Chapter 1 The Fall

The sensation of falling is enough to jolt anyone awake from a nightmare, causing the heart to clench, limbs to stiffen, and a silent scream to escape.

Strangely, when the two of them plummeted, only Bei Ling cried out…

Xiao Tan, who usually startled at the slightest thing, had become unusually calm in this life-or-death moment. In a split second, he snapped his hand back, grabbed Bei Ling's wrist, and with a pure burst of his own strength in mid-air, pulled her into a position above him.

In this moment of crisis, his instinct was to lift his teammate up, acting as a human cushion himself, which proved that the kid was indeed a good person. Of course, if they were falling into an abyss of ten thousand zhang, this action wouldn't mean much; it would only be the difference between dying above or below.

Fortunately, the falling sensation only lasted for a few seconds. Then, with a *plop*, the two of them crashed into the water almost glued together.

Darkness enveloped them as the falling sensation ceased abruptly. Xiao Tan suddenly felt a chill down his back, followed by a surge of pain and a sense of being suffocated. However, he was overjoyed, because he knew that falling into water meant he wouldn't die—at least not yet.

The impact of their fall into the water was tremendous, and they continued to sink rapidly. Xiao Tan understood that they were not yet out of danger. He held his breath and, as the sinking momentum slowed, he began to kick his legs. He never released Bei Ling's wrist; after rising slightly, he wrapped his left arm around Bei Ling, used his right hand to paddle, and struggled to swim upwards.

Before long, their heads emerged from the surface, and both gasped for air the moment they broke free.

"I can swim!" These were the first words Bei Ling shouted after taking a couple of breaths.

"You could've said so earlier! You almost killed me." Xiao Tan said, releasing Bei Ling and creating some distance as he began treading water.

"Say what head!" She smacked Xiao Tan on the forehead. "Did I have a chance to say anything?"

"Ouch…" Xiao Tan cried out in pain. "When I was holding you and swimming up, why didn't you move at all?"

"You just appointed yourself as a lifeguard, so I had to play along," Bei Ling replied. "If I struggled, and you, the blockhead, stubbornly kept trying, what if we both drowned in the end?"

"Oh, oh…" Xiao Tan continued, "Right, are you okay?"

"Not really," Bei Ling replied. "I want to punch you."

Xiao Tan assumed that Bei Ling was blaming him for dragging her down, so he said helplessly, "You can't completely blame me for this, can you? How would I know the roof beam would break, or that the floor would collapse?"

"Heh…" Bei Ling gave a dry laugh, taking it as a response. She couldn't really refute, since she was the one who grabbed Xiao Tan's wrist, causing them to fall together. If her first reaction had been to jump backwards, perhaps she would still be up there. Then, she could have found a rope or something to save Xiao Tan as well, which would be better than being trapped together in this godforsaken place.

At that moment, there was no light source near Xiao Tan and Bei Ling. Only a tiny speck of light could be seen far above them, emanating from the collapsed opening they had fallen through. Unfortunately, the opening was indoors, not in the open air, so that little bit of light couldn't illuminate this deep underground.

Although they were talking, it was pitch black, and neither could see the other. However, because they were close and could hear the sound of paddling, they could still sense each other's location. Bei Ling had just groped around in the dark to smack Xiao Tan's head.

"Crap, my flashlight was destroyed in the last script…" Xiao Tan was about to say that his lighting equipment was broken when he suddenly felt Bei Ling place something on his head.

With a *click*, a bright light appeared. On Xiao Tan's head was a yellow miner's helmet.

"Eh? You still have this equipment?" Xiao Tan asked. He remembered that in the first script where he met Bei Ling, she wanted to trade this thing for his flashlight.

"Yeah," Bei Ling replied. "I remember trying to trade this to you for a flashlight back then, but you actually gave me one, and said something like… 'It looks stupid on me, you can keep it yourself.'"

"Then why did you keep it until now? This kind of equipment isn't worth anything anymore, is it?" Xiao Tan asked.

"I hate being rejected the most." Bei Ling said, knocking on Xiao Tan's helmeted head. "Look at you, wearing such a stupid piece of equipment, you look so… harmonious…"

"I really miss the time when I first met you." Xiao Tan revealed a pained expression. "The Bei Ling Xiaogu who called me 'Xiao Tan-ge' and politely traded equipment with me is gone forever…"

Bei Ling felt that her embarrassing past had been exposed, and she changed the subject in exasperation. "Enough nonsense! Hurry up and turn around, see if there's any place to stand. Do you want to keep soaking in the water until your stamina runs out?"

Xiao Tan shrank his neck, and really stopped talking. He slowly turned around in the water, shining the light on the surrounding scenery and the area above them.

In any case, the miner's helmet was still very practical in this situation, at least it was a lighting device that didn't need to be constantly held in his hand to operate.

As the light moved, the two finally saw some of their surroundings. The underground pool they were in wasn't very large, and a stone bank was only about ten meters away. Directly above the pool was a vertical cylindrical channel, which was the path they had fallen through. The entrance at the top of the channel was the collapsed opening in the kitchen of the empty house, while the shape of the bottom of the channel expanded outwards. Overall, the space above the pool looked like an inverted funnel, and it was unlikely that they could return the way they came.

Around the pool were stone walls, with a stone bank on only one side.

Xiao Tan and Bei Ling had no choice. The immediate priority was to find a place to stand. The two swam over one after the other, and after climbing onto the bank, they were both panting and exhausted, collapsing on the ground to rest.

The series of events had only occurred within a few minutes, but their Survival Values and Stamina Values had been significantly depleted. The fall from a high altitude had caused Xiao Tan to lose 67% of his Survival Value, while Bei Ling lost 59%. Of course, this wasn't too bad. In reality, people jumping into the water from such a height could be killed instantly upon impact. The fact that the game characters' physical qualities were higher than ordinary people had allowed them to survive.

Remaining afloat in the water and swimming to the shore had cost them more than three hundred Stamina Points, which was nearly 20% for two level 17 players.

"I wonder… have we discovered some kind of ancient tomb?" Xiao Tan turned his head to look behind them, where a deep path led into the unknown.

"What? Are you fantasizing that I'll strip naked and practice swordplay with you?" Bei Ling retorted, actually being shameless herself.

"Well… I originally wanted to say that maybe we could find equipment, skills, hidden quests, or something…" Xiao Tan said. "But you suddenly brought up that…" Before he could finish, he was hit on the head again. Even through the miner's helmet, it still hurt.

"So you started thinking dirty thoughts?" Bei Ling snapped.

"The way you used 'also' is really… Ouch… Okay… Everything's my fault, alright?" Xiao Tan was truly being bullied miserably.

This underground pool was as cold as an ice cave, and their clothes were soaked, making them feel chilled to the bone. After sitting for a while, they couldn't help but shiver. Therefore, they didn't stay in place for too long, but instead, they wrung out their clothes as much as possible and rested briefly. When the initial fatigue had passed, they got up and walked towards the only path available.

Perhaps the rocks in this tunnel had the property of absorbing light. After walking a short distance, the two discovered that anything slightly further ahead appeared as a dark shadow. Beyond ten meters, the light practically disappeared completely.

Another noteworthy point was that this road wasn't an upward slope, but rather a downward incline. They had already fallen into a deep underground location when they landed in the pool, and this path led to an even lower point. What was going on? Was this a direct route to the Senluo Treasure Hall?

After walking for another ten minutes, the downward slope leveled out, becoming mostly horizontal. The tunnel gradually widened, and without realizing it, the height and width of the surrounding tunnels had grown large enough to accommodate a subway train.

"Did you smell that?" Bei Ling suddenly asked. The air in the cave was humid and stagnant, trapping the odors. About a minute ago, she had smelled a strange, fishy stench, which wasn't a good sign.

Xiao Tan gave Bei Ling a strange look, scanning her up and down for a few seconds. "Don't tell me… you… you know… I didn't know this game could even…"

"Could even what head!" Bei Ling's face flushed red as she pulled off his helmet, cursing and hitting him on the head.

"Okay, it seems I misunderstood…"

"Idiot! Moron! Scumbag!"

"Hey… you won't get censored for saying that…"

"Ugh… Haa…" Bei Ling took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I'll have to check the auction house for a large paper fan or something in the future. My hand is starting to hurt."

"Sorry…" Xiao Tan said. "My head is too hard."

"Is that what you need to apologize for?" Bei Ling slammed the helmet back on his head.

"Anyway… it's all my fault, alright?" Xiao Tan said. "You don't always have to hit me, can't we solve problems with wor—"

"Xiao Tan-ge…" Bei Ling interrupted with a smile, her tone amiable but her eyes filled with murderous intent, "Would you please go back and drown yourself in the pool?"

"Just hit me…"

*Roar—*

Suddenly, a roar, clearly emanating from a non-human creature, interrupted their conversation.

It was unclear whether the monster was annoyed by their conversation or had simply discovered prey and was coming to hunt, but in any case, the heavy thud of some giant creature crawling along the ground echoed from the tunnel ahead, rapidly approaching the two players…