chapter 103

“I knew I wasn’t mistaken. There are two Rabbits in here.” A pair of hands grabbed two pairs of long rabbit ears, rubbed them, and spoke in a judging tone that held a hint of displeasure. “From a distance the fur looks decent, up close it’s terrible. Time for a physical examination.”

Another pair of hands wrapped a measuring tape around each Player’s Arm and leg, fingernails pressing against the numbers on the tape, then letting go one by one in disgust.

“Too skinny. Just skin and bones.”

“And so short.”

“Physical exam failed.”

“You can’t go in. You’re not qualified to receive the Crown of Happiness.” Those hands snatched the flyer from Lu Li’s grasp and tossed it behind them.

The non-human creatures who hadn’t gotten a flyer yet immediately jumped up to fight over that single sheet.

“You’re not allowed to come here again!”

One large hand issued the warning while the other seized the Players who were trying to bolt, then shot forward at high speed through the air.

The more violently the Players struggled, the tighter the grip became, with a force like it could squeeze a kidney out, spinning them as they moved.

Light and shadow swung wildly. Accompanied by the thunderous bang of a heavy iron door slamming shut, they were viciously thrown to the ground.

“Ugh-!” One Player bounced twice, rolled over, then scrambled up to vomit, reaching a hand out to feel the ground. “It’s so dark. Are my eyes not working? Why is it this dark?”

Having entered a B Grade Instance, the official Players adapted faster than they had in the previous two low-level Instances.

“Where are we now? The Instance hint said we just have to find the Crown of Happiness to clear it. Just now we were dumped here because we failed the physical exam. Maybe that bright passage from earlier was the final destination. If we just get out of here and go back there, we’ll clear the Instance?”

“We need to swap to a different light source. There are Flashlights in the Shop.”

“I already checked the area around us. The ground’s empty, no Items found so far.”

Lu Li stood up, and when he raised a hand, it brushed against something cold and metallic.

He reversed his hand and felt it carefully.

It was a metal grid, square by square, in a very regular pattern.

It covered a huge area; he couldn’t feel the end of it. It was like a wall.

It was indeed dim all around them. Even for him, whose eyesight was usually decent in the dark, it was a strain.

It didn’t feel like true darkness so much as extremely low visibility.

He finally found Luo Jia Bai and directly hauled him over to stand at his side.

“I’m gonna puke too.” Luo Jia Bai sounded weak, half-crouched on the ground and panting. “I hate roller coasters the most. That thing just now was a hundred times more intense than any coaster…”

Even though all eight Players were in the same area, they could only vaguely make out the position of the Player closest to themselves. Anyone standing a little farther away vanished from sight.

“The air is very damp,” a Female Player said calmly. “We should’ve been transferred somewhere else. I used an Item to test it just now-the fog density is abnormally high.”

“There’s an iron grid behind us. We should move forward. There’s no path behind, so going forward has to be right. Every Instance I’ve played before started with some sort of hint. Why does this one feel so much harder already?”

One Player had already exchanged for a High-Intensity Flashlight, sweeping the beam around, trying to see what their surroundings actually looked like.

Lu Li suddenly realized that the Appearance he’d redeemed from the Points Shop had actually enhanced his hearing.

He leaned his back against the wall and looked toward the thick Black Mist, the pointed ears on his head twitching slightly.

Footsteps.

As the footsteps came closer, a rank, rusty smell of blood drifted along with them.

Lu Li sensed someone suddenly approaching at a fast yet very light pace. He yanked Luo Jia Bai back a few steps and stared ahead, on guard.

The one approaching was Mirella.

Mirella clamped a hand over Luo Jia Bai’s open, gasping mouth and made a shushing gesture.

The next second, a shrill scream came from not far away.

“Ah-! Something’s biting me!”

“What’s coming!? It dragged Sun Hai away! I just saw-it walks on two legs!”

“There’s something in the fog! Hurry up and exchange for weapons!”

The High-Intensity Flashlight hit the ground with a heavy smack. Glass shattered, sounding as if something were biting it to pieces.

“Turn the light off! And don’t talk!”

The male Player who’d just screamed out a warning immediately clamped his jaw shut and fell silent. He exchanged for a knife at top speed and drove it straight into the Monster that was tearing into his thigh.

Its throat was slashed open in one stroke. It hit the ground with a wail.

But it didn’t die. It whimpered softly as it backed into the Black Mist again.

No one knew when the next attack would come.

Nor how many Monsters lurked within the Black Mist.

None of the Players dared to make a rash move. They all retreated step by step.

But their back path was blocked by the iron grid.

With their vision severely impaired, only their hearing could help them.

Lu Li tilted his head, listening to the sounds within the fog.

This time, the footsteps turned chaotic.

In the Black Mist, a pair of round eyes appeared first, glowing an eerie green.

Then more and more glowing eyes emerged.

The entire bank of Black Mist was filled with those eyes. A rough count of the closest ones alone came to over a hundred, and they were rushing toward them at high speed.

As they charged, below each ghostly glowing eye was a maw full of savage fangs.

They sprang at them with the force to bite clean through a human throat.