Chapter 923 - Stolen Boss

The huge explosion was a result of an Engineered Explosive. Someone had planted it underground in advance.

When he saw that someone was trying to steal the giant golden egg, Li Yi activated his Rocket Propellant and rushed forth just in time to see the egg-stealing player stab a dagger into a white spot on the giant egg’s surface!

The giant golden egg’s shell was especially hard, and even a peak-tiered Forbidden Curse could not deal any damage to the giant egg. The egg’s only weak point was a white spot about the size of a fingernail on the bottom of the egg.

One just had to press one’s weapon into that white spot gently, and the Winged Ruler Moonlight’s life would end, permanently.

So even now, someone else knew about the Winged Ruler’s weakness?

Before Li Yi could get a good look at the player’s face, there were a few more loud explosions. It was a chain of explosives, the impact sending sand and stones flying into the sky, obstructing Li Yi’s vision.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The Engineered Explosives buried underground detonated all at once, covering an area of 200 yards. There were plumes of thick smoke, and the players who were crawling this one could not stop coughing.

Engineered Explosives barely dealt any damage to players. All they could do was kick up a thick smoke as a smokescreen.

Li Yi flew up and away from the smoke, clearing his line of vision. He drew his Orange Quality Bow and shot a True Overlord Arrow straight down.

A phoenix of flames flew out from his bow, and the thick smoke beneath him immediately dissipated.

There was a deep crater in the ground and nothing else.

The giant golden egg was gone, and the Thief player was nowhere to be seen either!

Li Yi could vaguely see two sparkling lights on the ground. Something occurred to him, and he flew straight down, picking them up quickly.

“Swish!”

The World Channel began to flash with rainbow-colored notifications.

[Player ... has achieved the first kill of the World Boss, the Winged Ruler Moonlight, attaining a system reward of 100,000 Gold Coins! System reward 50000 points Reputation Value with major cities obtained! System reward 3000000EXP obtained! System reward 20 Skill Points obtained! Granted the title of ‘The Winged Ones’ Natural Enemy’.]

“F*ck!”

When he saw the notification, Li Yi could not help but swear.

Ever since he started over, he had been the one stealing first kills from others, but no one had ever stolen his first kill before. Moonlight was already dead anyway, and all that was left was that final step. But someone else got there first...

Looking at the notifications, Li Yi felt extremely frustrated.

The World Channel exploded again, and tens of thousands of players swore viciously at Li Yi. They all thought that Li Yi had stolen their first kill again...

Li Yi read the messages on the World Channel and was so angry he nearly laughed. This was his first time encountering something this infuriating.

A Thief, huh? Which Thief could have planted explosives beforehand and found out about Moonlight’s weakness?

Li Yi lowered his head as he mused it over, but even after a good long while, he still had no idea who the Boss Thief could be.

“Congrats, Old Wing. That’s another first kill to your name.”

“Congratulations, brother. You truly are the number one bad*ss.”

“I knew it, I knew you would get the first kill. Oh yeah, what equipment did the boss drop...?”

“That was crazy cool! I can’t believe you soloed the Winged Ruler. You’re my idol, bro...”

“Dark Wing is the strongest, the ultimate, the best!”

“Lil Yi’zi, what equipment did you get? C’mon, show it to me.”

Li Yi’s friends sent him congratulatory messages, but they only added to Li Yi’s temper...

“I didn’t get the first kill, and I don’t know who did.”

Li Yi sent them all the same message and turned off the transmitter.

He always an adrenaline rush from stealing others’ bosses, but now that he had gotten his boss stolen, he knew just how incredibly annoying it felt.

After all, that was how he was feeling right now. He had never expected something like this to happen.

“A Thief...”

“Whoosh—”

Before the army of players could reach him, Li Yi flew away with Teleport.

If he stayed there, there was no way he could deny his ‘accomplishment’ of the first kill.

At Li Yi’s house in Starting Point City.

Li Yi spun a golden feather around his fingers.

This was Moonlight’s Feather, a Special Material that the Winged Ruler would definitely drop upon death. The Thief who had stolen away his first kill had taken away the equipment Moonlight dropped, but they had not taken the two Moonlight’s Feathers. That served to comfort Li Yi, at least a little. After he played with them for a moment, Li Yi put his hands together and used his Apothecary to turn Moonlight’s Feathers into medicine powder.

There was only a pinch of the powdered feather, amounting to less than half a gram.

Li Yi then took out the other materials and mixed them with the powdered feather. His hands glowed red, and he began to synthesize God’s Gift.

God’s Gift was a Grade One god-tiered potion. Once it was used, it restored 20% of a player’s health and 20% of their mana. Compared to normal potions, God’s Gift did not have a potion cooldown, and just as importantly, God’s Gift had the special ability to heal damage dealt by Divine Spells.

When one was struck by a Divine Spell, one’s max HP limit would decrease, and normal potions would not be able to recover a player’s max HP limit. Only god-tiered potions could do that.

Without god-tiered potions, players could only wait for their HP to recover slowly, but that process took a very long time. Depending on the severity of the injury, it could take anywhere from one to ten days.

There was a flash of red light, and a golden crystal appeared in Li Yi’s hand.

[Congratulations, you have successfully refined a God’s Gift.]

[Your Apothecary Mastery has increased by 1 point.]

[Your Apothecary Mastery has leveled up!]

[Congratulation, you have obtained the title of Godly Apothecarist!]

[This feat has been recorded within the Pantheon Hall of Fame! Obtained +2 Hall of Fame Points as a reward.]

[Your INT has increased by 25 points. The healing effects of beneficial potions are doubled.]

[Your Life Blood Skill has been upgraded to Life Light. Upon usage, this will recover your HP by 50% once, while also increasing your ATK SPD by 20%, your movement SPD by 20%, and doubling healing effects. The effects last for 60 seconds, and you may use it once every ten minutes.]

Successfully creating a God’s Gift finally gave Li Yi’s Apothecary Mastery the last boost he needed.

In the past life, no one had ever achieved the title of Godly Apothecarist. In this life, Li Yi managed to reach such a height in merely six years.

“Phew...”

Li Yi felt slightly better now.

Putting aside the completed God’s Gift, Li Yi continued to make another.

His hands glowed with red light, and there was a nasty bubbling sound...

Li Yi held his hands open and saw that the materials had all turned to ash.

His second attempt had failed!

Each refinery attempt cost more than ten thousand Gold Coins in materials. Although Li Yi did not lack money right now, he was not as wealthy as Brother Windcloud Nine, after all. Besides, while the other materials were easy to obtain, the same could not be said of Moonlight’s Feather. The boss only spawned once every fortnight, and it only ever dropped two feathers each time. Even if he could kill it every time, how many refinery attempts did that make?

“By Jiaojiao’s blessing, this has to work.”

Li Yi murmured to himself for a long while before he finally picked up the materials and continued...

...

“Bang!”

At nine in the night, just as Li Yi was making God’s Gift, someone kicked open his door forcefully.

Jiaojiao had her hands on her hips, striding in with her long legs and a pout on her face.

Jiaojiao walked up to Li Yi’s back and hugged him from behind. “Lil Yi’zi, were you really not the one who killed the Moonlight boss?”

“Nope.”

“But how can that be?”

Li Yi was exasperated. “I killed Moonlight, but then someone else stole my boss.”

“Hahahahahaha...”

Jiaojiao suddenly burst into laughter, and there were even tears in her eyes. She clapped Li Yi’s back as she laughed, such that he could not even focus on his apothecary anymore.

“Stop it, I’m almost done refining.”

“Oh my my, it’s just so rare for you to get your boss stolen. Tsk-tsk-tsk, hey, why do you think this makes me so happy?”

“Because you need a good f*cking.”

“Scram!”

Jiaojiao was about to hit him, but since Li Yi was so focused on his Apothecary, she thought it over and lowered her hand.

“I’m here for business. Serious business.”

“Spill.”

“Tomorrow, an overseas friend of mine is coming by to visit me. I want you to come with me.”

“An overseas friend? Who? A guy or a girl?”

“A guy.”

Li Yi took off his headset immediately and turned around to look at Jiaojiao.

“Hahahahaha...” Jiaojiao began to laugh again.

“Whatchu laughing at?!”

“Nah, it’s just nice to see that you care quite a bit about me.” Jiaojiap wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

“What kind of a friend is he?”

“You’ll know when you come with me tomorrow, won’t you?”

Li Yi harrumphed coldly. “You’re acting all mysterious. It’s suspicious.”

“It’s a promise. You’re coming with me tomorrow, ‘kay?”

Jiaojiao stood up and walked to the door.

“Sure. Oh yeah, call Qian’er over. I need her for something.”

Jiaojiao glared at him and made a face at him at the door. “Fine.”

“Bang!”

The door was slammed shut.

Li Yi put on his headset and entered the game, continuing with his apothecary.

He had used up both Moonlight’s Feathers with a fifty-fifty success rate. As of now, he had completed 20 pieces of the item.

Li Yi’s hands glowed red, and there was a crackling, bubbling sound. He had failed again.

“Bloop bloop—”

“Bloop bloop—”

Perhaps it was due to Jiaojiao’s interruption, but for some reason, Li Yi tried ten consecutive times and used up what was left of Moonlight’s Feathers without succeeding even once. It was just failure after failure.

“That d*mned little chili!” Li Yi swore angrily.

On the Guild Channel, Jiaojiao gave him a cunning emoji and followed up with, “Hey, Lil Yi’zi, check your DMs.”

Jiaojiao had logged on as well.

Li Yi messaged her, “What’s up?”

“I’ve done what you asked me to.”

“What did I ask you to do?”

“You asked me to tell Qian’er to go to your room, duh.”

“For real?”

“Of course. Oh, and Qian’er said she would go after twelve. Also, don’t keep the light on[1]. It’s her first time, so she’ll feel shy.”

Li Yi was slightly confused. “...For real?”

Although Jiaojiao was never jealous of his interactions with women, she had never explicitly helped him to score with them before.

“Alright, I’ll keep my door unlocked.”

“That’s a promise. Remember, come meet my friend with me tomorrow.”

“Got it. Oh yeah, do you wanna join us too?”

“Scram!”

Li Yi used all twenty God’s Gifts to ‘heal’ the Evil God in the scroll, successfully increasing the scroll’s completion rate to 80%.

He had failed five times, but every attempt after that worked. However, the scroll did not grant any benefits after this upgrade either.

Li Yi logged off, turned off the lights, and got into bed.

It was now 12 midnight!

“Creak~”

Someone pulled open Li Yi’s door slowly, and a lithe figure snuck in quietly.

...

[1] The original text was “you do keep the light on”, but this does not seem to fit the context