Even after reviving, Emperor of Sinking refused to accept defeat. He raced back to the wolf pack for another fight. Only after several messy battles, all of which ended in failure, did he finally accept his fate.
"Damn it! Just you beasts wait! Once I get stronger, I'll come back and deal with you!"
Emperor of Sinking's curses echoed through the revival hall. By the time he came to his senses, he discovered that the other players had built up a lot more Chakra in their bodies by constantly grinding quests.
Meanwhile, after dying and reviving over and over, he had completely exhausted the Chakra he had bought earlier. Forget fighting wolves-now even running left him a little breathless.
"No, I can't fall behind. I have to get stronger, fast."
Emperor of Sinking charged out of the revival hall in one go. This time, he wasn't picky. Whether it was carrying water for an old lady or hauling manure to fertilize vegetables, he accepted any quest he could get.
"Seriously, man, stop snatching everything!" Dai Xiaomei hadn't managed to get a quest for several hours straight, and she kept cursing in frustration.
Emperor of Sinking took his shamelessness to new heights, turning a deaf ear to the players' curses. The moment a quest appeared, he snapped it up.
His antics left the other players dumbfounded and full of complaints.
Ye Chen was speechless at the sight, too. He had originally posted enough quests to keep the players busy for an entire morning, only for this idiot to accept them all.
Still, it wasn't a bad thing. It actually sped up the village's development. If he had a few more idiots like this, Ye Chen would have been delighted.
Taking advantage of the players' enthusiasm, he posted some of the village's public works as daily quests.
[The muddy road at the village's eastern entrance needs to be paved with stones. Requires 3 people. Each person will receive 10 contribution points upon completion.] [Landscaping trees need to be planted along both sides of the road at the village's western entrance. Requires 2 people. Each person will receive 10 contribution points upon completion.] [...]
Ye Chen posted several dozen quests like these, all related to developing the village.
Only by improving the village could he raise the villagers' happiness index and grow stronger as its chief.
As for the players, his free labor force, he naturally had to make full use of them. Why let free labor go to waste, especially when it was so convenient?
Of course, the players were delighted, too.
Previously, grinding quests meant accumulating points one at a time. Although none of the quests were difficult, they still took time. Sometimes, they only earned a dozen or so contribution points in a whole day, making progress painfully slow.
Yet as they progressed, buying Chakra and ninjutsu required more and more contribution points. Sometimes, even an entire day of grinding quests wasn't enough to buy Chakra.
Now the village had quests with higher contribution rewards, and they could even complete them in teams. They couldn't have been happier.
The instant the quests were posted, the players snapped them all up. There were no completion deadlines anyway, so they could stockpile them and work through them at their own pace.
After all, each quest rewarded ten contribution points. Opportunities like this didn't come along every day. When one appeared, they couldn't miss it-they had to seize it.
Eager to grow stronger quickly, the players forced their way through five days' worth of quests in just two days.
Even Ye Chen was astonished by their speed. It seemed he had still underestimated these players.
There were only nine of them, but each had their own strengths, and their sense of teamwork was particularly strong. Through seamless cooperation, they quickly completed quests that would otherwise have been difficult.
Of course, that excluded Emperor of Sinking, the lucky bastard. He neither teamed up with the other players nor accepted the village's public works quests.
Aside from the quests he had initially accepted, he spent every day finding pigs, cats, and dogs for old ladies. In just two days, he somehow accumulated nearly a hundred contribution points. His luck was truly unmatched.
During those two days of grinding quests, the players also seemed to grasp the importance of fighting as a team.
That day, after everyone had learned ninjutsu and spent all their remaining contribution points on Chakra, the expert who had been silent for several days spoke up.
One Sword Opens Heaven suddenly said, "I have an idea I'd like to share with you."
The moment he spoke, everyone else grew excited and eagerly pressed him:
"Go ahead, pro. We're all listening."
"Have you come up with a good plan? Are you going to take us out to fight monsters?"
Dai Xiaomei also looked at him with admiration. After all, this expert had led them through their quests over the past two days. Without him, they couldn't possibly have finished what was supposed to be five days' worth of quests in just two.
Under everyone's hopeful gazes, One Sword Opens Heaven slowly began, "After observing things over the past two days, I think we'll have a better chance of winning if we team up to fight monsters."
"Wolves live in packs. As soon as we alert one, we get surrounded. We don't stand a chance, and we end up dying horribly."
"So I've made a decision. We'll form a team to fight them, too!"
Many of the players agreed with this decision, but Dai Xiaomei raised an objection.
"But we all attacked together at the start, didn't we? We still got wiped out. Besides, there are too many wolves. There's no way just a few of us can beat them..."
Her words plunged the players into silence. They had already witnessed how ferocious the wolf pack was. There was no way they could win with just their handful of people.
"I don't mean charging in together. I mean splitting up and cooperating!"
One Sword Opens Heaven calmly explained, "There are nearly twenty wolves, and the strongest one, the wolf king, hasn't even appeared yet. If we fight them head-on, they'll crush us completely."
As he spoke, he took out a map he had acquired from somewhere.
"Based on my observations over the past two days, the wolves don't seem able to leave the mountain range. That's a huge advantage for us. We can set traps, split them up, and lure them in to kill them."
"Split them up and lure them in?"
The players were thoroughly confused, but they didn't interrupt the expert's explanation and listened quietly.
"This is where the wolf pack is. There are six of us now, so we can send two people out to lure a wolf with meat.
"The rest of us will dig a trap here. Once the wolf falls into it, we'll all attack together. It won't stand a chance!"
"Nice! An expert really is an expert. You even thought of that!"
"I think this idea will work!"
"Let's go dig the trap right now..."
The players were thrilled by the plan. Eager to kill their first monster immediately, they headed into the forest to dig a trap.
One Sword Opens Heaven was also brimming with confidence in his plan. They dug a pit nearly three meters deep and waited for a wolf to fall into it.
At first, everything proceeded smoothly, and they successfully lured a wolf into the trap as planned.
"Move!"
At One Sword Opens Heaven's command, all six players threw everything they had into attacking the wolf together.
"Awooo!"
But... the result fell far short of their expectations.
Their supposedly all-out attacks were no more than scratches to the wolf. Not only did it remain completely unharmed, it threw back its head and howled, leaped out of the pit, and sent everyone back to the respawn point with a single swipe.
With a flash of light, the players appeared in the middle of the respawn point. It took a full minute before they processed what had happened.
"This monster's even stronger than we imagined!"
"There were six of us, and it still killed us all with one swipe."
"Damn it! I refuse to believe we can't kill you. Just you wait! Once I get stronger, I'll come back and deal with you!"
Before you continue