Chapter 150: One Short
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Tian Zhu Mountain, First Outer Mountain, Grand Arena
Mo Tan, already accustomed to blacking out for a few hours each day, didn't even express any emotion after logging in. He simply checked the time and then quickly left his room.
Then, with a slight shift in his gaze, he held his breath, concentrated, and took a horse stance right at the doorway...
“Moo-woo-wang!”
Bang!!
Before he could even properly settle into his horse stance, he was tackled to the ground by a wildly excited Ya Ya.
“Wang has been waiting for you for so long!” The girl happily squatted on Mo Tan, wagging her tail. Her beast ears twitched and lay back, and in her hand, she clutched a half-eaten leg of some unknown poultry.
Mo Tan struggled to push the lively beast-eared girl off him. As he got up, leaning against the wall, he gave Ya Ya a wry smile, “Sorry for the wait. If possible, next time you tackle me, could you go a little easier? Sometimes I can't react in time.”
“Wang woo, because Wang saw Mo Tan, Wang is very happy.” Ya Ya took a bite of the food in her hand, squatted by Mo Tan's leg, and mumbled indistinctly, “Mo Tan is always appearing and disappearing like a ghost, Wang accidentally can't see him!”
Mo Tan gave a sheepish laugh, “It's for some messy reasons. By the way, where's Jia Deka?”
Since the 'fake teeth duo' usually stayed together, Mo Tan was a little curious only to see Ya Ya in the hallway.
“Wang Dejia went back to his room to rest.” Ya Ya had already quickly finished her meat and was now crunching on the remaining bones, answering without looking up, “Wang Dejia accidentally bit into a... um...”
The girl shivered, giving Mo Tan a 'you know what I mean' look.
Mo Tan also shivered; he seemed to understand a little.
Then, a door not far away opened...
Jia Deka, looking pale, slowly emerged, leaning on his staff under their gaze. He raised a hand and waved twice at Mo Tan, forcing a smile that was as strained as could be: “Pfft!”
He spat out a large mouthful of blood.
“Are you alright?!” Mo Tan quickly ran over to support him, asking very anxiously, “Did you accidentally eat something Ye Ge made again?”
Jia Deka weakly shook his head: “Pfft!”
More blood on the ground!
“Hang in there, I'll contact Cordova right away!” Seeing that the other person was about to kick the bucket, Mo Tan quickly opened his friends list, intending to send Cordova a message asking where to find emergency aid here.
“Don’t… no need.” However, Jia Deka grabbed him, and with a dispirited look, shook his head again, “My constitution is quite good. I'm almost recovered now, no need for such trouble.”
Mo Tan looked at him suspiciously: “Are you sure?”
“Pfft!”
“I guess I'll still contact him!”
“No, no, really no need!” But after Jia Deka spat out a bit more blood, his condition seemed to improve, and he quickly waved his hand, “What I just spat out was stagnant blood trapped in my body. Now there's nothing wrong; if I didn't spit it out, it would heal slower.”
Mo Tan saw that his complexion was indeed gradually returning to a healthy flush, and the feeling of being on his last breath, about to heroically perish, had also disappeared. Only then did he sigh in relief: “So, what exactly happened?”
“I wasn't careful enough.” Jia Deka sighed deeply, raised his hand to conjure a small water ball to wash away the bloodstains on the ground, and recounted to Mo Tan with a heavy heart, “Miss Ye Ge came to play with Ya Ya at noon and also brought two engineering constructs. They looked quite high-tech…”
Mo Tan nodded: “And then?”
“Then I fiddled with it a bit, and accidentally opened something on it called 'safety.' Then Ya Ya accidentally touched the launch button,” the Old Mage said, feeling utterly exhausted. “As a result, a piece of ammunition shot directly at my face.”
“And that’s how you ended up like this?” Mo Tan asked with deep sympathy, “What kind of thing has such power?”
Jia Deka shook his head: “Nothing, that piece of ammunition hadn't even picked up speed yet. As a seasoned Mage who has been immersed in the field of magic for many years, I naturally bit it in one go. Besides a slight toothache, there were no serious injuries.”
Mo Tan pondered for a long time but couldn't understand the connection between a seasoned Mage and iron teeth. So he could only continue asking, “Then how did you end up like this?”
“So fragrant…” Jia Deka sighed faintly, “Truly fragrant.”
Mo Tan: “?”
What was so fragrant?
“The ammunition for that engineering construct seemed to be common bread slices…” Jia Deka smacked his lips, recalling the taste, “At least, that’s what I thought at the time. But after being heated by the machine, it smelled incredibly fragrant. As a result, I couldn’t resist and ate half a bite.”
Mo Tan's lips twitched: “And then?”
Jia Deka's face turned ashen: “Pfft!”
“Alright, I get it…”
Clearly, the 'ammunition' in a certain person's engineering construct was all self-made (cooked by him/herself).
“Don't worry~” Jia Deka wiped his mouth and chuckled at Mo Tan, “I just have a minor physical issue; it won't affect our Arena match later. After all, I'm a Mage, and as long as my magic and mental power are fine, my strength won't be affected at all.”
【If you had said that before we met, I might have actually believed you!】
Mo Tan looked at the battle-ready Old Mage in front of him, nodding with a dry laugh while thinking to himself.
Yesterday, after leaving the Seventh Outer Mountain, he returned here, found Ya Ya and Jia Deka, arranged to play in the Arena tonight, and then logged off. That's why these two didn't go out to cause trouble during the day, but instead diligently conserved their energy.
However…
Mo Tan remembered the task Lu Wei gave him yesterday, which was to bring Ji Xiaoge along when playing in the Arena to help her gain combat experience.
Although Mo Tan had already messaged Ji Xiaoge when he first logged in, and she readily agreed to head to the First Outer Mountain, he distinctly remembered that the Tian Zhu Mountain Arena only supported three team battle modes: two-on-two, three-on-three, and five-on-five…
And Mo Tan, Jia Deka, Ya Ya, and Ji Xiaoge only added up to four people, which theoretically didn't meet the matching requirements.
【Forget it, if it really comes down to it, I'll just ask Cordova to come help out.】
Mo Tan shrugged, then went with the Jia Ya duo to the Arena Hall, chatting with them while waiting for Ji Xiaoge.
About ten minutes later
A small patch of ground behind the three suddenly collapsed!
Mo Tan and the others were startled, and then they saw…
A pickaxe extended out from the newly formed pit…
A gaunt hand emerged from inside…
Doesn't this sound familiar to everyone here?
That's right, the next second, a candle also slowly emerged from inside!
Beneath the candle was a long, ugly face with sparse hair, a pointed mouth, monkey-like cheeks, and a look of utter exasperation!
“Halt! What kind of demon… Dog-Headed Kobold?”
Jia Deka suddenly took a big leap backward, instinctively raising his staff, only to find that what appeared before him was a harmless, low-strength Dog-Headed Kobold!
“Wang! So ugly!” Ya Ya muttered with a frown, then turned to Jia Deka and said aggrievedly, “Wang doesn't admit Wang is a dog, he is the dog…”
【Hey, hey, hey! You're not a dog either! You're a Half-Orc!】
Mo Tan inwardly complained, then quickly waved his hands at Jia Deka and Ya Ya, “Don't panic, don't panic, it's one of us, one of us!”
“Wang-self Wang?” Ya Ya tilted her head, then actually turned away and made a disgusted expression.
Honestly, most of the time this girl was quite carefree and rarely showed such a strong personality. This time, it was probably because the other party's name contained the character for 'dog,' which triggered her... though it's hard to say what kind of trigger it was for a Half-Orc.
“Hey, Cordova.” Mo Tan pulled the Dog-Headed Kobold, who was struggling to climb out of the pit, and gave an awkward smile, “No offense, they haven't seen you in this form.”
Cordova, in his Alpha Dog form, nodded expressionlessly: “It's fine, I don't mind at all.”
“Cordova??”
“Wang-er-duo Wang!?”
Jia Deka and Ya Ya were stunned.
Especially the pure-hearted latter; the beast-eared girl's simple worldview was clearly impacted to some extent. She stared blankly at Cordova, temporarily in his Alpha Dog form, and for a long while, she hadn't recovered, murmuring continuously, “Did he devolve… Will Ya Ya also devolve… I don't want to become like this… So ugly, truly so ugly…”
She was so worried that she could even speak Mandarin fluently!
“You don't need to worry.” Cordova's dog face looked a bit distorted, and he explained dryly, “There's a reason I'm like this. Besides, you won't devolve. Even if you did, at most you'd turn into a small puppy, not a Dog-Headed Kobold.”
Ya Ya was overjoyed: “Ya! Wangs are not the same!”
“Yes, we're not the same.” Cordova nodded, then immediately widened his dog eyes and shouted, “No! I'm not a Dog-Headed Kobold either!”
Jia Deka quickly smoothed things over: “Ahem, we know, we know. But Brother Cordova, what exactly is going on with you?”
“Sigh, for safety's sake.” Cordova turned his head to glance at a certain Dwarf lady receptionist in the center of the hall, then leaned close to Mo Tan and whispered, “Are you sure that woman is really, really, really, really into me?”
Mo Tan also whispered affirmatively: “Hmm, at least really, really, really into you.”
“I'll trust you this once.” The candle on Cordova's head dimmed, then he said dejectedly, “Wait a moment, I'll send a message…”
A minute later, accompanied by a soft exclamation, a girl suddenly appeared in the pit on the ground.
“Haha, the hole Cordova dug is amazing!”
The next second, the girl in the pit flapped her wings and flew out, landing gracefully beside Mo Tan and grinning at him, “I'm here!”
“I didn't expect you to arrive this way.” Mo Tan scratched the scales on his cheek and nodded, “But it's quite efficient.”
“Student Ye Ge… I'm not a dog. This pit was dug by me, not 'pawed'.” Cordova said weakly to Ji Xiaoge, then slung his pickaxe behind his back and turned to the four, “Alright, mission accomplished. I'll go back and change bodies now.”
Mo Tan, however, immediately called out to him: “Wait.”
“Huh?” Cordova, who was posing to jump back into the pit, paused, “What's up?”
Mo Tan spread his hands: “We're going to play team Arena…”
Cordova blinked: “Go ahead.”
“But team Arena only seems to support two-person, three-person, and five-person modes.”
“And then?”
“We're one short, care to help out?”
Despite Mo Tan's sincere invitation, Cordova immediately shook his head: “No, no, I'm too strong, I can't play.”
Mo Tan sized up the Dog-Headed Kobold in front of him: “Uh…”
He knew that Cordova was indeed very strong. Although he wasn't sure exactly how strong, Mo Tan had personally witnessed him suppressing Feimigeer before. This was an existence capable of directly confronting a giant dragon. Such strength, even among all current players, was absolutely rare, perhaps even simply the strongest!
Mo Tan had always thought so, and of course, he wasn't envious at all.
This was also the reason he had hesitated before. After all, if Cordova's level were in the Noob Arena, it would certainly be unfair. So he had even prepared to let Cordova just stand around and slack off the entire match if he could just fill a spot.
But if he was in his current Alpha Dog state…
There shouldn't be any problem, right?
“Big problem.” Cordova, however, waved his hand vigorously and said seriously, “I am a Deputy of Tian Zhu Mountain. As long as I am in Tian Zhu Mountain, I receive comprehensive buffs. Even if my body is just a Dog-Headed Kobold, it's the same. Let alone the Noob Arena, even if you put me in the highest tiers, probably no one could hurt me. The reason I could fight Feimi before was because he had the same buffs. In fact, as long as we face outsiders within Tian Zhu Mountain, we are almost invincible.”
【You have unlocked the illustration: Deputy of Tian Zhu Mountain (1/3), Civilization Attributes: Knowledge +2, World Collapse Rate +2%】
???
Mo Tan's gaze instantly sharpened.
There it is again!
“What's wrong?” Cordova saw Mo Tan spacing out and thought he hadn't understood what he meant, “You didn't understand, did you?”
Mo Tan shook his head, temporarily pushing aside the doubts in his mind, and smiled, “I understood, so that means…”
“Because it would disrupt the balance of this place and potentially cause unnecessary trouble and setbacks for other participants, my principles prevent me from helping you with this,” Cordova said with a serious expression, “Sorry, buddy, I can't abuse my power.”
Mo Tan nodded: “I understand~”
At the same time, he received another friend message from Cordova.
'Of course, besides principles, 99.9% of the reason is that the system prohibits me from signing up. I found out when I tried to sneak in and bully noobs before, damn it.'
Mo Tan: “…”
Chapter 147: End
