LWGP - Chapter 71
Chapter 71: Ambush
The fatter, the better. It would have an even harder time climbing up. This was determined by the fishman's body—their fins were not suited for climbing.
With her mind at ease, Wang Jiu continued to snipe the BOSS from above, while also controlling the Blade Minion BOSS to fight it.
This Fishman Chieftain was stronger than the Blade Minion BOSS. Both were bronze-grade, but the chieftain was a higher level and more powerful. The Blade Minion BOSS couldn't win in a head-on fight, but it had one advantage: its agility was higher.
Based on the Blade Minion BOSS's attacks and her own shooting, Wang Jiu estimated the Fishman Chieftain's Strength and Stamina were likely over 130.
She had to wear it down as quickly as possible!
But before that, to increase the damage, Wang Jiu had the Blade Minion BOSS run toward her. The Fishman Chieftain, having drawn its aggro, quickly gave chase.
Once it was below her, Wang Jiu could shoot down from above, drastically increasing the piercing power of her shots. From this angle, she could focus her attacks on the gills on the Fishman Chieftain's head.
The Fishman Chieftain noticed and began to dodge, trying to move away, but the Blade Minion BOSS kept it entangled.
Since you're already here, you think you can leave so easily?
"You damn blade-man, why do you obey this damned human!" The Fishman Chieftain's agility was lower than the Blade Minion BOSS's. Pestered until its scales began to flush a frustrated red, it couldn't help but curse aloud.
Unfortunately, the Blade Minion BOSS was just a puppet and couldn't respond.
Thwack! An arrow struck the gills on its fish head. At first, it only left a mark, but as the number of attacks increased… blood began to spatter.
Wang Jiu knew the accumulated damage had reached a certain point and was starting to break through its defense.
She checked the time. The Blade Minion BOSS had four minutes left.
That might not be enough. If the Blade Minion BOSS disappeared, it might take her another twenty minutes to wear it down alone.
In twenty minutes, it was highly likely that the people rushing over would steal her kill.
"Attack it directly!" Wang Jiu stopped having the Blade Minion BOSS dodge and chose to have it clash head-on with the Fishman Chieftain.
The close-quarters combat was far more brutal and swift. Wang Jiu continuously provided support with her arrows.
As the Fishman Chieftain dodged backward to avoid a slash from the Blade Minion BOSS aimed at its gills, its body leaned back. At that exact moment, Wang Jiu's arrow shot toward the inside of its knee.
The front was protected by bone, but the back was not. It was soft flesh, without even scales. The arrow pierced through and hit a soft tendon.
It cried out in pain. Its body was already clumsy, and for a moment, its balance faltered.
Swish! The Blade Minion BOSS rushed forward with a powerful Charge!
Thud! The Fishman Chieftain fell. As it hit the ground, the Blade Minion BOSS leaped on top of it, bringing both its blades down in a heavy strike toward its heart.
The impact was dull and heavy.
The blow caused all of the Fishman Chieftain's gills to flare open at once, much like how a person's mouth would involuntarily open after taking a heavy punch to the chest.
At the same time, Wang Jiu's arrow arrived swiftly, shooting directly into the open gills.
Critical hit! A large spray of blood erupted.
However, the severely wounded Fishman Chieftain was no pushover. It sent the Blade Minion BOSS flying and impaled it with its trident. But its damaged gills could no longer close. From above, Wang Jiu kept firing arrows into them, and the damage stacked up at a terrifying rate. Because it was a fatal wound location, the damage was amplified—like rubbing salt in a wound, the effect was spectacular.
Its health bar plummeted.
The Fishman Chieftain's body quickly took on the blood-red aura characteristic of berserking. Just then, the Blade Minion, with the trident still piercing its body, charged again.
It was going for mutual destruction!
What kind of grudge was this!
The Fishman Chieftain fell to the ground again, its berserking process forcibly interrupted for a brief moment.
Lying on the ground, the Fishman Chieftain saw a dark shadow plummeting from above…
Having leaped from a height of ten meters, Wang Jiu had already put away her bow. In mid-air, she gripped her Tang sword with both hands in a reverse grip and executed a standard plunging stab.
Boom!!
The Tang sword pierced into its bleeding gills. The powerful impact ran it straight through. The immense force also caused the torn skin on Wang Jiu's palms, already raw from firing over 300 arrows, to split open. Blood flowed down the hilt of her sword, while the blood spraying from the gills splattered across half her face.
Thump. A super critical hit!
The Fishman Chieftain's health bar emptied instantly.
A system prompt popped up immediately: "Congratulations, player, for successfully clearing the simple mode of this dungeon. Personal rating: 11 stars. Overall rating: 11 stars. Furthermore, by achieving 100% participation as a solo player and taking 0 damage, you have achieved an unparalleled feat and set a new record. You have activated the intermediate title—The Nearly Perfect Sneaky Hunter."
Imperfect is imperfect, but what's with adding 'sneaky'? I hid on that cliff with my own skills. You got a problem with that?
Wang Jiu truly felt that this game's system had it out for her. But when she saw the title's attributes, she thought this Dog System wasn't so bad after all.
The Nearly Perfect Sneaky Hunter (Intermediate Title)
Attribute: Spirit Energy +100.
Not bad, not bad at all.
"Let me ask, how much Spirit Energy does the title for getting three attributes over 100 give?"
System: "50."
Wang Jiu smiled. "Such a good title, yet you had to add 'sneaky.' Why must you insult your own literacy?"
The System was quite self-righteous. "That was a sneaky playstyle, and you were just one point shy of a perfect 12-star rating, so it's not wrong. It's a pity. If you had cleared this dungeon in under ten minutes, you would have gotten a perfect rating and maybe even a high-grade title. But this title is top-tier among the intermediate ones."
It was a pity.
But Wang Jiu said, "There are two terrifying laws in this world. One is that what you fear most will come to pass, and the other is that what you want most, you will never get."
Hypotheticals meant nothing to her; she never wasted her thoughts on them.
Except for one kind of hypothetical.
"Besides, it's not my fault. It's this Blade Minion BOSS's fault for being too weak. Why don't you give me a stronger puppet? A permanent one would be nice."
Just then, the timer on the battered Blade Minion BOSS ran out, and it vanished. Yet the black-hearted Wang Jiu was still complaining about it.
"You really dare to dream, and you really dare to say it," the System mocked as it distributed the rewards.
A huge amount of experience, two 11-star ratings, a total of 11 attribute points, and four spins on the Lucky Wheel.
The influx of experience instantly leveled her up to level seven. Before she could even marvel at the rapid leveling, she was stunned by the number of Lucky Wheel spins.
"Four times?"
System: "Yes. One for 10 stars, two for 11 stars. Your personal and overall ratings combined give you four spins. You've really hit the jackpot this time."
After all, she had gotten a Homestead last time.
But it also saw the battered state of the hand Wang Jiu used to draw the bow. Even one of her fingernails had broken, yet she acted as if she felt nothing.
Truly, no pain, no gain.
This human was truly ruthless, going to extremes from the very beginning to farm titles and ratings.
And those two things were particularly difficult to farm. She couldn't guarantee that other participants wouldn't hold her back, so she and a single puppet had to carry the entire run.
Wang Jiu: "This is only possible at low levels. When dungeons get harder later, I won't be able to clear them alone."
In order to get more Spirit Energy and speed up her manor's construction, she had long planned to farm titles. She had considered many methods and realized her disadvantage was having few people. Her speed at clearing dungeons in the early stages would definitely be slower than those from large factions. For example, titles for being the first to clear a simple dungeon, or for the fastest BOSS kill.
None of those were feasible.
Perhaps having few people had its advantages.
She ultimately devised this plan based on her greatest trump card, the puppet card. She had considered that while those experts were powerful, they had many followers. This was an advantage, but it could also be a weakness. When the game started, they would surely be eager to lead their people to search for and clear dungeons. But they couldn't just have their subordinates search and then go in to clear it alone. That was a major taboo in the early game; it would dishearten their followers and plant seeds of trouble for their faction. This was a very delicate period—the capital of those massive real-world powers had all been wiped out. Money, firearms—all turned to dust.
This was likely an unforeseen situation for those leaders.
So the question was, the people who were initially gathered were there either for profit or out of fear.
But now, with capital reset to zero, the leaders' threat level had plummeted. The game world was boundless, and everyone's future was limitless. Who wouldn't want to be their own master? Who would want to be a lackey for life?
Human nature is extremely fickle.
And the reason these leaders were leaders was because they had sharp judgment, understood human nature, and knew how to manage their subordinates.
To consolidate their leadership and prevent dissent, they would never monopolize the benefits of a dungeon in the early stages—even if some cunning leader thought of the advantages of clearing a dungeon alone, very few would choose to do so.
A single title and short-term benefits were insignificant compared to the long-term development of their faction.
Unless a leader happened to find a dungeon by themselves and went in alone.
But such situations were extremely rare. More importantly, their first priority after arriving wouldn't be to find dungeons, but to contact their subordinates, solidify their team's advantage, and then lead a group to find dungeons. The case of Wu Dong and his group was a perfect example.
With this judgment, Wang Jiu decided to take the path the leaders couldn't choose. The moment she arrived, she frantically searched for vortexes, and specifically for those guarded by weaker monsters like the little red fox. This meant it was likely a low-level monster dungeon, not too far beyond her own level, giving her the best chance to clear it alone in a short time.
As expected, she managed to pull it off—of course, on the premise that no one interfered.
"What if someone had interfered?" the System asked casually.
"First, out of politeness, I'd ask if they're leaving. If not, I'd kill them. What else could I do?"
Wang Jiu's tone was exceptionally casual. She didn't even bother to explain whether such an act violated any moral principles. She had her own rules, built upon the Old Lady's principles, and no one could shake them.
Fortunately, the System's rules were probably even more ruthless. It didn't say anything about it, instead just adding, "Pay attention to the Red Name system."
She had noticed that as her performance improved and became more outstanding, the System's "affinity" for her grew. It paid more attention to her—in short, it was more willing to interact with her.
She liked the System's pragmatism and power.
Wang Jiu smiled. But next came the most mysterious and exciting part—collecting the spoils of war.
The 56 fishman minions had dropped a fortune of almost one silver coin.
99 copper coins. Quite an auspicious number.
Wang Jiu was moved by her own success again. Had the day really come when she, Wang Jiu, had to earn a silver coin by killing minions?
System: "Normally, it should have been two silver coins. If it were Wang Shu, it might have been almost three."
Automatically filtering out the verbal abuse, Wang Jiu ignored it. I think what I think, I don't need you to think for me.
Besides the money, there was also some seafood, about a large box full, weighing over a hundred catties. The rest was cement.
Twenty bags of cement.
There were also fifteen grey-grade tridents, along with miscellaneous cotton thread and cloth.
Food and clothing materials were the most basic resources.
Wang Jiu collected them all, then reached out… and took a backpack out of her inventory.
The System sneered. "Are you sure you want to change here?"
Wang Jiu: "I'm not that indecent. The Old Lady would beat me to death if she found out."
The System understood her meaning: if the Old Lady had no objections, she really would change right here.
"Then what are you doing?"
Performing some kind of ritual dance?
Wang Jiu took a sexy red lace nightgown from her backpack and gently draped it over the massive fish head.
Then, pat, pat, pat, she slapped it three times, as if paying respects to a Buddha…
It was exactly like how the Old Lady would go to the mountain temple to worship the Buddha. Of course, the Old Lady had also paid respects to the Three Pure Ones and the national party charter in the same way.
In the Old Lady's words, this was called a trinity of all-encompassing faith.
System: "???"
It didn't know whether to feel sorry for the Fishman Chieftain or for her.
After paying her respects, Wang Jiu began to unlock the loot.
The ritual couldn't be too long, because those people would be arriving soon.
A moment later, the progress bar filled, and the unlocking was complete.
Poof! The corpse exploded, and something huge came crashing down from above.
Even someone as calm as a mountain and as deep as the sea as Wang Jiu was stunned, watching helplessly as a bed fell on her.
Swoosh!
Wang Jiu hastily dodged aside. Staring at the object before her, she was silent for three seconds before uttering, "That's a really big bed."
System: "No need to be so sarcastic. There should be something under the bed."
There was indeed something, but Wang Jiu didn't look. The items wouldn't disappear anyway, and she was in a hurry.
She collected everything in one go. When she ran out of inventory space, she listed some grey-grade equipment for sale to free up slots, then tossed everything in and prepared to deal with the current situation.
"Will this dungeon kick me out now that I've cleared it?"
System: "Only after you leave yourself will a cleared dungeon reset. However, there is a 12-hour cooldown."
Wang Jiu: "So they can still come in. But will there be a notification that the dungeon has been cleared?"
System: "It will only display the notification after you leave. But what crooked path are you thinking of now?"
What kind of talk is that? Am I that kind of person?
Though she said this, Wang Jiu quickly ran into the woods, wrapped her arms around a tree that wasn't too thick but had dense foliage.
System: "?"
What was she trying to do?
Before it could react, crack! She pulled the entire tree out by its roots.
The roots left the ground, trailing soil.
Holy crap!
A female warrior uprooting a willow tree?!!
The System was silent for three seconds before saying, "Weren't you considered a goddess in your original world?"
In the basic data the System had collected on her, her charisma value was rated quite high, indicating a high index of admiration in her social relationships.
And this… was the result?
Just look at her now. It was unbelievable.
"Not once I'm in bed," Wang Jiu said casually. You give me a bed, I'll talk about beds with you. Let's see who makes who more uncomfortable.
System: Shut up!
Wang Jiu carried the tree up the cliff wall. Previously, she had needed both hands to climb, but thanks to the tridents the fishmen had thrown into the cliff face, they now served as a ladder, allowing her to jump her way up. As she ascended, she pulled out these tridents one by one.
These grey-grade tridents had decent stats, but they were for fishman use only, so she couldn't wield them. However, she could stack many of them in a single inventory slot, so they didn't take up much space and might be useful later.
Then, using the top-tier bronze-grade trident dropped by the Fishman Chieftain, Wang Jiu smashed a hole at the outer edge of the platform she was on. She then jammed the root end of the tree into it, securing it in place.
A tree from nothing. It concealed Wang Jiu's presence—unless they walked past and looked back.
In any case, she just needed them to get close.
Of course, now she had to wait for them to enter.
A short while later, just as Wang Jiu was about to take a moment to organize her inventory, people arrived outside.
She heard voices carried on the distant wind.
They're here.
Pan Zhen, Wu Dong, and the others entered and found no signs of a struggle ahead, no minions.
"Cleared out?"
"Probably not. There are no signs of a fight here. Even if minions were cleared, there would be bloodstains left behind."
Pan Zhen was experienced; otherwise, the person behind him wouldn't have let him lead a thirty-man team alone.
"But we didn't hear any fighting sounds from here. She must have already reached the BOSS. Quick, let's go!"
Beneath his experience, Pan Zhen was also decisive. He immediately ordered twenty men to quickly follow the stream deeper into the gorge.
As they ran, people with higher agility like Wu Dong scanned the surroundings, wary of attacks from people or monsters.
But they found nothing along the way.
The deeper they went, the more everyone focused on the waterfall they could see in the distance.
"It's a dead end ahead. No one? No monsters?"
"Careful, there's a pool of water!"
"Maybe it's underwater!"
"Right, there are underwater bosses."
No matter how experienced he was, Pan Zhen never imagined that the dungeon had already been cleared. Seeing a lot of bloody water by the edge of the pool, they naturally assumed a major battle had just taken place, and that the person inside and the BOSS were likely both underwater.
"Get closer, closer, be careful!"
"Chen Shan, Xu Wei, you two are in charge of monitoring the perimeter. The rest of you, with me…"
As they neared the pool, Pan Zhen had already deployed his men. They failed to notice that fifteen meters away and ten meters up, a person had already taken aim at them with a bow and arrow.
Wu Dong had died once and lost five attribute points, all of which happened to be from agility. But even if he hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to detect Wang Jiu unless he turned his head. He did, however, see that Pan Zhen was uneasy, because the latter felt the water's surface was too calm.
"Something's not right!" Just as Pan Zhen was about to order everyone to be on alert, he suddenly heard a scream. He spun around to see one of the men on the outer perimeter, responsible for surveillance, collapse.
An arrow had pierced his head—at the very moment his expression changed as he saw Wang Jiu and tried to shout.
"Someone's there!" Another person saw it at roughly the same time, and he received the second arrow.
By the time he fell, everyone else, including Pan Zhen, had seen it.
They saw the woman on the cliff, drawing her bow. She was ruthless, giving them no time to react, firing arrows one after another with incredible speed.
In terms of attributes, no one here could withstand a few of her attacks. But they had numbers on their side, and Pan Zhen's men were no pushovers. In a ground-level melee, they could have eventually won, even if it was a brutal fight. But things were different now.
It was a ranged attack, and a high-angle one at that. They couldn't even hit her!
This was a complete slaughter!
Who could withstand this?
And she was intentionally slaughtering the weakest ones—how did she know who was weak?
By looking at their levels.
Wang Jiu was now level 7 and could see their levels directly. The highest, Pan Zhen, was only level 6.
Although level wasn't everything, given the current rules for participation and experience distribution, the stronger players would definitely have higher levels.
However, Pan Zhen's attributes were likely not low; she couldn't kill him with just a few arrows. So she targeted the others first.
Pan Zhen was cunning and knew how to assess a situation. Seeing that her arrows from 15 meters away could one-shot his men, whose average attributes were over 15 or even 20, he could guess that her Strength and Agility were definitely over 50.
"Go!!"
Pan Zhen decisively ordered a retreat. The men fled frantically, but they soon fell into despair. Wang Jiu's firing range covered a fan-shaped area nearly 30 meters wide. As they ran, their casualties mounted at the rate of her firing frequency—an average of two arrows every three seconds.
And so…
Of the 20 people he brought in, seven or eight fell in an instant. By the time they broke out of the thirty-meter range, only ten of them remained.
The dead didn't dare to revive. Unless their side could kill her, they could only die and return to the respawn point.
But seeing the equipment and items that had dropped next to their corpses was agonizing. It was so damn hard to just leave them there. They wanted to get up and retrieve them.
But they didn't dare.
Wu Dong was still alive. He grimaced as he pulled an arrow from his buttock, his face contorted in pain. He shouted while running, "It's her, it's that woman, Brother Pan…"
He was lucky he had some stamina for defense, and lucky that his butt was fleshy.
By now, they were likely out of her firing range. The sounds of their comrades being struck by arrows and dying instantly had ceased. The group paused for a moment to catch their breath. The first thing Pan Zhen did was look back at where Wang Jiu had been standing.
The arrows had stopped, but where was she?
"Not good! Get away from the forest, run!" Pan Zhen had just roared when, whoosh! An arrow shot out from the woods lining the base of the cliff.
She had jumped down!
And she had even pulled out the bronze longblades stuck in the cliff face. Sheathing her sword, she disappeared into the forest, drawing her bow.
The slaughter continued!
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