Chapter 18: The entrance to the newbie village turns into a graveyard, and the bounty becomes a joke.

After Zhao Kai's bounty of one million real-world currency was posted, the entire server went into a frenzy.

What did one million real-world currency represent? In a second or third-tier city, it could cover the down payment on a house; in a small county town, it could buy a decent two-bedroom apartment in full. A common brick-moving player would have to work themselves to death for a year just to earn tens of thousands. One million was enough for them to move bricks for twenty years.

Under great rewards, there will surely be brave men. Although the previous waves of people had been thoroughly dealt with by Lin Ye, there were always those who thought they were the exception.

"What's there to be afraid of? No matter how badass he is, he's just one person! If a hundred people charge together, can he hold out?"

"Exactly! No matter how fierce that debuff of his is, can he hit a hundred people at once?"

"Brothers, one million is right in front of us. Just charge!"

The World Channel was filled with such voices. In just half an hour, over three hundred players who had accepted the bounty flooded into the Novice Village, completely clogging the respawn point, teleportation array, and Trading House. These people came from all over—lone wolves, small guilds, and even a few top experts ranked in the top fifty.

Lin Ye stood in the center of the Novice Village square, looking at the dense crowd around him, a wicked smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Over three hundred people? Zhao Kai must have dug out his coffin money for this," he said to Su Qinghan beside him.

Su Qinghan scanned the crowd and frowned. "With over three hundred people, how do you plan to fight? My shield can only withstand focused fire from fifty people at most."

Lin Ye smiled. "Who said I was going to fight head-on?"

He turned, walked to the entrance of the Novice Village, and began setting traps. He applied the debuff to all the wild mobs near the entrance—rabbits, chickens, wolves, and even passing birds. He stacked fifty layers on each and then activated the "Proximity Contagion" effect. As long as someone approached these mobs, the debuff would automatically spread to them, regardless of whether they attacked.

After setting that up, he had Su Qinghan place a hidden forbidden Healing spell at the entrance—any target hit by the Decay Debuff would be unable to restore health through any Healing skills.

After Su Qinghan finished placing the forbidden spell, she couldn't help but ask, "Are you trying to turn the Novice Village entrance into a graveyard?"

Lin Ye shrugged. "Pretty much. Since they're all here, I have to leave them with a deep impression."

After finishing their preparations, the two sat on the rocks by the entrance, snacking on virtual melon seeds, waiting for the bounty hunters to arrive.

The first group to rush over was a small guild team of over twenty people, led by a warrior with the ID "Overlord War God"—the same one who had been wiped out by the elite wolf army last time. He didn't believe in the hype and had organized another group, hoping to fish in troubled waters with their superior numbers.

"Brothers, charge! That Ye is right at the entrance! Kill him, and the million is ours!"

Over twenty people howled as they rushed toward the Novice Village entrance. Just as they neared the gate, they triggered the "Proximity Contagion" trap Lin Ye had set—the debuffed mobs at the entrance were instantly activated, and red damage numbers popped up over the heads of all nearby players simultaneously.

"Holy shit! Why is my health dropping so fast?!"

"Me too! I'm losing more than half every second!"

"Priest! Heal us, quick!"

"I can't! Healing is useless! I've been hit with a Healing block!"

"What?! Healing block?!"

The twenty-plus people panicked and tried to run, but the debuff's damage was too fast. Fifty layers per second meant losing 50% of their maximum health every second; they were dead in two.

"Ding! Player [Overlord War God] has died. Level dropped: 15 → 10."

"Ding! Player [Blaze Mage] has died. Level dropped: 14 → 9."

"Ding! Player [Iron Wall Shield Guard] has died. Level dropped: 13 → 8."

All twenty-plus people died sudden deaths within four seconds. Their corpses piled up at the entrance, and equipment exploded all over the ground.

[World Channel]

[Player "Overlord War God": Holy shit! There's a trap at the entrance! Don't come!]

[Player "Blaze Mage": Dammit, I dropped 5 levels! My gear dropped too!]

[Player "Onlooker": Hahaha, I'm dying here. Another batch dead!]

But no one listened to them. The people behind thought they were just acting, trying to keep the bounty for themselves.

The second batch, over fifty people, charged up. This time it was a team organized by a medium-sized guild, with gear significantly better than the first group, including a few big shots in purple gear.

The result was the same—as soon as they neared the entrance, they were infected by the debuff and died within two seconds. Over fifty people, not one left standing, all collapsed at the gate.

The third batch had over a hundred people. This time they had learned to be smart; they didn't swarm up all at once, but instead sent several assassins to scout. The assassins used stealth to creep to the entrance and discovered something was wrong with the mobs, but just as they were about to head back to report, they were infected by the debuff.

"There's a trap! At the gate, there's—"

Before the sentence could be finished, they were gone.

The people behind were stubborn and sent several more waves of scouts, all with the same result. Finally, they decided to brute-force it—if over a hundred people charged at once, someone was bound to reach Lin Ye.

Over a hundred people howled and charged, a scene as spectacular as a castle siege. But the moment they stepped into the entrance's range, the debuff spread through everyone like a plague.

Over a hundred people died simultaneously. Corpses covered the ground, and equipment littered the street; the Novice Village entrance truly had become a graveyard.

[World Channel]

[Player "Invincible Sword God": I told you not to go to your deaths! You just wouldn't believe it!]

[Player "Brick-Moving Expert": Over three hundred people, all dead? Not a single one left?]

[Player "Yes Little Follower": Brother Ye is awesome! This trap is way too ruthless!]

[Player "Onlooker": The Novice Village entrance has become a cemetery, hahaha! Master Kai's million-dollar bounty has gone down the drain again!]

Zhao Kai looked at the messages on the World Channel, his face pale. He had spent three million—five hundred thousand gold, a ten million gold bounty, and one million real-world currency—all thrown in, and he hadn't even touched the hem of Lin Ye's clothes.

He slumped in his chair, staring at the ceiling with vacant eyes.

"Why... why is it like this every time..."

And at this moment, at the entrance of the Novice Village, Lin Ye was sitting on a rock, looking at the equipment and materials covering the ground, a wicked smile on his lips.

"This wave from Zhao Kai has sent me at least two million gold's worth of stuff," he said to Su Qinghan.

Su Qinghan shook her head speechlessly. "You really are... addicted to shearing this sheep."

Lin Ye laughed. "It's not an addiction; it's being professional. Let's go, time to clean up the mess."

He stood up and began leisurely picking up the equipment. With over three hundred people dropping items, there were at least several hundred pieces—a ton of blue and purple gear, and countless materials. He spent a full ten minutes picking them up until his backpack was almost full.

"Enough, enough. Any more and I'll be encumbered." Lin Ye clapped his hands, opened the Trading House, and listed everything.

[System Notification: You have listed [Overlord Blade] (Purple), priced at 1,000 Gold.]

[System Notification: You have listed [Blaze Robe] (Purple), priced at 800 Gold.]

[System Notification: You have listed [Iron Wall Shield] (Blue), priced at 300 Gold.]

As soon as the items were listed, they were snatched up. Lin Ye looked at the hundreds of thousands of gold that had appeared in his account, smiling from ear to ear.

"Zhao Kai is such a good person, sending both gear and money," he said to Su Qinghan. "I'm almost starting to feel embarrassed."

Su Qinghan rolled her eyes. "You? Embarrassed?"

Lin Ye shrugged. "No. So next time he comes, I'll keep shearing him."

As he spoke, a system notification suddenly popped up—

[System Notification: You have a private message from GM001.]

Lin Ye raised an eyebrow and clicked it open—

[GM001]: Player "Ye," your behavior has seriously affected the order of the game. Within the past 24 hours, we have received over two hundred thousand reports against you. Please cooperate with the official account verification, otherwise we will take compulsory measures.

Two hundred thousand reports?

Lin Ye laughed and sent a reply: "Report me for what? I haven't broken any rules. My Talent was given to me by your game, hunting mobs is normal gameplay, and the PVP was started by the other side. May I ask which rule I violated?"

The other side went silent.

After a long while, GM001 replied—

[GM001]: ...Your Talent data permission is higher than a GM's; we can't check it. But you have indeed caused serious chaos in the game order. We need you to cooperate.

Lin Ye: "Cooperate how?"

[GM001]: Please provide a screenshot of your detailed Talent data panel and your combat records. We need to confirm if there is any bug exploitation.

Lin Ye almost laughed out loud. Provide Talent data? You GMs don't even have the permission to see it, and you want me to provide it?

He thought for a moment and replied: "Sure, I'll take a screenshot and send it to you."

Then he opened his Talent panel and took a screenshot. But before taking it, he censored all the key information on the panel—leaving only the Talent name "Perpetual Energy Level Decay" and the "SSS-grade" text, while blurring everything else like effect descriptions, stack counts, and unlock mechanisms into a mess.

After sending it over, the other side was silent for over ten seconds.

[GM001]: ...Player "Ye," please provide a complete screenshot without censoring.

Lin Ye played dumb: "It's not censored; my screenshots just look like that. Maybe it's a problem with your system?"

[GM001]: ...Do you think we're stupid? This is clearly censored!

Lin Ye: "Then check it yourselves. You have the back-end data anyway."

[GM001]: ...We can't check it. Your permission is higher than ours.

Lin Ye: "Then there's nothing I can do. I can't help you either."

[GM001]: ...

Lin Ye could imagine the expression on that GM's face right now—it must be spectacular. He decided to add more fuel to the fire.

"By the way, didn't you say you were going to take compulsory measures? What measures? Banning my account?"

[GM001]: ...Theoretically, we can ban any account that violates rules.

Lin Ye: "Then ban it. I'm waiting."

The other side went silent. After a long while, GM001 replied—

[GM001]: ...We can't ban it. Your Talent is bound to the game's core rules; banning your account would cause the entire server to crash.

Lin Ye smiled. He knew it would be like this.

"Then stop talking nonsense. You can't control me, and I haven't broken any rules. Let's each play our own way and not interfere with each other. How about it?"

[GM001]: ...Fine. But can you not make such a big scene in the future? It really makes things difficult for us.

Lin Ye thought for a bit: "I'll try. But if someone actively provokes me, then you can't blame me."

[GM001]: ...Fine. I'll report this to my superiors.

Lin Ye closed the private message and said to Su Qinghan, "Settled. The officials won't come looking for trouble anymore."

Su Qinghan looked at him with a complex gaze. "You really are... even the officials can't do anything about you."

Lin Ye shrugged. "Can't help it, my Talent is just that good."

He stood up and brushed the dust off himself. "Let's go, time to head to the main city. Qin Wentian is still waiting."

The two walked out of the Novice Village side by side, heading toward the main city.

Meanwhile, Zhao Kai was looking at his empty bank account, wanting to cry but having no tears. He had spent over three million and gained nothing. His account was still level 0, the debuff was still there, and his voice could still be heard by the entire server. He didn't even dare to breathe loudly now, for fear of being mocked by every player on the server.

"It's over... it's completely over..." he slumped in his chair, muttering to himself.

His phone suddenly rang; it was his father calling.

"Zhao Kai! You spent another three million?! What the hell are you doing in that game?!"

Zhao Kai trembled all over. "Dad, I... I..."

"I what! I'm telling you, that three million is being deducted from your allowance! Don't expect another penny this year!"

The call cut off. Zhao Kai looked at his phone, completely in despair. Three million gone, allowance gone, account ruined. He had nothing left.

He shut down the game and logged off. This time, he was truly afraid.

At this time, Lin Ye and Su Qinghan had reached the exit of the Novice Village. One more step forward was the wilderness map leading to the main city.

Lin Ye looked back at the Novice Village, a wicked smile appearing on his face.

"Zhao Kai, thanks for the three million. If you ever want to send money again, you're welcome anytime."

He turned and stepped out of the Novice Village.