The three people behind Tang Zhixing were startled by his impulsiveness. They rushed over, two from the left and one from the right, to hold him back. “Brother Tang, wait. Let us see what he is actually planning to do. He has no weapons, but we have guns. What if he truly has a way to lead us to the abyss?”
“Exactly. Let us keep watching; it does not hurt!”
It seemed the temptation of the abyss was significant enough for the players to be willing to take risks for even the slightest clue. It was understandable; the points awarded for clearing the boss solo or as a single guild were vastly superior to those gained from cooperative efforts. No guild wanted to share such rewards. The longer they delayed, the more likely other guilds would arrive with mission items, destroying their competitive advantage. At that point, they would either have to share the items and kill the boss together, or fight to the death before the boss was even reached. Even knowing Bai Xinjian was likely cheating, they preferred to remain patient.
Tang Zhixing’s emotions gradually settled. He holstered his gun, and the dark blue glow in his right eye vanished. Everyone present, including Bai Xinjian, failed to notice Tang Zhixing’s brief lapse. After the minor incident, the group continued to follow Bai Xinjian deeper into the rainforest.
Surprisingly, the further they walked into the rainforest, the thinner the fog became. The forest was teeming with venomous insects and snakes, and the air was filled with the strange, eerie cries of unknown creatures. Yet, at some point, Tang Zhixing and his group realized those chilling sounds had gradually faded away. The rainforest grew strangely quiet. There was no wind, and even the rustling of leaves was barely audible. This silent atmosphere carried a suffocating tension that slowly enveloped those following Bai Xinjian.
“Brother Tang,” one of the men reached out in fear, touching his own arm where the hair stood on end. “This rainforest feels increasingly wrong.”
Tang Zhixing checked his system map, confirming they were indeed slowly approaching the abyss. They had scouted this area yesterday on behalf of their guild and knew how difficult it was to access. In their quest for reliable intelligence, they had carpet-searched every passable area nearby, so why had they never discovered that this path led so close to the abyss? Tang Zhixing narrowed his eyes and looked at Bai Xinjian, who was leading the way.
Others who had gone to the Zhudao Guild to gather intelligence claimed that the pretty boy accompanying Zhu Jin was a useless waste, a burden who could not lift a finger or do anything but cause trouble. But clearly, the facts suggested otherwise; he appeared remarkably calm in such a treacherous place. What exactly was his background?
Suddenly, a wicked wind swept through the rainforest, and the sky was overrun by strange black mist. Upon closer inspection, the mist was actually a dense swarm of insects. Tang Zhixing and his companions looked up in horror as the swarm descended like a deluge, obscuring their entire vision.
“Ah!” Tang Zhixing heard a companion scream. He felt his entire body being bitten by something minute and dense, a mixture of pain and itching, before he lost consciousness.
Bai Xinjian felt the same. As the wind tossed him about, he looked up to see the swarm covering him like a spiderweb. It was an unpleasant feeling; despite his slight tendency toward self-abuse, Bai Xinjian did not enjoy being covered in insects. However, the sensation lasted only a split second.
The tentacle around his waist suddenly raised its tip, let out a threatening hiss, and expanded—larger and larger—until it hoisted Bai Xinjian into the air.
“Get away! Get away!” He heard the tentacle roar in anger. “Xinxin is mine! Get away!”
Then, his perspective flipped. He was lifted to the highest point of the rainforest by the giant tentacle. There, he realized that what had obscured the light in the rainforest was not just the dense foliage and the omnipresent mist, but a massive shadow.
From the highest point of the rainforest, he saw a colossus so vast it was boundless. Its shadow swallowed the entire forest. It seemed to have merged with the horizon of the wasteland in the distance. It was so enormous that Bai Xinjian could only see one deep blue eye. The eye looked like a deep blue planet, staring fixedly at Bai Xinjian from beyond the horizon.
This sight would have terrified an ordinary person into tears, but Bai Xinjian remained unmoved. He tilted his head, carefully observing the massive, dark blue pupil.
“It is you,” Bai Xinjian said. “The colossus is truly you, monster.” He tilted his head and smiled. “We meet again.”
“Xinxin.”
“Xinxin.”
“Xinxin.”
He heard the monster’s whispers, originating from nowhere, like a resonant frequency deep within his soul.
“Jian still there, bad, answer.”
The system in Bai Xinjian’s mind made a crackling sound, as if it had realized something was wrong again. Bai Xinjian had no time to worry about it; he looked up at the giant pupil. “Since you are the colossus, I am relieved. Can you take me out of the rainforest? I will come back to find you later.”
The colossus blinked. The dark blue glow of the pupil seemed to be veiled by an eyelid, then lit up again. It seemed to agree. Bai Xinjian heard the tentacle carrying him let out a sharp scream.
“Go away! Go away!”
“Xinxin is mine!”
“I can take him out of the rainforest!”
The sky turned dark. The insect swarm in the rainforest rose, forming a flying carpet beneath Bai Xinjian, while some insects landed on the slimy surface of the tentacle, seemingly beginning to bite it.
“Go away!”
“Go away! You wretched insects!”
The tentacle screamed in madness. Perhaps the pain from the insects was too much, for the tip holding Bai Xinjian loosened, and he fell from the sky. He was caught firmly by the insect carpet, which carried him steadily out of the rainforest.
“Oh, right,” Bai Xinjian looked back at the monster on the horizon. “And my companions; please do not hurt them yet. They are still useful.”
This time, the monster did not blink. Its deep blue eye remained fixed on Bai Xinjian; it was unclear if it had understood his words. Within minutes, Bai Xinjian reached the edge of the rainforest. He wanted to check his map, but 0048 was still offline. He found a place out of the harsh sun to stand still. After a while, he finally heard 0048’s voice return. “Jianjian, are you okay? Why did you go offline again? Huh, strange.”
It seemed to realize Bai Xinjian had left the rainforest. “How did you get out? What happened?”
“I do not know,” Bai Xinjian feigned ignorance. “I wanted to look at the abyss, but then a lot of insects suddenly appeared, and I seem to have been carried out by them.”
0048: “…”
The definition of “enough insects to carry a person away.” It was so absurd that 0048 did not suspect him much. “What about the others? Is there really a problem with the Transmigration Bureau’s network? I need to report this bug for maintenance; these constant disconnections are very annoying.”
Bai Xinjian agreed. Once 0048 finished complaining, he pulled up the map and found he was very close to the mission item spawn point. He decided not to wait for Tang Zhixing and his group and headed toward the destination under the sun and wind.
There were five mission item spawn points on the map, and this one was closest to the abyss. He estimated that many had scouted the forest yesterday, realized the danger, and deemed the detours too time-consuming, so the spawn point was not overly crowded. Even so, by the time Bai Xinjian arrived, he saw many people hovering nearby.
He seemed to have reached the edge of the wasteland. Before him was a valley cliff, and on the other side sat a gloomy, Gothic castle. Is this the mission item spawn point?
The hovering players seemed to notice a newcomer and turned to look at Bai Xinjian. It appeared many in this game world recognized the original host; perhaps for being famously useless. He heard some whispering about him.
“Is that not Zhu Jin’s kept man?”
“The useless one?”
“Right? I heard Zhu Jin performed brilliantly in the last dungeon and earned many individual points. The new members he recruited all had high points too, but when you add them all together, this kept man drags down their average.”
“Does not matter. The guild looks at total points, not the average.”
“Zhu Jin will protect him anyway.”
“Then why is he alone today?”
“Yes, why are the others from the Zhudao Guild not here?”
They did not know the method for acquiring the items yet, so everyone needed to conserve strength and avoid offending others, meaning their discussions were hushed. Bai Xinjian pretended not to hear and walked to the edge of the cliff. He discovered there was no bridge leading to the castle. Does one need to wait until the respawn time to cross?
Bai Xinjian had 0048 check the time; there were just over twenty minutes left until 11:00 AM. It seemed he would have to wait. Bai Xinjian found a spot nearby to sit. Fortunately, it was neither sunny nor sandy. While clearing the sand from his clothes, he eavesdropped on others discussing how to complete the task.
Suddenly, his peripheral vision caught two groups of people approaching from the wasteland. One group was Tang Zhixing’s; they looked disheveled, their clothes torn in various places. Tang Zhixing seemed to have spotted Bai Xinjian from afar and pointed a finger at him, flashing an ambiguous smile. The threat was palpable.
The other group consisted of three people. The leader looked very similar to Tang Zhixing—deep-set European features—but his temperament was starkly different. Like Tang Zhixing, his eyes were scanning Bai Xinjian with curiosity. Against the light, Bai Xinjian noticed a flash of dark blue flicker in his right eye.
Oh. An old acquaintance.
Bai Xinjian smiled. Monsters were truly everywhere.