Chapter 539: Chapter 529: Trees, Pigs, Groundhogs

So Rabbit went about things in a careful manner, “Let’s move quietly, three to a target, keep a ten meter distance, ranged attacks! Don’t get too close to avoid accidents! Kill one, then move on to the next, strike together, and don’t give them a chance to retreat back into their burrows.”

“Remember, we must break them one by one!”

Everyone took the order and then quietly moved in, maintaining a distance of ten meters, each taking their positions, waiting for Zun Shen’s command to strike at any moment.

Yinianjian couldn’t help but feel mischievous as he took out a crossbow arrow, aiming at the bottom of a Groundhog that was turning around, not sure what it was fiddling with.

Zun Shen raised an arm high and then forcefully waved it down, “Kill!”

Yinianjian was the first to pull the trigger, followed by others taking action. Crossbow arrows, longbows, spears, and various other ranged weapons were fired at the small black chubbies with glimmering mung bean-sized eyes who were staring blankly at the entrance of their burrows.

The crossbow arrow whistled through the air, and with a “pfft”, it struck right on the Groundhog’s bottom!

Yinianjian couldn’t help but burst into laughter in his heart…

But he couldn’t laugh anymore soon after because he saw a number rise from the Groundhog.

-HP0!

Yinianjian’s face turned pale!

His crossbow arrow failed to break through the defense, what did that imply? As a veteran player, how could he not know!

He was just about to say to stop attacking and be careful when everyone else’s attacks also landed on their targets at that moment.

Explosions and dull thuds filled the air incessantly.

Dust rose, but it did not obstruct anyone’s view; they could clearly see that those little black chubbies didn’t budge after being hit. Other than a layer of dust from the explosions, they were unscathed!

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

“Feels like a mosquito bite.” Groundhog A scratched his head, where a spear had just pricked, but immediately it was flicked away.

Groundhog B said, “Don’t talk nonsense. With our strength, what mosquito could bite us? I think there’s something fishy about this place!”

Everyone tensed up, not expecting this deficient-eyed Groundhog to be so sharp!

He noticed the problem in an instant!

Everyone gripped their weapons tightly, ready to fight for their lives, and then Groundhog A asked quietly, “What’s so fishy?”

Groundhog B replied, “My guess is that it was the Mosquito Demon that bit us!”

Groundhog A looked at Groundhog B with immense admiration, “Makes sense!”

Everyone: “…”

It was a false alarm, and everyone looked toward Zun Shen.

So many of them attacked collectively, and to their astonishment, each attack on these Groundhogs resulted in an identical -HP0!

The defense was unbreakable!

What did that mean?

“Hiss!” After Zun Shen took a sharp breath, he quietly gestured for everyone to be silent and make a quick retreat!

A moment ago, everyone had approached cautiously, not wanting to scare the Groundhogs away; now, with even greater caution, it was because they didn’t want the Groundhogs to detect their presence!

Quietly, everyone started to back away, but just then, a Groundhog shouted, “Can someone help me pull this out? It feels like I’ve been stuck with something!”

Then Groundhog A and Groundhog B approached, only to see a feather arrow sticking out of the complaining Groundhog C’s bottom!

Seeing this, Zun Shen and the rest were too scared to move, sweating profusely from their foreheads.

A feather arrow! Even a fool could tell it was an attack!

They prepared for a fierce battle.

Once again, everyone held their breath in Concentration, tightly gripping their weapons, ready to fight for their lives.

Then they saw Groundhog A walk over, staring at the arrow in his backside before saying, “Looks like an arrow to me!”

Everyone shuddered, again held their breath in Concentration, gripping their weapons, ready to fight to the death…

Then Groundhog B rolled his eyes at Groundhog A, “Don’t spout nonsense. That’s clearly a giant-sized mosquito bill. It tried to pull out instinctively because it couldn’t stand the taste of blood, but it got clipped in pain. The tug and the clip resulted in the Mosquito Demon’s bill being torn off, and the rest of him ran away.”

Groundhog A looked at Groundhog B as if he was a deity, “You have a point!”

Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief on the one hand, and on the other hand, they roared inside, “What kind of logic is that? That’s clearly nonsense!”

Groundhog A then said, “But according to you, that shouldn’t be a mosquito, right? Mosquitoes suck blood, they don’t eat shit. Flies eat shit, that’s right.”

Groundhog A slapped his thigh, “Makes sense… I get it!

This is indeed left by a fly, this is the stick a fly uses to stir before eating!”

“Pfft!” Finally, someone couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.

Groundhog A shot an angry glare back as everyone broke into a cold sweat, then Groundhog A pointed at them, his green bean eyes flashing fiercely, and shouted, “Shut up, no laughing! I’m serious! This is science, get it?”

Ever since they followed Rabbit, they had become very familiar with the word “science” and naturally picked it up.

However, Zun Shen and the others were totally baffled, as there was no such thing as science in their world; they preferred to refer to science as experience.

So they had no clue what this fat rat was talking about, but they did understand one thing: this guy really had poor eyesight, pointing right at them and still unable to see they were players, not groundhogs.

At this point, Groundhog C couldn’t take it anymore, “Are you done talking? If you’re done, then hurry up and pull it out!”

Groundhog A responded with an “oh” and grabbed the arrow to yank it out forcefully. With a “pfft,” Groundhog C, who had all four limbs on the ground and was sticking his butt out, felt the intense pain and threw back his head, howling like a little wolf cub at the moon, letting out a loud “Ahhh!”

Groundhog A panicked, Groundhog B scolded angrily, “Idiot! If you yank it out so violently, the wound will bleed nonstop!”

Groundhog A asked, “Then what should we do?”

Groundhog B said, “Stop the bleeding! Find something to plug it up, quick!”

Groundhog A looked around but saw nothing suitable. Groundhog B cursed, “Idiot, don’t you have something in your hand?”

Groundhog A had an epiphany, swung his arm, and reinserted the arrow into Groundhog C’s splendid chrysanthemum.

Just when Groundhog C had slightly recovered from the pain, another insertion made him throw back his head, howling again with a heart-wrenching “Aow!”

In a panic, Groundhog A pulled the arrow out again.

Groundhog C instinctively wanted to howl to the sky again, but then he realized he might get stabbed again if he screamed, so he quickly buried his head in the ground and emitted muffled cries of anguish…

Then, Groundhog A muttered to himself, “He seems to be enjoying it…”

And so, Groundhog A reinserted the arrow.

“Mmm!”

Groundhog B yanked the arrow out with a swipe, angrily saying, “Idiot, he’s in pain!”

“No! If it were pain, it would be ‘ahh,’ not ‘mmm!'” argued Groundhog A, inserting the arrow again.

Groundhog B pulled it out, “Wrong, he’s in pain, his body is even convulsing.”

Groundhog A put it back, “Wrong, pleasure can cause convulsions too! I won’t listen to you this time. If he’s not enjoying it, he can speak up. If he doesn’t say anything, that means he likes it.”

Everyone turned to look at Groundhog C on the ground, only to see that his eyes were starting to roll back. Could he still speak?

It was a miracle he wasn’t dead!

What followed was Groundhog B saying it hurt, pulling the arrow out, and Groundhog A claiming it was pleasurable, pushing it back in.

Back and forth a dozen times…

Groundhog C’s eyeballs were white; he was barely hanging on to life…

Pfft!

Someone couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

The moment he laughed, others who had been holding back could no longer keep it together and started snickering uncontrollably, their chuckles turning into strange gurgling sounds in their throats.

Groundhog A and Groundhog B stopped when they heard the noise and looked back, then they exchanged a glance. “Do we have pigs here?”

The next moment, Groundhog B had a rare moment of clarity: “There are no pigs here! Where did that pig come from? I’ve got it; these guys aren’t from our village–they’re damned Pig-Headed Demons!

We are under attack!”

In an instant, all the groundhogs, who had looked so innocent, now had violence glinting in their eyes, and without needing anyone to direct them, they pulled out one Carrot after another!

Upon hearing they had been mistaken for Pig Demons, Zun Shen and Yinianjian were furious, “Damn it, one second you’re calling us stumps and now you say we’re Pig-Headed Demons; have you guys had enough yet?”

But when they saw what those terrifying groundhogs were pulling out…

Almost simultaneously, both Yinianjian and Zun Shen tensed up and shouted, “Careful, dodge, run!”

The members of the Zun Shen Gang, who were well-trained, immediately took off upon hearing this, while keeping a vigilant eye on the groundhogs, attempting to predict their attack direction based on their gaze to avoid the onslaught in advance.

Then they saw the group of groundhogs staring blankly, not looking at them at all, their gazes scattered everywhere!

“Watch their movements!” Zun Shen advised.

Everyone then observed the groundhogs’ movements, only to find that their actions were equally erratic!

Some were throwing to the east, others to the west, some up into the air, and others directly smashed into their own dens…

In short, before those Carrots left the groundhogs’ hands, forget about predicting – even the groundhogs probably didn’t know where they were throwing them?!

For a moment, the members of the Zun Shen Gang cried out in unison, “How on earth do we dodge this?”

The response they got was a chaotic barrage of Carrots thrown without any pattern by the countless groundhogs surrounding them, the Carrots flew through the air like rain in a storm, completely scattered by strong winds!

However, at that moment, Yinianjian finally saw clearly what the groundhogs were throwing, and he breathed a sigh of relief, calling out, “Don’t be scared, it’s just Carrots! Even if these are their weapons, as long as we don’t get hit directly, just being struck a little should be okay…”

Before he could finish his sentence, a Carrot hit the ground and, with it, emitted a red glow. It cracked inch by inch and then, with a loud boom, exploded!

A massive Carrot Cloud rose from the ground!

The terrifying flames swept all around, and the players who were near the Explosion immediately shattered…

As they died, their minds harbored only one question: “What happened to ‘it’s going to be okay’? Is this your idea of ‘okay’?”

After the first Carrot Explosion, the others burst in succession, and for a time, the entire prairie outside the West City Gate, the Groundhog Area, was covered in Carrot Clouds…