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The charge's airborne distance was naturally well-calculated, enough to precisely knock away the outermost ranged attackers of Zhongcaotang.

The mechanics and gunners, who had almost cleared out all the threatening positions of Baxi Xiongtu, shifted their targets to Zhongcaotang's members following Zhong Qing's instructions.

"Mark your targets. Focus fire in three seconds."

Three seconds meant three seconds, and Zhong Qing's timing was perfectly accurate.

The thunder and flames rained down from the sky, landing on the melee cluster closest to the boss. The sparks and lightning flashed briefly before the eyes of the magic scholar who had grabbed the boss's aggro, distracting him enough not to notice the Dark Shadow that slipped through the lightning.

Blind!

The members of Lunhui Guild who had jumped onto this platform had already identified this little magic scholar as a key target. Now that he was controlled, it would be a waste not to attack.

With just a sliver of health left, the magic scholar was healed by a healer hiding behind Zhongcaotang's formation, but Zhong Qing had already instructed the mechanic to throw a mechanical chaser, causing him to be stunned again.

That was enough.

The first bolt of lightning hit, ensuring the subsequent electrical damage was fully absorbed.

The magic scholar fell!

"Team 1, Knights grab aggro. Teams 6 and onward, line up toward points 1-5 to prevent Jia Dynasty from sneaking in."

"Place two gunners at Point 7 and block the path. Don't let the two guilds that died come back up."

"Everyone else, full DPS!"

Zhong Qing was marking points quickly, thanks to using voice commands; otherwise, she wouldn't have had enough time.

The boss standing at Sunset Falls had only one redeeming feature in her eyes: his stealth ability could be bugged by the terrain so it wouldn't trigger. Additionally, his magic defense was the lowest among the level 70 bosses.

In other words, they had enough time to take down this boss before the other guilds could regroup for a counterattack!

The Hermit Fighter Ariane was successfully killed by Lunhui Guild.

Zhong Qing didn't bother to look at the loot; wild boss drops were generally predictable.

She relaxed her fingers. In fact, the boss fight had been relatively easy due to the other guilds underestimating their strength, but after all, there was a professional player watching. She couldn't afford to look too smug.

Suppressing the curve of her lips, she took off her headset and turned to Jiang Botao.

"How many times have you fought this boss before?"

"Seven or eight times," Zhong Qing replied. "But don't bother asking which guild I was helping. This is my first time commanding."

Jiang Botao responded with a noncommittal hum.

He was a person known for his shrewdness, and it wasn't hard to tell that Zhong Qing was hiding something. But, truth be told, whether it was her personal skill or her command ability, in the world of online games, she was already at a top-tier level. In fact, she might even be able to hold her own in the professional scene, especially since many weaker teams lacked skilled commanders.

However, it seemed her ambitions didn't lie here, so Jiang Botao didn't press further.

Perhaps it was because her speech sped up while commanding, but her face now had a bit more color, making her look less distant than when they first met at noon. Jiang Botao figured he should try to be friendlier.

He extended his hand. "Well then, welcome as the wild boss commander of Lunhui Guild."

"What rank commander?" Zhong Qing asked, looking serious. She figured she had performed well, so she deserved to secure more benefits.

The ranking of commanders determined the amount of guild contribution points. Initially, she had only thought about freeloading level boosts from Lunhui, but now she felt she might be able to freeload some rare low-level materials to craft a silver weapon core.

She felt no shame about it.

—Though her face didn't betray any other intentions.

"You can fight it out with the other commanders for that. I… personally support you as the number one commander," Jiang Botao said, cracking a joke.

His smile made him look a bit younger than when they had been discussing things more seriously.

And admittedly, it was a bit contagious.

"Come on, let's get you a new contract."

Zhong Qing had originally signed a summer temp worker contract—while Lunhui was rich, they weren't about to pay high wages to just anyone doing odd jobs. The fact that this was Shanghai helped balance things out, though she was still only getting about 3,000 yuan a month.

But now, since she had become the wild boss commander, and had just snatched victory from the jaws of multiple guilds, it was time for an upgrade.

"Not considering staying a bit longer?" Jiang Botao asked, watching her sign her name in bold strokes. Her handwriting really matched her personality—it had a certain hidden fierceness to it.

Zhong Qing shook her head.

For her, getting the wild boss commander role was a bit fast, but the result was exactly what she needed.

On the one hand, it was mutually beneficial: she helped Lunhui grab bosses and used the guild contribution points to level up her account. On the other hand, she wanted to assess the strength of various professional teams. More importantly, she wanted to see which team could offer her a role as a core attacker and tactical commander.

One month—the perfect timeframe for the end of the playoffs.

Lunhui, a team that was somewhat lacking in top attackers, could be a good fit for her in some ways. But from the very beginning of her journey in full-immersion strategy games, Lunhui had never been on her list of options. Ultimately, it was because she didn't feel that winning a championship with a team that could already do so without her would bring her enough sense of achievement.

If nothing more compelling showed up here, a month would be the perfect time for her to leave and join the team of her choice.

The summer break might be long, but time for team coordination was still needed.

But these reasons weren't something she'd tell Jiang Botao.

"I have other things to attend to in a month."

"Alright," Jiang Botao didn't press further. A young girl her age might be going back to school or have some travel plans. Taking professional esports seriously wasn't easy, and for most people, it wasn't their first choice—especially when it came to the club's online gaming department.

"Add me as a friend. If you change your mind, feel free to reach out."

Jiang Botao's QQ avatar was a blue-and-white image that might have been ocean waves or cotton clouds—something that matched his clean-cut demeanor. By comparison, her newly changed black pixel character avatar and bluntly simple "zq" username didn't look very girlish at all.

Looking at the comparison in their QQ space updates made her feel even more out of place.

Jiang Botao's latest update was a food journal, with several familiar IDs commenting, accusing him of late-night food cravings and praising his plating skills.

Her latest update was:

[zq]

Morning run check-in.

But then, she saw Sun Xiang's profile, and her self-esteem was restored.

[Hengdao]

Why are there so many noobs (censored) in the arena?