Volume 1, Chapter 36: But at the Very Least, I Am a Villain Who Keeps His Word

The ones who ambushed him were none other than the second and third in command of the Three Heroes Guild, Hua Mingze and Zheng Dekai, accompanied by a young player wielding a bow and arrow.

The Little White Bear finally turned around.

"You—you have to kill that murderer! He just forced me, forced me to do that! He’s a total scumbag!"

"That pathetic bitch!"

Li Chuan cursed under his breath. Seeing the three of them charging toward him with murder in their eyes, he activated "Leap" and turned to flee. He could handle zombies three-on-one, but he couldn't take on three players above level ten at once. Every class had a basic crowd-control skill; if he got hit by even one, he was a dead man.

"What the hell is your problem? Instead of doing your quests, you’re out here hunting your own kind?"

Hua Mingze drew his bow and fired, but the shot went wide.

"Shut your damn mouth. You think you can survive after crossing the Three Heroes Guild?" Hua Mingze sneered. "Though, if you tell us how to upgrade your Plant Spirit and how to navigate the Forbidden Lands, we might leave your corpse intact."

*This bastard is even more ruthless than I am,* Li Chuan thought. *I just retorted a few times in the channel, and they want to kill me to keep me quiet?*

Zheng Dekai used the warrior’s "Charge" skill to pick up speed. "Little brat, don't be so arrogant in your next life. We gave you a chance to be our dog, but you chose this!"

*Clang!*

Li Chuan executed a side roll, narrowly dodging Zheng Dekai’s lethal strike. The heavy blade slammed into the concrete floor with a deafening crash.

*Clatter!*

Li Chuan performed a series of side rolls, reached a door, slipped inside, and bolted it shut. When he looked around the room, his heart sank.

"Damn it! It's a dead end!"

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Violent pounding echoed against the door. Scanning the room, Li Chuan immediately used his "Leap" ability to scramble up to the top of a six-meter-tall storage tank, then activated "Jungle Stealth." His silhouette slowly faded until he blended perfectly with the background.

*Crash!*

The alloy door lock was smashed to pieces, and the three men filed into the room.

"There's only one exit. He's hiding here somewhere. Search!" Zheng Dekai gripped his heavy blade, his expression ferocious.

"That kid has to die today, or we’ll never be able to snatch any good loot in the future," Hua Mingze shouted, walking toward Li Chuan’s position.

*A hunter should stay in the shadows and deliver the killing blow to the beast!* That was the philosophy of Jungle Stealth, and it was currently Li Chuan’s creed. With his current strength, if he took out one person first, the remaining two shouldn't pose much of a threat.

He pulled out his hand crossbow, loaded a poisoned bolt, and cocked it. Li Chuan stared silently at Hua Mingze walking beneath him.

Seven meters! Six meters! Five meters!

*Fire Element Enchantment! Lock-on Strike!*

"Hua Mingze!"

Caught off guard by hearing his real name, Hua Mingze looked up abruptly.

*Whoosh!*

*Squelch!*

The sharp, beast-tooth bolt sank directly into his eye.

[Critical Hit — 999!]

When a vital weak point is struck like that, it doesn't matter if you have ten thousand points of armor.

[Ding! Killed Lv 11 Hua Mingze. Experience +55.]

*Crash!*

Someone struck the tank Li Chuan was standing on with a heavy object. The tank tipped over, and Li Chuan hurriedly used his agility to leap high into the air.

"Damn it! You killed Ah Hua!" Zheng Dekai roared, lunging forward with his blade.

*Slap!*

Li Chuan couldn't dodge in time and took a slash to the thigh.

—59.

*This guy definitely dumped all his points into Strength!*

Li Chuan stumbled but immediately regained his balance with a side roll. His thigh throbbed, but he hadn't taken real damage; it had only depleted his armor value. With sixteen hundred armor, as long as he wasn't hit in a weak spot or a vital organ, he couldn't be one-shot.

*Whoosh!*

There was a sound of wind behind him. Li Chuan performed another side roll to dodge. It was the archer.

*Weak Point Strike!*

Li Chuan fired back, his bolt landing precisely in the archer’s arm.

[—44, Poisoned.]

[—8, —8, —8, —8...]

*Leap!*

The cooldown for Leap had refreshed. Li Chuan jumped high again, dodged Zheng Dekai’s "Charge Slash," and bolted out of the room.

Inside, the young archer stared at his health bar in terror. "Ah! I'm poisoned! I'm poisoned! Guild Leader Zheng, give me a health potion!"

Zheng Dekai rushed over cautiously, pulling a healing potion from his pack. The two were in a frantic panic.

"Drink it! Drink it! Well? Is your health coming back?"

The youth breathed a sigh of relief. "It's back. I almost died from that poison. That damn murderer actually coated his bolts!"

Zheng Dekai gritted his teeth, walked to Hua Mingze’s corpse, and looted his dropped items. "Careless. Damn bastard! I didn't expect his reaction speed to be so fast. Ah Hua actually died in a place like this."

The youth was still shaken. "So, Second Guild Leader, are we still going to hunt him down?"

Zheng Dekai shook his head. "No. It seems the two of us can't hold him down. But it doesn't matter. The Boss is surely leading people to attack his Plant Spirit right now. No matter what, anyone who crosses the Three Heroes Guild won't live to see the night!"

The two walked toward the door, one after the other. "Xiao Zhou, you need to step up. With Ah Hua dead, there’s a vacancy for a Guild Leader position. I think you’d be a good fit."

The youth was just about to express his joy, but Zheng Dekai suddenly stopped speaking.

"A good fit for what? Second Guild Leader, why did you stop? Guild... ugh... ugh..."

*Squelch!*

A crossbow bolt pierced his throat, rendering him unable to utter another word.

Two meters away, Li Chuan’s figure slowly shimmered into view. "You won't be becoming a Guild Leader."

Li Chuan hadn't run away at all. He had used his Jungle Stealth to hide by the door, setting a bear trap at the entrance to ensure he could wipe out all his enemies.

The three-second duration ended, and Zheng Dekai regained control of his body. "Damn you! You didn't run? What did you just do to me!"

Li Chuan raised his hand crossbow and smiled coldly. "Just a little bear trap. You stepped right into it."

Li Chuan began to close in step by step. Zheng Dekai backed away, tripping over the youth's corpse. "You—don't come any closer! Don't come closer, let's talk this out."

Li Chuan’s lips curled up. "Oh? Talk it out? Why didn't anyone want to talk it out before? Now that you realize you can't handle me, you want to negotiate? In your dreams!"

Zheng Dekai turned to run, but collided head-on with the arriving Little White Bear. "Quick! Help me stop him! I'll make you a Vice Guild Leader of the Three Heroes!"

"Stun Arrow!"

Zheng Dekai’s luck was abysmal; he was instantly paralyzed. Li Chuan drew his longsword, performed three side rolls to reach him, and swung, severing Zheng Dekai’s head.

[Critical Hit — 999!]

[Ding! Killed Lv 11 Zheng Dekai. Experience +55.]

*Ah! Ah! Ah!*

After a brief moment of shock, Bai Tingting erupted into screams once more. "I was wrong! I was wrong! I shouldn't have lied to you!"

"It's just that there were too many of them, I didn't dare make a sound, really! You have to believe me!"

Li Chuan held his blood-stained sword, staring at Bai Tingting. "I admit I'm not a good person, but at least I'm a bad guy who keeps his word. I really was going to help you finish that quest."

Bai Tingting’s face lit up with joyful surprise. "Then—you promised to help me finish the quest, so you won't kill me, right?"

"That's great! Since you aren't killing me, I'll let you do whatever you want with me. Any way you want, no matter how..."

*Squelch!*