Chapter 152 – The Bystander Becomes the Deciding Role
“Ha ha ha, don’t be so nervous noob!! We’ve only been playing for a short while and you keep on calling out OT OT!! Are you OTMAN?” Steamed Bun Invasion laughed out loud.
“F*CK!” Maple Tree raised his gun and wildly shot at the two monsters that Cleansing Mist was attacking. In his heart, he felt extremely depressed.
What was wrong with worrying over OT? How could I have known that such a freak team existed? So it was actually possible to prevent OT like this. This type of control is ridiculous. Maple Tree comforted himself as he gloomily fired at the monsters.
In this guild, he was the senior, the boss. When they dungeoned, he was the leader; he gave the orders; whatever he said was the law.
But now? He was the noob. He was the OTMAN. He was burning with anxiety. His face was covered in tears.
Maple Tree felt wronged!
Before he came, he had already mentally prepared himself. After all, it was the team that could step all over the big guild’s records, how could their skill be questioned? Maple Tree didn’t doubt that they were experts. But after seeing them personally, he discovered that he hadn’t prepared himself well enough.
These players’ skill levels were way beyond his wildest imaginations. At this moment, Maple Tree had a hard time staying level-headed. He felt that his existence in the team was replaceable. Those four players coordinated exceptionally well, while he was an outsider, playing a small role, a bystander. This was a feeling he had never experienced before!
“Steamed Bun, don’t get distracted. You made a mistake just a moment ago.” Ye Xiu said.
“Oh? Really?”
“Really. That Back Attack you did with your Knee wasn’t placed well. If you went right 30 degrees, then the monster would have been knocked back and would have smashed into the monster Soft Mist sent flying.”
“Oh…….”
“This is just a test run. In a bit, you’re going to have to focus more. This mistake won’t affect the overall situation, but it’ll affect our efficiency. A few mistakes here and there will add up to a significant amount of wasted time.” Ye Xiu said.
“OKay! But if I focus more, who’s going to take care of that noob?” Steamed Bun Invasion asked.
“He’ll take care of himself.” Ye Xiu said.
“You can do it, noob!!” Steamed Bun Invasion encouraged him.
Maple Tree: “…….”
As they advanced through the dungeon, Maple Tree experienced the four player’s coordination and skill another step. Maple Tree’s luck wasn’t too good. If he had went with Ye Xiu and the others to Desolate Land at Level 28, then he might not have fallen to such a depressed state.
At that time, Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion were still completely new to the dungeon and were genuine noobs. Unfortunately, everyone was now Level 30 already. They had never failed to run Desolate Land the limit of three times per day. With their mechanics and Ye Xiu’s tactical guidance, their many days of practice had drilled into them this level of tacit understanding, making Maple Tree feel extremely inferior.
Regarding the tactical plan for Maple Tree, it was basically under the lead of Cleansing Mist. The two were both long-ranged characters and provided assistance to the other three in the middle of the mob.
But Cleansing Mist was actually helping. Every effect, every crowd control, from every attack she made were all being put to use. As for Maple Tree, his only task was to shoot the bullets from his gun and use his skills whenever they went off cooldown. Then…….make sure that he hit his target. And that was all.
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He originally thought he was just there to cheer them on, but as they advanced through the dungeon, Maple Tree discovered that Lord Grim began paying more and more attention to him and slowly found that he was starting to become a part of their team. He figured this out through one incident, where he thoughtlessly fired at a monster. The target he hit unexpectedly caused the entire team to go into a mess. From this, he quickly realized that the task Lord Grim had assigned to him wasn’t to be a bystander. His sloppy playing nearly caused a major disaster.
“No good!” Steamed Bun Invasion opened his mouth, “It looks like I should still take care of the noob!”
“No need!” Maple Tree clenched his teeth, “I’m fine. I got distracted because my cell phone suddenly rang.” Maple Tree lied to fight for his position. He didn’t want to be regarded as a noob. He didn’t want to be a bystander. He wanted to become an integral part of the team.
“Just take care of yourself Steamed Bun. Don’t worry about it.” Ye Xiu said to Steamed Bun Invasion.
“Fine then!” Steamed Bun Invasion had no choice but to reluctantly accept it, “Then I leave this noob to you.” With the tone he used, it seemed like Maple Tree was a noob he had brought in and was entrusting him to someone else.
“Maple Tree, focus……” Ye Xiu finally said. In the first half of the run, he had been examining Maple Tree’ strength. He at least needed to know his skill level before he could clearly use him in the team. For a team that had their sights on the record, the team definitely couldn’t afford to bring along a useless bystander. Everyone had to be perform at their very best. This was how record-setting teams operated, regardless of whether only four players were needed to set the record. This wasn’t an issue of ability. This was an issue of attitude.
After observing for half the dungeon, Ye Xiu could already see what Maple Tree’s skill level was. He wasn’t any expert of any kind. He was around the same as Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon, an experienced player. Letting him handle situations that required high mechanics obviously wasn’t going to happen. However, there was still a lot he could do. At this moment, Ye Xiu was explaining things to Maple Tree bit by bit.
He explained, while experimenting.
The moment Maple Tree went up, he caused a small disaster. But with two pro-level players and two mechanically-skilled players, they wouldn’t have any problem dealing with the situation no matter how chaotic it was. Maple Tree felt even more ashamed. His previous “I’m extremely familiar” arrogant attitude had disappeared long ago. He really was like a student. He listened to Ye Xiu’s instructions and did as he was told bit by bit.
Because of this, the latter half of the dungeon slowed down a little. However, no one complained. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion had also been taught like this. Su Mucheng didn’t need to be said. She constantly helped Ye Xiu teach Maple Tree and often demonstrated what he needed to do personally.
After pushing through the dungeon, Maple Tree wiped the sweat off his forehead. This small dungeon, which he had ran who knew how many times, made him feel extremely stressed this time. The detailed strategy Ye Xiu had planned needed to be done with meticulous precision. Everyone’s play affected one another, so they all had to perform well and work together. They couldn’t afford to make mistakes and wasted time.
This type of strategy brought out everyone’s full potential. It was the type of strategy that was the most suitable for trying to set new records.
This dungeon run took a total of one hour to run. They obviously didn’t care about the time. They had gotten rid of many problems over the course of the run, which was why it had taken so long.
“Okay, the second time. Let’s try to challenge the record this time. Maple Tree, is there anything you don’t understand?” Ye Xiu said.
“Yeah. Those noobs who act like they understand everything are the team killers. You’d better not be one of those.” Steamed Bun Invasion said.
“I’m not a noob! I’m the guild leader of Full Moon Guild.” Maple Tree identified himself.
“Full Moon Guild? Why aren’t you called Full Star Guild?” Steamed Bun Invasion said.
“Why Full Star?” Maple Tree stared blankly.
“Because Full Moon doesn’t sound good.” Steamed Bun Invasion’s line of thinking was so simple! So simple that Maple Tree couldn’t follow it. Meanwhile, the other players had already entered the dungeon.
On their second run, Maple Tree had begun assimilating with the team. But breaking the record this run? Ye Xiu had no hopes whatsoever. If Maple Tree had been one of Blue Brook Guild’s or any of those type of big guild’s elite experts, then it might have been possible. But for someone who was just an experienced player, it would be very difficult to completely grasp the strategy on the second try. Even if no mistakes were made, there would still be some flaws in his playing. They wouldn’t be able to reach the most optimal state and thus their efficiency would take a hit.
If everyone’s equipment was at the level of the big guilds’ elite teams, then there’d be more leeway for Maple Tree. But in their situation, they needed Maple Tree’s 100% in order to take down the record.
In the end, it was just as Ye Xiu had predicted. Maple Tree was still in the difficult stage of fitting in with the team. Even though there weren’t many major errors, there were still a lot of places that required him to think and a lot of places where he acted too slowly, which would all delay them.
In the end, their time for their second run was 35:14:41. There weren’t any other major issues, it all depended on Maple Tree’s performance now. This was already the main reason that their final time couldn’t beat the record.
However, it didn’t look like the task could be finished today. They could only run the dungeon once more. Ye Xiu reckoned that Maple Tree wouldn’t be able to adapt so quickly.
Sure enough, in the third run, Maple Tree improved again. But it wasn’t enough. Their final time was 34:47:68 and their three runs for the day were now all used up.
How could Maple Tree not know that the problem lay with him? The other players didn’t make any mistakes and were all lowering their tempo to adapt to him. Being someone on the team that held everyone back didn’t feel good at all! Maple Tree couldn’t help but think of his guild’s dungeon team. If there was such a terrible noob on it, everyone would hate him. And the current him? Although he wasn’t destroying the team, they still weren’t able to set the record all because of him, leaving a bad taste in Maple Tree’s mouth.
“You have a main account, right?” Lord Grim suddenly asked.
“Ah…. I do!”
“You should use the accounts you have to practice! The team’s current problems are almost all on you. As long as you practice a bit more, we’ll be able to take down this record…… But if we keep on practicing like this and we accidentally reach Level 31, then that’d be really bad.” Ye Xiu said.
“Yeah…. I’ll think of a way.” Maple Tree said.
“Desolate Land’s elite monsters in the dungeon, in terms of their attack patterns and habits, they’re about the same as the monsters in the leveling area. There are a few things you can practice in the leveling area. For example…..” Ye Xiu suggested a few things Maple Tree could do.
Maple Tree listened attentively. He was repeatedly nodding his head in front of the computer. Nodding and nodding, he suddenly realized that there was no way the other side could see him doing so and as a result, felt embarrassed again.
“Okay, that’ll be it for today. You can do it! We’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“See you tomorrow night!” Maple Tree took off and then began thinking of ways to practice more.