149: Chapter 149 Hidden NPCs in the Wild

As expected, it was this kind of scene again.

In his past life, due to his busy work schedule, the two hours Tang Long had managed to squeeze out were spent in a situation just like this.

Players could respawn, but there were restrictions.

Dying caused a loss of experience—the higher the level, the more was lost—and there was a chance to drop equipment and personal items. Currently, players had basically nothing to their names, so this didn't matter much.

However, there were only two instant respawns per day; after that, time limits were imposed, and with each subsequent death, the respawn timer would lengthen significantly.

Thus, most of Tang Long's two hours back then had been spent lying on the ground waiting to respawn.

He later found out on the forums that two hours was actually not that long; some camps had been under siege for over eight hours.

Countless people had cursed the official developers to high heaven on the forums, and Tang Long had been one of them.

But looking at it now, this was actually the most normal reaction for a world suffering an invasion.

He didn't know how long Frozen Soil Camp had been besieged back then, but he knew he didn't have that much time to wait.

What could he do to get the military to withdraw?

While Tang Long pondered, he brought up the quest-issuing page.

The functions were very intuitive, with almost no learning curve.

Editing quest content, setting acceptance conditions, inputting rewards—he understood it after just a few trials.

At this moment, Tang Long looked up at the camp again and noticed that the situation had changed.

Initially, the players were pinned down in the village, but the military's crossbow bolts weren't infinite.

As soon as the rain of arrows stopped, the stubborn players continued to charge out.

They thought this was part of the plot and felt like they'd miss out if they didn't watch every second.

The military immediately deployed troops to engage in close-quarters combat.

The recruitment threshold for the Song City City Defense Division was Stage Four, while the National Defense Division was one tier higher, at Stage Five.

This level of strength was far superior to that of a Level 1 player character.

However!

The soldiers in the army quickly began to suffer casualties.

Firstly, it was because there were so many players; within Frozen Soil Camp alone, the number of players visually exceeded five thousand. Moreover, beams of starlight continued to descend from the sky, and the numbers were still rising.

Secondly, although the players were still low-level characters, they weren't completely without combat capability.

Some players who could pick up quests in the camp were able to get a starter weapon; if they chose a bow and arrow, they had some killing power.

The players' sense of cooperation was very strong; as long as someone shouted "focus fire," a certain soldier would immediately face concentrated fire. Once they accidentally became isolated and focused down, it became very dangerous.

The third and most important point was that players could respawn.

While respawning had time limits, it was still better than standing idly in the village. They swarmed out like a massive cloud of flies, each one completely unafraid of death, a sight that made one's skin crawl.

It was also strangely comical.

Although the military's crossbow formations repeatedly showed their power and pushed back the assaults, the number of troops wasn't that large after all, and gaps began to appear in the originally tight encirclement.

After a brief consideration, Tang Long gave up on the idea of communicating with the military and instead found a suitable spot to slowly approach.

Meanwhile, a small group of players took advantage of the military formation's contraction and actually managed to break through a gap.

“Hahaha~ We actually broke out~!”

“Brothers, you're awesome!”

“I'm telling you, even though being pinned in the village by the army was annoying, this feeling of fighting our way out is incredibly satisfying!”

“First time on a battlefield, it's so damn thrilling. I think I might have pissed myself, what about you guys?”

“Sister Luo is awesome! Did you level up?”

“Hmph hmph hmph! I just snatched a kill on a low-health soldier, and leveled up with one arrow!”

“Watch out! Pursuers are coming!”

“Just one, turn around and kill him!”

“Holy shit, it's a BOSS!”

“We can't even break his defense, he's impossible to fight! Scatter and run!”

An Upper Realm Sergeant Major chased them down rapidly, pouncing on four or five reckless players like an eagle on chicks before continuing the pursuit of the rest.

Scattering did help to some extent, but the speed difference between the two sides was too great, and the players were still caught and killed one by one.

Then, he locked onto Lü Daoren.

Lü Daoren ran for his life, yet he still saw the red dot on the map closing in rapidly.

“Motherfucker! There are eight people left, and I'm the furthest from you. Why the hell are you coming after me!”

“With that energy, wouldn't it be better to kill Sister Luo first?”

“Argh~ Shit! Why is my satiety dropping so fast? Why am I slowing down?!”

On the hillside on the other side, four or five surviving players saw that Lü Daoren was about to be finished and couldn't help but grin with schadenfreude.

“Warrior! Have a safe journey!”

“Thrilling, truly thrilling. I thought I was next, but the BOSS just turned and went straight for him.”

“This guy is sacrificing himself to save us all. What was his name again?”

“Haha! You haven't even heard of Lü Daoren?”

“Lü Daoren? That name sounds quite familiar.”

“How could it not be? He's the one President Shang put a bounty on in the livestream just now.”

“Holy shit! So it's this guy. Killing him once is worth two hundred bucks! If I'd known it was him, we wouldn't have needed the BOSS to do the job.”

“Just die already, you wretched donkey!”

“Let's go! Further away! Let's form a party and kill monsters to level up together!”

Amidst the players' chatter, the figures of Lü Daoren and the BOSS disappeared into the dense forest.

Lü Daoren ran another three or four hundred meters and then stopped.

His legs felt like they were filled with lead, and he could no longer take a step; his hunger level had reached 89%. There was no point in resisting, so he might as well sit down and shout curses.

[Lü Daoren: Dammit, Sister Luo, do you have no humanity?! You actually didn't come to save me!]

[Goutou Luo Name Stolen: Dumbass! If I tried to save you, I'd have to go back too.]

Lü Daoren understood, of course; he was just grumbling out of habit.

Calculating the time, that BOSS guy should have finished him off by now, right? Why hadn't he made a move?

He looked up and saw the BOSS had stopped a dozen meters away, staring intently in this direction without moving an inch.

That look... it didn't seem to be directed at him.

Following the soldier's gaze, he looked back and his eyes widened in shock.

At some point, a tall figure in a red robe had appeared behind him. And above this person's head, there was actually a golden scroll.

“Holy shit? This is... a hidden quest NPC in the wild.”

Lü Daoren immediately perked up, leaped to his feet, and approached the red-robed man. A golden quest interaction interface immediately unfolded before him.

[Mysterious Person: Adventurer, I see a dark aura between your brows; it seems a bloody calamity is imminent. How about this: if you kowtow to me three times, I will show you a way to survive?]

“Shit! What kind of dogshit NPC is this? This is too insulting!”

[Quest Reward: 1,000 blue sea coins, Mysterious Person's favorability +1.]

[Accept? Yes/No]

Lü Daoren's expression changed instantly, replaced by a look of disbelief.

“One thousand bucks for three kowtows? Is this for real? Isn't currency supposed to be hard to get in the early stages of this game?”

He accepted the quest instantly and dropped to his knees with extreme agility to start kowtowing.