Chapter 69: Extreme Two-for-One
Ji Tang only logged in this Saturday at around one in the afternoon.
It was early afternoon Earth time, but within the game, it was already the dead of night. However, this "night" was quite different from the usual.
When Ji Tang emerged from the earthen platform of the spawn point, the first thing he saw was the thick, inky darkness that covered everything. The next thing he noticed was the faintly shimmering red light amid the darkness.
Ji Tang: "??"
He instinctively rubbed his eyes and heard the scrapping of his finger bones against his eye sockets.
Not sure if he was seeing things, Ji Tang focused his attention and carefully stared into the night.
On closer observation, he noticed that those intermingling red lights in the darkness were like some kind of dense, flowing liquid suspended in the atmosphere, gently swaying and undulating with the night breeze…
Ji Tang: "??"
If this were truly just a game, Ji Tang wouldn't be so surprised. After all, environmental changes in games were simply coded. As long as the technology, hardware, and bandwidth could keep up, creating eccentric game scenes was possible.
But this "game" isn't really a game, is it?!
Ji Tang stepped off the spawn point and looked all around in confusion.
The streets were eerily quiet, devoid of the usual weekend frenzy of players running about.
Ji Tang: "…"
It's probably only been ten hours since I last logged in, right? What happened?!
Ji Tang ran hurriedly toward the Butcher Workshop. The Merchant Association canteen opposite the Butcher Workshop was closed. Ji Tang circled around the canteen and was disappointed to find that neither of the two "tool players" were online.
With no other choice, Ji Tang turned around and ran toward the Wanderer Guild. Wanderers accounted for the highest percentage among players, and even during NPC "off hours," there would still be players there doing quests.
Due to the sparse construction of Exile Town and the fact that a large part of the area remained undeveloped, Ji Tang was able to see the Wanderer Guild once he reached Crossroad Street.
Just as he had expected, Ji Tang saw people there, though these people were camping behind a wall and sneakily poking their heads out to observe something.
Ji Tang could tell from their behavior that this group of players seemed to be hiding from something. So, naturally, he didn't want to attract attention or disturb them. Treading lightly, he stealthily approached.
As he got closer, Ji Tang overheard the hushed conversation—
"Is it coming? Is it coming yet?"
"Shh, not yet. It's probably still being lured."
Ji Tang felt that something was off when he heard this.
Ever since the Poisonous Marshlands monster spawn spot was "released," the controversial act of luring monsters to harm others became widely discussed on the forum. Debates like "Is it fair to lure monsters for revenge if we are KS-ed and can't beat them?" or "Does it count as luring monsters if another team blocks the escape route and causes us to be wiped?" were a daily occurrence.
But this is definitely Exile Town. How can there be any monsters that can be possibly lured within the town?
After contemplating for a moment, Ji Tang silently found a concealed corner and squatted down.
Having his worldview shattered by players' antics was no longer a surprise to him, so he decided to observe what this bunch was up to first.
He waited patiently for roughly five minutes, then, from the end of Second Street adjacent to the Wanderer Guild, came the rapid clacking of bones…
Can there really be monsters to lure within Exile Town? thought Ji Tang, and he peeked out cautiously.
And then… he was even more confused.
At the end of Second Street, where it connected to Third Street, three players were sprinting desperately.
Unlike the usual situation where players in the midst of being teamwiped could still have plenty of banter, these three were fully focused on escaping, their jaws clenched tightly.
And when Ji Tang saw the pursuing monster behind them, he found that it wasn't hard to understand why these players were too tense to even crack jokes—
An incredibly vicious and bizarre centipede-like creature, looking as if it was made of multiple corpses forcibly stitched together, was chasing after them!
Ji Tang's jaw nearly fell, though his gamer instinct made him automatically activate "Identify."
…"Identify" showed nothing.
No way? How high leveled is this monster?! Ji Tang sucked in sharply.
"Identify" was a basic skill that didn't have the concept of being able to be leveled up. Based on Ji Tang's personal experience and his teammate Unceasing Entropy's analysis, the success rate of this initial skill was determined by the level and Potential value of the user.
A Level-1 player with a Potential value in the 50s could identify the level of assassin instructor Hal Maxwell as Level 5, but only the NPC's name and level were certain to be shown. There was a chance of failure when it came to Hal's equipment information.
For the Level 4 ranger instructor, the same player would be able to view the level, name, class, and most equipment information.
As for Level 3 Butcher Manan, even the dagger hidden in Manan's pocket would be reflected…
Unceasing Entropy reckoned that the success rate of "Identify" was 100% if the difference in Potential was within three levels. With a four-level difference, it dropped to 60%, and a five-level difference would only have a 10-20% success.
Anything beyond a six-level difference was basically zero.
Ji Tang had played the game for more than ten days already, and his mental state in the real world had more or less returned to a normal standard. His in-game Potential value had also surged to 125, resulting in him surpassing the game's previous top player Ou Huang, as well as being the only player to reach Level 2.
This monster… It's seven, no, eight levels higher?! Ji Tang felt himself breaking out in a cold sweat.
Exile Town wasn't just a scene created by code but a real town inhabited by real people! It was no laughing matter if a monster with a level higher than those Boss monsters from Poisonous Marshlands was appearing here!
While Ji Tang was completely dumbfounded, two of the players that had run to Second Street had slowed down slightly and turned into white light as they were scratched by the arms of that corpse centipede monster.
The remaining player was huffing hard and shouted, "Can't hold on any longer! Relay! Take over!"
"Coming!"
The bunch of gamers that had been hiding behind the wall for quite some time bravely jumped out onto the street.
At this moment… the last player being pursued by the corpse centipede vanished right before Ji Tang's eyes!
"Careful! This monster's turning invisible again! Quick, scatter!"
Qin Guan, leading this bunch of brave players, shouted.
The players that had been bunched up immediately split off in all directions.
Staying in his hidden spot, Ji Tang watched as these players dispersed before they started to disappear in twos and threes…
Even Ji Tang, who undoubtedly had many crazy and wild experiences, was completely dumbfounded as a chill ran down his spine.
"Don't run haphazardly! Lead it in! Head inside!" Qin Guan commanded with vigorous waving of his hands and was the first to rush toward the square at the Wanderer Guild site.
The remaining survivors, regardless of their initial direction, all rushed toward the square—more precisely, they were headed for the well-lit wooden hut beside the Wanderer Guild.
Ji Tang: "??"
He was momentarily stunned, then came to a sudden realization of what these players intended to do. They wanted to lead this high-level monster, which Ji Tang himself couldn't even identify, to the advanced NPCs in hopes that the NPCs would help them fight the monster!
From a player's perspective, farming monsters with this sort of shortcut wasn't necessarily wrong, but the issue was that the advanced NPCs weren't just NPCs!
Players could still respawn after dying, but "advanced NPCs" had no means of resurrection!
"Stop!" An anxious Ji Tang quickly emerged from his hidden corner. "Stop! Don't lead the monster over there!"
Qin Guan and the other players: "??"
At this moment, the corpse centipede that had already claimed the lives of several players appeared among the scattered and fleeing players.
"Oh my god!"
This frightened the group of players, who instinctively continued their rush toward their original destination—the wooden hut where the three advanced NPCs were staying.
Ji Tang, shocked to the core, had no time to think and charged straight at the corpse centipede.
"Ji Tang? Are you crazy?!"
Someone recognized Ji Tang, who had previously led the expedition quest, and subconsciously reached out and grabbed a hold of the latter.
The grotesque and ugly corpse centipede reared its head and turned toward Ji Tang.
"Careful, Blossom!" Give Me Medicine shouted and tried to pull Blossoming Strokes away.
Ji Tang, Blossoming Strokes, grabbing on to his clothes, and Give Me Medicine, holding on to Blossoming Strokes' arm—like candied hawthorn skewered on a stick—crashed head-on to the corpse centipede monster that had abruptly turned.
Qin Guan exclaimed, "What the—"
Before Qin Guan could even finish, he and the other surviving players witnessed the moment the three collided with the grotesque corpse centipede. Both sides seemed to simultaneously blip into oblivion as if they had been erased by an eraser, leaving a zero trace behind.
Qin Guan and the other players: "??"
"—h*ll!" Qin Guan managed to force out the remaining expletive.
The remaining players stood in place, completely dumbfounded for a few seconds before banter mode switched on.
"The heck? Were they playing Candy Crush? Forming a line of three takes this monster out? What have we been doing all this time?"
"Damn, so many people died for naught!"
"Is Ji Tang trying to do a two-for-one deal on extreme difficulty? What sort of grudge does he have?!"
"…No! Hold on!" Qin Guan, gasping hard, was the first to realize something was wrong. He shouted out once more, "We didn't receive any contribution points. Blossom and Meds haven't died and disconnected. They're still in the team!"
"Huh??"
———
In the hut less than 20 meters away from this group of noisy chattering players, Hal, Tuttle, and Finley were still chatting away to pass the time and completely couldn't hear what was going on outside.
Hal Maxwell, who had been boasting about his past experience, suddenly had his eyes roll to the back of his head as he fell backward.
"Hal?" Tuttle and Finley both reached out and supported him from either side.
"I-I'm okay," Hal said, leaning on his comrades' support to sit back up. His eyes were unfocused, and he seemed quite fatigued. "That's strange. Why… did I suddenly feel lightheaded?"
Tuttle raised an eyebrow and asked with concern, "Could it be what's happening outside that's affecting you?"
"I-I haven't been out after dark just like you guys…" Hal, who was already having trouble sitting up without support, strained to speak.
"This…" Tuttle was also puzzled. "Never mind, don't speak for now. Take it easy for a bit and rest."
Finley frowned as he observed Hal slowly leaning against the wall to lie down, then shifted his gaze to the shadows beneath Hal.
The three lit lamps in the hut cast three shadows for each person, and due to the varying distance from the light source, each shadow had differences in brightness.
Finley's frown deepened. For some reason, he had the nagging feeling that both Hal and Tuttle had a shadow that was slightly fainter…
———
"Ehh? I'm not dead?" Give Me Medicine lowered his head, astonished to see his own bone hands. Then, he looked up to see Blossoming Strokes, and Ji Tang, who had nearly gotten them all killed.
Ji Tang was equally as bewildered as him and was looking all around in confusion.
Blossoming Strokes, on the other hand, seemed stoned, her head lowered and mouth agape.
"Blossom?" Give Me Medicine called out.
"Check the system notification!" Blossoming Strokes urged.
When a new system notification appeared on a player's personal panel, there wasn't any sound notification. Instead, it was just a text window that popped up.
Due to the lack of private messaging and chat features, players usually paid little attention to the text window and often overlooked it. This was true for Ji Tang, who knew this wasn't just a game, and Give Me Medicine, who rarely read text content while doing quests.
Only with Blossoming Strokes' urging did they remember to check the text window.
[Players Ji Tang, Give Me Medicine, and Blossoming Strokes have triggered Hal Maxwell's Inner Demon Domain.]
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