Chapter Ninety-Six: The Scorned Rusty Iron Sword

Before long, the entire pack of hyenas had been wiped out.

“So we just wait here for the next wave and do nothing?” Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water asked Huang Yunshuo with humble deference, her tone now utterly polite, with not a trace of disdain left in it.

“No. We go and fight them in a PK. We beat these bastards so hard they won’t dare come near the NPC battlefield again.”

Huang Yunshuo pointed at the blue-team players roaming the neutral map.

“I like that,” Leaf Drifting Snow said excitedly.

The Hold skill Big Yellow had given her had already been upgraded. After being cast, the light shield it activated could absorb more damage, and when the shield shattered it granted her even greater defensive protection. But the cooldown was still ten minutes, so she could not use it again yet.

Still, that hardly mattered. Not every player could afford the Twin-Hound’s Kiss, and even if she got focused down, she wasn’t afraid.

So, under Huang Yunshuo’s rocket artillery cover, Leaf Drifting Snow launched another charge.

Chu Army appeared and vanished like a ghost among the enemy players, driving his blades into one wounded target after another before slipping back into stealth, leaving the blue-team players terrified and on edge.

Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water and Morning Dew, Light Frost instead felt they could do very little to help.

The main problem was distance. Huang Yunshuo had a rocket launcher and could cover them from more than a dozen or twenty meters away, but the two of them had shorter range, and Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water was a mage focused primarily on control skills.

“The second batch of NPC troops is here.”

At last, Morning Dew, Light Frost spotted the main force arriving from behind and told Huang Yunshuo.

The five of them withdrew and regrouped with the NPCs. The 720-man NPC force set out again from the edge of the boundary river, and the battle still took place in the center of the neutral map.

“Sister Frost, I never knew there was a way to protect NPCs like this. Looking back, we were just brawling blindly before. Whether we won or lost depended entirely on which side’s players were better at PvP.”

While the two sides had not yet clashed, Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water spoke to Morning Dew, Light Frost.

Morning Dew, Light Frost said, “Back then I only suggested following the NPCs so we could maybe pick up some last hits. Who knew this guy would be this strong? He’s in his element in NPC group battles.”

Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water said enviously, “Sister Frost, you fought him three times yesterday. You must have earned a lot of points, right?”

Morning Dew, Light Frost spread her hands. “He had something to do yesterday, so we only duo-queued once near midnight. I got wrecked in the first two matches, and together they were only worth 2,200 points. But I got 2,000 points in the last one, which was just enough to buy this bow.”

“He only fought once?”

Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water immediately felt as though her heart were bleeding. Wasted two chances. That was an enormous loss!

In the second engagement, far fewer blue-team players came over to try their luck. There were fewer than eighty in total, and they made even less of an impact. After being caught twice by the five of them, hardly anyone dared charge into the battle zone anymore.

Dying once in this instance was still very painful.

Experience and level might not drop, but the copper coins and materials on your person could be looted, and the buffs you had painstakingly fought for would lose at least three stacks. If you had fewer than three stacks, you lost however many you had, and the corresponding points were deducted as well. It was genuinely agonizing.

After the second round of combat, the red-team NPC force still had a full 400 men remaining. A few smarter and bolder red-team players finally woke up and rushed over to help, reducing the NPC losses somewhat. Huang Yunshuo did not drive them away.

As usual, they led the NPCs off to kill monsters. By then, the NPCs had become a tool for the group to farm buffs and materials. The stacks on their buffs kept climbing, and nothing could have been more comfortable.

This Time-Wandering instance suffered no surprises at all. The red team crushed the blue team, destroyed their resurrection hall, and won.

In the final tally, Huang Yunshuo set a new personal record with 7,900 points.

The four of them all had at least 2,500 points, and Chu Army topped them with 3,500. The guy was truly slick as an assassin, snatching last hits with effortless ease—swift and ruthless.

“Old Chu, is your assassin class a hidden profession?” Huang Yunshuo asked in the party channel. He vaguely felt that Chu Army was a bit like that earlier player, Spirit Reed, in that his stealth lasted not only longer but also had a shorter cooldown. It even boosted movement speed, and when he suddenly struck, he dealt massive bleed damage.

“What hidden profession? Didn’t you see the party list? I’m just a normal assassin,” Chu Army said with a laugh.

Huang Yunshuo looked again, and sure enough that was the case. He rubbed his chin in confusion.

“Two more runs left. Hurry up and finish farming them while you can!” Chu Army said cheerfully in the party channel.

Huang Yunshuo submitted the instance request, and the others entered the resurrection hall at once, looking around for their teammates as they gathered together, all of them visibly exhilarated.

There was no helping it. When one powerhouse and several strong supports came together, a single run earned nearly as many points as two runs done on their own. Their mood was easy enough to imagine: everyone was grinning from ear to ear.

Looking at the battered iron sword in Huang Yunshuo’s hand, Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water spat and said, “You only know how to pretend to be poor. You tricked me in the last run.”

Huang Yunshuo rolled his eyes. “Is it my fault you’re an idiot? Is this iron sword really that beneath your notice?”

“Nonsense. The attack power is so low,” Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water said matter-of-factly.

Huang Yunshuo’s face darkened. “Nine to thirteen attack. If this weren’t the Time-Wandering instance, you believe I couldn’t sell this sword for five thousand copper coins?”

If he had truly intended to sell this iron sword before, buyers would have been fighting over it. If payment could be made in credits, plenty of people would have gladly paid two or three million.

Little Warm Kettle Boiling Water: “...”

She was slowly beginning to realize that he might actually have a point.

The group did not go off competing with the players scattering wildly over the mountains and fields for monsters. There were too many idiots out there; they were completely impossible to carry. Better to let them fend for themselves.

As the NPC battles continued, the group once again began their point-farming journey.

Whoosh.

A stray arrow suddenly shot out from the side. Chu Army, whose stealth had just ended and who was waiting on cooldown, was caught completely off guard and struck in the back of the neck.

Minus 138!

A blood-red number flashed up. Without another word, Chu Army dropped to the ground, spilling materials everywhere.

“Player?” Huang Yunshuo was startled.

Following the direction from which the arrow had come, he saw a tall, thin man holding a bow and retreating quickly. He had no intention of coming forward to pick up the dropped loot.

The distance between them was fairly large, around eighteen or nineteen meters.

Huang Yunshuo raised the launcher, took a brief aim, and pulled the trigger, firing a predictive shot at the archer.

Boom!

A cry of pain rang out. The tall, thin archer was hit squarely in the head by the rocket artillery Huang Yunshuo had preemptively sent along his path. He was blasted more than ten meters away on the spot, and a massive damage number of 96 appeared over his head.

The bleed damage of minus 3, minus 3 kept ticking. Still suspended in the air, he was stunned and could not control his body at all when he hit the ground. He smashed face-first into the earth, lost another 15 health, and then turned into a streak of white light.