“Hiss…”
After a long while, [Passing Pure Love God of War] finally broke the silence with a quiet gasp.
“To be honest, brothers…”
“Even if you only treat this game as a walking-tour simulator, it could still sweep the Game of the Year awards!
The art team must be working themselves to death!”
Maluo was equally stunned.
He even forgot to maintain his usual sneaky, rat-like expression.
“Brothers, I’ll be honest with you.
When I walked out just now, I was secretly wondering whether the outside world would just be a bunch of pixelated textures hidden behind invisible walls.”
“But now, I’m completely blown away!”
Maluo slapped his thigh.
“How the hell did they make a seamless open world this huge?”
“When we pushed open the door, there wasn’t even a loading screen or progress bar!”
“This underlying spatial-rendering technology has to be at least fifty years ahead of the industry!”
Even Jiahao, who had always maintained his gloomy persona, widened his right eye slightly.
He brushed aside the bangs covering his left eye, and for once, his tone carried genuine awe.
“This oppressive wasteland aesthetic really suits the tastes of an elite player like me.”
“This game company…
actually has some skill.”
“Alright, enough admiring the scenery.
We’re here to work and make money!”
[Ji Luo] was the first to recover.
Looking toward the dark shadows faintly moving within the village, his tactical instincts immediately kicked in.
“Everyone, pay attention.
That Abandoned Village ahead should be the resource point for our starting area.”
“Didn’t those two daily quests ask us to collect wood, thatch, and food?
The village definitely has all three!”
“And look.
Those dark shadows inside are probably wandering low-level mobs.”
“The kind that drops money when you kill them!”
The moment they heard the words “drops money,” the other four players’ eyes immediately lit up.
What epic atmosphere?
What indescribable horror?
In the eyes of the Fifth Calamity, as long as something had a health bar, even if God himself descended, they would first need to smash him over the head with a brick and see how much HP he had.
“First kill is mine!”
[Passing Pure Love God of War] charged ahead.
He hoisted a sturdy wooden table leg he’d pulled from the church onto his shoulder, shouted triumphantly, and rushed toward the village entrance with his white hair flying.
Maluo hunched over like a wild dog searching for food and quietly slipped along the base of the wall.
Bigshot calmly picked up two heavy cobblestones from the roadside, stuffed them into his pockets, and followed behind.
The five players, like hungry wolves suddenly released from their cages, silently crept into the abandoned village.
The inside of the village was even more dilapidated than it had appeared from outside.
The roofs of most of the houses had collapsed, with thick clusters of thorny black vines growing through the ruins.
“Shh—stop!”
Lu Ziye, walking at the front, suddenly raised his hand and made a tactical stop gesture.
Everyone immediately pressed themselves against a half-collapsed stone wall.
Following Lu Ziye’s pointing finger, they saw three extremely bizarre figures crouching beside the dried-up well in the center of the village.
[Target Locked: Corrupted Villager (Wandering Type)]
[Rank Assessment: Tier 0 (Cannon Fodder Level)]
[Traits: Native corpses lightly infected by Black Forest miasma.
Slow movement, no pain response, keen sense of smell.]
Compared with the three-meter-tall Tier 1 Aberrant Corrupted Corpse they had encountered yesterday—something that could easily smash through doors—these three creatures were practically child’s play.
Their bodies were roughly human in shape, but their skin was covered in dark-brown corpse spots.
Their clothes were tattered, and their hands had twisted into grotesque shapes.
At that moment, they were crouched around the well, apparently tearing apart the remains of some unknown animal.
“Man, we ran into a mob pack right at the start.”
[Ji Luo] lowered his voice and quickly formulated a strategy.
“There are three of them and five of us.
We’ve got the numbers advantage!”
“Jiahao, your bangs block your vision, so stay farther back and throw stones to draw aggro.”
“Pure Love War God and I will be the main attackers.
Maluo, circle around from behind and cut off their retreat.
Bigshot, look for an opening and smash them in the back of the head with those stones!”
“Everyone coordinate properly.
These are walking ash coins!”
“Roger!”
Everyone nodded excitedly.
However, just as Ji Luo finished laying out his “perfect strategy” and was about to count down three seconds before launching the attack—
Something unexpected happened!
[Maluo Also Has Dignity], who had been crouching beside the wall and scouting for an opportunity to flank the enemies, suddenly froze.
His eyes locked onto the windowsill of a nearby abandoned house.
A large cluster of mushroom-like fungus had grown there.
Its entire surface emitted an eerie fluorescent purple glow, while several tiny, fleshy nodules resembling little eyes covered its cap.
Although it looked absolutely disgusting, this was a fully immersive holographic game.
And Maluo’s inner urge to explore as a hardcore life-skiller instantly exploded.
He shoved Ji Luo aside, who was still explaining the strategy, tossed away the stones in his hands, and sprinted toward the ruined house with drool practically hanging from his mouth.
“Holy crap!
Brothers, forget those three trash mobs!”
“Look over there!”
“Purple fungus!
You can tell from the color alone that it’s probably a high-grade alchemy material or some rare ingredient!”
“I’m going to taste it and see what kind of stats it has!”
[Ji Luo]: “???”
[Passing Pure Love God of War]: “???”
“Damn it, Maluo!”
“You ate something poisonous and foamed at the mouth yesterday, and now you want to do it again today?!”
[Ji Luo] hissed anxiously.
“Don’t mess with environmental objects!
Be careful not to trigger some hidden mechanism!”
But before he could finish speaking, Maluo’s frail little body had already scrambled through a hole in the wall and onto the second-floor windowsill with astonishing agility.
His eyes practically glowed with excitement.
He stretched out both hands and grabbed the cluster of fluorescent purple “mushrooms,” intending to rip it off first.
However, the instant Maluo’s hand touched the “mushroom”—
The tiny fleshy nodules suddenly opened all at once.
Then—
The entire wall began to shake violently.
BOOM!
With a deafening crash, the half-collapsed wall exploded outward.
A terrifying monster more than two meters tall crawled out from beneath the rubble.
Its body was covered in a thick, hardened carapace, while six sharp, jointed limbs unfolded around it.
And that cluster of purple “mushrooms” Maluo had grabbed wasn’t a rare ingredient at all.
It was a lure organ growing from the monster’s head, specifically evolved to attract unsuspecting prey!
The monster’s enormous compound eyes immediately locked onto Maluo, who was still hanging from the windowsill.
A piercing screech erupted from its mouth.
[Warning!
Hidden Elite Monster Triggered!]
[Target: Crypt Lurker]
[Rank Assessment: Peak Tier 1 (Dangerous Level)]
[Traits: Extremely territorial.
Extremely durable armor.
Extremely fast.]
“Holy shit…”
Maluo stared at the terrifying monster in front of him.
Acid dripped from its mouthparts.
The wretched grin on his face froze.
The next second, one of the monster’s razor-sharp forelimbs violently slashed downward.
Splat!
Before Maluo could even react, the attack sent him flying, and his body immediately dispersed into a cloud of gray ash that scattered into the wind.
One minute after the game began, [Maluo Also Has Dignity] had achieved the server’s first kill of the day.
Unfortunately—
He was the one who got killed.
Meanwhile, at the corner of the wall, [Ji Luo] and the other three players hadn’t even had time to make a move.
They simply stood there with their mouths hanging open, staring blankly at the terrifying monster that had just burst through the wall.
The Crypt Lurker’s compound eyes slowly shifted.
Then, they locked onto the four low-level noobs standing below in their underwear.
Gulp.
[Passing Pure Love God of War] swallowed hard.
The wooden table leg in his hand trembled slightly.
“Old Ji…”
He mechanically turned his head toward Ji Luo, who had already begun taking slow steps backward.
“Who did you say…”
“…had the advantage just now?”