You Deserve to Be Single

Chapter 31

After confirming that Lu Wu was a descendant of the King of Beiqi, along with the combination of Lu Wu's mysterious strength and his possible mastery of the Law of Reincarnation, the Soul Ferrying Envoy, who had struggled internally for a long time, chose to pledge his loyalty.

However, Lu Wu did not have him stay. Instead, he sent him back to Shana's side, planting a hidden danger beside him.

Following the staircase paved with bones, the Soul Ferrying Envoy arrived beside the Skeletal Throne and slowly lowered his head.

"Lord Shana, your subordinate has returned from the investigation."

"Why did Third Ghost die?" the figure on the throne slowly asked.

The Soul Ferrying Envoy reached out from beneath his black robe and handed over a withered branch.

"A tree demon? Rock Ghost King! It really was him!" The voice from the throne brimmed with fury.

"Isn't one Northern Region enough for him? He wants to meddle in my Liuli too? Does he really think I, Shana, am easy to bully? Does everyone dare offend me?"

"Lord Shana, how should this matter be handled?" the Soul Ferrying Envoy asked with his head lowered.

Shana was silent for a long while before speaking again. "Do nothing for now. We still have to wait until I break through to the Ghost King Realm!"

The Soul Ferrying Envoy nodded and was about to withdraw when Shana spoke again.

"Oh, right. Make a trip to the Underworld Sea and tell the Sea King that I agree to his proposal."

Hearing this, the Soul Ferrying Envoy bowed to Shana. "Your subordinate understands!" He then slowly retreated.

After the Soul Ferrying Envoy pledged his loyalty, Lu Wu and Bei Li burst into laughter in the bedroom.

Neither of them had expected to acquire such a troublesome fellow so easily. What delighted them even more was that he truly intended to trip up Shana's ghost generals.

During this period, the Player faction had also developed rapidly. As Battle Online's fame spread, many powerful gaming guilds soon joined the game.

The arrival of these guild Players made the game even more exciting.

Wherever there were people, there would be conflicts. Friction between Players was perfectly normal, and wilderness PK had become the most popular activity besides killing monsters and leveling up.

Small clashes between individual Players often escalated into full-scale wars between two guilds.

The entire Player faction was developing in a positive direction. All Players wanted to become stronger, and they often collectively denounced the officials on the forum, demanding to know why a top-up channel had yet to be introduced.

Lu Wu found this both amusing and exasperating. He had seen Players curse games for being too pay-to-win, but this was the first time he had seen them complain about not being allowed to spend money.

The other group collectively protesting to the officials was the assassin Players.

In their eyes, assassins had become a bottom-tier class at this stage. As the Players put it, they had been beaten so badly they were nearly depressed.

The reason was simple. Berserkers were inherently a class built for direct confrontation, and their one-on-one ability was naturally formidable. Unless an assassin possessed exceptional skill, they were simply no match for them.

Mages were even harder to deal with. Mages who now possessed summoning and malicious thought skills were the kings of wilderness PK, a class considered the favored child at this stage. This allowed the mage Players who had suffered as a bottom-tier class for so long to finally strut their stuff.

At the very least, berserkers could still look forward to class advancement. But assassins had nothing besides stealth and instant burst damage. They did not even have any decent dueling ability, leaving them utterly frustrated.

Lu Wu was helpless about this as well. Class development had to proceed according to practical conditions, so it would depend on when the all-purpose little loli could figure something out.

However, Lu Wu's problem was quickly solved by a streamer.

This streamer had once jokingly said in his livestream that he had been an assassin in real life and wanted to teach everyone some extremely powerful assassination techniques for assassins.

This drew the attention of a large number of assassin Players, and Lu Wu curiously entered his livestream as well.

The title of this assassin Player's stream was: Professional Assassin Teaches You How to Solo Kill Reckless Berserkers and Squishy Mages in the Wild—The Ultimate Use of Technique

The Assassin's stream was a practical combat tutorial. During the broadcast, he constantly searched the wilderness for Players from hostile guilds to assassinate.

Unlike other assassins, his methods were highly unusual. He never clashed head-on with berserker Players. Instead, he used Poison Needle and Melee Backstab to wear berserkers down, while using Shadow Step to kite them around.

Berserkers simply could not catch up to assassins in terms of speed. While being worn down, they could do little besides chase after them. When a berserker Player chose to flee, the Assassin would close in, trade a backstab with him, inflict a bleeding effect, then flee again and continue launching Poison Needles from a distance.

This style of play had an extremely high win rate in his stream. Aside from encountering the occasional berserker with exceptional swordsmanship, he basically won every time.

When facing mages, the assassins directly abandoned the backstab skill and relied entirely on Poison Needle to wear them down, never giving the Yin soldiers a chance to get close.

As for the mage's Yin Turbidity Erosion skill, because it dealt wide-area damage, its power was lower than the single-target damage of Poison Needle. Furthermore, assassins had more health than mages to begin with, so they could completely kite mages to death with Shadow Step without needing to get close at all.

The Assassin's underhanded style quickly became popular on the forum, and large numbers of assassin Players began learning his techniques for wilderness PK.

However, due to the game's extreme realism, many assassin Players discovered that they frequently missed with Poison Needle in actual combat. This caused PK-loving assassin Players to begin studying throwing techniques.

This post also made more Players understand the importance of skill.

In this game, strength was certainly the foremost standard, but those with formidable skill were fully capable of challenging opponents above their level.

Take QingFengMingYue, a berserker Player who was extremely popular on the forum.

This Player was known in the game as the number one swordmaster at this stage. It was said that he was also a renowned SwordSkill_Master in real life.

He was only level 15, yet during a guild war, he relied on his movement techniques and swordsmanship to forcibly defeat the combined assault of five Players above level 20. He became famous in a single battle and was regarded as a top Player by berserkers.

Strategy posts had always been popular on the Battle Online forum, and the emergence of all kinds of top Players further enriched the game's diversity.

To Players, this game felt more like another world rather than merely a game.

One Player's forum post left a deep impression on Lu Wu.

That Player described something that had happened in his life.

One day, the Player's girlfriend asked him, "Why do you play games every time you get off work? What's so fun about that stupid game? Can't you properly be in a relationship?"

The Player replied, "You don't understand. I have one more world than you do!"

In the end, they broke up.

Yet those words deeply moved Lu Wu. He felt that the game's development had truly exceeded his expectations.

However, the other Players did not share Lu Wu's feelings. Every reply below said the same thing.

"Brother, you deserve to be single!"