Chapter 1 Hard Village Outside Kōngjī City

Hard Village outside Kongji City.

Baozi Invasion was just passing by during his escape. The reason was just as he said: because it was close. As a result, this place rarely visited by players provided him with a convenient escape route. In this place, without the extra gazes of other players and with blind spots everywhere, Baozi Invasion boldly played hide-and-seek with the players chasing him.

Inside a dry well in Hard Village, Baozi Invasion stood up straight, able to peek over the edge and look at the ground.

The originally peaceful Hard Village was disturbed by Baozi Invasion's intrusion. The NPCs continued their system-driven steps in peace, but the chaotic footsteps of the dozen or so players chasing Baozi Invasion echoed in the village, and fragments of their conversations intermittently reached Baozi Invasion's ears.

Baozi Invasion quickly crouched down. If he could, he would turn the game's sound effects to the maximum. Unfortunately, to pursue a realistic sense of distance, there was no volume control in Glory. The only thing that affected the volume was the distance between the character and the sound source. Other than that, there were only two choices: turning the sound effects on or off.

Crouching in the well, Baozi Invasion tried to listen to the players' voices outside.

"Where did he run off to?"

"Not too far, he's still in the village."

"This kid is cunning, running to a place like this. If this were a leveling area, there's no way he'd be able to hide."

The footsteps were sometimes far, sometimes near, clearly searching in all directions. Baozi Invasion listened to the sounds, pondering whether to take a peek, when suddenly a white light flashed before his eyes, and a character appeared in front of him. Before Baozi Invasion could say anything, the character cried out in surprise, "Who are you?"

"Quiet!" Baozi Invasion quickly stopped him from continuing.

"What a coincidence, running into someone in a place like this." The person was completely unaware of the situation and continued muttering.

Baozi Invasion heard the approaching footsteps getting closer and closer, unsure if they had noticed the sound from their location. Although he was well-hidden, there was nowhere to escape if discovered. So Baozi Invasion had already planned that if footsteps approached, he couldn't risk it; he would immediately escape from the well to get away.

Just as he was about to do so, he suddenly heard the guy in front of him shout even louder, "Oh? Baozi Invasion? Are you the Baozi Invasion from the dungeon leaderboard, the one on Jun Mo Xiao's team?"

"That's right, it's me. But I don't have time for your interview right now. I'm escaping a mysterious pursuit. Now, I'm going to charge out!" Baozi Invasion said solemnly, then suddenly leaped out of the well. He scanned his surroundings and saw that someone was already heading toward the well. Seeing him jump out, they immediately shouted, "He's over here!"

Baozi Invasion didn't stop, running as soon as he landed.

"Hey, wait!" The voice from the well shouted, also jumping up. However, he didn't control his strength well and didn't jump high enough. His feet hit the side of the well, and just as he was about to get out, he was knocked back down.

The guild players who were chasing after him didn't know who this person was and shouted, "There's another one ambushing here!"

"Crap! Is this a trap?" Someone wondered, preparing to enter the house. The players behind the walls stopped, fearing there might be an ambush inside.

The players chasing Baozi Invasion were fewer than those entangling Su Mucheng and Qiao Yifan in Flowing Land, but because of this, they were more united and harmonious. The dozen or so people here came from two guilds, and they weren't bitter enemies like Tyrannical Ambition and Excellent Dynasty. They were discussing things together.

Just as he was hesitating, the guy in the well finally mustered enough strength to jump out. This character was wearing cloth armor, holding a magic staff, clearly a mage. After jumping out, he looked around, ignoring the pursuing players, and chased after the direction Baozi Invasion escaped.

The players saw him running as soon as he came up and didn't think it was an ambush. Their wariness decreased greatly, and they quickly organized to chase after him.

The two guilds each had a commander, and the manpower distribution was well-organized, not a chaotic mess. Baozi Invasion looked back and saw the pursuers were closing in, so he quickly looked around for a good spot like the well. As he was searching, he heard someone shout from behind, "Run to the left."

This voice was like heavenly music. Without thinking, Baozi Invasion ran to the left without even checking who shouted. There was no special cover on the left, just an ordinary thatched hut in the village. Baozi Invasion turned left and ran behind the hut, temporarily out of the pursuers' sight. He quickly began looking for a good well.

"Jump in through that window." Just then, the voice sounded again. Baozi Invasion looked for the so-called "window" and accidentally discovered who was giving him the hints: the brother from the bottom of the well.

"Thanks, brother!" Baozi Invasion said, seeing the open grass window on the thatched hut. He charged forward, jumped, and squatted to squeeze through. The brother from the well also hurried over, trying to imitate Baozi Invasion, but he crashed into the window and fell back down. A second time, he crashed into the window and fell back down. A third time… Baozi Invasion was confused: "What are you doing!"

"Jump in," the brother from the well said.

"I can't tell," Baozi Invasion said.

The brother from the well knew his technique wasn't good enough to do such precise maneuvers, so he gave up after failing three times and continued running to the left.

"Hey, where are you going?" Baozi Invasion stuck his head out and asked, watching him.

"Get your head back in! Add me as a friend and I'll tell you," the brother from the well shouted as he ran and glanced back.

Baozi Invasion pulled his head back in and received a system notification: "Mei Guang has requested to add you as a friend."

After confirming the request, he received a message from Mei Guang: "Come out from the front door in 8 seconds."

Baozi Invasion was confused but didn't ask why. He counted to eight and walked out of the front door of the thatched hut, running into Mei Guang passing by.

"This way!" Mei Guang led the way, and Baozi Invasion followed closely behind. They weaved around the small Hard Village. At first, they could hear footsteps and voices nearby, but gradually, the sounds disappeared as if they were back in the peaceful village with only NPCs wandering around.

"Did we shake them off?" Baozi Invasion peeked around suspiciously.

"Quiet!" After figuring out the situation, Mei Guang immediately reminded Baozi Invasion.

Baozi Invasion's greatest strength was that he listened to everyone's opinions, so he immediately shut up and didn't make a sound. Mei Guang was facing Baozi Invasion, but his gaze was on the claws equipped on Baozi Invasion's hands, the claw-type weapon of a grappler.

"Your weapon isn't an orange weapon?" Mei Guang asked doubtfully.

"Yeah."

"Why aren't you using one?"

"Don't have one."

"How could you not have one?"

"Too expensive, boss won't buy it."

The two were asking and answering, but their words didn't mean the same thing. This Mei Guang was the author of the idiot's guide, the level 32 summoner Mei Guang. He had a stubborn confidence in his own judgment. He had defined Jun Mo Xiao and his team as a luxurious orange-equipped team, and even after seeing that Baozi Invasion didn't have a single piece of orange equipment, he still refused to admit his judgment was wrong. Baozi Invasion didn't notice the strange logic of his question and honestly answered.

"Boss? Jun Mo Xiao?" Mei Guang said.

"Yeah! You know him?" Baozi Invasion was pleasantly surprised.

"Don't know him…" Mei Guang said, still struggling with why his judgment was inaccurate: "How could you not have orange equipment?"

"Because I don't have money." Baozi Invasion was still honestly answering.

"Footsteps are getting closer." Baozi Invasion vaguely heard footsteps.

"Let's run this way! We should be able to run back to the main city before they catch up." Mei Guang ran forward.

"I'm not going back to the main city," Baozi Invasion said.

"Then where are you going?"

"I'm going to meet up with the boss later." Baozi Invasion said, "Are you going back to the main city? That's perfect! You can lure them away, and I'll be fine."

Mei Guang spat blood. Shouldn't he be the one who's fine? He still didn't know what this chase was all about. He helped Baozi Invasion only because he was Baozi Invasion, a member of the dungeon leaderboard team, someone he had researched and whose equipment he had speculated about.

Saying Burial Grounds was a luxurious orange-equipped team was unreliable, and Mei Guang knew it himself.

On the one hand, he firmly believed his judgment was correct, but on the other hand, he still hoped to be proven right. Compared to those idiot's guides, he had spent more time on the Burial Grounds dungeon record, but unfortunately, this conclusion had never completely convinced him. He hoped he could firmly believe his judgment, but this time he couldn't do it.

Even after personally getting confirmation from Baozi Invasion that he didn't have an orange weapon, Mei Guang still wouldn't give up. Stubborn people are often like this; they don't believe in their own views, but they believe they are always right.

Baozi Invasion's natural tone made Mei Guang want to spit blood after being used as a decoy, but he wouldn't dwell on it. He turned his gaze back to Baozi Invasion and suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, you're level 31 now? You changed your equipment! You used to use a level 28 orange weapon, right?"

"No, never used one," Baozi Invasion said.

"How is that possible?" Mei Guang was stuck on this.

"Why aren't you going back to the city? They're getting closer," Baozi Invasion was worried about this.

"They're not chasing me, why should I be in a hurry?" Mei Guang said.

"Huh? Then why are you running?" Baozi Invasion asked strangely.

"..." Mei Guang was speechless.

"If you're not running, then I have to run." Seeing that no one was luring them away, Baozi Invasion knew he couldn't hide here for long and jumped out, ready to continue running.

"Hey, hey! Not that way!" Mei Guang couldn't help but shout when he saw the direction Baozi Invasion was running.

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