Norman Nov’s profession was construction worker, and his strength points had reached a terrifying level.
Even after being attacked by the bug monster and injured, and then poisoned by Xia Xueqin’s smog toxin, he still retained most of his combat power.
“Boom—”
A heavy hammer strike fell, directly smashing the stone into pieces.
Wang Ruizhi dodged left and right, avoiding Norman Nov’s frontal attacks, but speed was not her advantage. After a few exchanges, several more bruises appeared on her body.
The machete clashed with the blunt weapon, and over time, she gradually fell into a disadvantage.
The blade cracked, and her arms grew weak.
Wang Ruizhi rolled arduously on the ground once more, but the person behind her pursued relentlessly. She did not have time to get up before the attack fell.
She raised both hands and used her machete to block the opponent’s iron hammer.
“Clang—” came a massive sound.
Both of their muscles bulged as they exerted their last breath in a contest of strength. At that moment, the heavy hammer was only ten centimeters from her skull.
Wang Ruizhi glanced at Norman Nov’s contorted face and shouted loudly: “I’m calling for backup!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the white man, who had been dominating, suddenly felt countless hands reaching from behind: one hand grabbed his ear, one yanked his hair, one poked his eye, and another ruthlessly jabbed his nostril.
Norman Nov’s face was pulled into something monstrous. He rapidly retreated, swinging the iron hammer wildly at his side.
“Aaahhh!”
But… those hands did not seem to be physical entities at all. The hammer gave no feedback of hitting anything, yet the hands clawing at his face showed no sign of letting go.
Norman Nov broke down from having his face mauled. He screamed madly, flailing his arms wildly while sprinting through the forest in an attempt to shake them off.
“There’s a ghost!!!”
“Help! Aaah!”
If there had been a mirror at that moment, he would have seen—several shadowy figures entwined around Norman Nov. Those shadows clung to him like ghosts, dispersing instantly when struck by weapons, only to quickly regroup.
The shadows muttered fragments under their breath, viciously yanking his hair, scratching his face with nails, riding on his neck, twisting the flesh of his buttocks—using every ruthless trick imaginable.
[How old are you and still not married? You planning to die alone?!]
[No stable job at all, can a construction worker even support yourself? Do you have full insurance and benefits?!]
[Have kids, have kids, have kids…]
【Player Wang Ruizhi (Wang Dama) used skill: Call for Backup
(Active) Summons a random number of aunts and uncles
Summoned entities have persistent haunting properties, immune to physical attacks
“Low damage, extremely insulting.”】
Taking advantage of the interval while Norman Nov was entangled and breaking down from the premium relatives, Wang Ruizhi quickly swapped to a new weapon.
She hefted the large kitchen knife in her hand, feeling it was much handier.
At that moment, the smog that had permeated the forest dispersed, revealing warm sunlight.
Wang Ruizhi tilted her head back, basking in the light, and slowly exhaled.
The parts of her body exposed to the sunlight healed at an astonishing speed—her swollen, purple wounds mended, and the life force she had consumed gradually returned to her body.
【Player Xia Xueqin (Weather Forecaster) used skill: Sunny Day
(Active) Area-of-effect heal
Restores health and heals wounds for all friendly targets in the current scene
“If you are well, it is a sunny day.”】
Sunny Day had an extremely wide healing range, a rare large-scale group heal skill among healer professions. It was not inferior even compared to high-level healer players.
But this was only in comparison within the profession. If a healer insisted on playing as the main attacker against a speed-type assault player head-on, it was hard to say what the outcome would be.
At the other end of the Misty Forest, the 1v1 standoff between the two was even less optimistic than Wang Dama’s situation.
Player No. 11, Richard, had the profession of courier. His speed points were clearly higher than ordinary people. Even carrying a heavy hunting rifle, he moved swiftly through the forest, and at certain moments, his figure was imperceptible even to the naked eye.
Xia Xueqin’s smog had little effect. Apart from the knife in her hand, she had no other ranged weapons, so the healer support struggled greatly in single combat.
“Urgh…”
The pink-haired girl took a bullet to the knee and fell headfirst onto the grass.
After a while, she shakily climbed up from the ground, wiped the blood from her face with her hand, and grinned.
The [Sunny Day] that healed Wang Dama also treated her wounds.
But while the bleeding stopped, the pain from the bullet piercing her body persisted. Xia Xueqin had gunshot wounds and grazes on her arm, abdomen, and thigh; her clothes were torn, exposing her skin underneath.
Among them, she seemed to have the worst injuries.
Richard stopped moving and stood under a tree with a puzzled expression: “You’re actually a healer profession.”
“A versatile healer profession is welcome in any team. You’re not a main attacker, so why make an enemy of us?”
Her tattered clothes were a nuisance, so Xia Xueqin bit and tore off the fabric from her sleeve with her teeth, revealing the elaborate tattoo on her arm to shoulder—a bird in flight amid trees.
Sunny Day healed the gunshot wound on her leg, and she sneered: “You have the nerve to say that? You deliberately blew up the beehive, got me chased by a swarm of bees, and that massive honeycomb in Crystal Palace went to waste. This debt hasn’t been settled yet! So what if I beat you up? I don’t need a reason to beat you—I’m beating you lot!”
The pink-haired girl’s expression was hysterical, even gradually turning manic, like someone completely driven mad.
Richard shook his head: “Tsk tsk, what a pity for such a good profession.”
In the next instant, he raised the hunting rifle again.
Xia Xueqin glared with red eyes and let out a hoarse roar, charging at the enemy with her machete raised.
Her momentum was at 100%, but with her speed, hitting Richard was nearly impossible.
After two or three seconds of engagement, another bullet precisely pierced her abdomen.
“Pfft—” Xia Xueqin spat out a mouthful of blood. The huge inertia sent her stumbling back two steps before she fell onto the grass. A gaping bloody hole in her abdomen oozed red liquid in large gushes, soaking her clothes through.
Richard rested both hands on the hunting rifle, coldly watching, waiting for the girl before him to die.
“Too weak.”
Truthfully, beating a ‘helpless weakling’ healer player was not his style.
But reality did not go his way.
A few seconds later, despite such severe injuries, Xia Xueqin pushed herself up from the ground with both hands and slowly straightened up, like a hunched shrimp.
She raised her head, and the glaring sunlight overhead rapidly healed the wounds on her body.
Richard frowned, his hands subconsciously gripping the rifle stock tighter.
His bullets were limited…
Not long after, the blood-soaked girl bounced back to life, full of vigor.
Xia Xueqin shouldered her knife, unconcerned about her ragged clothes, and flashed a bright smile: “Hey, didn’t die. Disappointed, huh?”
【Player Xia Xueqin (Weather Forecaster) skill: Sunny Day
Effect 1: Restores health for all friendly players in range, heals wounds
Effect 2: Under sunny illumination, gains 100x healing effect when near death
“Mainly for dancing at death’s door.”】
Though she was fragile overall, ragged and tattered with low combat power, her persistent healing skill gave Xia Xueqin a monstrous, unkillable BUG.
Without thinking, Richard raised his hand and fired again.
“Bang—”
But after several exchanges, Xia Xueqin’s accuracy in dodging his bullets had greatly improved. This shot missed her chest and abdomen, hitting only her arm.
The bullet tore open a bloody hole right at the eye of the large bird tattoo on Xia Xueqin’s arm.
It looked as if the bird was shedding bloody tears.
A chill ran down Richard’s spine, and he instinctively retreated half a step.
He had clearly hit his opponent and maintained the advantage, yet an increasingly intense fear welled up.
Especially when the pink-haired girl dragged her bleeding arm, vomiting blood while hefting her knife, stumbling stubbornly toward him—that fear reached its peak.
Richard’s heart pounded, breaking out in cold sweat: “You—you’re exactly what kind of monster!!! ”
He kept retreating, but unbeknownst at some point, toxic smog had gradually enveloped the surroundings again, blurring his vision.
Xia Xueqin smiled on her face, her voice soft: “Don’t be scared. This little pain is nothing…”
“If you’ve been through other things, you’d know getting shot to death is practically blissful.”
Richard retreated repeatedly. But the girl pressed forward step by step, always staring at him with that hungry, predatory gaze.
In the mist, thick clouds had covered the sky at some point, with thunder rumbling. The already eerie forest brimmed with an even more terrifying, bizarre aura.
When the largest mass of dark clouds gathered overhead, a pattering light rain began to fall.
【Player Xia Xueqin (Weather Forecaster) used skill: Rain
(Active) Small-area magic
Usable only once per day, limited to 60 seconds】
Richard braced himself like facing a great enemy, reflexively shielding his head with his hand. But the raindrops falling on his hand felt cool and moist, with no unusual reaction.
He looked at Xia Xueqin in shock and fear, suspecting inwardly: Could it be another healing skill?
The girl simply grinned widely at him, showing a brilliant smile.
【Weather Forecaster performing pH value adjustment, current pH 3.0】
【“Rain” upgraded to—“Acid Rain” effect】
The moment the system prompt appeared, Richard did not even have time to read it clearly. The originally cool raindrops turned into scalding hot oil as they fell on him.
“Aaahhh!!! ”
He screamed like a madman, but the light rain continued gently pattering down.
Those tiny raindrops burned the skin black and charred upon contact, rotting out large holes; on his hair, it scorched and curled it to the scalp.
Clothes and gear were futile against the relentless drizzle.
Richard dropped the rifle and rolled desperately on the ground seeking cover. He clutched his head and vital areas with both hands, but his arm skin and muscles had already burned through, with chunks of tissue sloughing off.
Acid Rain was Xia Xueqin’s most powerful skill, but unfortunately too limited—long cooldown and only 60 seconds of effect.
Most veteran players could endure those 60 seconds easily if they had decent gear.
Richard relied on tree cover, defensive equipment, and his own tough physique to barely withstand a minute of the strong acid assault. The price was a nearly disfigured face and skin without a single intact patch.
Like a hideous fierce ghost, he screamed hoarsely at Xia Xueqin standing on high ground: “I’m going to kill you!!! ”
The girl looked down at him indifferently and tsked: “I knew it.”
Then, she slowly pulled a card from her pocket.
Seeing that card, Richard had an ominous premonition. With his last burst of strength, he turned and fled for his life.
But the smog had disoriented his sight, and combined with the earlier acid rain assault, his head throbbed painfully. Before he could run far, the ground underfoot suddenly gave way.
Richard abruptly stepped into water, his entire body losing balance and sinking in.
“Glug glug—”
He did not know how deep the water was. Bubbles rose from his mouth and nose as Richard felt the acid-corroded wounds on his body burn fiercely. He struggled with all his might to surface.
What met his eyes was a vast lake.
How could a lake suddenly appear in the forest??? It definitely had not been there minutes ago.
In his shock, human faces suddenly appeared before Richard—one, two, three.
Though human, they were not living people. Long-rotted faces were pallid, mutilated, swollen; soaked in the lake for so long, they presented a terrifying spectacle. Blackened teeth gaped open, hungering for fresh flesh.
【Environment Card: Zombie-Filled Small Lake
Use: Materialize the card
Description: Upon use, a lake filled with zombies appears near the player. If the current instance has no zombies, generates sufficient numbers out of thin air
Note: “Similar in effect to the corpse-packed bus.”】
Xia Xueqin stood at the lake’s edge, watching the pitiful man being torn apart by hundreds of zombies, limbs mangled, and shook her head tsking: “Used the card I just bought like this. Such a waste. I told you long ago—getting shot to death is the happiest way to die.”
Richard originally should have had the power to fight the zombies, but the 60 seconds of strong acid rain left him gravely injured. Coupled with his fear of Xia Xueqin’s skill ‘Undying’, he lost his reason and was only able to be devoured alive by the zombies, torn apart and eaten.
In the same forest, Wang Ruizhi also heard the rumbling thunder of the Rain.
She raised the kitchen knife high and charged in one arrow step toward the man entangled by the seven aunts and eight great-aunts. The blade flashed, grazing past his shoulder, and swiftly and accurately sliced through the muscles of his shoulder.
Norman Nov let out a pained howl. One of the great-aunt ghosts behind him seized the opening and grabbed his cheek, yanking it hard to both sides.
He maintained a ridiculous expression as he gripped the sledgehammer in his hand and smashed toward Wang Ruizhi. The latter tilted her head to dodge the attack, then swung the kitchen knife viciously again.
“This old lady has been cooking for thirty years—my vegetable-chopping skills aren’t something you can compare to!”