Chapter 25 Accepting the Challenge

[Extreme Cold Disaster: Day 17, Temperature: -101℃, Number of Players: 5571/10000]

On the seventeenth day after entering the game, the temperature finally broke through minus 100 degrees.

Looking at the extremely unstable temperature drops every day, Zhu Yu had already given up on finding the pattern.

She stretched herself and opened the group chat.

Within a few hours, the number of messages in the group chat exceeded 999+.

Zhu Yu slid directly to the place he saw before going to bed last night and continued to scroll down.

Immediately afterwards, her screen was flooded with screenshots of the battle power rankings.

What followed was a heated discussion about her, player No. 996, appearing in the fortress.

【Player 8779】: ！ ！ ​​Holy crap, the King of Rolls has appeared!

【Player 0663】: Front row photo.

[Player 5638]: Front row photo +1

…

[Player 7022]: What’s the point of taking a photo in the group? If you have the guts, go find her offline!

[Player 0215]: I'm already squatting at the entrance of the training base. Look, there are so many people here today. It seems that they are all here for the 996 boss.

【Player 0766】：【Click the link to view the shared image】

[Player 6145]: Isn't Boss 996 too lucky? He got the first place in one night. Is it possible for an ordinary player to get 150,000 points? There are not many players who can get five-digit points now!

[Player 2866]: Forget about it. Our captain was in the top ten yesterday, but when he woke up he found that not only had he fallen out of the top ten, but the gap in points between him and the first place was huge. He just shut himself up.

[Player 4911]: Is she always challenging B-level monsters? Are B-level monsters so easy to defeat? Are there any players who have fought against them? Please share your experience. I want to try it.

[Player 9520]: Forget about it. Trust me, when you encounter a B-level monster, you will run faster than anyone else. It's a dual attack of physical and magical. Can you withstand it?

[Player 2866]: Hehe, our captain is no longer introverted after hearing that the first place is 996. 996 has always been his idol. He is now going to stay at the training base for a day to see if he can find an opportunity to compete with her.

…

After scrolling through a bunch of messages praising her, Zhu Yu saw the latest comments.

[Player 1985]: Although I have asked this question many times, I still want to ask it again. Can anyone explain why the 996 boss always rolls up in the middle of the night? ?

[Player 7147]: Yeah, I am a little confused too. I am not talking about conspiracy theories. What do you think, does the 996 boss have some shameful reasons for killing monsters and leveling up, so he always goes out in the middle of the night?

[Player 8999]: It's not impossible. Otherwise, how come so many players applied to be her friend and wanted to compete with her, but no one succeeded? Could it be that she was feeling guilty?

…

[Player 0086]: What are you talking about? Could it be that the 996 boss doesn't like to interact with people too much? I asked her to do a task offline, and she was incredibly efficient and finished it in a short time.

[Player 1717]: That's right, I'm one of her friends. She's not only hardworking, but also very kind. If you don't know her, don't say bad things about her, right?

Zhu Yu felt a little warm in her heart as she watched several acquaintances come out to speak for her. She switched to the friends page and saw quite a few new messages.

[Explorer]: Wow, Boss 996, you are in the fortress too! We can work together again next time! I just discovered a few new mineral resources here, and I have kept them. When the time comes, we will go to whichever one you like!

[Foundry Master]: 996, are you still busy killing monsters? If you are free someday, let's make an appointment to get together. The Explorer is here too. The igloo we live in is so big that it can easily accommodate several people!

[Jing Miaomiao]: Damn boss, how can those people make such malicious assumptions about you? Many of them are regular customers of the hot pot restaurant. Next time I won’t let them touch Xiaoju anymore, humph!

…

Zhu Yu was washing up in the bathroom while replying to messages from his friends in a daze.

Only after a handful of cold water was poured on her face did she finally wake up completely.

She slowly exited the group chat page and prepared to go to the hot pot restaurant for breakfast.

For some reason this morning, she wanted to eat something salty, so Zhu Yu ordered three plates of salt and pepper chicken wings.

She carefully picked up a piece of hot chicken wing with two fingers. With a slight crisp sound of the skin, the salty, tender and juicy chicken was sucked into her mouth.

Just when Zhu Yu was about to finish the last plate of chicken wings, a yellow shadow suddenly appeared on the table.

"Little-Big Orange!?"

After not seeing him for a few days, Xiaoju has grown a lot bigger.

Zhu Yu moved it from the table to his lap with some difficulty. Seeing its big eyes staring at the chicken wings in his hand, he couldn't help laughing.

She was ready to let it go and give it a piece of chicken wing to try.

"Wait a minute, boss."

Jing Miao's voice came from behind her.

"Chicken wings have a lot of bones, which can easily scratch the cat's mouth and stomach, so it's best to prepare them a little before feeding them."

So that's how it is.

Zhu Yu, a cat-less person, said he had learned something new.

She broke open the chicken wings and prepared to remove the boneless chicken parts.

Xiaoju was licking Zhu Yu's fingers impatiently, but after getting the chicken, it only took a few bites and looked uninterested. It jumped off the table lightly, ran to the seafood area in small steps, and lay down lazily.

"Boss." Jing Miao sat down opposite Zhu Yu before the hot pot restaurant opened for business, and asked with some concern:

"Have you seen the message in the group? There are so many players questioning your ability. It's really abominable."

"I saw it, and I saw that you helped me fight back against a lot of people."

Jing Miao scratched her head in embarrassment after her boss saw the comments she made while surfing online.

Zhu Yu took a sip of sweet soy milk and shook his head slightly, saying, "But just saying it won't convince everyone. I believe the number of people who doubt me is far more than those who speak in the group."

"Ah, Boss, what should I do? Do you need me to hire some online trolls to suppress the comments?"

"Ahem, that's not necessary—"

Hearing Jing Miao's sudden suggestion, Zhu Yu quickly swallowed the soy milk in his mouth and waved his hands repeatedly.

"Since so many players want to compete with me, I can't spoil their fun."

"Boss, are you going to agree to their request for a sparring match?"

Zhu Yu nodded: "Yes, before I came to the hot pot restaurant, I had already sent a message in the group and @ed those players who wanted to challenge me."

"What?" Jing Miao exclaimed and quickly opened the group chat to check it.

After filling his stomach, Zhu Yu took out a bottle of disguise potion from his backpack, unscrewed the cap and drank it all in one gulp.

Soon, her appearance began to change under Jing Miao's surprised gaze.

Zhu Yu opened her personal page and activated the front camera, and discovered that although her face had only slightly changed in details, these changes combined together made her look like a completely different person.

Unless they were relatives or friends who were very familiar with her, no one would be able to recognize her original appearance.

In order to completely conceal her identity, she took out a bottle of bitter voice-changing potion from her backpack, closed her eyes and frowned, and drank it all in one gulp.

Thinking that she had never let System 996 appear in front of other players before, Zhu Yu simply summoned it out.

Anyway, this ball of light is nothing special in the eyes of other players. It can also help her better shape the image of player No. 996 and completely distinguish it from the identity of the hot pot restaurant owner.

After going out, Zhu Yu put on a white cloak and walked towards the training base.

******

"Captain, I don't think 996 boss will come so early. Why don't we wait somewhere else? There are too many people here."

Lu Xiaochi, with a somewhat sad face, squatted on the open space of the training base with his teammates, and whispered to Xue Wu to persuade him.

"Don't tell me that." Xue Wu shrugged, and twitched the corner of his mouth towards Tong Qiao. "If you have the ability, go and convince Qiao Qiao. She is one of the people who was punished by 996@."

“…”

"It's not bad to stay here. It's rare for so many players to gather together. I just collected a lot of information, including detailed information on two tasks. Next, we can go to the task bar and choose one to complete."

As Bai Qianan spoke, he quickly wrote something down in his notebook.

“…”

"Don't you think Brother Qi'an is actually another kind of king of rolls? In some aspects, he is no less inferior to 996."

Lu Xiaochi looked around and found that his teammates were either busy with their own things or ignored him, so he changed his seat and chatted with Li Ge in a low voice.

"Wait a minute, Captain! Look, is that the player who saved us earlier?"

While Lu Xiaochi was chatting, he caught sight of Zhu Yu mixed in the crowd out of the corner of his eye.

He immediately nudged the captain with his elbow, looking nervous and excited.

"Really! I will definitely not mistake this figure!" Xue Wu stood up instantly.

After confirming with Bai Qian'an again, several people couldn't wait to push away the players around them and squeezed towards Zhu Yu.

"Player, please wait a moment!"

Just as Zhu Yu was about to enter the training base, she suddenly heard someone calling her amid the noise.

Holy shit! No way, she has become like this, how can anyone recognize her?!

Zhu Yu's body suddenly stiffened. Just as she was hesitating whether to turn back or pretend not to hear and continue walking forward, Xue Wu and her teammates had cleverly shaken off the crowd and appeared in front of her.

"Hello player, may I ask if you are the one who killed the wolf pack in the snow forest yesterday and saved our team? Is it you?"

Hearing this, Zhu Yu felt relieved. She recalled and replied politely:

"I did save a few people yesterday morning."

"That's great." Xue Wu excitedly grabbed Zhu Yu's hand.

"I posted a thank you commission on the task bar, but no one came to claim it. Now I finally found you!"

"Commission?" Zhu Yu looked puzzled.

"Yes, but it may not be convenient for you to go to the central hall now. How about I add you as a friend and transfer the money to you privately?"

"Oh, of course."

Zhu Yu happily agreed as he received an unexpected fortune early in the morning.

"If I'm not mistaken, you should be an archer, right? Now that you come to the training base, are you also a player who comes to challenge the 996 boss?" Seeing that the boss had finished his business, Tong Qiao couldn't help but ask from the side.

Before Zhu Yu could answer, Lu Xiaochi excitedly took over the conversation:

"It is said that Boss 996 is also an archer. I think it may be difficult for a player in the same professional field to defeat her. If you face her later, you may consider changing your attack routine."

"That's right! You can try a close combat!" Tong Qiao gestured enthusiastically in front of Zhu Yu, "I'm a warrior. Come on, I'll teach you some close combat skills. If you can get close to her, I guarantee you can win with one strike!"

"Uh... then I would like to thank you for your kindness."

Zhu Yu was silent for a while and replied.

After Tong Qiao and the other person pulled her aside to talk about how to deal with herself, Zhu Yu finally had time to walk into the training base.

"My benefactor ran away so quickly that day that I thought she was a cold and aloof player. I didn't expect that she would be quite interesting to get along with." Tong Qiao returned to Xue Wu with a smile.

"That's right. Captain, didn't you want to chat with her? Why did you just stand there without moving? And your expression was so... weird?"

Lu Xiaochi asked doubtfully.

"that……"

Xue Wu took a deep breath and cancelled the invisible mode of his personal panel, allowing his teammates to see the information clearly.

"The player who saved us just now accepted my friend request. I looked at her ID... She seems to be 996 herself."