novelraw Chapter 66: Hideout Ranking—The Turmoil Caused by 8599
Chapter 66: Hideout Ranking—The Turmoil Caused by 8599
In the underground mine area, inside the Moss Cottage Shelter.
After a spatial distortion, Xiao Wu appeared inside the shelter.
[Congratulations, successful invasion of the Blood Wolf Shelter area!]
[Evaluating battle performance.... Our resource consumption.... Enemy resource consumption.... Plundered supplies quantity... Our casualty status... Enemy casualties....]
[This invasion performance settlement: Bronze]
[Congratulations to Moss Cottage Shelter for obtaining Bronze Treasure Chest ×1]
Ignoring the bronze-colored treasure chest that appeared before him, Xiao Wu looked at his injured calf and slightly curled his lips. A blood-colored badge on his chest also turned to dust and disappeared the moment the notification ended.
Xiao Wu was already accustomed to this.
"I didn't expect Blood Wolf to actually set up jungle traps. If I hadn't been careful, I would have fallen for his trick and let him escape."
However, a smile soon appeared on his face: "As expected of a player ranked 8478, the supplies in his area were really abundant. With this supply line, I should be able to raise my ranking by one more spot."Opening the bronze treasure chest, inside appeared only a bow, 30 arrows, five apples, 3 cans, 5 bottles of water, and a [Rocket Stove] construction blueprint.
Xiao Wu casually glanced at the [Rocket Stove] blueprint and threw it aside.
It was just an ordinary-level kitchen facility, and only a level 2 facility at that - already outdated for him.
Grabbing an apple and taking a bite, he lay down on the bear skin-covered sofa and opened the virtual light screen, intending to find the next suitable target.
But the next moment, his body that had just laid down instantly sat upright, the apple was thrown directly to the ground, and the virtual light screen quickly changed, soon arriving at the Shelter Leaderboard page.
When he saw the name at rank 8599, unprecedented light flashed in his eyes.
—Yu Yuan Shelter
"Impossible, directly jumping 750 ranks, how is this possible! What exactly happened, why did his ranking improve so much all at once?" Xiao Wu seemed bewitched, softly murmuring to himself.
His gaze toward Yu Yuan Shelter kept flickering and changing, countless thoughts flashing through his mind as he searched for the most suitable explanation.
But Xiao Wu failed!
He simply couldn't think of anything that could allow a newcomer who had just entered the wasteland world for ten days to directly raise his ranking to position 8599.
"Could it be a title path, but the title paths newcomers can obtain couldn't be this strong.... Wasteland Battle Royale achievement? No no no, he hasn't passed the Newbie Protection Period yet, doesn't meet the entry conditions.... Gold treasure chest? That doesn't make sense either! It's still that same problem - he's in the Newbie Protection Period, hasn't even unlocked invasion permissions yet! No... what exactly is it?"
Xiao Wu's current mood was like countless ants constantly gnawing at him, unbearably itchy.
He had long regarded Yu Yuan Shelter as his hunting target. The series of unusual actions the other party had taken since entering the game had generated extremely intense curiosity and destructive desire in Xiao Wu.
His expression became somewhat frenzied and pathological as he thought.
"What is it! What exactly could make a newcomer suddenly improve his ranking so much? It's so uncomfortable, I really want to know the answer! Ah~~~~"
Xiao Wu's eyes were already bloodshot, veins bulging on his forehead.
"Could it be a rare artifact?" His eyes involuntarily looked at the blood-colored pendant on his chest, but he quickly shook his head, a self-mocking smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"What a joke, the appearance of every rare artifact would trigger plunder and fighting among the Thug factions. Forget about a newcomer like him, even players ranked in the top 5000 wouldn't dare get involved. It's simply not something newcomers can access. But what exactly is it!"
Finally he couldn't bear it anymore. Opening the chat channel, an exaggerated smile appeared on his lips as he quickly typed.
[Moss Cottage Shelter: @Yu Yuan Shelter, Big Shot, have you developed a new title route or mastered rare resources? I'll pay 1000 survival points for this information, okay?]
[Moss Cottage Shelter: @Yu Yuan Shelter, Big Shot, if you have any questions for me, we can share information! Also, after your Newbie Protection Period ends, someone will definitely invade your area - I can help provide protection for you.]
[Moss Cottage Shelter: @Yu Yuan....]
After sending several messages but receiving no response, Xiao Wu's face first turned extremely ugly, but quickly returned to calm, though his eyes became gloomy.
"Damn it, this guy really isn't ordinary cautious... From entering the game until now, the number of times he's spoken can be counted on one hand..."
As his gaze flickered, he opened his friends list and sent messages to several people, quickly receiving their replies.
"Yes, Master!"
Seeing their responses, Xiao Wu's laughter echoed through the shelter.
"What should I do, I can't wait any longer... Just wait a bit longer, hehe... hoho... haha... just wait a bit longer... HAHAHAHA!"
——————————
Inside Yu Yuan Shelter.
"It seems I still need to find a Giant Mutant Rat to verify, see if it's a Spiritual Creature..."
Yu Yuan closed the Facility Management Log and opened the chat channel, intending to see other players' reactions to his ranking improvement.
The result was just as he expected - Yu Yuan Shelter's significant ranking improvement had exploded the entire chat channel.
There were amazed ones, envious ones, congratulatory ones, jealous ones, malicious speculators, those eager to be hangers-on, and even two female players putting on airs and graces.
Yu Yuan laughed off all of these - how could he possibly care about these people's comments.
He silently recorded the IDs of all the players who were jealous of him, maliciously speculated about him, and tried to morally pressure him.
But when he saw several specific comments, his movements slightly paused and his expression changed slightly.
"Moss Cottage!"
Seeing the other party offering to help him deal with player invasion crises, Yu Yuan's lips curled into a mocking smile.
"Is he really that stupid, or just pretending to be!"
Regarding Moss Cottage's @ mentions, Yu Yuan didn't respond, ignoring them as usual.
However, he soon discovered several other people starting to echo Moss Cottage's words, some of them familiar IDs that he had already recorded.
Just as Yu Yuan was about to close the virtual light screen, a new ID made him slightly frown.
[Blood Wolf Shelter; @Yu Yuan Shelter, Yes, Big Shot, let's do a resource information exchange. I have many tropical fruits here, is that okay with you?]
And after Blood Wolf Shelter's message, those players who had previously supported Moss Cottage also joined in supporting Blood Wolf Shelter.
This scene seemed perfectly normal, and Blood Wolf Shelter's words didn't seem particularly wrong.
But how could Yu Yuan not see the trickery within? After thinking for a moment, he recorded Blood Wolf Shelter's name as well.
After checking for a while longer, Yu Yuan closed the chat channel.
He knew he was being somewhat overly cautious and paranoid.
But he had no choice!
He firmly believed one thing - compared to street thugs, high-ranking players were more threatening.
If he couldn't eliminate threats in their cradle, then at the very least he needed to clearly see which direction the threats were coming from.