Chapter 27: Those Who Come Mean No Good! Wolves Ahead, Tigers Behind...

"I'll buy this helmet. Little brother Hou, are you trying to compete with your big sister for it?"

The speaker was none other than Yu Yourong.

Hearing this, Hou Xiaoyu shook his head decisively. "I'm building a burst-assassin archetype; physical lifesteal is useless for me, and it doesn't align with my talents."

Even though the equipment didn't match his class, in the early stages of the game, the importance of a piece of Purple-tier gear was self-evident. However, Hou Xiaoyu knew that if the expert was willing to carry him, finding gear suitable for himself was only a matter of time. Therefore, there was no need to make things difficult for the expert over this.

Yu Yourong turned to Su Nian with a playful smile. "So, Expert, what do you think is a fair price for this purple gear? How about five thousand?"

"No rush for that. Let's secure the final first clear first." As Su Nian spoke, he handed over the purple equipment.

"Alright!"

After responding, Yu Yourong quickly took the Bloodthirsty Helmet out of her backpack and handed it to Su Yu, who was standing nearby. "Put it on, quick!"

Physical lifesteal, magic resistance, and increased attack—the class that benefited most from this gear was undoubtedly the Archer!

"Me?" Su Yu was slightly stunned. Although she didn't know exactly how good this purple gear was, Sister Yourong had just mentioned... five thousand? A piece of gear worth five thousand was being given to her just like that?

"Yes, what are you standing there for?" Yu Yourong pressed the purple gear into Su Yu's arms and said earnestly, "This equipment will only reach its maximum value in your hands! Besides, I'm not giving it to you for free—consider it payment for keeping me company in this game! How about it?"

After Yu Yourong’s words, seeing Su Yu obediently equip the gear, she smiled with satisfaction.

After this brief interlude, the three of them followed Su Nian as they set off on their journey again.

...

The final boss was named the Twisted Treant, a massive tree demon standing over ten meters tall. Although it possessed powerful crowd-control abilities, it was the easiest to defeat among the four major bosses outside the novice village.

When Su Nian had stacked his execution probability to a decent level, he had the three of them stand outside the Twisted Treant's attack range. He then began to pull the boss's aggro alone, standing still and attacking with basic strikes as if he were idling.

[The Twisted Treant triggers a group crowd-control skill—Root Bind!]
[HP -366!]
[HP -366!]
[...]

When a skill that could crowd-control over a dozen people was unleashed entirely on a single person, Su Nian's health instantly dropped by over five thousand!

But just as the Twisted Treant was wondering how this puny human hadn't died yet after such a barrage of skills...

[HP +4677.]
[HP +4677.]

Just two seconds later, bolstered by the War Helmet’s 6% HP recovery per second, the sliver of health that had vanished from above Su Nian’s head was completely restored!

"???"

Seeing this, the Twisted Treant’s massive body stiffened instantly, and its bark-covered face displayed a human-like expression of shock and disbelief!

Wait... are the humans in the novice village this strong nowadays? Do they all have tens of thousands of HP? How is there even a point in fighting anymore!

Just as the Twisted Treant sank into despair and prepared to give up resistance, a voice rang out.

"Expert, a large group of people is approaching outside the boss's territory!"

Hou Xiaoyu's shout caused Su Nian to frown, and he immediately saw over a hundred red dots outside the boss's lair on the shared map.

"They're not here with good intentions," Su Nian muttered, decisively pulling away from the boss. Seeing the human move away, the Twisted Treant very sensibly stopped its attack.

"Expert, what do we do?"
"There's a boss here, we can't log out!"
"Don't talk, let's communicate via the party channel!"

The Twisted Treant's lair was similar to the Rock Giant's territory, except that the surrounding area was enclosed by a cluster of seemingly fused, twisted trees. There was only one entrance. Soon, as a group of over a hundred people blocked the only exit completely, Su Nian and his party were left with no way out!

"How could it be you?" Seeing the leader of the crowd, Hou Xiaoyu's eyes turned cold.

The person who had arrived was Haoqi Ganyun, accompanied by his subordinates. Among them were Manager Hao Feng and several well-known professional players from the gaming circle, such as L-God!

"Tsk... I didn't expect you to really be here." Haoqi Ganyun looked at Hou Xiaoyu a few meters away and said with a friendly expression, "Little brother, you've done me a huge favor this time! Without you, I never would have found this place."

As soon as these words were spoken, Yu Yourong and Su Yu looked at Hou Xiaoyu. After frowning, they both took a step away from him.

Hou Xiaoyu was stunned and quickly defended himself, "How could it be me? I clearly..."

Before he could finish, Su Nian interrupted, "You probably have their people on your in-game friends list, right? Friends can click on avatars to check locations."

Hearing this, Hou Xiaoyu looked at Manager Wang. Seeing this, Manager Wang lowered his head in silence, a flash of shame crossing his eyes.

Haoqi Ganyun took in this scene. "As expected of an expert!" Haoqi Ganyun clapped, but then his tone shifted. "However, with the expert's skill, are you confident that you can leave safely today... amidst the hundred of us?"

189 versus 4. No matter how good the expert was, could he fight a hundred alone? With wolves in front and tigers behind, the advantage was on his side!

"Let us go, or I'll call my people too! Nobody gets out of here easily!" Before Su Nian could respond, Yu Yourong flared up.

"Oh... isn't this the big boss of Xingyu?" Haoqi Ganyun acted as if he had just noticed the white-haired loli, mocking, "By the time your people arrive, my dog could have cooked me a three-course meal."

"How about I give the expert a suggestion?" Haoqi Ganyun looked at Su Nian. Seeing no response, he continued to himself, "In this game, killing people and looting their treasure is the most normal thing in the world! But as the saying goes, killing for loot usually happens to others. If the expert joins our Hao Feng Club and becomes one of our own... naturally, there won't be any killing for loot."

"Of course, before joining, the expert must hand over the equipment. Once we sign the contract and press our thumbprints... I'll return the gear to you, how about that?"

Whether he would actually return it, however, was entirely up to him.

And if you refuse to join? Then there was only one outcome!

The look on Haoqi Ganyun's face made the three of them feel sick.

"What a despicable and shameless guy!" Yu Yourong said with utter disdain. "It's hard to imagine how miserable the Hao Feng Club will be in the future under your leadership!"

"Our club's affairs are not for outsiders to worry about. On the contrary, you, the big boss of Xingyu... should be thinking about how to get out of here in one piece!"

As Haoqi Ganyun finished speaking, he raised his hand.