Chapter 21: Lucky Little Yu, Drama King Little Yu
In the game world, Hua Tian spent the next night. Upon waking, she hurried to the Han City shop. Going to the main city required gold coins to make purchases, and she was nearly broke—there was no way she could afford anything there. The high-end beds, housing items, and food in Han City cost her a considerable amount of team coins yet again.
It was just about the right time; most players were now online. Hua Tian returned to the team base to look for a female player. She decided on that innocent little sister from last time—she’d been thinking of her these past few days.
Don’t say I only seek out female players and not men. Two male players, regardless of their roles, would just end up staring at each other the whole way—utterly frustrating. But with a girl, at least if I’m in a bad mood, she’s a pleasant sight.
...
“What do you want with me? I’m not going! ╰_╯~”
Xiao Yu pouted, her cheeks puffed in indignation. If she hadn’t lost that void-tier item from their last misadventure—no matter how battered it was, its level alone would’ve fetched at least a hundred million gold coins. She could’ve pleaded with the beautiful captain for leniency, maybe even shaved a few billion team coins off her debt.
Now... The three of them together owed about two billion in team coins—a torment for any beauty to bear. Staying up late took a toll on her skin, and here he was, rubbing salt in the wound.
“You still need to pay off your team debt, right? Let me help you find a pet,” Hua Tian offered.
“Hmph! Last time you took me out, you sent me straight to the afterlife for a ten-minute tour. I’ve only just paid back fifty or sixty thousand team coins, and I still owe nine hundred and ninety million... more. I’m not going. Forced fruit isn’t sweet, you know. And pets—do you mean cute ones or fierce ones? If they’re cute, I’ll just fatten them up. They can’t fight, and as a girl, why would I need a combat pet?” Xiao Yu refused with all her might, determined not to let him use his vice-captain privileges to drag her along. The captain wanted her to keep helping him, but every time she did, she ended up feeling isolated; he’d recover his health with a single punch and then need her to heal him? In the end, she always left, and every trip to the main city was her doing...
“I... I just wanted to show you the scenery along the way,” Hua Tian stammered, running out of ideas. Of all the gamer girls he knew, she was the only one easy to talk to—but she wasn’t budging!
“Scenery? The first time, it was level-eight scenery; the second, the peak at level ten. Each time, it was a view straight to the afterlife. Don’t even think about fooling me again.” Xiao Yu crossed her arms over her chest, but when she heard someone call her, she turned toward the door, where the beautiful captain had just appeared.
Han Qianyun was nearby, searching for life-skill players to help build storage houses—after all, Kuang Sha could fill one as fast as they were built, and a whole group couldn’t match his pace. The grounds outside were littered with storage crates. She needed to find players who could keep up. Catching sight of Kuang Sha talking to a girl, she approached and ordered, “Xiao Yu, you’d better stick with Kuang Sha. Try to bring back a piece of equipment upon your next death—or a pet. The eastern teleport point is open now, and I’d love a spirit pet, or at least a snake pet. I’ve wanted them for ages. Also, we bought a permanent teleport array; you can teleport anywhere directly, so what happened last time won’t happen again. Don’t worry, it’s fast.”
Xiao Yu, in utter disbelief that her captain would say such a thing, squatted down and began to cry. She couldn’t defy Kuang Sha, and in reality, this was her direct superior in the group.
“Sister Han, even you want me dead? Wuwuwu~┭┮﹏┭┮”
“Kuang Sha, take her away now.” Han Qianyun watched as Xiao Yu’s heart was unwilling, but her body was obedient, rising slowly and heading toward the teleport array. She gave Xiao Yu a glance, then addressed Kuang Sha.
“Alright!” With that, Hua Tian hoisted the sobbing Xiao Yu and ran off.
At their home teleport array, a touch activated a flash of light.
In Moontrace Forest, amidst short trees and sparse grass—
As soon as they arrived, Xiao Yu’s tears ceased. She glanced around, raised her holy staff, and prepared for battle. Hua Tian stared at her, dumbfounded by the abrupt end of her tears—women truly were masters of drama.
Xiao Yu caught him staring. “Don’t look at me—check for any wild monsters nearby!”
“Hey, Xiao Yu, where should we go?” It was Hua Tian’s first time here, and he was at a loss.
“How should I know? Didn’t you want to come? With your confidence, I thought you came here all the time!” Xiao Yu assumed he was a regular, striking a pose as if to say, ‘Relax, I’ve got this, I’ll carry you.’
“I’m here for the first time too. Maybe I’ll just wander around. Why don’t you rest here?”
“Please don’t—don’t wander off and bring back another snake. I’m begging you, I’m really scared of you now.” She cursed him inwardly—so all his bravado had been an act? Could he show a little dignity as vice-captain? She couldn’t take it anymore.
Suddenly, Hua Tian remembered something. He hadn’t brought his zombie army.
He messaged Captain Han, “Captain Han, have my zombies gone on a rampage?”
“Hm? Oh, let me check... Nope! They’re behaving.”
He’d never tested what would happen if he left them unattended; as long as they didn’t riot after he left, it was fine. Still, he regretted not bringing his corps, since he couldn’t pick up loot in their wake.
Xiao Yu noticed his pained expression. “Did you eat something bad? Maybe we should head back!” Her face pleaded for him to leave.
“o(*￣︶￣*)o, don’t even think about leaving. I want to see what you look like after dying.”
“You—you...”
...
“Alright, enough... I was wrong, really. Don’t pull my ear, let go! ...”
Hand in hand, they walked, neither of them watching the path. In the main city, cute sprites had guided them away from trees and walls, but they’d left those behind.
When Xiao Yu’s anger faded, she let go of his hand and looked up, dumbstruck. Where were they? The lush brush had given way to towering trees, their bases surrounded by waist-high grass.
“Something’s wrong... I think we’re lost.”
“Don’t worry! I’m experienced with this.” Hua Tian struck a confident pose.
“Wandering aimlessly, right? As long as you believe you’re on track, no one knows you’re lost. And even if they do, they’re lost too. If enough lost people gather, they’ll convince themselves they’re all on the right path—forgetting who led them astray. You said that last time you got us lost!”
“Exactly! I believe in wandering for miracles. Maybe we’ll stumble out, or... maybe we die in here. But who’d ever know someone died of exhaustion, lost in the woods?”
“Just—get away from me! I’ll find my own way. Only call if you see a monster.”
With nothing better to do, Hua Tian pointed randomly ahead.
“There’s a giant snake—huge! Run...”
“Ahhh! Where? Wait for me, don’t lure it over here!” Xiao Yu’s terror made Hua Tian laugh so hard he clutched his stomach.
Little did they know, at the spot Hua Tian had pointed, a sizable snake was indeed locked in battle with a woman.
“I’m done. I’m going on alone. If I stay with you, I’ll be killed by monsters or driven insane!” With that, she stormed off in the direction he’d indicated.
Not long after—“Ahhh! There really is a giant snake, Kuang Sha, help!”
Hua Tian’s heart raced—how could his random pointing actually lead her to a snake?
He dashed after her and arrived a minute later. In a crater, a ten-meter-long green bamboo-patterned snake was entwined with a slender, attractive elven woman in green. Uprooted saplings lay scattered across the battlefield.
The two monsters looked up at the newcomers—a woman and a man dressed as a blood-soaked corpse.
Name: Bamboo Sand Snake [Female]
Level: Four [First Rank, Warrior Realm]
Type: Wild Monster, Bamboo Sand Snake
Stats: 350 / 300 / 300
HP: 95,000
Name: Greenleaf Envoy [Female]
Level: Six [Peak Lieutenant Realm, Sealed]
Type: Wild Monster, Greenleaf Elf
Stats: 400 / 550 / 300
HP: 1,250,000
From the moment he heard Xiao Yu’s scream, Hua Tian had begun charging [Devouring God Fist]. He asked, “Should I kill them? Just say the word—I’ll finish them off and carry you out princess-style.”
“Wait—don’t kill them yet. Let’s see.”
“Alright!” Two punches flashed.
-16,093 (133*121)
-133
The green snake died instantly, dropping a pet egg.
Pet: Bamboo Sand Snake
Name: Unnamed
Grade: Colorful
Skills: Massive, Life Link, Greenleaf Mark
Hua Tian picked it up—what a grade!
He turned to the Greenleaf Envoy, who was barely alive, just freed from the snake’s control, and readied his fist.
A female voice cried, “Don’t kill me! I can reward you.” Seeing the ‘blood corpse’ kill the snake with a punch, she misjudged his strength and pleaded for mercy.
Hua Tian replied impatiently, “I’m only interested in your egg.”
The Greenleaf Envoy was stunned—this human ‘blood corpse’ wants my... my egg...? What’s happening? Just as he was about to strike—
Xiao Yu shouted, “Kuang Sha, stop! Wait!”
Hua Tian stopped at once.
Xiao Yu bowed to the Greenleaf Envoy. “Sorry, my companion is too impulsive.”
“It’s alright. As long as I’m alive, all is well.” The Greenleaf Envoy forced a bitter smile—life was more precious than anything.
A brief silence fell...
“May I ask—why, as a level-six, can’t you beat a level-four?” Hua Tian suddenly broke the silence.
The Greenleaf Envoy gave him a look. “Because... my power is sealed. The Madblood Desert is about to attack Moontrace Forest. My elders are on the verge of breaking through. The opposing Snake Emperor somehow learned of this and used a tool that suppresses our Greenleaf Elf tribe, sealing our power by thirty percent. I rushed to seek help and was ambushed by that snake, putting me at a disadvantage. If I could stall her, she’d die and I’d be fine, but if I don’t find the Fire Elves, even if my elders break through, with only seventy percent power left, we’d struggle against the Snake Emperor. The shield will last a bit longer, but if I don’t reach the Fire Elves soon, and they don’t come, my tribe is doomed.”
Xiao Yu asked, “There are snakes? The Snake Emperor isn’t dead?” She shot a glare at Kuang Sha, as if to say, didn’t you say it was dead?
The Greenleaf Envoy was puzzled.
Hua Tian quickly clarified, “She was killed by a male Sand Python Emperor with a tail swipe, so now she’s traumatized. The Snake Emperor isn’t dead—the one that died was the Python Emperor.” He hurried to explain to both ladies.
“Oh? Died... I see! No wonder she kept exclaiming about real snakes—I thought, are there fake ones?” The Greenleaf Envoy suddenly recalled her elders’ words: these newcomers to the continent are the Undying—humans, collectively known as players. She didn’t take their talk of emperors literally, thinking they’d made up odd titles and possessed strange powers, and now here was this weirdo dressed as a blood corpse.
“Could you help me kill the Madblood Desert snakes? I need to reach the Fire Elves—after, I’ll reward you with a pet.” She handed him a single-use secret map and proof of identity.
Xiao Yu snatched the map and ID. “Sure! He’ll handle the fighting.”
Hua Tian pointed at himself, then at Xiao Yu, who glared at him like an angry cat. “Fine, my lady... I’ll go!”
...
After crossing mountains and forests, they arrived at their destination.
The landscape before the Elven City was bright and beautiful, but countless desert snakes were attacking the shield before the moat. Hua Tian remembered the request and rushed ahead, unleashing [Earthshaking Tremor].
With the skill at max proficiency, [Earthshaking Tremor] truly lived up to its void-tier power—within a hundred meters, every desert snake below level four was sent flying.
Level-five desert snakes, seeing him dressed as a blood corpse, weren’t afraid and charged to bite him. Hua Tian, used to kicking enemy corpses like footballs, smashed one snake’s corpse into another, pinning it. The snakes hadn’t expected such shameless tactics.
The Greenleaf Elves on the city walls wondered whether to attack the blood corpse, but when a human woman below held up a map, a male elven general flashed down to inspect it.
Xiao Yu relayed the Greenleaf Envoy’s message. The elf understood—these two were not the enemy. His own kin had been tied up by the snakes, and without outside help, he knew they’d lose this war.
He instructed the archers not to attack the blood corpse—he was a player, too—and to focus on the snakes he’d knocked down.
Arrows whistled through the air, never coming near Hua Tian, but striking the felled snakes.
Curious, Hua Tian glanced back at the elf city. In that instant, a desert snake ambushed and bit his back, instantly draining ninety percent of his health and inflicting a ten-second deadly poison.
His passive [Lucky Meteor] triggered, boosting his total health and saving him from instant death, but if he did nothing for two seconds, he’d die. Alarmed, he saw [Earthshaking Tremor] was off cooldown—he charged into the snake horde.
The attacking snake was confused—why would a proper elf pretend to be a blood corpse? Still, if he wanted to die gloriously, so be it.
The snake army, seeing their kin sent flying, realized the blood corpse was trouble, but the sixth-level Sand Snake Lieutenant, under the glare of so many, had no choice but to fight. Although only artillery snakes, they had their pride.
As it charged, Hua Tian’s second [Earthshaking Tremor] landed a blow. The lingering poison boosted the attack and lock-blood effect. The snake, as it was knocked back, saw his face—he wasn’t an elf. Surprised, it wondered, aren’t the players elsewhere?
As soon as it hit the ground, arrows rained down, ending it—being a level-six drew a lot of attention. Alive, it could dodge; dead, it could only lie there.
Hua Tian’s wounds healed fully, along with a resurrection effect.
The Snake Emperor’s main army observed, looking for any powerful reinforcements. Hearing that a blood corpse was holding the line, and that it was only a weakling, he was infuriated. He ordered an eighth-level snake general to viciously kill Hua Tian, to show the elves that resistance was futile.
A ninth-level king-ranked subordinate hurried to dispatch the weakest of the eighth-level generals to the spot where the sixth-level had just died. There, he found a strangely dressed player slaughtering snake troops.
He cried out, demanding to know where the alliance’s seventh-level captains had gone—only to see they’d been killed by the opposing eighth-level elven general. He dared not approach, as he was only the lowest-ranked eighth-level snake.
At that moment, a stunning woman in red appeared in the sky above the elf city. She hurled fire into the mass of snakes.
The fireball exploded instantly. A thousand-meter-long, ten-meter-thick, crimson, flame-patterned Snake Emperor appeared, spewing magma from its mouth. The woman in red smiled coldly, raised a finger, and effortlessly blocked the magma, then shoved it back, reflecting it onto the snake army.
The Snake Emperor dodged, but his horde was devastated. All except the elite eighth-levels he personally led were annihilated in the ensuing inferno.
He cursed aloud, “Fire Sparrow (Jiu Huo), what the hell is wrong with you? WCN... (profanity and old grievances omitted). You used to be a mainstay of Madblood Desert—why are you helping Moontrace Forest? What did the Fire Elves offer you?”
Fire Sparrow (Jiu Huo) replied, “So you have feelings after all? When you and the Wing Emperor ambushed my tribe while I was away, nearly wiping us out, it was the Fire Elves who helped me. Now, I return the favor—your snake army will pay!”
With that, she soared skyward, transforming into her true form—a vast, mythical sparrow. She conjured a fireball two thousand kilometers long and hurled it down.
The Snake Emperor, seeing the massive fireball, couldn’t help but curse. “Damn it, she’s crazy! Run for your lives!” He fled with his elite, abandoning the rest.
Only the distant, curious Wingfire Snakes spared her a glance before fleeing. The weaker snakes, eager for spoils and unaware of her identity, all perished in the sea of fire.
The survivors fled all the way to Madblood Desert.
The Greenleaf Envoy, just arriving, saw the snake horde around her city scatter.
“Thank you!”
“No problem. My only regret is that the Snake Emperor escaped.”
Soon after, the eighth-level elven general dragged Hua Tian into the city.
Now, Hua Tian and Xiao Yu clung together, trembling. Was this really a level-ten being? Its power felt nothing like the previous level-tens they’d encountered—those had seemed almost cute.
Fire Sparrow (Jiu Huo) mused, “Does this human have unusual tastes?... Players? Where did they come from, and why are they so afraid of me? Am I really that fierce?”
The Greenleaf Envoy replied, “They just saved me, and now they’ve helped fend off part of the snake army. As for what I discussed with the Fire Elves, I will carry it out.”
“It’s nothing. I just came because I heard that troublemaker was back and wanted to kill some snakes. You don’t owe me. Take care of your tribe first. Why are there so many factions among elves, anyway? I’m off.”
“(^o^)/, Bye, Fire Sis!”
After Fire Sparrow (Jiu Huo) left, Hua Tian found the Greenleaf Envoy. “Was that really a level-ten?”
“Hmm? Oh, yes! I heard that after she arrived, when the Flame and Wing Emperors nearly killed her, the Bamboo Emperor barely managed to save them both at the cost of a life. Since things got worse, she and the Fire Elves came to Moontrace Forest, taking over the territory left by the Water Elves. Over time, her domain became a volcano, and the two tribes now live together. Pity the Water Elves—those undead polluted the water source. Where they went, I don’t know, but seeing those undead makes me want to kill them... As for the current land snakes and pythons, only the terrifying Sand Python at the Red Wall of the Dead is comparable to her; the rest are all weaker, and unlike her, they’re weak and aggressive toward every other force.”
“...”
From the tallest tower in the city, the Greenleaf tribe’s only ninth-level king watched them, then turned to the void, “The Snake Emperor is gone—haven’t your bodies broken through yet?”
...
“Here, this is for you.” The Greenleaf Envoy handed Hua Tian a pet egg.
Pet: Greenleaf Elf
Name: Unnamed
Grade: Colorful
Skills: Spiritual Pillar, Sea of Leaves, Slaughter Healing
Hua Tian looked at the two pet eggs in his hand. “Take this one—it’s yours. If you hadn’t stopped me, we wouldn’t have had this quest. I don’t need it.”
Xiao Yu, seeing it was a colorful grade, accepted without hesitation. “Great!”
They cleared the battlefield, taking all the loot from Hua Tian’s kills. Unfortunately, only the desert snakes he personally finished off dropped items—those killed indirectly by elves, even if he’d damaged them, dropped nothing. The pet eggs that did drop never exceeded purple grade.