Chapter 206 – Rekindling the Past
by Salted FishThe Azure Kingdom was nestled among mountain ranges, with villages dotting the valleys, while the royal palace stood atop the farthest peak. Based on the four completed kingdoms—Crimson, Amber, Yellow, and Emerald—each kingdom’s quest chain typically accounted for about 15% of the total progress. Usually, 10% would be completed before reaching the palace, with the remaining 5% tackled inside. The former, though more extensive, was relatively straightforward—running around maps, finding items or NPCs—and didn’t take too long. But once inside the palace, the real challenges began, where a single quest could easily take an hour or more.
Thus, despite the Azure Kingdom’s labyrinthine terrain, as long as the directions were clear and coordinates precise, grinding through the initial 10% of quests would be as easy as Sun Wukong flipping a somersault for the elite players of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.
At least, that’s what they naively believed at first.
Beijing Time, 10:09 AM. Light snow outside. Clear skies in Huaxia Online.
Under Boss Yao’s leadership, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce’s elite squad had a collective quest progress of 62%.
Nine minutes earlier, they had gathered on time, only to be stopped by border guards of the Azure Kingdom, who claimed no one could enter without a pass. Later, they found a notice on the city wall stating that the Queen had been homesick lately, losing her appetite and growing thinner by the day. Anyone who could present Whiteleaf Chrysanthemums from her homeland to soothe her longing would be richly rewarded. The quest progress ticked up by 1%, updating to “Return to the Queen’s Hometown.”
Turns out, the Queen of the Azure Kingdom had married into the kingdom from afar—her homeland was the Crimson Kingdom. Relations between Crimson and Azure were currently strained, so the King couldn’t request the flowers directly and instead turned to “brave warriors” for help.
The quest itself wasn’t difficult, but the moment they accepted it, the squad couldn’t help but groan. Traveling from the Crimson Kingdom to the Azure Kingdom would take at least seven minutes of map traversal. (For anyone who thought seven minutes was short: Try holding down the forward key with your middle finger for 420 seconds without letting go, frequently adjusting direction with left and right keys, occasionally slamming the jump key for a stylish leap.)
Complaints aside, the elite squad wasted no time rushing to the Crimson Kingdom, arriving precisely seven minutes later at the Queen’s favorite flower field. Representing the group, Don’t Stop the Meds plucked a single Whiteleaf Chrysanthemum—”Ding!”—the old quest “Return to the Queen’s Hometown” was successfully completed, replaced by a new one:
[System] Quest updated: “Gather Whiteleaf Chrysanthemums (1/10,000)”
X: “Someone count the zeros for me, my eyes are seeing double…”
Mocha: “Four. You’re welcome.”
War of the Gods: “Whoever said this quest wasn’t hard earlier, step forward. I promise we can still be friends.”
Rain Ceases: “I was merely suggesting we learn from Tang Sanzang’s perseverance on his journey to the West.”
Scholar Lu: “I just want to know the psychological trauma Tang Sanzang suffered when he thought he’d reached India but was actually at the Flowing Sands River.”
Rain Through the Woods: “Wait, group gathering counts stack!”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “I really don’t want to keep praising Rain Through the Woods, but he’s just so proactive, so optimistic, never hesitating to cheer for life’s little surprises.”
Rain Through the Woods: “Wait, I think I see the Ghost Server Legion!”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “Where?!”
Rain Through the Woods: “Ah, my mistake.”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “…From now on, remember: Cheer for surprises, not for scares. =_=”
After the collective grumbling, they resigned themselves to the psychological burden of diligently gathering flowers. After a night’s rest, they had already fallen to the second tier of the quest progress leaderboard. The current top tier was held by Iceborn and Silence at 66% progress—whether they had stayed up late or logged in early, they had already conquered this cursed 10,000-flower task. If the elite squad wanted the first clear of the 100-link quest chain, they had to hurry.
Beijing Time, 10:34 AM. Light snow turning clear outside. Huaxia Online skies shifting to rain.
Amid the silent YY channel that had been quiet since the gathering began, a phone suddenly rang. The ringing stopped, and Don’t Stop the Meds’ voice came through: “Hello, it’s me…”
The rest was unclear—the caller must have stepped away, the voice fading into the distance.
Rain Ceases: “Boss Yao?”
X: “Don’t bother, he can’t hear you. He never uses speakerphone.”
Mocha: “Fuck, finally hit 1,000.”
Dutch Souvenir: “Ten people gathered 1,000 in 25 minutes. At this rate, 10,000 will take 250 minutes—over four hours. Guaranteed.”
Scholar Lu: “This is inhumane.”
Rain Through the Woods: “My fingers are numb. Yours?”
War of the Gods: “How could they not be? Seven minutes of non-stop movement, barely any rest before slamming the gather button again.”
No Birds Over a Thousand Mountains: “So boring…”
Little Willow: “Yeah, not even anyone to bicker with…”
X: “Speaking of which, where’s the Ghost Server Legion today? Didn’t they say they’d be in the Azure Kingdom at 10? By now, they should’ve long since reached this chrysanthemum sea.”
No Birds Over a Thousand Mountains: “Your description of this place just perked me right up.”
Rain Through the Woods: “Who knows what nonsense they’ve gotten into. Them smoothly grinding quests would be weirder than anything.”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “What would be weird?”
Rain Through the Woods: “I said it’d be weird if we finished gathering all these chrysanthemums in a short time.”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “Yeah, the quest design is a bit of a failure.”
Collective Brainwaves: Keychain, your reflexes are legendary—bzzzt.
Keychain’s Brainwaves: Too kind, too kind—bzzzt.
As an electric net of silent communication crackled above the chrysanthemum sea, another team quietly arrived. Amid the vast floral expanse, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce members, already deep in their floral hell, didn’t notice the newcomers. But the freshly awakened, fully rational Guild Leader of Five Peaks Pavilion was the first to greet them—
[Local] Drink Till You Drop: “Morning. Saw your quest progress and knew you’d be here.”
As the strongest (and most universally annoying) guild to have trampled across every server in Huaxia Online, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce was accustomed to being so far ahead that few guilds bothered with friendly greetings. Most interactions were either taunts, provocations, or purely transactional alliances. Thus, someone like Drink Till You Drop—who, regardless of past or future conflicts, always triggered the [Basic Kindness] passive skill upon meeting—was surprisingly refreshing.
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “Not morning anymore. We’ve been slaving away here for half an hour and only finished a tenth. Congrats on joining hell.”
[Local] Drink Till You Drop: “We were already strolling through hell last night. We’ve got 50% left today—shouldn’t be a problem.”
Another “last night”!
Iceborn and Silence had completed this quest last night, now firmly atop the leaderboard. Five Peaks Pavilion had finished half of it last night, already pulling ahead. Meanwhile, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce had spent their entire evening recovering from the emotional toll of pushing NPCs. If there really was a “Moonlight Treasure Box1The magical time-traveling device from the movie “A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora’s Box.”” in this world, Don’t Stop the Meds would absolutely use it to return to that fateful moment, calmly wait for the other party to say, “Since we get along so well and our strategies align so perfectly, how about…”—and then, with icy dignity… turn and sprint away!
Don’t Stop the Meds sighed inwardly. No amount of “what-ifs” would change the past. The only way forward was to push on with the quest, just like the similarly isolated Five Peaks—
[Local] Drink Till You Drop: “Wait, where’s Ghost Server? Just you guys?”
The nightmare-inducing name nearly punctured Don’t Stop the Meds’ barely maintained composure, but he managed to keep his cool—
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “We were just a temporary alliance. After taking down Gilrugar, we went our separate ways.”
[Local] Drink Till You Drop: “Ah, that NPC.”
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “No need to reiterate his attributes, thanks.”
[Local] Drink Till You Drop: “So you’re doing this gathering quest solo?”
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “Obviously. It’s not exactly a high-skill task.”
[Local] Drink Till You Drop: “Respect.”
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “No need for fake praise. You’re doing it alone too.”
[Local] Drink Till You Drop: “Nah, we’re teamed up.”
[Local] Everything Breaks: “Hey.”
[Local] War-Bodhi Patriarch: “Our Guild Leader didn’t really want to greet you, but seeing you guys grinding solo so stubbornly, I figured I’d pop in personally to pay my respects.”
The sky vast, the wilderness boundless—wind blows the chrysanthemums low, revealing allies.
The Dutch Chamber of Commerce’s High Commander wasn’t a title earned lightly. Even as overwhelming sorrow crashed over him, Boss Yao’s high-speed brain instantly zeroed in on the key detail—
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “This quest can still be done in a 20-player party?”
[Local] War-Bodhi Patriarch: “Yeah, otherwise ten people would be stuck plucking chrysanthemums till the next century. Wait, you seriously thought the system allowed 20-player parties just for yesterday’s braindead quest? That was just running around talking to NPCs—why would it need expanded party size? Doesn’t make sense.”
Don’t Stop the Meds suddenly wished Bodhi Patriarch would take a page from Snow Wolf’s book—silence was golden!
The joy of teasing lay in the teased party’s flustered reactions. Faced with an icy beauty, this flirtation-adjacent behavior yielded little amusement, so Bodhi Patriarch waited in vain for a response before sulkily returning to his chrysanthemum-plucking. Drink Till You Drop, never one to kick someone when they were down, took pity—especially after recalling the Dutch Chamber’s NPC-pushing ordeal—and refrained from further commentary. From above, the chrysanthemum sea gradually returned to peace.
But the Dutch Chamber’s hearts were anything but calm—
[Why must we part when we’re clearly meant to be?!]
[Parting only hurts us both!!!]
[Ghost Server, come back to me!!!!]
[Instead of singing, why not just yell at the Guild Leader?]
[Easy for you to say—why don’t you do it?]
[Rock-paper-scissors.]
[Too inefficient with so many people.]
[Then odds or evens.]
[Agreed.]
[Odds~~~~~ evens~~!]
[…]
[Damn, one round and it’s decided! Fate!]
[Run like your husky, Thousand Mountains!]
“Yao Yao, should we find another partner?”
[What about Ghost Server?!]
[You can you up2A Chinglish internet slang phrase derived from the Chinese “你行你上啊”. It basically means If you’re so good, you do it (put up or shut up).!!!]
Amid the storm of telepathic chatter, Don’t Stop the Meds only caught Thousand Mountains’ voice message. After a moment’s thought, he said, “Sounds good. What do the rest of you think?”
Eight telepathic voices in unison: “W-e a-l-s-o t-h-i-n-k s-o.”
Though internal consensus was reached, Don’t Stop the Meds would never broadcast a “LFG for quest” message to the world—the dignity of Holy Light Sanctuary, Huaxia Online’s top guild, forbade it. After sending a “Hurry the hell up, you’re moving like snails!!” message to the second-tier squad leader Burn Newspaper to Feed Ghosts, he settled in like a spider in its web, waiting for fate to deliver a partner into his lap.
…Twenty minutes later
Dutch Chamber of Commerce [Gather Whiteleaf Chrysanthemums (1,932/10,000)]
X: “Boss Yao, someone’s here!”
Dutch Souvenir: “Why is it always people from Huaxia Summit…”
Scholar Lu: “That’s not the point. Look closely—they’ve got a full 20-man party.”
[Local] Big H: “Yo yo yo, if it isn’t the front-running Dutch Chamber of Commerce! I see Iceborn and Silence are already in the Azure Kingdom—why are you still here playing flower bandits? Hahaha~~~~”
[Local] Big H: “But seriously, where’s Ghost Server?”
[Local] Big H: “Hello? Hello? Weird, where’d they go~~~”
For hopeless randoms, the Dutch Chamber unanimously chose—play dead.
…Forty-five minutes later
Dutch Chamber of Commerce [Gather Whiteleaf Chrysanthemums (2,978/10,000)]
[Local] King of the Gods: “Am I seeing things? The mighty Dutch Chamber of Commerce, grinding solo? Even Ghost Server, that third-rate guild, dumped you?”
[Combat] Don’t Stop the Meds uses Summon.
[Combat] King of the Gods has died.
Rain Ceases: “If I resurrect him now, do you think he’d party with us? TAT”
…An hour and a half later
Dutch Chamber of Commerce [Gather Whiteleaf Chrysanthemums (3,804/10,000)]
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “Want to team up?”
[Local] Divine Strategist: “Where’s Ghost Server?”
One asks, two ask, three keep asking—we’re not a damn bundle deal!!!
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “We’re just not meant to be.”
[Local] Godspeed Warrior: “I thought you guys were a good match.”
[Local] Bloodless Victory: “And given the Sky Arena incident, I’d rather not get involved with either of you or Ghost Server.”
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “What do you mean?”
[Local] Divine Strategist: “I only found out recently—when your Thousand Mountains teamed up with Ghost Server’s Fighter Jet and Mad Lad for that Sky Arena PvP, their internet cafe caught fire.”
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “…”
[Local] Divine Strategist: “Bye.”
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “Take care.”
…An hour and forty-five minutes later
Dutch Chamber of Commerce [Gather Whiteleaf Chrysanthemums (4,300/10,000)]
[Legion] Don’t Stop the Meds: “Newspaper, what the hell is taking you so long?”
[Legion] Burn Newspaper to Feed Ghosts: “Meteor and Waning Moon have been lagging and disconnecting all day.”
[Legion] Don’t Stop the Meds: “…Forget it. Just hurry up.”
[Party] Burn Newspaper to Feed Ghosts: “Sorry, you guys will have to take one for the team.”
[Party] Waning Moon and Strong Wine: “Being with Boss Yao means getting chewed out non-stop. Sacrificing the two of us for the happiness of the whole squad is worth it.”
[Party] Meteor Butterfly Bastard: “More than that—did you see? Boss Yao even cheered for us. Unbelievable.”
[Party] Burn Newspaper to Feed Ghosts: “With super-dominant leaders, sometimes you gotta play weak. Softness overcomes hardness.”
[Party] Painter Van Gogh: “Newspaper, you’ve just gained a fan. You’re my idol now!”
…Two hours later
Dutch Chamber of Commerce [Gather Whiteleaf Chrysanthemums (4,999/10,000)]
Five Peaks Pavilion, War Banner, Huaxia Dominion, and even Meteor Blitz—the first wave of teams had long since finished and moved on to the next quest. Outer Flame had recently overtaken them, breaking the 5,000 mark. Divine Strategist’s squad was hot on their heels, threatening to surpass them. As frustration mounted, Don’t Stop the Meds felt a pang of melancholy: “Sigh… too popular to have friends…”
Rain Through the Woods: “Boss Yao, wasn’t ‘annihilating social connections for expansion’ the strategy you set for our guild?”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “Don’t just make up names for guild policies!”
Scholar Lu: “Boss Yao…”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “What now?!”
Thousand Mountains: “Old friends are here~”
[Local] Milk is Mom: “Wow, what a chrysanthemum harvest!”
The Ghost Server Legion Leader was a truly magical figure—the Dutch Chamber unanimously agreed. Even a simple phrase like this seemed to carry its own background music: “Our homeland~~ lies in the fields of hope~~~”
Rain Ceases: “Guild Leader, should we…”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “Pretend we didn’t see them.”
—Even if destined to die alone, never reconcile with an ex. That was the Dutch Chamber’s High Commander’s damnable pride.
…Ten minutes later
Chrysanthemum Sea Brainwave Network FM87.8
[Why did they only show up now?]
[Looks like they only have ten people gathering too?]
[Aren’t they going to find a party?]
Chrysanthemum Sea Brainwave Network FM90.0
[Is that Boss Yao muttering to himself?]
[I don’t hear it.]
[Different frequency.]
[You’re picking up both?]
[DIY antenna—some crossover interference…]
—Even if not seeking reconciliation, still worrying about how they’re doing. That was the Dutch Chamber’s High Commander’s damnable tenderness.
…Ten minutes and fifty-five seconds later
[Local] Milk is Mom: “Ohhh, Yao Yao, you’re here too~~~~~”
If an ex took the initiative to reconcile, maybe it wasn’t so bad…
[Local] Milk is Mom: “What a cursed fate [eye roll]”
Good riddance!!!
……
Watching the mighty Dutch Chamber’s High Commander silently turn back to flower-picking, 438’s heart softened: “Leader, stop bullying Don’t Stop the Meds. He looks so pitiful, staring at us like that.”
Your Uncle chimed in: “Seems like only us and them are doing this quest with ten people. Everyone else has twenty. Feels like he really wants to party with us.”
Milk is Mom scoffed: “He’s the one who said ‘let’s part ways.’ Why should I kiss his ass? ╮(╯_╰)╭”
The entire squad sweatdropped—their leader’s once-in-a-century stubbornness had surfaced. =_=
“I think we should party with them,” March to Liangzhou suddenly said, breaking his silence.
The Ghost Server Leader raised an eyebrow: “Reason?”
“They’ve already gathered over half. If we team up, we share progress.” No. 4 Coffin Shop, also an outsider, delivered the critical hit.
……
[Local] Milk is Mom: “Ohhh, Yao Yao, you’re here too~~~~~”
Don’t Stop the Meds stared at the string of tildes, dazed. Was it his imagination, or had this scene happened before? =_=
Except last time, he’d gotten an eye roll and disdain. This time, he was met with a spring breeze—
[Local] Milk is Mom: “Wanna team up? ~~~\(≧▽≦)/~~~”
Don’t Stop the Meds sighed. He hated the Ghost Server Leader’s favorite emote—the brighter the smile, the deeper the hidden trap.
[Local] Don’t Stop the Meds: “Why the sudden change of heart?”
[Local] Milk is Mom: “No sudden change~~~ Always wanted to join forces~~~~ Just got distracted earlier when the quest updated—was shocked by the number~~~ >_<"
Don’t Stop the Meds ignored the nonsense and asked his squad directly: “Thoughts?”
Unanimous verdict: “They’re after our progress.”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “Party or not?”
All: “Party.”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “Even if they freeload?”
All: “We can slack off in the second half.”
Don’t Stop the Meds: “…”
“Keep good men company, and you shall be of the number.” But learning virtue is as hard as the Foolish Old Man moving mountains—while learning vice is as easy as Nezha stirring the seas!
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