John wasn't doing this for fun.
He chose these NPCs purely from a practical, human perspective.
"The players in Zone 5 are selfish and unreliable," he thought.
"Their strengths are all over the place.
Instead of entrusting tomorrow's monster defense task to these untrustworthy fools,
it's better to let the NPCs who follow my orders handle it."
At this point, John trusted only these NPCs.
The female knight hesitated when she heard his orders.
After all, these combat NPCs were responsible for maintaining order, and summoning them on short notice would leave the guards stretched thin.
Yet, faced with John's immense reputation, she eventually obeyed.
"Understood, Hero!" she said.
With the instructions given, John left Novice Village. He still had plenty of preparations to make for tomorrow's monster tide.
As he traveled away from the village, he ran into numerous players.
All of them glared at him with hostile eyes.
After the recent chaos in the world channel, John had essentially become the public enemy of Zone 5.
The hatred these players bore for him far exceeded even that toward the Lord-class players of Zone 4.
But at level 50, John was untouchable in their eyes.
As for these random roadside players, John dismissed them with contempt.
With incredible speed, he moved step by step, Instant Moving toward the various dungeons scattered across the wilderness.
Zone 5's server map was massive.
Besides the goblin tribes, there were many other monster dungeons.
The region was still in its early development phase.
First-clear rewards and untouched monsters awaited in these dungeons.
John's eyes were on these unclaimed dungeon outposts.
"According to the terrain maps in my memory, there are eleven dungeons similar to the goblin tribe near Novice Village.
The closest is Wolffang Gorge.
We'll start there and sweep through one by one."
Relying on his recollection of these dungeons, John quickly plotted a route.
Ten minutes later, he arrived at the northern entrance of Wolffang Gorge.
The gorge was just beyond the goblin tribe area, and monsters here started at level 15.
Already, some top guild players were grinding mobs in the area.
"Vain, maintain control! These wolves are tough—we need CC before attacking!"
A mage barked orders while hurling fireballs at the wolf pack.
"Roger, Captain!"
A blonde priestess quickly began chanting, casting Blizzard.
Several wolves in the front slowed immediately.
The remaining players rushed forward, dealing damage in unison.
But the wolves' HP was absurdly high for players averaging level 10.
Even a perfectly coordinated combo barely scratched them.
To truly clear these wolves would take time.
"Kite for now, wait for skill cooldowns," the mage captain continued to command.
As the players gradually fell back, using all kinds of control skills to manage distance, something sudden occurred.
A figure appeared among the wolves.
He lightly stabbed his dagger at the nearest wolf.
[-10103!]
A terrifying damage number appeared.
The wolves that had taken the players so long to whittle down were instantly slain by John.
But that wasn't all. As [Annihilation of All] triggered, the entire wolf pack's HP vanished in an instant.
[-10103!]
[-10103!]
[…]
[You killed Lv.15 Mountain Wolf. EXP +1500, Copper Coin +980, F-grade Wolf Hide Armor ×1!]
[You looted the C-grade talent "Wolf Howl"!]
[…]
John glanced at the extra loot in his inventory and vanished deeper into the gorge.
The guild players were left dumbfounded.
They never imagined monsters could be farmed this way.
After a long moment, the mage captain swallowed hard.
"That… that person's ID seemed to be John?"
The blonde priestess's face fell in shock.
"John… the one who soloed the entire Crypts dungeon?
Why is he here?"
The long-haired archer shook his head.
"No idea… but surely he didn't come just to disrupt our leveling rhythm, right?"
A trace of resentment showed in their expressions.
After all, they had painstakingly drawn the wolves together, only for someone else to instantly wipe them out.
Were they even allowed to play anymore?
And here was John, level 50, stealing mobs from players around level 10.
It was hard not to suspect he came specifically to disrupt their progress.
The mage captain's gaze shifted slightly.
"If that's really the case, I might have to reconsider Sein's group's suggestion."
Being one of Zone 5's top guilds, they had connections to the Opportunists guild.
Not long ago, John had sent Sein to the dungeon.
The Opportunists guild, now leaderless, tried contacting these top guilds to unite against John.
At the time, the mage captain only wanted to level up and didn't agree to any alliance.
But now, with John directly interrupting their progress, his interests were damaged, and resentment toward John flared.
"I think John just wants to dominate Zone 5's leaderboard alone.
He's deliberately targeting our top guilds to slow down our growth!"
The guild members murmured angrily, upset at John stealing their mobs.
At that moment, a notification suddenly popped up in the Zone 5 channel:
[Server Notice: "John" has completed the elite-grade BOSS "Mountain Wolf King" first kill!
Rewards: EXP ×20,000, Gold Coin ×10, Fame ×300!]
[Server Notice: "John" is the first to clear D-grade dungeon "Wolffang Gorge"!
Rewards: EXP ×50,000, Gold Coin ×50, Fame ×500!]
The two notifications left the guild members speechless.
They saw Wolffang Gorge turn gray—[Monster Spawn State]—and their minds went blank.
What was happening?
So soon? John had already cleared the entire Wolffang Gorge?
They had assumed he came just to disrupt their progress, but it turned out he intended to sweep the dungeon entirely!
All this while, they had been imagining scenarios in which they mattered, only to realize John hadn't even considered their guild.
After a long moment, the blonde priestess snapped back to reality.
"Captain, where should we go to level next?"
The mage captain fell silent, eyes complicated.
"Do you really think… John would only clear this one dungeon?"
The guild members froze.
"You mean he plans to clear all the dungeons around here?"
The captain looked skyward, helpless.
"If I were him, I would too. Damn it… such a strong player, and he's not in our guild.
The Opportunists really let a gem slip through their fingers!"