Since she didn’t know why her blood was so effective against these ghostly creatures, but with no other way to break through, she had no choice but to bleed a little—sacrifice now, and eat more blood-nourishing foods when she gets back. Like cures like, after all... There should be a pack of red dates in her inventory—she’d use them to recover soon!
Ye Shu couldn’t blindfold herself anymore with so many catacomb ghouls rushing at her. These things seemed to lack all sense, driven only by the urge to kill.
Once more, Ye Shu reopened the wound that was just about to heal, smearing her streaming blood all over her peach-wood sword. With astonishing speed, the blade pierced through the front ranks of the oncoming ghouls—skewering them together like sugary hawthorn on a stick.
“I’ve got to hurry!”
There were simply too many of them—she could never kill them all. Locking eyes with these ghouls would chip away at her sanity, so she did everything she could to avoid their pitch-black, hollow sockets.
[Ding! Your Sanity has decreased by 3 points.]
[Current SAN: 32.]
[Your Sanity dropped by 3 more, sitting at 29 points!]
[Player 10096 is about to lose reason; Physique temporarily increases by 10; Speed increases by 10.]
Ye Shu’s body went rigid—a sharp pain stabbed at her mind, slowing her attacks. In a careless moment, another spectral claw raked her flesh. The agony jolted her consciousness awake for a blinding second, then everything dissolved into chaos...
…………
Ye Shu remembered nothing after that. When she awakened, it was already the third day of the game.
She opened her eyes to meet a pair of luminous, emerald-green ones.
“Awooo... Master, you’re finally awake...”
“What... happened to me?”
Ye Shu couldn’t make sense of anything—all she felt was a deep, lingering ache throughout her body.
“All those ghost things—gone. Master, you... you slaughtered them all, single-handedly.”
As this was mentioned, the big beautiful cat’s eyes flashed with an unreadable glimmer. If it hadn’t lost its mind itself, it would never have believed such explosive potential could exist in such a frail human body!
“Me?”
Ye Shu pointed at herself in disbelief. She always struggled to kill even one ghoul—how could she possibly...
Looking over, she caught sight of the mound of catacomb ghoul corpses stacked high and reeking not far away. Every single one bore the same clean sword cut. The severed limbs were still stained with a deep, dark red.
That must have been her blood...
Ye Shu glanced down—her entire body was crisscrossed with bloody scratch marks, several broken bones, and her sword arm hung useless at her side. There was a stab wound in her abdomen, with blood pooling around her.
So miserable! She’d barely survived the fight, nearly lost her life. Who knew if these ghostly fiends carried any poison? Ye Shu’s strength had ebbed to nothing—a five-year-old could squeeze the life out of her now. Thank goodness she’d brought Big Beauty along. As long as no ghosts turned up, no mere player could threaten her.
She’d tried to take shortcuts, but every one failed.
[Optimization failed!]
[Optimization level too low—cannot optimize the talent-holder herself!]
In a daze, fragments of memory swam back to her. When the catacomb ghouls had surged forward, she’d run them all through on her sword like skewered fruit. Her mindless, suicidal fighting style actually made even these soulless wraiths hesitate. Ye Shu went on a killing frenzy—paying no mind to her own body, she slit all ten fingers, feeding a constant stream of fresh blood to the peach-wood blade.
Her memory cut off after she felled the last of those spectral fiends. When her blood touched them, it sizzled like acid, hissing up white smoke—they died at her hand as easily as harvesting a field of cabbages. The method was effective, but ruinous to her body. She was as pallid as a corpse, barely able to stay upright.
She hadn’t even rested for half an hour before footsteps echoed in the tunnel. Forcing herself up despite her exhaustion, Ye Shu’s gaze flickered warily to the entrance.
Thump, thump, thump—the sound drew closer. From the cadence, it sounded like a single person; probably not someone who could threaten her now.
“J-jie, I’m just passing by, I’m not a bad guy.”
She tightened her grip on the wooden sword, taking a few strategic steps back and eyeing the young man in the tunnel entrance with suspicion.
He glanced toward the pile of corpses, then stepped away from the mouth of the tunnel. A gentle smile adorned his face, though a spark of something dangerous flickered in his eyes as he looked away.
His seeming harmlessness only put Ye Shu further on guard. "Leave. Now." Making friends at a time like this was far too suspicious. And something about this stranger—a sense of unsettling familiarity—made Ye Shu deeply uneasy.
“J-jie, are you injured? Please, don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll leave right away.”
The boy had messy brown hair falling over his brow, with a longer tuft tied back. His eyes were moist and wide as he looked at Ye Shu, softening his sharp, sculpted features. No sign of the red mole...He wasn't that person.
His voice faded, trailing off until it vanished completely.
Ye Shu sent Big Beauty to keep watch at the entrance. Only when she was certain the boy was gone did she finally feel safe.
“Awooo... Master, he’s just a regular player, was all that caution really necessary?” Big Beauty didn’t understand. Surely this boy couldn’t stand a chance against one swipe of its tiger claws—unworthy of such caution.
Ye Shu shook her head. "He just killed quite a few ghouls. He's stronger than you think." His white shirt was flecked with dark gray blood—fresh from the catacombs, unscathed. To emerge from a pack of those things without a scratch meant he could very well be stronger than her.
Gritting her teeth, Ye Shu chomped off a mouthful of charred meat pie and chased it down with some water. Even after resting half a day, her strength had only recovered halfway.
With the daily limit of ten digs, she headed out to mine some crystals and exchange them. To her surprise, the monster at the exchange had been replaced since her last visit.
“Supplies? Or lanterns?”
She’d made it just before exchange time ended—there was a long queue behind her.
“Intermediate ore crystal, give me a mid-grade lantern!”
Lanterns came in different grades: white for ordinary, yellow for low, blue for intermediate, red for advanced. But advanced ore crystals were rare—almost nobody could exchange for them. Su Bai was the one who’d told her all this.
While she’d been unconscious, more players had been killed by the ghouls. Most people could only cower by lantern-light, barely surviving from one day to the next. Old hands had tried to fight back, but the catacomb ghouls—formless, untouchable—were even worse than the other anomalies. To lock eyes with one was an instant hit to your sanity—there was no defense.
And ore wasn’t guaranteed in every catacomb. With the soil so tough, and most holes yielding nothing, players tended to stick together, sharing what little light they had.
On the third day, only one low-tier ghost showed up—Ye Shu sent it off to the afterlife with a single stroke.
Day Four in the Inner World. Daytime. Under the envious gazes of other players, Ye Shu exchanged her hard-earned ore: two intermediate lanterns, three low-grade ones—enough for three days. But when she returned to her catacomb, she found someone already there.
It was that brooding boy from yesterday... What was he doing here?!