Chapter 4: Kiting in Full-Dive!

"Dropped from grinding monsters," Lin Tianhao replied, just as a notification pinged — nine thousand yuan had arrived in his account.

"Holy shit, Brother Snow Emperor, do you know some kind of monster-exploit spot where you can farm Level 10 mobs without taking a scratch?"

It was no wonder Futu Dunshan was shocked. Lin Tianhao was only Level 3 — there was no way he should be able to fight Level 10 monsters head-on.

"Nope."

Lin Tianhao fired back a single word and paid Futu Dunshan no further attention, returning to his grind.

Futu Dunshan looked down at the ring now in his possession and let a small smile cross his face. "Not going to tell me, huh? Fine, I'll come find out for myself."

The Level 10 wild monsters were Twisted Treants — information the Futu Guild's scouting team had uncovered the moment they entered the game.

So Futu Dunshan made his way to the Twisted Treant spawn zone without much trouble.

When he arrived, he spotted an archer up ahead, already deep in the grind.

-426.

-426.

Futu Dunshan's eyes went wide. At this stage of the game, who the hell could fire a single arrow for 426 damage? Even the players in their elite squad, fully geared up, were barely cracking a hundred attack power.

Lin Tianhao was hitting over four hundred per shot — and doing it while fighting monsters ten levels above him. How could that not be jaw-dropping?

"Snow Emperor, sir!"

Futu Dunshan practically dropped to his knees. He had entered the game late due to some real-world matters, and now he was hopelessly behind. For someone who had always dominated every game he touched, that was simply unacceptable.

"Snow Emperor, want to party up? Carry me while I level — I'll pay, of course."

Lin Tianhao had no intention of dealing with Futu Dunshan — he didn't want to waste time. But then the image of his little sister lying in a hospital bed flashed through his mind, and he changed his tune.

"Sure. But I want three hundred thousand."

"Three hundred thousand?!"

Futu Dunshan nearly bit his tongue trying to hold back a torrent of curses.

Three hundred thousand to carry him to Level 10? He could hire a gold-farming team for twenty thousand at most.

"I'll get you to Level 10 by the end of today."

Futu Dunshan blinked, eyeing Lin Tianhao with suspicion.

It was only around 4 a.m. right now — there were still twenty hours left in the day.

Even without eating, drinking, or resting, getting him to Level 10 in twenty hours sounded like a pipe dream.

"Even so, that price is way too steep."

He had money, sure — but he wasn't a sucker.

"I know it's high. What if I throw in a full Level 10 elite-grade set on top of that?"

At those words, Futu Dunshan's breathing quickened.

"Snow Emperor, you're not joking, are you?"

"I'm not."

Lin Tianhao answered with certainty. Level 10 elite Twisted Treants could drop a complete set — provided you were lucky enough, of course. But grind enough of them, and it was doable.

"Alright, how about I give you fifty thousand as a deposit first?"

"No. Three hundred thousand, upfront. I want the money in hand first."

Futu Dunshan hesitated — but after watching Lin Tianhao's insane grinding speed, he only thought about it for a moment before agreeing.

"Fine. I'll transfer it now."

Ragnarok had a built-in transfer function, so no bank account number was needed.

Moments later, Lin Tianhao received the notification: three hundred thousand yuan received.

Money in hand.

Lin Tianhao sent a message.

"Wait for me a bit."

With that, he ducked behind a large tree and logged off on the spot.

Futu Dunshan: ???

"Holy shit — did I just get scammed?! He took the money and bailed?! Damn it, I trusted him, and this is how he treats me?!"

Futu Dunshan wasn't hurting for cash, but right now he felt like he'd swallowed ten mouthfuls of garbage — utterly wretched.

Of course, Lin Tianhao hadn't run off.

Now that he had the money, his first priority was rushing to the hospital to pay for his little sister's surgery.

Standing over Lin Qingqing's hospital bed, Lin Tianhao clenched his fist.

Every regret from his past life — he would make it right.

After completing the payment, Lin Tianhao hurried back to his rented apartment and logged back into the game.

Novice Village #10086.

Futu Dunshan was sulking, letting a few other players drag him through Level 4 Wind Hounds.

Then, suddenly, a message popped up in his friends list.

"Level 10 Twisted Treants. Come over."

Futu Dunshan froze. He had already written Lin Tianhao off as a scammer — yet here he was, back again.

"On my way!"

Even though he'd mentally cursed Lin Tianhao's entire family tree just moments ago, the moment he heard Lin Tianhao was ready to carry him, he came running with his tail wagging.

Lin Tianhao skipped the pleasantries and sent over a party invite, simultaneously setting the loot rules so only he could pick up dropped items.

Futu Dunshan opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately held his tongue.

Then, a moment later, he noticed something absolutely outrageous.

Experience distribution… ninety-ten!!

Lin Tianhao gets ninety, he gets one?!

Damn it, is this what being "carried" looks like?!

"Snow Emperor, uh… the experience split — is that a mistake?"

"It's not."

Lin Tianhao replied and started grinding.

-426.

-426.

Five arrows per Twisted Treant. Even with his current attack speed, he was finishing each kill in under ten seconds.

Six kills per minute, minimum.

Three hundred and sixty kills per hour!

On top of that, Lin Tianhao's HP kept steadily climbing.

Standing to the side, Futu Dunshan watched Lin Tianhao slaughter Twisted Treant after Twisted Treant, completely dumbstruck.

If Lin Tianhao had just been dealing high damage, Futu Dunshan might have chalked it up to some hidden piece of gear or an early talent Awakening. But the kiting technique Lin Tianhao was using — it was impossibly smooth. The Twisted Treants never even got close before they dropped dead.

Don't assume that kiting is easy just because this is a full-dive VR game.

As a member of the Futu Guild, Futu Dunshan knew better than anyone: kiting in this game was far harder than in any traditional game.

Because it involved four separate steps — footwork, drawing the bow, aiming, and firing. If any one of those steps wasn't fluid, the whole sequence fell apart and looked stiff and clunky.

Even the top-tier archer players in their guild still couldn't kite smoothly at this point.

"This is practically an art form," Futu Dunshan murmured in admiration, and he switched on the recording function, capturing Lin Tianhao's kiting in full.

He was going to send this to the Futu Guild — let those elite-squad archers study it properly.

Lin Tianhao, for his part, wasn't thinking about any of that. Kiting was second nature to him — so routine that he didn't even consider it a technique.

"Snow Emperor, what was your old username? Someone who kites like that is definitely not some nobody."

"Kiting? Isn't that just something anyone with hands can do?"

Lin Tianhao replied without thinking.

In the era of the Great Calamity, nearly every archer could pull off kiting like this.

For archers, the truly difficult skills were infinite crits and crowd control.

One hundred percent critical rate — infinite crits — was something you couldn't achieve just by stacking crit stats. That approach was simply not worth it.

But through attack technique, infinite crits were achievable.

Even with a base crit rate of just five percent, infinite crits were possible.

The key was landing lethal strikes!

For example, hitting a Twisted Treant's tree core, or targeting the head or heart of a humanoid monster — striking these critical spots dramatically increased the chance of landing a crit.

As for crowd control!

That was the hardest skill for any archer to master, especially in team fights. Getting a single archer to control the battlefield was an enormous challenge.

But he wasn't in the mood to explain all of that to Futu Dunshan right now. He kept hunting Twisted Treants.

As he hunted, Lin Tianhao pressed forward. Normal-grade Twisted Treants didn't give much experience. To get a deadweight passenger to Level 10 within a single day, he'd need to hunt elite-grade Twisted Treants.

While Lin Tianhao was grinding away, Futu Dunshan had already sent the recorded footage to their guild master.

Futu Shenlang.

Guild master of the Futu Guild.

He was in the middle of leveling up when the video from Futu Dunshan arrived.

"Stop slacking off on leveling and sending me videos," he muttered.

"Guild Master, just watch it — there's a surprise in there."