Chapter 26: Enmity Formed

"146!" "78!" "88!"

With a swift and clean strike followed by a combo, I instantly dispatched one of the thieves. Murong Shanshan, working in tandem with the mage, took care of the other thief. Thieves without the ability to go invisible are nothing more than fish on a chopping board. Only then did I notice the name of the thief I had just killed: “Legend Beneath the Crotch”—absolutely obscene. I glanced at the battle log: You have killed "Miracle Below the Waist"!

What a perverse bunch!

Murong Shanshan was about to make a move when another group approached—about seven or eight people in all. Their leader was a warrior who, without a word, executed a heavy strike and combo, instantly killing our mage. The sight made my scalp tingle. Is this what the game is about? Killing for fun?

"It's him?!" Murong Shanshan edged closer to me, her voice trembling. At the same time, our beastmaster was also taken out in a flash.

"Berserker? The number one berserker in the city?"

I caught a glimpse of a middle-aged man with a knife scar on his face. The people behind him looked just as lewd; it was obvious they were in cahoots with those three thieves.

"Haha, the city’s third and ninth on the ranking list—seems like we’re making quite a haul. Tsk tsk, Murong Shanshan, you’re still as pretty as ever. Do you remember what happened with my brother?"

As soon as Berserker finished speaking, the other players took action. Under the onslaught of Shock Arrows and Frost Arrows, our two beastmasters fell instantly—killed in a heartbeat.

"What do we do?" Murong Shanshan, clearly unused to such scenes, clung to me, trembling.

I said nothing and handed her a bottle of tomato sauce through a trade, then typed in the party channel, "Drink this and run behind the boss. I’ll draw the monsters away."

Murong Shanshan didn’t hesitate; she used the item and ran without looking back. Smart girl—otherwise she’d be losing another level, as dying in player-killing now would cost her two levels.

I looked at the eight players lined up against us. The cooldown for Shock Arrow shouldn’t be over yet—perfect timing!

I charged from the side, unleashing combo and heavy strike in quick succession!

"Miss!"

Damn, my combo was dodged by that archer!

"324!"

Satisfaction flooded me—a critical hit! My heavy strike landed a fatal blow, and the archer named "Divine Gift to a Woman" was killed in an instant.

"Kill him!" Berserker, seeing one of his archers killed despite superior numbers, roared furiously.

Without lingering, I dragged my sword and sprinted along the edge of the level 19 wild monsters. The group chasing me could still see my shadow at first, but soon they could only see the monsters.

Screams echoed behind me—they didn’t have my 60 defense, and soon all eight of them were wiped out by the level 19 monsters. Thanks to the tomato sauce, I lost only half my health and shook off all the monsters. When I stopped in front of Berserker, his expression was rather amusing.

"We’ll see about this!" Berserker, to my surprise, immediately shattered a return scroll and vanished. Is this really the city’s number one player?

"Should we continue the quest?" Murong Shanshan emerged from behind, still looking unwilling as she glanced back at where Berserker had returned.

The puppet boss still had about one-tenth of its health. I rushed forward, saying, "Hurry, don’t let it regenerate!"

Without a priest, the pressure on Murong Shanshan and me increased dramatically. Thankfully, she was well-prepared and traded me two medium health potions as we fought. I couldn’t help but think she must be a spendthrift—these potions cost a gold coin each, and few could afford them now.

...

"Veggie, help! I can’t take it anymore!" Murong Shanshan cried out.

"Don’t you have potions?"

"I traded them all to you..."

"You’re so good to me..."

"Cut it out! I clicked the wrong button, that’s all..."

After using two potions, the level 21 boss finally fell under our relentless assault.

Murong Shanshan rifled through the corpse and found a blue crystal, exclaiming happily, "Quest complete! This crystal can be exchanged for a level 20 blue equipment."

I was puzzled. "Shouldn’t a level 21 boss at least drop some equipment? Why nothing?"

"Probably because it’s a quest boss. Veggie, thank you..."

"No need to thank me—I charge for my services."

"I mean thank you for helping me kill those players just now."

"It wasn’t me, it was the monsters."

Murong Shanshan finally snapped, gritting her teeth, "Enough nonsense, just accept my thanks!"

I hadn’t expected even her gratitude to sound so begrudging; I accepted it nonetheless and said seriously, "Transfer the 700 yuan to the bank card I gave you last time. Be sure to text me once it’s done."

Murong Shanshan chuckled softly, "Alright, Hero Veggie! So, shall we head back to the city, or what?"

"Of course we leave—do you want to wait here for Berserker to come back with reinforcements? By the way, what grudge do you have with him? Why did he come all this way to ruin our quest, and how did he know we were here?"

Murong Shanshan froze, blinking at me silently.

"Is it... complicated? Never mind then."

"Sorry, let’s go back to the city first. Will you come grinding with me later?" she asked sweetly.

"No, I prefer to level up on my own."

"Hmph, men are lining up to team up with a beauty like me, but you’re odd. Tell the truth, are you gay?"

"Narcissist!" I crushed my return scroll.

"Jerk! Not giving me any face!" Murong Shanshan spat back through gritted teeth as she returned to the city.

...

After a quick equipment repair, I checked my level—almost 17 now, ranked over 3,000 worldwide, over 2,000 in China, and second in this city. Beating that level 21 boss must have given me a good chunk of experience, pushing "Little Ant on the Leaf" down to third place.

According to the map, my next quest, "Rescue Princess Misha," was at the Plague Cemetery west of the city. It seemed a good time to do some grinding and get familiar with the map.

"Lin Fan, what were you just up to?" came a text from Liu Xuehan.

I replied immediately, "Helped Murong Shanshan—the one who bought my sword last time—finish a quest. Ran into some griefers and it took extra time."

Liu Xuehan didn’t reply, but Xu Lin soon messaged, "Xiao Lin, did you charge a service fee?"

"Of course, 700 yuan—not bad, right?"

"Hehe, not bad at all~!"