Chapter 10

Jing Huan blinked, finally realizing—was he planning to solo the Demon King BOSS?

Jing Huan hadn’t wasted his night either. After shutting down his computer, he had specifically searched for videos of players from other servers tackling the hidden quest.

One word: brutal.

Five elite PvP players barely managed to defeat the boss after exhausting all their potions. By the time the boss fell, the battlefield was littered with corpses, with only one barely surviving player left standing at low health—a truly brutal scene.

Where on earth did this Heart of Yearning get the confidence to think he could solo the Demon King?

And even made him AFK on the spot?

Look down on who.

“Brother, isn’t this a bit inappropriate…” He sneered and turned on the mic, “I can’t let you go monster hunting alone.”

Xiang Huaizhi was checking his inventory for any missing potions and didn’t catch the poorly concealed sarcasm in the girl’s tone: “It’s fine, get ready to transform.”

Transformation cards are essential PK items that allow players to temporarily transform into summonable creatures in the game, temporarily boosting their attributes.

Each transformation card has different effects. The Nine-Tailed Immortal Fox card is the most suitable for Fox Immortal Cave players, increasing movement speed by 15%.

Jing Huan had just finished adjusting his character card when a notification flashed in the friends list.

[Friend] Energetic Mosquito Coil: [Nine Heroes live stream link: Heart’s Desire’s ex-wife, live streaming the Mirror Flower Water Moon Demon King quest.]

[Friend] Energetic Mosquito Coil: Little sister… come take a look.

The moment Jing Huan entered the live stream, he was greeted by an overly sweet, girly voice.

“Everyone has probably heard about what happened between Xiang Wangzhi and me, so let’s not bring up those painful memories in the live stream anymore.”

The voice sounded very familiar. Jing Huan glanced at the mic list in the live stream and, sure enough, the host of this stream was none other than Xian Mengmeng.

He couldn’t help but find it amusing. She had used Xiang Wangzhi’s name in her stream title to attract attention, yet now she didn’t want anyone to mention it after they came in?

“What kind of person is Xiang Wangzhi? How should I put it… When we first got together, he was very considerate and caring. He logged into my account every day to help me with daily quests and dungeon runs, took me to see beautiful scenery, and set off fireworks for me…” Xian Mengmeng answered the viewers’ questions slowly. “Let’s not talk about the meet-up, or I’ll start crying again… Are you asking about Xiao Tianjing?”

Xian Mengmeng chuckled, not hiding the disdain in her words: “She’s a female scammer who cheated one of our guild elders out of his equipment. She’s got terrible character, everyone in the server knows about her, and now she’s universally hated. Who knows, maybe after we finish killing the Demon King, someone might initiate a forced PK on her.”

Jing Huan had only listened once before and hadn’t thought much of it, but after hearing it a few more times now, he realized Xian Mengmeng’s voice was truly sweet and melodious.

It can be called the dream voice for every otaku!

Jing Huan looked at his voice changer with a mix of frustration and disappointment. Although the voice changer did turn his voice into a female one, it was far from being sweet or coquettish! With a voice like this, he probably couldn’t even fool Lu Wenhao, let alone seduce Xiangwangzhi.

In the game, Xiangwangzhi had already brought him to Luojia Mountain. Behind their team, a massive crowd of players followed, so densely packed that their in-game IDs were nearly impossible to make out.

He closed the live stream, then put on a strained, high-pitched voice and said, “Brother, there are so many people following us. I’m so nervous…”

Longing for someone who keeps walking ahead, paying her no mind.

Xiang Huaizhi was least adept at coaxing young girls, so he simply stayed silent.

Jing Huan propped her chin up and asked, “Brother, did you collect all these medicines for me? With such high quality, it must have taken a long time. Aren’t you busy?”

“Are you working or still in school?”

“How long have you been playing this game, brother?”

“Brother…”

“A few years,” Xiang Huaizhi vaguely replied, cutting her off.

Jing Huan gritted her teeth.

What’s this guy’s deal? You take other girls to see the scenery and set off fireworks, but with me, you barely even say a word?

What, do I not get any rights just because my voice isn’t sweet enough?

They finally made it to the Demon King. Xiang Huai said, “Leave the party and click on the NPC to get the attribute bonus.”

“Okay, big brother.”

The Demon King had a spider-like appearance, pitch-black and downright unsettling to look at.

Jing Huan left the team, clicked on the NPC to take a look, and couldn’t help but laugh.

He was the top contributor of materials in the Idle Guild—just through the screen, he could practically feel how much it pained the others.

After claiming the attribute bonus, he returned to the team once more.

Just as Xiang Huaizhi was about to ask if she had claimed it, he saw someone in the team speak up.

[Current] Little Sweet Scene: Wow, 50% attribute boost [star eyes]! Thank you all the guilds for your support, especially Idle Pavilion for contributing the highest proportion of materials. Thank you, Idle Pavilion, for your contribution~ [heart]

Xiang Huaizhi: “…”

That’s just asking to be punched.

[Current] Favorite Peach Tea: …

[Current] DeepForestDeer: ???

[Current] Spring Xiao: [Smile]

[Current] Mo Wen Gui Qi: Do you have a problem?

“Let’s go.” Worried that she might get forcibly PK’d by the Idle Pavilion on the spot, Xiang Huai Zhi tossed out this line and immediately entered the battle.

Killing a BOSS is different from PK—players are forcibly pulled into a battle scenario. This time, the system assigned them a map called the Eerie Cave.

Quite fitting for a spider’s character setting.

Jing Huan crossed his legs like a lord: “It’s so dark inside, I can’t see anything… Brother, what do we do now?”

Xiang Huaizhi remained calm, first checking the BOSS’s attributes.

Just as he had suspected earlier.

Since it was a two-player BOSS, the battle difficulty would definitely be significantly reduced. Without the ability to have healing, warlocks, seals, support, and damage dealers all in the party simultaneously, the system would surely give the BOSS some weaknesses.

The giant spider’s weakness is that it cannot heal, has weak physical attacks, and lacks support skills.

On the other hand, the spider deals extremely high magic damage, is immune to crowd control, and can also cast disabling spells.

“Dodge.” Just as Xiang Huaizhi finished speaking, the spider suddenly lowered its head and violently spat out a web.

The web was aimed directly at Jing Huan. Xiang Huaizhi frowned slightly and was about to tell her to dodge when she leaped high into the air first, narrowly avoiding the web.

Xiang Huaizhi breathed a sigh of relief and began surveying the nearby terrain.

Their luck was terrible—they had been assigned the eerie cave map of all things.

The eerie cave was a straight-line map, completely empty inside with nothing but scattered rocks.

This meant there was absolutely nowhere for Xiao Tianjing to hide on the map.

Jing Huan also noticed this. The spiderweb remained entangled on the ground for six seconds before disappearing. If you accidentally got trapped twice, there was basically no way out.

He picked up a grape, took a bite, and the sweetness spread in his mouth: “Wuwuwu, brother, what do we do? There’s nowhere to hide at all…”

The BOSS had already begun its area-of-effect attack. Xiang Huaizhi leaped to dodge a fireball, drew his longsword, and immediately slashed at the BOSS’s face, landing a critical hit right at the start: “It’s fine, just try to dodge. If we die, we’ll just restart the fight.”

In the livestream, Xian Mengmeng laughed with schadenfreude.

“Look, all the damage was dealt by Heart’s Desire, while Sweet Scenery just kept running around in circles… the team will probably wipe in less than ten minutes.”

“Sweet Scenery’s skills? Of course they’re terrible. Before, her account was played by one of our guild’s veterans. When she plays herself, she even dies in dungeons.”

“That time I got counter-killed was because I wasn’t paying attention and missed a heal. Otherwise, there’s no way she could have taken me down.”

“Maybe she could have been useful as a Putuo Mountain healer, but she actually switched to Fox Fairy Cave—a class where even healing your teammates requires skill… that’s just stupid.”

No sooner had the words been spoken than Little Sweet Jing, who had been dodging the boss’s skills, suddenly turned around and placed a Blood Pool in the southwest direction.

Unlike other healer classes whose healing skills target allies directly and never miss, the Fox Immortal Cave’s skills require predicting teammates’ positions. If placed incorrectly, the skill is wasted, demanding high player awareness—especially in PvP scenarios where teammates are constantly moving and won’t stand still waiting for heals.

Xian Mengmeng laughed, “See…”

Before she could finish, Heart’s Desire descended from above, landing perfectly on the Blood Pool and restoring a small portion of his HP.

Xian Mengmeng’s smile froze, and after a long pause, she said, “…What luck. Xiangwang must have aimed for the Blood Pool and jumped right into it.”

But soon, she was left speechless.

Ten minutes passed, and every single Blood Pool Xiao Tianjing cast landed precisely at Xiangwang’s feet.

Once or twice could be attributed to Xiangwang’s skill in catching it, but over ten times… no one could manage to catch a Blood Pool while locked in intense combat with a boss.

What surprised her most was—after being engaged in combat for so long, Little Sweet Scenery’s health bar was still completely full!

[Current] Destiny’s Peach Tea: Holy shit? That blood pool throw was insane!

[Current] Love Without Reason: …Is this a script or something?

[Current] Phantom Breeze: So was it Heart’s Yearning who caught it well or Little Sweet Scenery who threw it perfectly?

[Current] Melting Snow: Isn’t the most impressive thing Xiao Tianjing’s dodging skills?! Not a single drop of blood lost, isn’t that just insane?

[Current] Silent Pulse: What’s there to brag about? Isn’t this normal? She has a 15% movement speed buff. If Heart’s Desire hadn’t gone in to deal damage, he wouldn’t have lost any HP either.

[Current] Fragrant Mosquito: The damage output from God Desire is just fucking brutal…

Outsiders might not understand, but those inside know exactly what’s going on.

Lu Hang stared intently at the game screen, exclaiming in amazement.

Xiang Huaizhi took another bite of the delicious Blood Pool and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow: “Thanks.”

Jing Huan replied sweetly: “You’re welcome, gege~”

Honestly, landing the Blood Pool wasn’t difficult for Jing Huan—his skill predictions were always on point, and most of his attention remained fixed on Xinxiangwangzhi.

Say what you will about playboys, but this scumbag had skills. He managed to deal maximum damage while dodging most of the boss’s attacks.

If it were anyone else, they would probably have been knocked down by the BOSS long ago, and no amount of healing could have saved them.

Half an hour later, the BOSS finally went berserk, which also meant it had only 5% of its health left.

“Be careful,” Xiang Huaizhi said, “it’s about to unleash its ultimate move.”

No sooner had he spoken than the Spider Demon suddenly leaped high into the air, and countless small spiders swarmed over, densely packed!

The spectators outside instantly erupted in excitement.

[Current]SuperLuluFan: WTF?! This skill animation is so disgusting! I’m gonna kill Nine Heroes’ art team!!

[Current]WindFreerThanMe: What skill is this? Never seen it before?

[Current]AskNotWhen: The official website updated the BOSS info two minutes ago! This is the Spider Demoness’ ultimate – baby spiders can seal players and deal triple damage upon hit!

[Current] Silent Pulse: Haha, so that means a wipeout then?

“Damn it, isn’t this cheating? They’re giving players zero time to prepare!” Lu Hang slammed his hand on the table.

“It’s fine.” Xiang Huaizhi remained calm. “Now that we know the pattern, we can just restart after wiping. No big deal.”

A few seconds later, the spider horde disappeared, and the players could finally see the situation on the map clearly.

Little Sweet Jing was crouched over, her clawed gauntlets firmly planted in the soil… She conjured a magic barrier just large enough to shield the two of them.

This was widely regarded by players as the most useless shield skill in the Fox Spirit Cave—minuscule in range, requiring a long channeling time, and only usable at the caster’s feet.

For most players, it would be better to dodge early than waste time casting this shield.

Yet now, with this seemingly useless skill, Little Sweet Jing had effortlessly protected Heart’s Desire.

This means Little Sweet Scenery had to jump behind Heart’s Yearning before the BOSS activated its ultimate skill and begin charging four seconds in advance to pull off such a maneuver.

The current channel instantly fell silent, and Lu Hang also slightly opened his mouth, remaining speechless for a long while.

Only Xiang Huaizhi curled the corners of his lips and softly said, “Beautiful.”

Jing Huan snapped back to reality, feeling only the slight tingling at his fingertips.

He hadn’t played such an intense dungeon in a long time, and it was truly exhausting. When he went to block that ultimate move at the end, it was just with a try-and-see attitude.

Fortunately, the gamble paid off.

“Holy shit, I’m so damn good,” Jing Huan thought to himself.

With skills like that, who even needs Heart’s Yearning? He could solo the BOSS himself, damn it!

“Ah.” He felt his heartbeat, his tone tinged with joy as he feigned excitement, “Brother praised me!”

With a nimble leap, Heart’s Desire raised his longsword high and thrust it straight into the spider’s head. The spider let out two agonized howls before collapsing with a thunderous crash.

[System Message: Congratulations to SweetScenery and Heart’s Desire for successfully sealing the Rampaging Demon King, earning the title “Demon King Slayer.”]

The moment the Spider Demon fell, a massive treasure chest burst forth beside it.

Ignoring the amazed and skeptical onlookers, Xiang Huaizhi said, “Go pick it up.”

Jing Huan was stunned, “Huh? Me?”

“Yeah.”

The most thrilling moment after killing a BOSS is undoubtedly looting the rewards.

Jing Huan quickly maneuvered his character to the treasure chest and abruptly sat down in front of it——

[Current] Little Sweet Jing: This devout maiden vows to be vegetarian for life, praying only for the GM to drop divine artifacts, beast souls, enchantment spirit pearls, divine artifact blueprints, Dragon Claw Seals…[wooden fish knocking sounds]

[Current] Heart’s Yearning: ……

[Current] Destiny Peach Tea: ……

[Current] Chun Xiao: ……

[Current]Ultra Loves Lulu: ……

After completing the procedure, Jing Huan eagerly moved his mouse and gently clicked the left button——

[Congratulations on successfully sealing the present-world demon king “Spider Spirit”! After Spider Spirit packed up and went home, it left behind a “Delicious Steamed Bun (low-tier item, restores 100 HP upon use)” as a gift for you, young hero!]

Jing Huan: “…………”

Jing Huan: “Huh??”

Jing Huan: “???!”

Jing Huan: “GM, your mom…”

Xiang Huai Zhi: “Ahem.”

Jing Huan was just about to unleash a torrent of curses, but the words reached his lips only to be forcefully swallowed back. Fuming with anger and indignation, he changed his tone: “…May your mother always pay double for groceries!”

Still unsatisfied, he added: “And may everything be outrageously expensive! Super doubled!!!”