VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

In the scroll laid out for them all to see was a long list of names and characters. San Zhe recognised them as the ancient writings that the Other World used. There were some people who were so obsessed with the game that they would spend their life to learn it, and communicate with the locals with it. He had not thought that Lord Yaksha was one of them though.

"What does it say?" he asked Yaksha.

"Burn the things around us," Yaksha answered.

"What?" San Zhe asked in confusion.

"It does make sense," Cheng Xiu said to him.

"Does it?" San Zhe sent her a skeptical look. He always felt that when Lord Yaksha talked, Cheng Xiu just agreed without even thinking about it.

"If we take into consideration of the fact that there is no witch here, there is no one who knows how to read the words in this book, then what would you do if you have twenty barrels of alcohol and lit Troches with you?"

San Zhe stared at her for a while. "Um…"

"You will try to create a fire…the reason for the fire could be many. To call away the attention of the NPC to walk into the backroom, to destroy the Nest and thus destroying the things that are removing their memories, or even someone who is a pyromaniac. No matter what the situation, in a room filled with Alcohol and Fire, anyone who can reach this level will be able to create the fire."

San Zhe stared at Cheng Xiu for some moments. What she said made sense…but it also brought something unpleasant to his mind. "So we spent finding clues for something that even a brainless person could have thought of…"

Cheng Xiu raised an eyebrow. "There is a difference, Senior San, the others would be doing guess works, we are sure of it."

"The end result is the same though."

Cheng Xiu rolled her eyes. "I would always try to be logical in any situation. If there is a chance that we can find clues for what we should be doing instead of just using guess work, I will find the clues. Being Reckless will not help us. And besides, who cares about the end process at this point? Isn't the main point that our guess was right and that there were clues on how to escape the Nest?"

San Zhe blinked. Right. That was the most important point. "Sorry. I just…I did not think that things are so obvious and-"

"You were upset that you did not think of this directly."

San Zhe froze for a moment. "That…yes."

Cheng Xiu's eyes glimmered. "I know how that feels. I feel like that a bit too at times…when you put so much effort into something and then you find out that there were other methods that were simpler to use. But that doesn't matter. In the end, this is a game. It makes sense that there are multiple ways to clear the same game. After all, every player has his or her own specialty, what they are good at."

"You are far too logical at times," San Zhe said with a helpless sigh.

Cheng Xiu shrugged. "Not always. I can be emotional too. But it is rare for me. If there is a chance for me to not be emotional, then the chances are, that is the method that I will choose."

"That is not a very healthy way of doing things," Yaksha commented.

Cheng Xiu shrugged.

"Let's go do the ritual then!" San Zhe suggested.

Cheng Xiu and Yaksha nodded and collected the sacks of items.

"So how do we arrange this?" San Zhe asked.

"By placing a barrel of alcohol and a sack of items in front of each of the torches," Cheng Xiu answered.

"But how do we know which sack should go to which torch?"

Yaksha shook his head and grabbed a empty bag. He started to fill the sack with different items. Only the petals were kept separately.

"Are we not giving a sack each?" San Zhe asked.

"We are, but the items have to be divided so that each torch can get one of each items," Cheng Xiu explained to him. "Except for the rose petals. Those will not be burnt with the sack."

"What will we do with those then?" San Zhe asked her.

Cheng Xiu chuckled. "Wait and see."

The three arranged the sacks after that and placed each sack in front of each of the floating Red Flame Torches.

Cheng Xiu stood in the middle, San Zhe was placed at the far right end of the line and Yaksha was placed at the far left.

"One the count of three, we will each burn the sack in front of us," Yaksha said to them.

San Zhe gave him a solemn nod.

"And be ready at that moment," Cheng Xiu warned.

"Why?"

"If this is the way that the memories are being erased and if this is the way that the rats are getting their energy then what do you think the lady at the counter will do when we burn the sacks and do the counter ritual?"

San Zhe stared at her for a moment and then realised what she was implying.

If this was the final Rat Counsellor and the counsellor knew that they were stopping the ritual from happening, they would stop pretending to be an innocent by-stander.

The had to be ready for an attack.

San Zhe gave her a stiff nod, the corners of his eyes tensing and his muscles recoiled into the fight or flight mode.

Cheng Xiu smiled as she realised that San Zhe had understood the situation that they were facing.

Yaksha raised his hand and counted. "Three, two…one!"

The three people threw a barrel of alcohol onto the sack in front of them.

There was a screeching sound from behind as the woman at the counter transformed into a humanoid rat and jumped over the desk towards them.

The three players took hold of the torch in front of them and threw it at the sack.

The sack burst into red flame and exploded.

San Zhe stepped back.

"Don't stop!" Cheng Xiu screamed as she grabbed another barrel.

San Zhe and Yaksha followed suit.

The rat barrelled into Cheng Xiu's back.

"Sister Xiu!" San Zhe screamed, turning to run towards her.

"Don't stop!" She screamed in return as she kicked the rat away and grabbed the Torch from the wall.

The rat screeched at her, and slashed at her madly.

Cheng Xiu dodged and threw the torch at the sack. Red Flame flared into the ceiling of the room.

Cheng Xiu dodged the attacks of the rat again and again, as she used her sheathed sword to keep its talons away from her.

Yaksha grabbed a fourth barrel of Alcohol quickly.

The rat screeched at him and dashed towards him to attack the black robed man.

Cheng Xiu and San Zhe grabbed their fourth Alcohol as well.

Yaksha burned the sack first.

The rat went into a killing frenzy at him, attacking him with slashes after slashes.

San Zhe stared at the happenings and realised something. "Sister Xiu, that Rat is…"

"Yes," Cheng Xiu said, "It attacks the player who does the most damage at this point. Let Expert Yaksha deal with the fifth wave of its attack as well."

San Zhe knew enough about Cheng Xiu to know that there was a plan that she had. "Why is that?"

She burnt her fourth sack just as Yaksha grabbed the fifth barrel of alcohol.

"Because then it would mean that there are only five torches left," Cheng Xiu said, "A new wave of attacks should begin at that point."

Yaksha burnt his fifth sack.

Cheng Xiu and San Zhe grabbed the barrels of alcohol at that moment.

San Zhe had an intuitive understanding at that moment. Before Cheng Xiu could react, San Zhe threw not only the alcohol but the entire barrel at the torch.

The barrel hit the wall and the alcohol caught fire in the mid air, burning down onto the ground.

Cheng Xiu stilled for a fraction of a second at the sudden aggressive behaviour from the senior she had thought was a weak man.

The rat screeched at San Zhe and attacked him with its Talons as well.

Cheng Xiu burnt her fifth sack as well.

The rat kept attacking San Zhe.

There was no other changes in the environment, until Yaksha took his sixth Barrel and San Zhe followed to suit.

The rat went to attack him instead.

Cheng Xiu thought for a moment and looked to either side of her.

The distance between her and the two men were very little. The rat could hop from this place to that very easily.

She thought of the many things that happened so far as the red flames burned brighter and stronger in the room.

The temperature had risen, and they were an sweating.

But Cheng Xiu backed away from the line of sacks.

Yaksha looked at her curiously but still kept fighting and burning. He thought that perhaps Cheng Xiu was tired, though she had never shown to care about such facts before.

Cheng Xiu grabbed something from the floor and counted and then put it into the 21st sack and walked away.

San Zhe and Yaksha burned the 19th and 20th sacks respectively.

"That was difficult," San Zhe said to Yaksha.

Yaksha did not turn to him, instead he tried to hit the rat that was desperately trying to go behind them.

San Zhe felt a coldness in his heart and looked behind to find Cheng Xiu burning a sack with the first fire that they had created.

"No!" the female rat screamed as its talons sharpened and aimed at Cheng Xiu's head.

Cheng Xiu looked towards the creature with cold black eyes. They were calculating and seemed vicious at that moment.

San Zhe shivered. He had never seen such a blank look in her face before.

Cheng Xiu raised her sword and blocked the attacks of the rat as it tried to tear her apart and get to the sack that she burned.

Red petals were exposed as the outerskin of the sack was burnt away.

On seeing the red velvety surface, the creature went into a deeper frenzy.

Cheng Xiu blocked it away from the goal with a blank expression.

The Red Fire blazed around them and smoke filled the air.

***

This work is being serialized in Webnovel. If you are not reading it there, then please know that you are reading stolen work.. Please don't support theft.