Chapter 176 - Two Rats And Players

What greeted the trio of trespassers was glaring bright light that almost blinded them.

Cheng Xiu and San Zhe had to blink several times to adjust to the lighting.

When their visions cleared, the two stood still in shock at the sight in front of them.

The Iron Black door opened to a large white room. The only the occupants in the room were two blue robed anthropomorphized rats climbing the a wall of the room each.

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Are they also trying to scale the Clock Tower?"

"Perhaps," Yaksha said with a laugh. "But I wonder if they would really have that kind of an ablility. What do you think, Little Sela?"

Cheng Xiu frowned. "You can just call me Selafia, or SelaXiu, or even just Xiu. There is no need to add the 'little' to it."

"Are you not going to attack them?" Yaksha asked instead of responding to her suggestion.

"Is that a smart thing to do though?"

"Ah! That…is a question you should ask yourself."

"Why are they not attacking us?" San Zhe asked. "I mean, it is not that I want them to attack us, it is just that…the rats before attacked us right?"

"Did they?" Yaksha asked him. "All I remember is a white-robed Player using a very over powered sword skill to kill those things off."

San Zhe's eyes widened at his words. That was right. The rats did not really get any chance to actually attack them because they were too busy dying.

He looked towards Cheng Xiu with a complicated expersssion.

Cheng Xiu was surrounded by sword copies that were spinning around her head.

"Does that mean I can just attack these monsters like I did those rats at first?" Cheng Xiu asked in excitement.

San Zhe felt a bit pity of the Rat Counsellors who were climbing the walls at the moment. He couldn't help thinking that they were such poor creatures. They were just climbing the clock tower, minding their own business and trying to better their position as a race, and now they were being faced with a monster like Cheng Xiu who had an OP skill that made copies of her sword. And she could control it with her mind.

He really did feel sorry for them.

Cheng Xiu seemed to think that San Zhe's silence was an agreement and manipulated the sword copies to fly into the room.

The swords struck an invisible barrier and flew back.

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Did we not meet the conditions to enter this room then?"

"Maybe that was why the Iron Door did not open?" San Zhe suggested.

Cheng Xiu opened her mouth to respond to him but stopped at the alluring chuckle the reached her hearing.

Cheng Xiu turned towards Yaksha, confusion in her body language.

"Sorry about that," Yaksha said to her. "That barrier is a talisman that I used."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Why?"

"This is not just your mission," Yaksha said to her. "If you do not allow Mr San to participate then the rewards that the system would give him would be far too pitiful."

Cheng Xiu's eyes widened when she heard that. She turned to San Zhe with a pitiful gaze. "I am so sorry brother San! I was just thinking about gaining Experience for myself and did not consider you at all! I am so sorry! Really! I was not trying to snatch away your opportunity!"

San Zhe panicked at her words. "I know that! I did not think you did! Why would I think that? And besides, this quest was supposed to be a way for you to experience the Questing aspect of the Other World. When did it become about my gaming experience?"

Cheng Xiu's eyes narrowed. "But still-"

"No buts. I am serious," San Zhe said to her. "Besides, do you really think that I would stop you from completing a mission that we are a week long over due on a little faster?"

Cheng Xiu's face cleared. "Thank you, Brother San!"

San Zhe nodded in happiness.

Yaksha, who watched the two paly out such a harmonious scene felt his hands itch. Why was it that Little Sela became even more innocent over the years?

If Cheng Xiu could hear his thought she would have just glared at him.

She wasn't being innocent at that moment. She was just being a nice person, apologizing and explaining herself so that she did not hurt her friend's feelings with her callous way of dealing with things.

"Then why don't you attack them!" Cheng Xiu asked San Zhe with an enthusiastic smile that San Zhe was not able to appreciate thanks to the face mask that she wore.

"Sister Xiu," San Zhe with a slight sigh. "I told you already. This is your mission. I am only here to experience it by supporting you when things become difficult for you."

"Isn't that why I am here?" Yaksha asked him.

San Zhe froze. He had forgotten about the Godly Player near him.

How could he do that? That was just asking to get killed.

"Well…that was what we agreed on at the start of the Quest," San Zhe explained to the Great Expert. "But now that Lord Yaksha is here there is no need for me to remain in that role."

"Great!" Cheng Xiu said. "Then we can do the quest together?"

San Zhe looked at her for a moment. "How about you fight one and I fight the other? Like we did with those Twin NPCs."

Cheng Xiu thought for a moment and then nodded. That did make more sense. "So who should go first?"

"Ladies first?" Yaksha suggested.

Cheng Xiu threw him a look.

"Gentlemen should face dangers first."

"That is a bit sexist."

"Is it?"

"It really is."

San Zhe looked between the two. Why were they arguing about something like this as well?

"I guess I will go first then," San Zhe said and started to walk forwads.

A figure in red and white dashed forwards past him.

San Zhe blinked. "What just happened?"

"Little Sela decided that 'ladies first' is less sexist," Yaksha said to him with a small laugh.

San Zhe sweatdropped. Why did the great expert act like he had something extremely witty at the end? How was his words supposed to be considered as being witty?

Yaksha seemed to realise that San Zhe did not get his sense of humour and sighed. "She did not want you to face the enemies first. Watch her attack those creatures and learn how the enemies are reacting to her. Make a strategy based on your observations."

San Zhe blinked at the experts words. That was a genuine advice that Lord Yaksha had given him of his own accord. San Zhe felt a bit proud at the moment.

"Thank you, great God! I will!"

Yaksha looked at him for a moment. "Don't call me god. I am not one. Just call me Yaksha, or if you must, then add the Lord. But that is it. Got it?"

San Zhe nodded.

He looked into the room.

Cheng Xiu had reached the rats.

She stepped on the wall and used that momentum to attack the Rat on the Left.

It was left again.

Why did she always choose Left?

The rat creature spit out a ball of fire at her.

Cheng Xiu dodged and used the sword copies to try to impale or dissect the creature.

The thing about rats, the common ones or the monsters, was that they were extremely agile creatures.

The sword copies were only able to hit the rat for a brief moment but even that did not leave any superficial wound on the monster.

Ting-

Cheng Xiu frowned. She could hear the sound of metal hitting metal.

She looked closer at the rat creature that she was attacking with the sword copies and saw that there were sparks that flew everywhere that the swords hit. Like they were attacking a metallic thing instead of a living creature.

Cheng Xiu dashed forwards, escaping the balls of fire that it threw her way occasionally.

She briefly looked at the rat on the opposite wall that had a similar texture to its body. The Rat's fur coat was not made of hair. It was made of strips of metal.

Cheng Xiu observed the creatures again.

She noticed the white shade of the monster's underbelly.

Cheng Xiu smiled.

From her periphery vision she saw that blue-robed San Zhe dash towards the creature on the right wall.

"Their fur is made of metal!" Cheng Xiu shouted out a warning to him. "Try to attack its underbelly! That is its weak spot!"

"Understood!" San Zhe screamed at her.

He expected a ball of fire to come his way. But the monster climbing the right wall instead threw out a spear made of rocks.

San Zhe barely dodged it in time and rolled away from the creature's attack range in a hurry.

The rat looked at San Zhe for a moment. Made a sound that sounded like it was mocking him and started to climb the wall again.

San Zhe's grip on the trident tightened and he jumped towards it from the ground.

Cheng Xiu saw his movements.. She stilled for a moment and then ran towards him to stop the man from impaling the Rat.