The other two didn't get greedy either. Keeping three meters away from the Raider, they began circling around it.
The Raider yanked up its Wolf Tooth Club and lost sight of its target for a moment. Its big head turned sixty degrees before it spotted the nimble human.
The previous blow had been insignificant against its tough skin.
With a roar, it charged at Thin Dog again.
Thin Dog seized the moment and dodged to the side, avoiding the Wolf Tooth Club's downward smash.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Two more crowbar strikes landed on the Raider's back, one of them hitting it squarely on the head and dealing critical damage.
Critical Hit! HP -39!
HP -21
"Roar!"
The Raider howled in pain and pulled back its Wolf Tooth Club for a horizontal sweep.
After landing their blows, Lin Tang and Yaohu immediately jumped backward, dodging the swing.
The Wolf Tooth Club sweep had been thrown with tremendous force. But since it hit no one, the Raider lost its balance and left itself wide open!
Thin Dog, who had yet to find a chance to attack, raised his Rusty Mace and brought it down hard on the Raider's head!
Weak Point Hit! Armor Broken!
Golden Critical Hit! HP -209!
Weapon bleed effect triggered. The target would lose 50 HP over the next 10 seconds.
That blow had done a real number on the Raider. Green blood streamed down its head, radioactive fluid spilling out and rapidly turning the grass on the ground yellow and black.
After succeeding with that strike, the three of them resumed circling in quick little steps, never getting greedy.
The green-skinned Raider possessed brutal strength, yet three players toyed with it until it had no way to fight back.
From then on, whenever the Raider attacked, it got hit.
And if it didn't attack, the person in its blind spot would sneak up behind it.
The two crowbars did average damage, but it added up over time, leaving its body covered in bruises.
The Raider's Health Recovery Speed was also quite fast, around 2 HP per second. But against the attacks of three players, it was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
Five minutes later, the utterly enraged Raider left this malicious world with a furious expression.
Until its death, it couldn't understand why it could never hit these humans who looked so frail.
At that moment, all three of their Smartwatches lit up and displayed a message.
Worked together to kill a Raider. EXP +8.
All three of them gained 8 EXP.
A stream of red energy visible only to players flowed from the Raider's corpse into their bodies.
"Holy shit!? We actually did it! Thin Dog, you're freaking amazing! (voice cracking)" Lin Tang shouted.
From his perspective as a game designer, monsters of this level were supposed to be farmed after players had leveled up. Being able to kill one above their level meant players understood games better than designers did.
Yaohu also looked delighted. "This game is getting more and more interesting."
Thin Dog wiped away his sweat and checked the loot.
"We got an unidentified Wolf Tooth Club and a Raider corpse. This big guy should be worth one portion of Biological Raw Materials."
"Kill two more, and the three of us will have all the Biological Raw Materials we need!"
"We're still close to the base. Let's carry the corpse back first so nobody steals it."
The three of them worked together to carry the Raider corpse back to the base. They casually tossed it into the Clone Production Pod, stopped by the Attribute Conversion Tower to identify a Wolf Tooth Club, then hurried back down the mountain.
As they walked, they kept muttering:
"Once we turn in the Biological Raw Materials for the mission, we can dismantle any more Raiders we kill for loot. Once we farm up some gear, we'll probably be able to solo these things."
"Grind, grind, grind! We're grinding now, brothers!"
"My genes are moving!"
Cheng Shaofeng, who had been ignored beside them: ∑(O_O;)
"What... the heck just happened?"
"Zero, if I wasn't mistaken, what they just threw in was a Raider corpse, right?"
Zero: "That's right! It can yield 1.5 portions of Biological Raw Materials."
"But a Raider's combat power... even three players working together should have a hard time against one. Could they have picked up an unwanted Raider corpse down there?"
"That wasn't right either!"
He had clearly heard the three players shouting about farming Raiders. They had obviously already begun treating these powerful mutants like low-level monsters that dropped resources.
"Hiss... I don't know what method they used, but the players' combat power may be far stronger than I imagined!"
If it had been him, he definitely wouldn't have dared to confront a Raider head-on. He wasn't a Clone and only had one life. Even if there were tactics that could potentially win, he wouldn't easily try them. What if he messed up and got himself killed?
Players had no such concern!
As long as they had a certain degree of confidence, they could do it. At worst, they could just revive!
"So in practice, even if players aren't as strong as me in equipment or skills, their room for error lets them unleash even greater strength and defeat enemies stronger than themselves!"
Cheng Shaofeng didn't think he was one of those chosen protagonists from cultivation novels who constantly risked their lives for immortal opportunities. To him, staying alive was what mattered most. If he could avoid fighting, he would. If he saw trouble, he would take a detour. If he encountered something beyond his ability, he would wait until he had enough strength to crush it before dealing with it. As long as I don't make a move, nobody can defeat me!
Following his heart was the true way to survive in the wasteland!
"Since players are so strong, I just need to summon more of them to work for me. Once they farm me a full set of god-tier gear and max-level skills, then I'll head out."
Cheng Shaofeng happened to have nothing to do, so he connected to Quantum Surfing and prepared to look for a few more players on the forums.
Meanwhile, the three players who had gotten a taste of success had just come down the mountain when they ran into another green-skinned Big Muscle Man over two meters tall, carrying a Wolf Tooth Club and wandering around where they had fought earlier.
"Huh? So our front door is a monster farming zone?"
"Perfect. Let's grind straight to Level 2 today and learn some skills!"
"Let's do it, brothers!"
The Raider saw the two Wolf Tooth Clubs in the hands of the three humans and charged over with a roar.
It shouted something none of the three could understand.
Twenty minutes later, the three of them carried another Raider corpse into the Clone Production Pod, identified another Wolf Tooth Club, and happily jogged down the mountain.
When Cheng Shaofeng, who was Quantum Surfing over there, saw this, his lips trembled slightly.
"Awesome."
In less than an hour, three people had obtained three portions of Biological Raw Materials.
Yesterday, he had traveled a long distance, spent a fortune, been robbed, and fought battles of wits and courage just to buy three portions of Biological Raw Materials from hunters in Salt Well Town and transport them back. Compared to the players, it was hard not to feel awful.
The next second, the three of them came running back up and held out their hands.
"Lord, back up our body data. We worked hard to earn some EXP."
Cheng Shaofeng: "...All right, soldiers."
Not bad. These players weren't just fierce—they were careful too.
At the foot of the hill.
The three players wandered around for quite a while but couldn't find a third Raider.
"Huh? Why aren't any monsters respawning? Are we still in the monster respawn cooldown period?"
"Should we log out and back in to see if it resets the cooldown?"
"Let's try it!"
The three found a safe corner and logged out together.
Three minutes later, they logged back in and looked around, but there was still no sign of any Raiders.
Yaohu pointed at a split mark on a tree. "I casually smashed this tree when I passed by earlier. The mark is still here, which proves the map didn't reset. Maybe we have to wait until tomorrow for monsters to respawn. Camping here won't work. Let's stick to the original plan and look around the old Raider Camp. That should be a fixed Raider spawn point."
Thin Dog said, "Perfect. We can explore the surrounding map too. I figure the electronic components and energy the Lord mentioned will be hard to find in the wilderness. We may have to look in a city or a human settlement."
Lin Tang nodded. "Going by the designer's logic, quests that require collecting multiple materials definitely make you visit different places to find them. They're forcing us to uncover the map fog. Otherwise, how would they advance the plot? Right?"
"Makes sense."
The three people who had thoroughly figured out the game headed toward the Raider Camp while exploring the surrounding mountain region. Their Smartwatches recorded all the map information.
Baidu Diablo III Forum.
Sentinel made another post.
"Still buying graphics cards to play traditional games? If you don't buy, and I don't buy, they'll drop another two hundred tomorrow! Come sign up for the closed beta of a 100% virtual reality game! Even the junior forum mod says it's good!"
The comments below immediately began piling up.
"Bump for OP! Whether the virtual reality game has a closed beta isn't important, but everyone needs to hold the line right now! Don't buy graphics cards! Soon we'll get to watch the mining bosses perform aerial acrobatics!"
"Inside info: foreign mining cards are already flooding the domestic secondhand market in bulk. If you buy one now, there's a ten-thousand-percent chance it's a mining card! Yesterday, I saw someone on Xianyu listing three hundred graphics cards supposedly used by a delicate little lady, and I nearly died laughing."
"Are you poor idiots sick in the head? What does it have to do with you whether people buy them or not? Yesterday I went down the mountain and bought a personally used secondhand 3060 Ti for 2,500. It works great. Can you stop being salty? You've been screaming about price cuts for a year. You only deserve outdated graphics cards that were phased out ages ago. How can you compare with those of us using the 30 series? Huh?"
--Forgiveness Hat Wholesaler replied: "You spent a fortune on a graphics card. You used the best power supply, put it in a case with the best airflow, changed its thermal paste, added more cooling, and when playing AAA games, you didn't even dare turn up the graphics settings because you were afraid of tiring it out. But what you didn't know was that when it was in the mining boss's hands, that was when she screamed the loudest."
--Shadow Night God replied: "You'd better be talking about graphics cards. #tears#tears"
"Wait! Did someone just say a 100% virtual reality game?"
Sentinel: "I'm moved to tears! Can everyone stop focusing on graphics cards? Apocalypse OL is waiting for you to join the fight. This time, two more closed beta slots will be released! Players with strong overall gaming skills will be prioritized!"
Before you continue