While they spoke, Yu Da squatted by the pile of mosquito corpses where friend and foe had been indistinguishable and counted.
After a while, he finished counting and walked over very solemnly. “Position 4, kills, about five giant insect monsters.”
“Mosquito heads I counted.”
“Hey, everyone performed exceptionally well. I used to consider taking down two a good result.” Li Gang sighed.
Wang Ruizhi wore a worried frown. “Adding the six Mu Shan took down, fewer than twenty of this batch of insect monsters remained. Too many. Downstream, only Position 2 was alone. Could she hold them off…”
“Go.” Yu Da waved his hand, concise.
Li Gang also stood up. “Let’s hurry and catch up to check. We might still make it in time to protect the village.”
Mu Shan was drenched in sweat all over, with abrasions left from the earlier battle. She bit her sleeve cuff and sprayed medicine on the wounds.
Wang Ruizhi walked over to help her roll up her sleeve. “Shanshan, can your body take it? Otherwise, stay here with Xuegu. The three of us can go.”
She shook her head. “I also planned to check on Brother Yuncong. He hasn’t replied to my messages. I’m a bit worried.”
Wang Ruizhi nodded, her gaze envious yet complicated as she looked at her.
“I don’t know when I can find my family… Sigh, never mind.”
The four quickened their pace toward downstream.
The spot that had been Position 3’s safe house (Anbu Chuanliang) was now empty. The ground still held much garbage, scattered everywhere by last night’s storm.
The insect monsters had bypassed Position 3 and gone straight downstream.
Mu Shan squatted at a clear boundary line pressed out by the safe house and examined it carefully.
Wang Ruizhi leaned in and whispered, “I heard Position 3 was also killed by a throat slash. Too terrifying.”
“Always shown in TV dramas. Usually, killers like that are psychological perverts. These victims must have some common trait—red clothes, going out on rainy nights… But I thought for a long time. David and Anbu seemed to have nothing in common except being men.”
Mu Shan looked at Wang Ruizhi somewhat speechlessly. “Auntie, you should watch less prime-time TV drama.”
“Hah.” Wang Ruizhi waved it off. “Don’t underestimate it. TV dramas are powerful. I survived thanks to the knowledge from them.”
“But what’s the deal with this instance? It’s clearly players against monsters, yet we’re hunting a killer like in those stories? How few opponents do we have?”
Wang Ruizhi spoke casually, but Mu Shan took it to heart.
How few opponents did players have… The insect monster faction was one, player infighting was two, the unpredictable natural disasters were three. Was there a fourth?
They quickened their steps toward Position 2. Before they truly arrived, deafening combat sounds reached them from afar.
One by one, giant mosquito monsters—charred black from burning, pitted from acid rain corrosion—were thrown out, arcing through the air before “bang” crashing to the ground.
To hurl refrigerator-sized mosquitoes like that indicated astonishing arm strength.
When the four arrived, they saw those thrown mosquitoes: legs fully broken, heads caved in, antennae plucked. No magic—just pure physical attacks.
The perpetrator leaped nimbly through bushes and shoreline rock piles with agile footwork. The weapon she used to control the mosquitoes was merely a bare bamboo pole.
Just watching, Mu Shan guessed her footwork and close combat skills surpassed even the fortune teller she had seen before.
The woman wore gender-neutral camouflage combat gear. Her boot stomped on one mosquito monster’s head as she launched into the air.
Zong Rui roared at the four from midair. “—Ten left! Help me block them!”
Several mosquito monsters had quietly slipped downstream, about to exit Position 2’s attack range.
Mu Shan and the others sprang into action.
Yu Da charged with wide strides, each step on the riverbank booming as his shoe sole left a shallow pit. In stark contrast, Li Gang was more agile and light than a cat. In a blink, he leaped onto a mosquito monster’s back, claws extended, raking its compound eyes and antennae.
Wang Ruizhi madly called for backup. Her seven aunts and eight uncles lacked attack power but provided strong interference—the mosquito monsters often charged only to find human illusions.
Mu Shan was exhausted, her weapons and skills on cooldown. She had no attack options left.
She threw out the Penrose Stairs. Once the item merged into the scene, a small area of spatial distortion rippled through the surrounding riverbank forest. Several insect monsters on the verge of escape suddenly turned around and rushed back themselves.
The players each restrained giant mosquitoes.
Zong Rui, eyes bloodshot, roared and swung her bamboo pole fiercely, smashing flat the skulls of two insect monsters with one strike.
But the pole was too thin. One end lodged awkwardly in a shell crevice. Zong Rui tugged twice but couldn’t immediately free it.
In that split-second gap, a monster lurking behind suddenly lunged, its iron-spike proboscis stabbing toward her back.
An old player’s instinct for mortal danger was ingrained. Zong Rui sensed something wrong and twisted aside just as the proboscis struck.
It pierced her clothing and muscle but missed organs and vitals due to the dodge.
Zong Rui gritted her teeth and endured, thrusting the pole backward viciously to impale the giant mosquito behind her.
She took two gasping steps, face pained. Her left hand clutched her waist side, fingers oozing blood.
Without Zong Rui’s main offensive output, the others fell back steadily.
Li Gang crawled on all fours, dodging dense insect leg assaults in disarray. He yelled in breakdown. “No good! I can’t hold them!”
Mu Shan wanted to draw her laser sword again, but her hands trembled uncontrollably. She tried several times but was too fatigued to even lift her arms.
“Hiss hiss hiss—” Burned and corroded into utmost ugliness, the insect monsters closed in.
The Penrose Stairs only made them circle the riverbank in place—it couldn’t stop them from attacking her.
Mu Shan’s breathing grew rapid. She gripped the scroll, hesitating whether to tear it for survival, when a sudden change occurred.
Several streams of fine sand erupted from the ground behind like pythons, instantly wrapping the insect monsters. In gentle coils, they snapped their heads.
Lethally silent.
Mu Shan’s hand relaxed on the summoning scroll. She looked over—the others faced similar scenes.
Agile sand snakes severed giant mosquitoes’ legs, buried their bodies, and soon reduced them to one.
Camel bells rang; wind and sand billowed.
An abrupt pyramid in the forest grew taller, bringing the hot, dry wind of desert regions.
Everyone halted.
Zong Rui wiped blood from her mouth, expression calm. “You finally came.”
Her answer was a figure approaching through the swelter.
The familiar black beast-ear mask, pointed ears erect atop the head, elongated canine snout concealing the man’s face—revealing only his cold jawline.
He Yuncong was black all over, save for a golden spectacles cobra armband on his arm. The little golden snake flicked its tongue wickedly at the group.
He didn’t reply to Zong Rui. He simply strode forward, stopping before a giant mosquito half-swallowed by desert sands, still struggling.
He Yuncong glanced at the five players, lingering on Mu Shan as he assessed her condition top to bottom. Then, wordlessly, he lowered his head and gestured in the void.
The five players fell silent a moment. Li Gang whispered, “What is he doing?”
Wang Ruizhi whispered back, “Seems like operating the system interface!”
“Operating what right now?? Kill the monsters first!”
They couldn’t see He Yuncong’s interface but watched his motions—like typing.
Soon, a red system prompt appeared in Mu Shan’s vision.
She suddenly had a strong bad feeling.
Sure enough, clicking it revealed his message reply.
[He Yuncong (Dream Faller): I’m fine, don’t worry.]
It stemmed from her post-storm inquiry.
Mu Shan looked at those six words, then at the man just over ten meters away, and the players around waiting on him.
Time hung suspended, leaving only the dying insect monster writhing at his feet.
She finally couldn’t suppress her stunned expression.
Seriously, you had to reply to this message right now?
After fending off this wave of insect monster attacks, the group was utterly spent. They found an open spot near Position 2’s safe house, sat to rest, and discussed next steps.
Zong Rui gritted her teeth, lifted her clothes, and bandaged her wound. She glanced at the dirtied group. “Why so many monsters today? What happened upstream?”
“Position 4 fainted, resting in the safe house.”
Mu Shan was concise. “Positions 6, 9, and 10 ambushed us and got counter-killed.”
Zong Rui paused a second, then accepted it quickly. “Knew they weren’t good people, but didn’t expect them so rotten. Captain taught me: in doomsday crises, players without a sense of the big picture don’t last long. Such people deserve no pity in death.”
Mu Shan was slightly surprised by her reaction. “Your captain was wise.”
“Of course. Smartest in the instance.”
Yu Da plucked a large tree leaf and fanned himself rapidly. He uttered one word: “Hot!”
Li Gang lay on the ground, burying himself under leaves.
Wang Ruizhi wiped sweat from her forehead with a towel. “Forest temperature nearing forty-five degrees. We can endure, but villagers are dying of heat.”
Her expression cautious: “Just a wild guess. If villagers die from extreme heat, does the side quest count as failed…?”
Everyone fell silent—even Yu Da stopped fanning.
Mu Shan sat with He Yuncong. She eyed the man beside her, seemingly awake but with dazed eyes. “Ignoring temperature, this wave reaching Position 9 had over fifty monsters. We’re down to six—no, seven now. It’ll get harder.”
“If the next insect monster numbers keep growing, three days won’t let us sustain combat. Stamina and skills can’t keep up. Players will be worn down by insect monsters. Side Quest 1 will fail, sooner or later.”
“Ah, I finally remembered what this is called.”
As everyone looked, Li Gang sat up from the leaf pile. He wiped tears, face bitter. “—This is a war of attrition meow. I don’t wanna die.”
Silence again.
After a while, Zong Rui cursed. “What are you, a big man, crying like that for!”
“The biggest problem now
is players and villagers can’t withstand the heat. I have a proposal. If we kill the Insect King early, the three-day assaults should stop. We can complete the side quest ahead of time.”
Wang Ruizhi murmured, “Wasn’t it your proposal before to go to the insect nest? Then those ambushers…”
Zong Rui struggled to save face. “Bad guys are all dead now! Just our seven, united and cooperating—we can do it, right?”
Enthusiasm was low overall. Fatigue, heat, and wounds drained everyone’s energy.
Mu Shan was tired too, but the more her body broke down, the more exhilarated her mind became.
“Before Position 11 died, they mentioned stumbling into a Stone Valley, possibly hiding the path to the insect nest. I’ve always believed the system wouldn’t set pointless, pure brute-force side quests. Too boring, not its style.”
Whether the C City institute murder or zombie outbreak cause, hidden truths awaited player discovery.
Mu Shan affirmed, “Humid Heat Forest must have plot clues.”
Zong Rui looked at her in horror. “Hiss, your speech is too much like my captain! Fine, we’ll listen to you.”
“Then rest today. Tomorrow morning, we head out together to find Stone Valley.”
Before dispersing, Yu Da stopped them. He pulled items from his backpack—colorful little bottles piled on the ground. “Drink, restore stamina, mushroom juice.”
Mu Shan didn’t expect the silent big lug to actually be a good person. She picked a red one, and He Yuncong beside her followed by picking a green one.
The bottles were very cute, small and exquisite, a bit like mushrooms. But the moment she took a sip, that smell shot straight to the top of her head… Mu Shan hurriedly covered her mouth.
Did all drinks with special effects have to taste this hellish?
From afar, she saw several people gathered together doing something suspicious.
They drank their beverages while yue.
After bidding farewell to the others, Mu Shan planned to head to the village to pick up the white bread she had ordered from the merchant earlier. He Yuncong came along with her.
The system was ruthless to players and equally ruthless to the NPCs spawned in its own instances.
A deep crimson blazing sun still hung in the sky, emitting scorching light. Under this abnormal high temperature, a sunshower suddenly fell out of nowhere.
The raindrops weren’t refreshing at all; it was like boiling water pouring down.
Mu Shan had only reached the village entrance when she broke out in another body full of hot sweat.
There were no cooling methods in this medieval Western setting—no air conditioning or ice.
Almost all production activities in the village had stopped. Raw materials like stones and sand piled up along the roadsides, while many bare-chested laborers lay resting in the shade of trees and under eaves. The women no longer went out. Many children were nearly naked, endlessly splashing water on themselves.
If this temperature continued to rise abnormally, she predicted the villagers wouldn’t last more than a week.
Mu Shan walked toward the direction of the small vendors, but the alley was empty, with no sign of the familiar merchants.
After a while, a rotund merchant emerged from a small wooden door nearby—it was the same one from their previous transaction.
He had a bitter expression as he pushed back the 2 gold coins. “Adventurer miss, in this weather, the bread will spoil in just a few days. We can’t do it. Here’s your deposit back.”
Mu Shan nodded, and the man carried his child—whose cheeks were flushed red from the heat—back into the house.
She walked out of the alley and saw, in front of the church, the village chief and the missionary praying for the deceased villagers.
The corpses lay in rows, covered with white cloth, but the exposed arms and legs resembled dried-up mummies—skin darkened, wrinkled, and devoid of moisture.
Mu Shan widened her eyes. They had died from the heat.
The Tasi Village Chief seemed even older. He wrapped himself in tattered robes and prayed devoutly, “The Savior will come. He certainly will.”
The church bells rang out, and Mu Shan stood silently watching the ceremony for a while.
The warm rain didn’t soak her hair much, thanks to a large hand held over her head, trying to shield her.
Mu Shan looked up and met He Yuncong’s serious expression.
“This little rain is fine.”
He shook his head. “Shanshan has an exam. Can’t get wet.”
Mu Shan was stunned, and suddenly her nose stung. She turned her head and buried her face in He Yuncong’s chest.
The man raised his hand to embrace her gently, patting her back just like he had done countless times when they were little.