MMORPG: The Elementalist

It was Qin Ruo’s fourth day in Beijing. It was also the second day his in-game counterpart was trapped in the Underworld.

Qin Ruo sat next to Xin Yu in the backyard, sharing some experience regarding the Bandit classes—one that he learned from Fateless and Permanent Lock. Even though it was important for him to unlock the attributes, he did not travel to Beijing to play online games—he was there to spend some time with Xin Yu. Therefore, he decided to wait until the night fell—when he had more time to prepare for his raid against the Light-type Boss.

There was also Pretty Woman who followed Xin Yu around in the backyard.

After Qin Ruo and Xin Yu disappeared for a day, Pretty Woman would come visit the villa every now and then. Like a chewing gum under a shoe. And it was because of her “visitations” that Qin Ruo had decided to heed to his experience from Fallen Angels’s bandits and avoid chatting too much with “Pretty Woman”.

At first, she was kind of looking down on Qin Ruo for sharing his experience and opinions on Bandits as a non-Bandit. In the end, she was gradually impressed by all the expert terminology that kept popping from his mouths. She finally changed her mind about Qin Ruo.

As she was listening with Xin Yu, Pretty Woman could not help but raise some questions along the way, including some questions about Elementalists.

If it was the experience for the Bandits, Qin Ruo could only repeat what he heard from Fateless and Permanent Lock and also share what he saw as an outsider. Yet, if it was about Elementalism, then that basically was Qin Ruo’s domain. In the next few minutes, a master course about the Elementalist class—from how to manipulate the elements around to raising defense and offense, or how to utilize the skills that were not commonly used.

All of these had benefited Pretty Woman quite a lot.

She also realized that Qin Ruo was not the loser that she thought he was, after listening to his experience in the game.

As they chatted more and more questions arose, they started to chat about the Divinities and the Underworld.

Qin Ruo then stopped. He could not continue.

If he kept spilling out more, this mixed-race babe would have guessed who he was in-game without explicitly stating his IGN.

And it was during that moment, his cell phone vibrated on the table…

It was a call from Xiaoxiao.

“Oh, I was only away for a such a short time and you’re missing me already?”

As Qin Ruo stood up with his phone, the mixed-race babe and Xin Yu looked at him with a weird funny face.

After a few seconds, Qin Ruo’s face turned grim.

“Pardon me.”

After excusing himself, Qin Ruo left the backyard and entered the guest room in the villa. He immediately turned on the laptop on the table and spoke to Xiaoxiao on the phone, “When did this happen?”

As Qin Ruo spoke with a calm voice, Xiaoxiao’s anxious voice started to cool down too.

“According to Brother Da, it was around 2 a.m. I was fast asleep at the time so I only got the news at noon. Ruo, perhaps I’ll rally up a party and meet up with you in the Underworld?”

“No.”

Qin Ruo took a deep breath and replied, “If Netherspirit’s Claw wanted to trouble us, you and the others should then stay united and not spread out too thinly. Calm down, the situation isn’t all that bad yet.”

As they were talking, his laptop was finally done booting up.

Qin Ruo quickly fired up his browser and logged onto the official website of Honor and Glory. Then, he clicked into the forum and there it was, like Xiaoxiao said, the hottest post at the moment was, “The Real Prison for Tier 5 Champions—The Underworld”

In the post was an online video.

Qin Ruo raised his brows as he watched the video.

The backdrop of the video was indeed the Underworld. And the protagonist was a Berserker with a pair of Demonic Wings on his back. As he watched the video, Qin Ruo could not help but remember what he saw last night—the mountain was covered by wave and waves of Specters. Whatever that was being shown in the video was exactly as what he remembered.

Even the Liches that were leading the Undead.

This was exactly what Xiaoxiao was worrying about earlier. Especially the words at the end of the post.

“To the friends who are stuck in the Underworld. If you’re watching this video, know that you’re at least a lucky one. At least you’re someone who had earned your place at the top of the Honor Leaderboard. Besides, you should also know this by now that…. There are also countless others who are suffering the same fate as you in the Underworld.”

“As for the other Tier 5 players who could not venture into the Underworld. It’s apparent that you’re much luckier than the ones who had entered this dreadful world! After watching this, and if you’re planning to enter the Underworld, you should change your plan. Well, unless you think you could handle the Liches and several hundreds of thousands of high-tier Specters and if that’s the case, we wish you all the best.”

After watching this, Qin Ruo felt a chill going down his spine while a heavy burden started to weigh on his shoulders. He could picture what was happening on the other side of the screen… the reactions of all the Tier 5 players.

In this short window of time, for at least a month or two, there would be no one from any clan who would venture into the Underworld at all…

This was probably why Netherclaw started his plan in using Holy Clan and the Order of Eight Gods to pick fights with Fallen Angels.

And after watching this video, the players who were stuck in the Underworld would know that their current chance of leaving the dreadful Underworld was zero unless they could rally up a super army that could go up against the two Liches and the undead hordes!

“Netherclaw must really think that I am not able to leave the Underworld at all…”

Qin Ruo sighed. To be honest, he himself was not entirely confident that his Ring of Honor could help him to escape the Underworld. And he needed to do this and return to the Mythical Continent before Netherclaw could start to execute his plan.

“What does Sis Violet say?”

“She says that the league cannot afford to lose you. She has agreed with my plan to get a party formed from the members of Fallen Angels and Violent Army Clan to venture down to the Underworld…”

Xiaoxiao’s words shocked Qin Ruo. He could not believe Violet Orchid would agree to that. And that was not all—Xiaoxiao sounded agitated as she continued, “We have a plan drafted out already. We can gather all the elite members from Fallen Angels, Violent Army Clan, Bauhinia Clan… even the Hall of Heroes, Black Jail, and Scarlet Dynasty. We can contact all the clan leaders. We can probably get around five hundred people, or even more. We can kick up a storm in the Underworld through the Buried City!”

“With this many elites, the other big clans would then be on the move too. With this many people joining the fight, I believe there are going to be countless other Tier 5 players who would be interested to join the party too.”

“If one or two of us successfully meet up with you, Ruo, we could then aid you in leaving the Underworld.”

Qin Ruo was tongue-tied after hearing what Xiaoxiao told him.

All this, calling over five hundred Tier 5 elites from six clans to enter the Underworld, just to rescue him…

That was so unthinkable!

That was definitely the Violet Orchid that he remembered and it was also the kind of plan that only she could think up of. Even Qin Ruo was a little moved by the plan too. If this “Underworld Storm” was successfully kicked up, it might actually be possible for this all to end up in success.

However, this was too risky.

Firstly, it was still an uncertainty that if they could gather that many players or not…

Besides, what if Netherspirit’s Claw interfered?

Or if the plan failed and everyone from all six Clans got stuck in Underworld and that would in turn lead to the fall of Angel Faction’s leagues and the growth of Demon Faction?

Even though Qin Ruo was moved that they were willing to go that far for him, he understood that this move was too risky.

“Xiaoxiao, tell Sis Violet that I’m currently doing fine in Underworld. And I’ve seen this Warp Portal myself. Yes, it’s hard to pull it off but I am currently finding ways to leave the Underworld. We should be able to see if these ways work in these two days. Her plan was great but it’s too risky. I’m not worth this much risk.”

Qin Ruo paused for a moment and then continued, “Besides, Netherspirit’s Claw appears to have some sort of plan. It’s better to send Fateless and Permanent Lock over and mess with them and ask the others to avoid confrontation with them… I need you to buy me some time. Buy me at least two days.”

“Okay!”

Even though Xiaoxiao still doubted Qin Ruo’s plan of leaving the Underworld, his determined voice gave her some faith. Besides, Qin Ruo had no reason to lie to her.

“I’ll go and get it all arranged. Take care. And….Ruo… I miss you.”

As Qin Ruo looked at his phone as she hung up, he could not help but feel a thick sweetness from her last three words.

***

After an undetermined amount of time, a little waving snowy hand in front of his face pulled Qin Ruo back to reality. The mixed-race babe’s voice crept into his ears, “Oh, Romeo! What’s in your dirty mind? Your smile looks so perverted.”

Xin Yu and Pretty Woman had entered the guest room without Qin Ruo realizing. Xin Yu was waving her hand in front of his face as both of them were looking him curiously.

“Ahem…”

Qin Ruo immediately pulled back that…”perverted smile”.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you came in.”

“Well, you’re spending a long time on the phone and we were waiting for so long out there… Hmm? What’s this?” As Pretty Woman was explaining, she suddenly saw the screen of his laptop.

“Oh, I’ve seen this post… hmm, that’s weird. Your mysterious phone call was about this post?”

As she mentioned the forum post, Qin Ruo’s mind roamed back to the issue about the Underworld.

Qin Ruo frowned and he looked at his cell phone, ignoring Pretty Woman’s question, and started to ponder deeply…

This forum post’s timing was so bad, for him.

He initially thought that this was just one of the possibilities for him to leave the Underworld. However, it would seem that whether he could unlock the attributes of his Ring of Honor and leave the Underworld would depend on whether he was successful tonight…

However, Qin Ruo did not seem to notice that the mixed-race Pretty Woman was looking at his laptop and his face peculiarly.