Ed's right hand was rapidly mutating into a thick, long knight's sword.
He had found a little inspiration for weapons in the original owner's memories, and it happened to come in handy now.
The guide NPC's mutation soon drew the other players' attention. They saw the changes in Ed's body and felt that genuine killing intent.
At that moment, no one still thought of Ed as a healer who could do nothing but heal, nor did they dare associate him with that NPC who played dumb.
The white-haired boy wearing a half-crown strode forward, and the players parted to clear a path.
As the creator of the vine cage, Ed easily pinpointed the Rat King's core through its walls.
Wreathed in killing intent, he rushed up to the cage, aimed the knight's sword at its center, and drove it in.
Ed's own strength stat actually wasn't high, but his special attribute-Plant Compatibility, which could almost be called off the charts-gave this strike power beyond the players' imagination.
The wooden sword tip transmitted the sensation of something shattering, and a soul-piercing wail reached the players' ears.
The aura of an enemy, of an aberration, within the vine cage immediately weakened. Although more than half the rats were still alive, Ed had killed the rat serving as their core, leaving the rest as nothing more than insignificant mobs.
At that moment, every player realized something: they had actually won this dangerous battle they had initially wanted to flee!
"Ooooooh!!!"
"Awooooo!!"
"Ahahahaha!"
"We won!"
"Combat feels so damn good!"
Overwhelming joy went to the players' heads. Howls rose one after another without end as they hugged in twos and threes, making meaningless celebratory gestures.
A moment later, several dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground sounded across the wilderness. Then there was only the rustling of rats gnawing at the cage and the breeze across the nighttime wilds.
World of Disorder current time: [20:00]. Forced logout.
"Phew..."
Seeing that he was once again the only one left in this world, Ed slowly breathed out.
That maneuver had really pushed the limit. Fortunately, it hadn't gone off the rails.
That final execution, calculated in real time, had not only secured Ed the Rat King kill but also let him show off in spectacular fashion.
In that last minute alone, he had sensed at least three players activating their recording functions, while the others were frantically taking screenshots.
As a former member of the internet-surfing masses, Ed naturally understood the positive publicity these videos and pictures would bring his game once they circulated.
At the thought, he happily rubbed his hands together like a fly.
The puzzle-solving video uploaded by [Great Wei Boxing Champion] had gone viral and already driven a massive wave of traffic his way. With this new material added to the mix, his otherworld game business was flourishing before his very eyes.
But that was precisely why he needed to shut the servers down for a day all the more.
Two factors were severely restricting the game's development. First, there were simply too few NPCs; Ed wished he could split himself into pieces to put to work. Second... he had no money.
Yes, he, Ed Adrian, the young warlock who summoned Soul Returners, the guide and protector of otherworldly souls, the nominal ruler of a certain barony in the kingdom, currently possessed a grand total of-
32 silver and 4 copper.
All of it came from Baron Tuer's bequest.
Although he could understand how someone bent on dying would care nothing for money, Ed still found it hard to imagine that he had searched the entire castle without finding a single gold coin!
If Ed hadn't been able to survive on sunlight himself, he probably would have died of poverty long ago.
When he confirmed that fact, Ed had actually wanted to make a few snide remarks. But remembering that the dead deserved respect, he had reined in his somewhat nasty disposition and buried the remains of Baron Tuer's entire family near the castle.
Ed himself was already flat broke, let alone the players.
The game had been running steadily for four days now, yet the players had not received so much as a single copper from Ed!
If the fully immersive technology and incredibly realistic experience hadn't kept them hooked, the clever ones among them would probably have noticed something was wrong long ago.
Alas.
At that thought, Ed felt the burden on his shoulders grow heavier.
He was an NPC while the players were online, true, but he couldn't actually treat himself as one!
Beneath the NPC exterior was a game designer; beneath the game designer was an otherworldly lord; beneath the otherworldly lord was a fugitive wanted by the Tree Worship Church; beneath the fugitive was a transmigrator...
Damn these nesting dolls!
Each additional layer of disguise was like another curtain appearing in front of him, leaving Ed with even more things to consider.
Damn it, who said being a behind-the-scenes mastermind was easy? The further behind the scenes you were, the harder it got!
After lamenting for a while, Ed stopped thinking about his upcoming arrangements and turned toward the vine cage, which had fallen completely quiet.
As the players logged out, Ed had already pressed his left hand back against the cage's surface.
Those vines had been formed from his own mutated body tissue in the first place. Once reconnected, they naturally obeyed him like docile puppies.
Without its core, the Rat King was nothing more than a swarm of mutated rats. Ed made Paralysis Flowers bloom inside the cage again. This time, the rats fell to the toxin one after another and stopped moving entirely.
After confirming that there was no resistance left, Ed had the vine cage differentiate into the tissue Deadwood Vine used to absorb its prey's flesh and blood.
Those delicate, slender rootlets grew and threaded through the gaps between the rats, even finding the corpse of the rat Ed had killed, which had served as the Rat King's core.
This fat rat had already lost its rodent features and was practically a miniature ball of flesh.
Its limbs were buried deep in its flesh, and its facial features had been stretched into a stick drawing on the surface of a sphere.
As for its tail, that was precisely the part of these rat-like aberrations that had mutated. This rat's tail had grown extremely long, wrapping around its body in coil after coil and forming sockets in the gaps where the other rats could insert their tails. This was the key factor that allowed the [Rat King] to form.
But none of that mattered anymore. As digestive enzymes were secreted, the enormous cage became these aberrations' final resting place.
After the previous nights' extra combat practice, Ed had gained a rough understanding of this world's mechanics.
Whether it was plundering life force, absorbing flesh and blood, or honing combat skills, all of it could be classified as experience points from Little Green's perspective.
As for why it manifested this way, Little Green couldn't explain it, and Ed had no reasonable chain of logic yet. Further speculation would have to wait.
With that thought, Ed sat down and leaned against the hardened vine cage, focusing on savoring the delicious fruits of victory.
And inside the cage behind him, which stood taller than a person, a long process of digestion began.