Chapter 122: Lost in the Snowy Mountain 25

Chapter 122: Lost in the Snowy Mountain 25

In the pitch-black and silent tunnel, two figures walked one after the other, ripples spreading out from their sides as they brushed against the stone walls.

Jack the Ripper followed closely behind Qin Fei, his eyes fixated on his back with an intense gaze.

The axe in his hand had been sheathed away.

Initially, Jack had no intention of putting his axe away.

Even though he had made the decision to abandon this mission, allowing Qin Fei to live safely until the end of the instance, the reef was still fraught with danger.

Before meeting Qin Fei, Jack had fought his way through, and he was well aware of the perilous nature of this map.

But for some reason, ever since he met Qin Fei and stuck close to him, he hadn't encountered any unexpected incidents.

No bugs, no silk threads, no traps.

Nothing at all.

Every cave they passed through was clean and empty, except for the rugged terrain that could trip them up. They hadn't faced any other obstacles.

Jack the Ripper's expression grew increasingly grave.

He seemed to be deep in thought, and then suddenly, everything became clear.

All of this further confirmed the truthfulness of Little Qin's words earlier.

It wasn't just a threat, Jack thought. As the first victim in the instance, he must have some tricks up his sleeve to avoid all attacks from the reef.

Qin Fei kept moving forward at a fast pace, which only increased. In the end, Jack the Ripper had to jog to keep up with him.

Endless, identical stone walls swept past their field of vision. Sometimes, Jack even wondered if they were really changing their location or simply going in circles.

His sense of direction had completely vanished in this dimly lit reef.

Occasionally, they could hear other sounds through the layers of caves.

Footsteps, or human shouts.

Qin Fei tried to get closer to those sounds but always failed.

He didn't want to take the wrong path. Once you took a wrong turn, countless more would follow, and with Jack the Ripper lurking behind, Qin Fei couldn't afford to put himself in danger.

They were very close to the end, and Qin Fei could feel it.

Jack the Ripper could feel it too.

He couldn't sense the aura of the pollution source, but he could directly feel the mental pollution.

His SAN points began to drop without warning.

Sometimes, Jack felt as if the scene before him flickered. This sensation grew stronger, like the black and white static on a TV screen when the signal is lost.

Jack glanced at his status panel; his SAN points had dropped by ten. He tipped his head back to down a potion, barely managing to dispel the pollution.

"What's happening? Is he being polluted?"

The audience chattered in the live broadcast hall.

Players in other live streams hadn't experienced this situation.

Although those players were now in a miserable state, what hindered them were tangible monsters, those flesh-colored worms that could penetrate any crevice, and the silk threads that could peel off human skin.

Not the invisible and intangible mental pollution.

This was the two different paths the instance offered to players, allowing them to choose freely.

Choose the dangerous path, fight for your life, and rush towards the finish line.

Or choose the safe path—though for most players, this was far from safe.

This path had no bugs, but there was something even more daunting than the bugs.

At least for Jack the Ripper, it was so.

If he hadn't been following Qin Fei all along, he definitely wouldn't have been able to hold on.

"His condition doesn't look good."

The audience sighed.

Jack the Ripper's condition was worse than "not good"!

As they drew closer to their destination, Jack felt as if an ice pick was repeatedly striking his brain.

The contents of his skull turned into liquid, wildly sloshing around with every step he took.

Thoughts? What were thoughts?

Jack no longer knew.

Reason gradually faded, and what sustained his actions was the blurred last thought in his mind before losing consciousness: stick close to Little Qin.

But even that had become a difficult task for him now.

The figure ahead split into two, then three, and suddenly disappeared. Jack rubbed his eyes hard, finally managing to track the shadow.

It seemed as if something was whispering in his ear. Jack heard it, but when he tried to discern it, the voice vanished.

It was a language conveyed by countless overlapping whispers.

They said—

"You shouldn't be here."

"Stay, stay at the bottom of the lake, stay in the snow-capped mountains."

"Become one of us."

Who? Who was speaking?

Were those bugs talking?

Jack clenched his fists with all his might and slammed them onto his forehead!

Then he covered his ears.

In the A-Rank live-streaming hall, Jack the Ripper's screen was placed just a fist's distance away from Qin Fei. The stark contrast between their mental states became a hot topic among the audience.

The other players were fine since they weren't affected. However, they were suffering from other torments.

But Xiao Qin!

Xiao Qin had clearly taken the same path as Jack the Ripper. Why was Jack so polluted that he had to pour mental supplements up his nostrils, yet Xiao Qin was completely unscathed?

Of course, it was because his mental immunity was high!

100 base SAN points!

Over these three days, as Qin Fei completed various tasks in the instance dungeon and received various rewards, his SAN points continued to rise. Now, it had reached an astonishing 100 (+97).

How could such a person exist?

Even the S-Rank players at the top of the player pyramid had never seen anyone with full SAN points!

A spirit exclaimed loudly, "I don't believe it! I absolutely don't believe it! There must be something fishy going on... I know, it must be because of the special identity he obtained in this level. Since he's a dead man and is on the side of the snow-capped mountains, that's why he isn't affected!"

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately received a barrage of refutations from the audience.

"Please watch my wife's previous live-streams before you speak."

"Some people have been triggered. I won't say whose fan it is~"

"Don't think that just because no one has ever done something, it will never be achieved. Perhaps, Xiao Qin is the new god among rule-world players in the future!"

New god!

These two words were like a bomb dropped into water, instantly causing huge waves.

The A-Rank live-streaming hall fell silent for a moment before erupting into a cacophony that almost tore the roof off.

Among the players, only the two former ones could be called "gods."

Years had passed, and the audience in the live-streaming room had changed. There were very few spirits left who still remembered the old records, and when they recalled, they couldn't even remember what they looked like.

The live-streaming footage didn't slow down due to the audience's distraction.

Qin Fei didn't stop walking, striding forward with determination.

He didn't look back again, naturally unaware of Jack the Ripper's terrible condition behind him.

He just kept moving forward, speeding up, then speeding up even more.

Qin Fei encountered no obstacles along the way, while the other players suffered miserably.

In that case, Qin Fei should have been the first to reach the destination.

However, the system's initial spawn locations for everyone were vastly different.

Just looking at the straight-line distance, Qin Fei would have to travel nearly twice the distance compared to others to reach the end.

If this "other" was Mi Yang, who had the best luck and was spawned closest to the end, it would be three or even four times the distance.

Therefore, when Qin Fei penetrated layer after layer of corridors and finally arrived in a space hundreds of times larger than before, he saw the blood-soaked Mi Yang collapsed beside a rock.

Qin Fei stepped into a massive cavity located inside the lake's bottom reef.

It was vast, about the size of several stadiums combined, and the entire space was semi-elliptical. Caves were densely packed in all directions.

Behind each of these caves lay countless passages, interconnected like the capillaries in a human body.

A perfectly round depression was situated at the center of the space, occupying nearly three-quarters of the entire ground area.

The light here was too dim, and with only the weak candlelight in his hand, Qin Fei couldn't see what was beneath the depression.

A familiar, almost irresistible scent wafted up from beneath the depression, and the black crystal ring on his finger once again emitted a scorching heat.

Qin Fei quickly walked over, but instead of heading towards the edge of the depression, he approached Mi Yang.

Mi Yang was lying on the ground, unconscious, with shocking wounds covering his body.

All the exposed skin on his body was crisscrossed with numerous cuts, as if made by a knife.

Although he was unconscious, he still held a dagger in his hand.

It was a very ordinary light gray dagger from the mall. Qin Fei had an identical one in his personal space.

Qin Fei's gaze shifted between the dagger and Mi Yang's body, quickly drawing a conclusion:

All these injuries were inflicted by his own hands.

What had Mi Yang experienced before he arrived here?

Some of the wounds had formed a thin layer of scab, while others continued to ooze blood.

Qin Fei stood in front of Mi Yang and placed the spirit candles on the ground, one after another. He took out all the blood replenishing potions from his personal space.

Unconscious people would often clench their teeth without realizing it. Fortunately, blood replenishing potions did not necessarily need to be ingested to take effect.

Qin Fei twisted open a bottle and poured it directly onto Mi Yang's face.

The audience in Mi Yang's live stream couldn't help but sigh,

"Damn, ungrateful son (??)"

"So tragic! So tragic!! Poor little lamb, your precious son is too rough."

As long as it worked, it didn't matter whether it was gentle or not.

Qin Fei poured five bottles of blood replenishing potion in a row. Mi Yang's entire face turned tomato red, and finally, he opened his eyes.

"...Little Qin?"

In a daze, he could no longer remember any rules and directly called out Qin Fei's name.

Qin Fei's expression was calm as he nodded.

After waking up, Mi Yang started drinking the blood replenishing potions himself. Although he had managed to save his life, his health points still fluctuated dangerously close to the critical line.

The world before his eyes alternated between black and red. Mi Yang downed two high-grade blood replenishing potions in one breath before he could barely see Qin Fei's face.

Qin Fei was crouching halfway in front of him.

And beyond Qin Fei's shoulder, Mi Yang saw a figure in the hole behind.

He squinted his eyes and looked over with the faint light.

Then, he widened his eyes in shock.

It was Jack the Ripper.

He had crawled over!

How could this guy also be in such a sorry state? Could it be that he, like himself, had been attacked by the bugs living in the cave?

Mi Yang shuddered at the thought of those bugs that had surrounded him.

A scene from not long ago surfaced in his mind:

He walked into a certain passage and discovered that both sides of the passage were covered in densely packed small holes.

The holes were only as thick as a finger. Mi Yang's sixth sense immediately screamed danger. He turned around to retreat, but it was already too late.

A worm, or several worms, crawled out of each small hole. These worms could crawl along the stone walls or swim in water, moving at an astonishing speed.

They bit into Mi Yang's skin and burrowed into the flesh!!

Mi Yang was almost scared to death!

He was a player with extensive experience in dungeons. Due to his special talent skills, he always had an extra edge over other players in dungeons.

But facing such a scene, it was the first time for Mi Yang as well.

Mi Yang turned around and ran, pulling off the bugs on his body as he ran.

But since he had already drawn blood, how could the monsters in the dungeon let him go so easily?

Looking back now, Mi Yang didn't even know how he had managed to escape.

This was far more terrifying than any chase he had encountered before!

When Mi Yang was half-dead from running, he finally managed to shake off the swarm of bugs. However, many of the bugs had already deeply embedded themselves into his flesh.

They couldn't be pulled out.

The smooth outer skin of the bugs seemed to have invisible barbs growing on them. They burrowed into Mi Yang's flesh, penetrating several centimeters, or even tens of centimeters deep. Every inch was tightly connected to the blood vessels and flesh inside his body.

Mi Yang dared not imagine what the consequences would be if the bugs really completely burrowed into his body.

He had seen the snow monster!

To protect himself, Mi Yang could only steel his heart.

He would rather cut open his own skin than let a single bug escape.

Fortunately, the location where he got into trouble was not far from here. After painstakingly cleaning the bugs off his body, he stumbled around in a daze and accidentally came to the open area.

Recalling what happened earlier, Mi Yang felt pain in every wound on his body—it was indeed painful!

He took a deep breath.

Not far away, Jack the Ripper was still crawling towards them half-dead.

Mi Yang pointed behind Qin Fei, "Him—"

Qin Fei turned around and saw Jack. He said casually, "Oh, he should have followed me here."

He followed me here.

What a casual tone.

Chin Fei was spotless from head to toe, without even a minor scratch, forming an extremely stark contrast with Mi Yang.

Chin Fei had merely said something ordinary, intending only the literal meaning of his words.

But Mi Yang strangely misunderstood him.

To Mi Yang, those words completely transformed into, "Oh, I'm the one who did this to him."

Mi Yang's pupils quaked. "What did you do to him??"

Apart from shock, he felt utterly incredulous.

Mi Yang already had a clear understanding of Chin Fei's ability to stir up trouble in the instance dungeon. However, this area of rocks left no room for Chin Fei to maneuver at all?

There were stones everywhere.

The ground beneath their feet was made of stone, and what their eyes saw was also stone.

Aside from the endless caves, the players could only see monsters among the rocks.

They were scattered apart, with no NPCs to rely on. How on earth did Chin Fei manage to mess up Jack the Ripper like this??

Could Little Qin have evolved to the point where he could control those worms??

Terrifying!

Chin Fei: "?"

Chin Fei didn't know that the person opposite him had imagined him as the mastermind behind the scenes, giving Mi Yang a strange look. "I didn't touch him."

Jokingly, he hadn't even touched a single finger of Jack.

Moreover, if they really fought, Chin Fei wouldn't have stood a chance.

Mi Yang didn't believe him. "You really didn't do anything?"

His lack of trust was too obvious, and Chin Fei actually felt a bit guilty under his questioning.

The young man rubbed his nose. "…Does having a conversation with him count?"

Mi Yang: ?

??

A few words were enough to beat someone up like this; your mouth must be poisonous?!

Chin Fei rolled his eyes, too lazy to bother with Mi Yang anymore.

Jack the Ripper finally managed to crawl into the open space.

Although this place was closer to the source of contamination than the path they had just walked, the level of pollution within this space was far less severe than when Jack arrived.

As Jack crawled out of the stone cave into the open space, he suddenly felt as if the air of the entire world had become fresher.

He opened his mouth to take a deep breath but forgot that he was still underwater.

Players didn't need to breathe underwater, but opening their mouths to inhale would still cause them to choke.

Jack had been staring at Chin Fei like a malevolent spirit for three days and nights, but in the end, just a step away from clearing the instance dungeon, he made a huge fool of himself.

But he didn't have the mood to care about that now!

Just like Mi Yang earlier, Jack was frantically pouring potions into his mouth.

Only, Mi Yang was pouring health potions, while he was pouring mental recovery potions.

In the instance dungeon, replenishing lost sanity points was much more difficult than replenishing lost health points.

Jack poured dozens of mental recovery potions into his stomach, his tongue and entire mouth numb, but his sanity points remained below 70.

Fortunately, as long as it didn't continue to drop, it was fine.

Jack's requirements weren't high. As long as he maintained his sanity, he wouldn't get lost in the instance dungeon.

He raised his head.

Chin Fei and Mi Yang had already walked together to the edge of the sunken area to investigate.

...

This was a pit.

A deep pit.

In the pitch-black pit with a diameter of several dozen meters, Chin Fei stretched his hand above the hole and felt water flowing upward.

Mi Yang was terrified of accidentally falling in and completely disregarded his posture, lying down at the edge of the hole and only stretching his head out to look down.

"I can't see clearly."

It was pitch black, and nothing could be seen clearly. The light from the spirit candle could barely illuminate this place.

"We have to go down," Chin Fei said calmly, but Mi Yang's face scrunched up like a bun.

Of course, he knew they had to go down.

The players had followed the hints of the instance dungeon all the way here, so the guiding location must be here.

In fact, when Mi Yang climbed out of the passage into this open space, he thought that this was the legendary Guidance Land. However, the instance didn’t issue any new announcements, and the silver gate for leaving the instance hadn’t appeared either. Having come this far, the only direction they could continue to move forward was towards this deep pit. The pit was so deep that when Mi Yang reached down along the edge, he couldn’t feel the bottom at all. He took out a glow stick from his personal storage space. This was one of the commonly used props by players in instances, which could be used to measure distances when encountering canyons or such deep pits. Mi Yang bent the glow stick in his hand with force, and after a crisp sound, an orange-red light illuminated from between his hands. The glow stick slowly descended along the water flow, the light ball becoming smaller and smaller in the darkness until it disappeared completely. This pit was too deep, as if it could devour everything. Mi Yang frowned deeply. They were currently in the water, and going down this pit would be much easier than climbing cliffs on a snowy mountain because they could simply swim down. But after Mi Yang’s experience of being chased by bugs in the reef passage, he felt that this was somewhat risky. "We don’t know what’s down there," Mi Yang looked extremely anxious. If everything went as expected, this would be the last challenge set by the instance for the players. Mi Yang didn’t believe that this challenge would merely be a simple and meaningless swimming and rock climbing exercise. It would be easy to swim down, but what was the situation down there? If they encountered monsters or other emergencies, would the players be trapped at the bottom of this large pit when they wanted to escape? When Mi Yang was chased by the bugs in the reef, he was able to escape thanks to his transformation into a spider, allowing him to move with eight legs at an astonishing speed. If he had relied solely on swimming, he would never have been able to outswim those bugs. "We need to take double precautions," said Mi Yang. "It would be best to use climbing ropes and climbing equipment." This was what Mi Yang thought: they would secure the climbing rope to the edge of the stone pit, and one person would go down first to check the situation. In case of an accident, the person above could help pull them up. The upward pulling force combined with the buoyancy of the water would be much faster than swimming alone. Qin Fei had no objection to this. But there was a problem: they didn’t have any ropes. The climbing ropes and other climbing tools were all in the hands of the Dawn Squad. "Then we’ll just wait for them," said Mi Yang. After all, this level didn’t have a time limit. Although the reef was indeed full of danger, Mi Yang didn’t think that the Dawn Squad would be unlucky enough to be completely wiped out. "Just as well I’m not comfortable leaving you alone up here," Mother Sheep lowered her voice and glanced at Jack the Ripper, her words carrying hidden meaning. Qin Fei comforted him calmly, "It’s alright, he doesn’t dare to do anything to me now." Mi Yang: "?". Qin Fei blinked, "Didn’t I tell you, I had a chat with him." Mi Yang wore an expression that was hard to describe. What kind of chat was that, making it sound so nice, as if they were having a friendly conversation. Clearly, he had severely threatened Jack, right? Right, right! His black-hearted good son. Mi Yang made a face at Qin Fei, baring his teeth. But Qin Fei’s gaze drifted to the side. Behind Mi Yang, something long and thin, like a rope, was floating up along the water flowing into the pit.