"It was probably because I made too much noise just now... and attracted the undead creatures to the shelter," What the Hell said, feeling somewhat remorseful after browsing through the mission information.
"The game setting is that the undead creatures become active during the night, so to complete this mission, we just need to hold on until morning," WTF continued, taking a deep breath and checking the time in the settings page.
"Damn it! It's only 10:30 PM now, and we have to hold on until morning, which means we have several hours left!"
"Wait a minute, is the game time synchronized with real-time, 1:1?" What the Hell exclaimed in surprise.
"Well, it's a 100% realistic game, so naturally, the time is set to be synchronized with the real world, 24 hours," WTF responded with a touch of helplessness.
"Then, are we doomed? How can we possibly hold on until morning?"
What the Hell approached the window, glancing at the situation in the lobby under the moonlight, and then swallowed hard.
"There are at least ten lively skeletons out there! I feel like they will tear down this door or learn to climb through the windows sooner or later!"
"You guys just started the game today, and you're already talking about restarting the server!" WTF took a deep breath.
The pessimism of the players made Ember Wilde shake his head beside them.
Why can't you players figure out your advantage?
You have unlimited respawns!
Ten skeletons make you pessimistic; how will you handle millions of undead and other races invading in the future?
You'll just surrender at the speed of light?
"Just calm down... I think we can complete this guard duty mission!" IronBarbie motioned for What the Hell and WTF to calm down.
After they settled down a bit, IronBarbie continued, "Do you know what the players' greatest advantage is in the game world?"
"Does leveling up enhance our attributes?" WTF asked.
"Can we change jobs and learn various skills?" What the Hell added.
"Neither of those, these could be achieved by NPCs in the game world too,"
IronBarbie sighed,
"The players' advantage is resurrection! Unlimited resurrection! Where are we now? At the respawn point of the shelter! It means that we are essentially undead ourselves! We are the true undead race!"
"But... there are death penalties for dying," WTF interjected.
"What are the death penalties?" IronBarbie shrugged.
"I only know the respawn time is 100 seconds... and all equipment is lost..." WTF replied.
"That's it? Well, what's there to be afraid of then?" IronBarbie spread his hands.
"But being attacked will cause pain, right? Are we supposed to experience death over and over again?"
what the hell expressed some concern.
Regarding that...," WTF paused and continued, "there's a threshold for pain. Once it's reached, our sense of pain will be completely blocked."
"Why the hell didn't you say that earlier?"
what the hell rolled his eyes.
"It's just a moment of pain, and then we'll become iron-blooded warriors who don't feel pain. What's there to fear?"
what the hell's enthusiasm grew as he spoke, and in the end, he jumped ahead, flipping through the window into the respawn point lobby.
Three seconds later...
A system message flashed across the players' screens.
"*What the hell has been slain by a skeleton."
"Even if we can respawn, we shouldn't play like that," IronBarbie shook his head, then picked up a simple stone axe from the room. It was something Ember Wilde had made to chop firewood.
"NPC... Ember, I'll borrow your weapon for a moment, just don't lower my NPC favorability," IronBarbie said, then opened the door and crouched down, sneaking out against the wall.
IronBarbie moved stealthily to the most open space in the lobby.
Seeing his movements, WTF thought to himself, "This guy seems to be a core gamer with experience! He knows that finding a spacious terrain is crucial when facing more enemies than allies. Otherwise, there won't be enough space to maneuver or kite. Once surrounded in a tight space, there's only one way to go, which is death!"
When IronBarbie reached a suitable position, the skeletons in the lobby finally noticed him. The skeletons clattered towards IronBarbie.
Calm and composed, IronBarbie seized the opportunity, swung the stone axe at the foremost skeleton.
"Crack!"
The skeleton was flipped over by the tremendous force of the axe.
However, two seconds later, it stood up unharmed!
"Why isn't their health bar decreasing?" IronBarbie frowned, looking at the skeleton's health bar.
If his weapon couldn't damage the skeletons, even with the advantage of "unlimited respawn," he wouldn't be able to complete the mission of guarding the respawn point. Unlimited respawn... only torture for himself!
"Use the other end of the stone axe that's not sharpened," Ember Wilde reminded from the room. "To deal with skeletons, you have to crush their bones with blunt weapons. Otherwise, no matter how many parts you dismember them into, they can still regenerate."
IronBarbie heard Ember Wilde's prompt and nodded. He reversed his grip on the stone axe and kept kiting the skeletons in the lobby.
The skeletons had high-speed linear charges, but they couldn't stop on a dime.
By constantly changing directions, IronBarbie easily started kiting them.
IronBarbie increased his speed to the maximum, then made a rapid stop and changed direction in a straight line. Nine skeletons chasing behind him collided with each other!
IronBarbie used his agility to knock all the skeletons to the ground.
Now, there was only one standing skeleton left in the respawn point lobby.
Seeing this scene, both Ember Wilde and WTF were amazed.
"Rushing at high speed and changing direction without slowing down! And the timing of the turn was perfect!"
WTF mused, realizing that this IronBarbie fellow was an experienced core gamer.
"Facing a situation with more enemies than allies, finding a spacious terrain is crucial. Otherwise, there's no space to pull or kite them. Once surrounded in a tight space, there's only one way to go, which is a dead end!"
"Rapidly charging forward and swiftly changing directions without slowing down! And the timing of those direction changes is just perfect! Even the skeletons get knocked down! Is this guy a football player? A Super Bowl athlete?"
WTF couldn't help but exclaim.
He was starting to doubt whether the guy who claimed to have amateur fighting gold belts, gun club members, bounty hunters, and Navy SEAL team members was telling the truth.
After knocking down the nine skeletons, IronBarbie seized the opportunity and pounced on the remaining lone skeleton.
He pressed the skeleton to the ground effortlessly, and at that moment, the skeleton became the victim, while the 1.9-meter-tall IronBarbie became the monster!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" IronBarbie swung the stone axe in his reverse grip, hitting the skeleton's skull repeatedly.
He stopped only when a third of the skull had been smashed.
"It really works! The skeleton's health bar is almost depleted! I reckon I can take down one skeleton by smashing half of its skull!"
IronBarbie grinned and made an "ok" gesture to Ember Wilde and WTF in the room.
"This is just a newbie mission with NPC guidance. It should be easy to complete."
"Bro, you're awesome!!!"
WTF couldn't help but praise. He didn't expect the "girl" that What the Hell had called to be such a pro player. He decided to add his as a friend later.
With his on the team, they would never lack firepower!
The players were in good spirits, but Ember Wilde's expression still didn't look great.
He smacked his lips and murmured to himself, "This guy's stamina and the durability of that stone axe... I'm afraid they won't last long."
As expected, just as IronBarbie finished off the heavily damaged skeleton and was preparing to use the same tactic on the others, his movement speed suddenly slowed down, and the stone axe in his hand had become unusable due to wear and tear.
"Huh? Bro... is it that you've run out of stamina?!" WTF guessed as he saw the situation.
He had experienced the debuff caused by insufficient stamina before. IronBarbie's appearance suggested that he was a guy who didn't do much physical activity, and he realized that he might be out of stamina.
"Darn it... When did my stamina become so weak?!" IronBarbie clenched his fists, gritting his teeth.
Usually, he could run around for an hour without any discomfort.
However, after only ten minutes of dealing with these skeletons, he was already gasping for breath and couldn't run anymore!
"I think I know what's going on..." WTF shouted at IronBarbie, "Although our appearances are based on our real-life bodies, our initial attribute points in the game are all the same.
We all have 5 points in physical strength and agility..."
"What?! My attributes are just as pathetic as yours...?" WTF and What the Hell had the looks of sedentary otaku.
IronBarbie said that even calling them sports enthusiasts would be an overstatement.
And now, the game had hit them with the "equality of all living beings."
IronBarbie was finding it hard to accept.
But at this moment, he had no chance to complain further. Depleted of stamina, he was soon surrounded by the skeletons.
In the eyes of Ember Wilde and WTF, IronBarbie was torn to pieces by the skeletons, and the entire respawn point lobby was dyed red with blood.
Seeing the fate of the self-proclaimed pro player, WTF took a few steps back and almost fell.
He was beginning to consider quitting the game altogether.
"What's the situation now?" a familiar voice came in.
WTF turned around to see that What the Hell had respawned.
"Wait... our respawn time is only 100 seconds, why did you come back now?" What the Hell touched his face, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"I was scared after being surrounded by skeletons earlier, so I closed the game and watched Tom and Jerry for more than ten minutes before calming down."
"???" WTF was speechless.
"Now, how's the situation?" What the Hell looked outside and took a deep breath.
"No way, did the big guy fall like that?!"
WTF sighed, "Actually, the 'girl' you brought is quite strong. She has the same attributes as us but his agility is off the charts.
The skeletons followed his like idiots, but because of his low attributes, after pulling them around for more than ten minutes,
his stamina ran out. Otherwise, he could have taken down all the skeletons alone."
Looking at his own condition after respawn, What the Hell continued, "That's no problem! After respawn, stamina is fully restored, and we can use this advantage to deplete these skeletons' health!"
"But besides stamina, we actually have another problem..."