The Gun Knight thrust his crimson long spear through the neck gap of a fully armored Shield Warrior professional player… in the crevice of the armor's neck.
As the spear pierced down, a -723 damage popped out, and the player turned into light particle fragments drifting outside the stage.
"Too weak! Next one!"
The Gun Knight flicked his long spear, this was already his fourteenth kill of the sacred spirits.
Of the fourteen battles, fewer than four spirits could last more than a minute under his hands, and almost none could last two minutes.
The fourteen battles also allowed the Gun Knight to understand the general abilities of these spirits: firstly, even if they suffered fatal injuries, they would turn into light particles and drift to the bottom of the arena, being judged as the Gun Knight's victory.
Secondly, even if the players hit him and weakened his life with that special power, after a battle ended, he would receive special healing power, which not only restored his life but also his vigor.
This made the Gun Knight more unrestrained in his attacks.
The Gun Knight's combat style was primarily based on speed; no matter how large the skills cast by the players, the divine attire of the spirits beneath them was just a modern person living in a city. Their reaction ability was hard to keep up with the Gun Knight's movements.
In contrast, the Gun Knight had gone through countless brutal battlefields, training in martial arts every day to strengthen himself with Magic Power.
Combat awareness and reaction speed are skills that players cannot compensate for.
"Is no one daring to challenge anymore?" The Gun Knight shouted, discovering that no one had stepped onto this arena for a long time, though the number of players below was increasing, most were just standing by and watching.
No matter how the Gun Knight shouted, the players below seemed to not hear, but the Gun Knight could hear their various complaints.
"I understand! This NPC was brought by the developers to trick us out of Magic Stones! Impossible to win!"
"An NPC that can't be knocked airborne, parries every move, how do we fight it, with attack speed like a ghost."
"Silver Bullet, why don't you go again and bet? The reward in the Magic Stone prize pool has risen to six thousand pieces."
Before, a friend of Silver Bullet whispered to him.
The rewards in the Magic Stone prize pool would accumulate as players invested Magic Stones. As long as one player won against the Gun Knight, they would win the entire six thousand Magic Stones.
These six thousand pieces could directly be exchanged for the Rainbow Unicorn three-piece series and still have leftovers.
"No bets, no bets, betting again would be ruinous, let's go instancing." Silver Bullet heartened at the idea but knew you needed the skill to take it.
The players were all clear-eyed, having seen from the fourteen battles just how strong this NPC Gun Knight was. Maybe in a group assault, he could be taken down, but solo really required skill.
The Gun Knight could vaguely understand the players' language, but some words he couldn't comprehend. However, hearing their discussions mistakenly made him believe they were afraid.
"Do you not have stronger warriors?" The Gun Knight raised his voice again, still no one answered.
"I'm going to the forums to curse the developers; this NPC is blatantly cheating."
"I've uploaded the recorded video to Youtud Danmu Net, you can use it as evidence."
"What's the video serial number?"
"21452."
Jiang Qiao listened on the side to the players' discussions and directly used the Tiangong browser tool to open Youtud Danmu Net, the most popular video site worldwide.
According to the serial number reported by the players, Jiang Qiao found the video, titled "Latest VR Game 'Spirits' Super Strong NPC Battle, can anyone really win?". The video uploader's ID was 'Frontline Reporter,' a very popular video creator with one hundred twenty-three thousand followers.
This creator had ten or so videos of Spirits, mostly ordinary gameplay recordings, from her level one exploits to now being a level twenty-five Assassin.
She should be among the second batch of players who entered Spirits.
Jiang Qiao glanced at a player with the ID Frontline Reporter. From her outfit, she appeared to be a female assassin and intentionally made her skin deep purple, resembling a dark elf.
Spirits recently had high online attention; four out of the top ten videos in the game section of Youtud Danmu Net were related to Spirits, and this created video had surged to the tenth place.
Jiang Qiao clicked in; the video was about half an hour long, from Silver Bullet first to the last player ID'd as Red Coat Shield Warrior. Each battle was excellently recorded by the Frontline Reporter.
This was also thanks to the Tiangong platform's excellent recording system.
Jiang Qiao glanced at the barrage, reading complaints like 'This NPC is cheating,' 'Can anyone beat him?,' 'I need an auto-aim,' and 'Developer's trap NPC for reclaiming Magic Stones.'
A fourteen-game losing streak indeed hurt morale, and Jiang Qiao could feel the players' resentment seeping through the screen.
Although not all barrage commentators were Spirits players, if the sentiment that 'the developers set an invincible NPC to scavenge player Magic Stones' caught on, Jiang Qiao felt it would be tricky.
Jiang Qiao decided to find a professional player.
If regular players couldn't beat the Gun Knight technically, what about professional players?
Jiang Qiao sent a message to Zhao Mingwei; it was nine in the evening, and Zhao Mingwei was still training but showed interest in this NPC, saying he would log on soon.
Professional players in this world were different from past PC game professional players.
Besides regular game training, they also underwent physical and reaction speed training, comparable to professional athletes.
Ten minutes later, Jiang Qiao's back was patted by someone.
"Here, is this the strongest PVP NPC you mentioned?"
Zhao Mingwei's character appeared behind Jiang Qiao; he was now level thirty-three, roughly keeping up with the first tier.
"I'm not sure if he's the strongest, but fourteen people have already been beaten into seclusion by him. You... won't be the fifteenth, right?" Although Jiang Qiao had called Zhao Mingwei, he still felt unsure.
"Let's try."
Zhao Mingwei walked towards the arena; the Gun Knight's formidable power deterred others from promptly challenging. As Zhao Mingwei approached, the recently defeated Shield Warrior Red Coat blocked him.
"Friend, that guy's a bit uncanny. You, a cloth armor class, should be careful." Red Coat saw Zhao Mingwei looked like a newbie onlooker.
"I watched the prior videos. With agility above forty points, you can dodge. Though my primary attribute is intelligence, I have forty-one points of agility, no problem."
Zhao Mingwei never fought unprepared; before coming, he had watched the Gun Knight's battle videos on his phone.
Spirits corrected players' combat styles based on attributes; agility influenced movement and attack speed, but player reactions had to be practiced in reality.
Even with over a hundred agility points, a slow reflex assassin couldn't utilize them.
Seeing Zhao Mingwei's confidence, Red Coat didn't block him. Zhao Mingwei stepped onto the arena under the gaze of thirty or so players.
"You? Challenging me with no weapon or armor?"
The Gun Knight stared at Zhao Mingwei; his appearance was that of a Chinese-style monk, wearing a half-body kasaya, with his left arm marked with a qi pattern exposed, and long black hair tied in a ponytail hanging behind.
In the Gun Knight's eyes, this outfit on the battlefield was... suicidal! Not only lacking protection but such long clothing was a hindrance to movement.
"My weapon is here." Zhao Mingwei swung his fist weapon, a level 30 purple-quality item.
"Your fists? You think fists can beat my spear?" The Gun Knight smiled, not with disdain but genuinely amused by Zhao Mingwei's jest. But his laughter soon stopped, and he grew serious. "Then come and try!"