Hardcore Mode

Luckily Han Luo had already rushed behind the Mountain Bandit at this point, putting all his strength into greeting the back of the Mountain Bandit's head with a stick.

Bang! Perhaps because he hit a vital spot, it actually popped out a red -18.

"Nice one!"

Xiao Jie shouted. His footwork was fluttering and he seemed to be parrying and retreating, but the moment that Mountain Bandit turned to deal with Han Luo, he suddenly stepped forward and knocked the Mountain Bandit on the head with a stick.

The Mountain Bandit let out a roar and turned around to fight back, but Xiao Jie immediately retreated, and instead Han Luo seized the chance to land another strike with his stick.

The two cooperated with tacit understanding, pulling back and forth for two turns before more than half of that Mountain Bandit's health bar was beaten away.

Seeing he couldn't win, that Mountain Bandit let out a roar and turned to run.

Xiao Jie thought to himself that this game's monsters were quite smart too, even knowing how to run away. How could he let this fellow run? As the two chased, they fiercely swung their wooden sticks to beat a drowning dog.

Having no equipment also had its advantages. The bare-chested two clearly ran faster than the Mountain Bandit, and after taking a few consecutive hits from sticks and seeing he couldn't escape, the Mountain Bandit abruptly stopped.

He bent down, pressing his saber against his body, and made a charge motion as a layer of scarlet halo instantly emerged over his entire body.

Without a second thought, Han Luo was about to go up to finish him off.

Yet Xiao Jie sensed something was wrong. Oh no, retreat fast! At the same time, he jerked backward.

The next second—that Mountain Bandit's form spun, and the broadsword in his hand swept out in a Whirlwind Slash!

Whirlwind Slash!

Swish swish swish!

The blade spun in the air and slashed out three dao of blade light.

It was already too late for Han Luo to try dodging. These three strikes landed solidly on Han Luo, -19, -21, -27! Blood splattered everywhere. Han Luo ate the damage of this entire combo to the fullest, and in an instant the greater part of his health was beaten away, with the deadlier part being that it also triggered a heavy stagger.

"F*ck!" Han Luo still wanted to struggle, but the Mountain Bandit stepped close, his broadsword fiercely chopping down.

-41 (Critical Hit)!

Splitch, Han Luo's decapitated head flew into the air, drawing an arc as it rolled in front of Xiao Jie, those eyes wide open as if unwilling to rest in death.

This realistic decapitation scene made Xiao Jie's heart tremble. Were games nowadays all this bloody?

Looking at Han Luo's headless corpse collapsing limply to the ground, Xiao Jie was also somewhat dazed. The damage of this mob was simply too high, killing a player in two moves. Could it be that they had encountered a boss?

No, this fellow's health was only a little over one hundred and not quite two hundred, definitely not a boss. One could only say that this game's monsters were a bit fierce, even more Souls-like than Souls games.

Fortunately, the opponent's health wasn't much anymore either, and the motion of pulling back his blade after completing the execution happened to reveal an opening.

Xiao Jie seized the timing and fiercely leaped up, Jump Attack!

Bang! Utilizing the momentum of the forward rush, he bumped the Mountain Bandit into a stagger.

-9!

Charge—Heavy Strike!

The exact moment the Mountain Bandit recovered his balance, the wooden stick hit dead center on the Mountain Bandit's head. Because it was a Heavy Strike, it inflicted a heavy stagger on the Mountain Bandit, -18!

Seeing the Mountain Bandit half-kneel down, Xiao Jie delivered a horizontal sweep against his head.

-12!

That Mountain Bandit was knocked over backward onto the ground. Great opportunity!

He stepped close and followed up with an execution.

He smashed his stick with all his might into the Mountain Bandit's head, bang! -22 (Execution Attack)!

The Mountain Bandit's head burst open like a watermelon.

The headless corpse twitched twice and stopped moving.

Looking at the Mountain Bandit's corpse, Xiao Jie let out a long breath, thinking to himself who had designed such a perversely twisted game where the very first mob out the door was this difficult? Good thing his own technique was rock-solid, or he would have given away first blood.

However, the impact feel was truly exhilarating to the extreme. The feedback from being hit had subtle differences when the stick struck different body parts, which was genuinely exhilarating.

Checking the drops: twenty-six coins, as well as a tattered book.

Oh, it actually dropped a skill book.

[Kite Flip (Footwork)]

Learning condition: Agility 12.

Combat skill introduction: A primary combat technique habitually used by Jianghu figures. Involves performing a somersault while rotating the body, capable of dodging attacks coming from specific directions.]

Xiao Jie looked at his own stats, which were just enough to learn it. He double-clicked it to learn it directly. Pity it didn't drop any equipment. He cast a scrutinizing glance at the Mountain Bandit's corpse. Because the graphics were overly realistic, every single wound on the corpse was exposed with matchless realism; his head had been smashed to smithereens by the stick, making it impossible to even make out his face. And not far away, Han Luo's corpse was equally tragic, with internal organs spilling out from his belly, blood and bone fragments at his chest, and his head rolling on the ground, those unresigned eyes opened wide. He didn't continue paying attention to the details of the corpse, instead concentrating on experimenting with the newly learned skill. Kite Flip was a decent dodge and movement skill, able to flip two or three meters in a single bound, much more useful than rolling. Mainly, it had a somersault visual effect, making it very suitable for dodging some powerful attacks coming from the front, or flying projectiles and the like. After flipping twice, he discovered that the stamina consumption of this skill seemed somewhat large, and his own character actually began panting heavily. Fine, it seemed his stamina was a bit low. Besides, his health was also left with only a dozen-odd points. Just as Xiao Jie was considering whether to continue exploring forward and find a monster to give him a "free return to city" while incidentally familiarizing himself with this game's respawn mechanic, he heard Han Luo's annoyed voice come from behind. "What the f*ck, what's going on!" "What is it?" "This game doesn't seem to allow respawning." Xiao Jie looked toward Han Luo's screen. Sure enough, the screen was a sheet of blood red, with a huge [Death] character right in the middle, looking exceptionally conspicuous. Below it was an option to exit the game, and apart from that there wasn't a single place one could press. Han Luo exited the game and entered the game again, yet it was still that same blood-red death screen, still without any respawn option. Xiao Jie couldn't help but fall into a daze as well. From its graphics and impact feel, this game was simply not from the same era as current games; it was completely next-generation level. Logically speaking, it shouldn't have such a low-level design flaw as players being unable to respawn. Could it be the so-called Hardcore Mode? He had also come into contact with this type of game before, where players only had a single life and could only start over once they died. Expert mode, Hardcore mode, Ironman mode—the names differed, but the rules were mostly the same: players only had a single life, and dying meant deleting the character and starting over. If it was like this, then it didn't matter either. Anyway, he was only level one, so creating a new one would do. "Then try creating a character again." "Uh, it seems you can't recreate a character either." As Han Luo spoke, he logged out to the character selection screen, yet the character slot only had one, and it was in a gray, unselectable state, with no option to delete the character either. This really was ghost-like. Xiao Jie went up to help fiddle with it for a bit and also ran out of solutions. Pondering for a moment, he said, "Don't rush, it might be encountering a game bug. We can report it back to the officials later, and who knows, maybe there will even be closed beta rewards. Let's head out to eat first, and by the way chat about the brick-moving prospects of this game." Han Luo could only helplessly agree. He was also a professional gamer of several years, and naturally could see the astonishing aspects of this game. It was just a pity that he had encountered this annoying matter less than an hour into playing it, leaving him genuinely somewhat speechless. However, being able to find a good game suitable for brick-moving meant today was still very much worth celebrating overall. Along with this, the resentment toward Liu Qiang also drifted away into thin air. Xiao Jie had originally still wanted to find a mob to grant him a free return to the city, but now he didn't dare to do that anymore. Obediently running back along his original path to the village, he then exited the game. As the two walked downstairs, Han Luo couldn't help excitedly saying, "Since this game is so badass, yet there isn't the slightest whisper of it in the online gaming circle, it must still be in the internal testing stage. Once we have closed beta experience and this game blows up, we'll definitely be able to make a huge profit. Later we'll really have to thank Liu Qiang properly."