It wasn’t until the dragon had flown far away that Tom and the others finally snapped out of their daze.
One of his companions stared at Tom with difficulty. “Boss, that was... an NPC?”
Tom nodded bitterly. “Looks like if we take too long with the campaign, the NPCs will step in...”
So much for this battlefield having mercy on the weak or providing some kind of catch-up mechanic.
Obviously, only the strong were entitled to everything.
Hearing that, his companion immediately started cursing. “Damn those bastards! If they had the ability to do it themselves, why make us fight? If I’d known, I would’ve just sat back and done nothing! And now that we finally wanted to improve, they went and killed all the Destroyers for us! Screw this!”
As far as Tom and the others were concerned, although they felt it was a pity that all the Destroyers had been killed by an NPC, it was nothing more than something to curse about and be angry over.
Vaughan, however, was the one whose mentality had completely collapsed.
An entire city’s worth of Destroyers—and ones that would keep respawning at that—how much Mutagen could they have dropped?
And now they were all gone... all of them killed by an NPC...
Even the portal had been destroyed. It would never respawn again...
The more Vaughan thought about it, the angrier he became. Finally, he couldn’t help pointing at the sky and cursing at the top of his lungs.
“This is all Liu Xuan’s fault! It’s all because of that Liu Xuan!”
Seeing him like this, Tom sighed. He even felt a little sorry for Vaughan. The poor kid was so worked up that he had lost his mind.
He stepped forward and patted Vaughan on the shoulder. “Vaughan, calm down. What does this have to do with Liu Xuan? That NPC just now was called Bell.”
Vaughan slapped his hand away and jumped up and down in fury. “You idiot! Don’t you get it? The announcement earlier said that the world’s progression would accelerate, and that this acceleration wouldn’t apply to warriors like us. So who else could it apply to? The NPCs, obviously!”
Tom froze, then slowly began to understand. “You mean...”
“This NPC either didn’t exist before, or he wasn’t nearly this powerful. It’s because the progression accelerated that he became like this! Aaaah! Liu Xuan, I have a blood feud with you!”
...
Liu Xuan rubbed his eyes and climbed out of his sleeping bag.
He’d had a comfortable night’s sleep. Today, it was time to head back.
When he arrived at Orenburg, he discovered that the place was much livelier than it had been before.
Aside from the warriors, there were now quite a few NPCs bustling about as they rebuilt their homes.
After learning that Liu Xuan had returned, Zhang Meng immediately went to find him.
The first thing he saw was the string of glowing titles above Liu Xuan’s head. The corner of his mouth twitched.
“Can’t you be a little more low-key?”
Liu Xuan shrugged. “No way. I worked hard to earn these titles. If I don’t wear them, wouldn’t that mean all my effort was wasted?”
“...”
Zhang Meng shook his head speechlessly. “Forget it. We’ll talk about that later. Form the party already. Everyone’s waiting to level up.”
As Liu Xuan added Zhang Meng to the party and gave him permission to invite others, he asked, “You came looking for me just for this? You could’ve sent me a message.”
“Of course not. There are plenty of other things. Let’s go through them one at a time.”
As Zhang Meng invited people to the party, he began explaining. “First, there’s this Promotion Defense Battle. My comrades have spent the last two days getting a clear picture of the city’s situation. Excluding the secret passage you mentioned, there are four locations we need to pay attention to.”
“First is the southern gate. As you know, the gate is completely gone. I asked the NPCs, and it won’t be repaired anytime soon. So we’ll definitely need people stationed there.”
“Then there’s the north. A huge section of the city wall has collapsed. At best, we can pile up some rocks and make it a little higher, but it’ll still be easy for the attacking side to get in.”
“Besides that, half of a section of the western wall has also collapsed, leaving it lower than the rest. Anyone with special abilities should be able to climb over.”
“Finally, there’s a sewer outlet in the east. It’s several meters wide, and it’s not exactly—”
“Hold on.” Liu Xuan raised a hand to stop him. “So basically, we need people guarding all four directions?”
“Exactly. Figuring out how to distribute our manpower is the biggest problem.”
Liu Xuan waved his hand indifferently. “You’re soldiers. You definitely know more about this than I do. You can arrange it yourselves.”
“The southern gate will definitely be the hardest to defend. To save manpower, we’d like you to hold that direction alone. Is that a problem?”
“Not at all.”
“If you can hold one direction by yourself, then we won’t have any problems.”
Zhang Meng had only said it that way out of habit. In reality, he didn’t think they would lose.
With such a massive experience bonus and the Destruction Aura, if they still couldn’t defend the city, they might as well apologize to Liu Xuan. No—at that point, they’d be no better than NPC bots.
They might as well go bang their heads against a wall and die.
“Now for the second matter. You mentioned it last time—the leatherworker we selected has finished training. He’s now an Advanced Leatherworker.”
Hearing that, Liu Xuan was pleasantly surprised. “That fast?”
“You threw so much money at it, of course he improved quickly. And as luck would have it, the person we chose happens to be quite talented at this life profession.”
“Take me to meet him later.”
At last, he could put those pieces of Strange Salamander Hide to use and replace his current bag with one that could automatically pick up items.
“By the way, how much did it cost him to become an Advanced Leatherworker?”
“He used one hundred gold coins from the money you left with me.”
At the mention of it, Zhang Meng couldn’t help clicking his tongue. One hundred gold coins! He had saved for so long and had only managed to accumulate a dozen or so.
Life professions really were money pits.
Of course, that was because Liu Xuan was in a hurry. To raise his proficiency as quickly as possible, he had spent money like water.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible to become an Advanced Leatherworker in just two days.
But Liu Xuan was surprised by the answer.
“That’s all? In that case, I’ll cover the training fees for the tailor, blacksmith, and alchemist too!”
Zhang Meng: “...”
He now had a very clear understanding of just how wealthy Liu Xuan was.
Liu Xuan still had more than 3,400 gold coins on him. Spending a few hundred to train several Advanced life-profession specialists was nothing to him.
Who knew whether he might obtain related materials in the future and need these professions to process them?
Liu Xuan still had an arrow-shaped stone obtained from the Fortune Tree, as well as the Strange Mushroom dropped by the Terrifying Nether Spider. He had no idea what either of them was used for.
Come to think of it, he could find the corresponding NPCs later and ask whether they recognized these materials.
Just like Parker, the leatherworker’s son. Although Parker didn’t know how to work leather himself, he could identify the use of the Strange Salamander Hide with the help of the notes his father had left behind.
Perhaps the NPCs associated with the remaining materials would be able to identify them as well.
“Third matter.”
“There’s a third matter too?”
Zhang Meng rolled his eyes. “Do you have any idea how many things I have to deal with every day?”
“Heh heh. Go on, then.”
Zhang Meng pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to Liu Xuan. “This is a list. Most of the entries concern NPC survivors who are still wandering outside. Some are too difficult for the people who found them to handle. Others are nothing more than clues, with no idea how to proceed. There’s still a day before the defense battle, so I’ll have to trouble you, our ‘gaming guru,’ to run a few errands.”
Liu Xuan took the list and glanced over it. “Huh? More than a dozen?”
The page was densely covered in writing, and his eyelids began to twitch.
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
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!
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
