Chapter 14

Xiang Huaizhi looked at those cute emoticons and found them more headache-inducing than the advanced mathematics problems from earlier. Not to mention, this person’s typing speed was remarkably fast—able to send so many emoticons in just a few seconds.

[Team] Heart’s Yearning: Didn’t see it.

After sending the message, he added, “If you keep teasing her, you’ll be running dungeons alone from now on.”

Lu Hang: “…Weren’t you chatting on WeChat? Do you have eyes on your forehead?”

[Team]SweetScenery: That’s good [almost crying]

[Team]Xinxiangwanzhi: Get ready, we’re almost at the BOSS.

Jing Huan sat up straight and summoned the Nine-Tailed Fox.

[Team] Little Sweet Scene: I’m all ready, big bro^^

Lu Hang: “Oh, she’s got the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox too. Why didn’t she summon it when we were fighting the Demon King earlier?”

Xiang Huaizhi: “The Demon King uses area-of-effect attacks throughout the entire battle. Summoned beasts can’t dodge—you want her to bring it out just to die?”

“That’s true…” Lu Hang said. “I heard her account was bought for tens of thousands too. Seems like she’s a little rich girl.”

All the scenes and characters in the Nine Heroes game are exceptionally beautiful, and the summoned beasts are no exception. Players often summon them not just for battles but also to show them off. Lu Hang and the two healers had summoned their beasts early on. Lu Hang’s summoned beast was a sika deer, while the other two healers led rabbits.

Jing Huan put down his water glass and watched as Heart’s Desire leisurely summoned out… a flower?

To be precise, it was an enormous, tightly closed pink blossom. The flower stood still for two seconds before suddenly blooming, revealing a graceful flower fairy inside. The petite and adorable fairy sat swaying her head in the center of the flower, glowing all around.

…What kind of extravagant and flamboyant summoned beast is this?

[Team]SweetJing: Wow 0.0! What kind of summoned beast is this? So cute!!

[Team]LuTiaoTiao: Haha, it’s normal not to recognize it. This is a legendary-level summoned beast—Mystic Star Flower Fairy. It has extremely high damage attributes, and there’s only one like it in the entire server.

Damn.

Jing Huan instantly felt envious.

How lucky is this guy? He even managed to hatch a legendary summon?!

[Team]SweetJing: Big bro is so amazing, rubbing for luck >.<

After saying this, Jing Huan turned off auto-follow, moved his character next to Heart’s Desire, and used the “rub for luck” emote.

Xiao Tian Jing tilted his body and affectionately rubbed against Heart’s Desire’s shoulder several times.

Xiang Huaizhi: “…”

He quickly opened the BOSS’s dialog box, initiated combat, and forcibly ended her action.

Right after meeting, the Water Demon unleashed an area-of-effect attack, causing Jing Huan to lose half his health instantly. His equipment wasn’t fully prepared yet, making him the most vulnerable. The other four still had most of their health left, especially Lu Tiaotiao, who appeared to have only lost 5% HP.

Seems Lu Tiaotiao’s account has pretty decent gear too.

“Lu, give me a damage buff.” There was no time to type during the BOSS fight, so Huai Zhi spoke directly into the mic. “Everyone watch your health. Healer, top up Xiao Tianjing… Xiao Tianjing…” He paused, “Just focus on defense.”

Most BOSSes in the game are immune to sealing skills, rendering half of the Fox Immortal Cave’s abilities useless. The Blood Pool skill is also hard to land, so defending is better—it can block half the damage.

“Ah…” Jing Huan paused, thinking he’d misheard. “Me? Defend?”

Jing Huan used to play a physical damage class, relying on him for both dungeon runs and PVP. In his mind, being told to defend was basically an insult.

“Defend.” Xiang Huaizhi didn’t elaborate.

“…Okay, brother.” Jing Huan shamefully pressed the defense button.

Lu Hang followed through by buffing Xiang Huaizhi, who then thrust his sword forward, dealing a critical hit of 13,000 damage to the boss.

Jing Huan stared in awe.

He genuinely wanted to see the stats of the divine weapon in Heart’s Desire’s hands now.

But the battle situation did not allow him to think too much.

Then, the water demon activated its skill again, directly aiming at the player with the lowest health, Xiao Tian Jing. With a “Water Floods Jinshan” attack, his health dropped by more than half again.

Jing Huan immediately placed a blood pool under his feet and healed himself once.

Noticing his health out of the corner of his eye, Xiang Huaiyu spoke up again to emphasize, “Healer, add health.”

Both healers in the team seemed not to hear, standing motionless in the corner of the map, even their summoned pets idling beside them.

“Hey, what’s going on…” Lu Hang quickly cast a defensive buff on Xiao Tianjing, “Healers, are you there?”

No one responded. Lu Hang cursed, “Damn it, they must be AFK… What do we do? Run?”

Jing Huan: “But if we run, they’ll be killed by the boss, won’t they?”

“You still have the mind to worry about others at a time like this… Those two really, knowing the boss is about to be killed, how can they still be AFK.” Lu Hang muttered a few words under his breath, then asked, “Lao Xiang, what do we do now?”

The Fox Immortal Cave’s Blood Pool skill has a cooldown period—once used, it takes about twenty seconds before it can be cast again. By the time it’s ready, Sweetie Jing will probably already be dead before the HP is replenished.

With both healers gone, there’s no way to revive if you die.

“It’s fine, keep going.” Xiang Huaizhi remained calm. He glanced at the healer and said, “Apply a defense buff to my summoned creature.”

Lu Hang didn’t ask further and promptly applied a defensive buff to the Mysterious Star Flower Fairy.

The most annoying thing about the Water Demon BOSS is that it locks onto the player with the lowest HP to attack—an unavoidable skill with no way to dodge. Jing Huan glanced at his own health bar and barely hesitated before saying, “It’s fine. You guys should be able to kill it. Don’t worry about me. I’m not carrying much money, so even if I die, I won’t lose too much gold!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the BOSS’s skill was about to hit him. At the same time, the Celestial Flower Fairy beside Xiangwangzhi rushed forward, positioning itself in front of Xiao Tianjing and blocking most of the damage.

“Damn, you actually used the Flower Fairy to tank damage… What a waste!” Lu Hang couldn’t help but exclaim. “Let the Flower Fairy focus on DPS. I’ll use my deer to block instead.”

“How many hits can your deer even take?” Xiang Huaizhi retorted.

Lu Hang’s elk, like Jing Huan’s nine-tailed fox, deals high damage but has low health, incomparable to the Mystic Star Flower Fairy—it would fall after just one hit.

“…Fine.”

Jing Huan hadn’t expected Xiang Huai Zhi to use a summoned beast to shield him either. He froze for a long moment before finally managing to speak: “Thank you, gege, wuwu… It’s all my fault for being so weak…”

Xiang Huai Zhi: “Mm.”

Jing Huan: “…”

I was just being modest casually, did I ask for your agreement?!

Lu Hang felt itchy hearing it: “Little Jing Jing, praise me too, look at all these buffs I’ve stacked for you.”

Jing Huan: “Thank you.” Official and stiff.

At that moment, Heart’s Yearning landed another critical hit on the BOSS. Seeing the huge bright red damage numbers, Jing Huan immediately started spamming: “Brother is amazing! Brother go for it! Brother charge! Brother hit its head!”

Lu Hang: “…” Damn, he never expected Xiang Huaizhi had actually called Xiaotianjing here just to cheer them on.

Five minutes later, the BOSS’s health plummeted drastically. As it was about to enter its enraged state—which would trigger another full-map AoE attack like at the start, followed by targeted killings with massively increased damage.

Jing Huan glanced at his health bar and thought, “This is it, I might not survive this hit.”

Just before the BOSS enraged, Xinxiangwangzhi suddenly halted his attacks.

【HeartYearnsForYou used a Recovery Ruby on LittleSweetJing】

Recovery Blood Pearl, a high-tier potion. Jing Huan watched as his health bar was instantly replenished to full.

Lu Hang was completely baffled: “Hey wait… you just casually tossed out a potion worth dozens of dollars? For just a dungeon run, is it really worth it… And she might not even die.”

Xiang Huai Zhi: “Insurance.”

The water demon unleashed another area-of-effect attack. Just as Jing Huan snapped back to reality, he saw the creature, which had been facing him, suddenly turn around and switch its target—after consuming that health-restoring orb, his HP was no longer the lowest in the party.

The BOSS’s current attack target is one of the healers in the team—LoveIsSharingWithYou.

Love is sharing, and being startled, she instinctively wanted to dodge, but then immediately realized—she had been AFK for a long time, and coming back now… would probably be too obvious.

So she could only stand there dumbfounded, letting the boss attack her.

Just as she thought she was doomed, the Nine-Tailed Fox suddenly dashed in front of her, taking the damage for her. Immediately after, Little Sweet Scenery leaped high and placed a blood pool beneath her feet.

Two minutes later, Heart’s Yearning shattered the water demon with a single sword strike, ending the battle with all members surviving.

[Party] Little Sweet Scenery: [Sigh] That scared me to death. I thought we were going to wipe.

[Party] Little Sweet Scenery: Thanks for carrying me through the dungeon, War God bro~ [Flying Kiss]

[Team] Heart’s Desire: By the way.

[Team] Love is Sharing with You: ……

[Team] Love is Sharing with You: Something urgent came up on my end just now, and I didn’t have time to come back. Sorry about that……

[Team] The Road is Long: No worries, as long as we cleared it.

[Team] Little Sweet Scene: War God brother, can we still run dungeons together in the future? [wiping tears]

[Team] Little Sweet Scene: I’ll buy better gear, I won’t be this useless anymore!!

[Team] Little Sweet Scene: [pleasepleaseplease]

Xiang Huaizhi didn’t even have time to type a response.

[Team]Lu Tiaotiao: OK, I’ll call you later!

After sending this message, Lu Hang immediately remarked, “These two healers are so unreliable, dropping the ball at critical moments. Might as well bring Little Sweet Jing along—at least we can chat with her when we’re bored.”

Xiang Huaizhi clicked his mouse: “Up to you.”

[Team]Little Sweet Jing: Does Brother War God agree too? [about to cry]

[Team] Lu Tiaotiao: Of course, he’s very easygoing. But we don’t have fixed times for dungeons. How should we contact you then?

[Team] Lu Tiaotiao: How about adding each other on WeChat?

WeChat?

Jing Huan froze, suddenly realizing what he’d overlooked. Frantically opening WeChat to check—

His WeChat ID is “Whatcha Lookin’ at Bro Jing”.

His profile picture is Kobe Bryant.

His Moments background is a basketball court.

…What the hell, this doesn’t look anything like a loli moe girl’s WeChat at all!

[Team]Lu Tiaotiao: ?

[Team]Lu Tiaotiao: AFK again?

[Team]Xiao Tianjing: No no!

[Team]Xiao Tianjing: My phone isn’t with me right now. Can you send me your WeChat ID? I’ll add you later [head pat]

[Team] Lutuotiao: Okay, luhang123.

Jing Huan noted down Lu Hang’s WeChat ID, pondering how to proceed, when suddenly a message popped up on the screen.

[Friend Request] Love is Sharing With You added you as a friend.

[Friend] Love is Sharing With You: …Are you there?

[Friend] Tiny Sweet Scene: [Nodding] Here.

[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: Sorry about earlier, didn’t heal you.

[Friend] Tiny Sweet Scene: Oh, it’s okay, no need to come apologize specially.

[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: …Anyway sorry [crying].

[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: You can call me anytime if you need help in the future.

Jing Huan was puzzled. This girl had been indifferent to him before, so why was she suddenly so enthusiastic?

But that wasn’t important.

[Friend] Sweet Little Scene: Ah, really?

[Friend] Xiao Tian Jing: I have something I need your help with right now!

[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: Go ahead, tell me.

[Friend] Xiao Tian Jing: Can we add each other on WeChat?

A few minutes later, Jing Huan picked up his phone and searched for Love is Sharing with You’s WeChat.

He thought about it; before adding Lù Tiáotiáo on WeChat, he needed to update his profile to at least look like a girl. But there weren’t many women in his WeChat contacts—just family and teachers—so he had no reference.

Luckily, there was a ready-made example.

Soon, the search results came up.

WeChat name: Curse My Idol to Death [Horse Emoji]

The avatar is Hong Shixian, with the caption below: “You’re so slutty.” ?

Did he search wrong?

Jing Huan searched again using the WeChat ID, and it was still this person “cursing my idol to death [horse head].”

He hesitated for a moment, then clicked into her friend circle. Fortunately, the other party had set it to allow strangers to view ten photos, so he didn’t need to add them as a friend to see.

The personal bio under the avatar reads: 【Here to stalk your ancestors again?】

“…” Jing Huan silently scrolled down.

The first post in the Moments: 【You idiots are so amusing, telling me not to hype up my idol—should I hype you up instead [horse head]? [question mark]】

The second post: 【What kind of crappy new outfit did Nine Heroes release? Wearing it makes you look like you gained twenty damn pounds! If the designers can’t do their job, get lost and let me take over [OK]?】

Rule 3: [It’s 2019, how can I still encounter such a lowlife blind date who tells me to quit my job and stay home to serve my husband and raise kids? And he even demands a 500,000 dowry? Keys cost 3 yuan each, or 10 yuan for three—do you fucking deserve it??]

Jing Huan: “…”

He was speechless for a while, closed the other person’s WeChat, and went back to check his own profile and moments.

…I’m such a sissy.