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Chapter 78 - Face-off

Liu Ye didn't even need to ask to know the White Knights were present to kill the King Scorpion. Too bad for them, he couldn't let that happen. 

[Grind God: Hey, just texting to tell you that I'm going to kill some White Knights. Hope you don't mind.] 

Liu Ye informed Xu Yue before his killing spree and didn't wait for a reply as he closed it shut. No matter what she said, he would still proceed forward and kill whoever stood in his way. It just happened that White Knight Guild challenged him in the forum so this couldn't be any better.

"Don't you think that's quite unfair?" Liu Ye questioned as he approached peacefully. "I don't care what you are doing. I need to cross the Sand Canyon to reach the Ancient Ruins from my quest. I don't plan to take another hour to walk around just because you try to monopolize the farming zone." 

Both players got taken aback, not really knowing what to do. It was indeed a dick move to force someone to walk another hour because of them. Anyone would be pissed off. The case didn't get better knowing that they faced an unknown top ranker with a higher level than them. 

Liu Ye didn't let them figure out a plan as he continued, "Who is your leader? Tell him that I'm just going to walk through and I won't even bother him." 

"Our Leader is busy but I will try to contact someone," Evelyn replied suspiciously and pulled out her profile to send a message. "Please wait for a secon—"

"Is your team trying to kill King Scorpion? Why is he here?" Liu Ye cut her off as he pointed behind them with his eyes widened. Their unconscious reaction made them turn around abruptly but Liu Ye was only waiting for that. 

He froze his fingers and lunged forward, securing two easy kills by stabbing their stomachs. A stream of red numbers was followed by white pixels that dispersed within seconds. They couldn't even turn around to find out what happened. 

[Ding! You killed a Player: White Knight Brodin. You received 2,275 Experience and a Player Bag. Due to the difference of 8 levels, you earned 975 less Experience.]

[Ding! You killed a Player: White Knight Evelyn. You received 2,275 Experience and a Player Bag. Due to the difference of 8 levels, you earned 975 less Experience.]

[Ding! You killed two Players outside of the designated Zone. Your PK Score increased to 3.]

One-shotting players were actually pretty satisfying. If not for the negative impact of the PK Score, it would be a good source of Experience. As long as he killed within the buffer of 5 levels, he would receive full value out of every kill.

Liu Ye noticed one problem though.

'I have to be careful in the cities…'

Just as he could one-shot others, his enemies could do the same to him. Since it was possible to kill in the cities, he couldn't let anyone close to him or he might end up like Evelyn and Brodin. Liu Ye wasn't hard to kill if everyone on the street focused him. 

Liu Ye didn't waste any time checking the player bags and rushed into the Sand Canyon area. He had to reach the King Scorpion Lair before it was killed and his quest ended in a failure. 

The whole place was massive with many sand corridors and pathways but thankfully, the White Knights passed this place not too long and left a clear trail, allowing him to speedrun to the right location. It wasn't long till he heard sounds of battle… and cheering. 

"You can do it! Keep it up! 

Liu Ye was surprised for a moment but after peeking into one of the passages, he realized what was going on.

[King Scorpion - Lvl. 40]

[HP: 15,254/30,000]

[MP: 6,543/10,000]

White Knights were not even battling with the King Scorpion and instead blocked the passage to its lair with walls while cheering for someone else. If Liu Ye were to guess, they were a group of NPCs that he had to protect and White Knights simply waited to steal a kill. 

If it was any other scenario, Liu Ye would applaud them since he would do the same but this time they were unlucky that he got the quest. 

15… 25… 32…

Liu Ye counted 32 players watching a gigantic scorpion fight for its home and all of them were either Level 18 or 19. If he killed them all, it was more than enough for a level-up. 

The only worry he had was the PK Score he couldn't bypass easily. Those worries quickly disappeared once he moved closer to the passage. 

[King Scorpion Lair - Warning] 

[Player entered the Death Zone. The Lair is a home of a powerful field boss. It's not recommended to get any closer.] 

[Zone buff: All Abilities scale with +20% Elemental Power.] 

[Death Penalty: -2 Level, -20 gold] 

'Ouch, that will hurt them,' Liu Ye thought while looking at the penalty but he didn't hesitate one bit. It was either him losing a level or them and he would obviously choose the latter. 

Liu Ye quickly gulped down on a Medium Mana Potion and began forming Ice Spears around him. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that White Knights were not watching but when he reached ten spears, the White Spears got anxious. 

White Knight Lancelot sent out a few silent orders and five players ran towards the passage entrance unaware Liu Ye was waiting for them. 

Swoosh! 

-197

-83!

-197!

-83!

Just as the five players ran behind the curvature of the passage Liu Ye sent two Ice Spears at each player, killing them all on the spot. They didn't have time to react before the spears pierced into their chests. 

If he added two more points into his intelligence and used his Water Cloak, only one spear would be needed to kill each of them. The execution ability that killed anything under 20% of max HP would come in handy.

"Boss! They are all dead!" 

Liu Ye didn't even have time to check his notifications when he heard screams from the other end of the passage. He swiftly covered his body with water and formed a Water Cloak that gave him another 20% buff. Stacking all buffs together, one of his Ice Spears could one-shot anyone under 280 HP. 

He was only able to drink another Mana Potion when all the White Knights ditched the King Scorpion to deal with him. 

Swoosh! Swoosh! 

-280!

-280!

-280!

-223

Four more Ice Spears shot out in the crowd but he only killed three of them while the last spear didn't activate the Execution. Liu Ye was now left with no mana at all but the White Knights quickly moved to defense. 

"Grind God! Stop this!" Lancelot cried out from behind the Earth Walls. "The Boss is yours! We will leave, okay?!" 

Liu Ye only rolled his eyes. 

If he had the balls to challenge him then at least have the balls to fight. As soon as Lancelot realized his strength, he gave up fighting. 

"And why should I let you live?" Liu Ye questioned coldly as he abandoned his Water Cloak to walk closer. "You wanted to fight me so here I am." 

His Mana was recovering rapidly so he began to whip them from above without mercy. 

-84

-84

-84

Two whips slapping them all momentarily caused chaos in the enemy lines. They swiftly ran back towards the King Scorpion Lair but Liu Ye didn't let them breathe. He created an Ice Wall and jumped on top of their defenses to glare at them from above like a God of Slaughter that came to kill them. 

"This is unfair! Look at the difference between our Levels!" Lancelot called out as he stood in front of his guild members. "I can't even unlock the same abilities as yours so how can we fight you?" 

He created his own large Water Whip and added, "Also, I didn't ask to fight you in a duel. I wanted our guilds to compete for the next Dungeon instead." 

"What's the difference? A fight is a fight," Liu Ye shrugged. "I prefer to fight directly and you already have the player advantage. What else do you want?" 

The White Knights paled at his words but Liu Ye could still see high morale in their eyes. They prepared themselves for battle while Liu Ye was busy talking with their boss. Most of them were already damaged but Health Potions were healing them back up to full HP. If Liu Ye wanted to face them, he still had to kill 27 of them. 

"Are you sure you want to fight us? The game is still in the early stages. I don't want either of us to cripple our grinding," Lancelot pointed out grimly. "I can still forgive you for the people you killed." 

Liu Ye had only one answer for him and it was an Ice Spear he created in his palm. 

"I think it's too late for that, don't you think?"