"Haha, that’s right!"
Qin Lang smiled and nodded. "The Skeleton Archers are for Shen Xing. Isn’t his starting Soldier Type the Beastman? This will perfectly complement it with some ranged attacks."
"And your Archers, Jiayi—their firepower is strong, but they’re too fragile. These Stone Giants will be perfect to serve as your front line."
Gazing at the orbs of light on the table, the two exchanged a look, their expressions complicated.
Clearly, Qin Lang had carefully selected these Unit Nests after considering the specific needs of their territories.
"Qin Lang, these are too valuable."
Xu Jiayi said hesitantly, "I saw on the Trading Section that even an ordinary Two-Star Unit Nest sells for over a hundred thousand at minimum."
"And for Soldier Types like Skeleton Soldiers and Stone Giants that don’t require additional resources for upkeep, the price is double that. You should take these back."
Shen Xing hadn’t known the value of these Unit Nests, but hearing what Xu Jiayi said, he was quite surprised.
These two Unit Nests were worth at least three or four hundred thousand combined!
’I’ve never seen so much money in my life! The balance in my bank account has never even had five digits!’
"Where’d you get so much money? Don’t tell me you found a sugar mama behind our backs," Shen Xing said, looking at him suspiciously.
"What are you talking about? Do I, Qin Lang, look like the kind of guy who needs a sugar mama?"
He declared righteously, "This is the Gold Coins I farmed off my old man."
"Your old man?"
The two of them were confused again.
Although they knew Qin Lang’s family was fairly well-off, Mr. Qin had always been very strict with him.
Back in school, besides basic living expenses, he was never given any extra spending money.
There were even a few times when he spent his allowance early, and it was Shen Xing and Xu Jiayi who had to help him scrape by.
"Yeah," Qin Lang explained. "You know how my old man suffers from chronic rheumatism? Well, I happened to gather a Blood Fruit in the game the other day and thought I’d have him try it."
"I lied and told him it was a fruit picked from some primeval forest abroad, that a friend had to pull some strings to get it."
"The old man was skeptical, but he ate it. The next morning, he transferred half a million to me and told me to thank that friend properly."
"So I took that money, made a trip to the Pioneer Exchange in Jiang City, and bought three Unit Nests."
The two nodded, finally understanding where he got the money.
It made sense when they thought about it. After all, even though the game had been around for years, only a small fraction of people knew it existed.
Mr. Qin had suffered from rheumatism for years and had spent a fortune trying to treat it.
The [Blood Fruit] itself had the miraculous effect of accelerating blood flow. While it couldn’t provide an instant cure, it was certainly capable of significantly reducing the pain.
Mr. Qin was so happy that he transferred a large sum of money to Qin Lang.
Still, the two of them were hesitant. After all, these two Unit Nests were incredibly valuable.
Qin Lang could see what they were thinking and pressed on. "Just take them. In any case, I’m the one who dragged you two into this game."
"Just consider it me trying to ease my conscience. I don’t want to see our discussion group get any smaller."
Now that he’d put it that way, they couldn’t very well refuse.
Xu Jiayi accepted the Stone Giant Unit Nest. "Alright, I’ll take it. My territory really is short on front-line units."
Shen Xing nodded as well, slipping the Skeleton Archer Nest into his pocket.
These Unit Nests would be a huge help to them.
Afterward, the three of them discussed their progress in the game over dinner.
They were both shocked to hear that Shen Xing had already raised an Elite Two-Star Beastman Fighter.
But it wasn’t entirely surprising to them. After all, Shen Xing had earned an S-class evaluation in his first battle; with his Talent for gaming, achieving this wasn’t that difficult.
Similarly, Qin Lang and Xu Jiayi had also made significant progress over the past few days.
Qin Lang had spent tens of thousands on the exchange to buy a complete Elite Soul and a few Ordinary Souls.
He had essentially used his wallet to brute-force his way to an Elite One-Star Half-Elf Assassin.
Xu Jiayi had also managed to raise an Elite One-Star Ranger Shooter.
Shen Xing glanced at the quiet homebody, inwardly surprised.
After all, the game was extremely difficult, and resources were hard to come by.
To upgrade a Soldier Type to the Elite Level, you first had to kill an Elite Level monster and hope for a Soul Fragment or a complete Soul to drop.
And even if a Soul did drop, the upgrade attempt could still fail.
An average player might not be able to raise a single Elite Soldier Type even after a month in the game.
’Shen Xing had his hidden Talent, [Sacrificial Evolution], and Qin Lang had his wallet, but Xu Jiayi was just an ordinary, game-addicted girl. How on earth did she manage it?’
However, Shen Xing didn’t ask. Everyone had their own secrets; perhaps she’d had some kind of lucky break in the game.
After eating their fill, the three of them left the restaurant together.
Qin Lang pushed Shen Xing’s wheelchair, with Xu Jiayi following quietly beside them, her head lowered.
"By the way, I went to the Player Association in Jiang City yesterday. They have a lot of cool stuff there. That’s where I bought these Unit Nests."
Qin Lang asked as he pressed the elevator button, "Are you guys interested in checking it out?"
Shen Xing thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Let’s skip it. We’ve only been in the game for a few days and still haven’t figured out all the mechanics. We should probably avoid contact with other players for now."
Xu Jiayi simply shook her head, making it clear she didn’t want to go out.
"Fine, then. I won’t go either," Qin Lang shrugged.
Just as they were about to step into the elevator to head to the basement, they suddenly heard a commotion.
In the center of the mall not far away, the crowd suddenly erupted into chaos.
Many people were running and shouting for someone to call 911.
The three of them were about to leave, but then they heard a burst of maniacal laughter.
"Since I’m doomed to die anyway, I’ll take a whole crowd down with me! Hahaha!"
They stopped in their tracks, their gazes cutting through the crowd to a figure standing in the center of the mall.
The man was wearing a leather jacket, his hair a mess. It was the same middle-aged man who had almost run into Shen Xing earlier.
He wore a sickly smile as he ripped open his shirt, revealing gruesome wounds that had appeared on his skin. A thick, gray fog gushed out of them endlessly.
"Shit, it’s some unlucky bastard who died in the game and wants to take revenge on society before he checks out!"
Qin Lang cursed, instantly understanding what was happening.
They had been looking up a lot of information on the forums recently and had a rough understanding of the game’s death mechanic.
When a player dies in the game, their physical body in the real world is doomed to die as well, but not instantly.
There’s a grace period of two or three hours, sometimes even half a day.
Some people use this time to write their wills and get their affairs in order.
Others, unwilling to simply die, end up like this middle-aged man—bent on taking revenge on society before their time is up.
SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!
The middle-aged man’s body was torn apart, collapsing into a heap of fragments as even more fog spewed out.
In just a few breaths, it had covered the entire first floor of the mall and was already spreading to the levels above.
Within the Fog, ordinary people collapsed in droves, as if it contained some kind of knockout toxin.
Only Shen Xing, Qin Lang, and Xu Jiayi were unaffected.
SQUISH... SQUISH...
It sounded like some creature moving through slime. A massive shadow gradually materialized from the middle-aged man’s remains.
As it slowly emerged, they were able to see what it looked like.
It was a grotesquely bloated monster, over three meters tall and covered in rotting flesh, like a mobile mountain of meat.
With every step, chunks of putrid flesh sloughed off its body, hitting the mall floor with a wet "SPLAT."
"Holy shit, it’s an ’Abomination’! That’s an Elite Three-Star monster at minimum!"
Qin Lang’s face went pale as he stared at the monster, completely frozen on the spot.
The other two weren’t much better off. The monster’s aura was too evil, too terrifying!
It felt as if a giant, rotting hand had seized their hearts, and their shoulders trembled slightly.
"What do we do now?" Qin Lang asked, swallowing hard. "When these monsters from the game show up, don’t they indiscriminately slaughter everything around them?"
"We run," Xu Jiayi said, her expression grave. "That monster is an Elite Three-Star, probably Level 5 or higher. It’s too dangerous!"
"Run...? But what about all these ordinary people?" Qin Lang said, looking at the collapsed crowd with pity in his eyes.
The Fog causes ordinary people to fall unconscious and erases their memories.
Only Pioneers, those who have entered the game, are unaffected.
But as Qin Lang said, monsters that emerge from the Fog will go on a mad killing spree, which is why the number of so-called ’accidental deaths’ has surged in recent years.
Even with the Anomaly Handling Bureau specializing in these incidents, by the time they arrived, there would likely be heavy casualties.
Meanwhile, the Abomination was dragging its rotting corpse toward a little girl lying on the ground.
Its foul-smelling hand reached out slowly as the massive maw on its stomach gaped open. What would happen next was obvious.
The other two’s pupils contracted violently, their hearts in turmoil.
"Qin Lang, Jiayi, let’s move."
Shen Xing took a deep breath and said grimly, "The monster is an Elite Three-Star. The gap isn’t insurmountable. Let’s all summon our strongest Soldier Types and fight it."
"Follow my lead. Even if we can’t win, we should be able to stall it for a while!"
The other two were stunned for a moment, but they snapped out of it in a second.
"Alright, let’s get it!"
The three of them raised their right arms simultaneously, rolling up their sleeves to reveal the Fog Flower that hovered between reality and illusion.
The flower began to spin slowly, emitting a white mist that rapidly coalesced before them.
Within the Fog, they could vaguely see the silhouettes of their Soldier Types, as if they were about to manifest from another world.
But just as they were about to fully materialize, the process halted.
It was as if a sheet of frosted glass separated them from their Soldier Types—they were visible, but intangible.
"What’s happening? I thought all you had to do was connect your consciousness to the Fog Flower to manifest units from your territory?" Xu Jiayi asked, completely baffled.
Shen Xing was just as confused. This was their first time manifesting their units, so they had no idea this kind of thing could happen.
"I remember!"
Qin Lang suddenly realized something. "I read on the forums that in addition to connecting your consciousness to the Fog Flower, you also have to shout your unit’s name out loud to establish an anchor point in reality."
"That’s the only way to make them fully manifest!"
Hearing this, both Shen Xing and Xu Jiayi froze, their expressions stiffening.
"Do we really have to shout it?" Xu Jiayi asked.
"Seems like we have to," Qin Lang replied, his own expression complicated.
After a moment of hesitation, they steeled their resolve. "Come forth!" they all shouted.
"Hellish Roar!"
"Bayonetta Queen!"
"Master of the Shadow Stream!"