: Couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, so I'm watching Sen Miao mine in a dungeon.
: Woke up at four too. What's so interesting about mining?
: It's relaxing.
: The Shuishui Gang can't even mine properly. Just what you'd expect from them.
: Holy shit! Songbird's entering a dungeon!
: What? What? I'm awake! I'm wide awake now!
: Livestream room for District 068. Second run of the Huaiyin No. 4 Middle School dungeon. Get over here!
Zheng Xun stood outside the White Tower's gates, full of energy. Four Songbird members stood before him, yawning their heads off.
He knew Xiao Jun and Cheng Jie. The other two were newcomers, a man and a woman.
The male member was Xiao Wu. He looked young, around twenty.
The female member was Li Shuang, a substitute on the Singing Sparrow Second Team.
Neither newcomer looked very experienced. Their wandering eyes betrayed their unease.
There wasn't a single mainstay from the first team in sight. Zheng Xun was no fool; he could tell Xiao Jun was betting everything on him, unwilling to risk his own aces.
To Songbird, Zheng Xun was an unrelated outsider. Even if they failed, at worst, they would only lose an outsider.
Still, Vice Captain Xiao was willing to risk his life alongside him. That took courage and good judgment.
Some viewers in the bullet comments naturally saw through that bit of scheming.
: Is Erchui with Songbird now?
: Don't think so. If there's no official announcement, it doesn't count.
: If he hasn't signed, would Erchui willingly enter a dungeon this hard?
: No idea. As far as I'm concerned, Erchui's just a wild monkey outside the White Tower. He just charges in.
: Time for the draw! Time for the draw!
Zheng Xun was leading the team this time. Normally, before the dungeon's difficulty was officially drawn, the captain would go over a few precautions with the team, briefly discuss tactics, and give everyone a pep talk.
But Zheng Xun was completely oblivious to that. He turned to push the door open.
: Hahahaha, did Erchui forget he's the captain?
: It's his first time, after all. He's inexperienced.
: What's a captain? (In Erchui's voice)
: I kind of like Erchui's style. Guilds put on way too much of a show when they enter dungeons these days.
: Yeah, exactly. What's there to go on about? Just get in there and do it.
Xiao Jun pulled him back, and Zheng Xun slapped his forehead.
"Oh, right, right. I have to say a few words."
Under the team members' varied gazes, Zheng Xun spoke with the utmost seriousness.
"Stay here and don't go anywhere. I'll be right back."
With that, he started toward the gates again.
"Wait!"
This time, Cheng Jie grabbed him.
"Are you still half asleep? What kind of nonsense are you talking?"
Zheng Xun looked puzzled instead.
"Does the dungeon have a minimum party size?"
"No... but!"
"Then there you go."
"No, no, that's not right!" Cheng Jie nearly fell for it. "How are you going to clear it all by yourself?"
"Why can't I? You four would just get in my way."
: What's going on? What's going on?
: Are they fighting?
: Hahahaha, Erchui really is Erchui. He wants to solo this dungeon!
: Solo? Dream on. Forget the 3S side quest-even an A-rank dungeon is impossible to solo!
: Is the War God of the Rotten District a fraud or what? Why does he seem so unreliable?
: A fraud? What kind of fraud? The Shuishui Gang is on alert.
: Erchui seems a little impatient this time? He's acting differently from his last dungeon.
Zheng Xun's unusual behavior didn't escape the viewers' notice, and the sharp-eyed Xiao Jun noticed it too.
"Zheng Xun," he asked, "do you have some other concern? You seem very eager."
Zheng Xun was in a hurry.
Time passed differently in the simulated dungeon and the outside world. After simulating it nonstop for a day and a night, Zheng Xun had run it 500 times.
The 3S side quest had only appeared twenty times.
Honestly, the White Tower might not have intended to make things difficult for the players. The hidden side quest in this dungeon didn't appear very often, and there was no reliable way to trigger it. Under normal circumstances, it was quite hard to get it to appear.
But the Singing Sparrow Second Team really had been that unlucky.
For Zheng Xun, clearing the dungeon wasn't a problem. He had already gotten the hang of it.
But he still hadn't figured out the pattern behind triggering the hidden side quest.
It seemed to be random.
If it was random, that meant it would be hard to control.
If he was lucky, he could trigger it on his first official run.
Otherwise, he would have to run it a few more times.
To save time, Zheng Xun had decided to go solo.
Cheng Jie got angry when he heard Zheng Xun didn't want to bring anyone.
"If you weren't bringing us, why did you wake us all up so early in the morning?"
"I didn't know the way," Zheng Xun said honestly.
"You!"
"Cheng Jie," Xiao Jun interrupted him and continued trying to persuade Zheng Xun, "we're familiar with this dungeon. Our chances of triggering the hidden side quest might be higher too."
Zheng Xun thought it over. That made sense.
He was lucky, so his chances of triggering it were low. Maybe one of the other four was a real unlucky bastard, and the side quest would appear as soon as they entered.
"All right."
He would put a little faith in the metaphysics.
The process was the same as last time. They had to draw a number to enter the dungeon.
"Welcome, welcome, uh-"
Zheng Xun deftly pulled the wire, shutting the chattering lottery machine up early.
The ball that came out was marked with the letter A.
Just as expected.
The Huaiyin Instance had no weapon selection stage. Players could use any weapon from their Cloud Space.
Zheng Xun only had an inflatable hammer. The other four team members had a variety of weapons, but they all looked normal.
: Here it comes, here it comes. That familiar pink.
: That color scheme makes me lose more SAN than the dungeon monsters.
: It's blinding me, help.
: Can't Erchui buy a weapon that suits him? Songbird is so stingy, they won't even give him one.
: I think that hammer suits Erchui's mental state perfectly.
After entering the dungeon, Zheng Xun was unlike the many players who tried to draw attention during livestreams. He barely looked at the livestream room and didn't care what the viewers were discussing.
He didn't want to hype himself up, but he had a knack for trending anyway.
On the first run, Zheng Xun didn't stir up any trouble. Xiao Jun had thought he would, but strangely enough, he led the team along quietly.
Apart from refusing to talk to the NPCs and leaving all the conversations to the others, there was nothing unusual.
Assuming killing a boss in three seconds didn't count as unusual.
Zheng Xun didn't talk to the NPCs or say a word, but he was eager to take down the bosses.
The first boss didn't even have time to roar before Zheng Xun killed it.
The second fared even worse than the first. It didn't even have time to open the door. Zheng Xun smashed the door open with one swing of his hammer, sending the door panel flying straight into the monster and flattening it.
The bullet comments went nearly wild.
: Holy crap, Zheng Xun really is something else! What kind of reaction speed is that?
: Is this really his first time in the Locust Sound instance?
: He probably watched the replay of the Singing Sparrow Second Team's last run beforehand.
: If watching replays helped that much, I'd be number one on the solo rankings by now.
: Songbird hit the jackpot. A newcomer this strong is an all-rounder.
: He's even stronger than he was in the last dungeon. How long has it even been?
: Two days?
: Just what you'd expect from the War God of the Rotten District. He single-handedly pulled District 1089 up to 900th place.
: 1089 climbed that many places?
: Yeah. It was a 3S dungeon, after all.
: Stop talking, stop talking. God Zheng's already soloing the final stage.
The final stage was on the rooftop. War God Zheng and the other four, who looked like they were sleepwalking, stood there without a scratch.
As soon as Zheng Xun found his footing, he clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, this run's no good."
"What?"
Cheng Jie, standing beside him, was just about to ask what was no good when a blurry white figure rose by the rooftop railing.
The final boss!
Cheng Jie was about to shout when his body suddenly tipped forward, headfirst, and the scenery below the rooftop rushed toward his eyes.
Cheng Jie froze, then cursed.
Fuck, Zheng Xun actually pushed all four of us off!