The voice chat suddenly fell dead silent. Wine God Huahua was too busy running for his life to speak, the rookie healer Xiao Yueya had completely failed to grasp the situation, and the remaining three were left dumbfounded by what they had just witnessed. By the time they snapped back to reality, they saw that Ceng Jing Shu Guang had already led the boss and several wolf-fang spiders deep into the cave, turning a corner and vanishing from sight.
"I left ten for you. Clear them out and run inside. I'll wait for you," Ceng Jing Shu Guang's voice finally broke the silence.
"Captain," spoke Taiyi Zhenren, who rarely talked.
Ceng Jing Shu Guang: "Hm?"
"Master! I am in awe!"
"Just getting by."
The guy showed not a shred of modesty, following up with an even more outrageous statement: "After all, they're the mobs I aggroed. I know them."
Everyone fell silent. Given that level of arrogance, it would be a shame not to drag him out and have him shot by a firing squad for half an hour.
Even though the boss had been lured away, the remaining ten wolf-fang spiders still kept the Dragon King and the others frantically busy. With the "desperate assistance" of the rookie healer Xiao Yueya, one of the wolf-fang spiders finally locked its aggro onto her. The girl had no sense to run away; she didn't even realize she had lost half her health to a single bite from the spider, and simply stood there frantically healing the Dragon King. If Wine God Huahua hadn't noticed in time, sprinting over with "Eight Immortals Steps" and following up with a table kick to knock the mob back, Xiao Yueya would have met her maker half a second later.
Hua Feihua let out a soft sigh. "Man, I just don't get it. A married couple playing the same game, how is the gap in their mechanics so huge?"
"What the hell do you mean by that, Hua Feihua?" Poor mechanics didn't mean low intelligence; Xiao Yueya's reaction was lightning fast.
"Nothing, nothing, heal away, Sister-in-law, I'm about to die..." Hua Feihua hurriedly changed the subject.
"Stop beating around the bush and insulting me. Let me tell you, Hua Feihua, this is the first time in sixteen years I've played an online game. Once I get the hang of it, I'm going to hunt you down across the entire world for crossing this lady, hmph," Xiao Yueya said angrily.
"Sixteen years? Sister-in-law, how old are you this year?" Hua Feihua's skin was anything but thin.
Xiao Yueya: "This old lady just turned sixteen! You got a problem with that?"
Hua Feihua shrieked: "Brother Guang, Sister-in-law is a minor?!"
Xiao Yu: "Old enough is old enough."
The voice chat instantly went quiet again as four men simultaneously thought of two words: *Beasts!*
Even though ten wolf-fang spiders were a lot, everyone present except Xiao Yueya was a veteran gamer. With Ceng Jing Shu Guang gone, the Dragon King naturally stepped up to take command. In no time at all, the chaotic situation was stabilized, and the damage output proceeded in an orderly fashion.
A few minutes later, the final wolf-fang spider was kicked to the ground by Wine God Huahua. A piece of blue equipment dropped, putting a perfect cap on their teamwork.
"Ah, blue gear! Brother Guang, how are we splitting this?" Hua Feihua shouted as he charged forward, but Xiao Yueya was faster, swooping in to snatch the item up in a flash.
"Sister-in-law is fierce! Your item-snatching skills are at least three tiers higher than your healing." Hua Feihua reined in his warhorse, which let out a whinny on the spot, raising its front hooves high and executing a stamping step.
Having grabbed the equipment, Xiao Yueya couldn't care less about the sarcasm in Hua Feihua's words. "Hmph, you know it."
"Yueya, that gear is for Lance Cavalry, you can't wear it. Give it to the Dragon King or Feihua," Ceng Jing Shu Guang's voice came through the comms.
"How do you know? You didn't even look!"
"The system prompt says so, check it for yourself."
Xiao Yueya was a fast learner; flipping open her chat window, she saw the eye-catching characters 【Shimmering Armor】 glowing with a steady blue light. She clicked on it, and the equipment stats immediately popped up on the side.
【Shimmering Armor】 (Blue Gear)
Level: 10
Class: Lance Cavalry, Prajna, Staff King
External Defense: 60
Internal Defense: 20
Weight: 30
Bonus Stats:
Qi & Blood +240
Internal Energy +40
...
"Let's move, clear the mobs first, we'll talk about gear later." As a guild officer, even though the armor he was wearing was only a level 5 green item, early-game equipment really didn't mean much to a large guild. With that, the Dragon King urged his warhorse forward into the cave.
"Sister-in-law, how about it? Bro has spoken, hand it over." Hua Feihua jumped down from his mount and respectfully bowed to Xiao Yueya.
Xiao Yueya couldn't help but snort with laughter. "That's more like it. Next time you dare say my mechanics are bad, I'll dig up your family's ancestral graves!"
With a crisp *clang*, the 【Shimmering Armor】 was casually tossed to the ground by Xiao Yueya.
Meanwhile, in the text chat, Xiao Yueya sent a message back to Xiao Yu.
"I gave it to Hua Feihua."
Xiao Yu: "Yeah, this gear is easy to get, it's all trash. Only bosses drop good stuff. Now we give the trash gear to others, and when we snatch good stuff later, we won't give it to anyone. I deliberately left you with them so you could loot items, understand?"
Xiao Yueya: "Mhm mhm, darling, you're so good. You have no idea, I love looting things the most. This afternoon the Pig King dropped so much good stuff and you grabbed it all. I was so mad at the time I wanted to tear you to pieces and throw you in the sea to feed the fish. I spent over an hour cursing you out in my head before I felt better..."
Seeing Xiao Yueya's message, cold sweat broke out on Xiao Yu's back. This girl was ruthless! He had distributed all the loot anyway and even given her five extra gold coins, and she still cursed him out for an hour?
"I love the feeling of picking up items, that sound is so crisp and pleasant. Let me pick everything up from now on, okay?"
"Sure, sure. After cursing me out for an hour, I wouldn't dare *not* let you loot anymore."
"Mhm mhm, I knew you were the best. Come on, let your big sister give you a kiss..."
***
The East Sea Dragon King was the first to spot Ceng Jing Shu Guang. In his mind, this guy running all over the mountain cave by himself while aggroing the Spider King and six or seven wolf-fang spiders must be up to his neck in trouble. The wolf-fang spiders were one thing, but the Spider King's movement speed was roughly on par with a player's running speed, and it would spit out a large web at regular intervals. Although the web only slowed movement speed by fifty percent for ten seconds, the Spider King attacked with high frequency and sheer power. Never mind Ceng Jing Shu Guang's fragile little body with just over 500 health, even he himself would definitely bite the dust if he got webbed without a doctor healing him on the side.
Based on his experience from the closed beta, being pursued by the Spider King plus six or seven wolf-fang spiders meant Ceng Jing Shu Guang had no other choice right now except to run for his life, dodging and sprinting frantically. Even if he was a gaming expert, he couldn't guarantee he'd never make a single mistake. Judging by the fact that he had only spoken two lines in voice chat this entire time, the guy must have been running so hard he'd lost his shoes.
There was definitely a gap between reality and expectation, but the Dragon King never imagined the gap could be *this* huge! When he finally laid eyes on Ceng Jing Shu Guang, he couldn't help drawing a sharp breath, his jaw dropping so wide he was utterly speechless.
Good god! This bastard was actually sitting cross-legged and meditating right in the middle of a pile of spiders!!
The Dragon King rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things. Ceng Jing Shu Guang was sitting right under the Spider King's belly. For some reason, all seven wolf-fang spiders were wedged behind a large, spider-web-covered stone tablet nearby, darting back and forth in a frantic frenzy, trying to attack the guy on the other side of the stone. But every attack was blocked by the tablet, driving them to crash around blindly like headless flies.
The Spider King's five-to-six-meter-tall body acted like a giant erected umbrella, completely sheltering the stone tablet and Ceng Jing Shu Guang underneath. Its front two steel claws alternated in front, slashing forward with each attack to leave behind long green blades of light accompanied by a sizzling sound. The attack paths of the two claws crossed in an exact "X" shape, grazing right across the top of Ceng Jing Shu Guang's scalp.
Yet string after string of "MISS" prompts kept popping up above Ceng Jing Shu Guang's head—clearly, every single one of those attacks was missing its mark.
What shocked the Dragon King even more was that all eight spiders, including the Spider King, had chunks missing from their health bars. Especially the seven wolf-fang spiders—over a third of their health had been depleted! Even the Spider King was missing nearly ten percent of its health.
The red damage numbers constantly springing up above their heads served as a reminder to the Dragon King that the bastard before him wasn't just sitting there doing nothing; the damage he dealt was ongoing.
"My god! Am I still drunk? Is this an illusion?" Wine God Huahua stood beside the Dragon King, murmuring to himself.
"Holy shit, my bro, my dear bro!" Hua Feihua, arriving shortly after, reined in his warhorse and let out a yelp.
"Awesome," Taiyi Zhenren uttered two words and went silent.
"You guys clear the small ones first. Kill the wolf-fangs, then take down the Spider King. All the aggro is on me, fight with peace of mind." The meditating bastard's voice was as calm as ever, completely ignoring the sounds of shock from Hua Feihua and the others in the comms.
"Ceng Jing, is that coordinate a mob-trapping spot?" The East Sea Dragon King rushed forward first, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.
The term "mob-trapping" was as familiar as could be to gamers. Finding a trapping spot and figuring out a way to immobilize monsters so they couldn't attack you not only demonstrated the extraordinary wisdom of online gamers, but was also inseparable from long-term gaming experience. Never mind whether every map had a trapping spot; even if it did, successfully trapping a mob required countless trials. You couldn't just casually stroll up to a spot and trap a monster like that. What a joke—did you think online game designers were just sitting around collecting a paycheck?
"Mhm."
"How did you trap them? Care to share?"
"Well... even if I told you, you wouldn't be able to trap them."
"Uh... cough, cough." Xiao Yu's remark left the Dragon King in an extremely awkward position, forcing him to cough dryly a couple of times.
Was the guy questioning his intelligence? Or completely disregarding his gaming experience? *Couldn't trap them?* Having played online games for nearly ten years and led raiding parties for five or six, as long as someone else could trap a monster, there was nothing he couldn't do. To say it so with such absolute certainty in front of so many people—even if you played the closed beta a lot longer and knew some tricks to trapping mobs, there was no need to brag like that.
"Just tell us, won't you?" The Dragon King wasn't about to give up. Though his pride had taken a bit of a hit, a manager had to be bold, daring, and shameless when it came to the guild's interests.
"I'll write a guide for you after the dungeon run."
"Great, thanks, thanks."
The Dragon King was ecstatic. He figured that although this Ceng Jing Shu Guang loved to put on airs, he was a decent guy after all since he was willing to write a guide. It looked like turning on his in-game voice recorder had been overkill.
The ten small mobs were already child's play, let alone the seven with crippled health. Under everyone's concentrated assault, the cave's wolf-fang spiders were quickly cleaned out. The two pieces of blue gear that dropped were scooped up into her bag by Xiao Yueya ahead of everyone else. Under the private chat guidance of Ceng Jing Shu Guang, the girl had already learned how to classify gear by class, and simply announced her ownership by declaring, "No one in the party can wear these, I'm taking them back to sell for gold."
"Gang-bang the Spider King. Huahua, don't use table kick. Yueya, attack with 【Maiden's Swordplay】, we're pressed for time." Ceng Jing Shu Guang spoke up again from beneath the Spider King's belly, though his lazy tone made him sound like an exhausted woman going through postpartum confinement—there was zero sense of urgency in it.
【Maiden's Swordplay】 was the Doctor's level-5 single-target attack skill. It had no special status effects and low attack power, but it was an instant-cast skill with high attack speed and a certain chance to trigger the 【Fair Maiden's Wrath】 move, which increased attack power by twenty percent.
However, because she was holding the golden weapon 【Flying Cloud Sword】, Xiao Yueya's output instantly shot up to become the highest among the five of them the moment she struck.
"No way, Sister-in-law's attack power is so high! What weapon is she holding? Red gear?" Hua Feihua spotted the issue instantly.
"Golden gear 【Flying Cloud Sword】," the East Sea Dragon King answered for Xiao Yueya. Egged on by Hua Feihua, the Dragon King had also concluded that Xiao Yueya and Ceng Jing Shu Guang definitely had a thing going on. Before even entering the dungeon, he had noticed Xiao Yueya's weapon looked a bit familiar, and upon asking, found out it was precisely the 【Flying Cloud Sword】 dropped by the Pig King.
Even though it was only level 5 golden gear, at the very launch of a new server, putting it up for auction would fetch no less than thirty gold coins. If he ran into a wealthy spender, fifty gold coins wouldn't be out of the question, seeing as it was currently the top-ranked weapon on the leaderboards.
Yet Ceng Jing Shu Guang had just handed it over to Xiao Yueya like that—and the girl seemed to be an absolute newbie rookie. To say the two of them had nothing going on? Even the undead wouldn't believe it.
"Damn, awesome! The 【Flying Cloud Sword】? Isn't that the number one weapon on the Divine Weapon Rankings? Brother Guang, I'll follow your lead from now on, alright? Hook me up with some golden gear too..." Hua Feihua chattered away while outputting damage; the kid acted as if he hadn't spoken a single word in eight hundred years, rambling on endlessly sentence after sentence.
"Alright, everyone except the Dragon King, cut your attack speed in half. Yueya, get ready to heal the Dragon King. The Spider King spits its web roughly every half a minute. Huahua, get ready with table kick. Kick the moment the Dragon King gets webbed. Careful not to draw aggro; the MT is the Dragon King. As long as you coordinate properly, you shouldn't die. Good luck!"
As Ceng Jing Shu Guang spoke, the Dragon King and the others nodded and agreed, but hearing that final sentence, something felt off.
"Bro, what do you mean? Why does the way you talk sound like final last words? Why are you wishing us good luck? Where are you going?" Hua Feihua asked.
"I'm about to suffocate to death. The smoking area at the net cafe is full, I'm going out to smoke a cigarette."
Holy crap, playing a boss fight like this? The Dragon King felt like today was the Ghost Festival.
***
When Xiao Yu returned from smoking his cigarette, he caught the Spider King just as it dropped into the red health zone.
He put on his headset; the voice chat was very quiet, and the five of them were coordinating smoothly without a single casualty.
"Red health coming up. It's going to use its ultimate move soon: 【Heaven-Covering Net】, ten-second bind, full-screen range, with added damage. Everyone except the Dragon King, get out of screen range, run toward the cave entrance, as fast as you can! Now!"
Xiao Yu's words were like a pebble dropped into an ancient well, instantly shattering the peace within the team. Amidst everyone gasping "Momma mia, you scared me," everyone except the Dragon King bolted toward the exit of the cave.
The fastest ones were Taiyi Zhenren and Xiao Yueya. Especially Taiyi Zhenren—his reaction time definitely didn't look like he was seventy, looking more like seventeen.
The Dragon King chugged a health potion and asked, "Then what? What should I do?"
"Run in circles, don't run in a straight line, 'C'-shaped route, hug the stone tablet. Listen to my commands, use 【Azure Wolf Howls at the Moon】 to break the web when I say so. Don't stop popping health pots, remember to cast skills in the opposite direction of the monster. Second-level control!"
Ceng Jing Shu Guang's words made the Dragon King's eyes light up. 【Azure Wolf Howls at the Moon】 could break webs? He was just about to ask, but hearing the phrase "second-level control," he swallowed his words right back and instantly focused all his attention on the screen.
"Second-level control" was a term commonly used during boss fights and team PKs, meaning that everything from issuing an order to executing it had to be completed within a single second. This was the highest and most rigorous command standard in team coordination.
The East Sea Dragon King naturally understood the meaning of the term; he used to use it to command others himself, except now someone else was commanding him.
At that moment, the Spider King suddenly stopped. Its front two steel claws rubbed against each other, actually sparking with friction, and then its basin-sized black head jerked sharply upward. Countless streams of greenish spider silk spewed into midair simultaneously, weaving into a massive web in an instant.
The web spread out like a landslide and tsunami, blanketing the entire screen. The already somewhat dim cave became even gloomier under the canopy of the web.
"Stop!" Ceng Jing Shu Guang gave the command, and the East Sea Dragon King halted instantly. He was extremely satisfied with his own reaction time—from receiving the order to executing it took no more than 0.3 seconds. At that moment, he noticed that his standing position happened to be right beside Ceng Jing Shu Guang.
Just as the four golden characters 【Heaven-Covering Net】 abruptly rose above the Spider King's head, the Dragon King saw four golden characters reading 【As Maggots to Bone】 pop up over Ceng Jing Shu Guang's head as well. At the same time, he received the second command.
"Howl at the Moon!"
A giant silver wolf head abruptly materialized. At that exact moment, the giant web spat out by the Spider King descended right over the Dragon King, and a sound like a toad croaking seemed to ring in his ears.
*Ding!*
System Prompt: You have been struck by 【Heaven-Covering Net】, unable to move for ten seconds!
"540!"
Seeing nearly a third of his health instantly wiped out, the Dragon King felt a jolt in his chest. He instantly crushed the health potion he had prepared in advance. That pathetic recovery rate of just ten health per second made cold sweat bead on his forehead. From his closed beta experience, he knew full well that the Spider King's next attack would be the full-screen 【Golden Thread Binding】, a continuous damage-over-time skill dealing 250 damage per second for ten seconds. With his current health pool, there was absolute zero chance of survival.
"Huh? Why hasn't it started yet..." The scenario the Dragon King had anticipated failed to materialize. He didn't see the four characters 【Golden Thread Binding】 appear above the Spider King's head. Twenty paces away from him, the Spider King remained rooted in place as if paralyzed, its two steel claws rubbing against each other continuously...
A full five seconds later, the four characters 【Golden Thread Binding】 abruptly rose from the Spider King's head!
"250!"
"+10"
"250!"
"+10"
...
"Once the iron web disappears, run toward the cave exit, straight line." Ceng Jing Shu Guang's lazy voice rang out again.
"Then..." The Dragon King uttered a single word before trailing off, not knowing what to say. He had originally wanted to say, *'I need to actually survive for that to matter!'*—but the other's tone seemed to be telling him: *You're definitely not dying!*
The expected ten ticks of damage only occurred five times. Accompanied by the lifting of the bind status, no further numbers popped up above the Dragon King's head, and the potion's ten-second continuous healing timer ran out right on cue. The Dragon King saw that his pitiful health bar had bottomed out.
"Only 8 health left? Holy mother of god."
As calm as the Dragon King was, he couldn't help crying out. Death had brushed past him by a single thread. Leveraging the dash effect of Azure Wolf Howls at the Moon, the Dragon King chugged a health pot and sprinted toward the cave exit. The Spider King, having just finished its ultimate move, charged over at an angle, chasing closely behind the Dragon King with its pair of steel claws flashing out frequent attacks.
The Dragon King glanced back over his shoulder. Right behind the Spider King, Ceng Jing Shu Guang had materialized out of nowhere, casting skills while in hot pursuit: Wind-Breaking Claw, Mad Gu, Blood Gu Technique, Venom Gu Technique, Frog Jump...
*Thud!* With a soft muffled sound, the Dragon King's advancing body came to a sudden halt as a green spider web enveloped both him and his warhorse.
Fifty percent movement speed reduction?! It's over!