Chapter 420: The Bug‑Extermination Squad

【Only seeking death】【Lose courage at the mere rumor】【Same weapon】

When these three keywords are piled together, what the Death God needs to produce is obvious without further explanation.

But since he first entered the game, nearly half a year has passed; reality and illusion intertwine, twists and turns, many things have quietly changed.

The man named Qiu Yi is no longer the person he once was; by middle age, after drifting around, he still has nothing, only able to seek destruction as a failure.

A carefree rural life gradually healed his soul; the earthy scent brought by farming slowly filled his anxiety.

Now he has learned to compromise with himself; that fearless-of-death, eager-to-vanish self-destructive tendency has been reshaped into a ruthless determination called resolve.

Therefore, what he pulled out was not deadly poison, but a smoke grenade.

Sacrifice is possible, but unnecessary.

It's not worth wasting one's primary experience just to vent anger at a bunch of idiots.

So, what should be done now is to retreat!

But retreating doesn't mean fleeing three thousand li; the Death God continued his investigation the next day, wanting to dig up more dirt on the Royal Capital Noble Circle.

Moreover, as his livestream and persistence continued, from words to deeds, more and more players supporting him flocked to the Wangdu Help Hall.

This included a makeup artist skilled at changing faces, a tailor brother who knows formalwear design, and even a carriage-driving enthusiast who has become proficient.

What's more worth mentioning is that, although nobody said it outright, as fellow top-tier players, the Death God discovered that several of them were actually members of those prestigious guilds.

Consequently, the banquet host might be chatting and laughing with envoys sent by those guilds during the day, only to be secretly stabbed in the back by an important member of the same guild at night.

Quite interesting—is this truly personal conduct, or just so-called "personal conduct"?

Regardless, with this logistical heavenly team backing him, and the Death God himself being adept at mingling in circles and pulling tricks, an elegant noble gentleman was thus born.

With this fresh, clean new facade, the following days were practically effortless smooth sailing; a little extra chatter yielded plenty of useful intel.

Of course, if this gentleman might be called Marx, or might be called Shakespeare, it would have been even better if he hadn't nearly been tricked by an enthusiastic noble lady into playing poker with her husband…

However, the good times didn't last; just the previous evening, as he dressed impeccably and usual slipped into a noble banquet to show off his skills, he ultimately still messed up.

Because this banquet's stakes were different from before; those previous gatherings were merely meet‑and‑greets for feelings, meant for everyone to eat, drink, play, and casually form teams.

But this time the participants included many high‑rankers, even a duke with real authority.

This gathering of true carnivores inevitably turned to discussing some recent hot topics that are highly complex and hard to evaluate.

Therefore.

"Mr. Verne, may I ask how much you know about Ji Ming's divine selection?"

"Um, regarding JiMiYin…… my impression is still okay, I'd say he's a decent person."

"Huh???"

……

After all, he's not a veteran of their circle.

Perhaps before, chatting about cute remarks was easy, but now whenever a topic unrelated to the core of the circle comes up, the Death God feels a bit clumsy.

All he can do is give an awkward laugh twice.

"Haha, of course—I definitely haven't seen the divine chosen one in person; they supposedly went straight up the mountain upon arrival, right? This is just me guessing based on what I heard from others earlier."

"Oh……"

Watching the other person turn and leave in doubt, even though he barely managed to brush it off, the helpless Death God was already drenched in sweat.

Moreover, before he could find an excuse to slip away, the keen‑sensed Xiguang Duke noticed something off about him.

"Hah……"

After observing him nonchalantly for a while, he swirled his wine glass, pretending to bump into him by the long table laden with various dishes.

"Sir, your complexion looks a bit off—are you feeling unwell?"

"Oh no, I……"

Although the Death God believes he has seen great storms, this clearly does not include the Kingdom's Defense Minister, who in reality…… anyway, he certainly wouldn't meet the Xiguang Duke.

What's more, he is over level seventy, a veteran military officer with a couple of tricks up his sleeve; just standing there, he is already an imposing final‑boss level threat.

Thus, after just a few words, his hesitant stammers were exposed by the other's tricks and intimidation.

"Laughable—I've roamed the radiant realms for years and never heard of a knight named Verne!"

The Xiguang Duke snorted coldly, even his eagle eyes flashing with a chill.

"Speak—who exactly are you, and what's your purpose for sneaking in?"

The Death God had no choice but to roll up his sleeves and go all‑out against this aggressive old duke.

Even though he had already begun curbing meaningless deaths, his current level is still under forty; truly clashing blade‑to‑blade, he obviously can't match him.

He could only, after great effort, flee the castle—yet about to fall into enemy hands—choose the 【One‑Click Disconnect】 suicide.

——Victory and defeat are common in war; young hero, please try again.

But his actions have already affected too many people, and this time he also provoked a duke renowned for being sensitive and suspicious.

Therefore, during the day he waited to respawn, the Xiguang Duke directly launched a major investigation against him and quickly discovered his true identity was actually a Pioneer.

"What? A Pioneer actually sneaked into our banquet? Who's his spy, and who else is involved?"

The duke's fury was extreme; the Royal Capital nobles all used their own channels to seek out those powerful Pioneer forces, demanding an explanation or at least information.

However, the forces' responses were simple, amounting to just one sentence.

"Huh? Who? Who's that? I don't know. Personal conduct shouldn't be blown up to the group, thanks—please go settle things with him directly; we've already cut ties with him on justice grounds, meow."

It sounds cold‑blooded and indifferent, but this is the joint result of the Death God's discussions with several guilds, and also an important part of the statement he posted on the Player Forum.

Actually, that's exactly the effect the Death God wanted; if the major guilds didn't cut ties with him on justice grounds, things would only get worse!

Therefore, as someone who bears all responsibility alone and has absolutely no relation to anyone else, a professional noble black‑worm, an insect‑hunting hunter.

The first thing the Death God did after respawning was to trigger the 【Restart Badge】 he earned from a hidden quest, teleporting back across mountains and rivers to his death site.

Exactly, this is the fundamental reason he must leave the castle and restart no matter what—to find a safe and suitable foothold.

Therefore, after everything around had darkened again, a player immediately came over.

"Boss, what should we do next?"

Although he had been squatting all day in a urinal, relying on the prestige from fighting to the death and the lukewarm support of various major guilds, Death God had already successfully recruited a small cadre online.

Even adding the previous few, the team barely had only seven or eight people.

But considering that those who can enter the Royal Capital are the most handsome and strongest, the elite among players, the elite among Pioneers.

Without any overt ties to any guild, it can be considered a truly formidable 'Independent Squad'.

So, having already prepared the plan, Death God, who was about to make a big move tonight, slowly revealed a smile.

"I heard that the good-for-nothing son of some damn duke is supposed to hold a banquet tonight; let's go give him a surprise!"

Surprise?

"Translate, translate, what does 'surprise' mean?"

"Surprise means that at midnight tonight, the Insect Extermination Squad will use an explosion full of artistic value to announce the arrival of a terrifying era for the insects."

Unfortunately, the explosive they set up, although the dosage was well measured, was precisely the amount that would not cause the building itself to collapse.

The installation spot was also good, right in the middle of the banquet hall; if it detonated, it would certainly cause considerable casualties.

But Death God never expected that, perhaps because the banquet had a last-minute guest with extremely high charisma and a lot of buzz, a Divine Chosen.

Although they were rather self-respecting, so the crowd ended up not getting any meat, this thing really could make hungry worms just by smelling it, and the gourmets were genuinely excited.

So before midnight even arrived, they hastily dragged a like-minded card friend off to the card room to play poker.

And there's an eighty percent chance they'll fight straight through to dawn, without leaving the venue in between.

This led to the banquet hall at midnight being nearly empty of any activity, with hardly any insects moving about.

In the vast space, only the maidservants were busy, happy to finally get off work early and pack leftovers to take home for the elderly and children.

So this bomb didn't kill a single noble; instead……

"Silence! Silence! What happened here?!"

Other knight squads patrolling nearby arrived first, preparing to raise their shields, but were shocked by the bloody scene before them.

All that could be seen was a mess of furniture fragments, with several servants bleeding from head wounds lying on the ground, writhing in pain, and scattered among them were four splatters of human flesh.

"This… what happened here?"

While they were still standing there, dumbfounded, the doors, already blown open with several large holes, were kicked open by someone.

"The bugs inside, all surrender!"

They were several strange figures wearing unknown coverings on their faces, the ones in front bearing large shields advancing, while those behind held heavy crossbows already strung, clearly prepared.

The leader seemed about to continue saying something threatening to boost morale, but before he could speak, he and his subordinates were stunned by the scene in the hall.

???

After a full three seconds of silence, he blurted out a sentence.

"Aren't you guys holding a banquet here?"

"It's over!"

A man, holding up his pants, rushed to the scene in a panic, shouting hysterically.

"It's over! The banquet is already over!"

It's no wonder he looked flustered; after all, he was the security chief of tonight's banquet, and such a mishap would surely earn him a reprimand from the young master.

"Ah… everyone's gone?"

The invaders clearly didn't expect everyone to be so… so lacking in refinement, already fast asleep by just past midnight.

Damn, that means we've been busy for nothing, and we've even caused…

Death God looked around, seeing the several obviously injured innocents and at least two shattered corpses.

What a huge mess…

But now is no longer the time for guilt, for as time passes, more and more people drawn by the explosion are rushing to the scene.

Moreover, although the divine selection was a last‑minute arrangement, the fact that Prince Philip would attend was already known to the nobles of the Royal Capital.

Thus, how could those minor nobles who had planned to show off in front of the elders possibly pass up such a perfect opportunity?

Upon seeing these masked intruders, they began shouting for battle, glaring and stroking their beards, looking ready to personally go down and wrestle them.

And the moment he opened his mouth, he said something utterly unbearable.

"Despicable invaders, what's the point of attacking the servants? If you've got guts, come at us!"

"Everyone, we must absolutely not let this gang of ruthless thugs go; who knows what other evil schemes they might have!"

To an outsider, the nobles' side, with its superior numbers, righteous fury, and moral high ground, clearly presented a favorable situation where morale could be used and a single push would secure a swift victory.

But all of this, as seen by Prince Philip's eyes, was……

Holy shit, I'm totally freaked out (sweating beans). jpg

After all, being a noble himself, how could he not understand these guys?

Don't be fooled by their loud talk of benevolence and justice, shouting to charge forth and avenge these innocents; in private…… the blood on their hands is surely even greater than this!

But given the situation, with a good hand in play, he didn't want to waste it, so he also stepped forward and defined the behavior of these few people with a single sentence.

"I don't care who you are, but slaughtering our radiant people like this is wrong!"

Having said that, he waved his hand, signaling the knights to quickly seize this whole group.

"Damn!"

Death God's plan definitely wasn't like this; his original design was actually simple: first cause an explosion at the banquet to create a big enough commotion.

Then, taking advantage of the chaos, he would bring his people to the scene to show responsibility, formally announce the launch of the Insect Extermination Squad, and then…… slip away while they were still reacting.

Simple, fast, everything normal, keeping the risk to a minimum.

Who would have thought the plan went smoothly up to the crucial moment, only to run into this snag.

All the original nobles left, not to mention that they turned into a large group of completely innocent maids and attendants.

They even discovered the bag that held a bomb, not to mention that they lifted it from behind the curtains onto the table, and, curious, gathered around to try to open it, directly increasing the damage caused by the explosion!

(End of chapter)