Chapter 62

After exiting the holographic game world, all the embarrassed appearances disappeared immediately.

Jiang Yunu walked out of the simulation cabin, stood beside the instrument and stretched, feeling refreshed after two hours of virtual battle.

Because the reservation is for the last usage period of the simulation for the day, when you get off the machine and leave the classroom, you can move a little slower than at other times. You don't have to rush and give up your seat to the students behind you.

Jiang Yunu stretched herself and then walked towards the classroom door, but out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of someone looking at her.

They were three students who came to the machine together. They had obviously just come out of the simulation cabin and were standing in a row next to their machines.

Jiang Yunu noticed the gaze and immediately looked over.

The three men didn't seem to expect her to look at them on her own initiative. Some of them were stunned, while others subconsciously turned their gaze away.

Only the person suspected to be the leader was still staring at Jiang Yunu.

Following the principle that "when humans look at each other, it usually means something is going on," Jiang Yunu stopped and took the initiative to greet them, "Hello, what can I do for you?"

The three of them looked older than Jiang Yunu, and their builds were between the transition period between adolescence and youth.

The leading student said, "Hello, do you often come here to study on the computer on weekends?"

Jiang Yunu said, "About the same."

Except for the weekend when he went back to visit Aunt Daisy, Jiang Yunu has come to the computer classroom every weekend since school started.

Moreover, her regular appearance times are early morning and evening, so it is not surprising that she is remembered and leaves an impression on others because of this.

The leading student said, "I haven't seen you before. Are you a freshman this year?"

The other party's words sounded a bit like interrogation, but Jiang Yunu was very sensitive to the good and evil emotions from others. She could feel that the other party seemed to be just genuinely curious and had no ill intentions.

Jiang Yunu answered truthfully: "Yes."

The person who had looked away before turned his gaze back and said, "No wonder you look so small."

After saying this, as if there was something on Jiang Yunu that he couldn't bear to look at, he quickly looked away before Jiang Yunu looked at him.

The third person in the trio saw Jiang Yunu's confused expression and explained on his companion's behalf: "Please don't misunderstand. He doesn't look at you because he has a problem with you. He just doesn't know how to look a girl in the eye and talk to her."

The person who turned his eyes away looked aside and nodded silently.

Jiang Yunu: "...Okay, it's okay."

Knowing that others would not stand by and watch him for no reason, Jiang Yunu waited for the other party to explain his purpose.

The leading student quickly explained why he'd noticed her. "We're the 'Crystal Core Team,' a group that spends our free time playing games to get Crystal Cores. Perhaps you've heard of us? It doesn't matter if you haven't. We come to the computer lab every weekend and play together to fight elemental beasts and get Crystal Cores. I've been seeing you at the same time lately, so I wanted to ask you, once your game has the interactive feature enabled, would you be willing to team up with us occasionally and fight elemental beasts together when you have time?"

Jiang Yunu received a sudden invitation. She first thought that the name "Crystal Core Group" was indeed familiar. Then she remembered that she had heard this word from Joyson before.

The Crystal Core Team specially invited her because they saw that her computer time always overlapped with theirs, and from her frequent appearances in the computer classroom, they inferred that she was a person who loved playing games.

Jiang Yunu felt that she lacked teammates in the game world. She had fought against wind elemental beasts and the fire elemental beast Stone Giant several times before. If she had teammates who could help distract the elemental beasts, the fight would have been faster and more efficient.

There was no harm in playing games online with others occasionally, so Jiang Yunu quickly agreed: "No problem."

The leading student showed the small screen of the terminal and added contact information with Jiang Yunu.

Another person nearby asked, "By the way, how long will it take you to complete the Novice Trial? What level of the early Novice Elemental Map have you reached?"

Unlocking each new primary elemental beast means opening a new level.

Jiang Yunu said: "We have reached the fourth stage. We may be able to finish it this week or next week."

I got four fire element crystal cores tonight, plus the two I got last weekend before returning to Chat City. Jiang Yunu's fire element map progress has reached "6/8".

As long as she defeats the last two fire elemental beasts, she should be able to clear this valley lava map.

Jiang Yunu was quite flexible about the time, mainly because her inference was that "you can escape the trial after obtaining 32 crystal cores". She was not sure whether the highly random game system would create a "fifth level" for her.

Jiang Yunu regarded her gaming record as normal, but she did not expect that the surroundings became noticeably quieter after she gave her answer, and the three senior members of the "Crystal Core Group" did not speak.

The silence lasted a little too long, so long that Jiang Yunu could sense something was wrong.

She asked curiously, "What's the problem?"

The guy who couldn't look the girl in the eye said, "...You're progressing so fast."

The other two people nodded as well.

"You are the freshman who can open the map the fastest I have ever seen." said the person who helped his companion explain.

"You are also the first person I know of who will be taking the Novice Trial in about a month." The leading student said, without mentioning "freshman" in his wording.

Perhaps because Jiang Yunu's gaming results were so unexpected, the more outspoken student in the lead paused. After a moment, he couldn't help but ask, "Have you really reached the fourth level? Can you clear the trial map in the next two weeks? Are you not bragging?"

Jiang Yunu was not afraid of being questioned, so she swallowed back the words "Is this progress so fast?"

After a moment's thought, she said, "If I do complete the game in the next two weeks, we can arrange a game online. As long as you can see me in the interactive channel, it means I've really done it."

The three students from the Crystal Core Group made a prompt decision and made an agreement with Jiang Yunu on this matter.

"To be honest, I really want to see you pass the novice trial in the next two weeks."

It was already very late, and several people walked out of the multi-purpose building together. The one who was more talkative and active among the three said this to Jiang Yunu in a half-joking and half-encouraging tone.

The other party even patted Jiang Yunu on the shoulder and said, "This is something worth bragging about! I dare say that no one in our entire star region has ever cleared a level so quickly!"

Jiang Yunu took this as an exaggeration. Although she smiled, she replied, "Really? Oh, I'm going to break the star zone record. I'm really excited when I think about it."

But Jiang Yunu didn't take it to heart.

Because the focus of his life recently is still on preparing for the school competition, Jiang Yunu still arranges himself to play computer games on weekends to relax, but he can't fill up the morning and evening time of the weekend like he did in the previous few weeks.

For example, this week, she only made flight reservations for two nights, Saturday and Sunday.

Joyson was not with her tonight. The red-haired boy was once again kidnapped by his roommate and "Senior Bambi" to participate in their activity called "Boys' Time".

The next day was Sunday.

Jiang Yunu got up early as usual, then went to the library's study area to find a place to study and spent the whole morning reading materials.

At noon, she was called to the faculty and staff office building by the respectable and amiable teacher Lei, where she received face-to-face review of her additional assignments and left the office with a dozen new materials.

In the afternoon, Jiang Yunu continued to read the competition materials and completed the weekend homework assigned by other subjects.

After 8:30 in the evening, Qiao Yisen sent a message to Jiang Yunu, saying that the other party had already left the dormitory building.

Jiang Yunu closed the data screens that were arranged in a row around him, quickly stood up from the table, and went to the agreed meeting place to meet Joyson.

This weekend's last flight, Joyson was with Jiang Yunu.

On the way, Jiang Yunu told the other party about his encounter with the Crystal Core Group. Qiao Yisen's eyes widened when he heard it.

"Ah?" Joyson said, "They actually came to you on their own initiative?"

Jiang Yunu shrugged slightly: "I was surprised too."

Every time Jiang Yunu went back to the computer, he would focus on entering the simulation cabin as quickly as possible and then loading into the game world as quickly as possible, and he didn't pay much attention to other students in the classroom.

However, when Jiang Yunu returned to the dormitory and recalled the conversation with a member of the Crystal Core Group yesterday, she realized that the other party did look familiar. After thinking about the facial features carefully, she felt that they looked a little familiar. They must have passed each other in the multi-purpose building many times.

Jiang Yunu originally wanted to use the computer with Qiao Yisen today. If he met those three people again in the classroom, he could take Qiao Yisen to get to know them as well.

But the timing may not be coincidental. The three people are not in the computer classroom tonight, and her computer time and the other party's computer time may just be different.

"Let's talk about it next time." Jiang Yunu put this little matter aside and he and Joeyson entered their respective simulation cabins one after another.

When she sat in the simulation cabin, she was still wearing casual clothes, and her hair was not very well-groomed, but at least it was neat, like a normal girl.

After loading the game through the simulation cabin, Jiang Yunu found herself again in the fire element map with lava winding on the ground. She transformed into a wild warrior with messy hair and burn marks on the ends of her hair. Her hooded sweatshirt was torn and her trousers were dotted with "stars". A closer look showed that they were all tiny holes burned by sparks...

Jiang Yunu shook his head, and his white hair with burn marks flew up.

She smiled at the stone giant that had spawned on the map: "Hello again."

The fire elemental beast still did not respond to her greeting, but walked towards her silently and heavily.

It only took Jiang Yunu an hour to successfully kill the last two stone giants on this map and obtain two fire element crystal cores.

When the two newest crystal cores were placed into the backpack, Jiang Yunu suddenly felt his bag become extra heavy.

She lowered her head to look into the still open bag and found that an item had automatically been added to her backpack - it was a key inlaid with four gems.

The four gems correspond to the representative colors of the four elements.

The magma flowing on the rocky ground accelerated and turned into a flame-colored guiding beacon.

Jiang Yunu walked forward along the flow of the lava, and a door appeared in front of him.