In just two hours, Liu Weian crafted a hundred arrows and made his way back to the graveyard. The bodies of Wang Bai and his gang still lay where they'd fallen—no one had bothered to clean up the mess. Unashamed, Liu Weian took advantage of the situation once again.
Draw the monsters, kill the monsters, crack open their skulls, slice open their bellies, chop off their claws—routine by now. Just as he finished, Black Ox arrived with his ox cart. A hundred corpses in a day meant a solid haul of copper coins. For Black Ox, this was big money. He grinned so wide upon seeing Liu Weian, you'd think he'd just reunited with his long-lost father. Even the foul, rotting corpses looked charming in his eyes.
It took five round trips to haul all the bodies back to town. By the time they returned, night had already fallen. The day's loot: 100 silver coins. Adding in the meat sacs and deducting the cart fees, Liu Weian was left with 106 silver and 77 copper. He'd also gotten lucky—two Silver Spirit Grasses and a Detox Pill had dropped. The herbs fetched 40 silver, and the Detox Pill, surprisingly, sold for a whole gold coin.
Overjoyed, he went to the Plum Blossom Trading Company. The same girl from before was still on shift.
He handed over his crystals—89 from before, 99 new ones, minus one he'd consumed, totaling 188. The processing fee: 4 gold coins.
The girl smiled sweetly, but Liu Weian found the expression a bit less charming than usual. After paying, he was left with only 42 silver and 36 copper. Exhausted after a full day's grind, he logged off and went straight to bed.
Nothing happened that night. After a restful sleep, he woke at 5:30 the next morning. Zhao Nannan and her mother were still asleep. He didn't disturb them. After washing up and grabbing a quick breakfast, he logged back into Plunder just before 6.
Most players in Plunder kept regular hours. Around this time, most were either still asleep or just getting up. Stone City was quiet; shops were closed, except for a few large trading houses that ran 24/7 with shift rotations.
It took two more hours to make another hundred arrows—the upper limit of what his stamina could handle for now. Then, he headed back to the graveyard. Still no one around.
Same routine: draw the monsters, kill them, crack their skulls, rip open their guts, cut off claws. These Rotten Corpses had no intelligence—just base instincts. Once you understood their habits and kept them at a distance, they posed little threat. Now that Liu Weian had the Shadowstep Boots, he could outpace even their burst speed. Emboldened, he hunted faster than ever. By the time he'd used up ninety arrows, his stamina was shot. The last ten were fired on pure grit.
Right on schedule, Black Ox appeared. What followed was another two-hour corpse-hauling session. Along the road, they passed various groups—some elegant, some fierce. But Liu Weian noticed something: the loud, swaggering types were usually dressed in trash gear, while the handsome ones flanked by pretty girls glowed with high-end equipment like his Shadowstep Boots.
These were the so-called Gold Coin Players—rich kids who bought their way into power. Their gear wasn't looted—it was bought. They hoarded "power seeds" (the white crystals from monster brains) like candy. With money and a bottomless appetite for power, no wonder their stats were through the roof.
These people were basically nobles—best avoided. Liu Weian kept his distance.
On the final trip, a group of tattooed thugs blocked the road. Without a word, Liu Weian drew his bow and fired—four arrows in four seconds, four enemies down. The last two thugs turned and fled, screaming. But Liu Weian wasn't feeling charitable. Two more arrows flew, and two more bodies hit the dirt.
Unfortunately, their gear was garbage—rusted weapons and junk armor. All he found was 126 copper coins. Black Ox didn't even flinch at the corpses, calmly steering his cart onward.
"Coming back this afternoon?" he asked after they unloaded.
"Yeah."
"I've got two friends with bigger carts. Want me to call them in? We could do it all in one go," Black Ox offered cautiously.
"Sure," Liu Weian replied after a brief pause. Why hadn't he thought of that? He started to doubt his own intelligence.
That noon, he spent 10 copper on two buns. Technically speaking, players in Plunder were just consciousness projections, and as long as their physical bodies were fed in the real world, they were fine. But in practice, energy consumption between body and mind wasn't balanced. The longer one stayed logged in, the more off it felt. Most people wouldn't notice—but the experienced ones definitely did.
Energy mattered. While power seeds were excellent for replenishment, they couldn't completely replace food. Without proper intake, your performance would drop—less stamina, slower reflexes, worse endurance.
The moment he swallowed the buns, Liu Weian felt a surge of strength. It was like switching from a 15-watt bulb to a 30-watt one—an immediate, tangible difference.
Now he understood why the inns here were always packed. It wasn't just about flavor. People needed to stay in peak form. Better condition meant better killing efficiency. Better efficiency meant more money. More money meant better food. A virtuous cycle.
He wandered into an equipment shop, hoping to buy a spatial item. He expected it to be expensive, but the price still shocked him—a simple bracelet with just 0.3 cubic meters of space cost 105 gold coins. Liu Weian took one look and walked away.
Daggers, swords, greatswords, war hammers, axes, armor, helmets… Though humanity had only been in World of Beasts for half a year, loot had already diversified. Some gear was dropped by monsters, others crafted by players. There was even a profession called Forgemaster—basically a blacksmith who made gear. Even their lowest-quality stuff wasn't cheap. Dozens of silver coins per item, some even costing five to six gold. The priciest item he saw was a shield radiating dark energy—12 gold coins. Way out of his league.
He left halfway through browsing. This wasn't the place for him—at least, not yet.
Back to the woods, he resumed crafting arrows. Well-fed and energized, his work rate doubled. Two hundred arrows in two hours.
He stormed back to the graveyard. And once again, he felt the benefits of being at full strength. With the Tuomu Bow, his previous draw limit had been around 85%. Now he could reach 90%. His strength had increased, and so had his endurance. He only began to feel fatigue after firing a full hundred arrows.
Black Ox was on time, accompanied by two friends and four carts. One man couldn't handle two carts, but three men could manage four. Oxen were herd animals—once trained, they'd obediently follow the lead. As long as one led from the front and another kept watch from the rear, the rest would fall in line.
"This is Yellow Ox, and this is Stone Ox," Black Ox introduced.
Yellow Ox stood at 1.8 meters tall, built like a truck. Stone Ox was shorter, but thick and powerful, like a lion.
"Good day, Brother Liu!" the two greeted him politely.
Customers were gods, after all. Their respect was sincere.
"Hello," Liu Weian nodded. All Ox-brothers, huh?
With more hands, work went faster. In just ten minutes, they had the corpses loaded up. Black Ox led the way as the caravan trundled toward Stone City, evening light falling over the road. The stars were bright in the World of Beasts.
About halfway there, Black Ox suddenly halted. Liu Weian jumped up from the second cart and saw the road ahead blocked by a gang.
A rustle behind them—dozens more thugs emerged, wielding swords and clubs. The leader up front was a burly man with a face full of beard, exuding menace.
"This road is mine! This tree was planted by me! If you want to pass, you'll need to pay a to—"
Thwack!
An arrow flew into his open mouth, exploding from the back of his skull and hitting a man behind him, who collapsed screaming.
A double kill—thanks to human skulls being softer than a Rotten Corpse's, and the arrow entering through the mouth.
Thwack, thwack, thwack…
Arrows rained down like meteors. The bandits in front dropped like wheat under a scythe. Those not hit scattered in terror. The wounded howled in agony.
"Charge! Cut that bastard down!"
The rear attackers, unaware of the slaughter up front, charged in blindly. Liu Weian calmly downed the last foe in his range, spun, and loosed another shot without aiming.
The man charging at the front arched backward as an arrow burst from his chest, flinging him half a meter through the air. His last breath came with a chorus of screams.
One second, one arrow. Liu Weian loosed twelve shots, each a kill. Only three bandits escaped with their lives.
From the first shout to the last death, less than a minute had passed. Yellow Ox and Stone Ox had just jumped down with their cleavers when they realized the fight was already over. They stood dumbfounded.
"Keep moving," Liu Weian said as he hopped down and dragged the bodies off the road. Then he started looting.
Black Ox didn't bat an eye. "Be careful," he said before moving the cart forward. The others followed.
Strike first or be struck. Liu Weian liked that saying.
He didn't fear revenge. These guys would need a full month to respawn, and by then, he planned to have made his fortune and moved on—hopefully into a peaceful life.
And it seemed his decision was a good one. These bandits were loaded. He found two items on par with the Shadowstep Boots, six sabers, four short swords, two daggers, one iron spear, and 1 gold coin, 26 silver, and 88 copper.
Staring at the glimmering gold, Liu Weian wanted to shout:
Let the bandits come even harder next time!