Chapter 36: Smitten with This Man
Xiao Chi was dumbfounded.
The moment Blue Sky Beyond joined the party, he started bombarding the chat.
[Party] Blue Sky Beyond: Get on YY! Everyone to the guild YY!
[Party] Blue Sky Beyond: You two ladies coming for Ranyi Fish? If so, let's do it together.
[Party] Blue Sky Beyond: Guild Leader! Guild Leadeeer! How could you get bullied out there without telling this Old Qing?!
[Party] Blue Sky Beyond: The second Sister Explosive messaged me, I immediately started calling people!
[Party] Blue Sky Beyond: I haven't even eaten dinner yet! Logged on the instant I got home!
[Party] Lime: Let me adjust my keybinds.
[Party] If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It: At an internet café?
[Party] Lime: Yeah.
[Party] Thousand Feathers: We're still two people short.
[Party] Xiaoxiao: 0.0
[Party] Flooding: Going to fight Ranyi Fish? Did your side lose people? If you're short, I can call two people from our guild.
[Party] Endless Time: Sure.
[Party] Flooding: Any class requirements?
[Party] Endless Time: None. It's an easy raid. Anything works.
[Party] The Light Boat Has Passed: Thank you, everyone... but we've already killed the first two bosses. Only Ranyi Fish is left. If you come help me, you'll waste your Lingyang Marsh lockout for the week...
Quest for the Azure Heavens' dungeon system used the party member with the furthest raid progress. As long as even one person in the group had cleared 50% of the raid, everyone entering would automatically be synced to that progress.
Which meant that, because Xiao Chi had already defeated the first two bosses, once everyone entered Lingyang Marsh, those bosses wouldn't respawn. They could only fight the third boss, Ranyi Fish.
People ran raids for loot. Skipping two bosses meant losing two-thirds of the week's chances for equipment drops.
[Party] If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It: Absolutely not. Our Little Veggie’s guild leader isn't allowed to be bullied! We're going to show that trash-talking raid leader who the real noob is!
[Party] If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It: Besides, for your sake, I got home on the first day of summer vacation, threw my luggage aside, turned on my computer immediately, and didn't even have time to eat. Right now my parents are taking turns yelling at me outside my room. Do you understand my sacrifice?
[Party] Blue Sky Beyond: Huh? Sister Dog, you're younger than me?
[Party] If A Dog Wants To Leave I Dont Stop It: "Sister" is an attitude, not an age. Besides, is that really the important part right now?
[Party] Blue Sky Beyond: My bad, Sister Dog.
[Party] Thousand Feathers: I have a group meeting at eight. Can we start already?
[Party] Endless Time: Let's go.
[What's going on?]
[The Little Veggie Guild is so wholesome.]
[This feels like a romance drama. The moment Xiao Chi got bullied, Endless Time came charging over. Waaaah.]
[The Little Veggie Guild is so confident.]
[If they don't kill Ranyi Fish before eight o'clock, then...]
[Thousand Feathers's group meeting is in danger!]
[Wait... has Endless Time been secretly camping Xiao Chi's stream this whole time?!]
Only then did Xiao Chi pick up his phone. The Little Veggie Guild’s WeChat group had somehow accumulated 99+ unread messages.
He scrolled through them briefly. Ever since they had gotten stuck on Ranyi Fish, Explosive Red had been giving a play-by-play in the group chat, and everyone had grown increasingly indignant. Endless Time had asked if everyone was free. If they were, they should all log in and run a demonstration raid to show End of Season how it was really done.
Blue Sky Beyond had replied that there was no way he'd miss something this entertaining. He was clocking out immediately—no overtime today.
Lime had said she lived too far away to get home in time, so she'd find an internet café on the way.
Sister Dog had replied that she was almost home.
Thousand Feathers had said he was writing his thesis, so someone should ping him when everyone was ready.
Xiao Chi slowly put his phone down.
[What's with that expression?]
[What did you secretly message Endless Time about?!]
[With a face this beautiful, I completely understand why Endless Time flew into a rage for his pretty boy.]
Flooding brought over two guildmates, and everyone joined the Little Veggie Guild’s YY voice channel.
The instant they entered, Blue Sky Beyond began complaining dramatically.
"Dear viewers, the moment I saw Sister Explosive's message, I swiped my card and clocked out immediately! I completely ignored the murderous look my boss gave me! I rushed all the way home, sweating like crazy, just to turn on my computer! I haven't even eaten a single bite! As for that damned Endless Time? He leisurely finished his company dinner and logged in using the office computer!"
"Can the company computer run games? Of course it can! Why? Because Endless Time is an honest-to-God capitalist! If he wants to play games, he plays games. If he wants to eat the company meal, he eats the company meal. He sits in his air-conditioned office comfortably while ordering all of us to log in!"
"And nobody says a word about my hardship!"
"You're all just talking about Endless Time!"
[Got it. Endless Time is rich! That makes him an even better match for Xiao Chi!]
[Got it. Even while working overtime, Endless Time's heart still belongs to Xiao Chi!]
[Got it. A capitalist who's willing to stop making money just to log in and stand up for someone? He's down bad.]
[Endless Time, you're so rich—how have you never showered Xiao Chi with gifts? Does that make any sense?!]
Blue Sky Beyond was left speechless.
Xiao Chi hurriedly turned on his microphone to stop his viewers from spinning increasingly bizarre shipping theories.
The ten of them entered Lingyang Marsh.
Flooding and Xiaoxiao had already arrived inside the dungeon with two guildmates.
One was a melee Sword Cultivator wearing flowing golden robes, sword in hand, looking every bit the valiant heroine. Her ID was Feng Cheng. The other wore a fitted dark-purple academy uniform, light and practical, and was a Ghost Cultivator. Her ID was Warm Wind.
Above all four girls floated the same guild name: Disqualified の Summer
The Little Veggie Guild—and the stream chat—fell silent.
Thousand Feathers was the first to break it. "I didn't know Quest for the Azure Heavens allowed symbols other than Chinese characters in guild names."
Xiaoxiao sighed helplessly. "I didn't know either."
Sister Dog burst out laughing. "So... exactly what was your guild's summer disqualified for?"
Warm Wind turned on her mic as well. Her voice was sweet and cheerful. "We don't know either. You'll have to ask our guild leader."
Flooding replied earnestly, "Don't you think our guild leader is a genius when it comes to naming things? We'll introduce you to her next time."
Everyone turned in unison to look at Xiao Chi.
The guild leader of the Little Veggie Guild had absolutely nothing to say.
Endless Time turned on his microphone. "Let's finish this quickly. Since some people don't know how to lead a raid, I'll show them how it's done. Think of this as a demonstration run."
The chat immediately flooded with "666666."
Endless Time continued, "Ranyi Fish has two key mechanics. First, its ultimate needs to be interrupted. The Light Boat Has Passed, you'll handle that. Light Boat's really good at interrupts, so I won't go into detail."
The chat instantly switched to: [He's so in love.]
Whether Endless Time had really been lurking in Xiao Chi's stream or not, he showed no reaction. The only thing anyone could hear was Blue Sky Beyond trying—and failing—to suppress his laughter in the background.
"After Light Boat interrupts, everyone stack on me and use heavy burst damage."
"The second mechanic is the water orbs. First wave: three orbs. I'll handle them. Second wave: six orbs. I'll take the two on the left, Light Boat takes the middle two, Flooding takes the right two, and Blue Sky Beyond supports Flooding. Any questions?"
Destroying the water orbs was much easier for ranged classes than melee ones. Flooding was a ranged Talisman Cultivator, so assigning her that role made perfect sense, especially with Blue Sky Beyond assisting.
Flooding replied that there was no problem.
The water orbs released by Ranyi Fish were poisonous and exploded with area-of-effect damage. If even one orb slipped through, everyone caught in the blast would receive various debuffs—poison, damage over time, movement speed reduction, and so on.
The most troublesome part was that each wave contained more orbs than the last. The first wave had three. The second had six. The third had twelve. The numbers kept doubling until the arena was completely covered.
Xiao Chi's previous group had spent two miserable hours repeatedly wiping to those two mechanics.
End of Season had simply kept yelling that everyone's DPS was too low, they were bad at the game, and their mechanics sucked.
Xiaoxiao hesitated. "What if the third orb wave comes out?"
Endless Time answered calmly, "It won't. None of us have eaten dinner yet, so let's end this quickly. You can order takeout now. By the time we're done, your food should have arrived."
[That damned confidence...]
[Endless Time really knows how to act cool. I believe everything Blue Sky Beyond said now.]
[Why does Ranyi Fish suddenly sound so easy when Endless Time explains it? What on earth was End of Season even talking about earlier? The more he explained, the more confused I got.]
[Seriously, even if this boss isn't hard, twenty minutes? Two hours was ridiculous, sure, but shouldn't it still take at least half an hour?]
[The fight hasn't even started yet! You're believing everything Endless Time says?]
[Damn it! It's all Xiao Chi's fault! I've become addicted to this man too!]
The fight began.
Blue Sky Beyond pulled the boss and secured aggro. Everyone started attacking.
Soon, Ranyi Fish began casting its first ultimate. Xiao Chi interrupted it perfectly.
Endless Time said, "Stack up. Full burst."
Everyone obeyed.
The first wave of water orbs appeared. "Spread!"
Before the viewers had even realized what had happened—Endless Time swung the Kunwu Blade. Slash. Slash. Slash. All three water orbs vanished.
The viewers: ???
Ranyi Fish began casting its second ultimate. The Light Boat Has Passed leaped gracefully into the air, formed a hand seal midair, and interrupted it once again.
The normally concise Endless Time spoke again over voice. There was the faintest trace of amusement in his tone. "Brother Xiao Chi's really sharp."
The Light Boat Has Passed almost stumbled when he landed.
They had spent two whole hours with End of Season earlier. Not once had that man praised him.
Everyone grouped up again. Full burst.
The second wave of water orbs appeared. All six were dealt with flawlessly. Flooding flicked out two Ice Talismans in rapid succession, freezing her assigned orbs instantly.
"Nice job, Flooding."
Everyone resumed attacking.
Endless Time continued issuing commands. "Xiao Chi, cast Cold Qi Condensation and Wind and Rain Halt on the boss. Use them every time they're off cooldown. Everyone else, save your big damage cooldowns. As soon as the boss gets the Weakened debuff, when I call for it, unleash everything."
Everyone acknowledged.
Endless Time continued. "Lime, use your ultimate on Blue Sky Beyond. That's it. Good. Xiao Chi's root landed perfectly. Nice. Xiaoxiao, restore Feng Cheng's mana. Good."
A few more exchanges. Then Endless Time finished the fight with Hundred Ghosts Slaughter. The Divine Weapon's signature finishing move split the heavens themselves. Ranyi Fish collapsed.
Endless Time stood before the enormous boss—its serpent body and fish head sprawled across the marsh. The Kunwu Blade in his hand still radiated the lingering killing intent left behind by Hundred Ghosts Slaughter. Black blade. Black-clad man. Standing beside the sinister monstrous fish. The entire scene radiated an icy, murderous elegance.
Thousand Feathers turned on his microphone. "Twenty-one minutes. Pretty fast. I'm heading off. Later."
Endless Time laughed softly. "See? Wasn't that pretty simple? A demonstration run. A gift for that End of Season from earlier. He can learn how raid leading is actually done."
The stream chat exploded once more.
[Xiao Chi! You took another screenshot! Don't think I didn't notice!]
[Damn it! Endless Time really pulled off that cool act!]
[This man is criminally handsome!]
[He keeps praising Xiao Chi! Everyone, take notes! Learn from him!]
----------
If you like my translation, please support me by buying me a coffee:
No comments:
Post a Comment