Chapter 52: This Round Is in the Bag

Li Zheng's ongoing drama of challenging the Strange Butterfly was followed closely by Qi Sheng from start to finish.

The process left him torn between laughter and tears.

During this time, the Strange Butterfly's hunting rank increased by six levels, which was somewhat beyond his expectations.

However, he could understand why the Primordial Monster had suddenly grown.

Di Zhao was the creator of the Monster World; his power constituted the main framework of the world. Every Primordial Monster separated from him represented a specific worldly trait and could not be truly killed; even upon death, they could complete an initialization and resurrect at another location.

Furthermore, the growth of Primordial Monsters was not limited to the single option of absorbing external forces to strengthen themselves.

As the Monster World operated, it continuously generated the energy of all things: spiritual plants grew, spiritual ores formed... As long as anything conformed to the laws of the world's operation, it could receive power nurtured and distributed by the world, prompting its development.

Primordial Monsters were even more so.

Devouring, cultivating, getting beaten, spacing out... Every Primordial Monster had its own specific behavioral logic that conformed to the world's operation; as long as they completed these actions, they could draw a portion of the energy nurtured by the world.

It was like completing a growth quest set by a "world NPC" and receiving experience rewards granted by the world.

The Strange Butterfly's behavior of bullying the weak was clearly one of its methods for acquiring growth power.

By bullying Li Zheng, it received a gift of world power, raising its strength rank from level 7 to level 13.

What seemed like bizarre behavior actually had a very reasonable underlying logic supporting it, much like human breathing, which is essentially a process of interacting with the world to obtain various bodily feedbacks necessary for maintaining physiological functions.

Emperor Tomb Village.

Logging into the game again, Li Zheng's expression could not hide his sorrow.

After playing virtual games for so many years, he had finally found one that satisfied him immensely, only to never expect that he would suffer such a humiliating disgrace within this very game.

The Strange Butterfly's proud expression, with its head held high, seemed like a cursed brand etched into his mind, refusing to fade.

After dying and logging off, he watched the forum livestream and discovered that low-level players had gone to challenge the Strange Butterfly again, but the creature simply refused to engage them.

Its cowardly performance toward other players earned the Strange Butterfly a nickname on the forums: "Cowardly Butterfly."

But no matter how cowardly the Strange Butterfly was with others, it struck hard against him, every time beating him until he fled in panic.

There was only one truth behind this differential treatment: in the Strange Butterfly's eyes, he was a weakling who could be bullied at will, a fact that made Li Zheng feel utterly stifled and aggrieved.

He secretly vowed in his heart that he would definitely defeat the Strange Butterfly and wipe away his past shame.

Opening the livestream room, players began to flood in.

Seeing the content of the comments, Li Zheng's expression became incredibly complicated.

The comment section resembled a live exchange of inspirational stories, with everyone encouraging him, hoping he would not fall in the Iron Face of setbacks but would stand up strongly and Iron Face the storms head-on.

In summary, their message was: if you can't beat the Strange Butterfly, keep fighting it; sooner or later, you will win.

They all offered advice and strategies, providing many tactics that seemed reasonable on the surface.

Li Zheng was too exhausted to even complain about the meddling of these onlookers.

Before the fight began, the players in the livestream room acted like martial arts masters, but once the battle started, they issued nothing but blind commands that served no purpose whatsoever.

Just then, one comment caught Li Zheng's attention.

"As long as the name is long enough, you can be found even standing behind a tree": Streamer, you're too stupid; I'll give you a guaranteed winning suggestion. Go buy weapons from the arms dealers; their weapons have immense lethality and can definitely help you overcome ranks to take down the Strange Butterfly. Since your own abilities are insufficient, make up for the strength gap with technology.

Li Zheng had long heard of the arms dealers mentioned in the comment.

These guys had formed a guild called "Doomsday Technology," crafting many weapons that only existed in the real world, and they also sold these weapons to other players.

Recently, during the operation to purify the Dark Cave, the Doomsday Technology Guild had performed brilliantly, earning them the mocking title of "Arms Dealer Guild" from the forum players.

Li Zheng had originally intended to strengthen himself through leveling up before challenging again, but upon seeing this comment, the thought of fighting the Strange Butterfly once more immediately arose in his mind.

The suggestion to purchase weapons seemed entirely feasible to him.

Thinking this, he immediately asked the players in the livestream room if anyone had contact information for the Arms Dealer Guild.

After receiving the contact details, he immediately sent a friend request.

Before long, a notification that the request had been approved rang in his mind, followed by the popping up of a dialogue box.

Big Killer: Bro, buying weapons?

Explorer: I want to ask, what types of weapons do you have here?

Big Killer: Limited by insufficient funds, we are currently only selling Spirit Energy Firearms. Each sells for 150 Sacrificial Power. Bullets do not need to be purchased; you can simply buy Spirit Stones from the mall and inlay them. However, you can only inlay Intermediate Spirit Stones at most; inlaying higher-grade Spirit Stones will cause the barrel to explode during continuous firing.

Explorer: Give me one Spirit Energy Firearm.

After Li Zheng sent his reply, a prompt appeared in his mind:

[Challenger Notification: Player "Big Killer" requests to trade with you. Do you agree?]

Touching the "Agree" option with his consciousness, a trade window popped up before his eyes.

The trade window was divided into two parts: the upper half belonged to the trade initiator, and the lower half belonged to the invited trader.

On the right side of the trade window was the personal space inventory slot, where every item was presented as a high-definition, miniaturized 3D model; gazing at an item would automatically bring up its analysis content.

At the very bottom, there was a bar displaying the remaining amount of Sacrificial Power.

In the top left corner was a small chat window, allowing players to communicate via voice and text in real-time during the trade to negotiate and resolve any issues that might arise.

Li Zheng entered 150 Sacrificial Power into his trade window, while the Spirit Energy Firearm was placed in the upper trade window.

Focusing his gaze, analysis information appeared:

[Spirit Energy Firearm]

Item Quality: Level 4

Item Description: A personalized weapon crafted by player "Big Killer." The gun body is inscribed with energy compression pathways, allowing it to generate Spirit Energy bullets by compressing energy. Upon hitting a target, the bullets automatically detonate, causing small-area explosive damage.

After clicking confirm, the trade window was locked.

The other party clicked confirm at the same time, and immediately, a notification that the trade was complete rang in Li Zheng's mind.

Big Killer: Thanks for your trust; contact us anytime if you need anything. We will launch more powerful weapons in the future; welcome to purchase.

Without replying, Li Zheng took the Spirit Energy Firearm out of his space inventory and examined it carefully.

Courage to fight the Strange Butterfly again rose within his heart.

He changed his livestream room name to "Battle of Revenge" and, amidst the cheers of the watching players, embarked once more on the journey to Wind Wave Pool.

Along the way, Li Zheng tested the power of the Spirit Energy Firearm; the effect satisfied him greatly, with the only drawback being the huge consumption, as every bullet was composed of Sacrificial Power.

The Sacrificial Power gained from killing one Blood Corpse was mostly consumed by the expenditure on bullets.

After turning another Blood Corpse into a sieve, light sparkled in Li Zheng's eyes:

"This round is in the bag!"

One hour and thirty minutes later.

When Li Zheng saw the Strange Butterfly again, he realized a very serious problem.

He was not the only one capable of ranged attacks; the Strange Butterfly's Wind Blades could actually block the bullets.

"No honor among thieves! What kind of skill is using Wind Blades?"

"It hurts so much! If you have the guts, don't use your wind control, and I won't use my firearm; let's continue our bare-handed duel."

Amidst the laughter and joy of the players in the livestream room, Li Zheng ultimately curled up on the ground clutching his head, enduring the Strange Butterfly's fierce blows raining down like a storm from its dual wings.

While being beaten black and blue, Li Zheng suddenly understood a principle: not a single word spoken by that bunch of jerks in the livestream room could be trusted.

Having played virtual games for so many years, he considered himself to possess a strong mental will, yet he still succumbed under the Strange Butterfly's extremely insulting beating.

Watching the inspirational slogans scroll rapidly in the livestream room, under the dual assault of flesh and spirit, Li Zheng could no longer bear the surge of emotions and shed tears of regret:

"Boohoo~ You bastards~ I'll never trust you again."

(End of Chapter)