Ye Wanwan stared at the shimmering screen in utter disbelief.
Ye Shu... Has she lost her mind?
It’s one thing for her to attack Qin Zaozao, but now she’s turned on Mother, too?
A parent’s love is boundless. Even if Lin Shuya really wanted her dead, wasn’t it a daughter’s duty to bear it? Besides, after so many rounds, Ye Wanwan didn’t believe for a second that Ye Shu didn’t have a resurrection card up her sleeve.
Could it be the truth about the inducer has leaked?
Wasn’t there only one single bottle of inducer in this whole game?
Or maybe it was just a drawing tool for the card—there’s no reason it should’ve been exposed.
How did Ye Shu find out?
It was just a little poison, and she survived anyway! Is there any need to be so vindictive? Killing her own mother—Ye Wanwan swore she would have revenge for this hatred.
At a loss, Ye Wanwan stood frozen for a long time, finally making up her mind to escape to another sector.
The subtitles faded with Lin Shuya’s death, slowly disappearing from view.
…………
“b567 sector.”
“It’s not far.”
“If I go now, I should just make it,” Ye Shu muttered.
She slathered a dollop of healing salve onto her body; the wounds invaded by catacomb ghosts’ chilling curse were slowly knitting closed.
The gash across her abdomen—a parting gift from a ghost during teleportation—still pulsed with dull pain.
Anyone else would’ve been dead already, thrust back into another round of the cycle.
By the time Ye Shu reached b567, Ye Wanwan had already vanished, not a trace of her left.
She ransacked the neighboring zones but found no sign, finally forced to give up.
It wouldn’t be long before the catacomb ghosts would rise in force; she had to recover quickly, or there wouldn’t be enough revives to cover her.
Night fell.
A horde of ghouls gave chase to Ye Shu, helping ease the pressure on b sector’s trapped players.
Brandishing her blade, she held off several ghosts before dashing away, covering nearly a mile before the shadowy swarm resumed their pursuit, neither close nor distant.
“Ye Wanwan, you really deserve to die!” she spat between gritted teeth. “Those damned ghost potions...”
“When I get out—when I find you—I’ll grind your bones till there’s nothing left.”
With a muttered curse, Ye Shu ran with abandon.
Day broke after what felt like an eternity—that was the twelfth sunrise, by now the twenty-first day in the cycle.
Then the twenty-second.
The twenty-third...
By the twenty-eighth day, she still fled with the ghosts hot on her heels, wings clipped, nowhere left to run.
The daylight hours in the catacombs world were shrinking unnervingly fast—by now, there were less than four hours per day.
Ye Shu could only rely on burning stamina and precious tools to survive.
It worked, but it left her wrecked.
Every day she lost a monstrous amount of blood, her body stretched to its limit, yet the catacomb ghosts seemed endless. No matter how many she slew, more emerged from the dark.
Her points reached an all-time high—129,900.
Pinned in a dead end, the ghoul mob closed in.
The blood coating her wooden sword had long dried, but she still managed to cut down a few.
“Tch, the after-effects of the inducer are brutal!”
“If I ever find out who gave Ye Wanwan this crap, I’ll make them regret the day they were born.”
Furious, she snatched up her spare Ten-Li Transport Talisman. Not as handy as the Thousand-Li kind, but it would buy some time.
The charm burned to ash, and with it, Ye Shu vanished. The lead ghost shrieked in maddened rage, the others howling their fury—soon, the whole catacomb trembled with their cries.
Nearby players shuddered, paralyzed by terror.
Even veteran gamers from the first round weren’t spared.
If it was just a trickster spirit, they could use gadgets to avoid it. But a catacomb ghost? Hopeless.
One couldn’t even touch them—let alone kill.
“This is insane!” someone gasped.
“With that many ghosts, we should just hide.”
“This dungeon’s almost over. Please, oh blessed mother, let me make it out alive.”
“Why did I pick this sector... I can feel cold air around me—it’s gotta be those ghosts—I have to act blind, like I don’t see anything.”
…………
Burning up a fistful of talismans, Ye Shu finally lost the tailing horde.
Da Piaoliang hadn’t contributed much this round; she’d quietly gone off to patrol a checkpoint instead.
Ye Shu busied herself flooding the player-trading board with urgent offers.
[imyourdad: Seeking Thousand-Li Transport Talisman—A-class items to trade, hurry!]
[imyourdad: Seeking Thousand-Li Transport Talisman—willing to trade A-Grade item, asap!]
She waited and waited; not one player replied.
As she considered raising her offer, a stray breeze brushed strands of hair across her face—some sixth sense told her... something was here!
Ducking instinctively, she rolled across the dirt, catching only dust—not harm.
“Boom—”
The ground exploded as a catacomb ghost smashed open a fresh wound in the earth.
A red lantern flickered in the shadows, swaying as if on its last breath—the ghost from minutes before, the leader, had broken from its group to ambush her.
“Sss—”
Her wounds, barely closed, were torn wide again. The blood-soaked peachwood sword began to emit a crimson glow.
Ye Shu lunged to strike first, slashing at the ghost with determined strokes—yet her sword only grew weaker while the creature remained unscathed.
[Ding! The durability of your peachwood sword has dropped to 30%. Please repair promptly.]
[下降至10%，请及时修复。]
“This isn’t even a high-level ghost?” she muttered.
Her blood usually worked wonders against these fiends... unless she didn’t have enough. High-level ghosts took more—much more.
“Hhaa... hhaa...”
Hunted for days now, Ye Shu could parse the rudimentary speech of the catacomb ghosts. This one called for allies.
Fighting just one had pushed her to the brink. If more came, she’d be forced into a reset.
She’d have to gamble.
Killing this ghost would take even more of her blood.
Jaw clenched, Ye Shu scored two fresh wounds on her arms, doused them with healing salve.
Blood slicked most of her blade, making its glow flare brighter still.
Now, with just a little more strength, she hacked off the ghost’s arm.
But the blade had already lost precious blood.
“Damn! How much does it take?!”
To slay dozens of ghosts usually cost this much—here, it only crippled one limb.
The ghost gave her no time to reflect, hurling itself at her.
Ye Shu had to draw even more blood.
Lopping off limbs with each swing, her strength faded, her vision swam with black specks.
Would she become the first player to bleed to death in this game?
Probably not! She still had two resets to burn today—hadn’t used any yet.
“Ungh—”
Words failed her as shock gripped her tight.
She stared wide-eyed as the ghost, now reduced to a stump, unfurled its tongue through her chest, and blood gushed from the wound like a fountain—unstoppable, no matter what she tried.
Cheating—that’s what it was! After all this time, she had never known the high ghosts had tongues.
Well, a reset would finally get its use today.
If nothing else, at least she’d used them well.
Agony twisted through her, and Ye Shu died, aged 20.
Moments later, a young man emerged from around the catacomb bend. Frowning, he looked down at the mangled ruin—no longer recognizably human—crushed it beneath his palm, and annihilated the crawling ghost.
…………
b123 sector.
Lin Yaoyao seemed to sense something and dashed toward a tunnel on the left.