Chapter 525: Wood Porcupine (1/2)
“We can’t. Did you forget that a player can only enter Nine Lost Dragon Domains once per 7 days? If we withdraw now, our adventure here is over!”
I stared at the Wood Porcupines for a moment before commenting, “Little Gui, look. The Wood Porcupines move really slow, and there’s only one line of them. The passage is clear once we defeat them.”
“But how are we going to get through that Spike Rain? It’s impossible!” Gui Guzi replied helplessly.
We were safe for now because we had withdrawn out of the Wood Porcupines’ attack range. However, we had to wait until our HP was full to progress again.
……
I objected. ”It’s a huge AoE attack, sure, but if you look closely you’ll notice that there are actually several blind spots that we can exploit. For example, if you look to the north about 40 yards away from us, you’ll see that there’s a 10-yard space that is completely untouched by the spikes. This means that the bombardment isn’t seamless. If you think it’s a fluke, look to the northeast about 25 degrees and 50 yards away from us. Again, you’ll find a 10-yard space. Moreover, the Wood Porcupines are practically stationary when they’re attacking, so it’s entirely possible for us to exploit these blind spots and get close enough to the Wood Porcupines to kill them. Even better, we only need to kill 10 or more to open up a path wide enough for everyone to pass through!”
Gui Guzi’s eyes lit up when he noticed the patches of open space unsullied by the spikes. He couldn’t help but laugh and said, ”Fuck, you’re right! You’re amazing, boss! I can’t believe you noticed something so obscure!”
I smiled. ”I’m sure you can do the same thing as long as you concentrate and don’t let anything slip past you. Remember, Eternal Moon Corporation’s programmers and planners aren’t idiots. If you pay attention, you’ll find something to exploit on every map.”
”So, what should we do now?”
”Let’s call everyone and tell them to keep to the left side. We don’t need to take up the whole entrance; just 10% of the area by the entrance should be enough to fit everyone. Also, this allows our competitors to charge blindly into the Spike Rain and die. Once we’ve cleared out the Wood Porcupines, we can then pick up the equipment they will have left behind. Ain’t that just awesome?”
”Alright…”
Gui Guzi immediately said in the party channel, ”Guild leader, Li Chengfeng, Fighting Spirits, You and Yun, Chaos Moon, please queue into a line and come in from the left side one by one. Don’t push. Once you come in, do not move past me and Boss Broken Halberd because there’s a minefield up ahead. We’ll talk about the plan after you come inside.”
”Okay!”
I pointed at the row of Wood Porcupines ahead of us and shared their stats inside the guild channel before replying, ”This Wood Porcupine is the ‘native’ mob of Wood Dragon Domain. They’re incredibly powerful, and they’re programmed to use their AoE skill all at the same time. Don’t move in recklessly, or you’ll be killed for certain. This map is turning out to be far more difficult than we thought.”
”Mn!”
A while later, Li Chengfeng, Xu Yang, High Fighting Spirits and the others came in as well. Since I had already told them how the ambush near the entrance worked, no one charged recklessly into their deaths. In fact, it was the players from other guilds who lost their patience and charged through the entrance without a care.
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…
Countless players appeared from the entrance and charged onward, screaming and swinging their weapons like barbarians. There were at least thousands of them, but these poor fools had no idea what awaited them at the front.
The next moment, the hundred Wood Porcupines surrounding the entrance unleashed their AoE skill again and filled the sky with spikes. By the end of it, only a couple of tanky magic knights with shields were able to make it back alive with red health.
The ground was covered in shiny equipment. That one volley had killed at least thousands of players and caused Dark Gold–grade and even Purple Gold–grade equipment to litter the floor. Who wouldn’t be moved by the pile of treasure just a hundred yards away from them?
A magic knight who just entered the map saw this and shouted, ”Holy shit, look at those items! What are you all waiting for? Let’s grab them and get rich now…”
The players behind him caught his shout and charged toward the pile of treasure with red, excited faces, It almost looked as if they were on drugs. Not to be left behind, the players at the back pushed the people in front of them and tried to force their way forward. A couple of people had been trampled because of it. Just like that, a new crowd of victims willingly delivered themselves to the fatal spikes of the Wood Porcupines.
Thud thud thud…
The row of rodents shuddered and murdered the shit out of the players again. Blood painted the ground red, and countless screams filled the air. Out of the two thousand people who pressed forward, only two or three people made it back alive. These meaningless deaths only added to the pile of items on the ground.
As the hills of treasure grew, so did the greed of the players who had lagged behind and didn’t die to the Spike Rain. Unable to resist the dark and purple gold sheen of the equipment, the second wave of fodder threw all caution to the wind and charged blindly into danger. And just like the first group, the only thing that awaited them was death!
……
We watched the comical scene unfold in front of us again and again as we stuck to the left side of the exit. Gui Guzi muttered in wide-eyed shock, ”Holy shit, if this isn’t what you call a meat grinder, I don’t know what it is…”
Chaos Moon urged me, ”Lu Chen, didn’t you say you have a way to deal with this minefield? Well, what are you waiting for? If we don’t act soon they’re all going to die.”
Li Chengfeng and I exchanged a knowing smile with each other. ”Patience. If these people want to kill themselves, who are we to stop them? Also, if we carry out our plan now, I guarantee you they’ll attack us and try to rob us of our safe passage. Excessive benevolence is really just hypocrisy, you know.”
Chaos Moon looked speechless. ”You guys are so bad…”