Hunting Foxes

"Fine. For the Fourth Elder's sake, I'll make a concession. As long as he cooperates with us and lures Lin Qing out of the village, this matter will be settled." Xu Tianlang put on an expression as if he were making a huge concession.

Gao Linzhi immediately sneered. "Who do you think you are?"

"You used a fake contract to deceive me, and now you're acting like it never happened. On top of that, you want me to keep deceiving Lin Qing and lure her out? She's someone the Fourth Elder is determined to protect!"

"Captain Zheng, have you forgotten that?"

"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that important detail. In any case, I'm reporting this to the Fourth Elder." As Zheng Dong spoke, he drew his blade to protect Gao Linzhi, then took out a Communication Talisman.

"Hahaha! Go ahead and notify him. I'd like to see how their Fourth Elder plans to deal with me!" Xu Tianlang said, unconcerned.

Zheng Dong gritted his teeth and activated the Communication Talisman.

Before long, the image of a wealthy old man appeared. It was none other than the Fourth Elder.

"Fourth Elder..." Zheng Dong briefly explained the situation.

"I understand. Young Master Xu, Canxue is a village guard, and Lin Qing is also a village guard. You can't lay a hand on either of them," the Fourth Elder said bluntly.

Zheng Dong's expression changed when he heard this.

From the Fourth Elder's tone, it sounded like he wasn't going to pursue what Xu Corporation had just done?

Sure enough, Xu Tianlang burst out laughing. "Fine. I'll give the Fourth Elder this much respect today."

"But, Fourth Elder, that new disciple you took in is a traitor to Xu Corporation."

"She stole something from our company. Please hand her over to me."

"No. She's also a village guard. She has great talent and enormous potential, and she could become a pillar of the village in the future," the Fourth Elder refused outright.

"Heh. No matter how talented she is, she's still just one person, with only one life."

"However high her talent, how many years will it take her to grow strong?"

"But your village is attacked by monsters and aberrations from time to time. Without our company's players fighting with all their might, would you be as safe as you are now?"

"Don't forget, your village was once on the brink of destruction!"

Gao Linzhi was taken aback.

He understood what Xu Tianlang meant. It seemed East Wolf Village had survived long ago only because the company's players had fought desperately for it.

No wonder the company's players were so arrogant, daring to capture Ordinary Players right inside the village.

"That's our concern. Besides, without the village, your company's players would be trees without roots and water without a source," the Fourth Elder said, shaking his head. "In any case, you can't lay a hand on either of them."

"Heh. We'll see."

The Fourth Elder's image then disappeared. Xu Tianlang gave Gao Linzhi a long look before leading his people away.

Xu Tianlang hadn't suffered the slightest punishment, but Gao Linzhi wasn't bothered. In his eyes, Xu Tianlang was already a dead man.

That afternoon.

Everything went on as if nothing had happened.

Gao Linzhi followed Zheng Dong and the Fourth Squad to hunt monsters in the surrounding area.

"Brother Canxue, this afternoon we're going to sweep Foxy Slope."

"It's been six days since the last sweep. The foxes should have multiplied again by now," Zheng Dong said.

Gao Linzhi nodded.

The two talked as they walked.

From Zheng Dong, he learned that many monsters had a lair where they kept appearing endlessly, no one knew how or why. Even if the lair was destroyed, it would restore itself after some time.

So they had no choice but to clear them out regularly.

This was clearly a feature of the world's gamification: monsters had Spawn Points.

The foxes' lair was called "Foxy Slope."

It lay thirty li south of the village. The area was riddled with caves that connected in every direction, and layers of gray-white mist blanketed it year-round to protect the foxes.

According to Zheng Dong, these foxes took about seven days to respawn.

Once they were all killed, they would reappear seven days later. At first, there would only be a dozen or so.

Their numbers then increased gradually at random. If they were left uncleared for too long, each fox would grow stronger as well.

Once their numbers passed a certain threshold, they would even attack the village on their own.

When villagers killed these foxes directly, their flesh was tainted by aberrant pollution and couldn't be eaten.

But when players killed them, they could obtain all sorts of materials.

These included materials like "Fox Hide" and "Fox Meat," which could be eaten after being processed.

From that perspective, regular respawns were actually a good thing.

They effectively solved the village's food supply problem.

As a result, these monster lairs had instead become Rare Tier resource points.

Because of this, East Wolf Village often fought with other villages over them.

To Gao Linzhi, this was all too familiar—wasn't this just the classic guild battle over a monster spawn point?

"The foxes drop fur and meat. The meat doesn't taste very good, but it's still meat, and it's decent after being smoked. The hide and fur are both important materials for making talismans," Zheng Dong said as they walked.

It took them less than an hour to reach Foxy Slope.

That was right: with the players' arrival, the village had adopted their way of keeping time, which was more precise and convenient.

It was a hillside more than two hundred meters high, shrouded in mist.

Beneath the mist, dark cave entrances were faintly visible, and the howling of foxes could be heard from within.

[ Ding! You have discovered Foxy Slope (Level 3–9) ]

A game notification appeared in Gao Linzhi's mind.

Then he saw a team dressed entirely in blue uniforms hunting foxes.

They all had names with the same prefix above their heads:

"Xu Clan Team Two—Tian Leng," "Xu Clan Team Two—Di Han"...

There were nine of them in total.

They were fully armed, each clad in steel armor and wielding a sharp steel blade. They waited in line to hack at the foxes that darted out.

Gao Linzhi looked over and saw them toss a bundle of yellow-smoke-emitting dry grass into one cave entrance, then station people to guard several of the larger openings.

Before long, a yellow-furred fox with eyes glowing bright red darted out.

They immediately brought down a blade, hacking hard at its head.

The fox was extremely crafty. It twisted aside, darted between the attacker's legs, then bit fiercely at his crotch.

Luckily, the player had protection there too. He clamped his legs together, trapping the fox, and someone beside him brought down another blade.

The steel blade scraped against the armor, sending sparks flying, and killed the fox.

But that was only the beginning. Before long, three or four foxes darted out at once.

They were extremely fast, pouncing straight at the players' faces and reaching for their eyeballs with their sharp claws.

The players hurriedly raised both hands to shield their faces.

Someone nearby joined in, hacking at both the foxes and the players. The blades struck steel plates, sending sparks flying...

Seeing this, Zheng Dong sighed. "Forget it. Let them have this area."

"We'll hunt on the other side. We'll use nets to catch some alive for Brother Canxue to kill."