Huang Hongbo’s eyes widened, his features twisted as he pointed at her. “Stinking bitch, spit out David’s item quick, and maybe I’ll spare your worthless life!”
Mu Shan said, “I have good reason to suspect you’re the one who wanted to kill him more.”
Huang Hongbo laughed. “Big talk won’t save you. I know that’s how people react when they snag a rare item. No matter—once you’re dead, all your loot will drop anyway.”
He glared at Xia Xueqin and Wang Ruizhi on either side. “What are you staring at? Get lost already, unless you wanna die!”
Xia Xueqin was so furious she wanted to roll up her sleeves and argue, but Wang Ruizhi grabbed her arm and dragged her back. The two struggled as they retreated, but Mu Shan never even glanced their way during it all.
The three white guys and Huang Hongbo might have been allies once, but their self-interests loomed larger.
The beehive on the cliff face earlier had exploded out of nowhere—likely their doing, to scatter Red Team or lure He Yuncong away.
Huang Hongbo watched the two women retreat farther and farther, leaving Mu Shan alone in place. The girl’s slender, fragile figure looked utterly helpless and isolated, fueling his sadistic urge to dominate even more.
“With that psycho Number One gone, you’ve got nothing left, huh?”
“Heh heh heh…”
He raised the torch in his hand, his skill not yet unleashed, when a furious roar suddenly erupted behind him.
“Smog makes for bad travel weather—!!!”
【Player Xia Xueqin (Weather Forecaster) used skill: Smog】
Before he could react, Mu Shan dropped into a swift forward roll, tumbling straight into the roadside brush.
Huang Hongbo and his group hadn’t even processed it when the words landed and thick white mist began spreading rapidly. In the blink of an eye, visibility in the woods dropped to half a meter.
“Damn it!”
He activated his skill at once. Serpent-like flames slithered from the torch, twisting and leaping through the air.
But fire couldn’t burn away mist. After all his effort, the dense white fog showed no sign of thinning.
With visibility that low, he couldn’t even spot Mu Shan and the others—his own group couldn’t see past their own hands.
“Fuck!” Richard cursed, eyes scanning warily. “Sneaky bitches!”
“Watch for ambushes.” Norman Nov lowered his voice. They pressed back-to-back in a defensive stance. “The fog’s poisonous—my status just turned to [Mild Poisoning]. Losing 1 HP per minute…”
Huang Hongbo’s flames morphed into fiery serpents that danced in the air, encircling him from head to toe. Firelight twisted his face into a grotesque mask. “What’re you scared of? Those women are just support types—good for cheap tricks in the shadows.”
“Head-on fight? They’re dead meat.”
“Quick battle, quick win!”
They formed a triangular defensive formation and inched forward cautiously.
The white mist was deathly quiet.
Tiny water droplets drifted on the breeze, brushing faces softly before parting to the sides. The unchanging white dulled the eyes easily.
Huang Hongbo gawked like a dead fish, ears filled only with his own and his allies’ ragged breaths.
“Huff—huff—”
Had those three just run off? If they went back to warn the others, they were screwed…
Huang Hongbo took a step forward. His shoe crunched crisply—“crack”—like it snapped a twig.
He paid it no mind, but the next second, a pale, rotting zombie face lunged up from below. Gaps in its jagged teeth held scraps of red flesh, and its foul, gaping maw nearly smashed into his face.
“Aaah!”
Huang Hongbo jerked back, heart nearly stopping.
He bellowed, jamming the torch between the zombie’s teeth while his coiling fire serpents went berserk on it.
But regular zombies were more gross than tough. The searing flames soon charred it black.
It froze mid-lunge, limbs withering like dead branches—eerie as hell.
Huang Hongbo was drenched in sweat. Panting heavily, he broke down and roared into the fog. “Same old trick! It won’t work twice!”
“Come on! Summon all your zombies—I’ll burn every last one!”
Pushed to the brink, he snapped completely, reason gone.
Seconds of silence followed, then suspicious rustling answered from the mist.
“What’s that noise?” Richard whispered.
Norman Nov frowned. “Sounds familiar, like…”
The rustling grew closer, louder.
As it neared, two massive, iron-bar-thick antennae parted the fog. A train-engine-sized insect face gaped wide, revealing hundreds of dense, razor teeth inside.
The giant rock moth bulldozed through obstructing saplings and charged them.
“Aaah—!”
Panic-stricken, they bolted in all directions, direction be damned.
“Where’d this giant bug come from!”
【One Lepidopteran Insect Monster (summoned by Player Collector)】
Seeing the tag, Huang Hongbo froze. “You—you stinking brat! How can a collector summon giant bugs? What the hell does that profession even do!”
But no one answered from the enveloping fog.
The massive rock moth pursued relentlessly. Norman Nov lagged behind and took several brutal lashes from its iron-hard antennae, skin splitting open.
They scattered. No one wanted to get close. Seeing Norman Nov locked in deadly pursuit, he gritted his teeth, endured the pain, and hurled an item at the rock moth.
It hit the bug and expanded instantly into a shimmering, rainbow-reflecting soap bubble.
【Soap Bubble (Defense Type)
Remaining Uses: 0】
The bubble looked fragile enough to pop on touch, yet it trapped the entire giant insect. The rock moth’s huge body bobbed up and down inside like it was dreaming, antennae twitching now and then—fully comatose.
【Soap Bubble Timer: 110 seconds, 109 seconds…】
Norman Nov caught his breath, not yet popping a potion to heal, when a gleaming machete burst from behind, aimed straight at his head.
A tall white man moved with agility belying his burly build.
Norman Nov dodged nimbly.
He turned, glaring coldly at the woman emerging from the fog toward him.
Wang Ruizhi hefted her machete, arm muscles taut. “Russkie, you’re facing this old lady.”
Meanwhile, Richard evaded the giant bug without noting his path. When he stopped, his allies were nowhere in sight.
The fog around him was even thicker now.
He could barely see a thing.
【Player Richard (Express Delivery) used skill: Express Delivery】
With the skill active, he relaxed a bit.
In the blinding smog, the middle-aged man gripped his gun tight and perked his ears.
The thick fog wasn’t totally silent. With his enhanced physique buff, he caught a telltale breath hidden in the mist.
“Bang bang—” Richard fired twice toward the sound.
The shots rang out sharply, but afterward, all stayed quiet—no hit feedback.
A sniper’s patience was legendary. He held steady, arms rock-solid, waiting calmly.
When the ragged breathing resumed nearby, he swung the shotgun like a club.
The hard stock smashed into flesh with a thud. His foe grunted and stumbled.
The fog thinned slightly with proximity. Richard made out his opponent.
That smug pink-haired brat.
He sneered, contempt plain in his eyes. “You supports are pathetic. Tough luck running into me—ex-Marine Corps. You’re done.”
Xia Xueqin wiped nosebleed and spat bloody saliva. “Shut it, old fart.”
Huang Hongbo crashed through bushes in blind flight, unsure how far he’d gone, until he burst from the fog.
Something on the ground tripped him mid-stride, nearly sending him sprawling.
Looking down, he saw a human corpse overgrown with mycelium, turned to moss.
He scrambled up but halted after a few steps.
…The path ahead, buried in weeds, wasn’t a path—it was a cliff.
He glanced back. The forest behind lay still, no sign of the others.
All escaped?
No way.
Huang Hongbo clutched his torch left-handed, slowly drawing a long machete right-handed. His eyes darted neurotically, cold sweat paling his already savage face.
No warning—“thwip thwip—” green pellets shot from the woods.
Silent, they peppered his calf.
Huang Hongbo yelped and dropped to one knee. Instinct sent him rolling twice; sure enough, the green stuff pelted the ground in his wake.
Peas?!
He whipped out an item and donned it fast.
【Warrior’s Armor (Defense Type), Durability 71/100】
The armor was hefty, Roman-style, giving solid reassurance. Peas thudded dully against it, dropping durability by 10 in seconds.
Huang Hongbo’s heart bled.
Gritting teeth, he chugged healing potions and staggered up.
“Stinking brat…!”
His torch’s orange-red flames shifted purple-red. Two long fire serpents slithered out like living things, hissing as they plunged into the brush toward Mu Shan’s hideout.
The serpents auto-targeted. Mu Shan had been holding breath in the undergrowth, sniping coldly, but flames scorched right to her feet—forcing her out.
Huang Hongbo had been waiting outside ages.
Next instant, cold steel flashed overhead. His machete hacked down viciously at her.
“Clang—” Metal clashed.
No blood spray.
Mu Shan’s eyes blazed red. She raised both arms to block the blade; the force numbed and stung her hands.
But the insect shell arm guards stopped it cold—no penetration, and the blade chipped.
“You…”
Huang Hongbo clearly hadn’t expected such tough gear. In that split-second distraction, Mu Shan flung something at his face.
He paled in alarm. A midair fire serpent acted like a third arm, batting the item aside.
The Nine Linked Rings clattered uselessly to the ground.
Leaping fire serpents ringed Huang Hongbo—no blind spots. He was a walking inferno, untouchable.
He savored Mu Shan’s shock.
Satisfaction swelled. “Hahaha! Now you’re helpless!”
Grinning viciously: “Give up. This is the gap between vets and noobs—you’ll never match my power.”
“You’re doomed to die… right… here… today.”
This three-pronged 1v1 battle heated up, but the tide didn’t turn Mu Shan’s way.
【Player Norman Nov (Builder) used skill on you: Piecework】
The middle-aged white guy smirked coldly, hammer pounding the ground rhythmically.
Wang Ruizhi stood tall. But she switched the machete to her other hand, hiding her swollen, bleeding, trembling right behind her back.
She had more hidden bruises, all under clothes.
In combat, she couldn’t see his skill effects.
Guessing: a melee skill stacking hits for crits.
Wang Ruizhi cocked her head, distant forest sounds clear in her ears.
【Player Wang Ruizhi (Auntie Wang) used skill: Roadside Intel Squad
(Active) Collects sound sources within 2km of current scene, 80% accuracy】
“Nothing escapes the ears of this old man and old lady.”】
She heard Huang Hongbo’s eerie laughter, the sound of Richard firing his gun, and Xia Xueqin’s muffled grunt of pain.
She did not hear Mu Shan’s voice.
The situation seemed far from good.
Meanwhile, in the distant Giant Bee Valley, yellow sand had completely buried the ground’s vegetation. The pyramid and sun god stone carving stood abruptly, with no trace that this had once been a tropical rainforest.
The sandstorm gradually died down. Wind blew across, and the sand dunes flowed slowly, revealing the giant bee corpses buried beneath the yellow sand—now turned into mummies.
These dead giant bees were stacked one atop another. Aside from their shells, all their internal flesh and blood had been sucked dry by the yellow sand, ultimately piling into tall hills of insect corpses.
A pitch-black figure stood atop the sand dune formed from these corpses. Bathed in sunlight, its shadow cast a posture utterly unlike a human’s: pointed beast ears, a long canine snout, slender arms…
Li Gang had originally wanted to flee, but the sandstorm blocked his path, forcing him to hide in the bushes. That hiding spot trapped him directly in the valley, making him the only survivor besides He Yuncong.
He crawled on the ground like a cat, his entire body pressed against a mountain rock, his back arched up as if his fur were standing on end.
Drenched in sweat, Li Gang stared at the tall figure slowly rising not far away, his voice trembling. “Dream Faller, calm down. You have to calm down…”
“Aaaah—!”