Chapter 3: Killing Players

Li Shen was completely baffled.

Within the Undead Territory, four lieutenants each managed one of four zones. Whenever a zone was invaded, the corresponding lieutenant would come to deal with it.

Even if players killed one lieutenant, the monsters from the other zones wouldn't come rushing over.

Yet right now, two lieutenants had appeared in front of him.

Staring at his health bar, which had dropped by nearly half, Li Shen pulled out a healing potion and chugged it down with a series of gulps, wincing at the cost.

Potions in Oracle were notoriously expensive. Most parties would normally bring a dedicated healer, but since the game was still in its early-access phase, very few players had completed their job advancements yet.

Still, painful as it was, someone else was paying him to do this job — so he used it and moved on.

He turned back and said, "Things are getting a bit tricky."

"This lieutenant manages the southern zone. He's a melee type — high HP, high damage. No idea why he showed up here. Must be a game update."

Qiu Shui furrowed her brow. "So what do we do?"

Li Shen took a deep breath. "It's fine. If it were just me, I'd have no chance. But we've got other players here. Sure, none of them have done their job advancements, but together they still add up to a decent amount of firepower."

"As long as we kite these two mobs, the advantage is still on our side."

The words had barely left his mouth.

The blood on the ground inexplicably rose into the air and coalesced, forming droplets that hovered for a moment before suddenly scattering across the crowd.

[HP -30]

[HP -50]

[HP -42]

Watching the players' health bars plummet wildly, Li Shen froze.

No ordinary mob could use a skill like that.

He swept his gaze around the area, and sure enough — standing in the grass some distance away was a gaunt, skeletal man.

Lieutenant of the Undead Territory's Northern Zone — Edward.

How did three mini-bosses show up at once?

Li Shen admitted to himself that the moment he spotted Edward, the thought of retreating had already crossed his mind.

Death penalties existed in this game, and the higher your level, the harsher the punishment. For a player who had already completed his job advancement like him, dying once meant losing a massive chunk of experience — and if luck wasn't on your side, you could even drop equipment.

Experience could be ground back with time, but equipment? That was pure RNG — no getting around it.

"Another lieutenant just showed up. Sis Qiu, we need to fall back and drop aggro."

After a brief moment of deliberation, Li Shen gave the signal to retreat.

He wasn't the only one — the other players had also noticed something was wrong.

How come there were barely any regular mobs, but mini-bosses everywhere?

"Bro, can we even win this?"

"Hey, where'd you go?"

"Holy shit! How are you running so fast?! Take me with you!"

The moment one player spotted trouble and bolted, more and more joined the retreat.

Unfortunately, by now, running was already too late.

An impossibly thick black fog billowed out from the entrance of the territory, clinging to the players like a toxic miasma. Within mere seconds, several bodies had already crumpled to the ground.

"There's another one?"

Li Shen was completely lost. He looked toward the grey mist and saw a health bar several times larger than any lieutenant's floating in the air, with a crimson title beside it.

[Undead Archmage — Xia Er]

"Fuck!"

"That's a damn boss! Why is the boss out here too?!"

The sight made Li Shen's scalp tingle. This storyline had gone completely off the rails.

As for Xia Er, he couldn't care less whether the story was on track or not.

If he stayed holed up in the castle while the players kept farming and growing stronger, death was the only thing waiting for him. He had to strike hard while they were still in the early game and grind resources.

Taking a deep breath, Xia Er raised his hand. White rings of light materialized beneath the players' feet, and with a thunderous boom, pillars of fire erupted skyward.

Player [Tianyu Feishuang] has died. Player [Fat Tiger] has died. Player [Jiang He] has died.

[Experience gained — 600]

"Hm?"

As more and more players perished in the flames, a stream of system notifications floated into Xia Er's view, leaving him somewhat puzzled.

Could an NPC actually gain experience?

By all logic, as a pre-programmed entity, his stats should have been locked at their current values — there shouldn't be any change at all.

That didn't make any sense.

Wait...

He'd already pulled off the whole transmigration thing — since when did "making sense" matter?

Having gotten a taste of the rewards, Xia Er's eyes immediately lit up with hunger. The players he'd found so repulsive moments ago now looked like walking experience packages — every single one of them fuel for his growth.

"Not one of you is getting away!"

To make sure every kill was credited to his account, Xia Er went into full berserk mode, hurling skills into the crowd non-stop, terrified that the other lieutenants might steal his kills.

The sheer madness of the scene left Li Shen completely dumbstruck.

Was this right?

The boss hadn't taken a single point of damage — so why had it gone berserk?

He kept weaving through the open ground to dodge the attacks, but the casting rate was simply too high. Even grazing hits were more than he could handle.

"Sis Qiu, this run might be a total wipe..."

The words had barely left his mouth before the blazing flames swallowed him whole.

[Player [Li Shen] slain. Experience gained: 1000.]

[Your level has increased to 31.]

[Maximum HP and MP increased by 5%.]

[Gained 1 skill point.]

"Hiss..."

"High-level players really do give more experience."

With the last wave of players dealt with, Xia Er looked at his rapidly climbing experience bar and felt a surge of satisfaction.

Being able to level up was the best news he'd received since transmigrating.

Sure, he was having a blast right now — but if his power stayed fixed forever, a hardcore grinder player would kick him to the curb in a matter of days.

"Right, the skill point."

Recalling the system notification from earlier, Xia Er opened his skill panel.

As a level 30 Undead Archmage, he currently had three skills.

[Lv.1: Undead Summoning]

Description: Consumes 1,000 MP. Summons a squad of 25 Undead Soldiers.

[Lv.1: Dark Veil]

Description: Consumes 300 MP. Summons a death-aura fog that inflicts corrosion and blindness on enemy units.

[Lv.1: Ember Fire]

Description: Consumes 500 MP. Forms a fire circle beneath enemy units; erupts flame from the center, targeting up to three enemy units at once.

All three skills were at level one. Skill points could be used to upgrade them.

"Which one should I put the point into..."

Xia Er found himself at a bit of a loss.