Wood-Attribute Core

Xin Jiu curled her lips in a faint smile. "You want to avenge them?"

"No. This king, admires you," the Goblin King said, his eyes shining. "Become this king's, battle servant. From now on, follow this king."

"..."

After a few seconds of silence, the livestream chat erupted into heated discussion.

[He wants our Jiu'er to be his what? Battle servant???]

[This boss is seriously wild. He actually wants to take a player as a battle servant. Do the game admins know about this?]

[He should be our Jiujiu's battle servant instead!]

Xin Jiu clicked her tongue. "No."

The Goblin King wasn't annoyed by her refusal. He scratched his greasy belly, thought for a moment, and said, "Then be, a minor chief. This king will prepare, the best males, for you."

"Very shiny, green skin. Heads, very smooth. Good-looking."

The thought of those greasy green goblins with barely a few hairs on their heads made acid rise in Xin Jiu's stomach.

"Ugly. Don't want them."

She imitated the Goblin King's speech.

The Goblin King looked a little angry.

"You, say, we're ugly?"

"Yes. Super, ugly."

The Goblin King flew into a rage. The males in his tribe were all valiant warriors. How could he let a human female insult them?

He swung his war hammer and roared as he brought it down at Xin Jiu!

Despite his fat body, his movements weren't slow!

Xin Jiu only had time to dodge sideways. The war hammer grazed past the tip of her nose and struck the ground, smashing a large crater into it.

"This king, will, flatten you!"

Xin Jiu ducked out of the way, raised her bayonet, and slashed hard at his thigh.

But the Goblin King's skin was too thick. Even with all her strength, she could only leave a small cut.

The Goblin King roared, raising his war hammer and smashing it down at Xin Jiu again and again as though swatting a fly.

The iron hammer looked as if it weighed hundreds of pounds, yet seemed weightless in his hands.

Xin Jiu moved lightly, dodging his attacks every time.

The Goblin King was furious!

"Enhance, agility!"

With that roar, he swung his hammer twice as fast as before.

The livestream chat went wild.

[Holy shit, the boss can boost his stats mid-fight? How are you supposed to beat that?!]

[This game is fucking inhuman!]

[Jiujiu, stop fighting him! Run!!!]

Xin Jiu froze for just a second, and the war hammer struck her.

She was sent flying and spat out a mouthful of blood after hitting the ground.

Her fans were frantic.

In fact, Xin Jiu had shifted her body at the last possible instant, so the blow hadn't actually hit any vital areas. But it still hurt-a searing, burning pain.

She rapidly thought through possible strategies.

Although the Goblin King had become much faster after enhancing himself, his attack pattern was very repetitive.

Taking him head-on wasn't an option.

What about from above?

She stood, wiped the blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, tightened her grip on her military bayonet, and took a breath before charging at the Goblin King.

Just as the war hammer was about to strike her head, Xin Jiu twisted sideways, stepped onto his slightly bent thigh, and used it to spring up onto his shoulder.

The Goblin King clearly hadn't expected Xin Jiu to do this. He twisted his body violently, trying to shake her off.

"Get off! I'll kill you!"

Xin Jiu clung tightly to his ear.

His ear was thick and slippery, and she nearly lost her grip.

Finding that he couldn't shake her off, the Goblin King reached up to grab Xin Jiu.

He was going to catch this human female!

Then crush her!

But it was too late.

Xin Jiu found an opening, raised her bayonet, and drove it into his temple with all her strength. The Goblin King let out an agonized scream, and Xin Jiu immediately slashed hard across his neck.

These were the two most vulnerable spots on a goblin's entire body.

Blood sprayed!

The war hammer fell to the ground with a clang.

The Goblin King's massive body swayed, then crashed to the ground.

Xin Jiu landed on the ground with him, gasping for breath, her right arm hanging limply at her side.

She had no strength left at all.

After five seconds of silence, the livestream chat erupted in cheers!

[Holy shit!!!]

[Jiujiu! Aaaaaah!! Jiujiu!]

[She killed him?? She just killed the boss like that???]

[Those last two strikes were so badass I could cry. Does she have a fan club? I want to join!!!]

[Sent you the fan club website link.]

[An expert player is truly terrifying.]

Li Ran and Xiaoqing hurried over. Seeing Xin Jiu slumped on the ground frightened them so badly their legs went weak.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Xin Jiu waved a hand to indicate that she was fine.

The Goblin King's body slowly dissipated, finally condensing into a green bead.

[Item: Wood-Attribute Core x1]

[Congratulations to player Xin Jiu for killing the tutorial tournament's hidden boss: King of the Goblins.]

[Server-wide announcement: Player Xin Jiu of Nine Provinces District 46 has successfully killed the tutorial tournament boss. All District 46 players will receive 1,000 points.]

The system broadcast the last announcement three times to players worldwide.

It felt a little like showing off.

Besides the core, the system also gave her five additional inventory slots. There were no other hidden rewards.

Xin Jiu put the core into her system inventory.

She didn't know what it was used for.

But there was no harm in putting it away first.

Because Xin Jiu had killed the boss, their instance ended early.

[The final round of the tutorial tournament has ended. Players, please return to the safe zone and await your point tally.]

On the way back to the safe zone, Xiaoqing asked worriedly, "Once we get to the safe zone, shall I help you apply some medicine?"

"I'm not badly hurt. I'll be fine after resting a while."

Xiaoqing took a handkerchief from her pocket and handed it over. "Then wipe your face first. It's covered in blood."

Xin Jiu paused, then accepted it. "Thank you."

"We should be thanking you. We got a thousand points for free. With the points from finishing off those goblins last night, I've got over seventeen hundred now."

They returned to the safe zone.

Most of the players had already returned. There looked to be far fewer people than yesterday.

Their gazes all fell on the three of them.

More precisely, on Xin Jiu.

Their eyes held a complicated mixture of awe, envy, curiosity, and more.

The old man and the ponytailed girl squeezed over and looked Xin Jiu up and down anxiously. "Why are you hurt so badly?"

"Just minor injuries."

Wang Yu watched coldly.

She hadn't returned to the safe zone all night, yet she'd actually made it back alive. She really was lucky!

A player beside him asked, "Do you think she could be the player from that system announcement?"

They had all seen Xin Jiu's performance in the first two rounds.

She was incredibly strong.

"A girl killing a boss? Are you kidding? It was definitely a male player."

If a female player could kill a boss, he'd eat shit.

Xin Jiu found an open spot to sit down, closed her eyes, and rested.

Once all the players had returned to the safe zone, the system first tallied their instance results.

[Surviving players in the current instance: 392/2500]

[Total goblin hearts: 4753/2000]

[Successfully cleared the final round of the tutorial tournament.]

As soon as the instance ended, the players' injuries healed automatically.

In fact, most players had obtained two hearts long ago, but they had worried that the final tally might fall short by just the few hearts they could contribute, so they had chosen to keep searching for goblins.

As a result, the number of hearts far exceeded the system's requirement.

Wang Yu was delighted.

"See? What did I tell you? As long as we met the quota, everyone would survive. But certain people just had to risk going out to look for goblins. What idi-"

Before he could finish speaking.

His body suddenly went rigid, and rasping sounds came from his throat.

Then he crumbled into dust before everyone's eyes.

The twenty-odd players who had stayed in the safe zone with him without ever leaving also turned to ash at the same moment.

"Why did this happen?"

Some players covered their mouths in horror, while others were so frightened they collapsed to the ground.

Although Wang Yu's behavior had been detestable, they had clearly already cleared the round.

They were all Nine Provinces players. None of them wanted to see this.