Localized Necrosis Style

At dawn on the outskirts of the Black Forest, thin mist curled among the dark treetops.

It should have been a bleak, oppressive wasteland scene, but the energetic clang, clang of stone being hammered completely ruined the atmosphere.

"Lu, what the hell are you tying together?"

"A spiked club? Your taste really has regressed to the Stone Age."

[Ji Luo] wound vines tightly around a sharpened flint shard while mocking Lu Ziye, who was sweating buckets beside him.

"You don't know jack!"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] wiped the sweat from his forehead and proudly raised the black wooden club, as thick as his arm.

Using vines and resin, he had lashed a dozen sharp stone shards to its head, wrapping them in layer after layer.

It looked exactly like some bizarre stick with a face full of pimples.

[Item: Stone-Shard Spiked Club (crude homemade blunt weapon)]

[Damage: low]

[Effect: hits to the head have a chance to cause mild dizziness.]

[Evaluation: its looks leave much to be desired, but a blow to the skull is guaranteed to induce physical amnesia.]

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] tossed his white hair smugly. "I call this the Great-Luck Skull Crusher. One swing, and the guy's already been dead a while!"

Beside him, Bossy Guy had finished grinding a dull Stone Axe, while Ma Lou was furiously sharpening his Stone Spear.

They had to admit that Ma Lou had a real gift for researching attacks below the belt.

He had ground the spear's tip until it was long and thin, even adding a slight barb.

[Ji Luo] watched, his eyelid twitching. "Ma Lou, the shape of that spear... why does it look so filthy?"

Ma Lou chuckled, his shifty eyes darting around. "It's called targeted local tactics. Today, I'm gonna take this 'Localized Necrosis Style' strategy to new heights!"

"All right, quit screwing around. Let's move!"

Ji Luo slung his freshly made [Flint Spear] over his shoulder and led the way into the dead grass south of the Black Forest.

They were now working their way east along the forest's edge.

The terrain here was relatively open, with half-meter-tall, withered yellow grass growing from the black mud, providing perfect cover for sneaking around.

The five of them hunched over and padded through the soft black mud like a gang of street punks prowling the wilderness for electric scooters to steal.

"Stop! We've got targets up ahead!"

Ji Luo, who was in front, suddenly signaled and ducked low.

Everyone immediately crouched.

Peering through the gaps in the dead grass, they saw two swaying figures standing beside a dried-up stream roughly thirty meters away.

[Target: Zero Tier Corrupted Villager (roaming)]

"Two! Just enough loot for us to split!"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] licked his lips, his eyes blazing with ravenous hunger.

"Ma Lou, don't you need another forty experience points to level up?"

"We'll do the heavy lifting. Both finishing blows are yours!"

Ma Lou's eyes filled with grateful tears. "Lu, for realsies? Since when are you so generous? Didn't you want to strangle me last night?"

"Obviously, we need to get you leveled up and see what skills the Ash Apostles can unlock."

"If you learn a skill, maybe we can farm mobs faster!" [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] poked him. "Come on. Stick to the plan!"

With that, [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] grabbed his pimple-covered Stone-Shard Spiked Club and was the first to burst out of the grass.

The two Corrupted Villagers, standing there vacantly, heard the noise.

They had barely turned their heads before they saw a white-haired muscleman charging straight at them like an out-of-control truck.

"Here you go!"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] leaped high, gripping his spiked club with both hands, and brought a Crow Rides a Plane crashing down on one monster's forehead!

"Bam!"

Stone fragments and rotten flesh flew everywhere as the mob dropped on the spot.

"Nice club work, Lu! I'll pin this one!"

Bossy Guy rushed in from the side, a savage grin plastered across his honest-looking, square face.

He threw himself forward like a wrestler, clamped his thick arms around the other mob's neck, and forced it to the ground, leaving it unable to move.

"Take this!"

[Ji Luo]'s spear shot out like a striking viper, piercing the pinned monster's chest with precision and drawing streams of foul-smelling black liquid.

Compared with yesterday's first-day tactic of flailing wildly until the enemy died, their teamwork had clearly made a quantum leap.

"Ma Lou! Your turn! Take both kills!" [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] shouted over his shoulder while keeping the monster on the ground pinned with his club.

"Coming, coming!"

Hunched over, Ma Lou jogged around behind the mob being held on the ground.

He took a deep breath, aimed his specially made barbed Stone Spear at the monster's backside, and roared:

"Try my specialty: Chrysanthemum-Breaking Strike!"

"Squelch!"

"Aaargh!!"

The Corrupted Villager let out a piercing scream that nearly tore its vocal cords apart.

Even without a living human's awareness, the dual assault on body and mind still made it convulse violently in agony.

"Holy shit, Ma Lou, that fighting style is seriously perverted!" [Ji Luo] sucked in a sharp breath as he watched.

"Who cares if it's perverted? It works! One more!"

Ma Lou yanked out his Stone Spear and immediately delivered another vicious thrust, emptying the wounded monster's health bar.

Then, without missing a beat, he dispatched the thoroughly dazed mob beneath Bossy Guy's crotch with another thrust.

[Killed a Zero Tier Corrupted Villager. Experience +10, Ash Coins +2.]

[Killed a Zero Tier Corrupted Villager...]

On the desolate outskirts of the Black Forest, the five-man squad began a merciless assembly-line operation like a band of tireless "cleaners."

Find a target, draw aggro, physically pin it down, then let Ma Lou finish with a Pain Piercing the Heavens!

The combo flowed seamlessly, and their coordination only grew tighter.

Before they knew it, it was past ten in the morning.

As two Zero Tier monsters dissolved into liquid and disappeared, two streams of white light particles drifted into Ma Lou's body once more.

[System notification: experience reached 100/100]

[Congratulations! You have advanced to: First Tier · Ash Apostles (Lv.1)]

"Boom!"

With the system chime, the scrawny, sleazy-looking Ma Lou suddenly burst into flame without any external ignition, pale gray fire rising around him!

Countless flecks of ash carrying dark red sparks emerged from thin air. Like a god's blessing, they swirled around his entire body before slowly seeping into every part of him.

"Holy shit! Those effects are incredible!"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] rested his spiked club on his shoulder, so jealous he practically drooled.

"It's like turning into a Super Saiyan! I'm so damn jealous!"

[Ji Luo] and [Kindergarten Boss] also watched Ma Lou with envy written all over their faces.

In traditional online games, leveling up meant little more than a flash of yellow light.

But Awakening of the Old Gods went straight for a deeply immersive baptism that felt like a divine miracle!

The light faded.

Ma Lou was still the same shifty-eyed Ma Lou, but there was now a subtle, unmistakable change in his bearing.