After plenty of sleep, Zen woke up feeling hungry again. His party members were already awake, and Zen received a flurry of messages from the famished folks. Rushing to get washed and heading to the kitchen, Zen decided to check the new message sent by the Godfather. Apparently, they had yet to claim their rewards from the treasure hunt event.
“Good morning!” Zen greeted hurriedly as he arrived at the kitchen. Everyone, including Damian, was already gathered. Zen also spied two familiar invigilators and greeted them before getting on with breakfast orders, starting with Liu Feng’s.Once everyone was nursing a beverage, Zen worked his magic in the kitchen. In just ten minutes, every available pot and wok were bubbling away. The heat from the stoves carried delicious scents to envelope the entire kitchen, tempting those who passed by. However, with Guild Survivor members lurking outside and acting as security, nobody else dared trespass. In just two weeks oAfter confirming to be moved, the old Party Godly Food was transferred to a different dungeon in the virtual world. Unlike other reward instances, Zen did not meet the old granny at the bar. The reward dungeon was closer to a mythical historical museum instead.“Welcome to the special reward dungeon,” a robotic voice announced. “In return for giving up foolish freedom, you have chosen more power to forge the treacherous path of your own making.”Revealing an array of species with genetic traits that the winners of the treasure hunt could assume in the dungeon, the system administrator explained that the reward would give the winners of the previous event a special dungeon-limited buff that can be applied for all floors, including special and boss dungeons.“Think of it as a permanent mutation. However, choose wisely. There is a price to pay for great power. Once you have confirmed your purchase, you may not change your decision, and
"Do you remember what monsters were on floor 4?” Zen asked Sasha.Shaking her head, the Draconian sniper turned to ask if anyone else in their party remembered. Unsurprisingly, nobody did. After all, they were powerful assassins. Why would they remember details about their enemies, especially those who were weak?Ring!Looking at the call notification, Zen realised that Damian was trying to connect to them. Quickly, they accepted and joined his group call.“Ahem! Can you hear me now? I sent the pedometer program to you in the mailbox. It required a little tweaking to send a program over because I doubt the academy thought there would be a programmer attending. Please let me know if you have trouble installing the software.”One by one, Damian guided everyone step by step in downloading and installing his customised software. According to the cyborg, the system administrator kept blocking his access for unauthorised codes detected in the emb
The location that Liu Feng, Oritha and Zen arrived at turned out to be a dud. Akiko and Sasha were still confirming the hideout’s location so Zen took the opportunity to harvest a new variety of herbs from the forest area. In that time, Damian idly looked through all his new player settings after accepting the party invitation.“Did any of you turn on inventory and skill sharing as well?” he asked.???“What’s that?” Zen asked, realising that Damian had been unmuted for a while now.Sending Zen a screenshot of what he was looking at, Damian explained how he found them under advanced party settings. Zen blinked. When did the system administrator add this feature? It wasn’t there previously!“When did you find this?” Zen asked urgently, checking is personal settings. True enough, it was there too.Shrugging, Damian explained how it had always been there. However, Zen swore he did not see it previously.
Ping!On the way back, Zen received a notification from the game. Oritha received one at the same moment, and they exchanged questioning looks.“Oh? It appears as if I can claim the smokescreen grenades too,” Damian announced through the group call. “I can also see the new main quest. That’s very convenient!”Jaw falling open, Zen quickly checked his notification. Sure enough, the updated party quest-sharing system marked the chain quest as completed for everyone in Godly Food. They claimed the rewards happily and stared at the new quest requirement that Liu Feng accepted on everyone’s behalf.===Quest: Shady Business Part 2Objective: Infiltrate the Kobold’s Mine and obtain a map layout for the Shady MerchantQuest item: Self-updating magical mapReward: 5 flash grenades===Whatever purpose the Shady Merchant had in mind for recruiting them for his scouting mission, Zen didn’t
Thanks to the stealth training Zen received from Liu Feng before the Treasure Hunt event, he was barely able to avoid detection by Karina. Sasha had no issues either, and the archer elf admitted defeat. These weren’t rookie adventurers. They had some skills.“I don’t know how useful this skill is, but please take it. You’ve passed the first trial.”Ping!===17. Shadow StepsEffects: When activated, helps player avoid getting detected for 30 seconds while moving.===Checking the new skill, Zen rejoiced. Unlike Sasha, who was a natural at activating stealth, he struggled to maintain his cool in stealth mode. Moving while remaining stealthy was something he never learned. The new skill would definitely come in handy.“Sweet! How do I use the skill?” Sasha asked.Zen could understand her enthusiasm. Gaining new skills in a game was always exciting for gamers. This had to be Sasha’s first activ
Chuckling to himself, Liu Feng refused to comment on the two children’s excitement about the new skills. For professionals like Akiko and himself, dismantling a trap or two was basic. They didn’t have to worry about carefully removing parts without triggering the detection mechanism. With enough brute force and finesse, physical traps like the ones the Kobolds made using primitive resources could be destroyed five times quicker than a scout could disarm it.“That’s nice,” he congratulated Zen over the group voice call when the gamer and sniper informed everyone they successfully cleared the third training in a single try with Damian’s live coaching. “You can dismantle basic traps now with basic accessory crafting and armour crafting skills. Two Shots might have to finish the other side quests to use that skill if she’s interested. However, there’s no need to assist us. Oritha should be turning in the next quest soon. The Dea
“I’ll wait here,” Zen smiled. “You should go check it out. Many secret quests come with special skills and rewards only chosen players can get.”Hearing how the secret quest granted only specific players unusual rewards, Sasha’s curiosity got the better of her. Even Damian, who was observing them, became interested. However, Oritha shrugged.“It must be another ranged skill,” she sighed. “If it were a strength-related skill, I might be interested.”“We wouldn’t know yet,” Damian hummed, studying Sasha’s perspective from over the group call. “I’ll tell you what she got after she finishes the quest.”Leisurely, everyone else resumed what they were doing. Akiko and Liu Feng only had one more quest for the main chain quest. They were to find the Mega Furnace schematic by defeating the Kobold Mad Scientist. The boss monster wasn’t difficult to defeat. However, l
“Take a left turn after two forked paths, and you’ll be at the boss room,” Zen urged.After failing once to get both Liu Feng and Akiko to the boss room, Zen devised a new strategy. Honestly, this was a fourth-floor boss. With how strong Liu Feng and Akiko were before they integrated with their bloodline, it was unnecessary for both powerhouses to be there. Hence, the objective was to get at least one of them to the destination.Sending Liu Feng and Akiko to different areas on standby, Zen predetermined where the new boss room would appear. After seeing so many failed attempts, Zen narrowed down the possible locations of the boss’ room that he would include in the gamer guide. True to his hunch, the new boss’s room appeared near Akiko.Flying over at top speed, Akiko smashed through any traps from walls and ceilings. Ground traps were easy to avoid with her newly gained aerial skills. Although the Death Princess was still unfamiliar with
Collecting the rewards for successfully defeating John’s cousin, the party members of Godly Food jumped into the portal leading to the next floor. Zen knew that the dungeon had different themes on every ten floors. The tenth floor of each themed stage would be different from the other stages in difficulty. It was why the vanguard team struggled with the twentieth floor’s boss. In addition to the stage mechanic’s difference, the final boss was also tougher to deal with. If not for the monstrous capabilities of the combatants, Zen doubted they could breeze through the first ten floors as quickly as they did.Anticipating a village or town vibe similar to the other floors from before, Zen was stunned to find himself in a rocky cave full of darkness. It had ominous vibes, and only Liu Feng moved confidently in the darkness. Everyone else minimised exploring further without a light source.“We’ll log out here,” Akiko informed Damian. “Y
After entering the boss dungeon den, Zen shivered. It wasn’t similar to a wolf’s den. If anything, it appeared closer to an actual dungeon, as if someone had deliberately attempted to imprison the boss here. The stale smell of dogs and many broken chains of different sizes on the ground spoke volumes about John’s cousin.Unlike the short werewolf, who remained in his werewolf form constantly, the boss was a monster who could transform. Depending on the moon cycle, it could be a violent and bloodthirsty monster or a broken man who lived in constant fear and misery of his curse.“He changes according to the moon cycle once the rampage begins,” Akiko explained. “I took a while to figure out how to kill him, even on the first run. He’s immune to damage on a blood moon. We need to finish it as soon as possible.”With a full party participating in a boss battle, Zen had faith they could conclude it before even the blood moon p
Finally approaching the final boss’s cave, Zen wondered if the storyline would change because they had let Han murder John brutally. His body had been hacked into pieces and scattered around the rotting forest. The maggots would get to it soon and reduce it to bones. Yet, the cruel butchering session remained fresh in Zen’s mind.Everyone in the party knew that feeling all too well. Having lived in the underworld, they sympathised with Zen, who had lived like a civilian his whole life. Although not everyone participated directly in the act of murder, they knew what it meant to take a life. Even Damian had seen it happen. He knew how to interrogate for information and was quite adept at the craft when required.“Don’t think too much about it,” Liu Feng was the first to break the silence. “He wasn’t even real. This is a game designed by the Godfather to find the next successor. It’s just another test.”Even if it wer
Even after many years of not being on talking terms with the rest of the family, Hans fitted right in when delving blows at the cowardly werewolf. Mai ripped out chunks of flesh with her teeth, snarling at it the whole time while Laura expertly force-fed the werewolf with different herbs with particularly nasty effects.Even with regeneration abilities, John could not recover from herbs that tasted nasty, gave him muscle cramps or made him itch all over. Laura truly knew how to make someone suffer, and Zen watched with morbid fascination at their different uses. Her apothecary skills were no less effective than those of Herbologist Hernie.“Can you heal him again?” Damian asked. “Han needs another round. Mai roughed him up a little too good.”With a priest in the party who did not worship any known religion, the torture session became smoother and more effective. No apology from John would appease the family’s anger. Although Zen did not
After listening to the story about John, Laura’s expression hardened. “That son of a bitch!” she spat. “How dare he prey on my granddaughter! Where is he now?!” Slightly terrified by the murderous aura, Zen reported that Sasha and Damian had the werewolf at Gabrielle’s hut. Mai had been ripping him a new one each time he regenerated. The girls had been doing a great job of making him miserable. Han was already there. “I can’t believe I’m last at the party. That wolf deserves to die. Even death is too cheap a price to pay after what he did to my husband and son.” For once, Zen agreed. Even if John was merely a character in the game, he deserved death. The fact that the game administrators did not grant John invulnerable stats meant that it was possible to kill the cousin of the floor boss. While waiting for Laura to pack her ‘tools’ and herbal surprises, Zen approached Liu Feng and thanked him for accompanying them. In real time, it was already past regular l
Studying advanced herbalism from Laura took more time than Zen expected. Thankfully, the game had a way of providing cheats for him. Instead of cramming all the knowledge into his head that would give him a splitting migraine, it provided a useful guidebook that would prompt him on what a particular herb does upon location and what combinations he could use it for with other known herbs. The problem was, to truly master this skill, he had to pass the final test. Laura’s pop quiz only had ten questions. However, there was a timer. While Zen could attempt it infinitely, there were thousands of herb combinations to remember. Not having any formal education in either of his past lives, the young chef faltered. “You may use anything in this cottage as a reference for your test,” Laura smirked. “All the best. I hope you won’t disappoint me.” Stressing over the best method to find what he needed, Zen tested a few things. Firstly, when Laura said that the new skill would inst
While the other party members gathered the family members for a reunion, Zen and Liu Feng finally found Laura’s cottage after taking a wrong turn. Funnily enough, it was the Seer who pointed out how they had been going in a circle before Zen realised he had misinterpreted the map. Knocking on the cottage door, Zen waited with his sworn brother. From inside, he could hear someone coughing badly. “Who is it?” the cranky old lady hacked as she cracked open the door. Instead of seeing her sloppy son or nosy granddaughter, Laura saw a cute priest and a handsome, long-haired warrior. The new adventurers surprised her. Were they lost in the forest? “What do you want?” she asked briefly before launching into a new coughing fit. It was a particularly nasty cold that had persisted for a week now without any signs of recovery. Despite all the herbal medicine she made, Laura did not see any signs of improvement. Perhaps she was getting on in age. Smiling, Zen show
It was a shame Zen was not with them. Sasha would have gone for a few more rounds, using the cowardly werewolf as a punching bag after Zen healed him. The more they dug information out from the pervert, the worse Sasha’s temper was. Damian did not stop her. The draconian needed somewhere to vent her anger, and it was best for it not to come his way. In truth, the cyborg felt a little sorry for Gabrielle, even if she were just a fictional character created for this virtual dungeon game. The cowardly cousin of the floor boss was no different from lowly thugs borrowing the influence of their powerful relatives to cause mayhem. Whimpering in fear and pain with his tail tucked in between his legs, the werewolf defect who could not transform into a human no matter the moon cycle kept a close eye on Sasha. Under the watch of the merciless draconian female, there was nowhere for him to run. He told them what they wanted to know and was alive for now. Given how tightly they w
Using hand gestures, Sasha signalled the countdown and Damian prepared his stunning spells silently. They only had one chance to catch the secret admirer off guard. Whatever he was doing was disgusting enough. Han wasn’t lying about the obsession. The stalker werewolf was plucking flower petals and chanting Gabrielle’s name to see if she would love him back. Each time the flower petals ended on a no, he would crush the flower, stomp on it and pick a new one, confessing his disturbing love to her before plucking off the petals of a new flower.“Oh, Gabrielle! What sweet rosy cheeks you have, all the better for me to bite into them when they are ripe! They were pink when you were a babe. They were red when you had a fever. I wonder if they’d bleed if I bit them… would you cry in pain and fear? It makes me so excited to think about it! Just wait a little more, my angel. You’d soon be an adult, and we could finally be together!”Disgu