Chapter 413: Greed
On a road covered in battered corpses and abandoned blood-stained vehicles approximately ten kilometers outside Silvermoon City, a group of 13 to 14 normal players were fighting whilst retreating.
“Hurry! Attack, don’t stop!”
“Fight while retreating, don’t panic!”
“Be careful of the Foragers. We’ve no idea where one of them went. Don’t get sneak attacked!”
The voices and sounds coming from the group were chaotic. There wasn’t a fixed commander since it was only a temporary team comprised of players who just got online today.
“These Foragers are at least twice as difficult to deal with compared to normal Elite Grade monsters! F*ck. Those idiots on the forum actually said that the Foragers and Elite Grade Zombies are easy to deal with.” A Fire Manipulator of the team cursed with a distorted expression.
The energy converter he held in his hand flashed. A condensed fireball that had been brewing for the past few seconds flew towards a Level 45 Forager’s head as the Forager crawled at an incredible speed towards the group from a bush on the side.
“Bang!”
Faced with the condensed fireball, the Forager, whose eyesight had deteriorated yet still had incredibly perceptive senses, used its four powerful limbs to leap to the side.
With that, the fireball struct the bushes behind the Forager, bursting into a ball of flame, not really achieving much in terms of stopping the Forager.
As a normal player who logged off the game having had to do something the day before, and usually went back to his tent in the forest during the evening; this Fire Manipulator player was actually quite happy when he heard that Silvermoon City encountered the Biohazard Crisis storyline.
As an average player, the rebel army taking Silvermoon City did not affect him much; however, the Story Points and the chance to obtain Permanent Enhancement Potions was something that truly excited him.
As for the difficulty of dealing with the zombies and Foragers, he was quite worried at first after reading the Silvermoon City local forum section. After reading a few forum threads in the Storm City section, especially those from superstar players that a.n.a.lyzed the weaknesses of the monsters, he no longer felt worried.
Most players in the Storm City forum section thought the reason the players on the Federation camp inside Silvermoon City lost yesterday was due to Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group taking advantage of the situation, as well as the city and night environment during the outbreak. During the day, players would have better vision, meaning the slow-moving zombies wouldn’t pose much threat to the players.
Though the Foragers had amazing attack power, they did not have high HP or defense. With a team, players would be able to easily get rid of Foragers with a focused attack.
As for Tyrants, some even a.n.a.lyzed and said that since they had weak points, the Tyrants were comparably weaker than ordinary Commander Grade monsters.
That was why the Fire Manipulator went online in the morning and decided that he would party with others to farm some points. However, the situation that welcomed him after he got online dealt a huge blow to his confidence.
The location he logged off at was supposed to be a safe zone that was around ten kilometers away from the city. However, surprisingly, zombies appeared in that area. And just as he had gone online and before he could react, he was almost tackled and pushed to the ground by a zombie with a bleeding mouth.
Luckily he cast a s.h.i.+eld and was not bitten, otherwise, if the situation was he did not have enough points to exchange for the anti-virus serum, he would have definitely died and lost a level.
Immediately after that incident, the difficulty of dealing with that zombie also made him feel that the players’ conclusions and theories on the forum were all armchair strategies.
The zombies moved slow, that was true. However that was only in comparison to fast-moving monsters. They were not that much slower than Manipulators. Compared to Manipulators, the zombies had a huge advantage as stamina was not an issue for them. As long as the zombie still had HP and its legs were not completely crippled, the zombie would still chase after the Manipulator until it ran out of stamina.
By the time the Fire Manipulator encountered the Forager, he discovered that theories were definitely not something that reflected reality.
A focused fire attack was definitely a good tactic to use against agile monsters; however, the problem was that the Forager moved too quickly. As it crawled and moved on the ground, it was incredibly difficult to hit it with the fireball.
As a temporarily a.s.sembled party that lacked teamwork, how could they achieve the goal of an “instant-kill with focused fire?”
“Ah!”
Just as the Fire Manipulator was gritting his teeth and cursing the so-called “Experts” on the forum in his heart, a Forager suddenly burst out from their blind spot. The Forager charged from underneath an abandoned bulletproof SUV that was around a dozen meters in front of the group and directly struck the body of another Manipulator player in front of the Fire Manipulator.
Its dark red tongue shot out like a sharp sword and pierced through the eye of the Water Manipulator whose s.h.i.+eld had already broken. This caused his eyeball, along with his brain to burst open while red and white matter splashed on the ground.
“Ahhh! F*ck! Hurry up and block it!”
The highly stimulating death visual scene increased the adrenaline on the bodies of the remaining players. They quickly turned around to attack the Forager.
In an instant, energy skill attacks of various colors, as well as bullets, flew towards the Forager, which created a feeling of a focused fire attack for a bit.
However, the AI of the Forager was not as low as the five Elite Graze zombies that only knew how to charge straight on. After killing the Water Manipulator, the Forager did not enjoy its food in the immediate aftermath, instead, it retracted its tongue, turned around, and retreated with the corpse of the Manipulator.
“-1022!”
“-203, -203, -144…”
“-899!”
Only a few attacks of the group of players struck the Forager. The rest missed, and the total damage they inflicted on the Forager was less than 4,000. Although a Forager over Level 40 did not have high HP, it should have at least 8,000 HP.
“Bang!”
“-5466!”
However, the head of the Forager which had almost succeeded in escaping with its food suddenly exploded. Above its exploded head, a yellow Weak Point damage of over 5,000 also appeared. Its body that was connected to a half-blown head fell on the blood-stained ground beside the large bulletproof Energy SUV.
“Vroom!”
The sound of energy vehicles came from behind the group of players, but none of the players from the group looked back.
After the death of the Forager, their attention was caught by a blue spiral metallic tube that dropped beside the large bulletproof energy SUV. Every player had seen that item on the forum before.
“Permanent Enhancement Potion!”
Elite Grade monsters dropped Permanent Enhancement Potions, and though the ones dropped were normally incomplete or normal grade items, they were still incredibly valuable. With War’s looting system, even Elite Grade monsters had a small chance of dropping perfect graded items.
The group of players were stunned for a few seconds, to the point where the remaining Elite Grade zombies had charged through their defense line.
Two players from the party suddenly got up and ran straight toward the location of the Forager’s corpse. A Light Armor Warrior and a Wind Manipulator.
Light Armor Warriors were usually fast, but this Light Armor Warrior’s Charge and Thunder Leap Slash seemed to be in cooldown, so he could only run.
As for the Wind Manipulator, though he had slow movement speed, for a short period, his movement speed was actually faster than a Light Armor Warrior who was not under the effects of Charge since he also had movement speed-boosting skills. The two players’ gazes were fixated on the tiny blue potion on the ground.
“F*ck! What the h.e.l.l are you guys doing? It’s the result of all our efforts!”
“We haven’t even dealt with the zombies yet, what the h.e.l.l are you guys fighting for?”
“I’m going to shoot, I really am!”
As the two players started moving, a flurry of curses and insults came from the party. Clearly, everyone else in the team knew what the two players were trying to do. Only the Fire Manipulator seemed doubtful. The Forager’s death seemed to be from a headshot from an incredibly powerful sniper rifle. If he remembered correctly, he could not recall a Sniper being in their team.
During this flurry of skills and attacks were unleashed in this emergency situation, no one seemed to have noticed the unusually high damage number that definitely exceeded each of their attack strength.
Before the Fire Manipulator found an answer to his question, his expression changed completely in the next moment.
“Beep, beep, beep!”
The yellow signal warning that came simultaneously from two Scout players’ recon meters, just as they also wanted to go for the potion.
“F*ck, guys, get back here! There is a high level Commander Grade monster nearby!” The Fire Manipulator shouted hastily, surprised.
The two players who temporarily joined the party seemed as if they did not hear his shout. They continued running towards the corpse of the Forager around a dozen meters away.
Among the two, the Wind Manipulator actually had a light green energy s.h.i.+eld up, which blocked the bullets and energy skills unleashed by three players amidst the chaos.
“As long as I get the Permanent Enhancement Potion, losing a level is fine!” Thought the Wind Manipulator as his eyes sparkled.
He had very bad equipment. He wasn’t even Level 50 yet. As long as he got his hands on that Permanent Enhancement Potion, even if he died, he would make a profit.
He was very close, ten meters, seven meters, five meters…
The Wind Manipulator’s eyes sparkled. Since he started earlier, he was a little closer to the Permanent Enhancement Potion compared to the Light Armor Warrior. Meaning that he was definitely going to be the first to reach the Permanent Enhancement Potion.
He did not notice a dried puddle of blood underneath the large energy SUV made of bulletproof materials. Behind the black and non-transparent window made of bulletproof materials, a pair of green bloodshot eyes suddenly opened.