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"Warriors, hurry up and hold the line; this Ferocious Wild Boar is almost out of health!"

Someone shouted.

Mantou held a standard iron sword, staring at the wild boar in front of him.

It was a filthy and fierce Ferocious Wild Boar, massive in size, weighing several hundred kilograms.

Its body was covered with hard and sharp bristles, two long tusks protruding from its head, emitting a foul stench. At this moment, it appeared lethargic as if asleep, its body covered with wounds, seemingly on the verge of death.

In Mantou's eyes, this was a big heap of walking experience and money.

"Whatever, let's do it!"

Gritting his teeth, Mantou stepped forward and thrust his sword into the wild boar's side.

The iron sword pierced through the tough hide, deeply into the flesh, causing blood to spurt from the wound.

"Hit it!"

The players cheered loudly.

Suddenly, the wild boar's lazy, sleepy eyes turned blood-red. It exhaled a foul-smelling white breath, the muscles under its thick fat bulged abruptly, and its plump body erupted with an unimaginable powerful force.

"Damn, don't tell me this thing has a second form!"

Mantou awkwardly pulled out his blood-stained iron sword, cold sweat appearing on his forehead, feeling that he might be giving up first blood.

The Ferocious Wild Boar glared fiercely at Mantou, its sturdy hooves scraping the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

"Humph humph humph—Ah—"

The Ferocious Wild Boar let out a low roar and charged straight at Mantou, making all the players feel the ground tremble.

Although Mantou was not among the top players, he was considered a professional high-level player in immersive games. Seeing this terrifying charge, he instinctively rolled to the side.

Dust flew up from the ground; Mantou narrowly dodged the charge.

The Ferocious Wild Boar crashed into the rock behind him, even causing spiderweb-like cracks on the cliff face.

"So 'Ferocious' means it goes berserk at low health, huh?"

"This destructive power could definitely one-shot me."

Mantou couldn't help but complain, but the Ferocious Wild Boar's next charge had already arrived amidst flying dust, and Mantou had been forced into a corner with nowhere to hide.

"Looks like I'm finally going to give up first blood?"

Mantou skillfully opened the panel and turned the pain perception to the lowest setting.

"Holy Sanctuary!"

A clear female voice came.

A thin layer of light appeared around Mantou. The wild boar had clearly charged right up to him—even Mantou could hear its heavy breathing and smell its stinking odor—but it couldn't attack Mantou and could only crash into the nearby cliff again.

This time, the charge was full of power; the boar's thick, long tusks became embedded in the cliff wall, unable to be pulled out for a moment.

"Whoosh—"

An arrow shot from the side, piercing the wild boar's heart.

It struggled weakly a few times and finally lost its vitality.

"I've always said, Bow Warriors are the future."

A male voice came.

Mantou turned his head and saw three players approaching together.

He recognized these three people; they were famous professional players in the immersive gaming community.

They were the hardcore strategy master "Singo", the super popular professional female player with millions of fans "Summer Night Autumn Rain", and the expert who had battled in virtual game competitions for ten years and was said to be able to kill all opponents, "Born Battle Maniac".

Their current classes were Warrior, Priest, and Barbarian—a very complementary three-person team.

In front of them, Mantou felt himself shrink; although he also called himself a professional player and had tens of thousands of fans, he really couldn't compare with these famous big shots.

So he said somewhat awkwardly, "Thank you all. Did you come to see me for something?"

Summer Night Autumn Rain said, "We've watched your videos; they're very good."

"You're too kind."

Mantou scratched his head rather embarrassedly.

Singo got straight to the point: "Mantou, you had four gold coins when you last logged off, right?"

"Ah, yes, just lucky."

Four gold coins didn't sound like much, but this was genuine gold.

That was equivalent to 100 silver coins, 400 copper coins; a hardcore grinding player taking on all available quests day and night without rest would need almost ten days to accumulate that, while Mantou purely had dumb luck, finding the gold coins that a miner had secretly stashed in the mine.

Born Battle Maniac said, "Interested in doing a quest with us? We just happen to need that money."

Mantou was a bit confused: "Why don't you go to those big guilds? They should be happy to have you; this amount of money shouldn't be a problem."

Although it was still in the beta testing phase, those wealthy players had already formed small guilds, such as "Sword Pavilion", "Golden Club", and "Royal Authority". These small organizations had up to nearly fifty members, many of which became the prototypes of later big-name guilds.

Speaking of guilds, Born Battle Maniac got angry and cursed, "Those bastards are really shameless. Every day they have people hogging the quest board, snatching all the good money-making quests, leaving us solo players with contribution tasks like moving bricks and repairing walls."

Singo nodded in agreement, "Guilds? I wouldn't join one even if I were a dog."

He liked to use the word "dog" when he spoke, which was one of the reasons his haters called him "Singo the Dog". Another important reason was that he remained single.

Mantou thought for a moment and said:

"What do you need these gold coins for? I'll think about it."

Summer Night Autumn Rain showed Mantou a product information.

【The Mysterious Invitation】

Number of users: 4 people

"This invitation burns fiercely, never extinguishing. It can take you to unknown realms; what awaits you may be danger or opportunity."

Product price: 10 gold coins

"This is a new item that appeared in the exchange; there should be limited stock. Those guilds haven't noticed it yet. We've scraped together only six gold coins, so we came to you," Summer Night Autumn Rain added.

[Line intentionally left blank.]

"Damn, what kind of invitation is so expensive—it could buy several sets of equipment," Mantou couldn't help but complain.

Singo said bluntly, "This is the gap between you and top professional players. Ten gold coins may be very important in the early stages, but they're nothing in the mid to late game."

"If you use it to buy equipment, you'll only get a pile of scrap metal. But if you buy this kind of quest item, you can seize the initiative everywhere and keep winning."

Summer Night Autumn Rain couldn't help but mediate, "Say a bit less, will you?"

Singo said expressionlessly, "If he doesn't agree, it only proves he lacks vision; we can find someone else."

Mantou smiled awkwardly; he finally understood why this game strategy master was excellent in all aspects yet remained single.

However, after carefully considering Singo's words, he felt there was some truth to them, so he readily agreed.

"Alright, I'll join, but since my share is larger, you need to give me more privileges in the subsequent quests."

"No problem."

Born Battle Maniac chuckled and readily agreed.

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