Time ticked by second by second.
The monsters waited patiently, while the players on Sakura Island suffered in the stench.
The rain showers gradually ceased over the course of an hour, but the players were still reluctant to go outside because two poop-colored debuffs had appeared below their health bars.
[Willpower Decrease (Stench Effect) (15 minutes)]
[Weakness (Stench Effect) (Nausea Effect) (15 minutes)]
The stench made the players dizzy, and vomiting left them weak.
This wasn't a problem that could be solved by turning off pain perception; unless they went to the shop to exchange for purification potions to remove the debuffs, which they were unwilling to do.
A thousand invasion points per bottle, no one was that extravagant.
The priest players hadn't learned Purification yet, as it was a level 20 skill.
So they decided to wait it out for fifteen minutes, which was one benefit of having a digitized body.
If their bodies weren't digitized, these two debuffs would last for at least a day or two.
...
"The preparations are complete."
At the forefront of the monster army, Bolikri excitedly approached Grey Wolf and reported in a low voice.
Hearing this, Grey Wolf gazed at the silent novice village, his eyes gradually darkening, with a cruel cold light glinting in his scarlet pupils.
"Execute the plan!"
The order started with Bolikri and was passed from one kobold to another down the tunnel until it reached the last kobold's ears.
In front of it was a support pillar.
There was more than one support pillar in the entire cave.
But the one in front of it was the most important, as it balanced the entire cave. Once destroyed, the entire cave would collapse.
And what the kobold needed to do now was to smash the rusty shovel in its hand against the weakest point of this support pillar, a small fulcrum.
"Crack."
The support pillar broke with a sound, and the kobold bolted away.
The reinforced narrow tunnel was the only safe place.
"Rumble."
Like dominoes, the support pillars collapsed one after another, causing the entire ground to shake.
"What's happening? Is it an earthquake?"
The Sakura Island players looked at each other, and the instinct ingrained in their genes made them immediately find a triangular area to take cover.
But then they realized.
They were now powerful warriors and mages. Although they had debuffs, it was just an earthquake, nothing to fear.
However, the tremors of the ground became increasingly violent.
So violent they couldn't even stand.
Cracks like branches appeared one by one, the ground beginning to crack and sink, initially gentle but suddenly collapsing after reaching a critical point.
"Boom!" A loud noise.
Dust rose, covering the sky.
The entire Sakura Island No. 1 Novice Village completely sank into a rectangular pit.
"Dammit! How could there be a sinkhole! Isn't this a novice village?"
"Damn, there's poop everywhere!"
"Mom, I want to go home, it stinks..."
Hiding inside houses was no longer useful.
Under the forces of the earth, all the buildings were torn apart by stress. Even if Newton were here, he'd have to lie peacefully in a coffin.
The players cursed and crawled out of the shattered ruins, covered in dirt and rain mixed with feces, adding more layers to their debuffs, triggering another round of vomiting.
Yamaguchi Mura Chicken was also retching, but his mental fortitude was better than most.
After all, he was the legitimate young master of the Yamaguchi family, having received good education and training from a young age, understanding what it meant to endure humiliation.
The most important thing now was to observe the movements of the monsters.
Covering his nose and mouth, Yamaguchi Mura Chicken squinted his eyes, wiped the mixture off his forehead and cheeks, and staggered out of the dust raised by the collapse, looking around.
The three-meter-high perpendicular earthen walls were pockmarked, clearly not naturally formed.
This was a trap pit deliberately dug by those monsters!
Damn it!
Just as Yamaguchi Mura Chicken was about to curse, he suddenly felt a chill behind him, his scalp tingling.
He looked up.
At the edge of the pit, a group of monsters surrounded the entire novice village.
Their eyes glowed red, faces twisted with grins, rubbing their hands together, maliciously overlooking all the Sakura players.
"There's nowhere to escape."
Despair surged in Yamaguchi Mura Chicken's heart, as if he were a little girl dragged into a dark room by a dozen burly bald men.
Being dragged in was bad enough, but seeing the walls lined with all sorts of torture devices was worse.
"Stop with the dung bombs, switch to spears, poison arrows!"
Grey Wolf grinned and issued orders to the gnolls behind him.
In fact, the monsters had long loathed the dung bombs.
They were just too smelly.
Even throwing them out affected them quite a bit.
Probably wouldn't enjoy eating anything for a while.
Except for Bananas Wolf among the monsters.
Hearing that his dung bombs were no longer useful, Bananas Wolf looked regretful, reluctantly tying up and securing his leather pouch.
These remaining dung bombs could still be useful, they shouldn't be wasted.
As a diligent caretaker, Bananas Wolf worked hard; not only did he painstakingly cultivate those Stinky Bug Dung, but even the humans captured in the dragon's lair needed him to feed them.
Spears rained down like locusts into the novice village.
Previously, the players had the cover of houses, and the terrain was on the same level as the monster army.
Now that the houses had collapsed and the terrain lowered, the entire novice village was exposed to the monsters' attack range, and the Sakura Island players could only scurry.
"Don't panic! Mages and priests, shield yourselves and the warriors! Let's charge up!"
Amidst the chaos, there were still some clear-headed players. The average level of the monsters wasn't high; even if they couldn't win, killing a few monsters was better than being passively beaten in the pit.
After all, they could revive.
At this point, the Sakura Island players hadn't realized the severity of the problem.
Revival, something so normal for players, even if the revival time kept getting longer, they could just wait for revival in the world square.
In the entire otherworld, most players were still immersed in the joy of freely playing "the game."
Only a few smart people started to pay extra attention to their lives after dying once or twice, ensuring their safety.
If they had many invasion points, players could enjoy eating, drinking, and playing while waiting for revival in the world square, and even watch other players' live streams.
But if they had no invasion points.
And if the death waiting time exceeded seven days.
It meant they would starve and die of thirst in the world square.
And that, was true death.
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(ps: This setting was actually mentioned in Chapter 31, but it seems no one noticed. The world square is similar to the reincarnation space, where these first batch of chosen players can only return to Blue Star once a month, spending most of their time in the game, or dying and waiting for revival in the world square, so without invasion points, they would starve to death.) """
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