Part 30: The Demeanor of an Expert
StormGoddessNiNi wants to die when adding the party.
After setting it up, StormGoddessNiNi suddenly feels a surge of HP (energy) just from looking at the list of IDs in her party.
Just like the old saying: when one NiNi is struck by lightning, tens of thousands of NiNi’s will stand under the sound of thunder and lightning! It’s all for the sake of gossip! Fists up!
StormGoddessNiNi stares at her computer screen with eyes burning at a million watts. Her left hand presses the print screen button firmly as she thinks inside her head: come! Let’s see some sparks fly!
Unfortunately, as the clock ticks by, the “sparks” that she hopes for never comes.
The Underworld Cave is actually a six stage tree cave. The Underworld Cave boss, more precisely—–is the Underworld Demoness and her boy toys >_<. Besides the first stage, which consists of Nie Xiao Qian calling out for help, triggering a cut scene and starting a warmup fight, the rest of the stages are guarded by the Underworld Demoness and her boy toys. They can only get to the final stage after fighting and scaring away her boy toys——a huge final fight against the Underworld Demoness and all her boy toys who fled from the fight in the previous stages.
It must be mentioned that the setup of this quest is very twisted. But it gets even more twisted later——if a female player dies attempting the Underworld Cave quest, the system bot will simply announce that the player is dead, but if a male player dies, the system bot will announce: “Player XXX disappears forever in the deepest end of the Underworld……”
Those suggestive dot, dot, dots along with the fact that the Underworld Demoness loves to find boy toys, it’s pretty obvious what happened to those male players. Therefore, whenever a team is defeated, others can’t help but make a few comments on the world channel.
“Sigh, another has been sucked out of his ‘essence’ by the Demoness.”
“Brother XX, how does it feel to be a boy toy?”
In the beginning, some players couldn’t stand having their names associated with the Underworld Demoness, so they argued that they died in the first couple of stages, but the reactions on the world channel were——
“Holy! The beginning stages? You were raped by other men?”
Or——
“You couldn’t even defeat little Nie Xiao Qian? Are you still a man?”
In comparison, they’re better off being a boy toy >_<
Their party passes the first few stages smoothly, but Wei Wei still feels that it’s taking too long to get through them. Since they’re in the same team as RealWater and LittleRain, Wei Wei just wants to get this over with and leave with the Great Master; she doesn’t want to waste time fighting the little bosses. However, LittleRainYaoYao is just too rotten at playing; she’s always attracting the little bosses to chase after them, so they have no choice but to waste time fending them off.
After defeating the little bosses in the second last stage, StormGoddessNiNi stops in front of the warp hole to the final stage. She says hesitantly: “Who will take lead in the last stage?”
The leader should have been decided before even entering the cave, but StormGoddessNiNi was too afraid to ask. The previous stages weren’t a problem because just having Wei Wei and NaiHe alone were enough to get by. But this won’t do for the last stage; there needs to be a main leader when facing a tough opponent.
StormGoddessNiNi naturally believes that the leader should be ASmileNaiHe; she has long wanted to see the legendary number one expert’s manner of planning strategies. But since RealWaterIsScentless and LittleRainYaoYao are here, it’s not as easy for her to make this suggestion.
Wei Wei knows that she’s in a tough position. Just as she wanted to say that the highest level player should be the leader like usually, she sees that RealWaterIsScentless is actually on the same level as the Great Master. Wei Wei is in a little bit of shock. How did he climb back up so quickly? It’s normal for others to catch up since she and the Great Master hasn’t been online for a while, but to catch up this much? Did he play non-stop day and night without eating or drinking?
While she is feeling doubtful, NaiHe says: “It doesn’t matter. This quest’s difficulty is average.”
Wei Wei wants to fall on her knees.
Oh Great Master, aren’t you being too evil? Now that you say this, even if RealWater wants to lead the stage, he can’t. Otherwise, it will appear as if he’s picking up something that you threw out.
RealWater, LittleRain, and NiNi are all silent……
for a long time.
Wei Wei: “……Since the difficulty is average, I’ll lead.”
When Wei Wei used to partner with RealWater, she was the leader in quests most of the time. After she married NaiHe, she passed the task over to the Great Master. Now that she’s picking it up again, she actually feels a bit unaccustomed to it.
Especially when there is a member in the party who can’t keep up with everyone’s pace.
>o<
The Underworld Demoness is powerful and has many twisted skills:
“Yin-Yang Chaos” spell, doctors cannot use their abilities.
“Blow Deflection” spell, a certain proportion of your attack backfires at everyone in the team.
“Couple Feud” spell, an attack that only occurs when there are couples in the party, and its effect is similar to the “blow deflection” spell.
“Collect from males to nourish females” spell is very twisted. A male player’s blood level will be decreased, which will then be multiplied and added to the Underworld Demoness.
To conclude, this boss is a big test for doctors. Due to this, the boss is not that difficult for ASmileNaiHe’s team; the Great Master is very strong at dodging attacks.
After battling to a certain point, the Demoness calls for her boy toys who ran away from their fights in previous stages; they start to group fight.
Wei Wei wants to get rid of one of the boy toys first because he has a very annoying skill called, “Divine Path at Turtle Speed,” which slows down attacks. Just as she changes her position, NaiHe reminds her.
[Party][ASmileNaiHe]: “Master.”
Wei Wei knows that he is telling her to fight the Underworld Demoness; leave the little boss immediately and focus on attacking the Demoness.
NaiHe quickly explains: “After defeating the quest, the rewards will be in the same ratio as the number of survivors.”
Wei Wei remembers now. When they were talking to Nie Xiao Qian, she did mention that it was the Underworld Demoness who ordered her to lure the boy toys to her. Since their mission is to save them, they obviously can’t kill them.
Wei Wei can’t help but feel embarrassed. She has been living off of him too much, causing her decision making skills to decrease~~ Wei Wei starts to think seriously while fighting the boss; between her and the Great Master, who is really living off of whom?
Of course, she doesn’t forget to lead the team.
[Party][ReedWeiWei]: “Archer”
Before Wei Wei finishes her sentence, the Underworld Demoness interrupts her with an attack. Although she hasn’t found an opening to type the remainder of her sentence, RealWaterIsScentless seems to have understood.
[Party][RealWaterIsScentless]: “OK.”
Wei Wei is a little surprised. She then sees RealWaterIsScentless take position and attack like how she had in mind.
[Party][StormGoddessNiNi]: “Haha, you guys collaborate quite well.”
StormGoddessNiNi sure is the queen at causing awkward silences. Every time she speaks, everyone stays silent. Thankfully, they’re almost done fighting the boss, so they can leave soon. But before they know it, they’re faced with a new situation. LittleRainYaoYao, who has locked focus on RealWaterIsScentless to help replenish his blood level, suddenly starts replenishing ASmileNaiHe’s blood level instead.
As the main doctor in the party, NaiHe has been the Underworld Demoness’s target of focus. Now that LittleRainYaoYao is replenishing his health, the Underworld Demoness shifts her hatred and charges towards her. LittleRainYaoYao obviously can’t compare to the Great Master’s dodging skills, so she dies after one attack.
RealWaterIsScentless also falls to his death for losing all his health and not getting replenishment.
Wei Wei is dumbstruck from the chain of events. She just can’t figure out why LittleRainYaoYao would replenish NaiHe’s blood level all of a sudden. Does she not even know how to lock her focus on RealWater?
Her fingers can’t help but slow down. If she sends out her big attack now, the Underworld Demoness will die immediately, but then RealWaterIsScentless and LittleRainYaoYao won’t have enough time to come back to life. Although Wei Wei doesn’t really care about whether they’re dead or not, she’s the leader nonetheless. If half of her team dies from this, it’ll seem like it’s a problem with her leadership skills.
Wei Wei feels a bit angry inside. Due to LittleRainYaoYao’s miraculous move, the Underworld Demoness earned time to heal herself.
Just as she is thinking of the next strategic move, she sees a dazzling move emit flashing lights. The musician stabs the Underworld Demoness with his ultimate killing attack emitting an elegant stream of light. At the same time, a pure white healing glow brings RealWaterIsScentless and LittleRainYaoYao back to life.
In the speed of lightning.
Time stops.
The Underworld Demoness collapses to the ground.
The white robed musician stands carrying his guqin; his clothes swaying in the breeze.
Everything happened too fast. In the midst of being dazed and confused, Wei Wei feels her heart stop. StormGoddessNiNi, who is usually talkative, also seems to be stupefied, but then she explodes.
[Private][StormGoddessNiNi]: “Oh my God, Wei Wei, your husband is too cool!”
[Private][StormGoddessNiNi]: “How did he do all this in such a short amount of time?!”
[Private][StormGoddessNiNi]: “He actually brought RealWater and YaoYao back to life. He has such a top expert demeanor, so benevolent and manly!”
Wei Wei’s hands pause on the keyboard; her heart shivers.
Executing an attack and bringing members back to life in lightning speed is close to being impossible and an extravagant miracle. The musician, who is usually calm and composed, suddenly looks as if he is shrouded in silent arrogance.
……
……
A long, long time later, when Wei Wei remembers this, she asks the Great Master why he brought RealWater and LittleRainYaoYao back to life. After all, the Great Master doesn’t seem like a person who would repay evil with good (idiom).
Xiao Nai grumbles and says, “Don’t you think that it’s even more humiliating for them to be brought back to life by me?”