Chapter 40: Stealing the Kill?

Blue Feather snapped her fingers.
"Method two is very simple. You guys can find a brick and have another player hit you in the back of the head with it. You'll naturally pass out and be able to get some sleep, with just a momentary flash of pain."
"Good idea!" the players cheered.
And lo and behold, every single one of them actually carried a brick around.
As for why they carried them, the reason was simple.
When a weapon's durability ran out and there was no time to find a blacksmith for repairs, smashing enemies directly with a brick still inflicted damage.
Bricks were cheap, durable, and packed a decent amount of punch, plus they had other everyday uses. Thumbs up!
Just as they were all preparing to knock themselves out with bricks to get some sleep, a group of people suddenly rushed out from the city gates.
"???"
The players were instantly galvanized, exchanging bewildered glances as they watched the surging crowd running over from afar.
"Wait, wait, wait! What are these NPCs doing here?"
"Who knows."
"Don't tell me they're here to reap the spoils and steal our mobs!"
Instant vigilance spiked through them. Despite being exhausted, they swarmed to their feet with grim expressions, forming a human barricade in front of the three burning giant python carcasses.
While the probability was low, it wasn't zero.
Few of the players present were genuine greenhorns; their gaming experience was extremely rich.
It wasn't as if they had never experienced the scenario of preparing to claim their hard-earned loot in a game, only for NPCs to snatch it away first.
It was so user-friendly and true-to-life, right? It was enough to cause high blood pressure, and they felt like they needed some hypertension medication!
They had fought tooth and nail for so long while utterly exhausted, and now a horde of NPCs suddenly charged over. Who knew what they were up to? They couldn't afford not to guard against it.
Heaven knew if this game, with all its hardcore and realistic settings, would pull a fast one and teach them a harsh lesson online by letting NPCs steal everyone's loot and leave them with nothing to show for their back-breaking work.
You had to know that demonic beast corpses could be sold for money or used in artifact crafting, and players could even pick up dropped equipment!
If those got snatched away, wouldn't they cry their eyes out?
The crucial point was that these NPCs were all marked with green names, had no health bars, and couldn't be attacked! They could only stare in rage, burst into tears of frustration, and frantically swallow blood pressure pills.
The players stood on high alert, fully prepared for battle. Su Qingyue felt a slight urge to laugh; she was certain—absolutely certain—that these people probably didn't want to steal the mobs.
Hadn't they seen how moved, ashamed, and ready to kneel the city's townspeople and soldiers had been just a moment ago?
The players had been tossing and turning in this ordeal since the monster siege began yesterday afternoon—nearly ten hours now—and those townspeople weren't blind.
They didn't know about rewards; they simply thought the players were there to save lives.
And so, the players had fought for ten whole hours.
The townspeople had also daydreamed and imagined things for ten whole hours. In their eyes, the players were now saviors, living bodhisattvas descended to earth, and they were ready to worship them on an altar.
If they weren't broke, they would have already been discussing casting golden statues and building temples for the players!
Steal their loot? They'd be lucky if they weren't showering the players with gifts!
The players treated this like facing a formidable enemy, growing even more guarded when they saw how emotional the crowd was.
"Everyone pay attention! It really looks like they're here to steal the mobs!"
"Yeah, and they're even carrying things!"
"I knew this damn game didn't have good intentions!"
Just as everyone felt depressed, helpless, and prepared to watch the NPCs snatch their spoils right before their eyes, the townspeople finally stopped in front of them.
Then, led by the city lord and several soldiers, the entire crowd dropped to their knees in unison.
The players were dumbfounded. What act was this?
The city lord wore a look of profound shame: "Thank you, esteemed immortals, for turning the tide, fighting tooth and nail for us, and saving the people of this entire city. We truly have no way to repay this kindness.
Before this, I actually detained you all over a trivial matter and made the fairy charge a ransom. I—I am simply worse than pigs and dogs; I am a beast!"
The middle-aged man knelt on the ground, burying his face in his hands, too ashamed to look anyone in the eye.
The players exchanged glances, still failing to grasp the situation.
Xiao Mo hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to help him up:
"There's no need to bow so deeply. That was your duty, and my companions did indeed overstep a bit. As for saving people, ahahaha, it was just a flick of the wrist."
Everyone was just trying to grind experience points anyway, and they had no emotional attachment to the people of this city—they had only been here for a day.
To claim they were sacrificing themselves for others would be a stretch.
As the townspeople drew closer and saw the haphazardly scattered corpses all around, their eyes welled up with hot tears.
These cultivators, these passing rogue immortals, clearly hadn't needed to do this.
They had paid the ultimate price in lives for the sake of mere mortals, with so many people dying. How could they possibly be worthy? Especially after treating them that way earlier.
Although tactical losses were inevitable, zero casualties were impossible. Over the course of five hours, quite a few were still waiting out their respawn countdowns—a dense, overlapping mass of thirty or forty corpses.
To make matters worse, the players had fought without regard for the consequences, leaving behind bodies that were gruesome beyond belief: missing limbs, mangled flesh, and unrecognizable deaths.
The townspeople who came over to express their gratitude felt even more heartbroken upon seeing those mutilated corpses.
Lacking the eloquence to string together pretty words, they simply shoved the items they had brought into the players' hands.
The players were at a total loss; they had genuinely never encountered this before.
In past games, players might have indirectly helped NPCs, but being approached by NPCs expressing gratitude and offering gifts was a rarity.
Should they accept? Or not?
After hesitating for a long time, and finding themselves unable to decline, they reluctantly accepted.
The innkeeper, who had previously treated everyone with utmost disdain, spoke up excitedly:
"Esteemed benefactors, I see you are utterly exhausted. Why don't you condescend to return to our inn to rest for a few days before moving on?"
"Yes, indeed! It's far too dangerous to rest out here in the wilderness!"
"Ah, let's skip that, shall we?"
"You saved the lives of everyone in this city! It won't cost a dime!"
"That's right! Over the next few days, buying medicine, repairing armor and weapons, and dining in the city are all free of charge!"
Rarely treated with such enthusiastic hospitality, the players felt a bit embarrassed: "That would be too much trouble!"
"No trouble at all! You are heroes who saved an entire city!"
Realizing their benefactors were unaccustomed to such warmth, the townspeople figured they must have seemed too aloof.
Their previous attitudes had been so poor that the immortals probably felt unworthy and feared being looked down upon by the locals.
Yet how could that be?
No matter how fastidious a person might be, it was impossible to despise those who had saved their lives.
Though the players' garments were crude and rough, stained with blood and covered in dust, these were the very people who had saved everyone's lives.
They deserved the best treatment more than anyone else.
Clearly, they had been terrified when facing the giant pythons, yet they hadn't retreated an inch, even with so many dying.
So death-averse by nature, yet willing to risk their lives to save others.
After a back-and-forth tug-of-war, the players ultimately turned down the townspeople's offer, because—
Heaven knew whether the monster corpses would despawn or get looted by other passersby once they left!
They had better stand guard!
The townspeople kept looking back every three steps, as if trying to carve the players' images into their memories.
The players struck heroic, fearless poses of worldly experts, which only made them appear all the more admirable and awe-inspiring.
However, this facade didn't last long. The moment the townspeople moved far enough away that they estimated they couldn't be seen, the players instantly collapsed onto the ground like heaps of mud, losing all their dignity as they wailed in a classic "Ge You slouch":
"Standing there acting cool and striking poses for so long, I feel like my legs hurt even more. I want to chop them off!"
"Ain't that the truth! I'm losing my mind! I know you're grateful, but you didn't need to say all that. We just wanted to rest for a bit, loot our gear, and get back on the road for the main quest, hello?!"
"Damn it, with that look in their eyes, even though my legs were hurting so much I wanted to massage them, I didn't dare, for fear of ruining the glorious image of life-saving benefactors."
They were practically screaming in their hearts for the NPCs to hurry up and leave, to stop talking—their saviors were about to die of pain!
True, being treated as saviors by so many people felt pretty awesome.
Just not at a time like this, okay? They were too exhausted to care.