21: Chapter 21: Once the ban was lifted, everyone was forced to stand as punishment.

A hundred attacks had already smashed in front of Lin Zhe.

Fireballs trailed tails of flame.

Arrows were densely packed.

The frontline warriors' Charge skills had almost crashed into a spot three feet before Lin Zhe.

The cruel grin on Wild Wolf's face expanded to the extreme.

"Die!"

He seemed to already see Lin Zhe's counter-shock shield being blown to pieces, and see this Refugee NPC who had made him lose all face being hacked to deletion by the hundred-man group.

But at this very instant.

Lin Zhe raised his finger and lightly pressed down.

"Seal."

Buzz—

A pale gold shield of rules suddenly exploded from beneath his feet!

It wasn't a counter-shock.

Nor was it ordinary light.

It was a ripple of rules visible to the naked eye, instantly covering a hundred-meter range.

The earthen slope, the grassy field, the forest edge, and the village entrance path were all enveloped.

The next second.

The charging warriors froze.

The bow-drawing Archers froze.

The fireball-conjuring mages froze.

One hundred Wild Wolf Gang players were all fixed in place!

As if nailed down tightly by invisible iron chains.

They couldn't even move a single finger.

"Wha... what's the situation?"

"I can't move!"

"I can't release my skills!"

"Holy crap! My body is locked!"

Before the screams could fully erupt, the skill backlash arrived first.

Several mages had fireballs halfway conjured in their hands, but the skill release was forcibly sealed, causing the magic power to explode in their palms.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Firelight plastered their faces.

Mana bars instantly hit rock bottom.

One mage knelt on the ground on the spot, his hair scorched, and a large chunk of his health bar gone.

"Ah! My mana bar is gone!"

"Skill backlash! It's skill backlash!"

The Archers were even more miserable.

Their bowstrings were already fully drawn, but their movements were stuck fast by the area ban.

Crack!

The sound of muscle strain came from several arms at the same time.

"My hand!"

"I can't release it! I can't pull it back either!"

The frontline warriors maintained their charging posture, the white light beneath their feet stuck, and their entire bodies stopped halfway like wooden stakes.

The ferocity on their faces hadn't dissipated, but fear had already emerged in their eyes.

The surrounding Luofeng Village players were all dumbfounded.

Just a moment ago, they thought the hundred-man group was going to drown Lin Zhe.

And the result?

Lin Zhe only said one word.

One hundred people, the entire team penalized to stand still!

"Holy crap..."

An unaligned warrior holding a shield had his mouth wide open.

"What kind of skill is this?"

"Skill? Have you ever seen an NPC with this kind of skill?"

"This isn't Immobilization, this is directly sealing the rules!"

The Lingxiao Pavilion knights were also dazed, their shields held in mid-air, not lowered for a long time.

Xing Jianwan stood by Lin Zhe's side, the fireball on her cold light staff slowly dissipating.

She looked at that pale gold shield, her eyes shaking.

At this moment, she finally understood why Lin Zhe said it wasn't necessary earlier.

A hundred-man group?

In this shield, they didn't even have the qualification to make a move.

The world channel livestream was even eerily empty for three seconds.

The tens of millions of players watching the stream were all stunned.

Three seconds later, the bullet chat directly exploded.

[??????]

[What happened just now?]

[Why did the Wild Wolf Gang all stop moving?]

[A hundred people collectively penalized to stand still?]

[This NPC must be hacking!]

[No, this is NPC authority! It's definitely authority!]

[Wasn't Wild Wolf very arrogant just now? Keep charging!]

Wild Wolf was also stunned.

He maintained his sword-swinging posture, his blue iron sword suspended in mid-air, still over ten meters away from Lin Zhe.

But these ten-odd meters felt like an entire mountain stood between them.

He wanted to move.

He couldn't.

He wanted to curse.

His throat felt blocked, and he could only make intermittent sounds.

"You... what did you do?"

Lin Zhe did not answer.

Because in the next second, the counter-shock mechanism arrived.

The skills and attacks thrown out by the hundred-man group just now, although stuck by the ban, had already completed their attack determination.

The attacks on Lin Zhe were established.

Then they should be countered.

Boom!

The golden counter-shock shield around Lin Zhe's body suddenly brightened.

Brighter than before.

And more ruthless.

One by one, the skill lights stuck in mid-air were grabbed by an invisible giant hand, suddenly turned around, and with doubled counter-shock damage, smashed back toward the Wild Wolf Gang members.

Fireballs rolled back.

Arrows shot back.

Sword qi surged back.

Boom boom boom boom!

The frontline warriors were the first to suffer.

They had charged the closest, so their attack determination was the heaviest.

The counter-shock force smashed back like a row of battering rams hitting their chests head-on.

"Ah—!"

Six frontline warriors' health bars were instantly cleared, yet they couldn't even fly out because their bodies were still fixed in place.

They could only turn into white light while standing.

Swish swish swish!

White lights exploded one after another.

Next were the assassins and Archers behind.

Their arrows and dagger skills all rebounded, accurately stabbing back into their own bodies.

Health bars plummeted.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty.

White lights merged into a single sheet.

The Wild Wolf Gang's formation was like wheat being harvested, disappearing row by row.

The mages were the most miserable.

The skill backlash first blew up their mana bars, then the counter-shock fireballs smashed back; many didn't even finish their screams before returning directly to the respawn point.

"Save me!"

"Potion! I can't drink a potion!"

"I can't move!"

"Health bar is gone! It's gone!"

Swish! Swish! Swish!

In just a few breaths.

Sixty Wild Wolf Gang members had their health bars cleared on the spot, turning into white light and returning to the city.

The remaining forty people didn't die.

But they weren't doing much better.

Their health bars were down to a thin layer, their faces were pale; some knelt, some were stiff, and some were slumped.

They still couldn't move.

They could only maintain various ridiculous poses, pinned tightly in place by the pale gold rules.

Around the earthen slope, the Luofeng Village players went completely crazy.

"Sixty!"

"One wave just insta-killed sixty!"

"The rest are all at critical health!"

"Wild Wolf Gang hundred-man group? That's it?"

With one word from Big Shot Lin, they're all penalized to stand still!"

"So satisfying! That's what you get for the sneak attack!"

The defender players who were trembling with tension just now all straightened their backs.

Someone even shouted at the Wild Wolf Gang remnants.

"Wild Wolf! Didn't you say you'd flatten Luofeng Village?"

"Move! Why aren't you moving?"

"Go back to the city! Aren't you players who can respawn?"

Laughter and ridicule rose in wave after wave.

Wild Wolf's face was already as white as a sheet.

He watched with his own eyes as the hundred-man group he brought lost sixty members in the blink of an eye.

The remaining forty were also like meat on a chopping block.

This wasn't being unable to win.

This was being toyed to death!

He was finally afraid.

Completely and utterly afraid.

Without thinking, Wild Wolf immediately reached for the Town Portal Scroll in his bag.

As long as he could return to the city.

As long as he could leave this place.

If he lost face today, so be it; at least he could save his equipment and level.

But just as his finger touched the Town Portal Scroll, a crimson prompt popped up before his eyes.

[Prompt: You have been locked by special area rules]

[Current Status: City Return Authority Banned]

[Unable to use Town Portal Scroll]

[Unable to move]

[Unable to release skills]

Wild Wolf's pupils shrank suddenly.

"Can't return to the city?"

Refusing to believe it, he frantically clicked to use it in his mind.

Invalid.

Still invalid.

The Town Portal Scroll was as gray as waste paper.

Wild Wolf's lips trembled, and cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

"How can this be..."

"How can even returning to the city be banned?"

The surrounding low-health Wild Wolf Gang members also began to break down.

"Boss! I can't move!"

"I can't return to the city either!"

"No, I can click return, but it says insufficient authority!"

"It's over! We're locked down!"

Wild Wolf suddenly looked up at Lin Zhe.

Lin Zhe was still standing in the same spot.

In coarse hemp clothes.

With a calm expression.

As if the one who insta-killed sixty people just now wasn't him.

As if this hundred-meter ban was just casually closing a door.

The pale gold shield was still flowing beneath his feet.

Lin Zhe's gaze finally crossed the field of low-health players and landed on Wild Wolf.

He didn't speak.

He just lightly raised his eyes in Wild Wolf's direction.