"And he would still get injured risking being torn apart by the wolf pack."
"And yet he killed hundreds of gray wolves in just a few minutes… without a single scratch on him!"
One of the onlookers swallowed hard and muttered, "They must have triggered the hidden condition of the Gray Wolf Plains. Kill 5,000 gray wolves and the White-Bellied Wolf King will appear. That's not exactly a secret."
Another player's eyes flickered greedily. "What? Are you thinking of taking advantage of them? With our strength, we'd just be throwing our lives away."
"Of course we're not their opponents," the tall player replied calmly. "But the elites from the Huahu Organization? They could crush those two easily."
---
The cruelty of the doomsday game wasn't limited to permanent death.
It was also reflected in the inheritance system between players.
When a player killed another player, they could randomly inherit one of the opponent's cornerstone abilities. They could even choose to replace their own cornerstone talent with the inherited one.
If the inherited talent was inferior, they could simply abandon it.
Because of this system, players killing each other for powerful cornerstone abilities had become common.
And that wasn't all.
Every so often, Novice Village would suffer a large-scale monster siege. If the defense succeeded, every surviving player would receive generous rewards.
But if it failed
The safe zone would collapse.
Countless monsters would flood in, and weaker players would die instantly under the tide of beasts.
Whether NPCs or players, only a handful of strong individuals could survive and flee to other novice villages.
And even that escape was filled with danger.
"Of course we'd die if we rushed over ourselves," the tall player continued. "But I know someone in the Huahu Organization. If we sell them this information, we can make a fortune without lifting a finger."
"That's brilliant!" The others' eyes lit up.
Copper coins were everything in this world. Millions could be converted directly into combat power. No one ever had enough.
"There are three of us," one of them calculated. "Five thousand copper coins for the intelligence?"
"Five thousand?" the tall player scoffed. "Brother, think bigger."
"It's just information. Even if there's a small error, what does it matter? We'll tell them that guy has an SSS-level cornerstone ability. Isn't that worth 30,000 copper coins?"
"Thirty thousand?" someone gasped.
"Ten thousand each," the tall player said with a grin. "Even if it turns out he's only SS-level, Huahu won't bother retaliating. Thirty thousand copper coins is within their acceptable loss range."
"Deal."
They glanced once more toward Zhao Yuan and Zhong Wen.
"They need to kill 5,000 wolves. They won't be leaving anytime soon."
Meanwhile, deeper within the Gray Wolf Plains
After his recent upgrade, Zhao Yuan's defense had surged again.
He could practically lie down in the middle of the plains without worry.
Although leveling required massive amounts of experience, his killing speed was hundreds of times faster than that of ordinary players.
Behind him, Zhong Wen continued casting spells.
His S-level Magic Enhancement greatly increased his mana pool and regeneration speed. He could almost cast endlessly without running dry.
The plains were vast.
As Zhao Yuan pushed deeper, countless gray wolves detected him and rushed forward in a frenzy only to injure themselves to death upon contact.
From a distance, Zhong Wen watched in awe.
Zhao Yuan was completely engulfed by wolves, swallowed by a writhing mass of gray fur and snapping jaws.
Yet every second, corpses rolled off the pile.
Zhao Yuan's long sword had shattered long ago. Its durability had dropped to zero.
But he no longer needed a weapon.
Even when wolves bit at his eyes, throat, and the back of his head
They couldn't break his defense.
His stats had completely crushed them.
"Isn't this insane?" Zhong Wen muttered as the kill count continued climbing.
Gray Wolf Kills: 2,965
"The anti-armor cornerstone that everyone immediately rejects… it's actually this terrifying."
Zhao Yuan replied calmly while listening to the endless system notifications.
"Most people won't choose anti-armor because without high defense and health, the reflection damage is insignificant."
"And the beast's attacks still cause real pain."
"You have to endure being injured in order to deal damage. Only someone insane would pick it."
"Even shield specialists trained by guilds prefer taunt skills for dungeon clearing. Anti-armor isn't considered practical."
Zhong Wen laughed. "That's because yours is SSS-level. Low-tier anti-armor doesn't boost defense at all. And yours reflects true damage."
Zhao Yuan stood leisurely in the center of the wolf tide.
The wolves attacked wildly, yet he felt almost nothing.
They, however, fell in waves under the reflection of true damage.
Kill Progress: 4,583 / 5,000
[Player killed Lv3 Gray Wolf. +19 EXP. +3 Copper Coins.]
[Triggered "Billion-Times Proficiency." Multiplier increased to 2.2x.]
[SSS-Level Anti-Armor gained 695 proficiency (*2.2). Upgraded to Lv6.]
[Player Level increased to Lv4. All attributes enhanced.]
---
Character Panel:
Name: Zhao Yuan
Level: Lv4
Talents:
• Eternal Blessing (Unique): All skills are permanently fixed at SSS-level.
• Billion-Times Proficiency (Unique): Skills have no level cap and can upgrade infinitely. Killing targets increases the proficiency multiplier (Current: 2.2x).
Keystone Ability:
• Anti-Armor Lv6 (SSS): Passively grants extremely high physical and magical defense. When attacked, reflects true damage based on the attacker's Strength attribute.
Skills: None
Backpack: None
Copper Coins: 13,923
Additional panels locked.
Zhong Wen had just reached Lv3 as well. His S-level Magic Enhancement passively increased alongside his level, strengthening both his mana capacity and regeneration.
Only a few hundred wolves remained.
"I can't wait," Zhong Wen said excitedly. "Ordinary monsters rarely drop equipment. But Elite monsters and Lord creatures definitely can!"
The wind swept across the Gray Wolf Plains.
The wolf corpses piled high.
And somewhere deep within the plains
A low, heavy growl began to echo.
The White-Bellied Wolf King was about to awaken.
With Zhao Yuan acting as a front-line tank, absorbing all the incoming damage, Zhong Wen was able to attack almost nonstop without worrying about dodging the wild beasts.
In a doomsday game like this, was there anything more reliable than having a solid tank teammate?
"No wonder it takes most players several months to reach Level 10 in the Novice Village before they can teleport to the main town," Zhao Yuan said casually. "Leveling up requires an absurd amount of experience."
"Even after killing more than 5,000 Level 3 gray wolves, I still haven't reached Level 5. The average player can only hunt a few dozen beasts a day. That's already considered above average."
Zhong Wen rolled his eyes. "You should be satisfied. An SSS-level Anti-Armor ability, and you've already reached Level 4 in just three hours. Others can only dream of that."
---
Meanwhile, inside the Flower Tiger Organization's chat channel
"Are you sure it's an SSS-level ability?" the deputy captain asked skeptically.
"Absolutely," came the reply. "There's no mistake. I even recorded a video ,you can watch it yourself."
"One person fighting hundreds of Level 3 gray wolves, and his health bar doesn't move at all. That's at least SS-level… and SSS-level isn't out of the question!"