Chapter 32

Lu Hang had finished his breakfast before hurriedly logging in. They had both woken up late this morning and only managed a couple of bites before rushing to class, leaving him starving for over an hour.

He logged into YY, asked Xiangsibugua for a yellow membership status, and entered their team’s private room.

“Why are there only two of you?” he asked, “Where are the rest of our teammates?”

Xiang Huaizhi: “No idea.”

Lu Hang then realized that the other two teammates were both in someone else’s room.

He tossed out a sentence, “I’ll go ask,” and jumped to another room. Since the dungeon hadn’t started yet, the room was crowded with people, and it looked quite lively.

“Chichi, Guiqi, aren’t you two on our team? Why did you run off to someone else’s room?” Lu Hang chimed in on the conversation.

There was a brief silence in the voice chat before LoveMeShareWhispered quietly, “I don’t dare go in.”

Lu Hang was stunned. “Huh? Why not?”

LoveMeShare replied honestly, “I’m afraid I might hear something I shouldn’t.”

And then get kicked out of the channel by Heart’sDesire, along with a seven-day ban.

Lu Hang: “…”

Actually, it wasn’t just the onlookers—even Jing Huan himself was quite surprised.

He wasn’t very familiar with YY. Although he had used it before while playing Nine Heroes, he only knew the “press F2 to talk” function and wasn’t even skilled at kicking people out. Just as he was about to kick Xian Mengmeng a second time, the system notified him that “this guest is no longer in the channel.”

Xin Xiangwangzhi had already beaten him to it and kicked her out, even banning her ID.

At that moment, Jing Huan felt an indescribably complex emotion.

His first thought was, this damn playboy is starting to flirt with him again.

Then he sighed—what a true scumbag. After all, he and Xian Mengmeng had once been in a “loving” relationship, yet now he kicked her out in front of over a hundred people without a shred of mercy.

“Brother,” he called out.

Xiang Huai’s tone remained unchanged: “Hmm.”

“Was the name she just used meant to curse at me?” Jing Huan deliberately lowered his voice. “She had threatened me before, so I instinctively… kicked her out. Will she come after me again? I’m a bit scared…”

Scared?

Xiang Huai thought about it and felt that he had never seen the emotion of “fear” in Xiao Tian Jing.

“No,” he said, “she can’t kill you.”

Jing Huan wanted to delve deeper into this topic when he noticed three more people had joined the room—Lu Hang had called over his teammates.

His lips slightly parted, but in the end, he didn’t continue.

They started by clearing a five-player dungeon; the twenty-player raid wouldn’t be released until 3 p.m.

The party consisted of him, Heart Longing for You, Journey of a Thousand Miles, Love Is Sharing with You, and No Question of Return.

The few of them often teamed up for dungeons, with only Mo Wen Gui Qi being temporarily assigned to the group.

In the eyes of the other guild members, Mo Wen Gui Qi, squeezed among the four, seemed like a pitiful figure—even through the screen, one could almost sense his helplessness.

Mo Wen Gui Qi was indeed quite helpless. Not to mention the earlier misunderstanding when Xin Xiang Wang Zhi first joined the guild, the most awkward part was that he had once hunted down Xiao Tian Jing.

Yes, he was the mage in the fixed hunting team.

Little Sweet Jing even negotiated with him once—during an instance at the city gate, she asked if she could go out to complete a daily quest.

What had he said at the time?

Oh, he sent a cleaver emoji.

At this memory, No Return Date felt even more like life wasn’t worth living.

“Show us the mage’s stats on the public screen.” The microphone icon next to Heartyearns lit up briefly.

Not Asking for More didn’t dare delay and quickly shared the stats.

“Wow~ 2000 magic power, that’s really impressive.” Little Sweet Jing suddenly spoke up, exclaiming in awe, “No wonder you used to hit me so hard. With magic power like that, you must be on the top players’ list, right?”

Not Asking for More: “…”

“I recall Gui Qi is ranked in the top five for mages, right? Did you guys run into each other in the arena?” Lu Hang asked.

“Nah,” Jing Huan said nonchalantly, “just got hunted down by him once before.”

Xiang Huaizhi: “…”

“Pfft—” Lu Hang couldn’t hold back a laugh. “So that’s how it is…”

Mo Wen Gui Qi: “…Is it too late for me to apologize now?”

“Oh? It’s nothing, just a misunderstanding,” Jing Huan said with a smile. “He only camped me for 71 hours and 13 minutes—I don’t hold grudges, you know.”

Mo Wen Gui Qi: “…”

Xiang Huai Zhi chuckled and pulled the team to the main city NPC: “Gather up first. We’ve got over an hour left—let’s run a dungeon first. Everyone, head to the main city warehouse.”

A moment later, Mo Wen Gui Qi joined the party.

[Party]SweetScenery：Welcome [KnifeEmoji]

[Party]SilentReturn：……

[Party]SweetScenery：Oops! Wrong emoji. Welcome~ [CuteEmoji]

A few seconds later, SilentReturn faced the LittleFoxSpirit in the party and used the kneeling worship character emote.

Jing Huan was satisfied and controlled the Little Fox Fairy to nod at him.

With an additional DPS, their dungeon runs sped up considerably, clearing two instances in just over an hour.

At 11:40 PM, Xiangsi Buggu posted a guild announcement, instructing everyone to gather at the dungeon NPC for preparations.

Xiang Huai Zhi leisurely moved the team to the NPC. The guild dungeon NPC was a clam spirit with a new appearance—a little girl lying in a seashell blowing bubbles.

It’s absolutely packed near the NPC—all two hundred guild members are crammed in here.

[Current] Windchasing Youth: Who’s stepping on my foot! [Angry]

[Current] Destiny Peach Tea: [Eye roll] Could you be any cornier?

[Current] Sweet Little Scene: *Seizes the chaos to sneakily hold gege’s hand* ^0^/*~~

[Current] Destiny Peach Tea: ……

[Current] Chun Xiao: ……

[Current] Everlasting Sorrow: …

When everyone stands together, it’s impossible to tell who said what.

But Little Sweet View is different.

She’s always the most recognizable voice in the crowd.

[Current] Lu Tiaotiao: Took the chance to hit Xīnxiàngwǎngzhī on the head amidst the chaos*^0^/*

[Current] Lu Tiaotiao: ……

[Current] Lu Tiaotiao: Dad, I was wrong, please let me back in the team QAQ

Xiang Huaizhi calmly pulled Lu Hang back into the team: “Check if all your equipment is equipped properly, we’re about to go in.”

“It’s already this late and the officials still haven’t released the dungeon guide—it must be really difficult.” Lu Hang straightened up and glanced at the little fox fairy beside him. “Xiao Jingjing, don’t be nervous. Just focus on your gameplay.”

Jing Huan sat with his legs crossed, chewing gum, and said in a fearful tone, “…Okay, I’ll try my best. My hands are shaking, boohoo.”

He wasn’t scared at all.

Back in the old server, he was always at the frontline of dungeon exploration. His ID still remains on the old server’s pioneer player list—famed as the “Little Prince of Dungeon Pioneers.”

A few minutes later, the dungeon officially opened.

Yet for some reason, all the teams present remained standing in place—not a single one had entered the dungeon interface even after more than ten seconds had passed.

Lu Hang asked, “Dad, what are you doing? The dungeon is open!”

Xiang Huaizhi looked at the dialogue box in front of him and frowned, “Can’t get in.”

The NPC dialogue box read: “Okay, this princess has received your application.”

Others clearly couldn’t get in either, and many players were getting impatient.

[Current] MissYouNoMatterWhat: Why can’t we get in?

[Current] MyDestinyPeachTea: Could it be a bug? Is it just our server? I was really hoping our guild could get the world first kill…

[Current] CatNetwork: Damn it, what kind of crappy server is this?! If it’s not working, just shut down already, OK?

[Current] LoveIsSharingFood: We can’t get in either..

“That’s it, it’s over.” Lu Hang sighed.

Jing Huan said, “Not necessarily.”

Lu Hang: “We can’t even enter the dungeon now, how is it ‘not necessarily’? Who knows how long it’ll take to fix it.”

“Maybe… the dungeon has already started?” Jing Huan glanced at the NPC. “Haven’t you noticed the NPC has changed?”

Xiang Huaizhi also noticed that the little girl inside the clam had changed her pose at some point. She was holding a precious pearl and admiring it carefully.

Lu Hang took a look and realized it was true, though it had been hard to spot earlier because the player’s character was blocking the view.

Just as he was about to continue asking, he saw the NPC inside the clam suddenly yawn—

[Current] Princess Clam Spirit (NPC): Hmm~ Who should I eat today?

[Current] Pearl Princess (NPC): You there, players “Chun Xiao”, “Little Sweet Scenery”, “Destined Peach Tea”…

Seeing his own name, Jing Huan hadn’t even processed it when the scene before him abruptly changed—he was dragged into some unknown scenario.

It was an underwater world.

There was nothing around him, even the game interface buttons had disappeared. The chat channels were reduced to just the “Instance” channel. Alone in the center of the sea, it felt like he’d encountered some game glitch.

[Instance Announcement] Princess Clamshell (NPC): Coat “Sweet Little Scenery” in fish roe batter, mix with fish eyes, deep-fry until golden and crispy, then serve—my father and I both love it! The Dragon King next door is drooling with envy! But her stench of human is just too foul—let’s marinate her in seawater for nine days first! [Disgusted]

Jing Huan: “…”

If you’re so disgusted, then don’t eat it!!! You stinky shellfish!!!

At the same time, a new quest line appeared in the upper right corner of Xiang Huaizhi’s screen.

【Dungeon Mission: Break through the obstacles and save your teammate Sweet Scenery! Time remaining: 540 minutes.】

544 minutes, 9 hours. It seems that in the dungeon, one day equals one hour.

“Brother…” The voice in the headset sounded scared and helpless, “I’m trapped in the sea.”

Xiang Huaizhi responded with an “Mm,” and said, “I know.”

Lu Hang comforted her: “It’s fine, how great is this? You can just lie back and clear the dungeon.”

But this dungeon was clearly not that simple. Xiang Huaizhi tried clicking on the NPC but couldn’t initiate combat at all.

[Shrimp Soldier: You can’t gang up on me! (Challenge, solo mission)]

All four of them tried it out and finally figured out the dungeon’s mechanics—one random player among the five would be sent to the water prison, while the other four would undertake the challenge missions. Interestingly, these challenges weren’t team-based; a single player would enter the challenge, and if they failed, another player would take over until all nine stages were completed.

“So you mean if a player clears nine levels in a row, the dungeon is over?” Lu Hang was stunned. “Then why bother making it a team dungeon? Just make it a solo dungeon!”

Xiang Huaizhi pursed his lips: “It’s not that simple.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Qiufeng entered their YY voice channel.

“You there?” Qiufeng said. “You need to be careful when choosing your team for the dungeon challenge. Our team’s DPS just entered the first level and got wiped by the boss in three turns.”

“What the hell?!” Lu Hang exclaimed. “Three rounds? Isn’t your team’s DPS supposed to be strong?!”

“Yeah, but the first boss in this dungeon is immune to physical damage,” Qiufeng said expressionlessly.

Everyone in the YY channel fell silent.

Before any guides came out, no one knew what kind of ridiculous mechanics these nine bosses had—they just had to tough it out.

“It’s fine. If we fail the challenge, you can just leave the instance and regroup,” Jing Huan broke the silence. “At worst, this crappy dungeon will lock me in for nine hours—I’ll just watch a few movies and it’ll be over.”

Getting the first clear or not really didn’t matter to him.

“Don’t talk like that,” Lu Hang rubbed his hands eagerly. “Let’s try first. What if we succeed? The first boss is immune to physical damage, right? No problem, Mo Wen Gui Qi can go in first.”

Mo Wen Gui Qi didn’t waste words: “OK.”

“Alright,” Qiufeng said, “We’ll keep pushing through this level on our end. Once we get the BOSS stats, we’ll share them with you. If you guys enter the second level ahead of us, remember to give us a heads-up.”

Jing Huan sat in the sea, feeling like an outsider as he listened to their conversation.

Soon, a system announcement popped up—Mo Wen Gui Qi had successfully cleared the first level.

Before anyone could celebrate, ten minutes later, Mo Wen Gui Qi failed the second level challenge.

Love is sharing your last bite, yet we still fell at the second level—this dungeon really isn’t healer-friendly.

Love is sharing with you: “…Sorry, just a little short.”

“It’s fine,” Lu Hang declared with full confidence. “I’ll break the deadlock.”

Although not an offensive class, as the top warlock, Lu Hang was indeed highly skilled, managing to advance all the way to the fourth level before being defeated by a BOSS immune to sealing.

Only Heart Longing For in the team hasn’t challenged it yet.

“It’s okay, clearing new content isn’t meant to be done in one try.” Seeing the low spirits in the voice chat, Jing Huan thought for a moment, turned on his mic, and comforted, “We’ll definitely clear it next time.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Xiang Huai Zhi said.

This instance is too troublesome; after getting the first clear, he definitely wouldn’t do it a second time.

Jing Huan was taken aback for a moment: “Huh?”

“Go watch a movie.” Xiang Huaizhi switched the sword in his hand to a broadsword, then controlled his game character to slash off the crab general’s giant claw with a single strike.

“Once you’re done watching, you’ll come out.”

Author’s Note:

[Brain malfunction: calculated 9×60 as 9×24.]

By the way, about the dungeon settings—to ensure all players can enjoy the game, the difficulty isn’t set too high to begin with. It’s just that early raiders don’t have guides and can’t predict the next boss’s attributes, which makes the race for the first clear so intense.

Some of the game mechanics are inspired by popular MMOs, but most of them are just made up by me. Take it as entertainment and don’t overthink it.