From A Stronghold NPC To The Final BOSS - Chapter 23

One million!

Wang Renbin was talking to at least 20 or 30 people.

That meant that the Wang family was asking to be paid 20 or 30 million dollars!

Even though the people listening were all owners, who didn’t lack money, no one was foolish enough to take out a million dollars without hesitation.

The scene became deathly silent after Wang Renbin voiced his request.

No one rejected the idea, but none of them voiced their approval either.

Zhao Xiaomeng said without emotion, “You’re asking for 20 or 30 million dollars for a teleportation amulet. Sir Wang, you sure know how to do business.”

“It is worth it. To procure this teleportation amulet, the Wang family had spent at least this much to employ tens of thousands of other players. We haven’t even got into the other costs yet,” Wang Renbin let out a faint smile.

“One million is not much to all of you. All of us know what your motive for entering this game is.”

“It wouldn’t be worth it to wait here just for one million dollars. As time drags on, the losses that you would incur might be even more than one million dollars,” Wang Renbin said, looking toward Zhao Xiaomeng. “One million is but a small sum for you, considering the financial power of the Zhao family. Though Xiaomeng, I can lend you the money if you can’t afford it.”

These words caused Zhao Xiaomeng’s expression to change instantly.

Indeed. To the Zhao family, or even to her, one million dollars was not a large sum.

However, she didn’t want Wang Renbin to receive that much money.

However, just as the other party had said, one million dollars was not a problem. However, Wang Renbin would incur more than one million dollars if the Mountain Bandits crisis lasted two more days.

It was not only Zhao Xiaomeng who thought that. Most of the people at the scene also felt this way.

After all, being able to sit and pull over other players to form a faction within a short time showed that they were from influential backgrounds.

Thus, they ultimately agreed to Wang Renbin’s conditions.

It couldn’t be helped. The circumstances forced them to make the decision.

The Wang family had the initiative; they held the trump card.

…

“Stronghold Chieftain, now that most of the Outlanders have sheltered themselves in the village, should we adopt the next stage of our plan?” Zhang Tieniu looked at Qin Shujian and asked in a deep voice.

Even though he was still a leader at the Liangshan Stronghold, he was also an expert at Martial Entry-Level Three.

However, despite the increase in his stage, he felt massive pressure when he stood in front of Qin Shujian that was even greater than before.

Zhang Tieniu’s awe and respect for Qin Shujian grew stronger.

Hearing this, Qin Shujian gently stroked his chin. He didn’t speak immediately.

In these three or four days, the Liangshan Stronghold had surrounded and killed many players.

Most of the Mountain Bandits in the Liangshan Stronghold had reached Martial Entry-Level Two.

However, there were also a good number of Mountain Bandits who died.

As time passed, the first batch of dead Mountain Bandits respawned.

What shocked Qin Shujian was that, out of the Mountain Bandits who respawned, there was a minority whose Martial Entry-Level dropped by a level, making some of the Martial Entry-Level Two Mountain Bandits into Martial Entry-Level One.

As for why there were no changes to the Martial Entry-Level One Mountain Bandits, Qin Shujian guessed that that was the lowest level a Mountain Bandit could drop to.

Their levels wouldn’t drop lower than that.

That meant that the Mountain Bandits who had achieved Martial Entry-Level Two over the days had been brought back to their original level.

“The Liangshan Stronghold now has 133 people. Over the days, more than 100 of the Mountain Bandits had died at the players’ hands. Only about 20 of them had survived.”

“Out of the 20-odd people, six of them have reached Martial Entry-Level Three, including Zhang Tieniu.”

“The rest of them are hovering around Martial Entry-Level Two.”

“As for the Mountain Bandits who have died once, most of them have been brought back to their original level. That should be the case if I calculated it properly,” Qin Shujian had a general understanding of the situation after he silently calculated his profits and losses.

The Liangshan Stronghold had produced many adept fighters in just a few days. Their strength was now many times stronger than they were before.

But, Qin Shujian looked at Zhang Tieniu and knitted his brows as he said, “You should have killed a significant number of Outlanders over the days. Why have you not advanced to Martial Entry-Level Four?”

“Stronghold Chieftain, you know it too. We can kill Outlanders to level up, but if the Outlanders’ levels are lower than ours by three levels or more, killing them doesn’t have any effect. Currently, none of the Outlanders have even reached Martial Entry-Level One. How could I reach Martial Entry-Level Four that way?”

“Oh… I nearly forgot,” Qin Shujian froze for a moment. His expression then returned to normal.

They had to kill players that were three levels below them to level up.

He didn’t know of this at all.

At the start, Qin Shujian was curious as to why Zhang Tieniu and the rest of the Martial Entry-Level Three Mountain Bandits hadn’t reached Martial Entry-Level Four even though they had killed a significant number of players.

He had thought that it was because the experience gap was too significant.

However, now it seemed like they didn’t gain experience points from killing the players.

It was just that Qin Shujian had not been notified in the past of whatever Zhang Tieniu had just told him.

However, he couldn’t help but guess when he saw Zhang Tieniu’s nonchalant expression.

Being able to obtain Life Value and not experiencing a limit to his stage level was completely different from the leveling system of the Mountain Bandits massacring the players.

His existence was like a bug in the system.

Then, Qin Shujian had another thought.

Since Zhang Tieniu knew about this, the rest of the Mountain Bandit NPCs should also know about it. After all, the two of them were no different.

That meant to say that even though he was an NPC, he was qualitatively very different from an ordinary NPC.

The rest of the NPCs could only level up by killing players and could only gain experience points if they killed players less than three levels lower than them. They couldn’t do anything about the situation if the players fall outside of that limitation.

However, Qin Shujian didn’t have such a restriction.

Not only could he obtain Life Value by killing players, but he could also get Life Value by killing other NPCs. There were no limitations to his leveling up.

Furthermore, Zhang Tieniu and the rest of the NPCs seemed to be born with this knowledge, yet he didn’t know of this limitation at all.

Because of this, Qin Shujian once again worried greatly about whether or not he could respawn if he were killed.

“It looks like I might not be able to respawn like the rest of the other NPCs!” Qin Shujian thought.

Then, he looked at Zhang Tieniu and said, “Relay my orders. All of our men will attack Starter Village #10021 tomorrow. Before that, the rest of the Mountain Bandits should surround the Starter Village.”

“Don’t let any of the Outlanders escape during this time.”

“However, don’t kill too many Outlanders for the time being. Just scare them back into the village. Try not to make our men suffer too many casualties.”

A new batch of Mountain Bandits would respawn tomorrow.

That way, Qin Shujian had another layer of safety and strength when attacking the Starter Village.