Forming a Team

"Fanzi, let's find three more people."

The fat boy glanced around, looking for suitable teammates.

"Xiao Fan, we're one short. Want to join us?"

"Xiao Fan, we need a healer. Want to come?"

"Xiao Fan, do you have a team?"

In just ten minutes, five teams had already invited Xiao Fan to join them.

"I didn't know I was this popular."

Xiao Fan was pretty pleased.

In the original owner's memories, he had been a very introverted person who didn't like talking to others. He was practically invisible in class and, apart from his deskmate Little Fatty, had basically no friends.

Xiao Fan had assumed nobody would ask him to join a team. He hadn't expected so many people to want him with them.

Thinking it over, he understood why they were asking: he was one of only three people in class who had chosen the Healer Class.

Since everyone was entering the game for the first time, it was only natural to be afraid of getting hurt. Having a healer on the team would make them feel much safer.

After all, Cloud Sea wasn't a game in the traditional sense. If you died in there, you really died.

But as soon as those people heard he wanted to bring Little Fatty along, they turned and left.

"Damn! They're so shallow." Little Fatty looked deeply aggrieved.

He'd asked several people to team up, but they'd all turned him down.

Aside from the three healers, the most popular person in class was the campus belle, Chen Xuewei.

Watching her get surrounded by classmates, a trace of envy crossed Little Fatty's face.

"I heard the Chen Family has an Earth-Tier Skill Chain that's been passed down for a hundred years. Its special trait only appears in members of the Chen Family. They became Sea City's number one family thanks to that Skill Chain, so Chen Xuewei must have chosen their family's Earth-Tier Skill."

Xiao Fan: ...

The Black Fog had only appeared ten years ago. How could there be a Skill Chain passed down for a hundred years?

What a load of nonsense.

"If only the campus belle would team up with me."

Little Fatty was still mooning over her when he suddenly saw Chen Xuewei walking through the crowd toward him. His body went rigid.

"Holy crap, Fanzi! Look! Is Chen Xuewei coming over here? This is bad! She wants to team up with me! What do I do? Turn her down? Turn her down? Or turn her down?"

Xiao Fan pressed his lips together. "Those all sound like tough choices."

Little Fatty: ...

"Xiao Fan, Zhang Mo, do you two have a team?"

Chen Xuewei stopped in front of them. At 170 centimeters tall, she had a graceful figure and long legs that her oversized school uniform did nothing to conceal.

"Class monitor, Fanzi and I aren't on a team yet." Little Fatty immediately hurried over, practically fawning over her.

"Perfect. My team needs two more people. Would you like to join?" As Chen Xuewei spoke, her gaze flicked toward Xiao Fan.

"We'd love to! As long as you don't mind having us." Little Fatty nodded frantically.

"Good. Come find me after you've picked up your weapons." With that, Chen Xuewei turned and left.

With his chin held high, Little Fatty picked up his weapon under the envious and resentful gazes of everyone around them, then dragged Xiao Fan over to Chen Xuewei.

A boy and a girl were already standing beside Chen Xuewei.

The girl was around 165 centimeters tall, with a well-proportioned figure and two thick braids. She wasn't as stunning as Chen Xuewei, but she was still pretty.

She was Chen Xuewei's close friend, Zhang Huanhuan.

The boy stood around 190 centimeters tall. He had tanned skin, a sturdy build, and a neat buzz cut. He looked decent enough, but had a somewhat gloomy air about him.

He was the class's physical education representative, Zhang Chao.

Zhang Yuanyuan held a whip, while Zhang Chao wore a fist gauntlet. Chen Xuewei carried a longsword.

The Yellow Rank Skill Chains provided by the school included no chains for fists or whips.

Clearly, Zhang Yuanyuan and Zhang Chao were using higher-ranked Skill Chains. Chen Xuewei was in a league of her own. If Little Fatty was right, she had chosen her family's Earth-Tier Skill Chain.

Seeing Little Fatty with a shield and Xiao Fan empty-handed, Zhang Huanhuan and Zhang Chao exchanged a glance. Zhang Huanhuan pursed her lips.

"Xuewei, the three of us are strong enough to compete for first place in this exam. Wouldn't bringing them along be a bit..."

They were all classmates, so Zhang Huanhuan couldn't bring herself to say anything too harsh. But her meaning was clear: she didn't want to team up with Xiao Fan and Little Fatty.

"Exactly, Xuewei. Huanhuan and I both have Mystic Rank Skills, and you have an Earth-Tier Skill. If we find two more classmates with Mystic Rank Skills, first place is practically guaranteed."

Zhang Chao frowned as he glanced at Xiao Fan and Little Fatty.

"Zhang Mo's shield is barely useful for killing monsters. And while Xiao Fan is a healer, with our strength we don't need one for this exam. We'd be better off finding someone from the Damage Class to boost our score."

Their words made Little Fatty blush with embarrassment. They were openly insulting him.

Xiao Fan's expression darkened, too. After all, Chen Xuewei had invited the two of them. They hadn't shamelessly begged to join, only to be treated like this afterward.

If his first skill weren't useless in the early stages, he would have taken Little Fatty and left already.

"If you two don't want to stay, you can leave the team. I won't force you." Chen Xuewei's voice carried a hint of coldness.

Zhang Huanhuan and Zhang Chao froze, apparently unable to believe Chen Xuewei would ask them to leave for Xiao Fan and Little Fatty's sake.

"Don't be angry, Xuewei. We were only joking. We're all classmates. We never said we wouldn't team up with Xiao Fan and the others."

Seeing that Chen Xuewei was angry, Zhang Chao immediately changed his tune.

Zhang Huanhuan still looked displeased, but she said no more.

The teams formed quickly. When the exam began, each team headed into the forest, leaving only the principal and the dean behind.

"Old Li, do you think the person who created a Heaven-Tier Skill today might be one of the new players?" the principal asked suddenly, watching the students' figures gradually disappear.

The dean was taken aback, then shook his head. "Impossible. There are only four Heaven-Tier Skills in all of Cloud Sea, and each one came at the cost of countless players' blood. How could new players who've never experienced combat in the game create one?"

"Besides, those four Heaven-Tier Skills were all created at the fifth link of a Skill Chain. The first link is too limited. It's practically impossible to create a Heaven-Tier Skill there."

After hearing the dean's analysis, the principal nodded. "You're right. It's just that today's events were too much of a coincidence. A Heaven-Tier Skill appeared while these new players were creating their skills, so I couldn't help wondering."

"It was quite a coincidence," the dean agreed. "I wonder which powerhouse created a Heaven-Tier Skill today."

"We'll find out sooner or later." The principal didn't continue the topic. He turned his gaze toward the forest before them.

"Who do you think will take first place in today's exam?" the principal asked with interest.

"Who else? It'll definitely be that girl from the Chen Family. Earth-Tier Skill Chains are powerful to begin with, and the first link of the Chen Family's chain is an Earth-Tier Skill. She'd have to try to lose."

Just as the dean finished speaking, the scores on the Score Counter in front of them changed.

The names of Chen Xuewei's five team members instantly appeared at the top.