As soon as they entered the secret realm, a misty forest like a primeval jungle appeared before them, mysterious and faintly eerie.
Other than the Fatty and Qin Muyu, who were seeing it for the first time, the other five members of the Xiao Fan Team were already used to it.
The Fatty suddenly grew nervous. He was about to say something when he saw Xiao Fan make a quieting gesture. He immediately shut his mouth, ducked his head, and cautiously hid at the back of the party.
Qin Muyu stood beside Xiao Fan. She seemed a little calmer than the Fatty, but her tense posture still gave away her nerves.
After running the secret realm so many times, the Xiao Fan Team knew the monsters' aggro range like the backs of their hands.
As before, the five of them began working together seamlessly to lure and kill the monsters.
Qin Muyu watched the team's tactics from the sidelines. As they killed more and more small monsters, she finally understood why the Xiao Fan Team dared to enter the Misty Forest with only five people.
They had already mastered Profession synergy!
Qin Muyu was deeply shocked. Profession synergy was a strategy that had only been developed in recent years. It assigned different roles in battle based on the varying weapons and skills of each teammate.
At this stage, Profession synergy was used only by top families and elite teams. Ordinary mid- and high-level players had no access to it.
That was because Profession synergy relied on a more specialized role.
The Game Commander!
A Game Commander needed not only an in-depth understanding of the game, but also knowledge of players' weapons and all kinds of skills. They also had to adapt their team's tactics on the fly to suit the situation.
A skilled, experienced commander was incredibly rare.
At present, the number of Game Commanders in the entire Dragon Nation could be counted on one hand.
Qin Muyu stared in shock at Xiao Fan's back. Given the coordination the Xiao Fan Team had displayed, there had to be an exceptionally skilled commander among them.
She didn't need to guess who it was.
It was Xiao Fan.
He was only Level 5, yet he had two Heaven-Tier Skills. He could casually create Heaven-Tier Skills based on other players' attributes, and he could also command the team.
"Jiu Chen, who exactly is he?"
More importantly, why had such a near-perfect player been assigned to Zone 18, a Novice Village that had all but been abandoned?
Qin Muyu couldn't figure that out. The one thing she did understand was that she really was the chosen one!
She had gone from being the Qin Family's top genius to being abandoned by her family and sent to the worst zone, only to meet a player as incredible as Xiao Fan and join his team.
It was like the heavens were spoon-feeding her!
Qin Muyu had a sudden feeling that as long as she stayed by Xiao Fan's side, she would carve out an even more glorious path for herself in Cloud Sea.
No one would have guessed that beneath Qin Muyu's cool exterior lay such a confident soul.
As the team killed more and more small monsters, Qin Muyu gradually noticed the pattern. She pulled out a white dagger and moved in to deal a little damage whenever she saw an opening.
Xiao Fan noticed. He silently marveled to himself.
Even a starved camel was bigger than a horse.
After the Fatty had transferred zones, he'd been left with nothing. Qin Muyu, on the other hand, still had a weapon.
There was no need to guess—she'd used her money to get it.
Soon, the team reached the secret realm's first Boss, the Dark Spider.
The Fatty and Qin Muyu both looked afraid when they saw the enormous Dark Spider.
"You don't need to be scared. Once we engage it, you won't need to deal damage. Just follow my instructions and dodge its skills."
"Got it, Brother Chen." The Fatty hurriedly nodded. He still looked nervous; at his current level, taking even one hit from a skill would probably kill him.
Qin Muyu nodded solemnly as well.
"All right. Let's engage."
Zai Zai charged first, and the Boss immediately locked onto him.
With Xiao Fan's skill, Gift of the Saint, the four of them took turns drawing aggro and slowly dealing damage.
This was Qin Muyu's first time seeing a fight like this. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
"So you can fight a Boss like this! That idea is... just too brilliant!"
The Fatty had fought alongside Xiao Fan before and experienced this kind of battle himself, so he wasn't nearly as shocked as Qin Muyu.
With Xiao Fan's guidance, the team cleared the first Boss without a hitch.
The second Boss in the secret realm, the Forget-Me-Not Orchid, was a little more difficult.
After all, this Boss relied heavily on players' attributes. If their attributes were too low, they would be charmed by it.
Without the Flower Grafting skill, Xiao Fan wouldn't have dared bring the Fatty and Qin Muyu into the secret realm.
Xiao Fan swapped the Boss's attributes with those of the Fatty and Qin Muyu.
The Level 5 Boss instantly took on the attributes of a player with no ranks.
Garfield Without Garfield only needed to fire one arrow. Before the Flower Grafting effect even wore off, the Boss was already dead.
Xiao Fan marveled inwardly.
A God-Tier Skill really was a God-Tier Skill!
It was freakishly powerful!
Unfortunately, he could only use it once a day.
Otherwise, he couldn't even imagine how powerful he'd become.
Aside from the Fatty, the other five had all seen Xiao Fan use this skill during the Beast Tide. Yet even seeing it again, they were too shocked to speak.
They really wanted to crack open Xiao Fan's head and see how he'd come up with such a... bizarre, inscrutable skill.
The Fatty was completely dumbfounded. His mind was filled with questions: Who was he? Where was he? What had happened to his health bar?
Although that health bar had only appeared for a few seconds, it had let him truly feel how powerful his body was.
"All right, let's go."
For the third Boss, Xiao Fan was still responsible for drawing out its Entangle skill. With his current Agility, he was unlikely to make a mistake.
The only thing they had to watch out for was the Saplings that appeared at random.
The Saplings randomly chose a player to pursue, which meant the Fatty and Qin Muyu could be targeted.
Their damage wasn't much for Xiao Fan and the others, but for the Level 0 Fatty and Qin Muyu, it was enough to take more than half their health.
So against the third Boss, they couldn't use Gift of the Saint carelessly.
If the Fatty or Qin Muyu took damage while Xiao Fan's skill was on cooldown, they'd be in serious danger.
"If a Sapling chases you, stay calm and move away from the group."
After warning them, Xiao Fan engaged the Boss.
"Congratulations! Your team has cleared the secret realm Misty Forest. Each player has been rewarded with 1,000 Core Power points."
Ten minutes later, the system announcement rang out, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The Fatty most of all. When the Boss's health had dropped below ten percent, a Sapling had chosen him. The level difference had nearly emptied his health bar. Luckily, Xiao Fan had activated his skill in time, restoring his health.
But when he saw the 1,000 Core Power points credited to him, the Fatty grinned.
"I didn't get a single Core Power point in a whole month in Zone 2. On my first day in Zone 18, I've already earned 1,000. Coming to Zone 18 with Brother Fan was definitely the right choice!"
Qin Muyu's beautiful eyes settled on Xiao Fan, shining so brightly they were almost startling.
"He really led the few of us through a Level 5 Secret Realm."
So strong! He was so strong!
After they left the secret realm, there was still plenty of time, so the team hunted Fierce Beasts for a while longer and took down a Wild Boss before returning to the Novice Village.
As the moon rose, Xiao Fan began his hour of Moon Gazing again.
Ding, ding—the sound of a message notification suddenly rang out.
Xiao Fan hurriedly opened the game screen. Sure enough, it was Ye Bugu.
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