Xu Youyou muttered.
“Even though I'm confident, I absolutely can't underestimate any player. I can't take any risks.”
After all, if they made a mistake, the entire dungeon would be locked down for the duration of an entire world's cycle.
The loss would be immense.
He saw Zuo Lin'an's figure and noticed that he had already gone to hunt down Zhou Hetian.
“There shouldn't be any issues.”
In that case... he would go catch a few other newbie players.
Specifically, those players who had looked hesitant when Zhou Hetian asked for protection.
These players definitely didn't have any means to repel a specter; otherwise, they wouldn't have shown such expressions.
“Hehehe...”
His figure instantly vanished from the front of the main entrance.
Elsewhere, Zuo Lin'an was pursuing Zhou Hetian and the others.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky, and the light on the ground was dim.
By now, Zhou Hetian and his group had fled deep into the withered forest.
They panted heavily as they ran, looking back from time to time.
A specter was following them from a moderate distance behind.
Zhou Hetian swept his gaze over the three players beside him. Though terrified, he felt a slight sense of security.
Cheng Luoying's voice carried a hint of disbelief.
“Why did the specter suddenly appear? Why did it suddenly start hunting us?”
She and the other two players had followed him specifically for the secret Zhou Hetian held.
No matter what, they had to pry the secret out of Zhou Hetian first.
Still... she really couldn't wrap her head around it.
“Could it be that the specter overheard our conversation and knows you discovered the dungeon's secret, so it's hunting us down?”
Zhou Hetian swallowed hard.
“How should I know?”
Another person spoke up.
“Don't tell me everyone who knows this secret will be hunted to death by the specter?”
Zhou Hetian's scalp tingled.
If that were really the case, wouldn't his secret become a hot potato?
What if these people abandoned him to save their own skins?
“Definitely not. Besides, since you ran with me, you must have talents that can repel or restrict the specter, right?”
“We can just repel it when the time comes, right?”
“The veteran players said before that once a specter is repelled, it disappears for a few days. By then, we might have already cleared the dungeon.”
Cheng Luoying's eyes flickered.
There were four of them here.
Zhou Hetian's talent was 【Secret Inquiry】, while her own talent could only protect herself.
If anyone could repel the specter, it had to be the other two.
“Can you two really repel the specter?”
“If you can, we don't need to keep running.”
After she spoke, one of the other two sighed, seemingly resigned to his fate.
“Let's stop.”
The four of them came to a halt.
Before long, the specter trailing behind caught up, standing behind a withered tree about ten meters away.
A pair of blood-red slit-pupils stared at them silently.
Upon seeing the specter's face clearly, the four of them cried out in shock.
“This...”
Cheng Luoying's eyes widened.
“This appearance... why does he look so much like that NPC named Yao Wenli?”
“No, wait!”
“He doesn't just look like him—he's exactly the same!”
“Could it be... could Yao Wenli be the specter?”
Zhou Hetian shook his head firmly.
“No, Yao Wenli is definitely not the specter. This specter is his twin brother, Yao Wenle.”
This information had also been obtained through 【Secret Inquiry】.
However, the specter's identity was only part of the secret.
He didn't plan on revealing the entire secret just yet.
“Watch out, he's coming!”
One of them stepped forward.
“Stand behind me!”
Zuo Lin'an's gaze shifted from Zhou Hetian to this person.
Seeing how confident this player was, Zuo Lin'an couldn't help but feel a bit hesitant.
Although he possessed the gold hairpin, he couldn't be sure for now if this person's talent was a repel-type.
If it wasn't, his specter body might be restricted.
In the past, wasting a bit of time wouldn't have mattered, but right now, his target was Zhou Hetian.
Therefore...
...he had to temporarily avoid a direct clash.
Just as the two sides were about to make contact, the specter's figure instantly vanished.
The player who had just reached out toward the specter, on the verge of grabbing its shoulder, suddenly froze.
Then, as if realizing something, he whipped his head back.
Only to find that the specter, which had been right in front of him a moment ago, had instantly appeared behind them!
And its position was right behind Zhou Hetian.
Amid Zhou Hetian's terrified and shocked expression, the specter grabbed his shoulder, and both figures vanished on the spot.
Before long, the bone-chilling coldness in the air gradually dissipated.
The specter was gone.
The remaining three looked at one another in stunned silence.
Cheng Luoying looked at the empty space beside her, her hands trembling uncontrollably.
Even so, she forced herself to calm her wildly fluctuating emotions.
“You two, we should hurry back to the old residence. Only by staying near those two big shots can I feel even a shred of safety right now.”
The other two exchanged glances and eventually nodded in agreement.
“Let's go!”
Although they felt it was a great pity, Zhou Hetian had already been taken by the specter, and they had no idea where he had been carried off to.
Even if they wanted to rescue him, they had no starting point.
Furthermore, judging by what just happened, the specter's movement speed was not something they could ever hope to match.
Even if they wanted to give chase, they wouldn't be able to catch up.
Zuo Lin'an didn't take Zhou Hetian anywhere else. Instead, he brought him straight back to the old residence, returning to the secluded courtyard where he had previously killed the two female players.
When he returned, Xu Youyou was already there.
He had captured two people.
They were tossed onto the ground, unconscious.
After Zuo Lin'an entered with his captive, the courtyard was once again shrouded in a thick layer of specter aura, cutting off all sound and movement.
“Brother An?”
Xu Youyou walked over.
Zuo Lin'an looked at him.
“It's not on the hour yet. I'll leave all three of them to you. Since this isn't an emergency, it's not ideal for me to use my Acceleration Rule here.”
Xu Youyou smiled.
“No problem.”
He then turned to look at Zhou Hetian, whom Zuo Lin'an had brought back.
He was lying on the ground with his eyes tightly shut.
Xu Youyou squatted down and woke him up.
When Zhou Hetian slowly came to, the first thing he saw was a specter reaching out toward him.
He snapped wide awake, let out a sharp cry, and scrambled backward in sheer panic.
“Stay away from me!”
The corners of Xu Youyou's mouth curled up.
The rule had been successfully triggered.
Done!
Seeing this, Zuo Lin'an turned and walked out, waiting quietly in the courtyard.
Xu Youyou was remarkably fast when it came to executing the rules.
It took him less than three minutes to kill all three of them.
Covered in blood, Xu Youyou pushed the door open and stepped out, turning around to gently close the door behind him.
“The basket from before wasn't big enough, so I stuffed the rest into that broken water jar.”
Zuo Lin'an didn't really care about that.
“Let's go.”
“There were three other players who saw what I looked like just now.”
“Among them, there should be a player whose talent can repel or restrict specters. Since my primary target was Zhou Hetian back then, I didn't make a move on them for the time being.”
“Let's intercept them before they make it back to the old residence. It's best if we kill them all too.”
Rate on N.U.
