Chapter 263: Activated a Cheat |
"What is going on? A sneak attack from behind?"
Brewing Cat stared blankly at the spot where the Zombie had vanished, refusing to let her guard down. This bizarre situation only made her more anxious.
"No, it walked away..." Work Three Rest Four retrieved the severed dagger and concealed it within her sleeve.
"Its frontal combat capabilities are so strong, and it even knows martial arts and sword techniques. There is absolutely no need for it to flank us. But... why did it suddenly stop fighting halfway through? If it had just pushed a little harder, it could have killed us," Brewing Cat pondered, completely bewildered.
"Do not move recklessly just yet. Let us observe a bit longer. If anything happens, use that move," Work Three Rest Four advised.
Thus, the two of them held their ground in the Tomb Chamber for a while longer, eyes and ears peeled for the slightest rustle. Yet, the surroundings were so deadly silent that they could only hear each other's breathing. There was no sign of ghosts or Zombies. The Tomb Chamber was completely empty, as if that Zombie had vanished into thin air, abandoning them there for no rhyme or reason. It left them with the frustrating feeling of being dumped on the side of the road by a hired driver.
The silence was eventually broken by the ringing of a Mobile Phone.
Ring, ring, ring!
Brewing Cat pulled the white Twin Phone from her pocket. An incoming call icon flashed on the screen. These phones did not require cell towers, would never run out of battery, and could connect regardless of distance or any physical obstacles in the way.
"Something seems to have changed in our area. The number of ghosts suddenly increased, but they aren't actively targeting us. It looks like... they are gathering in a specific direction. How are things on your end? Have you found the Evil-Warding Beast yet?" I Love a Sword asked.
"Not yet," Brewing Cat replied. "We just ran into an armored Zombie wielding a massive blade. It was quite troublesome."
"A Zombie refined from an ancient general? That must have been tough to deal with."
"It was incredibly tough. Its blade techniques were excellent, and its strikes inflicted poison and malevolent energy."
"Well, since you have the time to answer the phone, you must have won. That guy's blade is likely a pretty decent weapon. You should bring it along; even if you can't use it, you can give it to me or Brother Bai."
"We didn't win," Work Three Rest Four interjected. "Halfway through the fight, it just ran away on its own."
"Ran away?" I Love a Sword paused in surprise. "Did you heavily injure it?"
"We barely scratched it," Work Three Rest Four said, shaking her head.
They hadn't even pierced its armor. Her dagger strikes had only left a few white scratch marks on the Zombie's iron plating. The creature's equipment was exceptionally well-made, remaining incredibly sturdy despite corroding underground for hundreds of years. It felt as if the armor had fused with its very flesh, turning into a biological exoskeleton.
"I have a very bad feeling about this..." I Love a Sword's expression turned solemn. "I'm guessing we don't have much time left. It would be great if we could contact Brother Bai. I have no idea what's going on over on his end."
I Love a Sword sighed heavily. He actually had a rather good impression of Bai Mu. After all, the man had voluntarily taken on the most dangerous solo exploration role and had even bailed him out during the fight with the Red-Clad Female Ghost.
"We probably... don't need to worry about Big Brother Bai," Scattered Fireflies chimed in. "He's very strong."
"That may be so," I Love a Sword said, "but the elite monsters in this tomb are incredibly tough to deal with..."
Brewing Cat pointed out, "Can't we see his avatar in the team interface? That panda head icon is still lit up. At the very least, he is still alive."
With that said, Brewing Cat waved her hand, and together with Work Three Rest Four, she began moving out of the Tomb Chamber.
When they had first entered this Tomb Chamber, they passed through a narrow corridor and noticed that its layout was very similar to the one where they had initially encountered the female ghost. After opening the stone door on the opposite side, they unsurprisingly stepped into a vast, cavernous space.
The light from the bronze lamps on the stone walls flickered like fireflies in the dark of night. While keeping the call connected, they walked into the darkness for a short while before quickly finding the third pair of Evil-Warding Beasts.
"Looks like our luck is pretty bad." Brewing Cat tilted her head up. Her field of vision was filled with thick layers of rock. Shrines were embedded in the stone walls, hung with bronze lamps, but there was no sound of running water, nor could they find anything resembling a door or an exit.
"Do you think there might be a hidden secret passage here that leads directly outside?" Brewing Cat chuckled self-deprecatingly. "It would be nice if there were. I'm getting a little tired of walking."
"If there was, this wouldn't be a C-rank Script," Work Three Rest Four ruthlessly shattered her fantasy.
"Are we sure the location of the Evil-Warding Beasts is actually the exit?" Brewing Cat looked down at her phone. "Since this is a ghost palace, the Fengshui of an ordinary mausoleum might not necessarily apply here, right? Did we just choose the wrong direction right from the start?"
"No... logically speaking, it shouldn't be wrong..." I Love a Sword's face revealed a hint of hesitation. "Moreover, a ghost palace should adhere even more strictly to the Fengshui principles of concealing the wind and gathering the energy... Refining a corpse is an act that defies the heavens. Before it is fully refined, the Yin energy absolutely cannot be allowed to leak out..."
"Logically speaking... but Paradise is an utterly unreasonable place." Brewing Cat wiped the smile from her face. "However... we can only trust you for now, Brother I Love a Sword. Let's just hope your judgment isn't wrong."
"Let's stick to the original plan and look for Brother Bai," I Love a Sword said. "Keep in touch. The four of us need to reunite as soon as possible."
"OK, Captain," Brewing Cat replied. "Just thinking about us teaming back up into a group of four boosts my sense of security by twenty percent."
The fact that neither side had found the exit was quite a heavy blow to all four of them.
I Love a Sword began to doubt his own judgment. Missing on a two-thirds probability made him incredibly anxious that all three options might just end up being dead ends.
Meanwhile, Brewing Cat had consumed a vast amount of Mana in the previous battle; her blue bar was running dangerously low, and half of her stamina was depleted. Her base attributes were not particularly high. It had been nearly an hour and a half since they entered the Script. Spending all that time trekking through a cramped, suffocating tomb, constantly terrified that a pale hand might suddenly shoot out of the darkness to choke them, had taken a massive toll on her mentally.
Work Three Rest Four's condition was not much better. Her stamina had also been halved during the fight, yet she still had to drag her exhausted body around to protect her companion. If Brewing Cat died, she wouldn't even be able to use her ultimate moves. The fate of an injured assassin who had lost her healer was entirely predictable.
Out of the four, the one in the best condition was actually Scattered Fireflies. She and I Love a Sword had also encountered an elite monster. However, thanks to her keen observation, she discovered that the creature altered its defensive attributes after taking a hit, gradually adapting to specific damage types. By constantly switching back and forth between magical and physical attacks, they managed to slay it.
She hadn't expended much Mana, and her stamina remained in a healthy green state. Furthermore, for some inexplicable reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that this sudden change in the tomb was somehow related to Bai Mu.
'Could Big Brother Bai... have pulled off another high-level maneuver?'
Perhaps it was because Bai Mu's performance in the last Script had been overwhelmingly stellar, which gave her an enigmatic level of confidence in him. After all, he was a man who had even managed to outsmart a demon.
After returning, she had actually reviewed the Haunted Manor Script multiple times. She always maintained a habit of post-match analysis, and as she listed out everything Bai Mu had done, she increasingly felt that his strength was downright absurd.
He was strong in every conceivable aspect. In combat, he could single-handedly stall that living armor and handle it with effortless ease. In deduction, he could reconstruct the entire truth based on the tiniest clues. His psychological fortitude was even more monstrous; he had changed the bandages on that disgusting, mutilated husk like a soulless machine. On top of that, he possessed a vast array of bizarre items, as if his inventory were a magical pouch of holding that contained whatever he needed.
Looking back, that D-rank team Script had essentially been cleared by Bai Mu alone. She and the remaining players were nothing more than dead weight. Her post-match analysis concluded that even without the four of them, Bai Mu could have cleared the Ancient Manor all by himself.
In the eyes of Scattered Fireflies, Bai Mu was so strong that it almost felt like he had activated a cheat.
To the point where she suspected that Bai Mu had charged into the King of Huainan's Main Tomb Chamber entirely alone, which was what triggered the sudden anomalies on their end.