"We’re looking for someone."
Xiaoqi said as she tried to lead Cloud Fish inside.
"You won’t find who you’re looking for here."
Manager Zhao Chang blocked their path, refusing to let them pass.
"Says who? Our guy just went in. Get out of the way,"
Cloud Fish said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, I see. Well, that’s even more reason not to let you in. Customers can log on from wherever they want. It’s all fair game."
Zhao Chang chuckled, refusing to cooperate.
"That’s right!"
The nearby staff members chimed in to agree.
"Fine, fine, fine!"
Seeing that she didn’t have much of a leg to stand on, Xiaoqi could only leave in a huff with Cloud Fish.
...
「Inside Moon Wave Star Coffee.」
Xiaowei led Long Ming, Gu Yi, and the others upstairs, speaking in a sweet voice.
"We’ve saved some of our luckiest private rooms for you, Brother Gu: rooms 80 through 85."
"Nice."
Gu Yi was in high spirits.
Soon enough, Xiaowei had led them to the private rooms on the fourth floor.
"Bro, you pick first,"
Gu Yi said generously to Long Ming.
"Okay, I’ll take this one."
Long Ming chose room 80 without hesitation.
"Alright, see you in-game!"
Gu Yi and the others split off, heading to their own rooms.
Long Ming entered room 80 and shut the door behind him. He glanced around the room; the decor and quality of the private rooms at Moon Wave Star Coffee were all fairly similar.
He walked over to the game pod, kicked off his shoes, and lay down inside.
The pod’s lid slid shut, and Long Ming launched the game.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in Starry City.
Long Ming activated his wrist-mounted interface and began equipping his gear. He put on a concealed ballistic vest, armed himself with a Black Shadow automatic rifle, and packed a flashbang, a smoke grenade, three high-explosive grenades, the Death Fang tri-edged bayonet, three potent healing injectors, an automatic pistol, and five magazines.
Just then, a friend notification popped up on his interface. Gu Yi had sent him a set of coordinates.
Long Ming immediately headed for the coordinates.
Before long, he spotted Gu Yi and his friends.
Gu Yi and Chen Wei had both equipped ballistic vests and were holding submachine guns. Tao Sisi and the other two, on the other hand, had no armor, just an automatic pistol each.
Just then, Gu Yi spotted Long Ming and called out excitedly.
"Over here!"
As Long Ming walked over, Tao Sisi stared and said in shock,
"Wow, you went with a full loadout?"
"Mr. Long Ming, that automatic rifle you’re holding looks so advanced,"
Lin Xiaozhao added, amazed.
"Yeah, this one’s called the Black Shadow. It’s a high-tier weapon, but a boss hit it during my last battle. The durability took a massive hit; it was almost destroyed,"
Long Ming explained with a smile.
"You really are a pro!"
Tao Sisi and the others exclaimed.
"See? I told you guys Long Ming was a beast, but you didn’t believe me."
Gu Yi was beaming. Long Ming was really making him look good.
"Alright, alright, don’t get a big head. Hurry up and give Mr. Long Ming the invitation,"
Tao Sisi said, rolling her eyes at Gu Yi.
"Right!"
Gu Yi quickly pulled out an invitation and handed it to Long Ming.
"So, we’re going in now?" Long Ming asked as he took the invitation.
"Yep."
Gu Yi and the others took out their invitations and activated them.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Long Ming activated the invitation in his hand.
SWOOSH!
They dissolved into streaks of white light that whisked them away, depositing them on a small, gyroscope-shaped mechanical platform.
There were other players all around.
Long Ming glanced down at his interface.
Teleport Platform #172.
Civilization Start: Hegadon
Civilization Level: 1
Players: 56/1000.
...
"Not too many people here,"
Chen Wei said happily to the group after glancing around.
"True, that’s a good thing. But we can’t let our guard down. You never know how many people will show up at the last minute,"
Long Ming cautioned.
’The first time I ran the Observatory escort, I was nearly screwed over by the three major guilds. Those guilds were unbelievably treacherous, all of them joining at the very last second to ambush everyone.’
"Good point."
Suddenly remembering the lesson from the Observatory mission, Gu Yi and the others nodded in agreement.
Just then, more streaks of white light descended onto the platform.
The unaffiliated players scattered around the platform saw the newcomers and instinctively backed away.
Gu Yi and his friends turned to look. It was Zheng Bin and Cao Heng, and with them were more than a dozen players from the Sin Abyss Guild.
"Fuck," Gu Yi said to Chen Wei, his face darkening. "It’s them."
"Shit, I see them,"
Chen Wei cursed, annoyed.
Just then, Zheng Bin spotted Gu Yi’s group as well.
A malicious grin spread across his face as he led Cao Heng and his men over. "Well, well," he said with a smirk.
"If it isn’t our old friends! We just keep running into each other, don’t we?"
Tao Sisi and the other girls shrank back behind Gu Yi, looking uneasy. After all, the Sin Abyss Guild had a notoriously vicious reputation.
"Hmph. What do you want? Looking for a fight?"
Gu Yi shot back, giving no ground.
"All talk, no bite. A pity your skills don’t match that mouth of yours. The girls are pretty cute, though. How about you ditch these losers and hang with some real men?"
Zheng Bin taunted with a smirk.
Hearing Zheng Bin’s words, Gu Yi’s blood pressure spiked. He was about to lunge...
...when Long Ming placed a hand on his shoulder and looked at Zheng Bin with an icy gaze.
For some reason, Zheng Bin felt a primal sense of danger when he met Long Ming’s eyes. He grew wary and sneered,
"So that’s why you’re acting so tough. It’s because this kid is with you. You’d better pray you don’t run into us inside."
"We’re not afraid of you! We’ll see about that!"
Gu Yi retorted, fuming.
Zheng Bin didn’t waste any more threats and simply led his people away.
Long Ming spoke calmly.
"Ignore them. We’re here for the instance, not a brawl."
"Right."
Gu Yi nodded. They had spent a fortune to get in. If they got killed and kicked out over some stupid fight, the loss would be devastating.
Time trickled by.
Half an hour passed in a flash, and the final player count settled at 163.
A brilliant white light enveloped everyone on the teleport platform.
A few seconds later, the white light began to recede.
Long Ming immediately raised his Black Shadow automatic rifle and scanned his surroundings, finding Gu Yi and the others right next to him.
"Thank god, we spawned together,"
Gu Yi and the others said joyfully.
"Yeah, looks like we landed in a seaside town."
Long Ming observed the small, white houses surrounding them and inhaled the salty air of the sea breeze.
"That’s right. This is Aibin Town,"
Gu Yi said, checking the map on his wrist-mounted interface.
"You’ve been here before?"
Long Ming asked, looking at Gu Yi curiously.
"Nah, but I bought a data packet on it. This instance is supposed to be tricky, but the drops are insane."
"Oh. So, are we searching this town now?"
"Nope. We need to get to the coast and find a boat!"
"To sea? Where are we going?"
"To a place called Prison Island,"
Gu Yi explained to Long Ming.