61 - I’m Surrounded by My Own Pets!

“Whaaaat?????” “What does this mean, what does this mean???” “17 minutes and 52 seconds, folks, did I read that wrong!?” “Is someone cheating again? Official team, please do something about these out-of-control mecha beast tamers!!!” Despite Akui’s embarrassing and exaggerated shocked face, almost no one in the live chat paid attention to her anymore. Everyone was utterly stunned by this record in the dungeon. The Star Plain is the most popular and insanely challenging dungeon. Almost everyone has tried it, except maybe for a few casual players, and they all know how ridiculously difficult it is. 17 minutes and 52 seconds—it doesn't even amount to a fraction of the previous best record!!! Even if you just focused on speeding through it, you wouldn't make it in time, would you? No... To be fair, it was doable—Lianxing even wasted two minutes chatting with teammates... “Punish the cheaters severely!!!!” It took a full half a minute for the realization to sink in for Akui, who incredulously opened the comments section of Star's Lair. She expected to see nothing but insults, but instead, a pinned official notice appeared before her eyes. [Pinned: After reviewing the footage, the player who broke the dungeon record was found not to have used any cheating methods] “????” “?” “?” “???????” Below the pinned comment was a sea of question marks. Honestly, it was hard for everyone to imagine what was going through the officials' minds today... Clearing it in 17 minutes and 52 seconds, and they determined there was no cheating? Akui was understandably skeptical as well. She opened up the record-breaking player's achievements, and sure enough, the player's name was a virtual alias. Just like that newly hyped Super Golden Ring, if it were a player’s real ID, you could click directly to their account profile. However, with a false alias, you can't access it at all... [First Moonlight Bunny] This was the alias used by the player who broke the dungeon record. But why did this name feel oddly familiar...? Is some weird naming trend popular lately? Prefixes like Super Invincible First, followed by your main beast's baby form. Like Super Golden Ring, First Moonlight Bunny, Most Powerful Moonlight Bunny... Wait!!!! Suddenly, as if gripped by an epiphany, Akui’s pupils contracted drastically. In that instant, she recalled the team composition with the Super Golden Ring. Moonbeam Hammer...? Golden Ring...? Now that she thought about it, the baby form of the Moonbeam Hammer could likely be the Moonlight Bunny, right??? And the combination of Moonlight Bunny and Golden Ring in terms of their throw-based attacks, she couldn’t help but think of the golden-haired, bun-headed girl in the Yurakyuan uniform who was teamed up with the Silver Dragon from the Ten Giants... Even though at that time, the Moonlight Bunny was a Giant Moonlight Bunny, and the Golden Ring was in its unaltered form... But weren't their juvenile forms the same!?!? “Akui, what are you doing? Stop letting this distract you, the captain called you several times, get in the dungeon now!!!” As Akui was lost in her wild thoughts, a teammate’s voice brought her back to reality. However, Akui had no mind for leveling up now; she had something crucial she needed to verify personally. “Captain, I'm sorry, something urgent came up, could you get a substitute for me!!!” Saying this, Akui swiftly exited the team space. She left the other members of White Maple Academy in confusion, scratching their heads. What’s going on? Running off key moments like this, has Akui gone mad...? As expected, the captain, Aurora’s face turned extremely grim; it was likely Akui wouldn’t have an easy time ahead of her. The last time Akui lost control, she was punished with a three-month ban on personal sales... Who knows how long the ban will be this time? The others couldn't help but feel a sense of schadenfreude. “......” “......” “Akui, what’s up with you? If you keep this up, I’ll have to unfollow......” “A simple passerby, only here for Captain Aurora, I’m out~~~” “Akui, you newbie!!!!” Returning to her solo training space, Akui ignored the barrage of abuse flying through the chat and immediately opened up the streaming channel to search Yurakyuan's channel. With no matches being streamed from Yurakyuan at the moment, she scrolled through the history of their matches, frantically browsing through their previous accomplishments. Having once single-handedly defeated the main team of Yurakyuan in last year’s official tournament, Akui frequently boasted about this; naturally, she was quite familiar with Yurakyuan’s roster. The first-team lineup consisted of the classic high-tier trio with two fill-ins. As for the second team... They were personally knocked out by Akui’s White Maple Academy in the qualifiers!!! In her intense curiosity, Akui sped through looking at dozens of friendly match records but found that the first and second teams were made up of last year’s original members, none showing any sign of this Most Powerful Moonlight Bunny competing. What’s the deal with the Most Powerful Moonlight Bunny? Could someone so capable of easily defeating her and acquainted with the Silver Dragon of the Ten Giants really not be a member of Yurakyuan’s team? “What’s going on? I can’t make sense of Akui’s manic behavior. Why is she searching Yurakyuan’s match records all of a sudden?” “Akui, enough with the abstract acts; do something a human might actually do!!!” “Wait, I just thought of something. Does Akui suspect that the person wearing the Yurakyuan uniform, the Most Powerful Moonlight Bunny, is the First Moonlight Bunny?” “This is hilarious. Akui, don’t flatter yourself, just because someone can easily take you down doesn’t mean they can clear Star Plain in 17 minutes!!!” “To clear Star Plain in 17 minutes, the beast must be at least a Dominion rank peak; both of Most Powerful Moonlight Bunny’s beasts are mid-tier, how could it be the same person?” Although the viewers in the live chat started speculating and commenting on the Most Powerful Moonlight Bunny... What they saw back then was merely the Giant Moonlight Bunny and the pre-mutation Golden Ring. They couldn’t possibly connect the Most Powerful Moonlight Bunny and Super Golden Ring with the First Moonlight Bunny. After all, in just under a week, no matter how fast one might grow, this wouldn’t happen. But stubborn Akui did not care about any of this; she only knew that such a naming style was something a normal person wouldn't do!! Moreover, appearing repeatedly, all employing throwing tactics, and with the same juvenile form—it was highly likely— They could actually be one and the same person!!! Just then, as Akui was rapidly searching Yurakyuan's past records, she paused. On the Yurakyuan channel’s interface, a new live broadcast suddenly emerged. [Yurakyuan vs Qingliu Academy, Public Exhibition Match, Countdown 10 minutes] Seeing this title, Akui's breath caught slightly, and she clicked in without hesitation. —— —— Yurakyuan, Team Training Room. Faced with the live broadcast, the first-team members appeared slightly nervous. Broadcasted in front of the entire school and the rival academy, they were about to be relentlessly defeated without a doubt!! Without Captain Win Qi, how could Yurakyuan possibly stand a chance against Qingliu Academy? The live channel audience, totaling over 2000 viewers, mostly consisted of current beast taming students and recent graduates. “I can’t bear to watch, I heard Captain Win Qi stepped down, our academy is bound to be embarrassed severely this time, right?” “Haha, surely they’re escaping before the league, knowing they haven’t improved all year and would only embarrass themselves again, they just gave up outright!!!” “Check out the first-team members’ tense expressions, they probably already know they can’t win, right!?” “Stop ranting, keyboard warriors. If you’re so talented, why aren’t you in the main team?” “Classic, of course critics of refrigerators must know how to keep cool, huh?” “At the very least, being on the main team implies they’re better than you, isn’t that right?” “r023ncr0239c54c12” "@!cfgf23c5ft21nc " Before long, the live chat descended into the usual chaos, filled with the asterisks of censored text. But amid the pandemonium, many suddenly noticed something strange. For some unknown reason, the number of people watching the Yurakyuan live stream started skyrocketing at rocket speed, rapidly increasing the viewership to four or five thousand within no time at all.