"Let's pick up the pace—just the final boss left, everyone stay sharp."
Wang Rongxun said with a smile, trying to reassure them.
If Wan Huanyu was the hotheaded one and Guan Youlong the twisted one, then Wang Rongxun was the smiling tiger.
He was a bit older than Wan Huanyu and the others, and more capable, too.
But precisely because of his age, when the game first launched, he hadn't joined immediately. It was only after the rumors started circulating in his circles that Wang Rongxun came in.
The upside: to this day, he had never died once.
The downside: because of his distrust and unfamiliarity with the game, his initial talent was only C-rank.
Luckily, the village defense battle was won. He didn't take first place, but he bought up contribution points and purchased a Talent Enhancement Stone, raising his talent to B-rank.
【B-rank talent: Backstab
Trait 1: Instantly teleport behind a target!
Trait 2: All attacks from behind deal 30% bonus damage.】
This talent eventually set Wang Rongxun on the path of an assassin.
However, Wang Rongxun was extremely envious of talent.
When he first entered the game with only a C-rank talent, he naturally suppressed players with S-rank talents.
Not only that—knowing that S-rank talents would drop ranks upon death, he quietly arranged for quite a few of them to be killed off.
Whether they were allies or enemies.
The upside: he only envied the capable.
He had no interest in regular players.
That's why the ordinary players in his area, 025, died in much smaller numbers—over 8,700 survived, and the village defense barely succeeded.
But just two days after the server merge, Lin Haowan exposed the Shun Muyuan incident, and now almost no players chose the 0258888 server, afraid they'd be oppressed by Rongxun Studio once inside.
This left Wang Rongxun without capable talents to use—the highest rank among his dungeon raiders was a mere A-rank player.
Even worse than Wan Huanyu's Huanyu Studio.
Still, as long as you had one piece of gold equipment, you could get endless more.
Besides, clearing this server-first would also net a gold equipment.
With 10 people, each got one; surely someone would draw gold equipment to improve again.
Dungeons would only get easier from there.
But Wang Rongxun never dreamed—
Although the 【Primordial Door】 was divided into servers,
it was actually a single, complete map.
Other players could cross regions and even snatch his server-first away.
...
Fengdu Town.
After Chu Fu finished explaining, everyone in the team's eyes lit up.
"What server-first? Where did a server-first come from?" Jiaojiao bu Jiao asked.
Chu Fu shared the quest.
"The 025 server's hell-difficulty dungeon hasn't been cleared yet!"
Hearing this, everyone understood immediately.
Shen Chi said at once, "Everyone, return to the guild base. Get on the bus."
The veteran driver got the engine running.
Everyone moved fast, using the guild's free Recall skill to teleport back to the base.
Shen Chi set down the bus, everyone climbed aboard, and with a roar, Shen Chi floored it.
Target: Fenghe Town!
Fenghe Town sat between Fengdu Town and Guguang Town—a straight-line trip of roughly an hour and a half.
With the roaring ride, they arrived at the entrance of the goblin lair in Fenghe Town.
The giant mech was massive—every squad lined up at the dungeon entrance saw it.
Almost immediately, a player from Rongxun Guild let out a hoarse shriek:
"The Plant People are here! Run!!!"
Wan Huanyu's guild had been wiped out in the morning.
Was it Rongxun Guild's turn in the afternoon?
Furious and trembling, they ruled the underworld—when could the big four syndicates ever stand tall again, when capital was getting bodied by a lone casual player?
Was this the power of the people?!
Suddenly, at the bustling dungeon entrance, players pulled out every trick to flee—some went invisible, some jumped away in big leaps, some shot off looking like they had fire wheels strapped to their legs.
"Ah, our reputation's too notorious, we scared everyone off!" Chu Fu shrugged helplessly, feeling even more strongly about the importance of public discourse.
She didn't care anymore and selected the hell-difficulty dungeon to enter.
News of Chu Fu and the others arriving at Fenghe Town and entering the dungeon quickly reached Wang Rongxun's ears.
Wang Rongxun's forehead veins bulged.
To secure the hell-difficulty server-first, his team had been grinding for days.
Moreover, the dungeon entrance had been hogged by his guild—keeping other casual teams from entering.
What if a powerful casual player snatched the server-first?!
But against thugs like the Plant People, the Rongxun Guild players didn't dare stop them.
Wang Rongxun forced down his temper and flashed a smile.
"It's fine—you did the right thing. Now, head back to town—not the guild base—and pull out every piece of silver and bronze equipment from the warehouse, fast!"
Don't end up like Huanyu Guild—wiped out and slow to react, losing their whole headquarters.
Then, inside the dungeon, they picked up the pace.
But nerves were frayed, mistakes piled up, and the boss killed multiple damage dealers with a few hits.
"Don't worry about the bodies—keep fighting, keep fighting! We've got an hour—just one hour, and the boss will be down!"
"The rest of you must not screw up!"
"Anyone who makes another mistake is out of Rongxun!"
Wang Rongxun shouted.
Everyone's nerves were stretched to the breaking point.
Worried the atmosphere was too oppressive, Wang Rongxun twitched his face muscles and forced himself to speak patiently, "One more attempt—they just entered the dungeon, we still have a chance!"
One player couldn't help saying, "Guild Master, I just checked Jīngjí Guild's [thorn guild] clear record—their server-first clear took only about an hour."
"Shut up!"
Wang Rongxun hissed through his teeth.
And everything refused to go his way.
With fewer damage dealers, the boss became much harder. The pressure was too much, they couldn't dodge the boss's attacks, and players dropped one by one.
An hour later, Wang Rongxun himself hit the ground, leaving only four people alive in the raid.
Just then, the server-wide announcement appeared.
【Server Announcement: Players "Who Wants to Be a Plant", "Rocket on a Wheelchair", "Who You Calling Blind", "Jiaojiao bu Jiao", "Suture Saint", "Shafu Liangu", "Wu Yingchun", "Little Sister Wu", "Zhimengzhe", and "Bitter Melon King" have completed the hell-difficulty Goblin Lair server-first clear! Reward: All stats +8, Gold Treasure Chest ×1!】
Wang Rongxun snapped.
"Get out of combat—what are you waiting for? Keep the healer alive."
The players exited the boss arena, and as usual, the boss didn't chase them out but returned to its lair, rapidly regenerating health.
Seizing the moment, the cleric with Resurrection carefully brought everyone back to life.
"So... do we still keep fighting?" the cleric asked.
