Chapter 1 The Beginning

Wang Jiexi left after saying those words. Once he was gone, the five didn't dare to discuss it. Gao Yingjie was the youngest of the five, but the other four weren't much older. They were all reserve members of the Tiny Herb Club, and three of them had already made substitute appearances in official matches.

However, the league had regulations stating that players and their respective characters had to be registered with the league before the start of the season. Only personnel changes such as trades, transfers, or dismissals would allow for the submission of necessary replacements, and this was subject to league approval. Otherwise, no player or character could be changed at will during the season.

For example, if Wang Jiexi didn't plan to play in the next league match and was replaced by Gao Yingjie, Wang Bulohang couldn't be used by Gao Yingjie even if no one was using it. Gao Yingjie could only use Mu En, another Warlock character that was registered under his name before the season started.

Gao Yingjie had no official match experience. Another player who hadn't played was Qiao Yifan, currently the player of the Assassin, Grey Moon. These two weren't old, but Gao Yingjie was already the designated successor to Wang Jiexi, the future master of Wang Bulohang, while Qiao Yifan was just a promising rookie. Although he'd registered for this season, his future was uncertain. Perhaps he wouldn't be here next season. A rookie like him had no control over his destiny, especially since he was just a teenager.

Their statuses were vastly different, but they didn't have much guile. Because they were close in age, they were very close friends, and liked to do everything together. As soon as Wang Jiexi left, Qiao Yifan was about to go over and say something to Gao Yingjie when he heard someone call out, "Yifan, go get everyone something to drink."

"Okay!" Qiao Yifan answered helplessly. The person who ordered him was Xiao Yun, who coincidentally got a Battle Mage called Cloud Piercer. He was the reserve member who had made the most substitute appearances this season, so he could be considered half a main player, and naturally regarded himself as the boss among the reserve members.

However, he didn't dare to boss around Gao Yingjie, the club's future star player, but he was very impolite to Qiao Yifan. This wasn't unique to Tiny Herb; rookies in every club were treated similarly, running errands for the main players was common, unless they were a priority like Gao Yingjie, or a super rookie like Sun Xiang last year, who was already a star player upon joining the team.

"What do you want to drink?" Qiao Yifan went to get drinks, but didn't forget to ask his good friend quietly.

Before the person asked could answer, the other three had already ordered impolitely.

"Get me a bottle of green tea." This was Xiao Yun.

"I want a cola."

"Me too, cola."

These two were Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei, using Ghostblade characters White Night and Black Day, and Sharpshooter character Fallen Angel respectively. These two had been with the club for over two years, ready to replace the main players whose performance was declining. Although they weren't as prominent as Xiao Yun, they were still much better than Qiao Yifan.

"Anything's fine for me!" In the end, Gao Yingjie just said softly.

Qiao Yifan went to get the drinks and distributed them to everyone. The three veteran reserve players didn't even say thank you and were already buried in discussion.

"Who is this Lord Grim? How did he offend the captain?" Liu Fei asked. Women were always more gossipy than men.

"Who knows." Xiao Yun didn't want to discuss this topic; he didn't dare to talk about the captain behind his back.

"Yebai, do you know?" Liu Fei asked Zhou Yebai.

"How would I know!" Zhou Yebai said, taking a sip of cola, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally saying, "Didn't Little Jie bring back the account card during the day?"

Liu Fei immediately turned to ask Gao Yingjie, "Little Jie, do you know?"

"I don't know either, Sister Liu," Gao Yingjie said quickly.

"Yifan definitely doesn't know, right?" Her tone was completely different when she spoke to Qiao Yifan.

"Hehe…" Qiao Yifan could only smile foolishly. How could he be the first to know what was going on at the club!

"Whatever, let's find this guy and kill him quickly, so we can rest early!" Xiao Yun said.

"That's right." Zhou Yebai checked the time.

"What's the name of the guild leader over here?" Xiao Yun asked.

"Che Qianzi." Gao Yingjie answered him. Although he didn't have any formal introductions with Che Qianzi that afternoon, Gao Yingjie had inquired about the person he was going to meet beforehand.

"Oh, it's on the list! I'll ask him." Xiao Yun said.

Xiao Yun was even more impolite to this ordinary player who was just exploring the new server, directly saying, "Hey, do you know where Lord Grim is?"

Che Qianzi had been silently paying attention to these five characters when they logged in. He saw the message quickly, and when he saw that it was asking about Lord Grim's whereabouts, he was shocked and quickly replied, "I don't know!"

"Go find out." Xiao Yun said.

"Okay…" Che Qianzi was ordered around and immediately felt very unsympathetic towards Xiao Yun. Che Qianzi was very familiar with some of the people in the Tiny Herb team. If someone using a Battle Mage was from Tiny Herb, of course he would know who it was. At this time, Xiao Yun's face appeared in his mind, and he was a little annoyed, but he had no choice but to tell everyone in the guild to pay attention to Lord Grim's movements.

"I saw Lord Grim and the others heading towards the Graveyard of Buried Bones." Someone in the guild said immediately. Currently, the guild was growing larger and larger, with members spread across all levels, distributed in various leveling areas. As long as Lord Grim was online, his activity range was like this, so he was quite easy to spot.

"How many people? Where did they go?" Che Qianzi asked.

"Five people, probably going to the Graveyard of Buried Bones dungeon?" The guild member said.

Che Qianzi immediately forwarded this information to Xiao Yun's character, Cloud Piercer.

As soon as Xiao Yun saw it, he immediately gathered the others, "Lord Grim is leading a team to the Graveyard of Buried Bones dungeon. Let's split up and try to intercept them, don't let them enter the dungeon, or we'll have to wait for half a day."

"Okay." The others responded. The Graveyard of Buried Bones dungeon was like a cave, but to accommodate so many players farming the dungeon, a single entrance would require people to queue up and die. Like how entering the Frost Forest was as simple as entering anywhere in the depths of the forest, the Graveyard of Buried Bones had several entrances in this area. It was common for players to accidentally fall into a dungeon while leveling and monster hunting.

Xiao Yun had inquired about Lord Grim's direction, and the five of them eventually split up and headed towards the direction of Flowing Land. Not long after starting, Qiao Yifan was the first to spot the target: "I see them, Lord Grim, five people!!"

"Coordinates." Xiao Yun said quickly.

Qiao Yifan reported the coordinates, and the other four turned together.

"Go and entangle him first!" Xiao Yun instructed, afraid that Lord Grim would enter the dungeon in such a short time, and they would have to wait for a long time again.

"I…" Qiao Yifan was stunned.

"Go quickly!" Xiao Yun urged.

Qiao Yifan wasn't confident, but under Xiao Yun's repeated urging, he had no choice but to control his Level 25 Grey Moon to charge over.

There were five people on the other side. Logically, Qiao Yifan's ability to enter the pro scene meant that he was already very skilled. If it were just any five people, he wouldn't be afraid at all. But the problem was that these were the people who had set a record that all five of them couldn't break. Although God Jiexi said it was a tactical issue, no matter how good the tactics were, they still required operation to execute. These people's skill shouldn't be that bad, right?

Grey Moon charged closer, and Qiao Yifan saw the other four. Two of them were characters on the record leaderboard, and he didn't recognize the other two. At this time, Qiao Yifan didn't have time to think anymore. Grey Moon charged up and suddenly used an Arc Flash, abruptly slashing towards Lord Grim.

Players in the leveling area came and went, and not all of them were so cautious. The Arc Flash skill had a fast cast time and activation time. Anyone could be caught off guard by the sudden use of it when passing by, but Lord Grim suddenly drew his sword at such a critical moment, using a Guard to block the Arc Flash.

This reaction alone made Qiao Yifan feel guilty. He was just a complete newbie, with no formal match experience, and unlike Gao Yingjie, sometimes even the captain would personally spar with him. In this environment, he did everything cautiously, not seeking merit, but seeking no mistakes. When he saw Lord Grim's reaction, he immediately felt that this was a difficult opponent. After the Arc Flash, he didn't use any follow-up attacks, and immediately jumped back to try to create distance.

A sword light flashed, but Lord Grim had already used a Draw Sword to chase after him.

The Blood-Sucking Light Sword had long been taken back from Huang Shaotian. Of course, Ye Xiu wasn't equipping this sword for himself, but using it as a material to upgrade the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. Currently, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, besides the spear form, the sword form had also been upgraded to Level 25. The attack speed of 5 and weight of 2.3 kg remained unchanged. The durability of 23 had naturally come out, with a physical attack of 320 and a magic attack of 340, comparable to a Level 35 purple Katana. Therefore, Ye Xiu had been using the sword form a lot in battles recently, in addition to the spear form. The output of both was quite terrifying.

This Draw Sword came extremely fast and accurately, just as Grey Moon stood up and jumped back, about to fall but not yet. Seeing that he was about to be hit by the sword, Grey Moon suddenly jumped again, but flashed to the side, barely avoiding this slash.

Sky Leap!

This was the Assassin's Level 25 skill, which allowed them to use a jump operation again in the air. In short, the Assassin could double jump.

With this skill, Grey Moon avoided a sword that was impossible to avoid, but because of this, he knew even more how terrifying Lord Grim was. He was calculating how to stall when Steamed Bun Invasion picked up a brick and rushed over, shouting, "Who is it, looking for death!"

Qiao Yifan quickly controlled Grey Moon to dodge to the side, avoiding this brick. But on the other side of his body, Soft Mist's spear had also stabbed over like a poisonous snake. Qiao Yifan dodged again, and for a moment, he was a little flustered.

Tian Qi and Moon Midsummer felt embarrassed to always be spectators. If they had the opportunity, they would try their best to show off. The two of them charged up together, and all kinds of skills were used straight on.

Qiao Yifan's hands were busy, and his heart was flustered. He had completely lost his rhythm, and was just subconsciously dodging one attack after another. He had no idea how to escape, or whether there was a chance to counterattack.

Gao Yingjie, who was sitting next to him, was worried for him when he saw this scene, and quickly shouted, "Hold on, I'll be there right away."

"What, Yifan is no match?" Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei turned to look at Qiao Yifan's screen.