Published at 25th of March 2019 9:37 pm

Chapter 176: Problems in the Details

There were still two hours until midnight. Qiao Yifan stopped being so sentimental. He told God that he’d be right back and then temporarily logged out of One Inch Ash. He switched accounts in order to run Desolate Land in another server and do a quick review of the dungeon.

As a pro-player, he obviously knew how to run this dungeon. However, setting a record meant that he had to understand both the details and the general picture. Qiao Yifan began to study.

The types and patterns of the monsters.

What route to choose when advancing through the dungeon?

The characteristics and patterns of every BOSS.

Qiao Yifan used his main account to run Desolate Land three times. There wasn’t anything wrong with using this account. No matter how borderline he was in the team, having been able to get on the team was already recognition of his strength. Although he was bit worse than his teammates, he was still much better than new players with only strong mechanics like Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion.

After familiarizing himself in those three runs, it was almost midnight. Qiao Yifan switched accounts and returned to the tenth server. He then sent Ye Xiu a message and both sides agreed on where they would meet up outside Desolate Land.

On his way there, Qiao Yifan saw that there was someone in the world channel repeatedly calling out Lord Grim for a challenge. One of his challenges was the Desolate Land record and the other was a duel with Lord Grim.

“Who is this guy?” Qiao Yifan muttered to himself. The dungeon record was another matter. After all, that could only be done with a team. And moreover, the record limit for low-leveled dungeons could be done by normal players as well.

But a duel… this was a direct clash between the two sides’ skill levels. To actually challenge God Ye Qiu so arrogantly, such a person made Qiao Yifan completely speechless.

Out of everyone he knew, even their team captain Wang Jiexi didn’t dare have this type of attitude in front of God Ye Qiu. The only person he knew who might issue such an open challenge would probably be Tyranny’s Han Wenqing! This God had begun opposing God Ye Qiu ever since he joined the Alliance. After ending Excellent Era’s consecutive Championship titles, the two became true rivals.

In terms of mechanics, Han Wenqing was on par with other Gods. But this guy was extremely aggressive. In addition, his personality was very direct and stubborn. If he ever saw any mistakes, he would immediately start shouting.

Rumors say that after one of the matches, where Tyranny had performed terribly, Han Wenqing furiously reprimanded the team. He repeatedly watched the recordings of that day’s match. Every time he saw a mistake he would immediately start cursing madly. At that time, Tyranny’s boss had come to visit. Midway through, his cellphone suddenly rang and the angry cursing stopped. Han Wenqing turned his head and glared coldly at the boss. He said two words: “Get out.”

The boss gave him face and immediately ran out to pick up his phone. Tyranny’s entire team was scared speechless. Even their boss had been roared away to one side. How could they dare talk back?

Han Wenqing’s behavior was like this as well. In terms of experience and skill, only he could compare with Ye Qiu. But now, in game, some random guy was shouting at God Ye Qiu for a challenge. Qiao Yifan truly didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

Outside of Desolate Land, Qiao Yifan’s One Inch Ash finally met with God’s Lord Grim. He also saw Tang Rou’s Soft Mist, someone who couldn’t be considered a stranger to him anymore. He had also met Steamed Bun Invasion before, in the very beginning. Besides them, there was the Launcher, Cleansing Mist. Seeing this character, the first thing anyone, who knew about the identity of the person playing Lord Grim , would immediately think of Su Mucheng. She was someone who always stood by Ye Qiu, just like that Launcher who always stood behind One Autumn Leaf. But now that Ye Qiu had retired, was this Launcher still Su Mucheng?

Qiao Yifan didn’t ask. Even though he was a member of a Champion team, he clearly knew his current position in it. In the eyes of other teams, his existence was even weaker. His other teammates had fought against other teams’ pro-players and had become friends. But Qiao Yifan didn’t have any opponents, so he didn’t have that type of friend…

“So you’re here.” Seeing that One Inch Ash had arrived, Ye Xiu greeted him. “We’ll begin at 12 o’clock sharp.”

“Okay.” Qiao Yifan replied. He opened up the dungeon record leaderboards to verify the current record. But when he looked at it this time, he immediately felt that one of the team members on the leaderboards was somewhat familiar. Wasn’t this the guy who had challenged God?

“No wonder he’s so arrogant. That record really is quite good. It looks like he’s an expert too. But it looks like he doesn’t know who his opponent is!” Qiao Yifan thought to himself.

“Any problems with your equipment?” Ye Xiu asked.

“No problem.” Qiao Yifan replied. When he bought the substitution leveling services, he had also ordered a set of equipment. The current One Inch Ash had a full Level 30 Ghostblade set and was also carrying a Level 30 Purple Tachi, Demon Slaying Blade. His accessories were quite good too.

“We won’t be going for speed on our first run. We have a new player, so this run will be used to let him learn our strategy.” Ye Xiu said.

“One time is enough?” Steamed Bun Invasion was probably thinking of Full Moon Guild’s guild leader. In the beginning, Ye Xiu had said the same thing, but that guild leader still wasn’t very outstanding even after three runs.

“It’ll be enough.” Ye Xiu laughed.

On the side, even though Qiao Yifan hadn’t replied, he could feel his heart boiling. Seeing that there was still some time before midnight, he ran to splash cold water on his face. He had to maintain his composure and focus. He couldn’t let down God.

“They’re refreshed, let’s go!”

At midnight, the dungeon entries refreshed soYe Xiu led his team into Desolate Land.

At this moment, Blue River, who was also beginning to run the dungeons, began to look anxiously at the messages in the world channel.

Poplar Beach’s spamming often made him feel somewhat angry. He was only being so arrogant because he had participated in setting a faster record. This endless enthusiasm didn’t seem like it was to prove their name, but just to create an unreasonable scene. This wasn’t the first time Blue River had seen people do this, but the problem this time was that that character was from Blue Brook Guild. Everyone who saw these messages knew that. The Desolate Land records hanging on the leaderboards had their name on it!

Not only did he have guild’s name behind him, he was also one of the experts on the leaderboards. Blue River felt that shouting on the world channel constantly like this was so shameful.

It wasn’t as if Blue River hadn’t warned him. It was just that once Poplar Beach received it, he would laugh at him and mock him.

Blue River was feeling conflicted. He obviously hoped that their guild’s record would be able to remain up there, but when he thought of how happy Poplar Beach was, he couldn’t help but want someone to just step all over the record.

Of course, the only who could step all over the record was Lord Grim.

Blue River was feeling somewhat uneasy. He had been paying attention to Lord Grim’s level. It looked like he had spent much longer at Level 30 than one normally would . At this moment, Blue River and the others in the front were already level 33. The higher the level, the more experience was needed. This was why the distance between them was getting smaller. With how fast Lord Grim had been leveling, he should have only been 1.5 levels behind them. But right now, he had stopped at Level 30. The possible meanings this implicated was why Blue River felt uneasy.

Especially now. Blue River had received a message from guild members at Desolate Land saying that they had seen Lord Grim’s group with a new member called One Inch Ash, a Ghostblade without any guild.

One Inch Ash? Who was this? Blue River looked at their guild’s name of lists. Last time, there was that Blade Master Flowing Tree who had only gone online for a brief moment. He couldn’t help but feel alarmed.

Meanwhile, in Desolate Land’s dungeon, the newly-joined Qiao Yifan was employing the strategy that Ye Xiu was instructing and was beautifully coordinating with the others.

“Yeah, just like that. Pay attention to our attack tempo, the timing of your ghost boundaries, and your cooldowns. Maximize the efficiency.” Ye Xiu continuously instructed. Coaching a kid with a solid foundation really was a lot easier, unlike Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion, who had to learn the dungeon’s strategy by rote memorization. In terms of their understanding of the dungeon, in reality, these two weren’t even as good as Full Moon Guild’s guild leader.

Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion’s mechanics were there, but they had to memorize the strategy and increase their game knowledge.

As for Full Moon Guild’s guild leader, he was familiar with the game. Everything Ye Xiu said, he understood. It was just that he wasn’t used to it, which was why he had so much trouble.

As for Qiao Yifan, he had the strengths of both sides. Ye Xiu immediately saw this. He could easily keep up with them, which was why Ye Xiu was certain that one practice run was enough. After all, he was a pro player.

“You don’t need to start with Shadow Image. Instead, it’d be better to attack and deal more damage.. You won’t have the aggro changed to you and you won’t take any damage.” Ye Xiu said.

Shadow Image is a Ghost that Ghostblades can summon at Level 25. This Ghost can be carried by the user, except it would just be a Ghost surrounding the user. The Ghost could absorb and reduce damage. The higher the level, the greater the reduction and the more hits it could take. This was a skill solely used for defense. Ye Xiu had told Qiao Yifan to not use the skill. This was because the other party members would protect him.

Qiao Yifan was used to being cannon fodder. But now, the team was actively putting in energy to protect him.

“Ooh, this Ice Boundary… ”

“Is there’s a problem?” Qiao Yifan was terrified.

“No, no. It was done very well.” Ye Xiu turned around to say to Steamed Bun Invasion; “Steamed Bun, it was your mistake this time!”

“It was mine, it was mine.” Steamed Bun Invasion shouted in response.

Originally, the Ice Boundary shouldn’t have been used there, but because of Steamed Bun Invasion’s mistake, the situation had changed. However, Qiao Yifan had adjusted as well. When he cast his Ice Boundary, he immediately got the crowd control effect he wanted, reducing the team’s pressure.

Ice Soul was a Boundary Ghost that could be summoned by Level 30 Ghostblades. Enemies inside the boundary would take Ice Elemental Magic Damage and there was even a chance for the targets to be Frozen. It was a more attack-oriented Ghost Boundary.

“However, there was actually a better choice you could have made.” After criticizing Steamed Bun Invasion’s mistake, he returned to Qiao Yifan.

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