I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

Silence fell over the meeting room.

The surge in monsters, their aggressive attacks, and the transformation of the wilderness into a no-go zone—these three factors combined mean that basic activities such as leveling up, running dungeons, and gathering resources will all come to a standstill in the short term.

This is catastrophic bad news for any guild.

All eyes were on Li Wu.

Li Wu stood in front of the sand table, silent, staring at the ever-spreading red dots.

His mind was racing.

The number of monsters has increased fivefold, and areas above level 35 are now filled with elite monsters.

It has an extremely high density.

The number of monsters has increased fivefold?

That would mean a fivefold increase in profits.

Li Wu's lips twitched slightly.

He looked up and glanced around at the worried faces in front of him.

"You all think this is bad news?"

Immovable as a mountain paused for a moment, then said, "Isn't that right?"

"no."

Li Wu's voice was calm, but what she said made everyone think they had misheard.

"This is good news."

Steel Shield opened his mouth: "Guild Master, you..."

"The surge in monster numbers means a surge in experience points. No one dares to leave the city, which means zero competition." Li Wu stared at the dense red dots on the sand table, his eyes growing brighter. "What others see as a disaster is our opportunity."

Hua Zitong looked at him without speaking, but her brows relaxed slightly. She roughly guessed what Li Wu was thinking.

"I want to leave the city," Li Wu said.

"Where to?" Hua Zitong asked.

"The Cursed Land".

He stood up abruptly, as if struck by lightning: "Guild Master, there are hundreds, even thousands, of level 45 elite ghouls over there. You're going alone—"

"Go alone." Li Wu glanced at him. "You stay in the city and take care of the home."

The entire conference room erupted in chaos.

"No!" Steel Shield was the first to object. "It's too dangerous! The density of those monsters..."

"I know how high the density is," Li Wu interrupted him, "which is why I'm going."

"President, what exactly are you..." Mohen hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.

Li Wu didn't explain much.

He only did one thing.

He raised his hand, conjuring a basic energy arrow, and aimed it at the training dummy in the corner of the conference room.

That dummy was a fine gold training dummy that Lin Hai purchased from Ironforge at a high price. Its defense was equivalent to that of a level 40 plate-armored warrior, and it was specifically used to test damage output.

The arrow leaves the bowstring.

A flash of white light streaked past, so fast it was almost invisible.

A fist-sized hole appeared in the chest of the adamantite dummy; the arrow had pierced through it and embedded itself in the stone wall behind it. A spiderweb-like pattern of cracks appeared on the stone wall.

A damage number popped up on the system panel.

8386!

The arrow dealt over 8,300 damage.

No one spoke in the meeting room.

The ink mark gaped open, unable to close its mouth for a long time.

Steel Shield stared blankly at the pierced adamantine dummy, his Adam's apple bobbing twice.

He remained motionless and slowly sat back down.

"Guild Master," his voice was soft, "what is your magic attack power... right now?"

"Two thousand four hundred and sixty-two." Li Wu withdrew his hand, his tone as calm as if he were reporting today's weather.

Two thousand four hundred and sixty-two.

"When...when did you become so strong?" Lin Hai's voice was a little distorted.

"Just now," Li Wu didn't explain further, "so those level 45 elite ghouls in the Cursed Lands aren't a threat to me. They're resources."

When he talked about resources, his tone was very natural, as if he were discussing an unmined mineral vein.

Hua Zitong took a deep breath; she truly couldn't stop this man. In fact, given the strength he was currently displaying, the elite monsters of the Cursed Lands were probably just easy targets for him to level up.

"While I'm away, Hua Zitong will be in full command." Li Wu looked at everyone. "Steel Shield and Immovable Mountain will be in charge of defense, and Night Wind will be in charge of intelligence monitoring. Lin Hai, double the amount of war supplies."

"Double it?" Lin Hai exclaimed in surprise. "What for?"

"It won't be long before we initiate war."

When he said that, no one in the meeting room understood.

Initiating war? Against whom? Monsters? Players?

Hua Zitong frowned slightly. She looked into Li Wu's eyes, trying to read something from them, but those eyes were as calm as a stagnant pool, revealing nothing.

"How long do you plan to stay outside?" Hua Zitong asked.

"It depends." Li Wu walked towards the teleportation array. "One day, two days, or longer."

"careful."

"Um."

A white light flashed, and Li Wu's figure disappeared into the teleportation array.

Hua Zitong stood there, looking in the direction he disappeared, and whispered something that only she could hear.

"What has this guy discovered this time?"

……

The moment the teleportation beam dissipated, a stench of decay assaulted our senses.

Cursed Land.

Beneath our feet lay dark brown soil, green toxic smog particles floated in the air, and the sky in our field of vision was a perpetual dark red, like a piece of moldy cloth.

A system notification popped up.

You have entered the area: The Cursed Lands.

[Environmental Effect: Plague Corruption - Deals 50 fixed damage every 10 seconds, and reduces healing received by 20%.]

Li Wu glanced at the environmental effects but didn't take them seriously. Although his health wasn't high, the 50 points of environmental damage every ten seconds was nothing to him; a single Holy Light spell would restore it all.

He stood on a high ground and looked around.

Everywhere I looked, there were monsters.

Hordes of plague ghouls roam the wilderness, their bodies rotting and green, emitting muffled howls.

Level 45 Elite.

The density is frighteningly high.

There were seventy or eighty within his field of vision, and even more further away.

It seems that the statement made by the unmoved mountain earlier, "at least a thousand," was not an exaggeration at all.

Any normal player seeing this would immediately turn and run.

Li Wu's reaction was to draw his bow.

He didn't use any fancy secret inscription combinations; he simply fired a Star-Burning Arrow, which he had charged for two seconds, at the densest group of ghouls.

The dark red energy singularity, trailing spatial ripples, slowly flew towards its target.

hit.

Unfold.

Domain generation.

A dark red, semi-transparent sphere with a diameter of fifteen meters instantly took shape, enveloping at least twenty ghouls within its range.

The domain began to evolve, the color of the flames changing from dark red to orange, from orange to white, and from white to blue. Energy proliferated, compressed, and distorted wildly within the domain.

Three seconds later, the Ruins collapsed.

"boom!!"

The sound waves from the explosion reverberated, shaking the ground within a fifty-meter radius. Dust billowed, and the toxic fumes were dispersed.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the area was empty.

All twenty-four plague ghouls were wiped out.