69: Chapter 69 The Invisible Enemy

"You... can't see her?"

Li Taiping pointed at Helya's corpse on the ground, his expression somewhat peculiar.

The eight people present followed the direction of his finger, but all they saw was a stretch of pure white snow, empty and devoid of anything.

"See what?"

The man carrying the giant bow, the wariness in his eyes growing even thicker,

"Friend, what exactly are you playing at? There's nothing there."

"Yeah, are you seeing things?"

Another burly man clad in heavy armor and wielding a massive shield said in a muffled voice, taking a step forward to shield a woman who appeared to be a healing class behind him.

Everyone exchanged glances, each seeing a trace of gravity and bewilderment in the others' eyes.

From their perspective, everything that had just happened was simply too bizarre.

This man, who had the strongest aura in the entire area, had said not a word after teleporting in before suddenly erupting with a terrifying presence,

then swung his greatsword, slashing fiercely at a patch of empty, uninhabited snow.

Then, he just stood there, saying something about,

"That woman has a grudge against me."

And now he was asking them if they saw a corpse.

Is this guy... perhaps a lunatic?

Or was this an extremely sophisticated display of intimidation?

Deliberately showcasing his unfathomable strength to intimidate them all?

For a moment, everyone's hearts were filled with doubt, and the way they looked at Li Taiping grew increasingly wary.

As for Li Taiping, upon hearing their responses, he was momentarily stunned, but then immediately grasped the key point.

His gaze fell upon the bottle of 【Invisibility Potion】 that had just dropped from Helya, now in his system inventory.

【Invisibility Potion (good grade): Upon use, the user enters an invisible state. Lifeforms of good grade and below cannot detect your invisibility.】

So that's it!

Li Taiping instantly understood in his heart.

It was because of this!

Helya had used this invisibility potion the very instant before entering the instance!

Everyone present, including Anna, were all good grade lifeforms, so naturally, they couldn't see her.

And he, he was the only Excellent Grade existence in the entire place, so the effect of this potion was useless against him!

"This woman really was scheming..."

Li Taiping sneered inwardly.

He was now almost certain that the player who had delayed clicking 'accept,' holding everyone up for several days before the instance started, was one hundred percent this Helya!

She must have used that time to prepare all sorts of potions and items, planning to use invisibility to ambush and eliminate one or two competitors after entering the instance.

Unfortunately for her, despite all her calculations, she never anticipated that within this instance, there would be a monster she couldn't possibly provoke, someone who could see through her invisibility.

After all that preparation, she entered only to be instantly killed by her nemesis with a single sword strike.

Looking at the pile of potions she dropped, she must have really invested heavily, only for it all to end up benefiting him.

Thinking of this, Li Taiping felt immensely pleased.

However, how should he explain the current situation?

He couldn't very well tell them, 'I killed an invisible person you can't see,' could he?

Who would believe that?

They'd probably just think he was insane.

Shaking his head, Li Taiping decided to change his explanation.

He dissipated the greatsword in his hand, once again putting on that harmless smile, and shrugged at everyone.

"It's nothing. Sorry for startling everyone."

He said with an apologetic expression,

"I just had a sudden stress reaction. Thought I saw an enemy. My hand moved faster than my brain, so I swung."

"Stress reaction?"

Hearing this explanation, everyone's expressions grew even more colorful.

You call that world-shattering sword strike just now a 'stress reaction'?

That excuse is way too perfunctory!

Who would believe it!

However, though their minds were filled with frantic Make complaints, no one dared to say anything more on the surface.

After all, Li Taiping's Excellent Grade strength was the real deal.

In their view, this was one hundred percent this powerhouse's display of intimidation.

He was using this method to blatantly tell everyone:

I am strong. So strong I can casually obliterate any one of you. So, all of you better behave!

For a moment, the atmosphere became somewhat delicate.

No one present was a fool. To have come this far, who didn't have some life-saving trump cards?

If truly pushed to the brink, if these seven people joined forces, even if they couldn't kill this Excellent Grade powerhouse, they could absolutely make him suffer.

But the problem was, there was no need.

Everyone was here to complete the instance quest and get the rewards.

As long as this Excellent Grade powerhouse wasn't the kind of lunatic who killed on sight, and just wanted to establish his leading position, then they didn't need to clash head-on.

After all, more friends meant more paths, more enemies meant more walls.

Especially in an unknown instance like this, having a powerful teammate was always better than having a powerful enemy.

Everyone exchanged glances amongst themselves and quickly reached a silent understanding.

The man carrying the giant bow was the first to put away his weapon, forcing a somewhat stiff smile towards Li Taiping:

"So that's what it was. It's fine, it's fine. We understand.

Who doesn't have a few enemies? I'm Archer, captain of the 【Sun Piercer】."

Following his lead, the others also put away their weapons one after another, beginning to introduce themselves.

"I'm Iron Ox, 【Unmovable Mountain】."

The heavy-armored burly man said in his muffled voice.

"I'm Sakurako, 【Kagura】..."

Although the surface had eased, the wariness in everyone's hearts hadn't relaxed in the slightest.

Each person was secretly observing Li Taiping, assessing his strength and character, and planning their next moves.

And Li Taiping was quite happy to see this situation.

A misunderstanding was fine; the intimidation effect was achieved anyway.

He just wanted these people to know he wasn't to be trifled with, to save trouble later if someone got any foolish ideas.

Just as the atmosphere hung between tense confrontation and a strange harmony, Anna, who had remained silent all along, suddenly took a step and walked directly towards Li Taiping.

Her movement instantly drew everyone's gaze once more.

What did this blonde beauty, who had kept a cold face from the start and radiated an aura of 'keep away,' intend to do?

Was she going to challenge that Excellent Grade monster?

Under everyone's astonished and uncertain gazes, Anna stopped in front of Li Taiping.

Her ice-blue eyes looked seriously at Li Taiping,

then, in an extremely calm tone, she uttered a sentence that nearly made everyone's eyes pop out of their sockets.

...