Chapter 176: The “Innocent Bystanders”
“What is this for?” Lan Chen squinted at the Ice Crystal Fragment, puzzled for a long time.
“I remember it’s…” Brother Shiu recalled suddenly extending his hand, “Give it to me.”
After receiving the item, he looked around as if confirming something and walked toward a corner.
Looking in the direction he went, there was surprisingly an Ice Crystal Sarcophagus at the end.
It was ice-cold and transparent, clearly revealing nothing inside.
Right above the sarcophagus, there was a small hole that almost fit the shape of the Ice Crystal Fragment.
Of course, after Brother Shiu placed the fragment into the hole, the Ice Crystal Sarcophagus burst forth with dazzling light, a strong white light filled the entire space, momentarily engulfing everyone.
After experiencing a brief blindness, the surrounding scenery gradually returned to normal.
No, it was now completely different from before.
The team had inexplicably vanished, not even Starry was in sight.
Starry’s perspective was the same, with the scenes on both sides being highly consistent.
Could it be that this is the clearing CG?
The cave was enveloped in darkness, almost impossible to see anything; not to mention the Cold Crystal, not even a glowing stone could be found. In the dim environment, any quiet noise was greatly amplified—the sound of spiders climbing walls, the squeaks of mice, all these sounds were chillingly clear.
Is this a horror film?
Finally, a voice came from the entrance of this space.
Crack
Crack
Something liquid dripped onto the ground.
Moreover, accompanied by weak breathing, a silhouette stumbled in.
In the dim light, one could barely discern the outline; it appeared to be a man.
He staggered in, startling the nearby creatures.
Thud!
The hand that intended to support the wall weakly fell, bringing the body down with it.
Suddenly, the surrounding scene shattered like a mirror.
They returned to the previous place, all present, looking around in confusion, clearly having been forcibly pulled into the CG animation.
Ding!
System Notification: Congratulations, your team has cleared the “Chasing the Cold Crystal Giant” dungeon with a 4-level rating and a clearing time of 19 minutes and 47 seconds.
Apart from the system prompt, a shiny silver treasure chest appeared in the center of this space.
“Was that just now the CG?”
“Yeah,” Brother Shiu nodded, “This is my first time seeing it. I’ve played about twenty times including yesterday and today, and it’s the first time I cleared it.”
“See, it really wouldn’t work without me.” Zane laughed helplessly.
“Come on, we almost made it several times. The main issue is that the wildlings don’t know the mechanics, and we have to teach them from scratch every time. Just when they’re getting the hang of it, they stop fighting…”
She was not surprised by this; it was the same in other online games. Trying to teach strangers the mechanics often drove one to the brink, especially during dungeon clearing phases.
Perhaps they could consider adding more people? She’d previously checked that the adventure group’s experience was at 90%, just a little bit more and it could level up, which should increase the limit on team size at that time.
“It’s fine, we cleared it, right? Oh, and there’s a treasure chest. Does anyone still want to open it? Except for Cute Orange.” Zane looked at Cute Orange and shook his head slightly. “It wouldn’t be good if the rewards from clearing are all taken up.”
“What did you say!? I’ll fight you today!” Cute Orange lunged forward.
And was then pulled back by Youyoufen.
“Zanny, go open it. It seems like you always get the best rewards.” Jiangxia thought for a moment and said.
“I have no objections.” Brother Shiu also agreed.
“Let Zanny do it.” Youyoufen nodded.
“I disagree! Let me try one more time; I’ll definitely get something good!” Cute Orange struggled and said.
Zane turned his head. “Alright, you can try again.”
…
Five minutes later, the six were teleported back to the dungeon entrance.
Cute Orange’s face was ashen, murmuring, “I’m not African… I’m not African…”
It was indeed strange; the treasure chest from clearing the dungeon yielded two blue items and one Black Iron Equipment, which could be said to be quite unlucky.
Zane was about to mock her when the noisy commotion from the other side caught his attention.
“I told you to run back, but you wouldn’t listen! Now look, that’s thirty minutes wasted!” A male swordsman complained, and his voice sounded somewhat familiar.
“If you hadn’t bothered me, that Deep Cold Crystal Soul would have been defeated by now, alright? And now…”
“Are you bald?! That swordsman got angry and retorted.
“Did you even manage to down it? You think it’s easy to tank when you’re that bad at positioning!? If your positioning were even slightly better, the healing pressure wouldn’t be this high!”
This remark sparked the mage, who scoffed, “You’re great at positioning, huh?”
“Who led a team to find Starry’s Derailment?! Nobody dealt much damage, and you got downed first! And you dare point fingers at me?”
“…”
One of the teammates stood between the two, “Alright, alright, let’s just redo it. It’s normal to have missteps during the clearing phase; there’s no need to dwell on it.”
“I’m done! With this garbage team, we won’t clear even after a hundred tries!”
Once this was said, all the other teammates fell silent.
The swordsman remained quiet, clenching his fists, and exhaled.
After a moment, the teammates who received the message of the team disbanding looked at him in panic. “Captain, aren’t we continuing?”
“We’re not. We won’t continue in the future either.” The swordsman’s voice sounded devoid of joy or sorrow.
“Don’t, captain, don’t be angry. Qiu Qiu just got a bit excited…”
“Haha… Do you really think I’m a fool? Ever since we lost to Starry, you all have been nagging. Since that’s the case, let’s just disband. Out of sight, out of mind.” The swordsman said coldly.
Unbeknownst to him, just as they came out, there was gossip to hear. Chen Chen only wished there were little benches here so she could sit back and watch.
“Starry sis, they seem to be talking about you?” Cute Orange said, seemingly igniting back to life, pricking up her ears to eavesdrop.
“No, you misheard.” Starry quickly denied.
“That’s not possible; they clearly said ‘Starry’s Derailment’; I heard it very clearly.”
“I told you, you misheard…”
Smash!
Turning around, good gosh, that whole team had come over!
“Starry’s Derailment!? So it really is you.” Huà Luò’s expression changed.
Huà Chen seemed a bit nervous; the onlookers were surrounded anew! “What? Now that there’s no Gray Wolf boss here, do you still want to fight?”
He hesitated for a moment, wanting to say something but stopped.
“What a coincidence?” The angry mage was taken aback and then said in a deep voice, “Captain, if you can prove yourself here, I won’t say anything more in the future.”
“Not interested.” Huà Luò didn’t even turn around.
“…Fine! If you won’t come, I will!” The mage was furious.
In the next moment, Huà Chen received a duel request.
That’s right; it was sent to the main body.
“What does it have to do with me if you’re targeting Starry’s Derailment? Are you out of your mind?” Huà Chen was dumbfounded; you can’t be serious about this, right?
