Chapter 26: I Wrapped Up the Trending Search
Xu Xiaofeng logged off and began pondering a very complex question.
What’s for late-night snacks?
After ten minutes of deep thought, he decided to consult his little sister.
What can he say? When you live a frugal life, sometimes you forget where to get food.
As if she sensed his need, Xu Xiaoyue’s door opened, and she walked out, looking completely exhausted.
“Hey, sis, let’s go get some late-night snacks. Pick a place.”
Xu Xiaoyue’s eyelids drooped as she pointed to the clock on the wall—it was four thirty in the morning.
“Big Bro, you’re really something, huh?”
“Well, I didn’t want you to go hungry while playing games. I’ve been waiting here for over ten minutes!”
“Speaking of which, Bro, can I ask you something about the game?” Xu Xiaoyue asked as she adjusted her appearance. “Why is that BOSS in 66 Village defeated so quickly? We just finished ours in 189 Village not long ago. Three hours had me dead on my feet!”
“Huh? You just finished?” Xu Xiaofeng blinked. “We wrapped ours up over an hour ago!”
After a brief conversation, they checked the forums.
Oh boy! They weren’t prepared for the explosive news. Besides 66 Village, theirs was one of the fastest clears out there! Some villages would still be at it for hours, and a few new beginner villages had even thrown in the towel.
Xu Xiaofeng glanced at a post and clicked on the video attached. He noticed a term in the post—”Frenzied.”
After watching, he realized that this troublesome BOSS entered a second phase when its health dropped to 3%. It then reset to 30% health and stacked a bunch of buffs.
To make matters worse, its action patterns completely changed. No longer standing still, it was now rampaging around and making everyone’s lives miserable!
But!
This ridiculous scenario was foreign to 66 Village! Just seven thousand health, a boom, then a poke, and it was gone!
Suddenly, he remembered that special item he had gotten—the Soul of the Wolf God.
That was an extra reward, meaning players wouldn’t usually get this just for defeating the BOSS.
Looks like that BOSS really got its lights knocked out, didn’t even have time to go Frenzy.
“Hey, sis, I can’t really explain this to you; I’m just a bystander in the game. Why don’t you check out the videos from 66 Village?”
With that, he dragged his little sister outside. “Let’s put this aside for now; late-night snacks are more important. My treat—the place is up to you!”
In the end, they ended up having a simple meal because Xu Xiaoyue literally couldn’t hang on any longer. They wrapped things up quickly and went home to sleep.
While Xu Xiaofeng was resting, the internet, on the other hand, was ablaze with this latest World Boss event.
After a while, three trending topics surged to the top like a volcano erupting.
In third place was a revealing post. A well-known informant spilled the beans that this World Boss should have spawned two days later but somehow got bumped up for mysterious reasons.
The comments section was a battlefield of opinions, with people venting their frustrations and cursing the officials.
After all, if the BOSS had waited two more days, players could level up an average of seven or eight levels by then, which would drastically reduce the loss in the fight and shorten the time to clear it.
But the real kicker wasn’t the angry replies. What mattered was that someone had dug up the reason for the premature arrival of the BOSS.
An incredibly bored player scrutinized the official announcements and system prompts about the BOSS, and found a golden nugget.
It turned out that killing 20 elite monsters was a necessary condition, and the system hinted that the remaining elite monsters numbered at least a few hundred to a thousand—the common ones were already in the tens of thousands.
However, there was one pesky creature called the Wind Wolf, which was a perfect 20/20. That meant it was the last condition to be met.
Further digging revealed that many beginner villages had encountered the Wind Wolf, but they all let it get away.
Except for… one particular village. Attached was an image of a user’s reply:
[Peppa Pig’s Tattoo]: This elite monster is easy to take down; low health and super squishy. You can k*ll it in no time, plus it gives a ton of experience and a special quest from the Adventurers’ Guild.
[Peppa Pig’s Tattoo]: Seriously, is there anyone who doesn’t know the mechanics of this elite monster? The Adventurers’ Guild information is crystal clear. They even had the breakable items ready to go.
[Peppa Pig’s Tattoo]: Just lay down the guild’s formation, and you can break its wind; then it can’t escape.
[Peppa Pig’s Tattoo]: Are you all dense? Once you encounter the elite monster, confirm its position, and get your friends in town to express deliver the formation over!
Triggering keywords…
And just like that, the truth was revealed. A single village had caused the World BOSS to spawn two days earlier, ruining things for other newbie villages—and even foreign servers.
In no time, that particular beginner village was treated like a rat running across the street—everyone wanted to stomp it.
This situation carried over to the second trending post, but was somewhat less wild.
This was an analytical post. The video was ten seconds before and after the world BOSS bit the dust in 66 Village.
The post dissected how this BOSS went down so fast, specifically focusing on a skill called “Nuclear Blast.”
Nuclear Blast’s 7,000 points of real damage didn’t discriminate; it annihilated everything in its path, and even detailed the subsequent equipment drop rates, leaving no stone unturned.
Then there was the BOSS, with its health locked at “1,” likely due to the Frenzy lock mechanism.
And why didn’t it unleash its Frenzy? Well, just look at that BOSS’s final expression—it was clearly stunned from the intense high damage for a short period, interrupting its Frenzy.
And then, someone snuck a hit in. The video was too far to tell who it was doing the sneaking.
In summary, that BOSS’s first d*ath was a steal, but the glory undeniably belonged to Fiery Conflict Across the Sky. Without his skill, they would have been just like the other villages, dealing with a frenzied BOSS for another hour.
In fact, this post was put up by Fiery Conflict Across the Sky himself, with data and videos provided by him, and he even bought his way to the top of the trends.
By stirring the pot, he aimed to bolster his reputation significantly. Just as he told his subordinates, this would establish a great deterrent.
He even sweetened the deal by posting the source of his skill in the comments section—that NPC Little Girl.
His intentions were twofold: first, to create a persona of being selfless in the eyes of casual players and earn some goodwill.
Secondly, to give that NPC some more visibility; the more visible she was, the less likely someone would pull a sneaky move.
Without sneaky moves, under fair competition, he was confident no one could outshine him.
But, oh dear, he might’ve fretted over the little girl’s visibility for nothing.
Because the top trending topic was—“Shocking! There Really Are Nuclear Bombs in the Game! Revealing the Awkward Transactions Between NPC Little Loli and Player Uncles!”
