บท 270: Chapter 269: The Vase-Smashing Olympics

Stelle, bat in hand, shouted gleefully as she charged. "Ah Guang! I know you too well! You follow game rules to the letter but cheat the moment there's a loophole. I knew you'd skip the countdown! This round is mine!"

March 7th, meanwhile, stayed put and fired five ice arrows in rapid succession. The projectiles shattered five vases in an instant as she called out smugly. "Hah! As the only true ranged DPS here, let me show you how a proper carry plays!"

Pei Guang chuckled darkly. "Impressive. But you underestimate me. I have a Plan B…"

Before he could finish, a familiar metallic hum filled the air as the Construct Engine materialized beside Welt. The machine picked him up and hurled him across the rows of vases. Gliding mid-air, Welt adjusted his glasses coolly. "Your rules prohibited large-area skills. I merely used the Construct Engine to propel myself. My method is purely physical. Strategically, Ah Guang, I've outplayed you."

As Welt sailed through the air, Dan Heng's bunny-spear spun at an even greater speed, slicing through rows of vases. Standing atop a lotus conjured by his water techniques, Dan Heng spoke flatly. "Apologies, but my spear is faster. Ah, thank you."

Mid-sentence, a small hand extended toward Dan Heng, offering him a cup of coffee. Recognizing the familiar drink, he instinctively accepted and took a sip—only for his expression to darken. Turning his head, he saw none other than Seele grinning mischievously at him.

Dan Heng quickly stashed the coffee away, his serious gaze fixed on Seele as the chaos of vase-smashing continued around them.

As Dan Heng noticed he hadn't fallen for Seele's trick, she let out a frustrated "Tch!" and entered a "quantum state", phasing directly toward the vases.

Dan Heng exhaled in relief, thinking to himself, "As expected of someone trained by Pei Guang—her tactics mirror his' perfectly."

Meanwhile, Welt seemed unfazed, adjusting his glasses and smiling confidently as he approached his targets. However, just as his trajectory brought him closer to the vases—and Dan Heng's spinning bunny neared them, too—their movements slowed dramatically, as if entering bullet time.

Silver Wolf popped her head out of the trash can, nonchalantly chewing gum. "That's it? Too slow. Don't get me wrong, I didn't attack the treasures; I just used Aether Editing to slow down your actions. Ever heard of bullet time?"

Hopping out of the trash can with a swagger, Silver Wolf strolled toward the vases with zero urgency. However, just as she approached her prize, a small dragon girl came dashing past her at surprising speed.

Bailu waved cheerfully as she overtook Silver Wolf. "See ya later, Silver Wolf! I'll be taking the lead here!"

In the midst of this chaos, Fu Xuan hesitated, her hands trembling slightly. She had naively believed this was a simple race to smash the vases—but her companions' ruthless, efficient tactics left her stunned.

Even Jing Yuan, observing from the sidelines, was struck silent by the scene unfolding before him. Though the group's methods leaned toward playful chaos rather than outright harm, their sheer coordination and swift decision-making unnerved him. From the moment Pei Guang gave the signal to act, everyone moved like they'd been training for this their entire lives.

What was even stranger was how balanced the results turned out. Despite the chaos, the difference between the player who smashed the most vases and the one who smashed the fewest was only twelve. For the rest, the gap was no greater than five vases.

Amid the frenzy, two golden lights flashed briefly—loot of the rarest caliber—but no one seemed to notice exactly who had triggered them. Everyone was too focused on breaking as many vases as possible.

Stelle: "Who got the golds? I wasn't even paying attention to what I smashed."

March 7th: "Same here. I was so focused on hitting more vases, I didn't even see when the golden lights showed up."

Pei Guang: "Don't look at me! There was so much light pollution from everyone smashing vases at once. I can only guess which area the golds came from, but not who exactly triggered them. Anyway, no big deal—328 pulls yielding only two golds? Pretty low drop rate. Guess our luck wasn't great this time. But hey, let me take a closer look at what we pulled and see if it'll help us in the next fight."

With a dramatic snap of his fingers, Pei Guang directed everyone's attention to the two golden items. They turned out to be skill books—one resembling a speaker system and the other resembling a ball of flames.

Pei Guang examined the first one, reading its description aloud: "A skill book that grants the ability 'Battle BGM.' Once learned, it lets you play a soundtrack during combat. Depending on the music, it provides different effects for allies and enemies."

He glanced at the others, already imagining the chaotic potential of the new skill. "Well, that's one way to make our next fight unforgettable."

Skill: Battle BGM

Effect: During combat, plays a BGM (background music) that affects allies and enemies differently depending on the track.

Notes: As a player, how can you battle without a fitting BGM?

Pei Guang stared at the skill description, feeling his head spin. Another exploratory skill, huh?

Based on his experience, the simpler the description, the more overpowered the effect. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that this one might be tricky. In movies, having a personal BGM always signals victory, but in games, a BGM buff could swing either way depending on the game mechanics.

Sometimes overly verbose skill descriptions turned out to be useless, while short, cryptic ones ended up incredibly powerful. Yet, this unpredictability was also what made them a headache.

Compared to the BGM, though, the other skill book was far more straightforward:

Skill: Savory Truefire

Effect: Grants mastery over Savory Truefire.

Notes: Savory Truefire is unstoppable. No organic being can withstand its might. The fire deals magical damage. For further effects, please explore on your own.

It couldn't get simpler than this.

Pei Guang: "Okay, here's the deal. The Battle BGM and Savory Truefire are up for grabs. Anyone want them? Speak now, or I'll keep them."

Stelle waved her hand dismissively. "Not interested. I don't need music blaring every time I fight."

March 7th shook her head. "I'm more of an ice specialist. Ice and fire don't mix, and I'd rather not explode myself."

Welt adjusted his glasses. "Neither skill particularly suits me."

The others followed suit, with even Seele expressing disinterest. Though she wielded earth and fire, she wasn't keen on fiddling with a flame-based skill.

Pei Guang sighed. "Alright then. If no one wants them, I'll take them both. Waste not, want not."

He promptly learned both skills. Unlike the others, Pei Guang wasn't worried about conflicts between abilities. In his experience, unless explicitly stated otherwise, skills rarely clashed. And even if they did? Worst case, he'd adjust his build and focus on fire synergy. No big deal.

However, he had made one classic gamer mistake: misreading the skill name.

Instead of "Savory Truefire" (三味真火), Pei Guang had mistakenly read it as "Samadhi Truefire" (三昧真火)—an error that only a player could make. The difference between the characters "味" and "昧" was subtle yet monumental. That single character could mean the difference between ordinary and god-tier effects, but Pei Guang hadn't noticed... yet.