The third team consisting of Wang GuiYing, Aunt Su, and Andy were having the time of their lives as they freely roamed around the forest. Whatever beast attacked them met with either a hammer or an axe; both not a good way to say goodbye to the world.
So far, they had unfortunately neither seen nor experienced something even remotely interesting, no treasure beasts and no caves, but this might have been the main reason why they were so jolly.
BBtrash and Aunt Su, both secretly prayed for this in their mind. If they were to meet something right now would it not mean extra work? Why would anybody want to go through that much trouble willingly?
They walked around for half an hour and when they got bored of walking, BBtrash started climbing trees for fun.
The region they had entered was filled with spiritual trees and magical fruits that could help them, but the help wasn't something major. Each magic fruit increased the player's health status by 1%
Although that number was nothing big, the team was not displeased with it. In the end, health boosters were still health boosters, it was better than nothing. If they ate 20 of these fruits, would they not gain 20% health?
BBtrash was quite pleased with this, however, the only problem was that he wasn't running low on health stats, in fact, his health stats were still near 100% so what was he supposed to do with all these fruits that he collected? Maybe he could gift them to his partner, Hulk0_0 when he meets him but then, what was Zhou XinYi going to do with it?
....
He'd just collect it for now since he had nothing better to do.
Andy looked up at the huge bundle of fruits BBtrash had collected, "Where are we?"
"It doesn't matter where we are." Wang GuiYing beamed as he jumped down from the tree.
Aunt Su nodded, "Anywhere is fine as long as there are no beasts around."
"Especially those hideous leeches." Wang GuiYing shivered at the thought.
Andy glanced at the two, speechless. Was this what every other pro-gamer was like or was this duo just special?
Andy could not be blamed for thinking this since this was his first time playing. He was a newcomer to the gaming world, one of the newbies who had lucked out and somehow entered the T.I.A.D. top gamers list.
Andy was always interested in gaming but he had never thought about making a career out of it; the reason for this was simple; becoming a pro-gamer was no easy task and that is why he had always held great respect for the people who became pro-gamers. When T.I.A.D. announced the cash prize, Andy thought he might as well try. He would either make it or... What was there to lose?
But it seemed that he was certainly in luck. The first T.I.A.D. top player's list was posted and somehow Andy was in it. A few days later, he got an invitation from a pro-gamer named loubitchnextdoor. When he saw that he was getting so much recognition right off the bat, he started thinking about further pursuing this as his career.
When he looked at the player's beside him, BBtrash and loudbitchnextdoor, he felt somewhat happy. Maybe becoming a pro-gamer wasn't as difficult as he had thought it out to be.
This poor boy was ignorant of the fact that he was currently with the idlest team ever. These two pro-gamers were certainly not to be trusted as role models—this, even their fans would agree.
Andy looked in front and suddenly noticed something strange, "Is that a white-colored deer?"
Aunt Su jumped forward, "Where?"
Andy pointed at it, "There."
The two pairs of eyes followed the direction the finger pointed at and indeed saw something that resembled a deer, white in color, sneaking behind the trees and staring at them.
Andy, "I think it wants us to follow it."
Aunt Su laughed, "Haven't your parents taught you to never follow strangers?"
"Look away. We don't go following weird beasts around." BBtrash spoke as he pulled Andy back.
Andy, "but..."
"No buts." Aunt Su scolded. Poor Andy was pulled away by BBtrash and Aunt Su who pulled him the opposite way.
The deer that had come for them stood there speechless. It was a computer code so it couldn't think on its own but if it could, it would think about how big of an idiot these bunch of people were. Didn't they care about solving the mission at all?
The deer had not given up and quietly followed the group of players.
Andy glanced back and noticed it in an instant, "It's following us."
Aunt Su, "We can see that."
BBtrash, "Andy, let this big brother tell you, if something follows you, it means its trouble. We don't let trouble catch up to us."
Aunt Su bobbed her head in agreement.
The deer followed them around for more than ten minutes after which it eventually got bored and ran away.
Andy didn't know how to feel about this but since the two pro-gamers who were beside him had made this decision, it could be considered as them leading a rookie, so when he thought like that, he could carry on moving forward carefreely where there were fewer beasts.
Somewhere else in the forest was the team of Li Ling and Hulk0_0 who had luckily found a second cave. This cave belonged to the cave of the illusion owls and like every other cave, the stone walls were carved in the exact same pictures and the stone plate rose from the middle triggered by the moonlight.
When the illusion owl regained its body, it danced around in the ground and flew over their heads with joy. This was also the treasure assigned to Hulk0_0 and BBtrash, if Wang GuiYing were here, he'd absolutely use this opportunity to catch the treasure but Zhou XinYi was different, when Li Ling advised him not to catch the beast yet, he dare not move.
The owl completed it's mini-celebration and flew away.
So far, four cave seals have been broken and only two left, one of those caves belonged to the deer that had desperately followed BBtrash's group but failed to lure them into its cave.
At the moment, Li Ling had already contacted Zhihao and told him about the two caves they had unsealed. They talked for a few minutes and the two eagerly shared the new information they had found with each other. When Zhihao saw that his guesses had matched with the situation the other sub-team was faced with, he felt like his theory was further solidified.
When he added the total number of caves that have been unsealed in his mind, he found that they were pretty close to breaking the barrier. If the third team had also found a seal, it would've been perfect but knowing BBtrash, Zhihao felt like even if the man accidentally fell into the cave, he would climb out crying instead of trying to break the seal.
A few hours later, somehow Zhihao and Li Ling's team came together and reformed as a four-member team consisting of Zhihao, Kaoru, Li Ling, and Zhou XinYi. The team of four found the deer and it didn't take them a lot of time to break the seal.
[Congratulations on freeing five treasure beasts! +50 T-points gained]
Kaoru, "Was earning T-points always this easy?"
Zhihao shook his head, "It seems this level is very generous with it."
Li Ling nodded in agreement.
Zhou XinYi chuckled, "It seems we'll be rich after this."
"....."
"Brother, did you forget our deal?" Li Ling asked as he smiled mischievously.
"....."
Zhou XinYi had forgotten about it. Now that he looked back at it, wasn't it all a waste? It was just some dancing and singing, he should've done it alone, why ask for help from these tricksters? He truly regretted it. Not only did they take away a chance to own a crying eagle but they had also made the deal to steal away all the T-points they had.
The precious T-points that BBtrash was currently working hard to earn.
After thinking about it, BBtrash concluded that the fruits were really of no use for him if he were to consume them, especially this much amount of it, so he came up with a plan to collect as much as possible and sell it for T-points on the server. The thought of earning all the T-points really brought a smile to his face, however, sadly he would eventually come to know that he was doing all this hard work for somebody else's profit.
Andy kept glancing around to see if something was following them.
BBtrash, "What are you looking for?"
Andy, "Nothing."
"Are you scared?" Aunt Su asked with a playful expression.
"Not really."
BBtrash, "Then?"
"I just feel like we are being stalked by something," Andy answered honestly, hearing which Aunt Su and BBtrash burst out laughing.
BBtrash, "Honey, what do you think would want to stalk us here?"
"...." Andy kept silent as he answered in his mind: A lot of things actually.
"Shhhh...." Aunt Su suddenly stopped walking and her face no longer carried the playfulness within them.
Wang GuiYing also sensed something weird as he looked around.
A shiver went down Andy's spine as he heard the slight rustling of the grass, "Is that what I think it is?"
"It's the sound of a snake."
Aunt Su, "It's been following us for a while now."
Andy looked at the woman in shock thinking in his mind as he did: Did you not reassure me that there was nothing here that would follow us?
BBtrash equipped his hammer as the smile on his face grew wider, "We don't go looking for trouble but if trouble comes looking for us...."
"Enough with the dumb lines, trash." Aunt Su also followed suit and equipped her axe as she looked around, desperately trying to find the origin of the sound, "I don't think we can play around with this snake."
"...." Andy unknowingly took a step back as his eyes scanned all around him. In his mind, he prayed to god, may nothing jump at them suddenly.
It was quiet for a minute as no player dared to make a move and when the minute ended, the sound was heard again.
It was the sound of something dragging along the grass and the group wasn't too far away from the source of the sound.