13. Trapped XiaoYu stored the new staff into his storage and changed into the leather shoes (Level Limit: 10). After getting more potions and food, he once again discovered his wallet was empty to the point where there"s not even a sc.r.a.p left orz. Fortunately, he still had some equipment and items found in the Zombie Cave in his storage that had not been cleared out. So he"s not really poor as dirt.
XiaoYu ran straight for the Mission Board. He handed in the Zombie Cave mission and accepted it again. After all, this mission can be done repeatedly. Even though he felt a little disgusted at the sight of the cave, XiaoYu was too lazy to run to other cities and research whether they had an Undead mission.
He left Prole through the Southern Gate and dove into the woods without problems.
"Meow!" The tiny cat suddenly cried out in nervousness.
His heart stopped. It couldn"t be a boss, right? Even if it was a mini-boss from a low-level monster, he might not be able to handle it himself. What should he do?
"Rustle~" The sound of feet shuffling through the gra.s.s behind him abruptly rang out. In a few moments, the far-off being had closed in on him.
XiaoYu was about to take out a Return Scroll when he felt a sharp pain burst from his right shoulder. His health dropped by half in an instant and he nearly dropped his wand. XiaoYu stumbled forward. A sigh flashed through his mind. Not in dejection because he was unlucky, but in relief that the tiny one was sitting on his left shoulder. If it had been hurt, he"d be very sad.
Still, the wound felt very strange. It"d felt as if some metal weapon had pierced through his flesh instead of a monster"s sharp claws. Human-type monsters are usually high level and would never appear here. Could it be a player?
"Player BattleOverlord attacked you. PK mode activated. Your ID"s colour will not change if you attack any other player in the opponent"s team in the next 10 minutes."
Bai XiaoYu held his wounded shoulder and turned around. It was one of the players he"d met when grinding at the flower sprites. A male swordsman in his first Job glared at him with an average-looking long sword in his hand. Fresh blood dripped from the swordsman"s weapon. The other"s name was hidden before. However, as the one who initiated PK mode, his ID, BattleOverlord, can be seen floating in grey above his head.
"…" XiaoYu only looked coldly at the other. To those with explosive tempers, anything he said would be seen as trying to snake his way out of things.
"Hmph. I won"t let you go today. If you"re smart, you"ll hand that pet over." BattleOverlord looked exactly like an unhappy, stern pirate now. He and his girlfriend parted in unhappy terms yesterday so he"d gone online all alone today. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. In the end, he decided to look around and see if he could catch that brat from yesterday and force him to hand that pet over. Then he can use it to make his girlfriend happy with him again.
XiaoYu kept silent. He was too lazy to even bother replenishing his health. The worse that can happen was he"d die and return to Prole.
"f.u.c.k you! Do you think I"d let you wait out the combat timer and escape again? I"ve got ways to make you stay in that mode and not die. Once you"re healed up, I"ll strike you again."
While swordsmen do not have healing skills, they can make another remain in combat without dealing damage. They have a unique skill called Provoke. Its intended use was for party play. There"s a guaranteed chance to force monsters to aggro on the user for a certain amount of time so they can protect the spellcasters behind them.
Provoke can also be used in PvP. However, players aren"t a dead, robotic group of numbers. There"s no "aggro" system. They can attack whoever they want to. Thus, this skill wasn"t very useful in PvP scenarios at all. Even so, it can force the provoked to stay in combat mode. Of course, the attacker would also remain in PK mode with a grey ID.
XiaoYu"s health recovered bit by bit but BattleOverlord wasn"t in a rush at all. The swordsman would throw out a Provoke once in a while and when XiaoYu"s life was full, he"d strike out with his sword.
There was a level gap of over 30 between the two. In normal circ.u.mstances, the swordsman can kill XiaoYu in one blow. But BattleOverlord wouldn"t let XiaoYu go that easily. After find the other outside the Southern Gate, he"d changed into white-grade gear with no bonus stats. He even changed out his weapon for a trash sword with the lowest attack possible.
XiaoYu had thought of running away but he only had 5 measly points in Agility. There"s definitely no other player with lower stats than him. Furthermore, from the ambush, XiaoYu could tell that the other leaned more towards an Agility build. He had ran forward and struck at XiaoYu in such a short time that XiaoYu couldn"t even use a Return Scroll.
"Meow!" The tiny lucky cat arched its back and roared at BattleOverlord. It"s a pity it was too small. Its threat was effectively negligible.
Time slowly ticked by. XiaoYu lost count on how many times he had been stabbed at. He only knew that his wounds kept healing before opening up and healing again. The blood kept getting wiped away. Only numerous gashes in his robe were left to prove he had been attacked.
The pain of being kept on the brink of death hurt a lot. Without using skills or potions, the process of waiting for his health to tick back to full was unusually agonising. And it"s all because a player would experience varying degrees of fatigue and dizziness once their health drops below a certain number. There were a few times when XiaoYu nearly couldn"t resist moaning out loud or collapsing. He only bit down on his lips and forced his body to stay upright out of sheer stubbornness.
There was a tickling sensation on his neck. XiaoYu knew it was the little one rubbing its head against his neck. A flush of warmth trickled through his heart. No matter what happened, his kitten will never abandon him. Even if it was just a bunch of numbers, it gave him warmth and happiness. So, even if it wasn"t account-bound, he would never hand it over to anyone else.
XiaoYu looked at his Friends tab. CopperPlate"s icon was still greyed out so he"s clearly still in cla.s.s. BlazeTheEarth was online, a Level 75 Second Job Magician. He"s probably still at his stall.
XiaoYu didn"t want to trouble them at first. He thought he"d die and lose a level at most. There"s nothing valuable on him so it didn"t matter if they were lost. But he can"t ensure he won"t be traumatised in the future with his mind and body being constantly tortured like so. He still wanted to play this game! Just as he was about to try messaging BlazeThe Earth…
"You"re so obstinate!"
Obviously BattleOverlord wasn"t very patient. He wanted to make this newbie suffer a little. Once the other can"t stand it anymore and begged for mercy, he"d make the other obediently hand that pet over. It"d allow him to vent and get that pet without spending a single cent.
He didn"t think this new player could be this obstinate. The other kept silent at all times and never swayed at all. It made him more irritated and frustrated as it went on. He didn"t get to vent out his anger at all. Conversely, he was made angrier. If it wasn"t because a player would never drop their pet on death, he"d have rushed ahead and bet on that miniscule chance.
"From now on, I"ll kill you once every time I see you!" Having said that, BattleOverlord didn"t wait for XiaoYu"s health to fully regenerate and slashed at him.
XiaoYu didn"t need to message anyone now. It"d be good to be sent back to Prole for free as well. Bai XiaoYu closed his eyes and waited for release.
Translator"s Nonsense:
BattleOverlord, our first small-time boss, has arrived! Welcome, our first contestant on "Who"ll help ML and MC the most?"
I"ve realised that this boy"s relationship with his girlfriend might be seen as toxic and abusive. (Gosh, you can"t get bf to buy something for you because the person didn"t want to sell. Boo-hoo, it"s all the bf"s fault? As if you helped at all, you blood-sucking thing.) But fun fact: Did you know that the stereotypical Asian relationships are quite abusive? It"s not intentional but from the modern point-of-view it"s got too many ways to go bad.
There"s 2 options. Either the girl is controlling and the queen while the guy has to hand all his money over and live off what the other gave as allowance, or the opposite. The first is more commonly seen among normal, young couples while the later is mainly seen in families where boys are seen as way more important than girls. We"ve got to keep our surname going, right? (It"s Asian so it"s not just a bunch of made-up meaningless words like Potter.) BattleOverlord here is just a common victim to the first common relationship. Not to say he"s not an a.r.s.e who may or may not deserve it.
So next time you wonder why you just see two models of relationship in trashy romance novels, just know that they"re the most common relationships found. I mean, how does one learn how to live with a spouse? From the outdated relationship models of our parents, of course!