Chapter Ninety-Seven: Of All People, Why Did You Have to Ambush Him?

"Mighty, imposing, and downright cool!"

In the party channel, Chu Jun exclaimed in admiration, then sent a long string of thumbs-up emojis.

He had just been ambushed and killed by that assassin, and in less than three seconds Old Huang had already taken the man down. Damn it, those five words were absolutely sincere praise.

"That was amazing," Little Kettle Boils Water said helplessly. That rocket launcher was just too monstrous.

"I hit his head for a critical," Huang Yunshuo said with a smile, feeling quite pleased with himself. "That idiot thought I couldn't land a shot. Next time he knows enough to dodge, it won't be so easy."

Rocket rounds still needed time to travel, but because they were so fast, Huang Yunshuo usually aimed directly at his target and fired immediately, rarely predicting ahead of time.

This time, though, the archer was a bit too far away, and his speed was extremely high. Hitting his body would have been easy enough, but if one blast only sent him flying out of range without killing him outright, that would have been a problem. So Huang Yunshuo had gone for a predictive shot, hoping for a critical hit. He had not expected it to actually work.

"This guy's already been marked by my passive skill. As long as he comes within thirty meters of me, I can sense exactly where he is," Chu Jun said bitterly as he sprinted this way from the resurrection hall. If his life total had not been reduced, that archer would never have been able to kill him in one shot.

The assassin weapon Huang Yunshuo had exchanged with points from Time-Travel Odyssey was brutally powerful in terms of damage and stats, but the life penalty was severe as well.

Hyena's Gaze, bought for eight hundred points, cut a full eighty points of life. Chu Jun's pair of Hound's Kiss daggers added massive amounts of attack, agility, and strength, but the life penalty was terrifying too, slashing one hundred and twenty points off his health.

The unlucky Chu Jun currently had a pitiful forty-two health points.

Yes, forty-two. Enough for an NPC soldier to brush him once; a second touch and he was dead for sure.

"A mark? Damn, such an overbearing passive skill?" Huang Yunshuo froze, then exploded in outrage. "Damn it, an assassin has a passive like that? Then what the hell are the rest of us supposed to do? And you still claim you're not a hidden class?"

"I'm really not," Chu Jun said with a strained laugh as he ran over from the resurrection hall. "You know those two skill books I learned, right? This guy dropped a ton of materials from me. Pick them up."

"We already picked them up. Totally useless!" Ye Piaoxue said.

Chu Jun immediately felt even more frustrated.

Just as Ye Piaoxue finished collecting the various materials and was about to rise, she suddenly heard the faint sound of daggers cutting through the air around her.

"Hold Fast!"

She gave a sharp cry and instantly activated her defensive skill, a barrier of light appearing beside her.

Screech!

A grating sound that set one's teeth on edge rang across the light barrier, and an assassin with an astonished expression revealed himself in the midst of the attack. He was a short, thin male assassin player.

"Charge!"

Ye Piaoxue extended her spear and, with rapid footwork, slammed the assassin toward Huang Yunshuo and the others.

"Thunder Net!"

Little Kettle Boils Water swung her staff, and a burst of lightning crashed down with a boom, striking both the assassin and Ye Piaoxue at once.

Ye Piaoxue, however, was in an invincible state and suffered no harm at all. The assassin, on the other hand, was instantly afflicted with paralysis and slow effects. As he was knocked flying, his body went rigid and he could not move with any real agility.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Morning Dew Frost fired three arrows in rapid succession: one finished the moment the assassin was sent flying, and the other two landed as he crashed to the ground.

Ye Piaoxue, having rushed over, activated the knight skill Mounted Slash. Her spear thrust viciously into the assassin player's back, inflicting a serious wound and critical damage.

Struck hard in the back and knocked away once more, the assassin landed face-first at Huang Yunshuo's feet.

Huang Yunshuo planted the rocket launcher straight into the assassin's face as the man frantically looked up, and pulled the trigger.

Boom.

Huang Yunshuo staggered back several steps as he forced himself to stabilize his center of gravity, while the assassin player was killed on the spot.

With a massive burst, all the materials and copper coins in his bag spilled out.

"What bad luck, hahaha!" Tang Long said, delighted at the more than eight hundred copper coins scattered there as if it were New Year's. "Come on, everybody divide them up. That's over a hundred copper coins each!"

"Hahaha, it feels like New Year's!" Little Kettle Boils Water was thrilled beyond words. Just throwing out a skill and getting a share worth thirty or forty thousand credits was the kind of good fortune no one knew where to find.

She silently mourned for that assassin in her heart.

Of everyone here, who had he chosen to ambush? He had to pick Sister Piaoxue of all people.

As the group worked together more and more, Little Kettle Boils Water had also learned some general things about Ye Piaoxue.

This stunning beauty was a PvP maniac, and her PvP skill and instincts were top-notch.

That still was not the worst part. The worst part was that she possessed a monstrous defensive skill: Hold Fast!

Before the light barrier was shattered, she herself would remain completely unharmed. Even if the barrier were broken, her defense would rise dramatically for a period of time. There was no chance this assassin, having failed in his ambush, would be able to run.

"Looks like the other side has quite a few experts this time. Piaoxue, happy now?" Huang Yunshuo scanned the enemy formation. Among the NPC troops were plenty of players, many of them watching this side openly or discreetly.

"It's a pity we can't leave for now."

Ye Piaoxue did want to go over and fight those players in PvP, but she still knew how to distinguish between what mattered most and what mattered less. Right now, supporting their own NPC troops in defeating the enemy NPC troops was the top priority.

"For now, let's not bother picking up kills on purpose. Just keep our eyes on those players," Huang Yunshuo said. The others nodded.

Killing NPCs granted a fixed attack buff, and that buff was the most tempting of them all. But when it was time to give it up, they still had to give it up.

Chu Jun moved at a remarkable pace and soon arrived beside them again. After a hard lesson, he no longer dared to plunge deep behind enemy lines so carelessly. His life total was simply too low.

"You need to find a way to raise your constitution a bit," Huang Yunshuo said.

Chu Jun was fairly relaxed about it. "It doesn't matter. With high attack, high agility, and high strength, sacrificing some health is normal. Honestly, if I could afford Champion's Elegy, I'd trade for it without hesitation."

"Forget it. The dagger from Champion's Elegy would cut one hundred and sixty health points. You wouldn't even have enough for that," Little Kettle Boils Water said, unable to hold back her laughter.

"That stabbed me right in the heart, old buddy," Chu Jun said, looking like he might burst into tears.

Over the next stretch of time, the five of them kept a tight watch on the players on the other side. The instant anyone entered Huang Yunshuo's range, he fired a shell on the spot.

By then, Huang Yunshuo had begun using predictive headshots, and his hit rate had dropped sharply. But as long as he landed one, it was a critical hit: double damage, plus bleeding and knockback. With the stun effect still in place, the target did not even have time to use a potion before crashing to the ground and turning into a streak of white light. It was brutally overwhelming.

"Something's off," Chu Jun, who had been on alert and watching the battlefield, warned them. "Look over there. Those guys may have been frightened by Old Huang, but none of them have left. Most are staying twenty or thirty meters back, and they're gathering together little by little. They're probably planning something."