Show Me the Money

Heat waves billowed alongside a thunderous rumbling. Fatty was forced to retreat more than ten meters away before he could stop.

The massive flame swallowed everything around it. Over ten minutes later, the fire slowly went out, and the heat started to dwindle. When the flames completely vanished, the land where the fire had burned was badly scorched.

As Fatty approached, the black entity trembled a little, revealing the Unicorn's battered form. The wings were as burned as two BBQ chicken wings; the jade-like horn was now half its original length; and, the body was covered in wound after wound. Spots of white light hovered around the Unicorn to heal it, but they weren't very effective. The creature had managed to endure through the Flame Burst scroll, but the serious damage it had suffered was more than just a simple loss of HP.

Glaring at Fatty with deep hatred, the Unicorn quivered as it stood up. The remaining half of its horn suddenly flashed, and the boss actually initiated an attack in its condition.

"Humph, still acting all arrogant!" Snorting, Fatty dodged the attack and approached the creature with two nimble steps.

As something occurred to him, he took the Brutal Saddle off Wheat's body. "Now, behave!" Fatty put the saddle on the Unicorn and flung himself upon it.

Flop! The creature's quaking legs turned to jelly, and it fell flat on the ground from the weight.

The Unicorn had nearly used up all its energy to resist the Flame Burst skill. After casting that last horn attack, the little energy the creature had left had also been squeezed out; it didn't have enough mana to attack anymore. The creature could only let out a whiny and let Fatty sit on it with a deep unwillingness.

"Do… you… submit?" Fatty raised his fist and punched the Unicorn with each word.

"Hsssss!" The Unicorn struggled with all its might. The remnants of its horn flashed nonstop, but it couldn't fire off a single attack.

"Do you submit? Do you?" Fatty put more force in his strikes. The boss still have a lot of health left, so he didn't need to worry about accidentally punching it to death.

"Hss hssss!" The Unicorn flailed its legs with everything it had, digging a deep crater in the ground. The elementalist forcefully held the beast down, pressing it into the crater.

"Neiii…" After taking nearly eighty punches, the creature whimpered and no longer struggled. It turned its head and meekly nuzzled Fatty with the half broken horn.

Ding!

System Notification: Congratulations! You have subdued the Yao-ranked boss Unicorn as your mount.

"Hahaha!" Fatty flipped off the creature and stood up. Looking at the half-dead Unicorn with a smile, he swung his arm and transferred the new mount to his "pet/mount" inventory. Almost fifteen minutes later, he summoned the Unicorn. The creature was fully recovered and looking brand new with all of its injuries gone.

A Unicorn's skill set included Passive Healing, Holy Beam, Boost of Glory, and so on. What's more, thanks to the function of the Brutal Saddle, the mount could attack while being ridden, which was equivalent to Fatty having two pets. Only this new pet couldn't level up.

"Unicorn… Unicorn Horn… horn…" Fatty mumbled. Then, a sinister smile crept across his face. "There's no need to be afraid. It's only dying ten times. It'll be over in no time." He unsheathed his Elemental Sword and killed the Unicorn. Despite the mount staying still to let him do so, Fatty still felt exhausted and was sweating a river.

However, after the Unicorn died, nothing dropped. Fatty refused to believe this and tried again, but still nothing. Reluctantly, he gave up on the idea. It made sense when he thought about it: If a mount could still drop stuff, that would be a major exploit.

The Unicorn's loyalty points were already pretty low after being forcefully subdued. With Fatty killing it twice, the points dropped to the lowest possible. If it weren't for the Brutal Saddle's restraint, the creature would have defected and fled a long time ago.

Ignoring the Unicorn's doleful eyes, Fatty flung himself astride it and said, "Let's go." Wheat scurried over to be pocketed, and the poor rodent was finally freed from the fate of being ridden.

Rumble… The land shook and trees swayed as the Unicorn zoomed overhead. Spotting the Beastman Team members' dumbstruck looks, Fatty was very magnanimous. He blew them a kiss and smugly flew away.

"How is he so fast? He even subdued it as his mount?!" railed TheBeastman's GreatCommander. The Beastman Team originally planned to take advantage of the situation to their benefit and kill Fatty in passing. Never did they imagine that the fight would end so quickly and that everything would be settled before they could even arrive.

"Look, wow! No shit! He actually subdued it!"

"Oh my, what an eye-catching mount!"

"Damn it! How can that fatty be so lucky?"

"Kill him! Kill him and steal his mount!"

On the ground, countless eyes flickered with envy and admiration. Some players even harbored ill intentions, wanting to kill Fatty to force the Unicorn's drop.

Landing before Liu Lan, Fatty gallantly extended his right hand. "Pretty lady, may this humble individual have the honor of taking you on a sky cruise?"

Under Xu Quan's burning glare that would've insta-killed the Unicorn if it were actually a skill, Liu Lan responded with a beautiful smile and placed her hand in Fatty's. She climbed onto the Unicorn with a swift lift of his arm and settled directly into the elementalist's embrace.

"Go." Fatty tugged at the reins. Letting out a long and clear whinny, the steed fluttered its pure white wings and slowly rose.

"What a beautiful horse!" praised Liu Lan, caressing the creature's beautiful fur. Most girls were unable to resist the charm of a Unicorn.

Cla-cla-clop… Not only did the Unicorn almost stumble and fall, Fatty also felt a sweatdrop form along his brow. "This is a Unicorn…" he corrected.

"I know it's a Unicorn." Liu Lan attempted to shoot him a glance, but gave up because he was out of her range of sight. "But, are you gonna call it 'Big Corn' or something? Hmm, what should we name it?"

"'Lil' White' is good." The Unicorn was thoroughly shaken upon hearing this name. It had never felt so hopeless. In the pet space, Wheat nearly cried tears of happiness. From now on, Brother Wheat can be a proud rat1.

"Lil' White? Sounds too clumsy," Liu Lan instantly refuted. At her words, the Unicorn felt alive again and poured even more effort into flying.

"Let's go with 'Big White.' How can you call it 'Lil' White' when it's so big, right?"

Pfff! The Unicorn's mouth foamed. Its wings retracted, and the creature rigidly fell straight down.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Liu Lan let out a shrill shriek and instinctively hugged Fatty. He quickly deployed the Zephyr Wings to slow their descent before they came to a halt in mid-air.

"Hahahahaha!" The crowd below burst into laughter. Someone even shouted, "Again!"

"Cough… The Unicorn's new to the family, so it's not putting forth all its effort…" Fatty smiled awkwardly.

"Scoundrel, just hurry and get us down." In his arms, Liu Lan glared at him with flushed cheeks.

As the two gracefully alighted, Xu Quan walked over with a stiff face. "Lil' Sis Lan, let's not ride something so unstable from now on. Just in case."

"You're telling me what to do now?" Liu Lan shot him a glare. Xu Quan choked and stopped dead on the spot. He could only glare furiously at Fatty.

"You're so dead! You actually dared to dupe Lord Fatty?" Rounding the Unicorn, Fatty ferociously kicked it on the leg.

The kick didn't even tickle, so the creature simply ignored it, still drowning in the pain of being named "Big White." To think that I, a mighty Yao boss, have actually fallen to this state. Karma is truly a btch! I should never have come to this shtty monster siege!

"Whew…" Rosethorn heaved a sigh of relief. While they had suffered a great deal of damage, they still managed to annihilate all of the flying monsters.

As the ninth wave came to an end, a total of ten thousand monsters had been slain. However, the number of player deaths was well over twenty thousand. Basically, every member of the Ice Rose Alliance had died twice on average.

"Can everyone still hold on?" Rosethorn asked, suppressing the exhaustion plaguing her entire body,.

"Of course. We can last through another!" At that moment, the number of Ice Rose players in the base was less than three thousand. The rest were still on their way back from the Black Tortoise City respawn point.

The players of Wind God Guild and the Sun Moon Cult joined Rosethorn. "Guild Master Rose, we've completed our end of the bargain. We'll be taking our leave." This time, the aerial monsters had attacked all three sides at once. Five thousand players weren't a small number, but they still had suffered great casualties as all five thousand of them had died at least once.

According to their agreement, everyone dying once meant mission completed.

"Please deliver my gratitude to your guild masters. When you guys establish your own base in the future, the Ice Rose Alliance will definitely assist you to the best of our ability." Rosethorn nodded. The two representatives nodded back, expressing their gratitude, before leaving with their people.

"Sis, can we still get through this?" Ice Witch asked as she approached. She also felt drained herself.

Rosethorn looked around at the less than three thousand members there and let out a pained laugh. "Let's not worry about that anymore. Let's do all that we can and leave our fate to the Heavens."

After the grand battle, the members of the Ice Rose Alliance didn't rest. They were all anxiously regrouping while the lifestyle players were busy fixing the wall. Since the ninth wave was already that terrifying, the tenth could only be more so and certainly nothing less. However, none of the girls had any intention of running away. They were all bursting with the will to fight.

"They are just as much as a warrior as any man. Those girls are seriously awesome! They can put us men to shame."

"What a pity! They've fought so hard just for it all to end in failure. I wonder if they can hold out at this rate." The onlookers engaged in heated debate, but most of them were pessimistic about the final wave.

After waiting for half an hour, all that surrounded the base was complete tranquility. There was still no sign of a large-scale monster siege or anything of the sort.

"Is there something wrong? Maybe the system is looking out for the female players and only sends out nine waves?"

"Impossible! The system hasn't announced the end of the siege."

The more she thought about it, the more Rosethorn felt that something was off. "Scout farther away. We have to track the monsters before they arrive." She sent out virtually every rogue from the base in all directions to look for any trace of the monsters.

"Nothing, there's no monster here."

"Nothing here either."

"This direction is clear as well." The rogue scouts reported one after another. Surprisingly, none of them found anything.

"Just where are they?" Rosethorn muttered to herself.

"Huh? What's that sound?" Liu Lan suddenly spoke up.

"What sound?" Fatty casually asked. All of a sudden, he heard a string of stirring noises as well. Thinking of a possibility, Fatty inwardly shivered. He opened the communicator and shouted to Rosethorn, "Underground! Watch the ground!"

"Earth mages, scale all the surrounding land!" Rosethorn frantically shouted as she instantly reacted to the warning.

Just when all the earth mages had gathered with difficulty and were about to cast earth spells, the ground cracked and rumbled. BOOM! Countless monsters crawled out from the rifts and streamed toward the players.

"It's over. Underground monsters, they're even harder to defend against than flying ones," someone sighed.

At that moment, the wall was rendered completely useless. Inside the base, one rift after another ruptured, channeling an endless stream of monsters inside. In the blink of an eye, they surrounded and overwhelmed the remaining Ice Rose players.

1. The raws for "Wheat" is 小黄, literal translation is "Little Yellow". Starting with "big" or "lil'" plus the pet's color is a very common and crude way to name a pet in China. Wheat is feeling proud because even a mighty Unicorn is sharing the same fate.↩