In the Ash Domain, on a patch of grass near the edge of the forest, Wang Zhifan, clad in Wolfhide Armor and wielding the Blade of the Wolf Fiend, ran in circles. Dozens of ordinary monsters of various kinds desperately chased after him, but they simply could not match his speed. Their intelligence was also too low to spread out and surround him, turning the scene into something almost like a game of tag.
With Wang Zhifan drawing the monsters' attention and leading them in a steady circular path, A Liao, the young gunner in sunglasses, had it easy.
He stood where he was, continuously aiming and firing at the monsters chasing Wang Zhifan several dozen meters away. Calmly and methodically, he picked them off one by one, steadily and quickly reducing the number of monsters pursuing Wang Zhifan across the grass.
Chu Wei looked even more relaxed. She remained standing in place, paying no attention at all to the monsters that had rushed out of the forest onto the grass. She focused entirely on controlling her female ghost summon, efficiently slaughtering monsters in the forest several hundred meters ahead.
Overall, the three of them worked together almost flawlessly. In barely half a minute, Wang Zhifan stopped running in circles, turned around, and killed the last monster behind him with a single slash. Every monster that had escaped from the forest had been completely cleared out.
Naturally, there was more than one round of cleanup like this. However, fewer and fewer monsters escaped from the forest afterward, and Wang Zhifan's pressure continued to lessen. In the end, even A Liao got so bored that he simply ran over to Wang Zhifan's side and stood at the forest's edge, searching for targets inside and shooting at them.
"Big Sis Wei, are you almost done? I can't even spot a single monster in there anymore!"
At that moment, A Liao, who was standing idly on the grass by the forest's edge alongside Wang Zhifan, called out to Chu Wei some distance behind them, sounding rather bored.
Chu Wei, who still appeared to be controlling her summon, paused for a second before replying.
"Almost done! There are only three bugs hiding underground left to deal with!"
Hearing Chu Wei's reply to A Liao, Wang Zhifan could not help inwardly admiring He Qianqian, the Administration investigator. She had truly had a sharp eye when she recruited Chu Wei, a summoner-type Spirit Mage player.
Based on Chu Wei's current performance, her summons were absurdly efficient at clearing low-level Ash Domain monsters. Whether they ran on the ground, flew in the sky, or hid underground, she could send her summons after them and slaughter them all. It was also extremely safe, ensuring that no monster could get close to her. Not to mention Wang Zhifan's rigid melee Blademaster class—even a popular gunner class like A Liao's was far inferior to her in this regard.
"All right, we should be finished."
About ten seconds later, Wang Zhifan heard Chu Wei speak again from behind him. At the same time, her long-haired female ghost summon appeared in the air beside her, indicating that she had finished clearing the forest.
"That's it? No BOSS to fight?"
Seeing this, Wang Zhifan immediately walked toward Chu Wei, a hint of confusion on his face.
He had taken this Ash Domain cleanup job mainly because he wanted to kill some boss monsters and earn a few rewards. Yet Chu Wei was saying they were done, and he had not seen any sign of a BOSS at all.
"Yeah, Big Sis Wei. Didn't they say most Ash Domains have boss monsters? Are we really that unlucky? I wanted some rewards outside the instance too."
A Liao chimed in beside Wang Zhifan.
"There actually was a BOSS in this Ash Domain."
Chu Wei immediately answered her two teammates' questions. "It was just killed long ago by the rater who entered first to investigate. Its corpse is still in the forest. From the looks of it, it was probably an insect-type monster."
"What? That rater was way too sneaky! He even stole our rewards!"
A Liao's expression immediately darkened in displeasure.
"Hehe, that's actually the normal situation."
Chu Wei smiled at A Liao's reaction.
"If a rater has the ability to instantly kill the BOSS in a low-level Ash Domain, of course they won't leave the reward for someone else. That's basically an unspoken rule. If you want to kill Ash Domain BOSSes that badly, either be among the first group to enter or go look for those Advanced Ash Domains."
As Wang Zhifan listened to Chu Wei's explanation, he noticed that this Ash Domain was beginning to change. The air inside suddenly became somewhat murky, the sky gradually blurred, and the ground began to tremble faintly. Just as he was about to warn his two teammates about these abnormalities, Chu Wei gave the order to withdraw.
"Let's get out of here! This Ash Domain is already starting to collapse! If anyone moves too slowly, they might end up stuck inside some wall on Fire Altar Street outside!"
Hearing that, Wang Zhifan finally understood that these phenomena meant their cleanup mission was complete. The Ash Domain had begun to disintegrate, its entrance would completely vanish from the real world, and the possibility of it becoming fixed in reality would naturally cease to exist.
The group quickly retraced their route back to the real world. When they passed through the gray mist barrier and returned to the street on Fire Altar Road, they turned around to see the grayness shrouding the building behind them rapidly fading away. In less than a minute, it vanished completely, revealing a street-side shop in utter disarray, with traces of blood scattered inside. It looked as if an extremely violent incident had just taken place there.
"Reporting in: we have completed the Ash Domain cleanup mission, and the Ash Domain has been successfully eliminated. However, all six civilians trapped inside were already dead. Please trouble your department with the follow-up handling."
As soon as Chu Wei's group emerged, they saw that the man in his fifties wearing a dark green uniform, whom they had seen at the cordon when they arrived, was already waiting there. Chu Wei reported the situation to him.
"Mm. You completed your mission very promptly. Leave the rest to us without worry."
The man in his fifties wearing the dark green uniform nodded to the three of them in reply. After the two sides completed a simple signing and handover, Chu Wei's group boarded the Administration vehicle that had been waiting outside the cordon and departed.
As soon as they returned to the vehicle, before Wang Zhifan and A Liao had even warmed their seats, Chu Wei took out the special device in her hand, checked it, and tapped at it a few times. Then she said to the two of them, "Brother Fan, A Liao, you should both still have plenty of stamina, right? If there's no problem, we'll head straight to clean up the next low-level Ash Domain."
"I'm fine."
Wang Zhifan immediately agreed. He really was still in good condition, since he had barely exerted himself in the Ash Domain just now and had spent most of the time loafing around.
"Sure, but Big Sis Wei, can you pick a more exciting Ash Domain this time? That last one was so boring."
A Liao also said he was in fine condition, and even wanted something more exciting.
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