Absolute Death Game

Lu Jiang opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but his throat only emitted a series of incomprehensible whimpers. Xiao Buli felt all his hairs stand on end. He crept along the wall toward the exit, and as he dashed out of the bathroom, it seemed to him he heard the ghostly voice clearly—"You must save her!"

Damn, talk about seeing a real live ghost! In his heart, that was the only thought Xiao Buli had at the moment. Living in a materialistic modern society, notions of ghosts and deities were long deemed absurd. Although he sometimes wondered about the existence of another world after death, and whether ghosts were real, he never imagined he would one day actually witness such legendary beings.

At this moment, only the company of fellow human beings could provide him with some sense of safety. So without any hesitation, he headed straight for the computer room in the novice area. However, when Xiao Buli, who seemed to be running away, reached the entrance of the novice area, he stopped in his tracks.

After a brief moment of panic, he forced himself to calm down. Through his experiences over the years, he had learned one thing: Panic would never solve any problem. If he rushed in and blurted out that there was a ghost, would they believe him? The answer, obviously, was no. Even if he showed them something from the game, it wouldn’t mean much.

For instance, in World of Warcraft, there’s a quest where a ghost-like presence appears by your side and keeps talking; it doesn’t prove anything. Besides, they obviously couldn’t see Lu Jiang’s ghost; otherwise, they would have seen Lu Jiang themselves on previous occasions.

At the same time, he thought of something deeper. When he first mentioned this to Qin Shimoon, her reaction was rather odd—she seemed to know something and even offered to cover it up. Could it be that she had already known about the haunting?

Anyway, it appeared that Lu Jiang’s ghost didn’t have any malicious intent—he only wanted him to save his sister. Maybe this was indeed a way to complete the quest. But how did Lu Jiang die? He was only dismissed a few months ago—how could he have met with an accident so quickly?

But no matter what, he had to save this sister. Xiao Buli didn’t know what fate awaited someone who defied an undead spirit, and he didn’t want to find out. At this moment, he remembered some second-rate horror films he had seen before. If a yin soul refused to leave the world of the living, it was most likely because it had unfinished business.

Finishing that business should allow it to rest in peace, right?

All sorts of speculations jumbled in his head, causing him to hesitate about whether to spill the beans. He turned to look back at the corridor, where the marble floor reflected the sunlight shining in from outside, bright and clear. It didn’t look haunted at all, making him wonder if what had just happened was simply a hallucination.

If he truly spoke the truth, he’d likely be taken for a madman. He sighed and forced his trembling hand, which had been about to push the door open, to clench into a fist and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

With a twitch of his mouth and a blink of an eye, he became the ordinary gamer once again. Pushing the door open, he entered the room without a hint of disturbance.

The three people inside the room seemed to have grown impatient with waiting.

"Back so soon? Weren’t you down with diarrhea?"

While forcing a smile, Xiao Buli sat down in his chair. He needed to ask Qin Shimoon for some time off; he had to wrap up this quest quickly.

As he was thinking, he shifted his attention back to the game.

The semi-transparent figure had somehow disappeared, but the DEBUFF above his head was still there—Luck minus 2. For someone whose Luck Value was already quite dreadful, this was really unlucky. He checked the Attributes panel.

HIs Luck was at only five points now. Compared to the average of ten, that was really dismal. The system’s evaluation was—"You’re a very unlucky guy."

To encounter ghosts even in broad daylight, this assessment was indeed too accurate.

Suddenly, Xiao Buli noticed that the dungeon seemed a lot brighter than before even without torches, and he could see clearly. Looking toward the entrance of the dungeon, he found that the gray magical barrier had disappeared, and he could now see the outside scenery directly.

(So that’s how it is. As long as the monsters inside the dungeon are cleared, the magical barrier of the dungeon will disappear and it will revert to a normal cave. It seems this is the origin of the one-time dungeon)

Exiting the dungeon, which was no longer a dungeon, he saw several walking corpses circling around Li Baocheng at the entrance, and Xiao Buli initially tensed but then realized it must be the effect of Enslave Zombies.

"Hey, a level one Enslave Zombies can control four walking corpses, imagine if it reached level ten, wouldn’t that be impressive?" Li Baocheng said with some pride.

"Cut it out. Walking corpses have neither speed nor attack power; they’re only good as targets to draw fire. Plus, this skill needs a corpse to use, which is useless if there are no corpses." Han Baiqiang couldn’t stand his boasts and spared no effort in delivering the blow.

This statement is indeed true. The skill to enslave walking corpses allows one to control the walking corpses in battle, but the enslaved walking corpses can’t inherit the skills and attributes they had in life, so they basically fall down with one hit, really not much use.

Moreover, not just any corpse will do; it has to be a corpse that has absorbed Yin Energy to qualify as a walking corpse, to be controlled. And once a walking corpse evolves into a zombie or some other somewhat more powerful form of undead, the skill to enslave zombies is no longer sufficient to control such powerful undead. All in all, it’s a very tricky skill.

Li Baocheng just grinned and didn’t say much, but Xiao Buli was not interested in discussing this question with them at this moment. He urgently wanted to return to the village to log off and then find Qin Shimoon to ask for leave, to see if there was really someone like Lu Jiang’s sister.

However, as soon as he mentioned going back to the village, the group began to have divergent opinions on how to return.

"The caravan won’t arrive until tomorrow. What will you guys do if you run into that Corpse-driving Warlock on your way back now? In my opinion, it’s better for us to wait here for a while. Once the caravan arrives, it will be safe to follow them. With the caravan guards around, that Corpse-driving Warlock probably wouldn’t dare to make a move on us."

Li Baocheng, however, was set on dragging everyone down with him. If the others went back to the village, he would have to log off and hide. After the caravan arrived, he couldn’t join immediately either, because the caravan would first visit the village and stay for a day before returning. The round trip would take more than two days, costing him two and a half days of leveling time.

Without doubt, he would fall behind the others. If they all stayed together, it would be much better.

But if he could think of this, so could the others. Sun Bin, brandishing his long spear with a touch of pride, said, "I would rather take the test. Even if we encounter that Corpse-driving Warlock again, although I dare not guarantee victory, getting away unscathed is well within the realm of possibility."

"That’s right, that’s right, if you ask me......" Han Baiqiang was about to boast a little himself when he suddenly remembered that he seemed to be the slowest runner here. If they encountered a monster and were chased, he would likely be at the bottom again. That was a deal he couldn’t afford, so he swallowed his words before they left his mouth.

Xiao Buli also felt that setting out recklessly was not a good idea. The recent example of Lu Jiang was not far off, and at this moment, he vaguely felt that Lu Jiang’s death was very likely related to the game, otherwise his quest wouldn’t have appeared in the game.

Looking at the screen’s somewhat dark tones and the desolate scenery all around, he inexplicably felt a sense of danger lurking everywhere.

"Ah, forget it, I’ll go back and help you guys out this time."

Li Jian suddenly said reluctantly from the side.

Upon hearing Li Jian’s words, the four of them were overjoyed. Really? Was he that kind-hearted?

Although Li Jian had been helpful before in familiarizing the four with the game, he generally only answered common knowledge questions. Once it was beyond that scope, he often clammed up, clearly adopting a strictly businesslike attitude. His unexpected offer made Xiao Buli somewhat skeptical.

However, Han Baiqiang excitedly said, "That’s great, Li, you really are a true bro."

Li Jian then added, "But I can’t say that I am confident about taking on that BOSS alone. Luckily, the White Tiger Group doesn’t have much going on these two days. How about this, I’ll call a few brothers and we’ll come back to escort you guys to the village. If we encounter the BOSS, we might as well take care of it." Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Xiao Buli suddenly understood. He thought, what’s the deal here? This guy isn’t going to be so kind for no reason. It turns out he’s after the BOSS’s loot. That Corpse-driving Warlock is a terrifying existence for the four of them, but it should be a simple matter for the group of veterans to deal with.

Still, he was somewhat grateful. After all, compared to the virtual items in the game, Li Jian was offering much greater assistance.

Seeing the four of them look grateful, Li Jian couldn’t help but smile inwardly, though he put on a warm and hearty expression and said, "Tell me where you are now. Me and my brothers will take a carriage over. It should take less than an hour to arrive. Oh right, you guys must not let this out. According to the rules, I am not supposed to help you newcomers.

If the higher-ups find out, it’s no big deal if we lose some pay, but you guys are probably going to get fired."

"Of course, of course, we definitely won’t talk about it." Han Baiqiang, frightened, hurriedly agreed and anxiously said to the other three, "You all heard it, this matter is no small thing, don’t go spreading it around."

Xiao Buli and Li Baocheng both nodded lightly, while Sun Bin simply snorted coldly but didn’t say anything.

PS: There will be a recommendation next week, should be able to update a little more by then.