Volume One, Chapter 54: The Desert Fraught with Peril

[Giant Asylum Regional Rankings]
[Combat Power Ranking: 1st Place, White Tornado: lv20 Spearman, Comprehensive Combat Power: 9.7]
[2nd Place, Tao Baibai: lv20 Brawler, Comprehensive Combat Power: 9.6]
[3rd Place, Great Love Quanquanlong: lv20 Fire Mage, Comprehensive Combat Power: 9.4]
……
[7th Place, Only Touching Flowers Without Plucking Them: lv19 Jungle Hunter, Comprehensive Combat Power: 9.0]

Li Chuan's face darkened.
His strength had actually dropped to seventh place!
Are there really this many freaks around!
Wait, it's probably because my level hasn't reached twenty yet, since everyone else on the leaderboard is level twenty.

[Red Name Ranking: 1st Place, Tao Baibai: lv20 Brawler, Kill Count: 43]
[2nd Place, Ohm Messiah: lv20 Psionic Controller, Kill Count: 39]
[3rd Place, Only Touching Flowers Without Plucking Them: lv19 Jungle Hunter, Kill Count: 28]
……
"Did I really kill that many people? Uh... whatever, I don't care about being on this ranking!"

[Gold Coin Ranking: 1st Place, Wealth from All Directions: lv18 Magician, Total Assets: 10,080 Gold Coins]
[2nd Place, Ohm Messiah: lv20 Archer, Total Assets: 6,341 Gold Coins]
[3rd Place, High Places Are Dangerous: lv19 Frost Mage, Total Assets: 6,299 Gold Coins]

Li Chuan wasn't even on the Gold Coin Ranking! Even counting the unsold equipment on the auction house, his gold coins didn't exceed five thousand. He was dirt poor!
What on earth was that first-place "Wealth from All Directions"? How did he accumulate over ten thousand gold coins in assets? I really want to meet him!
The Living Bodhisattva made it to the list, though she was likely holding the assets of the entire guild rather than just her own personal wealth.

There was another line of text at the bottom of the rankings.
[Daily Reward for 1st Place on the Leaderboard: Evolution Core (Blue). 2nd Place: Evolution Core (Cyan). 3rd Place: Evolution Core (Green) (Note: Leaderboard rewards can be stacked, distributed promptly at 8:00 AM game time daily).]

There are rewards for the top three!?
Li Chuan's competitive spirit ignited instantly.
Where are the monsters! I'm going to get my level up to twenty!

As if hearing Li Chuan's words, the yellow sand right in front of him suddenly surged. Then, a giant-mouthed monster over a meter in diameter, densely packed with layers of teeth, poked its head out of the sand and lunged straight at Li Chuan.
Sideways roll! Sideways roll! Sideways roll!
It took three consecutive sideways rolls for Li Chuan to finally evade the monster's lunge.
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
The yellow-furred, giant-earthworm-like monster missed its prey, plunged headfirst back into the yellow sand, and its long, yellowish-brown body gradually vanished into the dunes.

Li Chuan managed to appraise its attribute panel right before it disappeared.
[Desert Death Worm: Purple]
[HP: 5000/5000]
[lv45, Times have changed, and the once-small worm has grown to this extent! It possesses the hardest teeth and the most efficient kinetic energy in the yellow sand. Weakness marked.]

Damn it all!
"A legendary-tier level forty-five monster? I admit I was speaking a bit too loudly just now!"
While muttering to himself, Li Chuan felt the ground beneath his feet vibrate once more.
Leap!
He hurriedly activated Leap and bolted away from the spot at maximum speed.
Whoosh!
That terrifying, hideous giant mouth burst out of the yellow sand once again, chasing behind Li Chuan like a dolphin leaping continually out of the water.
One thousand meters, two thousand meters, three thousand meters.
……
Li Chuan ran for a full three thousand meters before he could no longer feel the eerie tremors of the death worm moving through the sand.
"That damn heartless worm! It nearly ran me to death!"
Li Chuan found a withered tree, squatted in its shade, pulled out a large jug of purified water, and gulped it down.

"Huh? Is there someone over there?"
Li Chuan, in the middle of swallowing a filled sandwich, squinted at a sand dune not far away.
Appraisal effect triggered.
[Tan Qiang (Strong Brother Isn't Bald): Human]
[HP: 100/100]
[lv17, Archer with seven points of comprehensive combat power, weakness marked.]
"Another unlucky player."
Li Chuan was about to look away when he suddenly saw the yellow sand on one side of that player violently explode.
The player immediately drew his bow, preparing to counterattack, but the sand behind him also burst open with a bang.
Bang, bang, bang!
Six short, bizarre-looking humanoid monsters leaped out from the sand. They had skin the color of yellow sand and wielded various crudely made weapons.
The six little monsters were extremely agile and remarkably vicious, bludgeoning the player to death on the sand dune within just a few rounds.
Then came an uninhibited, hearty feast.
The player's abdomen was ripped open, and his bright red internal organs made those earthy-yellow monsters exceptionally excited.
[Dune Goblin: Blue]
[HP: 1500/1500]
[lv35, Desert scavenger. To them, there is nothing they won't eat except sand. Watch out for their camouflage, weakness marked!]

"Damn, the goblins in the desert are even more cruel than the ones in the forest!"
The level gap was massive, and their numbers were a bit too high. While feeling grateful that he hadn't headed toward that dune just moments ago, Li Chuan made a small detour and continued on his way.
Desert death worms, packs of man-eating goblins... this desert was truly fucking dangerous!
……
Giant Asylum — Desert Region.
"Kid! You should be thankful the two of you happened to cross paths. If it were just you alone, can you imagine the consequences?"
"One thousand gold coins each! Hand them over and I'll let you walk away!"

Across the endless expanse of yellow sand, four vicious players wielding sharp blades surrounded a man and a woman.
Supreme Fungus and Willow Slender Waist stood back-to-back, each raising their weapons in defense.
They had met not long ago. Willow had been injured, and Supreme Fungus had just healed her using a purchased HP recovery potion.
Thinking the two of them could travel together toward the oasis, they unexpectedly ran into highway robbers halfway.
"I don't have that many gold coins," Supreme Fungus said coldly.
Willow Slender Waist, who had barely survived, also shouted, "We spent all our gold coins buying potions, they're completely gone! Who are you people, and why are you robbing us?"

A hook-nosed man sneered.
"Who are we? What do you think? Just like you, we're poor wretches dragged here by some powerful freak!"
Willow frowned, "Since we're all in the same boat, why are you making things difficult for us?"
The leader with an elongated face broke into an evil smile.
"Talking crap is useless, everyone has their own way of surviving. If the two of you don't sell your equipment to scrape together some gold coins, we'll have no choice but to kill you!"
"That's right! Boss, just kill them both. This woman has plenty of meat and high body fat—we can even eat her after we're done playing with her, zero waste!"

Willow's eyes widened in horror.
"You! You actually eat people? Have you all lost your minds?"
"Cut the useless crap, it's not us who have lost our minds, it's this damn world!"
"Stop wasting time, if we don't teach them a lesson, they won't comply!"
"Do it!"

The four thugs were ruthless characters. Without a moment's hesitation, they grabbed their weapons and charged toward the pair.
Supreme Fungus narrowed his eyes, hardening his resolve, and said to Willow Slender Waist behind him, "The bastard on your left has the lowest level, we'll break through on his side."
Slash!
Before Supreme Fungus could even finish his sentence, a short blade suddenly pierced straight through his lower abdomen.
He looked at Willow behind him in absolute disbelief.
"You!"

Willow gritted her teeth, delivered a fierce kick to Supreme Fungus, and turned to run.
"We can't both die here, can we? Don't look at me like that! I'm a woman, I deserve to survive first."
Using some unknown skill, Willow Slender Waist deployed a long-range dash and broke out of the four thugs' encirclement in an instant.
"Damn it!"
Even as steady-tempered as Lin Shang, facing a betrayal from a former companion forced a curse out of his mouth.
He hurriedly swallowed a bottle of HP recovery potion, picked up his heavy shield, and braced himself against the incoming attacks of the four thugs.