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Although they said "see you tomorrow," it was already around 10 a.m. by the time those few players logged in.

Zhong Qing wasn't surprised by this. After all, both Shaoguang and Yan Hua were members of the elite group of Samsara's main guild in the Divine Realm. It wasn't realistic to expect them to give up their main account's guild activities just to level up their alts. It would be more surprising if they actually got up early for this.

Zhong Qing had already returned from her morning workout, leisurely finished her breakfast, and logged into the game at just past 8 a.m., starting to clear some level-20 quests.

At level 20, Elementalists didn't gain many new skills, but they did get a good amount of skill points from the quests. Some of these quests were even part of the skill point optimization guides.

Zhong Qing didn't have exceptional long-term memory, but her short-term memory had been honed by years of exam prep. After repeating the same quests over five or six playthroughs, she could remember them well enough, certainly in line with her evaluation scores.

With the increased skill points, she upgraded Blizzard by two levels on her Creeping Chill skill panel, and also unlocked Thunder Strike and Magic Lock. Unfortunately, Mobile Casting, Ice Wall, and other useful skills were still locked until level 30 or 50, which left a bit of regret.

(Current Chat) [Yan Hua Yisha]: "Looking for a DPS for a non-stop grind party, levels 20-27. Familiar players only, no dropouts."

A player named [Heng Qiang] joined the team.

Yan Hua was a fan of efficiency.

Just like when he had added Zhong Qing to the team with minimal fuss, he quickly found a replacement for Liuchao in the DPS slot.

But that didn't mean he was careless. The new player, a battle mage like them, was also level 20, with a mix of blue and green gear—but wielding a purple weapon. He gave off the vibe of someone with decent skill.

"Alright, we're all set. Let's get started," said Yan Hua, opening the dungeon. The levels 20-27 he had mentioned earlier weren't random; based on yesterday's performance and the bonus experience system for new players, they could likely reach that range by the end of the day if all went well.

"Hey, Battle Mage, you're good, right?" Yan Hua asked, his voice coming through the mic. The new DPS responded similarly through voice chat.

"This dungeon's so easy, what's there to be good at? Hurry up and start—I'm grinding levels here."

"…"

Zhong Qing found that voice oddly familiar.

Even though the Glory in this world was identical to the one in her immersive strategy game, she had always thought that the in-game voices of the romanceable characters wouldn't exactly match their real-life counterparts. She had skipped the interview segments in yesterday's playoff stream, so she missed out on finding an answer to this.

But now, the slightly distorted voice coming through the game's system sounded just like someone she had heard before.

This [Heng Qiang]—

She chuckled. His in-game name even referenced his main character's class.

It made sense that a player from a team that didn't make the playoffs would already be on summer break. Given the team's overall performance, they wouldn't need extra time for training or reviews. So, playing an MMO at this time seemed perfectly reasonable.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go," the boy's voice, tinged with a hint of hoarseness, carried a blatant arrogance. Zhong Qing was all too familiar with this guy's personality, but the others in the team probably had their opinion of him drop a bit.

Yan Hua muttered under his breath and charged into the mob of monsters, a whirlwind assault targeting the densest area. After pulling a cluster of aggro, he swung a Falling Phoenix Hammer down.

At almost the same moment, Zhong Qing's Blizzard skill cast landed on the same group.

With crowd control already in play, there was no need to use another knock-up skill like Flame Impact. In the frozen wasteland, damage numbers popped up as Zhong Qing's new gear and leveled-up skills made her hits particularly effective.

Amidst the icy storm, [Heng Qiang]'s battle mage swung his spear in a 180-degree Spiral Edge, immediately following up with a Piercing Strike that triggered a bleeding effect, wiping out a bunch of low-health enemies.

At level 20, battle mages didn't have many skills, and their attribute runes only provided a movement speed buff. But [Heng Qiang]'s aggro was rapidly increasing.

Just as Shaoguang was about to remind him to watch his DPS to avoid over-aggroing, she saw him skillfully use Falling Flower Palm to knock an enemy straight into the explosion zone of Zhong Qing's Flame Impact. Meanwhile, his hands didn't stop as he chained a Dragon Tooth combo on the next target, stunning it and preventing the healer from needing to step in.

"His hand speed... is so fast…"

A battle mage's basic attacks—Straight Stab, Dragon Tooth, and Piercing Strike—needed to be timed just right to land four consecutive strikes on a flying target. This required at least 170 APM (actions per minute), and he made it look easy.

What surprised Shaoguang and Yan Hua even more was Zhong Qing's performance.

Her spell-casting frequency only seemed to have increased slightly compared to yesterday, but her control skills always hit right before [Heng Qiang]'s attacks, and her Blizzard consistently targeted the most immobilized enemies. The synergy between their debuffs and damage multipliers left no gaps, and her DPS numbers skyrocketed like an untethered horse.

The tank and healer, who already felt a bit redundant after yesterday, were starting to think they might be completely unnecessary soon.

They hadn't just lucked out with one SSR character yesterday—it seemed like they had drawn two, and they even came with combo moves.

But the young man controlling [Heng Qiang] didn't have so many thoughts running through his head. He just thought of himself as a genius. Originally, he had come to the MMO to try out a different class and see how the skill tree worked, but it felt surprisingly smooth.

Although he had the reckless habit of trading health for damage by getting too close to enemies, his quick reflexes made up for it, and he only needed to hit the keyboard a bit harder to adjust his positioning.

Pulling off four consecutive Aerial Stabs at 200 APM wasn't even a challenge for someone who hadn't yet reached the peak age for pro players.

The team effortlessly cleared the dungeon, taking down the final boss without a hitch.

But then, to his surprise, Best DPS on the completion screen wasn't him. It was the four-character-named Elementalist.

[Heng Qiang]: "..."

A sudden ellipsis from [Heng Qiang] over his character's head made Zhong Qing chuckle a bit.

[Creeping Chill]: "You're moving too much like a berserker; it's wasting DPS opportunities."

[Heng Qiang]: "Oh, then we'll do another run and see."

It was easy talking to people with such a straightforward thought process. He didn't even question how this Elementalist, after just one dungeon run, could tell that his main class was Berserker. Instead, he was just eager to try again.

After all, he was a genius. There was no way he could lose to a regular MMO player. He just needed to get stronger.