TSA Chapter 68

Happy April’s Fool Day~

Finally, the team arrived in front of the Dark Night Cat Demon. As the final boss of the Level 30 Abyss Dungeon, its combat power was naturally formidable. Even though their team members were mostly above Level 40, there was still a chance they could wipe.

“This boss requires caution. Everyone, top off your buffs,” Night Owl reminded.

With all the dungeons they’d been running lately, everyone had stocked up on food and potions. Now, they all took them out and consumed them to ensure they each had at least two buffs active.

Ran Qi ate a meat pie that increased defense and a speed potion to boost movement speed, significantly improving his survival chances during the boss fight. Even though he had the [White Tiger Hood] with the hidden attribute [White Tiger’s Blessing], which, when activated, formed a transparent shield that absorbed 50% of damage, it only lasted for five minutes. It was great for emergencies but couldn’t last the entire boss fight.

“Four Seasons will be the main tank, Coke will off-tank, and September Sky will protect Bai Ran,” Night Owl continued. Bai Ran, as the only priest with a resurrection skill, was crucial to the team. Since they now had an extra warrior, he could stay close to Bai Ran for protection. After all, the Dark Night Cat Demon had many large-area attacks, and one mistake could mean disaster for the fragile priest. “Feng Tian, keep armor break debuffs on the boss at all times. Other DPS, don’t use control skills randomly—wait for my signal!”

Having fought this boss before, they knew its ultimate skills could be interrupted. If they could consistently disrupt them, the fight would be much easier.

“Understood!”

“Pulling now!” After confirming everyone was ready, Night Owl called the start.

Four Seasons charged at the Dark Night Cat Demon, which immediately responded with a ruthless claw attack. The boss still dealt high damage, instantly cutting 30% of Four Seasons’s HP. However, compared to last time, when he was nearly one-shot, this was a massive improvement.

“I’m fine! Don’t heal me!” Four Seasons shouted, quickly downing a red potion to restore his HP before using skills to stabilize the boss’s aggro.

When the boss counterattacked, he was lucky enough to trigger the shield’s 20% damage reflection effect, bouncing the skill’s full damage back at the boss. This locked in its aggro, and Night Owl led the others into battle.

“Fire Arrow, Plume Ink, Raphael, interrupt!”

“Ice Arrow, Jiangnan, Soul Chaser, interrupt!”

Under Night Owl’s command, nearly all the boss’s skills were successfully interrupted. Even when they occasionally failed, the team was quick to reposition, soon finding their rhythm in the fight.

Thanks to their teamwork, the boss’s HP dropped below 30% in under 20 minutes. The Cat Demon then unleashed large-scale skills like Flame Storm and Blizzard.

From experience, they knew these ultimates were hard to interrupt and covered almost the entire battlefield. Running wasn’t an option, and trying to dodge might take them out of the priests’ healing range.

“Everyone group up, stay close! The three priests will rotate AoE heals—focus all DPS on the boss! Push it down fast!” If they couldn’t dodge or interrupt, they would just tank through it with healing while going all out.

Last time, with only two priests, they struggled to chain their heals properly, and a few unlucky members died each time. But this time, with three priests—Ran Qi, Feng Tian, and Alice—casting [Holy Light] in rotation, they completely nullified the problem. No one died.

With the entire team focusing on DPS, they finally drained the Cat Demon’s HP to zero.

[System Announcement] Congratulations to players [Night Owl], [Soul Chaser], [Plume Ink], [Sword at Fleeting Time], [Coke], [Bai Ran], [Windstorm Jiangnan], [Feng Tian], [No Happiness], [Four Seasons], [Raphael], [Smoke], [Alice], [Cain], and [September Sky] for clearing the Cat Demon’s Abyss dungeon within three hours, earning the Extreme Speed Achievement! Awarded the title [Lightning Fast] and [Physical Exchange Coupon *1].

[System Announcement] Congratulations to players [Night Owl], [Soul Chaser], [Plume Ink], [Sword at Fleeting Time], [Coke], [Bai Ran], [Windstorm Jiangnan], [Feng Tian], [No Happiness], [Four Seasons], [Raphael], [Smoke], [Alice], [Cain], and [September Sky] for clearing the Cat Demon’s Abyss dungeon in 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 22.37 seconds, earning an SSS-level and setting a new record! Additional reward of [Gold Treasure Chest].

This time, they achieved a flawless run with zero deaths, securing an SSS rating and earning an extra treasure chest. But what surprised them most was that, by completing the Abyss Dungeon’s speedrun achievement, they also received a Physical Exchange Coupon—exactly what they needed most!

[World] A Lone Boat: Insane! Guild Master is insane!!

[World] Big Orange: I don’t know why, but watching the top players clear dungeons always looks so easy. Why does it feel like a completely different experience when we try?

[World] Shura: It only looks simple. Sharp command and flawless teamwork are both essential.

[World] Blossoming: Try leading a raid yourself once… it’s exhausting…

[World] Thousand Mechanisms: Sigh, this time I didn’t even get the chance to be a support player… It makes me want to join Invincible too…

The last three were all support players during the previous dungeon clear. They had firsthand experience with the run and gained some knowledge, and now they had all reached level 40. However, when they attempted the dungeon with their own teams, they failed repeatedly—most of them falling at the hands of the Night Cat Demon.

While Night Owl’s team made this run look effortless, the reality was anything but.

The boss’s skill activation time was barely two or three seconds, meaning the raid leader had to instantly recognize which skill it was preparing to unleash and assign someone to interrupt it. With a fifteen-person team, keeping track of everyone’s available skills, cooldowns, and interrupts required an incredible memory.

Any mistake could lead to catastrophic failure.

Night Owl’s precise leadership, coupled with his team’s exceptional combat awareness and seamless coordination, played a huge role in their success. Additionally, with three healers alternating group healing, they were able to tank through the boss’s attacks and brute-force their way to victory.

Other teams either lacked a strong leader, struggled with teamwork, had insufficient damage output, or lacked powerful healers. In a large-scale 15-man dungeon, issues were bound to arise. Furthermore, aside from Ran Qi, no other healer possessed a resurrection skill. If a teammate died, they couldn’t be revived, drastically lowering the team’s combat effectiveness and making a clear nearly impossible.

That’s why, even though it had been almost a week since Night Owl’s team first cleared the Abyss dungeon, no other team had managed to replicate their success. For most players, this dungeon was a massive hurdle.

After clearing the dungeon, it was time to loot the boss and open the treasure chest. However, at this point, there was no need to keep the livestream running.

Ignoring the audience’s wails of protest, Night Owl ruthlessly shut down the livestream interface before turning to Ran Qi.

Ran Qi immediately understood and stepped forward to loot the boss.

Seeing this, Cain and the others were curious as to why the team leader wasn’t looting, but since no one objected, they didn’t question it.

Ran Qi’s luck was as ridiculous as ever—his first loot grab yielded a skill book and an S-rank material.

[System Announcement] Player [Night Owl] led a team of heroes to defeat the infamous Night Cat Demon and obtained [Skill Book: Venom Blade].

Vanom Blade had dropped in the previous dungeon run as well—it was a skill book for Venom Fang and had been claimed by Sword at Fleeting Time. This time, it was directly assigned to Cain.

Cain was so excited that he jumped up and down on the spot. If he wasn’t stuck inside the dungeon, he probably would have run a few laps in celebration.

Ran Qi also opened the treasure chest, pulling out a mage skill book, an A-rank food recipe, and a forging blueprint for the Cat Demon Helmet.

[Flame Storm – Skill Book ]

Can Learn Level: 40

Limited Profession: Elemental Mage

Description: Grants the skill [Flame Storm]. 5-second cast time, 2-minute cooldown. Launches a fireball at enemies, causing explosive damage and increasing attack power by 11%. Damage increase scales with skill level.

[Cheese Pizza: Recipe]

Grade: A

Description: Teaches the method for making cheese pizza. When consumed in a party, each pizza can be divided into six servings. Grants a 20% defense boost for 30 minutes.

[Cat Demon Helmet: Forging Blueprint]

Grade: A

Description: Allows the crafting of the Cat Demon Helmet once all required materials are gathered.

All four items were incredibly valuable. Cain, Alice, and September Sky were now staring at Ran Qi as if he were a divine figure.

The mage skill book, being a DPS item, was naturally assigned to Night Owl. Smoke had no objections whatsoever.

Night Owl then asked, “Anyone interested in the recipe? Speak up if you want it.”

Alice was also a life-skill player, but she specialized in gathering—collecting materials to sell or exchange for guild contribution points. She had no intention of learning crafting.

Since September Sky had learned forging, the Cat Demon Helmet Forging Blueprint was given to him. With this blueprint, he could craft Cat Demon Helmets for all classes—not just for his own use, but also to sell for profit.

As for the Cheese Pizza Recipe, Bai Ran had no interest in it, and no one else in the team had learned the cooking skill. After checking with everyone, Night Owl decided to list it in the guild.

[Guild] [Night Owl]: [Cheese Pizza Recipe]—available for 150 gold if anyone wants it.

[Guild] Flower Iris: I want it, but I don’t have enough gold right now. Can you give me some time to gather it?

[Guild] [Night Owl]: No problem, I’ll put it in the guild storage for now. Once you have the gold, just ask a manager for it.

[Guild] Flower Iris: Got it!

The recipe had excellent stats—the food it produced could be shared within a party, had a long duration, and was well worth 150 gold. Since there were fifteen players in the dungeon run, each person could receive 10 gold as a participation reward.

This dungeon run had been relatively short, and apart from the final boss, it hadn’t been too exhausting. Ran Qi hadn’t received a system health reminder, so he was still free to continue playing.

However, their EXP dungeon cooldown had been used up, and with a competition scheduled for the morning, it was about time to log off.

“Alright, great job, everyone. We’re logging off now,” Night Owl said to Cain and the others.

“No, no, we weren’t tired at all!” Cain and the others quickly waved their hands. They knew full well that the smooth clear was entirely thanks to the top players.

“Review the key mechanics of the dungeon. Next week, you’ll be leading your own runs,” Sword at Fleeting Time reminded them.

By next week, the guild’s average level should reach 40, and they would have to start organizing independent runs. The first seven bosses shouldn’t be a problem, and they would do their best to clear the final boss as well.

“Understood!” They all nodded firmly.

After returning to town, Night Owl and his team repaired their gear before logging off together.

As luck would have it, Zhang Shuo and his group also logged off around the same time.

“Brother Shuo, Night Owl’s team is seriously amazing!” One of Zhang Shuo’s lackeys said while climbing out of his gaming pod.

They had just finished watching the livestream.

Zhang Shuo forced a nod. “Well, of course. That’s why they’re called the number one team in the entire server. Their teamwork is flawless—they must all know each other in real life! If we had enough people, we could start our own guild too.”

“Exactly! Oh, right, Brother Shuo, didn’t the Mech Department say they wanted to form a guild together? But their levels aren’t even as high as ours yet, haha!”

“The Mech Department guys are useless,” Zhang Shuo sneered. “But the Service Department is even worse. That loser Ran Qi—who knows if he’s even hit level 25 yet?”

“Hahahaha!” The group burst into laughter.

Suddenly, one of them stopped laughing abruptly and stared ahead in shock. “B-Brother Shuo…”

“What? Spit it out. Why are you stuttering?|

“Over there… That person… looks like Ran Qi…”

“Oh? That trash Ran Qi is here too?” Zhang Shuo wasn’t surprised. This was the largest Star Gaming Lounge in the area—anyone wanting to play had to come here. “What’s the big deal about seeing a piece of trash?”

“A-And… Han Xiao and the other Imperial Star players are with him…” The lackey gulped hard.

Imperial Star’s Top Ten Team was one of the tournament favorites, and Han Xiao had led them to multiple championship victories. Any competitor would recognize them instantly.

“Hah! I knew Ran Qi had some shady connection with Han Xiao’s group!” Zhang Shuo was instantly enraged.

“Brother Shuo, should we go over there?” one of his lackeys asked hesitantly.

Every time Zhang Shuo saw Ran Qi, he would go out of his way to make trouble. His followers had already gotten used to it.

“Go over there? Are you stupid? Didn’t you see how many people they have?!” Zhang Shuo snapped.

With Han Xiao there, what could he even do? Besides, Han Xiao was rumored to have double-S Level aptitude and insane physical stats. If things got physical, Zhang Shuo wouldn’t stand a chance.

So, they had no choice but to tactically retreat, sitting quietly in their gaming pods until Han Xiao’s group left before daring to come out.

“Brother Shuo… I recognized a few people in Han Xiao’s team earlier…” one of Zhang Shuo’s lackeys hesitated.

“What about them? If you’ve got something to say, just say it. Stop beating around the bush!” Zhang Shuo said impatiently.

“One of them… yesterday during the match, he was playing on the station right next to me. At the time, he looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out where I’d seen him before. Now I remember!” The lackey swallowed hard. “That guy looks exactly like Plume Ink from Night Owl’s team! I saw him on the live stream—his combat skills were insane… Their faces are practically identical!”

In <Magic Realm>, the in-game character appearances were generated based on the players’ real-life looks, with only minor adjustments allowed. Their overall facial features remained unchanged. Since Night Owl’s livestream was in first-person perspective, his own face wasn’t visible—but everyone else’s was…

“Now that you mention it… I think some of them did look kind of familiar…” Another lackey was suddenly just as shocked.

And just a moment ago, Zhang Shuo himself had said they must know each other in real life…

Ran Qi—someone who had absolutely no connection to them—suddenly hanging out with their group? It was probably because they met in the game!

The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed!!!

“Impossible!” Zhang Shuo refused to believe it. “Stop scaring yourselves! That trash Ran Qi—does he look like someone who could get into Night Owl’s team?! After we log back in, you guys better grind levels with me. I swear, I’m gonna teach Ran Qi a lesson!”

“Got it, Brother Shuo!”