Chapter 277: Encounter with the Big Bug—Don’t Panic Yet
The players stepped out of Golden City, and then suddenly remembered a pressing question.
Where the heck do we go now?
It was a desert, and aside from Golden City, there was absolutely nothing in sight.
Well, let’s stroll into the distance and see what pops up!
Their mission was to collect materials.
There were two ways to gather: harvesting and monster drops.
The materials consisted of three types of crystals, simply distinguished by red, blue, and yellow colors. So far, all three seemed equally useful.
Players from various servers split into a few teams but kept just enough distance to avoid crowding.
After walking for a while, they turned back to take a look at Golden City. Its outline was still visible, bold and grand as ever.
Suddenly, the ground trembled, and a scorpion tail shot out like it was practicing its fencing skills.
A whole bunch of scorpions crawled out from beneath the sandy surface.
“Enemy attack! Heads up!”
And thus began a fierce battle.
Not long into the fight, players encountered a rather thorny issue.
These monsters are way too tough!
They were up against Golden Armored Scorpions, which had insane defense.
Players hit them, but their health barely budged.
Plus, the sandy terrain was their turf, and players were feeling the effects.
The more noise they made, the more the swirling sand obscured their vision.
Even worse, these critters could burrow underground and launch surprise attacks!
Thankfully, the monster level was not too high—just level 25, the minimum level in Golden City.
After expending much time and energy, the players managed to dispose of a portion of the scorpions, but the remaining ones bolted, and catching up was not even an option.
“Major hassle.” Fiery Conflict Across the Sky sighed heavily as he watched the monsters scurry away.
“New map, new challenges. The first wave of monsters outside the city already gives us a headache.”
“It’s just a matter of getting used to it. It should get better once we’ve adapted.”
At that moment, the players couldn’t help but reminisce about a certain someone.
Anyone who has watched the live replays after the event knows that Wind God not only had incredible sensing abilities but could deal true damage.
Even after exiting the dungeon and losing all her skills, she still had one skill from the first-place reward that would surely be much easier than farming for these guys.
“Let’s take a breather before heading out again.”
With that, they began checking their loot.
The Golden Armored Scorpions dropped yellow crystals, and every single one gave a drop, but the sizes varied a bit.
The tougher and more resilient they were, the larger the crystals they dropped.
They examined the crystals closely but couldn’t glean much significance; they seemed to be just typical mission items.
Players from other servers were having similar experiences; it seemed like this area was strictly scorpion territory.
For this top-notch group of players, these monsters weren’t much of a challenge, just an annoyance.
The only real trouble was the initial surprise attack that caught many players off guard and caused some injuries.
Once they regrouped, the players pressed on.
This time, they were extra cautious.
After walking a bit more, the landscape still consisted of endless yellow sand, not a whisper of difference to be seen.
At first glance, one might think the monster density here was just too low.
But considering the nature of deserts, it became clear that during the day, it’s usually quite tranquil as most creatures are catching some Z’s.
Perhaps not far back, under the shallow sand, a whole bunch of unknown creatures were snoozing away.
Suddenly, Little Moon froze.
“Stop! Something’s moving.”
“Moving? What moving?”
Everyone around looked around as if trying to spot an elusive squirrel but saw nothing.
“Shh, listen.”
Little Moon slowly shifted her focus to the ground.
Thud——! Rumble rumble…
“Sounds like a big one.”
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky also glanced at the ground.
At this moment, he felt a vibration beneath his feet that hinted at impending doom.
“Oh no! Scatter! Watch out for the ground!”
With a loud shout, the players quickly dispersed in all directions.
But some weren’t quick enough.
The next second, the sandy ground heaved up, then sank down dramatically.
From beneath the sand, a row of sharp teeth formed a perfect circle.
It was a sandworm!
A massive sandworm!
“Dodge!”
Players froze for a second but snapped into action.
Those on the outskirts leaped away from the giant mouth’s range.
For those in the middle, however, escape was nearly impossible.
So they quickly started casting spells.
Blink!
At the last moment, everyone successfully dodged.
The sandworm’s ambush attack ended up taking only a mouthful of sand.
Now the players could see clearly—it was a sandworm about five meters in diameter and estimated to stretch dozens of meters long.
Having missed its attack, the sandworm dove back under the sand.
The players swiftly attacked the section of its body still exposed, but after a few hits, it completely vanished from sight.
With no visibility on its health, they were left in suspense about whether they dealt any damage.
“All right, everyone spread out! Keep your distance! We need to prevent it from attacking multiple targets at once! Everyone use blue potions right away!”
The players sprang into action, creating a sprawling formation.
But after waiting a bit, nothing happened.
“Did it run away?”
“Not sure.”
“Let’s stay alert.”
At that moment, the player who had almost been gobbled up by the sandworm finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Getting swallowed in a situation like this would mean certain doom.
Thank goodness for Blinking! Without it, they would’ve been toast.
Sure, using it drained all their blue mana, but mana can be regained—if they lost their lives, though… dropping a level and losing gear was no fun, feeling like a total noob.
After waiting for a bit longer—maybe half a minute—the area remained totally silent, not a peep to be heard.
“Did it really run off?”
“Nope! Look to the left, in the distance!”
Everyone turned to see.
They discovered that the M Zone Server players were in a chaotic frenzy.
“I just saw the sandworm attacked them a moment ago.”
“What was the outcome?”
“Looks like it swallowed a few people.”
“Seems so! Oh wait, I truly feel sorrow for our allies’ plight. Amen.”
“May Buddha bless us, same here.”
The Huaxia Server players were at the front, with the M Zone players relatively close behind, while the European Server kept their distance on the other side and other small groups were even farther away.
Now, everyone realized what was happening and quickly dispersed.
As they scattered, the sandworm could only attack one player at a time, giving them more space, better visibility, and more time to react and dodge.
Everyone stayed vigilant, ready to adapt and act accordingly.
However, they knew that dragging this out wasn’t a solution.
Should they retreat first?
That didn’t feel right; movement efficiency would plummet, and being attacked while on the move made dodging even trickier.
They had to figure out a way to deal with this sandworm.
Someone had caught its level earlier—it was level 29, and apparently just an elite monster.
It could devour one player in a single bite, and after an attack, it vanished into the sand—all they could do was watch helplessly.
Suddenly, Little Moon had a lightbulb moment: “I have an idea that might work against it!”
“What idea?”
“Blow it up!”
“Blow it up?” Fiery Conflict Across the Sky was taken aback, then startled, “You mean that!”
“Exactly! Just like that one.”
Wind God faced her first BOSS in the Ruinous Country, a creature that wasn’t Sogriede but the Demon Worm.
At that time, they didn’t even know it was a BOSS, yet they’d already dropped a hefty bomb on it once.
And during Sogriede’s second phase, they had blasted it through the roof.
In the third phase, they sent it flying as well.
If it worked on a BOSS, surely it would do the trick on this little elite monster, right?
