Ye Shu, never one to let a good bargain slip by, accepted the high-grade ore crystal from Lin Qing without a second thought, all the while scrutinizing the mineral in her hand.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with this ore!
In the world beneath the catacombs, mining crystals were treasures every player coveted—and this person had simply handed one to her, as if it were nothing. It was strange, almost unsettling.
Still, never bite the hand that feeds you. Ye Shu's attitude towards Lin Qing softened.
“Hmm.”
Lin Qing let out a faint laugh, showing not a trace of annoyance. Her face was as ordinary as ever, but Ye Shu couldn't shake the odd sense of dissonance she felt.
Ye Shu’s vermilion-bead bracelet could sense the supernatural, and was especially responsive to spirits within the catacombs. Against humans, though, it gave no warning—even right up close to Lin Qing, it stayed inert.
In other words, Lin Qing was a normal human!
“Jiejie, want to add my game ID? That way we can stay in touch.”
“Huh?”
Ye Shu was caught off guard. Before she knew it, she’d already added Lin Qing’s account—under her real name.
No NPC could be a player, so Lin Qingyue and Lin Qing had to be two different people. Ye Shu’s doubts ebbed, at least partially.
Lin Qing leaned against the wall, her lowered gaze hiding a flicker of something dark. The next instant, her eyes cleared, returning to innocence.
The two sat in silence on the cold ground, saying nothing.
Night fell.
Ye Shu’s eyelids drooped as gusts of eerie wind rose around her, carrying the stench of rot through the catacombs. The lit lantern cast twin shadows, theirs, on the wall—and behind them, the wraith-like silhouettes of ghosts slid in and out of view.
With narrowed eyes, Ye Shu shot a glance a few meters away at the lurking ghosts, gripping her peachwood sword tightly.
She’d used a mid-grade lantern.
The ghosts dared not approach, hanging back at a distance.
“Oooooooh…”
Those ghosts, watching the lantern’s flickering flames, twisted their faces into masks of joy.
Ye Shu frowned hard. These monsters truly feared the lantern, but there was something she couldn't quite name, an itch at the back of her mind.
[Player SAN value decreased by 3. Please be cautious!]
With practiced ease, Ye Shu reopened the wound on her finger and smeared her blood over the peachwood sword.
[Congratulations! Player has slain a mid-level catacomb ghost. 20 points awarded.]
[…You have gained 20 points.]
Just a handful of mid-level ghosts, and in the blink of an eye, Ye Shu had wiped them out completely.
Lin Qing, meanwhile, sat nearby, her eyes flashing with surprise. She approached with a smile. “Ye-jiejie, that sword of yours is incredible!”
This artifact wasn’t natively from the game world. If Lin Qing’s eyes didn’t deceive her, the wooden sword had looked ready to shatter, yet a mere two seconds later, it gleamed as brightly and powerfully as before. An ordinary person would never have noticed, but she could sense it faintly.
Aside from resurrection, that woman held other gifts she’d never noticed before.
“Thanks for the compliment!”
Ye Shu had the nagging sense Lin Qing was slyly mocking her.
The ghosts kept coming. As soon as one batch fell, another replaced them.
Every time Ye Shu met their gaze, her SAN value plummeted—within just two hours, she’d dropped to 65 points. Lin Qing, though, seemed utterly unaffected. The catacomb ghosts ignored him, as if he didn’t exist.
After dispatching another wave, Ye Shu couldn’t help but ask, “Lin Qing, why do those ghosts act like they can't see you?”
They all came for her! It wasn’t logical.
“My ability is ‘Barrier.’ I can set up a boundary—those things know I’m here, but they can’t touch me, so they won’t attack.”
Ye Shu’s mouth twitched. No wonder: the ghosts circled Lin Qing before swarming her instead.
Even as they spoke, more low-level ghosts appeared outside the catacomb entrance.
Ye Shu reopened her scabbed wound, preparing to slaughter for more points—only for Lin Qing to beat her to the punch. She flung golden talismans with a flick of her wrist.
And then… the ghosts vanished, not even a corpse left behind.
Just before dawn, in came another trickle of ghosts. By then, Ye Shu's SAN was down to 40.
……
Sixth day in the underworld.
Luck hadn’t improved for Ye Shu. Every catacomb she cracked open was empty, yielding only a single low-grade mineral. Lin Qing, on the other hand, seemed blessed by the gods—every cave she opened overflowed with crystals, one yielding dozens all at once.
Seventh day.
Ye Shu dug up a single ordinary ore.
Ninth day. Nothing.
“Master… this old geezer must be cheating!” Da Piaoliang gaped at the mountain of crystals in Lin Qing’s hands.
“Cheating, indeed.”
To call Lin Qing the game’s spoiled child would be no exaggeration.
With days of meager returns, even Ye Shu’s calm began to fray. Her lantern supplies were running low—three more barren days, and she’d have to use her last red lantern.
On the tenth day of the game.
Just as Ye Shu beheaded another ghost, a notification chimed in her ear.
[Ding! Congratulations, player, for surviving ten days in the underworld!]
[From this moment, the mining game’s difficulty level increases in every aspect. The exchange window is shortened by one hour. Good luck!]
The mechanical voice echoed eerily through the endless tunnels.
Ye Shu paused, hefted her iron shovel, and began to pound at the clay wall.
“Thump… thump… thump…”
Dust flew everywhere; after several hard hits, she’d only managed to carve out a modest hole.
Ye Shu’s brow furrowed. So the ‘difficulty increase’ meant the walls themselves were now like iron. With her shovel it was still a struggle; without one, an ordinary player would never break through.
When she finally broke through, a catacomb ghost lunged out from within. It looked different from those before—one could clearly make out its features, almost human, as if it had just stepped off Blue Star.
“ROAR—”
The ghost threw itself at Ye Shu. She efficiently hacked off its head and turned to enter the freshly opened tunnel.
Lin Qing watched her back, an unspoken darkness flickering across her face.
Even the lowest catacomb ghosts here were far stronger than the previous supernatural menaces…
And yet Xiao Shu dispatched them with ease. It was astonishing.
[Player has acquired Low-Grade Ore x1.]
[Player has acquired Mid-Grade Ore x1.]
Ye Shu searched every inch of the catacomb, finally unearthing two mineral crystals.
Out of ten tunnels, nine yielded ore. She should have been thrilled, but when she saw the armful of crystals Lin Qing had, her smile fell.
Tch. Comparison is the thief of joy!
This guy didn’t have to lift a finger—ghosts that made other players tremble faded before him like tofu.
Even Ye Shu needed her blood to barely dispatch the ghostly denizens. The gap between them was not small…
These past days, she’d been obsessed with hunting ghosts for points. Scanning the player interface, she saw less than two hundred thousand left; even Pang Pangzi, luckiest of them all, had gone offline. Su Bai was still around, and had messaged her safe and sound last night.