Chapter 177
While Fatty and Xiao Jian talked, Qian Xiaoqian pulled Liu Lan to the side to chat quietly. Qi Luoyu also joined the girls.
Three women inevitably make drama: Laughing joyfully, they whispered among themselves; and, from time to time, Liu Lan flushed red as she was apparently teased mercilessly.
The two guys chatted for a while before arranging a time to visit their dead comrades’ families. Then, Fatty prepared to take his leave.
“You should be careful. I know this w.a.n.g Kai. He’s your typical rich, spoiled playboy. The guy won’t take today’s matter lying down. While he wouldn’t dare penly cause trouble, he’ll do it discreetly.”
“No worries, I know how to deal with this kind of person.” Fatty nodded.
“Remember to add me when you log in; my screen name is OneSwordtoHeaven. Haha! Frisky, don’t you think?” Xiao Jian laughed loudly.
Fatty raised his middle finger to the man. “Childis.h.!.+”
Qian Xiaoqian and Qi Luoyu prepared to take their leave as well. “You can rest a.s.sured. I’ll take good care of Xiaoqian and make sure no one bothers her,” Qi Luoyu promised to Fatty before they left. Pulling Qian Xiaoqian into the car, Qi Luoyu offered a few final words with a charming smile. “But, as payment, getting our guild a Guild Establishment Token wouldn’t be too much, right? This is what your dear little sister wants, not me.”
“Bro, you must take good care of Big Sis Lan!” Qian Xiaoqian stuck her head out the window and shouted. With that, the car sped off.
Looking at the blus.h.i.+ng Liu Lan, Fatty felt a strange feeling spreading through his heart. “Just the two of us now. What should we do next?”
“I’ve got nothing planned.” Liu Lan inwardly resented w.a.n.g Kai very much. He had completely ruined the originally bustling celebration banquet.
“Then, let’s go game. Han Shen and I planned to do a mission together; you wanna join?”
“Sure. I’ll go back to the company and log on.”
——
“Master, didn’t you go to a party? Why have you returned so quickly?” Han Shen was surprised to see Fatty online.
“Something happened, so I’m back early. What about you? How many map pieces did you get?” Fatty inhaled the fresh air of the game environment and was glad to be back. It’s much better in here after all.
“Too hard! I farmed soooo long and only got two. Not to mention, one of them was a happy accident.” Han Shen made a pained face.
“What does that mean?” Fatty was stunned.
“Haha, some idiots saw that I was farming alone and wanted to PK me. I, of course, killed them all as a result. The monster they were fighting was nearly dead as well; so, I dealt the last hit, and it dropped a map piece,” bragged Han Shen.
“…” Fatty was speechless.
Liu Lan soon arrived on the Fire Cloud Panther. “Fatty, here I am!”
“This lady is…?” Han Shen looked at Liu Lan, mischievous thoughts flas.h.i.+ng through his mind.
“You are LittleLi’s FlyingDagger, Fatty’s disciple? Nice to meet you. I’m Willowinthewinds, a friend of Fatty’s.” Liu Lan generously extended her hand.
“Oh, nice to meet you.” Han Shen rubbed his palm against his clothes before he took Liu Lan’s hand and enthusiastically shook it. “Big Sis Willow is very sharp-eyed to find such a good man like my master. A man of good quality like my master is very hard to find. Lemme tell you, he—”
“Shut up! Go back to farming for the map,” Fatty barked.
“Heheh, heheh,” Han Shuo chuckled suggestively and shot Fatty an “I understand completely” look. He then dashed to a spot about a hundred meters away and started fighting monsters.
Fatty shouted, “What did you run so far for?”
“I’m afraid you two will disturb my farming,” Han Shen shouted back from afar.
“Kehehe! Your disciple is very interesting.” Liu Lan’s crystal clear giggles rang out.
“Let’s get started as well.” Mulling over Han Shen’s teasing, Fatty felt that he and Liu Lan were growing closer and closer.
The Door of Misfortune Map pieces were extraordinarily difficult to get to drop. Not to mention, there could be duplicates. Liu Lan had her own company and guild’s business to take care of, so she only joined in the search occasionally. Most of the time, Fatty and Han Shen simply farmed for map pieces.
——
“Ahhhh, I’m going crazy!” Looting a map piece labeled number 99, Han Shen truly wanted to bawl.
“Finally done. We’ve finally gathered enough to piece together the complete map.” Fatty’s face twitched, and his body trembled. After farming for over a month and not counting dozens of duplicates, they had finally gathered every piece necessary to complete the Door of Misfortune Map.
They arranged the pieces in the right order, and a black glow streamed from their surfaces. Rising, the pieces hovered in the air to reveal a big map. Accompanying the gus.h.i.+ng black glow were the vague sounds of a billion vengeful ghosts. Even in the middle of the day, Fatty and Han Shen couldn’t help but quiver from an eerie chill.
Door of Misfortune Map: 100/100. Open the Door of Misfortune and enter the Paradise of Misfortune. Extremely dangerous. Each map can transport 50 people. Maximum capacity is 10,000. Currently, there are 20 people inside. Do you wish to enter?
Last time, the system had said “dangerous,” but now it had turned into “extremely dangerous.”
“No.” Fatty firmly chose not to enter. The black glow instantly disappeared, and the map split back into a hundred small pieces that fell.
“Hmm?” While Fatty was making his decision, inside a place filled with black fog, the leader of a group of players quizzically exclaimed. This player featured a high nose and deep eye sockets. His hair was a mix of blue and yellow, and his body tall and st.u.r.dy. Evidently, he was a foreigner.
“What’s the matter, captain?” asked a female player with a s.e.xy body from behind him.
“There’s another one who’s gathered the complete map,” replied the leader.
“That’s great. Let’s send some of our people to guard the entrance and kill them as soon as they arrive,” the female player eagerly suggested.
“They didn’t enter,” the leader said, confused.
“What? They didn’t?!” The rest of the players were incredulous as well.
“That’s right. I don’t know why, but they chose to not enter.” The leader was curious. “I wonder where they’re from. They’re very careful.”
“It’s useless no matter how careful they are. Everyone shall be cleared out by our Heavy Hammer Squad. This Paradise of Misfortune is ours!”
“That’s right. No one could ever dream of taking away our Misfortune gear.”
——
Understanding why Fatty had chosen “no,” Han Shen asked, “Master, you got friends?”
“What about you? You have any powerful friends?” Fatty asked in return.
“I only have a few, but I don’t think they’d wanna come. You take care of the recruiting, Master,” Han Shen said plainly. He’d always liked to be alone; the few friends he’d made weren’t that trustworthy anyway.
“Then I’ll look from my friends.” Fatty opened the communicator and started to ma.s.s message people.
This Door of Misfortune is definitely nothing simple. Lil Sis can’t miss this; G.o.d Familia is a must; TheFugitive as well; best if Purple Bell is free. I should contact the leaders of the other guilds as well. The maximum amount of people is ten thousand anyway. I can allow others to enter and use this to make them owe me a favor.
After a round of messaging, Liu Lan was too busy over at the company to be online; Fierce Dragon TheTalent and Wind G.o.d’s World were busy sorting out their guilds, and Rosethorn was making plans to set up a base for the Ice Rose Alliance. Everyone else was happy to join.
The result was: three from Rainrevelers with Qian Xiaoqian leading; eleven from G.o.d Familia; TheFugitive; PurpleBell; the four experts East Gate BlowingWind, South Gate Blowingflower, West Gate BlowingSnow, and North Gate Blowingmoon; Ice Witch, leader of the Ice Rose Alliance; and, Jiangdong’s LittleOverlord, leader of the Overlord League. Including Fatty, there were twenty-four people in total.
“Wow, Master! They’re all bigwigs of the guilds!” Han Shen gawked in disbelief at the people Fatty had rallied. Despite being an expert of legend, he’d never been acquainted with so many big shots.
“LittleLi’s FlyingDagger? First-ranked in the rogue rankings?” The players were surprised to see Han Shen as well. “What did you just call Fatty? ‘Master’?”
“Eheheh! After losing the fight with me in Azure Dragon City last time, he was dazzled by my mighty presence and bowed to me as his master,” Fatty said shamelessly.
Han Shen rolled his eyes and merely ignored the brazen man.
“You are Lil’ Shen?” Qian Xiaoqian almost couldn’t recognized Han Shen as she stood before him.
“Sis Qian, wuwu, I missed you so much!” Han Shen directly… pounced. To everyone’s surprise, Qian Xiaoqian didn’t evade the guy and let him enter her embrace. All the guys froze in shock.
“Oh, this jealousy, it’s eating me up!” TheFugitive truly wanted to send Han Shen flying with a kick and replace him.
“Has everyone arrived?” asked East Gate BlowingWind.
“Fatty, wait for me! I’m here!” Xiao Jian arrived at the last moment.
Fatty invited everyone to his party and consequently was duty-bound to be the leader. “Okay. Prepare to enter, everyone.” Fatty took out and a.s.sembled the Door of Misfortune Map pieces to make a complete map again. He then hit “Yes.”
Ding.
System Notification: Everyone must a.s.semble a party to enter. Please, name your party.
“What’s a good name for our party?” Fatty turned and asked everyone.
“Suicide1 Squad!” TheFugitive was the first to shout out, inviting a violent beating from surrounding players.
“With that little IQ of yours, it’s sure to be suicide. I suggest we name our squad ‘The Squad of G.o.d’,” said HeadofG.o.d casually.
“‘Demonic Squad’ is not bad.”
“‘Overlord Squad’ sounds more imposing.”
“‘Wind Flower Snow Moon2 Squad’ is more poetic.”
The group actually got into such a heated argument over a name.
“Stop. I have decided. Let’s call iiiiit…” Fatty stretched out the antic.i.p.ation.
“Call it what?” Everyone perked up their ears.
“Fat Squad.” Fatty laughed cheerfully and input the name.
Ding.
System Notification: The name has been chosen as “Fat Squad.” Do you confirm?
“Yes.” Scrutinized by the contemptuous eyes of the rest, Fatty cackled and hit “Yes.”
A black mist suddenly burst from the map, and it shattered.
Amidst the smoke, a tall door ten meters in diameter gradually emerged. The huge door was formed from white bones that were badly cobbled together. At the top of the portal hung a skull about half a meter long. The two eye sockets of the skull flashed with sparks of green, as if carefully scanning the players entering the gate.
Crreeaak… The door slowly opened. A ghastly, gloomy breath suddenly enveloped the group. Everyone only felt something pressing against their eyes before this gloomy breath swallowed them.
Ding!
System Notification: Welcome to the Door of Misfortune.