Every task layer in the game world would always be a separate world, where there would be time restrictions on entering and leaving. Once the layer entrance closed, no player could forcibly enter or leave.

Transmission arrays could not be used within the task layer, and all players would need to rely on flying in order to move around. Even though flying did not consume their combat energy, it would still consume their physical energy. So if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, basically no one would casually fly.

The sky had just started to brighten when the entrance to the task layer opened. Everyone rushed in before the entrance would close.

They would be staying here for two days and one night. Everywhere here was filled with the poisonous blood miasma that was emitted by the blood monsters, and the poison would be especially deadly at night. Those who did not want to die would all not sleep outside at night, everyone was busily looking for a place to live.

There were no high-class hotels here, only family hotels. A team went straight to the best hotel here and reserved the best few rooms. Just as they finished checking in, they happened to see the smoke team people come in.

The previous matter had caused these two teams to have a sort of vendetta. The smoke team members glared at them for half a day, but the A team didn’t even give them another glance.

When they got to their rooms they had a simple meeting to discuss their combat later, and then went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Afterwards they would be able to set off to the Blood Monster Forest.

There was only one cafeteria, but it was separated into two sections of different levels. On the left it was a very simple setup of long wooden tables. The section on the right was half a meter higher than the left, the decoration was very stylish, and had round dining tables covered in spotless white tablecloths. Those sitting near the windows could even look out into the courtyard, but only the guests living in the best rooms could sit and eat on the right side.

When A team arrived at the cafeteria, the smoke team members were already halfway through their food. They watched the A team members sit down on the right side of the cafeteria, and then order a large pile of energy-replenishing food.

“So !” Black Hawk chewed his tasteless food and viciously said, “When he was in our team, he would be completely unwilling to pay for us, but now that he switched teams, isn’t he still giving other people money to eat the best and live in the best.”

Dark Flame turned to see Jing Yang sitting together with Qi Feng, his mood extremely complicated.

The other members of the smoke team also had the same thoughts as Black Hawk, they felt that if it weren’t for Ding Nuoyang not being willing to help them pay, they would also not force him to withdraw from the team. Then the people now eating the best food, living in the best rooms, would have been them.

“Nuoyang.” Dark Flame waited at the entrance to the cafeteria, and seeing the A team walk out, he said to Jing Yang, “I have something to say to you alone.”

“I have nothing to say to you, and I also don’t want to hear your crap.” Jing Yang said.

“Nuoyang, I really have something very important to say to you.” Dark Flame went up and wanted to pull Jing Yang’s hand.

Solid and Liang Ren immediately went up and blocked his way. “What are you doing?!”

“You step aside, I am his boyfriend, you have no right to stand in my way!”

The team members were all somewhat surprised. Solid and Liang Ren looked at each other, and then turned to look at Jing Yang, and then turned their gazes to Qi Feng.

Qi Feng squinted and his gaze toward Dark Flame became as cold and sharp as blades of ice.

Jing Yang rolled his eyes. “As a married person, what kind of face do you have to claim to be my boyfriend? You can’t even be considered an ex-boyfriend, okay? I have already told you that my relationship with you is only as old classmates, not even friends.”

“I know that you are still angry at me for marrying Easy Nobility, when we survive and leave the game world, you can punish me any way you want.” Easy Nobility eagerly said, “But right now, I really have something very important to tell you.”

Jing Yang thought a bit, and then said to Qi Feng, “Can you all wait in front for me for a moment?”

Qi Feng frowned at him and did not speak, without any intention to leave.

“Just two minutes.” Jing Yang used a pleading expression to look at him.

Qi Feng felt as if his brain had been hit by something, and facing such a gaze, he could not form any rejection.

Qi Feng brought the rest of the team forward thirty or forty meters and then stopped, watching Jing Yang and Dark Flame. He needed to guard against any harmful behavior Dark Flame would make toward Jing Yang.

“Speak, you only have two minutes. Whether you’re done talking or not, I will not keep listening after that.” Jing Yang said.

“Nuoyang, you’re paying all of those people’s money, right?” Dark Flame asked.

“What does it have to do with you whether or not I’m paying?” Jing Yang frowned.

“I am concerned that you are being cheated by them.” Dark Flame made an appearance of thinking for his sake. “Those people definitely only allowed you on their team for your money, and when they completely cheat you out of your money and after you have no more use to them, they will definitely drive you out of the team, and might even kill you.”

Jing Yang sneered. “Those words should have been said by those teammates of yours ba, you bunch of people are really ridiculous, do you think that everyone is as shameless as you all? Those words you just said are simply , using your own dirty thoughts to speculate on what other people think.”

“Nuoyang, when you were in our team, even though you also had to spend money, but as long as I was there, I would not let them harm you. You’re spending money in both cases, but being able to survive would still be better than not being able to survive ba.”

Jing Yang looked at him like he was a retard. “Ever since I joined my current team, I have not paid a penny, believe it or not. Talking to people like you is really just an insult to my IQ.”

Dark Flame watched Jing Yang quickly walk away, full of disbelief. How could it be possible that he had not paid a penny? He was just a rookie who had just started playing games, if it weren’t because he had money, how could those people possibly let him join their team.

They entered the Blood Monster Forest to look for blood monsters. The further they went in, the thicker the miasma became, and they had to be even more careful, it would be very dangerous if they got separated.

The main goal of this time’s mission was to get the blood monster king at the very center of the Blood Monster Forest. In order to be able to enter the blood monster king’s array and attack it, they needed to first bring down the blood monster troops and get the summoning stone.

The blood monster troops and were very difficult to find. After finding the blood monster troops, they needed to kill them all within a specified time frame. As long as one was not dead, they would have failed the task, and would have to restart.

Attacking the blood monster troops was done in turns. Those who arrived first would attack first, and those who came afterward could not rush in and attack, they had to wait until the team before them finished their task. The teams who had failed their task would get back in line at the end, and could only reattempt the task after all of the teams in front of them finished.

The smoke squad had completed many Blood Monster Forest missions before, so they were very experienced at finding the blood monster troops. So when A team arrived, they saw that they had already arrived and started fighting, so they just stood at the side and waited for them to finish their task.

Before, the smoke squad had defeated the blood monsters without the blood serum fruits, but the situation now was obviously not comparable with before, since dying used to not be a big deal. In the absence of resurrection, and without the blood serum fruits, they were much more concerned about their safety than any of the previous times. Every time they rushed out of the shield to attract the blood monster troops, they would have already retreated back into the shield before the monsters had even gathered.

When their attack time ran out, the smoke team still had not killed a bit less than half of the blood monster soldiers, so they could only leave the attack range and wait for their next chance.

Seeing the A team, the smoke team members were all disdainful. They felt that they had never seen or heard of this team, and they would even bring Ding Nuoyang this completely new player to fight, so this team must definitely have not played the game very long. They must have just relied on Nuoyang’s money to buy some better weapons and then felt that they could strive for those 100 chances to survive. No matter how good their weapons are, if the person using it doesn’t have enough skill or technique, they would still not be able to display much power.

Jing Yang stood at the rear, watching the team members aggro the blood monster troops and collect all of the scattered groups of soldiers together.

The smoke team members all laughed disdainfully. This kind of combat technique was precisely due to lack of experience, for these blood monster troops, you could only gather and destroy them bit by bit. If you concentrated them together and allowed them to feel their companions’ power, their attack power would increase by over 10 times.

Being collectively attacked by the boosted blood monster soldiers, their shields would be very difficult to support. Could it be that they even expected Ding Nuoyang this most elementary alchemist to help them prop up the shield to resist? He couldn’t even unfold a team shield. These people would definitely die, they really deserved it.

The blood monster troops were all gathered together. Those blood monster soldiers all felt a great deal of energy from their companions, and were preparing to attack in a storm when all of the A team members retreated. Jing Yang immediately opened his shield and separated the team from the blood monster troops.

The team members raised their weapons and from inside the shield violently attacked those blood monster troops crashing into the shield. These blood monster troops were just like dominoes over a meter tall, uninterruptedly rapidly falling down in large swathes.

The smoke team members all widened their eyes, absolutely stunned. This was their first time seeing this kind of fighting, how could those weapons in their hands be so strong?! How did they do that? Even if they spent more money, it was still impossible to raise the power of their weapons so high ah!

What shocked them even more was that Ding Nuoyang actually launched a team shield, and the range was actually even larger than Easy Nobility’s shield. They saw with their own eyes that a group of blood monsters had attacked his shield together more than two times, and his shield was actually still motionless.

He was just the most elementary alchemist, how could he do that? It was absolutely impossible!!!

The person in the most disbelief was Easy Nobility. He felt that everything in front of his eyes was all his own hallucination, how could it possible for Ding Nuoyang to suddenly be able to prop up such a strong shield, he must be dreaming, it was definitely not real!

The blood monster troops were very quickly all wiped out. The A team set the shortest task clear time record, easily completed the task, and took the summoning stone and left.

The smoke team members were like statues, completely frozen in place. Even when the A team members walked past them, they still did not react in the least.

Jing Yang returned to his room to rest when he suddenly felt that his chest was somewhat uncomfortable. He couldn’t help but lament that this game was really too realistic, even when he had just inhaled a bit more blood miasma in the Blood Monster Forest, his body would feel discomfort. Jing Yang opened the medicine box in his storage space and found a drug to take. Lying down for a bit, he felt much better.

But Jing Yang still felt that there was some wet and sticky discomfort on his body, which would not disappear even after he showered. This hotel had some hot springs that could be used by the guests living in the high class floors. Jing Yang decided to go soak a bit in there and see if it would improve.

The hot springs had more than one room, with four or five pools, each separated using planks. Jing Yang chose the smallest one, which was empty at the moment. He took off his trousers and placed them in the cupboard, tied the bath towel around his waist, and went in to soak in the sauna.

Jing Yang closed his eyes and let out a long long breath, sure enough he felt much more comfortable. Thinking of the entire smoke team’s petrified appearance earlier today, Jing Yang thought it was pretty funny. With just this they could be shocked to this extent, he didn’t know how they had been professional players for so long.

“What are you laughing at?”

Jing Yang instantly opened his eyes and raised his head to look at the speaker, he was stunned by the fright. When had this person come in, he actually did not feel it at all.

“Did I scare you?” Qi Feng got into the water and sat down next to Jing Yang. He looked at him and said, “Sorry.”

“You…” Jing Yang came back to his senses and saw the muscles right in front of his eyes. He obviously knew that this was not his real body, but still felt a little embarrassed, so he immediately tilted his head to the other side. “When did you come in, how did you not make any sound.”

“I just came in, it’s pretty normal to not make a sound when barefoot ba, or maybe you had been too invested in thinking about something, so you didn’t feel me coming in.” Qi Feng asked, “What happy thing did you think of? Can you share it?”

“It…, it’s not anything particularly happy.” Jing Yang said. “I had just thought of how those smoke team people had looked, and felt that it was a little funny.”

When he mentioned the smoke team, a cold bitter light flashed through Qi Feng’s eyes, but it soon disappeared. He asked, “That man called Dark Flame, why did he say that he was your boyfriend? Didn’t you say that he was already married?”

“Oh.” Jing Yang slid down a bit, soaking his chin in the water. He explained, “He and I are college classmates, and he had pursued me ever since college. I saw that he had pursued me for so many years and still not given up, so I decided to first get to know him a bit. Strictly speaking, he is not my boyfriend…”

Then Jing Yang talked to him about why he had come into this game, and what he had experienced afterward.

When Qi Feng heard him say that he had not officially begun to date Dark Flame, his eyes softened a lot. But once he heard how the smoke team had treated him, he immediately frowned slightly again, inexplicably feeling angry and heartache.

The two people soaked in the sauna for a long time. Jing Yang saw that Qi Feng did not have any intention of leaving first, so he could only stand up himself and prepare to leave. It may have been because he had soaked for too long and had gotten up too quickly, but Jing Yang suddenly felt his legs soften, and when he had thought he would fall into the water, a pair of arms caught him, and he leaned into a broad and strong chest.

Jing Yang felt somewhat dizzy. He already didn’t want to lament the realisticness of this game, and only felt that this body was really too weak. When he went back he needed to use the system to strengthen it a bit.

Jing Yang looked up and wanted to thank him, but froze when he met Qi Feng’s eyes. Those deep eyes held some things that he wanted to catch but was unable to grasp.

Suddenly he heard a “pa” sound, and Jing Yang came back to his senses, feeling that his lower body was missing something. Looking down, his bath towel had fallen into the water after becoming too heavy from the water.

Jing Yang immediately bent down to pick up his bath towel, but his bending motion caused the hand that Qi Feng had placed on his waist to slide to his butt. He quickly straightened back up, retreated two steps to the side, and retied his bath towel around his waist. Jing Yang felt that his face was going to burn up.

“Then, then…” Jing Yang didn’t dare to look up, or it could be said he was too embarrassed to look up. “Thank you, uh…I’ll go back first.”

Jing Yang stepped out of the hot spring and quickly left.

Qi Feng looked at his glossy back and his faintly discernible butt, his gaze turning very deep.

———

[1] – 賤, means inexpensive or lowly, which I’m guessing is referring to how Nuoyang eventually refused to pay for the smoke team’s stuff

[2] – 以己度人, means something like you judge everyone as if they would act like you

[3] – 神出鬼沒, idiom, literally means Gods appear and devils vanish, means appear and disappear unpredictably