VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

Punished by the Tower for not stopping the Rats from crossing the border.

San Zhe shivered at the thought of that. What kind of punishment would it be? Would he lose his weapons or other equipment? Would they fall down the levels? He could not help thinking that if that was the case, then he might have dragged Sister Xiu into the curse with him.

Cheng Xiu sighed. "Come on then. We should stop those rats from scaling the walls all the way before it is too late."

San Zhe nodded his head, and raised the trident in his hands.

Cheng Xiu looked at the weapon in his hand for a moment. She could not help thinking that San Zhe was too unlucky at times.

"Be careful," Cheng Xiu said to him. "That Rock Rat seems to be actually stronger than the Fire Ball one. Its attack style seems to be too versatile."

San Zhe nodded his head. "You also take care. That creature just got upgraded. You don't know what kind of skills it would gain with the upgrades."

Cheng Xiu nodded. She turned to Yaksha. "Then…Yaksha Ge…wish us luck."

"Is that something that you should be demanding?" Yaksha asked her in a teasing tone. "That is something people have to give to you willingly."

"Are you not willing?"

"Not willing."

"Really?"

"Really not willing."

Cheng Xiu scowled. "What kind of a bad attitude is that?"

"I learnt it from you. So you do know it is bad."

"Where and when have I behaved so rougishly towards you?"

Yaksha chuckled. "Then? What do you think you were doing now, demanding that I wish you luck?"

"Is this a point that you should even be arguing about with me?" Cheng Xiu asked him.

"Can you two stop," San Zhe asked in a stilted voice. He did not want to interrupt their weird mating ritual. It was just that the rats were climbing the walls faster, and if he did not make it in time then the NPC he had chosen would also upgrade like Sister Xiu's did.

Cheng Xiu shook her head. "Forget it then. Actually, wishing luck was just a conversation starter."

"As I thought," Yaksha muttered. "Sela will always have ulterior motives."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "What did you say? My hearing is not so good that I will be able to hear all your muttered grievences."

San Zhe backed away a little. Cheng Xiu seemed to be a bit too emotional at the moment. He did not want to be in the crossfire when the two decides to kill each other."

"I said 'What do you want to say'," Yaksha said to her. His voice was steady. There was no trace of lying to be detected in it. "Just say it. We are on the same team today."

Cheng Xiu sighed. "Why are the rats unable to climb the walls quickly. I noticed that they were able to move rather fast when they were attacking us, but when they scale that wall, their steps are too slow."

San Zhe blinked. She even had time to notice that kind of things? Sure enough, he could not compete with people with good memory powers.

Yaksha let out an exaggerated sigh. "If I tell you all the answers then what will you learn from the game by yourself?"

Cheng Xiu gave him a mocking gaze in response. "There are gaming guides and playthroughs for all games. It does not mean that I am somehow reducing my gaming experience. It just means that I have a more thorough understanding of the game."

Yaksha stared at her for a moment. "I see."

"See what?"

"Very flexible morality you have there."

Cheng Xiu glared. "Just tell me if you know. If you don't want to tell me that is fine. Just say so."

Yaksha hmmed. "No need to be so angry. I was just teasing you. The reason for the rats movements is simple. I think you can guess what is going on."

Cheng Xiu sighed. "It is like those Qi Pressure Rooms in reality, isn't it?"

Yaksha laughed. "Such a smart girl. Little Sela is able to figure things about the game so quickly."

Cheng Xiu snorted. The only reason she was able to think about the Pressure Room was because of her fight in the deep dive against those creatures in the ring.

The lines that were drawn on the walls reminded her of that. And Cheng Xiu automatically tried to verify her thoughts with someone who knew more than She did.

Yaksha actually saw through her intentions.

"But…it does not seem to affect us," San Zhe said when he heard Cheng Xiu's guess. "Why would it not affect us then? That doesn't make sense."

Cheng Xiu's thoughts returned to the Deep Dive scene. Even though she could not understand it, Cheng Xiu wanted to avoid thinking about the Deep Dive as much as she could. But now she had no choice but to examine the scenes in her memories.

She remembered that she was the only person who was affected by the limitations of the Qi Rings. The NPCs had been fine.

Cheng Xiu thought of what could be the condition that the NPCs back then and them right now shared.

Her eyes widened. "Is it because they are the ones being tested?"

San Zhe looked at her in confusion. "Huh?"

Cheng Xiu's eyes glimmered. "The Rats are the ones who are trying to progress further up the wall. So they are the ones who feel the Pressure of Qi. We, the players, are not bound by that rule! Think about it. We could be considered as further obstacles that the Tower put in front of the Rats so that they would not be able to cross the line easily!"

San Zhe gaped. "How did you figure that out?"

Cheng Xiu shrugged. "I was in a Pressure Room for the Deep Dive, remember?"

San Zhe blinked. That was right. In one of their many talks over the week, Cheng Xiu had mentioned some of the details of the Mission she had to do in the Deep Dive. It would make sense that she was able to guess out the reason behind the Pressure Room faster than him.

Cheng Xiu let the six swords around her spin above her head once again. "Let's go! The closer they are to the borders, the more powerful they would be! If they are able to move so freely then it means that they are not much restricted as I was."

San Zhe nodded.

Cheng Xiu jumped forwards towards the Fire Rat, using the wall to give her a leverage.

The Fire Rat seemed to know where she was and threw a fire ball at her.

Cheng Xiu fell to the ground and dodged.

She used the wall to step up to the creature again.

On the other side, San Zhe had started to attack the Earth Rat with stabs and slashes of his trident.

Around his head spun four sword copies, ready to create a Sword Barrier around him whenever he would need it.

The Earth Rat sent another wave of rocks at him.

The Sword Barrier took affect, protecting the Blue-robed Cultivator from being smashed to his death.

After the onslaught of the attack stopped, San Zhe dashed forwards again.

Cheng Xiu kicked at the Rat.

It slashed at her.

Cheng Xiu dodged.

Three deep gashes appeared on the wall where she was positioned a few moments ago.

Cheng Xiu saw the slight purple bubling goo in the gashes.

It made her think of the purple poison that she got from the Deep Dive.

She realised that the Rat was far more dangerous than she had thought he was. She could not use her own batch of Purple Poison at the moment, so she had to make sure that the creature did not have a chance to engage in a physical fight with her.

Though, the fact that she is a sword user put that idea in jeopardy.

Cheng Xiu took a deep breath and dashed forwards again.

"Ghost Flame!" she screamed as she raised her sword high in the air.

Black Flame burst around the sword and covered her hands.

This was the only really effective skill that she had in her possession. And this was the only thing that she could think of that would allow her to have an advantage.

The sword hit the metal fur of the beast.

Instead of the sword being deflected completely without any damage like last time, it cut off a small layer of fur of the creature and created a gash on the skin underneath.

The rat screamed and screeched as it fell to the ground.

The black fire of the Ghost Flame started to consume the creature's skin underneath the fur.

Cheng Xiu backed off, dodging the rat as it tried to slashed at her with its talon as it tried to put out the black Flame that was slowly killing it.

She bent at the waist forwards and panted hard.

She felt dizzy and weak.

"You damn Human cultivator!" the fire rat screamed.

Cheng Xiu did not think much about the young female voice that the creature said it to her in, too busy trying to catch her breath.