CH 15

There wasn’t much to be gained at the next two islands, so the party very quickly progressed forwards to the third island.

After Meat Meat Meat Meat had completed reporting on the progress on their end, he entered the team channel and said, “Based on the map, we have moved pretty far from our starting point. However, it looks like we are very close to the red area. We had better be more vigilant, as we might bump into the enemy.”

The World of Space’s map was very large and had numerous branches. Logically speaking, it should not be that easy to run into the enemy. However, the sub-team leader’s analysis also had some basis to it, so the possibility of it occurring could not be discounted. Lin Xiao had also secretly made a mental note of it.

It was at this moment that I’ll Shoot You To Death suddenly yelled “We have a situation on our hands!” in the team chat. Immediately, he fired an arrow towards the dense, forested area in the distance.

Almost simultaneously, Meat Meat Meat Meat made a 360-degree turn on the spot, and his body suddenly flashed with a bright gold light.

Lin Xiao had subconsciously moved some distance away from the others. He looked around their surroundings, but did not see any enemies. Thus, he was rendered speechless1. “Team leader, are you putting on a show for us?”

Meat Meat Meat Meat stood motionlessly on the spot for a moment. It was only after some time had passed that he spoke again in the team channel, “I’ll Shoot You To Death, do not fire your arrows so carelessly! F**k, I was so shocked just now that I didn’t even click on the chat box, and wasted my ultimate skill. We had better not run into anyone from the Heaven guild later, or we will be brought to our knees!”

However, it was as per the saying “speak of the good and it will not come, but speak of the bad and it surely will come”. Right after he spoke these words, a streak of red light flashed out from the direction in which I’ll Shoot You To Death had fired their arrow, and collided directly with Meat Meat Meat Meat’s body with a “pa” sound.

It was very obvious that there were enemies here!

Lin Xiao watched as the other three party members fell into a state of confusion and was momentarily speechless. This Holy Knight had truly jinxed them with his words. This was really in the same league as Chen Anqi2.

He noted the surrounding terrain and moved backwards, creating some distance between them. Then, he took a look at the red colored IDs that had appeared in his vision and were getting ready for battle. He turned, and once again saw the onee-san’s breasts, which were so bountiful that they caused others’ imaginations to run wild.

Lin Xiao was momentarily speechless. “…Sister, wake up quickly, we are fighting.”

However, on the other side of the screen, You Jing slouched lazily in his chair. Long, slender, fair-skinned fingers were wrapped around the warm teacup, leaving the keyboard and mouse empty. His lips were raised slightly, and he did not have the slightest intention to operate his character. Rather, he was looking at the centre of the screen with a detached, but interested expression.

Hello Kitty did not react at all, and appeared to have left at the last minute.

Having to drag along this oil bottle3 that he suspected to be auto-following4 him caused Lin Xiao to feel quite helpless. What made him feel even more helpless was the fact that Meat Meat Meat Meat, the hefty meat shield that appeared to be sturdy and strong, had performed extremely disappointingly. After a weakening debuff had been cast on him, he became a Holy Knight who had been stripped of his holy protections. Under the continuous attacks of the Heaven guild, he was actually the first to fall, without even putting up a decent struggle.

Their tank had died, but he still had faith. Although he lay flat on the ground, he did not forget to chip away at the will of his team members5 after dying, his hand speed became even more explosive, and he yelled to the team, “Damn it, it’s the Heaven guild’s Sky team! Run away quickly everyone, if you don’t run away then none of you will be able to escape!”

Actually, he did not have to give this instruction at all. After identifying the IDs of the opposing team, the others did not have the slightest intention of rescuing their team leader and had swiftly broken formation and escaped long ago.

I’ll Shoot You To Death had obviously not expected that this arrow of his would have drawn out this team, which was even more terrifying than a boss monster. He picked up his soles and fled while tearfully crying out to the team, “Big Meat6, I’ve wronged you! It was a conditional reflex just now, it really was a conditional reflex, believe me! If I had known that Laughing Sky was there, I would definitely have gone around them.”

Lin Xiao brought along the Priest who was following behind him and sprinted along an unobstructed road. Gradually, he pulled away from the person who was pursuing him from behind, and even had the leisure to gossip with his team, “Who is Laughing Sky?”

Blue Skies Aren’t Blue sent a surprised emoji and said, “No way, you don’t even know who Laughing Sky is? They are the undefeated passerby king on the arena ladder currently. Bro, have you come from another planet?”

Lin Xiao said, “How clever, you have gotten everything correct. ^_^~”

Blue Skies Aren’t Blue replied, “…”

At this moment, the formation of the party had been broken apart in one swift move.

On the other end, Meat Meat Meat Meat reported the situation to the team leader before choosing to revive at the base camp. Thus, his corpse disappeared from the map and respawned at the revival point. He looked at the positions of his party members on the mini map and continued to advise them, “All of you should first look for a place to hide. Bear in mind that you absolutely must not come out. The team leader is currently dispatching reinforcements over.”

The other two members immediately obeyed his words and found a place to hole up in, hiding themselves so well that a few mushrooms grew on their heads.7

Lin Xiao brought Hello Kitty with him and ran for some distance before stopping. He turned back and saw that no one had caught up to him, so he stood in the middle of the big road without moving.

—— It seemed like the situation was not quite right?

Although the main objective of the guild battle was not to get more kills than the other side, they were enemies after all and would get extra agitated when meeting one another. Even if they were both just sub-teams sent to scout the area, since the formation of one side had already been scattered, by principle, they would definitely not let them off easily.

Recalling the positions of the people who had appeared just now, as well as the large stretch of dense, forested area, Lin Xiao made some rough calculations and narrowed it down to the only possibility – that those people were probably sneakily fighting the blue side’s guardian emissary boss! It should be known that the island they were currently on was some distance away from their revival point. Furthermore, an ordinary territorial guardian boss was not a big boss that was particularly difficult to take down. If both sides were to wait for the news to be delivered to guild for reinforcements to be sent, by the time they arrived, it was likely that the boss would have been defeated long ago.

This situation, in which they were about to witness others defeating the boss right under their noses, caused Lin Xiao to feel the same level of outrage that one would feel when seeing someone else strip off their girlfriend’s clothes. Although he was not particularly concerned about upholding the guild’s honor, the rewards offered for contributing towards the guild’s victory in the guild battle were far too tempting. Whether or not he would be able to swap out his staff for the one he wanted depended on how successful he was tonight. If they lost, he estimated that he would have to fight in the arena ladder for an additional week.

As for that passerby king, Laughing Sky? Indeed, he did not know how strong he was, but in any case, he was definitely not as strong as him.

With these riches and benefits to act as double motivation for him, Lin Xiao was not at all concerned about the fact that someone was still following him. He operated Adorable Ghost, who turned around and cutely skipped back to where they had been.

You Jing had paid clear attention to the shota’s every move from start to finish, and the depths of his eyes had subconsciously stilled. Currently, through Hello Kitty’s field of vision, he could see how Adorable Ghost was returning to the place they had come from without any hesitation. This was sufficient for him to deduce the other person’s intentions without having to think too deeply about it.

Finally, he placed the cup on the desk, slowly pulled the keyboard and casually placed it before himself.

When they were still being chased by the enemy just now, the little shota who brought Hello Kitty along with him had used his movements to avoid the ranged attacks that were pursuing them. It was not just the Ghost Priest himself, but even the Priest character had not lost a single bit of health. There had been some distance between them after all. If the one who was escaping and hiding had been a single character, then it would not have represented much. However, this person had been operating two characters together at the same time. This meant that for every step they had made while they were moving around, he had clearly calculated the point at which their opponents’ skills would land, as well as all of the movement trajectories of their characters while they were being chased.

These movements required deep thought and planning, as well as precise judgments to pull off. No matter if this person was wearing full cooldown reduction equipment merely because they were Old Ghost’s worshipper, or if it was a choice made purely by accident, the person before his eyes was indeed an expert.

…

A certain unlawful crime was still taking place with the small forested area. A few people were battling with one another, and the entire area was filled with skill effects.

Since their whereabouts had already been revealed, the Sky team, which no longer had to be careful, released so many skills that the resulting scene was spectacularly dazzling. Within the short span of a few minutes, they had already taken out a third of the Guardian Emissary of Power’s health bar.

However, as they fought, a bundle of flames suddenly rose from beneath the Spellsword’s8 feet. In the moment when the flames burst out and wrapped around his body, all of the skill markers on the map briefly turned grey.

They had been silenced9? Someone was ambushing them? Laughing Sky was stunned, having never expected that their opponents would actually have the guts to return.

Turning back, he saw a cute little red-hooded shota standing not too far away. The staff in his hands was still brimming with black light. It was evident that he was the culprit behind silencing them.

When a Curse Ghost faced another team, the subsequent harassment always brought them an unending feeling of sourness. Although the opposing side seemed to only have a Ghost Priest and a Priest, they could not just leave them there unattended.

For the sake of allowing his team to take down the boss before reinforcements arrived, Laughing Sky had stopped the other members from pursuing the enemy and had them continue to maintain the damage output by concentrating their firepower on the boss, while he himself lifted his claymore and went to meet the enemy. When he neared them, he activated his Ghost Sprint and swung his claymore. The target he was aiming at was not the Ghost Priest, but the Priest, Hello Kitty, who was standing so closely behind that it seemed as if she was stuck to him.

When Lin Xiao saw Laughing Sky rush over, he had long been prepared. He had preemptively taken a step and already moved away.

The Priest who was still on auto-follow began to move along with him. In the brief moment when they made contact, Hello Kitty was grazed by the edges of the claymore and narrowly managed to dodge.

However, in the brief moment when the skill failed to land, Laughing Sky suddenly activated his Arc Step when he got close to them. In a split second, he had already made a 180 degree turn and gotten close to the Priest.

As expected of a passerby king, his movements were indeed very quick. Lin Xiao secretly gave him a word of praise in his heart. He also felt some regret, thinking that he would probably not be able to turn the tides and protect the Priest sister who had been tagging along with him and was not doing anything more.

At this moment, Hello Kitty suddenly took a step away from Lin Xiao.

This step had not been big, but it was very crafty.

From a movement standpoint, it was just enough to avoid the main attack range of the Arc Slice skill. Although she lost some health, after quickly using a minor heal skill on herself, her health would be replenished bit by bit till it was full.

“That was a beautiful move, Sister!” Lin Xiao praised using the Public channel. At the same time, he had already started casting his skill.

When a blood red swirl curled below his feet, Laughing Sky decisively used a Flying Leap to move a distance away and dodged the Blood Pool that spread out where he originally stood a second ago. However, when he landed on the ground, the ground beneath his feet immediately turned into quicksand. A few thin and withered hands eerily caught a firm hold of his feet, locking him in place for a duration of three seconds.

Two skills, Pool of Scarlet and Locking Soul of Purgatory, had been cast one after another without any delay. He had actually made use of the position at which he had cast his skill to make him move, and anticipated his successive movements so thoroughly that he had even locked on to his landing point completely…no matter if it was the Priest’s movements or the Ghost Priest’s calculations, these two opponents were not easy to deal with.

Laughing Sky felt a mysterious and heavy sort of pressure and immediately said in the voice chat, “Black Jack, stay behind and hold off the emissary. Everyone else, come and help!”

________________

Translator’s comments: And so it begins~  Also I really like Lin Xiao’s confidence. “He may be good but who cares? I’m still better ^_^~”

This kind of expression: -_-|||

Another character who has yet to appear in the story.

Dragging an oil bottle is a metaphor for bringing along children from your previous marriage to your second marriage. In this case it is probably referring to having an added burden.

This is a function of some online games, which allows you to automatically follow the target player without having to directly control your characters.

In case it’s not clear, author is being sarcastic here.

Nickname for Meat Meat Meat Meat. I know it sounds weird translated, lol

Imagine something like this: https://www.deviantart.com/rioluisa/art/Dento-s-Mushroom-Room-179047176

Refers to a class that can use both magic spells and sword techniques.

A status effect that leaves you unable to use any skills.