Chapter 1 The Underground Cave

This underground cave was a rather large map, with tunnels crisscrossing and connecting in all directions, and it contained many flags. There were three entrances to this place, located in three hidden spots in Cang Ling Town. No matter which entrance you entered from, there was only one path to choose at the beginning, but as long as you passed some monster and trap checkpoints, the paths would increase, and various rewards would be distributed along the way or at the end of these paths.

The pool of water that Xiao Tan and Bei Ling fell into was, in theory, accessible even for players who couldn't swim. The very center of the pool was deep, but it gradually became shallower around the edges. Even if you held your breath and sank to the bottom, you could walk along the bottom to get out, because the distance wasn't far. Besides, even if players ran out of air and choked on water, they wouldn't lose consciousness; they would only lose survival points continuously and endure a system-simulated feeling of drowning to some extent.

And continuing forward from the road beside the pool would inevitably lead to a monster attack scenario.

"It sounds like something's coming..." Listening to the strange noise ahead, Xiao Tan said another useless line.

"I was just about to ask you about that," Bei Ling replied. "There are no plants on these rock walls, but there's a lingering stench in the cave, which means some kind of animal is present. And the first part of the road we walked didn't have a smell, but it appeared when the tunnel widened here, which means that the animal is likely to be very large and can only be active in this section." As she spoke, she took out her MP5 from her bag, attached her flashlight to the gun, and aimed it at the darkness ahead, ready to fire at any moment.

"Then let's run!" Xiao Tan said. "Let's escape back to the narrower part of the passage; it won't be able to follow us there, right?"

"And then what?" Bei Ling turned her head and asked. "There's only this one road to take. Even if the pool is safe for now, we can't get out."

"Hmm... that's true." Xiao Tan also took out his Winchester shotgun and loaded it.

In fact, escaping back was a viable option. After all, in the script, players didn't have to eat, drink, excrete, or sleep; as long as they weren't attacked by monsters, their survival wouldn't be threatened. When sunset came, their teammates would naturally come out to look for them when they realized they hadn't returned to the inn.

However, Feng Bu Jue couldn't know what Xiao Tan and Bei Ling had encountered. He couldn't have the idea that "these two are trapped in some underground pit." He was more likely to deduce that the two had been captured by NPCs. Therefore, even if Feng Bu Jue and the others searched for the two from house to house, they would only take a cursory look in each empty house to see if anyone was there, and they might not discover the ground trap in that remote, empty house.

In short, the strategy of escaping back to the pool had a high probability of resulting in no one discovering them until the end of the script, which was the judgment Bei Ling made.

"It's coming, very close..." Bei Ling said in a deep voice, staring at the darkness. Both she and Xiao Tan had an E-grade Investigation Specialization, but as a Shooting Specialization player, her visual ability was clearly superior to Xiao Tan's.

Hearing this, Xiao Tan also straightened his gun and prepared to shoot forward.

Roar—

Another roar, mixed with a rumbling sound, and a giant monster the size of a car entered their line of sight.

The monster was huge, and it was difficult to see its entire appearance up close. However, its skin showed a sticky, slippery sheen under the light, revealing the outline of its back, which seemed to be a giant crocodile.

But the monster's head was slightly different from that of a crocodile, seemingly closer to that of a canine, and the roar it emitted was like that of a bear.

Bang! The shotgun in Xiao Tan's hand had already fired. At short and medium ranges, this should have been a very powerful attack, but at this moment, it failed to penetrate the monster's crocodile armor. At most, the shrapnel embedded itself in the gaps of the crocodile's back, unable to injure its flesh and blood.

Almost at the same time, Bei Ling's MP5 also began to pour out firepower, but her attacks were clearly more efficient and targeted. She aimed at the monster's eyes, firing in a rhythmic burst.

The giant crocodile also knew that being shot in the eyes would be very bad, so it opened its bloody mouth, constantly shaking its head to avoid the attacks, and continued to advance.

"Retreat!" Bei Ling's single word, "retreat," was simple and clear.

Xiao Tan also understood, knowing that she wasn't saying "withdraw," but "fight and retreat," so he fired and reloaded while retreating shoulder to shoulder with Bei Ling, attacking as they went.

The monster was attacked, and although it didn't suffer much damage, it couldn't be said that it was completely unaffected. Moreover, in order to protect its eyes from being attacked, it constantly swayed its head, and its crawling speed was naturally affected to some extent.

The giant crocodile's speed stagnated, and Xiao Tan and Bei Ling became more at ease. Anyway, they both had ranged weapons in hand, and their ammunition was sufficient. As long as they maintained a distance of more than five meters, they could exhaust the monster to death.

The appearance of this monster was very imposing, and it was quite terrifying as it approached in this narrow and dark environment. If the players were really running away with their backs to it, the sense of urgency from being chased would be very strong. However, this monster was not considered strong in terms of settings; it was even easier to deal with than the demon tree that Feng Bu Jue and Si Yu had encountered on the mountain.

Its speed was average, and it became slower with a little suppression. Its defense was very high, but its weakness was unusually obvious, and it was easy for players to see through and concentrate their attacks. Its attack method was simple; it was a purely physical means, and its attack power might not be enough to kill a player in one hit.

And most importantly, the surrounding environment had basically pointed out the method to deal with it for the players. Players who only had melee methods could choose to turn around and run away at full speed, and they would be safe once they escaped to a section where the monster couldn't chase them. As for players with ranged attack methods, needless to say, they would use ranged weapons to delay its steps and kite it. Anyway, the tunnel was just this small, and the target was large, so missing was harder than hitting.

In fact, if they knew the flag in advance, it would be easier to choose to turn around and run away. Because the monster would eventually get stuck in a certain part of the tunnel, completely losing its ability to move, and then it would be easy to kill.

This kind of guiding setting seemed to make the battle too easy, but from the system's point of view, it was reasonable.

For this type of hidden cave that clearly concealed some rewards or plot flags, the system couldn't arrange a path of progress that would inevitably lead to the player's death. If that were the case, it would be better to simply design it so that falling down would result in death.

Therefore, when players consumed two-thirds of their survival points and a certain amount of stamina the moment they entered, the next battle would definitely not be too difficult, unless it was a psychopathic Nightmare difficulty...

Roar—

Sure enough, with another roar, the two, who had kited the monster for five minutes, were rather depressed to discover... that the monster had gotten itself stuck in a rocky area while chasing them and couldn't move.