“Bah! So close!”

Mina was only a spectator to the back and forth between Erika and the Windflora King. Nonetheless, she got invested in this challenge and each of Erika’s failures burned like a defeat of her own. The little fry which Erika fought before weren’t interesting for Mina, but this formidable boss was exciting to destroy.

“Yeah, we were really close. Sorry about that.”

After receiving so much help in her recent fight, Erika felt bad for blowing it. She got spot-on advice from Mina and she got help from Vivi. Even so, she lost.

“Hey, Titan! Let me borrow yo account! I’mma beat that dumbass for ya!”

“Didn’t we agree that you won’t play until your arm recovers?”

“Bah, c’mon! Just a little bit!”

“No. Besides, it’s impossible to lend an account to someone else.”

“Huuuh? What gives?”

“There’s a system that prevents trading accounts.”

Erika explained a random piece of trivia which she discovered amidst yesterday's research. In some games, mainly MMORPGs, there was the disturbing trend of players selling their high level accounts to others, for real cash. This trend became even popular with the growth of VR games, for such games allowed players to experience the ecstasy of strength with their own senses.

To fight this phenomena, many VR games scanned the player’s brain and created some sort of hashcode out of it. This code was secretly validated whenever the player logged into the game. The system wasn’t foolproof and there were hacks to outwit it. Still, it reduced account trading by a fair bit.

“Bah, them dumb scrubs.”

Mina sulked and cursed the developers of the game.

“Then, lemme log in with my account! I’mma bust that flower in two seconds!”

“No.”

Erika replied sharply. She didn’t want to add fuel to the persistent Vireco which haunted Mina. Besides, as an RPG veteran, she wanted to overcome this challenge herself.

Once Erika respawned, she set out to fight the Windflora King again. To improve her chances, she strategized with Vivi ahead of time. Vivi didn’t dare to get close to the Windflora King, in fear for her life. However, she could still support Erika from afar with powerful gusts.

The Windflora King was definitely injured on its previous clash with Erika, yet it was at full health right now. In many RPGs, mobs quickly regenerated when they were out of combat, especially bosses. Sadly, GoVe implemented with the same mechanic as well.

With the increased wisdom from her previous defeat, Erika challenged the Windflora King. She didn’t have too many options at her disposal, so she relied on the Windflora to accidentally injure its own stem again. As sad as it was, the Windflora’s own attacks seemed to be the most effective against it.

Erika ran toward the stem and tried to lure the Windflora into blasting its own structure. It was a great plan in theory, but it wasn’t easy to pull off. Sadly, the Windflora wasn’t a masochist who enjoyed nuking itself. She positioned herself in many different places beside the stem, but the Windflora rarely resorted to bombarding her at melee range. Instead, it bashed Erika with its huge head.

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No matter how long Erika survived or how many times she slashed the Windflora King - it was all for naught. There was no hope of beating this vicious boss. Her only choice was to pass around the area somehow.

The next time the Windflora was kind enough to blast its own stem, Erika abandoned the idea of attacking it. Instead, she dash through the field while her enemy was staggered. Surprisingly, she managed reach a decent distance without being attacked.

But it’s no good, huh.

Erika bumped into an invisible wall. While a road boss was in combat, any progress was denied by a fog for unqualified players like Erika. The same also applied to any NPC escorted by the player, like Vivi.

Still, Erika held fickle hope. Some old posts on the forums mentioned that these invisible walls were buggy, and that small openings were discovered and exploited by players in the past. She scanned all over the invisible wall to find a loophole, thrusting her hands into random places.

In the end, she was just blasted to death without achieving anything of note.

When the mighty Windflora King was enraged, passing through the area was a no-no. Safely crossing through the river didn’t work either, thanks to Vivi’s paranoia. The forest behind the Windflora King was another option, but according to Vivi it was swarmed with many friendly bees.

After struggling for more than an hour, Erika now felt like she returned to square one. She tried out many things and learned a few tricks, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough.

“Bah! I can’t watch this shit anymore! Just lemme log in and I’mma beat that fucker!”

“No...”

Erika insisted to keep Mina out of VR, but her spirit began to waver. No matter how much tolerance she had, even she was gradually driven toward frustration.

What’s with this game design? How are players supposed to reach anywhere like this!?

Ranting got the best of Erika. The Windflora King was an impossible challenge. It was absurd. Unreasonable. Horrible game design.

If only I could beat it with complaints. Hah...

Erika sighed and tried to regain her composure. No matter how much she ranted, her words wouldn’t become the blade to slay her enemy. Shooting complaints wasn’t going to help her. She logically understood that, but she still had to fight with herself to subside the urge.

After spawning in Murph Village, she strolled across the village to find a helpful scripted event. Alas, nobody offered her a hand. All NPCs could give here were small quests. One such quest was to murder Water Blobs, a quest she passionately refused in the past. Of course, she rejected it today as well.

There was another quest hiding in the corner of the village, which Erika must have missed on her previous exploration. A young man asked her to hunt Drainer Bees, claiming that they were harmful pests for flowers. It seemed odd how bees were regarded as “pests”, but she clearly saw how Drainer Bees weren’t best friends with flowers.

“Please, hunt 10 of ‘em bees! My dad’s crops are attacked every day!”

The young man looked passionate as he told his little tale. Of course, no crops were truly assaulted. Perhaps even his dad was just a figment of his imagination, not a real NPC. Still, his plea for help sounded too genuine for Erika to ignore.

【NEW QUEST】【Please exterminate these pests!】

“Alright, I’ll give it my best shot. These bees are a huge pain, though. If I kill one of them, the rest all swarm me.”

“Don’t ya know? You gotta use water!”

“Water...?”

“Yep, just make them wet and they’ll be easy peasy!”

“I see...”

It was an interesting game tip, hiding inside a generic hunting quest. It was an unwritten rule that fodder mobs had a weakness, therefore this tip sounded reliable. Players who started with a [Water] rune probably discovered this weakness at ease, but Erika didn’t have the chance.

She couldn’t use water herself, but she had Blobby. The cute baby liked to spray random flying objects and could prove useful in battle against Drainer Bees. Erika decided to try it out the next time she’d be in the territory of the Drainer Bees.

I think i need to revisit my previous ideas to beat the king.

With all other options exhausted, swimming across the lake sounded like the best solution after all. If Vivi wasn’t a stubborn brat and agreed to fly over the lake, then there’d be no problem at all.

Maybe she’ll cooperate if I show her that the lake isn’t dangerous.

The pixie’s paranoia was about “dangerous enemies in the lake”. It’d be easily dispelled if Erika could safely swim to the other side. With that in mind, Erika set out to collect [Water] pieces to pay for Lakya’s pool.