CH 27.2

Ode to Joy frowned. He saw that Snow Fox had already managed to catch up with the enemy, so he no longer paid any attention to Adorable Ghost. Rather, after he calculated everyone’s positioning, he used a Flying Leap to increase the distance between them. At the same time, he dawdled at the partition made of holy light at the middle of the map. Then, he once again cast one offensive spell after another on Hello Kitty. 

While the Ritualist could, to some extent, be considered more of an auxiliary profession, Ode to Joy relied on his precise judgment to stack a few weak offensive skills together to inflict as much damage as possible. After all, he was a player who had been ranked in the Second Division for all this time. Thus, he could be considered one of the best offensive Ritualists out there.

Every skill he was currently using had been strictly analyzed by him before he determined where they should be aimed. The positioning of the skills he casted was very tricky, completely blocking off the enemy’s escape route.

Ode to Joy calmly looked on as Hello Kitty used a Dodge skill due to his provocation and moved according to the path he had predetermined. He smiled slightly as he began to cast Holy Light Retribution.

Based on what he could see, as long as the enemy took even the slightest step forward, it would be enough for her to suffer the full brunt of all the skills he had used.

However, he saw that Hello Kitty’s movements had stopped just shy of that one step. After pausing there strangely for 0.5 seconds, she used an unknown method to cancel her walking animation and turned, taking an extremely unsteady step to the left.

At this moment, the rays of Holy Light Retribution sprang up from the ground and formed an enormous, extremely dazzling pillar. However, due to the difference of a single step, the tall and slender onee-san Priest stood outside of the skill’s range, appearing to be mocking him.

The scene that had just taken place had been too unlikely, like something out of a dream. Ode to Joy’s cocky smile from earlier stiffened as a result. It was only when a Blood Hand burst out from the ground and firmly grasped him in place that he reacted. Noticing that Adorable Ghost had already caught up to him, he hurriedly discarded all notions of escaping.

“How did he come over so quickly, were you unable to hold him off?” Ode to Joy couldn’t help but to ask in their voice channel as, based on Snow Fox’s skill level, it was impossible for Adorable Ghost to have caught up so easily. 

“He…managed to dodge all of my control skills…” Snow Fox sounded quite depressed. From his tone of voice, it sounded as if even he was not quite sure what had happened. This caused Ode to Joy to unconsciously think back towards the turbulent emotions that he had similarly experienced just now.

Right at this moment, there was the loud “Bang” of a keyboard being slammed, followed by the flash of a system notification on the screen.

[System] First Blood!

Immediately, the “Dissatisfied” team’s voice channel turned silent. Without asking too many questions, Ode to Joy frowned and immediately made the wisest decision he could under the current circumstances. “Retreat for now!”

After Sound of Sea Tides’s death, the battle had clearly turned into a 2 vs 3 scenario. If both he and Snow Fox were surrounded and attacked, they would definitely lose this match. Although they currently felt rather displeased with Sound of Sea Tides for silently fighting in a solo battle, they had to bear the overall battle in mind after all. Thus, the two of them had chosen not to pursue the matter.

However, even if they wanted to retreat now, the enemy team would not allow them to easily do so.

Lin Xiao had long been slightly deafened by Laughing Sky’s booming laughter resounding in their voice chat. Wanting the battle to end more quickly, he decisively cast a Freezing Curse on Ode to Joy. Right as he was getting ready to give instructions to the support, he saw that Hello Kitty had already smoothly cast a Slow debuff on Ode to Joy as well.

“What telepathy we have, Sister!” Lin Xiao couldn’t help but give her a word of praise. He immediately began casting the skill Void of Ten Thousand Ghosts.

When his character’s vision was stolen away all that Ode to Joy felt was the palpitations of his heart. He felt an immediate sense of foreboding and called out, “Snow Fox, heal me up!”

Unexpectedly, a consecutive string of skills swiftly landed on him. In the blink of an eye, all kinds of Corrosion and Bleeding debuffs were applied on his character and his health began to plummet at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At that moment, a white light flashed before his eyes. Thanks to the Priest’s major healing spell, his health increased by a good amount.

Although his vision still had yet to return, Ode to Joy couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief after being healed and said, “Hurry, give me a Holy Light Prayer and heal up my health to the max as quickly as you can.”

However, he did not receive any response.

Snow Fox turned on his mic and said with a slightly weak voice, “I…I’ve been hit with a Soul Affliction Curse.”

Soul Affliction Curse was one of the six types of curses that a Ghost Priest could use. Any person hit with the curse would not be able to complete any actions, nor would they be able to receive any damage or be controlled by any skill effects from their enemies. This would last for 30 seconds.

This skill could be considered one of the Ghost Priest’s signature moves. It had a five minute cooldown time, so it normally would not be used casually. Now that the enemy had chosen to use it, there was only one possibility…Ode to Joy’s facial expression suddenly changed and he couldn’t help but look at his buff window. With a glance, he happened to see that the Skeleton debuff that had been cast on him earlier had just a few seconds remaining. Without any further thought, he decided to use his Holy Sanctuary skill, wanting to reduce some of the Curse’s harmful effects.

However, the Holy Light he expected to see did not envelop his body. Rather, a sweeping glance at his skill window revealed the gloomy sight of darkened skill icons. He was so stunned that even after his screen blew up due to the effects of the Curse of Doom and he had fallen completely into the arms of death, he still had not regained his senses.

The Silencing effect1 cast on him had undoubtedly originated from the Priest Hello Kitty, while the Soul Affliction Curse cast on Snow Fox had come from the Ghost Priest Adorable Ghost.

Curse of Doom was a skill that would explode and deal massive damage one minute after it was cast. The present situation had played out in a manner that caused him to fall into a daze. Gradually, he came to the realization that the two enemy players had actually been calculating the timing in a precise manner in the midst of their battle, accounting for every minute and every second. These calculations were so thorough that they were simply frightening…

This match, which had been so loud and boisterous in the beginning, had ended in an extremely silent fashion. Even after they left the map, no one in their voice chat room spoke. Sound of Sea Tides felt as if he had completely lost face after losing to Laughing Sky, while Ode to Joy and Snow Fox felt the complex emotions of having been taught how to be a person by their enemies2.

The other voice chat room was filled with raucous sound. Of course, most of the noise came from Laughing Sky.

Having deflated Sound of Sea Tides’s pompous arrogance, he was engaging in a lot more schadenfreude than anyone else. An entire night’s distress seemed to have dissipated like smoke. “What now, are we still gonna fight? Right now I’m so wide awake, wanna keep going?” 

“Maybe another time, we’re good for today now that we’ve hit the Second Division. Even if we were to continue, we probably won’t be able to record any particularly good videos in our current state.” Lin Xiao appeased him then turned, wanting to speak with Hello Kitty. However, when he looked down, he saw that she had left the party as soon as he had finished saying those words.

Thinking back on the proceedings of the battle earlier and the minute details of their movements, as well as the natural compatibility they had had in the later part of the battle without him needing to say too much, it was hard for him to avoid feeling a strange sense of disbelief. However, the other person had already logged off, so he did not think about it any further and exited the game. He lay on his bed, then recalled a certain matter and couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh, “Ah, I think I forgot to set up a time for our next meeting…”

Ranking for the past few days was simply too exhausting. Lin Xiao slept and woke very late the next day. By the time he blearily logged on to the game, it was already 4pm, but strangely, he received a Friend message from Shen Changyu: “You’re on?”

Lin Xiao laughed and sent back a response that lacked any substance: “En, I’m on.”

Shen Changyu: “…”

Lin Xiao: “How is it, see how fast I’ve climbed up the arena rankings?”

Shen Changyu: “Second Division, I’ve already seen it. But why are you only at 40 ranking points?”

Lin Xiao: “Oh, by right I could have already gone up to the First Division, but last night I ended up doing the 3 vs 3 team battles instead.”

Shen Changyu: “3 vs 3? Why are you doing those?”

Lin Xiao dodged the question and lightly said, “Oh right, my team had a female Priest from Black Dawn. I think her skills are pretty good, want to consider asking the Guild Leader to promote her to a core member?”

Shen Changyu: “En, sure. What’s her name?”

Lin Xiao: “Hello Kitty.”

When he saw these two words, Shen Changyu immediately spit out the mouthful of water he had just drank in a manner that didn’t suit his image.

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TL comments: Shen Changyu, Vice Captain, best boi, and now resident wingman :p

(One of the reasons this translator loves Shen Changyu is that for some reason, most of the chapters he appears in are kinda easier to tl…)

A debuff that prevents you from casting any skills.

Or how to be human. In English gamer terms, the closest equivalent I can think of would be “taught how to get good”, since they taught so highly of their skills but got utterly wrecked, haha.