Most of his teammates were born near the cafeteria. Qi Yang checked the time, and the game time showed one-ten. It was the game’s mealtime, and to fit reality, there were NPCs in the game acting as cafeteria aunties, whose special skill was precisely shaking off every single piece of meat.
Qi Yang had once wondered what kind of cafeteria auntie could pull that off, and then he witnessed it firsthand. A cafeteria auntie scooped up a full spoonful of meat, but with lightning-fast speed, by the time it landed on Qi Yang’s tray, only a pile of chicken necks with sparse meat attached and a large amount of green peppers remained. Fortunately, the food in the game did not actually need to be consumed. When you used the prop chopsticks to pretend to eat it, it would restore some energy bars and grant you unexpected energy, such as luck values, which could help you acquire good game gear.
Thinking about how he still had to grind through grueling tasks just to reunite with his teammates, Qi Yang once again condemned the system for not acting human.
The dormitory supervisor had already walked up to the door of the dorm where Qi Yang was located. Just as she brushed past the doorway, Qi Yang acted recklessly. Figuring it was just a game anyway and not caring whether he was scared or not, he charged straight out of the door, boosted his speed, and jumped onto the supervisor’s head, locking his legs around her neck while holding that little pair of scissors in his hand and wondering where to strike.
In the game, Qi Yang could freely configure certain advantageous stats for himself. Each person could only tweak one item, and once chosen, it could not be modified without purchasing a modification card.
When Qi Yang was young and ignorant, without reading the game rules in detail, he decisively chose between [Luck Value +1%] and [Jumping Force +5%], blindly picking the one with the higher percentage boost. Without a doubt, this was just asking for trouble for his future self.
The supervisor also noticed Qi Yang’s arrival and shook wildly, her sharp fingernails clawing toward his face. Qi Yang, narrowly avoiding getting his face disfigured, leaned backward quickly, hooked her neck with both feet, and took advantage of the moment her nails swiped backward to swiftly do a sit-up, returning right back onto her shoulders.
It was safe, though perilously close.
Unable to grab Qi Yang’s upper body, the supervisor clawed at his legs instead. He looked up and saw an overhead water sprinkler that he could grab. Leveraging the supervisor’s momentum, he leaped up and reached for the sprinkler.
“I’m going.”
The sprinkler bit into Qi Yang’s hand so painfully that with a loud thud, Qi Yang fell straight to the ground along with the sprinkler. The game’s realism was exceptionally high, leaving Qi Yang temporarily unable to move.
Qi Yang lay on the ground, preparing to accept being killed by the supervisor, but the supervisor seemed to have limited cognitive abilities. Having suffered no further attacks and with no players in her field of view, she simply resumed her patrol.
After she had walked some distance away, Qi Yang finally managed to stand up. Glancing down at his hands, he saw they were already red and swollen. Since he hadn’t found any medicine yet, he could only raise his hand and gently blow on it with his mouth, hoping to ease the pain.
Qi Yang sighed once again that the game was made too realistically, to the point that the pain felt completely genuine.
The scissors were just too dull. Since he couldn’t cut it open from the head, what about the front?
“Let’s deal with her eyes first.”
Qi Yang followed right behind that big bow, looking for an opportunity to take her down in one stroke. Then he ended up staring blankly at the bow shaking and rising and falling, recalling the front view he had seen earlier. Thinking about it, he started chuckling, marveling at the designer’s bizarre sense of aesthetics.
Qi Yang followed behind her. As soon as she walked to the end of the corridor and turned around, he precisely poked out both of her eyes.
Blood splattered all over Qi Yang’s face. Just a minor scene.
The eyes appeared to be this supervisor’s weak spot.
System prompt: Congratulations to the player. The NPC has stopped moving for 20 seconds. Please complete the task as soon as possible.
Qi Yang picked up the small scissors and started cutting right at the thread.
As a pair of scissors with a 70% wear-and-tear rate, they were completely useless. The thin thread on the supervisor’s head was practically like steel wire. After hacking away for a long time, there wasn’t a single trace of a cut.
System prompt: There are 5 seconds remaining in the countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
The supervisor started moving again, and her eyes restored themselves to normal.
Opening her eyes to see Qi Yang, she let out an eerie laugh from her throat. Because of the tight threads, the laughter didn’t reach Qi Yang’s ears right away.
Qi Yang leaped up quickly. The supervisor also noticed his presence, sprang up from the ground in a flash, and chased after Qi Yang with her long-overdue fingernails outstretched.
“Oh crap, how does she even regenerate?”
Her fingernails were about to touch Qi Yang’s face.
In an instant, the air was filled with the fragrance of datura flowers. Catching the scent, the supervisor collapsed onto the floor with a heavy thud.
Datura Pheromone: A highly toxic plant pheromone. Effect: Paralyzes enemies, causing them to lose mobility. For the same pheromone type, higher levels also produce this effect, with paralysis duration determined by gland capability. Current Differentiation Level: B Weakness: For grade B and above, the paralysis duration is 20 seconds, but the range is limited to a five-meter radius from the release point; exceeding this range makes it ineffective. Note: Grade B and above can use differentiation abilities. Grade C and betas have no differentiation abilities; Grade C glands are merely ordinary glands used solely for marking, being marked, and emitting scents.
The datura fragrance continued to linger in the air when suddenly, a loud bang came from the room right next to Qi Yang.
“Talk about an unexpected bonus! Let’s deal with this thing first.”
Qi Yang squatted down. The supervisor in front of him lay completely motionless, confirming she was fully paralyzed. However, she had crashed heavily to the ground, and as expected, her face was smashed into a pulp. The fishy, sweet smell of blood blended with the datura fragrance to create an indescribable odor.
Resisting his nausea, Qi Yang flipped the corpse over. Her face was flattened from the impact, and the threads had almost embedded themselves into the flesh due to the violent collision, making her look somewhat comical.
Fortunately, the thread ends were easy to find, and the threads themselves had surfaced, making Qi Yang’s job easier.
Qi Yang used the small scissors like a knife, finding a slightly dull spot on the ground to sharpen them. Good enough to use.
Looking ready, Qi Yang aimed the inside of the scissors at the smashed pulp of a face, wondering where to start. The eyes look a bit terrifying, the ears then even more bizarre. Let’s just open her mouth first. Maybe she can provide some musical accompaniment when she wakes up, so the hallway doesn’t seem too dead quiet.
The inside of the scissors was still very dull, but fortunately, it had some effect. The thin thread was finally cut open at the edge.
He grabbed the thin thread and slowly pried outward, finally unravelling the thread around the mouth area.
A single thread exhausted what little patience Qi Yang had left.
“So damn tight! Which son of a bitch did this?”
System prompt: This game was created by a designer. Please refrain from verbally attacking the designer.
“Screw your grandpa.” Qi Yang truly admired this game designer for wanting to maintain his dignity even inside a game.
Qi Yang prepared to move and check out the unexpected surprise in the neighboring room.
He pushed open the adjacent door. Three enemies were sprawled out across the floor in disarray, still holding the newly released submachine guns from the in-game store.
Qi Yang’s pheromone had arrived so suddenly that they had originally planned to take Qi Yang out with a single shot while he wasn’t paying attention.
As a result, they had knocked themselves out first. Wasn’t this just rushing to deliver free kills? Qi Yang disarmed the one among them holding the latest model submachine gun.
System prompt: Congratulations to the player for capturing player [I’m the Coolest]’s MP7 submachine gun. Weapon prompt: MP7 Submachine Gun Basic information and usage guide:
Suitable as a close-quarters assault weapon with strong penetrating power.
Total weight 1.8 kg, overall length 380 mm.
Ready to use upon chambering.
2% wear, so new they hadn’t even used it yet.
“My luck is pretty good today. Time to send you guys home.”
Qi Yang pressed the back of the gun against his chest, aiming the barrel at the three people lying on the ground.
After a burst of gunfire, the three players who had still been unconscious on the floor exploded in a burst of blood all over Qi Yang’s face. He only stopped shooting when the system prompt rang out.
Current round system prompt: Player [Sudden Temperature Drop] eliminated player [I’m the Coolest]. Player [Sudden Temperature Drop] eliminated player [Pour One Out for the Rival]. Player [Sudden Temperature Drop] eliminated player [Qi-ye Has Arrived].
Qi Yang had wiped out a trio. Their positioning clearly indicated two bodyguards protecting a single boss, obviously a couple of carry-service players playing alongside a client. Interfering the way Qi Yang did, those two carries would probably end up blacklisted by the client for failing to account for the impact of pheromones.
Qi Yang’s expression remained calm. Having taken care of those three, they shouldn’t come looking for trouble with him anytime soon. He exited the room and returned to the pulp-faced corpse.
Qi Yang’s pheromone was still releasing. It hadn’t caused any discomfort yet, and he would stop releasing it once he finished cutting the threads. Short-term pheromone release didn’t consume too much energy, plus Qi Yang was a rare Grade B omega, whose pheromones were much more powerful and whose control duration was longer.
The pulp-like face felt somewhat soft and mushy. Qi Yang reached out and poked it. “For a VR game to be made this realistically, you really deserve a solid compliment.”
After finishing the action, Qi Yang felt a bit self-doubtful. Am I crazy? Why did I touch her face? So annoying.
The threads were eventually cut through. Qi Yang surveyed the results of his cutting. In his own words, even cutting the ropes couldn’t cover up the fact that she was hideous.
System prompt: Congratulations to the player for completing the task. Please reunite with your teammates as soon as possible to complete the game objectives together.
Having completed the mission, Qi Yang wanted to go find and meet up with his teammates. Although Qi Yang was used to playing single-player games, right at this moment he actually wanted to find some people to chat with. Besides, he had spent a lot of energy values to complete this task that gave God-knows-how-many points, and to be honest, he regretted it a bit.
After all, hidden quests in games generally didn’t award many points, but you couldn’t rule out those extremely lucky players whose bonus points translated to higher ratings at the exit, which helped their standing on the server-wide leaderboard.
Qi Yang was currently sitting around the top three hundred, but rankings changed in the blink of an eye, and he could drop at any moment.
Qi Yang quickly walked out of the dorm, looked for cover to conceal himself, and re-evaluated the surrounding environment. Only after making sure no suspicious individuals had appeared did he dare to come out and move around. After all, the players here weren’t fools, and someone might be lurking in the shadows waiting just for a fatal strike.
Qi Yang hadn’t figured out a general plan for the rest of the match when the system notification tone completely threw him off.
Current round system prompt: Player [Peanut for Me] defeated player [Sweetie]. Player [Peanut for Me] defeated player [Don’t Hit Me, I’ll Cry]. Player [Peanut for Me] defeated player [Big Bro Will Fly You].
Qi Yang stared at the blue prompt, carefully contemplating the blue notification box appearing above.
Staring at it in a daze, he thought: They are teammates.
How can these three teammates get taken down in seconds by a single person? Is their practice lacking or what? If you’re that bad, stop playing games.
Qi Yang silently cursed in his heart over and over again, but he didn’t type a single word in the teammate public chat to express his extreme incomprehension and confusion. Instead, seeing the teammate public chat flooded entirely with apologies, his anger subsided quite a bit.
Still, Qi Yang muttered inwardly: May I never run into such hopeless teammates again, and please never match me with such troublesome tasks again.
“System, stop picking on a poor kid like me. I just want to play games properly. Will the damn game designer please use some common sense?”
System prompt: Players are advised to stop overthinking and resume the game.
“Screw your grandpa!”