Lin Ye hadn’t gone far when he suddenly stopped.
He had noticed the tail following him.
Lin Ye turned around and looked at Sun Jinhao and the others, who were still trying to hide in a suspiciously furtive manner.
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
The bushes rustled a few times.
Sun Jinhao and several lackeys crawled out.
“Who the hell’s following you? Can’t I come here to level up too?”
Lin Ye found the whole thing ridiculous. He turned around and prepared to leave.
Seeing Lin Ye walk away without even looking back, Sun Jinhao continued, “Quit acting all high and mighty. The Poison Mist Forest is just ahead!”
“If you’ve got the guts, keep going in! Today, I’m going to see who can make it farther!”
“If I lose, I’ll call you Grandpa every time I see you!”
“And if you lose, it’s simple. Call me Brother Hao, and become my lackey from now on!”
Lin Ye was speechless.
Just how insecure was this kid? He had surrounded himself with so-called followers and lackeys, yet didn’t have a single genuine friend.
Now he was even willing to risk his life over some inexplicable desire to prove himself.
Without turning his head, Lin Ye left him with three words.
“Suit yourself.”
Since the fool insisted on courting death, no one could blame anyone else.
……
Seeing that Lin Ye had actually walked straight into the gloomy Poison Mist Forest without looking back, Sun Jinhao’s expression grew even uglier.
“Brother Hao, are we really going in? The monsters around here start at Level 5!”
“I’m kind of scared…”
“Why don’t we turn back?”
“Wouldn’t leveling on the Gold Coast be fine? Or we could go to the Tidal Caverns. It’s full of mermen monsters there. They’re easier to kill than those hard-shelled crabs!”
All the lackeys behind him looked hesitant. Not one of them dared to take another step forward.
Sun Jinhao felt his face burning with embarrassment.
“That useless nobody dared to go in. You think I’m scared? Anyone who’s afraid can get lost!”
“But…”
“Get lost!”
With that, he forced himself to move forward and followed in Lin Ye’s direction.
In the end, only two or three of them followed, trembling with fear. The rest decisively turned around and ran.
The farther they went, the darker their surroundings became.
The purple poisonous miasma in the air grew increasingly dense.
Sun Jinhao and the others hadn’t gone far before they realized that Lin Ye had completely disappeared from sight.
……
The interior of the Poison Mist Forest was dimly lit. Towering trees stood like silent giants, watching over all who passed through.
As he continued deeper inside, Lin Ye discovered that despite being a high-level leveling zone, the forest’s outskirts were not nearly as terrifying as the rumors claimed.
Most of the scattered monsters were only around Level 6, with the occasional Level 7 monster.
And it wasn’t as though no one else came here to level up.
Lin Ye spotted quite a few people along the way.
Most were organized parties of professional adventurers, or rich young masters accompanied by professionals hired to protect them while they leveled.
No, there are still too many people around.
I’ll wait until I reach the heart of the forest.
After walking for several more minutes, Lin Ye stepped over the roots of a giant tree.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of something slicing through the air behind him!
A massive monster covered in spikes lunged down from the treetops. Its sharp claws flashed coldly in midair.
Lin Ye was startled and instinctively tried to dodge, but it was already too late.
The monster opened its gaping maw and viciously sank its teeth toward the back of Lin Ye’s neck!
However, the scene it had expected—its fangs piercing flesh—never occurred.
Instead, it passed straight through Lin Ye’s body.
With a muffled thud, the monster’s momentum carried it into a thick tree trunk ahead. It slammed into the tree and was left dazed and disoriented.
Only then did Lin Ye get a clear look at his attacker.
[Level 8, Shadow Leopard (Elite)]!
The Shadow Leopard shook its dizzy head and climbed back to its feet. A trace of humanlike confusion flashed through its blood-red eyes.
Then it let out a low growl and launched itself forward again. Its thick, powerful right paw swiped directly toward Lin Ye’s abdomen.
This time, Lin Ye didn’t bother dodging.
The Shadow Leopard missed once more and crashed to the ground.
Unwilling to give up, it flipped over and leaped back to its feet. Its two front paws began clawing wildly at Lin Ye, leaving afterimages everywhere.
Lin Ye simply stood there, quietly watching an elite Level 8 monster pass through his body again and again.
This was incredible!
It was the first time Lin Ye had truly experienced how satisfying it was to be completely immune to every attack.
The monster before him was clearly a high-level creature wreathed in bloodlust, yet it couldn’t even touch a single strand of his hair.
Lin Ye couldn’t be bothered with the Shadow Leopard, which was still furiously attacking empty air, and continued walking deeper into the forest.
As he went farther in, the density of the monsters around him increased as well.
There were enormous Poison Marsh Crocodiles, swarms of Black-Spined Venom Bees, and man-eating vines that activated whenever someone passed by…
All kinds of high-level red-named monsters appeared one after another.
The moment they saw Lin Ye, they pounced on him madly like sharks that had caught the scent of blood.
Yet without exception, every single attack missed.
This resulted in an extremely bizarre sight.
Lin Ye strode ahead with an arrogant, carefree gait, followed by a huge horde of snarling, clawing monsters.
They couldn’t hit him, but they refused to give up, doggedly following behind.
Lin Ye glanced over his shoulder.
The line of monsters behind him had already grown to several dozen.
The red-named monsters in high-level leveling zones were all bloodthirsty and savage. Once they spotted prey, they would pursue it to the death.
But they were completely helpless against Lin Ye, which was how this strange situation had come about.
……
At the same time, Sun Jinhao and the only lackey he had left were hiding behind a large tree, trembling all over.
Both of them were injured.
Sun Jinhao’s clothes had been torn open, and his arm was streaked with blood.
The blond lackey looked even worse, his face swollen and bruised as he begged through sobs.
“Boss, we can’t go any farther! That kid must’ve already been eaten down to the bones by the monsters. There’s no way he could’ve made it this far!”
“You killed a Level 5 wild boar just now. You’re already countless times stronger than him!”
“Let’s go back. If we keep going, we’re really going to die!”
Hearing the blond lackey’s flattery, some color returned to Sun Jinhao’s pale face.
That’s right…
That kid didn’t even have a class. How could he possibly survive in the Poison Mist Forest?
He must already be dead.
He had won the bet.
Sun Jinhao pulled a town portal scroll from his pack and prepared to crush it.
Just then, the ground suddenly began to tremble.
The two of them staggered and nearly lost their balance.
Rumble…
Roars of all kinds of beasts drew closer from the distance, shaking leaves loose from the trees.
Sun Jinhao and his lackey froze at the same time, then mechanically turned around.
Lin Ye emerged from the forest, strolling along as casually as ever.
His entire body was clean and undamaged, without a single mark on him.
But behind him…
A dense, terrifying tide of monsters surged out like a flood!
Shadow Leopards, Poison Marsh Crocodiles, Venomous Wolf Spiders…
There were at least four or five hundred of them!
They panted heavily, their blood-red eyes fixed on Lin Ye. Their gazes held both madness and something resembling incomprehensible dread as they followed close behind him.
Sun Jinhao and the blond lackey were completely dumbfounded.
The hand holding the town portal scroll froze in midair, and Sun Jinhao stood rooted to the spot.
The blond lackey let out a shrill, terrified scream.
“It’s a… a monster tide!!!”
The lackey scrambled to his feet and fled madly in the opposite direction.
Sun Jinhao’s legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the ground.
He felt as though his entire worldview had been shattered.
Why was Lin Ye completely unharmed?
Why weren’t those savage red-named monsters attacking him? Instead, they were following behind him like a group of lackeys!
Could it be… that this guy had unlocked some hidden class?
Or perhaps he possessed some kind of beast-taming or monster-control ability?
“Excuse me.”
Lin Ye glanced at Sun Jinhao, who was paralyzed with fear. Of course, he had no idea what was going through the man’s mind. He simply walked straight past him.
The enormous army of monsters followed close behind. Sun Jinhao let out a scream, kicked his legs forward, and scrambled backward as fast as he could, barely avoiding being trampled to death.
Only then did he react. He crushed his Return Scroll and vanished on the spot.
Lin Ye paid him no attention. He simply led the horde of monsters onward for another ten minutes or so.
Suddenly, a flash of white light burst from his body.
[Ding! You killed the Level 6 Poison Marsh Frog. Since you defeated a higher-level enemy, you have received bonus experience!]
[You gained 58 experience points. You leveled up!]
[You gained 1 free attribute point.]
Lin Ye froze and stopped walking.
How had he killed a monster?
He turned around to look.
The massive monster horde behind him was so large that it seemed to have caused a violent jostling among the creatures.
A huge Forest Giant Bear couldn’t stop in time and stepped directly onto the back of a Poison Marsh Frog in front of it.
The Poison Marsh Frog let out a miserable croak.
Before it could even get back up, several monsters following behind stepped on it one after another.
They crushed the already critically injured Poison Marsh Frog into a smear of flesh.
[Ding! You killed the Level 5 Poison Marsh Frog. You gained 45 experience points!]
Lin Ye’s eyes widened.
What the hell? That worked too?