Achievement: Scared the Goblins to Death!
The system had explicitly stated that once a goblin bit a player, it would not let go until the player died.
Even if they killed the goblin, how long could a player with a crippled arm survive?
Most players thought the time spent saving him would be better spent killing a few more goblins for points.
After all, points could buy items.
And items could improve their chances of surviving the next stage.
Reality was that cruel.
Xin Jiu felt that attacking goblins with a bayonet was still a bit of a stretch. Her gaze swept casually over the ground, and she spotted a notched machete.
It had been another player's weapon.
And that player was already dead.
She picked it up amid the chaos, and with the machete in hand, her efficiency soared!
[Goblin killed. Points +5.] [Goblin killed. Points +5.] [Goblin killed. Points +5.]
She had no idea how many goblins she had killed. All she saw was her points shooting up, and the players around her had all noticed her.
"Is a machete really that powerful?"
"It's not the blade that's powerful. It's her!"
"Follow her. Pick up whatever scraps we can."
They lingered near Xin Jiu, some openly and some less so, finishing off the barely breathing goblins for points whenever she cut her way through a group.
Xin Jiu saw them but did not stop them.
Everyone here was a player from the Nine Provinces. As long as they did not go too far, she was willing to let them have some points.
[Player Xin Jiu has killed 100 goblins within ten minutes.] [Hidden achievement unlocked: Scared the Goblins to Death!] [Reward: Attribute point x1 (freely assignable), 200 points.]
Unlocking achievements gives attribute points too?
Xin Jiu was delighted, but she did not use it immediately.
These goblins were easy to kill. There was no need to raise her attributes yet.
Time gradually passed.
Goblins kept spawning like mad, but the players began running out of stamina, and more and more of them died.
There were still ten minutes left before the first round of the tutorial match ended.
More and more players followed behind Xin Jiu. Two men to her rear left exchanged a glance, then suddenly rushed forward to flank her.
Their target was the machete in her hand.
They figured that since someone as petite as Xin Jiu could kill so many goblins, the machete had to be powerful.
With that blade, how could they possibly struggle to earn enough points?
As for what would happen to her without her machete, that had nothing to do with them.
Just as they were about to touch the machete, Xin Jiu suddenly turned and slashed each of them across the arm.
[Here it comes! The Blade of Tetanus!]
[Their greed knows no bounds!]
They clutched their bleeding arms and wailed.
The goblins immediately switched targets, raising their wooden clubs and smashing them down hard at the men's heads!
"Help!"
"Save me! I was wrong! I don't want to die!"
Their screams mingled with the goblins' jabbering.
No one went to save them.
Xin Jiu kept moving.
Ten minutes later.
[The first round of the tutorial match has ended.]
As the system finished its announcement, every goblin vanished instantly. The players' corpses also turned into motes of light and gradually faded away.
The surviving players sat or lay down.
They panted heavily.
Xin Jiu opened her panel.
[Goblins killed: 265] [Points: 2,125]
Killing goblins had only earned her 1,325 points. The remaining 800 points had come from unlocking hidden achievements three times.
The notched machete was no longer usable. She tossed it aside, and another player immediately picked it up.
The old man was still alive, and the ponytailed girl sat beside him.
"I almost got bitten just now. Thanks for saving me, lass." The old man looked at her gratefully.
The ponytailed girl smiled, two small dimples appearing in her cheeks.
"You saved me just now too. We're even."
As the first round of the tutorial match ended, viewers in the livestream saw the number of Nine Provinces players fall from over forty-six million to over forty-three million.
[This is only the first round. I want to cry...]
[This is so hard to watch.]
[Maybe they didn't react in time. After this fight, everyone will be prepared. The next round will be much better.]
Xin Jiu could only see the number of surviving players in her server and instance.
[Server players: 86,572/100,000] [Players in current instance: 1,976/2,500]
She sat on the ground, took some crackers out of her system inventory, and chewed slowly.
She would replenish some stamina before the second round began.
The food, medical supplies, and other things she had brought could all be stored in her system inventory. In this respect, Xin Jiu thought the system was quite accommodating. Otherwise, carrying a backpack would get in the way, while leaving it behind would get it stolen.
The old man was still panting. Xin Jiu handed him a cracker. "Take it."
"Keep it for yourself, lass."
He was an old bag of bones and could not earn many points anyway. If he died, so be it.
But they were still so young.
This food ought to be saved for them.
"Go ahead and eat. Don't worry."
After the fight, the players were all hungry. But unlike Xin Jiu, they had not had the foresight to bring supplies. Now their stomachs felt painfully empty.
So someone shamelessly approached Xin Jiu and asked, "Can I have one?"
Xin Jiu glanced over.
He was around thirty and quite sturdy.
Seeing someone speak up first, the others no longer felt any need to be embarrassed. They all crowded around Xin Jiu, asking her to share her crackers, each of them eyeing her like a hungry wolf.
"You're all young and strong. Can't you hold out for even this long?"
The ponytailed girl scoffed at their shamelessness.
"What the hell do you know? We need full stomachs to have the strength to fight goblins. If you aren't eating, get out of the way!"
"Hand over the crackers!"
"We're not asking for much. One is enough."
Xin Jiu drew her military bayonet and toyed with it.
"Going to rob me outright?"
Seeing that she was not intimidated at all, the players were the ones who panicked first.
The sight of her killing goblins was still vivid in their minds. One slash per kill, fast and ruthless. If that blade landed on them, they would die on the spot.
There were plenty of them, but if a fight really broke out, none of them knew whether they would be the first to die beneath her bayonet.
Filling their stomachs mattered, of course, but one cracker was not worth their lives.
"Forget it. She's really strong," someone in the crowd said.
With someone offering them a way out, they took it, each finding somewhere to sit and rest.
The old man and the ponytailed girl both breathed sighs of relief.
[They actually tried to steal Jiujiu's crackers. How shameless!]
[Isn't Xin Jiu supposed to be smart? Doesn't she know taking out food at a time like this will make her a target?]
[By your logic, she can't eat anything whenever other players are around?]
[She could hide while eating.]
[Then she wouldn't be Jiujiu.]
The old man broke his cracker in half and handed one half to the ponytailed girl.
Xin Jiu saw it but did not offer another cracker.
This instance had thirty floors. Who knew whether the game would provide food? They might even have to eat NPCs later on.
Sharing one cracker with the old man was already an act of mercy on her part.
Even she only took a few bites before putting hers away.
Five minutes later.
The system's announcement sounded again.
[Second round of the tutorial match.] [Objective: Enter the safe zone. Players who remain inside the safe zone will receive ten points every five minutes.] [Duration: Thirty minutes.]