Therefore, after surviving the toughest period, many players' first instinct was to show some gratitude to Invincible Black Whirlwind.
It wasn’t about flattery—they just wanted peace of mind and to express their appreciation.
Qi Xu suddenly felt an odd sensation in his heart. Back then, he hadn’t expected anything in return—after all, it wasn’t purely charity. Trading nearly expired food, which cost him almost nothing, for so many basic materials was definitely a good deal.
But now... Faced with these gifts, Qi Xu found himself overwhelmed with mixed emotions. Still, he coldly rejected them all.
His reply was always the same: "It was a fair trade back then."
No matter how they insisted, he refused to accept anything, not even bothering with polite excuses—he simply stopped responding.
However, the group chat was getting increasingly out of hand. Qi Xu frowned slightly, sensing that something... wasn’t right. Someone was deliberately steering the narrative.
Scrolling back through the chat logs, he finally pinpointed a few individuals after digging until 3:00 PM. The first to post was a player named Chi Kuang.
Chi Kuang: "Grateful to Invincible Big Bro for finally bringing light into my life! I got food from my loot box—I have to thank him properly. He gave me hope to survive. From now on, I swear to follow Invincible Big Bro to the death!"
From that message onward, four or five others chimed in with similarly over-the-top declarations of gratitude, leading the charge in urging everyone to send gifts to express their thanks.
Qi Xu was meticulous by nature. He went back and checked the records—out of the 29 people who had sent him thank-you gifts, not a single one was from the group that had been stirring up the hype.
He couldn’t yet figure out what they were plotting, but one thing was certain: their intentions were far from good.
Since Qi Xu didn’t frequent the chat room often, he wasn’t familiar with their usual behavior. So, he decided to ask the group.
Invincible Black Whirlwind: "Does anyone know Chi Kuang, Storm Dragon King, Bubbly Girl Guo Degang, Poisonous Love Trap, and Fiercely Do?"
Old White Dragon in the Waves: "Me! Those guys are all scumbags, especially Chi Kuang—a total con artist. A few days ago, he offered to trade me a piece of info for my vehicle upgrade fragment. I fell for it, and that bastard told me the minimum price for a cup of instant noodles was three materials!"
Qi Xu had Qiu Qiu pull up their transaction history and—damn, they were shameless.
Requests for one or two materials had been automatically filtered out by Qiu Qiu, but Qi Xu had indeed accepted the three-material trades.
After them, nearly 25 more players had all used three materials to exchange for a single cup of noodles.
With so many transactions, Qi Xu hadn’t noticed at the time. It was only today, after seeing their suspiciously exaggerated praise, that he finally caught on.
Retired Magical Boy: "And Poisonous Love Trap? Super shady. Borrowed my lighter and still hasn’t returned it."
Bubbly Girl Guo Degang: "Huh? Didn’t you use the trade system? You could’ve forced a return through that."
Retired Magical Boy: "Nope. It was right after we entered the game—didn’t realize how rotten people could be back then."
Chinese Master Chef: "They’re all bad news. I blacklisted them after they placed an order with me—first complaining it tasted bad, then whining about the portion size. So annoying. Block one, and another pops up. They’re definitely working together."
Old White Dragon in the Waves: "They’re always in the group chat picking fights, threatening people, and stirring up drama. But earlier, I saw them tagging you with thanks, so I thought maybe they’d finally turned over a new leaf."
Wolf Warrior 009: "Did something happen?"
Invincible Black Whirlwind: "Not exactly. It’s just that these guys are being obnoxious, deliberately steering the conversation."
The chat room was buzzing with excitement.
Everyone was sharing what they were having for dinner, but the moment the conversation got going, Chi Kuang’s crew would take turns dragging the topic back to "Invincible Black Whirlwind," urging everyone to heap on more praise.
From an average player’s perspective, it was irritating. First, those items weren’t free. Second, not everyone had managed to get one.
A round or two of thanks was fine, but being forced to join in every time you just wanted to chat normally? That was downright exhausting.
Storm Dragon King: "In short, we owe everything to Invincible Big Bro today. Let’s keep the momentum going—thank you, Big Bro! We swear to follow you to the death!"
Chi Kuang: "Thank you, Big Bro! We swear to follow you to the death!"
Bubbly Girl Guo Degang: "Thank you, Big Bro! We swear to follow you to the death!"
Poisonous Love Trap: "Thank you, Big Bro! We swear to follow you to the death!"
Busy Cowboy: "How many times are you gonna say it? I’m sick of seeing it—and I didn’t even get anything!"
Player 0322: "Yeah, if you’re trying to win people over, this isn’t the way. How about making sure everyone gets a share next time?"
Bubbly Girl Guo Degang: "You two asking to get blacklisted by Big Bro? Watch your mouths!"
Busy Cowboy and Player 0322 immediately went silent. They’d only meant to vent, but they didn’t actually want to get blacklisted or marked as troublemakers.
For a moment, the entire group chat fell quiet.
By now, Qi Xu understood—they were trying to ruin his reputation among the other players. But he was certain they had more up their sleeves.
He had no intention of playing along. Instead, he directly called them out.
Invincible Black Whirlwind: "@Chi Kuang, @Bubbly Girl Guo Degang, @Poisonous Love Trap, @Storm Dragon King
I don’t know what you’re trying to pull or why you’re steering the conversation like this. I made it clear back then—it was a fair trade, voluntary on both sides. I had extra food and wanted materials; some of you needed food and were willing to trade.
That’s all there was to it. So what’s with all this endless nonsense? Do you really think I don’t know you sold the info that three materials could get you a cup of noodles from me?
There’s a limit to how shameless you can be. I’ve already blacklisted you. Keep pushing it, and we’ll settle this on the road."
The group seemed caught off guard that Qi Xu had laid everything out in the open. There was a brief pause.
But soon, Chi Kuang responded.
"Big Bro, what’s this about? We just wanted to show our gratitude. Wasn’t it you who told us to help boost your reputation? Now that others are annoyed, you’re turning on us?"
Bubbly Girl Guo Degang: "Yeah, that’s cold. If you had a problem, why didn’t you blacklist us when we sent gifts?"
Invincible Black Whirlwind: "Are you sure I accepted those gifts? Think carefully before you answer."
..........
