Chapter 158: A Chance Encounter with JY

"Matching opponent for you..."
"Game is loading..."
"Setup: Standard 12-player game, Seer-Witch-Hunter-Guard - Nightmare, Sheriff slaughters the minority faction"
"Story Scenario: Pirates of the Caribbean"
"Your Role: Hunter"
"Oh man, what bad luck, giving me this god-tier card. I'm doomed, Nightmare daddy, please don't terrorize me." Chen Fan instantly lost his nerve. In a setup with a Nightmare, even the most powerful god roles wouldn't dare claim their roles casually, or you'd find yourself rubbed against the ground in a matter of minutes.

Before the environment textures had fully loaded, the first thing Chen Fan heard was the sound of waves crashing against the deck not far away, immediately followed by waves of dizzying motion sickness.
"I never expected VR to reproduce seasickness so realistically. It would be great if they spent more time fixing those bugs."
Grumbling to himself, Chen Fan wasn't paying attention and tumbled flat onto the deck, his ankles tangled tightly in abandoned thick hemp rope, looking for all the world like a secure knot.
"What the heck, this place looks like a storage room. Why do my spawn points always end up in such bizarre places?"
Chen Fan used all his strength to finally untangle the ropes tripping him up, shook the dust off his clothes, and carefully surveyed his surroundings.

The cabin seemed rarely cleaned, with dust covering the floor except for a few clean square patches, likely where crates had previously stood.
An increasingly rich, mellow fragrance drifted from an inconspicuous corner. Chen Fan walked closer to take a look and found several barrels used for brewing wine stacked there. Straining to distinguish the scent further, Chen Fan could roughly deduce that the brewing times of these fruit wine barrels were inconsistent.
"Suddenly I'm getting a strong Sherlock Holmes vibe. Is it because I've become more handsome lately?" Chen Fan stroked his chest, feeling a sense of heaviness spontaneously arise.
It was the texture of coarse linen, unlike the shoddy mass-produced civilian garments; the Royal Navy version offered extra materials at no extra cost—bright red, radiating a festive atmosphere across his entire body, delightfully joyous.

"Then I suppose I shouldn't be a pirate... Pirates in the movies always wear coarse rags with holes all over their trousers." Feeling a heavy object on top of his head, Chen Fan reached up to touch it. Oh boy, it was a black top hat.
Looking down, he found a pocket watch tucked into his chest pocket. Glancing at his waist, a gleaming saber hung securely in place, complete with its belt.
"The British Royal Navy, huh." Chen Fan kicked his leather boots, the sound of the stomps hitting just the note he liked. He immediately got into character, raised his sword high, and shouted, "For the eradication of pirates, all forces, charge!"

"BOOM! BOOM!"
Accompanied by two loud bangs, one side of the ship began to tilt violently. Still immersed in his role, Chen Fan fell backward and crashed straight into the wooden wall.
"No more pretending, time to go play the game."
Chen Fan groped for the doorway, executing a confident sword-sheathing motion, but missed the target entirely, leaving him standing awkwardly in place for quite a while.
"Good thing nobody saw that." Chen Fan muttered to the scabbard as he slowly guided the sword back in.

The door was pushed open, and the moment Chen Fan stepped out, he collided head-on with someone.
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I was walking a bit too fast." The other person only swayed slightly and quickly regained his footing.
Chen Fan, having taken the impact on his flank, struggled a bit more to regain his balance. "It's fine, I'm alright. Do you know where the game lobby is?"
The man pointed toward the end of the corridor and gestured slightly to the right. "Go straight ahead to the end from here, then take a right and you're there. It's marked as the Captain's Quarters. I haven't played much either, and I got lost in there for quite a while."
"Oh, right, thanks." Chen Fan shook his head vigorously, shifting his vision toward the direction the other person pointed. It didn't look far, roughly twenty or thirty meters away.
"Wanna go together?" the man invited.

Chen Fan raised his head. The man had messy brown hair and a chubby face that looked very approachable. When he smiled, his eyes disappeared completely, leaving only his eyebrows moving vaguely.
Framed by a high collar, his neck was perfectly concealed, and a slightly plump figure propped up the entire navy uniform, carrying a hint of awkward charm.
"No need, you go ahead and lead the way, I need to catch my breath for a moment." Chen Fan pressed his hands against his knees, panting and sucking in oxygen.
"Oh, well you better hurry up then." The man nodded, walked past Chen Fan, and took the lead.
"Why do I feel like I've seen this guy somewhere before..."
This familiar voice, this long-lost face, were all giving subtle hints to Chen Fan.
"Come to think of it, he looks a bit like JY..." Chen Fan straightened his back, followed along, and muttered to himself, "Though it couldn't be such a coincidence. Even though the preliminaries allow matching with players from any region, running into JY among tens of thousands of people is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of fate."

Fate is just that simple: holding the worst possible hand in the hardest setup, meeting the most powerful you.
"Great God JY, can you give me an autograph? I'm your loyal fan."
"Great God JY, can I take a picture with you? I want to post it on Moments later."
"Buddha, I want to bear your children."
Chen Fan sat blankly in the number 6 seat, watching the diagonal Great God JY surrounded and worshiped by the crowd, feeling a little bit excited inside.

Unable to refuse their enthusiasm, JY could only soothe them: "This is a VR environment, even if we sign autographs or take photos, we can't take them out with us. How about this, I'll write down your game IDs and have them mailed to you later. Thank you for your support, but we're still in the middle of a match, everyone please return to your seats."
The swarm of fans cheered a few more times before reluctantly returning to their seats.
Taking advantage of the time before the match started, JY spoke again: "Playing games, the most important thing is to have fun, and the same goes for competitions. While victory and defeat certainly matter, the most crucial thing is to enjoy the fun of Werewolf. I hope everyone won't put too much psychological pressure on yourselves."

At the same time, JY shared his own findings regarding the issues with the Nightmare card.
"If the person being terrorized happens to have five people sitting between them and the Nightmare, Prisoner, Shaobangzhu and I tested it in a team previously, and reporting either the left half or the right half is possible. I don't know if the officials designed it this way intentionally or if there's actually a loophole, just keep it in mind for later."
Someone in the audience asked, "Great God JY, are you live-streaming right now? Will I get flamed by the audience if I play badly?"
JY shook his head. "No, no, please rest assured, the whole thing is confidential, speak your minds freely. It's mainly because the platform and the clubs haven't finished negotiating the broadcast naming rights yet; only the finals will be fully broadcasted live."
"Then I can rest easy. After all, I tend to go wild when I play Witch." The questioner breathed a sigh of relief, though it seemed to reveal some extra information in the process.

Finally, JY revealed a Buddha-like, gentle smile and chuckled, "I just ask you all to give me some gaming experience. In the preliminary rounds, my first three games involved either being killed on Night 1 or voted out on Day 1. At least let me survive to the second day!"