Apocalypse: Everyone Levels Up, I Return to the Time Before the Server Opened

Chapter 41: That Bitch Zhao Hanyan

“Th-this…” Zhao Hanyan stood in shock, her eyes fixed on the scene before her — bodies strewn across the ground.

Among the corpses were several well-known top players, names she was all too familiar with. And yet, at this very moment, they had all been slain!

Her gaze shifted to the figure standing before her, Ye Qiu.

Her expression changed as if she were staring at a monster.

How could an NPC be this powerful?!

This is terrifying!

She had considered many possible outcomes, including the mysterious NPC emerging victorious.

But never had she imagined this.

An entire group of elite players had been instantly slaughtered in a single strike by an NPC!

Yet in the next moment, shock turned to exhilaration.

The stronger this mysterious NPC was, the greater the benefits she could gain if she managed to pull him to her side!

Ye Qiu walked forward casually, picking up the items that had dropped from the fallen players.

Then, without even looking at her, he said, “I’ll be giving you a few tasks later.”

Hearing this, Zhao Hanyan snapped out of her daze.

Excitement flashed across her face as she nodded eagerly.

“Whatever tasks you have, just leave them to me! I’ll get them all done!”

She had done it!

At the very least, she had managed to receive a quest!

She knew this was undoubtedly related to what had just happened, how she had stepped in to block Zhou Wenyuan and his men.

At this moment, she actually felt a bit grateful to Zhou Wenyuan.

If that idiot hadn’t shown up, winning over this mysterious NPC would have been far more difficult!

With that, Ye Qiu led Zhao Hanyan away.

As soon as they left, the area erupted into a frenzy of discussions.

“Holy shit! Just one strike?! A dozen top players got wiped out in an instant?!”

“Looks like we’ve all underestimated the strength of NPCs!”

“These players were famous! The forums are full of their monster-slaying and leveling-up videos. Who would’ve thought they’d be this weak compared to an NPC?!”

“Damn, I was still dreaming about reaching Level 10 and forming a party to challenge the novice village… Now, I see that is pure fantasy!”

“Maybe… it’s just this mysterious NPC that’s ridiculously strong?”

“If I could get on this NPC’s good side, I bet I’d hit Level 10 in three days!”

“Unbelievable…”

At this moment, the players were all convinced that the hooded figure was indeed an NPC.

After all, the server had only been live for a few days.

Could any player possibly be this overpowered? Absolutely not.

It had to be an NPC.

A short while later, Zhou Wenyuan returned with his surviving elite players.

Seeing the bodies still lying on the ground, their faces darkened as if they had swallowed a dead rat.

In this game, death didn’t just mean losing experience and dropping equipment.

It also came with pain — real, tangible pain, just like in reality!

The veteran players could endure it.

They had died before while fighting monsters, suffering serious injuries along the way. They were already accustomed to pain.

But Zhou Wenyuan…

His face was pale. This was his first real taste of the game’s “100% realism.”

“This game… is definitely different.” Zhou Wenyuan gritted his teeth.

—

Meanwhile, on the forums, a video of the mysterious NPC one-shotting a group of elite players had already gone viral.

After watching the footage, the entire community was left in stunned silence.

“That’s not an NPC, that’s a freaking raid boss!”

“Damn! That was insane!”

“I wanna learn that move!”

“I regret picking Mage… should’ve gone with a swordsman!”

“Too bad you can’t delete your account and start over in this game.”

“Wait a second, why did the NPC drop loot when killing players?”

“Huh???”

“No clue.”

“What, you think that hooded figure is a player?”

“Pfft, haha… No way. The game’s only been live for three days. The highest-leveled players are only around Level 8 or 9. Even if someone’s reached Level 10, who would dare say they could pull off what we saw in the video?!”

“Forget what we saw in the video. Just being able to take on two players at once is already impressive. This was one vs. a dozen, and it was an instant kill!”

“Everyone’s still new to the game and doesn’t fully understand its mechanics yet. But actually, teaming up with NPCs does allow for item drops. It’s just that the drop rate is ridiculously low, which is why most players assumed it wasn’t possible.”

“Oh, that makes sense… Thanks for the clarification!”

“But this time, the ones who died were players!”

“Are you blind? Look at the video! There was a female player standing next to the mysterious NPC. They were clearly in a party. That’s why killing players triggered item drops, just like killing monsters!”

—

Novice Village 0001, a Level 5 monster area…

Ning Qianjun was using the traditional method, recruiting players to farm monsters and level up.

He let out a sigh.

“Ugh… Monster kill XP and drop rates are halved for the first ten days. This sucks…”

As he continued grinding, he couldn’t help but grumble.

At this moment, he was only Level 7.

He had originally been among the top-tier players.

But now, a flood of hardcore players had surpassed him in level.

Still, not everything was bad.

At the very least, he and his younger sister, Ning Qingyue, had successfully latched onto the mysterious NPC’s golden thigh!

That alone put them ahead of most players.

A small consolation, perhaps.

He glanced at the rare purple-grade weapon in his hands — the Wolf Fang Crescent Staff — and smiled.

He was confident.

Soon, he would obtain even more and even better items from the mysterious NPC.

Just then…

“Brother! Something’s wrong!” a panicked female voice called out in the distance.

Ning Qianjun turned to see his sister, Ning Qingyue, running toward him in a hurry.

By the time she reached him, she was gasping for breath.

“What’s the matter?!” Ning Qianjun asked, confused. His expression turned serious. “Something happened in the real world?!”

Ning Qingyue quickly shook her head, still catching her breath. “N-no… Not real life… It’s the game…”

Hearing this, Ning Qianjun let out a sigh of relief and rolled his eyes.

“You scared me over a game? What happened?” He chuckled.

His sister was usually so composed.

What had her so worked up today?

Finally, Ning Qingyue caught her breath and exclaimed, “Brother! Check the forums! There’s a new video about the mysterious NPC!”

Ning Qianjun instinctively pulled up his game panel and opened the forums.

The moment he did, he immediately spotted the trending video post.

As he clicked on it, Ning Qingyue grumbled beside him, “That bitch Zhao Hanyan went and seduced the mysterious NPC! And now it looks like he even gave her a quest!”