Spinal Butcher, Continues Leveling Up!

Confirmed, friend request accepted.

The next second, my Left Hand sent me a voice call from a friend!

"Third Brother, I missed you so much!"

"Left Hand, you Old Six!"

I laughed and asked, "Where are you hanging out now, in the Crimson Dragon Country or the Star Maple Federation?"

"The Crimson Dragon Country!"

Left Hand said, "Brother, I'm currently in BH City. I saw your heroic figure in the Battle of Creek City on the Dark Web. Where are you now?"

I am in Huaining City, Jiangning Province.

"Oh..."

Left Hand said, "That's quite far..."

"You went to the North Sea after you left the Death Mine?" I asked.

"Not really."

Left Hand sighed and said, "It was a long and winding road. After escaping the Death Mine, I flew south, then stole a motorcycle from the Vanguard and sped south for over a hundred kilometers. Damn it... I was accidentally captured by another part of the Dark Tide army and locked in a cage. Luckily, there was a damaged rogue robot imprisoned in the cage. I modified the combat module and escaped again under the robot's cover. After that, I smuggled myself to Jiangning City, and then, through a friend's introduction, I came to BH City to make a living. There are more teleportation points and more resources here."

"Your experience was quite interesting."

"Nothing's as exciting as yours, bro. Tell me, what were you doing with the Dark Tide all this time?"

"Um."

I nodded. "Strictly speaking, I didn't actively seek trouble with the Dark Tide. After all, my level and combat strength are low now, so going there would be like an egg hitting a rock. But the Dark Tide didn't let me go. They repeatedly sent psionic agents to infiltrate the city and cause me trouble. Later, the Stream City Campaign happened, and the Dark Tide fought with the Flame Wielder Regiment. So, I was lucky enough to kill Gray Bug Regiment Commander Vega, in the chaos of war!"

"I saw that award-winning battlefield photo. To be honest, I knew it was you, Third Brother, as soon as I saw the profile of that person!"

Left Hand exclaimed excitedly, "Brother, you're much better than me! I've hidden away in a deep city like Beihai to avoid the Dark Tide's harassment, but you're still fighting the Dark Tide in Creek City, and you even killed that bastard Vega!"

"Damn it, none of the Dark Tide are good people, they deserved to die!"

"Really!"

Left Hand retorted indignantly, "The Dark Tide are all dogs, except for Miss Puff!"

"Oh, right..."

I frowned. "Did you ever find out anything about Miss Puff after that?"

"Have."

Left Hand said, "Because of her strong Essence Furnace, Puff has risen through the ranks in the Dark Tide faction and is now said to be a minor leader. However, she is unwilling to fight with other players, so she applied to go to the depths of the wilderness to deal with the alien army."

"I see..."

I nodded. "It's good that everyone is alright."

"Yes, it's good that everyone is alright."

Left Hand sighed, "The three of us who came out of the Death Mine all had a hellish start. It was really not easy to get out, especially for the two of us. Thinking back on it now, it was a near-death experience. It's amazing that we escaped."

He paused, then continued, "Brother, what are your plans now? With your strength... if you create a guild, you'll definitely have a lot of support. How about creating one? Just say the word, and I can bring a few friends from BH City to join you."

"Creating a guild is something like..."

I hesitated for a moment and said, "It's too much trouble. Not only do we have to provide funds and equipment, but we also have to manage guild members, organize activities, and so on. Let me ask you this: if we really create a guild, will you do all these things or will I? Anyway, I'm so lazy, I don't want to do it."

"I didn't want to either..."

Left Hand smiled and said, "Let's discuss it further. In short, I've decided you're my big brother in <Star Abyss>. As long as you raise your voice, I'll definitely go to great lengths for you—of course, I'll be going to do it for others!"

"Let's just focus on getting by for now."

I said in a deep voice, "Maintain your level and combat strength advantage. Just like you said, it's fate that the two of us managed to escape from the Death Mine with such a close call. If you have any trouble, you can tell me. I won't hesitate to help within my power."

"OK!"

Left Hand said, "Lots of people are adding me as a friend here, bro. I'll hold off for now. Let's keep in touch. Send me your WeChat later, and we can add each other on WeChat."

"Good."

So, I turned off the call, and my phone kept ringing with friend requests from Cai Cai, Ruolin, Fatty, Kou Mei, and others. I accepted them all, and after clicking a few times, I was surprised to find that one of them was Bunny Critical Hit!

Why did she add me as a friend?

"Drop!"

After adding each other as friends, Bunny Critical Hit immediately sent a message: "Ding Han, I have some news for you. We, Ragnarok from Huaining City to Jiangning City."

"Is it to avoid me?"

"Um..."

Bunny Critical Hit a helpless emoji and said, "My brother said that what happened before should be dealt with separately, but you did save my life and the lives of Infinite Milk Power and others in Twilight Wasteland. Since we, the Ragnarok, cannot avenge our friends who died before, nor can we repay kindness with enmity, we have no choice but to leave Huaining City."

"Alright."

I nodded. "I hope you have a good start in Jiangning City."

"Um."

The call ended abruptly.

Actually, I don't want to have much contact with the people from Ragnarok, even though Bunny Critical Hit is relatively gentle. After all, I've killed far too many people from them, and it's not so easy to let bygones be bygones.

Then, using the chat group created by the Friend System, I chatted with Cai Cai, Ruolin, and others for a while before finally feeling sleepy and drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, he hitched a ride with Lin Qingying to the square, and then went to work as usual.

In the morning, Xu Hao went out to repair a customer's machine, leaving only Fatty and me in the office.

"Ding Han..."

The fat man pointed to the Dark Web on the computer screen and frowned, saying, "Something's happened again in Twilight Wasteland!"

"Ah?"

I frowned. "What happened?"

"See for yourself."

On the Dark Web, there's a post from a level 32 player named "Misty Immortal Lord" titled "Desperate situation in Twilight Wasteland, SOS! SOS!"

The following is a densely packed text --

"Dear players, Twilight Wasteland is not peaceful. The level 35 Orange BOSS, the Spinal Butcher, keeps appearing and attacking nearby players. Three members of our Misty Guild have already been killed! Now, because of the Spinal Butcher, the entire Twilight Wasteland has become a treacherous map, making leveling impossible. We are in dire need of help! We hope more people can come and take down this boss!"

After reading the post, I was speechless. "What are these people doing? Knowing that the Spinal Butcher is in Twilight Wasteland, why would they still go there to level Twilight Wasteland? They're completely insane..."

"Greed!"

The fat man scoffed, "All they're thinking about is getting the First Kill on the Orange BOSS and the first orange-tier equipment in the entire server. They're practically risking their lives. Honestly, I don't understand these people... If we were to die in <Star Abyss>, we might really be dead. Are these people really not afraid of death? Don't they value their own lives?"

"Gambler's mentality."

I pondered for a moment and said, "With Misty Immortal Lord's announcement, I reckon quite a few players will head to Twilight Wasteland, thinking that their numbers will allow them to take down the Orange BOSS and claim the First Kill reward..."

"They didn't actually oust the Spinal Butcher, did they?" the fat man wondered, a little worried.

"Rest assured."

I shook my head. "The Spinal Butcher has a whopping 1000 armor points, which is practically insurmountable with current player-made weapons. Plus, with 3 million health points, its health regeneration rate is incredibly fast. Unless a large number of top players devise a strategy, sending anyone there will just be giving them free experience points."

"Too..."

The fat man leaned back in his chair and said, "Players are dying every few days. How many players do you think were in the first batch to enter <Star Abyss>? Will they all die?"

"It's not that bad."

I leaned back in my chair and said, "When <Star Abyss> was about to launch, the hype was so huge, and there were tens of millions of players both domestically and internationally. But the number of people responsible for distributing CD keys was unknown, so it's impossible to accurately count how many players actually entered <Star Abyss>."

The fat man pondered for a moment, then fell silent, lost in thought.

Around 3 PM.

"Ding Han!"

The fat guy, who was idly browsing the Dark Web, turned around again. "Damn, this is really bad!"

"What's wrong?"

"Come and take a look!"

I leaned closer and saw the fat man looking at a post by a player named "Wise Star Useless." The post contained a pixelated image of the terrifying Spinal Butcher, who was tearing a player apart and stuffing him into its mouth to devour him. At the same time, the Spinal Butcher's level had changed to "lv38"!

"Depend on..."

I couldn't help but frown. "Leveling up by killing other players?!"

"That's right."

The fat man said, "Twilight Wasteland is in complete chaos now."

"Damn, these people are really stirring up trouble. They've fattened up the Spinal Butcher like this. How are they going to clean this up now?"

But the next second, a "beep" sounded in his ear, Gun Like a Dragon the voice of his friend from <Star Abyss>, "Ding Han, have you seen the news about the incident in Twilight Wasteland?"

"I saw it."

"After dinner, bring your people to the Player Black Market. The Initiator is planning to use his 'world contribution' to issue a special quest to hunt down the Spinal Butcher. We'll go to Twilight Wasteland together and find a way to kill this Spinal Butcher."

"You're not kidding, are you?"

I said speechlessly, "A level 38 Orange BOSS, do you think players at this stage can handle it?"

"Don't worry, the Initiator will help us."

"..."

I don't trust the Initiator the mission that much. He didn't specifically give me any missions, and the rewards for the missions he posted were actually quite mediocre; I've already started to look down on them.

Just then, a ding-dong sound rang in their ears, and the Initiator it seemed to be getting impatient!

[Attention all players, the Region Task "Spinal Butcher" (S-class Main Quest) has officially refreshed. Quest location: Twilight Wasteland; quest giver: The Initiator; quest start time: 00:00 tonight; quest objective: Enter Twilight Wasteland, find the Spinal Butcher, and kill him! This quest continues until the Spinal Butcher is defeated! The higher the damage you deal to the Spinal Butcher during the battle, the higher the final quest reward!]