The residents of the villa district perhaps never knew that beneath the church lay such a massive underground palace.
If they had known, the real estate market would probably have crashed into an avalanche.
Mu Shan and Cheng Kaiwen kept heading in the direction indicated by the skill【Fire/Arms】. But the paths inside the underground palace were not straight lines; there were inevitable turns here and there.
As they turned, Mu Shan sensed something wrong.
How had they come in earlier…
The underground palace’s layout was too complex, with no obvious landmarks. If they ran into a powerful enemy later, they might not even be able to escape.
She asked the man walking beside her with his hands in his pockets, “Do you remember the route we took earlier?”
Cheng Kaiwen turned to look at her. “Of course not.”
Mu Shan was at a loss for words. “Then how are we going to…”
“Tricking you.”
Cheng Kaiwen held the flashlight steady. “How’s your death countdown?”
Mu Shan glanced at the top of her head, puzzled. “It was down to one minute earlier, but now it’s back to three minutes.”
It had always hovered around the death line, fluctuating up and down.
“Pretty good. You’re living longer and longer.” Cheng Kaiwen kicked open a slightly ajar wooden door and walked in. “I’ve had enough of this filthy underground palace. How much longer until we reach the resource point?”
“In fact, we should have arrived already.”
Mu Shan’s expression turned strange. She stopped, frowning as she looked around.
“We seem to have been going in circles.”
The skill display showed the golden resource point right at hand, but no matter how they moved, they couldn’t get closer.
It was like an invisible bubble separated them in the middle.
Three minutes ago, the two had entered a narrow corridor with an arched ceiling above, square floor tiles below, and carvings of various figures on both sides, all undergoing cruel tortures.
Every certain distance, the corridor connected to another arched ceiling; from the outside, they looked identical. After a while, Mu Shan couldn’t tell which way they were going at all.
Cheng Kaiwen said nothing. He squatted down to check the ground.
After a moment, he stood up. “The number of tiles is off. Eighteen on the right side, only seventeen on the left. This is a left-curving arc.”
The man narrowed his eyes at the carvings on the wall. “Someone deliberately built a maze to keep outsiders from discovering the hidden secrets.”
Mu Shan tapped the gray brick wall with her finger. “So, there must be a secret room inside the wall?”
The sound was dull; the brick wall was very thick.
“So thick—how are we going to break…”
Before she finished speaking, the man beside her quickly pulled a small round ball from his pocket, stuck it on the wall, then yanked her and leaped to the side.
“Boom—” A massive explosion rocked the earth.
Mu Shan hugged her head and crouched down. She felt bricks and tiles crashing down from above with crackling sounds, dust filling the sky and choking her eyes shut.
After who knew how long, the commotion finally died down.
Cheng Kaiwen spread his hands. “See? It’s open now.”
Mu Shan stared in stunned silence.
The two stepped one after the other into the stone wall blasted open with a large hole.
Inside was indeed a circular secret chamber, about a hundred square meters, with burned-out torches tied to the surrounding load-bearing pillars.
On the central stone platform lay a highly decomposed female corpse.
Not a zombie, but human.
And like the monster they had encountered earlier, she was pregnant, though her abdomen had been cut open. The dried-up belly held no fetus, only insects crawling in and out.
On the surrounding walls, seven adult skeletons were bound with their arms tied behind them; gender was indistinguishable because, like the half corpses outside, they had been skinned.
Mu Shan stood in the middle, feeling as if she had stumbled into some cult organization’s sacrificial site.
“Move fast—the noise from earlier will attract zombies!” She precisely located the resource point. “It’s there!”
The two rushed over immediately and, sure enough, found a hidden hole in the corner. Crawling inside led to a small dark room.
The dark room was so narrow an adult couldn’t stand straight.
On the ground sat three locked metal boxes side by side.
Mu Shan pointed to two of them. “These two are both【Fire/Arms】, but I don’t know the exact type. Just to warn you, they might be firecrackers…”
The boxes looked completely ordinary; there was no way to tell what was inside from the appearance. And hidden so secretly—who would know without her【Hoarding Addiction】skill?
Cheng Kaiwen wordlessly stored the boxes in his inventory.
Mu Shan decisively took the remaining one.
At that moment, a eerie “tap-tap” sound suddenly rose from deeper underground, like the footsteps of a thousand armies and ten thousand horses.
They crawled out of the dark room, and right after, a “woo-woo” sound echoed in the circular chamber.
Mu Shan’s scalp tingled. “What was that?”
Cheng Kaiwen: “It’s wind.”
“We’re deep underground, who knows how many meters. Where’s the wind coming from?”
But the woo-woo grew louder, accompanied by increasingly dense footsteps, making the sacrificial human bones around them seem to twist in torment, like souls struggling in purgatory.
【Dungeon Survival Time: 00:30】
【00:29】
The death countdown shrank rapidly.
The two rushed out of the chamber, but the sounds persisted in the corridor, growing even louder.
Mu Shan’s heart pounded like a drum in her chest. She couldn’t tell which direction the sounds came from; it felt like monsters had surrounded them on all sides.
Cheng Kaiwen’s expression turned exceptionally serious. He suddenly grabbed her arm. “Monsters—move!”
Mu Shan had no time to speak. Her vision blurred, and she felt herself lifted into the air, feet dangling, fierce winds whipping her hair wildly and forcing her eyes shut.
They sped along like lightning, scenes flashing by rapidly. When she came to her senses,
She was somehow standing again at the entrance of the grand chapel.
Mu Shan turned back in shock.
Chandelier, pews, crucifix—everything was just as they had left it.
The overwhelming footsteps were gone.
The building stood silent and unnaturally clean and peaceful.
Cheng Kaiwen beside her was expressionless. He kicked the church door shut and locked it with a casual motion, sealing off any chance of anything inside getting out.
When he turned back, his roguish smile returned. “Thanks a lot, little newbie. You really helped me out big time.”
“Hey, newbies these days are impressive. The waves behind push the waves ahead—the support class is just too important!”
Mu Shan pursed her lips. This guy had clearly held back a plan all along, had the confidence to escape unscathed but didn’t say so, leaving her terrified the whole way, worried about dying underground.
A light drizzle fell, mist shrouding the villa district, with occasional bird calls making the underground nightmare feel like a dream.
The white buzz-cut man bent down, smiling close to her, silver chain glinting on his neck. “A chance encounter is fate, beauty. Add me as a friend?”
Mu Shan turned away. “I’m too noob. No qualification to add a big shot like you.”
Cheng Kaiwen sidled up with a grin. “Don’t be so heartless, little newbie. I think we have great chemistry. You’re support, perfect match for me. How about we team up to hunt resources?”
Mu Shan fumed. “A five-digit big shot like you still short on resources? …Besides, the places you go, I won’t survive. I’ve helped enough—I’ve got my own stuff to do. See you never?”
She raised her axe, tone cool. Her words carried the resolve to fight to the death if he didn’t let her go.
Cheng Kaiwen straightened, eyes darkening. “So heartless…”
The next second, the man held an umbrella and stood in the rain again.
“Little newbie, looking forward to meeting you again. Make sure you survive~”
Cheng Kaiwen winked at her, then vanished instantly.
Mu Shan let out a huge sigh of relief.
Elite players were so unpredictable. But good—he kept his word, didn’t really abandon her in the underground palace, and even helped fend off the advanced zombie at the critical moment.
She hoped they wouldn’t meet again.
Mu Shan cursed under her breath. She glanced back one last time at the somber church, then ran toward where she had come from, her plastic rain boots splashing water.
She pondered along the way: Rogue was the strongest player she had met so far. She didn’t know if his devil tail was from his class or something else. A five-digit ID player—who knew how many dungeons he had survived? Impossible to read.
He had used the word【Monster】at the end, not【Zombie】.
So, what terrifying monster lurked beneath the church that even Rogue chose to retreat from?
Mu Shan returned to Villa Three. Since they had left the door open, she entered through the front this time without issue.
She went straight to the second-floor storage room and, amid the clutter, successfully found the camping gear the homeowner had prepared.
Beige waterproof canvas tent x1, matching canopy x1, camping lights x2, waterproof mats x2.
Kettle with hanging handle x1, hanging pot x1, cutting board x1, titanium alloy cups and cutlery set, folding trash bin x1.
Mu Shan stared in disbelief. Had this family bought all this and never used it?
Was her haul this trip a bit too bountiful? Like a poor kid doubting herself—surely this wasn’t a dream!
In that instant, she felt like a traveler laden with treasure.
Though it was still morning, Mu Shan had exceeded her daily scavenging quota and planned to head home early.
Her car was still parked safely in the garage.
As she got in, she suddenly saw birds startling into flight from the sky, flocks of various species “whooshing” from deep in the villa district, forming a vast black cloud that scattered.
The scene was shocking and sparked ominous guesses.
Mu Shan didn’t look back. She floored the accelerator and left this troublesome place.
While driving, she got a message from the fortune teller saying he had finished drawing the talismans and they could trade somewhere tomorrow.
Mu Shan casually invited him to join for the side quest at the research institute, but as expected, he refused.
[Shu Yongzhi (Re-employment Fortune Teller)]: Forcing out the zombie toxin that day depleted my mana badly. It’ll probably take a few days to recover. This Poor Daoist is willing but lacks the strength.
Mu Shan said it was fine.
Closing the friends interface, she suddenly recalled a detail.
In the underground palace, Cheng Kaiwen had used the skill【Wandering Through Flowers】, and she had seen the system prompt.
But back at the villa, he must have used teleportation too, and she hadn’t noticed.
Mu Shan had a guess: When the main god system deemed them【Teammates】, she could observe the other’s skills;
Conversely, in【Hostile/Neutral】states, no matter what he used, she couldn’t see the details.
Tsk, careless.
She should have added him as a friend earlier.
Back at the park, Mu Shan left the damp raincoat and boots in the sunroom, changed shoes, and entered the safe house.
The carrot head she had soaked yesterday had sprouted roots, white tendrils full of life.
But a plate wasn’t a long-term solution; soaking the carrot head long-term would make it rot.
Mu Shan thought for a moment, then materialized [Item Card: One Badminton Racket]. She placed the racket across the plate, letting the carrot’s roots dangle through the mesh to absorb water perfectly.
“Genius.”
She sorted her haul one by one, finally taking out the biggest prize—the metal box.
The box was covered in dense rust spots, with a nominal copper lock at the opening. Mu Shan easily pried it open with a hammer. Inside was a yellowed sheepskin scroll.
【Summoning Array Scroll (Consumable)
Quality: Rare
Usage: Write a name in blood, burn the scroll with fire
Description: Forcibly sacrifices the specified target to the “Blood Holy Mother”
Note: If the sacrificial flesh and blood isn’t enough to sate her hunger, the Holy Mother will seek her own offerings. Be careful~】
Mu Shan rubbed her arms, inexplicably thinking of the zombie pregnant woman birthing infant zombies in the underground palace. This summoning array scroll carried some danger; she couldn’t use it unless absolutely necessary.
She now suspected the two boxes Rogue took weren’t ordinary firecrackers either…
Another day of adventure ended. That night, Mu Shan finally had seasonings.
She used the rice cooker to steam sausage mixed-grain rice. The sliced sausages softened as they cooked with the rice, and the released oil was absorbed by the grains, making each one crystal clear and bursting with fragrance.
She stir-fried some greens in a nonstick pan, adding just a pinch of salt.
She also boiled a big pot of potato and onion thick soup in another pot, tossing in some diced sausages.
After eating a hearty, warm meal, she felt all the fatigue in her body melt away in the comforting aroma of home cooking.
Food could bring the greatest comfort to people.
She took a hot shower and then slipped into her warm bed.
Perhaps due to the intense shock from the underground palace, she had a dream for the first time in a long while.
In the dream, her mother was cooking her favorite dish in the kitchen, and the sweet-and-sour ribs aroma wafted over from far away.
Her father sat on the sofa reading the newspaper but suddenly looked toward the door with a disapproving expression.
“Coming to Uncle’s house for dinner, and you still bring something? Xiao He, you’re too polite.”
“Shanshan, what are you sitting there like a fool for? Hurry up and take the things!”
Mu Shan slowly turned her head and saw a tall man standing at her home’s doorway, seemingly holding a fruit basket.
She walked closer, wanting to see his face clearly, but a white light flashed, making her vision blur.
【Earth Calendar, April 1, 2024. Congratulations, all countries on Earth have officially entered the Main God Game】
【First batch of players deployed. Successful deployment: 20 million people】
【Earth Calendar, May 1, 2024
First batch player survival rate: 6%
First batch player growth rate: 0.001%
Rating: Poor
Continuing deployment of second batch players
Deployment successful】
【Key observation targets from first batch players: He Yuncong, Charles Muller, Shi Jia, Du Mingqi…】