Chapter 25
As soon as the cold, mechanical system’s voice faded, Xiao Tangqiu was keenly aware of the changes in the surrounding environment. The temperature seemed to drop more than ten degrees in an instant, and a cold and dreadful atmosphere spread.
“What the f.u.c.k? What’s going on?” Tang Mianmian shouted and ran towards Xiao Tangqiu, instinctively hiding behind Xiao Tangqiu until he realized a moment later that he was actually a little taller than him. There was no way to hide behind him…… But after struggling with that for a second, he still stayed behind Xiao Tangqiu without any hesitation.
Xiao Tangqiu didn’t think there was anything wrong with that either. In the past, when he and Tang Mianmian live streamed horror games together, he was basically always the leader, so he was always the first one in the line of danger. “Calm down first, did you hear that just now?”
“Hear….hear what?” Tang Mianmian stammered, “Do you mean the system’s voice?”
Before he could answer, Luo Mansu answered Tang Mianmian’s question. Luo Mansu’s face changed drastically as he cried out, “The mission has been upgraded?! This can’t be! This was clearly just a D-level mission! How the f.u.c.k did a D-level mission get upgraded to S-level?! “
Xiao Tangqiu reacted immediately. Obviously, everyone had heard the system’s voice report the mission upgrade just now; it wasn’t just him. He also keenly noticed the change in Luo Mansu. Before that, he always suspected that Luo Mansu was hiding something. But now his suspicions were confirmed.
If Luo Mansu’s reaction when faced with danger before was somewhat superficial, then his panic at this moment was obviously from the heart – it was real terror.
“S-level mission?!” Yan Yiyan was also frightened out of her wits. “This can’t be! This can’t be!”
She turned to look at Xiao Tangqiu and the others. Her expression turned ugly, “What the h.e.l.l did you do just now? How did we trigger an S-level mission upgrade? Are you all f.u.c.king idiots?! An S-level mission isn’t something that you can simply pa.s.s! If you want to die, don’t drag us down with you!”
Next to her, Xia Jingjing and Xia Chenxuan also looked pale. Xia Jingjing trembled with fear, “Big sis Yan, what should we do? There’s no way we can complete an S-level mission! We’ll die! We’ll definitely die!”
Xia Chenxuan tried his best to remain calm, but he was also greatly shaken, “Let’s just get out of here first!”
They had no objections, so with a heavy heart, they hurried towards the gates of Yun Manor. But soon, they were shocked to find that aside from the Yun Manor, the entire Yunjia Village had been swallowed up by the abyss! The abyss continued to spread, and everything that had been engulfed by it had started to crumble and fall apart.
They fell into a state of horror and silence until Xiao Tangqiu finally opened his mouth to say, “Does this mean that the location of this mission is limited to the Yun Manor?”
Luo Mansu laughed bitterly, “Generally speaking, there are no time or s.p.a.ce limits for S-level missions. Although only a few people actually make it out of an S-level mission, some of their experiences have been shared with us. But this kind of S-level mission that was upgraded due to us triggering certain conditions during the mission, contains a lot of uncertainties. We don’t have any experience to refer to, plus there aren’t any hints……”
They were supposed to complete a mission but they didn’t know what the mission was, and on top of that, they were completely in the dark and inexperienced. Was it even possible to complete such a mission?
It was simply impossible ah!
Just when everyone had fallen into despair, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered something, “Wait a minute! According to the system just nowk2026;k2026; even if the mission fails, we won’t be obliterated, will we?”
Tang Mianmian, who had broken out in a cold sweat, was like a drowning man that had caught a driftwood, “That’s right! I didn’t hear anything about punishment if we failed the mission.”
“There is indeed no punishment,” Luo Mansu said with a wry smile, “but even if there’s no punishment, do you think we can get out of an S-level mission alive?”
Even if there wasn’t any punishment for failing the mission, the premise was that they could successfully make it to the end!
Xiao Tangqiu was about to ask something when Luo Mansu’s face suddenly turned ugly, “Someone’s coming!”
“Who is it? The BOSS?” Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered that Fang Lan had mentioned a “he” and immediately became vigilant.
They turned to look back and saw a figure gradually approaching the gates – that person had actually walked out from the abyss!
“Who is it?!” Yan Yiyan shouted.
“It’s me! It’s me!” The man replied, “Why did you leave me behind when you ran away earlier?”
They were shocked to hear that and stared intently ahead – the man who appeared from the abyss turned out to be Lu Dadong!
Lu Dadong….. That’s right! They had forgotten about Lu Dadong! This useless, good-for-nothing coward who had done nothing but eat, sleep and wait to be saved had actually managed to muddle along to the end!
Xiao Tangqiu frowned slightly. Wait a minute! There seemed to be something wrong about this……
“Why did you leave me behind……”
Lu Dadong muttered as he walked slowly towards them.
Yan Yiyan and the others also noticed that something was wrong and immediately shouted, “Stop! Don’t move!”
“Why did you leave me behind…..”
Lu Dadong continued to mutter to himself; it seemed that he couldn’t hear what anyone else was saying. He walked straight towards them…… Xiao Tangqiu finally realized what was wrong about him – it was his walking posture! Lu Dadong’s walking posture looked very wrong!
Lu Dadong wasn’t walking with his feet at all, and the movement of his arms were also very strange; they twisted like noodles. His limbs, including his neck, had all twisted at an abnormal angle, just like they had been broken by someone and then forcefully pinned back together. As he “walked,” his head shook and swung, as though it would fall off at any moment.
By the time Lu Dadong had walked up to them, they finally realized what had happened. Lu Dadong was long dead as a doornail. His facial features and limbs had been forcibly pieced together after he had died!
“Why…… did you leave……me……” He strained to move his eyeb.a.l.l.s to look at them, but his eyeb.a.l.l.s popped out, fell to the ground and rolled to Xiao Tangqiu’s feet.
“Ahhhhh!” Xia Jingjing couldn’t help but scream. She immediately turned and ran.
“Hehe……” Lu Dadong’s severed throat issued a dry, horrible laughter. In the next second, he appeared behind Xia Jingjing, stretched out a hand that looked completely devoid of any bones, and suddenly reached out to grab—
“Jingjing!” Xia Chenxuan cried out loud.
Xia Jingjing stared in disbelief, looking down at her own body, which now had a big, gaping hole. She didn’t even have the chance to scream before she died. The moment her body fell to the ground, it broke into countless pieces.
“……Jingjing!” Xia Chenxuan roared as he lunged at Lu Dadong, but the moment his hand touched Lu Dadong’s body, numerous fine black filaments appeared on his arm. Then, his body split apart in pieces as well.
Yan Yiyan saw the situation and quickly ran without hesitation. She ran very swiftly, seeming to achieve a speed that exceeded the limit of human beings. Lu Dadong slowly turned to looked at Xiao Tangqiu and the others, then turned around, saw Yan Yiyan running away and chased after her.
That one glance from Lu Dadong nearly stopped Xiao Tangqiu’s heart. When he recovered from the shock, he grabbed Tang Mianmian’s wrist and pulled him forwards, “Run!”
Tang Mianmian’s expression was full of panic: “Where….where….. where are we going to run to?!”
Was there any place that was safe here?!
“…… Let’s go to Yun Jizhou’s room!” Xiao Tangqiu gritted his teeth.
“Ok! I’ll listen to you!” Tang Mianmian was so frightened even his tears wouldn’t fall.
Halfway through, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly turned around and saw Luo Mansu still standing in the distance. When Luo Mansu noticed him looking back, he gave a slight smile.
Xiao Tangqiu’s heart filled with horror but in the next second, Luo Mansu disappeared.
He remained shocked for less than a second when his attention was pulled back by Tang Mianmian. Tang Mianmian had great strength and ran extremely fast. At first, he was the one pulling along Tang Mianmian, who had been scared weak. But very quickly, their situations were reversed and Tang Mianmian ended up dragging him as he ran.
It was in this manner that Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian ran until they reached Yun Jizhou’s courtyard. Perhaps they were in luck because Lu Dadong didn’t catch up to them.
After the two men entered the room, Tang Mianmian quickly closed the door.
“What are we going to do? What are we going to do?!”
Xiao Tangqiu laughed bitterly, “I don’t know either….. Let’s hide and let fate take its course!”
Tang Mianmian asked despondently, “You don’t know?”
“We can only take a gamble!” Xiao Tangqiu bit the bullet. “There’s s.p.a.ce in the wardrobe and underneath the bed. You can hide in one place and I’ll hide in the other……”
“I’ll hide in the wardrobe!” Tang Mianmian quickly said, “But you can’t hide under this bed! It doesn’t cover you at all!”
Xiao Tangqiu saw that the bed was bare. He ground his teeth, “….There’s still the coffin….. I’ll hide in the coffin! “
“But…. someone died in that coffin!” Tang Mianmian hesitated but was kicked into the wardrobe by Xiao Tangqiu.
“We’re already at this point….. Who cares?!” Xiao Tangqiu helped Tang Mianmian close the wardrobe door from outside, then turned and lifted the coffin lid. As he expected, the body inside had disappeared, leaving only a red wedding dress……
He strengthened his resolve and climbed into the coffin, lying on the red wedding dress. Then, he covered the coffin lid and closed his eyes.
Right then, footsteps sounded outside the door.