Chapter 1 A Fine View by the Lake

By the lakeside in the suburbs, the scenery was beautiful, an excellent place for flirting and making love. Never mind that the players were all stuck at level 30; the love lives symbolizing youth were developing vigorously. This great place by the lake was thriving. If you weren't careful walking, you might step on a couple in the bushes.

With June Rain's broad strokes, it wouldn't be her style to *not* step on one or two. Sure enough, shortly after entering this area, someone jumped up from beside June Rain's feet with a "whoosh": "Watch where you're going! Can't you see someone's here?"

June Rain and Gu Fei were startled and repeatedly apologized, making a detour.

Gu Fei also became cautious, using his superb magic staff as a snake-hunting stick, poking and prodding the bushes along the way, muttering, "Anyone there? Anyone there?"

There were no more incidents along the way. The couples lurking in the bushes heard Gu Fei's shouts from afar, and seeing him poking around with his dry stick, they all transferred locations like the wind. Gu Fei and June Rain finally arrived at the lakeside.

The lake water rippled, with no trash on its surface, indicating excellent environmental work. There were rumors that some players had begun researching which production skill was used to make boats in the game, so they could build a small pier by the lake and rent out a few small boats, which would surely be good business.

Gu Fei was enjoying the scenery when June Rain, standing next to him, shouted in a way that ruined the mood: "Ah! The treasure chest! Where are you?"

Treasure chest!!! Hearing these two words, countless ears perked up. Countless eyes flashed in the bushes, looking towards the two figures by the lake.

Gu Fei looked around. If the task was to retrieve the treasure chest, then there should be NPCs guarding the location of the treasure chest. There were monsters around the lakeside suburbs, but they were few and scattered. Plus, this was a dating area, so no one would grind levels here, and the NPC distribution was very complete. Gu Fei scanned around, but he didn't see any areas where the NPCs seemed particularly concentrated.

"Let's walk around and see!" Helplessly, he had to walk towards a group of NPCs that looked like a small gang. As the two of them moved, rustling sounds also came from the bushes, as countless people began to crawl forward, continuing to monitor these two talking about the treasure chest.

"Nope!"

"Not here either!"

"Still nothing here!"

Along the way, June Rain cleared out the NPCs while shouting in frustration.

The NPC levels around the lakeside suburbs were not high. June Rain, a level 30 full-strength warrior, could basically kill one with two axe swings, so Gu Fei didn't even need to lift a finger. Gu Fei just carefully searched the nearby bushes. As a result, they didn't find the treasure chest, but he poked out two more couples in love.

Seeing that the two had walked more than halfway around the lake, and the players crawling behind them were too tired to keep going, the treasure chest was still nowhere to be found. Gu Fei had long since lost interest. June Rain's fighting spirit hadn't diminished, and her enthusiasm was as high as when she had left the guild. Gu Fei suddenly felt a bit of resonance. This girl's persistence towards online game quests was like his own momentum towards kung fu!

June Rain continued to diligently chop monsters, pull weeds, and look for the box. Gu Fei had already begun to slack off, swinging his stick around randomly while yawning repeatedly. His current feeling of weariness was the same as ordinary players who had been grinding the same monsters in the same place for hours on end.

Suddenly, he heard June Rain shout, "Aha! It's here!"

"Where?" Gu Fei's spirits lifted. Finding the treasure chest meant that the task could be finished soon.

June Rain cheerfully pointed forward. In the bushes on the hillside to their front and side, there was a wooden stake with its upper half cut off, and a treasure chest was placed squarely on top of it. There wasn't even a shadow of an NPC around the treasure chest.

"This is so easy?" Gu Fei wondered to himself. Hadn't July said that they should notify everyone to gather after finding the treasure chest, and then everyone would work together to snatch the treasure chest back? The current situation didn't require snatching at all; wouldn't it be over if they just took it back? Look, just like Little Rain.

June Rain had already gone up to hug the treasure chest when suddenly the bushes behind her rustled violently, and several figures flew up, rushing towards the treasure chest together.

"Ah! An ambush! Those cunning NPCs!" June Rain shouted.

What NPCs? These guys were the players who had been following them the whole time. Gu Fei knew this very well. He had known from the start that these guys were crawling behind them. Gu Fei could also guess the intentions of these people, but he thought that since this treasure chest was their quest item, it should have a bit of the demeanor of a quest item. Who knew it would be placed so squarely in an open space, looking like it was waiting to be slaughtered.

June Rain was still the closest to the treasure chest, but with her heavy armor, it was obvious that running wasn't her strong suit. After a few clanging steps, she was approached by a large margin. Gu Fei stepped forward, holding the end of his staff and thrusting it forward, then swinging it left and right. With two "paps," the two players who had rushed up were each hit with a stick.

Using the staff in this way, the damage was of course limited, but the two were a little dazed after being hit. After crawling behind them for so long, they had used the Appraisal spell on Gu Fei more than 180 times out of boredom, and had long since confirmed that he was a mage. When they saw this guy step forward, they were expecting a roaring fire, but who would have thought they would be hit with two sticks to the head.

These two were stunned in place, but two other guys took the opportunity to go around from the side. Although Gu Fei was a full-agility mage with good speed, the other party was a more professional thief. Seeing that it was impossible to catch up, he reached into his pocket, grabbed a handful of meat-cutting knives, and threw them. With a "whoosh," the one on the left was stabbed with a knife, and he screamed, reaching back to pull out a small knife from his butt. He was immediately stunned as well: What kind of move is this?

Gu Fei had already pulled out a second knife and was preparing to deal with the one on the right.

This guy was happily trying to pass June Rain when June Rain suddenly stretched out her arm and grabbed the guy's collar. The thief subconsciously swung his dagger, but June Rain was wearing heavy armor, and without dodging or evading, she swung her arm around. With a "whoosh," the thief somersaulted wildly into the sky before finally falling into the river with a "plop."

Violent warriors were truly terrifying. Gu Fei was covered in cold sweat. This arm strength had clearly exceeded the level of a normal human being in real life. This was only level 30; he didn't dare imagine what the consequences would be if she continued to level up.

At this time, the guy who had been stunned by the two sticks reacted. Seeing that he hadn't suffered any major injuries, he hurriedly wanted to continue rushing forward. Gu Fei turned his head and shouted to June Rain, "I'll block them, you go get the treasure chest." Then he turned back to meet them.

The two guys seemed to see through that Gu Fei's staff wouldn't do much damage even if it hit them, so they didn't dodge and instead forced their way through.

Gu Fei, who had a strong kung fu mindset and was prepared to counter their moves, didn't expect this kind of rogue online game fighting style. With his weak body, when his staff hit the other party, he was instead knocked to the ground by the force of their charge.

"Ah, you idiot!" June Rain saw this and actually abandoned the treasure chest, wanting to come back and help.

Unexpectedly, Gu Fei, who was about to fall backward, straightened his waist, spun around in mid-air, and swung his staff horizontally with a "whoosh," smashing it hard on the ankles of the two guys.

"Ah! Ah!" Two screams, and the two guys were swept to the ground, but the damage was still not great. The two were preparing to get up, but how could they compare to Gu Fei's professional carp jump? Gu Fei, who got up first, stepped on the two of them again, then raised his staff and started beating them wildly: "What are you two doing? Charging around? I despise people who fight without any skill the most!"

Don't underestimate Gu Fei's weak strength, he had speed, frequency, and, more importantly, sharp eyes. Gu Fei could immediately see which joint the other party was about to move, and his staff would immediately hit it.

After a few staff strikes, the two were beaten so badly that they couldn't even lift their heads. Finally, they learned their lesson and lay motionless. Gu Fei's staff stopped, and he looked back. The kid whose butt he had thrown a knife at had already been thrown somewhere by June Rain. At this time, she was happily running towards the treasure chest.

Suddenly, Gu Fei noticed the bushes next to the wooden stake moving violently and quickly reminded, "Be careful, there's someone else!"

"Ah?" June Rain's reaction was of course slow. In the moment she was stunned, a figure flew out of the bushes, lunging towards the treasure chest.

Gu Fei cursed his bad luck. He might as well not have reminded her. June Rain might have rushed to the front and been able to compete with that guy. But after his shout, that silly girl just stood there dumbly, letting the other guy take the lead. It looked like the treasure chest was about to be snatched away.

Just as he was feeling annoyed, he suddenly heard a sound of something breaking through the air from a distance. With a "whoosh," he saw the guy who lunged towards the treasure chest fly out sideways, turning into white light in the air.

"What's going on!" Gu Fei was shocked.

June Rain's reaction was actually faster than ever at this moment. She immediately crouched down and hid behind the wooden stake, shouting to Gu Fei, "Hurry, get down, it's a sniper!"

Gu Fei agilely fell to the ground, lying next to the two guys, muttering in confusion, "Sniper?"

"It's the archer's level 30 skill. Although the damage isn't as high as the mage's Fireball Barrage, the thief's Backstab, or the warrior's Whirlwind Slash, the attack range is really terrifying. It can double the normal range. You can only receive his arrow, and you'll never see his person," explained the guy lying next to Gu Fei.

"Is that so? Can't find the person?" Gu Fei smiled.