Surrounded and overwhelmed, Han Yaru was incredibly tense and scared, casting a helpless glance toward Zhang Yi not far away.

But when she saw that Zhang Yi didn't even look at her, Han Yaru felt utterly hopeless.

Liu Xing and Han Feng, facing a group of fierce, burly men advancing toward them, involuntarily retreated, "What... what do you want?"

"Wow!"

One of the burly warriors, level 16, with a scruffy beard, named "Yamete," drew his longsword from his waist without a word, gradually approaching Liu Xing and Han Feng, and said coldly, "With you bunch of weaklings, that girl will inevitably be bullied every day if she stays with you. You can't protect her, so why not let us protect her instead?"

Han Feng stopped retreating, stood his ground, and stared at the burly men with piercing eyes, "She's my sister. I'll protect her myself. No need to trouble you!"

"Can you really protect her?"

Around Yaru, several other burly men picked up their weapons.

Guan Hao also rushed over, but the three of them couldn't hold back the group of burly men, let alone get close to Han Yaru.

Just then, the group of burly men advancing on Guan Hao and the others suddenly seemed to see something terrifying, each showing fear and involuntarily retreating.

Guan Hao and the others hadn't figured out what was happening when the group of burly men scattered like birds and beasts.

Turning around, they saw Zhang Yi, dressed in a black mage hat and robe, exuding the cold demeanor of a Beastmaster, appearing behind them at some point.

Guan Hao and Liu Xing exchanged a glance, each with a look of surprise: Could it be that the group of burly men was scared off by Zhang Yi?

At this moment, Zhang Yi, with the white ID of "Yinuo Qingcheng" that he had just deliberately activated, walked past Guan Hao and the others, heading straight toward Han Yaru.

Many players around were drawn to "Yinuo Qingcheng," except for the solo players still surrounding Han Yaru with ill intentions, who were unaware.

It wasn't until Zhang Yi gradually approached that one of them noticed him.

At first glance, they were stunned, "Yinuo Qingcheng!"

With that shout, everyone surrounding Han Yaru turned their gaze to Zhang Yi, each with a look of shock.

"Isn't that Yinuo Qingcheng, the top player in Zone 886's Heaven Ranking?"

"Yeah, he looks so fierce. What's he up to? It seems like he's heading toward that girl. Could that Yaru girl be his friend?"

Amid the surrounding crowd's discussions, the players surrounding Han Yaru saw Zhang Yi approaching with a hint of menace and quickly backed away.

Their instincts told them that Yinuo Qingcheng was there for the priest girl named "Yaru," and they dared not continue troubling Yaru in front of the top player Yinuo Qingcheng.

Sure enough, seeing the players retreat, Zhang Yi didn't approach further but turned and walked into the Undead City.

Han Yaru couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, feeling a warmth in her heart as she watched Zhang Yi's indifferent departing figure, mixed with a sense of loss. Then, she followed Zhang Yi along with Guan Hao and the others.

This left a group of players standing outside the Undead City, engaging in a flurry of discussions.

Player A: "The presence of a top player is truly intimidating. Even without doing anything, just standing there can scare off a group of people! Amazing!"

Player B: "Exactly, who in Zone 886 doesn't know that Yinuo Qingcheng is like a bug? Even dozens of professional players from King's World can't beat him. Such a top player isn't someone we ordinary people can mess with."

Player C: "But speaking of which, those four people seem to be his recently formed teammates. He was just recruiting in the regional chat channel, and I heard he used to be a solo player with no teammates. But didn't King's Glory just announce in the zone that anyone teaming up with Yinuo Qingcheng would be opposing King's World? Aren't these people afraid of dying? Offending the entire King's World for the top player Yinuo Qingcheng!"

Player D: "Yeah, although he's a top player, King's World is a thousand-member guild, while Yinuo Qingcheng has no backing. In the end, King's World will surely prevail. These people are probably not far from trouble... But it's none of our business, let's just mind our own."

Undead City.

Zhang Yi and his group bypassed the first and second-level difficulty areas, avoiding the large crowd of players leveling up.

On their way deeper into the Undead City, Han Yaru caught up with Zhang Yi, who was walking ahead, and said softly, "Zhang Yi... thank you for helping me out earlier."

"You're welcome," Zhang Yi replied indifferently without looking at Han Yaru, "I just didn't want them to delay our mission time."

Just as Han Yaru was about to say more, she noticed Zhang Yi stopping.

Looking ahead, they had reached the third-level area.

Here, the place was filled with level 19-20 skeletons and undead. Looking around, there were only a few players leveling up in the third-level area, and as soon as Zhang Yi and his group arrived, they saw several flashes of white light ahead, where a five-person team was wiped out by a few level 20 Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Archers!

Witnessing this scene, Guan Hao and the others were dumbfounded, "These level 20 skeletons... are too powerful!"

Liu Xing swallowed deeply, fearfully suggesting, "Maybe we should go back and farm lower-level skeletons. We might as well skip the mission here; it's too dangerous. We're so low-level, we might get instantly killed by those skeletons!"

At this moment, Zhang Yi, at the forefront, said, "It's okay, you don't need to do anything. Just stay back, and I'll handle the rest."

With that, as Guan Hao and the others looked on in disbelief, Zhang Yi took out his Flame Staff and began selecting targets.

The Hunt Skeletons mission didn't count all skeletons toward the mission progress. The skeletons needed for the mission were marked with a flashing marker by the system, visible only to those who had accepted the mission, glowing faintly white.

Looking around, there were countless skeletons, many of which were glowing.

Taking a few steps forward, Zhang Yi raised his staff, targeting a level 19 glowing Skeleton Archer within effective attack range, and began casting.

Fireball Spell!

Boom!

A scorching fireball shot toward the Skeleton Archer, striking it directly. In the next moment, a damage number appeared above its head that left Guan Hao, Liu Xing, and the others behind him dumbfounded—

-986 Critical Hit!

Roar~

With an unwilling roar, the level 19 Skeleton Archer, with just over 900 total health, was instantly killed by Zhang Yi's single strike, crumbling into a pile of debris on the ground.