Chapter 11: Damn It! The NPC is Stealing the Monster from the Player!
“Holy crap, a BOSS spawned!”
“Damn it, we can’t hold on! Where’s the protagonist? Go call Ye Hao!”
“Quick, use Appraisal!”
Soon, a player, risking their life, approached Megil and used Appraisal. They then took a screenshot and posted it on the public chat, after which they were surrounded and killed by several town guards.
[Name: Megil]
[Identity: Town Mayor of Dawn Town, Guard Captain (Temporary)]
[Strength: Knight Level 11 (11-20)]
[Threat Level: Difficult]
[… ]
“Level 11 Knight? That’s ridiculous! We’re mostly only level two or three, how can we possibly fight this?”
“We can’t see his skills or equipment, the level difference is too great.”
Regardless of the players’ complaints, Megil was already charging through their ranks. Although he wasn’t on horseback, in this moment, he became one with his steed!
“Charge with me!”
Megil roared, and the guards behind him followed his command, like a sharp sword piercing through the players’ hard-won defensive line.
This battle was not only to defend Dawn Town, but also to preserve his position as mayor. Megil’s eyes, red with fury, looked at the players as if they were his sworn enemies.
“Damn it, why are you yelling so loud!”
“The BOSS is coming, run!”
“Where the hell is Ye Hao? The protagonist?”
With a nearly ten-level gap, plus a significant difference in rank, Megil moved through the battlefield as if no one was there. Even without using any skills, players were still being injured and killed by merely brushing against him.
“Heroic Spirits! To my back!”
After what felt like an eternity, Ye Hao, who had been hiding somewhere, finally appeared.
“Holy Shield Bastion!”
Ye Hao raised his sword and shouted. A soft white light emanated from him, forming a milky white shield-shaped protective barrier around himself and all players within a ten-meter radius.
“Holy crap! The protagonist is awesome!”
“Brother Hao, that skill is so cool! Those guards can’t hurt me anymore!”
“When will we be able to learn such cool skills?”
…
Before the players could finish exclaiming, Ye Hao raised his long sword again. With a smug smile on his face, he shouted once more.
“Radiant Halo!”
“Buzz—”
Instantly, every corner of the battlefield was covered in a blinding golden light. The light spread out from Ye Hao, making him look like a small sun.
“Holy crap! I’m going blind!”
“Today, I stared directly at the sun!”
“What the hell is ‘Radiant Halo,’ is it a flashbang?”
…
This was that feeling of being the center of attention!
Ye Hao smiled. The golden light on his body didn’t last long, only two or three breaths before it retracted, finally condensing into a golden halo with a ten-meter diameter circling his feet.
Players within the halo instantly felt their attributes strengthen and their hearts fill with courage.
“Is this game’s buff effect really this realistic? It even affects emotions?”
“I feel the power!”
“For Demacia!!”
“Smite the darkness with thunder!”
…
The players, howling in a mix of excitement and battle cries, began to sound the horn of counter-attack against Megil and the town guards.
With the help of Ye Hao’s two buffing skills, the gap in strength between the players and the town guards narrowed. The battle, which had started as a one-sided slaughter of players, gradually shifted to an even match, and as time passed, the scales of victory began to slowly tip in favor of the players.
Players could use Experience Points to respawn continuously, and once revived, their stamina would be fully restored. They fought tirelessly, with no fear of death.
The guards, however, were different. After fighting for so long, they were feeling tired. The group of rioters in front of them, though individually weak, seemed inexhaustible.
Gradually, some town guards noticed something was wrong. One guard realized that a rioter he had cut in half earlier had somehow reappeared in front of him.
The rioter was shouting, “Your grandpa is back!”
“They are devils! Unkillable devils!”
A town guard shouted in terror.
“By Balda, what are we even fighting?!”
…
The town guards who noticed the anomaly were not just one or two. More and more guards discovered the fact that these rioters could respawn. Fear began to spread, and a rout commenced.
Starting with the first guard who dropped his weapon and fled, it was like a fuse had been lit, and large numbers of militiamen and guards began to flee in small groups.
“Cowards! You bunch of cowards! No one is allowed to desert!”
Megil roared, his face red and his neck bulging, but he was still unable to stop the town guards from fleeing.
“We can’t continue this pointless fighting.”
Megil glanced warily at the knight in the player crowd, who was covered in dazzling effects. This opponent was clearly not someone he, a mere amateur, could handle.
“I need to find the Lord. Only with the Lord’s help can we survive.”
Megil thought to himself, and then regrouped the remaining guards who had not fled.
“All listen to my command! Charge towards the Town Mayor’s Residence! Break through!”
Megil roared, rallying his guards. His plump body turned, charging like a wild boar, knocking aside any player who blocked his path.
“Oh no, the BOSS is trying to escape!”
“Mages! Cast Fire Wall! Cast Mire Swamp! Cast Frost Shock!”
“Ummm, these skills are something a mage apprentice can learn? We only have Fireball, Water Ball, and Gale. That’s it.”
“Warriors, chase him and stop him!”
“This AI is too awesome, running away when it can’t win?”
…
The two groups, one fleeing and the other pursuing, soon arrived beneath the Town Mayor’s Residence.
Megil was now in a sorry state. His exquisite armor was covered in a mix of sweat and blood. The lining of his armor stuck to his wool shirt, making him extremely uncomfortable.
“If only my horse were here.”
Megil cursed inwardly. If his horse were here, he could unleash his knight skills, and these rioters wouldn’t have put him in such a predicament.
Although these rioters were individually weak, Megil couldn’t understand why there were so many mages among them. Under the bombardment of various low-level spells, even with the protection of his armor, he had sustained considerable injuries. Only about a dozen guards remained around him.
From the players’ perspective, Megil’s health was only at 20%, a clear kill threshold. Typically, a BOSS would enter a berserk state at this point and unleash various deadly skills.
A group of players stood ready, on high alert.
“Lord… Ugh!”
As Megil was about to ask for help from the Lord of the Eagle Territory inside the Town Mayor’s Residence, a fireball hit him square in the face.
“Well done!”
“He interrupted his ultimate, everyone, charge!”
“Kill the BOSS, get the loot!”
The players shouted various slogans and charged towards the weakened Megil and his remaining guards.
And every time Megil tried to speak, a fireball would accurately hit him in the face.
The Scheming Frog stood at the very back of the player group, a cold smile on his lips. A fireball spun in his hand, ready to be thrown the moment the BOSS tried to speak.
He remembered when he used to play ARPG online games, he was known as the “dungeon mechanism man.” Precisely interrupting a BOSS’s skill during its wind-up animation was basic operation for him.
“Radiant Cross Slash!”
Just then, a righteous shout rang out from behind the players. A massive, cross-shaped beam of light erupted and struck the nearly depleted Megil. The remaining force of the attack not only pierced him but also demolished a small house behind him.
The unfortunate Megil died without being able to call out the Lord’s name or ride his horse.
“Ah, this…”
“Holy crap, my first kill! I was so close! Which idiot did that? (▼皿▼#)”
“Damn it! The NPC is stealing the monster from the player!”
“So we worked our butts off for half the day, and the BOSS was left with a sliver of health, and the protagonist finished him off? And it looked like he used a big skill too?”
“What the heck, like dogs! (╯‵□′)╯︵┴─┴”
…
“Ahem—”
Seeing the players’ increasingly unfriendly gazes, Ye Hao coughed awkwardly. He quickly tried to smooth things over, saying:
“Righteousness will ultimately triumph over evil. Megil’s end was his own doing. Thank you, all Heroic Spirits, for your assistance. Megil’s armor and weapon, along with his accumulated wealth, will be considered extra rewards for you Heroic Spirits.”
The players’ expressions brightened somewhat. They had already obtained a good amount of equipment and experience from defeating the guards. The protagonist taking the first kill was probably a plot necessity. As long as he didn’t compete with them for the BOSS’s loot, everything else was fine.
“Yeah, there must be a lot of good stuff in the Mayor’s house. Let’s go search it.”
“Let’s go, let’s go. Those guards were dirt poor; I haven’t even seen the currency of this world yet!”
…
“You killed my guards, murdered my servants, and now you want to steal my money? You are acting with such arrogance in my territory?”
Just as the players were preparing to band together and raid the Town Mayor’s Residence, a cold male voice, filled with anger, swept past their ears like a fierce gale in the dead of winter, sending a chill to their hearts.
They looked up in the direction of the voice, their eyes of confusion gradually turning into shock and then blankness.
