BOSS

Inside Hidden Jun Village.

Dai Xiaomei curiously worked through her quests while excitedly explaining things to everyone.

The popularity of her livestream had her thrilled.

She could already picture herself becoming the undisputed top streamer!

And she owed it all to Hidden Jun Ninja!

Dai Xiaomei took a deep breath.

She decided to grind hard.

When an opportunity came along, she had to seize it.

She had to become one of the big shots in Hidden Jun Ninja.

"Guys, I'm pretty fast, right? It's only been half an hour, and I've already finished two quests!"

"In another hour or so, I should be able to redeem Chakra!"

"Then I'll show you what a real ninja pro looks like!"

Dai Xiaomei looked smug.

However...

Just then, two messages suddenly appeared in the system's public feed.

[Congratulations to villager Emperor of Sinking for learning the Chakra technique!]

[Achievement unlocked: Hidden Jun Village's Chakra Pioneer!]

[Congratulations to villager One Sword Opens Heaven for learning the Chakra technique!]

???

????

?????

Dai Xiaomei stared at the public feed, dumbfounded.

"They learned Chakra??? No way, that fast???"

"What the hell? It's only been half an hour! Dai Xiaomei's only finished two quests."

"Hahaha, I'm dying! You were going to show us what a ninja pro looked like, but you're still a total noob!"

"What a spectacular public humiliation!"

The livestream viewers went wild with laughter.

At the same time, everyone's anticipation shot through the roof:

"What happens once you have Chakra?"

"Does your damage go through the roof? Or do you turn into Superman?"

"Now we're fired up!"

Once Dai Xiaomei snapped out of it, she hurried back to the village square.

Meanwhile, the other players also returned to the village square.

Two excited-looking players stood in the square.

They were [Emperor of Sinking] and [One Sword Opens Heaven].

"One Sword Opens Heaven!"

"It's the legend, One Sword Opens Heaven! I know him-he's the number one speedrunner!"

"I didn't notice at first. I never thought even he would be playing this game!"

The viewers recognized him instantly, but they also had questions:

"I'm not surprised at all that he learned Chakra this quickly."

"But... why was Emperor of Sinking even faster? Who is he? Some famous gamer?"

"No idea... I've never heard of him, but anyone who can clear it this fast has to be some mysterious pro!"

"Exactly. Even his name sounds powerful."

Everyone's attention settled on Emperor of Sinking.

Coupled with his deliberately inscrutable expression, it made them admire him even more.

"Boss, how did you speedrun the quests? Tell us!"

"Yeah, boss, tell us!"

Several players eagerly ran over to Emperor of Sinking, but he said nothing, which only made everyone respect him more.

They figured he was an incredibly low-key, unknown gaming legend.

Only Ye Chen's lips twitched slightly.

He had just watched everything through the system's video replay.

Emperor of Sinking was no gaming legend.

He was just ridiculously lucky!

The quest he had received was to find an old lady's missing cat.

It looked like a perfectly normal quest.

But...

The strange part was...

As soon as he brought it back, the cat ran off again!

So Emperor of Sinking kept looking for it.

Back and forth he went, finding it a full five times!

His luck was off the charts!

Even Ye Chen was dumbfounded!

Now, Emperor of Sinking was explaining everything to the others with immense excitement:

"As the first person to get Chakra, let me explain what changes once you have it!"

"First up, strength!"

Emperor of Sinking clenched his fist and slammed a punch into a tree.

Bang!

His fist punched five centimeters into the tree, leaving an imprint.

"My strength has increased fivefold!"

Everyone gasped...

Dai Xiaomei and the others looked stunned.

That was incredibly powerful!

"And all my other physical abilities, like running speed and so on... have increased fivefold too!"

Emperor of Sinking showed off his newfound agility as well.

All the players marveled at him.

"Chakra is so powerful! If we put more points into it later, won't we become gods?"

"Emperor of Sinking is seriously strong!"

"No, we've got to hurry and do quests too! We need contribution points to learn Chakra!"

All the players looked envious.

However, Emperor of Sinking shook his head disdainfully:

"Daily quests give too few contribution points. They're completely beneath me now!"

"I noticed there are Ninja Beasts outside the village!"

"Killing one Ninja Beast gives you 80 contribution points."

"I'm going to kill Ninja Beasts!"

Hearing that, Dai Xiaomei and the others quickly opened the system's quest page.

Sure enough, just as Emperor of Sinking had said, killing a Ninja Beast awarded 80 contribution points!

"Whoa... that much? Even if we worked ourselves to death doing daily quests all day, we'd only get thirty or forty points at most..."

"Wouldn't killing just one Ninja Beast make us rich?"

"A true pro! He's always keeping an eye on what's happening in the game!"

"Monster hunting! Finally, some fighting! I love games that take skill!"

"What the hell are we waiting for? Let's go farm monsters!"

"Wipe out every Ninja Beast outside the village!"

"Are there enough Ninja Beasts to go around?"

Dai Xiaomei and the others were all fired up.

Meanwhile, Ye Chen was utterly dumbfounded.

"What the hell? They're going to kill Ninja Beasts????"

Ye Chen had issued the quest, but...

He had merely released it ahead of time.

The system had spawned Ninja Beasts to give the players combat experience.

The Ninja Beasts outside the village were Giant Wolves, huge creatures with ferocious combat abilities.

They could devour an ordinary person in a single bite.

Their combat strength was roughly on par with a Genin's!

They were incredibly dangerous!

Otherwise, the reward would never have been 80 contribution points.

Yet among these newbie players, only two had Chakra, and neither had even learned any ninjutsu. They were actually planning to kill Giant Wolves.

Wasn't that just fucking suicide???

Don't go!

You'll just be serving yourselves up on a platter!

"Come on, charge with me!"

"I'm invincible!"

Emperor of Sinking threw up his arm and led the players racing out of the village.

Outside the village, in the woods.

Emperor of Sinking charged at the front, followed by Dai Xiaomei and the other players.

The speedrunning expert One Sword Opens Heaven, however, stayed at the rear of the group, in no hurry to rush forward.

"Look! Is that thing up ahead a Ninja Beast?"

As soon as the players entered the forest, they spotted a gray wolf with eyes that glowed green.

The wolf was enormous, standing a little over a meter tall, and watched the crowd with a fierce, predatory gaze.

"Is that... a wolf?"

"It looks over three meters tall. Is it some kind of mutant?"

"How is it so huge?"

"With a mouth that big, it could swallow me whole without a problem!"

"..."

"Awoooo!"

It stopped about five meters from the crowd, tipped its head back, and let out a long howl!

The terrifying sound surrounded the crowd, and rustling came from the undergrowth all around them.

A moment later, countless wolves poured out from every direction.