Translator: AnubisTL
"I..."
A flicker of confusion crossed Dong Yin's face. After a moment of silent struggle, she gritted her teeth, lowered her head, and began dropping the dried noodles into the boiling water to cook.
But then...
As she added the noodles and glanced at the nearby seasonings, a wave of frustration washed over her, and she choked out in a trembling voice, "I-I don't know how to cook noodles."
"You don't know how to cook noodles?" Scar Dog's face instantly turned cold. "Then you have no reason to exist."
"No!"
Hearing this, Dong Yin suddenly heard the click of a gun being cocked behind her, and terror flashed in her eyes. "No, I—"
"Enough."
Chen Jiang, sitting nearby, casually interjected, "Enough, Scar Dog. You've had your fun. Don't push it."
"Fine."
Scar Dog shrugged and slowly lowered his shotgun, clearly losing interest in the game.
"Thank you!"
A hint of gratitude flickered across Dong Yin's face as she murmured her thanks, a smug satisfaction blooming in her heart.
I knew it, she thought. Even with the unexpected twists, everything would turn out fine.
She bowed slightly, expressing her gratitude with another curtsy. As she bent, she seemingly inadvertently revealed a glimpse of her cleavage.
Though she didn't look up, she knew Chen Jiang was staring intently at her.
The glimpse lasted less than two seconds before she began to straighten up.
When dealing with men, you can't satisfy them all at once. You have to keep them hooked, little by little.
Just as she was about to rise smoothly, casually approach Chen Jiang, and sit beside him to explain why she was there...
Bang!
A deafening gunshot rang out from behind her.
The light in Dong Yin's eyes instantly dimmed. Her body was thrown forward by the impact. In her final moment of consciousness, she forced her head to turn toward Chen Jiang.
Chen Jiang was tilting his head back, drinking cola, completely oblivious to her deliberately exposed cleavage.
This... Is Chen Jiang fucking gay?!
How could any normal man be uninterested in a pitifully vulnerable beauty who was practically flaunting her assets?!
Though her looks were average, in this wilderness where grooming was impossible, she was confident that with a little effort, she could stir the dark desires lurking in any man's heart.
Fortunately, she was a human player with the racial innate ability of phoenix nirvana.
Since Chen Jiang wouldn't respond to gentle persuasion, she'd have to resort to force.
She refused to believe she couldn't find a man capable of subduing Chen Jiang. Once she did, she'd drag him into her bedroom and forcibly strip him of his innate ability!
"Ahem."
Scar Dog casually twirled his shotgun in the air before tucking it back into his chest. He strode over to the woman's body, pulled out a syringe, and jabbed it into her neck.
His earlier shot hadn't been aimed at her head.
He'd targeted her back, ensuring a critical wound that would bring her to the brink of death instantly, without killing her outright.
The syringe contained a drug that would prevent her death, but wouldn't heal her injuries. It was merely a temporary reprieve, a souped-up version of adrenaline.
Scar Dog skillfully stripped the woman of her clothes, space bracelet, and every visible item.
"Tsk," he muttered, pawing through the loot. "These days, every woman who wanders out has a space bracelet."
"Brother Jiang, here."
He activated an energy block, summoning several slaves armed with hoes. In no time, they dug a pit and buried the woman—vertically, with only her head protruding from the ground. The entire process took mere minutes.
With the task completed, Scar Dog sighed in relief and plopped down in front of Brother Jiang, looking slightly troubled. "Brother Jiang, why is it so hard to find someone who can make noodles these days?"
"I think our team needs a cook."
"Hmm," Chen Jiang nodded noncommittally, crushing the empty cola can in his hand and tossing it casually into a nearby open phantom gate.
Yes, the open phantom gate served as a trash can.
It's incredibly convenient for handling trash.
Scar Dog handed over the space bracelet. After a casual glance at the items inside, Chen Jiang was slightly surprised. "There's quite a lot of stuff here."
He stuffed all the items into his pockets before tossing the bracelet to Li Hao. "You don't have a space bracelet yet, right? This is yours."
Throughout the entire exchange, no one showed the slightest surprise at Scar Dog's sudden gunshot.
It wasn't necessarily that the woman's acting was terrible.
The main reason was that Li Hao's map manifestation easily revealed her movements. They had watched her circle the world tree for three full hours.
At first, they thought Liu Yiping was approaching.
But when they realized it was a woman with a slightly scabbed, no longer bleeding wound, they understood why she had been circling the world tree for so long. She was likely trying to find mutated beasts or alien race players to create the illusion of being chased and accidentally stumbling into their territory.
Unfortunately for her...
How could any petty thief dare approach the lion in its slumber?
They had already thoroughly cleared the area.
Perhaps this woman had grown desperate, deciding to brazenly walk toward them.
As for her true motives, they remained unknown.
But all they needed to know was that she meant no good.
After all, in the wilderness, anyone who boldly strode toward a group of unknown individuals—whether mechanical or human—feasting ahead was either insane or already knew their identities and had a plan.
"It's just a bit of a shame," Scar Dog murmured, shaking his head slightly. He glanced at the woman, only her head visible above the ground, and sighed. "I was hoping to snag a bowl of noodles."
The reason they had left her head exposed instead of killing her outright was to prevent her from reviving and escaping.
The human race had only two methods of resurrection:
First, reviving on the spot.
Second, reviving at the location where they had been 24 hours prior.
Therefore, all they needed to do was imprison the woman here for 24 hours and then shoot her dead. This way, no matter where she chose to resurrect, they could kill both her lives.
A thorough solution to eliminate any future threats.
Although they weren't sure if the woman had already used her racial innate ability, they decided to play it safe and follow this procedure.
After all, they were quite familiar with this routine.
"She probably knows Brother Jiang is here and was planning to use her looks to seduce him, hoping to latch onto his coattails," Li Hao analyzed with a serious expression. "If I were a woman with decent looks, I might do the same."
"Her looks are just average, but with some makeup, she could be presentable. It's a bit of a waste to kill her like this."
"What, feeling sorry for her?" Scar Dog glanced at Li Hao casually. "Simple. There's still her head sticking out, right? Wait for her to wake up, pull out all her teeth, and she'll be just as useful."
"Uh..."
A flicker of interest flashed in Li Hao's eyes. After a moment of hesitation, he asked tentatively, "Really?"
Scar Dog remained expressionless for a moment before slowly rising and turning to Li Hao. "I admit I underestimated you before. You wouldn't actually do this, would you?"
"Hmm, why wouldn't I?"
"Alright, brother. You've earned my respect."
"So, should I clear out of your way now?"
"Are you pulling her teeth, or am I?"
"Enough."
Chen Jiang interrupted, his face slightly exasperated. "Even if you want to, find someone of better quality. This one's too cheap."
He then stood up and headed toward the armored vehicle. "I'm going to handle some business. You guys clean up here."
"Got it."
Throughout the entire exchange, no one suggested interrogating the woman to learn her motives.
Knowing her intentions were hostile was enough.
The rest didn't matter.
However, if the insect race player Dudu were to find out, she might be devastated by the woman's death. If Dudu were to kill this woman during the guardian of kindling city activity, she could strip away her innate ability.
If she could find a powerful human player to mate with each month, wouldn't she be able to stack innate abilities indefinitely?!
Unfortunately, during the Guardian of Kindling City event, all her insect race players had been trapped inside the city.
Most of the city's residents possessed innate abilities related to logistics. Those with even slightly combat-oriented abilities had been conscripted into the guard corps, preparing for a final showdown with the alien race players.
Of course, no innate ability was truly useless.
Human players with completely useless innate abilities were armed with firearms and sent to the front lines.
Thus, the insect race player Dudu had failed to acquire any truly powerful innate abilities, only the self-destruct ability. Had she managed to steal a combat-oriented ability, her combat power would have increased a hundredfold!
For example, even an ability like Dong Yin's, which allowed her to randomly draw a one-star item daily, would have been devastating. Given the insect race players' density, they could have produced tens of thousands, even nearly a hundred thousand, one-star items every day!
Naturally, Chen Jiang remained unaware of Dudu's and Dong Yin's innate abilities.
Otherwise, he would have captured Dudu as a slave, forced her to steal Dong Yin's ability, and then mass-produced insect race players to provide him with a daily flood of one-star items!
This was essentially a one-star item manufacturing machine from the perpetual motion machine series!
Sitting in his armored vehicle, Chen Jiang first opened his Achievement Compendium and looked at the "Alien Nightmare Achievement."
[Achievement Name: Alien Nightmare]
[Trigger Conditions: Total kills of alien race players: 1,000,000, 5,000,000, 10,000,000.]
[Completion Status: No stages unlocked.]
[Player Chen Jiang's current total alien race player kills: 823,010.]
Including the kills from the Guardian of Kindling City event, Chen Jiang had eliminated a total of 820,000 alien race players in the nearly four months he had been in the Ten Thousand Races Arena.
He was now only 180,000 kills away from unlocking the first stage of the achievement.
He remembered that unlocking the first stage of this achievement would reward him with a fashion item: "Bloodstained Suit Pants."
He already possessed three pieces of this fashion set. Obtaining this fourth piece would activate a set effect.
He wondered what the set effect would be. As long as it didn't involve a golden circle appearing beneath his feet or something similar, he was generally open to any other set effect.
He then pulled a token from his chest pocket.
This token was the item he had exchanged for 50,000 kindling points at the kindling shop.
Now that he finally had time, he took it out for a closer examination.
After all, he had been utterly exhausted after the guardian of kindling city event concluded, giving it only a cursory glance before stashing it in his space bracelet.
[Item Name]: Activity Design Token
[Item Star]: Three-Star Item
[Item Effect]: You can design a global event according to your own ideas, but any obvious bugs or exploits will be automatically corrected.
[Item Description]: "I'd rather make the rules than follow them." — A declaration from a failed art student on some distant planet.
This single item cost 50,000 kindling points, equivalent to killing 50,000 alien race players.
Was it worth it? If he could secure the top ranking in his own designed global event and obtain one or even two three-star items, then absolutely.
After all, 50,000 kindling points wouldn't even buy a single three-star item.
But if he failed to secure a top ranking in his own globally designed event and instead let other players claim all the rewards, it would be a catastrophic loss.
Chen Jiang narrowed his eyes slightly, studying the line describing the item effect, deep in thought.
What does it mean by "obvious bugs and excessive exploits will be automatically corrected"?
Does that imply less obvious bugs and less egregious exploits will be allowed to stand?
He nodded thoughtfully, beginning to consider how to design this global event.
How about a global suicide competition?
Then I could survive with my two lives while all the alien race players perish?
Or perhaps a global fire pit jump?
Hmm... those would probably be automatically corrected, right?
Just as he was lost in thought, a notification chimed in his ear.
[Global Announcement!]
[Ape-man race player Suville has activated a two-star item: Activity Design Token.]
[He has created the challenging event "Ten-Thousand-Meter Vine." One hundred players will be randomly selected from each race to participate.]
[Live footage of each race's performance will be broadcast in real-time at the Ten Thousand Races Arena, allowing all non-participating players to spectate.]
[Activity Countdown—]
[00:00:59]
(End of the Chapter)
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