He Wuning was very good at dealing with minotaurs.
When he first experimented with the uses of the milk tea car, he’d used minotaurs as whetstones. Ji Ou had chosen the slaughterhouse as the first point of attack, and He Wuning found that rather interesting as well.
It was almost like the place where everything began—or rather, the monster where everything began. The first unlucky bastard to get beaten up.
The Tang Broadsword traced a silvery arc through the air. The minotaur that had been charging at him with a raised club collapsed on the spot, dissolving into a streak of light.
He felt that his movements were swifter than usual, and his attack power noticeably stronger.
He Wuning took a moment to glance at the additional status effects beneath his status bar. Besides the buffs granted by the milk tea set, new positive effects were continuously being added.
The ordinary players who’d realized last night that they could also contribute had become unstoppable, charging with the determination to hack the endlessly respawning monsters of this game world into an endangered species. Material collection was progressing smoothly, and Ji Ou was drawing cards until his hands went numb.
Among them were several cards that provided group-wide buffs with no time limit. According to the plan, Ji Ou would use those cards the moment they entered the dungeon training camp.
A whistling sound of air breaking came from behind. Without even turning his head, He Wuning swung his blade sideways at the minotaur behind Yi Luo. The two of them smoothly swapped positions, each finishing off the other’s opponent in perfect tacit coordination.
He Wuning shifted the weight of the broadsword in his hand.
Yi Luo broke into a grin. “What’s wrong?”
“You don’t seem in a hurry to get to the camp.”
“The monsters in the first stage aren’t much of a threat,” He Wuning said lazily as he sidestepped a swinging club and kicked away a minotaur closing in on him. “Might as well get used to this sudden boost in strength first.”
“That’s true—especially for the other members of our hundred-man group, right?” Yi Luo said, wearing an I see everything expression as he leaned back, standing back-to-back with him in the middle of the minotaurs’ encirclement.
He Wuning shook his shoulders a little uncomfortably and turned his head aside. “If you’re about to say I’m being considerate or something, I’ll stab you.”
Yi Luo reminded him, “Friendly fire is disabled in dungeons.”
He Wuning replied flatly, “Then I’ll do it once we’re out.”
He glanced at the main force lagging behind them. Quite a few people’s attack postures were still a bit awkward. Lowering his voice, he said, “It’s not like I lack common sense.”
“When moving with others, I know I can’t act entirely at my own pace… That’s why I think I’m not suited to be any kind of commander.”
Yi Luo chuckled. “But when we act together, I don’t feel like you’re being particularly considerate toward me.”
“I think you can keep up,” He Wuning raised an eyebrow. “Got a problem with that?”
“No,” Yi Luo said as he turned his head, thrusting his long staff straight into a minotaur’s chest. “I’m very satisfied.”
Inside the milk tea car, Ji Ou—who was constantly applying buffs to everyone—took a moment to glance at the blue dots on the battlefield.
As combat power steadily rose and morale surged, the blue dots kept pushing the front line forward. The red dots retreated step by step. Even though the camp was continuously producing new minotaur foot soldiers, it seemed utterly incapable of stopping the blue dots’ advance.
But Ji Ou wasn’t looking at that. He was looking at the two foremost blue dots—the two guys who had charged in right from the start.
They’d been stationary in the middle of the red dots for quite some time now, not moving at all. If it weren’t for the fact that players whose HP dropped to zero would be teleported directly from the dungeon training camp to the safe-zone respawn point, Ji Ou would have started worrying that they’d already gone down there.
He couldn’t help asking, “They’re not moving—are they okay?”
“They’re fine. Those two, you know,” Q-chan said with complete confidence. “No need to worry. There’s definitely a reason.”
“Exactly,” Tang Yu nodded in agreement. “I think they just don’t feel like pushing forward right now, so they stopped for a bit.”
She turned her head to Rong Jiu. “Strategist, what do you think?”
“I’m watching while sighing.” Rong Jiu really did let out a deep sigh. “Looks like those two aren’t quite what I imagined. They don’t seem eager to finish the mission, nor are they in a hurry to go home.”
He rubbed his temples with a headache. “Sure, I know that properly adapting to this sudden power boost is beneficial for dealing with stronger enemies later on, but…”
He glanced at the cards laid out in front of Ji Ou and clicked his tongue. “Who was it that told me they were always reckless, radical types? This is downright obedient and conservative!”
Ji Ou nodded with relief. “Being conservative is good. Conservative is safe.”
He used up all the remaining group buff cards in one go, leaving only a few group healing cards.
The rest couldn’t be thrown out casually anymore. Ji Ou pulled his hands away from the cards and looked at Rong Jiu thoughtfully. “How long do you think it usually takes them to adapt?”
“No idea,” Rong Jiu looked a bit irritated. “But my patience only lasts five minutes. I hope they hurry up.”
Before his words had even finished, the two foremost blue dots on the transparent battlefield suddenly moved. Once again, they headed toward the camp entrance.
Rong Jiu’s eyes lit up. “It’s time!”
Ji Ou had already gripped a card.
Inside the dungeon training camp, all attacks from the hundred-man group were mutually exempt from friendly fire—and the same went for the cards in Ji Ou’s hand. Whether it was world-destroying forbidden magic or terrifyingly lethal modern heavy weapons, none of it would cause the slightest harm to their companions.
A hint of fanaticism crept into Rong Jiu’s gaze. “Use this one! Hurry!”
Ji Ou glanced at the card in his hand. Even as he pinched it between his fingers, they trembled slightly. “We’re really using this right off the bat…?”
“With an attack this big, shouldn’t we at least do something ceremonial, like call out a countdown?”
The two blue dots had already reached the front of the camp. Rong Jiu looked outside once and urged him on. “Why all the fuss? Hurry up. If you don’t act now, those two will tear the camp down by hand.”
Wouldn’t that be even better?!
Ji Ou shouted that in his heart, but still obediently followed orders. Using the foremost blue dot as the coordinate, he threw down a card.
He Wuning, who had just lifted his foot to kick a squad of minotaur cooks trying to crawl out of the camp back inside to be reforged, suddenly felt something and looked up.
Before he could make out what was happening, a blast of astonishing force erupted in front of his eyes. Tongues of flame, wrapped in the shockwave, detonated violently before them. Yet the two of them stood at the very center of the explosion, protective shields like streams of data surfacing around their bodies—things that seemed not to exist in this place at all. The explosion spread outward without obstruction, and a mushroom cloud rose into the sky above the slaughterhouse instance training camp.
He Wuning lifted his head in surprise. “This is…?”
Yi Luo nodded, confirming his suspicion. “Yeah. Nuclear.”
He Wuning sighed helplessly and rubbed his temples. “I know Ji Ou has incredible luck and drew a lot of good cards, but there’s no need to be this extravagant right from the start, is there?”
“Gotta have a flashy opening,” Yi Luo said with a grin. The heat and smoke of the explosion hadn’t yet dissipated; gray wisps drifted off their bodies. “Besides, I’m guessing… someone’s in a hurry to clock out and go home.”
As the aftershock faded, the gate to the second stage slammed open.
Not just the camp—every single minotaur cook that had been present was wiped out in an instant.
Inside the milk tea car, Ji Ou, who had collapsed on the floor hugging a table leg, took a deep breath. “Even though someone told us right at the start that we wouldn’t get hurt, when I saw the shockwave reach the milk tea car, I still dove under the table without thinking.”
Q-chan comforted him. “No need to be so scared! The milk tea car didn’t lose even a bit of durability!”
“That’s normal,” Tang Yu said with a smile, pointing out the window at the other team members. “Look—there are quite a few people outside who instinctively took defensive actions. Oh, and some who instinctively tackled their teammates.”
“Even if your mind knows it’s fine, sometimes your instincts can’t help but kick in.”
“Thanks for the comfort,” Ji Ou said as he slowly climbed up from the floor, sat back down in his seat, and sighed. “If next time you could remember to assign me a companion I can cling to and shiver with, I’d be even more grateful.”
“Otherwise, being with you people just makes me feel even more out of place.”
Rong Jiu revealed a rather strange smile. “Ah, taking on this job does have its perks, heh heh heh. My colleagues back in the lab will never have an experience like directly facing a nuclear blast!”
He laughed darkly. “Just wait—I’m going to show off in front of them. I’ll write this experience up as a report! Publish it in a journal! Make them remember forever that they missed such a once-in-a-lifetime research opportunity!”
Tang Yu stroked her chin. “No wonder he was so fixated on using that kind of card—so there was selfish motivation too.”
“Well, maybe it’s exactly because he’s this twisted that he got voted out…”
Rong Jiu clutched his chest again. “…”
Ji Ou quietly scooted his chair a little farther away from Rong Jiu. “Hey, there are way too many weirdos in your tech department…”
“What are you saying?” Rong Jiu snorted and lifted his chin. “Isn’t your operations department just as bad? Which is scarier—the me who used this power, or the you who managed to draw an entire stack of nuclear blasts?”
Ji Ou: “…Then at least, try to use them sparingly.”
He rubbed his hands together. “It’s not often that we draw cards this good.”
Rong Jiu glanced outside. “But the Voice of the World said that drawn cards can only be used this one time. If they’re not used up by the end, they won’t be carried over.”
“These are draw chances the ordinary players earned by staying up late and working hard. We can’t just let them go to waste.”
He tapped the stack of cards with his finger. “Thirteen nuclear blast cards. This, too, is humanity’s wrath—don’t waste it. Pour it all out onto those monsters.”
“And three forbidden spells and four miraculous summons,” Tang Yu said with a smile. “Don’t waste those either.”
Rong Jiu shrugged. “Personally, I’m only interested in nuclear blasts. I’m not that concerned with abilities that defy realistic science.”
Ji Ou said, “You make it sound so high-minded! You’re obviously just doing this for your own research!”
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The author has something to say:
Rong Jiu: Huh? What do you mean I just want to watch explosions? That’s not true at all.
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