Lin Shuya was just a rookie player, where did she get an attractant… I should never have gone soft and let her live back then.
Ye Shu spat out a curse, glaring fiercely at the ghost that wouldn’t stop doggedly following her.
"Wuu wuu wuu... huh huh..."
In the narrow underground passage, countless catacomb ghosts crowded together as if in a bustling marketplace.
Ye Shu ran for her life, but in the end, she couldn’t get away—she was cornered by hundreds of catacomb ghosts right inside the catacombs.
"Shameless! Ganging up when you already outnumber me!"
She had dealt with all the ghosts she could kill, but there were just too many; ordinary weapons couldn’t harm them. She could only desperately take her own blood to kill the ghosts… After running the whole night, she was completely drained.
"Sss—"
Ye Shu picked open the wound on her finger again; a trickle of blood oozed out. After dispatching several ghosts before her, she seized a moment to climb the rock wall and escape.
But the ghostly brood was close on her heels.
She looked at her ten bloodied fingers and the dozens of cuts slashed across her arms—her resentment deepened.
Killing ghosts day after day by draining her own blood… She was truly anemic.
Why was it only a peachwood sword smeared with fresh blood could slay these catacomb ghosts?
Why not something else?
Chicken blood, black dog blood…
She’d even tried, spending a fortune to buy black dog blood from other players—turned out it did nothing at all, just 10 points down the drain.
The catacomb ghosts kept chasing relentlessly, and Ye Shu killed more than a dozen in desperation.
"Hu hu..."
Yet the horde grew instead of shrinking.
The catacombs were huge—Ye Shu dashed aimlessly through the labyrinth. Running into other players was just a matter of time.
As she passed a section of the catacombs, she unexpectedly spotted some players.
A dozen or so players were dozing against the walls, as if they had no idea they were inside a survival game.
Ye Shu couldn’t help but sweat for them.
Were these ghosts after her, or would they attack those players too? She needed to warn them, or that group would be gnawed to the bone.
"Run! Run! The ghosts are coming!!"
The players in the cave stirred blearily awake.
They saw the woman sprinting at the front—trailing behind her was a dense tide of ghosts.
"Aaaah! Why are there so many ghosts?!"
"Am I dreaming?"
"My life is forfeit… Damn, my sanity just dropped to 30."
"What grudge do we have? Didn’t they say the ghosts no longer attack human players? What a load of crap!"
"Just one ghost is enough for us to choke on—hundreds? Might as well prepare for Heaven and slit our throats to keep our bodies whole."
These rookie players had never seen such a sight—immediately their legs went weak; some outright collapsed, bawling their eyes out, and more than a few drew knives to kill themselves.
Ye Shu burned with anger at their cowardice.
Cowards—hadn’t even fought, already thinking of death.
She stopped running, dipped her sword’s blade into what little blood she had left, and slashed the throat of the leading catacomb ghost.
"How… how is that possible?"
"Someone can actually kill a catacomb ghost!"
"Then what are we doing, cowering and shivering down here?"
Ye Shu’s battle with the ghosts got their blood boiling; quite a few players couldn’t take their eyes off her.
Within the crowd, someone’s gaze stayed fixed on Ye Shu. With suspicion, she spoke: "Captain… why don’t we… stay? There are too many ghosts; she won’t be able to handle it alone…"
She had barely finished before being snapped at.
"Chen Meng, are you out of your mind? Stay if you want to die here for company, I won’t stop you. The rest of us, get moving! Just because she can handle it doesn’t mean we can—the best plan is to run while we can. Don’t forget, a lowly ghost killed half our team last time."
"Fine, I’ll stay," Chen Meng said, standing firmly in place.
The person ahead—it was as if she'd known her forever.
So she couldn’t bring herself to leave…
The survival game blocks part of a player’s memory in the dungeon. Chen Meng had never seen Ye Jie’s face in reality, but this player’s movements—her peachwood sword—were nearly identical.
"Fine, fine, you stay, Chen Meng. The rest, let’s go."
The leader sneered, turned away without so much as another glance, and hurriedly left, taking the others.
Ye Shu was lost in the heat of battle, paying no attention to the players’ movements.
"Thud—"
She cleaved open a ghostly skull; a stench immediately filled the air.
At that moment, a cacophony of notification chimes erupted.
[Player Ye Shu has slain 2 intermediate catacomb ghosts. Reward: 40 points.]
[Player Ye Shu has slain 4 low-level catacomb ghosts. Reward: 40 points.]
She had to admit, the Catacomb Survival dungeon had filled her purse nicely—but at the price of her blood.
Chased all night, her strength was spent.
Ye Shu slumped against a wall, panting like a dog. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a young girl a few meters away, standing there as if frozen—or, perhaps, simply staring at her.
Was the girl an idiot? Such a good chance, and she didn’t run.
Ye Shu had no energy for others’ troubles. She still had to avoid the catacomb ghosts. Dawn was approaching; she knew, from hard experience, that ghosts would become much more dangerous at the edge of daybreak.
"Huuu…"
The catacomb ghosts glared at Ye Shu with venom, their mouths issuing low, mournful wails.
Left with no choice, Ye Shu finally used her Thousand Mile Talisman.
When Chen Meng saw the peachwood sword, she realized Ye Shu’s identity. As Ye Shu prepared to teleport away, Chen Meng blurted: "Ye Jie, it’s me—Chen Meng! From the cruise ship—we fought monsters together, remember me?"
Chen Meng??
Who—Chen Meng?
Ye Shu’s brain hiccuped for a moment.
Sudden fragments of memory surfaced—she saw a familiar face.
"It’s you!!"
Ye Shu actually had a decent impression of Chen Meng.
An old acquaintance, after all—she couldn’t just leave her.
There was no time to reminisce. Ye Shu dashed over, grabbed Chen Meng, and as the teleport talisman burned out, both of them disappeared, leaving behind a seething horde of ghosts howling helplessly in the catacomb.
......
Ye Shu’s luck held true.
Every time she used a teleport talisman, it sent her somewhere safe.
She summoned Da Piao Liang to scout—nearby, there wasn’t a ghost in sight for now.
"Ye Jie, I never thought we’d meet again—"
And in such a way, too.
"Mm, it’s been a while."
Last time had been the second round of the game.
Now out of danger, Chen Meng belatedly caught a whiff of her own stench—it was from being cornered by a catacomb ghost earlier, using a prop to kill it and being splattered with ghost slime. She hadn’t been able to clean it off—or perhaps, there wasn’t even a way.
Embarrassed beyond words, she wanted to crawl into a hole.
"Ye Jie, how did you end up with so many ghosts on your tail?"
The catacombs in the Underworld were hellish—resources had to be bartered for with ore crystals, and even exorcism lanterns required them as trade. These days, the catacomb ghosts showing up seemed ever more powerful.
But a player being chased by a horde of ghosts—this was still a first.