[He was just being politely courteous!]

The 3145 server quickly made it to the server-wide announcements. As soon as the golden announcement appeared, all the servers immediately took notice of the player ID mentioned in the content, followed by the perfect completion of the trial.

Every birthplace has its own talent trials, and there are many guides for the Qi Ling Village talent trial on StarNet. Many skilled high-level players had solo-cleared the talent trial after leveling up, and the server-wide leaderboard had even included a speedrun ranking for the talent trial. Despite top players shortening the clear time to under 15 minutes, the Serpent Cave talent trial leaderboard had never seen a perfect score!

“Who is this Cycle of Eternity?”

“I don’t know, but a perfect score!?”

“This person isn’t on the speedrun leaderboard!”

When the shining announcement hit the entire server, a young man walking in the main city of the 3145 server slightly raised his head, first glancing at the achievement and special event mentioned in the announcement. Then, his gaze lingered on the ID that appeared in both announcements, and he muttered the name: “Cycle of Eternity?”

Players who noticed this announcement quickly rushed to check the leaderboard. Looking through the top 100 players in the server-wide completion leaderboard, they saw that Cycle of Eternity’s ID wasn’t anywhere to be found. Yet, this person still managed to achieve a perfect rating, which was truly baffling.

“Forget about the perfect score, what’s up with the Golden Serpent King going berserk?!”

The berserk Golden Serpent King was located on the 3145 server. What players didn’t expect was that the Golden Serpent King had a chain reaction with the Serpent Cave’s king, and the conditions to trigger the special event were quite unique. Not only did you need to complete the achievement, but you also had to be spotted by the Golden Serpent King. Who would’ve known that such a rare occurrence would happen?

Players who had camped for the Golden Serpent King knew that its appearance time was unpredictable. It was only recently that high-level players figured out its spawn window on StarNet. Otherwise, so many players wouldn’t have chosen to camp or clear the area to hunt the monster.

“Isn’t the 3145 server an edge server?”

“Damn it, I’m opening an alt account to check it out. A 60-minute limited-time special event!”

While players across all servers were discussing, the local players of the 3145 newbie server didn’t care what the players from other servers were saying. Their server’s regional channel was filled with people heading to the Serpent Cave, not just those planning to take revenge for the monster, but also others who were rushing in from different regions.

At this moment, at the entrance of the Serpent Cave, two well-coordinated teams watched as the Golden Serpent King, with only 20% of its health left, went berserk. The first to react was the team leader. He couldn’t care less about Cycle of Eternity or anything else and urgently shouted, “Damn, we triggered the hidden event! T, what are you doing? Hurry up and pull the Golden Serpent King back!” 

The Golden Serpent King had gone berserk, but its health still remained at the original 20%.

As long as the Golden Serpent King’s aggro is on them, they would have priority for the loot drop when the time comes!

The Golden Serpent King charged toward the Serpent Cave, where a figure stood at the entrance, unmoving.

The person was covered in snake blood, and the sickle hanging at his waist was still dripping with blood. At this moment, he raised his hand as if counting something.

[Congratulations, player, for completing [Qi Ling Village · Trial] with a perfect score, earning [Qi Ling Village · Trial Golden Chest] x1]  

[Congratulations, player, for achieving the [Not Letting a Single Serpent Escape] achievement, gaining the [Serpent · Fear] trait!]

Zhou Sui had just come out of the Serpent Cave and was still counting the items in his already full backpack. The system’s two items happened to fill the last two spaces in his bag. The golden chest looked like a quest reward, but the [Serpent · Fear] trait from the achievement left him somewhat confused.

[Serpent · Fear (Level 1): When equipped, attack power against snake-type monsters is increased! The higher the level of the snake monster you kill, the more you can refine the trait and possibly gain a higher level of bonus. Keep striving to become the Serpent King!]

“…”

Zhou Sui had just equipped the trait when his sharp hearing picked up a distant commotion, accompanied by a faint tremor in the ground, causing the rocks at his feet to jump. He raised his head and saw a red-tainted Golden Serpent King writhing its way toward him from about fifty meters away, followed by a dozen or so players armed with weapons.

He instinctively took a step back, realizing that the Serpent Cave was no longer accessible to players who had completed the trial. He couldn’t retreat any further.

“What are you still doing standing there!” A voice suddenly came from above, and a somewhat familiar player leapt down from a higher platform. “Bro, hurry and take the Golden Serpent King and run!”

Slack Bro hadn’t expected the solo player he briefly met earlier to be so impressive. Looking at how this player had caused an announcement across the entire server, he felt more anxious than the player himself. However, his hand hadn’t grabbed Cycle of Eternity yet, and the latter swiftly took a half-step back, dodging his touch.

Slack Bro quickly pulled some honey fruits from the bag on his back, squeezing them so hard that the fruits burst and threw a few in the direction of the Golden Serpent King. He watched as the Golden Serpent King slowed its pace. “Run with me! Those people want to kill you now!”

Zhou Sui followed the player ahead of him, noticing that the honey fruits seemed to hurt the Golden Serpent King. He could see that the Golden Serpent King was trying to dodge the fruit. Then it hit him: the first time he saw this person, they had been hiding in a tree with a bag of honey fruits, clearly waiting for something.

“Impressive, bro. I didn’t know you were this strong. One move and you’ve killed the whole Golden Serpent King’s family.”

Slack Bro quickly explained, “You killed its entire family, and now no tank can pull its aggro. Unless you die, no one else will be able to take the aggro from you.”

The Golden Serpent King was still following Zhou Sui, and none of the other players’ attacks seemed to attract its attention.

The elite squad trailing behind was practically furious. When they opened the Golden Serpent King’s aggro list, Zhou Sui’s ID was firmly locked in the top spot with 100% aggro value. Even after their two tanks had dulled their blades trying to pull the aggro back, they couldn’t manage it and could only watch helplessly as the Golden Serpent King, now with just 20% health remaining, kept running farther away.  

“Tell the boss to block him! We have to kill that player first!” The elite squad shouted while chasing and calling for reinforcements.  

The entire forest instantly became chaotic as players from all directions charged toward the Golden Serpent King.  

Slack Bro sent Cycle of Eternity a party request. After waiting a moment with no response, he called out urgently, “Bro, I can only help you if we’re in a party. Otherwise, what if I accidentally hit you?”  

“Don’t hesitate, man! I’m reliable — an experienced pro.”  

The request was accepted.  

Just as Slack Bro was about to say something, he saw the person running ahead of him suddenly leap up to a higher spot. He thought to himself, ‘Damn, this guy knows how to run!’

The forest in the Qi Ling Village area was filled with towering trees and rugged terrain, and plenty of players had gotten lost in its maze-like structure. But when Slack Bro saw Cycle of Eternity grab a rocky ledge with his bare hands and effortlessly climb up the steep mountainside in just a few swift moves, he slammed on the brakes to avoid embarrassingly crashing face-first into the wall.  

“Holy crap…”  

The person above turned back to glance at him. Slack Bro scrambled up the wall with both hands and feet, barely managing to keep up. “Don’t worry, bro! I’m good at climbing trees — I won’t drag you down!”  

As soon as he said this, the person ahead of him stopped waiting altogether, instantly widening the gap between them.  

Slack Bro: “…”

‘Come on, I was just being polite!’  

Cycle of Eternity’s pace never slowed. The steep mountain wall didn’t seem to pose much of a challenge for him. He climbed swiftly, using protruding rocks and sturdy plants for support. Occasionally, he drove the sickle hanging at his waist into the rock wall for leverage.  

He had deliberately chosen this steep hill because trying to lose the other players by running in circles would waste too much time. The massive Golden Serpent King was too big of a target — no matter how well Cycle of Eternity hid, the snake’s enormous body would inevitably act as a beacon for the chasing players.  

What he needed to do was make use of the time gap and create as much of an advantage for himself as possible.  

Before long, the players in pursuit arrived at the foot of the hill. When they looked up, they saw that their target had already climbed several meters high, leaving behind only a small, distant silhouette.

Slack Bro glanced down and saw the other players stuck below while the Golden Serpent King was already twisting its body to climb upward. Seeing this, he realized what Cycle of Eternity was trying to do.  

Slack Bro warned him, “They’re close enough to hit the Serpent King from here.”  

Cycle of Eternity, who hadn’t spoken for a while, replied, “Didn’t you say I have to die first?”  

Slack Bro froze for a moment — oh yeah!  

As long as Cycle of Eternity didn’t get hit by the other players, he’d be fine. The wild boss mechanics in Divine Tree followed typical MMORPG rules — only the party holding the aggro had loot distribution rights. That’s why those players were so determined to kill Cycle of Eternity, ensuring the aggro shifted to their team so they could secure the rewards.  

Below, some ranged players were already launching skills toward the high ground. However, their attacks couldn’t lock onto Cycle of Eternity, who had already climbed far above their effective range. Most of their area-of-effect skills ended up hitting the pursuing Golden Serpent King instead — not only did they fail to hit Cycle of Eternity, but they also shaved another 3% off the Serpent King’s health!  

The elite squad’s captain panicked. “Hit the player, not the boss!”  

Despite his shouting, not a single hit landed on Cycle of Eternity. Instead, a flurry of chaotic attacks brought the Golden Serpent King’s health down another chunk. Watching those colorful explosions of skills, the captain felt like bashing his head against the mountainside.  

“It’s no use, Captain! The boss is right under him — we can’t avoid hitting it!”  

The captain was furious. “If you can’t avoid it, then climb up there and deal with him directly!”  

The players pushed and shoved each other.  

“What are you standing around for? Start climbing!”  

“I didn’t learn the climbing skill. I spent all my points on other skills when leveling up — who has time to learn climbing…?”  

The Serpent King could climb, but for the players, scaling the rock face was another story altogether.  

This was a newbie server, and most of the pursuing players were still low-level with limited skill sets. Unless someone had invested in climbing or flying skills, this mountain alone was enough to stop most of them in their tracks.  

The area below the cliff turned into chaos, with most players trapped at the base. However, a few who knew how to climb had already started pursuing Cycle of Eternity.

Zhou Sui glanced back and noticed that the players behind him had stopped casting spells. His gaze shifted slightly downward to judge the height difference, estimating the effective range of their skills.  

Most spellcaster classes relied on ranged attacks with impressive reach.  

15 meters — as long as he maintained a 15-meter gap, no matter how far their attacks could reach, they wouldn’t be able to hit him.  

Zhou Sui immediately widened the distance.  

The flustered players scrambling behind him hadn’t expected the guy up top to be as agile as a monkey. Just as they started climbing, the person above had already pulled far ahead, leaving them with nothing but his fading silhouette.  

Forget about hitting him — even the boss was about to be dragged away!  

Slack Bro turned his head and saw players climbing up from below. Since he had started climbing earlier, he had already found a suitable foothold. With a few well-placed skills, he blocked the players attempting to climb up.  

“You wanna climb up? Didn’t you see there’s someone halfway up here?”  

“Damn, there’s a Sui Xing City swordsman up there too!”  

Hearing the commotion, Zhou Sui glanced down and took another look at his temporary teammate.  

Slack Bro looked up and grinned. “Don’t worry, man. I can’t climb as fast as you, but I know how to block people.”  

Players from Sui Xing City were typically around level 30 — long past the talent trial stage — and had unlocked additional talent skills via the Divine Tree point system.  

As a Sui Xing City player, Slack Bro naturally had the advantage of physical attack bonuses. Among the Sui Xing City’s three most popular specializations — the hard-hitting Warrior, the powerful ranged Archer, and the balanced Swordsman — he had chosen the latter.  

Swordsmen didn’t have the short attack range of Warriors or the long-range capabilities of Archers, but they excelled in balanced development.  

Right now, that balanced skill set was perfect for landing short-range attacks on the climbing players — and he was hitting them one after another with pinpoint accuracy.  

Most of the climbers were knocked back down, and a few barely managed to hold on. Desperate, some resorted to blindly flinging spells upward in hopes of hitting something.

At this moment, Zhou Sui shifted his position to the side, and the Golden Serpent King, which had been closely following him, slithered in the same direction. As a result, the skills that had been aimed at Slack Bro ended up hitting the climbing Golden Serpent King instead.  

The group of players: “…”  

They couldn’t hit the target above, and now everything was landing on the boss below.  

“There’s still time! The Golden Serpent King is about to catch up to him!” The elite squad’s captain was heartbroken watching the Golden Serpent King’s health drop. He forced himself to stay calm. “He can’t climb faster than the monster, and he doesn’t have a tank in front to block! Stay focused — this is our chance!”  

Zhou Sui suddenly lowered his head and gave a brief warning: “Watch out.”  

Slack Bro: “Huh?”  

Before he could react, the Golden Serpent King had already caught up to Zhou Sui.  

The massive snake’s body coiled awkwardly yet menacingly on the rocky wall. As soon as it got close, its tail whipped fiercely toward Zhou Sui. With barely any space to dodge on the cliffside, the players below were already anticipating Zhou Sui getting swatted down.  

However, just as the Golden Serpent King’s tail lashed out, Zhou Sui agilely grabbed a hanging vine above him, dodging the strike while losing only 10% of his health.  

The steep climb below was difficult, but the upper part of the cliff wasn’t entirely treacherous.  

The Golden Serpent King, having missed its first strike, swung its tail at Zhou Sui again. This time, Zhou Sui grabbed the falling vine and swung downward.  

The failed strike didn’t send Zhou Sui tumbling — instead, it shattered the cliffside, sending a cascade of rocks crashing down!  

Slack Bro: “Oh, crap!”  

‘Brother, you’re hitting your own teammate too!’  

The other players: “!!!”  

“Dodge! Get out of the way!”