Chapter 88: The Second Battle with the Wolf King

After everyone had gathered, they set about clearing out the nearby wild wolves together, though the respawn rate here seemed unusually fast. It felt as if they had just finished cleaning up, only for another group to appear.

“Boss, what should we do? Are we going to fight here? There are way too many wolves, they keep respawning endlessly.”

“Let’s stay here. Trying to lure the Wolf King to a spot with fewer monsters would take forever—no need for that. We’ll just leave a few people to clear out the wolves specifically.”

Zhang Shan handed his cloak over to his secretary. The Wolf King’s critical hits were tremendously powerful; although the secretary was tough, wearing his own cloak wasn’t quite safe enough. With Zhang Shan’s purple cloak, he was much better protected—no need to worry about things going awry.

Once everyone had cleared the nearby wolves, the secretary went forward to engage the boss, and Zhang Shan and the others quickly joined in the attack. Having fought the Wolf King before, they had no worries—just went for it.

Before the Wolf King unleashed his ultimate, it was a trivial matter, easy enough to handle.

“What’s the story with the East Sea Dragon King and his crew? Do any of you know?” Zhang Shan had always been puzzled by the sudden rise of the Over the Seas Guild—a group of big spenders had appeared out of nowhere. From the start, they had locked onto the Wind and Cloud Guild as their adversaries, giving off the impression of a formidable background.

“The Over the Seas Guild was started by a bunch of maritime merchants. They’re all extremely wealthy people.”

“Damn, doesn’t that mean we’ll be in trouble? Rich folks are tough to mess with.”

“Brother Six-Barrel, what are you worrying about? This is just a game—even money isn’t all-powerful here.”

“Money is all-powerful! If you want gear or skill books, just buy them.”

“You’re overthinking it. Sell me your artifact—I have the money.”

Zhang Shan was speechless. If artifacts weren’t bound, he might’ve considered selling it before, but that was out of the question now. What would he do with so much money anyway? As long as he had enough, that was all he needed. People only crave money when they’re lacking it, and he didn’t seem to be lacking anymore.

“No artifact, but I have one life—if you want it, take it.”

“Nonsense, you have two lives.”

“The influence of the New World is growing, and soon there’ll be more and more guilds like Over the Seas. Many big financial groups might get involved.”

“True, I’ve heard that plenty of companies unrelated to gaming are establishing game studios, preparing to join the New World.”

“Must be nothing better to do—why don’t they stick to their businesses? Why get into the New World?” Zhang Shan didn’t understand. Game companies or streaming platforms joining the New World made sense, but why would unrelated companies want to enter?

“Brother Six-Barrel, you’re still too young. Capital always seeks profit. With so many players in the New World and such a vast market, those with capital won’t let it slip by—they have to get involved.”

“Yeah, the top ten guilds in the game will definitely be reshuffled. Who knows how many of the current ones will survive?”

“Don’t get hung up on guild rankings. Whether we’re top ten or not doesn’t matter—let’s just enjoy ourselves. If anyone messes with us, we’ll just fight back.”

“Exactly, just like Brother Six-Barrel. East Sea Dragon King is worth billions, yet you, a nobody, made him suffer time and again in-game.”

“Damn, is East Sea Dragon King really that rich? I’m starting to get nervous—will they come after me?”

“Of course he’s loaded. Do you know how many ships he has in a fleet, and how much he earns per trip? Way more than you can imagine.”

“As for coming after you—that’s inevitable. Big names have reputations to protect, and you’ve humiliated him.”

“You’re making me even more nervous.”

“No need to worry. With your artifact, who can defeat you? You’re not causing trouble for others—that’s already good enough.”

“Right. As long as East Sea Dragon King isn’t a fool, he probably won’t dare mess with you for three to five months. But if he gets the chance, he won’t let it slip by.”

That’s true—what’s there to worry about? Who can beat him? By the time others get their own artifacts, who knows how long that will take.

By then, he might have amassed a pile of passive skills, easily crushing groups of people with little effort. Why worry?

Talent was Zhang Shan’s foundation in the New World; the artifact was merely the icing on the cake. He needed to keep grinding for passives. Whenever he saw monsters with passive skills, he’d farm them, accumulating dozens of passives—he could smash even the Demon God, let alone some big spenders.

No matter how rich they are, could they defeat the Demon God?

Zhang Shan grew increasingly fond of his “King of Passives” talent; it was explosively powerful, almost intoxicating.

“Attention, the Wolf King’s health is about to drop to five million. Clean out the nearby wolves quickly and prepare to focus fire on the Wolf King’s ultimate.”

The Wolf King was easy to handle—only its “Pack Attack” ultimate was a nuisance, summoning hundreds, even thousands of wolves at once.

No matter how they handled it, it was always chaotic—there really were too many.

Apart from the ranged attackers who could strike the Wolf King from afar, the others quickly formed up: warriors on the perimeter, ranged fighters in the rear, and support protected at the very center.

Soon, as the Wolf King’s health dropped to five million, it unleashed its ultimate as expected. A massive pack of wolves surged forth.

But this time, they were well prepared, methodically clearing out the summoned minions.

In less than five minutes, everyone worked together to wipe out the minions, then resumed attacking the boss.

The Wolf King unleashed its ultimate twice more, but they dealt with it effortlessly each time, until it was finally defeated.

Fighting bosses was always like this—the first time, without any strategy or experience, all sorts of mishaps could occur when facing its abilities.

But once you’ve beaten it, fighting again was no longer “defeating the boss,” but simply “farming the boss.”

No different from farming regular monsters, except that farming bosses required enough team strength.

The Wolf King fell, granting Zhang Shan another five hundred thousand experience, though this was negligible for him now.

To reach level twenty-six required seventy-five million experience; he’d need at least a day and a half of grinding to level up.

Zhang Shan hoped the Wolf King would drop something good—he didn’t dare hope for artifact quest items, but even a divine material would be nice.

Once Wind and Cloud World displayed all the loot, he said,

“This time, Six-Barrel Bodhisattva gets first pick, then the rest will roll as needed. He always finds the boss, and his damage output is the highest.”

“No problem. Every time we fight a boss, it feels like we’re taking advantage of the artifact owner—I almost feel guilty.”

“Yeah, Artifact Bro’s damage alone matches the output of seven of us. Without him, the boss would get off several more skills, making it much harder.”

“The key is, none of us can find red bosses. Even if we wanted to fight them, we wouldn’t know where to look. Artifact Bro and red bosses are destined for each other, haha.”