Chapter 1 From Crocodile Corpses

After crawling over the giant crocodile's corpse, Bei Ling and Xiao Tan continued forward. Having already traversed this path, they unconsciously quickened their pace. Several minutes later, they passed the spot where they first encountered the monster.

After another stretch, the two were suddenly in a more open space. The gradually widening tunnel eventually connected to a vast cavern. Stalactites and stalagmites were scattered across the ground and ceiling, their crystalline surfaces shimmering with a myriad of colors under the light, creating a spectacular sight. The rugged and uneven stone walls intertwined with the rock formations, making it impossible to see the entire cavern at a single glance.

"Let's split up... and see if there are any tunnels leading to other places," Bei Ling said.

Xiao Tan nodded, pointing to his side. "Then I'll go over there." He strode off.

Both of them had lighting equipment, and the echo in the cave was quite good. As long as they didn't encounter any forks in the road, they didn't have to worry about getting separated. Bei Ling didn't waste any more time and quickly headed in the other direction.

Unfortunately, Bei Ling wasn't so lucky. The side she chose quickly led to a dead end. After crossing a patch of puddles, she encountered a large pool of water, similar in size to the one she had previously fallen into. However, the top of the cavern was closed in this area, and the stone walls surrounding the pool on three sides signaled that this was a dead end.

She retraced her steps and soon arrived back at the place where she had separated from Xiao Tan. She then proceeded in the direction Xiao Tan had gone. Before long, she saw light and Xiao Tan's elongated shadow behind a rock.

Xiao Tan also heard her approaching footsteps and peeked out from behind the bend. "Did you find anything on your side?"

"Dead end," Bei Ling replied, and then asked, "What about you? What are you looking at?"

"I think I found a door," Xiao Tan replied.

"Oh?" Bei Ling said, arriving at Xiao Tan's side. She saw the so-called "door" as well.

It was a three-dimensional, octagonal sphere with a metallic texture on its surface. It was larger than a refrigerator and blocked what appeared to be the entrance to a tunnel. On the side facing them, a metal plate of a different color was visible. When touched, a game menu would appear before the player's eyes. It was clearly a pure game setting object, unrelated to the scenario's world.

"Is it a puzzle...?" Bei Ling asked.

"Touch that spot of different color," Xiao Tan said, pointing to the metal plate.

Bei Ling glanced at him, then stepped forward and touched the spot Xiao Tan had indicated with her fingertip. "Oh~ This kind of puzzle..." She immediately adopted a relaxed expression, her tone revealing a hint of smugness.

"Ah... so it's this kind of puzzle," Xiao Tan echoed.

"You've been standing here like an idiot, trying to solve this?" Bei Ling asked.

"Yeah, but now that you've come over and talked to me, I've forgotten everything I was thinking..." Xiao Tan replied.

"The answer is seventy-five," Bei Ling said, drawing those two Arabic numerals on the metal plate with her finger.

In the next second, the surface of the metal sphere instantly turned the same color as the plate. Then, like a blooming flower bud, it slowly opened from the top. Metal panels folded and spread across the sides and floor of the tunnel, unlocking the passage before them.

Moreover, hidden in the center of the sphere was a piece of equipment, now displayed before their eyes.

Xiao Tan exclaimed, "You figured it out so fast?"

"It was nothing," Bei Ling looked up at him. "The puzzles I play for fun are harder than this."

The puzzle was actually just a nine-by-nine Sudoku puzzle, and it had already provided a significant number of numbers, making it relatively simple. The game menu didn't even require the player to fill in all the empty squares; they only needed to solve for the numbers in a few specific spots and then sum them up.

Even a third-grader could solve this puzzle, but it might take them a little longer without using paper and pen or other recording tools.

In short, it was a puzzle that tested short-term memory, mental arithmetic, and logical deduction, and it didn't require any extra association. This was Bei Ling's greatest strength.

"Your hobbies are terrifying... Are you a mathematician?" Xiao Tan said.

"I'm a liberal arts student," Bei Ling said. "Besides... how can there be such young mathematicians? I'm not graduating for another two months."

"Is that so... I always thought you were the scholarly science type. I never would have guessed," Xiao Tan muttered.

Bei Ling snorted. "I think you don't look like a medical student at all. You're timid as a mouse."

Xiao Tan just smiled without arguing. He stepped forward and looked at the piece of equipment inside the metal sphere. "You should pick up this item. What if it's soulbound?"

"I can't use this at all. If it's soulbound, I'll probably just sell it to the shop," Bei Ling replied. She was right. The item on the ground was a pair of boxing gloves. A shooting specialist couldn't even pull the trigger with those on. There was no point in keeping them.

Hearing this, Xiao Tan went over and picked up the item.

[Name: Automatic Vending Machine Basher]
[Type: Weapon]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Attack Power: Weak]
[Attribute: None]
[Effect: Has a 1% chance to cast "Basher's Persistence"]
[Equipment Requirement: Level 25 or higher, C in Fighting Specialization or C in General Specialization]
[Note: Have you ever had a vending machine swallow your money? If so, you should know that tapping lightly or just hitting it a few times is futile. Only a well-placed, painful blow will make that damn machine work properly.

ps: Yes, I once made an ogre spit out its kidney.]

After reading it, Xiao Tan handed it to Bei Ling so she could take a look at the stats. "Luckily, it's not soulbound. This weapon is completely unsuitable for me, and I need to level up eight more times before I can equip it."

"This pair of gloves would be powerful if used by a speed-type player who specializes in boxing," Bei Ling suggested, looking at the item's stats. "If you're going to put it up for auction, you can set the price high."

"Hmm... I'll think about it after the scenario is over," Xiao Tan said, taking the item back and storing it in his inventory.

After that, they set off again, entering the unlocked entrance and heading forward along a new stone tunnel.

After walking only a few steps, Bei Ling suddenly thought of something. She asked, "Hey, by the way, since you have plenty of game coins, why don't you just give the equipment to the team leader? It's like giving him a six-figure sum of game coins."

"Brother Jue definitely won't accept it," Xiao Tan said without looking back. "Whether it's in reality or in the game, he won't accept being given money to use, directly or indirectly."

"Ah~ Men's twisted pride..." Bei Ling said, drawing out her words.

"It's not just a matter of whose pride is hurt," Xiao Tan seriously refuted Bei Ling's words. "If two friends with significantly different economic conditions want to maintain their friendship, the most important rule is not to have frequent and unequal transactions of money. Otherwise, after a while, they won't even have basic trust and equal conversation."

Bei Ling looked at him, silent for several seconds, then laughed. "Listening to you with the experience of someone who's been there... are you a rich second-generation?"

"Uh..." Xiao Tan hesitated before replying, "I guess so..."

"If you are, then just say it. It's not something to be ashamed of. Are you afraid to admit that your family is rich?" Bei Ling said.

Xiao Tan really had his concerns. From childhood to adulthood, besides the issues he had just mentioned about friends, another problem that plagued him was... his former girlfriends were either after his money or their attitudes changed after they found out that his family was rich. Xiao Tan was the type who, even after being cheated, still thought that the other person had a conscience and had difficulties. If it weren't for Feng Bujue and Bao Daren, those two terrible friends, secretly protecting him, the name Wang Tan Zhi would soon be synonymous with "sucker."

Xiao Tan turned his head, wanting to explain. "Hehe... it's not really that bad, it's not as bad as you think..." He was interrupted before he could finish.

"Don't worry, don't worry." Bei Ling stood on tiptoe and patted Xiao Tan's head like a pet dog. "Even if I knew your family was super rich, I wouldn't change my attitude towards you." Her inner sadist nature was completely exposed in her eyes. "Because my family is definitely richer than yours, so in my eyes, you're just a poor person."

"What kind of confidence is that... Is your dad the richest man in the world?" Xiao Tan thought to himself, but he didn't say it out loud. He just replied, "Um... This is the first time in my life that someone has called me poor. I don't know why, but it feels pretty good..."

"That's just being cheap," Bei Ling immediately replied. The reason why her words weren't censored was probably because the system agreed with that point of view...

As they talked, a crossroads appeared in front of them in the tunnel.

The three passages led in completely different directions, and from the crossroads, they had no distinguishing features. It was impossible to have road signs or anything like that to indicate the way forward.

"Which way do we go?" Bei Ling asked.

"Hey? Shouldn't that be my line?" Xiao Tan replied. "Isn't it always you who makes the decisions?"

"For this kind of clueless choice, you just guess one," Bei Ling replied.

If Feng Bujue were here, he would have made the same decision, because anyone who had been in contact with Xiao Tan for a while would discover that this kid had good luck...

"Um... then..." Xiao Tan looked left and right with his miner's hat on his head, and finally said, "Let's just go straight ahead."