Chapter 30: Elite Group
[587 Reaching the Clouds]: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Is the number-one player really too scared to show up? Is your little hearse hiding somewhere?
[587 One-Punch Kid]: Hahaha, we spotted her! It’s hilarious! A supposedly great player actually tucked her vehicle away in a dingy little alley. What’s the matter, terrified?
Lin Huai glanced at her rearview mirror. Sure enough, she saw several figures creeping around the corner of the narrow street.
She pushed the car door open and stepped out into the rain, striding calmly toward the mouth of the alley. Drawing her submachine gun, she loaded a fresh magazine of standard bullets. Before the scouts could even realize what was happening, she raised the muzzle and fired a sweeping spray of lead.
A few seconds later, a fresh photograph was posted directly into the public chat lobby.
In the picture, several players lay collapsed in pools of their own blood. The red fluid mingled with the acidic puddle on the street, bubbling into a dark, murky black sludge.
[444 Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: @If You Don’t Submit, Fight, are these your scouts?
[587 Keyboard Warrior]: If you have the guts, face us at the Bell Tower! What kind of coward picks on scouts?!
[444 Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Thirty-five players waiting in an ambush at the Bell Tower, five Level 3 vehicles, and twenty Level 2 vehicles. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You certainly think highly of me. Since you laid out such a welcoming party, I’ve decided to use my brain instead. Feel free to keep waiting!
Without missing a beat, Lin Huai sent another broadcast out to the lobby.
[444 Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: @All Zone 444 Players, listen up, family! I’m driving the crimson hearse with the coffin floating overhead. If you see me being pursued, help me cut them off! I promise generous rewards for everyone who lends a hand! I’m going after that region merging crystal. Our number-one spot, Old Hei, and Zone 444’s name—they won’t take a single one from us!
[444 Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Attention: Players with Level 1 vehicles, focus entirely on your own safety. Players with Level 2 vehicles, please prepare for a team battle. Anyone with a Level 3 vehicle, contact me immediately!
Having quickly laid out her instructions, Lin Huai threw the hearse into gear and sped away from the alley.
Meanwhile, a large crowd was gathered in the square beneath the Bell Tower.
A man with a vicious knife scar running down his forearm sat atop the roof of a Level 3 vehicle, surrounded by his followers like stars circling the moon.
His muscular face tightened into a scowl, his brows knitting together in frustration. “Damn it, how did she figure out exactly how many people we had waiting here?”
A youth with messy bleached-yellow hair stood nearby, looking equally bewildered. “Exactly! Most of our people were hiding inside the tower itself, and the cars were tucked behind the surrounding buildings. How could she know our numbers so precisely? Boss, could we have a rat from Zone 444 among us?”
Beside them, a burly, short-haired man jumped into the driver’s seat of a Level 3 heavy truck. “Who cares how she knows? I’ll go hunt her down myself. No matter how tough she acts, she’s still just a woman.”
He turned the key, the heavy engine roaring to life. “Besides, she had to beg for help in the public lobby. That means she doesn’t have an organized crew of her own. There’s no way she can pull a real force together on short notice. Our best chance to kill her is right now.”
The scarred man was none other than Sector 587’s leader, If You Don’t Submit, Fight.
He considered the suggestion and nodded. “Alright, Reaching the Clouds. Take ten Level 2 vehicles and track her down. Everyone else stays put to hold this ambush, just in case she tries to pull a trick and sneak in from behind. Securing that region merging crystal is our top priority.”
The yellow-haired youth looked up toward the giant crystal glowing at the apex of the Bell Tower, scratching his head. “Boss, why can’t we just climb up and grab the gem right now? Why do we have to wait for Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice to show up?”
At that exact moment, Dragon Emerging from the Sea was asking the very same question.
Right after sending her message in the main chat, Lin Huai brought up her system menu, deposited 10,000 underworld coins, and unlocked a two-hundred-person group chat.
Once the Newbie Protection Period ended, private group channels became available, though creating them required an upfront fee. A basic payment of 100 coins unlocked only a tiny group for three people.
In her past life, Lin Huai had struggled with a lack of funds, which was why building a team had always been an agonizingly slow process.
This time around, however, underworld coins were the one thing she had in abundance. To recruit a capable strike team, she opened a large group first, intending to pick out the best candidates later for a core group.
The moment the room was created, she invited seven key players: Dragon Emerging from the Sea, Old Wang from Building Materials, Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar, Jiangzhehu Inheritor, Fastest Hand at SF Express, Cute and Sparkling, and Hungry Spirit Blue Knight.
Aside from Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar, every single one of them was ranked within the top ten of the zone’s monster-kill leaderboard, and all of them drove Level 2 or higher vehicles.
Lin Huai naturally favored players who excelled at fighting monsters. Anyone who knew how to kill monsters would know how to fight people when the time came.
Inside the new group, Dragon Emerging from the Sea brought up his question about the crystal.
[Bone Ashes]: Because the region merging crystal can only be triggered when the rank-one players from both sides touch it together. That’s when the final activation prompt appears. They have to wait for me to get there; taking it down early is completely useless.
[Old Wang from Building Materials]: Aha, so that’s how it works! Then let’s just stay away and let them rot while they wait!
[Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar]: Wow, is this our Zone 444 elite squad? Am I really allowed to be here? I don’t really have any combat strength at all…
[Bone Ashes]: @Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar, don’t sell yourself short. You’re actually very important—you’re ranked fourth on the resource leaderboard and serve as our main medical support. A lot of people are going to get hurt in this fight, and we’ll need your medical supplies to keep everyone standing.
With that, Lin Huai sent a private item bundle directly to Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar in the chat.
[Bone Ashes]: This is a crate of crafting materials in exchange for medicine. Hold onto it for now, and I’ll come to you whenever I need healing supplies.
Dragon Emerging from the Sea had been running low on healing items, so seeing a dedicated medic join the group, he immediately sent over his own trade package, swapping for the medicines he needed.
One by one, the other members made trades with her. In return, Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar put together a shared package of basic medicines and dropped it into the group for anyone to claim.
[Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar]: Since this is a team fight, I want to do my part, too. Consider these emergency medicines my contribution to the battle.
[Bone Ashes]: Well done.
[Dragon Emerging from the Sea]: @Bone Ashes, Big Boss, what’s the plan? Do we have a strategy laid out?
[Bone Ashes]: I have pursuers on my tail right now, so I can’t type much. Let’s regroup at the plaza in front of the South City Church!
[Jiangzhehu Inheritor]: Yes! I finally get to meet Boss Bone Ash in person!
[Hungry Spirit Blue Knight]: To think an ordinary delivery rider like me would actually make it into the elite group, haha!
[Fastest Hand at SF Express]: I’m ready for the fight, though it’s a shame one of our Three Knight Brothers is missing from the squad.
[Hungry Spirit Blue Knight]: Yeah, poor Yellow Knight had terrible luck. He got robbed blind by Fever’s gang earlier and only managed to push his ride to Level 2 yesterday, so he didn’t make the leaderboard cut.
