Chaos Moon’s mouth fell open in shock. “I heard that Silverscale Coast was a forbidden zone where the mobs are densely packed and inhuman, the kind that bites your dick the moment it gets in range. Are we absolutely sure we’re heading there?”

I nearly coughed blood when I heard her comment. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I was grinding there even before I did my third class promotion, and now we’re nearly a whole party of third-promotion players. Come on!"

“Okay!” Chaos Moon nodded.

I turned around, and suddenly I noticed that He Yi was staring at me sadly. “You’re looking down on me because I haven’t gotten my third promotion yet, aren’t you…”

“Absolutely not. I simply remind myself not to be like you when I see you, that’s all…”

“...”

A good laugh later, I assigned our tactician, A Broken Smile as our new party leader. Only the party leader could use their stratagems, and while A Broken Smile’s Intimidate could only reduce his targets’ stats by 5%, it was better than nothing at all.

I looked at my own Deterrence: reduce the stats of all nearby undeads by 25%. Now this was a skill. Compared to this, the Tactician’s Level 60 signature skill was practically trash, muahahahaha~

I enjoyed myself for a bit before heading out of the city with He Yi.

…...

A short while later, we arrived at a sea shore. A cool breeze brushed against our faces, and the waves broke against the shores. Crystal Crabs were crawling all over the place.

I pointed at the mobs and said, “Why don’t we kill some Crystal Crabs?”

Beauty Chaos Moon curled her lips and complained, “That’s so boring, it’s not like we can eat them for dinner. Why don’t we go to Greedy Wolf Forest and kill some Greedy Wolves? The Greedy Wolf Cards they drop are pretty cool to use~~”

I said, “The crabs drop pretty good loot too. The last time I was here, I got a Charge skill book!”

“Oh really? Let’s go kill some crabs then!”

Beauty Chaos Moon changed her mind immediately. Charge was the trump card of every melee fighter, and the skill wasn’t readily available to everyone during the initial stages of the game. Therefore, anyone who found a Charge skill book could become a super pro immediately!

Suddenly, I noticed that He Yi was looking like she wanted to say something.

So I asked, “What’s the matter, boss?”

He Yi stared at me her her big, bright eyes and asked, “What is Charge?”

“Puu…”

All nine of us threw up blood in unison!

I should’ve expected this, to be honest. Although He Yi was praised as a genius in the IT industry in real life, she had exactly zero gaming talent even back when Spirit of Grief was a thing. She might be a senior member of the GGS with a ton of shares in the company, she was practically illiterate at gaming. It was so bad that sometimes she couldn’t even tell two classes apart.

But this was the He Yi I know. It didn’t take me long before I recovered my senses.

“Well, Charge is…” I tried to come up with a proper explanation. “Charge is a skill where you tackle the enemy, and they go crazy. Get it?”

“...”

For some reason, the girls looked like they were going to go crazy first.

Anyway, we finally started killing crabs after that brief but comedic interaction. Swinging his battle axe and charging a Crystal Crab like a madman, Alexander the Magic Knight shouted, “Do you dare accept a duel to the death, traitor?”

The Crystal Crab immediately launched a Rank 6 Flurry to his face, deleting most of his HP in the blink of an eye.

589!

642!

593!

621!

Alexander was so shocked that he actually forgot to move out of the way. I immediately charged the crab so that Beauty Moonlight Stone could heal our unfortunate magic knight back to full health.

At the same time, I raised the Ghost Ice Soul and unleashed my signature combo, Pardon plus Desperate Gambit!

MISS!

3254!

The Dark Wasp also contributed a Flurry of its own. One more basic attack later, the crab was annihilated from existence!

Pop!

Ooh, lucky. I grabbed the magic stone and tossed it into Alexander’s hands.

Beauty Chaos Moon’s mouth fell open again in astonishment. “OMG, this contrast is ridiculous. Alexander, what the hell are the stats of your shield? Just look at Mr. Handsome over there, the crab nearly one-shot you, while he one-shot the crab…”

Alexander scratched his head in shame. “Bah, it was just a mistake in execution. The sand was slippery here, you see…”

“The sand. Slippery. Yeah, right…”

Beauty Chaos Moon was speechless, and so was everyone else.

I suggested, “Anyway, why don’t we add each other as friends and farm some guild EXP together when we’re free? The sooner Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls reach Rank 5, the sooner you’re conferred as the founding figures of our guild!”

Everyone laughed and did exactly as I said. He Yi also shot me an approving look from the side. I had always preferred my guild to be united and would take measures to ensure that that was the case, but I was even more motivated than usual after Spring Mud, Moon Shadow and Night Sorrow showed clear hostility toward Bloody Mercenaries. We had already made our comeback, so we might as well make sure that the possibility of mass desertion died long before it could ever be conceived.

After that, I demonstrated to everyone how to kill a Crystal Crab perfectly. The first step was to bait the enemy into using their Flurry and dodging it perfectly. Although it took a bit of skill to execute, it was absolutely within the limits of a normal person. All they needed was a bit of practice. In fact, it was possible to reduce the window of error to less than 0.2 seconds.

He Yi glanced at me and asked, “How are you forcing the mob to miss its attack, Lu Chen?”

Everyone else was shooting me inquisitive and admiring looks as well. Clearly, they didn’t know that it was possible until today, and they all wanted to hear me talk about my experience. It was because I was a former CGL Hall of Famer, and all CGL Hall of Famers were considered legends in China’s VRMMO history. People respected us no matter where we went!

I cleared my throat and started with a smile. “It’s very simple. First, you need to judge the distance between you and the crab. The crab is aggroed the moment you get within 5 yards of it. Our movement speed is about the same as the crab’s, so you need to back off the moment this distance reduces to 2 yards. This way, you’ll never enter within 1 yard of the crab, which is the distance where a melee attack is used. With proper prediction, it doesn’t take any effort to dodge its Flurry!”

The three melee fighters in our party, Beauty Chaos Moon, Alexander and Wolf Fang all stared wide-eyed at me, looking like they learned a lot from my teachings. Now that they knew the theory, it was time to get practical. Unfortunately, the results were mostly horrible. Beauty Chaos Moon was the only one who barely managed to translate my teaching into results, although she still got hit 3 to 4 times out of 5 due to lack of practice. Compared to me, she had a long way to go. It was because the time taken for the crab to unleash Flurry was a bit long, meaning that I could dodge it 100% of the time!

It was at this moment Beauty Chaos Moon looked at He Yi and smiled. “Guild leader, do you want to give it a try?”

He Yi’s mouth fell open. “Ah? Me?”

“Yep. You and Lu Chen are very close, right? Surely you know the technique as well?”

He Yi grew excited. “You’re right. I’ll give it a try then!”

I, on the other hand, was incredibly worried. I hurriedly pushed a Rank 5 Health Potion into He Yi’s hands and instructed her. “Be ready to drink it at any moment…”

He Yi nodded and began moving. Our beautiful leader dashed forward resolutely and merged into the beautiful scenery behind her!

The next second, she ate four hits and ran back with tears in her eyes. Thank goodness she drank the HP pot I had given her without hesitation, or she would be dead already!

“Lu Chen, why did the crab pinch me even though I haven’t attacked it yet?” He Yi asked while staring at her leg. As she said, there was now a pincer mark on normally flawless skin.

What could I say? At her current level of skill and knowledge, it was simply asking too much of her. All I could do for her right now was one-shot the crab and take revenge for her...

…...

Everyone had a good time killing crabs except maybe me, because He Yi insisted that I taught her how to dodge its Flurry until she succeeded. I had a feeling I was going to drop dead from exhaustion before our crew cleaned up the entire seashore. I stuck the Ghost Ice Soul into the wet sand and panted like a dog, but I had to admit that it was the happy kind of exhaustion.

Her back leaning against my side, He Yi stared at Beauty Chaos Moon and the others and smiled. “Wow, it’s so nice to get EXP without having to do anything…”

I couldn’t help but smile at her remark. “Does it really feel that good?”

He Yi nodded seriously. “Of course! My life’s goal is to enjoy life and do nothing like a rice weevil for as long as I live!”

I sighed. “Damn, that is an amazing goal to have…”

“Right~”

He Yi smiled at me.

...

Suddenly, a group of twenty flamboyant-looking players or so appeared at the distance. A magic knight stepped out of them and shouted from the edge of Silverscale Coast. “Flower Room will be leveling here for a while. All unrelated players must leave this place immediately!”

Anger burned inside my heart when I heard that. This had to be one of the most abhorrent things to happen in MMO history. There was nothing more solo players including myself hated more than a bunch of fuckers showing up and using their number advantage to lay waste to a leveling zone, leaving nothing behind for everyone.

Splash!

But He Yi rose to her feet even faster than I did and walked straight toward the group with her sword in hand. Courtesy of the sea breeze, my heart raced a little every time her white legs peeked out from behind her cape.

He Yi raised her sword and declared quietly, “Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is using this area. You will not disturb our peace.”

Beauty Chaos Moon and the rest of our party members arrived in the nick of time. We were a ten-man party, and nine of us were third-promotion players. I couldn’t find any reason to be afraid of them.

Another man walked out of the party of twenty, and it was none other than the so-called Young Master Le, Li Le. The leader of Flower Room wore a frivolous smile on his face as he watched He Yi from head to toe. Then, he clicked his tongue pervertedly. “Tsk tsk, it looks like the rumors are true after all. The leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls really is some top-tier shit. I wonder how you’ll taste in my mouth…”

Behind Li Le, the mage called Life Of Luxury cackled loudly. The dude was Level 60 already, and if I wasn’t mistaken he had already picked up Ice Dragon Howl.

Life Of Luxury raised his magic staff and shouted, “Leave now if you know what’s good for you. Otherwise, we don’t mind kidnapping your leader and making her our trophy, hahaha!”

Everyone in Flower Room started laughing as well. Well, I should’ve expected this. Birds of a feather tended to flock together.

It was at this moment I walked out from behind my party members and stopped next to He Yi. I pulled out the Ghost Ice Soul and stared at them disdainfully. “I dare you to repeat what you said again.”

…...

“Ah?!”

Life Of Luxury’s gaping mouth looked like a beak of a duck on dry land. “Wh-why are you here, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand!?”