Everyone fell silent for a moment, seeming to think about what they might have overlooked.

After quite a long pause, with still no one speaking, Bai Youwei quietly asked Shen Mo: “Is the score rating that important?”

Shen Mo gave a small nod. “Yes. Every time you complete a dungeon, the system assigns a score. If you clear all dungeons and break the highest score record, the team earns the right to live in the Celestial World — leaving the Streaming World permanently.”

Clear all dungeons.

Break the highest score record.

Bai Youwei mulled it over. That sounded incredibly difficult…

Natasha encouraged the group: “We’ve already made excellent progress. Only a third of the dungeons remain uncleared. The score hasn’t broken the record yet, but at least we’re currently the top-ranked team on every individual dungeon’s scoring board. As long as we keep pushing, we’ll get there eventually.”

Bai Youwei was mildly astonished. “You’ve already cleared that many dungeons?”

The subway station she’d seen had at least a hundred-some stops. Shen Mo had only been here a few days — how could they possibly have cleared so many?

“Because team completion records are inherited,” Natasha explained. “Normally, a team’s roster changes completely over time from when it was first formed, but the record carries forward regardless of personnel changes. So here, joining an established team has a much better return than starting a new one from scratch.”

“Understood.” Bai Youwei nodded. “It’s like the relationship between a school and its students — the students keep changing, but the school stays the same. The achievements students earn become honors that the school records and accumulates over time.”

Natasha laughed: “Something like that, yeah.”

Ada said: “If it weren’t for that record count, I would never have joined. The name is just beyond embarrassing.”

“What’s the team called?” Bai Youwei asked.

Ada rolled his eyes. “Banging NB Squad.”

Bai Youwei: “……”

Ada complained: “Whoever founded the team back then must’ve been a complete moron.”

Bai Youwei was quiet for a moment, then said: “Honestly… it could be worse. It’s at least better than Angel Ice-Kiss Squad or whatever that one was…”

“HA!” Ada burst out laughing. “You must have spotted it on the rankings board! Team rankings are sorted by dungeon completion count and score, and the ones near the top are all ancient old team names — embarrassing as all hell!”

Natasha laughed: “If you’d been that age when you founded a team, the name you’d have come up with would’ve been just as cringe-worthy.”

Ada: “Absolutely not! I’d have called it the ‘Good Daddy Squad’ — so that anyone who mentioned my team would have to start by calling me ‘Good Daddy’!”

Natasha: “You’ve really got no shame.”

The two of them were bickering back and forth when Yuri suddenly spoke up: “Speaking of which… could this dungeon have a hidden side quest?”

Natasha paused and looked at Yuri: “You mean there’s a hidden mission we didn’t complete — and that’s why our score won’t go up?”

Yuri nodded slowly. “The Dream Phantom Warlord in this dungeon was originally a princess of a kingdom. She was cursed, which led her father to exile her — and that’s how she became the Dream Phantom Warlord. I’ve been wondering if there might be a hidden quest line involving her father. This dungeon’s record high is 744 points. We scored 689. In theory, we had a first-timer bonus buff in our team — our score shouldn’t be this low.”

Shen Mo thought it over and said: “Today we pushed straight through. The attack was clean, but it would have caused us to miss things. Tomorrow we’ll run it again — clear the surrounding mobs first, then head to the center of the map to deal with the Dream Phantom Warlord.”

The four of them dropped the banter and began seriously planning tomorrow’s run.

Bai Youwei continued to listen quietly.

The food on the table gradually cooled. Not exactly delicious, but nutritionally sound — high-protein chicken breast, low-fat mixed salad, unsweetened whole wheat bread…

Bai Youwei set down her chopsticks and rested her chin on her hand, thinking: tomorrow she wanted spicy hot pot.

—