"Why are there so many people?"
Wang Meng logged back in and found that Shell Town had several times as many players as before. He was momentarily stunned.
After entering the Godforsaken Game for the first time, players had to reach level 3 before they could leave, which was effectively "logging out."
To log back in, they only needed to close their eyes for more than ten seconds. An option would then pop up, asking whether they wanted to return to the Land Abandoned by the Gods...
Wang Meng had been level 3, ranked among the top ten in Shell Town.
Now, however, he had been pushed down into the twenties.
"I need to hurry."
Wang Meng quickly sent private messages to Black Plum Big Li and his other teammates.
He discovered that two members of their party still hadn't logged in.
One of them was the middle-aged female priest.
"We'll have to recruit another priest..."
Wang Meng gathered the other three first.
When he saw Lin Liyu, he froze for a moment. There was a necklace glowing with a faint golden light on her chest!
Wang Meng and the other two were stunned. "Is that...?"
Lin Liyu smiled, then recounted what had happened between her and Dark Shadow.
She added at the end, "Dark Shadow seems to have equipment and skills for your classes, too. I'll contact him later and ask him to sell us some. We can get a discount~"
Wang Meng didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Silver Grade stuff is manageable, but if it's Gold Tier, we probably can't afford it..."
The young Keen-Eyed Archer in their party looked rather envious. "That's awesome. You actually got to add Dark Shadow as a friend. Keep at it! If you can get together with him, we'll all get to live the good life, too. Haha."
Lin Liyu gave him a disdainful look. "Look at you. All you can think about is riding someone's coattails, huh? How about taking a look at yourself? Have you been working hard at grinding monsters and leveling up?"
The young Keen-Eyed Archer rolled his eyes and couldn't be bothered to respond.
Although the four had met in the Godforsaken Game, they were already on quite good terms.
Moreover, during his time back in the real world, Wang Meng had checked their backgrounds, so he knew a little about them.
Their backgrounds all checked out, so they could become a regular party.
Then Wang Meng said, "We need to find a priest to grind with us first. We'll start with five people. I have a colleague in the neighboring town. Once someone there reaches level 5, she'll teleport over and join our party."
Lin Liyu was a little puzzled. "What about Wang?"
Wang was the middle-aged female priest who had previously been in their party.
Wang Meng shook his head. "She's going to another town to find her son and play with him... That's why I said we don't have a priest anymore."
They weren't like Qin Feng, who could grind solo.
To grind monsters as a party, they needed both a tank and a healer.
So Wang Meng set up a stall.
But instead of selling anything, he wrote on the stall:
[Party recruiting. Priest-type class required.]
There were plenty of recruitment stalls like this, but with Lin Liyu standing behind Wang Meng... the pale golden necklace on her chest immediately caught quite a few people's attention!
Gold Tier equipment?
Many people were skeptical.
Still, Lin Liyu's looks alone soon drew several young priests over to apply.
But once they heard that they had to provide their real-world identities and would later be registered with the authorities, they all backed out...
Just then, a long-haired girl approached.
It was Qin Xiaoyou, the Life Priest who had already reached level 3!
Qin Xiaoyou was very polite. "My hidden class is Life Priest. May I join your party?"
Wang Meng glanced at her, his expression unchanged.
Life Priest was a hidden class. It sounded good.
But he wanted someone who could stay with them long-term, so he needed to verify her real-world identity...
Qin Xiaoyou had no objections and told him who she was without hesitation.
"I'm a first-year student at Jianghai Normal University. Both my parents have passed away, and my only family is an older brother... Um, my parents adopted him. He's not my biological brother."
Qin Xiaoyou made a point of clarifying that.
Wang Meng nodded. "Qin Xiaoyou... All right, you're in. Join the party, and we'll give it a try."
['Xiaoyou Ya' joined the party!]
Actually, Qin Xiaoyou had originally wanted to use "Xiao You" as her alias.
But she had entered relatively late, so someone had already taken it... She didn't want to add numbers after her alias, so she had added "Ya" instead.
After joining the party, Qin Xiaoyou smiled.
Seemingly by accident, she glanced again at the Gold Tier necklace on Lin Liyu's chest...
Dark Shadow had claimed the world's first Gold Tier boss kill in Shell Town.
That meant this necklace was very likely connected to Dark Shadow!
Naturally, Qin Feng hadn't anticipated this development.
In this life, he had risen far too quickly. The first Gold Tier boss kill had spread his alias, Dark Shadow, across the globe.
He had become so famous that even Qin Xiaoyou was tempted!
Meanwhile.
Inside the Temple of Faith, Qin Feng kept following the passage forward and soon arrived at a spacious hall.
There was nothing inside the hall.
Only two hunched humanoid Demons knelt facing each other, their hands raised above their heads as though holding something up.
The eerie cries he had heard at the entrance had come from these two humanoid Demons.
[Ancient God Devout Believer · Judged One (Lv10)] [Grade: Silver Tier]
Qin Feng entered the hall while remaining invisible.
Upon seeing the two devotees kneeling on the ground, he immediately unleashed Instant Shadow Slash!
Stealth break! Backstab!
Every applicable damage bonus triggered except for Weakness Attack!
There was nothing Weakness Attack could do about that...
Instant Shadow Slash struck at random locations, making Weakness Attack hits difficult to land. No amount of skill could compensate for that, but in exchange, the skill had very high base bonus attack damage.
-1058!
-1058!
Seven damage numbers appeared above each of the two Devout Believers' heads.
Yet their health bars had dropped by less than half!
They were level 10 Silver Tier bosses, after all. They had more than twice as much health as the Cursed One Qin Feng had killed earlier.
In fact, the two Devout Believers' combined health exceeded even that of the Gold Tier Golden Ghost Ship.
Qin Feng had been preparing to dodge their attacks.
But...
Instead of attacking Qin Feng, the two kneeling Devout Believers turned toward the spot where he stood invisible and knelt again!
"These two are Judged Ones, and I possess the authority of judgment."
"Could it be... they won't attack me?"
A possibility occurred to Qin Feng, leaving him a little surprised.
To test his theory, he deliberately dropped his invisibility while keeping his distance from the two Devout Believers...
Sure enough, the two ghoul-like Devout Believers didn't attack him!
Instead, upon seeing him, they lowered their entire upper bodies flat against the ground!
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