Liam didn't bother replying.
He never was much for chatter in the heat of a fight.
An arrow whistled through the air, finding its mark on the Mayor once again. The boost to his Attack Velocity and movement speed made his kiting feel effortless, a fluid dance of death.
But the Mayor’s reactions were just as sharp. As soon as Liam pulled away, the man lunged forward, executing the fourth movement of his Shadow Step.
Liam felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Nine-Fold Shadow Step!
If the old man could actually pull off nine consecutive displacements, it would be utterly broken. Especially in the hands of a Brawler. For squishy ranged classes like Priests, Mages, Archers, or Summoners, every time a Brawler closed the gap, it was a brush with death.
"Explosive Fist!"
The Mayor’s fist slammed into Liam’s jaw, the force of the impact launching him into the air.
The Mayor braced himself to follow up with a devastating juggle combo, but to his shock, Liam hit the ground and recovered instantly.
"So fast? He can even shrug off a knock-up?"
The Mayor’s pupils constricted. A sinking feeling took root in his gut. He no longer held the advantage in movement speed, and he had already burned through Unstoppable and Berserk. If Nine-Fold Shadow Step failed to finish Liam off, the rest of the fight would be a foregone conclusion.
"Frost Monarch."
"We can still negotiate. Tell me what you want. Name your price."
The Mayor was rattled. He truly wasn't sure if he could kill Liam with Shadow Step alone. Liam’s health regeneration was nonsensical. Restoring three thousand HP with a single Basic Attack? He was more of a monster than a Novice Village world boss decked out in Silver Grade gear.
"Sure thing."
Liam’s hands didn't slow for a second, even as the words left his lips.
The Mayor blinked, caught off guard. "What do you want?"
Liam made a show of contemplating the offer, but his arrows continued to fly with terrifying speed. His Attack Velocity was pushed to the absolute limit.
"Let’s go with... ten Divine Awakening Stones," Liam said.
The Mayor’s face darkened instantly. He knew he was being played.
"Frost Monarch, you forced my hand. Fine. Even if I have to waste this Talisman, I’m sending you to the grave."
A pale blue Talisman appeared in the Mayor’s hand.
Liam’s expression shifted instantly. He spun on his heel and bolted.
Talismans were nightmare fuel in this game. He might have been able to handle a Yellow Grade, but the Mayor had just pulled out a Blue Grade. No matter how much skill he had, his current stats simply couldn't bridge that gap.
"Too late to run now!"
The Mayor activated the Blue Grade Talisman.
A wave of frigid, biting frost erupted from the paper, flash-freezing everything in its path. Trees and stones were instantly encased in ice.
Liam pushed his speed to the breaking point, but it wasn't enough. In the blink of an eye, his legs stiffened. The frost climbed up his body with supernatural speed.
Before he could even draw a breath, Liam was encased in a block of solid ice.
-9,999!!
-9,999!!
...
His health bar began to plummet, but the Mayor wasn't finished.
"Cloud-Piercing Flame Palm!"
The Mayor slammed a palm wreathed in roaring flames into the frozen Liam. The violent collision of ice and fire triggered a massive elemental explosion.
-98,510!!
Liam’s health bar vanished instantly. He dropped dead on the spot.
Novice Village, Altar of Rebirth
Liam rematerialized at the altar. Aside from a few specialized items that didn't have level requirements, he had dropped everything. He had been wearing the Level 10 Gale-Runner Set; now that his level had plummeted to 9, he couldn't even equip his own gear.
The moment he stepped off the altar, he realized he wasn't alone.
A crowd of NPCs had gathered. The Tavern Hand, the Apothecary, the Tailor—at least fifteen of them were waiting in a grim semicircle.
They didn't hesitate. As soon as Liam flickered into existence, they unleashed a barrage of attacks.
The Tailor flicked his wrist, sending Silver Testing Needles whistling toward Liam.
Liam didn't panic. He stepped onto his own bowstring, vaulting into the air, and unleashed a Quintuple Shot mid-flight. Since the Ninefold Longbow had no level requirement, he still had the Gold Grade weapon in hand.
Five arrows struck five different NPCs, each dealing nearly eight thousand damage.
The hits triggered Chain Lightning. Arcs of electricity leaped from three of the arrows, dancing through the crowd and sending a cascade of damage numbers rising above their heads.
"Soul Immolation!"
The Tavern Hand smashed a jar of high-proof liquor at Liam’s feet, the splash igniting into a searing carpet of fire.
System: You have taken Burn Damage. You will lose health over time.
-100
-100
...
Damage numbers ticked upward. Fortunately, the Purifying Jade Amulet provided 80% resistance to negative status effects. Without it, he’d be losing 500 HP every second.
Before Liam could fire a second volley, the Apothecary acted. He shattered a bottle of pitch-black liquid, coating the ground in a foul-smelling mist.
System: You are affected by Grievous Wound Potion. Recovery and Life-Steal reduced by 8%.
The rest of the NPCs piled on, each using their own unique skills. In less than a second, Liam’s health dropped by twenty thousand.
God dammit! Liam cursed inwardly.
He was a Reincarnator. Getting spawn-camped in a Novice Village was a pathetic disgrace.
"You want to camp my fountain? Fine! Let’s play!"
Liam’s eyes turned cold. He soaked the first wave of damage and immediately retaliated with another frame-perfect Quintuple Shot.
Most Archers used Split-Shot bows for crowd control because they were more forgiving, but Liam was doing this with a standard longbow. Maintaining perfect accuracy with five simultaneous shots under this kind of pressure was an incredible feat of skill.
Arrows hissed through the air, finding their marks.
He noticed something interesting: Quintuple Shot triggered the passive effect of Hand of Heavenly Punishment five times. At his current 3-Star Rank, every volley permanently increased his maximum HP by 15.
There was a trade-off, of course. Quintuple Shot usually lacked raw killing power, especially against these boss-level NPCs with high defense.
But that was where the sheer absurdity of his Beyond God-Tier talent came in. The passive 3% Max HP True Damage wasn't reduced by the multi-shot penalty. Even if the base arrow damage was low, the passive was shredding them.
The Mayor hadn't returned yet, but he was undoubtedly on his way.
Liam had to take down at least five of these NPCs before the boss arrived, or escaping this loop would be nearly impossible.
Quintuple Shot was mentally exhausting. With his current stats, he could only maintain this level of precision for about fifteen minutes. Any longer and his accuracy would crumble.
"Fifteen minutes is plenty."
A murderous glint flashed in his eyes.
To any player, being spawn-camped was the ultimate insult. For Liam, it was a challenge to his very identity. Even as the pressure mounted, he didn't slow down.
"Frost: Freeze!"
The Apothecary waved his staff, and frost climbed up Liam’s boots.
System: You are frozen. Attack Velocity decreased by 10%, Movement Speed decreased by 10% for 5 seconds.
Liam gritted his teeth. The Purifying Jade Amulet was the only thing keeping him in this fight. Without its crowd-control reduction, he would have been a sitting duck.
The NPCs seemed to realize how hard he was to pin down. The five he was focusing on immediately retreated to heal once their health got low, while the other ten stepped up their aggression to cover them.
"Cycling aggro?"
Liam’s gaze narrowed.
His current stats were monstrous. The Bloodstained Necklace restored over two thousand health per Basic Attack, and a successful Quintuple Shot could net him over ten thousand. Combined with the natural regeneration of the Altar of Rebirth, he was just barely weathering the storm.
But the mental drain was becoming too much. He switched back to single shots. His health began to drop faster, but it allowed his focus to recover. As long as he didn't waste energy on dodging, he could slowly regain his mental stamina.
The cost was steep. Without kiting and with lower life-steal, his health began to plummet by twenty thousand per second.
With only two hundred thousand HP, he was on a fifteen-second timer.
"Can't hold it!"
He switched back to Quintuple Shot, desperate to ramp up his life-steal and buy more time.
It was a drop in the bucket. The increased healing slowed the descent, but it couldn't stop it. After three minutes of grueling combat, Liam collapsed again.
His level dropped from 9 to 8.
Thirty seconds later, he respawned.
The NPCs didn't give him a moment to breathe. The moment he materialized, a fresh barrage of skills slammed into him.
Liam felt a headache coming on. In two lifetimes, he had never felt this suppressed—not since the day Vance betrayed him.
He didn't roll over and die. He fought back with everything he had, his only prayer being that the Ninefold Longbow and Bloodstained Necklace wouldn't drop upon death.
They were his core items. The Purifying Jade Amulet was bound and couldn't be dropped, but the other two were fair game.
He held out for another three minutes. Just before his health hit zero, he manually unequipped the bow and necklace, shoving them into his inventory. Items in the bag had a much lower drop rate than equipped gear.
Luckily, when he died, he only lost some miscellaneous consumables.
But now he was Level 7.
And the Mayor had finally arrived.
Thirty seconds later, Liam stood on the altar once more.
The Mayor looked down at him with cold, mocking eyes. "Frost Monarch, do you understand the price of crossing me now?"
"I can camp you here until you're back to level zero. You’ll never leave this village."
The Mayor’s voice was thick with killing intent.
Liam let out a sharp, cold snort. "If you think you can pull that off, by all means—keep trying."
Liam struck first.
He had only lasted three minutes in the previous round, but thanks to Quintuple Shot, his maximum HP had increased by over eight thousand.
These NPCs were a nightmare, but they were also a goldmine. Unlike regular mobs that died in two hits, these bosses could soak up hundreds of arrows, allowing him to stack HP indefinitely.
In this new round, his True Damage had increased by another 150 points. It seemed insignificant compared to the thousands of damage the NPCs were dealing, but it was growing.
With the Mayor involved, Liam only lasted a minute.
The Mayor timed his ultimate to execute Liam while he was still above 10% HP, preventing Verdant Rebirth from triggering.
But in that single minute, Liam stacked another two thousand HP.
With an Attack Velocity over 4.0, and factoring in CC, he was still gaining sixty HP per second.
Every death made the Bloodstained Necklace heal for more. Every death made his True Damage bite a little harder.
It was a slow climb, but Liam refused to yield. He would build himself up, one arrow at a time. He could respawn forever; the Mayor and his lackeys couldn't.
The Mayor couldn't destroy the Altar of Rebirth, either. If he did, the Novice Village would be flagged as "destroyed," and his position as Village Chief would vanish. Furthermore, if the altar broke, Liam would simply respawn in the Capital City—exactly what the Mayor wanted to prevent. He wanted Liam trapped and broken.
Any other player would have deleted their character by now.
But Liam had Hand of Heavenly Punishment. He wasn't going to hide. He was going to grind them down.
Pagoda Club
Bulwark Pagoda stared at his friend list, his jaw dropping.
Frost Monarch’s level was flickering. He had been Level 10. Then 9. And in less than fifteen minutes, he had plummeted to Level 6.
It was impossible.
He immediately tried to start a voice call, but Liam was in the middle of a life-and-death struggle and ignored the notification.
Liam lasted a minute and a half this time. He stacked another three thousand HP.
Because the Mayor’s ultimate was on cooldown, Liam successfully triggered Verdant Rebirth, giving him a second wind that allowed for even more stacking.
In a regular dungeon, he might gain a few thousand HP after an hour of clearing. Here? He was gaining that much every two minutes.
Bulwark Pagoda watched the level drop again. Level 5.
What the hell is happening?
Players usually respawned safely at the altar. There was only one reason a top-tier player would lose levels this fast.
Bulwark Pagoda’s blood ran cold as he realized the truth.
"Frost Monarch is being spawn-camped!"