My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 67
by Little PandaLunatic
Over the past few days at the base, Ren Chenxi hadn’t had much time to practice her Shooting, but she had still worked hard to raise her Shooting skill level to Level 8. The octopus monster was within eighty meters of her, and Mu Ning was even closer.
At present, Mu Ning was firmly trapped by the octopus monster’s concentrated barrage. To let Mu Ning escape from the monster’s assault, she had to draw its attention first. Ren Chenxi’s SSR Explosion Card shot toward the monster’s massive head, successfully knocking off 20 percent of its HP. Sure enough, this caused the octopus monster to halt its attack. Infuriated, it extended its tentacles outward, trying to root out the enemy that had attacked it.
Seizing the opportunity, Ren Chenxi applied a Critical Hit Card to herself and hurled another SSR Explosion Card at the octopus monster. This time, the monster’s HP dropped by another 40 percent.
Two consecutive strikes thoroughly ignited all of the octopus monster’s fury. No longer paying attention to Mu Ning—whom it couldn’t seem to hit no matter how it attacked—the monster thrashed its eight giant tentacles and crawled in Ren Chenxi’s direction.
The octopus monster had finally let Mu Ning go, but Mu Ning wasn’t about to let the octopus monster go. Seeing the creature move away, Mu Ning seemed to realize something. She lashed out with her eight vine whips again, piercing viciously into the monster’s colossal body.
This crazy woman!!!
Ren Chenxi had originally wanted Mu Ning to use this gap to run away. Instead, she had gone and pulled its aggro1 again! Left with no choice, Ren Chenxi threw out her last SSR Explosion Card, then gathered every ounce of strength in her body and sprinted toward Mu Ning. Before Mu Ning could launch another attack on the monster, Ren Chenxi grabbed her. Together, they ran for their lives toward a sedan parked further down the beach.
Mu Ning and the others had taken the bus when they went out this morning, and their minivan was sitting in her own inventory. Therefore, this sedan was likely what Mu Ning had driven here. Otherwise, considering it had taken her an hour’s drive in an off-road vehicle, Ren Chenxi absolutely refused to believe Mu Ning had run all the way here on her own two legs!
“Ren Chenxi?” Her hand suddenly grabbed by someone, Mu Ning vigilantly squeezed back in a reverse grip. But the soft touch of the palm quickly made her realize who was holding her.
“What are you standing around in a daze for? The Shield on you only has a little over eight minutes left—run!!!” Ren Chenxi could clearly see the Shield buff counting down, second by second, right next to Mu Ning’s health bar2.
“Shield? Why can’t I see it? Did you cast it on me? Is that why I can’t see you either? But how come I can see everything else?” Yanked hard by Ren Chenxi, Mu Ning stumbled briefly before catching up to her running pace.
“Why do you care so much!” Ren Chenxi was deeply annoyed by all of Mu Ning’s questions, but she still had to drag her along as they fled desperately. Realizing that Mu Ning’s speed was far inferior to her own, Ren Chenxi used an SR-rank Acceleration Card on her. “Which is more important, running for your life or satisfying your curiosity? That’s an 8th-order octopus monster chasing us!”
The moment Ren Chenxi applied the SR-rank Acceleration Card to Mu Ning, Mu Ning felt her feet become incredibly light, and her running speed surged. Immediately, she guessed that Ren Chenxi must have done something again. However, upon hearing Ren Chenxi say that an 8th-order octopus monster was chasing them, Mu Ning subconsciously glanced back at the giant octopus. To her surprise, the monster wasn’t pursuing them anymore.
“It’s not chasing us. Why?”
Hearing Mu Ning say this, Ren Chenxi also looked back at the octopus monster. After taking several hits from Mu Ning’s vine whips and three of Ren Chenxi’s SSR Explosion Cards, the monster’s health bar was now below 20 percent. Most likely sensing that its life was in danger, the octopus monster had hesitated, too afraid to keep pursuing them. “It’s heavily injured. It probably won’t chase us. Let’s first…”
Ren Chenxi had wanted to say: Let’s first escape to a safe place, rest up a bit, and I’ll take the opportunity to do thirty ten-draw pulls before coming back to deal with it. But before she could finish speaking, Mu Ning stopped in her tracks, turned around, and carefully studied the octopus monster. “Indeed, that octopus monster is no longer as energetic as it was at the start. The coercive pressure3 it’s giving off isn’t as intense anymore either…”
“What are you trying to do?” Ren Chenxi tugged at Mu Ning warily, but this time, she couldn’t budge her. “Don’t be crazy again. Let’s escape to a safe place first, I’ll prepare some attacking… things, and we can come back and check on it later…”
“There’s no time. I’m afraid it’ll flee into the sea in a moment!” Mu Ning carefully pulled her hand free from Ren Chenxi’s grasp and spoke to her, enunciating every word seriously. “You really want this 8th-order mutated octopus’s crystal core, don’t you? Since it’s already heavily injured, let me see if I can just kill it outright!”
“Mu Ning! You really are insane! You’re just a 5th-order esper! What makes you think…” With those attacks of yours that are practically just scratching its itch4, how are you supposed to knock off its remaining nearly 20 percent of HP!
“Don’t worry. Didn’t you say I still have eight minutes left on some Shield? I’ll strive to kill it within eight minutes. If I can’t kill it, we’ll run!” Having said this, Mu Ning quickly charged toward the octopus monster.
“Who’s worried about you! You lunatic!” Ren Chenxi stomped her foot bitterly where she stood. She desperately wanted to just leave and ignore this crazy woman, but… seeing Mu Ning turn back without hesitation to launch another assault on the massive octopus monster, she found herself completely unable to walk away.
Bolstered by the buff of Ren Chenxi’s Acceleration Card, not only was Mu Ning running faster, but the speed at which her vine whips continuously pierced into the octopus monster had also increased. The octopus monster had originally been hesitating over whether to flee back into the sea, but these successive, weak attacks infuriated it all over again. Thus, the monster charged in Mu Ning’s direction once more.
As an 8th-order octopus monster, its intelligence had clearly received a significant boost alongside its advancement. Although Mu Ning had been attacking it non-stop, it could sense that these strikes were barely doing any real damage. What truly made the octopus monster feel threatened was the attack from Ren Chenxi’s three SSR Explosion Cards. Therefore, the monster made a self-proclaimed clever decision: before fleeing back into the sea to recuperate, it would kill this insignificant human first and eat her along the way to enhance its own strength!
Seeing the octopus monster begin to wildly swing its giant tentacles at Mu Ning again, Ren Chenxi had no choice but to apply an Invisibility Card to her. As a result, although Mu Ning’s person became invisible, her several long vine whips floating in midair were distinctly obvious…
With a little over six minutes left on the Shield, Ren Chenxi had no other option but to nervously keep an eye on Mu Ning’s situation while opening her card-drawing panel to start pulling cards. Right now, she still had two SR Explosion Cards. As long as she could draw three more, she could synthesize an SSR card, and this 8th-order octopus monster would be dealt with!
On her first ten-draw pull, Ren Chenxi got one R-rank Explosion Card, five Greasy Cards, and four Costume Cards. Time was tight. Ren Chenxi simply didn’t have the time to synthesize N-rank cards to randomly acquire R-rank cards, so she could only consume more crystal stones and perform another ten-draw pull. This time, she obtained one R-rank Acceleration Card, three Greasy Cards, three Flash Cards, and three Costume Cards.
Not far away, the vine whips floating in midair were still engaged in a death match with the giant octopus monster. Even though Ren Chenxi was so anxious her heart was about to leap out of her chest, she could only grit her teeth and perform yet another ten-draw pull.
Finally, this time, Ren Chenxi obtained two R-rank Explosion Cards in one go. She had no mind to look at the pile of N-rank cards that followed, hurriedly taking the five accumulated R-rank Explosion Cards and synthesizing them into one SR-rank Explosion Card.
Still missing two SR Explosion Cards. I have to keep drawing!!!
Afterward, Ren Chenxi did another seven consecutive ten-draw pulls. Thank the heavens, this time she actually managed to draw one SR-rank Explosion Card directly, followed by three R-rank Explosion Cards, two R-rank Acceleration Cards, and one R-rank Critical Hit Card.
Just two more R-rank Explosion Cards, and I’ll be able to assemble an SSR Explosion Card! Ren Chenxi intended to use her twenty-seven Costume Cards for synthesis again. However, she had only just synthesized one R-rank Critical Hit Card when she noticed that the sounds of the octopus monster’s smack, smack, smack attacks—originally happening not far in front of her—were beginning to drift further away. Snapping her head up, Ren Chenxi saw that the vine whips suspended in the air were drawing the octopus monster further and further away, moving toward the beach on her left.
What is this crazy woman doing now! Calculating the Shield’s countdown, it should be just about up! Why wasn’t she coming over to find her so they could escape? Was it because Mu Ning couldn’t see her and therefore couldn’t find her?
Thinking of this, Ren Chenxi had no choice but to give up on synthesizing more cards and run toward those vine whips. As she ran, she tossed a Flash Card at the octopus monster. Judging by the length of the vine whips, Mu Ning was definitely more than five meters away from the monster’s body, so she wouldn’t be affected by the Flash Card’s blinding effect.
A burst of intense light flashed. Sure enough, the octopus monster began to frantically and haphazardly flail its tentacles. Moreover, seemingly sensing some kind of danger, it continued to thrash its limbs while wildly spraying ink, simultaneously beginning to retreat toward the ocean. The ink sprayed by the giant octopus covered a massive area. Because it wasn’t aimed in Ren Chenxi’s direction, she remained unaffected, but the stretch of sandy beach beneath the floating vines instantly turned pitch black.
Seeing that the octopus monster was about to escape, Ren Chenxi once again increased her running speed, wanting to seize the opportunity to grab Mu Ning. But in just a few seconds, the barbed vine whips tightly wrapped around the octopus monster’s body once more.
Ten vine whips pulled taut in midair. Ren Chenxi could sense that Mu Ning was exerting all her strength to hold the octopus monster back and prevent its escape.
Ren Chenxi also didn’t want the octopus monster to just run away like this. But what alarmed her even more was that the Shield next to Mu Ning’s health bar had already entered its final countdown.
“Mu Ning! Let’s go! I don’t want the mutated octopus’s crystal core anymore! Your Shield time is about to end!”
“J-just wait a little longer! I feel like this octopus is almost done for…”
Mu Ning’s slightly breathless voice drifted through the air. Ren Chenxi realized that Mu Ning was madly overdrawing her esper abilities.
“Forget about the octopus, you’re almost done for…” Before Ren Chenxi could finish speaking, a massive tentacle came smashing down again.
The Flash Card’s blinding duration had ended, and the duration of the Shield on Mu Ning’s body had also expired. Although the Shield Card was gone, Ren Chenxi had plenty of Flash Cards. Dodging the octopus monster’s giant tentacle, Ren Chenxi threw another Flash Card at it. At the same time, she noticed the octopus monster’s HP—it was actually down to just 13 percent? This Mu Ning’s attacks are way too fierce!
Watching the octopus monster thrash its giant tentacles wildly, finally breaking free of all of Mu Ning’s vine whips and preparing to flee once more, Ren Chenxi hurriedly applied an SR-rank Critical Hit Card to herself. Immediately after, she hurled an SR-rank Explosion Card at the octopus monster.
This SR-rank Explosion Card, boosted by the Critical Hit Card, reduced the octopus monster’s HP by another 4 percent. So, a single SR-rank Explosion Card does 2 percent damage to the octopus monster!
The author has something to say:
Mutou: Don’t worry, wifey! I’ll help you knock out the octopus monster’s remaining health right now!
Xixi: Just by using those few vines of yours to scratch its itch?
Mutou: Ummmm… whether it’s just scratching an itch or not, why don’t you experience it for yourself later?
Footnotes
- A common gaming term ('lā chóuhèn') referring to the act of drawing a hostile enemy's attention and forcing it to attack you rather than your allies.
- Literally 'blood bar' (xuè tiáo), the Chinese gaming term for a health bar or HP indicator.
- In Chinese web novels, higher-tier beings naturally emit an invisible, oppressive aura or 'coercive pressure' (wēiyā) that instills biological fear and physical heaviness in weaker beings.
- A Chinese phrase (náo yǎngyang) used to describe an attack that is so weak it feels like nothing more than a light tickle or a scratch to the target.
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