158: Chapter 158 Who Stole the Head?

Hu Gualing had everything calculated clearly in his mind, but Tang Yao was completely unaware of this. Seeing Hu Gualing strike a "Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg" pose only to be sent flying by the Black Wild Boar, she frowned in surprise, unable to understand why Gualing didn't use that unsightly yet incredibly effective movement technique of his to dodge.

Fortunately, although Hu Gualing lost dozens of health points from the collision, his mobility wasn't significantly affected, and he quickly stood up to engage the Black Wild Boar in close-quarters combat.

The wild boar had a large body, making it inherently clumsy in close-range maneuvering. Coupled with the fact that its injuries were already quite severe—the wound on its upper shoulder hindered its forelimb movement, and the cheek wound kept Bleeding without stopping, having been targeted and slashed twice more by Tang Yao—the "-1" numbers appearing over its head became more frequent, causing its already dwindling health to deplete even faster.

Perhaps the wild boar itself felt the threat of death, appearing frantic and impatient in its reckless charging.

But the more impatient it became, the easier it was for Hu Gualing to see through it. Hu Gualing didn't even need to use Lazy Donkey Roll to handle it safely, and sometimes he could even sneak in a punch. Although the damage dealt wasn't high, every little bit counted.

Moreover, in the Black Wild Boar's current state, every attack could potentially be the final straw that broke the camel's back...

At some point, Xiao Niao felt that the time was right and the wild boar wouldn't notice him, so he used a revival coin he had recently purchased from the Game Store to resurrect on the spot. Looking over, he exclaimed, "Wow, Gualing is amazing, actually trading blows with the [Fearless Black Wild Boar], and the boar's health bar is down to its last ten or twenty percent."

Seeing that the battle was all but decided, Xiao Niao took out his bow and arrow, crouching and tiptoeing to a slightly closer spot. He wanted to shoot the boar a few times to avenge the grudge of being rammed to death and the boar's attempt to desecrate his corpse. However, after aiming for a while, he helplessly realized that Hu Gualing was leading the boar in circles within a small area. Both were constantly moving, making it very difficult to aim...

Just as Xiao Niao sighed and wanted to give up on this plan, he noticed Tang Yao patting Sharp Tooth's head, telling it to stay put, while she herself drew her sword and walked up to join the battle.

Seeing that both melee players, Hu Gualing and Tang Yao, were already ganging up on the wild boar, Xiao Niao figured there was no reason for him, a ranged damage dealer, to just watch from behind. Thinking this, he held his bow and moved a bit closer. After aiming for a while, he found that although he was closer, it was actually harder to shoot the boar due to Tang Yao's participation.

"Heh, I don't believe it!"

Xiao Niao refused to give up and continued to move forward, stopping only when he was close enough to simply stab the Black Wild Boar with an arrow. He successfully drew his bow, aimed, and fired. -7!

Hu Gualing was stunned by such low damage. After the Black Wild Boar gained that [Minor Injury] status, all its attributes dropped by ten percent, which should have included its defense. So, his Farmers Three Punches could deal 10 points of damage to the boar in its injured state. How did a -7 damage number suddenly pop up?

After a few blinks of confusion, Hu Gualing realized that an arrow had hit the boar's back and bounced off, not even leaving a red mark, which was why the damage was so negligible.

Hu Gualing took a moment to turn his head and look back, and sure enough, he saw Xiao Niao standing to the side with his wooden bow. Clearly, that arrow had been shot by him.

But Xiao Niao was already this close, and he was using arrows equipped with steel arrowheads. How could he only deal -7 damage? That was a bit too low, wasn't it?

Just as he was thinking this, Hu Gualing suddenly heard the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground. He turned back to look, and to his surprise, the Black Wild Boar's health bar had been completely depleted. Its massive body could no longer stand and crashed to the ground with a boom, kicking up a cloud of dust and sand.

Dead? Hu Gualing checked the game notifications and, sure enough, discovered a message he hadn't noticed: [You participated in the kill of the Fearless Wild Boar, gained combat experience +146]

"Participated in the kill? Does that mean after working so hard for so long, this boar wasn't killed by me?"

Hu Gualing scanned Tang Yao and Xiao Niao with a suspicious gaze: "Which one of you killed this wild boar?"

Xiao Niao said weakly: "I saw the notification say, you killed the Fearless Black Wild Boar, gained combat experience +271, so I think... it should be me, right?"

"Huh??" Tang Yao and Hu Gualing both made sounds of disbelief.

Hu Gualing said, unable to accept it: "You just dealt a whopping 7 points of damage, and you stole the kill?" It wasn't his fault for finding it so hard to accept; the truth was that besides pulling the monster and randomly shooting one arrow at the end, this guy Xiao Niao had been slacking off more than anyone else, essentially playing dead the entire time. How could he accept this...

Xiao Niao smiled shyly and defended himself: "Didn't I shoot an arrow at the beginning, causing a Bleeding status on this detestable guy? Maybe it died from blood loss, so the kill was counted towards me."

Hearing this explanation, Hu Gualing rubbed his cheek and thought carefully. The Fearless Black Wild Boar's Bleeding status had indeed been hanging over its head the whole time. Furthermore, during the battle, a -1 damage number had indeed popped up over its head from time to time. While a single instance looked insignificant, adding them all up, it probably lost dozens of health points. In that sense, Xiao Niao's contribution to this battle was actually quite significant...

Tang Yao called Sharp Tooth over with a "Liao-liao-liao" sound, scooped two ladles of blue-quality pig feed to reward it for its brave fighting just now, and then pulled a handful of euphorbia humifusa from her backpack. Mimicking how Hu Gualing had used it before, she rubbed it between her palms: "Who cares who killed it? There's no special reward anyway. Let's hurry up and heal."

"Hehe, that's true." Hearing this, Hu Gualing realized it was indeed the case. It was just a bit of combat experience; there was really no need to obsess over whether Xiao Niao had stolen this "pig" kill. He immediately pulled a handful of euphorbia humifusa from his backpack and stuffed it into his mouth to chew.

Xiao Niao watched Tang Yao and Hu Gualing both healing. Since he had just used a revival coin to resurrect at full health, he naturally had no wounds to heal. He walked over to the Black Wild Boar's corpse and picked up the arrow that had been shot onto the boar's back but had bounced off.

Squatting on the ground, he touched the polished steel arrowhead. Xiao Niao's face was full of confusion. His arrow was made with a steel arrowhead, too. How could it have bounced off after hitting, even from such a close distance?

Just how tough was the skin on that wild boar's back?

With this thought, Xiao Niao couldn't help but come to the side of the boar's corpse and reached out to touch the fur on its back. He felt a warmth and was so scared he retracted his hand immediately, as if he had been electrocuted.

It was because the wild boar had just died, and its body temperature and blood hadn't cooled down yet, so it felt as if it were still alive.

Xiao Niao understood this, but having never even killed a chicken in real life, he was inevitably scared to touch a freshly dead animal carcass for the first time. However, he was truly curious about what was going on with the fur on the boar's back, since it could deflect a steel arrowhead shot from such close range. Suppressing the fear in his heart, he slowly reached out and touched the back of the boar's corpse again. Turning his head away and closing his eyes, he touched it for a while. His expression turned to one of surprise because he discovered that it wasn't the soft, thick, and resilient animal fur he had imagined, but something hard and smooth, as if it were some kind of... carapace?