He Yucheng stretched his limbs and calmly glanced at the crowd of nearly a hundred people outside the safe zone boundary. About half weren't max level, but all were at least level 40. They must be really bored to take on such a tedious task.

"My lord husband, can you really... get out?" Lengjiang asked worriedly. Even as a beta tester, He Yucheng was just a level 1 newbie account. His gear and skills were far behind. No matter how good his reflexes, would it matter?

He wouldn't be one-shot by a single skill—unless everyone hit him at once. But their sheer number of skills gave a huge advantage, especially Displacement Skills!

How many Displacement Skills existed in this game? He Yucheng casually counted about ten. And him? Mirror Image combined with Charged Thrust was one. Dodge was another. That's it... that's all!

Gear disadvantage. Numbers disadvantage. Skill count disadvantage. Level disadvantage.

All these piled on He Yucheng. Anyone else would've logged off by now. Who'd dare leave the safe zone?

But He Yucheng didn't care. He'd chosen a god-tier skill—Mirror Image. To others, it was useless. To him, it was a perfect decoy.

"Wife, relax," He Yucheng said with a confident smile. "Just heal me a bit? I can't guarantee those lunatics won't hit me with random AOE skills. But I promise they won't kill me right away."

Lengjiang doubted him. She was a veteran player who knew the game inside out—otherwise, how could she be the "number one healing-type Curser"? Yet even she'd admit defeat in this hopeless situation.

"My lord husband, why don't... we just give up? {>~<}" Lengjiang clutched his sleeve, worried. She saw no way out. Persisting was suicide. She didn't want to see him suffer.

He Yucheng's smile widened. He patted her head. "Relax. Just buff me and heal me. This game's all about skill. With you here, I can do anything!"

He had zero doubt about Lengjiang's skills. Being the server's top healer couldn't be from popularity—in a fair-item game, fancy costumes didn't build rep. Skill mattered. Her support was top-tier!

"Alright, let's start. They're getting ready too," He Yucheng said finally. Lengjiang met his determined gaze, sighed, and reluctantly released his sleeve.

The crowd outside saw He Yucheng move and crowded closer to the safe zone. Chat spam insulted him, but he ignored it completely.

He Yucheng closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them.

Lengjiang dashed out first. Her long pink-and-white kimono fluttered in the wind. Pink petals danced behind her, creating a breathtaking scene against the primeval forest.

"Wow—" the hundred outside gasped. The wedding ring "Eternal Gospel of the Matching Rings: Flower Demon Manjusaka" caused petal effects on movement or skill use. This was the precious server-wide limited ring!

But while players stared at Lengjiang, He Yucheng sprang into action!

He charged in the opposite direction, circling around the group. Before anyone reacted, he threw a shower of pink petals toward Lengjiang's position—this was Mirror Image with modified effects!

Mirror Image flew toward its target until max range, then stopped as a shadow. During flight, Charged Thrust couldn't swap positions. But He Yucheng could press the skill key again to stop it instantly and turn it into a shadow, then use Charged Thrust to swap.

The changed effects drew eyes back to Lengjiang. When the petal shower flew toward her, the crowd froze, then turned their heads.

But the safe zone held no trace of He Yucheng.

Someone shouted, "He Yucheng's over there!"

Everyone looked. He Yucheng, boosted by Sprint and Lengjiang's speed buff, had already dashed far away.

Even so, he'd only used one Sprint. Didn't they have Cursers with speed buffs here?

"Kill him! Chase him!" someone yelled. Blades flashed outside the safe zone. Nearly a hundred glowed with multicolored lights, charging toward He Yucheng—a spectacular sight!

Countless magic beams and sword auras bombarded him like a storm. The effect rivaled a nuclear explosion—nearly a hundred players firing ranged skills at one spot!

By now, He Yucheng's shadow had reached max range and stopped. But he didn't immediately use Charged Thrust to swap. The cooldown was long. Wasting skills meant no way to dodge the colorful barrage.

He Yucheng sensed danger and glanced back. Seeing the blinding light close by, he gulped.

One hit would kill him.

Numbers showed their advantage. Luckily, players thought He Yucheng was a newbie. None predicted his moves—all skills aimed exactly where he stood.

His plan was to use Mirror Image first. Not following Lengjiang immediately hid that he'd chosen this "useless" skill.

Lengjiang stopped beside his shadow, worriedly watching He Yucheng chased by light bullets in the opposite direction. She broke a sweat for him.

"Newbie!" Someone halted, sneering at near-dead He Yucheng.

He Yucheng wore a faint smile, unfazed by the hail of bullets and sword auras.

He suddenly jumped into the air. While airborne, he used Dodge to charge straight into the bullet rain!

"!" Lengjiang stared blankly, stunned.

This was pure suicide!

The group laughed. How could there be such a fool? Did he think this was dodgeball? A bullet hell game? I've seen death rushes, but not such stupidity!

He Yucheng didn't care what they thought—they were right!

He treated this like dodgeball! Like a bullet hell game!

He used an upward dash to leap high, dodging ground-skimming sword auras. Then he sidestepped a beam blast!

But this was just the beginning. His Dodge was on cooldown. Airborne, he could only drift slightly downward. Death seemed inevitable against the flawless bullet curtain.

He Yucheng watched the light storm. He used the first part of Normal Attack to hover briefly—luckily, no bullets passed that spot!

He controlled his descent, shifting slightly right. Another Normal Attack hover perfectly dodged four circling sword auras!

A hair's deviation would've hit him. But he exploited the skill gap.

After dodging those intense attacks, scattered light bullets rained down like droplets. He didn't hover this time—these tiny skills were too dense to dodge.

Before landing, bullets struck him. His HP halved instantly. One more hit meant death.

But after landing, his Dodge cooldown reset. He dodged left, weaving through the dizzying rain.

Dodge cooldown: 2 seconds...

He alternated Sprinting and walking; advanced, retreated, shifted left and right. These subtle moves dodged hundreds of bullets—not one hit him again.

His third Dodge activated. He flashed out of the bullet rain's range!

The crowd gaped. Who could survive hundreds of bullets fired at once?

In this game's multiplayer battles, even top ten players wouldn't claim they could dodge such a storm with minimal moves and live.

But He Yucheng did it!

Level 1! Only one Displacement Skill—Dodge! No Invincibility used! He survived purely on movement and hovering!

The hundred would-be killers froze.

Expert! A master among experts!

That was their first impression of He Yucheng flashing out of the light curtain.

The crowd was stunned. He Yucheng wasn't—he was in the thick of it, being chased. No time to show off.

If he didn't run now, a second bullet wave would come.

He still didn't run toward Lengjiang. He wanted to draw their attention.

Watching him flee, the players exchanged glances, battle spirit gone. Someone shouted, "He's only level 1! What's to fear? We have numbers!" They snapped out of it—no matter his skill, level 1 with no skills couldn't beat them all.

"Kill him!!!!!!!" Nearly a hundred roared, shaking the sky. Countless light curtains flew toward He Yucheng again.

He Yucheng panned his view toward Lengjiang's position. But he saw only multicolored lights—no pursuers, let alone distant Lengjiang and the shadow.

"About time." His goal was to lure them far, then time Charged Thrust to swap with the shadow at its max duration.

The distance was great enough that few would notice He Yucheg had chosen the "Mirror Image" skill. To those watching him vanish into the rain of light screens, it likely appeared he’d died and respawned back in town—exactly as he’d intended.

After all, spotting one person amid this screen-filling spectacle of effects was nearly impossible.

…

…

"Emma, where’s my shadow?!" He Yucheg muttered to himself. The visual effects were so overwhelming he couldn’t even locate his own shadow for a moment.

"Uh-oh… we’re doomed." He’d dodged the first barrage of projectiles only because their aim had been careless. This time, they’d learned their lesson—the rain of light screens wouldn’t be so easy to evade.

"Ah! There you are. Scared me half to—" Only when the cursor shifted dead center on his screen did he finally exhale. He instantly activated "Charged Thrust" to swap positions with his shadow.

The moment He Yucheg reappeared beside his original shadow, he spotted Lengjiang staring blankly at the light screens, completely oblivious to his real body now standing right beside her.

Unable to resist her dazed, adorable expression, He Yucheg snorted with laughter. He grabbed Lengjiang’s hand and spun her around to flee.

"Eh?" Lengjiang yelped in surprise as her hand was yanked.

"Silly girl, spacing out again? Keep that up and we’re finished! Heal up already!" He Yucheg chuckled, utterly devoid of post-near-death relief, teasing her instead.

"Ah! O-okay~ (^_−)☆"

"Just a bit further ahead are the quest monsters. I’ll solo them—they’ll drop in a few hits. Babe, go weaken the mobs at the next quest point for me. I’ll finish them off right after~ Those guys are catching up fast—run!"

"(<ゝω・)☆ Mhm! My husband’s super amazing! So cool! My husband’s the best!"

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[System Announcement: Nightingale, Rank #1 on the Server-Wide Red Name List, is now online. Current Red Name Value: 4399. Location: Radiant Imperial City (147,166)]

[System Announcement: Nightingale has used a Full Bounty Scroll reward to accept the commission: Eliminate He Yucheg]

[World Chat:]

XXXX1: Whoa?! Queen Nightingale’s online at this hour?!

XXXX2: Tch. Only the Queen could stroll into the capital freely like this—even with NPCs blocking Red Names.

XXXX3: Rest in peace, He Yucheg~

.

.

Deep in the primeval forest, He Yucheg naturally saw the chat alerts too. But after being hunted by so many already, what was one more?

Lengjiang, however, wore a strange expression after reading the announcement.

"What’s wrong, babe?" He Yucheg noticed her shift.

"!!!∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ I-It’s just… Gomen, gomen! QAQ I-I have to hide for a bit… If she sees me… *sob* (ノдヽ)"

"Huh?" He Yucheg eyed Lengjiang’s flustered panic. *Must be another big shot showing up…*