Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 294 To The Forums (Part 1) 

 

Fate’s official forum was the largest and the most populated gaming forums with the most content. 

 

Due to the popularity of Fate, millions of players log into the forum on a daily basis, with tens of thousands sometimes even millions of threads posted on a daily basis. There were posts about information relevant to several classes, guild recruitments, players showing off their prowess in-game, and gossip. 

 

This made the Fate official forum one of the best gaming forums. 

 

The multitude of threads on Fate’s forums will be ranked based on their popularity, and the top-10 thread would be judged, and the best among the ten would receive a considerable amount of monetary reward.

 

While not many could benefit from these rewards, it did not stop players from trying their luck. One would never know if one’s thread might make it into the top-3. 

 

The most popular thread on this day was posted by a user named “Just A Passerby”, with the title <<Love That Transcends Hate! An In-depth Analysis of the Top Gossip in Fate on the First Day of the Patch’s Release!>> 

 

It had been three hours since the thread was posted when Tan Polang logged into his account, but there were already more than 200,000 comments. He was on the forums to look for news about Fleeting Time, but curiosity drove him to click into the thread. 

 

Despite the quality of Fate’s servers, it still took quite a while before the page could be properly loaded. Tan Polang creased his eyebrows. Dozens of seconds have passed, but he was still unable to see the content of the post. 

 

But the contents of the post loaded just when Tan Polang was almost giving up. 

 

The poster, “Just A Passerby” recounted a story to the users of the forum. It was a story about a fight between two players from opposing continents in the wisteria garden. 

 

“Hey, is the OP talking about who I’m thinking?” a comment immediately appeared after the story was posted.  

 

“Hey, the user upstairs, I think you and I are both thinking about the same people.” 

 

“Replying to the player upstairs, I know who you’re talking about. In fact, I saw them in the wisteria garden this afternoon.” 

 

    ……

It was followed by the response “……” 

 

And after dozens of similar responses in the thread, some of the players were finally at the limit of their patience, “Come on, can you guys stop that? Who is the OP talking about?” 

 

“Yeah, just tell us! Come on!” 

    ……

“......” 

 

But the players who had long since figured the answer was able to form a mutual understanding and refused to relent. 

 

And the players began looking for the OP, “Just A Passerby”. 

 

“Hey OP, are you going to continue the story?” 

 

“Calling OP! Where are you OP?” 

“Quiet, OP is meditating.” 

    ……

 

And just like that, there was nothing meaningful in the first few pages of the comments until the OP finally showed up. He was genuinely surprised by the sheer number of comments on his post. It had only been 15 minutes since the thread was made, and the comments had already exceeded 3 pages (comments on Fate forums were limited to 100 comments per page). Just A Passerby immediately apologised and continued his narration. 

 

He tailed the two players from afar, until they were at a secluded corner of the wisteria garden, and that was when some steamy action that made him blush and his heart flutter happened. 

 

“OP, do you know what you’re talking about!?” commented a player. 

 

“I wonder what is so shocking, OP!” 

 

“Come on, OP! We need pictures! Screenshots!” 

 

“Pics or it did not happen!” 

 

“Don’t mind me, I’m just passing by.” 

 

“Pics or it did not happen!” 

    ……

 

And Just A Passerby once again appeared after a torrent of comments by the forum users, with many of them asking for proof and clarification. The OP stated that he was still processing the pictures, and called for the players to remain patient. 

 

The thread immediately exploded into activity of unprecedented proportions. Even long time lurkers began to surface to leave comments on the thread. 

 

“Could the OP be talking about Eastern Continent’s Gongzi You and Western Continent’s Fleeting Time?” 

 

This set off a chain reaction among the players. Many of them began confirming the sightings of the duo in the wisteria garden. There were even Hunter players in their number who began to describe the amazing moves the duo pulled off during their fight. 

 

Some of the female players had also commented on how romantic it was for the duo to be engaging in a fight under the falling wisteria buds. 

 

Just then, a user with the name “1234567” directed the discussion into another direction. 

 

“Guys, I think we’re missing the point here. Didn’t the OP mention something about some ‘steamy action’? Shouldn’t we be focusing on that instead?” 

 

And with that, the voices asking for the truth and evidence supporting the truth grew louder. 

 

Tan Polang himself was curious as well. Something that Fleeting Time and Sister Ye Ci did that would make a person blush? I wonder what it is! It was at that moment that Tan Polang had forgotten about his original attention in visiting the forum as the passion of gossipping lit up in his heart. 

 

Comments were flooding into the thread at an unprecedented speed. Tan Polang, who started his journey of gossiping by reading each and every comment eventually gave up as more comments were left on the thread. He even resorted to purchasing a one-month subscription on the “View Poster Only” function using Forum Coins and began searching for responses from Just A Passerby. 

 

He finally found the response from Just A Passerby in the 200th page of comments. The user had uploaded more than 20 pictures, but none of them had anything to do with the thing that would “make someone blush”. They were all pictures of Fleeting Time and Ye Ci in the wisteria garden. With their hoods removed, the identities of the duo were clear as day. 

 

But these were not what the players wanted, especially when they knew what was to come. 

 

The players continued to call for the OP to release the pictures. 

 

But the OP remained unrelenting as he sent pictures after pictures that had nothing to do with the steamy action that he promised. According to the OP, there were simply too many pictures to edit before they could be released. He finally caved in to the players’ demands to stop editing the pictures and release them raw after more comments flooded his post. 

 

In actuality, Just A Passerby had simply added some ambience to the pictures he took, but it was all deemed unnecessary by the players who were hungering for gossiping materials. What they wanted was the steamy action that the poster had promised. 

 

It did not take long for the pictures of the duo in the secluded corner was uploaded. The camera angle was from that of the OP looking up. There were even blades of grasses that were captured within the screenshot. 

 

Many of the players were dissatisfied, “Hey OP, why are you hiding in a bush so far away?” 

 

“I know right! Why can’t you move closer? And why are you in a prone position” 

 

“I’ll have some closer, unobstructed shots later, but all of them were taken from a prone position” came the explanation, “You all know that Fleeting Time and Gongzi You are top-tier Hunters. Their Perception must be very high. I’ll be dead if I’m taking the shots from a different position. I’m lucky to have found a hole in the ground surrounded by grass. Do you think I’ll have the chance of taking these pictures if I got closer?” 

 

The players expressed their regrets at an opportunity lost, but most of them voiced out their understanding of the OP’s position. More requests for the pictures to be released immediately followed, but the OP expressed his intention to edit the pictures. The players were at the end of their patience. There were even some among their numbers who had begun to doubt the OP. 

 

And at that point, there were already 500 pages worth of comments left on the thread. Many of the players wished to witness the scene described by the OP. 

 

Tan Polang finally found what he was looking for on the 627th page in the form of 5 screenshots uploaded by the OP. 

 

The duo was in very close proximity with each other in the pictures. The expression on the male Elf’s face was shocking. A smile was on his face as he lifted the female Elves chin up with his right hand. He appeared to be whispering into the female’s ears as her eyes widened in shock. 

 

The five pictures have captured the scene perfectly, as if they were frames of a video. 

 

“They suddenly stopped mid-fight, and Fleeting Time said something to Gongzi You. That was when he started to do something… Naughty…” said a comment left by the OP. 

 

“Ahhhhh!!! What happened next, OP? Come on, you can’t just leave us with a few pics! Do you know how many people you’ll kill by doing that?” 

“We need to know what happened next!” 

 

“+1” 

    ……