In fact, there were very few players who could guarantee that they were not injured before they gathered.
After all, this was not a game of manipulating the keyboard, mouse, or controller.
Even the legendary sword-god player who hammered Ganon [1] to death with a chicken leg in 22 seconds would panic for a moment when he used a real weapon to fight for his life for the first time.
They were the ones with fewer people.
There was a saying hesitation shall lead to defeat.
Those who did not decide to fight right away and players who decided to fight but did not have enough skills had suffered injuries in the robbers’ hands at least once or twice. The one with the worst luck has respawned in the creep group in two consecutive respawns. He was in his third life already.
But that was not to say that players were noobs.
Based on the numbers, five players had already defeated more than ten enemies. After realizing that killing enemies could gain experience, the players would kill all enemies in their field of vision like mad dogs.
Just like Lin Yiyi. After the players defeated their first enemy, they immediately realized that their current Strength and Agility were undoubtedly overwhelming for these robbers.
What determined how many enemies they defeat depends only on how many enemies they could find.
Of these three special mission requirements, the most difficult one was not the third, but the second one. How to not sustain any damage?
“I don’t have a shield or roll skill. It’s challenging to have no injuries.”
A player who did not want to reveal his real name said so.
In the end, it turned out that there were only three people who could remain unharmed up to now:
Firstly, the retired professional player “Wandering Child” who had not encountered an enemy yet.
Secondly, “Delicious Wind Goose” who had killed five enemies with smooth swordsmanship; the card game streamer who was also an enthusiast for armored combat sport.
Lastly, the reckless Lin Yiyi who was not bad in mechanical skills.
Moreover, the three of them put their skillpoints on [Charge], [Basic Swordsmanship], and [Parry], respectively. Amongst them, the character’s attributes’ focus was distinguished into Agility-Constitution, Strength-Constitution, and Strength-Agility. Hence, these three players took a vital role in exploring and comparing the rewards obtained in the end, under the circumstances that the mission completion reached 100%.
Since the player who had sustained no harm had so many values, they would not participate in the dangerous operation.
Rather, it was fortunate that all of them had such awareness.
After paying the price of three lives, the players concluded how to use Black Fire:
Throw it far away.
“This fuse is deceiving! Either it has been cut short, or it is impossible to run away in time after having the fuse ignited!”
Several testers who had respawned said with lingering fear, “This thing hurts too much.”
Once Black Fire got in contact with a typical flame, it would explode immediately. It directly blew up a massive flame with a range of at least five meters. Those who got into contact would be burned to death.
But if the Black Fire had struck on something, the liquid inside would set ablaze slowly with the reaction on the surrounding air. Although it was equally dangerous, at least the convict would not be hurt.
Moreover, enemies burned to death by the Black Fire were counted as individual kills. It would increase the number of kills. Annan set the individual kill condition based on the percentage of damage.
Of course, that was to prevent players from frantically coming up with any cheat methods to gain experience. For example, enemies who sustained 30% damage from traps would not render any experiences.
A player raised a possibility, “Is this a magic fantasy game?”
The players immediately started discussing in a low volume:
“It’s possible…”
“Although the scene flashed by quickly, the players saw the victim immediately fall to the ground in pain after Don Juan’s simple slap.”
“Let’s not draw a conclusion. That person might be someone who scammed someone by faking an injury.”
Just as they were discussing, the three people selected had already started using Black Fire and began the work of “farming the creeps.”
As they threw the Black Fire, the players saw the number of kills increase. The only pity was that when using this method to kill enemies, they could not get experience.
Logically speaking, they should hunt the creeps and kill them one by one. Only in this way that the players would maximize their experience gain. After seeing that more than half of the thirty-minute time limit was depleted, the players began to feel a little anxious.
After Lin Yiyi and the three of them completed the third mission, the other players also started to bring the Black Fire, throwing them into various corners where the enemies could hide.
But until they almost ran out of Black Fire and filled all possible hiding areas with flames, there were still short of two kills:
[Main mission: The Tribulation of Black Fire]
[Mission requirements: Kill all Roseburg’s private troops (112114). Destroy or seize all Black Fire (0/50) within 30 minutes.]
“Only at this time, I think having the game too realistic is bad.”
Delicious Wind Goose complained, “I want a minimap. Or maybe something to mark the enemy. This dazzling fire is hurting my eyes.”
“No, no, I still prefer this realistic approach.”
Lin Yiyi murmured, “Such an awesome game. Do you all still have any dissatisfaction with it? For this kind of mission to hunt down the last person, even if you’re provided with a minimap, you may not be able to find it.”
“We are the chosen children.”
Wandering Child on the side repeated what he had said before.
“Have they fled already?”
Jiu Er asked softly with some worry.
“Impossible.”
One player replied, “My starting area is on higher terrain. I can see it clearly that we have driven all these robbers toward the middle. We have respawned around them.”
“That’s weird…”
“Can’t they see those two remaining people?”
Annan narrowed his eyes slightly.
He could see it clearly from the creator’s perspective.
The remaining two people squatted not far from the crowd. He crouched on the spot, daring not to move.
Listening to dozens of people chatting delightfully while discussing how to eliminate all of them, the two of them looked at each other in horror. Their spirits were close to collapsing.
The two of them were no more than six meters away from the nearest player.
But, no players could see them.
Is this some kind of invisibility gimmick?
“It’s just about time for me to appear.”
Annan whispered.
He led a group of militias on night shifts, riding horses towards the bright fire. The group would be arriving soon.
Indeed, the fire was raging.
These players were still oblivious to that.
Under the circumstance of allowing environmental destruction, the spread of the fire was difficult to prevent.
When the players reacted, it was a bit late,
“Wait a minute, are we surrounded!?”
Lin Yiyi felt the air getting hotter and hotter. She immediately tensed up.
She quickly interrupted the conversation, “This fire is getting bigger and bigger!”
“What…”
“Get out first! Don’t worry, move out the Black Fire that is under control. This thing should be valuable! I think even if we can’t sell it, it can at least improve the mission evaluation ratings!”
“What if they explode when they get close to the fire!?”
Someone yelled, “This thing will explode when it catches fire!”
Delicious Wind Goose replied forthrightly, “Then, we still have to move them out! We need to bring them out one by one! Don’t go out together! If these fires surround us, these Black Fires will explode sooner or later here!”
After he said so, he lifted two barrels of Black Fire with each hand and took the lead to rush out.
Then, he did not hesitate and quickly ran towards the unhindered path amidst the sea of fire.
Other players also reacted quickly.
The next one was Lin Yiyi because she lost the scabbard and needed to carry the sword in one hand, so she only brought a barrel of Black Fire.
The players quickly moved the Black Fire out in an orderly manner.
When the seventh person passed, the two barrels of Black Fire on that player exploded.
The bursting flame engulfed the player in an instant. He could not even shout before he was burned crisp clean.
This was the first time that other players witnessed the scene of the player’s death.
It was like the whole person turned into burnt ashes, collapsing internally downward. Then, it was blown away in the air current coming from the explosion.
With his death, the sea of ??flames finally enshrouded the area. There was no way to transport the Black Fire anymore, but there were still small gaps in the sea of fire. The players still had chances to flee away.
More than thirty players in it, including the player, respawned and fell out of thin air in embarrassment.
“Huh, you can’t seem to glitch out of this area.”
He was disappointed.
The others also signaled each other for their evacuation.
At this time, the players abandoned the kills for the last two robbers.
However, the players in the sea of ??fire suddenly heard the exclamation of the players who had run out,
“Eh!”
“This person is…”
“—Young Master Don Juan!”
The clever Lin Yiyi noticed it firsthand.
She interrupted the others directly and shouted in the loudest voice.
Hearing her voice, the players who had just gotten nervous inside the area were alerted.
Lin Yiyi did that to warn the players inside, telling them not to talk nonsense in front of “important NPCs.” It was like when the students were fooling in the classroom, the classmate watching over by the door greeted the teacher loudly,
“Young Master, we are back! That viscount is attempting to murder you. This is the Black Fire they brought! There are still people trapped by the fire behind!”
“I see. I’ll get them out.”
The people in the sea of ??fire heard Don Juan Geraint’s cold and immature voice, “Yiyi, you take good care of my horse.”
[1] https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/Ganon