Swhoos.h.!.+

A draconic image surrounded the Purple Ying Sword as I sent it spiraling toward the enemy. It penetrated a group of archers and warriors and spilled their fresh blood across the gra.s.s, dying the morning dew red. Most of them didn"t even seem to know where the attack had come from.

After I caught the returning Purple Ying Sword, I spurred the Armored Ice Qilin Horse to cut across the forest horizontally at full speed. Almost 200 yards later, I burst out of a shrub and fired Burning Blade Slash at the enemy"s mages and priests. Caught completely off-guard, they were unable to survive my skill. Normally, a mage was 2 or 3 levels higher than a fighter, meaning that killing them would net me more experience. Every bit counted especially since I was now a Level 200 player.

"Roar roar roar…"

At the same time, the Phantom Wolf King jumped out of its hexagram again and let out an angry roar. An instant later, it dropped a Purgatory Storm right on top of a group of archers.

I dove deeper into the enemy party while the Phantom Wolf King was covering for me. I was absolutely confident that this party of players was of no threat to me.

……

"Watch out! It"s that demon Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand attacking us again! His sword has a splash effect, so spread out into the woods so his attacks cannot hit all of you at the time! Use Mountain Stagger Arrow, Shock Arrow and Ice Dragon Howl to dismount and kill him!"

The spear-wielding magic knight who made the call was clearly an excellent commander. He rode back and forth a suitable distance away from me before abruptly throwing Trapping Net at me!

Rustle rustle...

I abruptly changed direction and caused my Armored Ice Qilin Horse to drift across the blood-red soil like a race car, dodging the CC perfectly. I retaliated with my own G.o.d Binding Art—which landed successfully—before ordering the Phantom Wolf King to swipe at him three times in a row. One final Dragon Slaying Slash later, he was a goner.

The magic knight swore with bulging eyes, "Ugh, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

Pop! The magic knight dropped almost everything when he died. His spear, his round s.h.i.+eld, his chest armor, his ring, his necklace. Grinding equipment in Final Duel Valley was just too good, especially in the case of super-rare boss drops such as necklaces and rings. These people could"ve taken months or even half a year to obtain what they had today, and I had just stolen them all via literal daylight robbery!

Thud thud thud…

The enemy"s retaliation was fierce, however. Countless arrows and magic spells flew out of the forest stretch in front of me at random, dropping the Phantom Wolf King to half health in just the blink of an eye. I myself kept zigzagging around to dodge the enemy"s attacks while picking up the loot on the ground. Most of my choices were weapons, chest armors, rings and other equipment that was generally harder to come by. All I could say was that all that time I had spent researching market prices of equipment was well worth it.

……

"Surround that b.a.s.t.a.r.d and kill him! He"s at (12838, 6277)! a.s.sa.s.sins, stealth over and chain-stun him! He cannot be allowed to live within our borders any longer!"

A cacophony of battle cries cut through the air, and unnatural shadows darted between the trees everywhere. It would be foolish to fight them head-on, and that wasn"t the plan anyway. Speaking of which, one of my strongest skills, Resurrection Art, had been restricted since the moment I entered Final Duel Valley. Its icon was dim and lightless compared to Purple Dragon Howl, Burning Blade Slash and more, meaning that I couldn"t revive endlessly like I normally could in a different map. Here in Final Duel Valley, I only had one life. If I died, then I would lose most, if not all my equipment and my levels just like the rest of them!

I rode into the forest next to me to avoid being hunted. Not far away, a dozen or so enemy archers were attacking me. They were all seventh-promotion, above Level 185, and belonging to the succubus or incubus race. Therefore, they had insane movement speed and perception. While leaping from branch to branch, they drew their bows in midair and fired cold, icy shots at me.

The Armored Ice Qilin Horse"s movement speed was diminished because the terrain was a th.o.r.n.y forest. Despite riding a mount, I was actually slower than the archers pursuing me. After raising the Dragon G.o.d s.h.i.+eld in a hurry and blocking the arrows, I removed it and fired two Dragon Slaying Slashes and Coiling Dragon Revolution in quick succession. I didn"t need to see them to know where they were shooting from.

"Ahhhh…"

Bloodcurdling screams filled the air immediately. Both Dragon Slaying Slashes. .h.i.t their target perfectly and one-shot them, and Coiling Dragon Revolution killed three archers in one go. The remaining archers couldn"t help but stare at their comrades" bodies in shock.

Rustle rustle…

Suddenly, an unnatural rustling sound entered my ears. It was the sound of an a.s.sa.s.sin trying to stealth their way to me and stun me. Unfortunately for them, Dark Pupils rendered all stealth useless, so all I needed to do was look, parry the enemy"s dagger and bisect them from head to shoulders. The Purple Ying Sword was so powerful that even a basic attack was enough to one-shot them.

I picked up the dagger the a.s.sa.s.sin dropped. It was an excellent 5-star outstanding Earth-grade item and almost at the same level as the spear wielded by the magic knight I had killed earlier. Both weapons were highly popular among mid-to-high-level players right now, so it was a shame I couldn"t return to Sky City and sell them myself. I would"ve made a killing.

……

Most Purple Grape City players weren"t hunting after me though. They were busy reinforcing their main city. Even from where I was, I could see the smoke of battle rising to the sky. Sophie"s undead army was ridiculously powerful. In the air, Undead Bone Dragons were flying back and forth while spitting flames at their enemies. On the ground, the undead cavalry were running down players left and right. And even if the player"s resistance proved to be stronger than expected, Sophie herself was there to save the day. A single slash was all it took for her to annihilate the defense line the j.a.panese players had hastily erected. It looked hopeless. Roughly speaking, I estimated that their chances of defending Purple Grape City successfully were less than 10%.

This was all very good for me, of course. The more they panicked, the better my chances to exploit said panic. At first, I ambushed their troops carefully and methodically. Over time, I gave up hiding and just hit them whenever I felt like it. At this point, there were only tens of thousands players left in the valley. What was there to be afraid about? Stop running and become my experience now!

The fight continued until over 10 pm. I was tired, my horse was tired, and more importantly I was low on potions and equipment durability. My Heaven-burning Armor only had 5% durability left, and my legguards and helmet were hovering dangerously at 1%. A couple more fights like that, and I would probably have to fight naked. I knew full well the reason the enemy could do nothing to stop me was because of my OP skills and equipment. If even one of these critical elements was missing, a couple of players would be enough to kill me. I had to retreat for now.

I checked my bag again. I was almost out of potions, and 945 of my inventory slots were high-level equipment. Even the lousiest one was Outstanding Spirit-grade. That being said, I should deal with these items as soon as possible before I began my next round of killing, or there was a high chance I would hit max capacity and miss out on a ton of money.

So I left Final Duel Valley and set up a tent at the edge of Dragonbone Mountain Range. I activated Dark Pupils and scanned my surroundings until I confirmed that I and a couple of idle monsters were the only living beings in the entire area. Very well, it"s time to log out!

……

I gave Chaos Moon a call after I took off my gaming helmet.

"h.e.l.lo, what is it? I"m grinding an instance with Heaven"s Rain and Diamond Dust…" Chaos Moon said.

I asked, "How long until you"re finished?"

"We"re at the final boss now. We should be done in ten minutes tops. So? What is it?"

"How big is your bag?"

"500 slots. I spent 40k RMB buying this High-grade Army Pouch. I"ll hit you if you tell me you want it…"

I chortled a bit before replying, "I grinded a lot of equipment in Final Duel Valley, and most of them are cavalrymen equipment that Li Chengfeng, Heaven"s Rain, Diamond Dust and the others could use. Can you clear out your bag temporarily and come to (19348, 9288) at the edge of Dragonbone Mountain Range from Purple Grape City"s side? I"ll wait for you here while stealthed. Also, I need you to take my equipment, repair it and deliver it back to me. Unfortunately I, umm, don"t have a place to repair. It"s embarra.s.sing, isn"t it?"

Chaos Moon giggled. "Fine, fine. Anything for you, dear. I"ll be right over, dear…"

"Screw you!"

Chaos Moon said, "Very well, I"ll depart in ten minutes and arrive at your location in about forty. Wait for me! See you later!"

"Mn, got it."

……

I hung up and drank a bit of water. A pee later, I was back into the game.

Swhoos.h.!.+

There was still half an hour before Chaos Moon would show up, so I decided to spend it observing my surroundings for activities.

I roamed around the terrain until I pushed apart a thick bundle of leaves and saw something that didn"t disappoint me—

I saw a bunch of NPCs sitting at a corner of the canyon. They weren"t your standard adventurers, but a company of troops about a hundred strong or so. Even better, they were skeletal soldiers. One of the high-level undead with red eyes let out a sigh before saying, "I don"t understand why Lady Sophie would post us at this G.o.d-forsaken place. What on earth are we trying to protect here?"

Beside him, a blacksmith who was smelting molten iron chuckled. "Isn"t it obvious? Lady Sophie wants us to stop the humans from probing the Frostbone Snow Region. The fact that we"ve killed over 10 human a.s.sa.s.sins in the past two days proves her right."

"True, our Lady Sophie is wise. We need food though. We"ve already lost over a thousand of Corpse Eaters to starvation. If we can"t find food soon we"re all going to starve to death!"

"Er…"

……

I immediately rode up to the NPCs and dismounted. I greeted them, "Good day, brothers!"

The NPC captain looked at me confusedly. "Who are you?"

He doesn"t know me? f.u.c.k!

I was hoping that I could use my relations.h.i.+p with Sophie to my advantage, but maybe not this time. "I was just wondering if it"s possible for me to repair my equipment here? I"ll pay you ten times the usual repair fee."

The blacksmith licked his lips with a cackle. "Why would we undead need gold? If you truly mean to pay me, then bring me a woman to sate my l.u.s.t!"

The NPC captain immediately barked at him and shut him down, however. He then looked at me and said, "Young undead, I will allow you to repair your equipment here if you can do something for me."

"Sure, tell me!"

"We"re starving, and we"re desperately in need of some food. There"s a type of monster called the Armored Yak on the other side of this valley, and we would like you to gather 100 Yak Meat for us. Only then will we provide you with our service."

"Fine…"

I shrugged. It was a pain, but I had to complete this quest no matter what. I didn"t want to trouble Chaos Moon every time I needed to repair my equipment.

……

I checked the time before riding to the coordinates stated in the quest. As expected, I saw a bunch of Level 220 dread-rank mobs, the Armored Yaks, feeding on the Nether Gra.s.s growing in this unique environment.

I unsheathed my sword and charged them head-on!