A gigantic Kobold strode through the mountains, each footfall shaking the entire hill.
He stood five meters tall, towering over the players. He held an enormous scepter, his eyes glowed red, and the words "Kobold Priest" hovered above his head.
He was a survivor from Kobold Mountain Village. After the last sacrifice, half the villagers had survived.
The others had died from disease, exploded, or met some other end.
Every Kobold who survived had gained tremendous power.
But that power would not last forever, so the Kobolds decided to slaughter all the adventurers nearby while they were still strong.
A large group of Kobolds followed behind the priest. Some had grown black, bony skin, while others had sprouted wings. They came in all sorts of bizarre forms.
Just then, a group of players emerged from Beginner Village to grind monsters in the wilderness.
The sound of the shaking ground carried over from the distance, alerting a group of players.
White Milk turned around and saw the gigantic Kobold charging toward them with a pack of grotesquely shaped Kobolds.
Seeing the words floating above his head, White Milk immediately remembered how the Kobolds had immobilized her for an absurdly long time that evening.
The other players, however, were delighted:
"Holy crap, why is that Kobold so huge?"
"Is that a world boss? It's enormous!"
"Come on, let's all get him!"
None of the players feared death. Beginner Village was right behind them, and they could respawn there if they died.
Losing levels was a minor issue. Their levels were low, so they could grind them back anytime, while the rewards for defeating a boss were generous. A single piece of boss equipment would be a jackpot.
Apart from White Milk and Sweetness Fills the Air, who knew those Kobolds were no ordinary monsters, no one present knew about their absurd-duration bug.
The two women exchanged a glance and backed away instead of rushing into battle with the other players.
The gigantic Kobold showed no fear. He swung his scepter to meet them with a blow to the head. Bang! Over three thousand damage!
The tank died on the spot.
Smack! Another one died.
Smack! Yet another player died.
He crushed one weakling with every swing, the corners of his mouth curling upward as he let out a strange laugh.
The pack of Kobolds behind him charged over with howls, showing off their abilities in a chaotic frenzy.
A flying Kobold swept through the sky and took out a player with a single basic attack.
The players did not back down. They might have been dying one after another, but they had numbers on their side. People kept flooding the public channel with messages announcing the arrival of a world boss.
Players privately messaged their friends and formed groups, and people poured out of Beginner Village.
Players from other grinding areas also came after hearing the news. Not one of them backed down.
If it had a health bar, they would kill it, even if it was a god. That was the players' creed.
Watching so many people surge forward and die wave after wave, the two female players still did not dare attack the Kobolds.
For one thing, they had next to no equipment and dealt too little damage. For another, the experience had left them shaken, and they did not want to be beaten senseless or immobilized again.
That evening, the players fought in the wilderness.
Two of the Kobolds were capable of healing. They kept restoring the group's health, allowing the Kobolds to fight the players for hours without losing ground.
The two women went to another grinding area, regained their lost levels, and replenished their ordinary equipment.
By the time they slipped back to watch the battle in the wilderness, it was late. The Kobolds were still fighting the players, and countless players had been beaten so badly their own mothers would not have recognized them.
Compared with a few hours earlier, equipment now littered the battlefield, dropped by players when they died.
Seeing all that equipment scattered across the ground, the players no longer wanted to fight the boss. Instead, they switched to scavenging and had a wonderful time picking things up.
The Kobolds also noticed that most players were behaving strangely, avoiding them to collect equipment rather than fighting them. So the Kobolds picked up all the equipment and put it in a pile.
Yes, they gathered all the equipment into one pile and assigned guards to keep the players from taking it.
A player tried to slip through and was clubbed to death.
The players put their heads together and devised a team strategy: five would lure the monsters away, while two stole the loot.
But the Kobolds saw straight through their scheme. If they could not reach someone, they refused to give chase, steadfastly holding their defensive perimeter and letting no one inside.
The players were dumbfounded. They had never seen NPCs that picked up equipment and knew how to guard against thieves.
"What the hell, have these things come alive? They pick up equipment, guard against thieves, and you can't even pull their aggro."
"Damn, this AI is way too advanced. Why are there monsters this smart in a low-level area?"
In virtual games, the more intelligent an NPC was, the more computing resources it required, so highly intelligent NPCs were usually reserved for high-level areas.
Unlike other games, however, the NPCs here could actually pick up equipment.
Unbelievable!
The players were stunned, but the two women who had already experienced this took it in stride.
"They've been fighting forever."
"I'm so sleepy."
After playing for several hours, the two female players were actually getting sleepy.
Since the advent of virtual games, people could spend all day sleeping in virtual pods, or choose to sleep inside the games themselves.
The gaming pods had a sleep-assistance function. Three hours of deep sleep in the game world were equivalent to eight hours of normal sleep, greatly extending the time players could spend playing virtual games.
The two returned to their own homes in Beginner Village and shut their doors. No one could enter without permission from the homeowner.
White Milk pulled up her covers and drifted off on her soft, spacious bed.
The virtual pod's sleep-assistance module detected that the player was falling asleep and began emitting sleep-inducing brainwaves, influencing her brain and sending signals to bring on deep sleep quickly.
Before long, White Milk was sound asleep.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of waves.
She felt the wetness of water soaking her body, the heat of direct sunlight overhead, and the unmistakable resistance of currents against her legs.
Puzzled, she opened her eyes and saw an endless blue sea.
As a resident of Orange Star who had never seen a boundless blue ocean, she was astonished.
Before she could make sense of being immersed in seawater, a huge wave crashed over her, forcing a mouthful of salty water into her mouth.
"Ah!"
She sank beneath the water, flailing her arms, but struggling could not stop her descent. Seawater gurgled into her mouth, and she could not breathe.
Her eyes widened as she watched the shimmering blue surface grow farther and farther away. Several powerfully built marine creatures swam toward her, opened their jaws, and bit down.
The agony of death tore through her heart and lungs.
"Ah! Aah! No!"
White Milk opened her eyes. There was no seawater in her mouth, and she immediately cried out in terror.
Her hands reached frantically toward the sky. Blue seawater battered her body again, and another mouthful flooded in.
"Glug-"
She struggled too hard and once again watched the endless seawater swallow her. Her mind went blank. She had no idea what was happening.
Another shark lunged at her, its enormous jaws gaping.
"Ah!"
White Milk jolted awake again.
The same boundless blue ocean surrounded her, its surging waters concealing tremendous danger.
This time, White Milk realized she had respawned.
Whenever she died in the sea, she would respawn on its surface.
She clamped her mouth shut and held her breath. It was not as bad as the first two times, but she could not swim, and she still could not escape sinking beneath the water.
Glug, glug.
On her fourth respawn, White Milk opened her eyes once more.
The blue seawater stretched endlessly. The sky was so pristine it looked freshly washed, and the bright sun hung high overhead, pouring down scorching sunlight.
White Milk sank into the depths again, submerged in seawater. She could not breathe, and when the marine creatures devoured her, she felt the pain of being torn apart.
She was not a hardcore gamer. Only on her seventh respawn in the seawater dream did she remember that she had been sleeping inside the game.
Why would sleeping in the game make her dream of something so terrifying?
"I want to get out! I want to get out!" She called for the game system with her mind, trying to find the logout button, but the virtual system did not appear.
No matter how she called out, nothing could change the fact that she was trapped in the blue sea.
Meanwhile, the other female player, Sweetness Fills the Air, was also trapped in the blue ocean, caught in an endless cycle with no idea when it would end.