Night Cat Demon

Glory supports direct voice communication, and it's incredibly realistic with just one channel: current. The distance between characters directly affects the volume of their voices, and the system has its own calculations for sound propagation. There's no background music in the game, only the realistic sounds of nature, like the wind rustling through the grass. Wearing headphones makes the immersion feel very intense.

Ye Kai guessed that the noisy person was Yue Zhongmian, and he had already seen the system's notification about the hidden BOSS, the Night Cat Demon. After typing "hehe" and sending it, he heard Yue Zhongmian's voice: "Why type? Just talk."

"Somebody's sleeping, it's not convenient," Ye Kai typed back, then skillfully flicked a cigarette out of the pack, put it in his mouth, and lit it with a tilt of his head.

"Oh," Yue Zhongmian said, showing understanding, then asked, "What about the others?"

After the other three spoke up, Yue Zhongmian expressed his disappointment first: "No girls?"

Amidst the laughter, the team set off.

Green Forest is a small dungeon designed to help new players get more familiar with the game. How difficult could it be? Especially since Yue Zhongmian was clearly not a newbie, smoothly leading the way and making quick work of the enemies. Ye Kai had Jun Mo Xiao start off with two healing spells from the Holy Speaker class, and Yue Zhongmian immediately put him to use as a pure support. In such a low-level dungeon, there was no need for the classic tank-warrior-healer trio, but Yue Zhongmian was used to this tactic and commanded accordingly. He took on the role of the main tank to attract aggro, the other three were damage dealers, and Jun Mo Xiao was appointed as the logistics manager.

As they progressed with the sounds of battle and teammates calling out to each other, Ye Kai's skilled gameplay and movement earned him lavish praise from the captain. But his mind was elsewhere, lost in a haze. When was the last time he went dungeon-crawling with his friends? How long had it been since he felt this way?

Watching the monsters fall one by one, Ye Kai's thoughts drifted. There was so much he remembered, the adventures in Green Forest, even recalling a time ten years ago.

That friend he met at the beginning of Glory, who stayed up all night discussing the game's innovations and future with him. He saw everything clearly, predicted everything, planned everything, but then a single unexpected update shattered all dreams and hopes, leaving only the unfinished Thousand Mechanism Umbrella.

"You were supposed to be the most talented and accomplished player in Glory..." His fingers gently brushed the keyboard, a flick of the mouse, and Jun Mo Xiao's healing spell accurately landed on Yue Zhongmian. While Yue Zhongmian praised the timely heal, Ye Kai's mind was not in the game.

"Alright, next up is the Night Cat Demon," Yue Zhongmian said after taking down the last monster, and when Ye Kai heard the words "Night Cat Demon," his thoughts snapped back to the present. Hidden BOSSes don't necessarily appear after clearing the entire dungeon; sometimes, they can appear midway through a scene according to the system's guidance. And this time, the Night Cat Demon was indeed about to appear.

"The Night Cat Demon's attacks have a chance to curse players. But it's just a curse, nothing scary. However, this guy is fast. It might take me a while to get a hold of it, so everyone just hang in there a bit longer, don't panic," Yue Zhongmian laid out the strategy.

Everyone nodded, and Ye Kai didn't say much more, as Yue Zhongmian's words made sense.

"We haven't seen a system announcement yet, comrades. We might very well be the first to defeat the hidden BOSS of the tenth district!" Yue Zhongmian encouraged everyone with excitement.

"Move out," Yue Zhongmian commanded, and the five-person team continued forward. The already dim Green Forest became even darker as a cloud cover obscured the sun, making the sound of their footsteps on the forest floor particularly clear. No one spoke; everyone was fully focused on their surroundings.

"Yang Guang, stop looking at the sky. The Night Cat Demon won't fall from above," Yue Zhongmian suddenly said. Glory is a first-person perspective game, and the screen shows a realistic human point of view. With such attention to detail, when you move your viewpoint to look at the sky, the character will naturally have to look up. Yue Zhongmian couldn't help but criticize teammate Yang Guang for always looking up.

"Ha ha ha," everyone laughed, but then Ye Kai suddenly heard a rapid rustling sound from the edge of the forest. This sound wasn't footsteps; it was the sound of a body brushing against leaves and branches.

"It's here," Ye Kai said, realizing typing might be too slow, so he mumbled a warning with a cigarette still in his mouth. At the same time, he flicked his fingers a couple of times, and Jun Mo Xiao performed a backward leap and turn in one fluid motion, already facing the direction from which the Night Cat Demon was attacking.

Seeing Jun Mo Xiao's action, everyone knew that this usually silent brother had given a timely hint at a critical moment.

"Everyone back off," Yue Zhongmian shouted, but instead of retreating, he advanced, intending to make himself the Night Cat Demon's first target.

The other three also moved back to position themselves alongside Jun Mo Xiao, maintaining several body lengths from Yue Zhongmian. Everyone held their breath and watched intently, but the rustling sound of the Night Cat Demon moving through the forest also stopped at that moment.

"What the..." Teammate Yang Guang had just started to speak when a black shadow suddenly flew out from the forest, accompanied by a sharp cat screech, and the first strike was indeed aimed at Yue Zhongmian, who was at the forefront.

"Good timing!" Yue Zhongmian was fearless, sword at the ready. The Night Cat Demon was small and fast, a type of monster that really tested a player's precision. Ye Kai had already assessed the skill level of the four players; he figured it might take Yue Zhongmian some time to stabilize the Night Cat Demon, and he even suspected that he might end up drawing aggro during the healing process. But that was fine; Ye Kai alone was enough to handle a Night Cat Demon.

As it turned out, Yue Zhongmian had a stroke of good luck. His timing with the sword was spot on, hitting the Night Cat Demon mid-pounce, followed by a roll to dodge the demon's attack, saving Jun Mo Xiao's prepared healing spell.

The Night Cat Demon missed its pounce and was hit by the sword, but it reacted quickly, flipping over and scratching back at Yue Zhongmian. Yue Zhongmian raised his sword to block, "clang," the sword and cat's claw collided, and Yue Zhongmian slid back half a step, then immediately countered with an upward slash.

Beautiful! Ye Kai couldn't help but praise inwardly. Yue Zhongmian's use of the swordsman's block skill was perfectly timed, and the counterattack with the upward slash was executed without any hesitation, showing extremely skilled operation. Had he misjudged Yue Zhongmian's abilities?

After Yue Zhongmian's upward slash, the Night Cat Demon was knocked into the air, followed by a series of thrusts, an earth-shattering sword move, and a final Ghost Slash that sent out a dark purple blade light, flinging the Night Cat Demon away. This combo was met with loud cheers from the team. Yue Zhongmian didn't dare to be careless for a moment, following up with two more sword strikes, then shouted, "Attack!"

The three damage dealers were ready and immediately began wielding their weapons, unleashing their learned skills. Yue Zhongmian stopped dodging and started to rely on Jun Mo Xiao's healing spells to resist, in order to keep the Night Cat Demon in a stable position.

The situation was well maintained, and the Night Cat Demon's cries of defeat echoed through the forest wave after wave. Everyone was extremely excited, and the three true newbies had already learned the value of a hidden BOSS from Yue Zhongmian along the way. As everyone eagerly beat down the Night Cat Demon, a strange thought arose in Ye Kai's mind.

"It's in the red, keep up the healing," Yue Zhongmian said as the Night Cat Demon's health was quickly reduced to below one-tenth. This state is commonly referred to as "in the red" by players, and many BOSSes will have new tricks when in the red. Green Forest was just a newbie dungeon, and its BOSSes didn't have such special abilities, but the Night Cat Demon was different—it was a hidden BOSS, and it would be a shame if it didn't have such abilities.

However, the Night Cat Demon's change was relatively simple: it went berserk, increasing its attack speed and damage, so the pressure on healing increased during this phase.

Ye Kai figured that with Yue Zhongmian's skill level, it wouldn't be too difficult to finish off this last tenth if he didn't stubbornly resist and instead dodged a bit. But to his surprise, Yue Zhongmian continued to stubbornly tank the Night Cat Demon, and his counterattacks seemed somewhat weak.

"Out of mana?" Ye Kai glanced at the team panel, but that clearly wasn't the issue. So if Yue Zhongmian suddenly became less effective, it somewhat confirmed Ye Kai's earlier thoughts. Just as Ye Kai was about to speak up, he heard Yue Zhongmian shout, "Fuck, I've got aggro!"