Planting Greed

The crowd stared intently at the wriggling bloody meteor in the sky, until it grew smaller and smaller and smaller…

Apep.

The evil god that had been sprawled across the Thirteen City Alliance's God Banning Barrier, looking down on the Alliance's people like a nightmare for nearly a thousand years.

It was dead just like that?

Even though for a thousand years, Apep had only rested its vast body on the barrier and never truly made a move.

Yet, it had become the nightmare of every Alliance citizen.

Creators of all cultural works would choose it as the final boss, everyone had nightmares about it, and even though rationally they knew otherwise, the Alliance citizens still regarded it as the strongest evil god.

Because all they had to do was lift their heads to see its scarlet eyes in the sky.

It was really dead just like that???

Although the evidence online about Apep's fall was presented convincingly, especially since the scarlet eyes in the sky had suddenly vanished over ten days ago.

But until they saw the shattered fragments with their own eyes, everyone subconsciously didn't believe it.

It wasn't until the majestic heavenly lightning, like a death sentence, mercilessly annihilated Apep's hidden flesh and blood.

Only then did the people uproot the "fear" that had been deeply planted in their hearts since childhood, and then planted a new root called "greed."

However, the two players didn't have such rich psychological activities.

Most players knew that Apep was the first world boss that blocked the entrance in the old version. It seemed that because it gained nothing when the Alliance was destroyed, it got angry and stayed at the exit of the Broken Sword Canyon.

"I Don't Want to Pay Breach of Contract Fees" stared intently at the map, comparing the trajectory of the bloody flesh in the sky to predict its landing point.

When the divine fragments in the sky were reduced to the size of an arm.

The sky-filling lightning finally lost interest in this piece of flesh and blood.

The arm-sized divine fragment silently disappeared into the treetops not far away, but it struck a deafening thunderclap in everyone's hearts.

"Quick, quick, quick! Follow me, we'll get there if we take a detour!"

"I Don't Want to Pay Breach of Contract Fees" instantly confirmed the landing spot of the divine flesh, and without regard for the bushes blocking the way, he took the lead, walking quickly in one direction.

Everyone immediately followed, but they subtly maintained a distance from each other.

Three fully armored knights walked together, one clearing the path and two covering the rear, supporting each other and forming a pincer formation.

The scholar glanced at the Dragonkin sitting on the mecha, sighed helplessly, and followed behind the knights.

The mercenary activated the exoskeleton's battery and checked his ammunition reserves.

The woman who was originally clearing the path this time followed behind everyone, continuously throwing the crushed trees along the way into the fuel tank of the mining mecha's belly.

Seeing the NPCs' reactions, "Not Iaido, But Drawing Sword" felt his heart surge with excitement.

This was the role-playing he had been looking forward to!

Although he was an opening server player of "Despair Expedition OL," he had hardly participated in any PVE content when he was playing professional matches for a club before.

He could only stay in the arena, practicing PVP skills day and night.

Clubs were like that; professional players only needed to fully immerse themselves in the competition, killing gods when they met gods and buddhas when they met buddhas, and bringing the championship trophy back to the club. But clubs had many things to consider.

Arranging for boosters to help players level up, helping players brush stats for their accounts, providing players with equipment, and ensuring that players had enough rare consumables in stock when competing…

The matches in "Despair Expedition OL" were rare asymmetrical matches.

Players' accounts, equipment, and items all had to be obtained from the game.

This made the value of consumables consumed in just one global competition each year, roughly estimated to exceed tens of millions!

When "Not Iaido, But Drawing Sword" retired from the professional arena, "Despair Expedition OL" was already an old game.

Everyone only discussed how to farm, how to speed-run, and how to fight bosses.

The grand occasion of everyone role-playing during the opening period was gone!

The landing spot of the divine flesh was not far away. With everyone pushing forward regardless of the cost, they reached the vicinity of the landing point in just over ten minutes.

This was a dense forest in a valley.

Broadleaf trees, at least 5 meters tall, stole the sunlight from the ground vegetation, laying a layer of soft fallen leaves on the ground.

There were no annoying bushes, giving everyone good visibility.

"Not Iaido, But Drawing Sword" glanced at the encyclopedia; Lv32 elite monsters [Headless Centaur Phantom] would spawn here at night.

But the thunderclouds that had been rolling in the sky for weeks had long made it impossible to distinguish between day and night.

He found an opportunity to jump off the mining mecha and ran closer to the knights, letting the knights, whose favorability was as high as 60, block between him and the mining mecha with the large drill.

"It should be nearby," the Gnome's slightly immature voice sounded.

"I Don't Want to Pay Breach of Contract Fees" activated the scan mode and found a strange red glow about a hundred meters to the right front.

"It's there!" he shouted.

"Not Iaido, But Drawing Sword" gave a speechless look at this junior who didn't mind stirring up trouble, while also being curious about how these highly intelligent NPCs with built-in AI would react.

Everyone paused slightly and looked in unison at the location pointed out by the Gnome.

The three knights charging at the forefront exchanged a look and, understanding each other's intent, formed their formation and charged towards the flesh.

They held shields as tall as half a person, with one on each side, defending against the woman, the scholar, and the mercenary respectively.

"Rumble—"

A pure white lotus bloomed between the three knights, and the surging heat wave made the scholar, who was hiding 50 meters away, feel suffocated.

Two players reacted instantly and hid behind the nearest large tree.

When the smoke cleared, the full-armored knight on the far right was left with only half his body, and the full-armored knight defending on the far left had fallen to the ground, his fate unknown.

The knight at the front, ignoring his severed arm, threw the silver-glowing longsword in his hand towards the mercenary not far away.

The longsword smoothly passed through the mercenary and embedded itself into the tree trunk behind him.

Optical camouflage?

The scholar's pages fluttered in the wind, and a flash of light erupted from his book, illuminating the surroundings as if it were daytime.

The mercenary hiding nearby then revealed his figure under the strong light.

Doomsday Type 7 Exoskeleton!

Except for the Dragonkin, everyone else recognized the equipment on the mercenary.

This was clearly military-grade equipment, and merely possessing it was a serious crime!

The woman's mining mech, over five meters tall, was worth only about 4 million Alliance coins and was the explorers' favorite "large civilian facility."

However, this exoskeleton of his was worth at least 20 million per unit!

The exposed mercenary cursed something, stopped reloading his thermite rounds, and aimed the rotary machine gun on his arm at the scholar, unleashing a barrage of large-caliber bullets.

But before the bullets could hit the scholar, they all veered off in other directions.

The speeding bullets scraped off a layer of earth behind the scholar, while the scholar's pages continued to flip rapidly.

Seeing this, the mercenary stopped firing, reactivated his optical camouflage, and disappeared from their sight.

"It's a curse."

The Gnome saw through the scholar's spell and said to the Dragonkin on the other side:

"The bald guy is gone."

As if to confirm the Gnome's words, in the next moment, the bald mercenary suddenly revealed himself, clutching his chest and taking two weak steps forward.

He finally collapsed on the ground.

Low-level characters using high-level equipment, without even the mechanical power to protect themselves, could only endure damage directly...

'I Don't Want to Pay Breach of Contract Fees' summarized the reason for the mercenary's death.

He stared intently at the fallen mercenary, his eyes suddenly widening, and shouted a warning:

"Damn it, self-destruct!"

In the next moment, an even more scorching white flame erupted than before.

A blooming white lotus engulfed those who couldn't escape in time.