This reveals the defense vulnerability of Celestial Essence City.

Even when there are no demons approaching, Celestial Essence City still allows the flow of people inside and out.

After all, there are visible differences between demons and humans, so there’s no worry about them sneaking into the city.

However, the natives couldn’t have imagined the existence of hostile players, who could infiltrate through some disguises and secretly carry out their plans.

Fortunately, the target of this group was clear—they were not aiming to destroy Celestial Essence City but focusing on dealing with players from Earth, which kept the problem from this vulnerability from being too severe.

If Wang Zhifan happened to be near these players from the Otherworld, relying on his exceptional perception abilities, he could likely identify these potential threats because he had encountered this group during the chaos in Shuyue City and was already somewhat wary.

But at this moment, he was still outside hunting the Demon Venerable and wasn’t in Celestial Essence City, leaving these players unchecked.

Not long after, around the street where the three foreign players were located, more than a dozen Otherworld players disguised as natives took advantageous positions and began their hunting plan.

As players themselves, even if they were not part of the Earth player system, they understood some commonalities: players have diverse skills, and one cannot expect to solve opponents with just a single attack method; a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach is necessary.

For example, these players predicted that the current targets had likely set up many hidden sentry posts around them, so they did not recklessly approach the target’s surroundings. Even with their disguises, they chose to use long-range attacks for the first wave.

Then, they had also prepared for the possibility that the first wave of attacks might not eliminate the enemies.

They divided into three groups: one for comprehensive reconnaissance, another for long-range attacks, and the third prepared for close combat to ensure that if the targets survived the first wave, there would be continuous follow-up attacks.

Contrarily, the three foreign players were still discussing how to unite with friendly players, without any idea of the existence of hostile players. They had only made some habitual defensive and reconnaissance setups, never expecting that great danger had already arrived.

They believed as long as those invading Demon Realm monsters hadn’t broken into the city, they weren’t at big risk. The strengthened punishment dungeon had also made them less wary of other players, just needing to be cautious about theoretically existing crazy players.

But realistically, what were the odds of any true madman surviving to this level of the dungeon? They probably died early in the player stages.

So, while the three foreign players were still drinking and discussing in a tavern private room, disaster suddenly struck.

In the first wave of attacks, the Otherworld players used fast laser beams, very similar to the ambushes Wang Zhifan faced in Shuyue City, with multiple highly precise energy beams crossing kilometer distances to hit, eventually piercing through the window of the private room.

The burly white man drinking near the window was the first to fall victim, a laser suddenly piercing through his head and neck, his expression shocked as he fell to the ground.

The Mei Country black player faced a similar fate, hit on the face by the same laser that pierced the white player, his brain burned and destroyed, losing vitality in a microsecond.

Only the short Asian player survived the first wave because his clothing seemed extremely special, momentarily deflecting the high-energy laser aimed at him, giving him time to react.

"Lasers?! How is that possible?!"

The Asian player was instantly shocked, unable to comprehend how he and his friends were just enjoying drinks and planning when suddenly attacked with player tactics that should never have appeared.

His extensive dungeon experience had him immediately switch to invisibility and activate a wall-phasing ability to escape the current environment, looking for a way out.

But the enemies had already anticipated his actions; high-energy laser beams scanned close to his invisible body, followed by several rockets launching from all around alongside some mysterious attacks, illustrating that they had prepared countermeasures and aimed to kill him at any cost.

"Madmen! This must be the work of crazy players!"

For the moment, the short Asian player could only internally explain it this way, thinking only crazed players would challenge the punishment dungeon mechanisms like this.

"Heh, since you’re this crazy, I’ll play along! Even if this dungeon’s punishment is strengthened, you were the ones who engaged first!"

He thought the opponents were being utterly foolish; the dungeon supported self-defense, and without having killed him, they provided him a chance to bypass punishment and hunt players for equipment, which was his specialty.

He quickly used a special skill, his figure transforming into multiple identical replicas moving through walls in different directions to flee.

However, no one knew that his true form was not among those illusions; he hadn’t even left, instead hiding in the void, entering a brief hidden state.

A series of explosions followed, collapsing and setting ablaze the entire tavern under the impact of several rockets, but the Asian player hiding in the void remained unharmed. Using the illusions he released earlier, he assessed the surroundings, quickly spotting traces of the enemies.

These people appeared like black-haired natives in common clothing, yet he knew they were either disguised players or player puppets, needing to be eliminated without mercy.

"One enemy suspected deceased, other two missing, suspected of using special hiding abilities. Please remain cautious."

A thousand meters away, an Otherworld player responsible for reconnaissance reported to his companions via mental communication, maintaining a calm demeanor as if untouched by the possibility of the enemies’ survival.

"Understood. Keep a close watch! Team one, fall back now, team two, encircle the target location immediately..." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The leader of this hunt responded swiftly, coordinating through mental communication.

Soon, some hand-to-hand combat Others from the Otherworld charged towards the enemy’s initial location from multiple directions, using various equipment and skills to coax the target into revealing himself. They had no fear of an enemy ambush, as encounter battles were their speciality.

Conversely, Otherworld players who initiated long-range attacks gradually withdrew to safety to ensure their own security while remaining ready to provide support from afar at any moment.

Even the leader orchestrating their actions joined the fight, retrieving a strange metal circle from his space and releasing it into the void, where it vanished in an instant.

A few seconds later, after sneaking out of the flames from the void, the Asian player saw the enemies searching for him around the area, his eyes flashing with apprehension.

He knew from the start that enemies could penetrate ordinary stealth methods, hence he wasn’t using invisibility, opting instead for a more advanced technique to erase his presence temporarily and further lowering the chances of drawing attention by altering form.

In specific terms, he was currently not human in appearance but a less conspicuous flying insect attracted by the tavern’s flames, coupled with his presence erasure ability, making detection nearly impossible.

Despite all that, he felt uneasy knowing the enemy was highly professional this time, likely making it tough to fool them.

While the player, now a small flying insect, felt anxious, another figure suddenly burst out from the burning tavern, snatching everyone’s attention in an instant.

An entire man on fire, his dark skin complemented by raging flames and an extremely angry expression on his face, creating a striking impact—it was the Mei Country black player everyone presumed dead.

"This black guy isn’t dead either?!"

Momentarily, the Asian player turned small flying insect was in shock.

From his observation hidden in the void, he saw the tall white man disappear almost instantly after falling over, clearly still alive.

Only the Mei Country black man lay motionless for long, leading him to assume he was the group’s sole casualty, but now it seemed even the black guy wasn’t as simple.