Chapter 18: I’m Playing Trade Here
Xu Xiaofeng checked the time—11:02. In six hours, it would be five o’clock, and everything would be dark as a dungeon.
The strength of the Boss was unknown, but since it was a World Boss, it definitely wouldn’t be a walk in the park. Let’s assume the攻略 was going to take about half an hour.
You know what they say—darkness makes things easier. So, looking at it this way, it seems I can join in the fun with this Boss!
She made a rough plan and went back to her brick-breaking business.
Thanks to the World Boss hype, players were grinding harder than ever, and many who originally planned to ignore the teleport feature were now begging Xu Xiaofeng to let them ride her Express because, well, time is money.
This resulted in a hefty profit for her.
During this time, she also got a message from her little sister asking about the World Boss.
There wasn’t much to say because Xu Xiaofeng wasn’t in the know either. She told her to tag along with other teams and scoop up a participation prize—easy peasy.
After five thrilling hours, players stopped grinding and began making their final preparations.
However, things were not so chill for the NPCs.
They had already gone into lockdown mode and issued various assistance requests to the players, yet the response was crickets.
They couldn’t wrap their heads around why this gaggle of Outsiders was rampaging around like they were on some magic chicken juice.
I mean, come on— with impending doom looming, everyone was bolting outside the city to wrestle some monsters, even backing out of some lucrative missions. Not a single soul was touching the silver-level quests piling up like they were yesterday’s old laundry.
The NPCs were utterly helpless.
Thanks to the system’s intervention, while they didn’t understand the Outsiders’ antics, they wouldn’t delve too deeply. They’d grown accustomed to seeing a flash of white light, poof—gone, only for the player to pop back up a bit later. Just another day in the life of an NPC!
Don’t ask why, because I couldn’t tell you if I tried.
Fortunately, these Outsiders finally seemed to settle down and were huddled together discussing something.
Before long, a bolt of purple lightning shot out from a swirling vortex in the sky, ripping through the atmosphere like it was tissue paper. A rotting scent wafted in behind the lightning.
At the same moment, a notification rang out in the players’ minds.
Ding! World Boss—Wolf God: Fenrir’s Shadow has descended. Please defeat it ASAP!
Inside the Lord’s Mansion, Edward and Fan Lif, who were deep in strategy talks, suddenly sprang up, exchanged glances, and dashed to the courtyard, looking skyward.
Fan Lif was utterly baffled. “What’s going on? Why did it descend so quickly?”
“Something’s not right.” Edward closed his eyes, taking a moment to sense the atmosphere. “Very not right. Why the massive celestial disturbance when the doom beast is only mid-tier Bronze?”
“What?! Just mid-tier Bronze? You sure you didn’t misread?”
“No way I misread.” Edward, too, wore a puzzled expression. “Let me check it out. Don’t call for help from the Imperial Capital until we have a clearer picture.”
“Right. Also, keep an eye on that girl and make sure she doesn’t run off.”
“Okay…” Fan Lif had just agreed when his face paled. “Wait, I just got a report from the city gate guard. That girl went outside the city with the Outsiders!”
“What?! Is she out of her mind?!”
On the other side, players were streaming out of the city gates like they were participating in a marathon, and the guards were powerless to stop them. A little red figure was mixed in among the throng.
She thought she heard someone calling her but didn’t pay it any mind.
Players tackling the Boss was just common sense; not even God could stop them.
With over a hundred thousand players rushing toward the east, nobody cared if a tiny red dot was with them.
Following the map’s guidance, they sprinted east for half an hour until they reached a vast plain known for being a hunting ground for wolf-like critters.
At that moment, a wolf with swirling black mist and glowing red eyes, about three meters tall and six meters long, ambled across the plain, exhibiting no recognizable traits.
Above it hovered a giant demon icon with the purple name—Wolf God: Fenrir’s Shadow.
“Look! Over by the Boss!”
“Charge, charge, charge!”
“Don’t shove me! I’m going first!”
Xu Xiaofeng, weaving through the crowd, managed to find a spot on the edge and seized her chance to slip away from the player stampede.
She wasn’t about to go rushing in like these crazy players.
Hey, I’m an NPC! We gotta maintain our image—gotta be dignified.
She found a tree on the outskirts, leaned against the trunk, and sat down, her whole body concealed behind the bushes, leaving only her tiny head with golden eyes peeking out and curiously watching the scene ahead.
The initial wave of players already engaged the Boss.
“Holy cr*p! Don’t crowd from the back! The dude in front just got clawed to d*ath by the Boss!”
“Hey, heads up! The Boss does insane damage—it’s basically a one-hit wonder!”
“d*mn it! My skill only took off a drop of health! How are we supposed to fight this thing?!”
“My skill got blocked completely.”
After the initial excitement and chaos, the players began to observe the Boss with a bit more composure.
The system’s earlier announcement had only shared the name, and there hadn’t been much info about the Boss, aside from a lengthy list of which monsters had been defeated. This was their first real taste of the Boss’s stats.
Name: Wolf God: Fenrir’s Shadow (World Boss)
Level: 15 (Mid-tier Bronze)
Health: /
d*mn! Level 15!
Many players who saw the data started throwing a fit.
In the Otherworld game, there’s a brutal level suppression rule. If your level is over ten levels lower than the Boss’s, your damage gets squashed to 1. Within ten levels, damage gets reduced until you’re within a five-level difference—then there’s practically no suppression at all.
At this point, even after five hours of mad grinding, players barely moved up a level.
Over sixty percent of players were below level 5, thirty percent were at level 5, and the rest were mainly at level 6. Only four players had hit level 7, all hailing from the 281st Beginner’s Village.
So this Boss would have nine out of ten players just tickling it, one percent would be giving it a foot rub, while the last four were left to dry its hair—what a full-service operation!
And they thought they could have fun!?
“No worries! We have numbers! We can just wear it down!”
“Exactly! We’re over ten thousand strong! One scratch each should do the trick!”
The players’ advantage was their sheer numbers and their fearless nature—if it were the native NPCs, they’d be running away before the fight even started.
But when it came time to throw down, players quickly realized that “tickling” a Boss wasn’t something everyone could manage.
Sure, the Boss wasn’t small, but in the vast crowd, it looked like a behemoth. Only a tiny circle of players were actually able to reach the now-surrounded Boss.
And even those who managed to get a hit in found eight out of ten attacks blocked, and if they did land a hit, it was usually a dismal “-1” damage.
It was even more embarrassing for ranged attackers—missing entirely not only meant they didn’t hit the Boss but also ended up blasting their own team.
As for the priests, they just stood there clutching their staves, stunned. “If they all take a hit and go down, who am I supposed to heal?”
