Rift Ghouls

Under the efficient leadership of these five teams of veterans guiding rookies, the entire edge of the Black Forest became a leveling workshop.

The veteran players handled crowd control and cast blindness skills, while the new players raised their spears and attacked like mad.

Meanwhile, inside the Divine Statue at the Ash Church.

Lin En watched the [Faith Points] balance on his backend scroll upward at an outrageous speed, grinning from ear to ear.

"These players really were born to work themselves to the bone!"

As Lin En counted his money, he planned his next move. Once these fifty newbies gain a few more levels, I can guide them to Fog Town!

Before long, it was two in the afternoon.

The five large teams were still tirelessly exploring the Black Forest.

As they continued pushing farther out, the monster species the First Closed Beta players had already thoroughly studied began to undergo strange changes.

Beside a muddy swamp on the eastern side of the Black Forest.

[Even Monkeys Have Dignity] and his team of ten newbies stared intently at a dead tree draped in dark red vines, looking like a pack of weasels up to no good.

"Boss, what kind of fruit is growing on that tree? It looks like a human head."

A newbie named [Die If I Don't Stay Up] lowered his voice and craned his neck curiously.

"Fruit, my ass! Keep your eyes open, all of you, and don't touch anything!"

Ma Lou slapped the newbie on the back of the head, his expression deadly serious.

The "human-head fruit" on the dead tree slowly opened its eyes!

Then the dark red vines began writhing like living creatures. A horrifying spider the size of a small calf, with a twisted human face on its abdomen, lowered itself upside down from the canopy.

[System notification: New species encountered!]

[Target: Human-Faced Poison Spider (First Tier)]

[Traits: Specializes in concealment and venom spray. Its silk is extremely sticky, and the human-face pattern on its abdomen causes mild mental corruption.]

"Holy shit! This game's art team is seriously twisted! That spider is absolutely nauseating!"

Several female players broke out in goosebumps.

"What are you freaking out for? The rarer the monster, the better the loot!"

Greed gleamed in Ma Lou's narrowed eyes as he immediately laid out their tactics. "Team one, raise your stone shields and hold the front! Block its venom!"

"Team two, take your spears around the flank! That thing's silk is prime material. We might be able to take it back and make bowstrings!"

"Guys, take it alive! If we can't, at least pry out a couple of its venomous fangs!"

In the eyes of the fourth catastrophe, the more grotesque a monster looked, the more research value its materials had.

The ten newbies charged in, howling, treating the terrifying Mutant as nothing more than a walking material depot.

Meanwhile, deeper in the Black Forest.

The squad led by [Passing Pure-Love Warrior], whose overall ability was the highest, had unknowingly reached the boundary between the forest's outskirts and its interior.

The fog here was so thick they could not see their own hands, and the air reeked of blood.

"Everyone, stop. Tighten the formation."

Lu Ziye suddenly raised a hand, his expression serious.

With the keen instincts of a First Closed Beta veteran, he sensed something was wrong.

"What's wrong, boss?"

Kuang Shao tightened his grip on the new Stone Spear he had just paid to rent and nervously scanned their surroundings.

"There's movement ahead... and those are living people's voices."

The words had barely left his mouth.

Bang!

A clump of bushes ahead was violently knocked aside.

A blood-covered human wearing battered silver half-plate stumbled out of the thick fog.

He clutched a broken broadsword, and black blood kept pouring from a wound on his thigh deep enough to expose the bone.

He was clearly not a player, because there was no blue ID marker above his head!

The man fell heavily into the mud and looked back in despair.

Three [First Tier Fallen Cultists] slowly emerged from the dense fog, wearing dark red robes and ghastly white bone masks.

They also held the leashes of two [First Tier Rift Ghouls], whose bodies were covered in fleshy tumors and whose mouths split all the way to their ears!

"Run... Knight Kyle, why aren't you running anymore?"

The lead cultist gave a harsh, owl-like laugh. "Fog Town's barrier is about to collapse. Did you really think you could get that plea for help out alive?"

"Today, you will be the Holy Lord's sweetest offering!"

The knight named Kyle spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with sorrow.

"Fog Town... is finished. The radiance of the Weeping Madonna... will fade at last."

He closed his eyes in despair, ready to meet his death.

Yet the searing pain he expected from being torn apart by ghouls never came.

Instead, an utterly bizarre chorus of wild roars erupted, loud enough to shake the treetops!

"Holy shit, holy shit! Guys, look! An NPC in the wild! A living NPC!"

"We triggered a hidden storyline! This has to be a prerequisite quest for Fog Town's main story!"

"Quick, quick! Protect our NPC! If anyone dares touch my quest NPC, I'll dig up their ancestors' graves!"

As Kyle and the three cultists watched in utter bewilderment.

Eleven humans wearing baggy shorts and athletic tank tops, brandishing crude stone weapons, burst howling from the bushes like a pack of lunatics who had just escaped an asylum, their eyes gleaming with greed!

The cultists froze.

In this despair-shrouded Wasteland, what ordinary person did not piss themselves in terror at the sight of followers of the Abyss like them?

What was wrong with these barely clothed savages?

Not only were they unafraid, but why did their eyes seem filled with... excitement and greed?

"Heretics! Take them all!"

The cultist leader roared and released the chains in his hands.

The two [Rift Ghouls] lunged at Kuang Shao, who stood at the front, with shrill snarls.

"Perfect! I'll test my new combo on you today!" Rather than dodge, Kuang Shao eagerly charged forward.

Crack!

The ghoul was incredibly fast. It sank its teeth into Kuang Shao's arm, its terrifying bite force tearing apart half his arm.

"Aaah! It hurts, it hurts! Boss, save me!" Tears streamed from Kuang Shao's eyes.

"Quit screaming! It has a grab attack, and it's stuck in recovery now! Grab it!"

Lu Ziye shouted from behind, "Everyone else, attack together! Stab right through Kuang Shao!"

"You got it!"

Without the slightest hesitation, the newbies mercilessly thrust their Stone Spears forward.

Two spears even pierced straight through Kuang Shao's shoulders and continued into the ghoul's eyes!

"Fuck me... you actually stabbed me!"

Kuang Shao delivered his final words in bitter outrage before turning to ash.

But this utterly reckless fighting style, which seemed to have no limits whatsoever, left the opposing cultists dumbfounded.

They were madmen who worshipped an evil god, true.

But these people even stabbed their own teammate?

And instead of showing fear before dying, the man they stabbed had actually kept cursing?