Chapter 166

Chapter 166: I Get a Little Lonely Sometimes Too

Blue River and Cold Night weren’t wrong.
If Lord Grim continued with his kidnapping of the record, then the matter wouldn’t just be between him and both of their guilds. The big guilds would unify and propose a way to resolve the issue; whether that was by bribing him or by killing him.
But at the moment, the crisis was only between their guilds. Even if the other guilds knew about Lord Grim’s snatching nature, they wouldn’t come out and help them immediately. They would watch them struggle first. If the two guilds actually fell, then that’d be great news for them.
“What do you plan on doing?” Blue River asked Cold Night.
“I don’t know. I wanted to see what you were thinking.” Cold Night said.
Blue River hesitated. Should he pay the ransom or fight against the kidnapper and compete for the records from now on?
Blue River had already clicked on Lord Grim’s name several times, but he hesitated each time. Record-related matters weren’t trivial. If they were, then he wouldn’t have went over to consult Changing Spring. But since he had just gone to see him, if he went back again, it’d make him seem less capable. Poplar Beach and his gang would definitely mock him for that.
But…… if they knew that he went to pay the ransom, then Poplar Beach and his gang wouldn’t say anything good about that either. Requesting help from the headquarters had already made him look shameful. In all of the new servers’ history, such a situation had never occurred before. For all the previous times, the experts that had been sent used their own strength to start anew.
This time! He definitely couldn’t pay the ransom.
Blue River made a decision. He had to demonstrate his worth.
“I’ve decided to set the record first and then worry about the rest later.” Blue River didn’t click on Lord Grim’s name and instead sent a message to Cold Night.
“Oh? You’re going to ignore Lord Grim’s actions?” Cold Night said.
“Yes!”
“Okay….. I hope that everything goes smoothly.” Cold Night said, but he still felt a bit of uncertainty within his heart. Was Blue River really going to set the record or was he just saying that to avoid giving me a bargaining chip? After all, if word came out that they had paid the ransom to Lord Grim, it would also hurt their reputation. Which is why when he discussed matters with Blue River, Cold Night didn’t say what he had decided on doing. When talking with other guilds, they had to always be on guard.
After verifying Blue River’s attitude on the matter, Cold Night decided to hold back his troops for now. In any case, they still needed some time to prepare for the Line Canyon record. For today, at least, it was impossible for them to do it.
The day gradually brightened. Being Su Mucheng’s pillow for the entire night, Ye Xiu’s shoulder had become sore long ago. But once he heard the quiet snoring, Ye Xiu knew Su Mucheng had really fallen asleep.
However, it was almost seven o’clock. Some of the customers at the Internet Cafe had already tidied up and were ready to leave. It was almost time for a shift change as well, so there was no way for them to continue staying here like this.
“Hey, hey.” Ye Xiu turned his head and said, “It’s time to wake up.”
“What time is it?” Su Mucheng asked drowsily.
“6:50.” Ye Xiu said.
“It’s not even 7 yet, another ten minutes……” Su Mucheng said and even shifted her head to a more comfortable position.
“Hurry up! I still have to take care of the customers who are getting ready to leave! You were lucky today. No one came to buy food at night.”Ye Xiu said. Usually, if anything happened to the machine or if the customers wanted something to eat or drink, it was his responsibility as the manager to take care of it. But it had been particularly peaceful today. It seemed as if everything magically went well for the all-night customers, allowing Su Mucheng to get a good night’s rest.
“Really? Then I really am lucky!” Su Mucheng finally lifted her head. She rubbed her eyes and constantly yawned.
“Cover up well. The customers are coming over.” Ye Xiu said.
“Oh.” Su Mucheng wrapped herself up like when she first arrived. Her appearance right now wasn’t too revealing. Everyone was about to leave now!
Su Mucheng left the receptionist desk and watched as Ye Xiu helped the customers log out. Some of the customers, who weren’t leaving yet, paid to continue using the computers. All-night had its own price, while the morning had a different price.
“Brother Ye!” At this moment, the cashiers and managers with the morning shift arrived. Most of them lived close to each other, so they all ate and walked over together.
“Almost done.” Ye Xiu called out to them. He quickly finished up and left the receptionist desk. The morning shift took over. Ye Xiu’s workday was done.
“What would you like to eat?” Ye Xiu asked Su Mucheng.
“Anything is fine…….” Su Mucheng clearly wasn’t fully awake yet. She still looked a bit drowsy.
“Okay, then it’ll be the usual!” Ye Xiu said. The two of them left the Internet Cafe together.
Chen Guo had gotten up early today. As she went downstairs, she happened to see Ye Xiu leave the Internet Cafe with a girl. Her first thought that the girl was Tang Rou, but after getting a better look, she could tell that the girl wasn’t her. She had lived with Tang Rou for a long time, so she would be able to recognize her just from a rear view.
“Who is she?” Chen Guo ran over to ask others. Everyone shook their heads. Ye Xiu hadn’t introduced her to them.
“Little Tang?” Chen Guo turned around and called out to see if Tang Rou was there.
Tang Rou was there, but she was in the middle of playing a game. So she couldn’t hear her with headphones on. But since she sat in the same place everyday, Chen Guo quickly grabbed her.
“You woke up very early today?” Tang Rou turned around and saw Chen Guo.
“Yeah.” Chen Guo replied and then directly asked: “Who’s that sister together with Ye Xiu?”
“Together?” Tang Rou heard this and took a look at the receptionist desk: “They already left?”
“They left! They left just as I came down. Who is she?” Chen Guo said.
“Uh…… I don’t know her actual name, but she’s a girl that dungeons with us everyday.” Tang Rou said.
“An online friend?” Chen Guo was shocked.
“Those two…… know each other I think……..” Tang Rou had seen Su Mucheng sleep on Ye Xiu’s shoulders. Anyone could tell that the relationship between them wasn’t ordinary. But she wasn’t a gossipy person, so she didn’t ask about it. She didn’t want to assume that there was a relationship between those two. Online friends shouldn’t be so close, which meant that they knew each other very well.
“So this guy can seduce a girl too!” Chen Guo expressed her lament, “What does she look like?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see her properly.” Tang Rou said.
“What were you doing the entire night then!” Chen Guo expressed her discontent with Tang Rou.
Tang Rou helplessly laughed.
“What do you want to eat?” Chen Guo asked.
“I’ll eat whatever you’re going to eat. It’s not like I have any money. Sigh…….” Tang Rou also acted shamelessly sometimes.
“Wait here!” Chen Guo rolled her eyes and left. She took care of food and shelter, but because she didn’t have any standards, most of the time she would just decide what everyone ate on the spot. Sometimes she would be in a good mood and would invite everyone over for a big meal. Those that were there during those times always felt very lucky.
The area around Happy Internet Cafe had quite a few restaurants. Chen Guo naturally had places she frequently went to. After ordering wontons, steamed buns, porridge, and a bunch of other random dishes, she even looked around trying to catch their affair but wasn’t able to find anything.
When she returned with the breakfast, she didn’t see Ye Xiu. She called for Tang Rou to come and eat. She saw Ye Xiu come back with a cigarette in his mouth once they were halfway done.
“Woah! Boss, you woke up early today!” Ye Xiu greeted Chen Guo.
“What about that girl that was with you!” Chen Guo didn’t even try to ease into the subject. She just straight up asked him.
“She went back.” Ye Xiu replied calmly.
“Hmph, you can’t mix up work with your social life.” Chen Guo said.
“Wow, wontons! Give me a bowl!” Ye Xiu said as he completely went off topic.
“Didn’t you go and eat already?” Chen Guo said.
“I had to pay for that myself, so I ate less.” Ye Xiu said.
“Shameless!” Chen Guo ground her teeth, “There’s none for you.”
“Really? Then I’m going to bed!” Ye Xiu ran off. Chen Guo was baffled. She still wanted to continue prodding. Why’d he have to run off?
“Ha ha ha……” Tang Rou laughed on the side.
“What are you laughing at?” Chen Guo glared at her.
“Nothing…….” Tang Rou didn’t explain.
“You’re becoming more and more like him.” Chen Guo wasn’t happy.
“No way.”
“All you do is play games everyday. And you also have that weird aura. How long has it been since you’ve went out and been in the sun?” Chen Guo said.
“Okay, okay. I’ll take a walk with you on the weekends. Is that good enough?” Tang Rou said.
“Fine.” Chen Guo was satisfied. She had lived with her for almost two years, so Tang Rou had already become her close friend. She was the one who kept egging her on to play Glory. And now that she had succeeded, she discovered that the time they spent together had actually lessened.
In the beginning, Chen Guo thought about whether or not she should level a low-level account and play with them. If Tang Rou or Ye Xiu had brought it up, she would have definitely done it. But those two only minded their own business. There was no way they would have thought of her this much. In the end, after pondering about it for awhile, she discovered that those two’s levels had already gone up. If she started leveling, then she’d have to start from the beginner village, so she threw away that idea.
After all, she had played with Chasing Haze for so long that she was very attached to it. If someone told her to give it up, she definitely wouldn’t be able to. The only reason she wanted to go to the new server was to play with those two. After they got to the Heavenly Domain, she would definitely switch back to her main account. The way she saw it, it was already too late to start from the new server, so it’d be better to just wait for those two to reach the Heavenly Domain.
Although Chen Guo didn’t say it, she really did feel a little lonely nowadays. Whether that was in the game or outside of it, she felt a bit lonely.
“I’m full. I’m going to sleep!” Tang Rou finished her breakfast and got up to leave.
“Go ahead!” Chen Guo waved her hands and shooed Tang Rou away. She sat there by herself with a bowl of porridge and gazed out towards the empty Internet Cafe.

Chapter 167: Taking Back the Record

At 3 o’clock in the afternoon during Tang Rou’s afternoon shift, the two had once again sat by themselves in front of their computers. Tang Rou had decided to give up playing the game during her shift and decided to look over guides instead. Ye Xiu, on the other hand, went to the smoking area to try and find a computer. One time, when Chen Guo was bored, she secretly made some calculations: if she charged Ye Xiu according to the Internet Cafe’s usual fees, then Ye Xiu would be paying twice the salary he gets.
Chen Guo had managed the Internet Cafe for so many years, but this was the first time she had seen anyone utilize the Internet Cafe employee benefits to such a level. Tang Rou was a close second and she had an even greater desire to take advantage of them than Ye Xiu did. This sister was busiest during the afternoon shift. She practically had no time to play the game, so she asked Chen Guo to move her to the all-night shift. Chen Guo tried very hard to put it off.
In game, the Blue Brook Guild was preparing for their record-setting run when Blue River suddenly saw a notification that Lord Grim had come online. He immediately felt a great deal of pressure.
It wasn’t a coincidence that they would be on at the same time. Blue River and his group often played the game all-night too. Their resting schedule was practically the same as Ye Xiu’s. In fact, they had only come online moments ago. Blue Brook Guild naturally understood the importance to this battle. After Changing Spring arranged for who would go, he called several players to work together and explore the dungeon. Desolate Land was a dungeon that these Heavenly Domain players hadn’t run in a long time, so they had to take some time to familiarize themselves with it.
After doing that, they all went to borrow their provided account cards. Changing Spring had personally brought over three experts to the tenth server. Blue River wasn’t using his own account right now. His character had already leveled past Desolate Land’s level limit, so it couldn’t be used to set the record. These account cards had just been obtained the previous day. This meant that the characters hadn’t used any of their entries for Desolate Land yet.
None of the experts had shown any signs of unfamiliarity with the dungeon on their first run. They were, after all, experts. Blue River was the one who was most familiar with the dungeon as he had entered it the most recent. As a result, he was appointed as the leader. They were able to achieve a time of 29:21:45 with just a few small mistakes. They had beaten their previous record. The experts that came over to help were extremely effective.
Blue River made a major mistake on their second run. The mistake affected their final time, which was 33:54:89. This run ended quite poorly. Even if they stretched out the leaderboards, it wasn’t even fast enough for them to be placed in the top twenty.
“Sorry…….” Blue River apologized to everyone. Their poor performance was all because of his mistake. The more experienced experts knew that, due to mistake, there was no way for them to set the record this time. As a result, they played more carelessly and listened to Blue River’s constant apologies.
They were all old friends, so no one said anything. They couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t make a mistake either.
“This is our last run for today……. we can do it everyone.” Changing Spring said.
“Sigh, this is unexpected! After leaving the normal servers for so many years already, to think I’d have to come back and try so hard for this dungeon again.” Someone said.
“Me too. I suddenly feel a bit nostalgic speaking about this!” Another player followed.
“Blue Bridge, hurry up and get to the Heavenly Domain! It’s been so long since we’ve dungeoned together.”
The current five-man team was Blue Brook Guild’s strongest combo.
The guild leader Changing Spring, Ice of Dawn, Chilling Nightfall, Flying Brushstroke, and Blue River’s main account Blue Bridge Spring Snow were Blue Brook Guild’s Five Greatest Experts! Changing Spring had gathered these experts to dungeon in the tenth server, leaving even Poplar Beach unable to object.
The players’ strengths wouldn’t lose out to Poplar Beach in any way. In the guild, they were also considered seniors. Their dispatch meant that Blue Brook Guild was using their greatest strength to fight. Even if Poplar Beach was confident that he was better than Blue River, because of what their team signified, there was no way he’d be able to switch in for Blue River.
“This is our last run for today. We can do it, brothers!!” Blue River said and then took a deep breath. He was even more pressured than the other four. This record was closely related to his guild’s power in the tenth server. But once he thought of Lord Grim, Blue River couldn’t calm down. He was always worried that their record wouldn’t be good enough and that it would be stepped on by Lord Grim again.
Calm down, be cool, concentrate!!
Blue River kept on repeating these words to himself as he entered Desolate Land for their third run.
Changing Spring was a Berserker, Dawn of Ice was a Summoner, Chilling Nightfall was an Elementalist, Flying Brushstroke was a Spitfire. and with Blue River’s Blade Master, their team was a full DPS team without an MT or a Healer either. Even though their skill level couldn’t be compared to pro-players, they were definitely at the peak of normal players.
For a low-leveled dungeon like Desolate Land, even though they weren’t using their main accounts, they were still confident with rolling through the dungeon using their full DPS team. Only this type of DPS team could take the final record. For example, in their previous record for Desolate Land, even though they didn’t have an MT, they still had Bound Boat’s Cleric. Because of this, their DPS was brought down as opposed to Lord Grim’s team which was full DPS. As a result, it was clear that if they didn’t use a DPS team too , then there would be no way to compete with Lord Grim. This was why Blue River needed the help of experts from the Heavenly Domain.
Third try!
Everyone’s spirit was at their peak. They had made mistakes in their last two runs, but this time, they were going to put an end to that. Everyone put in 100% of their effort and pushed on and on.
The first BOSS fell.
The second BOSS fell.
The rest of the way went by smoothly after they had cleared out the monsters. Their current performance was definitely worthy of being praised. However, they had understood very well about BOSS Toya’s style. Stealing time from Toya needed a bit of luck. This BOSS had too many skills. Who knew what he would do when they faced off against him! There wouldn’t be a set time without a good strategy. Many wanted to restrict Toya but, at Level 30, they didn’t have enough skills. So their only choice was to use coordination.But coordinating against such a complicated BOSS needed both time and practice. Due to this, the difficulty of fighting this BOSS increased.
But this was only a low-level dungeon! Many players would only play here for a bit and then move past this stage. Who would take the time to research it? This was why restricting Toya was still just a theory.
The expert team of five hadn’t trained together for any sort of coordination,which meant that they hadn’t thought of that type of theory. These players were just using the usual strategy. They would attack and then rely on themselves to push down Toya.
The battle flew by and the remnants of the battle was displayed on the castle walls and in the rear garden.
Sword lights, bullets, magic, and summoned pets filled the garden as the five players surrounded Toya. At this moment, none of them could afford looking at the time. They could only do their best!
Toya fell. Blue River didn’t even get the opportunity to check the time, when suddenly, the system announcement popped up!
Their Blue Brook Guild had finally taken down this Desolate Land’s record: 26:31:55.
“We did it!” Those four were extremely happy, but Blue River didn’t even think about relaxing yet. 26:31:55. They were only faster than Lord Grim’s record by a minute and a half. But Blue River clearly knew: Lord Grim’s team hadn’t reached their limit yet. Not only was their equipment lacking, but they also had someone on their team who was holding them back. Even so, their Five Greatest Experts team was only able to improve the record by a minute and a half. This meant that this record wasn’t completely unbeatable yet.
“Do you guys think it’s possible to improve this record?” After they exited the dungeon, Blue River asked them seriously.
“You think that this record isn’t enough to beat Lord Grim?” Changing Spring said.
“Yeah.” Blue River nodded his head.
“If we have to improve, then there’s isn’t much we can do about the small monsters. It would all have to depend on Toya. If we are able to completely suppress Toya and be the first to act, then it’s still possible to improve the record.” Flying Brushstroke said.
“In any case, the record’s already been broken and we don’t have anymore entries left. Right now, the whole world is looking at it. Find people to bring back our influence and clean our name!” Changing Spring said.
“Okay!” Blue River replied. They had prepared for this moment. Blue River called the guild and Blue Brook Guild’s name immediately appeared all over the world chat.
The topic today was a follow-up to last night’s topic, which meant that the taunters from last night might not all be present. But Blue Brook Guild wasn’t trying to attack these guys, they were only telling everyone: Blue Brook Guild doesn’t need Lord Grim’s help to set a record.
“Blue Brook Guild actually did it!” Cold Night saw the record and then quietly watched the advertising done by Blue Brook Guild in the world chat.
A minuted and a half. For Lord Grim, it might still be possible to beat that! Cold Night’s line of thinking was similar to Blue River’s.
“It looks like we’ll soon find out what exactly Blue River’s attitude towards this is and what exactly Lord Grim will do.” Cold Night thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Changing Spring and the others withdrew after setting the record. They obviously wouldn’t stay to level these accounts. As for Blue River, he was in a more difficult position. He looked at their record and suddenly feared that Lord Grim’s name would appear in front of theirs.
After the wave of fear, Blue River suddenly realized that Lord Grim should have already used up all of his entries for the day. It wasn’t midnight yet so with this in mind, he felt at ease knowing that their record wouldn’t be broken right now!
It looked like the most crucial stage would take place from 12-2 o’clock again!
Seeing Lord Grim’s name lit up on his friends list, Blue River was in a conflicted mindset regarding whether or not to talk to him. After pondering over it, he decided to not talk to him after all.
The record had already been stolen back. Lord Grim, I won’t come to an agreement with you this time around! Blue River encouraged himself with such thoughts.

Chapter 168: Fire Witch Cashew

Blue Brook Guild’s PR went quite smoothly. After all, the announcement of their new record was still there. The leaderboards could also be checked at any time. With the presence of this proof, there was nothing new players could criticize them for. New players also didn’t have any sort of hate directed towards Blue Brook Guild. The reason why they suddenly raised a storm upon them was simply because Full Moon Guild’s bragging made them feel unbelievably disgusted.
The time slowly crept towards midnight. Blue River slowly grew nervous as well. From 12:20 – 12:30, those ten minutes, Blue River stopped doing everything and stared at his screen.
The system suddenly made an announcement.
As soon as he saw the word “system”, Blue River froze.
System announcement: Please play the game in a healthy manner and take a break every once in awhile!
“F*ck! My hair almost turned white from fear.” Blue River couldn’t help but curse out loud. It was the system announcement that frequently came during the night to remind the players to take a break from the game. Of course, from a game company’s perspective, they wouldn’t want their players to stop playing the game. Years ago, players might have felt warmhearted from this fake and insincere reminder. Only noobs would be tricked by this reminder!
At 12:30, their record had yet to be broken. Blue River let out a sigh of relief. But then he immediately thought of something else: what if he didn’t start at exactly 12:00?
As a result, Blue River went back to nervously staring at the screen.
“Old Blue, you’re not going to dungeon today?” The team that Blue River played with frequently went over to ask him.
“I’m going. I’m going!” If Lord Grim was really going to break the record, then there was no point in worrying about it and wasting time. Blue River thought this way as he followed his team into the dungeon. However, he couldn’t concentrate on the dungeon. He made numerous mistakes and, at one point, he almost caused the whole team to be wiped out.
“Old Blue, how about I lead……” Everyone was scared now, but they all understood why Blue River was so distracted.
“Okay, you lead then!” With the switch, Blue River didn’t make as many mistakes as he did before. Prior to that, he was practically leading the team to their deaths.
After Line Canyon was cleared, it was as if half the night had gone by. There wasn’t any new system announcements, letting Blue River finally relax a bit.
Meanwhile, on Ye Xiu’s side, they hadn’t gone to set a record tonight. At 11 o’clock, Tang Rou changed shifts and began playing the game. They invited Steamed Bun Invasion and waited for Su Mucheng to come online. The four-player team then went to Fire Forest together.
Frost Forest, Fire Forest, Gloom Forest, and Sunlight Forest were Glory’s four large forests, which were also leveling areas and dungeons.
Frost Forest was the lowest-level one among the four. Fire Forest, which was the one Ye Xiu and his group were going to, was a Level 34-36 area.
As Level 30 characters, Level 35 monsters would give them the most experience. However, no matter how much experience wild monsters gave, there was no way they could compete with the elite monsters in dungeons. Plus, because of the end of dungeon experience rewards, running to the leveling area instead of to a dungeon was not the wisest choice.
A veteran of the game like Ye Xiu definitely wouldn’t make such an unwise choice. However, they weren’t going there to level. Ye Xiu’s goal was the Fire Forest’s wild BOSS, Fire Witch Cashew.
In Frost Forest, the strongest hidden BOSS White Witch was proficient in Ice Elemental Magic. As for Fire Forest, the Fire Witch, proficient in Fire Elemental Magic, was an existence even greater than hidden BOSSes: wild BOSS.
The wild BOSS was always the highest level in the leveling area which meant Fire Witch Cashew was Level 36.
Level 36 was 6 levels higher than Ye Xiu and his group’s characters. They wouldn’t gain much experience because that exceeded the five level limit,. However killing a BOSS wasn’t something that was done to gain levels.
Still, a 6 Level Suppression! This was a huge disadvantage for them. The current elite teams of the big guilds were Level 32, yet even they didn’t dare to provoke the Fire Witch Cashew.;they were already scared of a 4 Level Suppression. After all, she wasn’t just some regular monster. She was the strongest BOSS type, a wild BOSS.
A 4 Level Suppression was already enough to make the players retreat. But Ye Xiu was about to lead his team to battle against this wild BOSS that had a 6 Level Suppression. As for the other three, they weren’t scared at all.
Excluding Su Mucheng, Ye Xiu felt a need to let them know that a 6 Level Suppression wasn’t a joke.
“Everyone, note that there is a 6 Level Suppression between us and the Fire Witch.” Ye Xiu said as they searched for the Fire Witch. The Fire Witch was definitely there. A wild BOSS would just wander around after spawning if it wasn’t killed immediately. The tenth server had opened for three weeks already! It wasn’t just the Fire Witch; wild BOSSes from all other higher-leveled areas were already waiting for players to clear them! It was different from the first week, where the wild BOSSes hadn’t spawned yet.
“Okay.” Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion replied nonchalantly.
“Don’t underestimate this 6 Level Suppression! Combined with her identity as a wild BOSS, a lot of skill effects will be reduced by 60-100%. Do you know what a 100% reduction means? That means a complete reduction; no effect. That’s why during battle, you’re going to need to adjust. Dragon Tooth’s Stun, Sky Strike’s Knock-up, Sand Toss’s Blind, and Brick’s Dizzy. All of these will have a reduced effect on her.” Ye Xiu lectured.
“Oh, so it’s like that!” The two nodded.
“Haven’t we already encountered this type of situation in Line Canyon? Wasn’t the BOSS there higher leveled than us?” Tang Rou said.
“Yeah, it was higher leveled, but starting from Level 30, normal dungeons wouldn’t have level ranges higher than three usually. This is because a very high Level Suppression is difficult to deal with. 3 Levels is still manageable. If it weren’t for that, then the Level 36 Fire Witch would have been killed already. How else could we have gotten a chance to kill it?” Ye Xiu explained.
“Okay, I’ll pay attention to it.” Tang Rou didn’t dare to include Steamed Bun Invasion with a “we”.
“Steamed Bun, do you understand?’ Ye Xiu asked.
“Understood.” Steamed Bun Invasion replied. Ye Xiu couldn’t tell whether or not he actually understood.
The four wandered around Fire Forest and sometimes killed a few of the monsters along the way. The monsters in all the Four Great Forests were Goblins. Their levels were different, so they would obviously be different from each other. The Fire Forest’s Goblins all had red skin with a blood-thirsty look on their faces. They looked much more fierce than Frost Forest’s goblins.
“Here, she’s over here.” Ye Xiu found the silhouette of the Fire Witch Cashew.
In the middle of an open space in the forest, a large bonfire blazed. Fire Witch Cashew was standing crazily on one side. She carried an extremely long magic staff, with a flame-shaped rune on top, which seemed to pulsate with the raging fire. Beside her, a large mob of small Fire Forest Goblins were circling around the bonfire. They seemed to be holding some sort of a grand ritual. They were shouting and running around, but none of them left.
“What do we do? No one has touched it for so long that so many monsters have gathered……” Su Mucheng said.
“Don’t worry, we have time. Everyone has their potions, right?” Ye Xiu said.
“Got ’em.” The others replied. Ye Xiu had already told everyone to spend their money in Congee City and buy mid-grade potions.
“Okay, then the two of you go run away.” Ye Xiu said.
“What?” Tang Rou didn’t understand.
“You and Steamed Bun run. We’ll destroy that bonfire. The enemies will crazily chase after us and then we’ll counterattack.” Ye Xiu said.
“Okay.” Tang Rou’s Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion ran off. Su Mucheng’s Cleansing Mist immediately began to store up energy for a laser. In that instant, Ye Xiu lifted up his Myriad Manifestation Umbrella and sent Anti-Tank Missiles over.
Three consecutive Anti-Tank Missiles and a giant laser beam shot towards that bonfire. The explosion splashed in every direction like a firework. The Goblins shrieked and ferociously glared at the two of them. The Fire Witch also turned to glance at them. She raised her magic staff and chanted in an unknown language. The Goblin’s arms suddenly glowed with a red light.
“Tsk tsk, the entire mob has Flame Chasers! The system is so shameless.” Ye Xiu said, while having his Lord Grim Aerial Fire backwards. Cleansing Mist did the same.
Although their movement speed was quick, it required them to repeatedly chain the same action over and over again. However, this wasn’t a problem for pro-players. While under their control, their speed wasn’t much slower than a Witch’s low-altitude flight. The only weakness was that they could only fly backwards. Because of this, there were several things they needed to careful of. For example, Ye Xiu was warning Su Mucheng: “Be careful! Don’t crash into a tree!”
“If I follow you, then I won’t crash into anything!” Su Mucheng said.
“That’s not true.”
“If you made a mistake then you’d be the first one to crash into a tree.” Su Mucheng said.
“No…… I’m afraid you’ll crash into me.” Ye Xiu said.
The two talked as they Aerial Fired. It clearly wasn’t anything difficult for them. One of them was in the front; the other in the back. They were both light and quick. The distance between those fierce Goblins and them grew wider and wider, but the Fire Witch’s movement speed wasn’t inferior to those two. She didn’t need to use her legs to run. She simply flew in the air towards them.
“Give her something to play with!” Seeing that the Fire Witch was closing in, Ye Xiu yelled.
“Okay.” Su Mucheng said. The two flew backwards as they fired towards the Fire Witch.
If this was a normal monster, then being repeatedly fired at like this would cause it to be pushed back. But to this Fire Witch who was 6 levels higher, these bullets had no effect on her movement speed.
“A little bigger!!” Ye Xiu yelled as he fired three Anti-Tank Missiles. Su Mucheng was slightly slower, causing their six Anti-Tank Missiles to form a line.
The six consecutive Anti-Tank Missiles exploded one after another. The Fire Witch finally gave the skills some face and was slowed down a bit. But the effects didn’t even last a second as she quickly began closing in again.

Chapter 169: Skill Interrupt

The 6 Level Suppression truly couldn’t be looked down upon. The knockback caused by the six Anti-Tank Missiles on the Fire Witch wasn’t even equal to that of a normal attack on an ordinary monster. And that was even with the Fire Witch luckily being a Mage type. She wasn’t born with a sturdy body. If she was switched with a Strength type BOSS, then under the 6 Level Suppression, the six Anti-Tank Missiles would simply seem like fleeting clouds.
Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng obviously recognized this, which was why they hadn’t placed very high hopes on it. They only needed to buy a bit more time.
Even with this though, the Fire Witch was still closing in on the two. As soon as they entered her attack range, she immediately lifted her staff and chanted a few words. The space around them seemed to suddenly split open. Two massive fireballs formed and crashed down from the sky towards them.
The Fire Witch continued give chase as she cast the spell.
Magic that required chanting usually couldn’t be done while moving. But there was one exception —— Elementalists. After learning the Level 30 Passive skill Mobile Cast, Elementalists were able to move while casting spells. Of course, their movement speed would be greatly reduced under this situation. Leveling the passive skill would decrease the extent by which the movement speed was reduced. However, even at max level, Elementalists would still only be able to move at 50% of their usual speed. It still couldn’t be compared with moving under normal conditions.
Although the Fire Witch was a BOSS, she still had to comply with the rules of the system.Her movement speed had greatly reduced while she was casting those two massive fireballs. Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng easily dodged the attack and took advantage of the opportunity to widen the distance between them and the Fire Witch.
The Fire Witch’s AI wasn’t very smart. She would first have to catch up to them before attacking. As soon as there was an opportunity to attack, she would cast a spell and slow down. Through this alternation, between her movement speed Lord Grim and Cleansing Mist were always able to maintain a certain distance from her. The goblins were eventually left behind so they gradually left the battle.
The goblins were all normal monsters in the leveling area. They were completely unrelated to the Fire Witch. The reason so many of them had accumulated around her was because the Fire Witch hadn’t been killed for such a long time.
They all had their own way of deciding on aggro. At this moment, their targets were getting further and further away. Soon, they could no longer see their targets, so the goblins turned around and went away to play.
As for Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng, all they could was run around in circles. The BOSS also had a limited range for where she was able to move around. It wasn’t possible to bring the Fire Forest’s Fire Witch all the way to Frost Forest.
“Coordinates 1658, 1542!” Ye Xiu messaged Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion. With the way he and Su Mucheng retreated while attacking, it appeared as if they were kiting the Fire Witch. However, the two of them weren’t able to chain their attacks too closely. In addition, the the BOSS’s life would still automatically recover. Even though the recovery wouldn’t completely mitigate the damage they had done or even if they had infinite mana, it would still take them more than a day to take down the BOSS.
Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion received the message and quickly rushed over. When they got there, they saw that the goblins that used to be with the Fire Witch, were already gone. Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng no longer needed to play tag with the Fire Witch anymore so they began hunting her down.
“We have arrived!!” Steamed Bun Invasion announced. He himself hadn’t arrived yet, though his Brick had. The flying Brick smashed into the back of the Fire Witch’s head. The Fire Witch seemed to have been stunned for a bit, but she instantly recovered.
“Look carefully before using it! Dizzy won’t have much of an effect on her, so only use it to interrupt her skills!!” Ye Xiu instructed Steamed Bun Invasion.
No matter how short the Dizzy effect lasted, it was still a status effect. If the Fire Witch was hit while casting a spell, then the spell would definitely get interrupted. Of course, the prerequisite was that the Dizzy effect activated. If it didn’t, then the damage dealt from it wouldn’t nearly be enough to interrupt her spells.
“You also have Inject Poison. Pay attention to how you use it!” Ye Xiu reminded Steamed Bun Invasion.
Inject Poison was a Level 30 Brawler skill. Even though the skill’s name contained the word poison, it didn’t actually have any Poison effects. This skill had two effects: It could induce a Bleed effect and it could also Break Super Armor.
The target could not be knocked down, launched, knocked back, or interrupted when it was in Super Armor……. Unless a Grab type skill was used, the target could not be moved forcibly.
Inject Poison was a skill that could get rid of this Super Armor. At its lowest level, the skill could dispel Super Armor for up to 5 seconds. At max level, the skill could dispel Super Armor for up to 10 seconds.
Under the Fire Witch’s Level Suppression, there was no way Inject Poison would be able to dispel Super Armor for a full 5 seconds. However, Steamed Bun Invasion could still hear Ye Xiu’s instruction from before telling him that he should circle around the Fire Witch and be ready to use Inject Poison at any time.
Whenever the Fire Witch attacked or cast magic, a red glow would emanate from her. This was her appearance when she was in a Super Armor state. In this state, the Fire Witch was unstoppable. Neither normal attacks nor skills had any way of stopping her movements. She suddenly opened her arms. Not only was there a red glow around her body, a fiery aura also emanated outwards, making everything around her go up in flames. Quite a few dried up leaves also leapt up in flames.
Meteor Shower!
This was the Fire Witch’s AoE spell. The spell summoned numerous meteors that would fall like rain onto the target.
“Inject Poison!!” Ye Xiu didn’t have time to tell him what the spell was. As soon as he saw the Fire Witch raise her hands, he immediately shouted.
Prepared, Steamed Bun Invasion heard Ye Xiu’s command and immediately used “Inject Poison.” The Fire Witch took the Inject Poison and the fiery aura emanating from her body instantly retreated. Steamed Bun Invasion was extremely shameless. He was afraid that he would provoke some sort of response. So after he used Inject Poison, he immediately ran and hid behind a tree.
“Why are you hiding?” Steamed Bun Invasion’s cowardly display made Ye Xiu not know whether he should laugh or cry. If Steamed Bun Invasion wasn’t going to use this chance, then he’d have to make up for him. Luckily, Lord Grim wasn’t too far from the Fire Witch. He sent a Sky Strike and launched the Fire Witch into the air. Under the Level Suppression and the BOSS’s innate defense, this Knock-Up was only able to make the BOSS stumble. However, Ye Xiu quickly followed up with a Falling Flower Palm, hitting the Fire Witch.
After successfully interrupting the Fire Witch’s Meteor Shower, Ye Xiu scolded Steamed Bun Invasion: “Don’t run! Once Inject Poison is used, you have to hurry up and interrupt her spell.” This was supposed to be a chance for Steamed Bun Invasion to practice, but that guy had actually run away.
“I was afraid that she would have some sort of scary spell.” Steamed Bun Invasion immediately replied.
In the time it took to say these words, the Fire Witch had already recovered and returned to kill them. Tang Rou’s Soft Mist went to meet up with her. Three types of Chasers danced around her. Besides the Neutral Chaser and the Ice Chaser, there was also a Fire Chaser from the use of Falling Flower Palm. The Fire Chaser buffed her Strength. At this moment, a layer of red magic fluctuations glowed around her arm. Her appearance with the Fire Chaser looked similar to the buff which the Fire Witch had given to the goblins earlier.
Soft Mist initiated with a Sky Strike. But the Fire Witch didn’t budge as she had Super Armor. The staff in her hands whirled. The rune at the end of her staff brought forth flames as it moved through the air. All of the Fire Witch’s attacks carried the Fire Attribute.
This Witch’s staff was extremely long. The sweep it created covered a wide area. Steamed Bun Invasion, who was just about to go forward, was forced to retreat. Soft Mist, who was already in range, didn’t have time to retreat. She hastily ducked to avoid the attack and then rolled, avoiding the streak of flames that came from the Fire Witch’s staff.
Su Mucheng’s Cleansing Mist was long-ranged, so she didn’t need to get up close. At this moment, she fired a stored-up Laser Rifle. The Laser Rifle crashed onto the Fire Witch’s body and seemed as if it would penetrate through her body. The momentum it carried was astonishing, but against the Witch’s Super Armor, it was only able to deal damage. The Fire Witch continued what she was doing and was once again about to cast a large AoE spell. Steamed Bun Invasion saw this and panicked: “Inject Poison is still on cooldown!”
He hadn’t finished talking, when Lord Grim rushed forward. He used a Circle Swing and stabbed the Fire Witch, throwing her and interrupting her spell. Grabs ignored Super Armor.
Interrupting a skill this way seemed simple on paper, but a normal player would still fail nine out of ten times. The successful interrupt would only be because of luck.
The BOSS’s skills weren’t so slow that you had time to see it, rush up, and then use a Grab to interrupt it. When the Fire Witch cast a spell like the Fireballs, the cast was nearly instant. It was practically the same as not casting at all. Even for large spells like Meteor Shower, if Steamed Bun Invasion was even a step slower, there wouldn’t have been enough time to follow up with any skill after his Inject Poison.
There was only a one second window and sometimes even less.
During their battle against Frost Forest’s Frost Thain, Blue River had a Super Armor Break skill “Wave Wheel Slasher” to use against the BOSS’s Super Armor skill. But why didn’t he use it then? It was because he wasn’t good enough.
What Ye Xiu could do didn’t necessarily mean that other players could do as well. Even for Tang Rou, even with her high hand speed, she still lacked in experience. If she had tried to use Circle Swing to interrupt the Witch, she would have most likely failed. Too early and the BOSS would have simply gotten back up and re-cast the spell. The Circle Swing would then be on cooldown. Too late and well, the spell would have already been released and the Circle Swing would be interrupted.
Lord Grim was unspecialized. Besides Circle Swing, he also had access to skills like Back Throw and Wave Wheel Slasher, which could Break Super Armor. He had the ability to continuously interrupt the Fire Witch’s casting. Letting Steamed Bun Invasion use Inject Poison was simply a convenient way to help him learn. Fighting against this big BOSS with a huge level gap was to practice interrupting skills.

Chapter 170: Fire Witch First Kill

“Interrupt! Interrupt!”
Steamed Bun Invasion’s voice repeatedly resounded.
This guy was always immersed into the games he played, and he would often shout out his moves like characters in early Hong Kong kung-fu movies. His punches and kicks all carried whooshing sound effects. This type of constant shouting frequently disturbed the moods of the opponents he faced in the Arena. But truthfully, Steamed Bun Invasion’s dubbing had absolutely no meaning to them. For example, in this big BOSS battle, it definitely wouldn’t affect the situation. Even so, he would still shout as usual.
Ye Xiu deliberately gave Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion chances to practice, letting them have the opportunity to interrupt the Fire Witch. They were only killing a BOSS, so there was no need to worry about time.
Because these two lacked experience, with the way they were fighting, there was no way a mistake wouldn’t be made during the long BOSS battle.
“Not good!! Run!” Ye Xiu suddenly shouted. Tang Rou had been one step too slow in interrupting the Fire Witch’s Meteor Shower. Ye Xiu felt that there wasn’t enough time to rescue the situation, so he hastily warned them.
Su Mucheng’s Cleansing Mist was already outside the spell’s range, so she was safe. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim used a Shadow Clone Technique and left his fake body there, while his real body instantly escaped. The remaining players, Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion, were in a more difficult predicament.
The two players were melee classes, so they were the closest to the Fire Witch when the spell was cast. The spell array took form and the air above them began to boil. It seemed as if the entire sky had ignited on fire. Fireballs of different sizes swiftly dropped from the sky. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion hastily had their characters run away, but it was impossible to completely dodge them all. The countless meteors showered down and the earth and skies instantly turned into a sea of flames. When the two of them rushed out of the fire, they only had a sliver of health left. They miserably retreated to one side and began drinking potions to recover.
Fortunately, the range of large AoE spells such as Meteor Fall couldn’t be shifted, when the magician cast them while moving. If not, then the Fire Witch would have chased the two of them and they would have already died and returned back to Congee City.
“My bad.” Tang Rou said. She wasn’t someone who refused to admit her mistakes. She only wanted to improve.
“Pay attention to the timing.” Ye Xiu didn’t say too much. He had already indicated when they should act. Putting it into practice depended on them to grasp the timing. It all relied on the individual’s reaction speed and judgement. Ye Xiu couldn’t help them at this.
The successfully cast Meteor Fall set the Fire Forest ablaze. After the Fire Witch shrieked and cackled several times, she continued to wave her staff at them.
“Don’t worry about it! Forward!” Ye Xiu commanded.
With regards to Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion, Ye Xiu wasn’t letting them go and freely practice. For example, the two weren’t at full health yet. If they failed to interrupt a spell again, then they might die. Ye Xiu would take up the task in this type of situation. He had a 100% chance of success in interrupting her spells with his excellent movements.
Wave Wheel Slasher!
This time, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim used a Spellblade skill. The tip of the blade would lock the Fire Witch in a spell array and cast a Wave Wheel that would slash the Fire Witch multiple times. If there were any other enemies nearby, the Wave Wheel would also damage them. Once the Wave Wheel had finished spinning, it would explode and cause the target to fly out, similar to the Fire Witch, who was now on the ground.
The battle continued.
In this type of continuous battling, even top-tier pro-players like Ye Xiu couldn’t guarantee that a mistake wouldn’t occur. So Lord Grim also took some damage. The only player who hadn’t taken damage was the long-ranged Cleansing Mist.
The battle would last for hours. It wasn’t one that could be finished in a matter of minutes.
Time passed by slowly.
No one in the tenth server knew that such an intense and difficult battle was going on in Fire Forest. Four characters were hunting down the wild BOSS Fire Witch that was six levels above them. This was something no player could ever imagine.
All of the guilds’ players were still running dungeons at a suitable level for them. The only wild BOSSes they were paying attention to were the ones in Frost Forest, Boneyard, Desolate Land, and Line Canyon.
Fire Forest? In truth, it was about time. The highest-leveled characters currently were all halfway through to Level 32. As soon as they had reached Level 33, they would begin hunting down Fire Forest’s Fire Witch. Line Canyon and Desolate Land were also done in a similar way.
1:00.
1:30.
2:00.
2:30.
“If they’re running Desolate Land, then they should be done by now, no?” Blue River and his friends had already finished running the dungeon three times. If Lord Grim was going to set the record, then he shouldn’t be so late. Two and a half hours had already passed, yet there were still no signs of any record being set. Could it be that Lord Grim was also having a bit of trouble?
It was only the first day, so Blue River didn’t dare be too happy. He only let out a sigh of relief. He couldn’t smile yet.
“Let’s go to Desolate Land.” Blue River said. They had just run Line Canyon.
But while they were traveling, a system announcement suddenly popped up.
System Announcement: Players Lord Grim, Cleansing Mist, Soft Mist, and Steamed Bun Invasion have completed the First Kill for Fire Witch Cashew.
Amidst all of the random messages in the world channel, this system announcement looked as if it was some joke made by a naive noob.
Fire Cashew First Kill!
Those who reacted were of course, veterans and experts!
In the instant that announcement was made, Blue River froze. The four friends he was with had also frozen.
At this moment, they all had the same reaction. They moved their mouse over to the world channel and dragged the chat box to check the announcement again. Each player carefully and earnestly looked at it over again. Not a single word of it was misplaced.
“Fire Witch?” Blue River didn’t want to believe it.
Fire Forest’s Fire Witch?
Blue River wasn’t the only one with this doubt.
However, to these experienced Glory players, they were well aware that there existed only one Fire Witch in the game.
“No way!!”
There were even a few in the Internet Cafe who cried out in alarm.
The initial waves of the tenth server opening had already passed. There weren’t many Glory players in Happy Internet Cafe who mainly played in the tenth server. Most of the all-night veterans were in the other servers, so they hadn’t seen the news. As a result, they were obviously indifferent towards it.
The few who did react weren’t familiar with each other. They could only discuss the astonishing news with their friends in-game.
Fortunately, they had completed the First Kill late at night. If not, all of those in Happy Internet Cafe who had known that Lord Grim was being played by Ye Xiu would circle around and watch him.
‘So we finally killed it……” In Happy Internet Cafe, Ye Xiu and Tang Rou both let out a sigh of relief. After the final blow hit the Fire Witch, her body burst into flames. Her mean and ferocious expression could be seen in the wisps of leftover flames. Once the flames died down, a few equipment and materials dropped.
Three and a half hours!!
The four of them had been fighting the Fire Witch for a long three and half hours. It could be seen just how hard it was to beat a six level higher wild BOSS from this. Tang Rou’s Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion had almost died several times. Su Mucheng’s Cleansing Mist was fine. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim, on the other hand, was just playing around. Tang Rou could tell with a single glance that he wasn’t trying his hardest.
“Not easy, ah, not easy. Let’s see what she dropped.” Ye Xiu said as he went to take a look at the dropped equipment and materials.
“Flame Stone! Yes, I’ll be taking this!” Ye Xiu picked up this material.
“Red Flame Staff, a Level 35 Purple weapon! Sadly, we can’t use this rare item, so let’s leave it for selling or for trading equipment!” Ye Xiu looked over the second item.
‘Red Flame Gown, a Level 35 Blue Cloth Armor. It increases Fire Resistance, this….. none of you are Cloth type classes, so we don’t need it either. It can only be sold for money.” The third item.
“Wow, Scarlet Moon Belt…… it looks like someone’s luck is good today. Take it! With this, your set will be complete.” The Fire Witch dropped Level 30-35 items. The fourth drop was given to Tang Rou. Even though she already had it, she could still trade it for the part she was missing.
“Fire Spirit’s Ring…… it also increases Fire Resistance. How useless……” The fifth was also a Blue equipment, a Level 30 Ring that increased Fire Resistance. These types of equipment were only useful against certain kinds of enemies. Under normal circumstances, there wasn’t much of a difference between it and regular Magic Resistance.
“Four equipment were dropped. A Purple weapon too. Not bad.” Ye Xiu nodded his head in approval.
“Are we rich?” Steamed Bun Invasion asked gleefully.
“We’re not that lucky!” Ye Xiu said. He then discovered that they all chose to give up on these items. Only Tang Rou had rolled for the Scarlet Moon Belt.
Seeing everyone’s trust in him, Ye Xiu didn’t object. He picked them all up and then gave the Red Flame Staff to Steamed Bun Invasion: “Selling it for 200 Gold coins won’t be a problem. You can use that to buy a set for yourself.”
“Really? Awesome!” Steamed Bun Invasion received it with excitement.
The other two equipment, the Red Flame Gown and the Fire Spirit’s Ring, were less important from a long-term perspective. However, players were about to hit Level 33 at present. If they were going to compete in this Fire Forest, then Fire Resistant equipment would greatly increase their chances of survival, so it was uncertain how much they would sell for.
“Okay! Let’s go back to dungeoning!”
Because of this First Kill, the entire community was completely shocked. Ye Xiu didn’t care though. As for Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion? They didn’t really take the Fire Witch seriously. The 6 Level Suppression only reduced the damage they dealt and reduced their skills’ effects. It made the battle very long and even though they almost died several times, from a mechanical perspective, the two didn’t feel that killing the BOSS was too difficult.
“So easy!” This was Tang Rou’s final opinion on the matter.

Chapter 171: If I Can Kill It, Why Can’t I Kill It?

Real or fake?
Ten minutes had passed since the Fire Witch’s First Kill was announced. Ye Xiu’s party had finished picking up the drops, while the experts from the guilds were still going crazy over what had happened.
6 Level Suppression. They only had four players, yet they were able to beat a wild BOSS six levels higher than them. What type of skill was that?
They lost a First Kill? Right now, none of the guilds cared about this. They were acting as if they were normal players and paying their respects to these four players’ strength.
This worshipping lasted for ten minutes. Only then did everyone return to reality.
“Lord Grim….. While we were setting a dungeon record, he ran off to kill a wild BOSS? What does that mean?” After staring blankly into space for ten minutes, Blue River finally spoke.
Bound Boat carefully analyzed: “If we continued with our previous way of thinking, then could it be that he was showing off his strength to us? Would the First Kills for future wild BOSSes be in his hands as well?”
Blue River stared blankly.
Guilds mainly used dungeon records to show off their strength. However, measuring a guild’s strength like this was actually a more comprehensive measurement. After all, this was something snatched directly from fighting other guilds. The result simply proved who was the strongest. But now? They hadn’t even begun preparing for it yet and the First Kill had already been taken.
Besides this, the equipment and materials that dropped from wild BOSSes were items that every big guild needed. The existence of wild BOSSes were more important than the existence of any hidden BOSSes. The items dropped were much more valuable. Wild BOSSes only respawned three times a week. Even if the item they wanted dropped every time, in one year, only 156 of them would drop. With millions of players playing the game, how could the value of such a limited supply of items not be seen?
“They have the strength to fight monsters over six levels higher than them. They only have four players too.” Bound Boat reminded Blue River after seeing his blank stare.
After Level 30, leveling areas had a range of 3 or 4 levels. Possessing the strength to beat a BOSS six levels higher than them meant that Lord Grim would always be ahead of them. It meant that he could First Kill any wild BOSS that they didn’t dare fight yet simply because he had no opponents.
Blue River immediately recognized how serious this issue was. Had Lord Grim taken the wild BOSS First Kills hostage as well??
Blue River couldn’t stay silent any longer. He finally decided to have a talk with Lord Grim.
“Brother……” Blue River sent a message.
“Here!” Ye Xiu replied.
“Congratulations!” Blue River felt awkward when he said it.
“Thank you.” Ye Xiu obviously knew what Blue River wanted to talk about. Actually, at this moment, Blue River wasn’t the only one who was messaging him. Many others had already begun feeling him out. Most of their introductions had started the same way.
“Brother, you’re so strong. You can kill the Level 36 Fire Witch at Level 30.” Blue River said.
“It wasn’t easy! It took us three hours.” Ye Xiu said.
“Brother, what are you planning on doing in the future?” Blue River felt that this question came out a little weird, but he couldn’t think of anything better. He had a weird feeling in his heart. He knew what he wanted to say, but he wasn’t able to put it into words.
“What do you mean?” Ye Xiu replied.
“Uh……. are you going to continue killing BOSSes like this in the future too?” Blue River asked.
“If I can kill, why not kill?” Ye Xiu asked in response.
Blue River suddenly realized what the crucial part of the problem was and why he wasn’t able to put his thoughts into words.
It was simply because of this reasoning.
If you can do it, why not do it?!
An extremely ordinary reasoning was a reasoning that couldn’t be argued against.
If Lord Grim possessed the strength to kill the BOSS, then on what basis could others stop him from killing the BOSS? Was it because if he killed it, they wouldn’t be able to? What type of stupid reasoning was that?
Couldn’t this same reasoning be used for dungeon records too?
If Lord Grim possessed the ability to set a dungeon record, then why shouldn’t he? Wasn’t this the reason why the system had set up this sort of competition? If the big guilds needed the records to prove their strength, then Lord Grim wasn’t able to go set it? That type of logic was even more ludicrous.
Blue River knew why he wasn’t able to say anything. It was because Lord Grim had always been doing what was normal to him. If it was any other player, they would also do the same. If they didn’t, then they would be abnormal.
Kidnapping?
Or maybe Lord Grim had other intentions. However, he wasn’t being immoral.
The big guilds wanted him to give up his rights to ensure their own benefits.
Setting records and killing wild BOSSes were all rights that every player had.
If Lord Grim wanted to kill, let him kill. If he didn’t want to, then he didn’t have to. No one should control him. Right now, the big guilds didn’t want him to kill, which was why he put up conditions. After, they said he what he was doing was the same as kidnapping. That type of logic was simply unacceptable.
If you can kill, why not kill?
Simply put, Blue River was killed instantly.
It wasn’t just him. Others had also probed him out the same way. Ye Xiu had replied to them in the same exact way. They all had no response.
Many guilds had already begun discussing this issue with each other.
This wasn’t some overt scheme. They were just sorting out a common issue. Lord Grim’s strength had been displayed for everyone to see. The circumstances were right in front of them. Lord Grim wasn’t doing anything wrong. Everyone could either ignore him or stop him. If they wanted to stop him, then they would either have to give him what he wanted or use force to suppress him. But if they used force, then he could argue: “On what basis can you prevent others from setting a record?
At this moment, Blue River felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted. It was better than before. After a short pause, he quickly revived and sent a message to Lord Grim: “Brother, what do you think the limit for Desolate Land’s record is?”
Blue River felt that Lord Grim wasn’t unjust, which was why he asked this reasonable question. He didn’t believe that Lord Grim wouldn’t answer his question.
“Probably two minutes faster than your record!” Ye Xiu said.
“Two minutes……”
“I don’t suggest that you fight for this record. The key to this record is the final BOSS Toya. Against this BOSS, my unspecialized character had an overwhelming advantage over the other classes. Even if you guys practiced hard to suppress him, you guys will still be a bit slower.”
“Why?”
“Because we can coordinate as well. However, you guys don’t have an unspecialized.” Ye Xiu said.
“Okay…… It looks like the only option is to pay you to not act then?” Blue River said.
“That works too.” Ye Xiu said calmly.
“Okay, brother, what do you want this time?” Blue River had already accepted reality.
A list of items was sent over. Blue River wasn’t surprised looking at it. He didn’t hastily negotiate with him either. In any case, he calmly replied: “Let me think about it.”
Blue River went offline again and went to the Heavenly Domain.
Heavenly Domain’s Blue Brook Guild knew that Blue River wouldn’t come over if there was nothing important to report and it usually wasn’t any good news. Seeing that he had appeared again, the four players who had set the record yesterday froze.
“The record has already been broken?” The Spitfire Flying Brushstroke was the first to ask.
“For now, no.” Blue River said.
“Then why’d you come back?”
“To tell you Lord Grim’s conditions.” Blue River said.
“His conditions? What does that mean?”
“The conditions for him to not break our record.” Blue River said.
“Blue Bridge, you’re saying that our record would definitely be broken by Lord Grim?” Flying Brushstroke wasn’t too happy.
“He said that he could beat our record by more than two minutes. Do you think we can do that?” Blue River said.
“You’re going to believe what he says?”
“Yeah, I believe him.” Blue River said.
“F*ck……” Flying Brushstroke cursed and sent a speechless emoticon.
Changing Spring was too lazy to send messages, so he simply told Blue River to wait outside of the usual dungeon they went to. While Blue River was waiting, Flying Brushstroke had already reported the info to Changing Spring. When they met, Blue River could clearly tell that Changing Spring wasn’t happy.
“What’s wrong with you Blue Bridge? Do you actually want others to treat you like a joke?” Changing Spring asked.
“If we don’t ask Lord Grim to not act, then everyone will look like jokes. There wouldn’t be any time to regret it because we wouldn’t be able to get the record back.” Blue River said.
“Ha ha ha ha, Blue Bridge old friend, you’re that scared of this so-called Lord Grim?” Sure enough, Poplar Beach had taken the opportunity to taunt him.
“I just have a feeling that he’s not a bad person, so I’m willing to believe him.” Blue River calmly said.
“He’s not a bad person? If he’s not a bad person, then why would he go kidnap the records from the big guilds?” Poplar Beach laughed coldly.
“The records don’t belong to the big guilds. Where’d you get kidnapping from?” Blue River said.
“Blue Bridge…… you?” Changing Spring and the others all felt a little strange. Blue River’s attitude was different from before. Blue River had previously been angry at Lord Grim. But after half a day, it seemed like Blue River understood Lord Grim.
“Isn’t that a solid reason? If you have the ability to set a record, why wouldn’t you go and set it? We can’t beat the opponent, so this is the only way to take the record.” Blue River said.
“Who says we can’t beat him!” Flying Brushstroke wasn’t happy.
“Blue Bridge old friend…… but tell me the truth, are you colluding with this Lord Grim?” Poplar Beach suddenly interrupted.
Blue River completely ignored him. He didn’t think that Changing Spring would doubt him like that.
Changing Spring had paused for awhile, before saying: “Blue Bridge, it seems like you’ve been working too hard lately. Relax for a bit! This time, hand this dungeon record matter over to us.”
“You’re saying…….”
“Let Poplar Beach substitute for you. The five of us are going to set the record.” Changing Spring said.

Chapter 172: A Well

A Well-Thought Out Long Term Consideration

Changing Spring’s decision startled everyone.

“Substitute” was an extremely sensitive word. Everyone knew what Changing Spring meant on the outside, but on the inside, did he mean that, from now on, Blue River’s spot as one of the Five Great Experts was going to be replaced?

From a skill level point of view, Poplar Beach was superior to Blue River. Changing Spring wasn’t the only person who saw this. However, the reason why the Five Great Experts were great wasn’t simply decided on their skill. Blue River was far more popular than Poplar Beach was.

However, when Changing Spring suddenly announced his decision, no one approached him to inquire for more information. After all, they were only guessing. They didn’t have the willpower to confirm that those were Changing Spring’s actual motives.

On the other hand, Poplar Beach and his group were, without a doubt, extremely happy. Although they didn’t try to assert whether Changing Spring was raising their position, this was at least an important first step. If he replaced Blue River and set a stable record in the tenth server, which Blue River believed wasn’t possible, then it would prove who was superior and who was inferior. His name would definitely become more well-known. In addition, Blue River’s cowardice caused many to feel dissatisfied with him. He might even be able to win over the supporters of Blue River.

Poplar Beach was excited. Just as he was about to go up and declare his position, he heard Blue River calmly say: “Lord Grim and his party, four Level 30s without a Knight nor a Cleric, completed the First Kill for the Fire Witch.”

“Is that why you’re wavering?” Changing Spring said.

“This is more proof of his strength, but more importantly, I suddenly realized that his actions are completely rational. Our selfish actions are the ones that aren’t. From a neutral perspective, this is fair competition.”

“Then us setting the record is fair competition too.”

“Of course…… But because we need that record, this isn’t a good choice.” Blue River said.

“Good or not, we have to try it first! Blue Bridge, do you believe in that Lord Grim’s skill more than ours?” Poplar Beach had trouble finding this chance. He was truly afraid that Blue River would successfully convince Changing Spring, so he hastily squeezed into the conversation.

Blue River paused for a long time, before saying: “Skill…… isn’t something that a person can have just by believing.”

“Correct. Seeing how Lord Grim’s group was able to beat a wild BOSS six levels higher than them, Lord Grim is definitely more skilled than we are.” Changing Spring said, “However, for a dungeon like Desolate Land, there’s a limit to how much skill can be drawn out. I’d even reckon that if a pro-team came to this dungeon, we’d be on par with them. If they can do it, we can do it too. Whatever they’re able do that we can’t has no effect on this dungeon.”

“You’re certainly right! Guild leader, we should go!” Poplar Beach said excitedly.

“Blue Bridge has to help you find a card first, no?” Changing Spring said.

“Oh, Blue Bridge old friend, sorry to trouble you.” Poplar Beach laughed. He already had thoughts about showing off in the tenth server yesterday. He had already found an account in the tenth server to use. However, there was no need for him to use it. He might as well let Blue River prepare it!

“One last thing!” Blue River wasn’t done yet, “Lord Grim’s class is unspecialized. This is a class that we don’t have. It’s an unknown variable.”

“Even if it’s a variable, why do you think that it’s a disadvantageous variable?” Poplar Beach replied back to Blue River this time, “Even more so, unspecialized characters aren’t something that Lord Grim invented, right? They were invented way back then. If they really are more advantageous, why hasn’t every dungeon record been set by them? Speaking of records, in the record teams of every server, why aren’t there any unspecialized characters, hm? If unspecialized characters are so amazing and can set records that others can’t break, then why aren’t they still popular?”

Poplar Beach really had done his homework. He had intentionally researched the dungeon records and record teams from every server.

“Well, it’s true that unspecialized characters are from way back then……..” Blue River’s explanation was clearly weakening. Some of the brothers nearby were unable to listen to him any longer. None of them understood why Blue River was being so stubborn.

“Old Blue, just let it be!” Someone sent a message.

“Let the guild leader and them try it out.”

“We can fight it out first. If not, then there’ll be other options.”

“Okay, it’s settled then!” Changing Spring finally said, “Blue Bridge, can you prepare another Blade Master? We’ll go set it again during the day.”

Blue River had nothing else to say and could only agree in silence.

At three o’clock, the five man team from the Heavenly Domain’s Blue Brook Guild appeared once again in the tenth server. Except this time, the Blade Master was Poplar Beach.

Flying Brushstroke and the others didn’t say anything. They weren’t happy about Blue River’s stubbornness from the day before either and weren’t happy about Poplar Beach either. However, Poplar Beach was indeed more skilled than Blue River. With him, the record they would set would definitely be higher.

“Seniors, are we going?” Poplar Beach was trembling with excitement.

“Let’s go!” Changing Spring didn’t say anything more. They began setting the record as soon as they got to Desolate Land.

It was just a low-leveled dungeon. They were also familiar with it, so there wasn’t a need for a lot of leading. The atmosphere was heavy the entire time as they pushed their way through the dungeon. It was only when they got to the final BOSS, where they needed better coordination, did they begin to warn each other more. Even so, the heavy atmosphere didn’t lighten up. It seemed like only Poplar Beach was full of spirit. The other four seemed somewhat spiritless. Their final time was still a bit worse than the original record, making them feel quite dissatisfied.

“Seniors, if we just casually go at it, we’ll break the record. If we just practice a bit more, we’ll definitely break it!” Poplar Beach wasn’t discouraged and encouraged them.

“You three, come here.” Changing Spring went to one side. He called over Flying Brushstroke, Chilling Nightfall, and Dawn of Ice.

Poplar Beach was startled. It was obvious they were excluding him. What was this guy saying in private! Poplar Beach felt gloomy, but he didn’t show it. He mindlessly attacked nearby monsters. He raised his volume to the maximum level and almost went crazy hearing the angry yells of the monsters, but he wasn’t able to hear what they were saying.

“What’s wrong with you three?” Changing Spring’s tone was serious.

In the end, of the three characters, one head turned left, one turned right, one looked up at the sky. This movement could be done by changing the camera angle.

“I say. You’re not actually doubting Blue River, are you?” Chilling Nightfall said with his head turned left.

“Nonsense, how could I do that.” Changing Spring said.

“It wasn’t like Blue Bridge’s reasoning made no sense.” Dawn of Ice said with his head looking up at the sky.

“I know.” Changing Spring sighed.

“Was it just that you weren’t happy with his attitude?” Flying Brushstroke said with his head turned right.

“Stupid bstard, fck off, do you think I’m you?” Changing Spring said.

“Oh?”

“In any case, this is the only step we can take.” Changing Spring said.

“What do you mean?”

“If we did as Blue Bridge said and chose to reach an agreement with Lord Grim, then we’d be acting too hasty. If the news spread, what would the guild members think? With that punk Poplar Beach, things might become even messier. That’s why we definitely can’t suddenly come to an agreement with Lord Grim.” Changing Spring said.

“But why’d you replace Blue Bridge? Even if this was something that he didn’t want to do, I believe that he would still go all out. That Poplar Beach looks so pleased with himself. I admit that he’s a bit more skilled than Blue Bridge, but it’s only by a bit.” Flying Brushstroke was someone who wasn’t afraid to say what his opinions were. Whether he was happy or not, he wouldn’t hide it.

“A bit better is just one of the reasons. More importantly, we have to consider whether Lord Grim really can break our record. With Poplar Beach, we’ve shut his group up. Later, if we ever have to make a negotiation with Lord Grim again, they won’t be as arrogant.” Changing Spring said.

Flying Brushstroke heard this and stared blankly. Chilling Nightfall followed: “Then what if Lord Grim isn’t able to break our record?”

“Then that means Blue Bridge was wrong. What else could that mean?” Changing Spring plainly said.

“You…….” Dawn of Ice gasped.

“A well-thought-out long-term strategy!” Flying Brushstroke said.

“That’s why I’m the guild leader and not you.” Changing Spring wasn’t polite, “Okay then, everyone cheer up. F*ck, if Blue Bridge was here, he’d definitely be more spirited than you three. If we don’t set the record today, then I’ll have you guys squat here in the tenth server and never return.”

“Ha ha ha ha, we just need more practice for that record. If we don’t set it this afternoon, we’ll definitely be able to set it tonight!”

The four laughed and then headed towards the entrance.

“We’re going!” They called out to Poplar Beach. Poplar Beach was a bit puzzled. He could clearly feel that after their private conversation, their tones seemed to have changed. What happened?

On their second run, the previous heavy atmosphere suddenly went away. Their communication cleared up as well. Their way through the dungeon went smoothly, yet there were still problems when they got to Toya. Even though they beat the record, they had only improved it by five seconds, far from what they wanted.

“D*mn, this isn’t good. We were only able to beat it by a bit. We haven’t gotten the results we want and we’re about to level up with the experience reward…….” Flying Brushstroke cursed. Besides getting a Purple equipment as a reward, they would also get a lot of experience.

“What are you afraid of! There are plenty of characters for you to use. Continue setting!”

On their third run, they made a major mistake on a mob of monsters. However, none of them cared. Right now, they wanted to improve the record and the only place they would improve on was their coordination against the final BOSS Toya.

They had finished their three runs, but they hadn’t gotten the time they wanted. These runs could be considered as practice.

“We’ll go again at midnight. Right now, come with me to the other nine servers and practice! You all have your account cards, right?!” Changing Spring said.

Chapter 173: He’s No Good For Dungeoning

Changing Spring was clearly taking this seriously. Blue Brook Guild had power in every one of Glory’s ten servers. Changing Spring had contacted the guild leaders of each server a while ago and sent the Level 30 accounts to the five players. At this moment, they were going to begin in the ninth server. With three chances in every server, they began their slow practice.

Every run would be within thirty minutes, which meant they could clear the dungeon twice per hour. From three in the afternoon to twelve at night, Blue Brook Guild’s strongest team ran Desolate Land eighteen times, making them feel like vomiting just at the mention of the two words, Desolate Land.

However, the results made them happy. The coordination between the five of them grew better and better and their ability to suppress Toya also increased as well. No one in any of the servers had ever placed so much value into researching Desolate Land. Starting from the seventh server, the five man team began to break records. In the sixth and fifth servers, they put the final record under Blue Brook Guild’s name. Unfortunately, these were old servers, so not many paid attention to these low-leveled dungeon records.

“Rest for half an hour. At 12:30, we’ll go back to the tenth server and set the record!” Changing Spring said to the four other team members. At 12 o’clock midnight, the dungeon entries in every server refreshed. They had been running the dungeon so much that their vision had become somewhat blurry. Resting was a necessity. They had to at least get some food to eat! While they were running Desolate Land, they didn’t have any time to eat.

After resting for half an hour, the five characters showed up at the tenth server’s Desolate Land.

Coincidentally, when these five players went online, they saw a character with the name “Lord Grim” outside of the dungeon entrance with his team.

The record had already been broken?

That was the first thought that flashed by in Changing Spring’s mind. He immediately opened up dungeon leaderboards and checked. The record they had set in the afternoon was still at the top!

He looked up and saw that Poplar Beach was walking towards Lord Grim.

“You’re Lord Grim?” Poplar Beach’s tone was always extremely arrogant, always making others feel unhappy. When Ye Xiu heard this voice, he turned Lord Grim around and saw the sign Blue Brook Guild next to the name Cloud Listening Blade.

“Who are you?” Ye Xiu asked.

“I’m called Poplar Beach.” Poplar Beach said.

A loud laugh suddenly interrupted: “Not only is this guy illiterate, he can’t count either! His name clearly has three words, but doesn’t Poplar Beach only have two? Is he stupid?”

Poplar Beach turned furious. Without any warning, he used Sword Draw. How could Steamed Bun Invasion not be able to dodge this? He jumped backwards with a “Woah” and without any warning, countered with a Brick.

Poplar Beach deliberately showed off his skill by immediately raised his sword up and used Guard. However, Steamed Bun Invasion had quickly rushed forward after using Brick and initiated with Sand Toss.

Poplar Beach hadn’t expected that Steamed Bun Invasion would be so quick. He hastily leaped backwards and rolled, however, dodging this Sand Toss would be difficult. But as a player who dared to contend to be one of Blue Brook Guild’s Five Great Experts, Poplar Beach indeed had some skill. Although it was close, Poplar Beach was able to dodge in time. He immediately raised his hands and used Triple Slash.

Triple Slash was an upward, downward, and horizontal slash performed in quick succession and was executed much faster than the speed at which normal attacks could be chained.

Poplar Beach’s dodge and counter was completed in a single breath, putting Steamed Bun Invasion as the one in the difficult situation this time. Steamed Bun Invasion hastily leaped back twice and avoided the first two slashes, but it didn’t look like there would be enough time to dodge the third slash. Poplar Beach was laughing in his heart, when he realized that his third slash had hit nothing but air. Steamed Bun Invasion had crouched to dodge the attack.

Poplar Beach wasn’t able to pull back in time. Steamed Bun Invasion got up and grabbed Poplar Beach’s throat with a Strangle.

Level 30 characters only had so many skills. Steamed Bun Invasion had become extremely familiar with his class. With one hand holding onto Poplar Beach’s throat, his other hand immediately used Brick again, hitting the back of Poplar Beach’s head with a whirl of his arm. Taking advantage of Poplar Beach’s Dizzy condition, Steamed Bun Invasion swiftly circled around to behind his opponent and Uppercutted, launching his opponent into the air. Steamed Bun Invasion quickly followed up with a Knee Attack.

“F*ck off!!” Steamed Bun Invasion shouted and kneed his opponent’s back. If this was just a normal Knee Attack to the back, then Poplar would have only been pushed back. However, because Poplar Beach was in the air, Poplar Beach would be sent flying away.

However, Steamed Bun Invasion’s prediction was wrong. After all, Poplar Beach was an expert. He took advantage of the opportunity to Quick Recover. His character rolled forward and then immediately turned around to counter with a Sword Draw.

By the time the sword aura had arrived, because it was so sudden, Steamed Bun Invasion wasn’t able to dodge in time. In the end, he heard a crash. Lord Grim’s Myriad Manifestation Umbrella had opened up in front of him. The sword aura hit the umbrella without a metallic ring and dissipated.

After blocking this attack, the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella immediately closed. Poplar Beach clearly wasn’t happy with how Steamed Bun Invasion had kicked him. Right as he was about to rush forward again, Changing Spring’s character blocked him off. On the other side, Steamed Bun Invasion wasn’t happy either with how he had nearly been hit by the Sword Draw. He also wanted to go up, until when he heard Ye Xiu shout: “Steamed Bun.”

“Don’t be so hasty!” Changing Spring warned in a heavy tone to Poplar Beach.

“The previous Sand Toss you used wasn’t good. Why were you so hasty in using Sand Toss?” On this side, the atmosphere was much lighter. Ye Xiu was lecturing Steamed Bun Invasion.

“I wanted to take advantage of the fact that his Guard was on cooldown!” Steamed Bun Invasion said.

“Guard only works against physical attacks! Sand Toss is magic damage. You even know the cooldown for Guard, how do you not know this?” Ye Xiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Oh, so it’s like that?” Steamed Bun Invasion felt unsure. He looked around left and right. They didn’t have any Blade Masters on their side, so he looked towards the other side: “Hey, can you tell me what the description for Guard is?”

Poplar Beach and Changing Spring stared blankly. They were in such a tense situation right now. What type of question was this?”

In the end, they heard Steamed Bun Invasion say: “Oh shoot. I forgot. He’s illiterate. He probably can’t read the words.”

“I’m going to kill him!!” Poplar Beach jumped out ready to fight. However, this time Ye Xiu moved his Lord Grim forward, blocking him as he said: “Don’t be hasty, don’t be hasty. I don’t think you’re illiterate, but who are you guys?”

“Changing Spring, Blue Brook Guild’s guild leader.” Changing Spring’s character went forward to speak.

“Oh……”

“Steamed Bun!” Ye Xiu immediately warned Steamed Bun Invasion. He knew that Steamed Bun was definitely about to say that this person was also illiterate.

“Blue Brook Guild’s guild leader.” Ye Xiu repeated. He had already figured out what was going on and laughed: “Are you here to set the record?”

“Correct.” Changing Spring said.

“It must have been difficult for senior to have come from so far away.” Ye Xiu said.

“It’s all because of you!” Changing Spring said.

“Ha ha, I’m very competitive, so you guys are going to have to try very hard.” Ye Xiu laughed.

“It sounds like you’re very confident.” Changing Spring said.

“How so?”

“It was you who told Blue River that we wouldn’t be able to compete against you, right?” Changing Spring asked.

“I think so.”

“You punk, you’re too arrogant! Do you dare duel me?” Poplar Beach shouted. Changing Spring calmly stood to the side and didn’t stop him.

“Blue River didn’t come?” Ye Xiu suddenly asked this random question.

“No.” Changing Spring said.

“Then you guys should call Blue River over.” Ye Xiu said, “If we’re talking about PK, then this person is probably a bit better than Blue River. But for dungeoning, Blue River is more steady and would be better in terms of teamwork.”

Everyone heard this and stared blankly. They didn’t know how well Lord Grim understood Blue River, but they were certain that this was his first time seeing Poplar Beach. With just that short exchange, he could already see how skilled Poplar Beach was?

“What are you saying!! Fight me!!” Poplar Beach shouted.

“See, he knows this too.” Ye Xiu said to Changing Spring, “Let him go wild in the Arena and let Blue River set the records.”

How could Poplar Beach take this? He drew his sword and rushed forward. Steamed Bun Invasion was about to welcome him but this time, Changing Spring didn’t just stand there. He roared, “Stop right there!”

Poplar Beach heard this and immediately halted. After staring blankly, Steamed Bun Invasion stopped as well, seeing that his opponent wasn’t moving. He then heard Ye Xiu follow up: “Correct, don’t be hasty. If you really want to fight me, then you’d at least have to use your main account.”

Changing Spring, Flying Brushstroke, Chilling Nightfall……. stared foolishly.

To them, Poplar Beach was already a very arrogant guy. But Lord Grim was even more arrogant! He actually dared to fight against Poplar Beach’s main account with his Level 30 character? That was a 40 level difference!

Both being equally arrogant, Poplar Beach was someone Blue River could never get along with. , However, it seemed like this Lord Grim was someone who Blue River revered.

They were still puzzled over this, when they heard Poplar Beach reply back with a laugh: “Smart! If you fight my main account with your level 30 account, then it won’t matter if you lose. Do you really think I’d fall for such a stupid trick? I don’t need my main account. I’ll fight you with this Level 30 account.”

“Don’t worry! I won’t be bullying you with this low-leveled account. I’ll borrow a random Level 70 account to fight with you.” Ye Xiu said.

A low-level account bullying a high-level account? Everyone began to sweat. Lord Grim had made “low-leveled” sound like an advantage though.

“Good, where to?” Poplar Beach asked.

“Up to you. We’re going to go dungeoning first. Let’s meet again later.” Ye Xiu said.

Chapter 174: Challenge Ignored

Lord Grim’s group turned around and entered the dungeon as if nothing had happened. Poplar Beach was stomping his feet in fury. It was too late to prevent them from going. It only took them a few steps to enter the dungeon.
Changing Spring was still calm. After watching Lord Grim’s team enter, the only thing he could do was calmly call out: “We’ll begin as well.”
“Okay.” Three of them answered back. Poplar Beach, on the other hand, clearly hadn’t recovered yet.
“Poplar, we’re going to set the record now. Focus. Don’t forget why we’re here.” Changing Spring reminded Poplar Beach.
Soon after, the five of them entered the dungeon and pushed through as they had practiced. However, Poplar Beach was still angry. When they began clearing the small mobs, the team’s tempo was a complete mess. This guy clearly wasn’t in the right mindset.
Changing Spring, who had reminded him before they had entered, didn’t say a word. On the contrary, Flying Brushstroke couldn’t watch anymore and opened his mouth to remind Poplar Beach. But he had only shouted the name, when Changing Spring interrupted him.
“Forget about it.” Changing Spring said, “Let him vent his anger or he’ll continue playing like this.”
Flying Brushstroke stared blankly for a bit. After recalling what Poplar Beach’s personality was like, he let the matter go. The other two didn’t say anything either. Poplar Beach was completely out of sync with the team. Their advance through the dungeon was not going they way they wanted it to go.
“That Lord Grim, did he intentionally provoke Poplar to affect our performance?” Flying Brushstroke said.
“I don’t think so.” Chilling Nightfall said, “Poplar being angry is just temporary. The competition for the record is different than the competition in the Arena. If we’re not able to do it today, then we can try it again tomorrow. We just have to find new accounts and do it. Do you really think he’ll provoke us every time like this?”
“Then what was the point of him spouting so much nonsense. Does he really think that Blue Bridge is better than Poplar Beach?” Flying Brushstroke said.
“What do you guys think?” Chilling Nightfall asked the other three.
Poplar Beach was on the field with them, so it wasn’t easy to privately discuss this issue. In order to do so, they whispered to each other whenever they crossed each other’s path when fighting the monsters.
“I think……. Blue Bridge’s dungeoning is extremely consistent. However, if you said that Poplar Beach was worse than Blue Bridge, that wouldn’t necessarily be true. We’ve worked with him for a day and we all saw how he performed! Poplar Beach coordinates well us too. It’s hard to say whether or not Blue Bridge is better, no?” Dawn of Ice, who hadn’t spoken up in a long time, commented.
“But at least in this type of situation, I don’t think Blue Bridge would be affected so emotionally like Poplar Beach is now.” Flying Brushstroke said.
“Could it be……” Chilling Nightfall stared blankly. He had blurted out what he was thinking, but had accidentally messed up and staggered behind everyone on Poplar Beach’s side. He quickly swallowed his words.
“What were you going to say?” The other four once again crossed each other’s path. Flying Brushstroke immediately asked.
“Could it be that Lord Grim had provoked Poplar Beach in order for us to see what Poplar Beach’s weakness was?” Chilling Nightfall said.
“You guys are probably thinking too much!” Changing Spring found the opportunity to interject.
“How’d it get so complicated? From how I see it, Poplar Beach provoked them first and then the other side simply countered back.” Changing Spring said.
“Uh…….” The three stared blankly. That was a very rational explanation.
“Don’t think about it so much and just concentrate on the dungeon.” Changing Spring said.
“Okay…….” The three replied.
Their run this time didn’t turn out well. They had reached 30 minutes. The gap between what they wanted and what they got was very big.
After they exited the dungeon, Changing Spring didn’t say anything. Poplar Beach wasn’t an idiot. Changing Spring believed that Poplar Beach knew why their time wasn’t good.
“Second time.” Changing Spring announced dully. Poplar Beach’s emotional issue had been overlooked this time. No one commented on it. This time, Poplar Beach had returned to his normal condition.
However, they still made mistakes in their run. The record limit implied that their performance was flawless. A single mistake meant that the record would no longer be the limit. In a thirty minute dungeon, requiring that every person performed perfectly wasn’t easy.
“Third time! Everyone, be more careful.” Even though they made a mistake last run, with all of their practice, they were able to suppress Toya with their teamwork. Their time was close to the tenth server’s previous record. They all believed that if they didn’t make any mistakes, then they would definitely reach the limit.
“We can do it!” Everyone encouraged each other as they entered Desolate Land for the third time.
They had advanced flawlessly this time. They didn’t make a single mistake all the way up to the final BOSS Toya. This part was the most difficult part of Desolate Land and it was the reason why the team had run Desolate Land eighteen times. Against Toya, the five coordinated perfectly. In their second run, they hadn’t made any mistakes here as well.
They had practiced this part all too well.
24:41:46!!
When the record came out, the five of them let out a long sigh of relief. This was the record limit they had wanted. It was the highest record they could make with their current ability. If they wanted to improve it, then they would need better equipment.
Even though Blue River hadn’t participated in the dungeon team this time, he had done his work properly. When he saw the record come out, Blue Brook Guild immediately sent members to begin bringing up a discussion in the world channel. They were naturally trying to repair the recent damage to their image. They had already done this yesterday, so this time, they were trying to nail it in and follow up their victory with another.
“Lord Grim! The record will be here. We’ll be waiting for you to break it.”
Amidst the countless messages that popped up, this challenge came out. It was sent by Poplar Beach. Poplar Beach spammed the message over and over again, but there was no reply from Lord Grim. In the end, when they looked over the recent messages in the world chat, they discovered that it wasn’t that Lord Grim hadn’t replied, it was just that it was similar to Changing Spring’s “GFY” (Go f*ck yourself) and was too short, so they had missed it.
Lord Grim’s reply was a short three words long: When I’m free.
Seeing this reply, Poplar Beach spat out blood in anger. He continued to spam the message, challenging him to break the record, challenging him to duel him.
This time, Poplar Beach was on the lookout. He paid careful attention to the messages. Except…… Lord Grim’s reply hadn’t changed. It was still the three words: When I’m free.
Poplar Beach really wanted to smash his head into the screen to enter the game world and strangle Lord Grim. But the reality was that it wasn’t possible, so he could only stare blankly at the screen. Should I go ask “When are you free?” What if Lord Grim doesn’t give me face? Poplar Beach worried.
“This guy is really persistent. He’s been messaging for almost an hour already.” In the Internet Cafe, Tang Rou said this to Ye Xiu when she passed by to refill her teacup with water. They had just finished running Desolate Land three times. They had used an hour more than Blue Brook Guild’s team did. This was because Ye Xiu was teaching them a new strategy.
The new strategy wasn’t as efficient as the record for Boneyard, but was actually more difficult to carry out. Tang Rou felt that she wasn’t good enough! She understood the preciseness of this new strategy, but because they weren’t able to do enough damage, they weren’t able to bring out the expected results.
Tang Rou had a faint feeling that if they had a fifth player with them, then with the fifth player’s firepower, they would be able to bring out the desired results.
As a result, after finishing the dungeon runs, Tang Rou brought up Poplar Beach’s spamming again.
“Yeah, it must be tough for the guy.” Ye Xiu said.
“What are you doing?” Tang Rou looked toward Ye Xiu’s screen and saw that he was checking out shops in the Congee City market streets.
“You’re shopping again? What do you plan on buying?” Tang Rou asked.
“Steamed Bun and your sets are pretty much completed, but Cleansing Mist is still missing a few, so I’m helping her look.” Ye Xiu said.
“Oh? Do you have enough money? I still have some.” Tang Rou said.
“You should save that money for potions!” Ye Xiu laughed.
“That…….”
“Hm?”
“Desolate Land record. We should go back and take the record back!” Tang Rou said. At this moment, the first three places in the Desolate Land records didn’t have their name on it. And because of Poplar Beach’s constant yelling, even if Tang Rou didn’t say anything out loud, she was already on the verge of exploding out in her heart.
“Of course.” Ye Xiu said.
“When?” Tang Rou asked.
“When we get our fifth team member.” Ye Xiu said.
“Fifth member? Who is it going to be this time?” Tang Rou asked.
“Someone you’ve talked with before.” Ye Xiu said.
“Who?” Tang Rou was puzzled.
“Ashen Moon, do you remember him?” Ye Xiu asked.
“Oh? That person….. I remember him. He was the worst of the bunch, but he was still better than me.” Tang Rou said. Everyone in Team Tiny Herb had beaten her without any suspense. They were after all pros.
“His name is Qiao Yifan. If we’re talking about his ability to duel, then he isn’t very outstanding. However, his true strength lies in his ability to work in a team.” Ye Xiu said.
“When is he coming?” Tang Rou asked.
“Soon. If things go well, then he might even be here tonight.” Ye Xiu looked at his friends list. The Ghostblade One Inch Ash was online 24/7 these days. His level had shot up like an arrow and he was now Level 29.