Right after telling this cold joke, the ward plunged into an even deeper, dead silence.
And then, Zong Jiu belatedly realised that this joke of his seemed to have really pushed the frigity in the air a notch colder.
Immediately, he hurried to salvage the situation. “I mean it as a compliment, not in a derogatory sense. I’m not being sarcastic.”
[…]
AD
[…]
The bullet chat spammed chain after chain of ‘…’. The viewers seemed completely taken aback by this senseless statement.
[Um. Can someone tell me who Zhuge Liang is? Is he very famous?]
[I also wanted to ask this…]
[But judging from this E-rank’s tone, it shouldn’t be fake? Do any of you recognise this Zhuge Liang?]
[I don’t know him, I haven’t even heard of him before. But it’s so weird. Why does it sound oddly familiar?]
Once this comment appeared, many others immediately echoed after it.
[Familiar +1]
[Familiar +10086. I even feel that it sounds like a very clever name? But I’m sure I haven’t heard of it before.]
Everyone was befuddled.
Several tens of thousands of comments were brushed out in the two people’s live broadcast rooms. Not one knew who was the ‘Zhuge Liang’ that Zong Jiu spoke of.
Let alone the bullet chat, even the dark-haired man also looked at him askance, an inquiring look in his eyes.
“Who is Zhuge Liang?”
The white-haired young man blinked. “Courtesy name, Kong Ming; nicknamed Crouching Dragon, the chancellor of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period.”
Zhuge An frowned.
Zong Jiu suddenly remembered that he was a novel transmigrator.
Thinking about it carefully again, that didn’t seem to be right, still. Even if he had transmigrated, weren’t these people in front of him once from the real world? As long as they were from the real world, they couldn’t not know of Zhuge Liang, right?
Furthermore, there were many historical instances in the infinite loop. Among them, there were many contenders who had studied ancient divination; how could they be without an inkling of who Zhuge Liang was?
Within this, there was surely information that Zong Jiu was in the dark about.
Should he ask?
The white-haired young man fell silent for a moment. In the end, he decided to take the risk.
“…Are you from China?”
The dark-haired man, despite his deeply set features, appeared to be of Asian descent, and with Zhuge’s family name, it was really hard to think of him in the direction of a foreigner.
A Chinese.
Zhuge An lifted his eyes. For the first time, a slight hint of emotion rippled on his characteristically ancient and apathetic face.
The next second, the man suddenly raised his hand.
His large and firm hands powerfully hung upwards suspended in the air, his five fingers forming a claw shape, as if gathering invisible air in his palm.
A twin fish pattern, one black, one white, swirled and appeared above his palm, forming a large taiji diagram of heaven and earth, yin and yang.
Not only that, but countless black stripes also appeared out of thin air, congregating into eight different trigrams floating around the taiji diagram, revolving like a host of stars clustered around power, gently gyrating and vacillating.
Against the white backdrop of the ward, this scene had an extraordinarily mystical impact.
The bullet chat in the live broadcast rooms exploded to high heavens.
[WTF, why is there suddenly no one on screen at all!]
[Where did the two people in the ward suddenly go? /shook.jpg]
[This should be Master Zhuge’s S-rank prop, right? I’m so curious, what the hell are they talking about? They’re actually being so secretive.]
[AH! Is that that legendary S-rank prop! I’ve never been able to figure out what it’s used for, it’s said to be quite omnipotent?]
[Yeah. This prop was obtained from the S-rank instance ‘Investiture of the Gods’. I think only Master Zhuge came back alive from that instance back then…]
Ibcu Ale’r qeqlir rtgjcx.
Fcvlrqeafvis, atlr Kjlpl Sluta Kglugjwr wjq rtbeiv yf Iteuf Cc’r agewq mjgv, jcv atf bcf atlcu atja oglutafcfv batfg nfafgjcr wbra jrlvf ogbw tlr mecclcu jcv tlr ajmalmr.
Ktf gfjrbc atja tf tjv yffc atgbcfv Rb. 3 kjr j tecvgfv qfgmfca yfmjerf bo atlr V-gjcx qgbq, cb vbeya.
Could he have said something he shouldn’t have, causing the other party to immediately renege on his word and strike directly?
Otherwise, what other explanation was there for a powerful bigshot to whip out his trump card out from the bottom of the chest when they were just having a nice, friendly chat?
Zong Jiu really couldn’t understand it.
And what was even more unexpected was why the Taiji Eight Trigrams diagram would only radiate a faint halo.
This faint halo steadily enshrouded the two people in hospital gowns. Only for a fleeting moment, Zong Jiu felt the dissonance of near complete isolation from the world.
Just like how the ward around him, despite being the same ward, looked different.
Zong Jiu cautiously asked, “Is this some kind of space-isolating mechanism?”
Zhuge An looked at him with an appreciative look in his eyes, and he recited, “Heaven and earth have their determinate positions; mountains and rivers flow into each other; thunder and wind invigorate in tandem; water and fire do each other no harm. Between eight trigrams, a mutual synergy. Unveiling of the past follows a natural ordinance; knowledge of the coming is contrary and treacherous against destiny. Stirring the trigrams in the present shakes the lot, and nature will not be in line with the five elements.”
Zong Jiu, “Can you speak normally—wait, no, speak in standard Chinese?”
The dark-haired man lost the earlier look. He said coldly, “All you need to know is that the bullet chat can’t see the live broadcast now.”
“So now, you can give me a detailed explanation.”
Zhuge An’s thin lips pursed together lightly, and his expression didn’t look feigned. “Earlier, that ‘Zhuge Liang’ and ‘China’ you mentioned… how are they different?”
Zong Jiu, “…?”
He slowly typed out a question mark.
—
On the other side at the stairwell, with Qin Ye’s assistance, He Jianlan’s rope was gradually pulled almost all the way up.
[I’m so nervous, do you think we’ll know what’s that beneath when they finish pulling it up? Ahhhhh.]
[If there comes any triggering content ahead, I’m going to have to ask you guys to help me block the broadcast with comments, I’ll jump five minutes back first TAT]
[I feel so anxious that they haven’t managed to find new clues after so long. The difficulty of this instance is so high, they won’t end up with a mass wipeout in the first round of selection, right? (Other than the two powerful S-ranks)]
[Anxious +1. I’m scared that they can’t find the key clue, then when the instance does a mass cleanup on the last day as per norm, unless they have S-rank props, they’re screwed.]
Everyone stood aside, muscles tense.
The high priest’s staff in Messiah’s hand also glowed in the icy air, staying vigilant for what was at the end of the rope.
Almost as soon as He Jianlan lowered the rope, it bound to something.
But no one could be sure what it was that they were pulling up.
Slowly, heavy panting emerged with the drawing in of the rope, as if something was heaving desperately in pain.
He Jianlan spared the time to push up his glasses. “It should be a living person.”
They watched the stairwell anxiously until an ashen face was dragged up.
The psychic gave no warning, and everyone breathed out a sigh of relief, sizing it up more confidently.
Both eyes were rolled back into his head. His mouth only drew in intermittent inhales, his chest weakly undulating, and most of his body still dangled down into the dark, bottomless stairwell beneath.
As luck would have it, they did have some impression of this face.
It was the same E-rank newcomer who had had an emotional breakdown in the dining hall this morning, shouting at the nurses and storming out the door.
Seeing him in this half-dead state, many of the F-ranks in the vicinity, who were even lower than an E-rank, went weak in the knees and the colour drained out of their faces.
“Don’t bring him completely up first, in case…”
He Jianlan didn’t finish his sentence, but all the veterans understood what he meant and readily chose to acquiesce.
In the infinite loop, it wasn’t like there weren’t instances of contenders being left alone who were replaced by non-humans. More than that, the other party was still an insignificant E-rank; none of the people present knew anything of his personality or identifying traits.
Jiang Yuan took some water and poured it over the newcomer’s head, then butted the sunken cheek with the top of his shoe.
“Hey. Wake up.”
The stimulation of the icy water poured over his head caused the newcomer, whose eyes had rolled over, to jolt and vomit a large mouthful of blood from his chest cavity, completely missing the bite he had during his mental breakdown when questioning the nurses.
Jiang Yuan wasn’t able to dodge it in time, and his two legs were squarely sprayed.
“Fucking hell! You son of a bitch!”
The heavy reek of blood mixed with spittle hung like miasma in the air, emitting an abhorrent stench.
Jiang Yuan’s face twisted with anger. He was just about to step forward and deliver a hard kick when He Jianlan yanked him back a few steps.
Only then, did Messiah’s face improve.
He gave Jian Yuan a warning look; golden specks of light suddenly gathered, circling around the high priest’s staff in his hand.
In an instant, these specks of light and radiance landed on the top of the head of the man whose body was half-poked out of the stairwell.
The newcomer’s originally ashen face visibly took on the colour of a living person, and less like a cold corpse sent to the morgue.
As soon as his consciousness returned, the newcomer gasped for breath, his lips trembling and his face tinged with terror that ran deep into his bones.
“Don’t rush, take your time. If it’s difficult to speak for now, you can just say it word by word, or gesture it to us.”
The S-rank prop held by the golden-haired Holy Son continued to heal, and his tone was soft and soothing. “I’m going to ask you some questions; you can just answer or give me a reaction. At any point during which, I will not discontinue the healing.”
A grateful light leaked into the newcomer’s eyes.
Messiah asked in a low voice, “What’s on basement 2?”
At once, the light in the newcomer’s eyes was immediately replaced by panic.
He completely ignored the blood he had vomited on the floor, shaking his head frantically like a rattle. His teeth clattered, and all his facial muscles spasmed with extreme fear, unable to even get out a single word.
Although they had long known that there was something in basement 2, such a reaction was still beyond their expectations.
He Jianlan stared intently at the newcomer’s facial expression, trying to find the slightest crack in it.
Pity, there was none.
Messiah was a little regretful that they couldn’t receive an answer to this question. Nevertheless, he didn’t force it. “Then, next question. Is there anyone else beneath?”
The crazed shaking of the newcomer’s head stopped. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded.
The veterans exchanged a look with each other.
As of now, after having been in the operating theatre on the ground floor, there was only the checklist item of basement 2 that they had yet to explore.
Vincent had mysteriously disappeared since entering the instance, and now all clues pointed to basement 2; aside from basement 2, there was nowhere else he could be. The E-rank newcomer giving this response verified the guess everyone had in their minds.
However, what they couldn’t figure out was why Vincent would stay down there all this while without coming up.
Despite being an A-rank, Vincent, as a half-vampire, had better survivability than the S-ranked Holy Son in horror instances. After all, his constitution was dense with yin, and ghosts and monsters belonged to the yin (shade, death) aspect as well. Usually, non-humans in an instance tended to take out humans, filled with yang (sun, vitality) first, before slowly grinding against their yin counterparts.
This was also where the confidence that all members of Team Dark of the Night Clan, which Vincent represented, had come from. As long as they were sure that the current instance was a supernatural instance, they would usually use the advantage to seize the initiative.
Now, Vincent was nowhere in sight. He could be dead, or he could be trapped downstairs, unable to come up.
No matter which situation it was, there was a lot of room for discussion.
Messiah paused; he was about to dig for more information when he saw the newcomer suddenly start struggling violently.
His eyes filled with pleading tears and he let out a voice as raspy and harsh as an old ventilator. “Help… Save…”
He Jianlan turned pale with alarm. “Crap! Something is pulling him down there!”
Almost simultaneously, Qin Ye grabbed a handful of the rope that slid back down continually, his blue veins clearly jutting on his arms.
The others watched on, stunned.
Qin Ye had abilities from the werewolf’s blessing he received. He had immense strength, but even he had a strained expression, showing how fearsome the fighting strength of the one he was up against was.
The newcomer’s face looked increasingly pained, his arm scraping harshly against the cold, hard concrete, dragging out a shocking trail of blood, bringing with it a large swathe of eerily white chafed skin.
Anyone could tell that this stalemate was bound to end badly. But looking at the newcomer’s pleading gaze, no one was able to say the two words ‘let go’.
Right as the Holy Son was about to make a decision with a distressed expression on his face, the force from below steeply increased.
The newcomer’s face went bloodless, and with a whizz, he was swallowed by the darkness of the stairwell.
Unable to withstand the force, Qin Ye was forced into a stumble.
“Kzzzzt—”
A hair-raising rip echoed through the stairwell.
Qin Ye’s pupils flinched and he subconsciously let go.
The heavy sound of an object slumping to the ground resounded from the bottom of the empty stairwell.
No one spoke.
The veterans were either already inured to death, or just watching on indifferently. As for those like Messiah who drew a cross over his chest and whispered a prayer—there were none; in the entire infinite loop, he was the only one who would.
The newcomers turned over, dry heaving. Fortunately, they at least didn’t have to directly view the gruesome scene.
In just one day, these newcomers had already experienced an uncountable number of bloody scenes that they never would have experienced before.
Even the rich newcomer, who had clamoured in front of Messiah when the instance first opened about how much money he would pay to hire him as a bodyguard, had long since recognised this cold truth, and was cowering in the corner, his eyes as wide as a brass bell.
“Sigh.”
He Jianlan was silent for a moment before pulling the Knotted Lasso back up and putting it away.
The special prop couldn’t be contaminated by dirt. Even though a man bound by the lasso had just been torn alive, the lasso was still as glossy as before, without any trace left behind.
The veterans were well aware in their hearts that all their efforts were in vain again.
The trail had reached a dead end. Although He Jianlan was full of confidence about the chance task issued by the system, he still had to survive in this extreme instance that approached an S-rank in difficulty before he could write Zong Jiu’s and Sheng Yu’s names on the whiteboard.
Since this method didn’t bear fruit, the only method left was to—
“Let’s have lunch first.”
Messiah stopped praying. “After the lunch break, I will lead a small team to scout basement 2.”
Finally, this moment had come.
The trainees stared guiltily down their noses, and down their noses at their hearts.
On this subject, Messiah chose to say with frankness and sincerity, “I know that no one wants to put themselves in danger. But we’ve been huddling together as a group from the start of this instance and have yet to take the risk of any of the dangerous challenges. This will lead to the possibility of a less-than-optimistic rating at the evaluation when the instance closes, and we could even drop ranks. Of course, if no one wants to go, I will not impose it on them. But if there are any trainees who are ambitious and want to take their rating to the next rank at the end of the instance, they are welcome to come and see me privately during the lunch break.”
Once the Holy Son said this, it was inevitable that gears in several of their heads began to turn.
Everyone was aware of Messiah’s ability. Following such a healer down, it was tantamount to the largest guarantee to their safety; if they missed this opportunity, there wouldn’t be such a store in the next town.
Everyone went upstairs in silence, each habouring their own thoughts.
Jiang Yuan, who was walking behind, noticed the high school student trying to sneak away behind the group.
He swept a glance at Sheng Yu’s back and said viciously, “Hah, this mole still dares to come over here and spy!”
Jiang Yuan was thoroughly disgraced in his earlier confrontation with Zong Jiu.
Although he hadn’t shown it on his face, he had clearly seen a few newcomers whispering to each other behind his back, pouring salt over the wound.
This wouldn’t do. He had to find a way to reclaim the ground he lost.
So after making sure that Messiah had gone upstairs, Jiang Yuan instructed the newcomers in a low voice, “Stay here and keep watch. Report back to me if there is any news or information when that E and F-rank come back up later.”
How could newcomers dare disobey a C-rank? They all hastened to agree.
Satisfied, Jian Yuan nodded, and he walked away without looking back.
Right after telling this cold joke, the ward plunged into an even deeper, dead silence.
And then, Zong Jiu belatedly realised that this joke of his seemed to have really pushed the frigity in the air a notch colder.
Immediately, he hurried to salvage the situation. “I mean it as a compliment, not in a derogatory sense. I’m not being sarcastic.”
[…]
AD
[…]
The bullet chat spammed chain after chain of ‘…’. The viewers seemed completely taken aback by this senseless statement.
[Um. Can someone tell me who Zhuge Liang is? Is he very famous?]
[I also wanted to ask this…]
[But judging from this E-rank’s tone, it shouldn’t be fake? Do any of you recognise this Zhuge Liang?]
[I don’t know him, I haven’t even heard of him before. But it’s so weird. Why does it sound oddly familiar?]
Once this comment appeared, many others immediately echoed after it.
[Familiar +1]
[Familiar +10086. I even feel that it sounds like a very clever name? But I’m sure I haven’t heard of it before.]
Everyone was befuddled.
Several tens of thousands of comments were brushed out in the two people’s live broadcast rooms. Not one knew who was the ‘Zhuge Liang’ that Zong Jiu spoke of.
Let alone the bullet chat, even the dark-haired man also looked at him askance, an inquiring look in his eyes.
“Who is Zhuge Liang?”
The white-haired young man blinked. “Courtesy name, Kong Ming; nicknamed Crouching Dragon, the chancellor of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period.”
Zhuge An frowned.
Zong Jiu suddenly remembered that he was a novel transmigrator.
Thinking about it carefully again, that didn’t seem to be right, still. Even if he had transmigrated, weren’t these people in front of him once from the real world? As long as they were from the real world, they couldn’t not know of Zhuge Liang, right?
Furthermore, there were many historical instances in the infinite loop. Among them, there were many contenders who had studied ancient divination; how could they be without an inkling of who Zhuge Liang was?
Within this, there was surely information that Zong Jiu was in the dark about.
Should he ask?
The white-haired young man fell silent for a moment. In the end, he decided to take the risk.
“…Are you from China?”
The dark-haired man, despite his deeply set features, appeared to be of Asian descent, and with Zhuge’s family name, it was really hard to think of him in the direction of a foreigner.
A Chinese.
Zhuge An lifted his eyes. For the first time, a slight hint of emotion rippled on his characteristically ancient and apathetic face.
The next second, the man suddenly raised his hand.
His large and firm hands powerfully hung upwards suspended in the air, his five fingers forming a claw shape, as if gathering invisible air in his palm.
A twin fish pattern, one black, one white, swirled and appeared above his palm, forming a large taiji diagram of heaven and earth, yin and yang.
Not only that, but countless black stripes also appeared out of thin air, congregating into eight different trigrams floating around the taiji diagram, revolving like a host of stars clustered around power, gently gyrating and vacillating.
Against the white backdrop of the ward, this scene had an extraordinarily mystical impact.
The bullet chat in the live broadcast rooms exploded to high heavens.
[WTF, why is there suddenly no one on screen at all!]
[Where did the two people in the ward suddenly go? /shook.jpg]
[This should be Master Zhuge’s S-rank prop, right? I’m so curious, what the hell are they talking about? They’re actually being so secretive.]
[AH! Is that that legendary S-rank prop! I’ve never been able to figure out what it’s used for, it’s said to be quite omnipotent?]
[Yeah. This prop was obtained from the S-rank instance ‘Investiture of the Gods’. I think only Master Zhuge came back alive from that instance back then…]
Ibcu Ale’r qeqlir rtgjcx.
Fcvlrqeafvis, atlr Kjlpl Sluta Kglugjwr wjq rtbeiv yf Iteuf Cc’r agewq mjgv, jcv atf bcf atlcu atja oglutafcfv batfg nfafgjcr wbra jrlvf ogbw tlr mecclcu jcv tlr ajmalmr.
Ktf gfjrbc atja tf tjv yffc atgbcfv Rb. 3 kjr j tecvgfv qfgmfca yfmjerf bo atlr V-gjcx qgbq, cb vbeya.
Could he have said something he shouldn’t have, causing the other party to immediately renege on his word and strike directly?
Otherwise, what other explanation was there for a powerful bigshot to whip out his trump card out from the bottom of the chest when they were just having a nice, friendly chat?
Zong Jiu really couldn’t understand it.
And what was even more unexpected was why the Taiji Eight Trigrams diagram would only radiate a faint halo.
This faint halo steadily enshrouded the two people in hospital gowns. Only for a fleeting moment, Zong Jiu felt the dissonance of near complete isolation from the world.
Just like how the ward around him, despite being the same ward, looked different.
Zong Jiu cautiously asked, “Is this some kind of space-isolating mechanism?”
Zhuge An looked at him with an appreciative look in his eyes, and he recited, “Heaven and earth have their determinate positions; mountains and rivers flow into each other; thunder and wind invigorate in tandem; water and fire do each other no harm. Between eight trigrams, a mutual synergy. Unveiling of the past follows a natural ordinance; knowledge of the coming is contrary and treacherous against destiny. Stirring the trigrams in the present shakes the lot, and nature will not be in line with the five elements.”
Zong Jiu, “Can you speak normally—wait, no, speak in standard Chinese?”
The dark-haired man lost the earlier look. He said coldly, “All you need to know is that the bullet chat can’t see the live broadcast now.”
“So now, you can give me a detailed explanation.”
Zhuge An’s thin lips pursed together lightly, and his expression didn’t look feigned. “Earlier, that ‘Zhuge Liang’ and ‘China’ you mentioned… how are they different?”
Zong Jiu, “…?”
He slowly typed out a question mark.
—
On the other side at the stairwell, with Qin Ye’s assistance, He Jianlan’s rope was gradually pulled almost all the way up.
[I’m so nervous, do you think we’ll know what’s that beneath when they finish pulling it up? Ahhhhh.]
[If there comes any triggering content ahead, I’m going to have to ask you guys to help me block the broadcast with comments, I’ll jump five minutes back first TAT]
[I feel so anxious that they haven’t managed to find new clues after so long. The difficulty of this instance is so high, they won’t end up with a mass wipeout in the first round of selection, right? (Other than the two powerful S-ranks)]
[Anxious +1. I’m scared that they can’t find the key clue, then when the instance does a mass cleanup on the last day as per norm, unless they have S-rank props, they’re screwed.]
Everyone stood aside, muscles tense.
The high priest’s staff in Messiah’s hand also glowed in the icy air, staying vigilant for what was at the end of the rope.
Almost as soon as He Jianlan lowered the rope, it bound to something.
But no one could be sure what it was that they were pulling up.
Slowly, heavy panting emerged with the drawing in of the rope, as if something was heaving desperately in pain.
He Jianlan spared the time to push up his glasses. “It should be a living person.”
They watched the stairwell anxiously until an ashen face was dragged up.
The psychic gave no warning, and everyone breathed out a sigh of relief, sizing it up more confidently.
Both eyes were rolled back into his head. His mouth only drew in intermittent inhales, his chest weakly undulating, and most of his body still dangled down into the dark, bottomless stairwell beneath.
As luck would have it, they did have some impression of this face.
It was the same E-rank newcomer who had had an emotional breakdown in the dining hall this morning, shouting at the nurses and storming out the door.
Seeing him in this half-dead state, many of the F-ranks in the vicinity, who were even lower than an E-rank, went weak in the knees and the colour drained out of their faces.
“Don’t bring him completely up first, in case…”
He Jianlan didn’t finish his sentence, but all the veterans understood what he meant and readily chose to acquiesce.
In the infinite loop, it wasn’t like there weren’t instances of contenders being left alone who were replaced by non-humans. More than that, the other party was still an insignificant E-rank; none of the people present knew anything of his personality or identifying traits.
Jiang Yuan took some water and poured it over the newcomer’s head, then butted the sunken cheek with the top of his shoe.
“Hey. Wake up.”
The stimulation of the icy water poured over his head caused the newcomer, whose eyes had rolled over, to jolt and vomit a large mouthful of blood from his chest cavity, completely missing the bite he had during his mental breakdown when questioning the nurses.
Jiang Yuan wasn’t able to dodge it in time, and his two legs were squarely sprayed.
“Fucking hell! You son of a bitch!”
The heavy reek of blood mixed with spittle hung like miasma in the air, emitting an abhorrent stench.
Jiang Yuan’s face twisted with anger. He was just about to step forward and deliver a hard kick when He Jianlan yanked him back a few steps.
Only then, did Messiah’s face improve.
He gave Jian Yuan a warning look; golden specks of light suddenly gathered, circling around the high priest’s staff in his hand.
In an instant, these specks of light and radiance landed on the top of the head of the man whose body was half-poked out of the stairwell.
The newcomer’s originally ashen face visibly took on the colour of a living person, and less like a cold corpse sent to the morgue.
As soon as his consciousness returned, the newcomer gasped for breath, his lips trembling and his face tinged with terror that ran deep into his bones.
“Don’t rush, take your time. If it’s difficult to speak for now, you can just say it word by word, or gesture it to us.”
The S-rank prop held by the golden-haired Holy Son continued to heal, and his tone was soft and soothing. “I’m going to ask you some questions; you can just answer or give me a reaction. At any point during which, I will not discontinue the healing.”
A grateful light leaked into the newcomer’s eyes.
Messiah asked in a low voice, “What’s on basement 2?”
At once, the light in the newcomer’s eyes was immediately replaced by panic.
He completely ignored the blood he had vomited on the floor, shaking his head frantically like a rattle. His teeth clattered, and all his facial muscles spasmed with extreme fear, unable to even get out a single word.
Although they had long known that there was something in basement 2, such a reaction was still beyond their expectations.
He Jianlan stared intently at the newcomer’s facial expression, trying to find the slightest crack in it.
Pity, there was none.
Messiah was a little regretful that they couldn’t receive an answer to this question. Nevertheless, he didn’t force it. “Then, next question. Is there anyone else beneath?”
The crazed shaking of the newcomer’s head stopped. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded.
The veterans exchanged a look with each other.
As of now, after having been in the operating theatre on the ground floor, there was only the checklist item of basement 2 that they had yet to explore.
Vincent had mysteriously disappeared since entering the instance, and now all clues pointed to basement 2; aside from basement 2, there was nowhere else he could be. The E-rank newcomer giving this response verified the guess everyone had in their minds.
However, what they couldn’t figure out was why Vincent would stay down there all this while without coming up.
Despite being an A-rank, Vincent, as a half-vampire, had better survivability than the S-ranked Holy Son in horror instances. After all, his constitution was dense with yin, and ghosts and monsters belonged to the yin (shade, death) aspect as well. Usually, non-humans in an instance tended to take out humans, filled with yang (sun, vitality) first, before slowly grinding against their yin counterparts.
This was also where the confidence that all members of Team Dark of the Night Clan, which Vincent represented, had come from. As long as they were sure that the current instance was a supernatural instance, they would usually use the advantage to seize the initiative.
Now, Vincent was nowhere in sight. He could be dead, or he could be trapped downstairs, unable to come up.
No matter which situation it was, there was a lot of room for discussion.
Messiah paused; he was about to dig for more information when he saw the newcomer suddenly start struggling violently.
His eyes filled with pleading tears and he let out a voice as raspy and harsh as an old ventilator. “Help… Save…”
He Jianlan turned pale with alarm. “Crap! Something is pulling him down there!”
Almost simultaneously, Qin Ye grabbed a handful of the rope that slid back down continually, his blue veins clearly jutting on his arms.
The others watched on, stunned.
Qin Ye had abilities from the werewolf’s blessing he received. He had immense strength, but even he had a strained expression, showing how fearsome the fighting strength of the one he was up against was.
The newcomer’s face looked increasingly pained, his arm scraping harshly against the cold, hard concrete, dragging out a shocking trail of blood, bringing with it a large swathe of eerily white chafed skin.
Anyone could tell that this stalemate was bound to end badly. But looking at the newcomer’s pleading gaze, no one was able to say the two words ‘let go’.
Right as the Holy Son was about to make a decision with a distressed expression on his face, the force from below steeply increased.
The newcomer’s face went bloodless, and with a whizz, he was swallowed by the darkness of the stairwell.
Unable to withstand the force, Qin Ye was forced into a stumble.
“Kzzzzt—”
A hair-raising rip echoed through the stairwell.
Qin Ye’s pupils flinched and he subconsciously let go.
The heavy sound of an object slumping to the ground resounded from the bottom of the empty stairwell.
No one spoke.
The veterans were either already inured to death, or just watching on indifferently. As for those like Messiah who drew a cross over his chest and whispered a prayer—there were none; in the entire infinite loop, he was the only one who would.
The newcomers turned over, dry heaving. Fortunately, they at least didn’t have to directly view the gruesome scene.
In just one day, these newcomers had already experienced an uncountable number of bloody scenes that they never would have experienced before.
Even the rich newcomer, who had clamoured in front of Messiah when the instance first opened about how much money he would pay to hire him as a bodyguard, had long since recognised this cold truth, and was cowering in the corner, his eyes as wide as a brass bell.
“Sigh.”
He Jianlan was silent for a moment before pulling the Knotted Lasso back up and putting it away.
The special prop couldn’t be contaminated by dirt. Even though a man bound by the lasso had just been torn alive, the lasso was still as glossy as before, without any trace left behind.
The veterans were well aware in their hearts that all their efforts were in vain again.
The trail had reached a dead end. Although He Jianlan was full of confidence about the chance task issued by the system, he still had to survive in this extreme instance that approached an S-rank in difficulty before he could write Zong Jiu’s and Sheng Yu’s names on the whiteboard.
Since this method didn’t bear fruit, the only method left was to—
“Let’s have lunch first.”
Messiah stopped praying. “After the lunch break, I will lead a small team to scout basement 2.”
Finally, this moment had come.
The trainees stared guiltily down their noses, and down their noses at their hearts.
On this subject, Messiah chose to say with frankness and sincerity, “I know that no one wants to put themselves in danger. But we’ve been huddling together as a group from the start of this instance and have yet to take the risk of any of the dangerous challenges. This will lead to the possibility of a less-than-optimistic rating at the evaluation when the instance closes, and we could even drop ranks. Of course, if no one wants to go, I will not impose it on them. But if there are any trainees who are ambitious and want to take their rating to the next rank at the end of the instance, they are welcome to come and see me privately during the lunch break.”
Once the Holy Son said this, it was inevitable that gears in several of their heads began to turn.
Everyone was aware of Messiah’s ability. Following such a healer down, it was tantamount to the largest guarantee to their safety; if they missed this opportunity, there wouldn’t be such a store in the next town.
Everyone went upstairs in silence, each habouring their own thoughts.
Jiang Yuan, who was walking behind, noticed the high school student trying to sneak away behind the group.
He swept a glance at Sheng Yu’s back and said viciously, “Hah, this mole still dares to come over here and spy!”
Jiang Yuan was thoroughly disgraced in his earlier confrontation with Zong Jiu.
Although he hadn’t shown it on his face, he had clearly seen a few newcomers whispering to each other behind his back, pouring salt over the wound.
This wouldn’t do. He had to find a way to reclaim the ground he lost.
So after making sure that Messiah had gone upstairs, Jiang Yuan instructed the newcomers in a low voice, “Stay here and keep watch. Report back to me if there is any news or information when that E and F-rank come back up later.”
How could newcomers dare disobey a C-rank? They all hastened to agree.
Satisfied, Jian Yuan nodded, and he walked away without looking back.
