025. Demonic Dungeon (1)
Before he pulled them into the team, Qin Yu had first warned his friends not to divulge any information about his real identity to He Jin. He did this because these people had met him in real life.
During winter vacation last year, Dead Water organized an offline party and invited his game friends from the nearby area to meet up.
At first, Qin Yu didn’t know about this. He only received a message telling him to come to “Drunken Beijing Tower”, and took interest in it after knowing Nine Hall, Leisure Cloud, and Wild Crane would also be there.
Before that, Qin Yu had never seen anyone from the game in real life, including his longest friend – Dead Water.
Because the names mentioned by Dead Water were familiar to him, Qin Yu did not hesitate to go, and hurriedly hailed a taxi. However, once he arrived there, the scene that greeted him was much different from what he had imagined; there were about 10 men and women there, including Flower Yiyi.
Among those people was Nine Hall His Highness, who looked like a typical rich second-generation: in his early 20s, attending university in a neighboring country, liked sports cars, loved to play games, and had a particularly unrestrained temperament.
Both Leisure Cloud and Wild Crane were not locals, they only came to the city a few years ago to attend a local University, and currently, they had been going back and forth between this city and their hometown. Leisure Cloud was the social elite type, with an extraordinary bearing, and carried himself as if he was a man of importance. On the other hand, Wild Crane looked more like someone who delved in the scientific research field. Both of them claimed to be in their thirties, yet they looked much younger than that.
In Dead Water’s case, Qin Yu had long known about him. He was also a son of a rich family, however, unlike Nine Hall His Highness, Dead Water was more like an “elegant daughter from an eminent family[1]”. He is a pianist who graduated from a well-known Music University, and was often invited to play piano in famous orchestras. He did not really talk about himself during the meet-up though, so most of them didn’t even know his real age.
Last but not least, Flower Yiyi. Everyone had seen her photos before, and had acknowledged her beauty. Her real appearance was no less outstanding than in those photos. Especially as she shyly told them that she was still in college, the image of her clear and innocent-looking eyes were incredibly eye-catching.
Before Qin Yu’s arrival, Flower Yiyi was the center of attention among the crowd. Many people gathered around her, all of them trying to talk to her, including Nine Hall His Highness. Although he had been rejected by Yiyi before, thanks to their in-game “sibling relationship”, he could act a bit more familiarly with her now.
However, once Qin Yu arrived, all of them were completely stunned. They couldn’t believe that the heartless “Fire Ruthless” unexpectedly turned out to be such a handsome young man!
At that time, Qin Yu had started doing live broadcasts, so he paid more attention to his private information. He did not even tell his real name to the players in the meet up, the only thing he told them was that he was currently studying in a university in a nearby region.
People who studied in B City would know that the region Qin Yu mentioned only had two universities, and both were pretty well-known. Because of this, a rumor about him being a student from a famous university would then be written in his online encyclopedia.
After Qin Yu sat down, Flower Yiyi gently called out to him: “Master”
It was soon followed by whooping from everyone around them. Most of them were saying how well matched Qin Yu and Flower Yiyi were, and teasing them to just “get together already”.
Flower Yiyi stayed quiet and blushed, however the way she looked at Qin Yu had changed.
Ever since High School, Qin Yu had often received numerous confessions and pursuits from many girls, so of course, he was well aware of the meaning behind Flower Yiyi’s gaze – she liked him.
As the party was nearing its end, the members suggested they took a group photo, but Qin Yu firmly refused to join in. And so, except for the fact that he was “very handsome” and “a student from a famous university”, there was no more info known about him.
***
After Qin Yu finished reminding his friends, their answers soon came one after another...
〖Private Chat Dead Water〗: “You don’t want “him” to know that you look handsome eh?”
〖Private Chat Nine Hall His Highness〗: “Besides the fact that you do live broadcast, what else is there to divulge! Should I tell her that you’re a big pervert? ”
〖Private Chat Leisure Cloud丶〗: “OK.”
〖Private chat Wild Crane丶〗: “Ah? What do you mean? ”
Sure enough, from their answers you could clearly tell which of the following characters, “black belly, a tease, clever, clueless”, belonged to each of them.
〖 Team〗- Nine Your Highness: “Xiao Bai sister-in-law, are you the one who turned your husband into a big pervert? He often abused me in the game ah~! ”
〖 Team〗 – Xiao Xian-Jin: “...”
Qin Yu determinedly ignored Nine Hall His Highness, and asked in the team channel: “We are going to take my wife to do Demonic Dungeon, you guys are in right?”
〖 Team〗 – Leisure Cloud: “OK.”
〖 Team〗- Dead Water: “Don’t you want to introduce us first?”
〖 Team〗 – Wild Crane丶: “Yes Ah! Why is your wife a ferret?”
〖 Team〗- Leisure Cloud丶: “She is playing as a Spirit Pet, right?”
〖 Team〗 – Wild Crane丶: “No way! A wife can take double role as a spirit pet too? That’s awesome!”
Once again, Qin Yu ignored all of them, and said directly: “Let’s go to Yan Mountain’s Blazing Prison.”
Nine Hall His Highness immediately opened his voice function, and shouted: “Ruthless! Are you really not going to introduce us? Is your wife a beauty? How tall is she? What are her measurements? Did she already graduate from college? What is her job? ....”
Qin Yu: “Why do you want to know?”
Your highness: “I am curious ah... Hey, what did she do seven or eight years ago? ”
The team suddenly stopped walking, because Fire Ruthless had launched an attack on Nine Hall His Highness! The onlookers did not even have the chance to react, and could only hear as Nine Hall His Highness started screaming curses for about half a minute before finally dropping dead on the ground.
He Jin: “...”
Qin Yu then continued to lead the way, while also sending a sentence to the team channel–
〖 Team〗- Fire Ruthless: “Resurrect yourself.”
〖 Team〗 – Dead Water: “Well, curiosity kills the cat.”
〖 Team〗 – Wild Crane丶: “In this case, it’s curiosity kills Nine Hall His Highness ah...”
Nine Hall His Highness soon resurrected, and exclaimed loudly: “Ruthless, just wait until later! I’ll take my revenge!”
Coincidentally, as he said this, the team finally arrived at the entrance of the Blazing Prison. Qin Yu answered him lightly: “I’ll be waiting ~”
Nine Hall His Highness: “...”
“Demonic Dungeon” was one of the most difficult dungeons in Demon God. The dungeon level was 90, and it was located in “Yan Mountain”, which was known as one of the place where the newest race, “Soul”, originated from.
According to the background story, there was a demon called Huo Ming who lived here. Huo Ming ruled the Demon Clan for thousands of years, and had led them during several wars against the Heavenly Beings. They were almost victorious, and could have destroyed the Heavenly Beings’ troop in one fell swoop. However, during this time, Huo Ming unexpectedly fell in love with the God of Fire from Heavenly Being, Xi. He was later betrayed, which lead to the demise of the Demon Clan.
Still, Huo Ming did not regret having fallen in love. He wanted to find Xi and lived with him, but his dream was crushed once again when he finally met Xi. The Fire God told him that he did not have any feeling for him, and was merely using him to defeat the Demon Clan. Soon after that, Huo Ming found himself surrounded by many Heavenly Beings, with all of them trying to kill him.
Suffering from deception and betrayal, Huo Ming was forced to flee into the mortal world. Later, he created a wall of blazing fire in Yan Mountain. No one knew that he was hiding in the mountain and nobody ever made the connection between the blazing fire in Yan Mountain with his tragic love for the God of Fire.
After the background story of this dungeon was released, many players took turns to scold the game company, especially the more righteous and emotional female players. They felt distressed just by the thought of hurting Huo Ming, but they had to do it – because Huo Ming is the final boss of this dungeon!
The players who cleared this dungeon would have a chance to gain the high-level weapon “Flame Wand” and a super material “Ming’s Diamond”. The former was an advanced weapon for level 90 or above mages, which was useless for Qin Yu. While the latter could be embedded in any equipment to improve fire attribute attacks. It could also be sold at a really high price, so, even if a player without any fire attribute attacks acquired this item, it would still hold some value for them.
***
The team waited for Nine Hall His Highness to reach Blazing Prison’s entrance, before Fire finally took the lead to enter it.
T/N: [1] 名门闺秀 really translated as a daughter from an eminent family, or for a simpler term, an elegant lady. So the use of “daughter” in this chapter is not a mistranslation.