Chapter 69: Extreme One for Two
Ji Tang only came online around 1pm this Saturday.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon on Earth time, which was already midnight in the game, but this "night" was very different from usual.
When Ji Tang emerged from the earthen platform where he was born, the first thing he saw was the deep and thick night covering the entire world; the second time he looked, he saw a faint red light in the darkness.
Ji Tang: “???”
He rubbed his eyes subconsciously, and his finger bones rubbed against his eye sockets, making a crackling sound.
Without even bothering to complain whether he had rubbed it in vain, Ji Tang concentrated and stared at the night more carefully.
Upon closer inspection, Ji Tang discovered that the red light mixed in the darkness was like some kind of dense and continuous liquid floating in the atmosphere, swaying slowly with the evening breeze...
Ji Tang: “???”
If this was really a game, Ji Tang would not make a fuss. After all, the environmental changes in the game were all written in code. As long as the technology, hardware, and bandwidth could keep up, the game scenes could be made as bizarre as he wanted.
But this "game" isn't really a game?!
Ji Tang walked out of the birth point in a daze, looking around blankly.
The streets were deserted, with no sight of the usual players running around the streets on weekends.
Ji Tang: “…”
I just haven't been online for ten hours, right? What happened?
Ji Tang hurried to the butcher's workshop.
The Chamber of Commerce cafeteria diagonally opposite the workshop was closed. Ji Tang walked around the cafeteria and was disappointed to find that the two "tool players" were not online.
There was no other choice, so Ji Tang had to turn around and run to the Traveler's Guild... There were the most people who changed to Traveler in the game, and there were often people doing quests there when the NPCs were "off work".
Because there are few buildings in Exile Town and most of the land is idle, Ji Tang could directly see the Traveler's Guild across a block when he returned to Cross Street.
There were indeed people in the Traveler's Guild. When Ji Tang raised his eyes, he saw a dozen players squatting behind a wall, and they kept sticking their heads out to peek at the situation outside the wall in a sneaky way.
Ji Tang knew at a glance that this group of people seemed to be avoiding something, so he naturally didn't say anything to greet them. He also lowered his footsteps and quietly approached...
As he got closer, Ji Tang heard the players' deliberately suppressed conversations:
"Are you coming? Are you coming?"
"Shh, no, I guess it's still attracting."
Ji Tang felt something was not right after hearing this.
After the monster spawning point of the Toxic Swamp was "opened", attracting monsters to harm people has become the most controversial behavior on the player forum. People argue about things like "If the monsters are robbed and you can't beat them, is it right to attract monsters for revenge?" and "If another team blocks the escape route during the team's escape after being wiped out, does it count as attracting monsters?" etc.
But this is Exile Town, right? Where can we attract monsters from in this town?
Ji Tang pondered for a while, then quietly found a secluded corner and squatted down.
His worldview is often refreshed by the players' outrageous actions, so he decided to take a look at what these two are doing first.
After waiting patiently for five or six minutes, a chaotic and rapid "click, click" sound came from the other side of the Second Street adjacent to the Walker's Guild...
Ji Tang thought to himself, "There really are monsters to be found in Exile Town," and leaned out in shock.
Then... he was even more shocked.
At the end of Second Street, where it connects to Third Street, three players were running for their lives.
Unlike the usual situation where they could still talk nonsense even after the whole group was wiped out, these three people were running for their lives very seriously, with their jaws clenched tightly.
Looking at the monsters chasing after them, it is not hard to understand why these players were so nervous that they didn't even say a word -
It turned out to be a ferocious and bizarre centipede-shaped monster that looked like a dozen corpses glued together!
Ji Tang, whose jaw almost dropped to the ground, immediately used an identification technique like a gamer.
"???"
"LV:???"
"???"
"???"
Nothing can be identified.
"No way? What level is this monster?!" Ji Tang gasped.
There is no such thing as a skill upgrade for the initial skill "Identification". According to Ji Tang's own experience and his analysis of the lack of entropy among teammates, the success rate of this initial skill is determined by the level and potential of the person who uses it.
A first-level player with a potential value of 50 or above can identify the level of the fifth-level assassin mentor Hal Maxwell, but can only see the level and name, and there is a probability that the equipment information will fail to be identified.
If you identify the fourth-level ranger mentor Tattle Joe, you can see his level, name and occupation, and you can also see a lot of equipment information.
If it's the level 3 butcher Manan, then even the razor in Manan's trouser pocket can be swept out...
Entropy does not increase, and believes that the success rate of identification is 100% when the potential values of both parties differ by less than three levels. If the difference is four levels, it drops to 60%; if the difference is five levels, the success rate is only 10~20%.
The gap is zero only if it is above level six.
Ji Tang has been "playing" the game for more than ten days. In reality, his mental state has almost returned to normal. In the game, his panel potential value has also skyrocketed to 125 points, surpassing the former number one player in the game, Ou Yan, and the only player to reach level two.
"This monster... is above level seven, no, eight?!" Ji Tang broke out in a cold sweat.
Exile Town is not a scene written in code! It is a town with real people living in it!
A monster higher in level than the boss of the poisonous swamp has appeared in this town. This is no joke!
Ji Tang was stunned. Among the players who were fleeing to the Second Street, two were a little slower and were caught up by the corpse centipede. They were only scratched by the obviously mutated human arms and hands before they turned into white light.
The remaining person broke out in a cold sweat and shouted loudly: "I can't take it anymore! Pass it on!"
“Here it comes!”
The group of players who had been waiting behind the wall for a long time bravely jumped onto the street.
At this time...the corpse centipede that was chasing the last person relentlessly disappeared without Ji Tang's blinking eyes!
"Be careful! This monster has become invisible again! Scatter quickly!"
Among that group of brave players, the leader Qin Guan shouted in time.
The players who were originally very close to each other immediately dispersed.
Ji Tang, who was lurking not far away, watched helplessly as the group of scattered players disappeared one after another without a sound...
Ji Tang, who had definitely seen a lot of storms, was dumbfounded, and a chill rose up behind his back.
"Don't run around! Lead them inside! Lead them inside!" Qin Guan, who was directing the scene, waved his arms vigorously and rushed into the Players' Guild Square first.
No matter where the remaining players were originally scattered, they all ran desperately to the square - to be precise, they ran to the lighted bungalow behind the Travelers' Guild.
Ji Tang, who was peeping secretly: "???"
He was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized what this group of people were trying to do - this group of players wanted to lure this monster, whose level was so high that even he couldn't identify it, to a high-level NPC, and let the high-level NPC help them fight the monster!
From the player's point of view, this tricky way of killing monsters cannot be considered wrong, but the problem is that high-level NPCs are not just NPCs!
Players can be resurrected after death, but “high-level NPCs” cannot be resurrected!
“Stop!”
Ji Tang, sweating profusely, quickly jumped out from the corner where he was hiding: "Stop! Don't pull the monster over!"
Qin Guan & other players: “???”
At this time, the corpse centipede that had already harvested the lives of several players appeared from among the fleeing players.
“Oh my god!”
The players were startled and instinctively continued to sprint towards their original destination, the bungalow where three high-level NPCs were hiding.
Ji Tang was so frightened that he rushed straight towards the dead centipede without any time to think.
"Ji Tang? Are you crazy?"
Among the players, someone recognized Ji Tang, who had led an expedition mission before , and subconsciously reached out to grab Ji Tang.
The hideous and ugly head of the corpse centipede turned towards Ji Tang.
"Huahua, be careful!" I was shocked when I took the medicine and wanted to start writing.
Ji Tang, Miao Bi Sheng Hua who was pulling at the corner of Ji Tang's clothes, and Give Me Medicine who was grabbing Miao Bi Sheng Hua's arm, the three of them were like hawthorns on a bamboo stick, and collided head-on with the suddenly turning corpse of the centipede.
Qin Guan: "Lie——"
Before Qin Guan could even utter a word of criticism, the surviving players, including him, saw with their own eyes… the moment the three of them collided with the ferocious and curious corpse centipede, both sides seemed to be erased by an eraser at the same time and disappeared without a trace.
Qin Guan & players: “???”
"——Fuck!" Qin Guan roared out the words he hadn't finished shouting.
A bunch of players were stunned and started to complain crazily: "Are you playing Candy Crush? Three people can kill this monster together? Then what the hell have we been doing for most of the day?"
"Damn it! So many people died in vain!"
"Is Ji Tang trying to play the one-for-two game? How big of a grudge is that?"
"…No! Wait a minute!" Qin Guan, who had just finished taking a deep breath, was the first to notice something was wrong and roared again, "We didn't get any contribution points, and Huahua and Chiyao didn't go offline either, they are still in the team!"
"ha??"
In a bungalow less than twenty meters away from the noisy players, Hal and the other two, who could not hear any noise from outside, were still chatting to kill time.
Hal Maxwell, who was bragging about his past experiences, suddenly rolled his eyes up and fell backwards.
"Hal?" Tuttle and Pansy both attacked at the same time, holding him on the left and right.
"No... I'm fine." Hal managed to sit up with the help of the two people. His eyes were unfocused and his face looked very tired. "Strange, why am I... suddenly feeling dizzy?"
Tuttle's face changed, and he quickly asked with concern: "Could it be affected by the outside world?"
"I, I'm not like you guys. I've never gone out after dark..." Hal, who could hardly sit still, said with difficulty.
"This..." Tuttle was also puzzled. "Come on, don't say anything for now, and talk slowly later."
Pansy frowned and stared at Hal who was slowly lying down against the wall for a while, then her eyes moved to the shadow under Hal.
The three lanterns lit in the room cast three shadows on each person. Because the light sources were at different distances, the three shadows had different brightness levels.
Pansy's brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
He didn't know why, but he always felt that Hal and Tuttle both had a lighter shadow...
"Huh? I didn't hang up?"
He looked down at his bone claws in surprise, then looked up at his friend, the Wonderful Penman, and Ji Tang, who almost killed them both.
Ji Tang was as confused as he was, looking around blankly.
Miaobishenghua was looking down at something with his mouth wide open.
"Huahua?" He gave me medicine.
"See the system prompts!" Miaobishenghua said hastily.
When a new system prompt appears on the player's personal panel, there is no sound reminder, but a text window pops up directly.
Because the private chat system and chat function are not open, players don't pay much attention to the text window and usually ignore it. For example, Ji Tang, who knows that this is not a game, and rarely reads the text content when doing tasks, gives me medicine - when Miaobishenghua is discussing the plot with Qin Guan, he always just slacks off on the side and only interrupts when he is bored.
With the reminder from Miaobishenghua, Ji Tanghe only remembered to look at the text window after giving me medicine.
"Player Ji Tang, give me some medicine. My brilliant writing has triggered Hal Maxwell's inner demon secret realm."
