Chapter 198 – No-Tank Squad (Part 2)

Fang Zheng was both amused and exasperated as he showed the private chat screenshot to Your Uncle, who immediately forwarded it to the current channel—

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: [Screenshot] I knew you were avoiding me!!! 555555555 Even you look down on me now!!! I have nothing left to live for!!! [Sobbing][Sobbing][Sobbing]

[Local] Passing Master: I didn’t! I didn’t! It’s not that I look down on you, I just didn’t know how to face you! We agreed to go to Las Vegas together, but I ended up in the Sky Arena, leaving you all alone. I was so ashamed I couldn’t bear to face you!!!

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: I know you just misclicked! How could I blame you? But you—after that, no matter how much I called out to you, you never responded again, and that truly broke my heart…

[Local] Passing Master: I’ll make it up to you. Don’t cry, come here, hug.

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: Hug…

[Party] Crossplayer’s Blessing: Why do I feel like the vibe is a bit off?

[Party] Drink Your Sister 3X: If someone can be friends with Your Uncle and not have this kind of vibe, that’d be the real anomaly.

[Party] Refined Into a Demon 715: Maybe I shouldn’t speculate like this, but how is Your Uncle so sure the other guy misclicked? Maybe he really… uh, didn’t want to play Las Vegas…

[Party] Polly: Your Uncle: It’s almost midnight! Passing Master: So excited! Your Uncle: Focus, don’t misclick! Passing Master: Don’t worry… Ah!

[Party] Milk is Mom: …

[Party] Crossplayer’s Blessing: …

[Party] Drink Your Sister 3X: …

[Party] Refined Into a Demon 715: …

[Party] Mad Lad: …

Faced with the Deputy’s reenactment, the Ghost Server Legion members felt an uncanny sense of déja vu, leaving only one phrase echoing in their minds: This is absolutely the truth.

With the frost of misunderstanding finally melting away, the two friends entered a warm and lively exchange—

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: Why are you lying here all alone?

[Local] Passing Master: That dragon was too hard to fight. I got one-shotted as soon as I got here. I didn’t want to run all the way back from the respawn point, so I was hoping some kind passerby would revive me.

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: Why did you charge ahead as a healer?

[Local] Passing Master: Because I was alone TAT

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: You weren’t in a party? You got here solo?

[Local] Passing Master: I was in a party earlier—we did the previous quests together. But when we got here, another member of their guild showed up, and they kicked me.

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: Heartless!

Your Uncle, having the most authority on being kicked from parties, empathized deeply and was indignant.

[Local] Passing Master: Fairy Dreamland is completely dead. Our guild has scattered, and I can’t even find people to form a party. When I was in the Sky Arena, aside from Strawberry Tanghulu and a few others, I didn’t meet anyone else from Fairy Dreamland. In the end, I had to party with players from other servers. But our party was awesome—we even crushed the First Legion in the end, hehehe.

[Local] Passing Master: Ahhhhhhh!

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: What’s wrong?

[Local] Mad Lad: Hey, finally noticed me?

[Local] Passing Master: Zi! You’re here too?! Ahhh, what a small world!

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: What’s going on?

[Local] Passing Master: I partied with him in the Sky Arena!! You’re in the same guild???

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: Of course! We’re the Ghost Server Legion! Didn’t I tell you? They’re all great people! And they treat me really well too!

[Local] Passing Master: Then who revived me just now?

[Local] Little Lucky Charm: Our Commander!

[Local] Passing Master: Commander, thank you!

Though the gratitude was a bit delayed, as a Commander with a magnanimous heart, Milk is Mom didn’t mind at all—

[Local] Milk is Mom: Since you and Your Uncle are good friends, that makes you our good friend too. No need to be so polite~~

[Local] Passing Master: Really?

[Local] Milk is Mom: Of course!

[Local] Passing Master: Then where did you get your Golden Hoop? (⊙o⊙)

Could he just drop a Crimson Lotus Holy Fire on him? =_=

[Party] Drink Your Sister 3X: Commander, should we invite him to join our party?

[Party] Milk is Mom: You like him?

[Party] Polly: I think Your Sister is saying that Passing Master’s shamelessness carries the same divine aura you once had.

Though Passing Master was lacking in emotional intelligence, he was well-behaved. When he received the party invite, he was so overwhelmed with gratitude he nearly hugged Your Uncle’s leg and burst into tears. Your Uncle was equally excited, and the two reminisced about old times in YY. At first, the Ghost Server Legion quietly listened, but eventually, they forced themselves to focus on the game to avoid getting so emotionally invested that they’d end up weeping for Your Uncle’s past companions.

Since Passing Master was still lying dead at the feet of the evil dragon, he hadn’t completed the quest yet. So the new party helped him fight the prince’s attendant, who had been turned into an evil dragon by a sorcerer. At first, aside from Mad Lad and Your Uncle, everyone else thought they were just adding an ordinary healer—maybe an A+ or B-tier at best. But Passing Master’s G-cup Silent Nourishment instantly won everyone over. Without hesitation, the Ghost Server Commander traded the origin story of the Golden Hoop for Passing Master’s equipment details, intending to study them for future reference on the path to becoming a top-tier G-cup healer.

Thanks to Passing Master’s addition, Fang Zheng and Your Sister were freed up. Though neither specialized in DPS, they finally had the rare chance to focus solely on attacking the boss, giving them a taste of the joy of being a damage dealer.

While the Ghost Server Legion fought the evil dragon, two other parties were battling nearby. However, multiple evil dragons couldn’t appear on-screen simultaneously, so players from different teams could see each other but not each other’s bosses. In other words, from the Ghost Server Legion’s perspective, the nearby party was fighting thin air—nothing but dazzling skill effects and occasional position changes, hardly anything eye-catching… unless that party kept dying over and over again, in every possible way =_=

438 was the first to notice the struggling six-man party: “Commander, the guys next to us seem to be having a rough time.”

A normal commander would’ve scolded the team to focus on their own battle first, but was Milk is Mom a normal commander? “Where where? (⊙o⊙)”

Under the Commander’s lead, the entire Ghost Server Legion multitasked, fighting their own boss while spectating the neighboring party’s endless cycle of death and revival—with no positioning or coordination, members died one after another, were revived by the healer one after another, died again, were revived again, then the healer died. Fortunately, the Blesscaller was still alive, so the healer was revived, then the Blesscaller died, so the healer revived the Blesscaller, during which a few more teammates bit the dust, forcing the Blesscaller and healer to revive them… The only consistently stable performers were two individuals: the party’s Blood Warrior, who steadfastly held aggro no matter how chaotic things got, never letting the boss’s attacks stray from him. Even more impressively, he only died once. Even when the healer and Blesscaller were too flustered to decide whether to revive or heal first, he managed to minimize damage through potions and positioning until the healers remembered him. The other stable performer was the evil dragon boss itself, which leisurely regenerated to full HP at the historic moment when the Blood Warrior finally fell—marking the party’s total wipe.

[Ghost Server YY]

Fang Zheng: “Revive them?”

Drink Your Sister 3X: “It’s an easy task, so in principle, we should. But…”

Crossplayer: “They were so arrogant during the guild war earlier…”

438: “But one thing has nothing to do with the other. Don’t the heroes in stories always repay evil with kindness?”

Your Uncle: “This… I actually think we should revive them too… but we just fought them… I’ll stay neutral!”

Mad Lad: “I’m against it. Besides, maybe they don’t even want our help.”

Polly: “They’ve been lying dead in front of us for two minutes now. They clearly have no intention of respawning…”

Passing Master: “Ah! That Dutch Souvenir fought against us in the Sky Arena!”

The name Passing Master mentioned was the crux of the Ghost Server Commander’s hesitation. If all six were strangers, reviving them would’ve been a simple matter of casting a spell. But if one of them was someone they’d just fought in a guild war, and before that in a PvP tournament—both battles ending with competition first, friendship nonexistent—then whether to cast that spell became debatable.

“Passing, should we revive them?” Since opinions within the guild were divided, Fang Zheng decided to hear the newcomer’s thoughts.

Passing Master didn’t hesitate: “Revive them.”

Fang Zheng was surprised by his certainty. Though Passing Master didn’t know about their recent skirmish with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, he had been in Mad Lad’s party in the Sky Arena, meaning he and Dutch Souvenir had only animosity between them. So Fang Zheng pressed, “Reason?”

Passing Master: “In the Sky Arena, we beat them. The winners have to show magnanimity. Why did Zhuge Liang capture Meng Huo seven times? Because he didn’t just want to defeat his enemy—he wanted to win their hearts!”

Fang Zheng: “…”

Passing Master: “Uh, is there a problem?”

Ghost Server Legion’s collective inner monologue: With emotional intelligence like this, how do you still believe missing Las Vegas was your own fault?! Wake up already!!!

With the decision made, Fang Zheng stopped overthinking it. Besides, as Polly had pointed out, those six had no intention of respawning—they were clearly waiting for a kind soul to revive them. Yet the surrounding parties came and went without a second glance. Sometimes, even having bad blood was better than having no connection at all. ╮(╯_╰)╭

Milk is Mom cast Resurrection, and Crossplayer cast Blessing of Resurrection. In no time, all six were back on their feet.

Dutch Souvenir was likely the party leader, so while the others also revived, they stayed silent, letting him speak for them. And speak he did, straightforwardly—

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: Thanks.

[Local] Milk is Mom: No problem~~

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: They’re all newbies, not great at fighting.

[Local] Milk is Mom: Nonsense, it was a spectacular performance!

Clutching his bursting blood vessels, Dutch Souvenir changed the subject—

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: Didn’t expect it to be you who helped.

[Local] Milk is Mom: Repaying evil with kindness is our guild’s long-standing tradition~\(≧▽≦)/~

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: More like trying to cash in on a favor.

[Local] Milk is Mom: How could you say that about us! >_<

[Local] Clueless Girl: How could you say that about them! >_<

The sudden identical reply startled Fang Zheng. If not for the different ID, he’d have thought he’d accidentally sent the message twice.

Dutch Souvenir also stiffened, unsure why his troublemaking wife had jumped in. But based on past experience, he had a bad feeling…

[Local] Milk is Mom: This lady is…?

[Local] Clueless Girl: You don’t know me, but I know you. Blood Bulls Don’t Graze is in your guild, right?

[Local] Milk is Mom: Yeah…

[Local] Clueless Girl: I knew it. She mentioned your IDs to me several times—I’ve memorized them. Even though her own account was gone, she still helped us in YY. She’s the most righteous person I’ve ever met. But she said no, she said everyone in her guild is like that—willing to take a knife for a friend.

[Local] Clueless Girl: So, Souvenir, you can’t say that about them! They genuinely helped us without expecting anything in return!

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: …

Brother Blood Bull, I don’t know you, but are you sure you got the full story? Like, after taking a knife for a friend, didn’t they just keep charging forward with those knives to stab someone else?!

[Local] Clueless Girl: Sister Blood Bull said if I wanted to repay them, I should repay all of you. But not only did I fail to repay, you guys helped me again, only to be insulted by Souvenir. I’m really sorry.

[Local] Clueless Girl: Souvenir!

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: Huh?

[Local] Clueless Girl: Apologize!

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: …

[Local] Milk is Mom: It’s fine. We didn’t help for gratitude—it’s just our innate habit, a trivial effort. Though being misunderstood hurts, it’s not the first time, nor will it be the last. We’re used to it…

[Local] Clueless Girl: DUTCH! SOUVENIR!

[Local] Dutch Souvenir: I’m sorry!

[Local] Milk is Mom: Head pat ^_^

……

[Ghost Server YY]

Mad Lad: “Choosing a wife… requires caution…”

Crossplayer: “That Clueless Girl is Dutch Souvenir’s wife?”

Drink Your Sister 3X: “Definitely. Dutch Souvenir’s fixed party is Don’t Stop the Meds—we’ve seen them before. For him to take time out to lead this ragtag group, there’s no other explanation besides helping his wife.”

Your Uncle: “Commander, I think he’s gonna curse you with a voodoo doll later, haha.”

Fang Zheng: “Maybe he wouldn’t have, but after you said that… TAT”

Passing Master: “Haha, yeah, back when we played together, Your Uncle’s jinxes were always spot-on—five out of ten times.”

Ghost Server Legion collectively: “He’s max-level now!”

……

After bidding farewell to Dutch Souvenir, the eight-man squad encountered no further surprises for the rest of the day, diligently progressing from the Crimson Kingdom to the Amber Kingdom. First, they accepted the request of the prince’s attendant, now a giant dragon, to rescue the prince in the palace. When they arrived, they discovered the kidnapped prince had golden hair, which almost made the Ghost Server Legion abandon the mission. But the script was already written, so they battled the evil minister. They were victorious, and the minister—revealed to be a wicked sorcerer—fled. The prince informed them that the old king had been murdered, and he now had to rebuild the kingdom. The prince they sought might be next door—in the Amber Kingdom, where a prince had recently married, and rumors spoke of unexpected events on the wedding day.

By then, it was late at night, and the group decided to call it a day, planning to regroup the next morning.

At 9 AM the next day, the team reconvened at the usual spot, only to find the previously calm world chat flooded with unified spam—

[Constellation] Warm Rain: High price for Immortal Herb!!! PM offers!!!

[Constellation] Little Tailor: Immortal Herb, Immortal Herb, who’s got Immortal Herb?!

[Constellation] Duke Rum: Can’t take it anymore—Swan Lake doesn’t even have swan feathers anymore. They’re being killed faster than they spawn… PS. Gimme an Immortal Herb TAT

[Constellation] Fair and Square: [Immortal Herb] 30,000 Huaxia Coins, fixed price, fair for all.

[Constellation] Phantom Assassin: [Fair and Square] You’ve got no conscience! It was 10,000 just now, now it’s 30,000?! This is highway robbery!!

[Constellation] The Wind Rises: Supply and demand—it’s a seller’s market now. Face reality.

The Ghost Server Legion exchanged bewildered glances.

What was going on? Overnight, had everyone abandoned quests to cultivate immortality?