Chapter 1096: Ghost Parade
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Seeing the announcement, everyone naturally clicked on it to check the details and see just how much of a party it would be for it to be called a carnival.
But when they clicked on the page for this carnival, all they saw was a sinister ghost eerily staring back at them. The sound coming from their headphones was also the sound of evil winds. The less courageous players nearly had their hearts leap out of their throats. It was the scorching summer, but what arose from their hearts was a cold chill.
Summer Carnival: Ghost Parade
Scarlet-red words jumped out at them. At this moment, how could any of the players still felt like this was going to be a party? This event was clearly horror-themed.
Looking at the details, the event itself was actually quite simple. It was catching ghosts. It was a different approach to last last year's Christmas event of catching Christmas thieves, but the end result was the same. However, the event rules this time were more detailed and complicated. After all, it didn't coincide with a holiday.
The Ghost Parade would last one week. The system would release a certain amount of ghosts every day. The players just needed to find and kill these ghosts. The ghosts themselves gave experience, gold, materials, equipment, and so on. As for the more high-end rewards, those would be given out the same as always: through the leaderboard.
The leaderboard wasn't as simple as the number of ghosts killed because the ghosts released could grow. As these ghosts killed players, they would grow stronger. Stronger ghosts gave more points. The total points obtained was how the leaderboard calculated rankings.
In the normal servers, there was a clear separation between level ranges. The Heavenly Domain was much simpler since everyone was Level 75. Apart from the points leaderboard, there were other titles that gave out rewards. It was similar to dungeon first clears; only the first player to accomplish the feat was entitled to a reward.
Experienced players understood enough of it with just a few glances. Glory events tended not to be too complicated. Their main feature was competition. Only rewards obtained through competing against others gave the most beautiful rewards. As for the rewards from killing ghosts, those could just be considered as participatory rewards.
Normal players didn't have any hopes of making it to the top of the leaderboard, as per convention, Glory gave out final rewards depending on the player's position on the leaderboard. No matter what ranking you got, there would be an equivalent reward for you, so no matter what, everyone would be trying their hardest. Moving up a few ranks on the leaderboards meant better rewards.
The Ghost Parade would start on 7/7, the second Monday of July. After the update, when the players logged on, the Glory world became similar to the event page, dark and murky. Dense black fog covered the sky. Not a single ray of light shone, yet there was no rain either. The entire world sunk into a fog of gray.
There were no demons yet. The first wave would appear at 7 PM. In the next few days, the other waves would also come out at 7 PM.
In this dark world, the players did their usual work as they waited for 7 PM to come.
At 7 PM, the sound of a bell toll suddenly rang throughout the entire Glory world. No matter what corner of the world you were in, even inside a dungeon, the bell toll resounded in everyone's ears. The bell tolled seven times and the system released five huge scarlet words: Ghost Parade.
"AH!!!!" In a main city somewhere, an ear-piercing scream echoed. A female Blade Master leaped back four times, but still failed to break away from the pursuit of a bunch of round wooden barrels. These wooden barrels had originally just been very ordinary decorations on the streets. The players walked past them everyday. No one really paid any attention to them. At most, a bored player might step on it and jump around.
But when the announcement of the Ghost Parade came out, these wooden barrels seemed to have come alive.
That female Blade Master originally had her back to the wooden barrels on the lookout for these hundred ghosts to appear. How could she have known that there would be movement behind her? When she turned around, she saw these wooden barrels come to life, bending and twisting. A few of the lids on the buckets shook. It was as if these barrels were trying to swallow her.
The female player cried out in fear and hastily retreated. By the time the surrounding players noticed the commotion going on here, they saw a bunch of wooden barrels chasing after that female player. The female player wasn't able to escape. Her Blade Master was instantly swallowed up by the barrels. Then, the barrels dispersed. A beauty had passed away. Only a belt was left. Equipment actually dropped!
The players were shocked!
This barrel ghost killed someone in an instant. These ghosts weren't as simple as people had thought.
Without a clear grasp of the situation, the surrounding players didn't dare rashly advance. However, the wooden barrels took the initiative. The ghost chose another player on the streets and charged over. There were barrels rolling on the ground and barrels jumping into the air. One of the barrels had even leaped several meters into the air, crashing down like the fall of Mt. Tai.
"What's going on!!" The targeted player cried out and wanted to escape too, but these barrels had surrounded him, trapping him in the center. Following afterwards, the barrels converged and the player died.
The players on the street were struck dumb. They had been waiting for the ghosts to spawn, waiting to fight for every second, but then a bunch of dirty wooden barrels popped up and killed two people in just this short amount of time.
"It looks pretty strong. Ah?" A player said to his friend next to him, but he didn't hear a reply. When he turned his head, his friend, who had clearly been by his side just before, had disappeared wordlessly.
"Water Mountain?" The player called out. No reply came. There was no sign of his friend anywhere either. Just when he was about to pull up his friends list and message him, he suddenly heard something rattling from behind him. He turned around to look and saw the willow tree next to him reaching out with its tentacle-like branches to catch him. At this moment, the player saw a silver badge hanging on one of the tree branches. It was his friend's equipment.
The player instantly realized what had happened, but there was no time for him to scream. The willow branches climbed onto his shoulders and strangled him. His screen turned black. He couldn't see anything.
Health…...
The only thing that this player could see was his health falling rapidly. This type of damage was enough to put this willow tree ghost at the level of a dungeon boss! Was this an opponent a player could solo? Dungeons were always played with a team.
The player fell into despair. He was ready to meet up with his friend. Suddenly, he heard several snaps. He could suddenly see again. Countless sword light linked together, cutting the willow tree ghost's branches into bits and pieces.
The player couldn't bother with thinking too much. He immediately struggled free and jumped back. Then, he saw that player also jump back. Those were clearly a Blade Master's slashes, but then a fireball suddenly shot out from his fingers.
Fireball?
The player stared foolishly. Even if this was a low-leveled Elementalist skill, it shouldn't be coming out from a Blade Master's hands!
However, in the next moment, when he saw that person's ID, he immediately understood. Lord Grim.
Lord Grim!
God Ye Xiu's unspecialized - Lord Grim!
The player was stunned. This character hadn't been around for very long, but he had already turned into a legend in the game. The player had heard from his friends from the tenth server about how Lord Grim had dyed the tenth server red with blood. When he arrived at the Heavenly Domain at Level 55, he was chased by Level 70 players, who were even top experts of the big guilds.
Then, Lord Grim's identity was revealed. Lord Grim was God Ye Qiu. And from this moment on, Lord Grim's life became more difficult whenever anyone met him.
Every famous character in the game had experienced this sort of vexation. Whenever famous characters logged on, the luckier ones would just be surrounded non-stop. The unluckier ones would be chased and killed. But for this type of large-scale event, these characters couldn't miss it because the drop rate of all sorts of items would increase in this event. And among these items, there was one kind that was bound to a character and couldn't be traded. Only the character who picked it up could use it, so no pro character would dare ignore it.
Skill books!
Even the most end-game content, wild bosses, very rarely dropped them. Finding a skill book from a random monster required heavenly luck. If not, these pro characters would have maxed out their stats even if they died. They wouldn't be missing 100, 200 skill points back when they were Level 70.
The skill book drop rate was greatly increased like everything else, so pro characters naturally hoped to seize this opportunity. As a result, whenever a large-scale event came out, it wasn't difficult to find pro characters. However, these pro characters wouldn't be wearing their Silver equipment. If players killed them and their equipment dropped, it would be gigantic headache. Pro characters would just pick some random Purple or Orange characters to wear.
Lord Grim could obviously switch equipment too. It was just that his equipment had always just been in-game level equipment. His Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was a Silver equipment though. However, this weapon couldn't be switched, so Lord Grim would definitely be able to show his full strength.
Fireballs shot out in rapid succession. The flames gradually spread until it covered the entire willow tree. The willow tree branches kept on twitching as if it were struggling. As the flames rose into the sky, it burned. Finally, it stopped moving. Lord Grim went back, raised his arms, and his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella transformed into a spear. With a Circle Swing, the willow tree was knocked into the air and then broke up into burnt chips. It had been thoroughly killed.
"How strange. That didn't count as a first kill?"
The players on the streets were still screaming because of the various objects that had turned into ghosts. On the other hand, the God was wondering why he hadn't gotten the first kill. This was the difference between them...