Once Liang Chuan confirmed there were no Abyss creatures on the field, he stopped hesitating.
Time to step in.
He would act as an assassin, slip into the Hilichurl camp, and take out the Shamans directly.
With his current Agility, the moment he activated Windstep, he could rush straight behind them in the blink of an eye.
His appearance sent all the players into a frenzy—
Not excitement.
Pure fear.
This wasn't "wow, the main NPC is here!"
This was "BRO PLEASE DON'T DIE WE'RE ALL NEW ACCOUNTS DON'T END THE SERVER RUN!!!"
If they could kneel and call Liang Chuan "Father," they absolutely would.
Their entire game quite literally depended on him staying alive.
Seeing his icon on the map, even the timid assassins who had been hiding behind rocks suddenly charged forward like they had discovered their purpose in life.
Anyone could die today.
But Liang Chuan absolutely could not.
If he died, their accounts would be wiped.
Restarting the test server? Maybe.
Getting their accounts back? Who knew.
(Not that the players were actually that noble. The main quest rewards for protecting Liang Chuan were also absurdly high.)
While the players scrambled toward him—
Liang Chuan had already stormed into the center of the Hilichurl camp.
He pulled a Silver Sword out of his Boarhide Backpack.
Windstep ended—
A shadow-flash strike.
One Hilichurl Shaman was instantly executed.
The Greatshield Hilichurl Berserker guarding them reacted immediately, lifting his shield and charging with full force.
Liang Chuan rolled aside, swapped to his Hunter's Longbow, and—
Swish!!
Bullseye.
The arrow pierced straight through the back of the Berserker's head, pinning both him and his shield together like macabre taxidermy.
With the protector down, Liang Chuan rose with his sword again.
A flash of cold steel—
and the remaining two Shamans collapsed before they even finished chanting.
He wiped the blood off his Silver Sword just as the assassin players finally arrived.
"C–Chuan-ge… you did this?!"
The First Assassin of Fandou Garden stared at the corpses in disbelief.
Liang Chuan glanced at him.
If he didn't do it, what—did the Shamans trip and kill themselves?
"Chuan-ge, what level ARE you?! This is insane!"
asked the stealth archer Hi Hello.
"Level 12… oh wait—just leveled. I'm 13 now."
He answered casually.
The system never required him to act like a clueless Teyvat native, so he had no problem talking to players normally.
Just… without exposing the Fourth Calamity System.
To the players, "Liang Chuan" was clearly just a GM-controlled NPC, which explained everything perfectly.
"Level 13 and already this strong? What class is he even playing?"
Hi Hello squinted at his HP bar.
"Look above his health bar—it says Dragonborn."
said the First Assassin.
"I saw that class at character creation. Great base stats, but it has no skills. Just a pure brawler."
"No skills? Impossible! I literally SAW Chuan-ge stealth past me earlier!"
"Then… the devs probably turned something on for him?
He's a GM-controlled character—of course he isn't balanced like us!
Otherwise he'd die instantly, which would basically soft-lock the whole game."
The First Assassin nodded confidently.
Liang Chuan nearly gave him a thumbs up on the spot.
A genius.
He actually helped Liang Chuan cover for "cheating."
Then—
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
Heavy footsteps.
The players felt the ground tremble.
Liang Chuan looked toward the sound—
and his pupils shrank sharply.
"So this camp really did have one of these big guys…"
A massive shadow lumbered forward.
A Stonehide Lawachurl.
Using Diluc's 1.85m figure as baseline…
This thing was at least 2.5 times that.
In other words—
4.625 meters of murder machine.
Seeing a monster like that advancing toward you in a 100% realistic environment?
Just its aura alone was enough to make half the players' brains blue-screen.
Except one player.
ID: JumpUpAndHitYourKneecap.
He became inexplicably excited.
"Hahahaha!! I knew this game would have a place for my talents!
Leave this giant to ME!"
He pulled out a grappling hook from his backpack, flung it onto a tree, and swung himself up into the air.
Liang Chuan blinked.
"…What is he doing?
And where did he even get that grappling hook?"
"He's a Trickster class.
It's one of the Assassin subclasses."
The First Assassin explained.
"The grappling hook is a talent ability—Juggling Tools."
"He's going to use it to fling himself onto the Lawachurl's nape."
"Onto the… nape?"
Liang Chuan's expression turned strange.
"He really thinks cutting the nape will kill it?"
The player soared through the air, hook releasing perfectly, body flipping behind the Lawachurl.
He posed dramatically midair, dual daggers in hand.
Then shouted:
"SHINEEEE!!"
Both daggers slashed down with full force—
Nothing happened.
Instead—
CRACK.
CRACK.
Both daggers snapped in half instantly.
"…Huh?"
The player froze.
Why…
why wasn't the nape a weak spot?!
While he stood there, mind shattered, the Stonehide Lawachurl reached back, grabbed him with one massive hand—
"I'm gonna file a complaint!!
This game doesn't follow common sense!!
Speak up for meeeeee—!!"
CRUNCH.
The Lawachurl squeezed.
The player popped like a water balloon.
Blood sprayed across the battlefield.
An absolutely horrifying sight—
Most players had never seen a human body crushed by sheer brute force before.
The mental damage was instant.
"Chuan-ge, we—we should retreat!
If this camp has a giant like that, we're done for!"
The First Assassin tried dragging Liang Chuan away.
But Liang Chuan hesitated.
"…Actually, this Lawachurl isn't impossible to deal with."
He squinted at the giant.
"If its attack patterns are the same as the ones I know…"
"…killing it really shouldn't be that hard."
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