Chapter 35

As the game’s final BOSS, the dragon showed players what absolute crushing strength looked like; even surrounded by dozens of enemies, it remained perfectly composed, without the slightest sign of injury or exhaustion.

Chu Yunmiao realized this quickly. Instead of mindlessly forcing the issue like the other players, she divided more of her attention to everything else while attacking. That kind of distraction was extremely dangerous on the battlefield, but fortunately Lin Mo was helping her.

"Lin Mo, cover me. I’m going around to the black dragon’s back."

Lin Mo nodded, and the two of them coordinated with perfect tacit understanding. But after trying to attack from behind the dragon for a while, Chu Yunmiao still came up empty.

"What is it?" Lin Mo asked between gasps.

Chu Yunmiao shook her head, her brows knit. "Strange."

She shared her guess. "We’ve been attacking for so long, but the black dragon’s HP is still this full. I suspect our attacks are all pointless. If we really want to defeat it, we need to find its weakness."

Lin Mo understood at once when she heard that, and asked, "Did you find it?"

Chu Yunmiao: "No."

She spread her hands. "I’ve already circled it and attacked from 360 degrees. No matter where the blow lands, this dragon looks completely unfazed. Logically, that shouldn’t be the case..."

This world was only a game, entertainment first and competition second, or the game wouldn’t have invested in so many absurd items. No matter how strong a BOSS was, there should still be some way to beat it.

But now, it was obvious this final BOSS’s power had far exceeded expectations, leaving the players with nowhere to start.

Lin Mo was troubled too. "No weakness, and tough as old leather. What are we supposed to do?"

Chu Yunmiao touched her chin. "Maybe we’ve overlooked something important, or we haven’t met some necessary condition yet..." She looked at the mountain-like dragon in front of her and thought for a moment. "Anyway, just attacking blindly like this is definitely wrong."

"Overlooked something important?" Lin Mo repeated softly. "But we’ve been killing monsters this way all along. If there really were some other condition..." She glanced around at the players nearby. "Could everyone have missed it?"

Chu Yunmiao couldn’t answer that either.

Soon after, it seemed the dragon noticed that there were actually two little bugs near it who weren’t paying full attention to the fight. It whipped its tail and slammed it toward them. Chu Yunmiao and Lin Mo dodged left and right to avoid it, getting scattered on the spot, and could no longer keep talking. With no other choice, they could only raise their weapons again and focus on dealing with the dragon’s relentless attacks.

Chu Yunmiao had a suspicion in her mind, and began consciously retreating while fighting.

Though she didn’t yet have evidence to support her thoughts, she still didn’t want to waste time standing in place. So she deliberately moved toward the direction of the castle, planning to find a chance to shake off the dragon’s entanglement and go search the one place in this instance she had never explored—the castle where the princess was being held.

The process wasn’t smooth, but she still gradually pulled away from the center of the battle and slowly moved toward the castle entrance.

Just as she was about to leave the dragon’s attack range, something suddenly burst out from inside the castle. Chu Yunmiao had already been paying attention in that direction, so she saw it immediately and blurted out in shock, "Yu... little rabbit?"

What had rushed out of the castle was precisely Yu Changning, who had gone in with Stephanie earlier and had transformed into a pygmy rabbit.

Although pygmy rabbits all looked more or less the same and it was impossible for a person to tell a rabbit’s face apart, Chu Yunmiao could still tell from that rabbit’s agility and astonishing speed that—

That was definitely her little rabbit. There was no other possibility.

In her shock, she nearly called out Yu Changning’s name. Fortunately, at the last second she caught herself and changed it into the much more normal-sounding words "little rabbit."

The little rabbit, who had originally been charging ahead with her head down, heard her voice and veered mid-step. As it crossed a railing, it landed steadily in Chu Yunmiao’s arms.

Chu Yunmiao let out a breath of relief and immediately checked on her condition. "Are you all right? Why did you run out? Is there danger inside the castle?"

The little rabbit couldn’t speak. It only lowered its head and placed a ring into Chu Yunmiao’s palm.

When Yu Changning rushed out from inside the castle, this ring had been clenched in her mouth. Although a pygmy rabbit was only about the size of Chu Yunmiao’s palm, the ring wasn’t large either; it was a small band, like a women’s size, so it wasn’t too difficult for the little rabbit to carry.

Only when the ring was placed in her palm did Chu Yunmiao see clearly that although it was small, the craftsmanship was exquisite. The brilliant silver band had been fashioned into the shape of a dragon; the dragon’s head was a black ore stone that gave off a dim sheen, understated yet luxurious, and it looked very valuable.

Chu Yunmiao immediately realized that the dragon on this ring was very similar to the shape of the BOSS the players were currently attacking. It was almost as if it had been made exactly according to the dragon’s appearance.

"This..." Chu Yunmiao was a little puzzled. "This ring is meant for a person to wear, right? The dragon is humanity’s enemy, isn’t it? Why would there be a dragon-shaped ring inside the castle?"

The little rabbit was a little anxious, but no matter how it moved its mouth, it couldn’t make a sound. Yu Changning could only use her front paws to scratch at Chu Yunmiao’s fingers, then point toward the interior of the castle.

Chu Yunmiao had just turned her head to look when she saw three figures appear at the castle doors.

She recognized the two at the back; they were Stephanie and Ms. Lucy, who had entered the castle earlier. But the girl running in front, dressed in an elaborate court gown, had a beautiful face Chu Yunmiao didn’t know.

From the other girl’s clothes, Chu Yunmiao quickly guessed her identity. "Uh... is that the Princess we’re supposed to rescue?"

The little rabbit twitched its ears, seemingly trying to convey something. But in the next moment, the Princess had already seen Chu Yunmiao and the little rabbit in her arms, and she rushed over without any concern for her image.

"Thief! Give me back my ring!"

Unlike the dragon outside, the Princess’s physical condition was not much different from that of an ordinary human. Though she lunged at Chu Yunmiao in agitation, for Chu Yunmiao it was only a slight shift of her body, and she easily avoided it.

But since she didn’t understand the situation, she could only look toward Stephanie, who was following behind the Princess.

Stephanie shrugged at her with a face full of guilt, signaling that she understood nothing either.

She felt guilty because she was the one who had accepted Chu Banzhang’s mission to enter the castle and look for clues, yet in the end, she seemed to have done even less than that rabbit.

At this rate, were even rabbits getting in on the competition with people?

After trying several times and realizing she couldn’t touch even a single hair on Chu Yunmiao, the Princess finally calmed down a little. Since force wouldn’t work, she started reasoning with Chu Yunmiao instead. "Ahem, you." She pointed at Chu Yunmiao. "You’re also a brave warrior here to rescue the Princess, right? Without question, I am your noble Princess."

The other party’s attitude was interesting, and Chu Yunmiao felt a little curious. "Good day, Your Highness."

"No need to bow." The Princess waved a hand, then looked at the little rabbit in Chu Yunmiao’s arms. "Is this rabbit yours?"

Chu Yunmiao scratched the little rabbit under the chin. Watching the rabbit squint comfortably in her arms, she nodded. "Mm, sort of."

The Princess immediately grew indignant, looking every bit like the victim had become the offender as she started settling accounts with Chu Yunmiao. "How do you keep it? It stole my thing, did you know that?" She suppressed her anxiety, but her eyes never left the dragon silver ring in Chu Yunmiao’s hand. "You’re its owner, so give it back to me. I, the Princess, am generous and won’t hold it against you."

Chu Yunmiao had already thought the ring Yu Changning had worked so hard to bring out was suspicious; now she was even more certain of her guess. She still didn’t know what the ring was for, though, and didn’t want to fall out with this Princess, so after thinking it over, she tried to fish for information. "I’d be very willing to return it to its rightful owner, but..." She tilted her head, looking very sincere. "Your Highness, how can you prove this ring is yours?"

The Princess froze, then flew into a rage. "If it isn’t mine, whose would it be?"

Chu Yunmiao looked innocently at Stephanie and Ms. Lucy behind her.

"How could it be theirs? Could those commoners even afford such a fine silver ring?" The Princess began throwing a fit.

Although Stephanie didn’t know what was going on, she also knew she needed to cooperate with her class monitor at a time like this. She put on an enraged expression and snapped back, "Why wouldn’t I be able to afford it? I—I not only have silver rings, I have gold rings too! Ahem, I have too many rings to remember them all. It seems there’s even a ring in my treasure chest that has a shape very similar to the one the rabbit snatched away... Tsk tsk, let me think. Maybe this ring is mine after all..."

"Nonsense!" the Princess huffed.

But she also realized that acting unreasonable wasn’t going to work. After thinking about it, she raised her arm toward Chu Yunmiao.

As her sleeve fell back to her forearm, a silver bracelet appeared on her wrist. Chu Yunmiao looked more closely and realized that the bracelet was clearly made of the same material as the ring in her hand. Its design was unusual; it wasn’t a single continuous band like most bracelets, but a long string of many small links, looking like...

Like a sturdy chain.

Seeing that she had drawn Chu Yunmiao’s attention, the Princess began explaining. "See that? The ring and my bracelet are a set. Here..." She pinched one link on the bracelet. "This part can fasten onto the dragon’s tail on the ring. That way, they become one complete piece. I was sorting through my jewelry when this rabbit suddenly ran in. It was so cute and even twitched its ears at me, so I didn’t bother with it. Who knew... who knew it was actually a thief rabbit, and while I wasn’t paying attention, it stole my ring!"

As she spoke, the Princess kept giving the little rabbit a reproachful look, as if the little rabbit were some bad woman who had betrayed her genuine feelings.

Yu Changning buried her face in Chu Yunmiao’s arms and decided to ignore it.

Heaven knew that if she could, she didn’t want to use a cute act to scam the ring either, but in her current form... there was no other way except to use her adorable rabbit advantage.

Seeing Yu Changning’s clearly embarrassed reaction, Chu Yunmiao knew the Princess wasn’t lying. Cute little animals were the easiest to let people lower their guard, so the key item that Stephanie and Lucy had failed to obtain was ultimately acquired effortlessly by little rabbit Yu.

It had to be said that sometimes when God closes a door for you, He leaves a window open. And Yu Changning’s window just happened to become the key to breaking the situation today.

Now that she knew what had happened, Chu Yunmiao naturally wasn’t going to return the hard-won item to little rabbit Yu.

She had already formed a vague guess about the ring’s function. Closing her hand around it to protect it better, she turned to the Princess and said, "In that case, Your Highness, please give me the bracelet. I want to see whether these two things can really be connected as you said."

The Princess covered her wrist. "Give me back the ring, and I’ll clip it on for you to see!"

Chu Yunmiao gave a polite smile, but there was no retreat in her words at all. "No. If I don’t return the ring to its rightful owner, I’ll feel guilty."

At that, the Princess’s face turned green and then white. Stephanie, on the other hand, looked at their class monitor, who could bend and stretch as the situation demanded, and secretly gave Chu Yunmiao a thumbs-up.

Chu Yunmiao, however, didn’t relax. Instead, she became even more focused, preparing to confront what came next.

This contest looked as if she had the upper hand; after all, her combat ability far exceeded this Princess’s. No matter how it ended, as long as the Princess wanted the ring back, she would have to compromise with her. But Chu Yunmiao felt it wasn’t that simple. If this mysterious NPC had any backup move, everything could fall apart at the last moment.

So the closer she got to victory, the more cautious she became.

On the other side, the Princess seemed to have already recognized the situation.

As she removed the chain from her wrist, she walked toward Chu Yunmiao. "Fine. I hope you keep your promise. If the bracelet and the ring can fasten together, please return the ring along with the bracelet to me immediately."

She looked pitiful and wronged, which made Chu Yunmiao hesitate for a moment; she couldn’t help feeling a little ashamed that she was threatening someone weaker.

She reached out to take the bracelet, about to say something to comfort her, when she saw the Princess quickly pull her hand back, hold the necklace against her chest, and raise her head to shout, "Colbert, kill this stupid human for me!"