If his guess was right, Ghost would not come scratching at the window during the day.
Sure enough, Xiao Hao waited a long time, but Ghost never came.
It would probably wait until nightfall.
Without enough Spirit Pearls, his plan to turn the tables and kill it was a joke.
While Ghost rested and recovered, Xiao Hao prepared to head for the next mob swarm.
He ruled out the Primordial Snailfish swarm. Those mobs posed little threat, but with the mantis shrimp ineffective against them, relying solely on the seahorses' Darkness Erosion would be far too inefficient.
That left only the Human-Faced Thornfish swarm.
A boss-level Human-Faced Thornfish had the head of a mature woman.
The ordinary Spiny Fish mobs, meanwhile, had baby heads.
Unlike the boss-level Human-Faced Thornfish, which had a beguilement skill, the mobs had Ghost Infant heads.
Xiao Hao hid behind a small underwater hill and watched the enormous swarm of Human-Faced Thornfish ahead. Ghost Infant heads swam everywhere, making his scalp prickle.
Every Ghost Infant head had two scarlet eyes. There were no distinct pupils or whites—each entire eyeball was blood-red.
Their Voldemort-like nostrils and huge mouths, split all the way to their ears and packed with countless sharp teeth, nearly triggered Xiao Hao's trypophobia.
[Back then, a lot of players from our race died at the hands of Human-Faced Thornfish.]
[Even level 0 Human-Faced Thornfish can easily kill newcomers who have Guardians.]
[Isn't the streamer getting overconfident, taking on so many Human-Faced Thornfish at once?]
[Anyone with ranged skills is king in the early game. The streamer's asking to die!]
[He has no choice. Only enough Spirit Pearls can keep the Coral Shell Room from getting scratched to pieces. He's choosing the lesser of two evils...]
Spiny Fish generally had a water cannon skill, which meant the terrain around their swarm was highly irregular.
They constantly blasted the seabed apart.
Taking advantage of the uneven terrain, Xiao Hao hid in a cave and sent out the seahorses and mantis shrimp.
The chat was right. Against wild monsters with ranged skills, Xiao Hao could not expose himself.
Once he did, he would be as good as dead.
The seahorses formed a Darkness Domain as before, while the mantis shrimp drew the mob swarm's aggro the moment it appeared.
The first Human-Faced Thornfish leading the charge had its skull sliced open before it could even get close to the mantis shrimp.
Xiao Hao happily collected thirty Spirit Pearls.
Level 2 wild monsters were pretty lucrative.
The Spiny Fish charged forward one after another. But without Xiao Hao as a weak point, the mantis shrimp's blade strikes covered every angle around it, killing every Spiny Fish before any could even bite its Jade Armor.
Since getting close meant death, the Spiny Fish switched straight to ranged skills.
Countless water cannon blasts struck the mantis shrimp, yet it did not budge.
The terrifying force of the water battered its body, but it might as well have been taking a shower.
The mantis shrimp moved relatively slowly. The Spiny Fish soon discovered its weakness and began kiting it.
The mantis shrimp chased the Spiny Fish, slashing away, but could not land a single hit.
It was already slow, and the impact of the water cannons slowed it further, leaving it unable to catch even one mob.
After chasing them for a while, the mantis shrimp stopped and simply turned around, pointing its rear at them.
The babies' heads let out shrill laughter, as though mocking the Mantis Shrimp.
The mantis shrimp's tail grew and spread like a peacock displaying its feathers.
The sight was so magnificent that Xiao Hao could not bear to blink.
Its peacock tail shaded from jade green to black and gold. Sapphire-blue outlines traced the tail's distinctive shape, while ruby-red stripes lit up with tangible radiance.
Suddenly, the peacock tail rose and swept forward with force!
That single sweep unleashed a terrifying surge through the surrounding sea!
The Spiny Fish scattered everywhere were battered by the powerful underwater current, knocked to the ground one by one like kites with broken strings. The terrifying impact even embedded them in the seabed, while the shock wave forcibly flattened the uneven terrain into a plain.
Was this the Peacock Mantis Shrimp's Sea Fan Peacock Tail skill?!
Its power was a billion times beyond ridiculous!
It was even more outrageous than the Spiny Fish's single-target skill!
The Spiny Fish in other directions were lucky enough to escape the surge. Their mocking laughter abruptly stopped, choking in their throats.
Xiao Hao should have been delighted that the mantis shrimp had such an absurdly powerful AOE skill.
But Xiao Hao could not laugh either.
Because...
That terrifying skill had flattened the seabed. Xiao Hao, who had been hiding in a small cave in a hill, was suddenly left completely exposed.
Surrounded by wild monsters, he stood out as the only human.
With terrain this irregular, all Xiao Hao should have needed to do was hide and collect Spirit Pearls.
Only now did he realize how badly the mantis shrimp could screw him over!
The Spiny Fish had ranged water cannon skills. The mantis shrimp could not protect him!
Every scarlet eye nearby turned toward Xiao Hao.
They could not handle the mantis shrimp, but surely they could handle Xiao Hao?
Naturally, they would pick the easiest target.
High-pressure jets of water blasted toward Xiao Hao, who hurriedly turned into a mass of shadow and fled.
Sea Fan Peacock Tail could only sweep in one direction, while Human-Faced Thornfish surrounded them on every side.
Xiao Hao ordered the mantis shrimp to sweep toward the densest concentration of fish. Meanwhile, the seahorses became assassins, whipping Spiny Fish to death one after another with their bone-chain tails.
Now that the seahorses had leveled up, even a basic attack could kill a mob.
With Stacking, the Darkness Domain kept expanding. The seahorses multitasked, maintaining their skills while also materializing to assassinate the Spiny Fish.
The Spiny Fish's water cannon skill posed far too great a threat to Xiao Hao.
A water cannon was water, but more importantly, it was a cannon!
One hit could send Xiao Hao to meet God!
Xiao Hao could only use Shadow Transformation and hide inside the Darkness Domain. He did not even dare wear Jade Armor.
Jade Armor's stamina drain was calculated according to the damage taken.
With so many Spiny Fish and so many high-pressure water jets, if Xiao Hao exposed himself, all his stamina would be drained within seconds.
That meant Xiao Hao had to keep using Shadow Transformation without interruption.
If he stopped, he might be sent straight to the afterlife.
If he let the thornfish dart around freely, he would not finish killing them within a dozen-odd minutes, even if he pushed his skills beyond their limits.
Hiding in the Darkness Domain, Xiao Hao soon noticed that the surrounding wild monsters had not realized their vitality was being steadily eroded.
With the seahorses' level advantage, the stealthiness of their skills came into its own.
With sevenfold Stacking of Darkness Erosion from level 8 seahorses, every Spiny Fish inside the Darkness Domain would die in less than a minute.
The question was how to keep them inside the domain instead of darting all over the place.
Xiao Hao glanced at the mantis shrimp's crystalline peacock tail, and an idea came to him.
He had the mantis shrimp use Sea Fan Peacock Tail repeatedly in several fixed directions, leaving only the direction of the Darkness Domain untouched. Then Xiao Hao ordered the seahorses to stop killing individual targets, creating a "safe zone" in that area.
Before long, the clever Spiny Fish discovered the "safe zone" and flocked into it.
Sea Fan Peacock Tail was certainly powerful, killing plenty of Spiny Fish with a single sweep.
But many Spiny Fish embedded in the seabed could still struggle free. Despite so many monsters apparently dying, very few Spirit Pearls dropped.
That meant Sea Fan Peacock Tail could instantly kill Level 0 Monsters, but not those at levels 1 and 2. The cushioning effect of the seawater kept those mobs from dying outright.
Now the seahorses' AOE skill, with its enormous range, could play a crucial role.
Soon, the baby faces of the Spiny Fish that had been inside the Darkness Domain from the start grew haggard within a single minute. Forehead wrinkles and age spots kept appearing, and their skin gradually sagged.
The Spiny Fish's blood-red eyeballs slowly darkened and shriveled. Their cries grew feeble, and soon they sank to the seabed, never to rise again.
Spiny Fish fell one after another. The remaining Spiny Fish watched, without understanding what was happening.
Elsewhere, the mantis shrimp's AOE skill was plainly visible. If they could avoid being blasted into the seabed, who would willingly go out and suffer?
Their limited intelligence told them this place was safer than anywhere else.
Even humans, who called themselves higher animals, struggled to escape the boiling-frog trap. What chance did these unintelligent wild monsters have?
A wild monster swarm's habitat held large numbers of monsters, and they generally would not retreat.
It was like a place where people had lived for years. Unless something drastic happened, most would be unwilling to leave.
Their years of experience told them it was safe to live there.
Leaving meant uncertainty and risk.
Living creatures tended to prefer comfort and stability.
By exploiting that tendency and creating the illusion that every other direction was dangerous while this area was safe, Xiao Hao used the boiling-frog approach to wipe out the entire Spiny Fish swarm!
The Darkness Domain slowly faded, and a bubble suddenly expanded at the center of a mass of Aurora Shadow.
Despite being deep underwater, the bubble did not rise. Instead, it slowly sank along with the Aurora Shadow.
The Exploration Bubble lit up fully. The bubble took shape, and Xiao Hao materialized.
The Exploration Bubble lit up completely, and the bubble took shape. Xiao Hao appeared.
Before you continue