Chapter 344: Battle

Tieshi Mountain.

A joyful smile appeared on Ye Di's face.

"Finally back. Everyone, you must cherish your lives; don't die, otherwise... that's forty-eight hours!"

Ye Di took a deep breath and looked at Heiniu beside him, a look of surprise appearing on his face: "Holy crap, I've only been gone for two days, and you've secretly leveled up to level four?"

The Heiniu before him had already reached level four.

And Ye Di, even now, was only level two.

"Our respawn point has been moved to Tieshi Mountain. There are many monsters here, so we can grind levels.

With my exquisite assassination techniques, I am now level four!"

Heiniu said, looking smug.

"The only fly in the ointment is that once the monsters here are killed, they don't seem to respawn."

Heiniu had killed a small monster and prepared to farm it again the next day, only to find it hadn't respawned.

At first, he thought the cooldown time for monster respawning was just quite long.

He went to ask the Manager about the cooldown period for these monsters, waiting to farm them next time.

As it turned out, the answer the Manager gave him caught him very much by surprise.

"Every living being in this world is unique.

Once dead, they cannot be respawned.

Therefore, please cherish every scene before you; once missed, it is gone forever."

"Monsters can't respawn? This setting is quite compelling." Ye Di actually quite liked this setting.

"Let's go, let's go grind monsters. I want to reach level four today!"

"Reaching level four in one day? Ye Di, you're dreaming!

Those easy-to-kill monsters were already wiped out by us long ago.

If you want to reach level four now, it will take at least three days," Heiniu said from the side.

"That's too slow!" Ye Di was somewhat dissatisfied.

In fact, for the professionals of this world, the speed of leveling up was definitely not fast.

They did not have the setting of gaining experience from killing monsters.

If they wanted to level up, they needed to cultivate, train, or consume treasures.

If one wanted to level up quickly, then they had to become a God-favored One.

Three days to go from level two to level four—on the God Continent, almost no one could do it.

If the natives heard their words, they would definitely be incredibly shocked.

Players are... this fast?

"How about this, Heiniu, why don't you help me grind monsters?

You beat the monsters until they're low on health, and I'll go take the kills!" Thinking of something, Ye Di was very happy, "Heiniu, how about it? I'll hire you today; you help me kill monsters, and after I log off the game, I'll transfer 5,000 yuan to you."

"Holy crap, five thousand yuan?" Heiniu's eyes lit up, "You rich second-generation dog, I'll take this job!"

Five thousand yuan was almost equal to his monthly salary.

This was his first time making money in a game.

His mind began to race.

The world inside this game was very vast, and the technology was also the latest.

It could be seen that this game definitely had prospects.

Once it officially launched, it would definitely be a hit.

Now, he had obtained the closed beta qualification and seized the initiative.

Should he quit his job and play the game full-time?

If he kept leveling his character, there would definitely be money to be made in the future.

Of course, this kind of thought was just a thought.

Specifically, it still had to be taken slowly.

Life still needed to be taken slowly.

On Tieshi Mountain, the number of players was increasing, already reaching forty or fifty.

Originally, these players only had a dozen tents to live in and some simple food.

However, as new arrivals included carpenters, these players displayed huge creativity and great enthusiasm.

They actually started building their own houses in the game.

Although very crude, there was no problem with sleeping.

Now, on Tieshi Mountain, a small residential area was slowly forming.

These players killed monsters after logging on.

After logging off, they let their game characters sleep to maintain their energy.

The entire respawn point had a rather thriving feeling.

In Koya City, Shivana came out of the City Lord Mansion, a trace of anger on her face.

"This Morei..."

Regarding the City Lord Morei, Shivana truly felt disgust.

He kept putting off the matters regarding Tieshi Mountain.

As it turned out, today Shivana followed the regulations and came to the City Lord Mansion to collect the taxes the Prince was entitled to, only to be rejected by Morei.

He insisted on saying something about the city walls being dilapidated and that all tax revenue had gone to repairing the city walls.

Shivana insisted on taking it.

City Lord Morei, however, stated: there was no Gold, but he would find a way and was currently gathering other nobles to front the money that should be given to Prince Lin.

However, this required Prince Lin to wait for a while.

How could Shivana not be clear about City Lord Morei's ploy? It was just stalling, stalling indefinitely.

Facing such a shameless old fox, Shivana was powerless.

Her strength was also inferior to Morei's.

"If one were to say that when the Prince first arrived, Morei's behavior was contempt.

Now, his behavior is... deliberate obstruction.

Why would Morei... do this?"

Shivana was no fool.

She clearly captured the shift in Morei's behavior.

"Could it be...?"

Shivana thought of something, and her complexion changed slightly.

"No, during this time, I must follow the Prince at all times, and be inseparable from him!"

Shivana sensed a feeling of crisis.

During this time, the Prince had been on Tieshi Mountain with that group of strange Ordinary people, and Shivana did not quite understand the Prince's actions.

However, she did not intervene.

During this time, she had been recruiting soldiers and buying horses in the city, hoping to attract some powerful adventurers.

However, the results were very poor; currently, there were only five professionals newly recruited who were willing to pledge loyalty to the Prince, and the strongest was only a level 6 professional.

This was very pathetic.

However, Shivana also understood.

The main reason was that the Prince had no real power and not much Gold, so no one was willing to work for the Prince at all.

"I am afraid that even if the Prince came to recruit in person, it would be difficult to recruit professionals."

Shivana sighed, feeling that the future was bleak.

She remembered the letter from her sister in the Royal Capital and shook her head.

Her sister pledged loyalty to the Great Princess.

In the letter, her sister wanted her to leave Prince Lin and return to the Royal Capital to pledge loyalty to the Great Princess together.

Shivana was somewhat tempted, but she still refused.

The Great Princess had good character and was also a kind-hearted person.

However, a certain trait of the Great Princess made her not very fond of her.

That was the Great Princess's personality, which was relatively dissolute; rumors said she had affairs with several princes.

Such things were not rare within the Royal Family; after all, the woman most favored by the current King of the Shaya Kingdom was actually his own niece.

Such chaotic matters were especially common among the nobles, particularly in the upper echelons, but Shivana could not accept it.

"My Lady, it is bad." Just then, a man with a scar on his face came over, a look of anxiety on his face.

"What is it?" Shivana asked.

The scarred man before her was a professional she had newly recruited; he had offended a local gang and wanted to seek protection, so he pledged loyalty to Shivana.

"Today, I went to the tavern to drink with Old John, and Old John's son, Little John..."

Shivana frowned: "Get to the point."

"Old John said that the One-eyed Bandit outside the city is preparing to ransack Tieshi Mountain."

"What, ransack Tieshi Mountain!" Shivana's complexion changed drastically, "When?"

"It... it is today, it seems it has already begun."

A chill radiated from Shivana's body: "Let's go, to Tieshi Mountain!"

The current Prince was on Tieshi Mountain.

Moreover, on Tieshi Mountain, the Prince did not bring any guards at all; all he had were those strange Ordinary people.

With just those strange people, how could they protect the Prince?

Shivana felt her heart turn cold.

If the Prince were to die at the hands of the One-eyed Bandit, what would happen then?

She was anxious and rushed toward Tieshi Mountain.

In her heart, she kept chanting: "I hope I am in time!"

Prince, please, do not let anything happen!

On Tieshi Mountain.

Quite a few players sat together, chatting about everything under the sun.

Having been in the game for so long, they decided to hold a bonfire party tonight to build rapport.

At this moment, they were chattering away, talking non-stop.

"A bonfire party without alcohol is too boring!"

"And no girls!"

"What do you mean, isn't Grape Dongdong a girl?"

"She has a boyfriend, it's not the same."

"Isn't it better if she has a boyfriend?"

A group of people chatted non-stop; they were very much looking forward to the first bonfire party.

Just then, Grade 3 Little Tough suddenly ran over: "It's bad, a group of people carrying weapons has come outside our camp, they're likely bandits!"

"Bandits?"

"Monster siege?"

"Holy crap, walking experience packs."

The players present were not afraid upon hearing this; instead, they were even more excited and thrilled.

"I haven't killed anyone in this game yet. I wonder what it feels like to kill in such a realistic world?"

Others discussed it heatedly, rubbing their hands and fists, very interested in those bandits.

At this moment, the figure of Lin Chao appeared; he stood on high ground, his voice resonant.

"The prosperity of Peace Base has aroused the covetousness of bandits, and they intend to come and plunder our home.

Warriors, take up your weapons and defend your home."

【Triggered group quest: Resist the bandits. Successfully resist to gain 10 Experience Value.

Slay bandits to gain additional experience.

Note: Outside of quest requirements, slaying villainous human NPCs will not grant Experience Value.】

Lin Chao did this also to prevent these players from wantonly slaying humans for the sake of leveling up.

Therefore, slaying humans at will does not grant Experience Value.

Of course, in reality, players are actually able to gain Experience Value, but it is all taken by Lin Chao.

Only when characters are marked as villains by him, or marked as villains by the Manager System, can these players gain Experience Value by slaying them.

"Brothers, grab your gear!"

"Damn it, we worked so hard to build these houses, and they dare to come and cause us trouble!"

"Brothers, charge!"

There were now fifty-two players.

Among these players, except for three people, everyone else had become professionals.

Of course, their professional levels were generally not high.

The fifty-two players had an average level of only 3.

But a Grade 3 professional is still much stronger than a Commoner.

However, because they were on Tieshi Mountain, they did not have any decent weapons.

Their weapons were all things like stones, sharpened sticks of Wood, and kitchen knives.

Nevertheless, relying on the powerful physiques of professionals, they were also able to display not-weak combat power.

At this time, several hundred meters away from the camp, the One-eyed Bandit looked at the players in the distance, a look of contempt on his face.

"Look at those people, what weapons are they using? Wooden sticks, kitchen knives? Simply ridiculous!"

"Fighting with wooden sticks, this group of people is indeed as trashy as rumored, not even as good as some villagers."

"Haha, Boss, this mission is too simple, it's just... there's no profit in it."

"How is there no profit? Isn't there a prince over there?"

For this raid, One-eyed Dragon brought his subordinates out in full force.

His subordinates included twenty professionals and over thirty Ordinary people.

This kind of bandit force is very common around Koya City.

What they often did was plunder some villages and some weak merchant groups.

They dared not rob those powerful merchant groups.

"Let's go, quick battle, quick decision, otherwise... if that woman returns, none of us will be able to leave!" One-eyed Dragon ordered, and immediately all the bandits drew their weapons and charged toward the players' camp.

"Kill!"

"Holy crap, blades, these bandits have blades!"

"This blade is mine, don't grab it!"

"These bandits are so kind, they're delivering equipment to us!"

Facing the bandits' attack, these players were not afraid but excited.

Having been influenced by martial arts television and accustomed to watching legion battles, what man wouldn't want to truly fight in a group battle?

Of course, reality is Imprisoned, and one cannot go around killing.

Moreover, being killed in reality means death.

In the game, there are no such concerns.

Anyway, it's not a real death!

Starting a war with one's own body—who wouldn't like that?

The players, holding wooden sticks and bricks, instantly clashed with the bandits.

Shouts and sounds of slaughter instantly formed a cacophony.

Something that made One-eyed Dragon's jaw drop happened.

In the first collision, the players occupied an overwhelming victory.

Those people seemed to not fear death, charging and killing continuously.

And, most importantly, they were all... professionals.

"Damn it! Wasn't it said they were all Ordinary people!" One-eyed Dragon cursed.

In the first engagement, several of his brothers had already died, and two of them were professionals.

Of course, the other side was not unscathed either; one person instantly had their arm chopped off.

However, the man whose arm had been severed did not scream as expected; instead, his eyes were red as he shouted something.

"Devils... they are a group of devils!"

One-eyed Dragon was afraid!

That group of people was not at all like what was recorded; not only were they all professionals, but they were also fearless of death.

He wanted to run.

Just then, however, several voices he could not understand reached him.

"Heiniu, that One-eyed Dragon is the leader, stop him quickly, don't let him run!"

"You beat him until he's low on health, I'll come to finish him off, I'll give you 10,000!"

Ye Di roared loudly; his face was stained with fresh blood, yet he felt no fear.

This game seemed to have blurred the perception.

Therefore, even seeing limbs separated, he did not feel that sense of nausea or suffocation.

"Twelve thousand, Ye Di, I'll help you kill him!" Heiniu shouted loudly.

He stared fixedly at One-eyed Dragon.

This One-eyed Dragon was a hot commodity, worth a house of 1 square meter!

"Deal!" Ye Di did not hesitate at all.

It was just 10,000, wasn't it!

That was the head of the bandit leader.

Not only would there be a large amount of experience, but perhaps he would also obtain a cool title.

"Kill!"

The sounds of slaughter continued.

The players were simply fearless of death; even if injured, they acted as if nothing had happened, crazily trying to secure kills or pick up equipment.

As for those mountain bandits, their strength was weak to begin with, and their morale was not as good as the players', especially after seeing the players' ferocious appearance, they were terrified and were soon killed or sent fleeing.

Lin Chao stood atop a large tree, his eyes calm: "Victory."

(End of this chapter)