Chapter Text
His twin brother appearing at his apartment unannounced never meant good things. Shen Yuan slowly opened his door.
“Jiu-ge?”
His twin nodded at him and held up a bag from that small French bakery that Jiu-ge always insisted was too expensive for what they made.
Uh-oh, something had happened.
Shen Yuan tried to think. His phone had been quiet all day and yes, he was re-watching Heaven Official’s Blessing for the 32nd time, but he had kept his phone on him the whole time! So no new texts in the family group chat, nothing from Da-ge or his baby sister.
Usually, the group family chat emergencies were about Shen Yuan when his illness flared up, or when he hermitted too hard and people wondered if he was dead.
Jiu-ge pushed his way past Shen Yuan, gently, always so gentle with his twin brother, and stepped inside. He went straight for the kitchen and started the kettle before pulling out mugs. Eyeing the off-brand tea options with disdain, Jiu-ge finally picked one that offended him less than the others. Then he set out the honey that he knew Shen Yuan preferred in his tea.
Oh god, his brother was planning on staying for a while if he was taking the trouble to make tea AND had brought pastries.
What was going on? Was he telling Shen Yuan that he had to move? The family didn’t own this apartment building anymore? Maybe the company was in trouble and Shen Yuan needed to pitch in! He’d always felt like the slacker weakling of the family since his contributions really mainly consisted of making small updates if the web team wasn’t available.
His health made it difficult to work full time, so he spent most of his time in the place he knew best: the internet.
Tea made and pastries laid out on the rarely used dining table, Shen Yuan sat down across from his brother and braced for the news.
“I need a favor,” Jiu-ge said.
That... was not what he expected. “Sure Jiu-ge, anything!”
Jiu-ge NEVER asked for favors, never asked for help.
“You can tell no one about this.”
“Okay?”
What kind of strange thing was this? Corporate espionage? Was he being brought into the family business? Not that the family business of high-end fashion was particularly scandalous or dangerous... as far as Shen Yuan knew.
“You are familiar with Proud Immortal Demon Way?”
Shen Yuan nearly spit out his tea. “Say.. again?”
Surely his brother had not just mentioned the ridiculous stallion novel turned MMO. Shen Yuan didn’t even know Jiu-ge kept up with any kind of popular culture events.
“I’m familiar, yes,” he finally settled on saying as he pulled on his family’s ability to poker face through anything.
“Do you play?” Jiu-ge asked.
“Jiu-ge, what’s going on?”
“Do you play?” he repeated.
“I... a little yes. Not often, I really spend most of my time editing the wikis and looking for hints about the new locations or creatures,” he admitted.
“You... of course you do,” Jiu-ge’s lips quirked as he tried to hide a smile. “I’m part of a guild and there is a tournament coming up.”
“The Immortal Alliance Congress!” Shen Yuan said excitedly. “It’s ranking the best of the best. It’ll be really cool and some of the top guild leaders will livestream commentary and judge the winners! I heard they’re going to reveal a lot of new beasts and exclusive item drops and-“
“It happens during Milan Fashion Week. I’ll be offline the entire week.”
“Oh, okay. I can grab a few things for you and-“
“I need you to play on my account and be available for the entire weekend.”
“You... I... What?” he stared at his brother who calmly sipped his tea.“The.. that’s not how the tournament works? Each group has an assigned day to participate and the judges-”
“I’m one of the judges.”
“Jiu-ge...I don’t know anything about your guild or the people-“
“I’m part of Cang Qiong Mountain.”
“You... holy shit, Jiu-ge, you’re in one of the peaks!”
Cang Qiong Mountain was the most prestigious and well-organized guild in the game. They were technically an alliance made up of 12 separate guilds that worked together, with each guild coordinating and specializing in certain classes or abilities. It made their teams incredibly well-balanced.
Rumor had it that several of the guild leaders had been original beta testers for the game. The author of Proud Immortal Demon Way even led one of the groups!
“Okay, hold on. You’re a judge? You’re a peak lord?”
Jiu-ge sipped at his tea. “Yes. I am one of the peak lords. We’re serving as judges for this year, just to make sure that no one tries anything. It’s supposed to be a showcase of abilities, not some bloodbath.”
Shen Yuan had updated the pages for most of the peak lords and instantly, he realized his brother had to be BambooOnTheMind, the heartless leader of the Qing Jing Peak, known for accepting only the most intelligent and strategic of players. Getting into the peak was supremely difficult, and he didn’t have a good relationship with basically anyone else.
BambooOnTheMind had been voted the third most handsome peak lord in last year’s guild wars… but he’d also been voted the most hated guild leader as well. Most people couldn’t stand him and there had been rumors of some of the other peak lords had campaigned to get him removed.
“You're on Qing Jing Peak?” Shen Yuan asked, just to be polite.
“Mn,” he nodded. “All you have to do is watch and make sure no one is behaving unfairly and step in if there are issues or ties. As part of the livestreaming for the event, all the judges are expected to be on camera and provide commentary but you won’t have to say much.”
Sitting in a judgemental silence certainly would be in character for Jiu-ge.
“Jiu-ge…”
“I’ll give you the login.”
“I can’t just-“
“You know how to play, yes?”
“Well yes.”
“And you sound and look like me, yes?”
“Your guildmates are going to know…” Shen Yuan said, his mind still spinning.
“They will not. You can be me for a few days. I rarely interact with any of them and have not done a streamed commentary before.”
Shen Yuan swallowed hard. What was even happening? Why was he even considering this?
“What class are you Jiu-ge?”
“Mage.”
That fit Jiu-ge pretty well. Mages were fought from a distance, dealing devastation with a single spell. Even in real life, Jiu-ge dealt with things primarily with words, not fists or close interactions and he ripped anyone to pieces without breaking a sweat. He held everyone at arm’s length.
Also, Jiu-ge really liked dramatic robes and lighting candles so he could just imagine his character casting fireball and burning up everything around him and screenshotting how his character looked in the firelight. He probably had some customized robes designed, too.
Shen Yuan couldn’t wait to see. His brother was a nerd!!
“What class are you familiar with?” Jiu-ge asked.
“I played a ranger, but I know most of the magic options,” Shen Yuan said. He’d written most of the wiki about all available spells. “What level are you? What day is the competition?” he asked.
Jiu-ge cleared his throat softly. “The streams will be on Friday and Saturday, essentially the entire day.”
“Jiu-ge!!”
“Do you have plans?” Jiu-ge asked pointedly.
Shen Yuan looked away, crossing his arms over his chest. He never had plans but for his brother to just assume was still rude.
“No…”
“You don’t have to say much on the streams. The others talk enough.” his brother said. “You do, however, have to clean your room.” Jiu-ge paused and looked around.
A sudden awareness that he hadn’t actually cleaned his apartment in a while hit him like a hammer over the head.
Jiu-ge’s eyes lingered on the shelf filled with Hatsune Miku, Hua Cheng, and Luo Binghe figurines. “You’ll just stay at my apartment. I don’t want to bring all of my equipment over here.”
“Jiu-ge!”
“I will buy you that limited edition Hua Cheng statue that sold out last month.”
“WHAT!?” He stared at his brother.
How did Jiu-ge even know about that figurine?
Shen Yuan had stayed up all night to try to order it. Only 50 statues were made and they sold out before he could even click the add to cart button.
“I know the modeler for it,” Shen Jiu said simply as if it were that easy.
“I… Jiu-ge…”
“You will do fine. Now, let’s get you packed up and I’ll drive you back with me. My flight leaves at 6 tomorrow morning. That will give you a few days to get comfortable with the character.”
“Jiu-ge!!”
His brother ignored his protesting and stood to just begin packing for Shen Yuan.
“I will be pre-selecting your outfits for the streams. You will be groomed and tidy.”
“I won’t embarrass you,” he muttered.
He accepted his fate, there would be no changing Jiu-ge’s mind about this. Sneakily, he slipped his own things into his bags: his kindle, Nintendo Switch, and lucky Luo Binghe jade Guanyin pendant!
As he tried to ease his Hua Cheng light-blocking mask into the bag, Jiu-ge caught his eye.
“You are not filling my apartment with your nerd crap.”
“You’re a peak lord in a video game about a stallion novel, and you’re saying I have nerd crap?” he huffed but stuck to just grabbing the essentials which included the Hua Cheng mask AND his favorite Bingpup plush toy.
In just about an hour, he’d packed up and followed his brother to his very nice, expensive car. Jiu-ge carried the bags and walked slowly enough that Shen Yuan could keep up. His breathing problems hadn’t flared up too badly despite the cold weather, and he even remembered to bring his medication in his bag! …Or rather Jiu-ge had packed them and then pointed out the pocket they were in rather forcefully.
“You’re sure about this? Can’t you just tell them you’re not available? There’s a bunch of other peak lords leaders,” Shen Yuan said as he eased into the heated seats. Fancy!
“Only 5 of the 12 Peak Lords are available. We cannot have anyone else absent or the entire thing will be useless.”
“Oh… wow. Okay, um, so who else will be participating?”
“Me, An Ding Peak, Xian Shu Peak, Bai Zhan Peak, and Qian Cao Peak. The others couldn’t join. They want close to half of the leaders present for commentary.”
Shen Yuan nodded with a heavy sigh. “I want my Hua Cheng statue with an autograph card from your designer friend.”
Jiu-ge actually laughed at that. “Of course.”
They drove across the city, parked, and then headed up to one of the top floors of the fancy apartment building. Jiu-ge liked the city, while Shen Yuan preferred the suburbs. He’d have to get used to the sound of elevators and neighbors again.
The apartment, as always, looked immaculate. Everything oozed refined elegance with sleek and elegant shades of white and green. Bamboo and other plants gave it all a very relaxed, fresh out of a home design magazine look.
It was chic and so very Shen Jiu.
In the guest room, outfits were already hung up in the closet and labeled with days of the week. Seriously Jiu-ge?
“Now, the office,” Jiu-ge said as he put down the bags.
Shen Yuan followed, surprised at how nice Jiu-ge’s setup was! He had dual monitors and some lighting already done. The webcam and a very nice microphone had been positioned neatly and a ring light hung just to the side. An artfully displayed bookcase filled with rare statues, books, and bamboo plants sat angled to be just behind the incredible fancy (and pale green!) office chair. A fitting backdrop for a guild leader known for his scholarly interests.
Shen-Jiu walked him through the log-in process, (seriously a VPN too, Jiu-ge???) and then logged into the game.
“I’m going to leave my spawn point in the Ling Xi Caves. You can practice moves in there. It’s private. Only the other guild leaders can use it and no one ever does.”
“I shouldn’t have to actually fight, right?” Shen Yuan asked.
“Correct. This should be a strictly observing and commenting event, but things happen so do not embarrass me if you have to show off moves. Practice at least a little.”
Shen Yuan swallowed hard and could only imagine what embarrassing Jiu-ge would mean for him later on.
After going through the computer log-in process three more times with his brother, Shen Yuan finally begged weakness to sleep for a few hours before seeing Jiu-ge off way too early in the morning for his 6 am flight.
“If your breathing gets worse and you have to take your medicine, I know it makes you a little… loopy, so just send a discord message to SwordLife. He’ll make sure there are technical issues until you are feeling better.”
“Okay, one: how do I even contact him? And two, how the hell is he going to just cause technical issues?” Shen Yuan asked.
How was Jiu-ge so casual about this?
Jiu-ge pressed an older model iPhone into Shen Yuan’s hand. “This is the phone I use strictly for Proud Immortal Demon Way. It’s connected to my discord account where you can access the guild’s channels. There’s a voice server there too if, for some reason, you want to speak to the others.”
Shen Yuan rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright… You’re really too hardcore Jiu-ge.”
“The phone’s unlock code is our birthday. Everything else you should be able to figure out.”
“You’re really sure you want me to do this?”
He nodded. “It’s important.”
“Alright… just this once but Jiu-ge, I don’t know how you’re going to manage to do this sort of thing and the new fashion line you’re launching. Maybe you should…”
“Bai Zhan just got a new Peak Lord last week and people are already talking about how more change would be good. I’m not letting some upstart take over what I have built,” he snapped.
“Right, just me.”
“You’re not an upstart,” Shen Jiu said softly. “You’re the only person I’d trust with this.”
“I’m the only one that has your face,” Shen Yuan rolled his eyes.
His brother elbowed him gently before ushering him into the guest bedroom. “Sleep. It’s late.”
“You’re the one who has a flight at the butt crack of dawn.”
“And you’re the one who needs to look nice for the cameras,” Shen Jiu said as he turned off the lights.
Shen Yuan was positive he wouldn’t be able to sleep in a strange place with the noise of the city all around him, but then he closed his eyes just for a second….
Suddenly his alarm blared.
Four in the morning was entirely too early to be alive, but he shuffled out of bed and watched as Jiu-ge, elegant and effortless, finished his morning tea and packed the last of his things in his matching designer luggage.
“Text me when you land Jiu-ge.”
“I will,” he kissed his brother’s cheek. “My ride is here.”
He watched Shen Jiu breeze out of the apartment. Snooping through the fridge, there were no energy drinks or soda of any sort, and it was too early for any of the delivery places to be taking orders.
Ugh.
He wandered into the office and decided to at least be productive while waiting for delivery to be an option. Logging through the multistep process, he finally settled into the game and took a deep breath.
If he could fake it through calculus class, surely he could fake it through a video game, right?
Looking over the stats, he couldn’t help but be impressed. Truly, his brother had built up an incredible character. He’d unlocked basically every possible spell, even though it looked like he primarily focused on poison, lightning, and necromancy judging by the stats.
He practiced the movements and learned what the hotkeys were. Unsurprisingly, one of the programmed hotkeys was just to wave a fan elegantly.
Of course it was.
Notebook and pencil set carefully to his side, Shen Yuan began exploring the Ling Xi caves and drawing out the expanse of tunnels. Much bigger than he’d thought. He couldn’t wait to update the wiki with an actual map!
A streak of white light burst across the screen and he physically jumped, his pencil streaking across the drawn map.
Hadn’t Jiu-ge said this place would be empty? He frowned and licked his lips before slowly moving his character closer.
He jerked when Jiu-ge’s phone buzzed with a discord notification.
WarGod: Is anyone online?
Shen Yuan chewed at his lip. Glancing at the friends list on the screen… it looked like Jiu-ge had friended none of the other peak lords. In fact, he had no one on his friend’s list.
Sigh. Jiu-ge really needed to learn how to make friends.
He unlocked the phone and swallowed hard. Did he respond? Did he not? What would Jiu-ge do?
Honestly, Jiu-ge would probably ignore it.
Determined to do his brother proud, Shen Yuan pretended he hadn’t seen the message and returned to exploring the Ling Xi caves. They were more complex than seemed and it’d be easy to get lost in them if he hadn’t already started drawing out a map.
Another flash of light and then a sword flew at his character.
He barely managed to leap backward out of range as the blast attack detonated. Who the hell was attacking him in his own guild?
Then the Bai Zhan Peak lord appeared.
WarGod’s character’s health bar flashed red, critically low and several status effect icons hovered over his head. Even though he’d seen the screenshots of the man before, he really wasn’t prepared for how beautiful the character was. Dressed in armor with long dark hair flowing like ink across a piece of parchment, he looked like some of the models Jiu-ge worked with.
The new Bai Zhan Peak Lord, WarGod, was quite an interesting character. He’d only been a guild leader for a little over a week after defeating the previous fighting peak lord in one-on-one combat. He’d heard the fight had been spectacular. The wiki had barely even been updated with this new lord’s information.
He retreated back as WarGod swung his slender sword. What was he doing??
The sword flew past him again and Shen Yuan suddenly realized: this guy’s been hit with the Self-Detonate curse!
The curse would slowly drain his character’s health, give him every status effect in the game, and then start siphoning away levels. It was one of the nastiest curses in the game (only Without A Cure ranked worse!) and very rare to see. Mostly it appeared as a backlash for spamming too many high-risk moves in a row.
“Shit, shit, shit,” he muttered.
WarGod had hit the berserk portion of the curse. That meant he’d be unconscious and losing levels in about 15 seconds.
Shen Yuan opened up the available spells and searched for the only cure: a Greater Restoration, the second-highest curing magic in the game. His brother hadn’t unlocked that one, but he had the required skill points to do it…
Without hesitation, he spent the points and bought the skill before moving to the beserk WarGod.
“I’m so sorry if this doesn’t work. I’ve never done it before, just written it in the wiki!” he yelled to the empty room before casting the spell.
A soft green light flickered over his screen and both the characters went stock still on the screen.
A notification flared across the phone again.
WarGod: @BambooOnTheMind voice chat me
Then the private discord voice channel lit up.
Shen Yuan swallowed hard and wished he had a Mountain Dew to help with this. He unlocked the phone and hesitantly joined the chat.
“Bamboo?” came a man’s deep voice. He sounded… stunned.
“Good morning, shidi,” Shen Yuan said.
“Did you just heal me?”
“You had Self-Detonate.”
“Did you just heal me?” he asked again like he couldn’t believe it.
“... yes,” Shen Yuan said, trying not to sound hesitant.
“What… why…?”
Wow, Shen Jiu must really have a bad reputation if the brand new peak lord even thought this was strange.
“Did you want me to just leave you to die and lose your levels?” Shen Yuan countered.
“... No.”
“Why are you up so early anyway?” Shen Yuan asked, better to change the topic completely from his apparently very out of character behavior. He’d definitely be talking to his brother about this later.
“Me being up early is normal. You being online, healing me, and actually joining a voice call is strange.”
Ah, so his brother wasn’t the early riser he pretended to be. Then again, it didn’t take much to be an earlier riser than Shen Yuan, who liked to awake at the stroke of noon.
“I wanted to practice before the tournament,” Shen Yuan lied.
“Practice.”
“...my fan movements.” He hit the hotkey and fluttered his fan.
The man scoffed, but it sounded like he was hiding a laugh. “You’re in the most private training areas of the guild to practice your fan movements.”
“I want it to look appropriately elegant and mysterious!” he huffed, puffing out his cheeks even with no one there to comment on his pouting.
“Well then, show me your moves,” the man said.
WarGod’s character sat on the ground and waited.
“Ah? Oh…” Shen Yuan cleared his throat.
He pulled up a few different fan options, gently twirling and flashing them about.
“That one is too distracting.”
“Ah, but it’s the most fun one!” he coughed as he remembered he was supposed to be his brother. He cleared his throat. “You’re right, very flashy.”
“It would be fine for the conference, just not in fights,” WarGod said.
“Of course, thank you.” Shen Yuan said and continued using the very distracting fan movement to prove that he had no desire to fight this guy.
WarGod stood back up. “How did you know what curse I had?”
“There’s only one effect that behaves like that.”
“There are hundreds of curses in this game.”
“I know them all,” Shen Yuan said, confident that he did. He hadn’t seen all of them in play, but he’d read (and written the wikis for!!) many of the curses. “Most of them don’t impact that many things at once, so it had to be Self-Detonate... How did you even get that? Were you practicing too hard?”
The WarGod’s character’s health had almost recovered by now and all the status effects faded away. Shen Yuan thanked his days spent on the wiki for his quick-fixing of that disaster.
“I was just working out the best move combos for my hotkeys. I updated to a new computer.”
“Oh, well, if you need to keep practicing, I’ll be here. Just don’t use too many of the sword-health eating moves in a row or that could trigger another Self-Detonate.”
“That’s what caused it?”
“Most likely. Unless there is a Three-Headed Curse Breather in here, which I doubt.”
“A what?”
“It’s a rare creature spawn primarily in the Bai Lu Mountains, I suppose it could spawn in any mountainous area. It only has a rate of .001% of spawning though.”
“... you just know that?”
He coughed. “I am the head of the strategy peak, aren’t I?”
“Then why do you never help in the raids? LavenderMenance told me to not even bother inviting you to them.”
Shen Yuan fell silent at that. He couldn’t really answer that, could he? His brother (well, and Shen Yuan to some extent) struggled with interacting with people. Shen Jiu struggled even more since he primarily took on the role of the aggressor to keep anyone from even trying to get closer.
“...I get sick a lot,” he said quietly, more honest than he probably should be, but he blamed that on the sleepiness. “I don’t want to agree and then let you all down.”
The man on the voice call stayed silent for so long that Shen Yuan was certain he’d left the channel, but then WarGod simply said. “We wouldn’t be angry if that happened. There’s a raid this evening at 8… do you want to join? It’s in the Bai Lu Mountains with the-”
“The Realm of Nightmares?”
The man laughed, short and soft, more of a snort. “I shouldn’t be surprised you knew already.”
“That one is heavy on status effects. You have healers going with you, right?”
“No, this one is just my peak.”
“Ask Quan Cao Peak to invite people! You can’t not have healers for that one!” Shen Yuan scolded
“Is that a yes or no?”
He huffed. “Yes. I’ll be there.”
Then before he could embarrass himself any more or change his mind, he logged out. He needed soda to deal with this… well at least there was a 24-hour convenience store close enough to walk to.