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Chapter 31 – Line Up, We Are All Waiting
As an expert who maintained his position around 15th place on the leaderboard, Nine Thousand People always aimed to reach the top. Even though he lost to Laughing Sky previously, he just thought it was a defeat due to the professional class and never thought it stemmed from their different skill level. But now, the first blood happened to be taken by a little-known ghost priest, and he was aware that he couldn’t show his face like this.
“This ghost knows how to play dirty, watch how I’ll kill you now!” Uttering these vicious words towards his opponent, Nine Thousand People set off again after being resurrected. Changing his frontal approach from before, instead, he entered a nearby melting cave to make a detour.
He concealed his figure and approached the position where he had fought before. Unexpectedly, Adorable Ghost was still standing in the same place where he died and did not move even a single step.
Standing so blatantly, it was clear that he was not at all afraid of being attacked. Obviously, it was an attempt to provoke him by looking down on him.
This guy really underestimated him! Nine Thousand People was cursing in his heart, but he kept his patience and showed no flaw during his advance. Thus, he gradually approached, closely watching Adorable Ghost ‘s every move, until he was close enough behind him to attack. Then, a sharp blade flashing in his hand, he charged straight toward him.
Adorable Ghost was clearly ready, and as soon as the light on his staff flared, he dodged, sending the Frost Curse on a direct collision course. At the moment of impact, Nine Thousand People suddenly flashed in front of the opponent, avoiding it perfectly, and activated his killing intent without hesitation.
With the whole body glowing red, the assassin‘s strike frequency and critical damage got a boost within 10 seconds.
Nine Thousand People attacked three times in a row, directly reducing Adorable Ghost ‘s energy and blood until only a meager layer of blood remained. His hand technique suddenly became more offensive.
As the blood bar was about to be completely emptied, a sentence suddenly popped in the chat: “Hand speed is good. ^_^~”
At the same time as the words appeared, a curse of weakness was placed upon Nine Thousand People .
With the damaging effect weakening, the energy and blood loss of the Adorable Ghost was obviously slowed down. He took the opportunity to cast a Nightmare Curse, completely covering Nine Thousand ‘s entire field of vision.
Having an inexplicable bad premonition, Nine Thousand People subconsciously dodged back neatly, only to dimly see a halo of light flash beneath his feet, followed by a thorn that pierced through and caught him off guard in the freezing effect.
F*ck the predictions! He felt like he was going crazy.
Although the target could be killed in just a few moves, he could do nothing but look at that meager bit of blood left on the bar taunting him.
The most important thing was that the opponent’s calculations were so precise, even the timing of the curse of weakness was just right. If it was used a moment earlier, he might still have had enough techniques left for the final breakout. If it was a moment later, even without cooldown skills, with the remaining blood bar he could just chop off the head directly.
However, because he’s been blocked at this precise moment, this situation was unbearably embarrassing.
Nine Thousand People didn’t think about it anymore and immediately used the Image-Splitting technique.
Instead of retreating, he simply made a desperate attempt to figure out where Adorable Ghost was and rushed straight toward the predicted direction.
“So decisive…” Lin Xiao praised the other party’s sudden action of changing trajectory with a smirk, but the curse was already cast within 0.5 seconds. At this moment, such a grinning expression was very much like a hunter watching his prey jumping into the trap.
With his sight restored again, Adorable Ghost ‘s vague outline gradually became clear in the Nine Thousand People ‘s field of vision.
At this very moment, the casting of the curse ended.
Before he could clearly see the Shota cute face hidden under Little Red Riding Hood, a black barrier suddenly rose from the ground and directly covered the assassin. Overwhelming darkness covered him completely once again.
Just like that, before he had time to see anything, in less than a second, Nine Thousand People who had just regained his sight was once again engulfed by the ghost priest‘s big move, Myriad Ghost Void.
At first, he subconsciously tried to avoid the following attacks, but eventually, feeling overwhelmed by his opponent’s dominance, he gave up the fight altogether.
[System] Second Blood!
[System] Defeat!
Fourteen minutes into the game, Nine Thousand People tasted an unprecedented utter defeat.
Looking at the word ‘Victory’ displayed on the screen, Lin Xiao was in a good mood: “Sure enough, he’s just a big mouth.”
Laughing Sky didn’t manage to snipe anyone, so now he could only swallow his bad temper and wait patiently for the next opponent.
Because he was concerned about Lin Xiao’s progress, he was somewhat absent-minded while shooting. However, he didn’t want to make a sound for fear of disturbing the battle. It wasn’t until he heard a voice, that he suddenly recovered from his muddle. He wasn’t too surprised, though. “Are you done so soon?”
Lin Xiao countered him immediately, “Why haven’t you finished yet?”
“Coming, coming!” Laughing Sky answered and, without delay, took away the opponent’s head straight on. After exiting the game, he glanced at the online status of Nine Thousand People and immediately cheered up, “Yo, he’s not in the ranking yet, are you surprised?”
Lin Xiao was not in a hurry at all and was very generous and considerate: “It’s okay, we’ll wait for him.”
The two waited quietly for a while before finally sitting down for the next game.
Laughing Sky shouted happily in the voice chat, “Go! Go! He’s in again!”
The previous battle left Nine Thousand People really confused. He couldn’t believe that a novice who had just been promoted to the first level could be so powerful that he couldn’t fight back against him. However, after thinking about it for a long time, he really couldn’t remember any of the old top players with a character like this ghost priest. If there was an expert from Korea or the US on the server, could they speak Chinese so fluently?
This question puzzled him, but how could he have thought that a well-known expert like him would one day become the target of others’ sniping…
Unable to find a conclusion, all he could do was swallow his depression and start another match. But when he saw his opponent’s ID, he almost exploded on the spot.
Maybe because there were fewer people in the middle of the night, the one he got this round was Laughing Sky .
When they met, the so-called enemies were really furious; however, their fight was extraordinarily skillful and clean. In order not to show cowardice to the opposing side, the whole process was concise, avoiding even any detours. They faced each other simply and roughly so that it ended even faster than Lin Xiao’s match.
Fortunately, Lin Xiao was not slow either, he also ended the game about ten seconds after them.
After the two finished their games, they checked Nine Thousand People ‘s rank. Seeing him drop to 18th, they happily proceeded to line up for the following matches.
Who knows if God deliberately punished him, but in the third round, Nine Thousand People met Adorable Ghost again.
This time, it was much more straightforward than the first round.
Five minutes for the first blood.
Ten minutes to get the second blood.
Game over.
Seeing the word ‘Defeat’ displayed on the screen for the third time in a row, Nine Thousand People felt like crying. After a hard night’s work, not only was his rank nowhere near the top 10, he was even about to drop out of the top 20!
Meanwhile, he received a friend request.
Looking at the eye-catching ID “ Adorable Ghost ” in the applicant’s column, his eyelids twitched, but he chose to pass.
Soon he received a message: “Why don’t you line up? We are all waiting! ^_^~”
Why doesn’t he line up? All are waiting? At this time, how could Nine Thousand People not understand that the opponent was actually waiting to snipe him down! As for the reason? Who else would want to mess with him tonight if not Laughing Sky ? Finally, all the frustration he had built up overnight was about to erupt.
However, at this moment, he didn’t even have the strength to swear. He could only grit his teeth and tell Laughing Sky in the private chat, “Just wait.” Then he let out an angry shout.
Seeing this groundless threat, Laughing Sky was in a very good mood.
The situation in the first step of the leaderboard was like a jungle where the weak are prey to the strong. No matter who wins or loses, every game must be fought for, as any win or loss is enough to make a difference in the ever-changing leaderboard. The situation in which Nine Thousand People was defeated three times in a row tonight could, without exaggeration, be described as desperate.
“Today was really cool! Adorable Ghost , feel free to ask me for anything in the future, I’ll definitely help you as much as I can!” If previously Laughing Sky only had admiration for Lin Xiao’s abilities, after this night it could be said that he fully recognized him as a brother.
Although Lin Xiao lost a good deal of his sleep time, he was still very satisfied with the precious brotherhood he had gained, so he also made a rare gesture of politeness, “We are friends, what is there to say? That’s what we should do. Let’s block him again tomorrow when we have time!”
Laughing Sky said with a smile, “I appreciate it, but I’m afraid it won’t be possible tomorrow. I have to go on a business trip to N City , and it might take a few days to get back.”
Lin Xiao leaned back on the chair and said, “Are you coming to N City ?”
“Yeah, I’m going to…” Laughing Sky stopped halfway, noticing something different in his tone, and said in a daze, “You’re not by any chance in N City , are you?”
Lin Xiao grinned, involuntarily speaking in a teasing tone, “Laughing Boss, since we are brought together by fate, you must let me do the honors as host to the best of my abilities.”
After he had finished speaking, as there was no sound over there for a long time, he added quietly, “Don’t tell me you always hide your face from fans, do you?”
After an awkward silence, Laughing Sky laughed dryly twice: “How could it be!”
Lin Xiao nodded with satisfaction: “Then it’s decided, I’ll leave you my phone number, remember to call me when you’re free!”
Laughing Sky nodded repeatedly: “Ah, yes, no problem, no problem!”
To reassure this young man who was obviously a bit uneasy about meeting a fellow netizen, Lin Xiao thought of an excellent nighttime activity to boost his enthusiasm: “Let’s go to an Internet Cafe at night and continue to toy with Nine Thousand People .”
Sure enough, after hearing this proposal, Laughing Sky ‘s voice suddenly brightened again: “That’s a good idea, I like it!”