Was he bugged?

"Ashen Missile!"

Lu Ziye took advantage of the enemy's momentary daze and raised his hand, firing off a skill.

Spark-laced black smoke exploded against the Cultists' bone masks, instantly robbing them of their sight.

"Kick him in the balls! This game has weak-point detection. These Cultists are flesh and blood too-that's got to be a weak spot!"

"Smear mud over its mouth!"

"I've got this Ghoul's legs! Hurry up and smash it with a rock!"

What should have been a brutal encounter in the Wasteland instantly became a shameless, utterly thuggish street brawl with the Fourth Catastrophe's intervention.

Lying in the muck, Knight Kyle stared blankly at the absurd scene before him, his worldview shaken as never before.

He saw that these people possessed no mighty divine power, yet they had no fear of death!

They even willingly blocked the Ghouls' mouths with their own bodies, just to give their companions a chance to strike with a rock!

What supreme faith could inspire such fervor, such fearlessness?!

"Praise the deity..."

Kyle's lips trembled, a spark of hope rekindling in his lifeless eyes. "Is this... a punitive order of knights sent down by one of the Righteous Gods?"

Less than five minutes passed.

At the cost of one player being sent back to town and three suffering serious injuries, the players beat three Cultists and two Ghouls to death.

The moment the battle ended, the players who had looked so vicious just seconds ago instantly changed their demeanor.

All ten swarmed around Kyle on the ground as though he were a giant panda, craning their necks and fixing him with burning stares.

"Hey, buddy, can you still talk?"

"Is there a blue exclamation mark? Do we press F to interact?"

"He's lost a lot of blood. Should we try feeding him some of those poisonous spider legs we picked up? Maybe we can fight poison with poison!"

Kyle listened to their utterly incomprehensible "mad ramblings" and looked at those feverish eyes, which seemed eager to slice him up for study.

He swallowed hard, an uncontrollable shudder running through his body.

Suddenly, he felt that compared with those Cultists earlier...

These "benefactors" who had saved him seemed more like some kind of unspeakable horror!

In the mist at the edge of the Black Forest, ten newbies wearing nothing but oversized shorts surrounded the wounded Knight Kyle as though gawking at an alien.

"Boss, why isn't this NPC talking? Is he bugged?"

One newbie poked Kyle's bloodstained silver half-plate with a muddy stick.

"Move, move! Let a professional handle this!"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] swaggered out from behind the crowd, tossing his signature silver-white spiky hair.

He shoved aside the newbie blocking his way, crouched in front of Kyle, and waved a hand before his eyes.

"Hey, buddy. Can you hear me?"

Lu Ziye stared above Kyle's head. Finding no traditional yellow exclamation mark, he rubbed his chin. "No quest marker? Are we triggering it wrong?"

Kyle was dizzy from blood loss.

Looking at the white-haired oddball before him, he tried to speak through trembling lips. "You... you people..."

"Holy shit, he talked! Live AI interaction!"

Lu Ziye's eyes lit up. He immediately leaned closer and shouted, "Friend! We need a quest! A task! Understand? Any monsters you want us to kill, or letters you need delivered?"

Lu Ziye's baffling vocabulary left Kyle utterly confused, but black blood was still pouring from the wound in his thigh, and his vital signs were dropping rapidly.

"Cough... Fog Town... Cultists..." Kyle forced out a few words as his vision darkened.

"Oh crap, Warrior, this NPC's health bar is dropping like crazy! Don't tell me the quest chain ends if the NPC dies!"

An observant female player pointed at Kyle's pale face and cried out.

"Fuck, this damn game doesn't even have health potions or bandages!"

Growing anxious, Lu Ziye looked around, then suddenly slapped his thigh. "Right! Where's the meat from that Rift Ghoul?"

"I remember eating some of Big Bug's venom during the first closed beta did something. Maybe this monster's meat can restore HP!"

"Quick! Cut off some fresh ghoul flesh! It's a long shot, but shove it into his mouth and keep him alive first!"

Hearing Lu Ziye's deranged orders, Kyle lay on the ground with his pupils trembling in sheer terror.

Feed me monster meat?

That's flesh corrupted by the Abyss!

One bite would instantly turn an ordinary person into a mindless monster!

Are these people here to save me, or are they devils here to torment me?

"No... don't..."

Kyle struggled with every ounce of strength he had, but blood loss had left him unable to move.

Just as a newbie actually approached with a foul-smelling chunk of ghoul flesh, ready to force-feed Kyle...

Boom!

The distant bushes were suddenly smashed aside by brute force.

Then a burly man, bare-chested and wearing only starter shorts, charged toward them like a rabid boar, howling as he brandished a brand-new Flint Spear.

"Aaaaaah! My ten Ash Coins!"

"Where's the Ghoul that bit me?! Is it dead yet?!"

"I'm gonna beat its corpse! I'm gonna slice it up, roast it, and eat it!"

The newcomer was none other than [Immortal Star Crazy Young Master], who had just resurrected at the Ash Church and sprinted all the way back to the scene.

When he saw the battered Ghoul remains on the ground, Crazy Young Master charged over in fury and kicked them repeatedly, cursing as he mourned the resurrection fee he had just lost.

The moment Knight Kyle, still lying on the ground, got a clear look at Crazy Young Master's face, his brain completely shut down.

"You... weren't you the one whose arm was bitten off and whose heart was pierced just now?"

Kyle stared at Crazy Young Master's perfectly intact shoulder and chest as though he had seen a ghost, even forgetting the agonizing pain in his thigh.

He swore he had just seen this man torn apart by a Ghoul!

Yet how many minutes had passed?

And this man had already come running back, completely unharmed and full of life?

There wasn't even a scar!

Immortality?!

In Kyle's understanding of the world, only the legendary Heroic Spirits who enjoyed a deity's absolute favor could possess immortal bodies!

"You... who exactly are you?"

Summoning the last of his strength, Kyle struggled onto one knee.

The fear in his eyes transformed completely into profound reverence and fervor.

Watching this wild NPC suddenly adopt such a devout posture, Lu Ziye curled his lips and instantly switched into veteran first-closed-beta show-off mode.

He stood, clasped his hands behind his back, and, in an exceedingly world-weary and melodramatic tone, repeated Sister Sivir's speech from that morning word for word:

"We are the Ash Apostles."

"The kindling awakened from the Abyss."

"The great Lord of Ashes watches over this Wasteland."

"The Lord of Ashes... servants of a Righteous God..."

Hearing that name, Kyle finally burst into tears.

As though grasping his last lifeline, he abruptly pulled the bloodstained Silver Badge from inside his clothing and held it high.

"Great Ash Apostles! I am a knight serving the Weeping Madonna of Fog Town!"

"The Cultists have surrounded the town, and our barrier is about to collapse! Please... please ask the great Lord of Ashes to save Fog Town!"