Chapter 96: The Cannibals' Revenge

With a dull thud, Yeda instantly condensed a stone fist and brought it down on the rotten wolf that had thrown itself right into his reach.

“Take that, you little rascal!”

A crisp crack rang out, and the wolf’s skull was smashed to pieces.

Its brains burst apart like a watermelon struck by a boulder, splashing everywhere in a grisly mess.

It looked like tofu pudding mixed with chive bits.

White, gray, and black mingled together, all of it carrying a sharp, nauseating stench.

A single whiff was enough to send the foul odor straight up to the heavens.

“Higher!”

Perhaps driven by a surge of desperate will to survive, Yeda actually managed, at this critical moment, to control the iron grappling hook and lift himself another two meters.

Only then did he narrowly avoid the disgusting spray of brains, watching as the bewildered rotten wolf tumbled out of the air and back into the snow.

With a wet slap, the snow erupted in a cloud of white powder.

And when the drifting flakes settled once more, the bewildered rotten wolf had already become two glowing spheres.

“You surely didn’t think,” Yeda said with a mocking sweep of his gaze over the stunned pack below, “that I could only shoot, did you?”

“I’m not just good at shooting. I’m good at hitting too!”

“If you don’t believe me, come up here and let me punch you once!”

“I can knock you so senseless you won’t know your own head from your tail!”

Heh-heh.

Yeda’s taunts, as expected, threw the pack into a frenzy.

These rotten wolves might not understand human speech, but they could absolutely sense the malice radiating from him, and that only made them furious and helpless in equal measure.

“Wooah!”

“Wooah-wooah-wooah!!!”

The rotten wolves howled in impotent rage.

And Yeda responded with another shameless grin before drawing and firing like mad.

Whoosh!

Whoosh, whoosh!

Countless stone arrows poured down like a torrent of arrows from the sky.

One rotten wolf after another was struck. Sometimes the shot landed in the head; other times, if luck was poor, it pierced the neck or struck their hard skulls.

And if a stone arrow failed to pierce straight into the rotten wolf’s brain, it was almost useless.

These rotten wolves did not fear pain, nor did they know exhaustion.

They were like zombies. Only by destroying their brain stems could they be utterly slain.

Thud!

Plop!

As one rotten wolf after another fell, the remaining ones finally began to understand fear.

They tucked their tails, already half-rotten and ready to drop off, or in some cases nothing but bare white bones, and turned to flee into the distance.

But Yeda did not rush down to collect the pile of experience points strewn across the ground.

He merely kept his aim trained on the fleeing wolves below.

Shoot.

...

Cannibal cave.

Countless young cannibals carried the chief’s corpse into the burial grounds within the cave, where their ancestors were laid to rest.

They carefully lowered the old chief’s body into a grave pit that had already been dug in advance.

A young cannibal with numerous dreadlocks and a thin mustache stepped forward.

He reached up and removed the skull-and-animal-tooth necklace hanging around his neck. Many of the skulls there were trophies he had hunted himself; others had been taken on hunts with his father.

If Yeda had been there, he would have immediately recognized the Graystone Spider fangs among the animal teeth on that necklace.

It was clear enough...

This young man had slain at least one Graystone Spider.

Now, however, he bent low and placed that necklace of honor upon the old chief’s chest.

“Father!”

The young cannibal called softly to the dead chief. “Rest assured. I will avenge you, no matter what!”

“If I cannot do it, then I shall be buried here with you!”

With a sharp motion, the young cannibal held a delicate silver dagger in his right hand and gripped the blade with his left, then drew it hard across.

Blood gushed from his palm and spilled over the old chief’s corpse, as well as over the ivory-colored necklace of animal teeth.

Like flowers offered to the dead, crimson blossoms bloomed within the grave.

At that instant, when the young man displayed his resolve and courage for revenge, all the cannibals watching the rite erupted at once, raising their arms and cheering.

“Chief Ned!”

“Ned! Chief! Chief Ned!!”

This young man was the old chief’s son, and after his father’s death, he naturally inherited the chieftaincy at once.

But to win the tribe’s recognition, the new chief had to prove his courage.

So...

He had to swear a brutal blood oath.

And sure enough, the moment he made that oath, every cannibal there accepted his new identity as chief.

At the same moment, the shaman began to dance a prayer to the gods. A little while later, he flung a handful of white ash into the air.

Boom!

The white ash ignited without any flame.

And within the burning fire, everyone actually saw a huge human face.

The man was very pale, clean-shaven, with short hair, completely unlike the cannibals. He looked like a new human, one of those who called themselves players.

And on this player’s face was one especially distinctive feature:

He wore a large pair of white glasses.

“Is this the man who killed my father?”

The new chief’s beastlike eyes fixed fiercely on the image in the sacred flame as he ground out the words. “Shaman, can you determine where he is?”

“Yes, my chief!” The shaman pressed his forehead against the new chief’s, then said, “To the south. I see him in the south. I also smell herbs and decay.”

“The enemy who killed the old chief is in a place with herbs and rotting corpses.”

“He has built a nest there!”

“This is a perfect chance for vengeance, my chief. Lead the tribe out at once!”

“Good!”

The new chief raised the bloodied hand he had used to swear his vow and said, “Warriors who are willing to go with me for revenge, come with me!!!”

“Chief Ned!!”

The young cannibal warriors stepped forward one after another and stood before the new chief.

There were more than a dozen of them, all at the peak of the first rank or of the second-rank black iron tier. Like players, they each possessed their own special abilities, and they were formidable indeed.

And now...

Such a revenge squad was marching mightily toward the direction where Yeda was located.

...

“Don’t run!”

Right now, Yeda had no idea that in just a few short days he had already made enemies everywhere.

Of course, even if he knew, he would not have cared.

At that moment, he was in hot pursuit of the last two rotten wolves.

After all...

These were moving experience points!

Yeda naturally did not want even a single point of experience to slip through his fingers.

Whoosh!

Another rotten wolf fell into the snow.

The instant it hit the ground, it had already gone completely rigid, like a corpse that had been dead for a very long time.

But the most astonishing thing was...

Those wolves’ rotten hearts were still beating powerfully within their hollow chests.

Thump. Thump.

Thump-thump-thump!!

Yeda passed the corpse without sparing it a glance and kept chasing ahead.

Only one remained!

He had to take down the very last rotten wolf!

Though...

He could have stopped chasing.

But if he failed to claim that final bit of experience, it would feel exactly like playing a game and ending with the last monster still alive, an annoyance that would leave anyone deeply frustrated.

So...

It fled, and he pursued. It had no wings and no way to escape.

Whoosh!

At last.

The rotten wolf that had fled into a dead end still could not escape Yeda’s grasp.

But just as Yeda’s arrow struck it, the wolf’s body slammed heavily into the cliff wall, shaking loose countless heaps of snow.

And beyond the layers of falling snow, a bronze metal chest was revealed.

A bronze treasure chest?!

Yeda’s eyes lit up. It was actually a bronze treasure chest, one rank higher than a black iron chest.