Feeling the pressure from the Wood Spirit, Ye Lian decided to stay hidden by the underground river a while longer before heading out again.
She put away the giant crab’s shiny black pincers and its eight walking legs.
Following the underground river downstream, she kept moving.
Along the way, she didn’t encounter any Nightmare creatures, but she did pick up a few useful materials.
“There’s a hole.”
She suddenly stopped and tilted her head toward the stone wall.
There, a cave about two meters high and one meter wide opened up in the rock.
She could feel wind blowing out from inside.
‘Could this lead to the surface?’
Ye Lian tilted her head slightly.
‘Forget it. If I can’t find a way out further down, I’ll come back and check it out.’
Retracting her gaze, she continued walking down the path.
***
Ten minutes later, she finally came across a group of familiar gray-armored crocodiles.
Compared to those upstream, these crocodiles were noticeably larger and more muscular.
As soon as they noticed Ye Lian, the creatures rushed at her in unison.
But all it took was a few swings of her spear, and blood and flesh flew through the air—the scene quickly turned into a massacre.
“Pretty sharp. Next, let’s test penetration.”
A few of the crocodiles tried to escape, but their bodies suddenly turned cold.
As if something sharp had pierced right through them.
“Not bad. There’s no resistance.”
As she said this, the few crocodiles that had tried to run collapsed completely lifeless, blood spurting from the holes in their bodies.
‘If I run into another giant crab, I should be able to kill it with one strike.’
Looking around, she didn’t see a single powerful monster nearby and couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
She casually swung her spear and sliced off the crocodiles’ tails.
Then she quickly removed their armored scales and stored them in her backpack.
Although she had no use for the materials herself, ordinary players definitely would.
‘Crafting some equipment and trading it for rare materials will save me a lot of effort.’
Now that she had more breathing room, Ye Lian started thinking long-term.
After all, once the closed beta ended, the public launch wasn’t far off.
By then, demand for all kinds of things would definitely skyrocket.
‘And I’ll be the one who can meet those demands.’
With her god-tier alchemy skills, Ye Lian could easily play the role of a merchant in the game.
‘Sell off the low-tier stuff, and use the high-tier items to issue quests. The more people involved, the easier things become—saves me a lot of trouble. The only issue now is that I have no foothold.’
As this thought crossed her mind, an image of what looked like a fortress or city appeared in her head.
‘Seems like I’ll have to take that place.’
If a player wanted long-term growth, a secure base was essential.
Ye Lian planned to take over that area and turn it into an impenetrable stronghold.
That way, she could harvest—no, provide a safe and enjoyable gaming experience for others.
‘To make that happen, overwhelming strength is a must.’
Whether it was conquering or managing a territory, she needed the power to back it up.
But before that, her top priority was surviving—and finding a way to stop the dream invasion.
No matter how powerful she became in the game, it wouldn’t change how fragile reality was.
That thought immediately weighed down Ye Lian’s heart.
‘If I’d just paid a little more attention and studied my character panel thoroughly, I probably wouldn’t be worrying about this now.’
Because her Corruption Value had long since surpassed the human limit—reaching a staggering one million!
A mere Dream Invasion was no threat to her at all.
At this moment, most players in the game hadn’t even realized the significance of the Corruption mechanic.
***
Outside.
‘Hah… hah… Level 15. I need to find a place to rest.’
Mu Ling leaned against a tree, breathing lightly.
After multiple rounds of clearing, she had wiped out all the Nightmare Creatures in the area.
But her stamina was almost at its limit.
She couldn’t go on without taking a break.
Her gaze swept the surroundings, and she spotted a large tree not far away—with a sizable hollow in its trunk.
She focused and sensed the area carefully.
After confirming there were no hidden threats, she quickly walked over and hid inside.
Then, she took out a fiery red fruit and took a small bite.
It was very sour, with a touch of bitterness.
Compared to real-world fruits, it could only be described as disgusting.
But she had no choice but to eat it.
‘My current Corruption Value is 65. I need to bring it down.’
Looking at the number on her interface, a hint of concern appeared on her face.
‘Once the Corruption reaches 100, it’s game over. I really should’ve warned them…’
Back then, she had been too focused on the Moon Emperor to find time to talk to the others.
Though to be honest, even if she had spoken up, no one would have believed her.
They were all closed beta players—why would they take her so-called nonsense seriously?
‘Forget it. Life and death are up to fate. This was never something I could control.’
She shook her head slightly and continued gnawing on the red fruit.
Before long, her Corruption Value dropped to 20 on the interface.
‘Down by 45 points. Not bad. Too bad I don’t have any mental recovery potions. With just one, I could’ve maintained a corruption-free state for a long time.’
She closed the interface and leaned back, her eyes gazing outward in thought.
‘999 beta testers. Excluding myself, that’s 998 faces. And I still couldn’t find one that looked like her…’
‘Could she have disguised herself?’
‘No… The game had just started. There’s no way she had access to disguise items that early. But if that’s true, then how come I couldn’t find her? Even if she turned to ashes, I’d still recognize that face!’
The more she thought, the more her head hurt.
“I should’ve just slaughtered everyone on sight… What the hell am I thinking?!”
Mu Ling smacked her head hard, trying to drive away the evil thoughts.
‘If I’d done that, what would be the difference between me and a monster? Besides, I haven’t found her yet…’
She bit her lip as she stared out at the forest beyond, her usually cold expression giving way to rare vulnerability.
***
Outside the dense forest, fifteen players were wandering around.
So far, they hadn’t encountered any danger.
“This is disgusting. There are corpses everywhere… ugh!”
A female player gagged when she saw the bloody corpses littering the ground.
“The cuts are very clean. Looks like they were sliced apart with a sharp weapon. Whoever did this is highly skilled—a real expert.”
A young man in his twenties, with plain looks, calmly analyzed the scene.
“What’s there to look at? It’s disgusting!”
A beautiful woman in her thirties, wearing a red evening dress, walked ahead while expressing her disgust.
Just then, one of the players at the back noticed something horrifying.
On the nearly bare back of the woman in the red dress was a mosquito—three fingers wide and almost ten centimeters long!
At that moment, the massive mosquito had already sucked its fill. Its belly was so swollen it looked ready to burst.
“Hey! There’s a huge mosquito on your back!” the plain-looking young man warned.
“You talking to me?” The woman in red stopped walking and turned slightly, her face puzzled.
A mosquito? On her back?
‘Why hadn’t she felt anything?’
As she reached behind to check, her expression froze, and her face turned pale as a sheet.
“Don’t move. I’ll kill it!” the young man grabbed a sharp branch that had been cut cleanly, likely by a weapon, and charged forward.
Even sensing danger, the bloated mosquito continued to greedily suck blood.
Shlick—the branch pierced its head, instantly ending its life.
“Okay, you can let go now.”
“Than—” The woman in red had just started to speak when a sudden change occurred.
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Tftc!
so, Mu Ling is obviously a regressor from the future, who met Ye AFTER he became a she in the original timeline, and was not aware of his original face/body