Chapter 178: The Hunt

The mark of a Holy Word Priest is indeed the bane of thieves. Once marked by a priest, even if you are stealthed, other players can easily detect you. Therefore, among many ambush targets, thieves often prefer to attack Holy Word Priests. Holy Word Priests wear cloth armor and are extremely fragile, having the lowest health among all cloth-wearing classes. Although they possess offensive skills, many priests are not skilled in player-versus-player combat, unlike Elemental Mages, Arcane Mages, Holy Word Priests themselves, or Shadow Priests, who are much more formidable.

This group of players had not yet realized the danger approaching them, as Nie Yan had done everything possible to silence his footsteps. Unless a player had particularly high perception and acute reflexes, they could not sense his approach at all.

The higher a player’s perception, the stronger their sense of danger. If perception is very low, the sense of danger is fleeting and often undetectable to ordinary people. To counter players’ perception, thieves constantly enhance their stealth and invisibility attributes. Nie Yan’s stealth and invisibility attributes were already very high. As long as he was cautious, unless someone had particularly high perception, others couldn’t detect him at all. Even if they sensed danger, they couldn’t pinpoint Nie Yan’s location.

Setting traps to hunt me down? Nie Yan slightly curled his lips. The victorious players must have hated him deeply, willing to suffer losses just to capture him.

This was a dangerous game.

Nie Yan trailed behind them, moving very lightly.

Nie Yan loved this feeling—lurking in the shadows, watching the enemy’s every move, and once the opponent slightly exposed a weakness, striking instantly with deadly force.

These five players consisted of one warrior, one priest, one rogue, one paladin, and one arcane mage. This was a typical mixed team composition, with many melee attackers but insufficient firepower and poor burst damage. However, such a team had one advantage—endurance. Rogues, paladins, and warriors, being melee classes without magic limitations, could continuously attack, generating energy to use skills, thus maintaining constant output.

They continued talking and searching for Nie Yan’s trail. This was a black bear spawn area, and occasionally one or two black bears would appear, forcing them to stop and deal with them.

“I’ll tank the mob. Be careful, that rogue might be nearby!” said the warrior, charging toward the black bear and launching a Heroic Strike.

Seeing that a single warrior would face too much pressure, the paladin also moved forward to assist.

“Got it,” the other party members displayed slightly nervous expressions. Every time black bears appeared and they had to stop and fight, they felt frustrated because they had no idea whether the rogue might strike at that moment. Occasionally, a few groups of victorious players passed by in the distance, giving them a slight sense of security.

Seeing the warrior and paladin engage the black bear, Nie Yan crept behind the priest.

The priest was very alert, always moving slightly after healing the warrior to ensure his own safety. However, his sense of danger was clearly insufficient. These short-distance movements were practically useless against Nie Yan.

The priest’s movements were merely symbolic, lacking practicality and following a simple route, making it easy for Nie Yan to predict his path. Thus, Nie Yan waited along the priest’s movement route. When the priest approached, Nie Yan struck him from behind with a bash!

The arcane mage and rogue were standing near the priest, protecting him and staying within two yards. Suddenly, they sensed danger as a glint of cold light flashed behind the priest.

“Oh no!” the rogue cried out.

Before they could react, Nie Yan’s bash struck the priest’s head, causing him to become stunned.

Nie Yan’s dagger pierced the priest’s back, followed by a crippling strike. Two damage numbers, each over 220, floated above the priest’s head before he collapsed to the ground. The priest’s defense was extremely low, wearing cloth armor, so Nie Yan’s attacks were terrifyingly effective.

Seeing the priest fall, the rogue cursed and lunged at Nie Yan with a stun attack.

Nie Yan sidestepped, dodging the rogue’s dagger. His right dagger slashed in an arc, hitting the rogue’s forehead with a critical strike, followed by a backstab from behind.

Each of Nie Yan’s attacks dealt nearly 200 damage. The rogue, at full health, fell dead within seconds!

The nearby arcane mage was stunned, unable to believe that two teammates had died so quickly in the fight.

They had emphasized the importance of protecting the priest and having the priest apply the mark. But how could the priest react and apply the mark if he had no chance? The mage inwardly complained while quickly casting Mage Armor on himself. As he prepared to cast Arcane Blast, suddenly his body stiffened, unable to move.

This was Nie Yan’s incapacitation effect!

In the arcane mage’s desperate gaze, Nie Yan’s dagger struck him with a killing blow, followed by a bleed attack that reduced his health to just over ten points. As soon as he could move again, he quickly drank a minor healing potion.

Everything happened too fast, leaving little time for reaction. The warrior and paladin heard noises behind them and turned around to find both the rogue and priest already dead, leaving only the arcane mage.

“He’s over here!”

The victorious teams in the distance were alerted and rushed toward the scene.

Nie Yan grabbed two pieces of equipment, not bothering to finish off the arcane mage, and disappeared from the players’ sight. The mage stared numbly at his health dropping gradually until it inevitably reached zero, and he fell to the ground.

In an instant, three teammates had died. The rogue’s figure had only been a fleeting blur, and they hadn’t even seen Nie Yan’s face. Their leader, Shou Gou, had ordered them to hunt Nie Yan, but had never mentioned how terrifying this rogue could be.

When the victorious teams arrived, only three corpses remained. Priests used Light spells to search the area, finding nothing. They expanded their search, but Nie Yan had seemingly vanished into thin air, leaving no trace.

Once his abilities recovered, Nie Yan would be ready for another round of ambush.

Like a ghost haunting the forest, each time Nie Yan appeared, he claimed two or three players’ lives. Shou Gou had repeatedly reminded them to protect the priests and have the priests mark Nie Yan, but every time Nie Yan appeared, the first to die was always the priest.

Without exception, never missing a single time.

Thirteen victorious players had fallen, six of them priests. Priest levels were notoriously difficult to regain.

Shou Gou was furious.

“Shou Gou, we can’t keep wasting resources like this. Let’s retreat!” Ju Zi realized the severity of the situation. They had all previously fallen to Nie Yan’s hands. For ordinary players to face Nie Yan and not suffer losses would be a miracle! They hadn’t even touched Nie Yan’s robe yet. If they continued like this, they would certainly suffer more losses.

“We have over 500 players, and he’s only one person!”

“What good is 500 people? In such a vast forest, do you really think we can catch him?” Ju Zi shouted angrily.

Shou Gou reluctantly realized how difficult it was. If these 500 players were chasing him, he would have a more than 30% chance of escaping. However, according to reports from his team members, Nie Yan’s escape abilities were even more advanced than his own.

At that moment, more reports of casualties came in from the team members. Powerless to change the situation, Shou Gou gave the order to regroup, withdrawing the troops and calling off the pursuit of Nie Yan.

Seeing the victorious teams gradually retreating from the forest, Nie Yan, hiding in the shadows beside a tree, revealed a faint smile. His dagger was already soaked in blood, and his red name glowed ominously. He calculated that, in total, he had killed as many as seventeen players.

Nie Yan understood the principle of not over-pursuing a retreating enemy. If he chased further and killed one or two more, it would be troublesome if the regrouped victorious teams counterattacked.

He thought of the Maniac Medal. Why hadn’t they obtained it despite farming the scale frogs for so long? Could it be that Tang Yao hadn’t killed enough people?

Suddenly, he recalled an NPC. This person was quite famous—a defector from Grilan named Boldero, a rogue carrying the sub-legendary item Goto’s Dagger. Before fleeing, Boldero had killed over 100 guards in Carol City, earning him the title “Maniac Boldero.” Thus, Nie Yan speculated that the Maniac Medal might require killing at least 100 people before it could drop from scale frogs.

Killing over 100 people to become a maniac?

There was very little information about the Maniac Medal. Nie Yan only knew that it dropped from scale frogs. Some super-red-named players went there to farm elite monsters, occasionally obtaining the Maniac Medal. The higher the red name, the higher the drop rate. It could drop from sub-elite and elite scale frogs, with the highest drop rate from Scale Frog Lords.

Tang Yao farmed at least three elites daily, along with many sub-elites, yet had not obtained it until now. This was likely not a matter of luck.

Thinking for a while, Nie Yan decided to first retrieve the Justice Chapter before ignoring the victorious teams and swiftly heading toward the Light Abbey through the forest.

After receiving Shou Gou’s report, Po Tian from the victorious side severely reprimanded both Shou Gou and Ju Zi. They had spent a great deal of resources to obtain the equipment, with so many people guarding it, yet someone still managed to steal it away. The victorious teams had completely lost face.

Meanwhile, within the Bull Man Tribe, a video began circulating widely. Nie Yan had snatched the victorious teams’ equipment while surrounded by over 500 players, then proceeded to kill seventeen of them afterward. Such an event, boosting their own morale while demoralizing the victorious teams, greatly inspired the Bull Man Tribe players.

The Bull Man Tribe players had been oppressed for too long, constantly harassed by the victorious teams, causing unrest among them. However, the Bull Man Tribe leadership had remained inactive, and a slight misstep could cause their members to lose faith and scatter. Nie Yan was restoring their reputation, showing the Bull Man Tribe players that they were neither inactive nor afraid of the victorious teams—they were merely accumulating strength and waiting for the right moment.