Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

“What’s this thing used for?” Zane stared at the Ice Crystal Fragment for quite a while, yet still couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“I think it was…” Shiu muttered as he tried to recall something. Suddenly, he extended his hand. “Lemme see it.” After taking the item, he looked around in every direction as though confirming something, then headed toward a corner of the cavern.

Following the direction he was walking in, they discovered an ice coffin at the very end. It was crystal-clear and freezing cold. Through the transparent material, they could clearly see the inside… completely empty.

Directly above the coffin lid was a tiny socket that almost perfectly matched the shape of the Ice Crystal Fragment. Sure enough, the moment Shiu inserted the fragment into the socket, the ice coffin erupted with dazzling radiance. Intense white light flooded the entire space, swallowing everyone whole in an instant.

After a brief period of blindness, their vision slowly returned to normal. No… it was already completely different from before.

Their teammates had vanished without anyone noticing. Even Starry was nowhere to be seen. The same was true from Starry’s perspective as well. What both sides saw was almost perfectly identical.

Could this be the dungeon-clear CG cutscene?

The cave was pitch-black, making it nearly impossible to see anything. Forget frostcrystals, there wasn’t even a glowing stone in sight. In the oppressive darkness, every little sound became unnaturally amplified. The scraping of spiders crawling along the walls, the squeaking of rats… each noise sounded terrifyingly clear.

So this was basically a horror movie now?

At last, a sound echoed from the entrance of the cavern.

**Drip. Drip.**

Something liquid dripped onto the ground. At the same time, accompanied by weak, ragged breathing, a figure staggered inside. Using the faint dim light, they could barely make out the silhouette. It seemed to be a man.

He stumbled forward unsteadily, frightening the nearby creatures into fleeing.

**Thud!**

The hand that had tried to brace itself against the wall suddenly lost all strength and dropped limply, dragging the body down with it. Then, all at once, the surrounding scenery shattered apart like fragments of a mirror.

They returned to the previous area again, their teammates all present and accounted for. Everyone looked around in confusion, clearly having been forcibly dragged into the CG animation as well.

Aside from the system notification, a silver treasure chest materialized at the very center of the area.

“So that was the CG just now?” Zane asked.

“Yeah.” Shiu nodded. “It was my first time seeing it too. Including yesterday and today, we’ve run this dungeon over twenty times already, but this was the first clear.”

“See? Guess you really couldn’t do it without me.” Zane shrugged with a deliberately helpless smile.

“My a̲s̲s̲. We almost cleared it several times already. The main problem was that random players never understood the mechanics. We had to reteach them every single run, and just when they finally started getting the hang of it, they’d stop playing altogether…”

That situation honestly didn’t surprise him. It had been the same in other online games he’d played before. Trying to teach dungeon mechanics to strangers often made you so frustrated you could cough up blood, especially during the early progression phase of a new dungeon.

Maybe it was about time to recruit more members? Zane had checked the Adventurer Party experience earlier, and it was already at 90%. Just a little more and it would level up. Once that happened, the member limit would probably increase too.

“It’s fine, we cleared it in the end, didn’t we? Oh right, there’s still the treasure chest. Anyone else wanna open it? Except Stupid Orange.” Zane glanced toward DumbCitrus and lightly shook his head. “If the dungeon rewards get contaminated by your bad luck, we’re doomed.”

“What did you say!? I’m gonna fight you for real today!” DumbCitrus bared her teeth and claws as she lunged forward. Only to be immediately restrained by YoyoPink.

“Let Zanny do it. Feels like you always get the best loot whenever you open them,” Dukeette said after thinking for a moment.
“No objections here.” Shiu nodded in agreement.
“Let Zanny handle it.” YoyoPink nodded as well.
“I object! Let me try one more time! I’ll definitely pull something good this time!” DumbCitrus struggled indignantly.
Zane turned his head toward her. “Alright, fine. I’ll give you one more shot.”

***

Five minutes later, the six of them were teleported back to the dungeon entrance.

DumbCitrus looked utterly devastated, muttering to herself in a lifeless voice, “I’m not cursed… I’m not cursed…”

Honestly, it wasn’t hard to see why. The dungeon-clear reward chest had produced two Uncommon and a single Rare equipment. The loot luck was absolutely atrocious. Zane had just been about to laugh at her when a noisy argument nearby caught his attention instead.

“I already told you to fall back, but you refused to run. Great, now half an hour of effort got wasted again!” a male swordsman complained. His voice even sounded somewhat familiar.

“If you hadn’t kept distracting me, that Deep Frostcrystal Soul would’ve been killed ages ago, alright? And you still have the nerve to yell at me now?” the mage beside him argued back, his face flushed red.

“B̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲! Kill it my a̲s̲s̲! It had ten thousand HP, what were you gonna kill it with? If your positioning had been even slightly better, the healer wouldn’t have been under that much pressure!” the swordsman with the ID Birchfall roared angrily.

That sentence instantly set the mage off. He let out a cold snort. “Oh? And your positioning was so amazing?”

“Who the hell was it that dragged an entire party to pick a fight with Stardust in the first place!? You barely scratched her HP before getting one-shot yourself! And you still have the guts to lecture me?”

“…”

One of the teammates hurriedly stepped between the two. “Alright, alright, we can just try again. It’s normal to make mistakes during progression runs. There’s no need to keep arguing about it.”

“Screw this, I’m done! With a trash team like this, we still wouldn’t clear it even after another hundred tries!”

The moment those words came out, the rest of the teammates all fell silent. Birchfall said nothing. He simply clenched his fists tightly before letting out a long sigh. A moment later, after receiving the notification that the party had disbanded, the other teammates looked at him in alarm.

“Leader, we’re not running anymore?”

“Nope. Not now, not ever again.” The swordsman’s voice sounded utterly emotionless.

“Don’t, Leader, please don’t be angry. Bouncy was just heated in the moment, that’s all…”

“Heh… do you all really think I’m an idiot?” Birchfall said coldly. “Ever since we lost to Stardust, you people haven’t stopped bringing it up. Since that’s the case, we might as well disband completely. Out of sight, out of mind.”

Zane hadn’t expected to stumble onto drama the moment they came out. He only regretted that there weren’t any small stools nearby so he could sit down and watch the show properly.

“Sis, I think they’re talking about you?” DumbCitrus suddenly looked revitalized, as if rising from the ashes, and immediately perked up to eavesdrop.
“No, you heard wrong.” Starry hurriedly denied it.
“No way, they clearly said Stardust. I heard it perfectly.”
“I said you heard wrong…”

The moment they turned around, good lord, the entire opposing party had walked over!

“Stardust!? It really is you.” Birchfall’s expression immediately changed.

Even Zane got a little nervous. The innocent bystanders eating popcorn had somehow gotten surrounded instead! “What, there’s no Gray Wolf boss here anymore. You still wanna start something?”

Birchfall froze in place, seemingly wanting to say something but stopping himself.

“What a coincidence.” The enraged mage was briefly stunned before speaking in a deep voice. “Leader, if you can prove yourself here, I’ll never complain again.”

“Not interested.” Birchfall turned away without even looking back.

“…Fine! If you won’t do it, I will!” the mage snapped furiously.

The very next moment, Zane received a Death Match request. That’s right, his main body received it.

“What does your beef with Stardust have to do with me, Emberveil???” Zane was completely dumbfounded. “Don’t tell me your dumb a̲s̲s̲ clicked the wrong person!?”