“Did you notice, Beauty Yi? Unlike all the lightning zones we encountered since we came to this temple, this lightning formation isn’t random at all!”

Lin Yixin nodded. “434, am I right?”

“That’s right, it’s 434!”

I couldn’t help but shoot her another glance as I said this. It was impressive how quickly she had discovered the pattern!

The lightning of this formation always struck three particular spots in consecutive order. Then, after the fourth lightning bolt fell, it would go back, striking the same spots in reverse order. However, there was a three-second gap between the first three lightning strikes and the fourth lightning strike, so anyone who tried to make a beeline through the formation would only meet their demise. Therefore, the secret to stay alive was to stay at the fourth spot and wait for first three lightning bolts to arrive, then move back to the third spot to avoid the fourth lightning bolt, just return to the fourth spot when lightning bolts fell in reverse order on the first three spots.

Only a player with incredible reaction time could pull this off!

I was pretty confident in my ability, however. My brain delay was now almost the same as a normal person’s—around 0.3 to 0.4 seconds—and I now knew how the pattern worked. I should be able to pull this off.

Chiang!

I pulled out the Ghost Ice Soul and said, “It’s do or die. Yiyi, you wait here while I challenge the boss.”

“Okay.” Lin Yixin smiled. “Give it a try. I’ll go next if you fail in the attempt. It will be unfair for you if you’re the only one who keeps losing levels.”

“Mn!”

I nodded. My impression of Lin Yixin suddenly became a little better. What a bro!

Buzz...

My Dark Wasp flew straight toward the Thunder General and hit him with a Flurry. I was exactly 5 yards away from the boss, and it was the perfect distance to draw the boss’ aggro after my pet dies!

The Thunder General roared angrily and raised his broadsword into the air. When he brought it down, the sword suddenly split into five sword beams and hit the area in front of him like a fan. With nowhere to hide, the Dark Wasp was struck by the attack!

Puchi!

1289!

Combat Log: Thunder General Dio used “Thousand Mirage Slash V”, dealing 1289 damage to your pet “Little White Rabbit”!

……

“Fuck!”

I inwardly cursed. A boss with an AoE skill? No wonder it’s a Silver Rank boss!

The Dark Wasp flew toward me under my control like the wind, but this Thunder General was much, much faster than all the bosses we had fought earlier. He caught up to the Dark Wasp and swung his sword once, dealing over two thousand damage and killing it in the blink of an eye!

The boss turned his attention to me, and his avatar turned blood-red on my HUD.[1] Here he comes!

Rustle rustle...

I leaped to the back over three lightning spots and landed on the fourth lightning spot.

“Boom boom boom!”

Three lightning bolts dropped from the sky and hit the Thunder General as he chased me. Three damage numbers rose above his head in succession!

2287!

2173!

2396!

Very good! The boss only had around 100k HP or so, meaning that I could absolutely finish this battle in five minutes if I timed it all perfectly.

The fourth lightning struck in the blink of an eye!

I backed away and jumped to the next row of lightning spots right after the lightning blocking my way had dissipated. Behind me, the boss was chasing me down and trying to kill me despite the lightning strikes.

Suddenly, Lin Yixin called out to me from afar. “Watch out, Lu Chen! Behind you…”

“Ah?!”

Fuck, a Thunder Knight! A Thunder Knight had respawned right behind me! Was a dev watching me right now and trying to screw me over or something?

One foot on the floor, I spun around like a top and jumped to a different row of lightning spots. Both the Thunder Knight and the boss tried to chase me down, but unfortunately for the Thunder Knight it was killed by a lightning strike before it even took two steps toward me. It even dropped a Big Magic Stone, but of course no one dared to pick it up at this time.

…...

Two minutes passed, and the boss had less than 25% HP left. It was losing health very rapidly!

My mind was as calm as a lake, and I could see the lightning formation in my head like a Go board. I knew exactly when a lightning would strike a certain spot and how I should move to dodge it perfectly. Even I was surprised by my own skill. When had I become so skilled?

I was certain that I hadn’t been this skilled even when I was at peak form. Did the virus really change my body somehow?

Suddenly, the Thunder General raised his warblade to the air and declared, “Oh great laws of death, I, Dio, a general of the Night Creatures, surrender my faith in exchange for a Thunderous Hell!”

I turned pale when I saw this. Not good, the boss is about to unleash its ultimate!

I tried to run, but it was already too late. The floor I was standing on suddenly caved in, turning into a carpet of fire, thunder still rumbling menacingly above my head. Two lightning strikes later, I was freed from the mortal coil!

Beep!

Combat Log: Thunder General Dio, used “Thunderous Hell”, dealing 1389 damage!

Beep!

Combat Log: Thunder General Dio, used “Thunderous Hell”, dealing 1347 damage!

……

Swhoosh!

The second my soul reappeared at a nearby graveyard, I hurriedly rushed toward the top. I was a soul right now, so the respawned monsters couldn’t harm me.

Lin Yixin’s voice rang from the party channel. “Lu Chen, should I go?”

“Yeah! Don’t give the boss time to recover!”

“Okay!”

However, I heard a soft cry in just half a minute, and Lin Yixin’s avatar suddenly turned as transparent as a ghost. I waited for a moment, and Lin Yixin’s soul soon caught up to me.

“What, you died already?” I laughed.

Lin Yixin glared at me for a second before pursing her lips in slight frustration. “The lightning formation is just too difficult…”

“You couldn’t keep up?”

“Mn…”

“Ahahahaha!”

I laughed heartlessly as Lin Yixin swung her fists at me all the way until the fifth floor. The Thunder General had retreated to the edge of the lightning formation and regained 20% health since I last saw him, sitting at 37%. Damn, his regeneration speed is way faster than mine.

“Here I go!”

I pulled out the Ghost Ice Soul and sent the Dark Wasp toward the boss again. Just like before, the Dark Wasp played the role of cannon fodder used to relay the boss’s aggro to me. I then ran into the lightning formation, and reproduced that wonderful state of mind. In the zone, I danced amid the lightning formation’s spots like a bloody shadow. No matter how many lightning bolts roiled around me, they were never able to catch me.

The Thunder General looked incredibly pissed, probably because he had never bore witness to such a shameless tactic until now. However, there was nothing he could do to stop me.

My heart slowly crept up my throat as the boss’s HP dropped lower and lower. You are my last hope of a Hero’s Token, Dio!

9%!

8%!

……

3%!

2%!

1%!

A death scream later, the Thunder General collapsed on his knees and perished inside the lightning formation. At the same time, multiple golden beams started showering above our heads. We actually leveled up more than once!

Pop!

Countless items appeared where the boss was killed, and among them was a shiny, gold-colored token. I was overjoyed. It had to be a Hero’s Token!

I waved my hand and threw everything into my bag. Finally, I retreated out of the lightning formation.

“Yes! We finally did it, hehe!”

Lin Yixin laughed excitedly. “I guess you’re not too bad, Lu Chen…”

I shot her a sidelong glance and complained, “Are you kidding me? I was a former Heavenly King, you know…”

“I’ve only heard of Frivolous Scholar and Vegetable Tofu Soup. I’ve never heard of you…” Lin Yixin opened her beautiful eyes wide and innocently poked holes in my heart.

However, I was too happy to take offense this time, so I said, “Let’s return to the city, Beauty Yi. We can check the loot once we reach the warehouse next to the eastern gate!”

“Okay!”

We took out our return scrolls and teleported back to Floating Ice City in a flash. Then, we ran straight toward the warehouse.

I shared my bag’s contents with Lin Yixin and smiled. “Look, I haven’t claimed anything yet. All of the boss’s loot is inside here…”

But Lin Yixin blinked once and asked, “OMG, why is there a Disposable Diaper in your inventory??”

“Er, I got it when I was looting a corpse. I forgot to discard it…”

“...”

I felt like crying as Lin Yixin stared at me with disbelieving eyes. Then, I took out the loot and made a quick count. The boss had dropped 14 Phantasmal Magic Stones, 7 Big Magic Stones, and 3 pieces of equipment. There was a bloody spear, a silver ring and a purple necklace.The pendant of the necklace was shaped like a purple moon with silver light in it. It almost looked like the essence of the moon itself!

Excited, I touched the bloody spear first and read its stats to Lin Yixin.

Stonecrush Spear (Silver-grade)

Attack: 75~140

Strength: +20

Stamina: +17

Passive: Increases user’s hit rate by 3.5%

Level Requirement: 60

……

It’s a Silver-grade weapon! Hell yeah!

The equipment had a higher level requirement than my Ghost Ice Soul, so even though its grade was inferior it wasn’t too far behind in terms of attack power. It was an incredible weapon to say the least.

I asked, “How much Attack does the Snow Shadow Sword have?”

Lin Yixin said, “It’s not as good as this spear.”

“Do you want it then?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because it looks ugly.”

“...”

I decided to deal with the Stonecrush Spear later and threw it into my bag. Next, I picked up the silver ring and brought up its stats. It wasn’t embedded with diamonds, but the shape of a bow was engraved into the metal. It was incredibly dazzling to look at!

Dark Moon Ring (Silver-grade)

Agility: +21

Stamina: +17

Passive: Increases critical rate of all ranged attacks by 7%

Level Requirement: 60

……

Speechless, Lin Yixin and I stared at each other for a time. This Silver-grade ring was even better than the spear. It gave its user a total of 38 stat points, or 7 levels worth of stats, and it boosted the crit rate of one’s ranged attacks by 7%. Crit rate was incredibly important to ranged class players because it practically doubled one’s attack damage!

This ring was a godsend for any archer!

“Oh, Lu Chen~~”

I came alert the moment Lin Yixin’s sweet voice entered my ears like candy. It was clear that she wanted to give this to her own friend, Clear Perfume! In the past, I would’ve given the ring to her without hesitation, but now Bloody Mercenaries now had our own archer, with a powerful dark archer class no less. This ring was very important to Sun Qingqing, but the same could be said to Beiming Xue as well. It was enough to boost her to a new height of power!

“Why don’t we check out the third item and decide later?” I asked.

Lin Yixin nodded. “Okay.”

1. Heads Up Display: the display area where players can see their character's vital statistics