Chapter Ninety-Six: The Deceptive Reward

"Ha!" With a sharp shout, Lancer’s weapon once again left a mark upon the dragon's reverse scale. The dragon let out a roar, and its previously rhythmic attacks shifted, becoming erratic and impossible to predict.

"Damn this weather!" Lancer muttered in frustration. The battlefield was becoming increasingly unfavorable; the night was ill-suited for such high-intensity combat. Although this was a top-tier neural-link game, it still couldn't compare to reality, and the night-vision training Lancer had undergone was rendered useless by the environment.

The blizzard intensified. While Lancer was managing for the moment, the situation was growing perilous. Two-thirds of the quest was complete, and they had entered a life-or-death struggle.

"No choice." Lancer gritted his teeth and shouted to Liz, who was still hiding behind a massive boulder, "Use the crystal to teleport out!" Just as he finished speaking, a massive dragon claw slammed into the spot where he had been standing. Having sensed something was off, Lancer had rolled away just in time to evade the strike.

"But..." Though Liz knew she couldn't help him, she was the one who had proposed coming here. She couldn't bear to abandon Lancer and escape alone.

"No 'buts.' Only when you leave can I fight without holding back." The words were harsh, but Lancer, trapped in the mire of battle, had no time to sugarcoat them. Besides, from their few interactions, he felt Liz wasn't the type to be stubborn for the sake of it.

"Yes, I understand." Even though she knew Lancer was right, Liz couldn't stop her heart from trembling. She knew she couldn't add to his pressure now, so she gritted her teeth and pulled out the teleportation crystal. Unexpectedly, however, the crystal emitted no light and failed to transport her.

"What's going on?" Lancer, seeing Liz’s situation, was confused. They had been able to send messages just a moment ago, and he had confirmed the crystal was functional during a brief lull. Now, for some reason, it wouldn't activate.

"It says we're in a special scenario, and players cannot teleport," Liz shouted to explain. To her surprise, the dragon—which had been relentlessly harrying Lancer—did not follow up with another attack after Lancer dodged. Instead, it slowly turned its head toward Liz, who was shivering behind the boulder.

"What do you think you're doing!" Seeing the dragon's attention shift, Lancer ignored the need to dodge and lunged forward, slamming his blade into the dragon’s exposed belly.

"Roar!" The Frost Dragon was enraged once more. It couldn't fathom why this tiny bug was so persistent, or why it kept dodging every one of its attacks. Its focus snapped back to Lancer. The dragon took to the air, preparing to pounce.

"That's exactly what I was waiting for!" Lancer knew his own limits; he didn't want to jump into the sky just to look cool and end up getting killed. He rolled away again, a thought suddenly crossing his mind: *Was this designed by Lianhua just to force me to roll?* Though the thought was fleeting, Lancer buried it deep in his heart.

***

Perhaps it was that very thought that caused Lancer to hesitate for a split second.

"Thud!" With a thunderous boom, the dragon’s tail whipped around, smashing Lancer into a nearby rock, followed by a cloud of dust.

"Cough, cough—" Lancer spat out a mouthful of ice shards he had inhaled.

"Damn, so it's just a paper tiger." Liz was stunned by Lancer's first words after being struck. She hadn't expected him to say that.

The dragon seemed to pause its rhythm, as if celebrating the hit. Taking the opportunity, Liz asked, "What happened?"

"Damn it, I was fooled from the start. This thing looks terrifying, but its strength is pathetic. That hit didn't even do 30% damage." Lancer brushed the snow off his body. The scene looked fearsome, but to Lancer, the beast was trash. As long as it couldn't one-shot him, he had plenty of supplies to wear it down slowly.

"Haha—" After a wild laugh, Lancer stared at the dragon with a sinister gaze and whispered, "How dare you ruin my image!" Ignoring the dragon’s threatening displays, he charged straight at it. Seeing the "bug" that had just been swatted away daring to charge at him, the dragon took it as an insult. With a low growl, it lowered its body, spread its wings to hover slightly, and lunged toward Lancer.

***

After a fierce battle, Lancer finally shattered the dragon’s reverse scale, ending its life. He then collapsed onto the ground with zero dignity.

"Done!" Lancer stretched his arms out wide before lying flat.

"Whew—" Liz, seeing that Lancer had finally defeated the enemy, ran over. Seeing him sprawled on the ground, she circled him curiously, looking him up and down.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Even though there was no danger, being inspected by a girl made Lancer feel strange.

Seeing that she had his attention, Liz turned her back to him, then pivoted around, holding her left hand behind her back and placing her right index finger to her lips. "It's a secret—"

"Bang!" Lancer felt as if something inside him had snapped. Whether in the third dimension or since they had truly gotten to know each other, he had never seen the girl act so lively. While there were no misunderstandings between them, their first meeting had been incredibly awkward. When they reconnected nearly a year later, the panic and awkwardness of that first encounter were gone; she had become a capable "warrior," bearing the tragedy of losing everyone in her guild except herself. Though she still smiled when meeting Asuna, it wasn't the maturity one would expect from a high school student. But this—the real Liz, joking and laughing—was her true self.

"Heh—" Lancer lowered his head and chuckled softly. There was no reason; he just wanted to laugh. As time passed, his laughter grew louder, and eventually, Liz couldn't help but join in. After laughing in the snow for a while, they calmed down. Liz’s face was flushed, while Lancer couldn't have cared less.

Lancer pulled his weapon from the corpse, and as he did, the dragon's remains shattered into fragments. He looked at his weapon with satisfaction, its color now vibrant. Without checking the loot drops, he turned his attention to the quest interface.

A large "COMPLETED" mark appeared. Lancer thought it was over, but he discovered that in addition to the skill upgrade mentioned, there were two packages: one as tall as Lancer, and the other a plain, ordinary box.

There were no instructions, but Lancer decided to open them.

The ordinary box seemed uninteresting, so he opened the long one first.

"A brass lamp post—!? What is this?" Lancer decisively tore open the other box. "Seriously!" Inside was a strange mask and a set of purple clothes...