“What is this? What is going on?”
“It is a skinning ghost!”
“So many, there must be at least several hundred of them!”
Looking at the monsters gradually exposed within their field of vision, everyone wore expressions of terror. One of the young men lost his composure completely, his hand shaking as he hurled a yellow talisman forward.
A flash of red light accompanied an explosion, and a piercing, miserable scream shattered the silent night.
The next moment, a skinning ghost not far away burst into raging flames, illuminating dozens of its own kind standing right behind it.
That single yellow talisman undoubtedly enraged the skinning ghosts. Following an angry roar that resounded across the sky, they snapped open their claws and swarmed toward the crowd.
“What are you doing? You are going to get us all killed!”
The young man who threw the talisman was knocked to the ground by a nearby teammate, his once-ruddy face instantly draining of all color, turning frighteningly pale.
At this moment, Li Lin could not help revealing a solemn expression as he faced the scalp-tingling scene before him, yet he still forced himself to maintain his composure:
“Everyone, do not panic. Take out all usable weapons and fight them to the death. At least carve out a bloody path!”
“Can you handle this?”
A deep voice fell right beside his ear, and Yun Qingzhou only then realized the male lead was speaking to him, standing extremely close with an unmistakable air of wanting to shield him within his embrace.
The youth shifted slightly to the side without batting an eye, his tone indifferent: “I can.”
Those Grade-C skinning ghosts would only run away the moment they looked at him, right?
The male lead would be better off worrying about his own safety.
Hearing their captain’s voice, the crowd finally calmed down a bit from their panic, rapidly fumbling for their weapons as they watched the skinning ghosts draw closer and closer to them.
“What is going on?”
“Why did these skinning ghosts stop?”
The crowd watched in astonishment as the skinning ghosts abruptly halted about five meters away from them, their blood-red eyes wide open, their bodies cringing and trembling in place as if they had encountered something deeply terrifying.
Yun Qingzhou massaged his temples. These minor ghosts had most likely caught the scent of his aura.
Forget it. There were simply too many of these little ghosts, and dealing with them one by one would be far too troublesome. It would be much better to chase them away and lure out this dungeon’s BOSS, saving himself from unnecessary suspicion.
Leave this place.
Call the Rotten God over.
Drive the surrounding teams over here as well.
His own BOSS’s cold voice echoed in the minds of the skinning ghosts. Knowing very well that they were mere underlings, they instantly scattered and fled in a flash of nimble movement.
The sudden disappearance of the skinning ghosts caused everyone to let out sighs of relief. Although these skinning ghosts were Grade-C low-level monsters, their sheer numbers were overwhelming!
If a real battle broke out, very few people in their group would likely survive today.
However, seeing this development did not make Li Lin feel as though they had simply escaped a calamity. For Grade-C skinning ghosts to react this way could only prove that monsters far higher in rank than them were lurking nearby.
Tonight was bound to culminate in a hard-fought battle.
Li Lin: “Everyone, do not lower your guard. Things cannot possibly be this simple.”
“I am afraid a big one is coming.”
Hearing Li Lin’s words, Yun Qingzhou cast an appreciative glance his way.
Must you hand it to the male lead? His vigilance was certainly high!
Yun Qingzhou felt he ought to help the male lead out. As the BOSS of the infinite world, he knew everything about the dungeon like the back of his hand, so revealing a little information wouldn’t hurt.
Clearing these dungeons earlier meant finishing his mission sooner; he had no desire to waste too much time in these minor worlds.
“Yes, it is a Grade-S Rotten God.”
The youth’s voice was not particularly loud, yet when it landed, it struck a heavy blow against the hearts of everyone present.
Grade-S?! What did that mean?
It meant, aside from big shots like Li Lin and Zhou Qing, that monster would slice through the rest of them as effortlessly as cutting vegetables.
The highest-ranked monsters in the dungeons they had cleared previously were only Grade-A-plus, yet even against those Grade-A-plus entities, when twenty or thirty people besieged them simultaneously, only five or six survived in the end.
How could a Grade-S monster possibly appear now? Besides, they had never even heard of the name “Rotten God”!
This Zhou Qing character of unknown origins must be lying, absolutely lying!
“Are you out of your mind spouting nonsense? How could there possibly be a Grade-S monster?”
“Exactly, exactly! Wanting to panic everyone when you are not even ranked on the powerhouse leaderboard!”
“Are you a spy sent by another team to infiltrate our Winner?”
The profound fear of the unknown and of death drove the overwhelming majority of people present into a state of agitation. Some crouched on the ground clutching their heads in tears, others muttered incessant prayers, while some directed their fury straight at Yun Qingzhou.
Yet hearing these accusations caused zero fluctuation inside Yun Qingzhou’s heart. His gaze toward the crowd remained consistently calm, so detached it seemed almost indifferent to human life.
Meanwhile, Li Lin grew increasingly angry the more he listened. He could not help shouting out in a furious roar:
“All of you, shut up!”
“Are you really going to start an internal conflict at a time like this?”
“Zhou Qing has his reasons for saying this. Everyone, calm down!”
Once these words were spoken, the crowd finally seemed to lose a bit of their aggressive edge. Li Lin turned his head to look at Yun Qingzhou, his eyes holding not a trace of doubt, filled only with endless tenderness.
He asked: “What do you know? Can you tell us everything?”
Yun Qingzhou looked into Li Lin’s eyes, slightly lowering his gaze before nodding.
He had actually expected the male lead to doubt him as well; after all, anyone capable of becoming a male lead should be cautious, cold-hearted, and unwilling to trust others.
Very well.
Yun Qingzhou: “The appearance of the blood moon signifies the awakening of the Rotten God. All NPCs in this dungeon who worship it are its puppets, including those skinning ghosts from earlier.”
“We are quite unfortunate; the Rotten God happened to descend upon this small town tonight.”
“However, this dungeon does not require decryption. We only need to kill the Grade-S Rotten God to clear it.”
Yet Yun Qingzhou noted to himself that the Rotten God was actually supposed to descend right at the exact center of the map every single night. However, he had just issued an order to the skinning ghosts to summon the Rotten God over and conveniently drive all the other players in this dungeon toward this exact location.
The grand battle against the Grade-S monster, which should have taken place in the center of the map, had not only been brought forward by several days but had also been relocated.
As the young man’s voice trailed off, everyone fell into a state of utter despair, their complexions turning ashen.
“Is what you said true?”
A lazy male voice suddenly broke the quiet night, and everyone involuntarily turned their gaze toward the source of the sound.
Eight or nine people were walking toward them from the end of the street. The man in the lead had striking golden hair, with sharp, delicate features reminiscent of a mixed-race individual.