Chapter 273 Experience is Wealth

Qian Cheng was someone who pursued stealing monsters. How many battles in online games started because of stealing monsters? So when it came to PK, Qian Cheng's experience was also extremely rich.

Righteous courage? Qian Cheng wouldn't believe in such nonsense. The targets he was stealing weren't girls, so there wouldn't be so many heroes appearing to help those in need. Now that a crowd of people was rushing over, the answer was obvious: they were originally together.

"Interesting!" Qian Cheng glanced around. The players rushing over were at varying distances, and he didn't have time to count them carefully, but there were at least 20 people. Qian Cheng was in an accelerated movement state from the attribute-less Xuan Wen, and his footsteps were fast. He spotted a gap in the encirclement and slipped through.

*Boom!* A cannon fired, and the Gunners who were attacking from a distance hadn't arrived yet, but the cannonballs had already come whistling over. Qian Cheng hurriedly dodged, but the cannonball exploded with a boom. The shockwave from the explosion was bigger than Qian Cheng had imagined, and it knocked him to the side.

Qian Cheng reacted quickly, managing to pull his body back into position in mid-air. In Glory, "knockdown" was actually a mandatory attack effect. But the shockwave's push wasn't mandatory. The character's body would lose balance, but the player could regain their balance through skillful manipulation. If the operation wasn't done well, it was possible to fall to the ground in the end. As for the mandatory "knockdown" effect, players definitely couldn't resolve it through ordinary manipulation and could only use a *shoushen* technique (recovery roll).

Just from that cannon shot, Qian Cheng had already lost the initiative. The crowd of people rushed up, and the original gap had been filled. Each class had a reasonable and orderly position, and several close-combat classes were already surrounding Qian Cheng.

"Crap…" Despair had already risen in Qian Cheng's heart, knowing that he had no hope of escaping this time. But he absolutely didn't want to give up and accept his fate. He shouted loudly, waving his battle spear and charging forward, attempting to take someone down with him before he died. But that seemed like a grand wish at this point, and Qian Cheng ultimately couldn't achieve it. The opponent wiped him out with almost zero casualties.

"Who are these guys!" Qian Cheng, resurrected in Kōngjī City, thought while sending a few names to Xi Zhou, hoping he could help investigate their origins. These were the names Qian Cheng had managed to remember during the fight. He had died too many times and couldn't remember too many names in a short period.

"Oh? Why are there so many people again?" Xi Zhou asked.

"Never mind that, just help me check!" Qian Cheng said.

"You caused trouble again?" Xi Zhou asked.

Qian Cheng was silent. He was a rather special existence in the guild. Logically speaking, a major guild wouldn't tolerate someone with his bad habits, but Blue Brook Guild appreciated his skills and secretly kept him in the guild. As for Qian Cheng, having a major guild to rely on made it much easier to obtain equipment. For example, he already had a set of Crimson Moon equipment for Battle Mages, and the Level 30 Crescent Snake Spear was an uncommon purple spear. If he didn't have Blue Brook Guild as his backing, how could he have easily obtained so much equipment?

The guild treated Qian Cheng very well, but they never supported or protected him for his bad behavior. Qian Cheng had no objections to this. All the battles he had experienced, whether he lived or died, were completed alone, and he had always hidden his guild background.

So this time, Qian Cheng still planned to solve it alone, but borrowing a little guild channel information was harmless!

Qian Cheng, who had died and returned to Kōngjī City, needed to recover from his weakened state. So he slowly walked towards the First Line Gorge while waiting for Xi Zhou's reply. He also felt that these people's actions were a bit strange. If they were leveling in the wild, a team of more than twenty people would be too big. Besides, the team members were scattered and fighting on their own. What was the point of forming a team?

Even Qian Cheng, with his seasoned eye for stealing monsters, couldn't tell that these people were a team, which showed how scattered they were. What were these guys up to?

As Qian Cheng slowly walked, his weakened state gradually wore off. He had lost 10% of his experience from this death. Besides that, the durability of his equipment had decreased, and he had lost some gold coins. These were all fixed losses. However, no equipment had dropped. The chance of equipment dropping wasn't high in the normal server.

"Qian Cheng, we can't find any information on these people for now. In short, they're not from the major guilds." Finally, Xi Zhou's message arrived.

"Oh." Qian Cheng wasn't too surprised. The world was so big, and there were so many players. Blue Brook Guild wasn't the system, and they didn't have that much information. They mostly paid attention to the club guilds they were competing with. If they weren't members of these guilds, then their knowledge was very limited.

"Take it easy. Don't cause too much trouble in the new server." Xi Zhou didn't completely stop him. If Qian Cheng was someone who could be stopped, he wouldn't have been allowed to reach this point. Xi Zhou was just reminding him to at least not bring trouble to the guild. It was a bit ruthless, but Qian Cheng himself enjoyed his special status.

He walked slowly until his weakened state completely wore off. Only then did Qian Cheng start jogging. Jogging was faster than walking but slower than sprinting. But sprinting consumed durability, so players usually jogged when traveling.

He quickly returned to the First Line Gorge. Qian Cheng didn't rashly barge in. There were more than twenty opponents. Challenging them head-on was just a dead end. Qian Cheng planned to carefully choose the right time and seize opportunities to defeat them one by one. He didn't care how despicable or insidious he was. Someone who liked to steal monsters basically had no morals left.

If names could be hidden like guild titles, that would be great! Qian Cheng lamented and chose another entrance to the First Line Gorge. After entering, he slowly walked towards that side.

The gorge was very quiet. The occasional sounds were the rustling of poisonous insects crawling on the ground. Qian Cheng didn't bother with these small monsters and just ran towards where the opponents were. As he approached, he slowed down again, carefully studied the terrain, and squatted down to move behind a mound. He quietly peeked out.

One, two, three…

From here, he could see three of the opponents, all focused on killing monsters and leveling up. Qian Cheng hadn't been too wary before, but now that he had learned his lesson, he saw that although these three were each fighting on their own, their positions were within a range where they could support each other. He changed his angle and looked at another two opponents. They were also moving freely, but they always maintained a certain distance between each other.

This is difficult… Qian Cheng frowned.

These people were prepared to cooperate with each other at any time, leaving him with no opportunities to take advantage of. But why were these guys doing this? What strange tricks were they up to?

Qian Cheng hid far away outside the circle, changed multiple positions, and basically looked at all twenty-odd opponents. He even tore a piece of paper and drew the positions of the twenty-odd people on it.

The current positions seem a little different from when I bumped into them just now. These guys are gathering a lot over here. Qian Cheng thought while circling on the paper. When he finished drawing and saw the overall effect, Qian Cheng immediately saw something. This formation is clearly aimed at the entrance of the dungeon! Are these guys preparing to ambush someone? Are they waiting for someone to come, or waiting for someone to leave?

Hmm? Qian Cheng suddenly thought of someone, a guy who had been unusually popular in the tenth server recently.

Lord Grim, are they waiting for him?

Qian Cheng couldn't help but think. But looking at these twenty-odd people, it was clear that they had ill intentions. Although Lord Grim was very popular right now, he didn't seem to have offended anyone, right? Even if he had refused the invitations of the major guilds and gone to work part-time for the Moon Guild, it shouldn't have provoked any guild to take such drastic measures, right?

While Qian Cheng was puzzled, he sent another message to Xi Zhou: "Are you sure those people aren't from the major guilds?"

"We're sure they're not on the lists of the major guilds. What's wrong?"

"Looking at their formation, I suspect they're targeting Lord Grim," Qian Cheng said.

"What kind of people are they exactly?" Xi Zhou asked.

"Outside the First Line Gorge dungeon, they're disguised as solo levelers, but they can clearly form an encirclement against anyone entering or leaving the dungeon at any time," Qian Cheng said.

"Has Lord Grim offended anyone?" Xi Zhou wondered.

"I don't know…" Qian Cheng was also puzzled. Suddenly, he heard some movement coming from that side. Qian Cheng, hiding behind the mound, quickly peeked out and saw five people teleporting out of the dungeon after finishing their battle. Who else could it be but Lord Grim and his party?

Before Qian Cheng could even decide whether to give Lord Grim a hint, the group had already moved.

So they really are looking for him?

This time, Qian Cheng counted the number of these people. If he hadn't missed anyone, there were a total of 24 people.

The 24 people moved like the wind. One second Qian Cheng saw them running, and the next second he saw the Gunner's bullets and the Mage's spells already flying up, while the close-combat classes were rushing up, each guarding their angle. In particular, the dungeon entrance was immediately guarded by six characters.

Qian Cheng saw Lord Grim suddenly use his battle spear to execute a Sky Strike. With this slash, he actually knocked all four of his companions into the air. Qian Cheng was shocked. First, he didn't understand why Lord Grim would attack his own people. Second, he didn't understand how the Sky Strike could lift four targets at once. In Qian Cheng's mind, according to the strategy guides he knew, the Sky Strike could only lift three targets at once! How fast would the hand speed have to be to add one more?

*Boom!* A loud sound rang out. Lord Grim had already pushed out a palm, hitting his four companions. As the four flew out, Qian Cheng suddenly understood Lord Grim's intentions.

He had actually used a faster method that no one could have expected to instantly send these four out of the encirclement. The 24 people's formation could resolve any attempt to break through in any direction, but this method was definitely beyond their calculations. Qian Cheng had studied their positions with the paper for a long time. He was confident that he wouldn't misjudge. Lord Grim's move would definitely disrupt their plans.

*Bang!*

Another gunshot rang out. Qian Cheng saw Lord Grim also jump up and use a Flying Gun, chasing after the four people who were flying backward.

Sky Strike, Falling Flower Palm, Flying Gun!

All three operations were completed in an instant, almost faster than Qian Cheng's brain could process. By the time he understood all of this, Lord Grim's five-person team had completely jumped out of the circle and were running towards the mound where he was. And the 24 people, whose carefully arranged encirclement had failed in just one second, were chaotically chasing after the five.