Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 748: Chapter 708: The Terrifying Truth

The struggle surrounding the [Lover Contract] being online and offline affected a large number of people.

Even single users participated in large numbers, jointly voicing their opinions.

However, there were still many players who were fully focused on playing the game and oblivious to external affairs, such as Ivan Ivanov.

He hadn’t paid attention to the matter from the beginning to the end.

That’s because his battle with the invisible hunter had reached a crucial moment.

Getting to this point, he had already made too much effort, looking back at the experiences of this whole day, it was unbearable to recall.

The event task of “Hunter: Call of the Wilderness” was released at 8 o’clock in the morning Daxia time.

This time seemed quite ordinary for Daxia players, it was just a bit unconventional to have it on Monday instead of Saturday.

But for Ivan Ivanov, it was fucking 3 o’clock in the morning!

He had to get up at 2:30 AM, quickly take care of washing up and having breakfast, just to catch up with the live broadcast at this time.

What annoyed him the most was not getting up so early.

It was the fact that getting up so early brought few additional viewers to his live broadcast room.

Because there were plenty of anchors who didn’t sleep at all…

Before he started the broadcast, he took a glance, not to mention ordinary small anchors, even famous big anchors were fighting tirelessly on Dinosaur Island or the Extraordinary Battlefield.

Getting up at 3 AM did not bring him more viewers, but not getting up at 3 AM would certainly lose him some viewers.

It was so competitive!

The staff of the hunting field mentioned in the Metropolitan News finally appeared, right at the initial lake area login point.

In that originally empty log cabin, there was now a rough, big-bearded beer-bellied man, from whom players could receive a bounty hunting task—

[Cross-Border Pursuit]

A mysterious hunter has invaded the hunting grounds, and many outstanding hunters have been killed.

Find him, arrest him, or… eliminate him!

[Mission Rewards]

[1]: Hunting Hound

A well-trained, loyal and reliable hunting hound will be an indispensable companion on your hunting journey.

After completing the pursuit, you may adopt one of the seven hunting dogs raised in the hunting field.

[2]: Hunter Medal

This medal can prove that you have survived, even won, a terrible hunt like never before!

(The Hunter Medal comes with a serial number, and the 001-003 winners will have an exclusive title.)

——

As soon as Ivan saw these two rewards, he was tempted.

These were proper hunting dogs!

Not like Milkshake, a mascot who only acts cute and guards the house, rubbing against your leg asking for hugs, but a tough character that can really assist hunters in hunting and dares to pounce on and bite a several hundred-pound brown bear!

As for that commemorative medal, considering the [First Generation Player Commemorative Badge], it might not be a simple decoration.

Even if it’s just a decoration, just with that [001] number, he could brag for years!

Ivan Ivanov was determined to get it!

The hunting ground also provided him with two essential supplies: one was the [Trait Paint Bullet], and the other was the [Life Form Analyzer].

The former could be loaded into ordinary hunting rifles for normal activation, even mixed with normal bullets. Once it hits the target, it would explode into a layer of green paint that could not be washed off.

This green paint was even fluorescent, allowing players to fight normally at night.

The latter could detect the lifeforms within a 15-meter radius of the user to help players find the hidden killer.

However, the [Life Form Analyzer] had to be manually activated and had a usage cooldown, making it very demanding in terms of timing.

As soon as Ivan Ivanov got hold of it, he immediately thought of the correct way to use it:

Form an 8-person squad, advance as a group, and take turns using the [Life Form Analyzer]. As long as the order is maintained, detection could be basically continuous throughout the process.

—This was indeed the practice of many small teams, even if they couldn’t achieve perfect relay, they could still cover more than 70% of the time.

This would greatly reduce the probability of them being taken by surprise and killed.

Since last night’s update, countless players had been killed by the hidden killer. The most unlucky ones had been sneak attacked and killed more than a dozen times in a row!

So even before the task and supplies arrived, the players began to form groups.

It was a very reasonable strategy, after all, eight people could set traps much faster than one person alone.

The Annan players were a good example.

The traps they made were quite large in scale – the kind where they directly dug holes in the ground.

Moreover, an Annan anchor with the ID “Ruan Qingrong” specifically went to the War Relic Museum to study the traps used by their fathers during the war era.

For example, if you fall into a pit, four steel bars covered with mud would pierce your legs, and you would have to be transported to the hospital with the steel bars still inside you. This trap is called “America souvenirs” – yes, that’s the name of the trap.

There’s also the “Armpit Trap”, where if you fall into the trap and instinctively stretch out your arms to claw at the surrounding ground, you would be pierced by rows of flipped metal spikes in your armpits.

And the “Unlucky Egg Trap”, where falling in would trigger a clamp, and the spikes on the clamp would tear off your flesh.

…

Such sinister and creepy traps are unimaginable to ordinary people unless they see them with their own eyes.

The strongest aspect is that metal is not essential; wooden pieces, bamboo sticks, and other materials can completely replace it.

All traps can be produced using simple tools, adapting to the specific environment.

After Ruan Qingrong returned from his studies, he started working with his fans and used wood to modify these traps, then selected the site and began producing them in large quantities to give the mysterious killer a surprise.

Unlike the special measures taken by Annan players, players from other countries are much more straightforward in their approach, mainly thinking that team combat has a higher fault tolerance rate.

After all, if you fight solo and die, you’ll fail right away.

However, if you fight in a group of eight, as long as you control the distance and run a bit faster, even if some people die along the way, you can hope to kill the killer by using the bouncing car to travel across the map and drag the corpses.

But Ivan Ivanov was not keen on this approach; he was actually one of the representatives of the “solo fighting faction.”

Previously, when the event had just started, he was unprepared, live streaming as he carried a gun, casually strolling and humming a song.

As he walked, he was suddenly attacked from behind and his liver burst.

When blood burst from his lower back, he was completely dumbfounded, not comprehending what had just happened.

He was immediately stabbed through the heart with a sharp blade from behind, almost being lifted up by the killer using the knife!

For Ivan, who always considered himself a “man’s man”, this was an intolerable disgrace!

How could he not seek revenge for such a great enmity?

And a true man’s man must take revenge personally!

However, when he put it into practice, Ivan realized that this path was extremely difficult.

For one thing, the “Life Form Analyzer” was not that useful for individuals.

The invisible killer would somehow exploit the cooldown period!

Every time Ivan Ivanov activated the “Life Form Analyzer”, there was no result.

But as soon as the detection ended and the device entered the cooling preparation time, the killer seized that opportunity and stabbed him with a knife.

Furthermore, the killer had an extraordinary level of experience, approaching soundlessly, often not making any footstep noises, and even avoiding all traps!

At first, Ivan thought Cloud Dream was being unfair, giving the killer the ability to detect traps.

However, something later happened that made him reconsider this idea –

He moved the battlefield to the area around his private log cabin.

It was by starting from scratch in the hunting ground, building a well-furnished and exquisite wooden house, that he earned the title of [Honorary Player].

On the day he received the title, Mavis specially made a trip to help him solidify the wooden house in the game world, so he no longer had to worry about it being refreshed by the system.

At that time, the generous Mavis also considered the traps around the cabin as “part of the wooden house” and solidified them.

There were a total of six traps around the cabin that were permanently preserved.

The killer stepped on a small pit trap and was pierced in the calf by a wooden spike, leaving behind green blood.

This surprised Ivan:

Why did the killer avoid so many concealed traps before, but step on this slightly obvious one?

What’s the difference between these two kinds of traps?

As soon as this question popped up, Ivan immediately thought of the answer: it’s because these traps were from a long time ago, and he hadn’t touched them recently!

Thinking about the previous behavior of the killer who “kept timing the Life Form Analyzer’s CD” –

Ivan suddenly had a chilling guess:

Perhaps it’s not that the mysterious killer appeared after he stayed in a certain place for a while but rather, from the moment he logged in the game, the killer was already beside him!

This cold-blooded killer stood silently 15 meters away from him, constantly watching him.

So no matter how he set up traps, they were ineffective.

– Because the traps were being set right under the killer’s nose!n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

It would be strange if the traps could actually work on the killer!