10. Never Had Such a Wonderful Beginning

As Jiang He Yi had anticipated, the fight was tough, but not impossible.

In that fleeting moment, both he and Original French Fries had pushed their reactions and maneuvers to the limit. If even one element of their anticipation or counteraction faltered, their team would inevitably lose a member.

Dancing on the edge of a blade, challenging formidable monsters and succeeding, brought Jiang He Yi immense satisfaction and a rush of accomplishment. His heart pounded wildly.

Executing a perfect, high-stakes move to personally take down a werewolf, Original French Fries maintained a calm expression, as if she had done something trivial.

Yet, the subconscious little gesture of rubbing her fingers betrayed the unrest beneath her composed exterior.

“Do you realize the value of Ice Spike? Or the worth of an Elemental Shield?” Jailor raised his hands triumphantly. “Woohoo! We are champions!”

Original French Fries’ carefully maintained persona cracked, and she covered her forehead with her hand.

Orange Tea looked bewildered and glanced toward Zhong Zemo beside her.

“We usually call this the battlefield morale crew,” he explained. “Though their contribution is low, their voices are loud.”

It was still premature to fully reveal Jailor’s ultimate fun-lover personality to Orange Tea.

The werewolf’s life force was completely drained; pale blue lights rose and, with a sudden burst, its body was shattered.

Within the glow of the firefly light screen, a dazzling rainbow shimmer caused everyone’s eyes to widen.

“Holy crap!” Jailor shouted, raising his arms. “Never had such a magnificent start!”

A rainbow drop on the very first battle after teleportation—was the drop rate really that high?

“Orange Tea, you go open the loot,” Jiang He Yi said, singling her out.

Orange Tea blinked in surprise. “Me?”

No one objected to this decision.

[Unknown Revelation]—a skill rife with uncertainty, where the voices within the insight sometimes mischievously lead you astray.

As the skill description warned, what follows a prayer isn’t always benevolent.

However, all of Orange Tea’s revelations so far had been positive effects, especially combined with the purple materials and equipment gifted to her shortly after entering the game by an unknown witch...

When playing games, sometimes you just have to believe in a little mysticism.

Orange Tea lightly touched the iridescent bubble, the radiant rainbow light flooding the corridor.

Twenty selectable avatar fragments.

Even the usually stoic Original French Fries was left speechless.

The rainbow drop that had caused Jiang He Yi’s lengthy report contained only ten selectable avatar fragments—half of what Orange Tea obtained with a casual opening.

“Is this... a good thing?” Orange Tea asked, unaware that this phrase was considered taboo in many gaming circles.

Pretending to be a clueless newbie just to flaunt one’s loot is a well-known ruse, easily recognizable by its typical opening move.

But coming from Orange Tea’s mouth, it sounded completely natural.

“Drop the ‘question’ at the end. It is a good thing—an unparalleled drop,” Zhong Zemo explained.

Though no one had yet unlocked avatar-related content, the extreme difficulty in obtaining such fragments confirmed their rarity.

No game designer would make the hardest-to-get items utterly useless, right?

Would there truly be such a game studio and developers defying all logic?

Unlike basic materials, avatar fragments are bound upon acquisition and cannot be traded or gifted.

As team leader, Jiang He Yi had the authority to coordinate the distribution of loot and resources.

After exchanging a glance with Original French Fries, he proposed, “The fragments go to Orange Tea; she contributed the most just now. I’ll hold onto the other materials for now and distribute them after we return.”

Orange Tea was surprised, pointing to herself in disbelief at the allocation.

After all, she had initially said she was fine with a lower priority or even receiving less.

Jailor, the loudest in claiming credit, was the first to agree; Original French Fries and Zhong Zemo also voiced support.

Orange Tea, who was relatively new to gaming, didn’t know that disputes over loot distribution were often more team-breaking than conflicts during cooperative gameplay.

For groups to share loot amicably, it usually meant they were close-knit, familiar circles.

More than who got the precious materials, everyone cared whether they could still enjoy gaming together tomorrow.

A good social atmosphere and companions with shared values were priceless.

And for such small circles to accept someone, all members had to approve.

Jiang He Yi’s announcement that the best loot belonged to her was proof that Orange Tea had basically won everyone’s acceptance.

After a brief rest, they began retracing their steps.

Because one werewolf had escaped, Jailor used all his magic power to maintain six glowing jellyfish lights above the team’s heads.

Perhaps intimidated by Jiang He Yi’s team’s strength, no further attacks came their way.

Back in the spacious underground plaza, Jiang He Yi decided to head toward the middle passageway, where Orange Tea’s two revelations had yielded only silence.

It didn’t take long before they reached the end.

“A dead end?”

Puzzled, Zhong Zemo struck the heavy rock wall with his shield.

As a competent soul-type player, he always felt compelled to investigate any suspicious or illogical walls.

The force feedback was vivid, his hands tingled, yet the wall didn’t budge.

To be thorough, Jailor cast an earth elemental spell; but no anomaly was triggered upon resonance with the wall.

Nothing unusual here.

“Orange Tea, another revelation.”

After several times, the team had come to believe in Orange Tea’s extraordinary luck.

As she opened her eyes, Jailor eagerly asked, “What does it say this time?”

“Light.”

“Light?” Zhong Zemo relaxed his grip on the shield. “What does that mean?”

“Huh?” Jiang He Yi responded instinctively.

“Oh, I meant, what does the ‘light’ from the Unknown Revelation signify?”

Original French Fries, repairing her weapon’s durability on the spot, looked up and reminded everyone, “So far, Orange Tea’s revelations have only had positive effects.”

Jiang He Yi frowned; following Original French Fries’ gaze, he looked toward the neglected wall lamps.

The lamps set into the rock walls on both sides, powered by magical crystals, had long since died out from energy depletion.

“Light them.”

Jailor, the team’s sole mage, began lighting each wall lamp along the passage.

Despite years of erosion, the magic bases still functioned perfectly; warm yellow light filled the corridor, brightening the ruins buried by countless years once more.

The team waited expectantly for changes—but the passage remained unchanged.

As Original French Fries stood to return the way they came, Zhong Zemo asked curiously, “Where are you going?”

“Find the other werewolf and kill it.”

Jailor, sitting cross-legged and deep in thought, suddenly clapped his hands.

“Makes sense.”

There were still monsters active in the area. If they hadn’t cleared them all, who knew what crucial information might be missed on that werewolf.

Monsters were the root of every problem; kill them all, and the problems would naturally be solved.

“Why are you moving back?”

Jailor moved a short distance forward; they could already see the plaza outside the passage, but he didn’t understand why Original French Fries hesitated and was retreating.

Her sudden unsheathing of her blade cut off his words—not out of fear of her impatience, but because he caught sight of the lights shining in the plaza.

The deep red wall lamps cast eerie shadows.

He hadn’t even reached the plaza’s outer area to trigger the lamp bases.

If not him, then who had turned on the lights?

Surely it wasn’t the werewolf, thoughtfully lighting blood-red lamps as if afraid of the dark?

“Move outward,” Jiang He Yi decided. “There’s not enough space here. If a fight breaks out, we won’t have room to dodge or maneuver.”

The formation quickly adjusted: Zhong Zemo took the lead with shield raised, pushing forward slowly; Jiang He Yi and Original French Fries gripped their weapons tightly, ready to unleash bursts of power.

Jailor’s six glowing jellyfish shot out first, but their light barely lasted a moment before fading into the flickering crimson glow.

The flashing red light gave Jiang He Yi the illusion that a raging sea of blood was churning outside the passage.

A sharp wolf howl echoed through every corner of the ruins, followed closely by claws scraping against rock walls and the thunderous roar of magic explosions.

“Get out, get out!”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Mad screams intertwined with wolf howls, a piercing buzz mixed with the tremors of explosions, battering each team member’s eardrums.

Such intense realism was almost overwhelming. Deeply immersed, Jiang He Yi and the others momentarily forgot they were merely players—immortal beings.

Driven by intense curiosity, they risked expending another charge on their Starry Sky Jewel to edge closer to the passage entrance.

A werewolf, ghostly and outline-only, its eyes glowing an eerie red.

Not far ahead, a nun in a pale, ghostly form stood, clutching a lantern in her right hand and something tightly in her left.

She seemed to treasure the object in her left hand, slowly raising it to her chest.

“That nun can’t be...” Zhong Zemo swallowed nervously.

“It’s the one I encountered—the lantern is exactly the same.”

Before they could piece together the situation, the werewolf’s eyes suddenly shifted from red to green, blinking as if it had forgotten to turn off a flash and inadvertently took a photo. The entire plaza glowed with a strange green light.

The lantern in the ghostly nun’s hand suddenly burst into flames, a pale white fire that seemed to burn the spirit itself, causing her to scream and release her grip.

Everything happened within two breaths—fueled by ferocious power, the werewolf lunged at the nun and then...

Crushed the fallen lantern beneath its foot.

Jiang He Yi’s gaze sharpened. The moment the lantern was broken, the ghostly nun’s form visibly began to dissipate, like a wisp of white mist about to dissolve.

The scene was chaotic and confusing.

Glancing from the nun to the werewolf viciously stomping the lantern, Jiang He Yi clenched his teeth.

“Let’s go break it up.”

Orange Tea looked stunned. “Break it up? How? How do you break up a fight?”

Which of these two looked like they could reason?

“Breaking up means killing both sides,” Zhong Zemo said, raising his shield as he charged.

Original French Fries could no longer restrain her impulse to draw her sword; she was even further forward than Zhong Zemo, boldly advancing.

“Wow, nun, here I come!”

Some were confused, some dutiful, some fought with abandon, and some revealed their true tendencies.

On the battlefield, everyone was busy.

As team leader, Jiang He Yi’s clear-headedness made him stand apart.