Chapter 3 – The Tragedy of Heavenly Lake

Polly couldn’t quite explain why he had impulsively agreed to team up with that healer. Perhaps it was that phrase—”if the mountain doesn’t move, the water will”—that had inadvertently struck a chord with him. In life, people go around in circles, and the same scenery is bound to appear more than once. The only difference lies in the emotions felt with each encounter. He hadn’t moved to a new server because Mirage Server held too much for him—not just memories, good or bad, but something deeper.

“If the mountain doesn’t move, the water will,” huh? Heh, he was really looking forward to it.

The Changbai Mountain Heavenly Lake, as a level 55 dungeon, was a headache for players. The Teleport Master could only send you to the foot of the mountain, and the rest of the winding path had to be traversed on your own. If everything went smoothly—no getting lost, no taking wrong turns, no falling into randomly scattered “hunter traps”—then great, you’d reach the Heavenly Lake in about the time it took to smoke two cigarettes. But the water monster wouldn’t be considerate enough to float on the lake’s surface like a plastic bag.

A boss with refined tastes wouldn’t be content with always appearing in the same spot to welcome challengers. Take this Heavenly Lake monster, for instance. It was leisurely, capricious, and loved drifting aimlessly around the bottom of its volcanic lake. Players had to jump into the lake and find it within the limited Breath Timer. Once found and engaged, the system would switch to combat mode, restoring normal breathing. If they failed, players either had to return to the surface before their breath ran out or drown at the bottom.

Fang Zheng was already familiar with this dungeon. No matter how carefree the water monster seemed, there were still patterns to its movements—it was most likely to appear in one of five spots. So he was confident he could trigger the battle within the time limit. The only question was whether he and Zombie could actually take it down. In the past, his random teams for the Heavenly Lake dungeon had at least three members: a healer, a main tank, and a DPS. But with Mirage Server’s player base so thin, he had to make do with this so-called “expert.”

Besides, the expert hadn’t asked to recruit another player when he agreed—was that confidence?

Recalling this, Fang Zheng felt more assured.

Milk is Mom was the first to dive into the lake, with Polly following close behind. Neither spoke—Fang Zheng was focused on reaching the first possible boss spawn point, while Polly was naturally a man of few words.

The underwater world beneath the Heavenly Lake was a pale blue, with the occasional unnamed fish swimming past, leaving faint ripples in their wake. Fang Zheng, wearing headphones, unconsciously held his breath as if his soul had transmigrated into Milk is Mom’s body, experiencing the tense underwater exploration firsthand.

[Whisper] Polly: Someone’s here.

The sudden message in the private chat startled Fang Zheng. “Someone” naturally meant another player, and at this time and place, that player was undoubtedly here to steal the boss. The Heavenly Lake was an open-world map, and the boss respawned every four hours—whoever got it first, kept it.

But seriously, this server was already so dead—who the hell was still competing for bosses?

You could monopolize any other open-world map without breaking a sweat!

[Whisper] Polly: I’ll check it out.

Before Fang Zheng could respond, Polly tossed out this message and turned to swim in another direction.

There was already some distance between Polly and Milk is Mom, and now, with their paths diverging, the gap only widened. Seeing his teammate about to disappear from view, Fang Zheng worried that searching for both the boss and his ally would waste even more time, so he turned back to follow Polly.

But just as Milk is Mom had swum a few meters back, a dazzling explosion of skill effects lit up the distance. Well, they were already fighting.

[Local] Refined Into a Demon 438: I’m not here to steal the boss!

[Local] Refined Into a Demon 438: Damn it!

Milk is Mom struggled forward a few more meters, but the light show had already faded, and the world returned to its tranquil pale blue.

[Local] Refined Into a Demon 438 has died.

So that “Damn it” had been his last words.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: One-shot?

[Whisper] Polly: No, two hits.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Don’t be so hard on yourself~~

[Whisper] Polly: You’re not going to scold me for killing indiscriminately?

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: He was obviously here to steal the boss. Just because he says he wasn’t doesn’t mean it’s true—how naive can you be?

Before Milk is Mom’s words even finished, two rows of pinned announcements flashed across the Huaxia server—

[Megaphone] Refined Into a Demon 438: I SAID I WASN’T HERE TO STEAL THE BOSS AND YOU STILL KILLED ME! WHAT KIND OF BS IS THIS?!

[Megaphone] Refined Into a Demon 438: I WAS JUST MINING IN THE LAKE, DAMN IT!!

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Can he see our private chat or something?

[Whisper] Polly: …

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Looks like he really was innocent.

[Whisper] Polly: So?

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Honestly, you could’ve one-shot him. Really. Try it next time you see him.

Sitting in front of his computer, the corner of Polly’s mouth twitched. The ash from the cigarette he was smoking fell onto the back of his hand, burning him and leaving his face covered in metaphorical black lines.

Once upon a time, he had believed himself to be at the pinnacle of the “scumbag meta” in Mirage Server—no, the entire North China region. Killing players, stealing mobs, regardless of gender or level, because he firmly believed that no matter how immersive a game was, it was still just a game. What could you see through the character on the screen? Gear. Level. Class. And then? For all you knew, the person on the other end could be a dog.

But now, he was wavering.

There was no such thing as the most shameless—there’s always someone even more shameless than you.

[Whisper] Milk is Mom: Shit, shit, shit! I see Brother Dragon!

Brother Dragon—the nickname for the Heavenly Lake Boss.

At the same time, Polly spotted it too. As the two-man team’s designated tank, the zombie naturally charged ahead without hesitation, downing a Speed Scroll before rushing straight at Brother Dragon.

Fang Zheng inwardly praised him while switching his weapon from healing-focused to DPS—since the zombie clearly didn’t need a healer, Milk is Mom would have to moonlight as a badass DPS.

By then, Polly had already reached Brother Dragon and landed a Netherworld Ghostly Claws!

The Breath Timer vanished, the scenery shifting from pale blue to volcanic red—combat had begun!

The brawny water monster let out a roar, its fin-like limbs sweeping toward Polly like a gust of wind!

Milk is Mom quietly approached Brother Dragon from behind, planning to start his DPS once Polly had stabilized aggro¹Aggro=the likelihood of a monster to attack a player. The monster attacks the player with the highest aggro value. Usually, tankier players who have better survival capabilities pull aggro to themselves (specialized tanks have specialized spells for that) to shift the attacks away from squishier more fragile classes in their party after taking the first hit.

In the blink of an eye, Polly had already solidly blocked the boss’s opening move—Lava Fury!

Milk is Mom cast a small buff on himself, increasing spell damage by 10%, then swung his healer’s hammer down on Brother Dragon’s back like a dragon emerging from the sea!

But in that split second, Brother Dragon whipped around and unleashed a Cyclone Sweep!

Milk is Mom couldn’t dodge in time—his HP bar instantly dropped by two-thirds.

What the hell?! Why was the boss attacking him? Shouldn’t aggro be on the zombie?!

Just as Fang Zheng was puzzling over this, a small line of text slowly floated up from the system—

[Party] Polly has died.

Holy shit! So the guy had been one-shot by the boss…

Brother Dragon didn’t give him time to mourn. Another Cyclone Sweep followed by a Howling Dragon Vortex sent Milk is Mom spinning into the air. By the time he landed, he still had heals—just no life left.

[Party] Milk is Mom has died.

After fighting Brother Dragon for years, today was by far the most tragic.

How the hell had Polly been one-shot? That made no sense!

In Huaxia, players couldn’t speak after death—no current chat, no whispers, no guild or server messages. That was why 438 had resorted to megaphones—because only paid items bypassed the restriction. But there was one exception for non-paying players: the party channel. As long as you were in a party, you could chat with your teammates there, alive or dead.

[Party] Milk is Mom: What happened?

[Party] Polly: I died.

[Party] Milk is Mom: …Obviously, I saw that!

[Party] Polly: My gear sucks.

[Party] Milk is Mom: Didn’t you just one-shot that Refiner earlier?

[Party] Polly: And killed you twice.

[Party] Milk is Mom: …

[Party] Polly: PVP is about skill. Tanking a boss is about gear.

In his dead state, Fang Zheng couldn’t inspect the other’s equipment. Meanwhile, the zombie had already turned into a wisp of a soul and flown off to the respawn point. Fang Zheng quickly clicked “Revive,” and Milk is Mom followed suit.

Once again, they stood at the Tiananmen respawn point, with Milk is Mom lingering beneath the portrait of the great leader, unable to move on.

The party status showed Polly was at Mount Emei—clearly, he’d set his respawn point there.

Without another thought, Fang Zheng entered the underground passage and teleported to Mount Emei.

Teammates appeared as green square cursors on the map. Following the marker, Milk is Mom soon found Polly under an old pine tree, once again farming monkeys.

Without hesitation, Fang Zheng clicked to inspect his stats.

And then his world collapsed.

A level 55 zombie… wearing level 45 blue-tier gear. Was this any different from running around naked?!

[Party] Milk is Mom: You went into the dungeon wearing this??

[Party] Polly: Not satisfied? I’ve got level 35 white-tier gear too.

[Party] Milk is Mom: …Then you should’ve told me beforehand!

[Party] Polly: Forgot.

Polly really had forgotten—it had been so long since anyone had asked him to run a dungeon.

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  Aggro=the likelihood of a monster to attack a player. The monster attacks the player with the highest aggro value. Usually, tankier players who have better survival capabilities pull aggro to themselves (specialized tanks have specialized spells for that) to shift the attacks away from squishier more fragile classes in their party