Chapter 14

"Prepare for battle," Wang Meng ordered, his expression turning grim as he raised his large, battered shield.

The team had rested for a few minutes on the way, recovering most of their health and mana. Just a moment ago, the pretty mage Lin Liyu had still been upset about not adding Qin Feng as a friend.

"It's probably because I was covered in mud... The big guy must've been grossed out, ugh…" she muttered, on the verge of tears.

However, her sadness didn't last long as the sight before her shocked her back into focus. Grabbing her staff, she quickly prepared for combat.

More than ten Crawlers!

In just a few seconds, they had wiped out an entire six-player team!

Wang Meng had been readying himself for a tough fight, but suddenly…

The dozen Crawlers turned to look at their group. Sensing that this team was different from the usual players, they hesitated, then turned and ran away.

Of course, before leaving, they absorbed all the non-tradable lifespan dropped by the fallen players.

Although monsters needed time to digest lifespan, absorbing and storing it was quick.

After finishing up, the Crawlers fled deeper into the forest…

"They ran?" Wang Meng's team stood there, stunned.

These monsters…

They weren't acting like typical game enemies at all!

Moreover, the Crawlers were fast. Although not as quick as the Charger, they were still too fast for Wang Meng's team to chase down.

"They're running, and we can't catch them," one teammate remarked, perplexed.

"These monsters actually fear strong opponents?"

Wang Meng, Lin Liyu, and the others were baffled.

Once again, they were reminded of how different the Forsaken Game was from any regular MMORPG.

The monsters here didn't just wait around to be killed by players. Instead, they formed hunting parties and actively hunted down players, stealing their lifespan!

As for what the monsters did with the stolen lifespan, Wang Meng's team didn't know, but the mere fact was enough to make anyone shudder.

"Let's move," Wang Meng ordered, leading his team forward.

Soon, they encountered another six-person team—three of them had already been killed, and the remaining three were fleeing for their lives. Unfortunately, they were too slow, and five Crawlers were closing in on them, attacking relentlessly.

"Arcane Orb!"

"Triple Shot!"

Wang Meng's team's two long-range attackers launched spells and arrows at the five Crawlers from a distance.

Each attack struck a Crawler, reducing its health by roughly ten percent.

"Surround them! Don't let them escape!" Wang Meng charged forward, slamming his shield into the ground with a mighty jump, stunning all five Crawlers.

All around Shell Town, similar scenes were playing out.

In a world where players thought they would be killing monsters for experience, it was the monsters who had formed teams to ambush and hunt players instead.

At the respawn point in the town square, flashes of white light continually appeared as more players revived.

Each revived player wore a grim expression.

"I thought getting to level 3 and returning to reality would be easy, but this…"

"The monsters are working together! How are we supposed to level up at this rate?"

"I have a question… What if we can never reach level 3? Are we stuck here forever?"

"If that's the case, wouldn't we end up as vegetables in the real world?"

"We need to group up more. Six-person teams won't cut it. Let's form two or even three teams together!"

"That won't work either. Too many people attract bosses. Earlier, a group of forty people ran into some 'Curser,' and it wiped out over thirty of them with a single skill…"

Fear gripped many players.

Just then, they noticed a new update on the town's leaderboard.

The top-ranked player, 'Shadow,' had reached level 3!

"What the heck, how is this 'Shadow' so strong?"

"We're struggling to kill basic mobs, and he's leveling up like it's nothing?"

"This guy must be soloing! He's the only one that high on the board."

"Soloing? That's insane!"

By now, many players had ventured out of the town and realized just how brutal the monsters were.

In this environment, to be able to solo and level up like that... How strong was 'Shadow'?

Meanwhile, Li Zi, with the codename 'Ya Li,' had just revived at the town square along with her team.

The short-haired girl in the black shirt looked livid.

This was her third death!

She had started with 80 years of non-tradable lifespan, but now she only had 10 years left. The loss was devastating.

Even though she still wasn't sure if the lifespan thing was real, the psychological weight was undeniable.

The long-haired girl next to her, visibly shaken, asked, "Sister Li, what do we do now?"

The team had barely managed to kill four Crawlers so far, and each person had earned less than ten experience points. They were far from the 100 points needed to reach level 2, let alone level 3!

And those four Crawlers had been incredibly hard to kill.

Whenever the Crawlers were low on health, they would run away!

If not for Sister Li's skill with the bow and her hidden class advantage, they wouldn't have managed to finish them off.

"We can't afford to die anymore," Ya Li said, her face dark. Then she noticed that 'Shadow' had just reached level 3 on the leaderboard.

Her eyes lit up.

"Everyone, spread the word."

Ya Li spoke firmly, "I'm offering 1 million RMB for Shadow to power level me to 3. I just need to get back to the real world first… If he's leveling up that fast, it should be easy for him to help me, right?"

Soon, the news spread around Shell Town.

A wealthy young lady was offering 1 million RMB for the top-ranked player, 'Shadow,' to power level her!

...

Meanwhile, Qin Feng was on his way back to town.

After killing the Charger, he had hunted around the forest, killing over ten Crawlers and finally using *Greedy Hand* to obtain 1 more evolution point.

He immediately evolved *Greedy Hand*.

——

[You have consumed 5 evolution points, remaining 0 points.]

[Greedy Hand (Platinum → Emerald): Assassin skill. Can be used on monster corpses, increasing the chance of obtaining an extra loot item from 110% → 160%. Additionally, 20% of the extra loot items have a chance of being upgraded by one tier.]

——

*Greedy Hand* had evolved to Emerald tier, and a special effect had been added: a 20% chance to upgrade the extra loot by one tier!

"This is overpowered!" Qin Feng's eyes gleamed.

The effect was incredible.

"If I keep evolving it… will I get a 100% chance to upgrade loot?"

"Killing Bronze-tier bosses could net me Silver-tier gear."

"Killing Silver-tier bosses could give me Gold-tier items!"

Perfect timing!

Qin Feng had already memorized the location of a boss.

The boss, called the *Curser*, was a shriveled tree-like monster. It had killed dozens of players and was currently hiding somewhere in the forest, digesting the lifespans it had absorbed.

Soon, the *Curser* would evolve into a Silver-tier boss!

.....