Corporate Players

Its two eyes were bright red, as if it wanted to devour someone.

They were fast, each one comparable to Bolt, and soon crawled to the base of the stone wall.

They prowled beneath the stone wall, seemingly pondering how to attack.

Before long, they began using the gaps between the stones to climb upward.

Now it seemed that this six-meter-high stone wall wasn't all that secure either.

Gao Linzhi looked at these crabs, then at the villagers.

He noticed that the villagers didn't seem flustered.

"Throw the Slow Potion!"

"Release the wire nets!" Zheng Dong commanded.

A group of villagers first pulled out small porcelain bottles from their bosoms, then tossed them down at the crabs.

The bottles shattered, and clusters of gray smoke appeared.

Those crabs immediately staggered and slowed down.

The villagers then took out stacks of wire nets.

Each net had a rope attached, and they worked in pairs, throwing them directly at the crabs.

The four corners of the nets were weighted with heavy lead blocks.

Once a crab was covered, it would instinctively struggle, and as it did, its claws got caught in the mesh.

The more it struggled, the tighter it became trapped, until it couldn't move at all.

One by one, they fell straight down from the wall.

Soon, over twenty crabs were all securely snared.

Seeing this, the villagers couldn't help but cheer.

"Haha, we can auction off the slaughter rights again and make some extra cash."

"Yeah, tonight we're hitting the tavern for drinks and storytelling."

"You going for the storytelling? More like to watch the dancers."

The villagers laughed and chatted as they pulled the ropes, hauling the struggling, netted crabs up to the wall top and piling them together.

Suddenly, Gao Linzhi noticed a warning exclamation mark appear on his Minimap—this should be the game's danger alert.

He scanned carefully and found that one of the crabs pulled up was quite clever.

Hidden in the pile of crabs, it was quietly using its pincer to cut through the wire, almost through.

Its small eyes on both eyestalks were fixed intently on the chatting villagers.

Clearly, once it broke free, it would launch a vicious attack.

Without a word, Gao Linzhi swung his blade at the joint of one of that crab's pincers.

"Bang!" Sparks flew, and a white mark appeared on the crab's pincer.

Gao Linzhi's strike had gone off-target.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" a villager exclaimed in surprise.

"You can't just act on your own! If you want to kill the monsters we caught, you have to pay for the slaughter rights first!" another villager shouted.

At that moment, Zheng Dong also noticed the crab's abnormality.

"Shut up. He just saved your lives." With that, Zheng Dong grabbed a steel spear and thrust it fiercely at the crab trying to secretly escape.

Gao Linzhi clearly saw a glint of red light appear at the tip of the steel spear, then pierce through the crab's tough shell, stirring viciously inside.

That Crab Demon immediately lost its strength, but it was still writhing, clearly not dead yet.

Zheng Dong then lifted the wire net, revealing a spot where the wire had already been cut by the crab's pincer.

In just a little more time, it would have broken free and torn the villagers apart.

"Sorry, I misjudged you, brother." The villagers near the crab felt a chill of fear and immediately apologized to Gao Linzhi.

But then, a dark-skinned villager spoke with a sarcastic tone: "Hmph, he was just trying to steal a monster kill to level up and get points."

"Otherwise, why wouldn't he call out to us? Why act on his own?"

The others immediately looked at Gao Linzhi with suspicion, as if agreeing with the dark villager's words.

Gao Linzhi glanced at that dark villager and silently made a note of him.

"Shut up, Zheng Laoliu. If he had just shouted, that crab would have had a chance to break free and hurt people!" Zheng Dong, an honest man, directly rebuked the dark villager.

Zheng Laoliu fell silent, but his gaze toward Gao Linzhi still held ill intent.

Gao Linzhi was momentarily stunned. This guy, with no grudge or grievance, was trying to stir up conflict between him and the villagers.

Could he have been bought off by a Corporate Player?

That was the only reason he could think of.

After all, he wasn't about to become a live-in son-in-law and get slapped in the face for no reason.

Zheng Dong explained to him again:

"We usually don't kill these monsters ourselves; we leave them for you Descenders to finish off."

"When you kill them, you get experience, and they can drop equipment, materials, even Gold Coins." Zheng Dong said this with a hint of envy in his sigh, "You guys are the real chosen ones."

"This crab is free for you."

With that, he picked out that crab and set it down on an empty spot along the wall.

Gao Linzhi naturally didn't stand on ceremony. He raised his blade and started hacking at the crab.

"Clang!"

He slashed more than ten times, a flurry of Chaotic Gale Saber Technique going bang bang bang, before finally finishing the crab off.

What a pain.

He really needed to top up.

Although Zheng Dong and the villagers nodded at him and gave him thumbs up.

"Not bad. A lot of newbies can't even bring themselves to kill a chicken."

Gao Linzhi was still far from satisfied.

The efficiency was too low.

This wasn't like ordinary games. You had to hit the monster's weak point and break its defense to deal damage.

When he'd just struck the crab shell, there was no damage at all.

You have slain a Level 4 monster. Gained 40 experience points.

Then a lump of white meat and a shell appeared on the crab's body.

Crab Meat (White): Delicious-tasting meat. Weight: 5 kg. Can be used as food.

Crab Shell (White): Basic material for crafting White Armor.

Gao Linzhi was pondering one question: how to quickly improve himself.

After all, his current situation was extremely dangerous.

In reality, the Xu Corporation might very well ignore the evidence and just round up everyone connected to Brother Li's death.

In the game, those Corporate Players would also search for the real identities of Rogue Players to steal their game qualifications.

Those Rogue Players all kept silent and spoke little precisely to hide their true identities—loose lips sink ships.

At that moment, Zheng Dong sent villagers to collect the materials.

And just then, as soon as the monster was captured, the Rogue Players who had vanished so quickly suddenly reappeared.

They crowded over, came to the city wall, and looked at the crabs.

They looked them over and asked the price. Zheng Dong told them each kill right cost 70 copper.

They could only get the experience, not the drops. If they wanted the drops, they'd have to pay extra.

Each of them showed pained expressions and shook their heads as they walked away.

"Work hard all day, and I can only afford 20 monsters. If I weren't afraid of getting caught alone, I'd rather just go kill them myself," one Rogue Player complained.

"Hang in there. Once we've developed enough, the Corporation will have to make concessions to us. Then our good days will come!" another Rogue Player consoled him.

"That's right. Unless they don't want to make money anymore. If they still treat us like dogs, we'll become rangers—appear and disappear without a trace, ambush them, and run them ragged!" someone fantasized.