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nAlthough there were many people, Shi Sheng didn’t have to worry about friendly fire since they were all enemies, so she was able to use her abilities to the fullest.

n‘Gotta kill these **ers even if I have to chug meds!’

nAt some point, someone had shouted a call to arms on the world chat, so more and more people unhesitatingly rushed over and joined the chaotic battle.

nShi Sheng’s fingers flew across the keyboard. The flashes of light from the skills were too clustered and had nearly managed to drown out her avatar. It was now useless to look at the screen, since she wouldn’t be able to make out who was who with all those flashy animations.

nThe background music caused one’s blood to boil.

nOn the map, people fell in droves. Some corpses disappeared to revive at their respawn point, while others simply revived on the spot to re-join the battle. These people were beginning to wonder if there was a bug somewhere that kept them from killing these two despite having so many people.

nShi Sheng didn’t know how Ink Seeker was staying alive. All she knew was that she was exhausting many items to keep herself up.

nWhen facing a human wave, no matter how awesome your skills were, you’d still have a hard time dealing with it.

nIt was at this moment that the volume of the background music suddenly lowered. The screen blacked out, and the music disappeared altogether, causing silence to fall.

nShi Sheng blinked and took a moment to process this before clicking her mouse. There was no reaction from the computer.

n‘The **! Why’d my game crash?’

nShi Sheng was about to call for the manager when a string of text suddenly popped up.

nI once thought he was my world. In the end, I learned it was nothing but my wishful thinking.

nShi Sheng thought, ‘Have I triggered some hidden storyline?’

nThe words on the screen remained for around 10 or so seconds before the fog-like darkness slowly receded. She could now see that she was standing in a valley, Ink Seeker by her side.

nShi Sheng pulled up the map and pored over it carefully. The scenery of the valley was very beautiful, but the sky above was overcast and gave one a heavy, uncomfortable feeling when looking at it.

nShe was quite certain she’d never seen this map before. ‘Is it a hidden map?’

nA lot of the game’s functions had been greyed out. When a function was greyed out, that meant she wouldn’t be able to use them in this map. Of the available chat channels, only private messages would work.

n‘Well ** me… what kind of quest is this?! So cruel to players…’

nShe looked at the borders of her screen and discovered the button to close the window was gone. In other words, unless she rebooted the computer, she’d have no way of backing out. And even if she did reboot the computer, there was no guarantee she’d be able to leave…

n‘So brutal!!!’

nShi Sheng opened her quests list and discovered that other than that hidden quest, all the other quests were greyed out, and she was unable to click on them…

n‘Hidden quest…’

nInk Seeker has sent you a friend request. Do you accept?

nShi Sheng’s hand didn’t slip up this time and pressed on “Yes”.

nWhat? She couldn’t use any other chats to communicate, and she wasn’t at home, so she couldn’t just hack the system willy-nilly to chat. If she didn’t accept his friend request now, the only way they could communicate was telepathically…

nPM Ink Seeker : A Hidden Quest appeared on my quests list.

nHe got straight to the point.

nPM Music For Miles : is it called “Dream of A Thousand Years”? and you just received it?

nPM Ink Seeker : En.

nPM Music For Miles : if i told you, that i got this hidden quest from the time you killed me 99 times…

nPM Ink Seeker : ……

nPM Music For Miles : dashen, did you actually kill me so many times because you knew this would happen?

nPM Ink Seeker : No.

nPM Music For Miles : …My objective is to find Xi Li, what’s yours?

nPM Ink Seeker : There’s no objective.

nPM Music For Miles : ……

n‘The hell you mean, “I don’t have an objective”?!’

nOver at Ink Seeker’s side, he really hadn’t received an objective, only a hidden quest called “Dream of A Thousand Years” had appeared in his quests list. Nothing else had appeared.

nShi Sheng fell silent. The quest had only appeared because she had been killed 99 times consecutively… And Ink Seeker was the one to kill her…

nBut since she received the quest earlier than Ink Seeker, she must be the leader.

nPM Music For Miles : let’s look around a bit. my quest is to find an npc named Xi Li

n‘It’s already come to this! So I’ll just have to do it!!!’

nThe valley wasn’t very big. The two explored around for a bit, but they couldn’t even find a single living thing, let alone an NPC.

nThe area outside the valley was covered in darkness. Shi Sheng attempted to walk out of the valley but discovered she was unable to take a step outside.

nPM Ink Seeker : 467, 120

nPM Music For Miles : you found her?

nInk Seeker didn’t reply, so she could only run towards the co-ordinates. The co-ordinates were in the higher reaches of the valley. She had only searched near the lower parts, so she hadn’t come up here before.

nShe found a cave, its entrance hidden behind a tree.

nThe co-ordinates led her inside the cave. Shi Sheng made her character crawl in, after which she was greeted by the sight of Ink Seeker facing a beautiful lady. There was a question hovering above her head:

nHe sent you?

nPM Music For Miles : what’s wrong?

nPM Ink Seeker : There aren’t any options I can pick, but I can choose to converse with her. I tried responding with “Yes” and “No” but she didn’t give any response. You try.

nShi Sheng clicked on the pretty lady, whereupon a dialogue screen popped up.

nPM Xi Li : He sent you?

n‘The hell? The NPC ran all the way here to sit in this cave?’

nShi Sheng first entered “Yes” but only got that question back in response. She had the same result when she entered “No”.

n‘The only two answers aren’t correct… Oi devs, you **in with me here?!’

nPM Music For Miles : doesn’t work

nPM Ink Seeker : ……

nThe two stared speechlessly at the beautiful Xi Li.

n‘This is the NPC I was supposed to find but why is there no response to the only two answers???’

nPM Music For Miles : have you read the background story of the game before?

nPM Ink Seeker : It’s available on their official website.

n‘Fuck, so this means he hasn’t read it before? Your grandpa!’

nPM Music For Miles : this quest might take a while… i’ll go extend the rent, you go check out the background of the game’s setting

nPM Ink Seeker : ……

nShi Sheng went to the front counter to extend the duration on the fee, and she rented out the other computer in the room too. Fortunately, she had asked for a room with two computers to begin with.

nWooden Bellz had given Shi Sheng her account details before leaving, so Shi Sheng used her account. Her friends list was pretty much the same as Shi Sheng’s, the only difference being three names Shi Sheng didn’t recognise.

nWhen she checked her status on the friends list, she found that she was actually displayed as offline…

nAnd the world chat was pretty much flooded with discussion by now.

nSince Ink Seeker and her had suddenly went offline while they were being attacked, there were quite a few people saying they were scared.

n‘Scared your great grandpa! Just you wait, you little bitches! I’ll(bbb) be back!!!’

nShi Sheng turned off world chat and went to poke Godly Tycoon, the only one online.

nPM Wooden Bellz : how come the undermoons aren’t on?

nPM Godly Tycoon : ?

nPM Wooden Bellz : i’m music

nPM Godly Tycoon : …Everyone is saying you were blasted offline by their combined assault.

nPM Wooden Bellz : don’t listen to that group of ret@rds. how could i have been blasted out of the game by them?

nPM Godly Tycoon : Then how come you’re using someone else’s account?

nHe looked at his friends list. The player Music For Miles was displayed as offline.

nPM Wooden Bellz : i got transferred to a hidden map… you know, the one related to that hidden quest i asked you guys abt the last time… can you help me contact the undermoons? the quest’s a bit troublesome

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