“They might not have realized it yet, but soon they’ll understand just how terrifying contamination points can be,” Bai Xue said with lingering fear.
If Ye Lian hadn’t had the antidote back then, she would probably be dead by now.
“Enough about that—help me dilute this bowl of medicine into a hundred portions,” Ye Lian said as she handed over the bowl.
“Yes—wait, a hundred portions?” Bai Xue’s eyes widened in surprise as she took it.
This tiny bowl of medicine—’would it even have any effect after being split a hundred ways?’
“Player levels are still low right now, and their HP isn’t very high. If the effects are too strong, it’ll be impossible to get accurate test results,” Ye Lian explained.
“I see.”
Bai Xue nodded and began the dilution process.
Ye Lian took the opportunity to open the game interface and check the level rankings.
When she saw that Mu Ling’s level hadn’t increased, she let out a quiet sigh of relief.
It looked like even if Mu Ling trained like mad during the remaining time, she still wouldn’t reach level 20.
For now, there was no real threat.
“Once the closed beta ends, I’ll have to start grinding levels seriously too.”
No matter what, Mu Ling still put a lot of pressure on her.
And the true power of her divine artifact was still an unknown.
Someone like that—she couldn’t afford to let her guard down.
“Master, the dilution is done,” Bai Xue said.
She worked quickly and had diluted the potion into a hundred portions in no time.
“Thanks. Now I need to craft some equipment for display. The store looks too empty right now—it’s an eyesore.”
As she spoke, Ye Lian pulled out the ant carapaces and began refining them.
Bai Xue watched her craft equipment like a magician pulling tricks, her eyes full of admiration.
Thanks to the decent quality of the carapace and the fact that she didn’t need to make anything too advanced, Ye Lian churned them out like she was making dumplings.
In no time, she had produced a pile of standard gear.
“This should do for beginner equipment,” Ye Lian said, glancing at the stack of black ant-themed armor piled casually on the ground.
“Master, this gear looks really good for starter gear!” Bai Xue picked up a black helmet and tapped it with her hand.
A deep, solid sound rang out.
It was easy to tell the helmet was sturdy and tough.
Most monsters wouldn’t even be able to scratch it.
“Those carapaces were already tough. A little light processing is enough,” Ye Lian said, picking up a black breastplate and pressing it with her finger.
A dent appeared under the pressure.
For her, anything she couldn’t press straight through counted as ‘sturdy.’
“Master, are we putting all of this out for display?” Bai Xue asked.
“Yeah, set everything out,” Ye Lian nodded slightly.
With her mechanical puppets around, even if some clueless player tried to steal from her, it wouldn’t be a problem.
She could just beat them half to death to set an example.
“Yes, Master~” Bai Xue cheerfully carried the gear outside.
Now that her level had increased, her strength had improved a lot.
Moving the equipment was no trouble at all—she made it look effortless.
***
“Next up, I just have to wait for some rabbits to wander in,” Ye Lian said as she sat on her workbench, lightly swinging her legs.
At the same time, a new group of players arrived outside Ink City.
Leading the group was a young man named [Elephant Dances], a 19-year-old boy with a trace of youth still lingering on his face.
But his eyes were sharp and cold, and the scale armor on his body, along with the razor-sharp sword in his hand, made one thing abundantly clear—
He was a warrior!
Behind Elephant Dances, five players followed closely.
They were the survivors from the earlier group of players, all of them quite formidable.
In fact, aside from a few lucky exceptions, most of the players still alive now had some real skills.
“Are we really going in?” asked a female player around twenty years old, her voice tinged with unease.
They had noticed this city back when they were still at the starting point.
But no one had chosen to come here.
Because a cliff blocked the way, and without a detour, it was impassable.
After going around, what was originally the nearest city had become the farthest.
The danger of reaching it had skyrocketed.
However, after wandering outside for over ten hours, they were forced to reconsider the city as an option.
Because the outside had become increasingly dangerous, and they had to find a safe place to hide!
***
After surviving the massacre outside the forest, they understood the dangers of the wilderness better than anyone.
That player who turned into a mosquito monster—Crimson Funeral—was a terrifying lesson.
“If we don’t go in, where else can we go? You want to head back to the forest?” said Elephant Dances, calmly.
In this short period of time, he had made tremendous progress, and his speech and demeanor had grown far more composed and dependable.
“I don’t want to, but this place gives me the creeps,” the female player replied, pointing to the bloodstains on the stone bridge.
“Look, it’s clear there was a fight here. And a brutal one at that!”
The group followed her gesture and saw scattered bloodstains on the bridge.
In the outside world, such a scene would absolutely terrify the faint-hearted.
But these players had witnessed far worse.
Naturally, they weren’t afraid of just a little blood.
What scared them was the unknown.
“There’s blood, but no bodies. Looks like someone cleaned up afterward,” Elephant Dances quickly pointed out the critical detail.
“Exactly. With so much blood splatter, it’d be weirder not to see corpses.”
“If someone cleaned it up, doesn’t that mean there’s someone—or rather, some NPCs—inside the city?” the female player said.
Her expression had eased a bit.
“It’s definitely possible.”
“Hopefully there are NPCs.”
“At this point, I just want to hide under an NPC’s protection and survive until the end of the closed beta.”
“Who doesn’t?”
Everyone started chattering all at once.
None of them noticed the river beneath the stone bridge suddenly begin to stir, as one after another, gray octopuses emerged from the water.
Each of them had scarlet eyes covering their bodies and heads, a terrifying sight to behold.
“Gulu gulu~” Strange sounds came from their mouths, sending bubbles rising to the surface of the river.
Then, the gray octopuses quickly dove back down, their destination unknown.
***
Elsewhere, deep in the grasslands—
Chomp, chomp!
The sound of chewing echoed from time to time, making it easy to imagine some wild beast feasting on prey hidden in the tall grass.
Suddenly, a figure stood up.
“REOREOREOREO!”
Several tentacles extended from his mouth, currently licking a pinkish object.
A closer look revealed that it was a brain the size of a cantaloupe.
Still covered in blood vessels.
“Slurp… gulp… ah, delicious!” As if he were done playing with it, the man opened his twisted mouth wide and swallowed the brain whole in one gulp.
That man was none other than Zhao Gang—the one whom Ye Lian had nearly killed, but who had somehow survived.
He was also the one Bai Xue most deeply wanted to kill.
“Hmm? Strange… feels like something is calling me…”
Zhao Gang’s head twisted at a 90-degree angle as he eerily turned to look in the direction of Mo City, his eyes glowing red.
“If something’s calling me, I might as well check it out. This time… I want to try a human brain~ I bet it’s delicious. Oohhehehehe~!”
On the grasslands, his grotesque laughter echoed briefly—then vanished into silence.