Chapter 21: Hateful Woman
After killing Gold Medal Salesman, retrieving the stolen sanitary pads, and plundering a large pile of supplies, Lin Huai tried silently reciting the nickname “Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere.”
The teleportation failed.
Clearly, his anti-tracking charm was still active.
However, not long after her message appeared in the chat lobby, Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere was thoroughly terrified.
[Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere]: My people—I’ll keep them in line from now on. I won’t go against you ever again.
[Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere]: You have a level-three vehicle, and mine is level three as well. If we fight, neither of us can say who will walk away alive. It would just be a lose-lose situation for both of us. Why bother? Don’t you agree?
Lin Huai sneered in disgust. Before she could type a reply, digital fireworks suddenly exploded across her light screen. Old Hei’s synthesized electronic music blasted into her ears, dripping with pure mockery, as if he were answering the man on her behalf.
[Server-Wide Announcement: Congratulations to player “Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice” for achieving the first Level 4 vehicle upgrade! Reward: Green Ghost Box x1.]
[Tsk, tsk, tsk. Rookies, your countdown has begun! Anyone who can’t survive might as well pack it up and jump off a cliff right now. Look at her, then look at yourselves—a bunch of useless weaklings! With pathetic skills like yours, do you honestly expect to reach the end of the road?]
[Hurry up. If you don’t want to live, just say the word! I can kill you myself and give you a quick, clean end.]
[Of course, certain players shouldn’t get too full of themselves, either. A temporary lead is just that—temporary. You’ll still end up dead sooner or later!]
Lin Huai rolled her eyes. …Thanks a lot, Old Hei!
The system announcement had been delayed for so long that she had started to wonder if someone else had snatched the first level-four upgrade before her. As it turned out, Old Hei had simply been preparing his grand speech of insults.
Taking advantage of Old Hei’s timely taunts, Lin Huai tagged Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere directly in the public lobby.
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: @Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere, this is your very last chance. If you don’t behave yourself, next time it will be your head that gets blown off.
[Dragon Emerging from the Sea]: @Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere, it wouldn’t be a lose-lose situation at all. I have a teleportation talisman, too. Two against one—you have zero chance of survival.
[Old Wang from Building Materials]: Ah, damn it! I was busy opening a box and missed all the action! Why didn’t anyone call me when you went out to put down that stray dog? Count me in next time!
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Definitely next time!
A collective wail of shock and awe rolled through the chat lobby.
[Player 567]: Big Boss, you’re unbelievable! You aren’t leaving any room for the rest of us to survive!
[Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar]: Wow! Boss Bone Ash is so powerful! Level four already?! [Waving flags and cheering emoji]
[Old Wang from Building Materials]: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Just a second ago, someone was bragging that his vehicle was on the same level as the Big Boss. Look who just got slapped in the face!
[Dragon Emerging from the Sea]: A level of strength no one can catch up to. Truly amazing. [Thumbs up emoji]
[Fastest Hand at SF Express]: I’m trying my best, but I just can’t keep up… Big Boss, please carry me!
[Starving Blue Knight]: Can I just hook my scooter to the Big Boss’s bumper and get towed along? I don’t want to work hard anymore! Boss, please adopt me!
[Flash Delivery Yellow Knight]: Big Boss, carry me instead! I’m an eighteen-year-old college student, 185 centimeters tall! If you don’t mind my gender, I can make it work!
Lin Huai looked at the endless wall of messages begging for a carry. She chuckled softly, shook her head, and closed the light screen, ignoring the rest of the noise.
Looking down at the newly awarded Green Ghost Box, she felt a brief moment of hesitation. Would opening it leave another cursed green handprint on her wrist?
On second thought, the Newbie Protection Period was almost over. Even if she was cursed, the penalty would expire tomorrow. Getting cursed now was far better than triggering one after the protection period ended.
With that settled, Lin Huai acted decisively. She pulled her copper coin sword from her inventory and sliced cleanly through the black ink line sealing the Green Ghost Box.
Snap!
The lid popped open, and an eerie spirit with a dark green face and jagged fangs floated up from the box.
Lin Huai let out a long breath of relief. Thank goodness, it wasn’t the Hand of Curse!
The green ghost had floated up expecting to savor the terrified, trembling look on a human’s face. Instead, the woman standing right before it looked at it and simply sighed with relief!
???
Are you looking down on me?!
The green ghost flew into a sudden rage. Baring its razor-sharp fangs, it let out a harsh shriek and lunged straight at her with clawed hands.
Lin Huai had no idea why the creature was so furious. She raised her sword quickly to meet the strike, engaging the ghost in close combat.
Clang!
The copper coin sword collided with the sharp claws, ringing out like metal striking solid steel. The ghost’s nails were pitch-black, glossy, and impossibly hard, sending bright sparks flying at the point of impact.
The shock traveled up the blade, leaving Lin Huai’s wrist slightly numb. This green ghost was noticeably stronger than she had anticipated. The freezing wind kicked up by its charge scraped against her skin like cold blades.
While her copper coin sword was great for expelling evil spirits, it was still only a basic-grade weapon. Using it against a fierce green ghost was already pushing its limits; against a true instance boss, it would be almost useless.
Lin Huai could not help but miss the exceptional blade she had scavenged from a faction battlefield in her past life. That had been a magnificent weapon—at least a high-grade magical artifact.
In this world, both weapons and magical treasures were divided into three standard tiers: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Word had it that above advanced, there were also rare and legendary tiers, though Lin Huai had only ever heard of them in passing.
It was not that she was shortsighted for treating a high-grade artifact like a treasure; in her past life, she had only been a mid-tier player and had never seen the higher peaks of power.
Those rare and legendary tiers were said to be classifications coined by the top-tier veterans themselves. After all, a famous rule circulated across the survival game: A self-crafted weapon might not always be the strongest, but the strongest weapon is always self-crafted!
Once a workbench was upgraded to the advanced stage, it gained the ability to forge equipment. The legendary weapons wielded by the server’s greatest experts were almost certainly crafted from those top-tier benches.
Lin Huai could not help but wonder: in this second life, now that she had already stepped across the threshold of the top players, would she have the chance to hold a legendary weapon of her own?
The green ghost’s first attack missed, and seeing that the woman was actually daydreaming in the middle of their fight made it completely lose its mind.
“How dare you look down on me?!” it screeched, two clusters of pale green flame flaring to life inside its hollow eye sockets.
A wave of foul-smelling wind rushed over her. Its claws struck out in a blur of deadly afterimages, slashing simultaneously toward Lin Huai’s face and heart.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Lin Huai stepped backward rapidly. She spun the copper coin sword in tight circles, weaving a solid shield of gleaming bronze light before her.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A rapid series of sharp collisions echoed through the air.
The copper coin sword possessed natural holy power that suppressed dark corruption. Every time the blade met the creature’s claws, it left a sizzling burn mark, sending up wisps of foul-smelling white smoke.
“Hiss—!” The green ghost bared its fangs in agony, its aggressive movements faltering for a fraction of a second.
Seizing the opening, Lin Huai slapped an Immobilization Talisman directly onto its chest.
The charm locked the ghost completely rigid for three seconds.
Without wasting a breath, she stuck a Critical Strike Talisman to the blade of her sword. Her eyes turned cold and sharp. With a vicious thrust, she drove the copper coin sword straight into the green ghost’s chest with a wet squelch!
The three seconds expired, but the ghost could barely twitch. It stared down at the fatal wound pierced through its spirit body, let out a bitter, resentful hiss, and began dissolving into black smoke.
“Take the box, then! You hateful woman—how dare you look down on me?! Just wait until I run into you next time! I won’t let you off easy!”
Lin Huai stood there, dumbfounded.
I didn’t… I wasn’t looking down on you…
She shook her head. Never mind explaining to a dead ghost—looting the box was what really mattered!
