Brother Long took a direct hit from a falling rock. The only reason he wasn’t killed instantly was because his level was much higher than everyone else’s around here. Even so, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Ignoring his injuries, he roared: “Run!”
“It’s a damn field BOSS!”
The teens’ faces changed drastically. But at their age, loyalty meant everything—no one wanted to be the first to flee. The chubby kid gritted his teeth and stepped forward: “I—I’ve got a shield! I’ve got lots of HP, I can hold it off for a bit!”
“Xiao Xue, heal Brother Long, quick!”
Before he’d even finished, a green glow fell on Brother Long. The bespectacled girl called Xiao Xue was so terrified she was about to cry, fumbling to cast another heal, but Brother Long raised a hand to stop her. “It’s fine. You’ve only got that one skill. Using it once or twice is the same. Save your mana—you might need it to save someone later!”
Gritting his teeth, he dragged himself up from the rubble.
This was a game—people could regenerate health. As long as they weren’t killed outright, they could keep fighting… assuming they could endure the pain.
He clutched his stomach, convinced he’d cracked a few ribs, but when faced with a group of teary-eyed kids staring at him, he couldn’t just keep lying there pretending to be dead.
He glanced over the group, tallying their combat power. His expression darkened; things didn’t look good.
His own level was high, but his awakened ability was useless—it let him move objects under 5 kg, and only slowly at that. He’d deal more damage just throwing something with his bare hands.
Brother Long’s face turned grim. “Listen up! We can’t beat this thing. Luckily we’re not far from the city. Fight and retreat—just hold out until we get back to the safe zone!”
As soon as the chubby kid saw Brother Long stand, he immediately backed off, tears flowing. “Boo-hoo-hoo, Brother Long, you’re okay! I thought you were dead!”
Brother Long winced in pain. “Then save the crying until I actually die!”
The kid, not entirely stupid, lowered his voice: “Brother Long, that car went that way earlier. Should we…”
Brother Long nodded. “We’ll head that way too. If we can get help along the way, all the better.”
What he didn’t say was that if they couldn’t get help, he wasn’t sure he could keep this bunch alive.
Not far off, He Wuning heard the commotion. He turned his head and saw only clouds of dust billowing up.
He arched a brow. “What’s going on?”
Q-chan chirped in its sugary voice: “I don’t know either, so scary—”
“If you don’t know, shut up.” He Wuning cut it off coldly. Q-chan immediately squawked: “Sweetie, you really shouldn’t go poking around! You’re only level 1 now! Sure, you kept your base stats, but you can’t use any of your level 50 gear!”
He Wuning frowned, opening his inventory. Just as Q-chan said, aside from a few special items, most of his gear was still on his body but marked “Unavailable”—including his trusty dagger, Eclipse.
His base attack was 60. The dagger alone had added +3200. Compared to that, his raw stats were laughable.
He stripped off the unusable equipment and put on a set of plain level-1 gear he’d prepared, along with a level-1 skinning knife that added +100 attack.
Awakening-related equipment rules had long since been posted on the forum. He’d just been too irritated by this idiot system to remember. Now, with trouble brewing, it was safer to gear up properly.
His eyes paused on something in his bag. A mysterious item labeled “??? Fragment” gave off a faint flash of light.
“Eeeek—” Q-chan covered its eyes with its stubby hands. “Sweetie, how could you just change clothes in front of me like that!”
He Wuning blinked, slightly surprised. “You have a gender?”
“Of course!” Q-chan said proudly. “I’m an adorable boy!”
He Wuning’s face stayed blank. “Then what are you covering your eyes for?”
“Hmph! Even as a boy, you still have to guard against other boys!” Q-chan huffed.
He ignored it and looked outside. The dust cloud was drawing closer. He finally saw the cause: a massive stone golem lumbering clumsily after fleeing prey. The group he’d crossed paths with earlier were bloodied and battered, crying and scrambling in his direction.
The chubby kid wailed: “Brother Long! Brother Long, I really can’t run anymore! If my lungs explode, will I lose HP?!”
Brother Long’s face turned pale. “What you should be thinking about is whether you’ll survive if your lungs explode! Are you out of your damn mind?”
The chubby kid panted like a steam engine. “It’s dusty!”
He Wuning: “……”
What kind of spirit is this, making jokes while running for your life?
The blond leader saw He Wuning’s eyes light up. He barely managed to shout half a word, “Big shot—,” before his expression turned to despair.
He Wuning heard a loud curse: “Damn! It’s level one!”
He slammed on the brakes and swerved straight toward the city.
The chubby kid seemed to have a bit of superstition about someone being able to drive across the plains. Hesitantly, he shouted, “Brother Long! Are you really not going to ask him for help?”
“Level one! You want him to die for you?! Run! Stop standing there!” Brother Long’s expression flickered through several emotions. He glanced at the pale-faced bespectacled girl beside him and grit his teeth. “Xiao Xue.”
The girl lifted her head, sensing something ominous. Brother Long forced his expression to appear cold and stern. “If it really goes south, I’ll send you back to the respawn point. You go first.”
Xiao Xue panicked. “Brother Long! I can at least keep you guys healed if I stay here—”
“What good is healing if you die? You need to survive!” Brother Long nearly snapped. “Aren’t you out for revenge for your brother? You have to stay alive first.”
He Wuning watched them from the car window, expressionless. The fleeing teens passed by, their faces filled with despair and anxiety reflected in his view.
The stone giant, closing the distance, stepped past his window without even glancing at him. Its hatred was firmly fixed on the group it had been attacked by, so long as He Wuning didn’t interfere, it would just pass by.
A short, freckled boy fell to the ground. Panicked screams erupted outside as the monster lifted its foot.
He Wuning got into the driver’s seat.
Q-chan breathed a sigh of relief. “Right, standing here is still too dangerous. Let’s move somewhere safer… aaah—”
It immediately flew up and mounted its head on the roof. He Wuning slammed the wheel and drove straight at the stone giant’s leg.
Q-chan shrieked in terror: “Sweetie, why are you provoking it—”
The pink milk tea car charged hard into the stone giant’s right leg. After a teeth-gritting collision, the stone giant—roughly twice the car’s height—was flung backward in defiance of physics.
He Wuning didn’t pause. He opened the car door, jumped out, and rolled to the ground.
The next second, the stone giant recovered from the forced knockback and slammed a fist down. Miraculously, the milk tea car took the hit. Q-chan darted out behind He Wuning, yelling: “Wait for me, sweetie! Milk tea car durability -1, current durability 19/100…”
He Wuning raised an eyebrow. “The stone giant hit and only took 1 durability? I should’ve hit it a few more times earlier.”
Q-chan: “…Sweetie, you’re really reckless.”
The stone giant clearly had little intelligence. It kept attacking the milk tea car until its durability reached zero. The car’s front crumpled under the pressure.
Q-chan, devastated, covered its mouth: “Waaah, my car!”
The stone giant seemed satisfied, but just as it was about to retract its hand, He Wuning—who had somehow snuck back near the milk tea car—climbed onto its right arm. He stabbed the seam between the stone blocks, twisted the dagger’s handle, and dislodged a huge chunk of rock. The stone giant roared in anger, swung its other hand, and slammed itself.
He Wuning landed the hit and didn’t linger. He quickly dropped to the ground, crouched, and hid in the grass.
The stone giant’s right arm was now significantly shortened, letting out a deafening roar of rage.
Brother Long quickly pulled the terrified little freckled boy behind a rock on the plains. Looking up, he couldn’t help but mutter, “Holy crap!”—the monster, which had barely lost any health all the way up to this point, had instantly taken a huge chunk of HP.
He knew the stone giant’s weak point—this info was publicly available on the forum. The problem was that no one could actually pull it off!
The advice read: “Apply force to the seams between stone blocks to peel them off, dealing massive damage.” Easy to write, but in reality, approaching and attacking that thing in melee was a huge risk.
Brother Long was astonished. He and his teens exchanged glances. The chubby kid twitched, whispering, “Brother Long, should we go help?”
Brother Long’s expression flickered, then he finally nodded. “You guys stay back and deal damage. I’ll go in close and tank a few hits for him!”
“Xiao Xue, heal him!”
Xiao Xue nodded vigorously and cautiously leaned out a little. A green light shot from her fingertip and attached to He Wuning.
He Wuning raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised, giving her a brief glance. Healing-type abilities were extremely rare—this little girl actually…
Q-chan diligently followed right behind him. “Sweetie, don’t glare at me! I’ve activated combat stealth mode. I won’t expose your position!”
“You now have a continuous healing skill, restoring 5 HP per second. Uh… that’s it.”
He Wuning did a quick calculation: 5 seconds total, 5 HP per second, while the stone giant’s attacks dealt over 200 damage each.
He checked his current HP—only 300—and expressionlessly gripped his dagger.
…Doesn’t seem like it’ll be much help.
But it’s fine—he could solo it.
Timing the stone giant’s attack intervals, He Wuning climbed up its leg. He didn’t attack immediately, instead running upward and leaping toward the giant’s intact left hand.
—As long as he destroyed its hands, it couldn’t use the falling rock magic.
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The author has something to say:
Irresponsible little interlude:
Rabbit Author: This is our protagonist, the enthusiastic citizen Mr. He…
He Wuning: Who are you cursing?
Yi Luo: I want to appear.
Rabbit Author: Next chapter, definitely!
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