Chapter 36: The Flame Pedestal

In the last two minutes before the mission’s end, the 123 team once again faced a difficult challenge—how to open a door with a broken handle?

Ge Jiao was also very surprised by this.
She had just come out of the backyard, and the door was clearly fine then.

Old Li also tried to turn it.
Even with all his strength, he couldn’t move it.
He looked down and found that the doorknob seemed to be stuck by something.

“This luck…” he sighed, then his expression stiffened as he suddenly realized something.

“It must be Hua Yibing’s problem,” Yan Shuangwen said with certainty.

Old Li nodded, rubbing his temples with a bit of a headache.
“That should be the reason. I didn’t expect that buff to be effective from a long distance. What should we do? It seems like there isn’t enough time.”

“Are you guys doing a timed mission?” Ge Jiao suddenly asked.
Although it was a question, she already understood seventy to eighty percent of it in her heart.
“How much time is left?”

“One minute and ten seconds,” the two said in unison.

“One minute and ten seconds…” the long-haired, intellectual girl pondered for a moment, looking at the extremely thick back door of her house.
In such a short time, it was unrealistic to find other ways to open the door.
The only way left was…

“Break the door,” her voice was calm and firm, not caring at all that this was her own door.

Old Li looked at her in surprise.
“Thank you.”
Saying that, he weighed the machete in his hand, then glanced at the door, raised his hand, and chopped at the door.

The machete, which had always been invincible, only managed to cut a small section this time before it was stuck—this door was really too thick.

At this moment, Old Li suddenly regretted why Hua Yibing wasn’t here.
His hammer would have been perfect for this situation.
Emmmm, but forget it.
If he were here, there might be some other accidents.

“Wait.”

Just as Old Li was about to strike a second time, Ge Jiao reached out her right arm and stopped him.

At the same time, her other hand pressed on the door.
The magic power in Ge Jiao’s body began to surge.
A faint dark purple light burst from her palm, spiraling up the door and enveloping most of it in that ominous light.

“Now try again,” Ge Jiao moved her hand away, signaling Old Li to continue.

Old Li’s blade once again struck the wooden door.
Unlike the previous feeling of hardness and thickness, this time the door plank was like a crisp cucumber, and a crack could be easily cut out.

‘This is…’ Old Li understood in his heart.
‘A skill that lowers defense? It’s a very practical thing, completely different from Hua Yibing’s positive status skill. It seems to be another branch of the special-attribute-type?’

There was only a minute left.
He couldn’t afford to think too much.
With a few swings of his hand, the golden machete flashed, continuing its undefeated myth.
It forcefully chopped out an entrance as tall as a person, and the few of them quickly drilled in.

Inside was the Ge sisters’ backyard.
They had bought seeds but hadn’t had time to plant them yet.
The tools and the bottles and jars containing the seeds were neatly piled in a corner.
The original weeds in the backyard had also been cleared away, leaving a vast, empty space.

A girl with a similar hairstyle to Ge Jiao was sitting on the ground, doing something with her back to the crowd.
And the little snail they had been looking for for a long time was quietly lying next to the girl, occasionally lifting its small, snow-white head to nuzzle her.

“Ya!” The little snail inadvertently saw the two panting merfolk, let out a happy cry, and waved its antennae at them, as if to remind them—I’m here!

At this time, the mission on the system panel had already entered the final countdown—

[15, 14, 13…]

From the door to the other end of the backyard was only a mere dozen meters, but this short distance had become the final sprint track.
Yan and Li, the two of them, used almost the greatest speed they had since entering the game, swimming towards the position where the girl and the snail were.

Ge Feifei heard the commotion and turned her head, looking dumbfounded as the two players rushed over fiercely.
She shrank her neck in fright, then watched as they pounced towards… the little snail’s side?

Eh?

[3, 2, 1, mission judged complete. Congratulations to the players for completing the mission!]
The system’s inorganic voice rang out, sounding like the most beautiful music in the world to Old Li’s ears.

Just as the countdown ended, a larger snail head suddenly appeared by the courtyard wall near them—

“Hey! You two little ones, are you alright? My little nephew didn’t cause you any trouble, did he?”
As he spoke, Tom took out a pocket watch and glanced at the time.
“My goodness, I’m so punctual! Remember, only a punctual merchant can become a top-notch merchant!” he praised himself smugly.

Uh, is this good?

Old Li and Yan Shuangwen looked at each other.
Old Li’s face still had the mud prints left from when he had pounced on the ground too hard just now, and Yan Shuangwen’s originally neat hair was now a mess, his bangs curled up to the top of his head.
Coupled with the recent nerve-wracking search process, both of them had tired eyes, not looking good at all.

But when turning to Tom, the answer from Old Li’s mouth became… very obedient, and also very lively.

“No trouble at all, he was very well-behaved.”

Forced smile.jpg

You know, this…

Tom was indeed very happy to hear that.
The next second, he nimbly rolled over the wall, landing on the ground with a ‘thump’ and making a shallow pit in the flat land.

“Have you had enough fun? Let’s go back. Your sister is still looking for you,” he looked at the little snail on the ground.

To the snail’s surprise, the usually obedient little snail firmly shook its head, pressed its body heavily against Ge Feifei’s leg, showing its firm determination not to leave.

Only then did Tom turn his gaze to the other girl present.
This one look was no small matter.
His snail face once again showed a surprised expression—

“My old heavens, am I seeing things? A level-one little mage can make fire in the sea? Also, what are you grilling?”

Ge Feifei, who was suddenly asked, was stunned.
She hadn’t expected that she, as a spectator, would also be spoken to by an NPC.

“Me? I’m grilling something to eat.”

Ge Feifei subconsciously raised the wooden skewer in her hand—the wooden skewer was a thin branch broken off from a coral, with several white fruits neatly strung on it.
The white shell was grilled by the flame rising from her left palm until its surface was slightly charred, with a faint golden yellow, looking extremely tempting.

She was a little distracted when she replied.
The magic power output from her hand suddenly increased, and the flame flared up a few times.
The sudden increase in temperature was too much for the fruit to bear, and it split open from the center.

This crack seemed to have broken some seal, and a domineering fragrance came from the unremarkable fruit.

It was a fragrance that the snail had never smelled before.
He had traveled to so many places where the sea clans lived, but had never smelled this kind of fragrance.

But all the players present were very familiar with it—

“Holy cr*p!! This fruit, when grilled, tastes like french fries!”
Ge Feifei’s nose twitched.
She no longer cared about any mysterious NPC.
She lowered her head ecstatically, pinched off a piece of the white fruit from the skewer, and stuffed it into her mouth.

“It’s exactly the same! Is this the happiness of eating junk food without worrying about getting fat?” she shed tears of joy.

“Feifei,” Ge Jiao called out.

Ge Feifei first shrank her neck and looked at her sister guiltily, but the next second she said with righteous indignation, “This is Sea Realm, it won’t affect my health!”

As she spoke, she broke off another piece of fruit and handed it to Ge Jiao, saying solicitously, “Sis, you try some too!”

The little snail, seeing that it was being ignored, raised its head and cried out in a soft voice, “Ya, eat!”
Its snow-white neck stretched long, and its pair of black, bright eyes followed her hand as it moved back and forth.

Tom watched as the little snail got the food and was eating it sweetly.
Although he maintained his status and wouldn’t act cute like a cub, he still secretly swallowed his saliva.

At this moment, a system prompt caught the attention of all the players.

[Congratulations to the Sea Realm player for successfully performing the first cooking. The cooking mode will be opened soon! This update will take a long time. Players are requested to log off on their own within half an hour, otherwise, they will be responsible for the consequences.]

“The first… cooking?” Yan Shuangwen looked at the string of “french fries” in Ge Feifei’s hand and understood something.

“Are you talking about me??” The girl hadn’t reacted yet.
“My god, just a string of grilled fruit?? I thought someone else had already done this!”

The one who answered her was not any of the players present, but the NPC snail Tom.

“Although I don’t know what you guys are talking about, do you think there are many little mages like you who can make fire in the sea at level one?” Tom snorted.
“I went to your exchange post for a look. That guy Sykes didn’t even provide you with a flame pedestal. Does he really think all fish can live without eating like him?”

As he spoke, his antennae pointed in mid-air, and a box-like thing suddenly appeared in mid-air, and then he caught it.

The outside of the box was translucent, with strange flame-like patterns painted on it, but the inside was empty.
There were protruding supports around it, as if a pot could be placed on it.

“Come and see old Tom’s inventory! Just input magic power into the flame pedestal—of course, you have to control the amount of magic power yourself—and the flame rune on it will take effect. See, this is the simplest way to make fire in the entire seabed!”

He watched with satisfaction as the cubs present had their eyes light up.

Tom slowly moved the box from the left to the right, and then from the right to the left.
The little cubs’ eyes also followed it back and forth, and he suddenly felt the fun of teasing cubs.

“Ahem, but Sykes, that is, your lord, doesn’t allow me to sell things to you guys casually~” he dragged out his voice.
“You’ve only been born for a short time, and you don’t have many valuable things to exchange, right?”

“Then how can I get this flame pedestal?” Ge Jiao was the first to ask.
Since this NPC had taken this thing out, it wasn’t just to show it off for half a day and then put it back, right?

By the way, she smelled a familiar, difficult aura from the other party, just like when she was dealing with those old-timers in business at the company.

“That’s a good question,” Tom crawled forward a few steps, his antennae pointing to the fruit in Ge Feifei’s hand.
“As long as you grill another fifty of these fruits for me, I will exchange this for you.”

“A cub’s magic power is not easy to generate. You can give me twenty today, and the rest when you’ve recovered. You know, old Tom is being very considerate of you.”

Ge Feifei looked at her remaining magic power, and then at the novel item in front of her.
She gritted her teeth.
“I promise you!”

[Special Quest—Old Tom’s Request. Please provide snail Tom with fifty grilled fruits. Current progress: 0/50]

[Quest Reward: Flame Pedestal ×1]

Old Tom nodded with satisfaction, lay down on the ground, and prepared to wait for the delicious food to be delivered to his mouth.
Then he seemed to remember something, and with a flick of his antennae, a bottle was thrown into Old Li’s arms.

“I almost forgot this. Good child, thank you for helping me take care of my junior.”

Old Li looked at the bottle in his hand—

[Item Name: Powerful Disinfectant]

[Description: Suitable for disinfecting and sterilizing various items. When you feel something is dirty, it’s best to spray it with this.]

With this, the confidence in dealing with that one-eyed octopus increased by another point.

And also…

Old Li looked at Ge Feifei, who was playing with the new item, and Ge Jiao, who was standing next to her with a helpless face.
Perhaps they could cooperate with these sisters.
Their skills seemed very powerful too.

In the last ten minutes before the game’s maintenance, Ge Feifei used up all her magic power to grill 20 french-fry-flavored fruits for Tom.
And Old Li and Ge Jiao also reached a consensus, agreeing to go to the outer lands to defeat the wild BOSS together after the maintenance.
Then they returned to their hut to visit Huahua, who was lying in the bedroom like a salted fish.

As the server shutdown time approached, more and more players logged off on their own.
The originally lively domain once again became empty, and the surroundings were terrifyingly quiet.

Tom walked onto the street from when he came, looked at this scene, couldn’t help but sigh, and then stuffed a grilled, fragrant white fruit into his mouth.