Legend of the Pinnacle of Online Games

Chapter 9: I'd Seen It All Along (4,000-word Chapter)

"Huh?" The young shop assistant was taken aback, her tear-streaked face showing confusion. "Take it yourself?"

"Yes, there are some things I think are better done by myself." Lin Hanchuan looked at the pitiful-looking young shop assistant with a face that could be described as a village beauty, and said sincerely.

To be honest, the official character models for [Descent] are really excellent.

In this game, both monsters and NPCs feel incredibly real, as if all creatures from another world should be like this.

Of course, it is precisely because of this unique experience that the online game "Descent" has become a global sensation.

"Not enough?" The young shop assistant looked at Lin Hanchuan with pity in her still misty eyes.

This appearance is really easy to soften one's heart.

Unfortunately... she encountered Lin Hanchuan.

"How could that be!" Lin Hanchuan shook his head. He killed a level 5 tyrannical demon, and in the easiest way possible.

Give 10 gold coins as a reward.

Very high!

And it's extremely high!

Previously, achieving the milestone title of first kill of the demon only rewarded 5 gold coins.

In the early stages, when everyone was basically getting copper coins from killing monsters, being able to get gold coins as a reward meant you were already far ahead.

However, this is not a mission reward!
Lin Hanchuan looked around, his gaze finally settling on the young shop assistant's left hand, which was hidden in her sleeve. He couldn't see her fingers, but he could see three sharp fingernails that couldn't be concealed even by the wide sleeve.

And I'm afraid I won't even live to take it!
"What happened?" the young shop assistant pressed.

"I didn't expect you to ask that." Lin Hanchuan took another step back, his voice still calm as usual. "Then you must not have taken what I said before to heart."

"What?"

"I've said it before, the thing I hate most in this life is demons!" Lin Hanchuan repeated what he had said before, and as soon as he finished speaking, two bottles of potions appeared in his hand.

One bottle of basic agility potion, and one bottle of basic intelligence potion.

"Why did you take the medicine out?" The young shop assistant's voice was soft, but she seemed to realize something, and her hand, hidden in her sleeve, began to move.

"It's nothing, I just suddenly felt a little thirsty, so I'm drinking some medicine to quench my thirst!" Under the watchful eye of the young female shop assistant, Lin Hanchuan opened two bottles of medicine and drank them all in one gulp.

The next moment, Lin Hanchuan raised his hand and threw a fireball. The fireball drew a fiery red arc in mid-air and flew towards the girl's shop.

It happened without any warning.

boom!
—21!

"You?" The young shop assistant, who had taken a fireball and lost 21 health points, still looked puzzled.

It seems that she still doesn't understand why Lin Hanchuan did this?
"Ah!"

Lin Hanchuan was too lazy to play along with her anymore. With a light laugh, he raised his hand and launched fireballs at the young female shop assistant.

When facing a demon, especially a cunning one, you must strike first!
Thanks to the fact that when Lin Hanchuan added attribute points earlier, he did not, like other mages, directly stack all his free attribute points on intelligence in order to increase his spell power.

Instead, they allocated nearly half of their free attribute points to agility.

An improvement in any attribute in the early stages can drastically change the course of a battle. The increase in agility not only significantly improved Lin Hanchuan's movement speed but also his attack speed.

Lin Hanchuan can cast 2.5 small fireball spells like this, which have no cooldown and can be thrown as soon as they are cast.

Of course, there is a limit to how much agility can increase attack speed.

While theoretically the fastest possible attack speed could eliminate the interval between the previous and next attack, this is merely an idealized value and is practically impossible in reality.

The increase in agility can at most bring the interval between Lin Hanchuan's two attacks infinitely close to zero, but it can never reach zero.

As a mage, Lin Hanchuan can't always prioritize agility as his primary stat. Currently, he's only focusing on improving agility to address the issue of slow casting speed for skills with no cooldown in the early game, maximizing the cost-effectiveness of the mage class in early combat.

In the future, intelligence and spirituality will remain the main areas for improvement.

In addition, Lin Hanchuan will also increase his strength a little.

Strength is a very important attribute for players of all classes. In addition to affecting their maximum health, it also affects the equipment they wear. In [Descent], most equipment and items do not require players to be leveled up, but rather to have the attribute points they possess.

Some defensive and life-saving equipment items require a certain amount of strength from the player. If a mage wants to wear defensive life-saving gear, it is difficult to meet the strength requirements for the equipment if they rely solely on the attribute points gained from leveling up their class. They must allocate some free attribute points to it.

Besides affecting equipment, strength also greatly influences the speed at which a player's thrown items travel through the air after being thrown.

For example, the fireball that Lin Hanchuan threw out at this moment did not fly very fast, and it did not have a lock-on function. As long as the opponent's agility value was high enough, they could easily dodge it.

However, if you increase the strength value and improve the initial velocity of the projectile, things become different. Back in Zone 1, Lin Hanchuan would often put one or two attribute points into the strength value when leveling up.

Over time, this accumulated to the point that when he reached the peak of his sixth rank, the initial velocity of the fireballs he threw could reach the speed of a sonic boom.

In addition, the increased attack speed brought by agility allows Lin Hanchuan's fireballs to cover a wide area, making it difficult for most sixth-tier players to dodge.

However, in the current scenario—a closed passageway with a closed warehouse behind the young female shop assistant—the fireball's flight speed is not so important.

Bang bang bang! !

—21!

—18!

—20!

Fireballs were thrown out by Lin Hanchuan, hitting the young female shop assistant who was still pretending to be human one after another.

"Why do you want to kill me?"

"I am human!"

"Aren't you afraid the village chief will punish you?"

"Stop! It really hurts!"

……

The young female shop assistant was pleading desperately.

Lin Hanchuan ignored him and continued to output damage.

Bang bang bang! !

—23!

—18!

……

—8! Until the fireball landed on her, the damage value suddenly dropped to single digits.

The girl's fair and smooth skin began to peel off from the shop assistant's body like fragments, revealing a dark red exterior hidden beneath and a pair of eyes that emitted a purple light.

The hands that emerged from the sleeves had fingernails that were over thirty centimeters long, resembling ten sharp blades that appeared exceptionally cold and razor-sharp under the illumination of the fluorescent stone.

Dark Claw Demon

Level: 5

Rank: Elite
Blood volume: 850
Attack: 80~200
Note: The Dark Claw Demon likes to use its hands to tear open its opponent's chest and eat its internal organs. In dark environments, all of its attributes are increased by 10%!

Lin Hanchuan only glanced at her information through the system and did not look at it in detail.

Before this, Lin Hanchuan had already identified her demon race as the Dark Claw Demon, the only demon race whose nails grow uncontrollably no matter how they try to hide them, and whose nail growth rate is affected by their emotions.

The more intense the emotions, the faster the growth!

It was unexpected that there were members of the Dark Claw Demon race who understood formations, and their formation skills were not low. The formation trap that trapped the tyrannical demon before could only be set up by an intermediate formation master.

"How did you find me?" The Dark Claw Demon, revealing its true form, retreated rapidly into the warehouse, but its voice still betrayed its confusion.

She thought she had hidden it well.

Even her uncontrolled fingernails were carefully hidden inside her wide sleeves.

Throughout the entire process, they didn't reveal the slightest clue.

“From the very beginning, I felt something was off about you!” Lin Hanchuan stood in the corridor, looking at the warehouse that was so close at hand. He didn’t chase after it, because who knew if the Dark Claw Demon had left any traps inside.

Sighed again.

The time for both the Agility Potion and the Intelligence Potion is almost up.

When attacking the Tyrannical Demon, he deliberately concealed his strength and took Agility and Intelligence Potions immediately before the battle, all in order to catch the Dark Claw Demon off guard.

A powerful burst of damage took her down.

Surprisingly, this guy wasn't so angry that he fought me recklessly; instead, he chose to retreat into the warehouse.

As expected of the Dark Claw Demon, which ranks much higher than the Ogre in the demon race rankings.

Moreover, this Dark Claw Demon is much more intelligent than its kind. Like the ogre disguised as the old man with the black beard, it is probably one of the most promising among its kind.

However, Lin Hanchuan was not without a way to deal with her retreating into the warehouse.

The corridor sloped downwards, and the warehouse was located at the end of the corridor. Lin Hanchuan threw a water ball the size of a palm, which landed in the warehouse with a thud.

"Why?" The Dark Claw Demon hidden in the warehouse ignored the water ball thrown in. It was only the size of a palm. Could it be that the human mage had the audacity to think he could flood the warehouse with such a water ball?
She was simply curious as to why she had been discovered.

"Potions are essential items in professional combat, and the apothecary is the shop in the whole village that never lacks business. The reason why people passing by don't go into the apothecary to buy things is not because they don't need potions, but because they don't have enough money to buy them."

As long as the Dark Claw Demon doesn't come out, Lin Hanchuan won't force her. This will give him some time to buy himself some time. With a splash, he threw another water ball in, and continued speaking.

"Once they have enough currency, they will naturally flock to the apothecary. There's no need for you, a shop assistant, to stand pitifully outside soliciting customers."

"And by doing this, combined with that tyrannical demon, you simply want to find an accomplice to help you kill the tyrannical demon."

After Lin Hanchuan finished speaking, he casually asked his own question.

"Actually, I'm very curious. With your strength and that array trap, you could have easily killed it yourself. Why didn't you do it yourself and instead asked humans for help?"

In terms of racial ranking, the Dark Claw Demon is roughly the same as the Tyrannical Demon.

In close combat, although not as powerful as the Tyrannical Demon, this Dark Claw Demon, with her intelligence and abilities, could easily kill the shopkeeper.

However, the fact that she doesn't take action herself but instead uses human hands to kill the other party undoubtedly adds a lot of uncertainty to the matter and is illogical.

The Dark Claw Demon in the warehouse did not answer Lin Hanchuan.

Lin Hanchuan didn't press for details, but instead offered his own guesses while throwing water balloons.

"It seems that there are certain conditions between you demons who play the role of villagers, which restrict each other and prevent you from killing each other."

As soon as Lin Hanchuan finished speaking, the Dark Claw Demon in the warehouse chuckled, "You're really clever!"

Just then, a system message notification sounded.

"Congratulations, you have obtained a useful piece of information through your investigation: [The demon playing the role of a villager must not kill the villager himself!]"

"F-rank hidden quest - [Investigate Beginner Village No. 56] Completion progress: 1/3!"

Looking at the text information that appeared on the panel, Lin Hanchuan was overjoyed. Finally, the mission progress was showing!

Hidden quests are very difficult to complete.

Even the lowest level, F-class.

It's not an easy task to accomplish.

Many times, I'm completely confused.

The fact that the task progress is now displayed means that you have found the direction to complete the task.

"Of course, this is not enough for me to be directly certain of your demonic identity."

Taking a breath, Lin Hanchuan continued, "After entering the shop, you didn't show the slightest fear, even though you suspected your father was a demon. If you were just a weak human girl, even if the demon in front of you was your enemy, your expression should have contained not only anger and disgust, but also instinctive fear. Fear in the face of the strong is a human instinct, and it is also the law that has allowed humans to survive."

"But you don't have any, not even a tiny bit!"

"Under what circumstances could this happen? It would be when you also have the ability to kill the other person. If a frail young girl with no profession is confident that she can kill the other person, there is only one situation—"

"you are not human!"

Lin Hanchuan added in his mind, "Girl, you really don't understand how meticulous the [Descent] development team is about this game. They've practically studied humanity thoroughly."

"If I'm not mistaken, after killing the tyrannical demon, you also intend to use the traps that were originally in this passage to kill me!"

"Since that's the case, what other choice do I have but to strike first!"

"Also, trim your nails a little. When the Dark Claw Demon can't suppress its urge to kill, its nails will grow uncontrollably at an accelerated rate."

"Bah bang bang!!"

A voice of admiration came from the warehouse: "I'm really surprised that a human who has just become a mage can be so intelligent."

"When you attacked the Tyrannical Demon earlier, you were probably deliberately controlling the speed at which you released your fireballs, one every two seconds. I'm afraid that in the Tyrannical Demon's eyes, dying at the hands of such a weak mage would be an extremely humiliating thing!"

"Unfortunately, you're still too weak!"

"Next, it's your turn to die!"

(End of this chapter)