“Hey, friend! Thank goodness someone finally made it here.”
It sounded exactly like the opening line of an NPC quest.
So Liu Xuan asked, “What happened to you?”
“My name is Bell, and I’m a warrior. I was planning to go to the center of the forest and reclaim the logging camp, but the monsters along the way were too powerful. Making it this far has already pushed me to my limit.”
Liu Xuan: What a load of nonsense. You’re only level 5...
“Do you need me to escort you back?”
Bell shook his head. “No. I wanted to ask—are you heading to the logging camp?”
“I am.”
“Then getting to the logging camp is more important. Just give me a few healing potions, and I can make it back on my own.”
Liu Xuan looked over the other man’s battered, disheveled appearance. “Are you sure?”
He had played a few games before. Sometimes, a player’s different choices would lead to different outcomes.
Could it be that if he simply gave Bell the potions, Bell would die and the quest would fail?
According to the usual formula, he had to insist on escorting Bell back and show how kindhearted he was. That would be the perfect ending, right?
As a result, Liu Xuan questioned him again and again, testing every approach he could think of, but Bell continued to shake his head.
“No. I know my own condition. You don’t need to worry about me. Reclaiming the logging camp is more important.”
Liu Xuan even tried to forcefully help him to his feet, but Bell refused that as well. It seemed there really were no other quest branches.
In the end, Liu Xuan could only give Bell two bottles of each of the three types of healing potions. They weren’t expensive, anyway.
Besides, now that his maximum HP had increased, his health regenerated extremely quickly. He basically had no use for the potions.
At first, Bell tried to refuse, saying he didn’t need so many, but after Liu Xuan insisted repeatedly, he finally accepted them.
Liu Xuan mainly wanted to see whether giving more items would result in a better quest reward.
But after Bell drank the healing potions and thanked him, he simply dragged his battered body away.
He gave Liu Xuan nothing.
“Do I have to wait until I return to the village to receive the reward?”
Liu Xuan shook his head. There was no way he was going to make a special trip back just for the reward from a side quest.
The round trip alone, not to mention the monsters along the way, would take at least an hour.
So he bypassed the giant bear’s skeleton and continued forward along the path.
After walking for less than two minutes, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
He hadn’t been hit by a single rock in quite a while.
Where had the monkeys gone?
The moment the thought crossed his mind, rows of eerie green eyes suddenly lit up in the woods ahead.
Then, one gray wild wolf after another, each half a man’s height, emerged from the shadows and surrounded Liu Xuan. There were at least fifteen or sixteen of them, and they had even cut off his retreat.
[Shadow Wolf]
Level: 6
Attack: 40
HP: 400
Skill: [Armor Rend] Each time you take damage from a Shadow Wolf, your armor is reduced by 5 points for 15 seconds. This effect can stack. (Note: Armor can be reduced below 0.)
Their stats were even lower than those of the [Mischievous Monkeys], but they appeared in packs and possessed an armor-reducing skill.
Together, those traits made them far more dangerous than the Mischievous Monkeys.
Take Liu Xuan, for example. With his current 20 points of armor, the first bite would deal only 20 damage, but the second would deal 25.
If all these wolves pounced on him at once and took several bites, his armor would immediately drop below zero, effectively leaving him vulnerable to increased damage.
Before long, each attack would be dealing sixty or seventy damage.
And they even knew how to set up an encirclement. There was no way to run.
“The game really does have it in for players,” Liu Xuan remarked.
Then he smiled.
“But that doesn’t affect me.”
With his current HP, so what if he let them bite him?
Besides, with [Nightmare Incarnation], these monsters’ [Armor Rend] could barely stack at all.
Liu Xuan beckoned to the pack of wolves in front of him. “Come on~”
Apparently provoked by Liu Xuan, the lead [Shadow Wolf] let out an angry growl. The dozen or so wolves immediately leaped at him.
Liu Xuan didn’t move, allowing them to sink their teeth into him.
The instant they bit down, the wolves fled back in terror the way they had come.
By the time they finally recovered from [Fear] and turned around to attack again, the [Poison] on their bodies erupted.
One after another, they collapsed to the ground, transforming into experience for Liu Xuan.
“Killed [Shadow Wolf]. Gained 3.5 experience points.”
“Killed [Poisoned] monster. Base HP +1.”
“Killed [Shadow Wolf]. Gained 3.5 experience points.”
“Killed [Poisoned] monster. Base HP +1.”
“......”
The Shadow Wolves dropped some bones and teeth, which were probably also materials for crafting equipment.
After picking them up, Liu Xuan quickened his pace. When he encountered more [Shadow Wolves] farther ahead, he avoided them whenever possible. When he couldn’t, he cleared them out without much effort.
Half an hour later, he finally reached a clearing in the forest.
Several simple wooden huts stood in the center of the clearing, while piles of freshly cut timber that had yet to be transported away were stacked beside the road.
This was the logging camp the village chief had mentioned.
However, the logging camp had now been occupied by a group of humanoid creatures that looked like porcupines.
They wore black leather chest armor, leaving their backs exposed and displaying quills thirty to forty centimeters long.
Some carried logging axes, while others held crude, round wooden shields shaped like pot lids. Every one of them looked savage and ferocious.
[Porcupine Warrior]
Level: 7
Attack: 66
HP: 800
Armor: 10
Skill: [Throwing Hatchet] When a Porcupine Warrior’s HP falls below 20%, it throws its axe at the target, dealing physical damage equal to twice its attack power. Afterward, its attack power is reduced by 30 points.
[Porcupine Shieldbearer]
Level: 7
Attack: 60
HP: 800
Armor: 20
Skill: [Shield Block] When receiving a physical attack from the front, the Porcupine Shieldbearer has a 10% chance to use its shield to block all damage.
At the center of the logging camp, seated beside a large cooking pot, was an even larger figure.
It stood at least three meters tall.
A terrifyingly oversized weapon rested to its left. It looked as though it had been made from a saw used to cut timber.
To its right stood a door-sized wooden plank, which it used as a shield.
[Porcupine Chief (Boss)]
Level: 8
Attack: 120
HP: 3,500
Armor: 40
Magic Resistance: 10
Skill: ??? (Cannot detect boss skills of bosses whose level is not lower than your own.)
“Hiss...”
Was this the strength of the main quest monsters?
Never mind the boss—even the ordinary mobs had over 60 attack and 800 HP.
They also possessed considerable armor and skills.
This area clearly hadn’t been designed for a single person, or even a single party, to tackle.
Rather, it was meant to be defeated collectively by everyone in this battlefield.
It could be considered an outdoor world event like those found in certain MMORPGs, where the entire server could participate.
Still, as far as Liu Xuan was concerned, there was no reason he couldn’t handle it alone.
The ordinary monsters would be easy to deal with. The only thing he needed to be careful of was the boss, since he couldn’t see its skills.
But with more than forty thousand HP, it would probably be difficult for anything unexpected to happen to Liu Xuan.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
