The Fourth Disaster: People become gods through high martial arts and gaming

Chapter 245 How do you know there's nothing good if you don't mess with the NPCs?

"This is defeat?"

Precia stared in disbelief at Hao Wan, who was deeply embedded in the ground and severely injured.

Hao Wan's strength is definitely not weak.

In particular, Hao Wan has already mastered Storm Step, and his instantaneous burst speed can exceed the speed of sound. If he weren't over thirty years old and unable to participate in the next Four Domains Youth Competition, he would definitely have a chance to break into the top 100.

Even if she were to recover to her peak condition now, she wouldn't be able to severely injure Hao Wan in one move. The only ones who could probably severely injure Hao Wan in one move are probably the deputy city lords of each city who possess extraordinary martial arts skills.

Moreover, judging from Ye Qinglu's appearance, although her face was obscured by a gray hood, one could sense that Ye Qinglu was definitely under thirty years old, and might even be younger than her.

Such a genius is hard to imagine being cultivated by a force she had never heard of before, the City of Light.

However, Ye Qinglu, who went head-to-head with Hao Wan, was not without injuries.

As a member of the Mountain Clan, Hao Wan possesses astonishing natural strength. While the standard strength for a high-level martial artist is 4 tons, a Mountain Clan martial artist can reach 5 tons. Upon reaching the high-level Bone Forging Realm, their strength can reach 18 tons. Furthermore, with the completion of a super-level martial skill, their actual strength has long exceeded 20 tons.

While Ye Qinglu severely injured Hao Wan with one move, Hao Wan, as a top-tier expert in the Bone Forging Realm, already possessed exquisite control over his entire body. Coupled with his second-tier weapon, he not only shattered the giant sword formed from condensed energy in one strike, but also deflected the B6-level arrows scattered by the giant sword at a crucial moment, causing a considerable portion of those B6-level arrows to scatter towards Ye Qinglu.

Even though Ye Qinglu was wearing B6-level armor and reacted quickly, she was still hit in the abdomen by a flying B6-level arrow, so she wasn't completely unharmed.

But when Precia turned her gaze to Ye Qinglu, she was completely taken aback.

"fine?"

Precia stood up from the ground, dusted herself off, and pulled out the B6-level arrow that had pierced through her B6-level armor.

Although there was some blood on the arrow, it was clear that the B6-level arrow had only pierced the muscle and had not penetrated it to injure the internal organs. The wound had even stopped bleeding and clotted, which was simply inhuman.

"Truly worthy of being a BOSS. If it weren't for this energy enveloping my entire body, I would have been seriously injured even if I didn't die." Ye Qinglu looked at the B6-level arrow in her hand, which had already shattered into several pieces, and was amazed by the power of the Star Energy Construct Secret Technique.

The shattered arrow that the giant wrist deflected at the end had a force of tens of tons. Under normal circumstances, even a B6-level armor would not be able to withstand such force from metal of the same level, and it could easily pierce through it.

However, the energy surrounding her entire body forcefully weakened the power of the shattered arrow through repulsion, leaving only enough force to pierce her skin and some muscles, making her defense capabilities truly incredible.

Moreover, her recovery ability at this moment is two to three times that of the first level of the Body Strengthening Secret Technique. Her wound has already healed to about 70-80% in this short time, and in at most ten seconds, the wound will be completely healed.

"Sis, are you alright?" Yi Ye Fu Yun asked with concern as she arrived.

Now their team only has three people. If Ye Qinglu, the strongest fighter, dies, then it will be difficult for him and Xiao Yuan to survive in the Dead Mountain Range under normal conditions. After all, the Dead Mountain Range is full of boss monsters. Without Ye Qinglu, who can fight against the low-level bosses under normal conditions, the two of them will only have the option of activating the Star Energy Construct Secret Technique.

The Star Energy Construct Secret Technique consumes a large amount of power and stamina each time it is activated, and lasts for a maximum of five minutes. The only way to replenish it is by absorbing Type II energy potions. This is a secret technique that can only be used in critical moments. It would be a waste to use it to deal with a low-level lord.

"It's nothing, I only lost by half a move." Ye Qinglu shook his head and walked towards the giant wrist that was stuck in the ground, intending to finish it off.

Precia, watching this scene from afar, was at a loss for words.

Ye Qinglu did lose by half a move in the exchange, but Hao Wan lost by half a life.

Just as Ye Qinglu drew her sword to kill Hao Wan, the severely injured Hao Wan suddenly laughed.

"What a fine Obsidian Martial Arts School! I don't care what kind of organization you are, but you and the forces behind you have no idea what kind of power you've provoked!"

"Dare to oppose us, the Smiling Skeletons? Even the Domain City can't protect you. When other teams come looking for our corpses, you'll face endless revenge and destruction!"

After saying that, Hao Wan struggled to touch a device strapped to his waist with his useless hand.

"No! Stop him quickly!"

Upon seeing this, Precia immediately shouted in the human language.

However, Precia's reminder came too late. As Hao Wan's useless hand touched the device at his waist, the device emitted a beam of light that shot into the sky and exploded in mid-air, forming a small red sphere of light that looked like a sun. It could be clearly seen even from tens of kilometers away.

"Damn it! I'm still too slow!"

Precia used a phantom step to appear on Hao Wan's body, and looked at Hao Wan, who had already committed suicide, with an extremely ugly expression.

"A signal flare?" Ye Qinglu looked at the red orb that was still hanging in the air and asked Precia curiously, "Does this mean that more people from the Smiling Skull will be coming soon?"

“That’s right, it’s a signal flare.” Precia nodded and said with a wry smile, “But this signal flare is not an ordinary one. It’s an intrusion warning from the Smiling Skull, alerting the Smiling Skull’s countermeasures team that an external force is targeting the Smiling Skull. Any Smiling Skull member who sees this signal flare must come immediately to eliminate all invading enemies.”

"What was originally just a temporary stronghold of the Smiling Skull has now turned into a situation where the entire Smiling Skull is mobilized, making it even more difficult to leave the Mountain of the Dead."

"Is what this beautiful lady said true? Will they all really gather here?" After hearing this, Yi Ye Fu Yun, who had walked over, looked at Precia with some excitement.

"Yes, I estimate that a large number of Smiling Skull members will gather here in about ten minutes." Precia nodded, looking at the excited Leaf of Clouds, and understood that the situation was indeed bad, even terrible.

"Sis! This is great! We're rich now!" Yi Ye Fu Yun burst into laughter, his mouth almost unable to close. "We couldn't find them no matter how hard we looked before, but now they've actually come to us on their own. This operation was absolutely worth it."

The items dropped by the Smiling Skeletons in the Dead Mountain are exceptionally good.

The orc man not only acquired a set of Tier 2 armor and Tier 2 weapons, but also had a lot of energy crystals and Type 3 energy potions that the martial arts school didn't have.

It has to be said that the new map is indeed of a higher level, and the drops are all good items, making it much better than the wilderness map.

I originally thought this was just a one-off deal, and I didn't know how many days it would take before I could encounter such a good thing again. I didn't expect that this random event was a chain event, and more Smiling Skull members would appear later. It's so awesome!
Especially the Tier 2 armor and energy crystals that drop are great items that can be exchanged for Crimson Moon Town reputation.

A complete set of Tier 2 armor can be exchanged for 30,000 contribution points and 1,000 reputation points at the martial arts school, while an energy crystal can be exchanged for 5,000 contribution points and 50 reputation points.

Nowadays, it's incredibly difficult to increase your reputation in Red Moon Town in the game. Normally, it would take at least ten days to half a month of quests to accumulate 3,000 reputation points. Upgrading the inner disciple's attire is even more difficult, not to mention the core disciple's attire, which requires 50,000 reputation points to upgrade.

If a large number of Smiling Skull members could join, it wouldn't be impossible for them to achieve not only "Respect" but also "Honor" in Red Moon Town.

"Aren't you planning to escape?" Precia looked at One Leaf in surprise, feeling that One Leaf was completely unaware of the situation. The signal flare that Hao Wan sent out before his death could summon more than just one or two teams of Smiling Skull members; it could easily be a dozen teams, or even more. It was far beyond what One Leaf, with only seven people, could handle.

“No! We plan to stay here.” Ye Qinglu shook her head and said with a smile, “If you feel it’s not safe to leave here, we can escort you away first.”

"Are you all crazy? What grudge do you have against the Smiling Skull that you have to go to such lengths?" Precia looked at Fang Zhen and the others who had also come over and were quite excited and happy to hear the news that a large number of Smiling Skull members would be gathering, and thought that Ye Qinglu and the others were simply insane.

"A grudge?" Yi Ye Fuyun thought for a moment, then said righteously, "No, we were just carrying out a mission. After all, offering our hearts to the Master is our duty as disciples."

Upon hearing this, Fang Zhen and the others, who were not far away, all cast disdainful glances at Yi Ye Fuyun. Even when doing a mission, he couldn't resist trying to curry favor with the sect leader; it was simply shameless.

However, Yi Ye Fuyun didn't take it seriously. Instead, he rolled his eyes at Fang Zhen and the others, thinking that these professional gamers had no idea what the essence of playing MMORPGs was.

For an ordinary player, getting closer to NPCs and increasing their favorability is the most basic thing. This gives you a better chance of getting some hidden good stuff in the game, not to mention getting on the good side of the guild master.

"Offer your heart? An obligation?" Precia was stunned. She never expected that the brainwashing of disciples by the Obsidian Martial Arts School would be so terrifying. Even the death squads trained in Domain City were probably far inferior to this method.

"Beautiful lady, how about I escort you away?" Yi Ye Fu Yun asked, looking at the stunned Precia.

For Precia, who was standing in front of them, this was a godsend. Although the value of eliciting the Smiling Skull was gone, there might be other quests they could take on, and they might even be able to make some money.

“No need to trouble yourself, I can get out of here on my own.” Precia looked at One Leaf Floating Cloud and felt that this One Leaf Floating Cloud seemed to have some ulterior motive for her, so she instinctively refused. “However, before you leave, this thing might be useful to you. I found it in the Smiling Skull’s temporary stronghold. I hope it can be of some help to you.”

As she spoke, Precia took out an old paper map from her clothes and handed it directly to Yiye Fuyun.

Upon seeing a floating cloud, he was overjoyed.

You really have to interact with NPCs a bit to know if they have anything good.

"Then I'll take my leave. I hope I'll have the chance to see you again next time." Precia looked at the cloud leaf she had found as a treasure and breathed a sigh of relief. She was seriously injured and her combat power was greatly reduced. Although she had no grudge against the Obsidian Martial Arts School, she still had to give them some benefits for her own safety. Otherwise, she might not be able to leave this place.

After all, the people in front of them, including Yi Ye Fu Yun, were not normal people at all; they were more like a group of madmen who didn't even know they were madmen.

She was genuinely afraid of such a madman.

After finishing her sentence, Precia ignored what Yi Ye Fuyun wanted to say next, covered her injured arm with one hand, and used Illusion Step to quickly disappear from the sight of Yi Ye Fuyun and the others.

"Hey! Beautiful lady! Wait a minute!" Yi Ye Fu Yun shouted anxiously as he watched Precia run away. "I can't read, can you tell me what kind of map this is?"

However, Yi Ye Fu Yun discovered that the louder he shouted, the faster Precia ran, giving him absolutely no chance. Even if he activated his superhuman mode, he probably couldn't catch up.

"This beautiful NPC is so inconsiderate! Who gives you only half of what you need? At least tell me what map this is and where you're going!" Yi Ye Fu Yun said, speechless as he watched Precia disappear.

The entire map was filled with words he didn't recognize, and it was exactly the same as the map on his smartwatch, so giving it to him or not made no difference.

"May I take a look?" the Dark Judgment suddenly asked.

"You can read?" Yi Ye Fu Yun looked at Fang Zhen in surprise.

“I don’t know him.” Dark Judgment shook his head.

"What use would it be to you?" A Leaf of Clouds rolled its eyes at Dark Judgment.

“Although I can’t read, I can read maps,” Dark Judgment said. “In reality, I often need to look at various mission maps for work. Even if I can read, I can roughly understand what they mean if I get some annotations.”

"So you're a map expert! My apologies!" Upon hearing this, One Leaf Cloud quickly took out a map and showed it to Dark Judgment. "Take a look at this map. Is there any treasure?"

The Dark Tribunal said nothing about this, but simply began to examine the map intently.

The entire map is the same as the map on the smartwatch in the game; the only difference is that there is some additional text and a few lines.

After examining it for a while, Dark Judgment said seriously, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a transportation route map, but I don't know what it's transporting."

"A treasure map?" Upon hearing this, Yi Ye Fuyun immediately put away the map and was overjoyed. "I knew it was important to increase the favorability of NPCs. You all looked down on me before, now you know how powerful I am!"

"A transportation route map? Are you sure you didn't misread it?" Fang Zhen was also shocked when he heard this.

I never thought such a good thing would happen to Yi Ye Fuyun. As for what the Smiling Skull is transporting, even a fool knows it must be treasure. Could it be transporting missiles?
"It should be correct. It looks a lot like many of the transport route maps I've seen before, but I don't know the specific details, dates, or times of the transport." Dark Judgment nodded.

"It's okay if I don't know the time. I can just wait from morning till night," said Yiye Fuyun with a smile.

"Can the three of you handle all that? There are so many routes! If you miss it, you won't get another chance." Fang Zhen looked at the map that Yi Ye Fuyun had put away, and was also very tempted. He quickly said, "If you take it out, how about we share half of what we get with you?"

"Alright." Yi Ye Fuyun thought about it and agreed with Fang Zhen, and then made an agreement with Fang Zhen and the others.

Meanwhile, more than 20 kilometers away, Precia heard a deafening roar behind her, indicating that the battle was exceptionally fierce.

"It seems they are in grave danger." Precia glanced behind her. Just the smiling skeletons she had seen earlier numbered over forty, and these were only those who had come from the outer perimeter of the Mountain of the Dead. There must have been even more who had come from the depths of the Mountain of the Dead. Even if Ye Qinglu and his seven companions were all deputy city lord level experts, they would not survive today.

Precia then stopped and ran towards the outer edge of the Dead Mountain Range, preparing to take the opportunity to leave.

A day later, Precia, who had escaped back to Star City, also received some startling news.

"What did you say, senior brother? The Smiling Skull's temporary stronghold was destroyed? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?" Precia looked at the half-scaled man in white robes standing in front of her. Although he was just standing there and did not release any blood energy, he still made Precia feel terrified.

“I went there according to the coordinates you gave me. If the coordinates are correct, that temporary stronghold was indeed destroyed. I scouted out more than a hundred members of the Smiling Skull who died. However, I didn’t see the high-ranking member of the Smiling Skull you mentioned. They must have escaped.” The half-scaled man nodded.

"To destroy one of the Smiling Skull's temporary strongholds and let that person escape, which force could have done this?" Precia was filled with shock and confusion after hearing this. "Could it be that some major force from the opposing Tianhe Domain made a move?"

"Whether it's a force from the Tianhe Region or not, I don't know. However, I did learn some information about that force from the members of the Smiling Skull I captured," the half-scaled man said. "Of course, I've also heard about the Smiling Skull members. They say that the people who attacked that temporary stronghold were all dressed in silver-gray clothing. Now, the people in the Smiling Skull group call these people the Gray-Clad Men."

(End of this chapter)