Absolute Death Game

After lunch, the four of them went back to work, and Xiao Buli was busy all afternoon. With nearly a day's time, he decided to take this opportunity to level up his Grazing Skill to Max Level. However, progressing Life Skills became increasingly difficult at later stages. By the next day at 9 a.m., he had only managed to level Grazing up to eight and had not yet grasped LV4 Taming Skills. But indeed, blue equipment proved to be extraordinary; with the Butcher's Bleeding Knife, he could kill wild dogs in just two or three strikes, and his improving proficiency significantly increased his efficiency.

It seemed he would have to wait until after escorting Li Baocheng out of the village to level up further.

Checking the time, it was almost ten o'clock. Xiao Buli thought it best to set out early.

Aftlyer equipping himself and bringing along Meatball, Xiao Buli arrived at the village entrance, only to find that Li Baocheng was already waiting there. He was clad in a full set of Leather Armor, and Xiao Buli did not know where he had acquired it. Li Baocheng had two daggers at his waist and a bow with Arrows on his back. Beside him stood a gray hunting dog that looked somewhat like a wild dog but was significantly larger. It was called 'Ash Messenger' and it looked quite impressive—far more majestic than Xiao Buli's ordinary-looking Meatball.

"Your pet is not bad, where did you catch it?"

"Bought it from the hunter for five silver coins," Li Baocheng said proudly. Xiao Buli thought to himself that this guy must be quite rich to spend silver coins on such an extravagant pet.

What he didn't know was that Li Baocheng was entirely unaware that pets could not level up, and he thought that buying a top-quality pet meant it could level up with him.

In reality, Li Baocheng's Taming Skills level was not sufficient to tame the wolfhound. After all, its Wildness level was two, and one would need level three Taming Skills to Tame it. However, having been a hunter's apprentice for so long, his Beast Compendium included a directory of canine creatures, providing him with a level boost when Taming canines, which is how he managed to tame the unruly beast.

But at this moment, he was too concerned to feel proud, looking around anxiously, he asked, "Why aren't those two here yet? It's almost time."

"Here they come," replied Xiao Buli, and sure enough, Han Baiqiang and Sun Bin were walking out of the village. Both men were fully armed; Han Baiqiang carried a Butcher's Bone Chopper Knife in one hand and a blacksmith's hammer in the other, and wore stiff Leather Armor along with an iron-rimmed helmet—ugly, perhaps, but still commanding. Sun Bin was dressed in a fine Pigskin Jacket, topped with a leather helmet, and wore a 'valiant' battle robe over it, which was essentially a cover that looked exactly like what the Militia wore. He slanted a red-tasseled spear in his hand.

Xiao Buli was puzzled, where had Sun Bin acquired this attire?

The four men sized each other up and gained a mutual understanding of their respective capabilities. After a brief exchange, they set off.

Since it was almost their first time venturing out of the village, the farther they moved away from the settlement, the more tense they became despite not having seen any formidable monsters—everyone except Sun Bin, who looked completely unconcerned, as if he had been here before.

After about five or six minutes of walking, the group arrived at a dip in the landscape formed by piles of stone, guarded by a crude wooden gate with two Militia standing behind it.

Noticing them approaching, one of the Militia cheerfully greeted Sun Bin, "Is that you, Sun? Aren't you here to take over the shift?"

"Does this guard actually know Sun Bin?" The group looked at Sun Bin in surprise after hearing this. But Sun seemed unaffected by their astonishment and typed his reply. Of course not, today isn't my shift. I'm heading to the Black Wastes with a few friends for something.

He didn't type this response in the NPC dialogue box but shouted it directly. Surprisingly, the Militia was able to understand, "I see, then I wish you all a safe journey. The Walking Corpses and Corpse-eating Dogs have been increasing in the Black Wastes lately. It's best to make a quick trip."

As they spoke, the two Militia opened the gate at the dip.

Once through the gate, they saw seventeen or eighteen bodies on the ground, both wild dogs and humans, but all looked abnormal. The wild dog corpses were particularly ferocious, still exuding viciousness even in death, while the human corpses were withered and rotten, as if they had just been dug out of graves. Sun Bin walked by the sight as if accustomed to it, so Xiao Buli and the others had no choice but to follow.

As they passed through the gate, a prompt suddenly appeared on the screen.

System Notification: You have entered the Black Wastes.

The desolate scenery before them grew even more obscure, the ground turned an ominous gray-black, the grass became sparse, and there seemed to be a faint mist pervading the air, reducing visibility at a distance. The occasional trees they could see also appeared corroded and decaying, as if the whole world was succumbing to corruption and decline.

Seeing how familiar Sun Bin was with the place, Xiao Buli felt a mix of emotions. It seemed Sun Bin did indeed have the merit to be arrogant; even in terms of game exploration, he was more skilled than Xiao Buli. He recalled Han Baiqiang mentioning that Sun Bin had purchased weapons and ventured out of the village earlier than he did. Connecting this with the recent conversation with the Militia, Xiao Buli concluded he had found the answer.

"I say, Old Sun, have you been out here before?" Han Baiqiang abruptly asked in a loud voice.

"What do you think?" Sun Bin responded with a question of his own. Xiao Buli then said quietly, "If I'm not mistaken, after farming, your second job was to serve in the Village Militia, wasn't it?"

"Ha, you got it right. Indeed, after learning Wild Dance and mastering Basic Spear Skills with the militia captain, I joined the Village Militia. Every day, I had to guard the entrance to the Black Wastes for three hours to prevent the Walking Corpses and Corpse-eating Dogs from bringing the plague over the wall."

"So you've been killing lots of monsters these days?"

"Of course, I've killed over a hundred by now."

"Why kill so many monsters? For equipment?"

Sun Bin chuckled, "Don't even mention it, nothing dropped, but I did earn quite a bit of battle experience. Maybe you guys don't know, but battle experience can directly be used to upgrade skills."

Xiao Buli thought to himself that this made sense, but the battle experience he had gained in the past two days was too little, so he hadn't considered this before.

"There seems to be someone up ahead," Han Baiqiang suddenly warned.

Sun Bin looked up and said, "That's not a person, just a walking corpse."

Indeed, as the target drew closer, everyone could see its true appearance: a shriveled body, a rotting face, and clothes that had long rotten away, leaving only a few stubborn strands hanging onto it.

"Damn, that's disgusting," Han Baiqiang couldn't help but curse. The game was overwhelmingly realistic; it was a wonder how it would pass inspection during the open beta. "Is this thing tough?" he asked.

Sun Bin shook his head. "Not tough, I can take on five by myself."

However, despite saying so, no one was willing to step forward to act as a minesweeper since they couldn't gauge the enemy's strength properly. In the end, they let Li Baocheng, who played a ranged role, take a shot at it. He drew his bow and aimed at the walking corpse, sending an arrow flying.

With a thud, the arrow sank deep into the body of the walking corpse. The creature paused for a moment but immediately continued to advance, emitting low growls from its mouth. Without hesitation, Li Baocheng fired another arrow, this time hitting the walking corpse right in the head. It seems its neck had been nearly rotten through already because the head was shot off in an instant.

The headless corpse swayed a couple of times before collapsing.

"So, how much experience did you get?"

"Only two points," replied Li Baocheng, disappointed. Even a wild dog would give at least five points of battle experience. Despite looking frightening, the walking corpse awarded so little experience; it was truly useless.

The group advanced a bit further, encountering numerous walking corpses along the way, but they were all quickly dispatched. These creatures were very slow, and their health points were low, so after a few rounds, not even their 'oil skin' got scratched. However, the corpse-eating dogs did pose a small threat. Compared to the walking corpses, these half-dead beasts had a much stronger attack drive and were faster. Still, dealing with one or two at a time proved not to be difficult. According to Sun Bin, these walking corpses are invincible unless completely destroyed—they would soon stand up again after absorbing the energy of the earth. The best solution was to burn them.

After about half an hour, the black wasteland still stretched on endlessly, and the weapons around them began to intensify. Xiao Buli inwardly exclaimed at the vastness of the game's map. Han Baiqiang, however, stopped and said, "We should be far enough now."

Li Baocheng was not quite at ease. "Let's go a bit further. It'd be terrible to get trapped."

Han Baiqiang wasn't keen to continue walking. Reluctantly he said, "Is that necessary? There are only a few militiamen in that village. With the black wasteland being so vast, how could they possibly find where you logged out? I think those NPCs probably won't even leave the village. Right, Old Xiao?"

Xiao Buli didn't mind either way. Sun Bin stood by, watching indifferently, and decided to practice his moves on a couple of corpse-eating dogs since there was nothing better to do. As they were arguing, Li Baocheng's 'Ash Messenger' suddenly let out a threatening, low growl, followed by Meatball's barking as well.

At first, nobody paid much attention, but then Xiao Buli remembered Meatball's passive skill—Agility LV1, which increased the detection range by twenty percent. Could it be that Meatball had sensed some threatening enemy getting closer?

While thinking, he looked towards the road ahead. Through the dense fog, a jingling sound was heard, crystal clear through the headset.

("It seems like something is coming our way. Could it be that a merchant caravan has arrived early? That seems unlikely. Regardless, it's still best to hide and see.")

Xiao Buli thought to himself and ran towards a nearby bush beside the road. Seeing this, although Sun Bin and the others did not know what he was doing, they followed him instinctively.

"What's up, Old Xiao? Why are you running?"

"Don't ask, just look over there!"

The group hid behind the bushes and looked at the road from a distance. In the misty air, silhouettes began to emerge. Initially, there were only a few, but as they got closer, the number increased. Along with the dense figures approaching, the sound of the bells became clearer. Finally, a figure in a gray magical robe appeared from the fog, wearing a straw hat and holding a short wooden magic wand in one hand and ringing a bell in the other. Following him were hundreds of walking corpses, densely packed behind him, marching like an army from the underworld.

These walking corpses were normally the weakest of monsters. The group had killed many along the way and had long since stopped paying attention to such weaklings. However, seeing so many gathered together now, the horrifying aura they emitted made everyone's scalp tingle.

It was a corpse-driving warlock! Xiao Buli immediately made the judgment. Wu Tao's words echoed in his ears. ("Just my luck to run into this—if we're discovered, it's almost certain we'll be wiped out.")

"Don't just stand there, let's get out of here!"

With a yell, Xiao Buli turned and ran!