"Ding! Congratulations on defeating the epic-level boss Zombie King. You have gained 10,000 experience points!"
"Ding! Congratulations on achieving the first-kill achievement. The system rewards you with 500 gold coins, one epic-level armor piece, and one epic-level skill book!"
"Ding! System announcement: Player Jiang Yuan has successfully slain the epic-level boss Zombie King, earning the first-kill achievement!"
A series of notification sounds rang out as Jiang Yuan's experience bar repeatedly filled up and reset, his level skyrocketing all the way to 22.
Meanwhile, on the public screens of all players across every server, a system announcement scrolled by in bold red text.
"Jiang Yuan? Why does that name sound so familiar? Holy crap, I remember now—it's that useless Summoner!"
Commander Aoshi Xiaokuang stared at the scrolling system announcement on his public screen, furrowing his brow in thought for a long moment before suddenly slapping his thigh and exclaiming in shock.
"So that boar demon from earlier was that Jiang Yuan's summon?"
Beside Aoshi Xiaokuang, a female priest player named Aoshi Lamei heard his exclamation, her eyes showing disbelief as she turned to him and asked.
"It should be. That guy Jiang Yuan must be nearby!"
Based on his past gaming experience, if a summon appeared somewhere, the Summoner couldn't be far off! So Aoshi Xiaokuang immediately made that judgment, his triangular eyes constantly scanning the cave's surroundings.
"Greetings, comrades! You've worked hard!"
Since he'd been discovered, Jiang Yuan decided not to hide anymore. He strode out boldly, waving to the Aoshi Guild players like a general reviewing his troops!
"So it is you! How dare you steal our Aoshi Guild's boss!"
Seeing Jiang Yuan reveal himself, Aoshi Xiaokuang's expression turned icy as he pointed at Jiang Yuan and spoke coldly.
"We're all educated people here. How can you call what educated people do 'stealing'?"
Looking at Aoshi Xiaokuang's grim face, Jiang Yuan spoke lightly while walking over to where the Zombie King had been one-shotted, beginning to pick up the dropped items and equipment one by one.
"Ding! Congratulations! You have gained 100 gold coins!"
"Ding! Congratulations! You have gained 500 gold coins!"
With a series of notifications, Jiang Yuan instantly shot from being a broke nobody to the top of the wealth rankings!
"Jiang Yuan, those belong to our Aoshi Guild! Don't pick them up!"
Watching Jiang Yuan brazenly scooping up the Zombie King's drops right in front of him, Aoshi Xiaokuang roared angrily.
In *Myriad Worlds*' game mechanics, any items or equipment dropped by a boss become ownerless and claimable by anyone if the killer doesn't pick them up within five minutes!
Ignoring Aoshi Xiaokuang's roar, Jiang Yuan swept his eyes around, spotted a purple beam of light, and immediately walked over to pick it up.
"Haha, a rare arm guard!"
Jiang Yuan glanced at the purple item in his backpack, a smile spreading across his face as he instantly equipped it!
**[Zombie King's Arm Guard]** Equip Level: 20 Physical Defense: 150 Magical Defense: 150 Strength +15 Intelligence +15 Constitution +15
Scanning the equipment info, Jiang Yuan noticed the arm guard had five attributes, and he couldn't help but grin, thinking to himself that it was worthy of being a rare purple item!
"Jiang Yuan, I'm warning you—better stop picking, or you'll die a miserable death!"
Aoshi Xiaokuang issued another warning.
Calculating the time in his head, Jiang Yuan figured there was less than three minutes left on the pickup protection. So, under the watchful eyes of Aoshi Xiaokuang and the rest of the Aoshi Guild players, not only did he not stop, but he sped up his looting!
"Ding! Congratulations! You have obtained a rare-grade item!"
"Ding! Congratulations! You have obtained an epic-grade item!"
"Ding! Congratulations! You have obtained a legendary item!"
Notification sounds kept ringing out. Jiang Yuan didn't even have time to check his backpack; he just grabbed items from the ground and tossed them in.
"Everyone, attack together! Take him down!"
Aoshi Xiaokuang finally lost his temper and shouted at the Aoshi Guild members.
In an instant, countless attacks rained down on Jiang Yuan, popping up damage numbers.
-125 -78 -41 -1 ...
A white light flared up around Jiang Yuan, blocking all the damage for him.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yuan kept picking up items while taunting, "Idiots, don't you know there's something called newbie protection?"
*Myriad Worlds* had set up newbie protection to help new players smoothly get through the early stages—any player below level 25 couldn't be harmed by malicious attacks!
Soon, under the siege of the Aoshi Guild players, Jiang Yuan finished collecting all the Zombie King's drops. The colorful beams of light in the cave vanished, plunging the entire space into darkness!
"Ahhhh! Jiang Yuan, I'm not done with you!"
Watching helplessly as the Zombie King's loot was completely cleaned up by Jiang Yuan, Aoshi Xiaokuang, as the guild's vice-leader, had no recourse but to rage impotently on the sidelines.
"Comrades, you've worked hard!"
Jiang Yuan waved to the Aoshi Guild players once more, hands clasped behind his back, humming a cheerful tune as he strolled out of the cave, thoroughly pleased.
"Xiaokuang, how's the Zombie King going? I just hit level 20, and I'm bringing people to back you up!"
Just then, a message popped up in Aoshi Xiaokuang's friend list from someone named "Aoshi Longhuang."
"Big bro, it's bad! The Zombie King got stolen by a Summoner named Jiang Yuan!"
Aoshi Xiaokuang opened the chat window and quickly typed out a line.
Aoshi Longhuang, the guild leader of Aoshi, was said to be the rich second-generation son of some conglomerate in the real world, with deep pockets.
Because he had a billion-dollar business deal to negotiate in reality, Aoshi Longhuang had been delayed for most of the day, missing *Myriad Worlds*' launch.
But thanks to his strong connections, he'd managed to catch up in levels with the help of several level-20 power-levelers from the Aoshi Guild.
"What! Stolen? With all of you, you can't outdo the worst class? Are you all useless?!"
When Aoshi Longhuang received the message from Aoshi Xiaokuang, he instantly flew into a rage. Even he, who rarely played online games, knew that the Summoner class in this game was the worst!
"Big bro, that Jiang Yuan summoned ten thousand wild boars—ten thousand of them! They one-shotted the Zombie King!"
Looking at the text from Aoshi Longhuang in the chat window, Aoshi Xiaokuang could tell from the tone how furious the guild leader must be, so he quickly reported the situation honestly.
"Wild boars? I think you're the damn pigs! Ten thousand? Is that Jiang Yuan some kind of wizard or what?"
Aoshi Longhuang, who was rushing toward Yin Wind Valley, was fuming when he got Aoshi Xiaokuang's message. He quickly sent another one.
"He picked everything clean—why didn't you take him down? A bunch of idiots!"
"He's not level 25 yet, so newbie protection kicked in. We couldn't take him down!"
Seeing Aoshi Xiaokuang's reply, Aoshi Longhuang stopped in his tracks and cursed loudly: Damn it!
Stopping in his tracks, Aoshi Longhuang issued one final order to the Aoshi Guild: Everyone, regroup at the newbie village!