Chapter 32: Siege of the Monsters (Part I)

The scene appeared tense, yet the players were entirely unfazed. Non-player characters panicked because they had only one life to lose, but the players possessed countless lives for respawning—why fear death? After respawning, they would be as good as new; even if they were wiped out entirely, it posed no real problem as long as they could return.

Suddenly, a massive sound erupted. The players focused their eyes and saw it: a terrifying giant python, over ten meters long and several meters thick, slithering in an S-shape and randomly swallowing unlucky passersby. After gorging itself, it spat out the indigestible bones of limbs. This was the source of the severed body parts they had seen earlier.

The players stood stunned for a moment, then erupted in wild joy, charging headlong to take down the serpent. "Oh, oh, oh! Finally, some monsters! Look at that experience bar skyrocketing!"

"As expected of a Level 15 giant python, my experience bar just jumped by 70%!"

To ordinary mortals, a Qi-Refining stage monster like this python was an insurmountable foe, and even for the military, it was quite troublesome. But for the players, a group brawl solved everything. Although their individual strength was lower than a monster of the same level, they had numbers on their side! A single low-level player might die repeatedly, trapped in a cycle of respawning at the gray-screen point, but a hundred of them were a different story. It was like "scraping" against a boss, but with a hundred people scraping at once, it took less than ten minutes to finish off a beast. The poor python, despite being a monster, had its skill-charging continuously interrupted, unable to unleash even a single attack.

The players, still hungry for more, hoisted the python's carcass and grumbled, "We need more of these! We’ll be well on our way to Level 15 soon!"

Their wish was quickly granted. Even though they had slain the first python, the screams echoing throughout the city did not cease; they erupted in various locations. Clearly, there was more than one.

"Yo, did we poke a snake nest? Well, it’s our gain!" The players rushed toward the loudest noises, delighted. "Bring them on! The higher our levels get, the better off we'll be when we eventually head into the Monster Mountain Range!"

The Monster Mountain Range was home to even more monsters with higher levels—hunting there would be faster, easier, and more profitable. It was exactly what they needed. They gave the game designers a mental thumbs-up! An emergency event? To the players, this was just the developers triggering a pre-planned plot. It was all scripted!

***

"Dobi-Everyday-Happy" felt his expression shift. He turned and sprinted back without looking, his heart racing—Little Cloud! How could such a small child and an elderly person handle a ferocious python? They would be nothing more than a snack! He ran desperately, praying they were unharmed. Although the town wasn't huge, it wasn't small enough to be cursed with the bad luck of having a python burst into that specific house in such a short time, right?

He reached the gate, pushed it open, and heard a girl’s scream. His heart sank, and he rushed inside at top speed. *Please, let me be in time!*

Fortunately, his luck wasn't that bad. Only a common python had crawled over the garden wall, and it was still a considerable distance from the child. Dobi-Everyday-Happy easily decapitated the serpent with a single blade strike before it could get any closer.

"Phew, made it just in time!" He exhaled, told the girl not to leave the house, and then circled the area several times to clear out any nearby threats. It seemed this was a remote residential neighborhood, quiet and secluded.

He hurried back to regroup with the others. By now, the players had already cleared two or three more monsters and several ordinary wild beasts. Many common pythons, wolves, and boars had taken advantage of the chaos to storm the city alongside the monsters.

"Hey, save some for me!" he wailed, quickly joining the fray.

The players were taking turns dragging the python carcasses, planning to store them in their inventories once the battle ended. The bodies of these monsters were excellent crafting materials and could be traded or sold for a good price later.

Su Qingyue watched silently as the players engaged in a "clumsy brawl" with the Qi-Refining stage monsters. Yes, it was truly a clumsy affair. While Qi-Refining cultivators could use skills to launch spiritual attacks, the power behind them was pitifully small. The monsters, focusing primarily on their physical forms, had even weaker spiritual attacks—hardly the size of a fingernail. To ordinary mortals, however, even those tiny attacks were impossible to resist. Of course, the monsters' terrifying, blade-proof hides were more than enough to deal with the locals.

Su Qingyue herself could have cleared every monster in the city with a single casual sword stroke, so she wasn't particularly interested. She merely pondered: *This is an unexpected turn of events.* She hadn't foreseen that as soon as they were ready to leave, the city would be attacked. After all, this wasn't a real game; she didn't know how to write code and couldn't have pre-set a random quest! Still, she could hand out a quest to the players later and provide some generous rewards.

The players continued to dash across the city, encountering seven or eight more Qi-Refining pythons, all of which became part of their rapid leveling progress.

***

The python corpses were still being dragged around by the players in shifts. What they didn't notice was that the townspeople—who had been watching them with terrified, disdainful eyes since they arrived yesterday—now wore complex expressions. The previous attitude was replaced by sheer astonishment and reverence.

The city was in chaos; no resident dared stay indoors. After all, it was easier to flee outside, and with so many people, you didn't need to be the fastest—you just needed to be faster than the next person. In any case, pythons were adept at climbing and lurking; being swallowed in a cramped room was a real danger, but outdoors was much better. Leaving the house was a wise choice.

The main street of the small town was filled with mortals screaming and running, but now, they had all come to a halt. Even the soldiers stared blankly at the players.

*These cultivators, who seemed to have loose screws in their heads, actually came back?*

How was that possible? While the people offered tribute to the immortals, whether or not those immortals intervened in such matters depended entirely on their whims. The inhabitants of this continent were accustomed to this reality. Yet, these people had actually returned for them?

The soldiers cast looks of awe and gratitude toward the players. They themselves were no match for the monsters; even a Qi-Refining python was beyond the ability of ordinary mortals to harm. Only the spiritual attacks of a cultivator’s weapon could stand against them. The soldiers were essentially just going through the motions; had they been targeted, they would have been nothing more than dinner for the pythons.

*They are so strong!* Everyone stared at the players, a sense of gratitude and worship welling up within them. They had been paying tribute to a nearby immortal sect for years, yet whenever monsters harassed the city, no cultivator ever stepped in. Instead, it was these wandering cultivators—to whom they had offered nothing—who were willing to risk their lives to save them!

*Good heavens, we treated them so poorly before. What despicable things have we done?* They were overcome with profound shame.