Chapter 132: Fang Xi’s Predicament

"Not exactly, but I do feel he bears me some ill will. It's likely because of the senior."

Chu Cheng wasn't blind; their behavior had been obvious enough. Feng Lingxing nodded in agreement upon hearing this.

"If you can sense it, then it's nine times out of ten true."

"But there's no need to guess—it's plain as day. She's beautiful, a teammate, and single; it's perfectly normal for him to like her. If I were in that group, I'd pursue her too."

"However, you asked the right person. I actually know the situation with their team."

"Fang Xi was admitted to the Academy last semester. She comes from the same hometown as Xu Mingli’s late girlfriend, so they were practically neighbors. At her invitation, she joined Xu Mingli's team. It was all normal at first, but at the end of last semester, they had an accident in a high-level dungeon. Two members of their team died, including Xu Mingli's girlfriend."

"Men being men, he quickly moved on from his previous relationship and set his sights on Fang Xi."

"I don't know how he pursued her, but many people know that the relationship between Fang Xi and Xu Mingli is strained. If she hadn't found a suitable new team yet, she probably would have left long ago."

Feng Lingxing looked up at Chu Cheng and said, "The way your senior has been looking after you, it might not be without the intent of cultivating a suitable teammate herself."

Yao Ning, standing nearby, nodded as well. "That theory makes sense. Fang Xi is a magic-based class, and you are a tank. With the two core members of a team already set, just recruit two DPS, and you've got a squad."

"So, what are you going to do next? Form a new team with the beautiful senior?" Feng Lingxing and Yao Ning were both full of gossip.

"No, I just wanted to ask about Xu Mingli's reputation to assess the risk."

"Are you afraid he might try something behind your back?"

"Yes."

"That can't be assessed, nor does it need to be. The choice is yours."

"Mine?"

"Of course. As long as you make it clear that you have no other intentions toward her, Xu Mingli certainly won't go looking for trouble for no reason."

"Oh, really?"

"Nine times out of ten."

"Alright then, I'll find a time to explain it."

"Wait, you really don't have any intentions?"

"Truly, I don't. Where would I find the time for romance? I need to work hard and strive to take first place among the freshmen this year. The mentor is offering a legendary-tier reward."

Chu Cheng spoke with righteous indignation!

Yet, deep down, he was indeed considering the possibility. If Senior Fang Xi really wanted to form a new squad with him, it wouldn't be a bad thing. He had been thinking about forming a team himself; the experience in this dungeon had shown him the difficulty of high-level challenges. No matter how strong an individual is, there are limitations; it is impossible to account for everything.

Take this assault on the Cursed Fortress, for instance. If he had been alone, the barrage of war spells from the Undead Wizard Tower alone would have overwhelmed him. Even if he had the ability to withstand the spells and breach the fortress, he would have had to face the Death Knight while simultaneously blocking attacks from the Necromancer. Without teammates to share the pressure, the Skeleton Mage presiding over the tower could have easily coordinated powerful undead spells with the Death Knight in a pincer attack—he absolutely would not have been able to withstand that.

Fang Xi was a magic-class user, he was familiar with her, and from his current interactions, her character was excellent. She was a very suitable candidate for a teammate. Of course, this was just his own thought and speculation; he didn't know if she shared the sentiment, though the possibility was high.

Thinking of this, he glanced at Fang Xi. She had returned to her own team, and he could see she was standing quite a distance away from her original teammates.

After a moment of contemplation, he sent her a message: "A friend told me you're having conflicts with your current teammates and are thinking about leaving."

"Which friend told you that?"

"Don't worry about who said it, Senior. I just want to know if it's true."

After a pause, he immediately added: "If it's true, have you considered forming a team with me? I'm an MT (Main Tank), and you're a magic-class user. We can recruit two more DPS, and that would be a standard team."

Silence followed from Fang Xi's side; there was no response for a long time.

Chu Cheng waited a while and looked over at the senior’s direction, catching her looking back at him. Their eyes met, and she turned her head away.

Seconds later, he received a message from her: "You are no match for them right now."

"Once I reach level 30 and undergo another promotion, I won't be afraid of them anymore."

"I'll look forward to it!"

Chu Cheng smiled slightly and didn't send another message.

The senior's meaning was already clear. She did indeed have thoughts of leaving the team, and her care for him was indeed motivated by that underlying intent. It was a "hit or miss" situation—if he couldn't rise to the occasion, so be it, but if he could, it would be a pleasant surprise.

"So, I need to reach level 30 as soon as possible to secure a reliable teammate."

The two most critical members of a team are the tank and the magic-class user. Output classes are everywhere, with plenty of people lacking a fixed team; one could recruit a few easily.

Strictly speaking, the three most critical members of a team should be the tank, the magic-class user, and a support or healer. However, supports and healers were too rare. In all the time Chu Cheng had been seeing other "Descenders," he hadn't yet encountered a proper support or healer class.

There was no helping it; support and healers were too difficult to survive as. First of all, there was absolutely no room for them to survive during the high school stage. While they could look for teammates, where would one find teammates during the college entrance exams?

Alternatively, one could be a standard combat class during high school, wait until they were admitted to a higher institution to switch to a support or healer class, and then find a fixed team. But this method required placing one's life entirely in the hands of teammates—how many people were so selfless?

Therefore, among all career systems, support and healers were the rarest, as scarce as giant pandas.

The second rarest were tanks. As the front line of the team facing various bizarre monsters, the first to face danger, the tank class was too dangerous. Without a damage-reduction talent, no one dared to be a tank.

Third were magic-class users. As the profession with the highest entry requirements, it wasn't that no one chose them, but rather that too few met the criteria. If the initial attribute requirements for the profession were lowered, seven or eight out of ten people would choose to be magic-class users.

Finally, various output classes were flooded with recruits, including strength-based, agility-based, melee, and ranged fighters.

Setting this matter aside for the moment, Chu Cheng began chatting with Feng Lingxing and the others. Not long after, Lei Ming suddenly spoke in the team channel:

"There’s an issue I need to discuss with everyone. They’ve given us two choices. One option is to pay us to help them assault the Plague Fortress. If we successfully destroy the fortress, the tank and the magic-class user get 30 gold each, and the others get 20 gold, but all loot inside the fortress will have nothing to do with us."

"The second option is to cooperate in assaulting the Plague Fortress. Aside from a 10-gold subsidy for the tank and the magic-class user, there are no subsidies for other classes, but we get a share of the final gold loot."

"Everyone cast a vote to decide which one we choose."