"Ding~ You have killed the pyer [King's Glory]. Since the opponent had a gray name, your Sin Value did not increase!"

  Around them, King's Supreme, King's Return, and two other King pyers, along with the solo pyers who stopped to watch the commotion, were all stunned.

  As a level 3 pyer who had fully invested in strength and upgraded his weapon, King's Glory could only deal 1 point of damage that didn't break through the defense. But that guy, with one hammer, dealt a critical hit of 176 points, instantly killing King's Glory. What was going on?!

  The remaining four King pyers, who watched their captain get killed in an instant, were filled with fear. Zhang Yi ignored them and crouched down at the spot where King's Glory had died, picking up a pair of bck pants that had dropped.

  In the world of Apocalypse, malicious attacks on white-named pyers trigger a gray name status. Killing a white-named pyer earns you 100 Sin Value, turning you into a red name. If your Sin Value exceeds 1000, you become a purple name.

  A white-named pyer has a 50% chance to drop an item upon death, a gray name drops one item 100% of the time, a red name drops two items, and a purple name drops all their equipment!

  Additionally, when white or red-named pyers die, they lose one level. For every 100 Sin Value points, they lose an additional level.

  This game imposes severe penalties on red-named pyers, deterring pyers from attacking others lightly. However, King's Glory, relying on his powerful backing, didn't care about this aspect, thinking it was just a game feature. He never expected that someone would dare to attack him and even kill him in one hit!

  Notably, the [Bio-Trousers] that King's Glory dropped were level 3 equipment. Although they were of 1-star quality, they provided 6 points of basic defense, which was significantly higher than the 2 points of defense from Zhang Yi's level 1 novice pants.

  The most crucial point was that they had a +15 enhancement! The total defense boost reached 15 points.

  No wonder King's Glory was so confident in front of Zhang Yi earlier. Without [Divine Enhancement], it would take at least fifty to sixty enhancement stones to upgrade such equipment to +15. Investing so much in a level 3 piece of equipment early on, King's Glory was truly a big spender!

  So, Zhang Yi equipped the pants that had just dropped from their leader right in front of King's Return and the others, raising his defense from 33 to 46 points.

  As Zhang Yi's gaze lingered on the spot where King's Glory had died, his eyes filled with hatred, his thoughts drifting back to eight years ago, to memories so vivid they haunted his dreams.

  In the previous life, a thousand-pyer team in Safe Zone No. 886, realizing it was a world of real death, used their numbers to occupy Hope Town for a month. During that time, they committed all sorts of atrocities, bringing nightmares to all pyers in Hope Town.

  Zhang Yi was among those tormented by them. His most vivid memory was returning one night without enough gold coins to pay them, resulting in his limbs being chopped off and left half-dead.

  In this digitized world, as long as a pyer's HP didn't drop to zero, they wouldn't die. Limbs would slowly regenerate, but the 100% pain sensation was unbearable for most.

  Due to system restrictions, there was no escape to other safe zones. The only way out of their clutches was to reach level 30 and activate the teleportation array to the level 3 main city.

  However, that team severely limited solo pyers' leveling speed, killing those who leveled up too fast. This was why it took Zhang Yi a month to reach level 30 in the previous life.

  The team that plunged Safe Zone No. 886 into darkness and left countless pyers with psychological scars was called [King's World], and their leader's ID was King's Glory!

  But even after killing King's Glory once, Zhang Yi couldn't quell his hatred, knowing that King's Glory still had revival chances. The trauma [King's World] inflicted in the previous life was too deep.

  "This time, if you can still run rampant, I'll change my surname to yours!" Zhang Yi decred.

  With that, Zhang Yi stood up, leading NPC Ili towards the safe zone. King's Supreme and the others dared not block his path, quickly stepping aside to let him pass.

  As for these few people, killing them would be easy, but since they were white names, Zhang Yi didn't want to become a red name, which would prevent him from entering the safe zone.

  Once Zhang Yi and Ili left, King's Supreme and King's Return gathered together, staring at Zhang Yi's gradually disappearing figure, bewildered.

  "My God... Over 170 damage, even without a critical hit, it's still over 80 points. How did he do that?"

  "Could it be that the hammer in his hand is a growth-type artifact? Does his attack power increase as his level rises?"

  "Forget about that. Let's hurry back to find the captain. The captain's mood must be bad after getting one-shotted. Let's go comfort him..."

  Meanwhile, Zhang Yi hadn't even entered the safe zone when the regional chat channel was flooded by [King's Glory]—

  [King's Glory] (Male, Level 2 Pyer): "Yinuo Qingcheng, you better watch out. From today on, don't let me see you again, or I'll kill you every time I do!"

  [King's Glory] (Male, Level 2 Pyer): "Unless you immediately crawl to the Revival Spring and apologize to me, handing over your weapon, I have ten thousand ways to make sure you can't survive in the entire Apocalypse world!"

  ...

  Seeing these messages in the regional channel, Zhang Yi was indifferent, but he overheard passersby discussing it.

  Pyer A: "I heard the captain of [King's World], King's Glory, is a rich kid in real life, with billions in assets. He's the richest man in Linhai City. Before entering this game, he spent a billion to hire a thousand professional pyers at a sary of 100,000 each to form a powerful team. Their team strength in the early stages is remarkable!"

  Pyer B: "Yeah, and now he's been called out across the entire zone. Yinuo Qingcheng is in trouble. Daring to provoke the captain of King's World, I bet he'll be hunted until he deletes his account!"

  Pyer C: "With King's Glory's background, that kid might even face real-world retaliation. Sigh, I feel sorry for him for three seconds~"

  Hearing the discussions, Zhang Yi remained determined. This time, with him around, Safe Zone No. 886 would not repeat the mistakes of the past. The sins committed by King's World in the previous life, Zhang Yi would ensure they paid for them in blood this time!

  Returning to Hope Town, Zhang Yi found Ling Ling with Ili. The father and daughter were finally reunited, embracing each other in tears of joy.

  Meanwhile, a pleasant system notification sounded in Zhang Yi's ear—

  "Ding~ Congratutions on completing the hidden quest [Guardian], earning 3000 EXP, 10 Silver Coins, 120 Human Reputation, 100 Level 1 Enhancement Stones, a Skill Book [Fatal Strike] 1, and equipment [Guardian Armor] 1! Intimacy with [Bcksmith Shop Owner] increased by 8!"