Although Lu Qiuchen couldn’t change the plot, she could choose the players involved.
She had originally planned to go directly to Zhang Cheng, but her heart felt conflicted. After some thought, she finally decided to start with one of Zhang Cheng’s friends.
As it turned out, Lu Qiuchen did find a suitable candidate.
She searched Zhang Cheng’s nickname on the forum and found a player named “Spicy Bunny Head” who had once posted a thread during the scandal involving the [No Brain] guild, showing support for Zhang Cheng.
Lu Qiuchen clicked open Spicy Bunny Head’s post and read it carefully. The player had previously shared how they met Zhang Cheng and their joint exploration of a hidden quest.
Later on, after the [No Brain] guild made a splash, and with Zhang Cheng’s own consent, she even posted the stats of the Bipedal Wyvern, sparking a wave of envy among the players.
This player had successfully piqued Lu Qiuchen’s curiosity. Their relationship seemed fairly close, and since the quest explicitly required both a Priest and a Knight class, coupled with the fact that the pre-quest reward was quite good, she decided to entrust this quest to Spicy Bunny Head, using her to attract Zhang Cheng.
Lu Qiuchen then used her toolbox to locate the player and deliberately performed a little act in front of her.
Sure enough, the player couldn’t resist the lure of the quest. Spicy Bunny Head obediently fell into her trap, allowing Lu Qiuchen to observe Zhang Cheng’s behavior without directly interacting with him.
Lu Qiuchen thought to herself, if Zhang Cheng casually said “I’ve been looking for you for two and a half years” in the dungeon, then she would make him understand the meaning of “hitting is affection, scolding is love.”
*****
Meanwhile, Zhang Cheng was leveling up at night when he suddenly received a message from Spicy Bunny Head.
This catgirl hadn’t contacted him for several weeks. Zhang Cheng had been living in a fog lately—either working or grinding levels—and his mind was full of thoughts about Lu Qiuchen. Seeing this somewhat unfamiliar nickname, he momentarily didn’t recognize who it was.
The next second, Zhang Cheng saw the message in the chat box and jolted awake. He immediately put down his leveling session, recalled his Bipedal Wyvern that was still fighting beside him, and quickly exited the dungeon.
The chat box showed a message about a main questline. This was far more important than grinding levels!
Since this was a newly found level 75 dungeon, and his first visit had been a solo trip, he could only ride the Bipedal Wyvern back to the nearest town and then teleport to the other player’s location.
“Have you found the pre-quest for the next stage of the main storyline?” Zhang Cheng set the destination to the nearest town, letting the Bipedal Wyvern fly automatically, and checked with Spicy Bunny Head again to make sure this wasn’t a joke.
“Yes, I just got it from an NPC! I’ll share the quest with you when we meet.” The reply came quickly.
Receiving this, Zhang Cheng grew excited. This had to be real! Before he could respond, Spicy Bunny Head sent a voice message:
“By the way, we still need a Priest. Is Cold Coffee available? I saw she’s offline now. I noticed you two seem close—why don’t you ask her?”
“Um, my sister hasn’t been playing much lately, and her level has fallen behind us. Let’s just forget it.” Zhang Cheng suppressed his excitement. It had been over half a month since he and Lu Qiuchen parted ways in the dungeon, and he had no news from her, leaving him anxious.
“Alright, then I’ll ask someone else ~~” Spicy Bunny Head’s reply sounded somewhat cheerful.
The two stopped chatting after that. Zhang Cheng stared at the coordinates on the map, repeatedly sending speed-up commands, wanting his Bipedal Wyvern to fly faster.
The Bipedal Wyvern felt wronged but had nowhere to vent. It had just fought on the battlefield with him and was nearly exhausted. Now, not only was it being used as a mount, but it was being rushed too. “There’s no love left between us!” it thought.
Zhang Cheng noticed the frustrated expression popping up above the Bipedal Wyvern thanks to the system prompt. Its bad mood was causing it to fly slower.
Zhang Cheng was annoyed but could only soothe it gently and handed it a gold coin as a tip, which finally boosted its spirits.
Fortunately, the dungeon wasn’t far from the nearest town. With the Bipedal Wyvern’s speed, they returned to the city within ten minutes. Zhang Cheng then used the teleportation array to instantly travel to the Empire City where the catgirl assassin was located.
Spicy Bunny Head waited for him at the teleportation array’s exit, accompanied by a female mage. After the three met, Spicy Bunny Head introduced them.
“Hello, just call me Pink Bunny. I’m a Knight.” Zhang Cheng saw the other was a woman, so he spoke first, introducing himself. Though his nickname was somewhat embarrassing, Zhang Cheng had finally accepted it and found a less shameful way to refer to himself.
In Eternal, players and NPCs had their level, nickname, title, and guild (if any) displayed above their heads, so in temporary parties, it was common to just introduce your class. In combat dungeons, gear score was often mentioned too.
“My class is Fire Mage, Color Bunny… Ah! Sorry, Mr. Pink Bunny, I didn’t mean it.” The mage girl immediately made a big blunder. Her face flushed bright red, shattering the calm aura she had just exhibited while standing there.
“Hahaha~ Little Di, you must’ve been zoning out again just now.” Spicy Bunny Head laughed uproariously beside her, bent over with laughter.
Hearing herself teased, the mage named Di Si E Ya turned beet red and lightly punched the catgirl’s back with tiny fists, venting her embarrassment.
Zhang Cheng couldn’t help but smile helplessly, watching the two young girls playfully teasing each other.
They looked like close friends. Spicy Bunny Head seemed young enough already, so how had another middle schooler appeared?
Though Di Si E Ya looked very young, her level of 72 placed her in the top tier of players. It was impossible for an underage player with only two hours of weekly gameplay to reach this level. If she hadn’t altered her appearance to look younger, she would be considered a legitimate loli.
Lu Qiuchen stood hidden nearby, biting back laughter. She had wanted to tease Zhang Cheng about his nickname before, but hadn’t had the heart during their previous encounters. Now seeing Zhang Cheng struggling brought her great amusement.
Zhang Cheng wasn’t going to dwell on a little girl’s slip-up. Looking around, he didn’t see any players dressed as Priests and asked the catgirl who had just finished laughing, “Has the other Priest arrived yet?”
Spicy Bunny Head’s face grew awkward as she hesitated. “Actually, we haven’t found one yet. I don’t even have any Priest-playing acquaintances.”
Zhang Cheng glanced at their guild tags. Being in Blood Dawn, a PvP guild, it should be easier to find Priests than in normal guilds.
In 1v1 PvP, Priests were at a disadvantage, but in team PvP, Priests were highly valued. Zhang Cheng knew from experience that Blood Dawn had quite a few Priests in battleground dungeons.
When he voiced this doubt, Spicy Bunny Head just shrugged it off, saying the guild’s Priests were all obsessed with PvP and not interested in this.
Zhang Cheng recognized this as a flimsy excuse but didn’t call her out. He guessed the real reason was that Spicy Bunny Head didn’t fully trust the others’ character.
Zhang Cheng knew how bad Blood Dawn’s reputation was. This guild had long been known for harassing and humiliating other players, and in Eternal, their behavior was even more brazen due to the game’s increased interaction features, which bred even more disgusting tactics.
Zhang Cheng hadn’t yet dealt with them directly in Eternal, so he wasn’t fully aware, but seeing Blood Dawn constantly being denounced on the forums since the server launch spoke volumes.
As for why these two girls stayed in Blood Dawn, Zhang Cheng didn’t ask—he didn’t have the energy to worry about that.
Suddenly, Zhang Cheng remembered a suitable candidate—the Priest who had died tragically in the Dragon Tomb at Panda’s hands.
After that incident, the Priest had dared to stand with him, which showed good character. They had added each other as friends later. Seeing this Priest online, Zhang Cheng recommended him to Spicy Bunny Head.
After contacting the Priest, nicknamed “Turkey-Flavored Rice Crust,” Zhang Cheng explained the situation. The Priest immediately agreed and soon arrived at the scene.
After Turkey-Flavored Rice Crust introduced himself, the small, nimble squad of four was complete. Zhang Cheng, at level 74, was the highest, followed by Turkey-Flavored Rice Crust and Di Si E Ya at level 72, and Spicy Bunny Head at level 71, having just recently leveled up.
After Spicy Bunny Head shared the quest, the current task updated, giving the team the next objective: “Players, please proceed to the Druid Adventurers’ Guild and search the surrounding area for clues.”
Seeing this, Spicy Bunny Head sighed helplessly. They were currently at the Empire’s border, a good half-continent away from Druid. Even though most players’ wallets were no longer empty, the expensive teleport fees were still unaffordable.
Spicy Bunny Head sighed again, knowing they would have to travel. Even though the developers had optimized the long-distance travel experience by adding offline auto-travel acceleration, such a long journey by ground dragon would still take at least two days.
After she mentioned this, Zhang Cheng said he couldn’t wait that long and generously declared he would cover the teleportation fee.
Such a show of wealth shocked the two girls, but Zhang Cheng and Turkey-Flavored Rice Crust knew this money was all “voluntarily gifted” to Zhang Cheng by Panda’s eight-man team.
When Zhang Cheng was killed, the system judged him as the last player to leave the dungeon and automatically collected all the equipment and gold dropped by the boss into his inventory. Later, Zhang Cheng gave 20% to Turkey-Flavored Rice Crust, keeping the remaining 80% for himself.
With such a fortune in hand, Zhang Cheng could easily afford the four-player long-distance teleport fee.
After paying, the four entered the teleportation array, preparing to be transported to Druid. Lu Qiuchen, hidden nearby, silently followed and slipped inside as well.
The four were enveloped by white light and teleported away, but Lu Qiuchen remained standing in place.
“This teleportation can lock onto players?” Lu Qiuchen thought, initially wanting to slack off since her spatial teleportation couldn’t cover such a long distance in one go. Now, she had no choice but to teleport repeatedly.