Chapter 464

Chapter 464: Chapter 461: "Classic.Killing Margaret was an easy process.

Since his Emotional Value had already accumulated to 500, Su Ming’an remotely used a "Judgment" skill against the Guide Luo Yi guarding the entrance.

The skill’s activation range was incredibly long; Luo Yi hadn’t even seen Su Ming’an before the Judgment hit her, causing her to stand rigidly on the spot as if she had lost her soul. Meanwhile, Xiber directly entered the house and approached Margaret.

Xiber’s gunshot didn’t kill Margaret; her Attack Power was pitifully low, but before Margaret could counterattack, Su Ming’an arrived. His "Judgment" skill made Margaret stagger for about two seconds, much shorter than Luo Yi. It was unclear if she had any Props to resist control.

...This "Judgment" skill was indeed very powerful. After all, his Occupation skills were already at level 20; if the skills he gained weren’t strong, there would really be no point in playing.

After Margaret died, she dropped an Equipment. The Attributes were good, but...

[Luo Yihang’s Skirt (Blue Level): "For my lover, Margaret."

Physical Defense: 5

Mentality Defense: 30

Equipment Requirement: None

Special Skill (Luo River): Fixed reduction of 30 points of damage for every hit received. Reduces the casting time of skills by a fixed 0.5 seconds.

Note: Voluntarily became a forging player, Luo Yihang crafted Equipment for his lover Margaret, selling her this long skirt. It encapsulates his deep love and effort for his lover.]

Su Ming’an’s lower body Equipment was still the Blue Level "Sofia Palace Dress," with the attached skill that enhances the effect of spirit-type skills by 10%. But this skill was now useless, as neither Spatial Vibration nor Annihilation were spirit-type skills.

However, this "Luo River" skill from Luo Yihang’s Skirt that could reduce the casting time of Spatial Vibration by 0.5 seconds could be helpful at the current stage.

But... why is it another skirt...?

Su Ming’an’s face darkened slightly, but he still dragged it into his Equipment slot. If there was one, there could be another. Since the skirt wasn’t literally worn, he just pretended not to know.

He left the wooden house.

A gust of wind stirred.

In the blood-red field of vision, the robust corn stretched far and wide. From here, one could vaguely see the three-story steam processing factory, the sealed door on the left, and the open field on the right that didn’t block the view.

"Now that you’ve started, I suggest you reduce their numbers by one more," Xiber caught up and said.

"Why?"

"The eighty-ninth Guide, ’Painter’ Li Yujie," Xiber said. "Her Ability is to draw temporarily with a pen, creating objects that she can command. And since drawing the altar also requires a pen, if she links her drawing pen with the engraving pen, when the altar is completed, the power boost you receive may not be optimal."

..."You really know them quite well," Su Ming’an said.

While others couldn’t even recognize Xiber, she knew the Abilities of the other ninety-nine clear as day. Whether it was their appearance, personality, identity, or abilities, she was like an encyclopedia, exposing everything about them.

"I told you," Xiber pointed to her head, "I can prophesy. Even though it’s passive, these things aren’t hard to know."

She took the first step, heading towards the farmland on the right.

The farmland was planted with sweet potatoes and potatoes, which didn’t obstruct the view. As long as one

"Holy shit!"

A loud curse echoed through the air.

Wang Chaoze, who was burdened with a greatsword, drew back his hand with a grim expression. He had gotten a handful of corn kernels and an unidentified liquid that was sticky and extremely disgusting to look at. As it slid down between his fingers, it fell into the pig trough below.

The pigs that had been sleeping nearby were startled awake by their commotion, thinking someone had come to feed them, and they all crowded at the fence.

A foul stench permeated the air, a pungent odor that nearly made Wang Chaoze vomit.

"Damn, the audience is going to laugh themselves to death at this." Wang Chaoze nearly got shoved by a pig and immediately stepped back several feet, shaking his hand off with a look of disgust, "...Hey, don’t tell me any of you have started a livestream."

Next to him, Margaret, holding a feather fan and dressed in a Western European feathered dress, also felt extremely uncomfortable.

"I didn’t," she said, using her Red Level fan to cover her face, barely repressing the pigsty stench at the tip of her nose. Her face had turned ashen from the fumes.

This group of people, quite unluckily, was born right beside a pig farm. After Margaret used the "Eye of Tracking" to see the positions of the others, they gathered up... Considering the urgency of time, they had to enter the pigsty to search for the drawing pen and blood.

"Ann, you didn’t start a livestream, did you?" Margaret turned around, looking at a girl who was a bit shorter.

Although she wasn’t incapable of enduring this environment, this scene absolutely couldn’t be seen by the viewers. They had come to the pigsty to rummage for things and were now staggering from the stench... It was too embarrassing, and it would only take minutes before they ended up on the forum’s "Players’ Hall of Shame" collection.

No one knew what was going on with this pigsty, but the stench was unbearable as if deliberately tormenting them, not knowing if it was the game’s idea of a bad joke.

Ann raised her head, revealing a pair of dull, lifeless eyes. She was mute and ordinarily used ventriloquism to communicate with others. On seeing Margaret’s expression, she showed a strange smirk.

"I did," she said, showing her ghostly white teeth, smiling happily: "I believe it won’t be long before you can see your splendid figures on the forum."

"Goddamn it..." Wang Chaoze cursed, feeling as if he’d been struck by lightning at that moment.

But recalling that millions might be watching, he suppressed his anger. He knew this competition involved the Number One Player, and the attention it garnered was incomparable; any of his actions would be magnified endlessly.

"Wang Chaoze, don’t stop now, we still have to kill a pig and get its blood." Margaret pointed at a filthy, mucky pig next to them: "We don’t have any other blood on us, unless you plan to use human blood to draw on the altar... I assume, you, as a man educated in ancient martial arts, wouldn’t make me or Ann kill the pig, right?"

Her voice held a hint of irony, but Wang Chaoze, who had nearly been fainted from the stench, missed it entirely.

"I really wish I could kill a few NPCs to draw on the altar," Wang Chaoze said speechlessly.

"Not for now," Margaret reminded him: "Killing people makes too much noise, and we don’t know if these NPCs have any protective measures. If we trigger something, it might bring the Number One Player here. Try to be swift when you kill the pig; with your ability, it shouldn’t be hard to do it with one strike, right?"

As she said this, she couldn’t help but laugh herself. Despite being under the high-pressure situation of being hunted by the Number One Player, her sanity wasn’t high, but her attitude was still pretty good.

"I really... I’ve really screwed the boss’ rabbit..." Wang Chaoze’s face was filled with lines; he didn’t even know what to say anymore.

Hesitating on the spot for a moment, he still drew the sword from behind his back.

...His beloved weapon, the "Mount Hua," which he treated like his own life, was now to be used to kill pigs... This was the biggest insult he had ever encountered since the world game began, even more humiliating than humanity becoming players.

Looking at the pig covered in black mud, he coughed a few times before being forced to approach the pigpen. As he raised his sword, his whole being spelled resistance.

"When I meet that Number One Player, I’ll definitely have a good discussion with him..." Wang Chaoze coughed, "Of course, that would be after completing the drawings on the eight altars."

Margaret almost rolled her eyes; this guy was shameless without any attempt to hide it.

"Hurry up, I don’t want to stay here for another moment...," she said.

Suddenly, a somewhat muffled voice rang out; it was Tong An’an’s voice.

"Tong An’an, what did you say?" Margaret looked at her.

Tong An’an looked up, glanced outside the pigsty, with a rather solemn expression.

The pigsty was an indoor environment surrounded by mud walls of varying heights. From the windows high on the walls, one could vaguely see a blood-red world outside. Flickering green leaves, tied bundles of straw, and apple trees growing well... At first glance, everything seemed very quiet... eerily quiet.

"...Wait." At this moment, Wang Chaoze also noticed something was off.

"Damn it, my is triggered, I’m out!"

The smile on his face disappeared instantaneously, and he entered a state of readiness, dropping immediately to crouch with his head in his hands, wishing he could hide among the pigs.

Margaret’s face also turned deathly pale upon hearing this sentence.

That horror, enhanced by 500%, was getting close to them!

Margaret was so frightened that she sat down right on the ground, feeling something sticky and chilly on her buttocks, perhaps her skirt had picked up some pig manure, but she had no time to care about that, even wanting to bury herself in the black mud.

...A player had just died, and the Number One Player’s move was too quick!

The three Guides immediately ran away, each hiding in different corners of the pigsty; one even instinctively yanked open a cabinet and hid inside.

"Bang!"

A harsh bursting sound rang out, perhaps it was a mud wall collapsing nearby.

Crouching in the corner with her entire body hidden below a low wall, fear shone in Margaret’s eyes.

She didn’t understand why she was so terrified. As a top-ranked player, she shouldn’t have felt so much dread. But at that moment, she felt like a prey that had encountered a predator, gripped by an innate fear. It was as if if she didn’t hide, run, or conceal herself, she would be brutally tortured and killed.

An invisible oppressive force gradually crept over her, as she felt her breathing grow more rapid and her heartbeat race... This was a fear beyond her control; it seemed as if all her physiological systems were contracting violently, amplifying her dread incessantly.

She heard a vague murmuring sound, as if an Evil God was whispering in her ear, speaking of a philosophy that went against human nature.

She clenched her teeth, her body trembling uncontrollably, her legs beginning to weaken.

...Run! Or...hide!

It was difficult for her to control these thoughts and suppress the fear; it required tremendous courage.

Across from her, Wang Chaoze had already hidden himself among the pigs, cavorting with them.

Footsteps then sounded at this moment.

"Da. Da. Da."

The footsteps stopped at the entrance to the pigsty. At this time, Margaret had gradually mastered her fear and was starting to adapt.

She knew this might be the very fear effect attached to the Ghost of Jiu Shen, making it hard for them to muster the will to fight back. But for some reason, the effect didn’t seem very strong; she was only fearful for a few seconds before returning to normal.

Her hand rubbed against the rough ground, enduring the foul stench that filled her with disgust, she crawled slowly on the ground, keeping her body hidden.

...Don’t come this way, don’t come this way.

She prayed silently. She had a lifesaving prop on her, but she didn’t want to use it here. There was still a long way to go; using it now would be too much of a loss.

Suddenly, she heard a female voice:

"...So stinky, don’t go in, I can’t stand it."

"Seems a bit excessive." A male voice rang out. She was familiar with that voice—it was Su Ming’an’s.

She froze on the ground, not daring to move.

Even a slight sound might attract his attention, and the distance between them was definitely no more than ten meters at this moment.

"Let’s go, let’s go, I really can’t stand this smell." The woman spoke again.

"Alright," the man’s voice responded. "Then let’s go check out the nearby area."

Footsteps sounded once more.

After waiting a while, the three of them slowly got up from the ground. They looked at each other with faces covered in filth, as if they had rolled in mud for ages, surrounded by stench that lingered and never dissipated.

"Damn it, once the altar is carved, I’m definitely going to get back at Su Ming’an...," Wang Chaoze clenched his fists. He had never suffered such humiliation.

"That was too close, way too close. Thank goodness you chose the Keen Perception skill. If we hadn’t hidden, he probably would have found us by now," Margaret said to Tong An’an, still shaken.

Tong An’an also looked terrified, her face pale, having lost any previous inclination for jokes.

The three of them, survivors of the ordeal, looked at each other without disdain for the filthy pigsty. At this point, they were eager to find the altar and complete the carving of all eight altars to regain control.

Meanwhile, Su Ming’an, who had left the pigsty, also felt a tinge of fear.

He had been strolling casually when, upon reaching the entrance, he suddenly sensed three people inside. Wang Chaoze, cavorting with the pigs, was like a lightbulb in the dark, noticed by him at a glance.

Three players and three Guides were hidden inside, and certainly someone among them had the skill for Remote Communication. If even one escaped, it would expose his strength.

Fortunately, Xiber spoke up in time, giving him an excuse to leave; otherwise, turning around and walking away would’ve also aroused the suspicion of these sensitive top-ranked players.

These people thought they were hiding perfectly, unaware that the one they were hiding from was also hiding from them, painfully pretending not to see through their flaws and gaps in hiding.

"Why are you so slow...," Su Ming’an glanced at the still zero count of altars.

"Maybe they are all out shopping," Xiber said. "Or maybe rummaging through boxes."

"Classic," Su Ming’an remarked.