Online Game: Don’t Heal the Others

Gone was the shield warrior’s earlier aloof attitude; wariness took its place instead. Although they had the advantage in number, and although they were a well-rounded team who could complete instance zone missions and take out BOSSes with relative ease, going up against a legendary player like Night Cooer might still be out of their league.

However, the shield warrior was unwilling to give up just yet. In fact, he planned to negotiate with Night Cooer and see if they could come up with some sort of deal.

By then, Su Tingting had also realized Xiaofeng’s plan. She immediately stepped forward and said, “Don’t tell me you guys are still planning on taking on the sentry? Well, here’s something for you to think about. There are so many of you but only one token for the treasure hunt. Good luck dividing it up among yourselves. Oh, and also, might I remind you that Master Night Cooer is vindictive and vengeful. She’s already taken snapshots of your character names.” Su Tingting had borrowed Night Cooer’s name and used it to dish out her share of intimidation. From the looks of it, it worked.

“We’re lucky enough just to meet Master Night Cooer face to face,” said the shield warrior. “Since Master Night Cooer had made the sentry her target, we won’t get in the way.” Turning to the rest of his team, he said, “Let’s go.”

Perhaps he had found Su Tingting’s words of advice to be reasonable, or perhaps he had been intimidated by that comment about the snapshots, either way, the shield warrior took a step back and gave Xiaofeng’s party of three a stiff smile. After that, he quickly led his team away.

Once the players were far away enough, Su Tingting wrapped Si Yejing in a tight hug and burst into peals of laughter. “Haha! Jingjing, your character name is so useful. That’s super cool!”

Feeling smug, Si Yejing lifted her chin lightly and glanced at Xiaofeng as if to say: “Take that, you despicable man!”

Xiaofeng snorted with half admiration and half envy. His character name was indeed not as useful as Si Yejing’s in situations like this. The reason for that was because the players from Huaxia District only knew him as the “Master Healer”. His character name, “Dad”, was known only to a selected few. After the effects of the live streaming waned, he bet nobody would recognize him even if he walked around the streets with his character name on full display.

The second reason had to do with Xiaofeng’s profession as a priest. Most players didn’t find priests to be terrifying at all, not as much as assassins, definitely.

“Alright, zip it,” Xiaofeng said. “Just take out the BOSS.”

Once again, Xiaofeng gave each of them a BUFF. After that, he stepped away to watch the battle from the sidelines.

Elite BOSSes had twice the amount of health points that normal BOSSes had. Rare BOSSes, on the other hand, had twice the amount of health points that elite BOSSes possessed. The higher the grade, the harder it would be to defeat them.

The demon sentry was just an elite BOSS. With Xiaofeng’s BUFFs, Si Yejing and Su Tingting each had more than 200 physical attack points. With that kind of attribute, even a normal attack would deal more than 100 damage. The sentry’s 10,000-plus health points didn’t even stand a chance. That was why Xiaofeng decided to just watch from the sidelines instead of getting involved.

“Ding! Your party has successfully defeated a demon sentry, a Level 20 Elite Boss. You have earned 130, 000 experience points.”

It didn’t take long for the demon sentry to fall under the combined assault of the two women. The number of experience points earned was pretty similar to other BOSSes of the same grade. The only difference was that this BOSS dropped an item after it perished.

Treasure Hunt Token

Type: Equipment

Effect: Teleports a player to the treasure hunt’s entrance portal once activated. When the treasure hunt begins, all players at the portal will be transported to the event map.

Tips: Please enter the portal before the event begins. The event will begin in 23 hours 31 minutes.

The item looked just like any golden tablet and not at all fancy. Before the start of the event, it could be used an unlimited number of times to instantaneously teleport a player to the treasure hunt portal. After some thought, Xiaofeng decided that the item’s effect wasn’t too shabby at all because it could be used when a player was in battle mode, which made it a great tool for a player to escape from an unfavorable combat situation.

For instance, if a group of players had just defeated a demon sentry, the player who got to the token first could save their own ass by instantly teleporting to the treasure hunt portal.

Xiaofeng perused the treasure hunt token for a moment and then he tossed it to Su Tingting. Si Yejing seemed to agree with his choice as well, which puzzled Su Tingting greatly. Then again, her puzzlement quickly gave way to relief.

With Xiaofeng and Si Yejing’s strength and status, they definitely wouldn’t be left wanting in treasure hunt tokens. Su Tingting knew that among the three of them, she was the only one who needed pampering and care.

Su Tingting accepted the token happily and without any scruples. “Haha. Then I’ll gladly accept! Damn, it’s so nice to hang around two pros!”

“Time to get going,” Xiaofeng said, making his way toward the Abandoned Town. “Let’s clear the instance zone mission again and then find another token.” The two women followed him immediately.

At about the same time, Qian Duoduo sent Xiaofeng a message, asking him to collect more tokens if possible. Qian Duoduo had a feeling that the tokens would be very marketable.

Qian Duoduo had brought her gaming helmet to the villa and then went online. In fact, she was sitting beside Xiaofeng right now.

Xiaofeng didn’t even bother to reply to her message. He didn’t need her reminder to know how priceless the tokens were going to be. In addition, they didn’t have to worry about the tokens’ salability considering the abundance of players and tycoons in Huaxia District.

The three of them cleared the instance zone mission in record time. This time, however, they weren’t so lucky; their reward items were two pieces of silver equipment, which didn’t appeal to Xiaofeng at all. He let Si Yejing and Su Tingting split the reward items among themselves. The experience points were all he gained from completing the mission.

The three of them left the instance zone. “Where to now?” Su Tingting asked. “Shall we search the map for more demon sentries and get more tokens?” Su Tingting was in high spirits, as evident from her relentless questions. She had made considerable gains today: A golden weapon, a piece of silver equipment, plus a treasure hunt token. Right now, she was drunk in happiness.

All of a sudden, Si Yejing began giving out cold vibes in spades. “Tingting,” Si Yejing said, “have you forgotten that we have to sit for finals tomorrow?”

Su Tingting screamed. “Ah! Why didn’t you remind me earlier, dammit! It’s already one o’clock, and I haven’t studied yet! Crap, crap, crap!”

Si Yejing had no intention of shouldering all the blame. “I thought you remembered!” Si Yejing said in annoyance. “Here I am, thinking that you’re already so confident that you’ll do well tomorrow. But it turns out that you were just so busy gaming that you’ve forgotten about it!”

Su Tingting was screaming her head off at this point. “You think everyone’s like you, having the ability to pass all your papers without studying? I’m screwed! I’m so screwed! Yeah, whatever! I don’t have time to chat with you guys now! I’m off!” Su Tingting’s excitement from earlier was gone in a flash. Without even giving Xiaofeng and Si Yejing a chance to bid her farewell, Su Tingting went offline and vanished at the instance zone’s entrance.

Once Su Tingting vanished, Si Yejing caught up to Xiaofeng and asked, “Hey, where are you going? To find more tokens?”

“Why are you asking me that? Aren’t you going offline too?” Xiaofeng was already prepared to leave as he thought Si Yejing was going offline as well.

“I can breeze past finals without studying,” Si Yejing said a little smugly.

Xiaofeng nodded. “Oh, okay. Then, yeah, I’m going to look for more tokens,” Xiaofeng said and prepared to head back to the city.

Si Yejing felt a surge of anger. “You assh*le! Can’t you tell that I’m trying to team up with you?” She had no idea whether this son of a b*tch had really missed it or he was just playing dumb.

“It’s not like you can’t kill the BOSS on your own. Plus, can’t you just team up with other members of your guild?” Xiaofeng asked confusedly.

All of a sudden, Si Yejing started acting all jumpy and fidgety. “I… I… Ugh, fine! I want your heals!” Si Yejing stammered.

Resigned, Xiaofeng said, “Let’s head back to the city, and then teleport to Sunset Town. From there, we’ll head to Bone Mountain. There should be a demon sentry there.” Since the demon sentries would spawn across the entire map, he figured that there would likely be one or two at Bone Mountain. At the moment, no player dared to venture deep into that part of the map. Additionally, he could even earn more experience points there.

“Sounds good.”

Si Yejing had been to Bone Mountain with Xiaofeng before, so she knew that it was a good place to hunt for the sentry as well as to gain experience points. She didn’t have any AoE skills, so she had never been very efficient when it came to leveling. The fact that she was able to climb up the level rankings was precisely because she had been to Bone Mountain with Xiaofeng before.

But after that, the Midsummer Guild was destroyed by Xiaofeng—a fact that would still make Si Yejing’s jaw clench every time she remembered it—during its encampment defense. After that, her level ranking dropped. But this time, she had a chance to go to Bone Mountain with Xiaofeng again. It was a chance she would readily take.

A few minutes into their journey from Sunset Town to Bone Mountain, Xiaofeng suddenly received a few consecutive messages. Along with the messages was a request for a voice call. For a moment, Xiaofeng was stunned. He didn’t have a single clue what was going on.

“Brother Xiao! Are you all right? Whatever you do, just don’t go there!” The first message came from Qian Duoduo.

“Master Healer! What happened between you and the Glory Guild? We can help smooth things over for you if there’s an ongoing dispute between you. Please don’t act rashly!” This one was sent by War Spirit Knife. Both War Spirit Sky and War Spirit Ziyi had sent similar messages as well.

“Big brother! You must bring me with you if you plan to kick someone’s ass!” This one came from Shangguan Aochen, the young kid. And was that excitement that he had detected in the tone of the message?

“Do you require assistance, Brother Xiao? The brothers in our room are all online. We can even call our schoolmates for backup!” This one came from the Nicholas Brothers.

“The Midsummer Guild will have your back if you need us.” The last message came from Liu Qiangwei. Despite the blandness of his message, Liu Qiangwei had made his stance clear.

…

“What kind of situation is this?” Xiaofeng couldn’t believe his eyes. He had no clue what had just happened. Si Yejing’s reaction was the same as his when he had asked her about it.

“Hurry! Check the forums!” Si Yejing said. Evidently, Si Yejing had more gaming experience than Xiaofeng. She knew that the game forums should be the first place to turn to whenever there was something major going on.

Without ado, Xiaofeng accessed the forums, and the moment he did, he found out what was going on.

Brother Nine of Glory had started a thread in the name of the Glory Guild.

“Everyone must have known by now that two days ago, the Master Healer’s name had been added onto the Glory Guild’s kill list. This was brought on by a recent disagreement between the Master Healer and the Glory Guild. Now, as we all know, the server-wide event is about to begin and players from every district would be sent to the event map. I have no doubt that as the strongest player in Huaxia District, the Master Healer would not miss out on this event. In the same way, the Glory Guild, too, is determined to be involved in the event. Which is why it is absolutely vital that the Glory Guild and the Master Healer bury the hatchet and settle their score before the commencement of the event. Only then can we work together in peace during the event and fight for the glory of Huaxia District. So, here and now, I call upon the Master Healer to engage in a battle of honor with the Glory Guild in which we resolve our differences once and for all!

“Exactly an hour from now, the members of the Glory Guild will gather on the plains on the east side of Nature City. There, we will wait for the Master Healer to rise up to our challenge. After this battle, any bad blood between the Glory Guild and the Master Healer will be resolved regardless of the battle’s outcome.”

The thread had been posted by Brother Nine of Glory three minutes ago. In just three short minutes, the thread had already been pushed right up to the top of the forum with a skyrocketing number of views and replies.

“A battle of honor?” Xiaofeng said after he had read the whole thread, laughing. “Interesting.”

“A scheme hidden in plain sight?” Xiaofeng mused.

Xiaofeng wasn’t looking to get even with the Glory Guild at all. Brother Nine of Glory did snipe at Xiaofeng once and managed to take him out, but Xiaofeng merely treated that incidence as a meaningless squabble, nothing more. After that, Brother Nine of Glory was hell-bent on becoming a huge pain in Xiaofeng’s ass time and time again. Now with Brother Nine of Glory’s latest underhanded trick, Xiaofeng was starting to feel pissed off, a fact evident from the cold glint in his eyes.

On the surface, there seemed to be nothing underhanded about the grand challenge issued via the thread. The challenge was made overtly. It was a battle of honor involving two parties, and it seemed legit and had an honorable cause—for the glory of Huaxia District.

But in actuality? This was merely a setup. It was nothing but a trap meant to lure Xiaofeng in.

If Xiaofeng refused to accept the challenge, then it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the words that would form in the minds of the players in Huaxia District—weak, coward, etc. Even worse, someone might even try to incite feelings of hatred among the players in Huaxia District toward him. This could easily be done if someone were to say that Xiaofeng “doesn’t give a damn about the reputation of Huaxia District”. As a result, Xiaofeng might end up being ostracized by the players of Huaxia District.

On the flip side, if Xiaofeng took the challenge, he would have to take on the Glory Guild—the second-largest guild in the entire Huaxia District—all on his own. Even a fool would know the outcome of such a battle.

This was an obvious setup. If Xiaofeng refused to take the challenge, the Glory Guild would lose absolutely zilch. In fact, the Glory Guild would have won the battle by default since Xiaofeng would technically be admitting defeat by not showing up.

If Xiaofeng took the challenge, the Glory Guild would be able to kill Xiaofeng eventually. True, the Glory Guild would have to sacrifice a lot of their members in the process, but that was obviously a price they were willing to pay. If it really came down to a battle, there could be only one outcome—Xiaofeng’s death. Then, the Glory Guild would keep its end of the bargain and remove Xiaofeng from their kill list. In doing so, the Glory Guild would secure its image as a strong, powerful, and upright guild in the eyes of all players in Huaxia District. That would be no different than free publicity.

Only God knows whether or not the dispute between Xiaofeng and the guild would actually be settled after the battle.

In any case, Xiaofeng would be on the losing end. This so-called battle of honor was nothing but a setup in which the Glory Guild would come out on top in all possible outcomes.

By then, Si Yejing had finished reading the thread as well. Shock coursed through Si Yejing the moment she saw the look on Xiaofeng’s face. “Hey, don’t tell me you’re going to accept the challenge? Sh*t! Are you out of your d*mn mind? Do you know how many members the Glory Guild has? Just their peripheral members alone have reached a number of more than one million!” Si Yejing said in shock.

Si Yejing was no ordinary player. It was obvious to her that this so-called battle of honor was a setup.