Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 223: The Second Universal Gold Card

"Zhang Jinjun! Come back!"

Li Wei shouted — not rushing to rescue Leon, because there was a better way.

Zhang Jinjun heard the call and immediately turned back. The tactic worked perfectly. The mutant crocodile flung Leon aside, shifted back into its miniature T-Rex form, and charged straight at Zhang Jinjun. Its aggro was rock-solid — as far as it was concerned, the combined worth of Li Wei and the other three didn't add up to a single Zhang Jinjun.

"Die, beast!"

Thomas roared and charged in again, seizing the moment to cut off the creature's path. At the same time, Li Wei switched to the Tracker title — Perception +2. In that instant, everything around him seemed to slow and spiral like a carousel: he could perceive the life-force fields of his companions, and he could see the creature's vital point clearly.

The heart. A massive heart — like the core of a reactor.

Its terrifying, surging life force allowed its body to recover rapidly, including rapid mutation. This was a slightly stronger creature than the Four-Star Mutant Rat King. If the Rat King was a four-star minus, this mutant crocodile was a four-star plus.

The problem was that the heart was surrounded on all sides by dense, hardened bone — like thick steel plating — and layered with heavy scales on top of that. The defense was extraordinary. Li Wei doubted even the Bloodthirsty Spear could punch through.

So how were they supposed to deal with this?

A second later, Li Wei switched back to the Bear Hunter title. Thomas had already stopped the creature for the second time, having activated the City Builder title effect twice in a row.This time Leon didn't manage to follow up in time — but Zhao Xuanxuan finally found the right attack position.

"Die, die, die!"

She swung her hammer with everything she had, driving it into the creature's back, near the heart.

The head wasn't the weak point — so naturally the heart was the next guess. Zhao the Gambler wasn't going to get that wrong.

In terms of timing, target selection, and raw force output, this blow was the masterpiece of Zhao the Gambler's career.

As a blacksmith who had built her entire build around Strength, combined with the blunt-force effect of a hammer — the impact was beyond enormous.

So even though the mutant crocodile's heart was armored on all sides by heavy scales and bone plates — essentially scale armor on the outside and plate armor on the inside — it still absorbed a very significant concussive blow.

Over a dozen scales flew off. The bone plate cracked and shifted slightly. With the creature's terrifying regenerative life force, it would recover in moments — but it still had to answer to Li Wei.

Li Wei had been standing there the whole time with his Three-Star War Bow, looking like a harmless little ranged fighter who only knew how to shout. In reality, he'd been waiting for exactly this moment.

In an instant, the Three-Star War Bow was stored back into his Resource Card — faster than throwing it aside. Simultaneously, he switched to the Tracker title again. With +2 Perception, he could clearly see the faint, rippling shockwave spreading through the bone plate over the creature's chest — the aftereffect of Zhao the Gambler's perfect strike.

Yes. Right now.

He drew the Bloodthirsty Spear in a flash. No running start needed — there was no time for that anyway.

The moment the spear left his hand, 25 points of Strength — the equivalent of three grown men combined — was concentrated into a single throw. But the nature of that force was actually more terrifying than three men added together.

Three ordinary men pulling a rope against Li Wei? Li Wei would win easily.

Because they lacked integration of force. They couldn't eliminate meaningless loss.

"Whoosh—"

The sharp crack of displaced air, and the Bloodthirsty Spear had already punched through the mutant crocodile's heavy scales — striking the seam of the bone plate in front of its heart with a margin of error of less than a millimeter.

And it perfectly combined with the shockwave from Zhao the Gambler's hammer strike in a flawless, precisely timed chain hit.

A chain hit.

Two forces converging from opposite directions, meeting at the exact same point at the exact same moment.

"Crack." The bone plate in front of the mutant crocodile's heart split open. Just split — not shattered. Still not enough to destroy it.

But they had numbers.

And smart people among them.

At this moment, Thomas had been driven back repeatedly by the force of stopping the creature — he couldn't follow up on the chain hit. But Zhang Jinjun had caught the opening.

Or rather, from the moment Li Wei had shouted for him to come back, he'd already been preparing.

That was the difference between a veteran and a rookie.

In truth, all of this had happened incredibly fast.

From Thomas stopping the creature a second time, to Zhao the Gambler's precise back-strike, to Li Wei's Bloodthirsty Spear breaking through the bone — it had all unfolded in under two seconds.

And Zhang Jinjun had managed to time his shield charge to the exact moment the two-second countdown ended — the precise instant Li Wei released the spear — launching himself forward.

The mutant crocodile had less than half a second to react, to brace itself. It wasn't enough.

"AHHH!"

Zhang Jinjun roared, his entire body like a cannonball, every ounce of his strength and bodyweight channeled into the shield in his right hand — and he slammed it directly into the tail end of Li Wei's Bloodthirsty Spear.

Perfect angle.

The spear drove forward under the impact, punching clean through the bone plate and skewering the mutant crocodile straight through the heart. That reactor-core of a heart shattered. The creature staggered, fighting to struggle, to flee — but it was too late.

It was over.

A second later, black vapor poured from its entire body. The massive form crumbled to ash, leaving only a single gleaming Universal Gold Card floating in the air.

Everyone stood there as if in a dream. They'd actually teamed up and killed a four-star-plus mutant crocodile?

When they saw the Universal Gold Card, every pair of eyes lit up with hunger. Of course — just for a moment. Then everyone stood quietly in place. Zhang Jinjun even stepped back immediately, standing behind Li Wei like a loyal hound.

As for Li Wei, he was calm. He hadn't been worried about killing the crocodile. He was just pleasantly surprised by how well the team had worked together.

"Cousin, come here — let me treat your wounds."

Li Wei spoke evenly. Leon had just been held in the creature's mouth, his entire body worked over like it had been through a dozen chainsaws. His two-star leather armor was in tatters.

Fortunately, no serious injuries.

"Thank you, cousin."

Leon limped over and lightly touched the Universal Gold Card. In an instant, a magical golden light washed over his entire body — and in under two seconds, hundreds of wounds closed and healed.

The gold card's glow dimmed slightly.

"Thomas, are you hurt?"

Li Wei turned to ask.

Thomas's face was pale — but that was the exhaustion of releasing his ultimate ability, not injury. With enough food, it would be fine.

So even though he desperately wanted the Universal Gold Card, he shook his head decisively.

Li Wei had promised him a Universal Gold Card — but this wasn't the moment to ask for it.

Li Wei asked nothing further. He stepped forward and picked up the Universal Gold Card. In that instant, several lines of information appeared simultaneously before all five of them.

[You have successfully hunted and killed a Four-Star Crocodile King together. You have obtained access to this river resource point — specifically, a fifty-kilometer stretch of river, valid for 15 days. After 15 days, new mutated creatures will occupy this area.]

[Based on the combat process, participant contributions are as follows:]

[Li Wei — contribution share 55%: discovering the river 5%, hunting pet aggro pull 10%, command 10%, identifying weak point 10%, seizing the moment with the Bloodthirsty Spear to break through the target's defensive core 20%.]

[Thomas — contribution share 20%: stopping the mutant crocodile twice.]

[Zhao Xuanxuan — contribution share 10%: landing a critical strike at the key moment, forcing the mutant crocodile's defensive bone plate to shift.]

[Zhang Jinjun — contribution share 10%: pulling aggro, shield charging at the critical moment to deliver the killing blow.]

[Leon — contribution share 5%: confirming that the mutant crocodile's weak point was not the head.]

[Contribution earned from killing the mutant crocodile totals 1,000 points, distributed according to contribution share. Additionally, due to the lingering effect of the Dictator BUFF, all participants except Li Wei receive only half of their additional contribution. Breakdown as follows:]

[Thomas receives 100 Contribution points. Total: 200.]

[Zhao Xuanxuan receives 50 Contribution points. Total: 150.]

[Zhang Jinjun receives 50 Contribution points. Total: 50.]

[Leon receives 25 Contribution points. Total: 125.]

[Li Wei, due to the lingering Dictator BUFF, receives 725 Contribution points. Total: 2,525.]

[You have collectively obtained one Universal Gold Card. Its distribution will also follow individual contribution shares. However, due to its special nature, it is not affected by the Dictator BUFF. You may decide among yourselves how to distribute and use this Universal Gold Card.]

[Warning: you have one minute to decide. If no choice is made within the time limit, Option 1 will be selected automatically.]

——

In that moment, Leon, Thomas, Zhao Xuanxuan, and Zhang Jinjun all looked at Li Wei with burning eyes. The options were limited: sell it to the All-Heavens Lord Alliance and split the 1,000 Gold Coins among everyone; give it to someone to enhance a title, weapon, or equipment; or exchange it for a Black Iron Clearance Token.

Either way, this was a real test of Li Wei's judgment.

Hearts could be won or lost in a moment like this. And they only had one minute — so Li Wei didn't hesitate. He tossed the Universal Gold Card to Thomas.

A team needed a tank who could absorb damage. Without Thomas stopping the creature twice, nobody else — including Li Wei — would have had a chance to deal any damage.

"Use it to enhance your City Builder title!"

"Understood!"

Thomas looked at Li Wei with deep gratitude. He genuinely hadn't expected this guy to be so generous.

In an instant, the Universal Gold Card was consumed. Everyone saw a brief flash of golden light around Thomas's body — and then nothing. Whatever information it generated, only he could see.

Li Wei didn't ask about it. Instead, he immediately stripped off his Noble Crest Armor and called out to the group: "Who's good at catching fish? Move fast — we only have fifteen days!"