[Liuli Palace]

World Exploration—a term completely unfamiliar to Zhou Sui.  

He didn’t say anything, and neither did Dog 456 in the team.

“What does that mean?” Zhou Sui asked directly.

Slack Bro and Rich Bro were startled. “Come on, bro—you don’t even know this?”

Zhou Sui really didn’t. These past few days, all his attention had been on the Roaming Zone and gathering materials. He got all his in-game info by asking others directly—he hadn’t even heard of anything called an Exploration Dungeon.

“It seems you’re not familiar with the current main storyline framework in the game,” said Dog 456 without surprise. Hearing Zhou Sui’s confusion, he calmly explained, “You know about the main story update, right? The Divine Tree has collapsed.”

The Divine Tree had fallen, and chaos was spreading across the continent.

The updated storyline in the game was about searching for a new habitat. In the newbie servers, this played out through systems like the Roaming Zones or homestead building, which generated Stability Points—used to make player activity areas more stable.

In story terms, those Stability Points represented efforts to stabilize the collapsed Divine Tree, protecting it from the influence of chaotic wandering forces. In other words, the Stability Points generated across the 3,200 newbie servers was being used to power and stabilize the broken Divine Tree.

The gameplay in high-level zones was similar in structure—but fundamentally different in purpose.

If the low-level zones were about maintaining stability within existing systems, helping players adapt to changes, then the high-level zones were about pioneering. Players not only had to maintain stability—they had to expand, pushing all gameplay mechanics to the next level.

The outer edge of the high-level zones consisted entirely of uncharted maps and unknown areas.

Facing difficult intelligent challenges, high-level players had to explore and tear through the veil of chaos, expanding the game map (the habitat) and advancing the game’s world progression.

The Exploration Dungeons were special dungeons, usually rated no less than 5 stars in difficulty.

“The Mirror Maze Town dungeon is one such dungeon we’ve identified,” the Wonder Zoo’s captain said calmly. “It’s a two-region linked dungeon that requires cooperation from a team in the newbie zone.”

“The Wonder Zoo’s main team will focus on the high-level side—we need a team from the low-level zone to coordinate with us.”  

The Wonder Zoo captain glanced at Little Bunny 123, who hadn’t said a word the whole time. “You can consider it. If you decide, have him contact me.”

…

The Wonder Zoo’s captain only stayed briefly before leaving.

Once he was gone, everyone in the team looked toward Little Bunny 123. Slack Bro asked, “Brother Bunny, you even know Haba ^[1] Pug Dog Dog?”

Haba Dog—the Wonder Zoo captain’s main account ID. Rumor had it the name came from the breed of his beloved dog.

“We’ve dealt with each other before—kind of friends,” Little Bunny 123 said, looking toward Zhou Sui, who was now searching for info on exploration dungeons on the StarNet. “What are you checking?”

Zhou Sui: “The rewards.”

The rewards from exploration dungeons—that was what he cared about.

“Bro, exploration dungeon rewards are priceless!” Slack Bro quickly jumped in. “What’s there to hesitate about? This is a high-level area exploration dungeon. The materials you get from it completely outclass anything in the newbie zone! Not only can it drop gold, but the tree food you get is insane! The rewards are on par with the Tiandi Temple—players on the rankings stalk exploration dungeons every day!”

Zhou Sui paused to think. Then he suddenly looked toward Little Bunny 123 and found the other’s gaze already resting on him. He glanced back in confusion.

Little Bunny 123 hesitated slightly, then asked, “Do you want to go?”

“I need materials,” Zhou Sui answered truthfully.

The Tiandi Temple had dropped a huge amount of materials back then. Zhou Sui wanted to unlock his next skill, and for that, this kind of Exploration Dungeon was essential.

Seeing that Little Bunny 123 hadn’t responded, he asked casually, “You in?”

Little Bunny 123’s eyes flickered slightly, and then he suddenly asked, “Are you asking for my opinion?”  

“If you want to go, I’ll go with you.”

At this moment, Slack Bro suddenly remembered something. “Wait, how can high-level and low-level zones run a dungeon together? Aren’t they in separate regions?”

“If we want to go, we’ll need to get a ticket first,” Little Bunny 123 said, sending the dungeon’s details to the team. “High-level and newbie zones don’t interconnect, and since we haven’t reached level 40, technically we shouldn’t be able to access high-level dungeons… but there’s a workaround.”

The other two immediately understood—so the ranked players have all these insider tricks!  

No wonder those top dogs keep coming back to the newbie zone! So this is why!

“Since there’s a barrier between high and low zones, the existence of a joint dungeon means there must be a corresponding entry ticket,” Little Bunny 123 said as he pulled up the details of a specific dungeon. “This storyline is likely tied to Liuli Palace ^[2] Glazed Palace .”

Mirror Maze Town was a currently locked area in the high-level zone. It had been explored by many players before, but nothing had come of it. The very first area it linked to came from the newbie zone. Haba Dog, the Wonder Zoo’s captain, specialized in storylines and had followed clues from the low zone all the way into the high zone. And the place where the first materials were obtained? The level-35 dungeon in the low-level zone—Liuli Palace.

The Liuli Palace dungeon boss was connected to the high-zone’s storylines. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. The previous Tiandi Temple event was also a joint activity between high and low zones.

“Is the ticket a guaranteed drop?” Zhou Sui asked.

Little Bunny 123 shook his head. “Random.”

Upon hearing that, Zhou Sui went quiet.

Little Bunny 123 added, “But the drop rate can be increased.”

“The reward boxes are indeed random, but there’s an unspoken rule,” Little Bunny 123 said as he slid the ranking board toward Zhou Sui, his tone turning slightly coaxing. “The main AI will increase the dungeon level based on the players’ skill level and will also distribute rewards according to the difficulty. In other words, you can increase the chest level and the drop rate of special items.”

He tapped a specific spot on the board. Zhou Sui followed his finger—

It was the historical records leaderboard.

Slack Bro and Rich Bro: “?”

“Historical records???”

The two were stunned when they heard that. The historical records board included achievements from the top-tier veterans—players who had set records since the game launched. Most of those records had never been broken. And now these two guys were talking about breaking records?

Rich Bro: “I’ve played games for so long, and never once dared think that far.”

Slack Bro: “Same here, bro. I’m just a casual player.”

The two of them exchanged a glance, then looked over at the pair seated by the stone table, checking the leaderboards.

Great—no denial. They are serious!

After these past couple days, Slack Bro and Rich Bro had learned how to read the room. From the expressions, movements, and reactions of these two top players, they could now tell whether they were joking or dead serious. And right now, their Brother Zhou was looking at the rankings while also pulling up the built-in StarNet to search for dungeon details.

He was going to do it—and he was about to do it soon.

The two of them exchanged details quickly—each adding a line—and Zhou Sui soon pulled up the full info for the Liuli Palace dungeon. For once, he carefully studied the densely packed, cryptic text, summarizing the boss mechanics, and then adjusting his equipment and skill combos accordingly.

When it came to gameplay mechanics, his mind worked fast and sharp.

Once he organized his thoughts, he noticed Slack Bro and Rich Bro standing off to the side, blankly staring at them.

“You guys aren’t looking up guides?” Zhou Sui asked, confused.

The two snapped back to attention. “You’re carrying us?”

What else would he be doing?

Zhou Sui asked hesitantly, “You don’t want to go? Then we can just—”

“We’re going!”  

“Of course we’re going!”

The two immediately caught on. Slack Bro tossed aside his shovel, while Rich Bro rushed to search the in-game store for pet food. He suddenly remembered he hadn’t leveled up the two pets he just caught. “Should I just buy out the store and grab a few high-attack pets?”

Slack Bro: “What the hell? Weren’t you just saying not to fall for those merchants’ tricks?”

Rich Bro started recharging like lightning, typing in numbers without even blinking. “Ah, it’s just pocket change. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

While they dug deep into their inventories for stat-boosting items, Zhou Sui had already finished reading the dungeon guide and was now searching the StarNet for as many strategies as possible.

As he browsed through the guides, a certain ID came to mind. He typed ‘Yin-Yang Harmony’ into the StarNet search bar. The page quickly redirected to that person’s profile. Zhou Sui had never specifically visited it before, and only now did he notice—there weren’t many videos on it.

Only five. Qingshan Academy and Tiandi Temple, which he’d watched, were two of them. The most recent upload was coincidentally the level 35 dungeon Liuli Palace. He clicked in and saw it had been posted over ten days ago. Yin-Yang Harmony hadn’t updated anything since.

At this moment, Little Bunny 123 had finished reviewing the leaderboard and was giving advice to Slack Bro and Rich Bro:

“With four people, the difficulty isn’t maxed out yet. If we want to reach the top-tier rewards, we’ll need…”

The sound from the StarNet video blended with Little Bunny 123’s voice in Zhou Sui’s ears. The electronic tone of the narrator seemed to merge with Little Bunny 123’s.

Zhou Sui’s fingers paused slightly as he watched the video.

“Zhou.”

Zhou Sui snapped back to attention, ears twitching slightly.

Little Bunny 123 looked at him calmly. The StarNet screen was too far away for him to hear the video, but it was clear Zhou Sui was watching something. He glanced sideways at the screen, and Zhou Sui quickly closed the video.

“You just said team up?” Zhou Sui asked.

Little Bunny 123 hesitated for a moment before replying, “Yeah.”  

“If we want to increase Liuli Palace’s difficulty, we’ll need to find two more players.”

—-

Meanwhile, in the high-level zone, Wonder Zoo’s captain had just switched back to his main account when he received a message from his vice-captain, Ragdoll Cat:

“Boss, did he agree?”

“Seems like it.” The Wonder Zoo captain didn’t answer directly. He just glanced through the chat log with Ragdoll Cat, which detailed all of Cycle of Eternity’s recent activity. Mirror Maze Town was a critical plot point. With the story leading up to this, the hidden rewards behind the dungeon had to be worth it.

The plot hadn’t fully opened yet, and no one could predict what tricks the main AI might pull later. But Wonder Zoo needed to push this storyline forward—and claim the first clear for this dungeon. External help was absolutely necessary.

Their elite team was fully committed to the high-level zones. They couldn’t afford to waste time making alt accounts to grind in the newbie zones. So, for the lower-level side, they needed sharp, reliable teammates.

“But Boss, will Cycle of Eternity really say yes?” Ragdoll Cat asked uncertainly. He had sent Fierce Tiger 123 to reach out for so long, and the guy hadn’t even added him as a friend!

Haba Dog calmly opened another chat log and said, “As long as there are materials.”

Ragdoll Cat: “?”

Haba Dog was looking at the latest messages. The other party’s ID was short and simple—Yin-Yang Harmony.

Yin-Yang Harmony: [?]  

Haba Dog: [Need a favor.]  

Yin-Yang Harmony: [Materials. He’s expensive.]

Haba Dog: [Name your price.]

Amid the puzzled looks from his vice and other teammates, Wonder Zoo’s captain Haba Dog simply said, “Just… might be a little pricey.”

Wonder Zoo players: “???”

—-

On server 3145, hardworking players were constantly running to the Roaming Zones and the wilderness. The world chat was flooded with LFG ^[3] Looking For Group messages for wild groups. And suddenly, a new message popped up in the world channel—

[World] Cycle of Eternity: Liuli Palace speed run. High-ranking DPS needed === 2

Zhou Sui sent the message just like Slack Bro and Rich Bro asked. “Will that even work?”

“Bro, don’t worry. Your name’s way more effective than ours.” Slack Bro was full of confidence.

Little Bunny 123: “It’s working. Look.”

He pulled up the team leader panel and showed a flood of join requests streaming in.

[World] Bubble Dragon: Whoa! Brother Zhou!!!

The same message was sent twice in a row, instantly drawing out players who’d been lurking in-game.

Anyone who had experienced the Tiandi Temple dungeon would remember the ID Cycle of Eternity. Back then, Cycle of Eternity had been the player in the newbie server’s fixed team to make it into Phase Two and complete the final boss. Discussions about him had peaked during that time.

Unlike well-known alt accounts of Wonder Zoo players—like Mage Alt 123 and Little Bunny 123—Cycle of Eternity’s profile was squeaky clean: a complete newbie, not affiliated with any team.

Divine Tree was a team-based game, and top-ranked squads always kept an eye out for new talent. Many elite team captains had tried to contact Cycle of Eternity, but friend requests went unanswered. His status often showed as offline for days, and even if he was online, his private messaging system was completely disabled.

So after several days of silence, seeing Cycle of Eternity active again caused a stir in fringe server 3145.

[World] 666: Damn it, who’s sending all these requests? Can you make room? Don’t mess around!  

[World] Silent but Deadly: [Ranking] [Record] @Cycle of Eternity, seriously here for a speed run, please invite.

As team leader, Little Bunny 123’s application panel was already maxed out—with over a hundred requests queued up.

Zhou Sui saw the long string of IDs and, for the first time, realized just how many active players could exist on 3145. In the forest maps he’d been wandering, he rarely ran into anyone.

In Divine Tree, the system adjusted dungeon difficulty based on player count and skill level. Whether the group was large or small, the core mechanics stayed fair.

The AI would scale the challenge—more players meant higher difficulty; fewer players meant lower difficulty. The resulting adjustments allowed everyone to compete in the speed run rankings on equal footing.

Little Bunny 123 scanned IDs quickly. Each applicant came with detailed stats. His fingers flew as he rejected players who were just jumping in to ride the hype.

Before Slack Bro and Rich Bro could even check the requests, Little Bunny 123 had already filtered out the majority.

“How can you even read that fast?!”

Zhou Sui had sharp visual reflexes. He quickly noticed that the remaining candidates all had verified records and combat rankings.

The four of them were already among the top-tier newbies, but that wasn’t enough. If they wanted to raise the loot box tier, they’d need a full party to max out the dungeon’s difficulty.

“Any preference on classes?” Little Bunny 123 asked.

Zhou Sui thought for a moment. “Ranged.”  

The current team leaned heavily toward melee classes. From both a margin-for-error and self-sufficiency perspective, ranged classes required less micromanagement.

Little Bunny 123 considered this and then picked out a Daoist from the applications. Tian He Mountain had three main mage classes: array master, beastmaster, and Daoist—with the Daoist known for raw high damage. The one he selected had well-rounded stats and a high group participation rate, indicating frequent dungeon runs.

He was just about to pick a second mage when Zhou Sui suddenly said, “Wait,” and pointed at an ID in garbled characters on the list. “Take this one.”

[smqw555888]

A scrambled ID. Zhou Sui had seen one before while at Qingshan Academy, when the other party used an assassin to top the list and raise the record.

The ID back then was nearly the same—only the final letters were different.

Slack Bro: “Huh? Isn’t that from that gold farming studio…?”  

Zhou Sui shrugged. “It’s fine. Add him.”

—-

“Holy crap! Boss Frog! Wake up!”

“I applied over a hundred times and finally got in!”  

“Quick, shake Boss Frog—he needs to know we made it in!”

At a Divine Tree gold farming studio, the Mysterious Frog was roused from his nap after just two hours. As soon as he focused on the screen and saw the team he’d joined, he immediately jolted upright. Ever since they’d lost out on Qingshan Academy, the studio’s profits had been dwindling. And after Cycle of Eternity stole the spotlight in Tiandi Temple, Frog had been losing sleep, ordering his underlings to monitor the guy nonstop.

He was terrified this guy would wreck their business model. They even trained a high-ranking alt specifically on server 3145—all to keep tabs on Cycle of Eternity.

“What’s going on?!” Frog demanded.

One of the underlings said, “Boss, didn’t you tell us to alert you if there was news on Cycle of Eternity? He’s doing a speed run!”

A speed run!  

That is major news—industry-level news!

“Move, I’m logging in,” Frog said, cracking his knuckles.

Once he logged in, he finally noticed that the team leader wasn’t Cycle of Eternity, but a healer named Little Bunny 123.

Frog immediately understood the situation—he ran a studio, after all, and knew exactly how the rankings worked. One glance and he recognized that person as the one rumored to be connected to the Wonder Zoo team. A closer look at the rest of the team revealed: Slack Bro, Mortal World’s Noble Grass, and a Daoist named [Free-Spirited Wanderer].

A full six-person party—yet no tank class?

What kind of lineup is this? What is this team even going for?!

“Hold on a sec, we’re checking the strategy guide,” said Slack Bro from the team.

Frog was just about to say something when the wild player who joined with him, Free-Spirited Wanderer, chimed in, “Same here. Just adjusting my skills.”

Frog: “???”  

‘You’re looking at the guide now? In a speedrun?’

Liuli Palace was a level 35 entry-level dungeon and one of the tougher ones in the newbie servers. While its overall difficulty wasn’t as high as Tiandi Temple, it was infamous for its tricky layout and the boss’s erratic movement. Simply put, it was a running-type boss—skills could easily miss or overshoot, making it hard to land hits.

To make matters worse, the entire map was made of glazed tiles—walls, floors, and doors all shimmering and eye-catching. Players often got blinded by their own flashy skills. And trying to hit a fast-moving boss in such an environment made this one of the most inconsistent speedrun dungeons for new players.

After forming the party, the group approached the entrance of Liuli Palace and clicked “Enter.” A message popped up immediately:

[The Mountain King who guards a treasure trove looks at you. You are an unwelcome guest in his vault.]

[Challenge Difficulty: ★★★; Required Level: 35]

[Player level detected. Instance difficulty adjusted to S+ grade.]

What the hell? S+ grade???

Frog and the Daoist were stunned—is this party’s hidden combat power that high?!

There was no time to dwell on it. As soon as the instance opened, everyone was teleported into the radiant, shimmering interior of Liuli Palace, facing the monkey seated on the palace throne at the center. Liuli Palace was a single-boss dungeon. The only enemy they had to deal with was this Liuli Monkey.

The monkey was the Mountain King, who had mutated and robbed the nearby villagers of their treasures, hoarding them in the palace.

As soon as the players entered, they saw treasure chests and boxes piled up everywhere, gold and silver glittering brilliantly.

Little Bunny 123: “Let’s go straight in. Focus the boss. Ignore everything else.”

Before he even finished speaking, Cycle of Eternity had already charged in.

Frog: “???”  

‘No instructions?! You’re just going straight in like that?!’

The monkey was a ranged boss. It wouldn’t follow the player holding aggro; instead, it ran chaotically around the arena and attacked the tank from a distance. Melee players had to constantly chase it, which made it extremely unfriendly to them. Usually, just as they lifted their weapon, the monkey would sprint out of range, forcing them to spend the whole fight chasing it—and missing most of their damage.

Sure enough, as soon as the fight started, Frog’s strike missed entirely.

If he’d known it would be like this, he would’ve trained a ranged class when he leveled an alt on 3145.

Cycle of Eternity was already on the move, and Slack Bro followed. As soon as the former touched the boss, he firmly established himself in the aggro position. The latter had fast movement speed and reaction ability, chasing the boss down with a flurry of wild slashes. As for the beastmaster and Daoist in the back, their ranged attacks were landing smoothly.

In short, the moment the fight began, the only one who had completely missed their skills… was Frog.

“Comrade Assassin, keep up!” Slack Bro reminded.

Frog gritted his teeth: “I’m on it.”

He couldn’t afford to lose face. Even if his skills weren’t as good as Cycle of Eternity’s, his main account was a well-known pro player across the server. How could he lose to Slack Bro, who hadn’t even made it onto the speedrun leaderboard?

There were guides all over the StarNet. Players who had cleared the Liuli Palace knew how to tackle this boss.

The boss had only three mechanics. First, a long-range, fan-shaped AoE that shot beams toward the player with the highest aggro, dealing massive damage. Second, Monkey Scratch, a jumping attack where the boss zipped around the arena, easily killing stationary players if they weren’t careful. Third, a summon skill where the monkey called in its monkey minions, which lasted for a while and dealt significant damage.

All players were familiar with the skills. As soon as the monkey started moving, ranged players immediately positioned themselves with the healer, while melee players had to chase the boss.

As Frog moved, Little Bunny 123, who had been watching the battlefield, suddenly glanced over. He noticed the movement skill Frog was using. “Magic Assassin?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, my DPS is solid,” Frog replied.

Little Bunny 123 didn’t say anything more after that.

The Yin Yue Alliance was known as the birthplace of assassins because the class was famous for its high-mobility, high-frequency attacks, perfectly suited for assassin builds.

Because of this, most mainstream players opted for high-attack physical assassins. But when smqw555888 (Frog) started moving, Zhou Sui noticed something different about his skills. They didn’t seem like physical attacks; instead, they fluidly shifted into magical attacks. He was a magic-based assassin, a Magic Assassin.

The advantage of Magic Assassins was their ability to use talents to stack casting speed, offering high mobility and burst damage. However, choosing this build meant abandoning the assassin’s traditional stealth mechanic, trading invisibility for greater speed and movement skills to maximize damage through stacked mobility.

smqw555888 had an unusually high number of movement skills. At the start, he lagged behind and couldn’t keep up with the boss, but soon his movement skills caught up, allowing him to stick close to the boss and deal damage. Zhou Sui, seeing a Magic Assassin in a dungeon for the first time, looked on with curiosity for a moment but quickly lost interest, shifting his focus back to the boss.

This time, they didn’t have a tank, so there was no need to control DPS to manage aggro. Zhou Sui could use his most comfortable combos without worrying about health issues. With some spare time, he observed the boss’s movements. To speedrun, relying solely on StarNet guides wouldn’t cut it. Their team wasn’t the optimal setup, and their skill levels didn’t fully match the players who set records when the server launched.

Finding the right strategy was more important. Speeding up wasn’t just about execution—it also required mastering the corresponding mechanics and techniques.

For example, through actual combat, Zhou Sui noticed that the monkey’s jump height was consistent every time. As a highly agile boss, its jumping ability was strong, and it almost always performed a telltale jump before moving, pulling away from players and then unleashing a fan-shaped ranged attack.

The farther the distance it pulled, the wider the fan-shaped AoE players had to deal with.

In the dungeon, as soon as the monkey moved, its jump sent it scampering across the arena, instantly turning the scene chaotic. Many things in the dungeon were tangible, including the piles of gold and treasures scattered around. When the monkey leaped onto a chest, it sent gold and treasures flying. Players hit by these would take minor AoE damage, and the scattered treasures would create obstacles, blocking their path.

Imagine you’re in the middle of a fight and a chest suddenly blocks your path, or you’re walking and trip over gold—what kind of experience is that? That’s exactly what was happening now.

“This damn game is too realistic for what?”  

Slack Bro said, “We can’t even take the gold out of here.”

Rich Bro commented, “This gold feels pretty real, though. The weight and proportions are spot-on.”

That said, their reactions were quick.  

When the gold came crashing down, they swiftly dodged the attack.

Zhou Sui’s gaze rapidly scanned the spot where the gold landed, his mind racing to record the changing terrain around him, especially noting the unmoved gold chest on the ground. The monkey boss seemed unable to lift the gold chests and could only hurl their contents outward. Zhou Sui mentally noted this change, quickly turning to widen the distance from the boss.

The reason they chose the Liuli Palace was that he had never tackled this dungeon before.  

Knowing the strategy was one thing, but the boss’s exact attack range, skill mechanics under S-rank difficulty, timing changes, and potential movement patterns were all things he needed to memorize.

While he was mentally logging details and moving across a wide range, Little Bunny 123 on the other side was closely watching him, constantly adjusting the team’s position based on his movements. Rich Bro, already familiar with their healer, saw Little Bunny 123 shift and immediately followed with his pets in tow, not forgetting to remind the new Daoist teammate to keep up with the positioning.

And right then, the monkey minions showed up.  

The fan-shaped AoE could be dodged with good positioning, but the monkey minion skill was the worst—once it triggered, they’d immediately rush toward the players.

Little Bunny 123 suddenly said, “Everyone, come to me.”  

Zhou Sui, with the fastest reaction, instantly pulled back, using a movement skill to reach Little Bunny 123’s position.

“Assassin, get over here!” Rich Bro called out.  

Frog, confused, asked, “What’s going on?”

The group suddenly huddled together as the monkeys quickly closed in. Frog had no choice but to join the pack, grumbling, “Huddling up is useless! They’ll swarm us, but when their health gets low, they’ll scatter everywhere, wasting all the time we spent grouping them…”

Little Bunny 123: “Slack Bro, pull them away.”  

Slack Bro: “Got it!”

Before Frog could finish, Slack Bro unleashed an AoE skill on the surrounding minions.  

The monkey minions’ aggro locked onto him, and in the next moment, he zipped away, dragging the entire chain of monkey minions with him.

Frog, who had just popped his burst state to wipe out the mobs, hit nothing but air: “?”  

He finally lost it: “Why the hell are you running?!”

Rich Bro praised his buddy, “Don’t worry, my bro can run like the wind.”  

Slack Bro: Brother Bunny told me to run, so I run. No problem.”

Frog: “…”  

‘Big problem!’

‘Why are you running?! You pulled all the mobs away—what am I supposed to hit?!’

‘Have these guys even played speedruns before? The best move here is for the mage to use AoE attacks and clear them by zoning the mobs!’

‘Why aren’t the melee players hitting the boss right now? Running back to group up and fight mobs, then going back to the boss—isn’t that just wasting time?’  

‘The swordsman’s dragging mobs around everywhere! Yeah, we get it, you can run, but who runs around like that?!’

Little Bunny 123, who gave the order, didn’t explain. Instead, he tossed a buff on Slack Bro: “Why are you still standing there?”

Frog: “?”

Free-Spirited Wanderer glanced at Frog: “Bro, we’re hitting the boss. Didn’t the healer say at the start? Focus the boss.”  

“You didn’t see Brother Zhou already up there fighting?”

Frog turned his head—Cycle of Eternity was no longer by his side.

Zhou Sui had only helped with grouping the mobs briefly. When Slack Bro took off, Zhou Sui followed suit, quickly locking onto the Liuli Monkey boss again, completely ignoring the pack of monkeys that had been pulled away.

As Slack Bro kited the mobs, Zhou Sui’s movement range tightened, but it didn’t slow him down. He kept an eye on the boss randomly tossing chests around. When he saw the boss shift, he made a quick gesture and pulled back, pinpointing its new position.

The scene looked chaotic, but the positioning of the three parties was flawless. Even with a swarm of mobs running wild, the team remained rock-solid. Their health bars stayed at healthy levels, and Slack Bro, who was kiting the mobs, was a master at dodging skills. Despite the barrage of damage from the mobs sending his health on a rollercoaster, he somehow always stabilized.

After about two minutes of fighting, a notification suddenly popped up in front of them:  

[The monkeys got scared and fled as a group!]

The monkeys tailing Slack Bro all vanished, leaving the field abruptly clear.  

Frog was stunned: “What the hell just happened?!”

Little Bunny 123 explained, “It’s a special mechanic. If the mobs don’t die, it triggers.”  

Free-Spirited Wanderer was surprised: “It can work like that? I didn’t see this in any online guides!”

Zhou Sui glanced at him briefly before looking away: “You checked too?”  

Little Bunny 123, overhearing, turned to Zhou Sui. “Checked what?”

Zhou Sui: “Nothing.”  

No surprise here—this guy is a strategy nerd, probably reads more guides than he has.

The monkey minions had low health and could be wiped out with a few skills. Most players would just clear them out. But when their health dropped low, they’d scatter chaotically, making them hard to pin down. Clearing them wasted a lot of time—45 seconds if you timed it perfectly, or even longer.

Only in one video by Yin-Yang Harmony, who soloed the Liuli Palace, did someone tank the mobs for a full two minutes.  

After two minutes, the mobs just disappeared. Yin-Yang Harmony’s testing revealed that if eight or more monkeys survived without dying, it triggered this hidden mechanic.

Hardly anyone noticed this mechanic, and no team would bother kiting mobs for two minutes instead of killing them. Yin-Yang Harmony’s video wasn’t widely watched—most people didn’t have the patience to sit through it. Kiting mobs for two minutes put immense pressure on the healer and raised the risk of DPS players getting picked off.

But their team was different. They had Slack Bro, who could kite and deal damage on the run, and Rich Bro, whose pets could provide instant support.  

For them, ignoring the mobs was the most time-efficient, high-reward strategy.

The teammates were handling the other stuff, so it wasn’t his concern.  

His focus was on the boss.

After a few rounds, Zhou Sui figured it out. The boss was indeed all over the place, but its movements could be predicted from its actions and muscle twitches. He locked his gaze on the boss’s leg muscles—its crouching and jumping were similar to a human doing a standing long jump. The limb reactions of this primate-like creature were even easier to read than a human’s.

At this moment, the boss moved again.  

Zhou Sui’s eyes locked on as it leaped, covering over 6 meters!  

His brain processed it instantly, and he swiftly moved left.

As expected, the monkey veered left, traveling 2 meters farther than Zhou Sui had predicted.  

His preemptive move cut down the time needed to chase the boss. He quickly reached the optimal DPS position, sticking close to the boss, following its every move tightly.

Then, the boss glowed red—it was entering its claw attack phase. A single scratch during these few seconds meant instant death!

Frog, who had been tailing Zhou Sui, immediately backed off. But Zhou Sui didn’t retreat.

His input switches were lightning-fast. As the boss raised its arm, he landed a quick melee hit. As it swung down, he pulled back, tossing out a ranged needle skill. The five-to-six-second claw attack was useless against him. While other players scrambled to avoid it, he not only faced it head-on but also squeezed in attacks during the gaps in the boss’s animations.

If you could play it like this, there was no need to dodge the claw attack—it just meant more DPS.

Frog got excited and, seeing the boss start another claw attack, mimicked Zhou Sui’s timing and rushed in.

In that split second, he felt Cycle of Eternity glance at him.  

Frog thought smugly, ‘I’ve got this too!’ But the next second, the monkey’s claw smashed into his face, and he let out a yelp.

The team went dead silent—the silence was deafening. Frog was dead.  

He’d never been so embarrassed: “…My bad.”

After that, Frog played it safe and followed the team’s lead to finish the run. That death was too humiliating. To prove he wasn’t holding them back and was a top-tier player, he stayed hyper-focused, ultimately achieving his personal best time in the Liuli Palace.

The team’s tempo was fast, and all the players were skilled. Once they synced up, their coordination clicked quickly.  

When they finished, a flash of light appeared, followed by a combat notification from the Liuli Palace. The in-game Tiantong leaderboard refreshed, and a new record claimed the top spot.

Players on the 3145 server saw Cycle of Eternity, Little Bunny 123, Slack Bro, Mortal World’s Noble Grass, smqw55588, and Free-Spirited Wanderer’s team take first place with a clear time of 30:55:12!

That was 50 seconds faster than the previous top team!

Players tracking their record attempt flooded the world chat with comments. Even Frog hadn’t expected it to work.

Despite slight gaps in their gear and skills, the time saved by handling the monkey minions allowed them to overtake other teams by 50 seconds!

If a top-tier team used this mechanic, wouldn’t they be even faster?

Frog couldn’t help but glance at the others. Little Bunny 123, the healer, had kept their buffs up perfectly the whole time. It was Frog’s first time enjoying the luxury of a fully buffed dungeon run.

There didn’t seem to be much shot-calling, yet their coordination was seamless.

Especially Cycle of Eternity—Frog couldn’t stop staring at his damage output: 35%!  

How did he pull off those numbers with the boss running around like that? No wonder he held the top spot in the Qingshan Academy leaderboard.

While Frog and Free-Spirited Wanderer were thrilled, the other four seemed unfazed.

Zhou Sui stayed quiet, checking his inventory and noting no special drops. Apparently, even topping the leaderboard wasn’t enough.  

After a moment, the usually reserved Zhou Sui spoke up: “I’ve got an idea. Want to try it?”

The others looked at him. Little Bunny 124, unsurprised, said, “Let’s try it.”

The two newcomers exchanged confused glances. Aren’t they already first?

“We were still testing skills just now. It’s my bro’s first time in this dungeon, so he’s getting the hang of it,” Slack Bro explained. “This time’s not good enough. We’re still a minute off.”

Free-Spirited Wanderer: “Ambitious, huh, brothers? You aiming for the all-time record?”  

“What?” Frog, about to leave the party, fumbled. All-time record? These guys are going for the historical record?!

At this moment, Zhou Sui looked straight at him, his calm eyes seeming to see right through him.  

Frog’s heart skipped a beat. ‘What? Did he figure out who I am?’

After a long pause, as Frog debated whether to come clean and make friends, Zhou Sui suddenly spoke: “Do you know how to move bricks?”

Frog, the infamous leader of a massive power-leveling studio with countless underlings, was floored by this unfamiliar term. Move bricks?  

When did this new term pop up in the game? A new assassin skill? No, he hasn’t seen it on the assassin forums. Is it some obscure jargon? What does it mean?

Seeing Frog’s lack of response, Zhou Sui assumed he didn’t know and turned to Little Bunny 123: “Then let’s find someone who does.”

Frog, not about to miss out, blurted, “I know! I know! I can do anything!”

Meanwhile, the underlings at Frog’s studio, waiting for their boss’s update: “?”  

“What’s going on?”  

“Why’s the boss gone silent? How does he vanish while speedrunning?”