Double A In Line Chapter 11
byWhile the mermen were distracted by Cheng Yan, the four successfully ran out of the aggro range. Cheng Yan, like the two merman guards before him, turned into white light and vanished from before them.
The Dragon-thorn Mermen’s “scratching” damage was only minor to level 70 players, but Cheng Yan was just a level 50 player who had wandered in. Naturally, he couldn’t last long.
“Whoa, what just happened?” Ji Chen stared blankly at the spot where Cheng Yan died.
As a fellow member of the Beast Race, Lin Sheng knew exactly what skill Cheng Yan had used.
The Beast Race exclusive skill, Beastification, and the skill that forced aggro after transforming: Roar.
“So we were basically saved by a low-level alt?” After hearing Lin Sheng’s explanation, Ji Chen muttered under his breath. “Damn, I didn’t react in time. I have aggro-drawing skills too.”
Lin Sheng glanced at Ji Chen, opened the party channel, and connected to Huo Huo Huo’s voice chat.
“How are you doing now?”
“The flower withered,” Cheng Yan replied. “My level is low, and traversing the map alone is a hassle, so I’ll wait for you guys in Moon-viewing Town. Are you all unhurt?”
“We’re fine.” Looking at the translucent phantom of the beastman before him, Lin Sheng remained silent for a moment before continuing, “I’ll help you grind back the lost experience later. Thanks.”
“It’s fine. Given the situation, I was the most suitable to take the damage. After all, I’m not participating in the upcoming boss fight anyway.” The snow leopard phantom smiled at them, his tone light. “Better me than someone else.”
“That was pretty cool, brother,” Ji Chen praised, reaching out to pat Cheng Yan’s shoulder. His mechanical arm passed right through the snow leopard phantom.
Ji Chen silently withdrew his hand, his eyes darting around. When he saw Lin Sheng, his restless gaze finally stopped.
“Old Lin, why are you so serious? You’re acting like he actually died. Relax, we’re just playing a game,” Ji Chen said in a mock-earnest tone, finally finding a way to dispel the awkwardness.
Lin Sheng glanced at him and spoke with a strange expression: “I just suddenly realized that we could have actually taken the quest one by one. The others could have focused on clearing the path and protecting the person with the quest. We wouldn’t have had to be so stressed like this.”
With those words, the other teammates—who had been about to offer comfort after noticing Lin Sheng’s serious expression—all fell silent.
They actually hadn’t thought of that solution!
Because the person who posted on the forums had stubbornly run the quest several times to succeed, they had also subconsciously assumed the quest required brute-forcing it with skill!
“Well said. It would have been even better if you hadn’t said it at all,” a merman’s pained, low voice rang out after the silence.
“Let’s keep going,” Lin Sheng sighed helplessly. “We’re halfway there; there’s no point in giving up now.”
“Look on the bright side. While that way would be safer, it would take too much time. We might not even finish the quest by tomorrow,” the elf comforted everyone. “If we can finish it in one go this time, we can use the remaining time to fight the boss.”
“True. Although the flower delivery quest can only be taken once a day, based on our schedule of only being able to go online at night, we can only run two maps a day at most anyway,” Ji Chen said. “Old Lin, let’s go. Stop dazing off.”
“Coming.” Lin Sheng nodded, took one last look at where Cheng Yan had died, and followed his teammates.
He didn’t tell his teammates that his silence wasn’t just because he was annoyed at missing a simpler solution. It was also because Cheng Yan’s death reminded him of his past life.
Although games and reality were different, Lin Sheng’s death nineteen years ago was actually quite similar to Cheng Yan’s sacrifice—dying from a monster’s bite, dying in the apocalypse, dying at eighteen before he even had the chance to experience university life.
Back then, he had just finished the college entrance exams and received his admission letter to his dream university. He was celebrating with the other children at the orphanage when the apocalypse arrived without warning. When the army came to help evacuate the civilians, he was one of the few who awakened an ability. His ability was Beastification into a giant wolf.
It was undeniable that Lin Sheng had a bit of a hero complex. So, during the final stage of the city evacuation, when a large swarm of mutants pursued the army and survivors, he had rushed out just like Cheng Yan had just done.
In truth, Lin Sheng’s memories of that time had long since blurred. The only thing that remained vivid was the pain of being torn by the mutants.
He wondered if the remaining people had successfully reached the temporary base.
“Old Lin, what’s wrong with you?” Ji Chen pulled Lin Sheng, helping him avoid a small mob that suddenly popped out of a poison pit.
“Nothing, I was just distracted.” Lin Sheng rubbed his face hard with his claws. “Let’s go. I’ll focus for the rest of the way.”
He took a deep breath and concentrated all his attention on the swamp, carefully searching for any spots that might trigger traps.
Once they passed this stage, the rest of the journey became easier for them. Although the mobs further ahead had higher attack power, they were relatively scattered. The design of the monsters in the swamp and garden leaned more toward surprise attacks and annoying debuff mechanics.
For example, there were poison pits everywhere in the swamp with jumping fish leaping out, while the garden had more mobs disguised as flowers. In these situations, for players familiar with the terrain, there wouldn’t be much danger as long as they scouted carefully.
The further they went, the more cautious they became. After all, no one wanted to fail at the final hurdle. This actually made them a bit hesitant during the final cliff-jumping section, as there were mobs on the platforms.
Fortunately, these robot-like mobs only activated slowly when a player jumped onto the platform. Skilled players could even run through this section at high speed without triggering them.
As players who had done quests in Luo Village several times, they were fairly familiar with this route. Aside from Ji Chen nearly slipping due to nerves—only to save himself with a mid-air double jump using his thrusters—no other accidents occurred.
After offering the Pure White Flower at the tombstone labeled Kalal outside Luo Village, a system notification chimed, informing them that the quest was complete.
“I hope the developers don’t release such a disgusting quest next time. I’d rather grind mobs for three hours than deliver flowers again.”
As they took the teleportation array back, Ji Chen’s exhausted complaint was met with agreement from everyone.
When the group returned to Moon-viewing Town, they happened to run into Cheng Yan, who was returning from mining.
While the others were completing the quest, Cheng Yan had been bored, so he took on a few tasks. However, fearing that leveling up might prevent him from triggering the boss, he could only choose tasks related to life skills.
On his way to deliver ore to the blacksmith, Cheng Yan saw the returning quartet as soon as he entered the gate and immediately walked toward them.
“Did you finish the quest?”
“We did.” Lin Sheng nodded to Cheng Yan, then looked at Lighthouse and asked, “Are you almost at your anti-addiction time limit?”
“Forty-three minutes left,” Lighthouse replied.
“Then let’s just do a quick test of the brooch’s effect today and officially fight the boss tomorrow. Is that okay?” Lin Sheng asked the others.
“No problem. I haven’t finished today’s homework yet anyway, so I should log off around the same time as Lighthouse,” Ji Chen agreed wholeheartedly. The others had no objections either.
Forty minutes later…
Congratulations to Sheng Sheng Man, MK-2000, Lighthouse, I am a Fish, and Huo Huo Huo for slaying the Moon-viewing Lake Lord. You have successfully resolved the source of the Moon-viewing Lake pollution, earning 2,000 Moon-viewing Town Reputation, 2,000,000 Experience, and the title Honorary Citizen of Moon-viewing Town.
The system message flashed three times on the world channel, and the group’s social panels began popping up with messages from online friends.
“It’s dead just like that?” Cheng Yan stepped out from behind a large rock where he had been hiding and looked at the four others, who were just as surprised as he was.
With the brooch, the venom launched by the boss’s attacks only dealt pure damage. Not only did it reduce the consumption of potions, but it also lowered the mechanical requirements. Combined with their experimental mindset—not expecting to win on the first try—their performance was even better than last time. They miraculously took down the boss in one go.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect to resolve it in one try either.” Lighthouse looked at the mountain-like corpse of the boss on the ground and muttered to himself. Suddenly, his expression changed. “I’m logging off first. My mom is nagging me. You guys hold onto the boss materials for me.”
After the elf logged off, Ji Chen quickly said, “I’m logging off to do homework too. Remember to call me when you go online tomorrow to help San Huo with his quest.”
Meanwhile, the merman went to the forums to start writing a guide for the Moon-viewing Lake Lord.
Soon, only the two beastmen remained at Moon-viewing Lake.
Lin Sheng had intended to leave as well, since Cheng Yan’s flower delivery quest couldn’t be taken again until tomorrow. However, before disbanding the party, he asked a question on a whim.
“Did it hurt back then?”
“What?” Cheng Yan was a bit confused. What a strange question.
“When you were killed by those mermen, did it hurt?”
“It was alright.” Cheng Yan opened his settings panel as he answered. “I don’t have my pain sensitivity set very high.”
Right, this was just a game after all. To avoid risks, the maximum pain setting in the game was only fifty percent. In fact, except for masochists—or rather, players who enjoyed challenging themselves—most players wouldn’t set it that high. Usually, it was only…
“I only have it at thirty percent,” Cheng Yan said, looking at his settings.
“Why did you set it so high?” Lin Sheng looked at him in surprise.
Most players would only set it to around five percent. This provided enough feedback from hits without being too painful, making it ideal for gameplay.
“Is that high?” Cheng Yan was puzzled. “If it’s not high, there won’t be any training effect, right?”
“Training effect?”
“A friend told me that although this game has many fantasy elements, choosing a melee class actually provides a certain training effect for physical combat skills, especially the Arena that opens after level 70. He said it’s extremely useful once you experience it,” Cheng Yan explained. He even felt his pain setting was a bit low, but his friend had suggested increasing it gradually, so he had only raised it to thirty percent so far.
“You’re playing this game for the Arena?” Lin Sheng realized. So he was a hardcore player? There had indeed been promotions regarding the Arena during the game’s early marketing.
“Pretty much,” Cheng Yan replied. “After all, my coach doesn’t have time to teach me every day in reality. I might as well learn as much as I can in the game.”
“Then why is your level so low?” Lin Sheng was confused.
“I only started playing six months ago, and I had to prepare for exams during that time, so my leveling has been slow.”
“I see.” Lin Sheng lowered his right claw, which had been about to press Disband Party, and said to Cheng Yan, “Let’s go. We still have some time. I’ll take you to level up.”