Chapter 8: When it rains it pours
The red sparks intensified before an explosive thunder descended from heaven striking Fen Hao's twin bladerang. Fen Hao's character redirected the fierce sparks towards the creatures roasting them to ash. His blazing thunder technique was especially impressive noteworthy of GodLin's comrade in arms.
Jin Lin was seriously concentrated on the gane that he barely paid attention to the barrage of comments. In fact, he had even forgotten he was live-streaming slashing and slicing the creatures that lunged in his direction. He didn't even care to turn to look at the rest of the team because all they had to focus on was staying alive if they wanted to reap the rewards.
In a matter of minutes, the first wave of minions were eliminated leaving an unsightly scene. Jin Lin sheathed the sabres behind his character's back and walked around the gory corpses.
The anxious team members heaved a sigh of relief otherwise they would be knocked down a level if they died in the dungeon. The only issue is that they didn't know that things will only get worse from here.
[Team Chat]
XieXie: That was so fuckin fast.
XieXie: Such a face-slapping moment. I apologize to GodLin for underestimating him.
There were no replies after that plus Jin Lin didn't bother reading messages from the team chat. He typed a short private message to Fen Hao before leading the team through a dark tunnel. None of them touched the beast cores from the fallen creatures mainly because they weren't of any value plus the majority of the group weren't short of money to buy gold coins for the game.
Fen Hao read the private message and walked into the cave tunnel last. Jin Lin had asked him to watch their rear but he couldn't help grumbling along the way. Each team member had some kind of light to shine their path making the journey through the slimy tunnel, a little bearable but the eerie darkness was the least bit of their worries because something new and sinister was lurking in the shadows.
These tunnels were usually safe zones regardless of the difficulty level. One would only meet the vile creatures face to face when they exit the tunnel. But it seemed some programmer had nothing else to do and deliberately screwed them over. Jin Lin kept hearing a sizzling sound through his headphones but it was so faint that one could easily assume that it was coming from the group.
But Jin Lin wasn't just anyone. He had been through this dungeon a dozen times training himself for years and he was fairly familiar with each and every sound in the dungeon. The sizzling sound was heard once more but this time it was louder than before.
Sensing something was hovering above them, Jin Lin was about to yell heads up when MengLee's character suddenly had half of his HP drop, followed by painful groans.
"Heads up!" yelled Jin Lin as his flaming sabre struck the roof of the tunnel. On the roof, there were higher level creatures hanging upside down on the wall like vampire bats. Their human form was much scarier than before with their bones and joints bent in crooked ways that made one crinch.
The faces of the creatures were sunken like walking corpses with deep-seated eyes glowing in the darkness but that wasn't even the worst of it. Their slobbery drool seeping from their mouths that closely resembled that of a feral creature was toxic which is why MengLee's HP dropped significantly.
The once peaceful tunnel descended into chaos with Fen Hao trying to protect the rest of his teammates while Jin Lin solely went on defence. The task wasn't impossible but it was extremely tedious with those vile creatures attacking relentlessly.
In five minutes Fen Hao had the rest of the team out of the tunnel leaving Jin Lin behind to set the tunnel alight. It was the only way to ensure they wouldn't be followed and sneak attacked while they weren't paying attention. Having found out the slime on the tunnel walls was flammable, Jin Lin didn't hesitate to set it alight.
A beautiful green flame soon engulfed the entire tunnel followed by a huge explosion that almost blew his character away. Feeling rather accomplished, Jin Lin moved his character towards the rest of the team. But as soon as he took a step closer his character froze when he noticed what was before them. As the saying goes when it rains it pours that's exactly what was going on today.
'Who the hell did I fuckin offend today,' he thought while moving his character over.
Someone at Equino headquarters must have been seriously messing with him otherwise why would this dungeon he tackled for years suddenly change?
Right in front of them were two big bosses bellowing their lungs exhibiting their superiority. Unfortunately for Jin Lin, he had picked the short end of the straw because of his bad luck.
While Jin Lin was mourning the possibility of losing his paycheck, some programmer at Equino headquarters ten blocks away from Jin Lin's apartment was reporting the adjustments made for various dungeons to his boss.
"Did you make it as realistic as possible?" asked the supposed boss while leaning back into his office chair.
"Yes sir, this is the feedback we received. No one has succeeded as of yet," he said placing a tablet on the man's desk. His superior waved him off so he left immediately closing the door behind.
As soon as he left the calm facade on the superior's face vanished as he flung the tablet on the wall. With a loud crash, the device broke into pieces leaving behind an obvious dent. Lucky for him this was one of those closed-door offices otherwise he would terrify the entire staff.
The man pushed back the stray strands hanging on his forehead as a stiff smile appeared on his face. They were in desperate need of skilled subjects that could survive longer but they had run this trial for a week but none of the players had succeeded in passing. If this continued on he would have to face the wrath of that lunatic professor and he didn't feel like dealing with a crazy person right now.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone