Chapter 3: The Third Cup

Chapter 3: The Third Cup

Brother Long took a hit from a falling rock attack and survived only because his level was significantly higher than the area's average. Even so, he spat out a mouthful of blood and, ignoring his injuries, shouted, "Run!"

"Damn, it's a wild boss!"

The faces of the young teenagers turned pale, but at this age, they valued loyalty highly. No one wanted to be the first to flee. The little fat boy gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "I... I have a shield! I have high health; I can hold them off for a bit!"

"Xiaoxue, quickly heal Brother Long!"

As soon as he spoke, a bright green light fell upon Brother Long. The bespectacled girl named Xiaoxue was on the verge of tears, frantically trying to cast another healing spell. Brother Long raised his hand to stop her. "It's okay. You only have that one skill. Using it once or twice makes no difference. Save your mana; you might need it later!"

He gritted his teeth and climbed out of the rubble.

This was a game where people could recover health. As long as they had a sliver of health left, they could still fight, provided they could endure the pain.

He winced, holding his abdomen, suspecting he had broken a few ribs. But with a group of crying kids looking at him, he couldn't just lie there pretending to be dead.

He scanned the group, assessing their combat abilities, and felt pessimistic about their chances.

Although his level was high, his awakened ability was almost useless. He could only manipulate objects weighing less than 5KG slowly, which was not effective in combat. Throwing something would cause more damage than moving it slowly!

Brother Long's face darkened. "Listen up, we can't beat this thing. Luckily, we're not far from the city. Fight while retreating. Stay alert and make it to the safe zone!"

Seeing Brother Long get up, the little fat boy immediately retreated, wiping away his tears. "Wah, Brother Long, you're okay? I thought you were dead!"

Brother Long winced in pain. "You can cry after I'm dead!"

The little fat boy, who had some wit, looked at Brother Long and whispered, "Brother Long, that car went that way. Should we..."

Brother Long nodded. "We'll retreat in that direction. It would be best if we could find help along the way."

He didn't say that without help, he wasn't sure they would all survive.

He Wuning wasn't far away. Hearing the commotion, he turned to look but could only see dust and debris, obscuring everything else.

He raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

Q-jam said in a sweet voice, "I don't know either. It's scary—"

"If you don't know, shut up," He Wuning replied unfriendly. Q-jam immediately protested, "Honey, you shouldn't go poking around! You're only level one. Although you inherited your basic stats, you can't use any level 50 equipment!"

He Wuning frowned, opened his backpack, and checked his gear. Indeed, except for a few special items, most of his equipment showed "unusable," including his usual dagger, Moon Eclipsed.

He Wuning's base attack power was 60, while his dagger added 3200 attack power. Compared to the equipment, his base combat strength was negligible.

He removed the unusable gear and replaced it with level one white gear, equipping a level one skinning knife that added 100 attack power.

Information about awakened abilities and equipment had been published on player forums, but he had forgotten due to frustration with the system. Now that there was trouble, he decided to switch to functional gear.

His gaze paused on a corner of his backpack where an unnamed item called "??? Fragment" glimmered.

"Ahh—" Q-jam covered its eyes with its short arms. "Honey, how could you change clothes in front of me like that!"

He Wuning snapped back to reality, slightly surprised. "Do you even have a gender?"

Q-jam confidently replied, "Of course! I'm a cute boy!"

He Wuning remained expressionless. "Then why are you covering your eyes?"

"Really!" Q-jam pouted. "Even boys need to guard against other boys!"

He Wuning ignored it and looked outside. The dust cloud was getting closer, and he finally saw what was happening—a giant stone golem clumsily chasing fleeing prey. Most of the people he had seen earlier were already injured and running toward him, crying and screaming.

The little fat boy wailed, "Brother Long! I can't run anymore! Will my lungs exploding reduce my health?"

Brother Long's face turned grim. "Think about whether you'll live if your lungs explode! Are you brain-dead?"

The little fat boy gasped for breath. "No, they're full of dust!"

He Wuning: "..."

What kind of spirit allows someone to crack jokes while fleeing for their life?

The leader, a punk with dyed hair, spotted He Wuning and his eyes lit up. But his expression quickly turned to despair.

He Wuning heard a loud curse, "Shit! It's a level one!"

He abruptly stopped, turned, and sprinted straight for the city.

The little fat boy, still somewhat superstitious about anyone driving on the grasslands, hesitated and shouted, "Brother Long! Shouldn't we ask him for help?"

"Just level one! Do you want him to die for you? Run, what are you waiting for!" Brother Long's face changed several times. He looked at the pale-faced bespectacled girl beside him and gritted his teeth. "Xiaoxue."

The girl lifted her head, sensing something ominous. Brother Long tried to make his expression stern. "If things get really bad, I'll send you back to the respawn point. Go now."

Xiaoxue's expression turned panicked. "Brother Long! I can at least heal you..."

"Healing won't help. You need to survive!" Brother Long interrupted her harshly. "Didn't you want to avenge your brother? You need to stay alive first."

He Wuning watched them through the car window as the fleeing teenagers passed by, their faces filled with despair and fear.

The approaching stone giant crossed his field of view without even noticing him—it was focused on the group that had attacked it. As long as He Wuning didn't attack, it would simply pass by.

A short boy with freckles stumbled and fell, causing a wave of panic. The monster raised its foot to stomp on him.

He Wuning sat in the driver's seat.

Q-jam sighed in relief. "Yes, it's too dangerous here. Let's go somewhere safer... Ahh—"

Q-jam immediately took off and hung onto the roof of the car. He Wuning had already turned the steering wheel to the limit and was heading straight for the stone giant's leg.

Q-jam shouted in horror, "Honey, why did you provoke it—"

The pink milk tea car rammed into the stone giant's right leg with a resounding crash that made one's teeth ache. Despite being roughly twice the height of the milk tea car, the stone giant was unphysically launched away.

He Wuning didn't hesitate for a moment, opening the door and jumping out, rolling down.

In the next second, the stone giant, having recovered from being forcibly knocked back, punched down. The milk tea car somehow withstood the blow, and Q-jam quickly chased after He Wuning, shouting, "Wait for me, honey! Milk tea car durability -1, current durability 19/100..."

He Wuning was somewhat surprised. "A hit from the stone giant deducts one point of durability? I should have rammed it a few more times."

Q-jam: "...Honey, you're really wild."

The stone giant clearly lacked intelligence; it continued attacking the milk tea car until its durability dropped to zero. Finally, the car could no longer bear the damage, and the front caved in significantly.

Q-jam covered his mouth, feeling the loss acutely, "Wah wah wah, my car!"

Only then satisfied, the stone giant began to retract its hand when He Wuning, who had quietly returned near the milk tea car, suddenly climbed up its right arm. He sliced into the gaps between the stones, twisted the dagger, and a large chunk of rock fell off. Enraged, the stone giant struck itself with its other hand.

Having landed his attack, He Wuning didn't linger and jumped down, hiding in the grass.

The stone giant's right arm was now significantly shorter, and it let out a deafening roar of fury.

Brother Long quickly pulled the stunned little dwarf behind a rock in the grassland, looked up, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy shit!" — the monster's health, which hadn't dropped much despite their earlier attacks, had suddenly decreased significantly.

He wasn't unaware of the stone giant's weakness; it was public knowledge on the player forums. The problem was actually executing it!

"Applying force at the seams can peel off stones and cause massive damage," sounded simple enough, but just having the courage to engage in close combat with such a creature was impressive.

Brother Long looked astonished, and the half-grown youths with him exchanged glances. The chubby kid seemed eager and whispered, "Brother Long, should we go help?"

Brother Long's expression changed several times before he finally nodded. "Stay back and provide ranged support. I'll go in for melee and take a few hits for him!"

"Xiaoxue, heal him!"

Xiaoxue nodded vigorously, peeking out slightly. A green light shot from her fingertips and enveloped He Wuning.

He Wuning seemed to sense something and raised an eyebrow, giving her a surprised look. Healing abilities were rare, and this girl...

Q-jam dutifully followed behind him. "Honey, don't glare at me. I've activated stealth mode and won't expose your position!"

"You now have a continuous healing skill, regenerating 5 HP per second... Ah, it's gone."

He Wuning did a quick calculation: five seconds, with 5 HP regenerated each second, while the stone giant's attack deducted over 200 HP.

He Wuning confirmed that he only had 300 HP left and gripped the dagger tightly, expressionless.

...It didn't seem very useful.

But it wasn't a big issue; he could solo kill it.

Calculating the stone giant's attack intervals, He Wuning climbed up its leg. He didn't attack immediately but ran up a bit and leaped toward the stone giant's intact left hand.

—As long as he destroyed both hands, it couldn't use the falling rocks magic.

---

**Author's Notes:**

Rabbit: This is our protagonist, the enthusiastic citizen Mr. He...

He Wuning: Who are you calling out?

Yi Luo: I want to appear.

Rabbit: Next chapter, definitely!

Thank you to everyone who voted or provided nutrients during the period from July 27, 2021, 00:15:02 to July 28, 2021, 00:50:06.

Thank you to those who cast bombs: Bai Qingning (4), Dust Particle from B612, and Yaya Yaya (1).

Thank you to those who provided nutrients: Bai Qingning (18 bottles).

I greatly appreciate everyone's support, and I will continue to work hard!