Online game: God-level Assassin, I Am the Shadow.

"Prepare for battle."

Wang Meng's expression turned extremely serious as he raised the cheap large shield in his hands.

Earlier, they had taken a short break and recovered most of their health and mana.

The beautiful girl holding a staff, Lin Liyu, was still brooding over not adding Qin Feng as a friend earlier.

"It must be because I'm covered in mud, and the big shot doesn't want to add me... boohoo..."

She was on the verge of tears.

However, before she could wallow in self-pity for too long, the scene before her took her by surprise, and she immediately raised her staff, ready to fight.

More than ten Crawlers!

Within seconds, a six-player team had been wiped out!

At first, Wang Meng had been preparing for battle with a grave face.

But then...

The Crawlers turned back to glance at their group, seemingly sensing that they weren't like the usual teams and were somewhat wary. They immediately turned and fled.

Of course, before leaving, they absorbed all the non-tradable lifespan dropped by the six players.

Although it took time for monsters to digest lifespan, the absorption and storage happened quickly.

Once finished, the Crawlers scattered, retreating into the depths of the forest...

"They ran?"

Wang Meng and the others were left stunned.

These monsters...

Didn't follow the usual rules!

Moreover, the speed of those Crawlers was alarmingly fast!

Although not as fast as the Sprinting Beast, they were certainly beyond what Wang Meng and his team could catch up to.

"They want to run, and we really can't catch them."

"These monsters are scared of the strong?"

Wang Meng, Lin Liyu, and the rest of the team were bewildered.

Once again, they were filled with awe towards the game "God Forsaken."

The monsters in this game…

Were nothing like the passive ones in regular online games that simply waited for players to kill them!

These monsters would form teams, gather together, and hunt players!

They would rob players of their lifespan!

As for what the monsters did with the stolen lifespan, Wang Meng and the others didn't know yet, but the mere fact that they did it was enough to send chills down anyone's spine.

"Let's go."

Wang Meng led his team onward.

Soon, they encountered another six-player team, three of whom were dead, with the remaining three fleeing for their lives.

Unfortunately, they were too slow, and five Crawlers were closing in on them, relentlessly attacking. It seemed like they were about to be killed...

"Arcane Orb!"

"Triple Shot!"

The two ranged players from Wang Meng's team attacked the five Crawlers from afar.

Each hit a Crawler, knocking off about one-tenth of its health.

"Surround them, don't let them escape!"

Wang Meng charged forward with his shield, leaping into the fray and crashing down with a slam, stunning all five Crawlers in place...

Around Shell Town, such scenes were happening everywhere.

What was supposed to be a game where players killed monsters for experience was now flipped on its head. The monsters were teaming up, gathering, and hunting players instead!

At the town's revival point, flashes of white light kept appearing, almost non-stop.

Each revived player had a grim expression.

"We need to reach level 3 to return to the real world. We thought it would be easy, but..."

"The monsters are forming teams, and we're supposed to level up this way?"

"I have a question—if we can't reach level 3, will we be stuck here forever?"

"Does that mean we'll become vegetative in the real world?"

"No, we need to gather more people. A six-person team isn't enough. Let's form two or three teams and head out together!"

"No, too many people will attract a boss. A 40-man team just drew a 'Cursed One' and it wiped out over thirty of them with a single skill..."

...

Countless players were filled with fear.

Just then, they noticed...

On Shell Town's leaderboard, the player ranked first, "Shadow," had reached level 3!

"What the hell, is Shadow really that strong?"

"We can barely handle small monsters, and he levels up so easily?"

"Shadow seems to be soloing! After all, he's the only one with such a high level on the board."

"Definitely soloing. That's insane!"

People were left in disbelief.

By now, many players had already ventured out of the town.

They had experienced firsthand just how vicious the monsters outside were.

In this situation, how could "Shadow" solo and level up so quickly? How powerful must he be?

At this moment...

The player "Pear," also known as "Yali," along with her teammates, had just revived at the square.

The girl in the black short-sleeve shirt had a face as dark as charcoal.

Because...

This was her third time dying!

Her non-tradable lifespan, originally at 80 years, was now down to just 10 years. The loss was staggering...

Though she didn't know if this lifespan was real or not yet,

It still weighed heavily on her heart...

Her teammate, the soft-spoken girl with long hair, was trembling slightly.

"Yali, what do we do now?"

The girl anxiously glanced at her experience bar.

So far, their team had killed four Crawlers, but each player had earned barely ten points of experience, still far from reaching the 100 points needed to level up to 2, let alone 3!

Even those four Crawlers had been difficult to kill.

Because...

When they were low on health, they ran!

It was only because Yali, with her hidden class, had the skills to pick off the fleeing Crawlers with her longbow that they were able to finish them off.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to kill those four at all.

"Anyway, we can't die again."

The girl in the black short-sleeve shirt, Yali, looked grim as she noticed that "Shadow" had leveled up to 3...

This situation gave her an idea.

"Everyone scatter, and spread the news."

Yali said solemnly, "I'll pay 10 million RMB for Shadow to help me level up to 3. Anyway, I just need to get back to reality... He's leveling so fast, he should be able to carry me easily, right?"

And so, the news quickly spread throughout Shell Town.

A wealthy young lady was willing to pay 10 million RMB to have "Shadow," the top-ranked player, help her level up!

...

Meanwhile, Qin Feng was heading back.

After killing the Sprinting Beast, he had continued to slay more than ten Crawlers in the dense forest, finally earning 1 evolution point from "Greedy Hand."

He immediately evolved "Greedy Hand!"

[You have consumed 5 evolution points, remaining 0.]

[Greedy Hand (Platinum → Emerald): Assassin-class skill. Can be used on monster corpses with a 110% → 160% chance to gain an additional loot reward. The extra loot has a 20% chance to increase by one tier.]

"Greedy Hand" had evolved to the Emerald tier, and now it had a special effect.

There was a 20% chance that extra loot would be upgraded by one tier!

"Invincible!"

Qin Feng's eyes lit up.

This effect was downright amazing.

"If I continue evolving... won't the loot tiers be 100% upgraded?"

"Killing a bronze boss could yield silver gear."

"Killing a silver boss could drop gold gear?!"

Perfect timing!

Qin Feng had just remembered the location of a boss.

The boss was called "Cursed One," a withered treant-like monster that seemed to have killed dozens of players and was hiding somewhere in the dense forest, absorbing their lifespan...

It wouldn't be long before the Cursed One evolved into a silver-tier boss!