novelhk Chapter 99 The Crisis of the City in the Forest
Chapter 99 The Crisis of the City in the Forest
A temporary respawn point on the outskirts of an abandoned city's sewers.
A dozen or so newcomers were lining up to receive their free food rations for the day. The native NPC in charge of distributing the rations was an old man missing half an ear.
He was one of Jim's men from Backstreet. Ever since Jim was beaten into submission by Lynn, all of Jim's men had come under Lynn's control.
The old man was scooping a paste-like substance mixed with grain husks from the wooden bucket and putting it into the bowls held by the players, and then giving each person a piece of bread.
The newbies at the front of the line were huddled together, smelling the unpleasant odor in their bowls, and discussing whether the game's taste system was too hardcore.
In the corner, Eyingstein was intently sewing tassels onto a piece of leather armor.
However, at that moment, a strange noise came from deep within the passage.
Not long after, a chaotic crawling broke the tranquility of the camp.
A dozen or so blood-soaked fire-poison-eyed beasts charged wildly out of the sewage pipes, carrying a strong smell of sulfur and rotting flesh, and crashed into the underground distribution center.
Faced with these two-meter-long, ferocious-looking one-eyed monsters, the newcomers who stayed behind did not show the panic they should have.
In their common sense, monsters that spawn near the respawn point are usually considered a bonus from the system.
After all, this is the spawn point, an absolute safe zone. Which game allows people to die in the safe zone?
"Holy crap, how come there's a fire-eating cyclops in the ruins?"
"Who cares? Nobody's going to die in the safe zone anyway!"
"Have you forgotten? Those heartless people who used to summon monsters in the city."
A newbie, not taking it seriously, excitedly held up the black bread he had just received and leaned in without any suspicion, making dog-teasing noises as he said, "Mwah, good boy..."
However, he was met with a thick, reverse-jointed thigh.
Although the Fire-Poison Eye Beast was fleeing for its life, its ferocious instincts remained.
Its hind legs swept through the air, bringing with them a foul stench, and its thick, horny foot stomped down hard, landing directly on the newbie's chest.
With the sound of bones breaking, his chest cavity collapsed instantly, the wooden bowl fell, and the paste splattered all over the floor.
The eagerly anticipating player didn't even have time to scream before logging off and going back to the "black room" to wait for the cooldown.
This immediately triggered panic among the players.
The players in line finally realized that this was not some cutscene where they were just giving away experience points. The person holding the bowl threw the paste on the ground and scrambled behind the support pillar to hide.
Someone tried to run outside, but tripped on the slippery ground and was then trampled in the leg by another fire-poisonous beast charging at them. The shrill screams echoed in the spacious basement.
The real pain feedback traveled along the nerve endings, and the camp was thrown into chaos.
"I heard it's possible to turn off pain feedback, how do you do that?"
"They're all newbies, who the hell knows anything! Run for your lives!"
Faced with this chaotic scene, Einstein, who was far away, completely lost his mind.
In real life, she doesn't even dare to look directly at the cashier when checking out at the supermarket, let alone face such a bloody monster charging into battle.
Her vision was filled with players who had been knocked away and monster blood flowing all over the ground. The blood was extremely corrosive and emitted puffs of white smoke as it hit the ground.
Ai Yingying Stan glanced at the clothes in her hand. It was a flow coat that she had spent several hours making. She hoped it wouldn't get crushed by the fire-eyed beast, or it would be too much trouble.
She clutched the clothes she had just finished tightly, stiffly shrank back, and squeezed herself directly into a narrow groove high up on the stone pillar.
That beautiful face was taut, and she looked down expressionlessly.
She held her breath tightly, not daring to even blink, for fear that any slight movement would attract the attention of the monsters below.
To an uninformed bystander, this appeared to be the demeanor of a peerless master observing with indifference.
Amidst screams, Lynn led Da Niu and the others from the depths of the passage.
As the GM and the leader of the players, he would never allow these stray dogs to destroy his base.
His current skill panel still shows him as a beginner, without any fancy skills.
However, his recent accumulation of experience allowed him to quietly level up from level 30 to level 57. He poured all the ability points he gained from each level into Strength.
He strode forward and bumped head-on into a fire-poison-eyed beast with its gaping maw wide open.
Lynn raised his right leg and delivered a powerful front kick, accurately striking the monster's jaw.
The pure power amplification unleashed terrifying destructive force, a dull thud echoed outwards, and the surrounding air seemed to be compressed into visible ripples by this kick.
The fire-poison-eyed beast, weighing over two hundred kilograms, was as if struck by a battering ram; its massive body flew off the ground and crashed heavily into the supporting pillar behind it.
A shallow crater was smashed into the surface of the stone pillar, the monster's cervical vertebrae snapped on the spot, and dark red blood gushed out in a radial pattern along the wall.
Immediately afterwards, Lynn moved through the horde of beasts like a ghost.
He specifically targeted the Fire Poison Eye Beast's most vulnerable spot—its single eye and joints—and various knocking sounds rang out continuously.
A fire-poisonous beast that tried to tear him apart with its sharp teeth was struck hard on the eyeball by his elbow from the side, causing the huge eyeball to burst on the spot, splattering its contents everywhere.
In just a few breaths, the last few Fire Poison Eye Beasts, which were already severely injured, collapsed in the mud and water, completely motionless.
The audience was silent.
Both new and veteran players were stunned; this GM is incredibly skilled.
The crisis had just passed when a cacophony of shouts erupted from the depths of the passage.
"Slow down, be careful, don't break the machine!"
Elliott, speaking halting Chinese, was leading a few new players, including the Imperial Hook Pirate, as they were sweating profusely as they used a pulley system to drag the heavy base of the magical tool machine out.
The thick hemp rope rubbed wildly against the simple wooden pulley, emitting a burnt smell.
The pirate with the imperial hook and several other players were barefoot in the mud, with ropes tied around their shoulders, their bodies leaning at almost a 45-degree angle, pulling forward with all their might.
The foreigner only had his industrial equipment in his eyes, and didn't even glance at the fire-eating cyclops corpses scattered all over the ground.
"Hold on! The left wheel is stuck on a rock. Get someone to get a crowbar and fix it!" The Imperial Hook Pirate gritted his teeth and gave the order. He was now completely in the role of a construction foreman. Even the GM who was slaughtering monsters not far away could not distract him from this machine.
Lynn flicked his wrist, glanced around at the trembling newcomers, and said calmly, "The corpse is yours."
The players, who were trembling with fear just a second ago, immediately changed their expressions.
Fear seems insignificant in the face of self-interest.
They searched the surroundings for usable knives and swarmed towards the remains of the Fire-Eyed Beast like locusts.
Its tough skin, enormous eyeballs, and even the blood on the ground were carefully collected by someone using a broken pottery jar.
Lacking professional skinning skills, most people acted very roughly, tearing the originally intact hides to shreds. Some even shoved each other in the blood to grab a slightly intact fang.
The surface turmoil had subsided, but Lynn's thoughts remained troubled by the crisis at the bottom of the anthill...