Chapter 8

Before the two involved parties could react, the world channel had already exploded with activity. The barrage of messages was so rapid that one couldn’t keep up without locking the screen.

[World] Brother Big or Not: ?

[World] Never Ask When: ???

[World] WindFreerThanMe: Am I hallucinating from pulling an all-nighter??

[World] DustLikeMe: HeartYearning and SweetView? Scumbag vs. Con Artist? Masters crossing swords? Elite showdown?? Duel at the Forbidden City’s Peak???

[World] SleepEarly: Wait?? What’s this hidden plotline about Demon King’s Wrath?!

[World] PeachOolongMyLove: Does that even matter? I just wanna know what kinda bizarre duo this is? I went out for ONE meal, ONE hour, and now the gossip circle’s moved on without me?

[World] Dumpling Lover: Damn, that scammer account is so lucky. They actually triggered a treasure map and even got a hidden quest. The rewards must be insane, right?

[World] Luoluo No Shame: Heh. Let an insider spill the beans for everyone—that treasure map was actually given to Little Sweet Scenery by Heart’s Yearning.

[World] Mo Wen Gui Qi: ???

[World] Go to Bed Early: [Confused]

[World] Goodnight World: [Confused] But… isn’t the treasure map a bound item? How can you gift it?

[World] Super Love Lulu: Must’ve teamed up to grind together. HeartYearns is truly ruthless – how many quests did he have to run to drop that treasure map? Setting new standards for scumbags everywhere.

[World] Dumpling Lover: And his target was Little Sweet景 too… warming hearts, warming the world, warming up to scammers. I’m falling for this渣男.

[World] Destiny Peach Tea: @Today’sBafflingSpectacle.

………

Jing Huan was stunned as he watched the players in the world chat spin a tale about him and Xiangwangzhi that stretched all the way to Chapter 42—on their wedding day, Xiangwangzhi eloped with a new lover, while Little Sweet Jing absconded with the betrothal gifts.

Damn, how far has this story gone now?

He moved his cursor to the taskbar, wanting to check the quest prompt.

Hidden quests were a special feature in Nine Heroes, often triggered by players when the game first launched, but they became increasingly rare later on.

Anyway, after playing for so long, Jing Huan hasn’t even seen this quest trigger, let alone completed it. He knows almost nothing about this task.

The quest hint only has a simple line: “Please proceed to Luojia Mountain 132.72 to seal the Demon King.”

Fine then.

[Team] Xiao Tianjing: Brother… did I mess up? [Crying]

Xiang Huaizhi didn’t reply immediately.

He was almost deafened by Lu Hang’s shouting.

“Holy shit! A hidden quest!!” Lu Hang was so excited he almost dropped his phone. “A treasure map can trigger a hidden quest? You’ve hit the jackpot! The rewards were already insane, and now with a hidden quest, who even needs Enchanting Spirit Pearls?! It might even drop a divine weapon for you!”

“Impossible. Hidden quests have never dropped equipment rewards,” Xiang Huaizhi cut off his fantasy.

“Alright, calling it a divine artifact might be a bit of an exaggeration…” Lu Hang moved closer to him. “Hurry up and ask Sweet Scenery if what she said earlier still counts?”

“What did she say?”

“What else could it be? Didn’t she promise to give you whatever she digs up?”

Xiang Huaizhi didn’t respond to him.

Currently, he wasn’t interested in anything other than the Enchanting Spirit Beads. The only reason he followed SweetJing to dig for treasure was the thought that if she actually unearthed some, he could buy them at market price immediately.

“Warrior Brother?” SweetJing’s voice came through the headphones again. “…I really messed up this time, didn’t I?”

Xiang Huaizhi placed his hand on the keyboard, typing two characters before deleting them.

He pressed the push-to-talk button: “No, you didn’t.”

Jing Huan was stunned.

…This person’s voice is strangely pleasant, huh?

It wasn’t deliberately lowered or deepened – just a very ordinary tone, yet it felt comforting to listen to.

Well, without these qualities, one couldn’t even qualify as a playboy.

Jing Huan said pitifully, “But everyone on the world channel is cursing me.”

Xiang Huaizhi hadn’t opened the world channel, so naturally he didn’t know it had already turned into complete chaos: “Just block it.”

Jing Huan: “Mmm, I’ve blocked it… So what do we do now? Should we do this quest?”

Xiang Huaizhi also glanced at the taskbar: “Wait for now.”

“But the quest only lasts forty-eight hours.”

Xiang Huaizhi opened the official website: “All hidden quests have a 48-hour time limit. I’ll check the details first. Death during a hidden quest follows normal penalty rules—if we rush in recklessly, we might get killed and lose levels.”

“Is the boss really that scary?” Jing Huan paused, then said excitedly, “Bro, does that mean you’ll help me kill the boss?”

Xiang Huaizhi stated the obvious: “My name is on the quest. Without me, you can’t trigger the battle.”

Jing Huan sneered inwardly but spoke sweetly, “Thank you, brother!”

Xiang Huai asked, “…I’ll check some information. Will you be available tomorrow afternoon?”

“Of course, brother,” Jing Huan replied obediently. “I’m available anytime.”

“Then let’s set it for tomorrow afternoon. We’ll leave plenty of time in case we can’t finish it in one go.” Xiang Huai moved his cursor to the “Leave Party” option. “That’s all for now.”

“Brother, wait!” Jing Huan quickly called out to him, “…Should we add each other as friends? How else will we contact each other later?”

Xiang Huai Zhi’s eyebrow twitched: “Alright.”

His tone sounded very reluctant.

Jing Huan snorted coldly.

Fine, go ahead and dislike me now. There’ll come a day when you’re crazy about me and can’t have me.

No sooner had they added each other as friends than Heart’s Desire quickly flew away. Jing Huan returned to the main city, found Heart’s Desire in his friend list, and checked his profile.

Heart’s Desire, male, level 150, Demon race, Qiya Mountain faction.

Personal message: None.

Today’s mood: None.

Friend’s comment: None.

…Is this guy pretending to be aloof? These days, even his seventy-year-old grandma has a personal signature.

Jing Huan propped his chin on his hand, clicked on the friend’s comment, found the words “big brother” from the system tags, and furiously tapped away.

【Friend evaluation feature is not yet available. Evaluation failed!】

“……”

Jing Huan closed the profile directly.

The next day, Jing Huan went to school. He had a morning class where the old professor marked him as a roll-call priority student, so skipping wasn’t an option.

Gao Zixiang had saved him a seat early. When Jing Huan arrived, he found Gao Zixiang and Lu Wenhao huddled together, whispering about something unknown.

“So, did my absence give you two a chance?” Jing Huan sat down in the empty seat, crossing his legs. “Already hitting it off?”

“Hitting it off my ass!” Gao Zixiang looked up. “We’re reading some big news.”

Jing Huan wasn’t particularly interested. “What news?”

“You wouldn’t care even if I told you. It’s about Nine Heroes.”

Jing Huan glanced sideways: “…Tell me about it.”

“Actually, it’s nothing major. It’s just that someone on another server dug up a treasure map and triggered a hidden quest… This game has been running for ten years, and there are still hidden quests that haven’t been triggered yet. Isn’t that funny?” Gao Zixiang put away his phone. “Last night, a server-wide system message suddenly popped up in the game interface. Our guild was in the middle of a group dungeon run at the time, and we were all stunned.”

Jing Huan: “…”

Has this news spread so quickly?

He withdrew his gaze: “…It’s just a hidden quest. What’s so special about that?”

“Huh? How dare you say that, have you ever even seen what a hidden quest looks like?” Gao Zixiang mocked him.

“I—” How could I not have seen one? The quest in the announcement screenshot you’re looking at right now was triggered by me! “…I haven’t seen one.”

Gao Zixiang patted his shoulder as a form of comfort: “Actually, the interesting part of this isn’t just the hidden quest itself, but the person who triggered it…”

Halfway through his sentence, Gao Zixiang suddenly realized something and immediately fell silent.

“The one who triggered the mission? Who?”

“No, no one.” Gao Zixiang paused, “Anyway, they’re not good people—one is a scumbag, the other a female scammer. Both are notorious. They kind of deserve each other.”

Jing Huan: “?”

Jing Huan: “Some things shouldn’t be judged based on just one side of the story.”

“It’s not me spouting nonsense; that’s the rumor going around on that server. The female scammer is even being hunted down by the major guilds in the district, so I bet she doesn’t dare log into her account anymore. The guy isn’t any good either; if it weren’t for his account having some strength, he’d have been hunted down too.” Mentioning the scumbag, Gao Zixiang felt indignant on behalf of his friend’s sister and slammed the desk hard. “In my opinion, these two deserve all the hate they’re getting from the district. They brought it upon themselves.”

Jing Huan didn’t expect to get scolded by a friend so early in the morning and found it a real headache: “Shut up, will you.”

Lu Wenhao, having nothing to do, opened the Nine Heroes forum and refreshed the page again.

Who would have thought that with this refresh, something extraordinary would emerge—

It’s a post from a player on the “Mirage” server.

[Oh my god, I just received a system message this morning. All I can say is, the Idlers’ Guild faction is truly unfortunate!]

The OP didn’t waste any words and immediately posted an in-game screenshot—

[System Message: Players Xiao Tian Jing and Heart’s Desire from this server have successfully triggered the hidden quest [Demon King’s Wrath], which is related to server stability. If the two players successfully seal the Demon King within 48 hours, the server’s stability will increase by 200 points. If the quest fails, 100 stability points will be deducted. Within 48 hours, players on this server can visit the Forging King to “contribute materials” and enhance Xiao Tian Jing and Heart’s Desire’s equipment attributes, lending a hand to the server’s development and cheering on the brave warriors!]

Server stability is one of the most crucial server attributes, significantly impacting all major guilds—when stability decreases, it greatly increases the likelihood of guilds being robbed by thieves, and in severe cases, can even destroy the guild’s herb fields.

This means that all major guilds in the server must allocate some resources within these forty-eight hours… to “cheer on” Little Sweet Scenery and Heart’s Yearning.

At this moment, the normally bustling Xianren Pavilion faction channel was as quiet as a chicken, the atmosphere heavy.

For ten minutes after the system message appeared, no one in the guild said a word.

It’s unclear how much time had passed, but a response finally came through in the voice channel—

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: “…So… should we still keep hunting down Little Sweet Scene these two days?”