What a Little Menace

Next, the livestream viewers watched Xin Jiu's whole style suddenly change.

All her movements seemed half a beat too slow, and the bull's horns left several bloody scratches on her arms.

Some haters said Xin Jiu had been scared out of her mind.

The livestream chat erupted into another argument.

After dodging again, Xin Jiu glanced at her personal panel.

[Agility: 23]

No, this was still too slow.

They said fortune could be found in danger, but it could be lost there too. Should I take a gamble?

Xin Jiu hesitated for only a few seconds before making her decision.

Unable to kill Xin Jiu, Niuniu grew increasingly agitated, his forehooves pawing faster and faster. This time, he mustered all his strength and charged at her.

Xin Jiu simply stopped moving.

Just as the horn was about to pierce her throat, Xin Jiu used Extreme Dodge at the very last instant. The tip scraped across her neck, and blood nearly spurted out.

[Agility +3]

[Hidden achievement triggered: Extreme Dodge. Reward: 2,000 points]

Sure enough, the worse the injury, the bigger the stat increase. And I even triggered an achievement. Worth it!

She backed away with a hand pressed to her neck, blood welling out between her fingers.

The livestream chat had gone wild!

[What is Jiujiu doing? With her skills, she definitely could've dodged that!]

[Girl! Snap out of it!]

[I believe Jiujiu must have her reasons. Don't be scared, don't be scared, sob... no, Jiujiu, please stop!]

[Server-wide announcement: the top-ranked player has lost her mind.]

Xin Jiu ran over to Chen Rui, then stepped on a floor tile. A stone slab instantly rose, cutting off Niuniu's roars.

She needed to dress her wound, so she had triggered the mechanism directly.

The young boy was already too frightened by Xin Jiu's actions to speak.

The other female player's voice trembled. "You're terrifying. I don't want to team up with you anymore."

"Suit yourself."

Sitting against a tree trunk, Xin Jiu took disinfectant and gauze out of her system inventory, then found some Bear Biscuits.

Eating the Bear Biscuits should heal the wound on her neck; the disinfectant and gauze were just a feint.

She couldn't trust the players in front of her.

So she couldn't let them know she had healing biscuits.

After settling the player Niuniu had sent flying, Chen Rui asked Xin Jiu, "Why did you do that?"

He increasingly felt that she resembled Xin Jiu.

Because when Xin Jiu ran instances, she would occasionally do things that looked this reckless too.

Watching Xin Jiu dress her wound, the livestream viewers were heartbroken.

She was so practiced at bandaging herself. How many injuries had she suffered before?

Xin Jiu didn't keep the information to herself. She said outright, "Dodging Niuniu's attacks gives you 0.1 agility. After a successful dodge, you also get an increase based on your injuries. That last hit gave me three agility points and triggered a hidden achievement."

If they wanted to improve their stats, they could try it too.

As for the hidden achievement, every player had a chance to trigger it. It just depended on whether they had the guts.

Chen Rui asked in surprise, "Why are you telling us?"

"Because you're players from the Nine Provinces."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Only then did the livestream viewers understand why Xin Jiu hadn't avoided Niuniu. Those who had said she'd lost her mind got slapped in the face.

"But the directions have changed. Can we still find Niuniu?"

The young boy with the Navigation Card had asked. Agility was the lowest stat on his panel.

"Niuniu will come looking for us."

"How do you know?"

Xin Jiu smiled, then took out something brown to show them. "Because I cut off a piece of his horn."

Before long, he would follow the scent here.

Having finally caught an NPC who could improve her stats, she had to make full use of him!

The livestream viewers flooded the chat.

[What a little menace.]

[Niuniu: you're so noble, using me to farm stats.]

[Poor Niuniu.]

For the rest of the time, Xin Jiu stayed near the floor tile that triggered the mechanism.

Niuniu did indeed follow the scent over.

At first, Chen Rui and the other two players were terrified, afraid Niuniu would hit them. Later, they gradually grew bolder, and ultimately gained two agility points as well.

The player who had been rammed was called Li Tao. Since he had temporarily lost his ability to fight, he could only be settled in a tree to watch them dodge Niuniu.

His resentment toward Xin Jiu grew deeper and deeper.

If it hadn't been for her, his companion wouldn't have died, he wouldn't have been rammed by the bull, and he certainly wouldn't be stuck watching them improve their stats like a useless cripple.

The livestream ended while the viewers were still eager for more.

[See you tomorrow morning.]

[Jiujiu, make sure you rest well. We'll come watch you again tomorrow.]

Night fell.

Xin Jiu scattered the powder White Bear had given her around the area to mask their human scent. That way, even if Niuniu came looking, he wouldn't be able to smell them.

Chen Rui felt more and more certain that she was Xin Jiu.

"Hey, what are you scattering? You're not trying to hurt us, are you?" Li Tao asked.

Xin Jiu didn't lift her eyes. "What's it to you? If you're scared, go outside the circle."

Li Tao had almost recovered. When Xin Jiu snapped back at him, he was about to lose his temper.

Chen Rui shot him a cold look. "Behave yourself."

He had thought that, as the oldest person on the team, Li Tao would be more levelheaded. He hadn't expected to have misjudged him after all.

The young boy and the girl were called Doudou and Jiamin respectively. Both sat obediently inside the circle, taking food out of their system inventories to eat.

Jiamin had just taken out some bread when moonlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves and fell on it.

"Where did my bread go?"

"My mineral water disappeared too!"

Chen Rui and Li Tao were both dumbfounded.

They had watched the bread and mineral water vanish from the pair's hands.

Xin Jiu frowned and took some gummy bears and a ham sausage she had picked up at the convenience store in the tutorial match instance out of her inventory.

The ham sausage disappeared, but the gummy bears remained.

"Is it because of the moonlight?" she murmured.

Did the game not want them to have too much food in the maze instance?

Was it only this little maze, or the entire maze?

Thinking of the Nine Provinces players she had added at the rest area, Xin Jiu opened her friends list. She initially wanted to ask Xiaoqing and Li Ran, since she knew them best.

But she hadn't expected this.

[Player Li Ran: (Deceased)]

Xin Jiu froze for a moment. Xiaoqing's ID was still lit up, but she wouldn't ask her now.

She clicked on Hash Brown Heavy Dependence.

[You there?]

Ao Lin was locked in a struggle with a spider about the size of an elephant. As he darted and leaped around, a chat panel suddenly popped up. He was about to curse when he saw it was Xin Jiu.

He swallowed the curses on the tip of his tongue, dodged the spider's hairy leg, and immediately started typing.

[Yes, yes, I'm here!]

[Does your food disappear when moonlight shines on it?]

Disappear?

Ao Lin was about to reply that he didn't know, but felt that answer was too perfunctory. Just then, the spider came at him again.

He drew his long saber, leaped into the air, and drove it into the spider's eye.

Can't you see I have important business? Read the room.

The spider's green blood splashed onto the ground with a sizzling sound. It was actually corrosive?

In pain, the spider quickly retreated.

Ao Lin steadied himself and retrieved a bag of cucumber-flavored potato chips from his inventory.

[Why did my potato chips disappear???]

Just as I thought, Xin Jiu thought.