Chapter 16: Shocking Records

"See, I knew Witch Sis would come along." Dodo flung off Li Yao's hand and clasped the Witch of Changes, saying: "Holding your hand feels so much better, it's soft and comfortable, not like his which feels like tree bark."

Li Yao flicked Dodo's forehead in frustration and said, "Your name is so misleading."

The Witch of Changes chuckled: "Dodo is very clever, how did she get this name?"

Dodo, who was originally standing tall, suddenly wilted and sighed: "It's because of you adults. When I created my character, a guardian had to participate, so my sister-in-law gave me this name. Sigh, I have to wait eight more years to legally change my name. A lifetime of infamy."

The Witch of Changes held back laughter, before asking, "Do you want to grab the medal?"

"Of course we should grab the medal," Dodo immediately responded, "But not bronze, with Big Brother here, at the very least, we should get silver."

"You're very confident in him". The Witch of Changes turned to Li Yao: "What about you? What's your plan?"

"Collecting high-level medals is not hard, you just need to follow my advice."

"Of course we will listen to Big Brother." Dodo immediately raised her hand in agreement.

"I have no objections either," chimed the Witch of Changes.

Both of them were impressed with Li Yao's strength--there were no doubts.

Li Yao thought for a moment before saying, "One more thing, I will be joining this dungeon with a different identity. I don't want to draw unnecessary attention. I hope you both can keep my double identity a secret."

The influence of 'The Ancient God World' was global; years later, it covered almost all of humanity. Such a big cake led to fierce competition. In his last life, Li Yao had personally experienced guild wars over dungeon records; the gruesome scenes of bloodbaths outside the dungeons, with millions of bodies piled up.

Now, Li Yao didn't have any foundation, but the dungeon records were a must. For his own sake and that of his family, he needed to lay low for a while. Until he solidified his footing, he could then proudly flaunt his achievements.

As for whether Dodo and the Witch could really keep a secret, Li Yao wasn't worried. Even if his identity was exposed, he would simply forego the identity of Prairie Fire, disguise himself as a member of a different race and that would not be an issue.

As long as there were no issues in real life, the game would be his dominating space.

"Are you a reporter?" Asked the Witch of Changes.

"Sort of, I hope you can keep this a secret," Li Yao said vaguely--he was allowed to have a dual identity in the game as he was a reporter -- this was a national law.

"Wow, so Big Brother's other identity is Starfire. I knew it, there couldn't be another person stronger than Big Brother." Dodo immediately screamed in the team's voice chat after seeing Li Yao's name change from Prairie Fire to Starfire.

"Right, How come you weren't around earlier tonight?" the Witch of Changes asked casually.

"I had a class reunion today." Far from bothered, Li Yao continued, "I'll invite another person. Remember not to spoil the act."

Having said that, he contacted WorldWideSky as they waited for his arrival. Meanwhile, the Witch of Changes felt a chaos in her mind after hearing Li Yao's answer.

"Brother Starfire, I thought you had forgotten about me," WorldWideSky heaved a sigh of relief as he gave a bear hug to Li Yao upon seeing him.

"Not a chance, come on Sky brother, let's get moving." Li Yao chose to enter the dungeon, causing the group to disappear from the spot.

Soon, the group quickly plummeted from a great height, causing the two girls to scream in terror.

"Don't panic, the parachute will open automatically at a certain height," Li Yao yelled back reassuringly.

Not long after, all four landed on the edge of a forest, and the two young girls crumbled, arms wrapped tightly around Li Yao's, they could hardly walk. Their faces were pale; clearly, they had not yet recovered from the shock.

Just as Li Yao was about to console them, Dodo, gasping for breath, her eyes sparkling, said: "So...so intense, isn't it Sis Witch?"

Witch nodded in agreement, "Let's try it a few more times today."

"Yeah, yeah." Dodo said, excited.

Li Yao and WorldWideSky exchanged a look and burst into laughter.

"These young girls are quite something. You won't believe it, I brought my wife to this dungeon yesterday, she peed her pants after the parachute jump and wouldn't let me step foot into our bedroom today, hahaha."

"Enough with the jokes WorldWideSky, let's get moving. Our time affects the score." Li Yao said, shaking his head.

"Alright, let's do as you say." WorldWideSky asked: "What kind of medal are you planning on earning?"

"Of course, it's gold." as he guided everyone through the forest.

"Those are..." a bitter smile emerged on WorldWideSky's face: "You really have big ambitions brother. Well, just guide us."

"Great, I like your receptive attitude, Sky brother. I'll stop being polite then." Li Yao said as he looked for the bird monster. "Once you guys go inside, remember one thing - even if you don't deal damage, you must be on the side or behind the monster. Leave the rest to me."

"Is it really that simple?"

"Just that simple."

The group arrived in an open area where a three meter tall beast was strolling leisurely.

"I'll go first, you guys just deal damage from its sides or behind. If the beast turns towards you, instantly dodge, don't be greedy."

"Got it."

Li Yao drew his bow and arrow, beginning to channel his power. The arrow shaft in his hand emitted a faint yellow glow.

Thwack...

Li Yao's arrow hit the bird monster's leg. However, the monster had no joints in its legs, and even with the Eye of the Creator, there was no sign of a weak spot.

Each class has its own special play style. Light and fast weapons such as short swords, daggers and bows usually attack the legs of monsters to accumulate damage and knock them down. As they level up, they could get weapons with attributes, like a fire weapon or a paralyzing weapon. Depending on their weapon, fighting styles would also vary accordingly.

The heavy weapons class, such as great swords and hammers focus on smashing and striking. It is more advantageous to break through defenses. Due to the heavy weapons, attack speed is slow, and the rhythm of fighting with strong weapons is different.

If it were just Li Yao alone, with his years of technique and maneuvering skills, he could just attack the bird monster's weak points, and the bird monster would not be able to touch even a thread on his clothes. Moreover, if he was alone the monster's health would be four times lower than what it was now.

But, Li Yao had to bring three others along. Even though there were no weak points found on the bird's legs, he kept attacking its legs to accumulate damage.

The giant bird monster kept sprinting, charging, roaring, and spewing fireballs and flames. Li Yao was continuously dodging and moving around in front of it, no matter how furious its attack, it couldn't touch him.

The other three watched in awe. It seemed as if Li Yao knew where the monster's attacks would land, and he always narrowly avoided them. It seemed incredibly dangerous, but he remained unscathed.

"This is like dancing on the tip of a knife, brother, I admire you," WorldWideSky swung his great sword, continually slashing at the monster's rear.

"Dodo, don't use the snaring totem, it's useless. In your direction, boss at nine o'clock, thirty yards, place a Fire Snake Totem."

Dodo didn't say a word, instantly placed the totem, and repeatedly cast Lightning Arrow.

The Witch of Changes was also at the rear of the boss. After she cast the curse of decrepitude, she started throwing bone spears.

Boom...

With Li Yao's tenth arrow strike to the beast bird's leg, the bird finally plummeted to the ground. The challenging mission didn't reveal the boss's health, so they could only roughly judge based on the monster's behavior.

"Bro, use a three-stage Stored Force and quickly attack the bird's head, follow with a single-stage Stored Force, then run away to shatter its ear," Li Yao ordered.

"Got it."

Open Sky quickly ran towards the bird, lifted his great sword high up, and it gleamed dazzlingly. The sword then took on a dark red color.

Slash...

-156

A damage number that could blind everyone popped up.

"Awesome, so awesome! This is my first time doing a three-stage Stored Force Slash! In the past, I would always miss or get killed by the bird," Open Sky bellowed in excitement.

A three-stage Stored Force Slash from a great sword takes double the time of a Charged Arrow, almost three seconds. If you're not familiar with the boss's behavior, attempting this move is suicide.

Li Yao's three-stage Charged Arrow only delivered a little over a hundred damage, and he was using a Blue Quality bow. In contrast, Open Sky's great sword was only Green Quality, inferior to Li Yao's weapon.

"Dodge!" Li Yao quickly reminded Open Sky, who was too excited to launch an attack.

"Sorry, got too excited," Open Sky immediately dodged away just as the monster bird boss stood up again.

It was even more enraged, but the others only avoided it, attacking only when they could. They made sure it couldn't touch them.

Only now did Open Sky genuinely believe that their team could attain the Gold Medal.

As Li Yao dodged the bird's attacks while continuously shooting his Charged Arrows, by the time the bird collapsed for the third time, Open Sky's third three-stage Stored Force Slash fell.

With a smack, the bird's massive fan-like ear shattered, turning it into a true Bald Bird.

"Ear's broken, Bro, don't attack the bird's head's weak point the next time it falls. Otherwise, the others' damage wouldn't keep up and we wouldn't be able to reach an 'S' rank in the mission," Li Yao reminded.

"Alright, alright," Open Sky was now completely obedient.

Within everyone's enthusiastic attacks, it only took nine minutes for the bird boss to miserably collapse to the ground, lifeless.

"We passed?" Open Sky asked in disbelief: "That was too easy, I felt like it was even weaker than the elites."

"What do you want, for it to revive so we could fight it again?" Li Yao joked.

"Buddy, you wouldn't know, us top professional players, when we got our Bronze Medal, fought for twenty-five minutes, each dying twice on average. It was arduous. We rolled around and became muddy before finishing the missions just from being chased by this fella."

Open Sky sighed: "Moreover, I wasn't able to land a single three-stage Stored Force Slash on it, unlike this time. It was so satisfying."

"Move aside, I'm gathering the loot," Pupil suddenly appeared and began collecting from the boss's corpse.

"What's this?" Pupil shared an item's properties with the team.

Armor Jade: One hundred percent chance of upgrading the white equipment produced in the Evil Cave to Green Equip, fifty percent chance of upgrading green equipment to Blue Quality.

"This is good stuff, the official guides say it drops at a one hundred percent rate for no-damage missions, and at a fifty percent rate for 'S' ranked missions," Open Sky said.

Li Yao nodded. Such items narrow the gap between solo players and team players. It broke the monopoly of great guilds and clubs on high-end dungeons and their excellent equipment.

Of course, it also brings substantial benefits to team players: they can explore adventure dungeons faster and better.

"If Starfire Bro has no objections, you can take it. I do not need the spoils." Open Sky said.

He didn't lack materials from collecting the bird's loot. He was wearing a set of the bird's suit, and the weapon in his hand was a green weapon obtained from breaking a weak point.

Whoosh whoosh...

A white light flashed, and several people were teleported out of the mission. They returned to the gigantic airship.

Simultaneously, the golden fonts imprinted on the airship changed.

"Look, there are golden fonts."

"How's that possible, some teams actually completed the Gold Challenge while I can't even pass the challenge mode."

Not just one airship, players from all administrative districts and continents saw the colossal fonts atop the airships, and the discussions skyrocketed.

Small Team Ranking:

NO1, Leader: Starfire, Members: Open Sky, Versatile Witch, Adorable Pupil.

Mission Rank: S, No Damage, Weak Point Broken, Challenge Level: Gold Medal earned.

Time: Nine minutes thirty-two seconds.

Area: Hua-Xia Administrative District

The second place was just a Bronze Medal, with a time of twenty-two minutes from North America. The third one was twenty-three minutes from Europe. The rest were basically the same.

"It's impossible, they must've used a bug, we don't accept this."

In all administrative districts, many people, including those in the Hua-Xia District, started to complain. However, all their responses asserted that the data was accurate.

"Damn, the Chinese got the first place, virtue-all impossibility to overtake." an outraged American white man cursed.

"John, keep playing. Failing once isn't the end of the world. Let's take this as preparation for the level five adventure mission." A blonde priestess said.

Following the blonde priestess's words, the others quieted.

Edward, the blonde priestess, saw her teammates' spirits hit rock bottom and said while healing them, "Remember, challenge missions ultimately lean towards individual missions. Adventure missions are our ultimate targets. What's more, Bodel is currently the individual rank first, and he's still making progress."

"That's the spirit. We are the number one guild in the world. We're invincible!" John roared.

However, just a few minutes later, everyone stared blankly at their private chat messages. The big bird boss had managed to trample everyone to death.

The revived team members were all speechless.

"Who exactly is this 'Starfire?' Barely a moment after nabbing the Gold Medal, here he is taking the Platinum Medal," John roared again...