The Temple Square in Player Town had completely boiled over into a frenzy.
Everywhere you looked, players were shouting at the top of their lungs to recruit for raid groups, creating a scene as bustling as a massive county fair.
The square was packed with a dense sea of people, stretching as far as the eye could see.
However, looking closely, one would notice that most of the shouting players were low-level, still wearing the common white starter gear provided by the system.
The truly high-level veteran players had basically already formed their own static groups, either holding tactical meetings in their guild halls or setting off ahead of time.
As for the complete newbies who hadn't joined a team, weren't even Level 10 yet, and hadn't completed their Class Advancement—they were moving too. Low levels didn't dampen their enthusiasm in the slightest.
They set out in a grand procession.
Nearly a thousand strong—you heard that right, almost a thousand newbie players were all preparing to see what the main quest BOSS looked like.
Their main goal? Join the hype, leech rewards, and soak up EXP!
Although their levels weren't high enough to claim the main quest rewards, hitting monsters could still leech EXP. Besides, watching the veterans fight offered an unparalleled sense of immersion—that hype atmosphere was what they were really after!
Still, some newbies held opportunistic thoughts:
“What if the BOSS drops gear? If I stand far away, maybe I can snatch a piece of loot!”
“What are you dreaming about? Even if the BOSS drops loot, it's not going to fall into our hands!”
“What if it does? A guy's gotta have dreams!”
“Your dream is to pick up trash nobody else wants?”
“So what? Trash is still equipment!”
The players' outlandish actions naturally fell into the eyes of Lilith and West.
Standing on the temple steps, West was completely stunned.
His mouth opened, closed, and opened again before he finally forced out a single sentence:
“Are these God-Chosen Ones... setting off to siege a city or fight a war? Do they really need this many people?”
He quickly stopped a passing player to ask about the full context of the main quest.
“What did you say? Two Gold Rank enemies?”
West's brows furrowed deeply.
However, as he recalled the actions of the God-Chosen Ones, his lips twitched uncontrollably.
A thousand people going to fight two Gold Rank enemies... Are they serious? Those two enemies would drop dead from sheer exhaustion.
In his heart, he offered a moment of silent prayer for those two poor enemies.
Meanwhile, at the Dawn Covenant guild headquarters.
Two to three hundred players had assembled.
The structure of the army was exceptionally distinct:
In the front row stood over fifty closed-beta veteran players, their bodies clad in exquisite, gleaming equipment—armor, swords, and robes oozing premium quality. They were the core fighting force of the guild.
Behind them were over two hundred newly recruited members, dressed entirely in basic white starter gear. Though their equipment was crude, their eyes burned with excitement as they rubbed their hands together, an endless chatter breaking out among them:
“Hey, how strong do you think a Gold Rank BOSS is? Will it be super hard to beat?”
“What is there to fear? We have unlimited resurrection! If we die, we just come back and grind it to death!”
“I just wonder if it'll drop gear. If a purple piece drops, we'll be rich!”
Standing on the elevated steps, Nan Cheng looked down at his "army." Taking a deep breath, he waved his hand with immense pride and ambition. “Move out!”
...
On the northern side of Starfall Forest, ten kilometers away from Player Town, Bladefang and its group were walking with extreme caution.
Along the way, every few steps, they would encounter small groups of humans in twos and threes.
These humans were generally pitifully weak, most not even reaching Bronze Rank, yet they babbled bizarre words that Bladefang couldn't understand—things like "BOSS," "Merit Points," and "EXP farming."
What was even weirder was their attitude.
Normally, upon encountering a Gold Rank powerhouse, regular people would be scared out of their wits. But these humans were the exact opposite, their eyes glowing as if they had stumbled upon a treasure trove.
Some bold ones even crept closer, staring it up and down while muttering phrases like "The modeling is so detailed" and "The scale texture is amazing," infuriating Bladefang so much that it swiped at them with its claw.
Then, something even stranger—something that thoroughly terrified Bladefang and its group—happened.
The corpses of the humans it had killed simply vanished into thin air!
Bladefang had lived for many years, but it had never witnessed anything so bizarre.
It felt as though countless eyes in the forest were watching it from all directions, impossible to shake off.
The seven kobolds behind it were shaking so violently their knees were trembling; if Bladefang hadn't been suppressing them, they would have turned tail and bolted long ago.
As for Bonebreaker's band of ogres?
They had long since vanished to who-knows-where.
Bladefang was furious. Those guys must have noticed something wrong early on and deliberately ditched it to act on their own.
“Stop,” Bladefang ordered in a low voice, abruptly raising its hand.
The kobolds behind it looked as if granted a divine reprieve, letting out collective sighs of relief, though the claws gripping their weapons were still trembling.
“Rest here,” Bladefang commanded, scanning the surroundings with a frown. “If we keep encountering these strange humans further ahead, we will immediately fall back and report to the Shaman.”
“Yes, Lord Bladefang!”
The kobolds responded eagerly. But just as they were preparing to find a spot to sit down and rest, a dense rustling suddenly erupted from behind the surrounding thick bushes.
Rustle, rustle, rustle—
Suddenly, a massive horde of people burst out from the foliage.
Most of them were wearing magnificent gear—they were the closed-beta veteran players from the guilds!
“It's the BOSS! The BOSS is right here!”
“Brothers, it's time to work!”
“Quick, quick, quick, grab your gear! Surround it and don't let it escape!”
The excited shouts of the players echoed through the forest.
Bladefang stared at the flood of humans emerging from all directions, completely dumbfounded on the spot.
Where on earth had these people come from?
However, upon hearing their words, Bladefang's shock swiftly transformed into rage.
They were nothing more than weak Bronze Rank ants! Even if a few had reached Silver Rank, how dare they challenge a mighty Gold Rank?
“Overestimating yourselves,” it snorted coldly. No matter how strange these humans were, in the end, they were nothing more than weak ants.
Even if there were a lot of them, could they really wear it to death?
“Kill them!” Bladefang immediately ordered the seven kobolds behind it.
At Bladefang's command, the seven kobolds howled and hoisted their spiked maces, charging headlong into the crowd.
The players, however, didn't panic at all. Their well-practiced tactics unfolded in an instant.
“Frontline Knights, hold the line!”
“Mages, step back! Priests, save your heals, don't waste them!”
“Assassins, flank from behind! Rangers, shoot from range!”
Disciplined commands rang out from the back of the player formation. Over a dozen shield-bearing Knights raised their shields in unison and pushed forward, forming a semi-circular wall of iron.
The seven kobolds slammed their spiked maces against the barrier with loud thuds, but the shields didn't budge an inch.
“Clear the adds first!”
Another shout rang out from the rear.
Instantly, over a dozen players clad in ornate gear detached from the main body, pouncing on the seven kobolds like wolves and tigers.
“Charge—!!”
“Free EXP packs incoming, boys!”
Flashing blades and shadow swordplay collided, accompanied by the rising and falling screams of the kobolds.
Before long, four of the seven Bronze Rank kobolds had fallen. The remaining kobolds panicked, their morale plummeting instantly.
Bladefang's eyes turned blood-red.
“You... are... seeking... death!”
Dark, black magic light began to condense inside its mouth as its aura surged violently, making the surrounding air feel noticeably heavy.
“Quick! Defensive skills!”
Seeing this, all the closed-beta veterans immediately tensed up, shifting into high alert!
“Holy Light's Aegis!”
“Defensive Magic!”
“Sacred Shield!”
“Cast shields, cast shields! Priests, give us shields!”
Multiple layers of colorful shields instantly stacked onto the frontline Knights, glowing brightly with golden, blue, and white light.
At the same time, some players tried to interrupt the cast:
“Cross Slash!”
“Holy Light!”
“Thorn Spike!”
“Fireball!”
A barrage of skill effects rained down indiscriminately on Bladefang in an attempt to disrupt its channel.
The dark light in Bladefang's throat grew increasingly bright and dense, its slit pupils glaring death at the hateful humans before it—
In the next second, the sphere of energy erupted!
However, the players' shields had already reached their maximum output.
“BOOM—!!!”
Amidst an earth-shattering explosion, light shattered in every direction as thick dust billowed into the air.
Rate on N.U.
