After dinner, as expected, the restless An Jing called.
While asking what exactly had happened today, he also couldn’t resist bragging about the excuse he had come up with on the spot.
Xia Zichen didn’t explain much. He only said that when he stepped out to answer the call, he happened to run into Gu Xu. As for why Gu Xu had sent over so much food, even he was surprised.
After the cake incident before this, An Jing accepted that explanation, though he still felt Gu Xu seemed like the kind of person who never acted according to normal logic.
“I’m impressed with myself. I actually came up with such a great excuse for you.” An Jing laughed. “So? Pretty smart, right? Actually, I originally wanted to say your dad knew someone surnamed Gu, but considering Gu Xu’s family background, that kind of connection would be too hard to explain. So I changed it last minute.”
“It sounded decent at the time, but if you think about it carefully, it doesn’t really hold up,” Xia Zichen said.
“How so?” An Jing asked, confused.
“It would’ve worked if Gu Xu wasn’t from our school. But since we go to the same school, it’s inevitable we’ll run into each other eventually. The lie would fall apart then.” Xia Zichen shifted into a more comfortable position. “Besides, how could the neighborhood I lived in as a kid possibly have neighbors like Gu Xu’s family?”
The place where he lived as a child was an old residential area filled with buildings over twenty years old. Though it was kept relatively clean, that didn’t change what it was.
Xia Zichen didn’t know exactly what kind of family the Gu family was, but from what An Jing had said, they were extremely influential. Families with that kind of status wouldn’t choose to live somewhere like that.
After hearing Xia Zichen explain it, An Jing also realized the excuse wasn’t very convincing.
“Well, whatever. What’s done is done. Besides, even if Yicheng finds out, what can he really do?”
“Mm.”
That was true. Even if Shen Yicheng found out, at most he’d just be angry about being lied to.
“But honestly, you and Gu Xu really don’t know each other?” This question had been lingering in An Jing’s mind. He simply couldn’t believe someone like Gu Xu would approach Xia Zichen without reason.
“I asked him. He also said I don’t know him.”
Though Xia Zichen had his own doubts, after all this time, other than telling Gu Xu his name, he hadn’t really revealed any information. They hadn’t even exchanged phone numbers.
Maybe precisely because they hadn’t exchanged numbers, every time he received something from Gu Xu, he never felt pitied or looked down upon.
In fact, he felt Gu Xu didn’t care at all about receiving thanks from him.
That was why he accepted everything Gu Xu gave him without pressure.
Everything felt natural.
There was no deliberate calculation or hidden motive.
“I’ll never understand how rich guys think,” An Jing concluded.
They chatted for a while longer before hanging up.
—
By mid-February, the weather was still bitterly cold.
Whenever Xia Zichen looked outside and saw fierce winds howling, he felt staying home was a kind of happiness.
Watching people hurry home through the cold also reminded him of his father, who worked regular office hours every day.
Thankfully, his father drove himself to work, which reassured him somewhat. At least it was warmer than taking the bus.
The second round of the 2v2 PK tournament began as scheduled.
Compared to the first round, the second elimination round was more difficult, but not enough to trouble Canmo Wuhen and Chen Xi.
The two advanced smoothly into the semifinals.
Most of the members of Zhan Ming Hall hadn’t participated in this PK tournament.
Compared to faction players, neutral players weren’t particularly enthusiastic about competitions like this.
After all, compared to fighting other players, they were much better at fighting bosses.
After finishing the daily quests, Canmo Wuhen was preparing to take Chen Xi into a dungeon when An Jing messaged him.
[PM] Deep Night Sneak: Xiao Chenchen, the sisters in the guild want to ask you for a favor.
[PM] Chen Xi: What is it?
He hadn’t opened the guild chat and hadn’t paid attention to what everyone was discussing.
[PM] Deep Night Sneak: Everyone wants to challenge the Dark Battle Underground Palace dungeon, but it’s pretty difficult, so they want you to teach them the strategy. Didn’t you run it often with Tianfeng Yage before?
[PM] Chen Xi: Why do they suddenly want to run Dark Battle?
They had attempted this dungeon before but had quietly given up later.
Why suddenly think about it again?
And given Zhan Ming Hall’s actual strength, Xia Zichen wasn’t confident they could clear it.
He had cleared it with Tianfeng Yage because they already had a very mature team synergy. For Zhan Ming Hall to rebuild that coordination from scratch wouldn’t be easy.
[PM] Deep Night Sneak: After the update, Dark Battle started dropping high-quality weapons. Everyone wants to try their luck.
The February update had indeed added new weapon drops.
But even after running it several times with Tianfeng Yage, only one guqin for the Nanfu class had dropped.
The drop rate wasn’t high.
[PM] Chen Xi: I’ve run it a few times and understand the mechanics, but leading it is difficult. If you guys really want to do it, I need to study it first.
[PM] Deep Night Sneak: Then why not ask Great God Canmo? He definitely understands it.
[PM] Chen Xi: I’ll ask him in a bit.
[PM] Deep Night Sneak: Mm. After that, tell Yicheng. If we’re talking about raid leaders, he’s the most stable in the guild.
[PM] Chen Xi: Got it.
Thinking through Zhan Ming Hall’s members, simply copying Tianfeng Yage’s approach definitely wouldn’t work.
Their healers alone couldn’t keep up, and that was the key issue.
[PM] Canmo Wuhen: What are you spacing out about?
[PM] Chen Xi: The guild wants to run Dark Battle Underground Palace. They want a strategy guide.
[PM] Canmo Wuhen: Mm. Coordination matters a lot in that dungeon.
[PM] Chen Xi: Yeah. I’m fine with running dungeons, but writing strategy guides? I’m terrible at that.
Xia Zichen wasn’t being modest.
A strategy guide wasn’t just about telling people how to fight.
You had to consider team composition, positioning for each phase, which classes interrupted which boss skills, and much more.
Most importantly, you had to find the strategy best suited for your own team.
A method that worked for someone else didn’t necessarily work for you.
There were too many details.
It wasn’t something that could be solved by talking alone—it required practice.
[PM] Canmo Wuhen: If Zhan Ming Hall wants to run it, arrange more healers. Add one more tank too. If the main tank goes down or loses aggro, there should be backup. As for DPS, they just can’t be too weak. There’s no enrage timer, so you can take it slow.
[PM] Chen Xi: Mm. I need to think carefully.
[PM] Canmo Wuhen: Then are we still running today’s dungeon?
[PM] Chen Xi: No, not today. You go ahead.
[PM] Canmo Wuhen: Mm.
Since Xia Zichen wasn’t going, Canmo Wuhen didn’t push.
Taking out a blank sheet of paper, Xia Zichen began jotting down the important points for each phase and the bosses’ skills.
Then he roughly arranged team compositions and groups.
But no matter how many changes he made, he felt it still wouldn’t work.
There were three bosses in this dungeon, and every one of them was troublesome.
Though he had no personal bias against Lian Fei’er, having a healer like her in the team definitely increased the pressure.
And if Shen Yicheng was joining the raid, she would naturally be there too.
He tapped his pen lightly against the paper.
Suddenly, QQ flashed with a shake notification, startling him.
It was Canmo Wuhen.
Since exchanging QQ, this was the first time Canmo Wuhen had used the shake function.
For some reason, Xia Zichen found it unexpectedly childish…
…and kind of cute.
“Writing the strategy guide?” Canmo Wuhen asked.
“Mm. But I’m really bad at this. No matter how I arrange it, it feels wrong.”
Canmo Wuhen said nothing.
Instead, he sent several images and then transferred a video file.
Confused, Xia Zichen accepted.
The images loaded quickly.
They were actually detailed boss notes, team arrangements, and standard positioning for every boss.
More importantly—
everything had been arranged specifically around Zhan Ming Hall’s strengths and weaknesses.
The video transferred quickly too.
After receiving it, Xia Zichen opened it.
It was a recording of Tianfeng Yage clearing Dark Battle Underground Palace.
It looked like an early recording, back when everyone’s gear wasn’t as strong as it was now.
Because of that, every detail in the run had been carefully planned.
“Thank you.”
Xia Zichen suddenly didn’t know what else to say.
“You’re welcome. If you figure it out alone, it’ll definitely take longer than if I do. I got the video from Jian Lang. There aren’t subtitles or explanations added afterward, but if your raid leader watches it a few times, they should understand.”
“Mm. I’m always troubling you.”
“It’s no trouble. I don’t want to watch you lose all interest in running dungeons just because of a strategy guide. Games are supposed to be fun. If it’s something you’re not good at, I’ll handle it for you.”
Xia Zichen smiled.
“This really is something I’m bad at.”
With everything Canmo Wuhen had sent, Xia Zichen felt a huge burden lift from his shoulders.
“Alright. So now are you in the mood to run dungeons?” Canmo Wuhen asked.
“You guys didn’t go?”
He glanced at the time.
An entire hour had passed.
“Waiting for you.”
Canmo Wuhen seemed to feel absolutely nothing wrong with making twenty-three other people wait for the two of them.
Then he sent a party invite.
Xia Zichen clicked accept, too embarrassed to make everyone wait any longer.
After entering the raid, Xia Zichen saw the group casually chatting.
[Raid] Chen Xi: Sorry for making everyone wait.
[Raid] Yi Ji Zhan Luo: Chen Xi’s here! It’s okay, it’s okay. We were just chatting.
[Raid] Three Glances Love: Yep. With our god-tier healer here, it’s safer. Waiting is fine!
[Raid] Sunflower: If Great God wants to wait, we’re happy to wait too, hahaha.
[Raid] Chen Xi: I’m really sorry. I thought you guys already started.
[Raid] Bai Cao Zhe: It’s fine. We all chose to wait.
[Raid] Yi Ji Zhan Luo: Yeah. We were all free anyway, so this was a good excuse to gather and gossip.
[Raid] Jian Lang: It’s rare for Canmo to wait for someone. We have to respect that.
[Raid] Sunflower: Exactly. We all agree this proves Great God is a good man! A good man knows how to wait!
[Raid] Three Glances Love: +1
[Raid] Hui Huo Feng Liu: +2
[Raid] Chu Chu Not Pitiful: +3
…
Although Xia Zichen hadn’t interacted with Tianfeng Yage that much, he genuinely liked the atmosphere in this guild.
Like today.
In any other guild, who would casually wait an hour for one person without a single complaint?
[Raid] Chen Xi: Thank you.
Other than that, Xia Zichen didn’t know what else to say.
These words were for everyone in the raid—
and also for Canmo Wuhen.
[Raid] Bai Cao Zhe: We’re all family here. No need to be polite.
[Raid] Jian Lang: Let’s go. Gather at the dungeon entrance.
[Raid] Sunflower: Gather up! Last one there is a pig~
…
Everyone gathered one after another and began today’s dungeon raid.
Before the fight started, Xia Zichen bundled the images and video together and sent them to Shen Yicheng’s email, telling him to download and study them carefully.
But he overlooked the final two lines that appeared at the end of the video…
—
For my dearest Chen Xi.
— From Canmo Wuhen