Lin Qingyue dropped the dagger, his obsidian eyes fixed on the woman at his feet who was still feebly begging for help. He finished her off with an impassive flick of the blade.

That harmless little woman! On the surface, she looked so sweet and innocent, yet she’d driven that grotesque, cursed wooden sword straight through his heart.

…………

Excruciating pain.

Ye Shu's eyes snapped open again—she found herself trailing behind Li Dahai and the others, squeezing her eyes shut for a harsh second. The stabbing agony of the dagger in her flesh still lingered with knife-sharp clarity.

That man—Lin Qingyue—was he one of the Anomalies?!

He wasn’t just an NPC from the game, so how had he turned up in a different scenario? Was the game bugging out?

Ye Shu’s thoughts tangled, but she didn’t care enough to unravel them. After dying four times in a row, who could remain calm? All she wanted now was to kill that bastard.

Again, just like last time, when Ye Shu claimed not to have seen Lin Baozhu, the man looked crushed. Anyone watching would have praised the deep bond of brother and sister.

But only Ye Shu knew: that wasn’t really Lin Qingyue.

She was certain—if she guessed right—the person before her was just a monster wearing Lin Qingyue’s skin like a human mask.

Head bowed, the man radiated an uncanny coldness that Ye Shu sensed immediately. She struck first, driving the peachwood sword into Lin Qingyue’s chest while his eyes widened in utter disbelief.

“……”

Lin Qingyue’s inky gaze remained flat and unreadable, but Ye Shu saw through his malice. Without a flicker of expression, she dumped his body overboard.

The sea rippled, but on a cruise where someone died every day, this minor disturbance drew no attention. Li Dahai stepped out onto the deck to find Ye Shu staring wordlessly at the water, a chilling aura swirling around her.

“Comrade Ye Xiaoshu, …when new members join… we always hand out supplies. Here—this is for you.”

Stiff-backed, Li Dahai handed her a small bag of bread and a bottle of purified water. He couldn’t help feeling unsettled: in just the time it took to fetch some supplies, the girl seemed like a different person, her glare so murderous it nearly stopped his heart.

For a fleeting moment, he found this pale, innocent-looking girl more terrifying than the infected monsters on board!

“Thank you, Uncle Li.”

Ye Shu waited until the sea’s surface grew still before allowing herself a measure of relief. She tore open the packet and chewed on a hunk of bread. No ordinary fish down there now—only mutant monsters, and that one had its head twisted halfway off. It shouldn’t survive.

Li Dahai watched Ye Shu wolf down her bread and decided he must have been mistaken about what he saw.

…………

Room 8801. Dozens of players trickled back one after another.

“There are ten days left in the game. If we can just survive ten more days, we’ll get home. As Huaxia people, we ought to stick together. We have enough food and supplies for now, but the number of infected doubles every day…”

The team members broke into murmurs, some voicing dissent.

“The infected are terrifying. Since we have enough food, why not just hide out in the rooms?”

The speaker, a slight, wiry man, tried appealing to the others, convinced hunkering down was safest.

Chen Meng’s sharp gaze swept over the group, her first words a scathing rebuke: “Do you know how many people are on this ship? There are over a hundred thousand NPCs alone. If all we do is hole up, we’ll die at the end of the game without ever knowing how. My proposal is to clear out the infected from the 80th floor first!”

“I’m a veteran of the last game. When it comes to supernatural horrors, we’re never completely safe. But haven’t you noticed—the infected are evolving? Three days ago, they could barely smell us and their hearing was so bad they couldn’t pick up sounds from even ten meters away. Now, in just three days, they’ve gained acute hearing. If we stay passive, we’ll only die faster!”

Mentioning the previous game, Chen Meng nervously patted her chest. If not for a powerful ally helping them take down the Anomaly last time, she would never have survived.

Compared to true horrors, the infected were almost cute, weren’t they!

The players exchanged uncertain glances while Ye Shu leaned against the wall, watching the spectacle with cool detachment.

Anyone halfway clever should realize—early-game monsters are always the most manageable. The longer things dragged out, the sharper the difficulty spiked, especially as the infected evolved day by day. Ordinary weapons barely pierced their armored scales anymore…

Li Dahai, as leader, still wielded impressive influence. Judging by their astonishing stockpiles, these people had come prepared—not just with food, but with more than a dozen inflatable rafts. If not for the monster fish in the sea, they’d probably have abandoned ship long ago.

“Enough talk. If you’re unwilling, I won’t force you. But I can’t let you stay here.”

Li Dahai was no longer the indecisive leader from round one; there was an unmistakable command in his words. No one dared protest further. They were ordinary people with items—outside of the group, they’d never survive.

“Captain Li, I’ll hunt the infected with you.”

Ye Shu felt no resistance to working with competent people.

Even if Li Dahai weren’t on the 80th floor, she’d still have gone to wipe out those monsters herself.

Li Dahai flashed a hint of approval in his gaze. Not even the burliest men had the girl’s courage. Still… that sword strapped to her back? It looked oddly familiar, and maybe just a little bit strange.

Without missing a beat, Ye Shu opened her phone’s alarm, using the loud music to draw the monsters in.

“Roses, jasmines, you’re my little fool…” The DJ’s voice blared down the hallway.

Chen Meng’s eyes went wide—so this was Ye Xiaoshu’s foolproof tactic?!

In minutes, the corridor swelled with infected, their gray-white eyes fixing on the players, yellowish drool dripping from their snarling mouths. Disgusting and sticky.

Faced with that endless rush of monsters, Chen Meng couldn’t help but suspect Ye Shu was playing a cruel joke. She herself only had a cleaver, and the others behind her clutched random chairs and table legs. Small groups were no problem—but this horde… how could they possibly win?

“Vice-captain Chen… is it too late for us to run?”

A burly man’s knees shook, grip on his iron pipe weakening with fear.

Chen Meng’s lips twisted. No answer.

With Ye Shu standing in front of her, she almost suspected the girl was an infected spy.

But before anyone could act, Ye Shu—half her height masked by the peachwood sword—slaughtered her way into the infected like a windstorm.

Chen Meng: “…………”

The others: “…………”

Ye Shu moved through the horde, slicing through the infected as if she were dicing vegetables. Nearly every swing dropped another monster.

[Ding! Congratulations, player, you have slain a mid-level infected: +0.5 points!]

[Ding! Congratulations, player, you have earned 0.1 points!]

[Congratulations, player, you have earned 0.1 points!]

Why didn’t she say earlier she was this powerful?!

With Ye Xiaoshu on their side, what was there to fear?

Watching Ye Shu carve a path through the monsters, morale soared. Chen Meng lunged forward, too, hacking with wild abandon at a fish-tailed monstrosity.

As the chorus of reward notifications chimed in her ear, Ye Shu frowned. Why were they shortchanging her points again?

In the last game, even the lowest monsters were worth at least one point.

Compared to the true Anomalies, the infected really were worthless, weren’t they?