Absolute Death Game

Xiao Buli had forged his second Magical Treasure and returned once again to the main hall of Mystic Hollow Palace. This time, he wanted to examine the blueprints for level three Magical Treasures. However, there was only one such blueprint available, and it had a steep price of 200 Contribution Points. As for blueprints of higher-level Magical Treasures, they were not for sale at all.

After asking Xuanxu Zi, Xuanxu Zi informed him that Magical Treasures above level four were considered intermediate Magical Treasures, and their blueprints were not so easily obtained.

The blueprint for this level three Magical Treasure was for a defensive Magical Treasure.

Vajra Gem: This is a gem containing divine and metal energies, capable of effectively protecting the wearer from physical attacks and undead damage.

Usage: Activates a Vajra Shield with 500 points of durability, has a special effect against Yin Attribute skills, lasts for 30 minutes, and the Magical Treasure has a cooldown of 12 hours.

Crafting materials: Refined Gold×1, Shariputra×1, Metal Essence×5, Enlightened Gem×1.

The item seemed quite good, and combined with the Ethereal Armor, it would definitely be useful. However, Xiao Buli currently had no leads on either the blueprint or the materials, so it seemed that he could only give up on it for the time being.

However, since he had already acquired two Magical Treasures, Xiao Buli was not too disappointed. These two Magical Treasures were not very useful in the game; at his current level, level three Undead probably referred to the likes of Zombies, which didn’t mean much for his level of combat.

The Shadow Cloak provided a skill similar to Shadow Escape, which was also somewhat meaningless to him since he could already become invisible. So, these two Magical Treasures were not much help to him, but in the real world, they definitely counted as treasures. Therefore, Xiao Buli made up his mind to transfer these two Magical Treasures out in the following two days.

As Xiao Buli was pondering where to find better Magical Treasure Blueprints in front of Xuanxu Zi, suddenly he heard Gu Shaobang’s exclamatory voice.

"Boss, you need to come quickly, something’s happened in the village."

Xiao Buli felt a jolt in his heart and quickly turned to ask, "What’s wrong? What happened?"

Gu Shaobang replied, "A bunch of people from Awesome Empire showed up in our village. Du Yibo asked me to tell you, he said this guild has a grudge against you?"

Xiao Buli nodded, "Indeed, there is such a matter. How many of them are there? What about Du Yibo and He Suoju? Didn’t they start fighting with them?"

Gu Shaobang said, "No, they’ve gone into hiding for now, saying they’ll wait for you to come back to discuss what to do next. There are about ten of those people."

Xiao Buli’s heart grew heavy, not expecting that the battle quest he triggered this time would accidentally attract people from Awesome Empire.

"I’ll be right back. You guys be careful and don’t get taken advantage of," Xiao Buli hurriedly instructed. Although people from Awesome Empire probably didn’t know about his relationship with Gu Shaobang and the others, it was better to be safe than sorry, as there were no places to reason with such domineering guilds in the game.

"Don’t worry, Boss, they don’t know we’re acquainted with you. They don’t seem hostile for now. However, it looks like they want to monopolize the village defense mission and are negotiating with the head of Black Stone Village," Gu Shaobang assured him.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Buli let out a sigh of relief. It was clear that the other party had not tracked him down to Black Stone Village, and likely had no idea about his influence in the village. They sought to defend the village to obtain mission rewards. If used well, he might be able to play a trick on them.

With that in mind, Xiao Buli set off back to Black Stone Village, traveling by Cloud Thunder Leap as usual. After a little more than an hour, Xiao Buli once again saw the shape of Black Stone Village in the distance. He didn’t enter the village directly but instead activated Skimming Shadow Steps from far away and quietly sneaked in. @@novelbin@@

Upon entering the village, he noticed that Black Stone Village was much livelier than usual, with many more players and NPC adventurers present.

Those NPCs were not much of a concern; they were all mercenary types, probably hired thugs brought in by the village head of Black Stone Village. There were only about a dozen of them, and they all seemed to have weak combat abilities.

The players, on the other hand, demanded his attention. There were two to three dozen of them. Most of these players were Solo Players, with no guild suffix behind their names and various random titles. The remaining ten were from Awesome Empire, and sure enough, there were exactly ten people—two group’s worth of people.

Among them was the Thunder Summoner Chen Chuan from before, clad in a blue Magical Robe and holding a new Magic Wand, speaking to some Solo Players.

But it seemed he was not the leading figure in this group. Standing on the ramparts was a warrior clad in golden armor, radiating a faint golden glow—their name was Zhang Haojie, and it was evident that this Zhang Haojie was the leader of the group.

That glow was very familiar, as if he had seen it before. Xiao Buli clicked on the person’s heading with his mouse, and it turned out to be a persistent BUFF skill—Heavenly Gang Fighting Qi.

That skill again!? Xiao Buli had encountered this skill for the third time. The first time was when it was used by Dugu Han, and at that time, he was not fully aware of the name of the skill. It was only after he temporarily learned it from the book Journey to the West: Demon Subduing Record that he realized it was the same skill used by Dugu Han.

He found the two very similar and concluded they were most likely the same skill. Upon reading the skill’s description, it was stated to be a racial Talent Skill of the Divine Race.

However, Xiao Buli was still somewhat confused as to how Dugu Han learned the Heavenly Gang Fighting Qi, a racial Talent Skill of the Divine Race. Could it be that Dugu Han was of the Divine Race? That didn’t make sense.

At that time, he was quite puzzled for a while, but now it seemed that this skill should not be too difficult to learn, as there was more than one person who knew it besides Dugu Han.

Xiao Buli dared not startle the snake by beating the grass. Judging by the Heavenly Gang Fighting Qi emanating from the leader, the fighting power of these ten people was absolutely not to be underestimated. If they really started fighting, he feared that half of them would die before they even clashed with the Black Mountain Bandits.

Even if he assembled all the Strength at his disposal, victory was not guaranteed. Even if they could win, he estimated it would be a Pyrrhic victory. Therefore, Xiao Buli chose to directly bypass them from a distance and headed to the campsite at Thousand Pines Town to look for Du Yibo and He Suoju, who were hiding in a house.

However, the two were not online. Xiao Buli asked Gu Shaobang and found out that the two could only get on their computers at noon.

So, Xiao Buli waited patiently for a while, and around noon, the two indeed logged in inside the house.

"Hey, you’re both here," Xiao Buli began by asking.

"Thank heavens you’re finally back. Where have you been these past few days?" Both of them asked somewhat irritably.

"Let’s not talk about that, I was doing a Sect mission. Forget about it, let’s talk about those people outside," he replied.

He Suoju and Du Yibo did not dwell on it, and He Suoju asked, "What do we do now? Should we make a move against them?"

Du Yibo said, "Of course, we should. If we don’t do it now, if they backstab us while we’re fighting the Black Mountain Bandits, we’ll be in deep trouble."

Xiao Buli, however, said, "If we make a move now, are we sure we can beat them?"

Du Yibo asked with ill intent, "Don’t you have a bunch of followers, plus NPCs? If they all join in, we should be able to take them on, right?"

Xiao Buli sneered inwardly and replied indifferently, "Even if we could win, it would be a bloody victory. All of my people would die. Why should I fight?"

He Suoju asked, "Then what shall we do?"

Xiao Buli responded, "I have my ways. We absolutely cannot take action against them now. However, judging by their behavior, they seem to intend to monopolize this village defense mission. When they start the battle with the Black Mountain Bandits, that’s when we can move in like a mantis stalking the cicada."

"You mean?" The two exchanged glances, revealing a slight mischievous grin, "You’re really sly."

Xiao Buli didn’t smile. Even with a surprise attack, he wasn’t a hundred percent sure of success. Besides, what would killing these people actually achieve? The Awesome Empire had significant clout. If they retaliated, he could escape, but the NPCs he had worked so hard to subdue couldn’t.

Therefore, he believed it was better to avoid conflict unless absolutely necessary, and even if they had to fight, it was best not to reveal his involvement with this village.

"What about those Solo Players, what’s their background? Do you think we can recruit them?"

"I think it’s possible," He Suoju said. "I understand these people all too well; they’re just like I was before. They’re the sort who want to reap benefits but fear death, with no organization and no leader. On usual days they can only take on simple missions through whatever means they can find, killing some rare elites in the wilds, with no chance of doing significant missions or dungeons.

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They are surely here to fish in troubled waters since there are no guilds occupying this area temporarily. If a powerful player could beckon to them, they could probably be organized."

"However, if your power isn’t strong enough, it’ll be hard to subdue them. Don’t be fooled by their unimpressive equipment. The fact that they’ve maintained their solo player status up to this point means they are not ordinary. They’ve been through all kinds of dangers and may not be so easily convinced to trust someone. To put it nicely, they have pride; to put it bluntly, they are stubborn.

Unless you can show enough strength and sincerity, don’t think about subduing them."

As He Suoju spoke these words, a faint look of pride crossed his face. Clearly, he took great pride in his identity as a Solo Player.

Xiao Buli nodded; that made sense. However, he wasn’t very concerned about it, confident that his current strength should be enough to subdue these Solo Players.

"Let me handle recruiting the Solo Players and see if we can absorb them into our guild," he said.

"Our guild? Are you planning to establish a guild?" Du Yibo suddenly asked with surprise.

"That’s right. Continuing like this won’t do. To do well in this game, how can we manage without an organization?"

As the three were talking, Gu Shaobang suddenly said, "Boss, it looks like they’re about to fight."

Xiao Buli quickly went outside and sure enough, the group of Solo Players and the people from the Awesome Empire seemed to have a conflict brewing. Both sides were standing off in the village, an air of tension thick between them. (