Main Quest (Day 6)
Because they had to gather at Position 9, which was a long way off, Mu Shan got up at 5:30 AM the next morning.
The night before, she had packed all her travel supplies. In the morning, she simply ate something and, as usual, checked her Card Album. The [Zombie Siege] card slot was full, so all the cards she drew today were for [Humid Heat Forest].
[Environment Card: Live Volcano Lava Pool]
[Item Card: A Chunk of Gold Fragment]
[Character Card: Lepidopteran Insect Monster]
She ignored the other two and materialized the only item card. A small piece of gold instantly appeared in her palm, about the size of a coin, irregularly shaped, as if it had been snipped from somewhere.
Where did gold fragments come from in the forest? If it were from a gold mine, it should have more impurities, but this looked more like it had been artificially processed.
Mu Shan put the gold in a desk drawer and didn’t think much of it.
She locked the two basement doors and placed the flower pot where it could get sunlight.
The magical sunflower had developed a problem these past couple of days; it sang with unusual excitement, like it was on drugs.
“Ya ee, ya ee~”
Yesterday it sang operatic soprano, and today it started singing Shakespeare along with the birds in the forest. Mu Shan suspected it had been attacked by spores from the Bone-Eroding Fungus.
After a final check of her items to make sure nothing was missing, Mu Shan locked the Sunroom door.
She walked a couple of steps but felt uneasy, so she turned back to look at the chained zombie worker and the Sunroom covered densely with wire mesh. She still felt like something was missing.
…
【Would you like to spend 500 gold to purchase a ground defense upgrade (High Voltage Grid)?】
【System under construction, countdown 1 minute】
A minute later, the satisfied Mu Shan, having spent the money, set off on her journey.
She hadn’t walked far along the riverbank when she spotted He Yuncong under a centuries-old tree.
He wore a simple black T-shirt, arms crossed in a casual pose as he leaned against the trunk, long legs crossed.
Sunlight filtering through the leaves turned into scattered golden patches on him, while the man tilted his head, gazing motionless at the birds in the treetops.
This harmonious scene inexplicably made Mu Shan hallucinate a scene from the past.
From elementary school to junior high and high school, every time she went out to school and downstairs, there was always a boy standing under the neighborhood utility pole, rain or shine, like her guardian door god.
The boy in school uniform merged with the current Dream Faller exuding a murderous aura.
He Yuncong noticed her and reached out his hand.
“Shanshan, come here.”
Mu Shan’s thoughts cleared instantly. She quickened her pace, tiptoed to pat his shoulder, and muttered, “How are you here so early? You didn’t stay up all night, did you? Big shots are really something…”
She ignored his outstretched hand.
He Yuncong lowered his head and looked at his empty palm.
As he turned, the girl had already walked past quickly, leaving him only her back.
She had grown up and still wasn’t used to physical contact with him.
On the playground, outside the classroom, in the corridors.
She walked with classmates, with eager boys, while he could only watch her back for long stretches.
Fortunately, all those people were gone now.
He Yuncong’s gaze grew inscrutable. He said nothing and simply strode to catch up with the girl.
In the lush, humid, and stuffy forest, the two walked one behind the other in silence.
Mu Shan held a machete in her hand, but it wasn’t very useful. With yesterday’s precedent, the route from Position 5 to Position 7 had already been cleared and was relatively easy to traverse.
When she stopped to drink water, she didn’t notice two thin leeches lurking in the grass blades. They swiftly attached to her pants with her movements.
“Shanshan.”
Mu Shan turned back. “Hm?”
In the next second, in her blind spot, the leeches were swiftly engulfed by a stream of yellow sand and turned to ash without a sound.
Seeing He Yuncong say nothing but stare at her with that burning gaze—paired with the eerie beast-head mask on his head—it sent chills down her spine.
She subconsciously changed the subject. “Bro, want some water?”
“I have wild fruit here too, pretty sweet. Want some?”
He Yuncong didn’t say if he wanted any. He silently extended his hand again, palm up.
Mu Shan placed a fruit in his palm.
He Yuncong didn’t move.
She knew it; he wasn’t asking for fruit at all.
Neither spoke.
At that moment, rustling sounds came from the nearby bushes. Mu Shan reflexively raised her machete.
In the next instant, the disheveled Xia Xueqin crawled out from the bushes.
“Damn it, who would’ve believed it? I set out at 5 AM! I never even got up this early for school!”
Xia Xueqin wrung out her sweat-soaked clothes and cursed, “This crappy rainforest isn’t fit for human activity at all. I’d rather go back to the Snow Country Train!”
Her face and body were covered in grass scraps and leaves, her hair tangled, with swollen bug bites on her face—far more bedraggled than the two of them.
Xia Xueqin tied up her messy pink hair and saw the two standing face-to-face. She paused. “You two standing at military attention or what?”
Mu Shan started walking. “Nothing, let’s get going.”
“Hey, at least let me rest a bit—”
With two becoming three, although she still felt He Yuncong’s gaze, the lingering awkwardness was diluted.
Mu Shan was very curious about the “Snow Country Train” Xia Xueqin mentioned.
“A pure enclosed instance. You haven’t heard of it?”
She shook her head.
Xia Xueqin gestured. “It was the instance before [Zombie Siege], also my newbie trial. All us players were tossed onto a constantly moving train. Outside the cars was freezing tundra you couldn’t leave— that movie was pretty popular a few years ago. Didn’t expect the system to remake it as an instance.”
“The train cars were divided by class. Rich folks ate chicken, duck, and fish daily; the poor subsisted on cockroach paste.”
“Screw that, my safe house was in the poor district. I nearly cracked skulls over cockroach paste and seriously suspected the system had a grudge against me.”
Xia Xueqin sighed. “Some players, too hungry, teamed up to raid the rich district and never came back.”
She patted Mu Shan’s shoulder. “Classmate, if you enter a similar enclosed instance next time, remember: don’t get greedy and overreach.”
“So many end up dead from greed.”
The three slowly advanced through the tropical rainforest. Around 7:30 AM, they finally reached the safe house at Position 9.
Li Gang and Auntie Wang were already waiting there.
Wang Ruizhi looked at the motley crew and helplessly stepped forward. “Since we’re a temporary team, let’s share our class roles first. Mine’s support.”
Mu Shan didn’t hesitate. “I’m support too.”
Li Gang: “I’m assassin support.”
Xia Xueqin: “You can tell from the class name—Weather Forecaster. I’m a healer support.”
Wang Ruizhi sucked in a cold breath: …They were having a support team-building session.
“A bunch of supports with no frontline fighter—how are we supposed to fight?”
“Isn’t there the blue team? Let the big dummies take the lead against the bugs.” Xia Xueqin jerked her chin. “Besides, we’ve got the ace in the hole. What’re you worried about?”
Seeing He Yuncong standing motionless behind Mu Shan, Wang Ruizhi’s expression softened a bit. “…We don’t even know where the Insect Nest is exactly. Anyway, let’s head upstream first.”
The five-person team began moving along the river.
Positions 10 and 11 belonged to Norman Nov and Richard, respectively—both already abandoned.
It wasn’t until they passed Position 12, where a safe house should have been but was empty with no new players deployed by the system, that anything changed.
Li Gang examined the footprints on the ground. “Four or five people passed recently. Footsteps are messy.”
The primitive forest path was tough. Auntie Wang and Xia Xueqin panted heavily; everyone was exhausted, but Mu Shan knew no one would reveal their trump cards until crunch time.
Fortunately, with more people, they rotated who took the lead hacking through thorny bushes, allowing the rest to conserve energy.
About two hours later, farther from the safe houses, the scenery shifted. A continuous mountain range came into view.
“Anyone else feel it getting hotter?” Li Gang panted with his tongue out like a cat. “Temperature’s definitely over 30 degrees now.”
Xia Xueqin fanned herself with a leaf, cheeks flushed. “You got it. Real-time temp is 35 degrees and climbing.”
Auntie Wang smiled bitterly. “This instance won’t try to cook us alive, will it…”
“Shh, don’t say it. The system’s listening—it might come true.”
“That’s scary.”
Everyone took out water to drink. Mu Shan wiped sweat from her forehead and glanced at He Yuncong beside her, still completely dry in this heat.
She touched his arm—scorching hot, yet not a drop of sweat.
Looking up, his gaze met hers through the mask.
Seeing those deep blue eyes, Mu Shan seemed to smell the dry desert wind, climb endless dunes, witness a pharaoh’s court.
Suddenly, the forest didn’t feel so humid and stifling.
The closer they got to the mountain, the heavier the oppressive feeling.
Supporting each other into a valley, they spotted a massive beehive under a nearby cliff, with yellow-and-black bees constantly coming and going.
It was truly “massive.”
Xia Xueqin whispered hoarsely, “Holy crap, a beehive the size of a UFO—first time I’ve seen one!”
“Must be over a thousand square meters. Plenty of honey inside, right?”
Auntie Wang chattered, “Honey’s great stuff—long shelf life, high calories. Wild honey like this is rare, no additives…”
Mu Shan nodded. “Yes. My skill tells me it’s nest honey the size of the Crystal Palace.”
Hearing that Crystal Palace comparison, everyone gaped in shock.
Under her Hoarding Addiction II skill, the beehive showed vast areas marked as “food.” Mu Shan had never seen such a large “food” zone since entering the instance.
Sorry, country bumpkins.
Pity the food was right there, but they couldn’t take it. Hundreds of giant bees in the hive—if they all swarmed, it’d be like facing an army, unless someone had a nuke.
“Stop looking. Bees are trickier than cockroaches. Let’s go, meow.” Li Gang drooped dejectedly.
As giant bugs started appearing in groups, it meant the true Insect King boss lair wasn’t far.
The five perked up. To avoid disturbing the bees, they crept along the valley edge, careful not to make a sound.
But to reach the other side, they had to cross the giant bee valley.
“Bzzz—”
A worker bee the size of a fridge circled overhead before landing by the stream. They had planned to sneak across, but now hid behind the trees.
The giant bee was covered in fuzz, its huge abdomen ringed in black and yellow. Its mouthparts plunged into the stream, sucking water steadily. Its basketball-sized compound eyes stared who-knows-where.
Xia Xueqin silently pointed to her crowbar.
Mu Shan got the message.
That stinger at the bee’s rear was thicker than the crowbar—not a stab, but a gutting.
The valley floor was littered with broken rocks and jutting branches. They crouched in the shadows behind the trees, waiting for the giant bee to finish drinking and leave.
Mu Shan even had time to wonder where bees this big gathered nectar when she felt her arm heat up, as if touching someone’s skin.
Turning her head, He Yuncong squatted right beside her. His long legs folded, his tall frame not fully hidden by the tree shade despite curling up.
Afraid the giant bee would spot him, Mu Shan reached out and tugged him closer to her side.
After a long while, the drinking giant bee finally left, and the group moved forward again.
With the constant “buzzing” of wings overhead, the system survival countdown hovered around ten minutes.
【Dungeon Survival Time: 10 min 05 sec】
Mu Shan leaned on a tree branch as a crutch. Although she was drenched in sweat, she never dared to gasp loudly.
Xia Xueqin ran out of stamina and gradually fell to the back of the group.
Her head spun and her vision blurred. She misstepped and crushed a rotten log underfoot.
“Crack—”
A sharp, crisp sound echoed extraordinarily clearly through the valley. The open terrain amplified it with surround-sound effects.
Xia Xueqin’s body stiffened. She froze in place with her foot still on the branch, as if someone had hit pause.
But the next second—
“Boom—boom—”
The hive high on the cliff wall suddenly
exploded. The deafening blast shook their ears. Birds scattered in panic, dust filled the air, and chunks of the shattered hive flew visibly in all directions.
Everyone turned back in shock to look at her.
Xia Xueqin was completely dumbfounded. “It wasn’t me, really it wasn’t me!”
Mu Shan yanked her along. “You know it wasn’t you—now run!”
【Dungeon Survival Time: 1 min】
The group scattered in escape. The massive hive on the cliff wall, like a battleship from space, had a huge hole blasted in it. Chunks of its tough shell rained down like meteorites.
From time to time, a charred giant bee would drop too, making the scene resemble a meteor strike on Earth.
Li Gang bounded forward on all fours. He reacted swiftly with a mighty leap! In the blink of an eye, a massive fragment of the hive smashed a deep crater where he had just stood, snapping trees all around.
【Player Li Gang (Catwoman) uses skill: Copy Cat
(Active) Gain cat-like five senses and speed for a limited time. Can run on all fours, communicate with animals.
Prolonged use causes assimilation effect.
“Cats have nine lives, but humans don’t.”】
Li Gang shouted anxiously, “Run fast! I sense the swarm is enraged! They’ll attack players indiscriminately!”
They didn’t need his warning. The “buzz buzz buzz—” of wings overhead suddenly amplified countless times in an instant, making their ears ring, heads spin, and footing unsteady.
The furious swarm poured out en masse, like flowing storm clouds swirling and rising endlessly.
Social insects living in groups all had pheromones. This let them easily form an internal information network. Amid the chatter of hundreds of worker bees, the few abrupt, tiny humans had nowhere to hide.
Mu Shan saw the swarm, which had been milling in the sky, suddenly wheel around. They converged into a pitch-black tornado and charged rapidly toward their position.
But it wasn’t a real tornado—it was a mobile assassination squad of hundreds of massive bees packed densely together.
【Dungeon Survival Time: 29 sec】
The hairs on her arms stood on end. The group sprinted desperately toward the valley exit.
But humans couldn’t match flying speed anyway, let alone on the valley’s bumpy, uneven ground littered with obstacles.
Xia Xueqin, nearly tripping over a root, came up with a flash of inspiration. She turned her head and yelled, “Go back quick—it’s smoggy, not fit for travel!”
【Player Xia Xueqin (Weather Forecaster) uses skill: Smog
(Active) Area magic
Creates fog effect in range, inflicts mild poison on enemy units.
Reduces enemy unit visibility to some degree.
“Biochemical weapon: PM2.5!”】
As her words fell, white fog rapidly filled the valley air, laced with a pungent sulfurous stench.
Mu Shan donned her mask and silently counted to two in her mind. Visibility around them dropped swiftly from five meters to three, then one.
Once vision hit zero, the buzzing overhead grew faint. They saw the giant bees all hovering midair, as if pondering where the humans had gone.
The group exchanged glances, gave up sprinting, and began creeping forward in tiny, silent steps.
Smog wasn’t stationary. It was an aerosol of tiny water droplets suspended near the ground. When wind or movement stirred it, the fog would flow.
With temperatures at 35 degrees, intense exertion, and thick smog, Mu Shan already struggled to breathe.
The valley exit was just over a hundred meters away when she suddenly sensed something wrong.
The smog in the middle was quietly parting to the sides, exposing a vacuum strip free of white mist.
The fog cleared so fast, it was like a hundred blowers directing air at one spot.
But where would blowers even come from in this valley…