Chapter 93: Second Stage
Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Addis
Apple said, “… What a coincidence?”
ScarletFruit exclaimed, “Holy cow! Did you install a monitor or something?”
Apple replied, “I’m a good citizen of Star Alliance. I never do sneaky things like that.”
Everyone around fell into a brief silence, until these two were invited by CloudTraveller to join the team one after another. It seemed like they were just in the vicinity, and after appearing together online, they showed up in front of everyone again.
Everyone was speechless. It was really hard not to think crooked thoughts.
Su Mo came out of the laboratory later than expected. Lele had already packed up and gone home. After returning home, he went out to dinner with Yu Zhen at a restaurant in the vicinity. It took some time, almost missing 8 o’clock.
He logged in shortly after Yu Zhen, and seeing Yu Zhen in Glacial Ravenlands, he decided to use a direct connection to join him.
“Only one more person to go, Watermelon will be here soon,” CloudTraveller quickly organized the formation and gave last-minute instructions, “Considering the special nature of the event, and the increased strange mechanisms from the first stage, everyone make sure your equipment is repaired. Bring along versatile quest items, they might come in handy for the second stage.”
“Okay,” Su Mo turned his head and noticed ScarletFruit looking at him strangely, “What’s up?”
ScarletFruit, in a complex mood, replied, “Nothing, just pondering about life.”
Su Mo felt inexplicably, “Oh.”
ScarletFruit glanced at Momo and then at UnchainedWanderer, feeling amazed at how coincidental life could be.
With everything almost settled, Watermelon came online as well. After everyone gathered, they arrived at the event’s NPC’s location, where CloudTraveller signed up the team.
[Checking team member list, please confirm.]
[Confirmation complete, now loading [Journey Through Wind and Rain] limited-time event, all players loaded, wishing everyone good luck, welcome to [Journey Through Wind and Rain: Misty Forest]]
As the new scene loaded, all team players entered the event scene. Su Mo had just opened his eyes to find himself in a misty forest, with gusts of wind pushing him back several steps. He looked up to see a dark and oppressive sky looming overhead.
Within the mist, he couldn’t see his other teammates. The trees around him all looked identical, the mini-map was completely dark except for his location which was illuminated.
[Welcome players to [Journey Through Wind and Rain: Misty Forest], where mist pervades year-round and dangers abound. Please, remain vigilant.]
[Mission Objective: Gather with all teammates to complete the level. There is no time limit for this stage; completion time will determine player rewards. Due to the S++ team rating, a minimum rule is set (no rewards will be given if it exceeds 3 hours).]
After the mainframe finished reading the rules, the voice channels were fully open. The entire scene seemed to come alive. Su Mo saw the positions on the mini-map gradually light up, showing the blue dots representing his teammates.
“Why are we in a forest? Wasn’t it supposed to be a cave according to the forum?”
“It seems like it’s a random map, and we ended up in a forest.”
“Damn, this wind is too strong.”
Not only was there heavy fog, but the chilling wind in the mountains was strong enough to push people back. CloudTraveller immediately spoke up in the team, “The environment is harsh. Everyone, confirm your current locations first so we can gather and find each other.”
Although there were small blue dots on the map, it was difficult to determine which dot belonged to which teammate, requiring a thorough assessment of the current situation and arrangements.
“Actually, isn’t this level too easy?” HealsFor25000 said, “There are positions marked on the map. Can’t we just follow the blue dots?”
“Seems like this level is all about speed. The mainframe surprisingly played nice this time, no penalties, and a minimum time limit of three hours? Isn’t this a freebie level?” ClearWind relaxed instantly upon seeing the coordinates on the mini-map.
Watermelon didn’t think the mainframe was being that kind-hearted, adding, “Then why did it create such a creepy atmosphere around us? I thought we were in for another horror movie theater scenario.”
“Let’s not take it lightly. Let’s gather first,” CloudTraveller cautioned.
Su Mo glanced at his skills panel, planning to use [A thread of Fate] to rendezvous with Yu Zhen, only to find that the skill icon for [A thread of Fate] was locked and disabled. Not only that, all the items in his inventory were locked as well. He had a bad feeling about this. “Items are disabled.”
Upon hearing this, the team members immediately checked their own items.
“Items disabled!?”
“Me too! Non-combat quest skills are disabled too!”
“I packed a whole bag of items, and now they tell me I can’t use them. Are they kidding me?”
“This is ridiculous. What do we do now?”
Su Mo frowned. This level was definitely not as simple as it seemed.
The event appeared unrestricted, but it was fraught with dangers. The dense mist in the mountain, fierce winds, and pitch-black sky confused everyone. Not only that, besides the skills inherent to their characters, all other items were prohibited from use—even taking them out of the inventory was impossible.
The only fortunate thing was that their character panels hadn’t changed. They still had their original professions.
“Let’s gather first,” Su Mo said. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
And just then, a gust of wind came straight at Su Mo, lifting him off his feet.
The sudden mountain wind caught Su Mo off guard, slamming him into trees repeatedly. Finally, he managed to grab onto a branch to steady himself, but not before being blown back several meters in an instant. As he stabilized, his eyes darted to the mini-map, pupils shrinking suddenly.
The wind had struck abruptly, causing chaos in the voice channel with voices overlapping and mixing with the gusts.
“Help!!!”
“What the hell is this wind?! It nearly blew me away.”
“Someone got knocked silly.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have underestimated the mainframe. This wind is fiercer than the spring breeze in Son of Spring.”
The wind blew for about ten seconds before finally stopping, leaving the entire team in disarray. Some were comically stuck in trees, while others were blown dozens of meters away in consecutive impacts…
“I was wondering why the game rules were so simple. Not only are items disabled, but with this wind blowing like crazy, I can’t even move! How are we supposed to find our teammates!?” Random teammate Old Daoist was utterly dumbfounded. Already directionally challenged, he relied solely on the mini-map for navigation. Now, with this strong wind, one moment he confirmed his direction, the next he couldn’t distinguish left from right, stuck in a tree unable to get down.
Yu Zhen furrowed his brow slightly, noticing changes in his teammates’ positions on the mini-map. “Coordinates are messed up, and health points are dropping.”
Coordinates shifted, and they had all suffered varying degrees of health loss from the recent fierce wind. Healing was manageable; they could recover on their own, but for the squishy damage dealers, it was a different story. They were likely to keep losing health in this environment. If their backpacks ran out of health potions or if they went on cooldown, death was a real possibility.
With teammates dying, the situation would become even more uncontrollable.
“Let’s gather quickly,” ScarletFruit urged. “Only by gathering can we figure out a plan. Who knows when this wind will strike again.”
The severity of the situation immediately dawned on everyone. At this moment, Su Mo, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up. “Gathering isn’t that simple either. The scale on the mini-map is incorrect.”
“What do you mean?” Apple looked at the mini-map. “Isn’t it the same as before?”
Su Mo explained, “Try zooming in and then take a few steps.”
Apple took a few steps and suddenly realized that their position on the map had not changed much.
“The scale of the original map has been expanded nearly five times, which means what we thought was close is actually much farther away,” Su Mo explained briefly. “This forest map is larger than we imagined. It’s very likely that as we move, the wind will come again and blow our positions into disarray.”
“And there’s an even more serious problem,” Su Mo continued. “Since the map scale has changed, our positions shouldn’t have changed much within tens of meters. However, look at our coordinates now—they’re almost all over the place.”
“There were originally three blue dots to the west, but now there’s only one left.”
Su Mo’s voice turned serious, “Do you know what this means?”
CloudTraveller frowned, “We thought we were just blown away by the wind, but in reality, we experienced a significant displacement during that process.”
“Exactly, and this displacement could be the effect of the wind, or it could be that we encountered something else during the gust, causing some of us to shift hundreds or even thousands of meters in a short period,” Su Mo surveyed the surroundings. “The second stage warned us to be cautious of our surroundings. I suggest we refrain from moving until we understand the mechanics better.”
This wind could cause them to lose health, encounter other dangers during movement, and increase the risk of death.
Upon hearing Momo’s suggestion, everyone heightened their alertness to observe their surroundings.
Apart from the mist, all they could see were tall trees that seemed to stretch endlessly upward. Despite the strong wind creating rustling sounds as it blew through the leaves, it couldn’t disperse the thick mist that enveloped the area.
Before long, the eerie wind returned, lifting everyone off their feet once again.
“Try using skills to stabilize yourselves,” Su Mo’s voice was drowned out by the wind. He summoned a bear to shield against the fierce wind ahead. It worked to some extent, but he still needed to utilize other skills to withstand it.
The positions on the map became chaotic once more. While Su Mo himself didn’t move much, several teammates managed to stabilize themselves amidst the wind. After a brief exchange, they settled on methods to block the wind effectively.
Defensive skills proved effective, reducing damage, and basic physical barriers also worked logically.
Su Mo advised, “Pre-confirm the wind direction where you are, find a larger tree to hide behind, use skills to stabilize yourself to prevent being blown away by the wind.”
Upon hearing this, others fell into contemplation.
“I knew it, shouldn’t have trusted the main brain.”
“A ‘sunny event’ my foot, I won’t believe it again.”
“This is basically a simplified version of the Spring God’s skill, but this time there are a lot more places to hide.”
“What if we just let ourselves get blown away by the wind?” FireworksAndLanterns suddenly came up with an idea, “Since the wind can cause such big displacements, why not use it to move ourselves? With luck, we might just end up blown together.”
Watermelon remarked, “Little Firework, do you think the main brain is a good guy? Will it really give us such a high probability of being blown together?”
“I think FireworksAndLanterns has a point,” ScarletFruit added, “Isn’t the wind blowing in the same direction? Shouldn’t we all get blown in the same direction? What if we’re lucky and bump into each other?”
Watermelon replied, “Brother, you’re completely gambling on luck.”
At this moment, the players in the team looked at the mini-map. Despite their teammates seeming so close, they couldn’t get any closer.
During the discussion, the wind blew several more times. By the fourth time, the team had basically mastered the method, and there wasn’t much change in their positions on the map.
Su Mo continued to observe his surroundings. He hadn’t experienced significant displacement; he was only a few meters back from his original position, and the environment hadn’t changed. This was good news, indicating that the triggering long-distance environmental factor wasn’t the wind.
“So can we predict the intervals between the wind?” Yu Zhen asked.
Even without the strong gusts, the wind still blew through the mountains and forests, still significant.
“I calculated it. About a minute?” A female voice appeared on the voice channel, array master Global first kawaii.
“Can we be more precise? It should be between 53 to 55 seconds,” Su Mo explained. “Before the strong wind, the surrounding gloom will reduce by 1-2 seconds, followed by the big wind. Timing has fluctuations, so pay attention to the intervals between the small and large winds.”
CloudTraveller: “Are you sure?”
Su Mo: “I’m sure. The last three winds followed this pattern closely. There shouldn’t be too much variation.”
Just then, Su Mo suddenly looked up as a few drops of rain landed on his face.
He paused, surprised. It’s raining?
Under the dark sky, a few drops of rain fell, followed by an intensifying downpour. In a matter of seconds, what started as a drizzle turned into a torrential rain, soaking everyone to the bone.
“Well, now I understand why it’s called [Journey Through Wind and Rain].
“Strong wind plus heavy rain? I’ve never seen such a downpour on Capital Planet.”
“With wind and rain like this, is this event going overboard?”
“It’s a fantasy game, everyone stay calm.”
The rain grew heavier and heavier in the mountain forest, already filled with mist. Combined with the downpour, it made everyone’s vision even more blurry, adding pressure to their environmental assessments. The only clear points were the blue dots on the mini-map.
ClearWind wiped water off his face, turned against the wind to avoid rain hitting his face. “Damn, with this storm, I can barely see ahead.”
“You should be grateful the rain isn’t harmful. Otherwise, there’d be nowhere to hide from it, and the wind could blow you to death,” Watermelon said calmly, leaning against a large tree that shielded him from most of the storm’s effects.
“With all this wind and rain, I wonder if there’ll be thunder soon,” apple pondered aloud.
“Be alert, a strong wind is coming,” Su Mo suddenly announced.
The sound of rain masked the judgment of the wind, but the moment the wind diminished the gloom was still quite noticeable. Upon hearing Momo’s words, Watermelon immediately activated his defensive and damage reduction skills.
The assassin’s damage reduction skill was limited, and Watermelon felt fortunate that he had brought multiple knives this time, including several blunt ones. He quickly activated his damage reduction skill and drove a blunt knife into the ground, lowering his body to stabilize himself and prevent being blown away by the wind.
Streaks of lightning flashed across the sky. As Watermelon raised his head, a thunderclap struck suddenly with immense force, sending shockwaves through the air. Simultaneously, he heard a scream from someone in the team.
ClearWind shouted hoarsely, “Damn it!!! Apple, you jinx!”
Author’s note:
Watermelon (ecstatic): It wasn’t me!
Mainframe: Remember not to stand under trees during thunderstorms ^_^
