Fang Tang's mind went blank for a moment when she heard the question.
“Are... are you serious?”
Zuo Lin'an nodded with a serious expression.
“There are ghosts in the Paranormal World, and they can also become players. If you're afraid of ghosts, you should tell me beforehand.”
Fang Tang's mouth twitched.
“Big brother, I'm a specter myself. Why would you think I... Huh? Don't tell me someone close to you is afraid of ghosts?”
Zuo Lin'an remained silent.
Fang Tang chuckled and didn't press further.
“I'm not afraid of ghosts.”
Zuo Lin'an replied, “That's good. If any ghost players show up later, don't make a move yet.”
Fang Tang was a bit puzzled.
“Oh? You have a plan?”
Zuo Lin'an's lips curved upward.
“Yeah. The ghosts in the Paranormal World are different from specters; they hunt down the living. If we can kill more of them, we can spawn more unsolvable specters.”
“However, you'll need to delay the appearance of the unsolvable specters. After all, if they spawn too early, they'll kill off the ghost players, which would be counterproductive.”
“Of course, I'm not sure if any ghost players will actually show up. I'm just letting you know in advance.”
Fang Tang knew ghost players existed, though she had never encountered one before.
“Alright, I'll keep that in mind.”
“The dungeon is about to open. Let's head to the very bottom first.”
Zuo Lin'an looked ahead into the deep, dark mine shaft.
“The very bottom? Do players spawn down there when they enter the dungeon?”
Fang Tang led him deeper inside.
“Yes.”
Zuo Lin'an asked, feeling a bit curious,
“What is the consumable specter item you prepared? Is it a path of survival?”
Fang Tang nodded. “It's a kerosene lamp.”
“The light can guide them toward the exit. Once lit, it can burn continuously for ten hours. After that, the lamp will break and disappear.”
Zuo Lin'an thought about this thousand-meter-deep mine.
With its sprawling, intricate network of tunnels, it was a complex underground labyrinth. Even with guidance, it seemed highly unlikely that any player could reach the exit within ten hours.
On top of that, there would be specter attacks along the way.
But it had to be said that this was indeed a path of survival.
Moving quickly, the two soon reached the deepest part of the mine. They found the deepest and most secluded tunnel and waited at the very end of it.
Fang Tang looked down at her dirty clothes but didn't seem to care.
“By the way, stay with me later.”
“Remember to separate your living body from your specter body, and let your living body stay here to pretend to be a player.”
“This Paranormal World run has a modern setting too. If we disguise ourselves as players, there's a very high chance we won't be found out.”
Zuo Lin'an nodded. “Alright.”
Soon, a dark shadow emerged behind each of them before pulling back its aura and vanishing completely.
Fang Tang looked around.
“There are only a few minutes left. Let's just wait here.”
The two fell silent. Before long, Zuo Lin'an suddenly realized he had been granted the God's-eye view.
The dungeon had begun.
Right at that moment, Fang Tang acted as if she had suddenly been startled awake. She looked around in a panic, a look of sheer terror on her face, before slowly standing up.
“Is anyone there?”
She called out in a trembling voice.
But her voice was very soft, unlikely to carry far.
Just as the words left her mouth, she suddenly noticed someone beside her.
“Who is it?!”
Zuo Lin'an's mouth twitched.
“It's me.”
Perhaps upon hearing a familiar voice, she wiped away her tears and timidly grabbed Zuo Lin'an's arm.
“It's Brother Lin'an!”
“Is this another specter dungeon? Where are we this time?”
“Why can't I see anything? Is it just too dark, or did I go blind?”
“I'm so scared!”
Zuo Lin'an froze slightly. As expected of a veteran dungeon boss of several decades, her acting skills were absolutely peerless.
She had probably disguised herself as a player plenty of times in the past.
After a brief thought, he reached out and patted her on the shoulder.
“It's okay. I'm here. Just follow me.”
“Come on, let's look for the other players first.”
Since they were pretending to be players, they could freely speak of restricted terms like dungeons, players, main quests, specter items, and so on.
Fang Tang forced herself to calm down and gave a soft nod.
“Okay.”
Zuo Lin'an also disguised himself as an ordinary person.
As an ordinary person, he naturally wouldn't be able to see a thing in this pitch-black environment.
He reached out and felt around his surroundings.
“Behind us is a dead end. Let's move forward.”
Holding onto his arm, Fang Tang walked slowly alongside him as they headed forward.
Zuo Lin'an observed through his God's-eye view. As long as they walked along this tunnel for seven or eight minutes, they would reach a slightly more spacious area.
All the other players were scattered across the neighboring tunnels. As long as nothing unexpected happened, they would all meet up in that open area ahead.
As for the fact that there were now twenty-two players instead of the original twenty?
There was absolutely no need to worry about that.
After all, players had no way of knowing that a Daily Dungeon capped its entry at twenty players.
A few minutes later, Fang Tang suddenly cried out happily,
“Brother Lin'an, look ahead! There's light!”
Zuo Lin'an had seen it too, of course.
“There really is light. Come, let's check it out.”
About half a minute later, the two finally emerged from the narrow, pitch-black tunnel.
Before them lay an open space large enough to accommodate twenty to thirty people.
Hanging on the wall to the side was a kerosene lamp, its dim glow barely illuminating about a third of the area.
The rest of the space remained shrouded in shadow.
Zuo Lin'an glanced at Fang Tang.
Was this kerosene lamp the consumable specter item she had prepared?
Fang Tang shook her head.
This wasn't it.
She had prepared one that was unlit and required someone to manually light it.
Meanwhile, this ordinary kerosene lamp had very little fuel left and would only burn for about half an hour.
Zuo Lin'an took a brief look around.
Some people were already here, having arrived even earlier than them.
There were ten players in total.
They were scattered all over, and from the look of things, they didn't seem to know one another.
One of them stood near the kerosene lamp with his back to everyone, completely motionless.
Zuo Lin'an only took a casual sweep before quickly and warily withdrawing his gaze.
Then, he pulled Fang Tang into the shadows of an empty corner, quietly shielding her behind him.
The two of them looked just like a couple, or perhaps a brother and sister.
A few players swept their eyes over them but didn't linger.
Silence fell over the space once more.
Zuo Lin'an and Fang Tang stayed quietly in their corner.
Judging by the behavior of these players, all ten of them likely had experience clearing specter dungeons, and they were all highly capable individuals in their own right.
Moreover, they possessed special talents!
Twenty players with special talents who had most likely cleared a Two-Star dungeon once or twice...
Zuo Lin'an frowned slightly. Just thinking about it felt troublesome!
But to his slight disappointment, there were no ghost players.
Because of this, spawning an unsolvable specter would be much more difficult.
After waiting for about another five minutes, the remaining ten players arrived one after another.
Everyone was here now.
Twenty players, plus two specters who had blended in among them.
Rate on N.U.
