Chapter 17: So You Are a Support
"So many heads, where did they come from?"
Gu Shanhai tore open the body of Old Huang, and a large number of charred human heads rolled out.
In the center of Old Huang, there was a corpse that had also turned into charred remains.
"These heads don't seem natural, more like they were stuffed in afterward."
"Similar to a strange eating disorder? But this Old Huang, like the Rat Head Man, is a mutation."
He quickly drew some conclusions because the subject had been cooked, the information obtained was limited.
Currently, it seems that Old Huang's combat power far surpasses that of the Rat Head Man, at least if it really came down to a showdown, Gu Shanhai would also have a headache.
After dragging the cooked Old Huang into a nearby room to avoid blocking the road, Gu Shanhai began to ponder whether to climb up or head to the morgue.
Such a large hospital must have a morgue.
But before that, he needed to find a way to obtain a map or something; otherwise, it would be really difficult to navigate as the sky was getting darker.
After some searching, he found a flashlight in the room—not the nuclear-powered flashlight from horror games, just a regular flashlight, and who knows how much battery was left.
He decided to make do with it for now, better than draining his mana.
The first floor was bound to have few clues, and it was highly likely that some monsters would wander around.
"Is there some noise?" Gu Shanhai suddenly stopped; he heard what seemed like fighting not far away. His first thought was naturally the two players from the Qingcheng Team, as for the single female player—she had long been disregarded by him.
With such luck, how could she possibly survive.
"It seems to be upstairs?"
It was normal for them to have gone ahead of him; he had been dissecting the Rat Head Man and Old Huang, which naturally slow him down a lot.
Around the corner, he saw the stairs, and quickly made it to the second floor, where he indeed saw Qingcheng White Fox, and as for Qingcheng Ziyin—
He saw him too, now just a piece of skin floating mid-air.
And Qingcheng White Fox was fighting a skinless blood man, wielding a fire axe.
It's clear why professional players should be well-trained and have led many clients before; in combat, he certainly had more experience than the small iron pots and big white geese Gu Shanhai had encountered before.
He's a bit reckless, but it seems he opts for a blood-selling playstyle—the more severe the injuries he accumulates, the stronger his combat power becomes. It must have become formalized, otherwise he wouldn't be so fierce.
"He won." Gu Shanhai watched Qingcheng White Fox's burst, clearly his health drop triggering a skill enhancement again, and the fire axe immediately beheaded the blood man at the neck.
That strike just now, if Gu Shanhai were to face it directly, he couldn't have withstood it; it exceeded the limits of a normal person.
It just goes to show, the strength boost of players after semi-digitalization is illogical, but also typical, otherwise how could they compete with the powerhouses and talents of various worlds.
Revival is just the base; what truly lets them invade various worlds is their inherent strength.
"You're here, thought you had gone upstairs already." Qingcheng White Fox noticed Gu Shanhai's arrival, casually sitting on the ground regaining his energy.
The drop in health naturally leads to a drain on stamina, but by the look of him, he seemingly had recovery abilities. If not, he would not be using a blood-selling style but rather a sacrificial or self-destruction style.
"True to being from a big club, it looks like you've got a full set of skills." Gu Shanhai paid a compliment.
"Hardly, I still lack quite a bit; my endurance can't keep up. How's your Mage setup coming along?" Qingcheng White Fox always believed Gu Shanhai followed the Mage route, after all, his earlier Fireball Technique was shown.
"Mage? I'm not, I'm support," Gu Shanhai said seriously.
"And you dare to venture alone?" Qingcheng White Fox was somewhat incredulous, as support roles typically stick with the team.
"Balderdash, I'm a newbie. Just had a brainfart and walked right in," Gu Shanhai stated unabashedly, and rather boldly.
"Alright, got any recovery skills? Give me some health back." Qingcheng White Fox said without hesitation.
"I do, but it's for plants, not people," Gu Shanhai said, slightly embarrassed; he wasn't lying—it really was only usable on plants.
"..." Qingcheng White Fox was speechless. Early in the game, where would you even find a player-type plant?
"Got anything else?" Qingcheng White Fox asked, and then added, "Something that normally works for players."
"Yes, Flame Shield, but there's a little issue," Gu Shanhai said, somewhat troubled.
"What could possibly be wrong?"
"After I apply it to you, you'll continue to lose health."
"Have you ever thought about applying it to the enemy? Wait, are you sure this is a Flame Shield and not some sort of burning DEBUFF?" At this point, Qingcheng White Fox realized, well, how did this guy even scrape together 10 settlement points to join the instance with such bizarre skills and still manage an A-grade settlement evaluation?
"That's not it; my burning class DEBUFF does much more damage than the Flame Shield," Gu Shanhai stated seriously.
As for why such a situation would occur, the reason was, of course, immature technology—he held a Red Flame Talisman, not a Flame Shield scroll; if it had been the latter, he really could have managed a protective class fire skill, but the former is mainly for explosion and burning; managing this was already quite impressive.
This stuff belongs to cross-department, so it needs further research on his part.
"Got it, in that case, next time we encounter enemies, just hang all kinds of burning DEBUFFs on them, and I'll go all out." Qingcheng White Fox seemed to understand now. Support isn't wrong, weakening the enemy also counts as support.
"Alright." Gu Shanhai wondered why someone would be so reckless; he didn't do so because the various burning class DEBUFFs he applied could explode.
Of course, doing so also cost less, just slower to take effect. But with Qingcheng White Fox as the main attacker, it didn't really matter.
Otherwise, how could Old Huang have been cooked from the inside out? Naturally, because the Fire Spirit Blade exploded.
Qingcheng White Fox rested for a while, his health returned above the baseline, and his stamina also recovered naturally.
"Let's go, be careful not to get caught," Qingcheng White Fox also felt somewhat bad luck; both who could solve puzzles had died, looking at Gu Shanhai he didn't seem like a puzzle-solving player either, so they could only try to brute force their way through.
He still hoped the female player from Luo Sheng Gate had not died; at least three people could brainstorm, perhaps able to uncover more.