“Six minutes and thirty-nine seconds,” Sasha sighed after they stepped out of the elevator. “The mausoleum is too big, and Gloomie’s mini-game is too difficult!”
Oritha laughed. Unlike Sasha, she cleared the Simon Say game faster, even after messing up the sequence once. That wasn’t her fault. Liu Feng had no idea if “Mike” was a microphone of a man’s name in the context and hesitated too long, resulting in their failure. She did her part perfectly.“It’s ok,” Zen quickly positioned himself between his self-proclaimed big sister and the Amazonian. “We will improve over time. I’m sure we will be speed-running the mausoleum blindfolded by the end of the next run.”Without missing a beat, Liu Feng chimed in about how easy that would be. Why blindfold when being blind is more permanent?Laughing at the dark humour nervously, Zen ushered the party to the next run. They descended“I think we can break the five-minute record with more puddings and better armour,” Zen panted after their sixtieth run. Even if he wasn’t doing much, keeping up with their pace was already challenging.The girls were getting faster as they became more familiar with the mausoleum. However, it still took five minutes to finish a run, even with the fastest path. They had been doing this for nearly six hours. Zen couldn’t continue. He needed to rest before waking up to prepare breakfast.“We can gather the ingredients,” Liu Feng offered helpfully. “What do you need?”Checking his recipe, Zen told them the basic speed slime pudding required one boss slime eye and five green slime goo. The monsters were relatively easy to find, but it was tedious to fight alone. Not to mention, the slimes came in groups. Zen would spend more time retreating than killing slimes if he did it alone.“We’ll need one hundred boss
Zen woke up.Zen finished making breakfast.Zen ate his breakfast.But nobody was up.Despite the short few hours of sleep after last night’s mental breakdown, Zen felt better. Sleep deprivation was scary, and he wanted to apologise for the outburst. However, none of his party members was awake. They must have spent all night farming for pudding materials. The busy chef did not have time to check his inbox, although he received multiple notifications about gifts from them.“Maybe I should send everyone a message and deliver the food to their rooms,” he decided after checking the time.Zen woke up near noon. That was usually when the kitchen would be bustling with activity and starving folks who had just completed their morning training. However, most people were asleep today from the excitement of last night. Unlike Party Godly Food, the other students were most likely busy preparing for the treasure hunt event and trading
Zen finally logged in after delivering lunch. His inbox was flooded with notifications. His party members sent so many gifts that Zen had no idea where to start. They didn’t only send him pudding ingredients, even if that made for more than seventy percent of the mail. The game developers should increase the in-game item mail cap so that Zen did not have to deal with a hundred gift messages. His members also sent what they received from sixty runs of the mausoleum. It was too much to read, so Zen spent the next fifteen minutes mindlessly opening gifts and storing them in his inventory.Thankfully, he had enough Steel Silk to work with. However, those weren’t the only things his party members sent. Zen spent a reasonable amount of time reading through the different talisman cards they gifted. Some of those talismans had wonderful effects. On the other hand, there were also talismans with random trash-sounding abilities.Either way, Zen was grateful.T
With little progress at the blacksmith, Zen left to check on Paul. However, the armourer wasn’t in his workshop. Hence, he decided to walk around town for a while to kill time. His crafting inventory was still hard at work when it gave Zen an idea.Stopping outside the restaurant where Martha’s fruit stall initially was, Zen saw Chef Marvin standing around. The friendly chef waved to Zen and warmly welcomed him with a heavy back pat.“It’s good to see you again! Have you been eating well?”If Gilda were here, Zen would have been glared to death for ‘flirting’ with Marvin. Smiling awkwardly, Zen asked if he could borrow the kitchen to make some slime puddings.“Of course!” the cheerful NPC grinned and showed Zen the kitchen at the back of his restaurant. “Let me know if you need any help!”Dismissing the touchy-feely chef, Zen looked at the kitchen.Cooking on a real range was faster than
Following the weaver inside, Zen noticed a massive loom near the back of the house. Closer to the window where there was light, Zen spotted a desk with many needles, threads, and unfinished products.“Here, let me show you the different basic stitching styles,” Annabel introduced after ushering Zen to sit on a chair in her living room. The lady brought her sewing materials over and passed some to Zen, who held it with uncertainty.The weaver turned out to be a great teacher. She was patient and clear with her explanations, even going so far as to give a demonstration. Zen listened attentively and followed her example. He picked up a needle and chose a thread with a similar colour to the fabric he was using for stitching practice.Annabel threaded the needle fluidly and watched Zen struggle with his. The thread refused to go into the eye of the needle as it was too thin.After five attempts, Zen finally got a small part of his thread through the needle
After crafting enough Steel Silk armour for his party members, Zen sent it to them with a message asking them to meet him at the starter town after they logged in. Then, he logged out to prepare lunch.Zen spotted other students ordering instant noodles as he whipped up something quick for himself. There were more instant noodle flavours now than before, but Zen couldn’t overlook the importance of nutrition. Out of the kindness of his heart, he prepared extra toppings that would go well with the noodles while he cooked for his guild members.“Can I place orders for other instant and frozen food on top of the regular ingredients?” Zen asked the kitchen invigilator on duty.The gruff lady with many tattoos raised a brow.“Why not? Write them down, quantity and all. We’ll still have to wait for the next shipment. By the way, instant noodles have become quite the hit. It’s good for us because we don’t know how to cook. If you
Unlike the others, it was easy for Sasha to pick a weapon from the pile. There were many melee weapons but only one gun.“I’m ready!” she announced to Ben. Together, they headed outside with Zen in tow. The three assassins sorted through the rejected pile of weapons and leisurely played with a few. Zen and Sasha wouldn’t be back for a while, so they could take their time exploring the options.As they approached the testing ground, Zen recognised the firewood chopping area. Ben set up a small shooting range using smaller wood chips and drew a line on the ground about fifty steps away.“Try shooting the wood chips from this distance. We will slowly increase the distance to find your ideal range.”Fifty steps was quite the distance. They were no longer in the woodcutting area. Zen did not know if getting any further was wise but stood behind Sasha with Ben to observe.The wind blew gently, but Sasha had no hesitation. Even w
Following Oritha and Ben to the edge of the forest outside town, Zen wondered why NPCs could leave the starter town’s borders. There had never been such an instance in any of the games he had played previously. The Godfather’s dungeon took gaming to a whole new level.Watching silently, Zen learned more about the weight-lifting Amazonian. He thought she was a melee combat specialist with a secondary talent for archery. However, according to Oritha, it wasn’t the case.“I was trained in archery with my tribe before getting kidnapped to the assassin camp. I learned how to brawl there as it was the easiest way to defend myself from the other backstabbers. Pure strength was the best way to survive. I came out top because of it. The other girls learned poison, knife skills, flexibility and speed, but nothing compared to muscles.”Zen listened as Oritha shared more details about her days in the assassin camp. The kidnapped children learned all
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