Double A In Line Chapter 5

Chapter 5: I Have an Opening Ceremony at Eight Tomorrow, So…

After speaking, Lin Sheng saw the snow leopard give him a curious glance before naturally turning its head back to continue slowly kiting the monsters.

…

Was he being ignored?

Cheng Yan had actually heard Lin Sheng speak, but he assumed the wolf beastman was just using the communication system to talk to someone else. This was a common occurrence in the game; when you saw someone walking down the street talking to themselves like they had a split personality, they were usually just on a voice call with a friend.

…Leopard over there, do you need help? When Cheng Yan retreated again, Lin Sheng had no choice but to ask once more. He even raised his voice significantly, thinking awkwardly to himself that if he was ignored again, he would just pretend he never said anything.

Finally realizing the address was directed at him, Cheng Yan paused and turned around in surprise.

Ah? Ow!

The moment he stopped, a flying mosquito that he had been kiting at a safe distance seized the opportunity and stung his shoulder.

The snow leopard’s pure white fur turned green in the next instant.

This was the system notification that he had been poisoned.

Cheng Yan immediately backed away, pulling an antidote from his backpack to drink while continuing to retreat.

As he retreated to dodge the attacks, a dazzling bolt of white light shot like a sharp arrow toward the mosquito chasing him.

The light arrow pierced the mosquito’s body, causing the aggressive insect to freeze mid-air. Under Cheng Yan’s gaze, the white light inside the mosquito began to seep out of its body. First, scattered white spots of light appeared on its exterior, and then the spots expanded until they completely enveloped its body.

With a loud pop, the small mob that Cheng Yan would have normally needed to attack from a distance for a long time simply exploded before his eyes.

Cheng Yan, who had been in a tense combat state, was stunned for a moment. He then turned toward the direction the light arrow had come from. The wolf beastman, still holding his fishing rod, was still sitting by the lake, looking at him with a speechless expression.

Were you talking to me just now? Cheng Yan walked over and asked.

…There isn’t anyone else here, is there? Lin Sheng replied.

I thought you were on a voice call. Cheng Yan scratched his head awkwardly, then spoke with some embarrassment. Aren’t you fishing? Would it be too much trouble for you to help me with my quest?

In truth, Cheng Yan didn’t want to refuse this player’s help at all. After all, if he relied only on himself, he didn’t know if he could even finish the quest today. But since they were strangers, he felt the need to be polite.

According to the forums, this quest was originally recommended for a party, but Cheng Yan had joined the game quite late and found it difficult to find players at his level.

It is no trouble. As Lin Sheng spoke, he glanced at the white light surrounding his body.

Just lead the monsters toward me. They will be naturally purified by my protective shield when they get close. While speaking, Lin Sheng specifically freed one hand to tap twice in the air—he was controlling his interface, though due to privacy settings, players could not see each other’s panels.

Sheng Sheng Man has sent you a party invitation.

The next moment, a message box popped up in front of Cheng Yan, and he heard the wolf beastman’s voice.

Accept it, let’s party up.

In the Dream Realm, once in a party, the kill count for monsters is shared. As long as the two of them were in a party, the monsters Lin Sheng killed would count toward Cheng Yan’s progress.

Oh, okay, thank you. Cheng Yan blinked and immediately clicked accept.

So veteran players really did occasionally help out newbies on a whim. Since he had always played solo before and never encountered this, he thought such things only existed in legends.

Go back to fighting. Don’t disturb my fishing. After saying that, Lin Sheng turned back to continue his task. Completing the collection guide was truly time-consuming.

Cheng Yan whispered another thank you before running back toward the flying mosquitoes.

This time he was much bolder, even circling around and using flashy footwork to dive straight into the swarm. He pulled the aggro of the mosquitoes and began running toward Lin Sheng. However, Cheng Yan was still somewhat restrained at first, as he didn’t know how many mobs the wolf beastman’s shield could handle at once.

He also felt awkward asking, since the other person had already told him not to disturb his fishing.

When Cheng Yan pulled five mosquitoes over, he worried that the sheer number might cause them to break through the shield and attack his teammate. However, his concerns proved unnecessary; the five mosquitoes were annihilated by the white light the instant they hit the shield.

Cheng Yan felt relieved. From then on, he pulled one more monster than the previous time with every pull. By the time Cheng Yan was charging toward the shield with the final ten monsters, Lin Sheng had taken out the Moonlight Earthworm Bait he had been saving for a long time. This was a high-grade bait specifically used for catching rare fish. Now that he had collected all the common fish in Moon-viewing Lake, Lin Sheng naturally wanted to start unlocking the rare entries.

The moment Lin Sheng attached the bait and cast his line into the lake, Cheng Yan happened to crash into the shield with the ten mosquitoes.

The instant the mosquitoes vaporized in the white light, ripples began to form on the previously calm lake surface. A strange green hue began to dye the clear water. With the fishing rod as the center, ripples spread outward continuously. Lin Sheng, who had been sitting leisurely by the lake, suddenly felt a massive force tugging at his rod. If he hadn’t been a certain distance from the shore, that sudden force might have pulled him headfirst into the lake.

What’s going on? Cheng Yan, who had been happy about the quest completion notification, was also startled by the scene. The quest description hadn’t mentioned any follow-up events after completion.

Come help! Before he could react, Lin Sheng had already stood up, bracing his center of gravity to fight against the massive force in the lake.

Hearing the call, Cheng Yan immediately ran over and grabbed the fishing rod, which was visibly bent and deformed.

Under their combined strength, a loud sound like an explosion erupted from the lake. A massive pillar of water shot into the sky, washing over the shore. After the water fell back down, a giant carp covered in green spots with glowing red eyes appeared on the surface of the lake.

The carp raised its head high and spat forward, sending three globs of green slime flying toward them at high speed.

Get back!

Lin Sheng didn’t need to remind him; Cheng Yan had already prepared to dodge the moment the carp began its attack animation. After all, he had been playing games for a long time and had a basic understanding of mechanics.

He was just low level, not actually bad at the game.

However, Cheng Yan still underestimated the game’s malice. Although he dodged the green slime and even predicted potential splash damage by staying further away, he didn’t expect a frog to suddenly leap out of the slime and lash him with its tongue.

The tongue stuck directly to him, making movement difficult. While he was pinned down, the second glob of slime spat by the boss fell from the sky, landing right on his head.

A white light flashed. By the time Lin Sheng tried to rush over to save him, Cheng Yan had already been instant-killed by the boss.

Lin Sheng hadn’t expected small mobs to come out of the slime either, but fortunately, his protective shield was still active. As soon as a frog jumped out to attack, it was purified by the shield.

With his teammate dead, Lin Sheng had to face the boss alone. Fortunately, the boss only had that one move, and its range was limited to the lake. Such a simple mechanic made Lin Sheng suspect it might just be an elite monster.

As if to prove Lin Sheng’s theory, he attacked the boss while maneuvering to dodge the slime. Perhaps due to his high attack speed, the boss was defeated in just a few minutes.

During the fight, Lin Sheng inevitably suffered some mental fatigue and was hit by the slime. The boss’s attack power was ridiculously high; even with his shield, a hit took away a fifth of Lin Sheng’s health bar. Fortunately, player characters in this game were highly mobile, and with health potions, Lin Sheng kept his health at a relatively healthy level.

If this were an old-style game where you had to stand still and fight, he would have been sent back to the respawn point long ago.

When the boss died, its corpse suddenly began to tremble. Lin Sheng wisely ran further away.

A boss acting like this usually meant it had a deathrattle. If a player wasn’t careful, they might relax after the kill and then get their remaining health wiped out by a massive explosion from the corpse.

Sure enough, after a violent explosion, slime sprayed out from the spots on the boss’s body. When the flying slime touched the ground, the soil instantly turned grayish-black and released a cloud of white mist. Afterward, the restless corpse went still and showed no further movement.

Seeing that the danger had passed, Lin Sheng felt relieved. He opened the party channel to message Cheng Yan and ask how he was doing.

At that moment, a massive shadow suddenly appeared over Lin Sheng’s head. He instinctively looked up and saw the boss—which should have been floating belly-up on the lake—falling from the sky with a body that had expanded several times in size.

What the… Bang!

…hell. The last word only came out after Lin Sheng respawned at the revival point.

Big brother, did you… did you beat the boss? Cheng Yan, who had just turned in his quest and returned to the respawn point, was still trying to figure out how to phrase his message when he saw his teammate also refresh at the revival point.

No. Lin Sheng turned his head toward Cheng Yan with an expressionless face and asked, Did you finish your quest?

Uh… yes, I did.

That’s good. I have an opening ceremony to attend at eight tomorrow morning, so I’m logging off now.

He needed some time alone.

Ah? Oh, okay. Cheng Yan was still in a bit of a daze. It was only after the wolf beastman’s figure disappeared that he realized something.

An opening ceremony at eight tomorrow? Isn’t that the same schedule as Typhon United University?