“I have an impression,” Raymond said, “Wasn’t that scarecrow following us and torn apart at the staircase landing?”
As he spoke, footsteps from afar could be heard through the mist, making all the players look alert!
Raymond sent out a thick vine into the mist and caught the pale youth silently pouncing towards them.
Rong Yi exclaimed, “Ah, this is my roommate! It seems they have really been released.”
The pale youth struggled and roared in the vines, Raymond squinted his eyes at the vines extending into the mist for guidance, “…That’s not good.”
Suddenly, Rong Yi felt the ground slightly tremble!
Zhang Haiyang trembled holding a bucket, “What, what is that? Why such a commotion?”
Luo Huayue gripped her iron pen, “An earthquake?”
Raymond shook his head, “That should be my roommate.”
Rong Yi suddenly realized it was the vine that followed Raymond to trace their way!
Tigerman Man exclaimed, “Holy cow! Is your roommate a giant?!”
“No,” Raymond said, “But close enough.”
Rong Yi didn’t care who their roommate was and just started running in the opposite direction of the tremor, shouting, “Run!”
Just as the words fell, a minotaur larger than Antony rushed out of the fog!
Tigerman Man widened his eyes, “Oh my…”
Rong Yi: “Run!”
The minotaur charged fiercely, scattering several players instantly. Rong Yi ran for her life until she couldn’t hear the rumbling footsteps of the minotaur anymore, then looked up.
Rong Yi: Ran right for about two minutes.
X: Got it!
X: Are you alone now?
She looked around, it was quiet except the thick fog and a delicate green vine wrapping gently around her ankle, causing a slight itch as she calmed down.
Rong Yi: …No, there are others.
Raymond strolled out of the mist following the vine, “Hey, my little rose, nice to see you again.”
X: !!!!! I saw it! That flirtatious Raymond! I knew it!
X: Hmph! It serves him right for having a minotaur in his room. They are a perfect match.
X: [He is trash.jpg]
Raymond retracted the vine, shaking his head, “In this situation, you should stick with at least one teammate closely; it’s dangerous to be alone. There might be other insane NPC lurking in the fog.”
Indeed, sticking together would be safer. But the situation was critical, and she was still a newbie; her mind was solely focused on escaping.
She nodded, admitting her mistake, “I didn’t think it through.”
Raymond was surprised by Rong Yi’s concession, as he thought she would argue with him given her temperament.
However, Rong Yi didn’t take things personally; after a brief reflection on her panic, she began to think about where to find the scarecrow next.
Should she head back to the staircase landing? If it hasn’t respawned yet, it should still be there. Her virtual boyfriend was teasing Raymond endlessly on the comms:
X: Hmph! I’m way better than him; I never boss you around and always trust your judgment. Unlike him, always blabbering.
X: Am I not a thousand times better than him?
X: [Don’t pick the weeds on the roadside.jpg]
Rong Yi smiled softly.
With her virtual boyfriend’s banter, her heartbeat gradually slowed down, and she wasn’t as tense as when she was running for her life.
If you had added other players as friends at the gathering point earlier, it would have been better. Rong Yi thought now they could also communicate and tell them that this scarecrow is not simple.
She remembered when she first saw the smiling scarecrow, players attempting to attack it experienced a fearful illusion.
As her ex-boyfriend said, the former dean’s abilities were not lacking, and recklessly attacking it as a regular NPC was dangerous.
Hopefully, she would find it before the other players.
Luckily, accompanying her was Raymond, the strongest player in their group. The probability of their group being the first to find it was high.
Suddenly, she remembered her boyfriend saying he “saw” Raymond.
Rong Yi: Is Raymond live streaming?
X: Yes.
Rong Yi: Can you figure out how to get to the staircase from his live stream path?
The route from the entrance to the room was missing for her, but her boyfriend’s sense of direction was as precise as GPS. If he kept track of the live stream, he could deduce their current location from Raymond’s perspective and guide her to the staircase.
X: Alright, Rong Yi, just wait a moment.
As her boyfriend calculated the route, Rong Yi cautiously looked around, fearing that patients might suddenly emerge from the mist. With such limited visibility, even if she saw a patient, it would be too late!
To make matters worse, Raymond was still interacting on the live stream!
“It’s very dangerous; you can’t see from which direction the enemy is coming.”
“Thank you for buying me this amulet. I’ve received it! Kisses!”
“Haha, darlings, don’t worry, I’ll protect the pretty lady.”
He then smiled and looked at Rong Yi: “b— what are you doing?”
Rong Yi put away the floating screen, stretched her limbs, and then unexpectedly lay down on the ground!
With her hands peacefully folded on her abdomen, she said, “Resting.”
Rong Yi: “I suggest you also lie down because we might have to walk a long way later and need to conserve energy. And in the dense fog, the best way to hide yourself is to lie down. Npcs who are careless wouldn’t even look down, they might step on your head without noticing.”
There was a burst of laughter in the chat:
“What a unique way to hide from monsters!”
“《I rely on lying flat to pass the level》”
“Hahaha, from being a shark to lying flat, why does this sister have such a unique approach to each level?”
“Although, I think this method is correct. With the fog this thick, lying flat is indeed the best way to avoid the gaze of monsters. The only downside is not being able to move, who knows how long you can hide like that.”
Raymond: … Maybe, this is the survival wisdom of a noob?
To shorten the distance between himself and the target, he brushed the ground with his foot, and without hesitation, lay down beside Rong Yi.
Rounding up, aren’t they in bed now?
Raymond intentionally created an ambiguous atmosphere, tilting his head towards Rong Yi, his voice low and magnetic: “You—”
“Shh.” Rong Yi covered his mouth with her hand, gesturing for him to be quiet.
“Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud…”
The heavy footsteps, accompanied by the sound of a metal object scraping the ground, slowly passed by less than ten meters to their left.
That thing didn’t notice them.
As the footsteps faded away, Rong Yi carefully listened to the surrounding environment, making sure there were no sounds before releasing her hand and whispering softly, “If you want to speak, lie farther away, don’t get me involved.”
Raymond looked at her cold profile, struggling to keep his lewd remarks to himself.
“Ding ding ding!”
In the midst of silence, Rong Yi heard her boyfriend’s call.
X: Let’s start walking!
She quickly got up and whispered, “Let’s go.”
Raymond was confused, “How do you know which way to go?”
Rong Yi turned around, the pearl earrings on her ears shimmering in the blue glow of the floating screen, reflecting a soft luster. Her confident and sweet smile appeared on the live stream: “I have exclusive navigation.”
This scene was so beautiful that Raymond couldn’t resist adding a filter and slow-motion effect, capturing Rong Yi’s smile as it gently swept across the screen.
“Oh! Sister looks so beautiful!”
“Ah, is this the perspective of a boyfriend?”
“No, I feel like she’s looking at something or someone through the screen.”
“Ah, don’t suddenly post these supernatural barrage comments! Isn’t Professor Lei’s live stream supposed to be pink?”
At that moment, the familiar and headache-inducing bright red VIP barrage once again filled the screen, completely blocking Rong Yi’s smile, destroying the romantic atmosphere:
“Don’t look! Don’t look at my girlfriend!”
Raymond: …This girl seems smart and capable, why did she choose a foolish boyfriend?
With Ai’s guidance, Rong Yi and Raymond finally saw the blurry shadow at the staircase landing, and some scattered straw under their feet.
The burlap head of the scarecrow was still missing; it seemed to have been reborn to complete a new NPC mission.
Raymond was shocked, “What kind of navigation tool is this?” It could pinpoint accurately indoors without needing any props, just by looking at the floating screen.
It worked so well; why hadn’t he found it in the shop?
Rong Yi crouched down, rummaging through the remaining straw, “…You probably can’t use this tool.”
On the floating screen, X was very angry about Raymond using Rong Yi to earn barrage points, venting his anger wildly.
X: [I’m so mad, I could die.jpg]
X: [I’ll have the cat kill him.jpg]
Rong Yi: Why are you angry? His existence only reminds me that good men are rare in this world, and I have to hold onto you tightly.
X: Hehe, so sincere!
Rong Yi thought to herself, this mind-sending WeChat communication system, she wasn’t speaking falsely but speaking the truth, right?
The boyfriend was as good at soothing her as ever, quickly calming down from his anger and joining Rong Yi to analyze the leftover straw on the ground, eventually determining a direction to move in.
After a brief discussion, Rong Yi and Raymond decided to leave a trail without making it easy for the NPC patient to follow. Vines were out of the question, and they had no hard objects to leave a mark with.
So, they gathered the straw on the ground and placed a rough arrow pointing in the direction they were heading.
Players would look down to find straw, while NPCs would only search for human figures. Therefore, only players would notice this mark.
After finishing this, they followed the direction where the straw disappeared and once again groped their way into the mist. They moved quietly, avoiding two sick NPC characters, and heard some scattered footsteps ahead.
Rong Yi held her breath, about to maneuver around when suddenly she heard the excited voice of Tigerman: “I caught it!”
Did they catch the scarecrow?
Without hesitation, she rushed out, “Danger!”
Tigerman and the doctor were circling a scarecrow with a stitched smiley face on its head, and upon seeing the two of them, they relaxed.
Tigerman shrugged, excitedly saying, “Danger? I’ve killed so many of these things on the stairs without even knowing.”
“It’s different,” Rong Yi said. “Among all the scarecrows, only this one doesn’t carry a weapon because it can create fearful illusions by itself.”
Tigerman looked puzzled, “How do you know? Why should I believe you?” He watched her warily, “There’s only one missing patient; this is a level with a limited number of passes…”
He shielded the scarecrow behind him, fiercely saying, “We found it first! Stay back!”
Rong Yi sighed. Tigerman might not be as skilled as Raymond, but he wasn’t a novice either, having his own logic in the game that had brought him this far. It was going to be a challenge to convince him.
The doctor listened to her words and cautiously moved away from the scarecrow. Tigerman, ignoring the warnings, grabbed the scarecrow’s hand and declared, “The pass is mine!” and started to walk away with it.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, eyes wide with fear, shouting, “Don’t come near, don’t come near!!”
He nervously looked at the others, seeing them staring at him inexplicably, showing no sign of panic.
“You can’t see it?” he pointed ahead, voice trembling, “That monster—it’s here! It’s here!!”
Yet, in the mist, nothing appeared.
Terrified, he looked up as if avoiding something, uncontrollably glancing back, and finally, with a scream— “Ah—”
A dark watery mark appeared where he fainted, Tigerman’s eyes rolled back, falling unconscious.
The doctor stepped back further from the scarecrow, frowning, “If we can’t get close to it, how are we supposed to deal with it?”
The scarecrow broke free from Tigerman’s grip, swaying as if to leave, but Raymond quickly intervened, tightly binding it with vines.
“In fact, the broadcast did not say this patient had to remain alive,” he shrugged, tightening the vines around the scarecrow, “If we kill it and divide it among ourselves, it should suffice, right?”
“Wait,” Rong Yi immediately halted him.
Yes, the game’s original design may be just that; the intact scarecrow couldn’t be taken away, but if it was dismembered, each player could receive a portion as proof of passing the level!
But once they passed this level, what kind of twisted challenge would the current dean present to them?
She needed to address this issue at its root!
“I’ll go,” she said cautiously, moving forward.
Raymond quickly stopped her, “You know it’s dangerous, why are you going there?! Come back!”
Rong Yi didn’t look back, gesturing for Raymond to “stay back.”
“I’m going to say hello,” she muttered, “I hope this time, it won’t be the big sister-in-law again…”
