifically came over to pick him up.

That night, they entered the venue.

The staff involved in the finals were all in the midst of preparations. The entire backstage area was well organized, and everyone remembered to greet Lu Chaofan.

They arrived at the stage and looked at it again. At the moment, one of the hosts was in the midst of flying onto the stage to speak.

Lu Chaofan said, "The competition venues are randomly selected and cannot be faked. You've already seen the stage and the rest area in the back. Are you satisfied?"

Tyron glanced at the host—she was a well-known female player from a spirit demon game, and had been specifically invited to host finals for the top four contestants. She was a small goblin with dragonfly wings, and her palm-sized body glimmered with sparkling lights. She held a dandelion-shaped microphone and practiced her host lines while acting cute to curry favour.

Tyron looked around at the venue thoughtfully and said, "I've seen enough."

Lu Chaofan took out the contract and spoke coldly, "Then sign it. The script for the game will arrive in your mailbox in a moment. Remember, don't do any superfluous things. The penalty fee of 20 million is determined according to my reputation level. As a small commoner fighting to move up in the world, you wouldn't be able to afford it even if you sold everything!"