Bang!
Lilith exploded into a cloud of sparkling dust like a shower of confetti—a stark contrast to the black-haired youth.
It was a dream-like scene.
Even the onlooking Stygian players felt like they were dreaming—
"What just happened?!"
Princesskaho's pretty eyes were opened wide. She simply couldn't believe her own eyes after the events she had just witnessed!
A player who was about to receive the final reward of a story event suddenly took out a dagger and stabbed the quest-giving NPC...????
The four Stygian players were stupefied. They had never seen anyone play the game in this way. It was like someone who had won the lottery going to redeem his prize, then whipping out a dagger and stabbing the staff at the redemption counter.
Is this guy right in the head?!
And even more crucially...
The player's attack actually managed to kill the NPC!!!
That NPC was a level 15 succubus!!!
"Right now, am I really still playing the game?" Decadentdude slapped himself in the cheek to try to wake himself up. He felt like he must still be asleep, because how else could such a bizarre incident happen inside the game?
The other Stygian players were also of the same mind.
However, when they saw the "Ally" label (automatically tagged by the system after their first interaction) above Ye Kong's name slowly vanish...
Finally, they reacted to what had happened—
"OMG! He really killed the NPC!"
"What the h*ll is this insane gameplay?!"
Still, they were all top tier players, and after the initial wave of shock had passed, they instantly focused on a key detail—
"Hang on a second. Now that lacuna has lost his status as our ally, we can freely attack him!"
The Assassin - blackgoat, who had stayed silent the whole time, finally grasped this critical point, and he tightened his grip on his dagger. "Anyway, with the amount of time we have left, we won't have enough time to kill the Qingmu soldiers."
"You're right!" Decadentdude nodded his head and said, "If we kill him, he's bound to drop something good!"
The four top tier Stygian players immediately started to prepare for battle.
At the same time...
Because Ye Kong had forfeited the protection provided by his reputation with the Blind Sect, the nearby Stygian mobs also slowed their advance. One by one they turned their attention to him—at that moment, in the eyes of the Stygian mobs, Ye Kong was no longer one of their allies. Instead, he was a member of a hostile faction!
Currently, as he was now, Ye Kong was no different from a regular Yggdmillennia player!
"Looks like you're all itching for a fight."
Ye Kong quietly stayed where he was, as though he wasn't the one in the midst of the enemy camp. To put it differently, he seemed to treat the place like his own backyard, and didn't pay any attention to the nearby Stygian Army and their threatening looks.
Instead, Ye Kong looked up at the sky with an unreadable expression on his face—
"So I guess this means that 'they' should be arriving soon? After all, the system canceled that quest..."
From the Stygian players' point of view, Ye Kong seemed to be taunting them!
"You've reached the end of the line, and you're still acting so boastfully?!" Blackgoat was the first to lose his temper. As someone who played the Assassin class, he was always free to do whatever he wanted in front of other people. When had he ever been "mocked" by another player for so long without being able to do anything about it?
Now that his enemy had lost his layer of "protection," how could he take this insult lying down?!
"Get him!" Blackgoat didn't waste his breath. Instead, he immediately stepped forward lightly and then sprinted toward the center of the square, where Ye Kong was!
His movement was like a signal flare, which moved everyone else to action—
"Roar, roar, roar, roar!!!!"
The heavily armored Black Armored Knights roared one after the other. In the next instant, the veritable sea of Skeletal Soldiers followed in the direction they were pointing and charged at Ye Kong, who stood in the center of the square!
Decadentdude, princesskaho, and the Berserker weren't far behind. They quickly caught up to the Stygian Army and joined in their rush at Ye Kong!
In an instant, the spring water was surrounded on all sides by mobs and players from the Stygian Night Kingdom!
Ambushed by enemies on all sides!!
Everywhere he looked, there was someone who wanted to kill him!!!
"Kill him!"
Blackgoat was so excited his eyes turned red. He raised his dagger high, as though he could see in his mind's eye his opponent collapsed in a pool of blood, disintegrating into sparkling dust!
The others looked on as the space between the two players shrank, the dagger almost close enough to touch Ye Kong...
In that instant...
Blackgoat saw Ye Kong turn his head toward him and flash a "taunting" grin. At the same time, Ye Kong slowly opened his mouth and mouthed an all too familiar word—
"Idiot."
"This guy!!!"
Blackgoat was so infuriated he felt his scalp tingle with anger. He was about to teach Ye Kong a lesson, when he noticed something odd about the sunlight coming from above and looked up subconsciously. Right away, his vision was engulfed by a sea of green—
Kaboom!!!
Countless green plants crashed down from the sky like a falling rain of arrows and covered the entire area!
Boom, boom, boom, boom!!!!
Like rounds from a machinegun, the green plants swept over the entire area around the spring!
The very next moment...
Blackgoat was impaled by innumerable plants, and his HP instantly dropped to zero. Then, filled with an intense feeling of reluctance and doubt, he disintegrated into sparkling particles and disappeared.
Right after that...
The pack of Stygian mobs closest to the spring water received the same treatment from the plants. In the blink of an eye, bones were sent flying, and the ground exploded from the impact. The entire street was pockmarked with craters!
At this point...
Princesskaho, decadentdude, and the rest who weren't leading the charge managed to avoid a disaster. At the same time, they looked up in fear and tried to find the source of the attack—
"Thors!!!"
A middle-aged man wearing a suit of silver-white plate armor stood on the tip of a massive tree branch. His hand glowed with a ball of green light as he controlled the plants beneath his feet!
This man was the Winter Commander - Thors!
At the same time...
Next to Thors, a portal had been opened, and an endless stream of elite armored soldiers emerged from the portal gates. They slid down the plants and landed onto the ground, then rushed straight toward the battlefield around the spring!
Fwah! Fwah!!!
The elite armored soldiers in this troop were wearing mottled sets of armor, unlike the well-polished armor of the soldiers garrisoned in Qingmu Town. However, the blotches on their armor were slightly red, and if one were to go up close and inspect them, one would discover the strong metallic stench of blood!
Obviously, they were vastly different from the untested soldiers of Qingmu Town. They were true grizzled veterans of war with an unyielding spirit. Just the LV10 floating above their heads said a lot about their capabilities!
At this time, the Winter Commander - Thors had arrived on the scene and was leading his subordinate soldiers to come to the aid of Qingmu Town!
"Retreat! We can't afford to stay here any longer!!!"
Decadentdude was decisive in arriving at this conclusion. They were still protected by the "Screened" effect, so as long as they didn't rush to the front as blackgoat had done, they shouldn't be prioritized as a target by the enemy.
"Why is Thors already here so soon?!"
Princesskaho hastily retreated while she looked up at Thors, who stood high above them. Then, in the following moments, she seemed to stumble upon a key factor, and her gaze shifted down to the figure who stood quietly amidst the chaos—
"Could it be, that all of this is happening because of...
"That lacuna!!!"