"Ah—!!"
A sharp scream tore through the dense forest.
The rotting "Lei Lis" began sitting up one by one. They all wore the "green velvet cloaks" Jiang Yan had given them, with their faces oozing yellow liquid, covered in maggots, yet displaying innocent and sweet smiles.
They all looked at Zhou Hao as if they had just happened to meet him during a class break, asking, "Did any of you drop something?"
Zhou Hao’s whole body trembled, his legs shaking uncontrollably, cold sweat pouring down his face. His lips moved, as if trying to respond to "Lei Li’s" question, but it also seemed he was merely trembling from pure fear.
"N-no… no!" Zhou Hao shook his head as he stepped back, his forehead covered in a fine layer of cold sweat.
After retreating several steps, he stepped on someone else’s foot.
Zhou Hao froze, then slowly turned his head, only to see Lei Li staring at him with a pair of pitch-black, unblinking eyes.
"Ah—!!"
Zhou Hao screamed again, turned around without a second thought, and bolted!
Lei Li seemed utterly stunned. She didn’t respond to her screaming, panicking companion. Instead, she stood frozen in place, staring blankly at the pile of her corpses before her.
Seeing the scene in front of them, everyone’s first instinct was, of course, to run. However, as they all turned, Lei Li still didn’t move an inch.
"Don’t just stand there! Run!" Zhong Yun grabbed the terrified girl who dared not move. Yet, no matter how hard Zhong Yun pulled, Lei Li’s legs seemed nailed to the ground, refusing to budge even an inch.
Seeing this, the others couldn’t help but stop as well.
"Zhou Hao! Wait up!" Wang Yu worried Zhou Hao might rush too far ahead and encounter danger, so he tried to call him back to prevent him from being left behind.
But Zhou Hao was clearly too frightened. Ignoring everything, he charged forward recklessly, disappearing into the depths of the dense forest within moments.
Watching the direction Zhou Hao disappeared into while screaming, both Ding Wanyu and Jiang Yan furrowed their brows simultaneously.
What Ding Wanyu was thinking was that at this point, going off alone made the chances of surviving very slim. They might as well give up on this player altogether.
Jiang Yan, on the other hand, couldn’t understand. Lei Li and Zhou Hao were companions. In a game like this, having a companion was something many could only dream of.
After all, humans are social animals. Their ability to fight fierce beasts on perilous plains and ultimately stand at the top of the food chain didn’t come from individual combat but from the strength of their collective species.
It was the same in this game. The desire to survive made all participants hope to gather together. As a result, groups were formed within the game, which the "Main God" referred to as—guilds.
[This kid won’t make it! Abandoning his companion and running off like this.]
[He's doomed! Running off alone guarantees he won’t survive.]
[Good riddance, honestly. The fewer, the better.]
[Still too young. But avoiding danger is human nature.]
Jiang Yan had always thought that Lei Li and Zhou Hao shared a bond of loyalty and mutual support. But now...
At this moment, 663 spoke up, “Lei Li entered the game because of Zhou Hao."
“Because of Zhou Hao?" Jiang Yan glanced at the footprints Zhou Hao had left as he disappeared into the forest and slightly raised his eyebrows. “Does she like him?”
“No, their relationship at school wasn’t particularly good," 663 explained.
Jiang Yan was even more puzzled. Not good?
If their relationship wasn’t good, then why would this young girl enter the game because of him?
“Lei Li! Lei Li!”
Jiang Yan’s attention returned to the short-haired girl beside him, who remained motionless.
Beneath the pitch-black sky, there was the pale white snow, the dark, withered tree branches, and the road ahead paved with "her" corpses.
Facing one decayed version of herself sitting up after another, Lei Li’s eyes widened, her lips turning faintly purple. Her entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.
The others surrounded her, calling her name, but it seemed she could no longer hear them.
[The little girl is too young. Forget about her, even seeing a pile of their own corpses sitting up would scare anyone, right?]
[New players generally don’t have strong mental resilience.]
[Hey you upstair, were you mentally strong when you were a newbie?]
Zhong Yun tried to turn Lei Li’s entire body around so that her back would face the inexplicable path and the pile of inexplicable "Lei Lis," cutting off the visual source of stimulation.
But the snow was too deep, and Lei Li’s legs were stuck firmly in the snow, unable to move.
“What are you standing there for? Help!” Zhong Yun yelled at the three men who looked a bit at a loss.
Hearing this, Jiang Yan quickly used the golden sickle in his hand to dig out the snow around Lei Li's feet. Wang Yu also stepped forward to help.
Ding Wanyu, however, waited until the snow pressing down on Lei Li's feet was mostly cleared before lifting the girl entirely in his arms.
The moment Lei Li was lifted by Ding Wanyu, everyone froze.
The green velvet cloak Jiang Yan had given her fell onto the snow.
At this moment, Lei Li lay stiffly in Ding Wanyu’s arms, her entire body straight and rigid like a stick, even her toes pointed straight, as if she had been standing on tiptoes in the snow all along.
Her head remained twisted, facing the path filled with her "corpses." Even though Ding Wanyu carried her with her back to the path, her neck cracked audibly as it contorted.
Jiang Yan, holding the sickle, and Wang Yu, squatting on the ground, stared at the abnormal little girl in front of them, momentarily unable to react.
The next second, Jiang Yan was lifted from the snow. "The Hunter's" elegant chuckle echoed beside him: "Poor little girl, unable to accept the truth all at once."
Before Jiang Yan could react, his perspective was elevated, and he found himself enveloped in the warm embrace of "The Hunter."
Noticing the little sheep in his arms still seemed dazed, "The Hunter" ruffled Jiang Yan's hair and asked, "Maybe your friends aren’t very kind to you? I shouldn’t have let you play with them. Is Yan Yan angry with me?"
As "The Hunter" appeared, the ghostly howls of the "hunting dogs" once again echoed throughout the forest.
On the small path, countless "Lei Li" corpses sat up, repeatedly asking: "Who lost something?"
"Who lost something?"
"Who lost something?!"
"Who lost something?!!!"
One voice after another grew louder and more hysterical, blending with the howls of the "hunting dogs" as they reverberated across the entire forest.
Lei Li remained stiff as a stick in Ding Wanyu's arms. At that moment, Ding Wanyu suddenly felt the girl’s touch alarmingly familiar.
For a corpse driver, there’s only one thing that could feel familiar.
Corpses.
The stiff posture and the cold temperature of the girl in his arms left no doubt in Ding Wanyu’s mind. He was holding a corpse.
In an instant, Ding Wanyu hurled the girl in his arms to the ground. She landed heavily on the green velvet cloak, like a frozen human pillar.
“You…” Wang Yu was about to say something.
But before he could finish, Lei Li, who had been thrown onto the cloak, slowly sat up. Her body was rigid, and blackish-purple veins started appearing on her face. She turned her vacant gaze toward the group. "Who... lost something?"
Jiang Yan silently tightened his arms around "The Hunter’s" neck. "The Hunter" tilted Jiang Yan’s chin slightly, letting out a soft chuckle.
“I thought you wouldn’t be scared,” 663 said, a hint of schadenfreude in its tone.
“Fear is a normal response to the unknown,” Jiang Yan replied expressionlessly.
“Look at Zhong Yun; she’s a woman and still calmer than you,” 663 teased.
Jiang Yan’s gaze fell on Zhong Yun. In the snow, she stood staring at the pile of rotting corpses and her odd companions, showing no sign of panic.
Her expression was almost identical to that of the seasoned corpse driver, Ding Wanyu, someone accustomed to seeing corpses and ghosts.
Jiang Yan was slightly surprised. "Is she... just an ordinary person?"
Jiang Yan himself wasn’t particularly afraid of ghosts. After all, he had a "former husband" at home who dabbled in "human body art." He was used to seeing lifelike human organs every day. Even so, he couldn’t remain calm in the face of such a grotesque scene. Zhong Yun’s composure seemed excessive.
“She is,” 663 replied. “All players who enter the game are ordinary people.”
Jiang Yan frowned slightly. He was now almost certain that Zhong Yun and Lei Li had something unusual about them.
“Rabbit” and “Magpie”?
His "former husband" had once said, “A rabbit forgets it’s a rabbit; a magpie always remembers it’s a magpie.”
If players had to be ordinary people, then "rabbit" and "magpie" must be mere code names. But why use such names?
If Lei Li and Zhong Yun had secrets, did these code names hold a deeper meaning?
As Jiang Yan pondered over "rabbit" and "magpie," Wang Yu let out a terrified scream.
Everyone followed Wang Yu’s gaze. The red-clad woman who had been chasing them earlier appeared from behind a nearby dead tree, holding an axe.
She stood motionless behind the withered tree. The black wood and white snow made the blood on her body appear even more vividly red.
Her abdomen was split open, with several organs spilling onto the ground. Her massive liver pulsed faintly with her breathing, and beside it, a fist-sized, underdeveloped fetus was struggling to grow.
She had been hiding behind the tree for an unknown amount of time, her shattered face and eyeless sockets greedily fixated on them.
Jiang Yan clung tighter to "The Hunter," while Ding Wanyu, Wang Yu, and Zhong Yun instinctively moved closer to "The Hunter" as well.
The scene was deeply ironic—a group of "players" seeking safety from the dungeon's BOSS.
Players on the game forum noticed this anomaly:
[Wait… why is "The Hunter" suddenly in the forest?]
[Yeah! Logically, he’s supposed to conduct the final judgment on the players at dusk today. Why show up now? Is there a new mission?]
[Another mission?! Have some sympathy for these newbie players!]
[Jiang Yan says no sympathy required, thanks.]
[To be fair, Jiang Yan has it rough. He was arbitrarily assigned the role of a judge. He could’ve coasted to victory, but now one misstep could cost him his life.]
[Oh, please! Everyone in this game is walking a tightrope daily. Who else gets to lie low for five or six days like him?]
The red-clad woman showed no signs of attacking them. Or perhaps, due to "The Hunter's" presence, she refrained from making a move for now.
The "Lei Lis" fell silent as well. Their heads rotated 360 degrees, all staring in the direction of "The Hunter."
For a moment, everyone waited quietly for "The Hunter’s" next move.
As the ruler of this forest and the "god" of this world, "The Hunter" wielded absolute authority.
Jiang Yan clutched "The Hunter's" neck, watching the crystalline glow of white snow reflected in his emerald-green eyes, a foreboding feeling rising in his heart.
"The Hunter" glanced at the red-clad woman in the distance, then turned back to tilt the chin of the little lamb in his arms, chuckling softly.
"Look, there's a dirty little bear over there. Does Yan Yan want to dance with her?"