The dream began with a fog, and it would likely end the same way. This had nothing to do with the time they entered the dream; rather, the game was increasing the difficulty as they got closer to Zhang Xiuxiu.
Usually, when a countdown starts in a scene, it signals that danger is imminent.
Zhao Sanxun was on high alert, the bitterness in his heart growing even stronger. If his wristband hadn’t been stolen, his safety would have been guaranteed, regardless of whether he could complete the mission.
The fog gradually spread. The grass on the ground all began to sway against the wind, and the originally pleasant smell of earth and grass in the air became incredibly foul.
The patients lying on the ground all opened their vacant eyes at the same time. The moment the foul wind swept past their eyes, intense aggression immediately filled their faces.
“Take this,” Zhou Qi’an handed a wristband to the College Student. “Break it if there’s danger.”
College Student: “If you give it to me, what about you…”
“Buy one get one free, I have another one.”
Zhao Sanxun and A’Ling, who had just taken out their equipment, flinched simultaneously.
The usually laid-back youth stopped slacking off and suddenly rushed out first. After him, regardless of their grudges, almost all the players proactively charged towards the patients.
Completing the mission was the most crucial thing.
Right now, they could only clash with the patients head-on before they got up, trying to find a way to see the names on their wristbands.
The youth suddenly let out a low shout, “Burst.”
Zhou Qi’an thought it was an explosion and subconsciously moved away from him. Unexpectedly, an incredibly bright light shot out from the youth’s body, even more exaggerated than a 120,000-lumen flashlight.
The patients who had just opened their eyes reacted to the strong light and all turned their heads away.
“…” Zhou Qi’an was the fastest, using this time to rush to one of the patients.
—Li Jixiang.
Not this one.
“The one with the necklace is not it.”
At the same time, Zhao Sanxun’s voice came through.
A’Ling: “The man with a mole between his eyebrows is not it.”
The newly awakened patients were still a bit stiff, but in just three seconds, most of them began to expand. First, they stretched like rubber, then they transformed into their most primitive form of flesh and tissue.
A piece of flesh happened to flow next to the College Student. He saw the name on it; it wasn’t Zhang Xiuxiu.
Since it was so broken apart, there was no way to describe its features.
Most of the flesh coalesced into a face and opened its bloody maw at the players.
As the College Student hastily dodged, his voice trembled, “What counts as ‘finding’ her?”
No one could answer this question because the mission prompt didn’t specify.
For now, everyone could only judge based on common sense: proof of identity. If they personally saw a wristband with the name Zhang Xiuxiu, that would probably count as finding her.
Zhao Sanxun used poison to hard-control a patient, but it still wasn’t the one.
The fog was getting thicker. Checking wristbands one by one, the group was practically searching for them amidst fragmented flesh.
The game was always harsh on players. After several fruitless searches, Zhou Qi’an looked at the patients farthest from them.
And with that look, he really did spot something unusual.
A female patient was standing alone in a concealed spot, looking like a normal person, watching the players battle the monsters. After watching for a while, the moment her eyes met Zhou Qi’an’s, she covered her mouth with her hand and let out a string of laughter.
The youth’s voice went up an octave, “Look, her wristband…”
The exposed end of the wristband happened to show the character ‘Zhang’.
Everyone immediately rushed towards the female patient. As they ran, the female patient also ran. The more she ran, the louder her laughter became, dreamlike and illusory, like the fog itself, always separated by a faint layer, impossible to catch up to.
In the desperate chase, their stamina was rapidly depleting.
“Something’s not right,” Zhou Qi’an frowned.
He had read all the nameplates on the doors of the special inpatient department wards. The description for the patients was uniformly: ‘Patient is large-bodied and extremely aggressive.’
The other patients perfectly matched this description, able to transform into massive flesh organizations. Only this woman didn’t fit at all.
She was small, didn’t separate into flesh and blood, and showed no aggression.
Was the nameplate wrong? Or… Zhou Qi’an’s gaze sharpened, was there some other reason?
The woman’s every move, the more he looked, the more it seemed like she was toying with them, trying to stall for time.
The number of patients was correct so far. If she wasn’t a patient, then where did the last patient go?
The fog thickened further, and Zhou Qi’an slowed his pace.
Suddenly, as if realizing something, he whipped his head towards the lake. The strange skeletons he had seen at the bottom of the water flashed in his mind.
The large skeletons were all gathered in one place. Zhou Qi’an had even worried if there might be some giant sea beast.
If a giant sea beast really existed, could it be the patient?
The abnormally high ceilings of the special inpatient department were the best proof. Its body was huge and couldn’t be changed, so they had to double the ceiling height.
[…It is reported that this suddenly appearing elephant seal is enormous in size…]
The content from the newspaper surfaced in his mind.
Zhou Qi’an stopped completely, the guess in his heart becoming more certain.
“Zhang Xiuxiu is that elephant seal. The woman with the wristband up ahead is likely Dr. Zhang.”
One person and one elephant seal, living together in the same ward.
It wasn’t uncommon to give human-like names to pets, research subjects, and so on.
Without further hesitation, Zhou Qi’an turned and jumped directly into the lake. This action startled the others.
A’Ling reacted the fastest. Knowing that the young man wouldn’t jump into the water for no reason, she followed him in, only then beginning to think.
The lake water was much colder now. As they swam forward, every time Zhou Qi’an surfaced for air, he would glance at the blood-face in the sky.
The position where the previous blood-face had stopped could be used as a coordinate.
The water ahead grew colder and colder. A’Ling, who had been following him for a distance, suddenly realized something: Zhang Xiuxiu was likely not a person.
There weren’t many creatures swimming in this area of water.
The smell of the water ahead changed. Although he wasn’t breathing, Zhou Qi’an could clearly feel a sweet scent, very much like the smell of cyclamen.
A light shone from behind—Zhao Sanxun had caught up.
With the help of his lighting item, Zhou Qi’an also got a clear view of what was ahead.
If it weren’t for the circumstances, he almost would have gasped.
In the area where the white bones were piled up, a giant beast lay dormant.
It merely shifted its body slightly, and it instantly created terrifying waves. Layers of wrinkled skin were piled up, reddish in color, and its fur was covered in strange patterns. Its retractable long nose was far longer than its peers’, making it a true hegemon of the entire lake.
At this moment, this elephant seal, weighing well over a thousand jin, was feeding.
The body of an alligator before it was easily torn in two, its internal organs sucked clean.
The players’ arrival immediately alerted the elephant seal.
Its massive mouth never closed, its ugly face appearing even more ferocious in the water. This creature, which could only crawl on land, was now incredibly fast, opening its mouth wide and lunging to bite the players.
As it approached, a nameplate hanging on its chest, a substitute for a patient wristband, could be seen. On it were carved the three words Zhang Xiuxiu. The red words swayed with the water as the elephant seal moved at high speed.
“Where’s the conscience?”
Zhou Qi’an’s vision almost went black. They named such a terrifying monster Xiuxiu. One ‘Xiu’ wasn’t enough; they had to use two.
Unlike the other aquatic creatures, it showed no fear of Zhou Qi’an. The elephant seal persistently chased all living things in the water.
Zhou Qi’an swam for his life.
Not only was this elephant seal not afraid of him, but among the three of them, it chased him the most fiercely.
After nearly being bitten, as the distance closed in an instant, the system prompt arrived in the cold lake:
[Congratulations on successfully finding Zhang Xiuxiu]
[The current main quest is complete. The final main quest will now begin.]
He had no mood to listen to the rest of the prompt. Zhou Qi’an was still playing a game of ‘hide-and-seek’ with the elephant seal.
In the continuous search, he noticed that someone else was also wandering with a purpose.
Zhou Qi’an’s gaze turned cold. A’Ling also seemed to know the clue about the hidden item.
Zhao Sanxun was even more cunning. Noticing that Zhou Qi’an didn’t immediately leave the dream, he was instantly certain that there must be something here that could attract him. In an instance, the only things that could tempt a player to take risks were treasures and clues.
Treasure.
Just thinking of these two words, Zhao Sanxun’s heart, which had been cold all day, finally warmed up a little.
The youth and the College Student had also arrived by now. The College Student was just swimming around randomly; he didn’t know what they were gathered here for. The elephant seal was huge, and its chest nameplate was hard to see when it was attacking.
The only reason the College Student was still swimming was: he might need to heal Zhou Qi’an at any moment.
Near the elephant seal, there were only skeletons and mud from the lake bottom. Blood-stained bone racks, some floating on the surface, some tangled in the seaweed.
Zhou Qi’an’s sharp eyes noticed one particular bone.
His evolved eyes could see through illusions to some extent. A bone that looked white at first glance changed color when Zhou Qi’an looked again. It was reddish, similar to the elephant seal, and the red reached into the bone’s crevices, with very peculiar patterns.
He couldn’t help but think of the elephant seal sculpture.
Perhaps a player had chosen that option before, selecting a bone to take, but had chosen the wrong one.
Thinking of this, Zhou Qi’an dove down sharply, preparing to confirm further.
Behind him, a wave from the giant elephant seal’s tail whip, which had been relentlessly chasing him, sent the bone floating a little farther away.
A’Ling, who had been observing Zhou Qi’an, sneered for a moment, immediately seizing the opportunity to accelerate and overtake him.
“Finally…”
Her eyes burned with fervor.
A’Ling activated an acceleration item, but who knew that the elephant seal would suddenly make a ‘U’-turn and swim back, changing its target to bite her instead. This sudden change of target was completely unexpected. Just as A’Ling was about to dodge, a white silk banner entangled her path in the water.
This two-second delay caused her arm to be pierced directly by the terrifying fangs.
A sharp pain shot from her waist. As A’Ling endured it, she instantly guessed what Zhou Qi’an had done.
…A focus-fire item.
If it didn’t have a cooldown, she would have used it too.
Giving a taste of one’s own medicine, Zhou Qi’an had done it to perfection.
The elephant seal’s bite force was terrifying, directly tearing off an arm. A’Ling urgently used a healing item, but her body was still slowly turning transparent.
“Not good!”
A rare trace of anxiety appeared in her expression.
Being forcibly removed from the dream while heavily injured most likely meant a fate of being sent to the intensive care unit outside.
In this crisis, a ruthless determination flashed in A’Ling’s eyes. She finally thought of the most direct method: what if she just died once?
If she died completely, could she avoid being taken away?
On the other side, Zhou Qi’an continued to swim forward, thinking to himself that if A’Ling had a death-substitute item, she might still have a chance to turn the tables.
A pity.
Shen Zhiyi and the others were still outside. The fate awaiting her was the same.
The water didn’t stop everyone from harboring their own ulterior motives.
Zhao Sanxun took advantage of A’Ling’s severe injury. He didn’t immediately chase after her but was looking for an angle. He stared at Zhou Qi’an’s eyes. The moment the other man shifted his body even slightly, Zhao Sanxun was ready to release a poison needle.
The water swayed, but an unexpected figure blocked his path.
The College Student, holding a wristband, blocked Zhao Sanxun, making a throat-slitting gesture with one hand.
Their bodies were still outside. Since destroying the wristband allowed an immediate exit, he could leave first and then eliminate all obstacles outside.
Of course, the College Student couldn’t bring himself to kill directly, so he blocked Zhao Sanxun as a threat.
If the threat didn’t work, then… then he would have to severely injure their bodies outside first and let the nurses do the killing.
“You f…”
The curse could only be suppressed in his heart. Receiving the same threat over and over again, and at such a critical moment, a sweet taste of blood welled up in Zhao Sanxun’s throat.
In the water, A’Ling’s blood stimulated the elephant seal.
The blood of a living person was a hundred times sweeter than that of the lake monsters. The elephant seal opened its mouth wide, randomly biting everything around it.
Zhou Qi’an, while diving down, took out the holy artifact.
The moment the light burst forth, the bottom of the lake was illuminated. The elephant seal was momentarily stunned by the holy artifact, its mouth-closing action slowing by half a beat. At this moment, Zhou Qi’an also saw the bone clearly. Under the light of the holy artifact, the bone’s color was even more vivid red.
That’s it!
Delays breed trouble. Who knew if the fog outside would become completely thick the moment he seized the treasure, and he would be forcibly sent out of the dream.
Zhou Qi’an didn’t skimp on points at this juncture. Even though the mall only had common-quality acceleration items, he still spent six hundred points to get a speed item and activated it on the spot, diving down almost vertically.
Every pattern on the blood-red bone seemed like an ominous sign. His approaching fingers were almost numb from the cold. Zhou Qi’an persisted, stretching out his entire stiff arm to reach for it.
Finally.
…His fingertips, which were almost devoid of sensation, touched the edge of the blood bone.
Instantly, a strange light radiated out from the bone as the center, sweeping across this entire area of water. The entire lake, along with the fog in the air, turned a faint blood-red, as if the breath of death was enveloping the space.
The blood-red reflection in the nearby Zhao Sanxun’s pupils was almost overflowing with unwillingness.
Just from this special effect, he knew that the item Zhou Qi’an had obtained was not simple!
The feeding elephant seal was forced back several meters by the red light. The youth, who had been watching the fight from a distance, relied on his remaining sanity to resist the covetous urge to rush down and snatch the treasure.
A portion of the strange red glow projected into the real world. Mr. Si, who had just returned to guard the door of the greenhouse, seemed to feel something.
It was an aura completely opposite to the holy artifact, exuding a chaotic and evil presence.
It seemed to be another heaven-defying item.
Judging by the aura, it wasn’t what he wanted, but Mr. Si’s pupils almost turned vertical again in anger.
Who found a huge treasure?
…
[Azure] Forum, a message for all players on the server appeared in red on the homepage without warning—
“Congratulations to the holder of the Holy Artifact [Golden **], for obtaining the legendary [Death Curse Bone] in instance #47814. What heavenly fortune, the envy of all!”
