Chapter 4

As they spoke, Xu Xiao’s face turned slightly red, almost imperceptibly.

Before Lu Li could react, she explained in a flustered manner:

“I am the class leader, and I have the duty to take care of every student in the class!”

“Oh… so saintly? You won’t last long in the apocalypse…” Lu Li’s face was mocking as he followed up with a reminder:

“Have Ma Han try to attack the queen insect’s neck.”

“What?!” Xu Xiao was about to object, but upon hearing Lu Li’s reminder, she immediately gave the order:

“Wang Chao, try to restrict the queen insect’s movements!”

“I’ll do my best!”

Wang Chao roared and charged at the queen insect.

“Ma Han, attack the queen insect’s neck with all your strength!”

“Damn it, fatty, don’t move, I can’t aim properly!”

Ma Han shouted anxiously, but the arrow in his hand was slow to release.

Seeing the situation about to be reversed by the queen insect, Lu Li’s brows furrowed slightly, and he secretly activated his ability.

【Swarm Intimidation:

Intimidate insectoid creatures, causing a stiffening effect. The duration depends on the level difference and the talent rank.】

Despite being at Level 0, Lu Li was six levels below the Level 6 mantis queen insect.

However, the Gold-rank 【Swarm Intimidation】 was automatically upgraded to Platinum under the influence of Xu Xiao’s ability!

So even the queen insect,

experienced a moment of stiffness!

“What a good opportunity!”

Ma Han exclaimed in surprise, and the arrow in his hand shot out, striking the queen insect’s neck hard.

With its vital point hit, the enraged queen insect’s head tilted to one side, and it immediately fell to the ground, dead as could be.

“Is it dead?”

Wang Chao and Ma Han were dumbfounded.

The queen insect in front of them was clearly a Level 6 lord creature, and yet it had been killed by the three of them, who were all Level 0 players?

Was it really that easy to kill a higher-level creature?

Xu Xiao, looking at the fallen queen insect, gazed at Lu Li with great surprise:

“How did you know the neck was its weak point?”

Lu Li shrugged: “I have a reconnaissance ability. As long as the target’s level is not more than ten levels higher, I can find its weak point.”

The three of them were enlightened.

It seemed that even Iron-rank abilities were not entirely useless. If used properly, they could still have a significant impact.

Without paying attention to the three stunned individuals, Lu Li approached the queen insect’s corpse and activated his Soul Devouring ability.

【Devouring a Level 6 monster’s soul, +15 Divine Soul Points】

【Plundered Ability — Blade Arm (Gold)】

【Plundered Ability — Swarm Intimidation (Gold)】

【Detected that the ability ‘Blade Arm’ can be advanced to the second stage. After completing the advancement task, it will automatically upgrade to Platinum.】

【Detected that the ability ‘Swarm Intimidation’ can be advanced. Do you want to trigger the advancement task? Yes/No】

Looking at the options in front of him, Lu Li fell into deep thought.

The advancement task for 【Swarm Intimidation】 wouldn’t be to kill 100 queen insects within 24 hours, would it?

After all, 【Swarm Intimidation】 was quite useful against insectoid creatures. If it failed to advance and disappeared, Lu Li would really be reluctant.

Just as Lu Li was hesitating, Xu Xiao suddenly asked:

“Lu Li, can your 【Reconnaissance】 ability see the location of the Essence Crystal?”

Lu Li subconsciously replied: “Yes.”

As a result, the task interface, which had not yet been exited, was directly triggered by this answer!

【Ding! Ability advancement task triggered!】

【Task Content: Kill a player one level higher within 24 hours!】

【Task Reward: Challenger Chest ×3, Ability ‘Swarm Intimidation’ advances to Platinum rank!】

【Killed: 0/1】

“Damn…”

Seeing Lu Li mutter and his expression change, Xu Xiao thought he was unwilling to point out the location of the Essence Crystal and couldn’t help but criticize him in her heart:

“This Lu Li is really petty.”

On the surface, she put on a businesslike expression:

“Don’t worry, although the queen insect was killed by us, you were the one who discovered it first and pointed out its weak point. We will split the Essence Crystal equally.”

Lu Li, who was still thinking about how to complete the advancement task, didn’t hear what Xu Xiao said and just nodded absentmindedly:

“The Essence Crystal is in the queen insect’s head.”

Hearing this, Wang Chao raised his fist and started pounding the queen insect’s head.

In less than half a cigarette’s time, an orange Essence Crystal fell out.

“It’s a third-stage Essence Crystal. Absorbing this one might give 100 experience points…”

Ma Han smacked his lips, his face full of excitement.

No player had yet advanced to Level 1.

After all, the apocalypse had just begun, with more people than monsters, and killing monsters didn’t grant experience points; one had to absorb Essence Crystals to gain experience.

Most players had a natural fear of monsters.

Even if there were some brave ones who managed to kill a couple of monsters, they would only get first-stage Essence Crystals, which provided only 1 experience point, far from enough to reach Level 1.

As for the military,

although they could obtain enough Essence Crystals to level up, due to unified allocation, no one would advance to Level 1 quickly.

“Level 0 to Level 1 requires 10 experience points, Level 1 to Level 2 requires 20 experience points… If we absorb this Essence Crystal, we might directly reach Level 3!”

Wang Chao’s eyes were filled with excitement, but in the end, he took the Essence Crystal from Ma Han’s hand and handed it to Xu Xiao.

“Class leader, you’re the boss, you decide the distribution!”

Before he finished speaking, Lu Li, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up:

“If you don’t want to die, it’s best not to touch this Essence Crystal.”

“What do you mean by that?!”

Xu Xiao looked at Lu Li, her eyes filled with confusion.

Could it be that Lu Li wanted to repay kindness with ingratitude and keep the third-stage Essence Crystal for himself?

“I mean exactly what I said.”

Lu Li had no patience to explain further and walked toward the direction of the insect nest.

His secret of being reborn once couldn’t be known by a second person, and further explanation would just be a waste of time.

With two advancement tasks triggered in succession, Lu Li was very busy!

Xu Xiao never expected Lu Li’s attitude to become so cold, and her fingers, gripping the Essence Crystal, turned slightly white.

As the class leader, she had awakened a rare enhancement-type ability after the apocalypse began.

Even though she wasn’t the type to crave attention or enjoy being flattered, she still felt very uncomfortable after sensing Lu Li’s cold attitude.

“What’s with the attitude! Just because you awakened a reconnaissance ability, you think you’re so great? If it weren’t for me liking you, you would have been eaten by the queen insect already!”

Wang Chao and Ma Han, seeing Lu Li walk away, looked at Xu Xiao:

“Class leader, should we still divide this Essence Crystal?”

“Let’s keep it for now. Follow Lu Li and see what he’s going to do.”

Xu Xiao put the Essence Crystal close to her body and quickly followed Lu Li.

After walking a few steps, the three of them saw the insect nest’s entrance, which looked like a small hill, and another queen insect’s corpse lying at the entrance.

Although this queen insect was smaller in size, it didn’t look like a Level 1 or Level 2 commoner.

“There’s another queen insect. Could it be that Lu Li killed it?”

Xu Xiao’s eyes were filled with surprise, but when she saw the neat cut on the queen insect’s head, she unconsciously dismissed the thought:

“Lu Li’s ability is reconnaissance, and this queen insect was clearly killed by a sharp weapon. It couldn’t have been Lu Li.”

“Probably the two lord creatures fought each other, and the larger one killed the smaller one. Lu Li just happened to pass by and got lucky.”

Ma Han stroked his chin, imagining the scenario.

“That makes sense, Old Ma, you’re really smart!”

Wang Chao praised Ma Han.

While they were talking, Lu Li was already preparing to enter the insect nest.

Seeing this, Xu Xiao immediately called out: “Lu Li, what are you going to do?”

“Sigh, why is she still following…” Lu Li looked at Xu Xiao with a speechless expression: “Use your smart brain to think, class leader.”

With that, he ignored Xu Xiao and plunged into the insect nest.

...