Chapter 20: Close-Quarters Slaughter!

"Next time" was just a polite way of saying it.

Skeleton soldiers could be summoned again if they died, but if the Demon God statue was breached, he would be gone too; there probably wouldn't be a next time.

Obviously realizing the severity of the problem, You You immediately responded.

"Received!"

Meanwhile, on the other side, on the first floor of the labyrinth.

In the hall covered with spider webs, two skeleton soldiers were using fancy footwork to pull the lone cave spiders to the limit.

Simply put, it was Hu Wan stepping forward to lure the monster, leading the cave spider to the side of a pillar, and then using the characteristic that this creature could only move in a straight line, Ye Zhiqiu, holding a spear, would sneak an attack from the side.

According to their tests, cave spiders with a body length of less than two meters could generally be poked to death in three shots.

And compared to the hard head, the cave spider's butt—especially the soft sides of the butt—was a relatively easy place to break through.

The only tricky part was that these cave spiders would use their mouthparts to spray dense spider webs; once pinned down, it was basically death.

But fortunately, these spiders had obvious pre-swing actions when "spitting."

Once he noticed the target's cheeks bulging, Ye Zhiqiu, hiding behind the pillar, would tap the ground with the spear in his hand to remind Hu Wan, who was luring the monster, to pay attention and dodge.

The two cooperated for an afternoon, grinding nearly twenty cave spiders, and never missed once.

Ye Zhiqiu calculated that, ignoring the Nether Coin income provided by the spider eggs, the two could split 100 contribution points for twenty spiders.

When they went back, they only needed to kill 20 more rat-men, and then spend some Nether Coins to buy 1000 jin of coal from life-profession players at a price slightly higher than the official acquisition price, and they could max out the 100 contribution points provided by the daily tasks.

In this way, while the vast majority of players could only get 50 contribution points per day, their daily income could reach 200 points! They could reach Black Iron tier in five days!

This leveling speed was enough to leave other players far behind just after the server opened.

Looking at Ye Zhiqiu, who was calculating, Hu Wan pondered for a moment and said.

"I plan to give you all the contribution points for these twenty spiders. After grinding a few more in a while... by tomorrow night at the latest, you should be able to reach Black Iron and raise the level cap to lv20."

Hearing this from his teammate, Ye Zhiqiu was stunned and blurted out subconsciously.

"Why?"

Hu Wan shrugged indifferently and said as a matter of course.

"Compared to two people splitting it and slowing down the pace, don't you think it would be more efficient to let one person reach Black Iron tier first and then bring the other person up?"

Indeed.

Ye Zhiqiu understood what he meant, and this was also a basic operation for many guilds pursuing strength when exploring new games.

That is, prioritize concentrating all advantages to develop a few seed players, and then use these seed players to snowball and expand the advantage, thereby feeding back to other players...

But this kind of thing usually only happened between acquaintances; the two hadn't known each other until today.

Ye Zhiqiu didn't believe the other party couldn't see the future potential of this game and the value of early-stage advantages.

"Aren't you afraid I'll go back on my word?"

Hu Wan smiled faintly and said indifferently.

"My eye for people has always been quite accurate; I believe you aren't the type to be greedy for small gains... besides, this isn't much to be greedy for."

Hearing this, Ye Zhiqiu could almost conclude that this guy must be from some gaming guild.

"... Then I won't be polite."

He owed this favor!

Moving the short sword to his left hand, Hu Wan smiled, stretched out his skeleton right hand, and shook hands with him.

"Happy cooperation... by the way, I think I leveled up just now."

"I think I did too."

"Hiss... strange."

"What's wrong?"

"My attribute points were automatically allocated to agility," Hu Wan, staring at the attribute panel, fell into deep thought. "Although it fits my wishes... but is there no such thing as free attribute points in this game?"

"Mine seems to have been added to strength." Ye Zhiqiu opened the attribute panel and confirmed.

【

ID: Ye Zhiqiu

Race: Human

Soul Level: Ordinary (Level Cap LV3)

Level: LV. 1 (+1)

Experience: (33/1W)

HP: (200/200)

MP: (0/0)

Constitution: 2

Strength: 4 (+1)

Agility: 1

Intelligence: 0

Spirit: 0

】

He actually wanted to be a mage, but the most basic skeleton soldier didn't seem to be able to be a mage.

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a hidden mechanism of 'Catastrophe OL'."

Hu Wan looked toward him.

"Hidden mechanism?"

"That's right," Ye Zhiqiu nodded and expressed his view. "The logic of general games is that you add points after leveling up, but this game should have the logic of 'leveling up only after attributes grow'."

"I don't know the intention of the development team designing it this way; perhaps it's for realism? However, the term 'experience bar' is indeed somewhat misleading; in fact, it would be more appropriate to call it proficiency. That is, whatever attribute you exercise through your game behavior in the game, that is the attribute that will ultimately grow."

"So that's it..." Hu Wan's eyes brightened, and he looked at Ye Zhiqiu with interest twice. "Seriously, buddy, are you really not an internal staff member of the game company?"

"How is that possible? Do I look like one..."

Ye Zhiqiu looked at Hu Wan, crying and laughing, paused for a while, and then looked to the side.

"However... I did want to develop a game like this before."

"Just happened to think of the same thing, right?"

Hu Wan grinned and was about to say something more, but a pop-up window suddenly flashed before his eyes.

【Alert: Monster Siege!】

【Description: A large wave of rat-men is approaching the Demon King's territory! Players in the vicinity, please pick up your weapons immediately and gather at the core area of the Demon King's territory!

Successfully holding off the attack will yield huge Nether Coin and contribution point rewards; if it fails, it will lead to the forced closure of this closed beta event!】

Seeing the forced closure at the end, Hu Wan felt his heart jump to his throat... although he didn't have a heart in the game.

"Monster siege?!"

"I went offline and checked the forum just now, originally planning to record some insights, but I found that players reported that thousands of rats are moving toward the direction of the Demon King's territory," looking at that serious skeleton face, Ye Zhiqiu stopped talking. "It seems a pop-up window appeared online too."

Hu Wan asked hurriedly.

"Who is that player?"

"Seems to be called Bull-Headed Warrior."

"... What kind of bird name is that?" Hu Wan muttered, stared at Ye Zhiqiu, and continued. "Where is he now? Can you determine the location?"

Ye Zhiqiu shook his head.

"I estimate it's tough; that mine is twisted and turned, and there's no sign. Looking at his muddled description, I even suspect whether he can find the way back..."

Hu Wan pondered for a long time.

"What do you say, go back and help?"

"That's definitely going back to help."

Ye Zhiqiu looked back at the hall covered with spider webs, which was the battlefield where he and a newly met friend had livered for an afternoon.

"If the home is gone, everything is meaningless."

"Boom—"

The earth is trembling!

The rat-men are roaring!

Eat it all, eat it all—

Human things running away helplessly!

That is one of the four scenes of the apocalypse hanging in the confessional of the Holy City Cathedral.

Thousands of rat-man soldiers from the depths of Hell flooded the walls of the Doomsday Fortress!

Facing the behavior of the rat-men gathering to launch a death charge, the believers of Shengxisi called it a "Rat Tide"!

That is a foolish act that transcends the biological instinct for survival; the swarming rats stepped on each other's feet, destroying the enemy while also destroying themselves!

Bathing in the light of corruption bestowed by the three Rat Gods, they, who usually scattered when they couldn't beat someone, would never run away this time! And there was absolutely no possibility of retreating even a little bit!

Just a slight stagnation.

They would be trampled into meat paste by their own people rushing up from behind!

"Charge up!"

"Smash those bone frames!"

"Bite off the necks of those human things!"

"For Ge Erluo!!!"

The rat-men with red eyes were already crazy, filling the entire mine tunnel like a rolling torrent.

Hearing that shrill scream, Luo Yan's face changed slightly.

Ge Erluo!

Rat of Gluttony!

The moment he heard this name, he, who came from the deepest part of Hell, already understood everything.

Deep in this mine, a group of slave rats driven out of the labyrinth had completed the ritual of pleasing Ge Erluo under the most extreme circumstances, nurturing a bloated "God-Chosen Rat"!

Luo Yan still remembered learning in the Demon King Academy classroom that the conditions for the ritual were extreme hunger and extremely rich food, and there had to be a slave rat whose soul and personality were twisted to the extreme!

The probability of the ritual succeeding was extremely small; after all, Ge Erluo's personality was as awkward as his children.

Generally speaking, this kind of twisted monster was usually created by the Demon King to cause trouble for adventurers who ventured deep into the labyrinth!

It's just that because the success rate of the ritual wasn't high, few Demon Kings would use it.

As for the Demon King personally crusading against the runaway God-Chosen Rat...

He had never even heard of it!

"Why do I always run into such damn things..." Luo Yan cursed, raised the magic wand in his hand, and began the spell preparation; the energy of the dead and the energy of the earth element gathered toward his feet at the same time.

Facing the surging rat tide, 【Knowledge Explodes】, standing in the front row, widened his eyes in surprise; unfortunately, there wasn't much expression on the skeleton face, otherwise that expression must have been like seeing a ghost.

"Holy crap! So much experience—"

Before his voice fell, the torrent of flesh and blood had already submerged him.

That pale skeleton frame was smashed into pieces, and "Catastrophe OL" finally gave birth to the first player to die in battle!

Sacrificing a 【Knowledge Explodes】, the players standing behind immediately realized the unusualness of this group of rat-men and became alert one after another.

"Don't be afraid, brothers! The opposite side is just a group of experience packs! Gather the formation! Set the spears!"

Someone in the skeleton sea shouted, a few skeletons moved first, and then other players followed, squeezing into a thorny bone wall in the not-so-spacious mine tunnel.

No fancy tactics.

At this moment, there was only the collision of blood and bones!

The skeletons in the front row were squeezed and smashed into pieces, but fortunately, the skeletons behind were holding up, and the surging rat tide was blocked from its unstoppable momentum.

"Squeak—!"

The rat-men rushing to the front were stabbed into a gourd string by spears, and dark blood plasma sprayed out from the broken spearheads.

Not only that—

There were also bone spurs and stone pillars rising from the ground!

Seeing that it was about to block the momentum of the rat-men's charge, it was smashed open by the latter with pickaxes and blunt weapons!

Luo Yan held the magic wand, carefully deliberating on the spells he could use, killing the rat swarm as much as possible, while avoiding burying himself and the players in the mine tunnel together.

The constantly squeezed corpses formed a slope, and the rats, whose eyes were red with killing, rushed forward one after another, starting to climb up on the corpses of their own kind, trying to climb over the towering bone wall!

However, just as their claws climbed onto the city wall, a great sword dragging with strong wind swept across their faces, cutting the rat-men rushing to the front in half, turning into a bloody storm and scattering backward.

That "person" was Bond.

Awakened by undead magic, he came back to life as a zombie and possessed strength far exceeding when he was alive!

"Damn! Where did this NPC spawn from?!" Looking at the zombie standing on top of his head, Gou Shi widened his non-existent eyes.

This guy is a bit handsome!

He stole all his limelight!

"Seems to be that meat paste from before."

"Holy crap?!"

"Aoooooo!!!"

Xiao Wan, who couldn't get enough to eat, squeezed in beside them, clutching her pickaxe with both hands, burying her skull head, and letting out a strange cry as she pushed hard against the front.

It could be seen that she was terrified.

However, hearing that losing would lead to the server closing, and the coal mined all day would be mined in vain, she still used all her strength.

Seeing that the skeleton wall was about to be unable to block, a player named 【Gulping a Septic Tank】 suddenly stood out.

He tied a dozen sticks of dynamite, which were probably used for mining, to his body, lit the fuse with a torch, and climbed onto the skeleton sea with a scream.

"Brothers! I'll go first! See you on the forum!"

Seeing the fire-sparking firecracker, the players trampled underneath were almost scared into turning around and running, but fortunately, they remembered it was in the game and stabilized their footing.

No fancy run-up.

The NPC named Bond next to him suddenly became clever, grabbed his arm, and threw him out.

Gulping drew an arc in the air, fell heavily into the rat swarm, and waited for a long time without hearing a sound.

"Pit-father, I'm super!" Gou Shi couldn't help but curse.

It was actually a dud!

It wasted that tragic atmosphere! He was actually moved for two seconds!

The battle situation fell into a stalemate again.

The rat-men couldn't advance even half a step, and the skeleton sea formed by the players couldn't do much to the former either.

Bond, standing on the skeleton sea, waved his great sword, killing the rushing rat-men one by one; however, facing the continuous attack, even the tireless zombie showed signs of fatigue.

The reason was that the number of monsters was really too many, and there was no sign of stopping at all!

And on the player's side, although the dead skeletons could come back to life quickly, the number was ultimately at a disadvantage.

Especially since summoning skeletons was not without a price.

Temporary summons summoned by consuming mana could not serve as containers for souls, and monsters summoned by the core of the Demon King's territory required the consumption of faith points.

Watching the faith points dropping wildly, Luo Yan felt a pain in his heart.

And just at this moment, a skeleton soldier suddenly ran to his side and knelt on one knee.

"Lord Demon King! The mine tunnel 100 meters in front of you is exactly above the lower labyrinth!"

This person was Ye Zhiqiu.

Hearing his report, Luo Yan immediately came to his senses and understood what this guy meant.

As long as he found a way to collapse the mine tunnel and connect it completely with the first floor of the underground labyrinth, he could use the natural enemies of these rat-men to deal with them!

This was indeed not difficult for a Steel-tier mage, especially since the mine tunnel itself was already stuck to the edge of the labyrinth!

The only problem was, connecting to the labyrinth might bring new trouble...

Looking at the defense line that was about to be unable to hold, Luo Yan knew he didn't have time to hesitate.

He could only gamble that the group of cave spiders and this group of rat-men would perish together!

Luo Yan waved the magic wand in his hand, chanted the spell, and used the remaining mana to release the last Steel-tier magic.

"Earth Collapse!"

Just as his voice fell, the earth trembled, just like an earthquake.

Before everyone could react, the not-so-spacious mine tunnel suddenly collapsed!

"Squeak—!"

The rat tide, which was constantly being squeezed, finally found a vent and poured into the hall on the first floor of the labyrinth along with the rolling rubble.

That surging scene was just like flood discharge during a flood!

Falling from a height of more than ten meters, the rat-men who landed first were vomited blood from the fall, and the rat-men who followed were also dizzy and couldn't find their direction.

And when they finally woke up from their bewilderment, what they faced were pairs of scarlet eyes.

Hair-raising fear crawled all over the rat-men's bodies; they knew exactly what those guys were, and what those eyes meant—

Staring at the little mice that fell into the spider cave, the hungry cave spiders rubbed their hands in the darkness.

It's time to eat! ===== CHAPTER 21 =====