LWGP - Chapter 176
Chapter 176: The Undead Race
One was a burly, rough-looking man with a full beard; the other was a refined, scholarly-looking young man wearing glasses.
They were also assessing the surroundings. After bringing Wang Shu and the others over, they all exchanged greetings.
Lin Guiwan and the others didn't recognize them, but Wang Shu did at a glance and mentioned their identities in the small group chat.
"That boorish guy is Nicholas Zhao Si, and the one with glasses is Liu Guang. You all know Zhao Si; a quick look at the trending topics will tell you what kind of character he is. But this Liu Guang... he was in the same pioneer phase as Master, and his performance was second only to hers, I think. He seems to be a doctor too, a director just like her. I just feel like he's up to no good?"
Qiao Xuejing was a little curious, "What makes you say that?"
Wang Shu grumbled, "He had a thing for Master right from the start, always trying to chat her up. How could he be any good?"
His reasoning was illogical, but the two were indeed very strong, or they wouldn't have arrived so quickly.
Xie Lu glanced at Liu Guang, then looked away from the bloodstains on the ground. He stood up and said to Wang Jiu, "A team of seven or eight people, wiped out in an instant. They had no time to call for help, nor could they escape. Can you see the resurrection records at the respawn point?"
"They're not on it."
At Wang Jiu's terse reply, the expressions of everyone present grew grim.
No sign of them alive, no corpses to be found. No bodies? And no resurrection? Didn't that leave only one possibility?
Their HP was depleted, a complete kill.
"Was it a player attack?"
Everyone's first suspicion was that a player with the Bloodthirst skill had struck in the night. After all, they had just carried out a massacre today; perhaps they had infringed on someone's interests, earning their resentment.
"Could it be that Fang Cun from Mo Jiang? He has the Bloodthirst skill."
"It could also be the person behind Bian Moshu."
Everyone discussed animatedly, full of suspicion, but Wang Jiu said nothing. She simply took out the Twinbound Token and activated it.
Black energy summoned a soul. Some of the blood qi was extracted from the remaining stains on the ground, gradually solidifying into a human form.
Wang Jiu focused on summoning a single person.
Although they had experienced much in the apocalyptic game so far, it hadn't even been a full half-month. The concept of soul-summoning was still a significant leap from their reality-based thinking.
Seeing Wang Jiu's action for the first time, they were quite astonished and suspicious.
A glint flashed in Zhao Si's eyes as he gave Wang Jiu a deep look.
The soul had solidified. Everyone saw a middle-aged man who seemed to retain the terror from before his death, squatting on the ground and trembling.
Wang Jiu felt no pity and asked him directly, "Who killed you?"
The middle-aged man: "A man that's not a man!"
After death, most souls were masterless spirits, confused and weak, not as sharp as when they were alive.
His words surprised everyone. So it was a wild monster? A Bloodthirsty monster?
Have Bloodthirsty Beasts already materialized?!
"What kind of monster?"
"Like… a man-like monster."
Wang Jiu frowned but didn't press, as the man was already trying hard to remember. He said with difficulty, "It… crawled out of the grass and suddenly lunged over. I just remember… its skin was very white, skin, wrapped around bone. It smelled a bit, like it had been rotting for a very, very long time. It bit my neck, and then… it sucked."
The middle-aged man subconsciously covered his neck. "It drained all of us dry, didn't even leave the skin!"
The description sent a chill down everyone's spine. They all wondered what kind of Bloodthirsty Beast could be so formidable and where it had come from.
Wang Shu couldn't help but ask, "Where did it run off to afterward?"
The middle-aged man looked confused for a moment, then his expression suddenly stiffened. His teeth chattered as he abruptly screamed, "Ah! It's behind you!"
His words made everyone's hair stand on end. In an instant, they all drew their weapons, but Wang Jiu had already acted. With a single thrust of her blade, she flicked the lunging grayish-white shadow into the air. The others immediately followed up with their skills.
Previously, the soul had said it wasn't a man, but a man-like monster. Everyone had assumed the soul was just disoriented. But now, after the ambushing shadow was sent flying by Wang Jiu and hit by a wave of skills, its form became clearly visible for a moment under the glow of the skills and the moonlight. It was extremely bizarre.
It had four healthy limbs and thick, tough, white skin. Was it actually a proper human?
Wang Jiu's Demon's Eye was already on it.
Four-Directions Corpse (Golden High-Rare Boss, Level 40)
Spirit Power: 6000
Strength: 8000
Agility: 7000
Stamina: 7650
Skill 1: Flesh Regeneration.
Skill 2: Earth-xue Hidden Escape.
Skill 3: Bloodthirsty Tongue.
Skill 4: Source of Fear.
It didn't have many skills, but they were all high-level, practical, and powerful. Even Lin Guiwan, with her high stamina and immunity, had her armor broken and was inflicted with fear in a single round.
Wang Jiu glanced at the skills. It was indeed a Bloodthirsty creature. She sent its stats directly to the party channel. The moment they saw them, Wang Shu was the first to cower, hiding far away. He was a ranged fire mage, anyway.
Survival was paramount!
The others also grew fearful.
Bang!
The Four-Directions Corpse took the damage head-on, its flesh splitting open and spattering thick, black, foul-smelling blood. After landing, it gripped the ground with both its hands and feet. Horrifyingly, its bones and joints twisted into a square-like shape, with its head centered on one side. Its tongue was very long. Roaring in pain and anger, the dense barbs on its thick tongue sprayed a yellowish-green slime. Its flesh writhed, and the wounds actually began to heal quickly. Then, with a push from its four limbs, its figure abruptly vanished, becoming a flickering shadow.
Everyone's attacks chased after it, but only Wang Jiu's and Liu Guang's were aimed in another direction.
When Lin Guiwan saw Wang Jiu and Liu Guang's attacks coming her way, she breathed a sigh of relief and quickly cast a silence spell on herself.
She had just been abruptly hit with a negative status called Fear, causing all her skills to enter a three-minute period of reduced effectiveness.
Because of the fear, the effectiveness of her own skills was halved.
The negative status had appeared without any warning. Lin Guiwan hadn't even noticed it. By the time she realized she'd been hit, she knew she was the enemy's primary target. Unfortunately, before she could warn anyone, Wang Jiu and Liu Guang's attacks arrived.
A diamond-shaped radiant magic seal—a Grand Exorcist skill. It belonged to the Light Mage system but sacrificed healing advantages for a purely offensive form of light magic that dispelled the gray aura lingering around the monster.
When it struck the monster, its writhing skin sizzled and showed a searing burn mark, as if a vampire had been scorched by sunlight.
However, what dealt the most damage was still the third-rate blade light.
Bang! The monster, having lost 20% of its health bar, hit the ground. Just as it was about to get up, its two legs were ensnared by Spirit Tentacles and it was thrown into a cage.
It frantically bit and rammed the cage. Perhaps sensing how terrifying Wang Jiu was, it grew fearful and began to chant something under its breath.
"What's that sound?"
"Not good, be careful!"
Before anyone could react, the foul blood on the ground began to release a strange, damp powder in response to the Four-Directions Corpse's chanting.
In an instant, almost everyone felt a physical discomfort.
"Damn, this feels like being poisoned." Wang Shu and Dao Dao were instantly reminded of their painful experience of running the Mist dungeon while poisoned the entire time. When he checked his poison status, he almost screamed.
Fuck, Corpse Poison!
Corpse Poison: Toxins seep into the blood and muscles, causing decay. The necrotic blood will cause HP to enter a weakened and vulnerable state. If a Bloodthirst skill is used, damage is doubled.
Holy shit! This is the prelude to a Bloodthirst skill combo!
Everyone was terrified. At that moment, Wang Jiu suddenly changed the party setting that prevented attacking teammates. She cast a spell with her left hand—the Black Flame Swamp AoE—and the entire group's blood spurted.
Everyone: "???"
Lao Wang struck even faster than the Four-Directions Corpse?
Wang Shu didn't dare cover his stomach as blood sprayed from it with a hiss. With a mournful look on his face, he thought: Suddenly, I kind of miss Chi Mantou and Li Chui?
But there was one silver lining—even Lin Guiwan and Qiao Xuejing couldn't escape the fate of having their blood drained. It showed that Lao Wang was an equal-opportunity employer, showing no favoritism.
Wang Jiu drained the blood of ten people at once for a Blood Wrath critical strike. Basically everyone was hit, losing 40% of their health simultaneously. Lin Guiwan, who had just been freed from the Fear status, also cast a Holy Light.
The dizzying effect of the blood loss ended, and everyone suddenly saw that the blade qi from Wang Jiu's slash had already solidified. As the blade swept past, space itself seemed to invert and twist for a moment. Negating the effects of space, the blade's speed was terrifying, and its power was dreadful. It felt like a knife cutting through tofu.
One of the Four-Directions Corpse's arms and one of its legs were sliced clean off, hindering its movement. It roared as its flesh began to regenerate, the severed limbs about to regrow… when it suddenly realized the cage had been drawn into a new space.
The Operating Room.
Absolute Silence, Earth-xue Hidden Escape + Paralysis.
It couldn't move. Because it was focused on regenerating its limbs, it hadn't concentrated on breaking the cage, and thus failed to escape into the ground. As a result, it was successfully pulled into the Operating Room.
The cage plus the Operating Room was a complete bind.
Seeing their chance, those skilled in support immediately threw out various negative statuses, while the attackers immediately buffed themselves and attacked.
However, as they attacked, they once again experienced the extraordinary, supreme luxury of Witch Drain + Holy Light's blood-sucking and blood-healing.
After one round of bombardment, a perfectly good high-level boss was ganged up on and had 50% of its health K.O.'d, leaving it with only 20%.
The Four-Directions Corpse was afraid. Its originally fierce, white, and swollen eyes bulged, and it swiftly activated an undead skill.
Medical Dissection exploded.
The wounds on the Four-Directions Corpse's half-regenerated limbs exploded, interrupting its undead skill.
The next second, 40% of nine people's health + the Four-Directions Corpse's blood + burst damage + armor break.
Finally, add in the reversal.
The Four-Directions Corpse's body was completely blown apart, splattering flesh and blood everywhere.
Only a single head was left, which rolled to Wang Jiu's feet. She lifted her foot and pinned it with her slipper, grinding it back and forth on the ground. The sound of bone and skin cracking and crunching could be heard.
Wang Jiu's expression was exceptionally calm, as if to say—All annoying people/monsters should die like this!
Liao Luo subconsciously touched his scalp. He suddenly felt that back when he had spiritedly hunted Wang Jiu, the only reason he was still standing here in one piece was either because he hadn't provoked her enough, or because he was just tough to kill.
In the end, it was Wang Shu who mustered his courage and said sheepishly, "Master, you crushed its head too. How am I supposed to loot the corpse?"
Hmm? Only then did Wang Jiu snap out of it. She fell silent for a moment, then moved her slipper.
While Wang Shu looted the corpse, the others used their weapons to poke through the fleshy paste on the ground.
"It's corpse flesh, but it doesn't seem to be from a normal human corpse. Not a zombie in the sense we understand, anyway."
Having seen plenty of movies, everyone was familiar with this kind of living corpse, but this Four-Directions Corpse was clearly out of the ordinary.
"Its skeletal structure is different from ours. It must be another race." Liu Guang, being a doctor, had already examined the bones and compared them to human ones, ultimately confirming that it was not the same species.
Xie Lu came to the same conclusion. Both were professionals in their respective fields, and both subconsciously looked toward Wang Jiu, only to see her looking down at the Twinbound Token in her hand.
It had summoned the souls of other dead.
And these souls had come from elsewhere.
The source… She turned her head, her gaze profound. The others sensed something was amiss.
Wang Jiu was looking at the river channel. The rushing water masked some sounds, but she reached out and threw a Flowing Light. The light shot out parallel to the river, its glow sweeping across the area. On the dilapidated riverbanks on both sides, countless densely packed, grayish-white crawling creatures were climbing over the decaying concrete mixed with moss and river algae.
At first glance, they looked like spiders. On a second glance, they looked like countless monster versions of Sadako.
Endless.
In that same instant, Wang Jiu interrupted Wang Shu's looting and directly unlocked the system.
"Back!"
Everyone returned to the territory at top speed. The territory also issued an announcement, warning of the approaching danger and ordering everyone to return.
However, there were only a few players outside. After all, Eternal Night had just descended, so most people were hiding inside the territory. Wang Jiu's group had only come out because they heard a disturbance.
The distance wasn't short. Wang Jiu and the others couldn't teleport; they could only run back.
Wang Jiu was the fastest. She leaped directly onto the city wall and looked out at the dense swarm of corpse monsters in the distance. She also saw that Wang Shu and the others were about to be surrounded by several of the fastest, largest crawling corpses.
"Master, Master, save me! I'll pay!" Wang Shu was particularly quick-witted and proactive. She glanced at him, raised her hand lightly, and pointed.
Swish!
The magic towers and archer towers on the opposite side of the square city wall all swiveled over, took aim, and fired!
Buzzz… A huge wave of attacks strafed toward them, directly turning the area behind Wang Shu and the others into a backdrop of brilliant light.
This… was the power of money.
Wang Shu and the others, still shaken, seized the opportunity to flee back to the territory.
At the same time, the system also made an announcement to everyone in the Gobi Territory.
"Congratulations to the Gobi Territory for getting to the core content of this expansion—the Catacomb Undead Race."
"The Catacomb Undead Race is about to invade the Gobi Territory. Do you choose to go to war?"
You piece of trash, they're already fucking at our doorstep in the middle of the night. Can we choose not to go to war?
Everyone's resentment was palpable; they were about to explode.
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