chapter 106

Lu Li could hear Luo Jia Bai and Mirella arguing for time on his behalf, yet there wasn’t the slightest hint of ease on his face.

Because something even more difficult had happened:

Using the same method to try the digits, all three numbers should have been correct.

But the lock still wouldn’t open.

Lu Li closed his eyes briefly, forcing himself to calm down and think.

He felt over the two fist-sized padlocks again. The surfaces were bumpy and uneven; other than the rotating number wheels, there were no hidden mechanisms.

Could it be that the lock hadn’t been opened for too long, and it needed more force before it would pull apart?

He yanked-

The lock slammed into the iron mesh with a loud clang.

Several Monsters not far away immediately turned their heads toward the sound.

They fixed their gaze on the spot in the darkness where the three of them were.

Then they started running.

“Holy shit, there are way too many.” Cold sweat streamed down Luo Jia Bai’s back. He’d heard the commotion from Lu Li’s side too.

Lu Li had to be on the right track.

And maybe he was only one step away from success.

All they needed now was to buy just a little more time.

He and Mirella could barely subdue a single Monster together. Now, against several at once…

A scene suddenly flashed through Luo Jia Bai’s empty head-Lu Li using a lightbulb to kite Monsters.

He’d watched the entire thing. He should be able to reproduce it, right?

He opened the Points Shop, but when he looked at the small lightbulb and the large lightbulb, despair hit him again.

Which one had Lu Li picked? After buying it, was he supposed to hold it for two seconds before throwing it?

This kind of thing that required using your brain…

When you watched someone else do it, it was smooth and effortless.

When it was your turn, the difficulty shot up on the spot.

“ROAR-!”

The Monster that had been pinned down suddenly started thrashing again. It forced a roar out from its throat, then stood up with its legs pressed together in a twisted posture, directly bucking Luo Jia Bai off.

The anesthetic had been injected into the Monster’s thigh, but its upper-body strength was just as terrifying. With no one holding it down, it actually smartly found the source of the restraints, untied the rope, and freed its hands.

Its sharp nails shredded the bandage over its mouth again.

The Monster leaned its head forward, jaw tightening as it worked something out of its mouth and spat it onto the ground.

A saliva-slick chunk of iron clattered down and rolled all the way to Luo Jia Bai’s feet.

Luo Jia Bai’s eyes went wide. His shoulders trembled on instinct, but he bit down hard on his own hand and didn’t make a sound.

He watched as this Monster neither went berserk nor joined its companions’ hunting pack. Instead, in a hoarse, weak voice, it called out to the other Monsters that were charging over:

“It’s me.”

The Monster’s voice carried a strange accent, and even the way it paused was different from how humans spoke.

The other Monsters that had been about to rush into the darkness immediately slowed to a stop, turned around, and went back to surround the four unfamiliar Players clinging to the iron mesh.

The very first Monster they’d caught had actually broken the siege and saved them.

Luo Jia Bai finally loosened the fist he’d been clenching. He exchanged a stunned look with Mirella.

It really could talk!

–

The ear atop Lu Li’s head twitched.

Someone approached quietly at his side.

Four unfamiliar Players were hanging on the iron mesh.

Luo Jia Bai and Mirella were not far from him.

So who was coming over now?

Lu Li suddenly thought of the boy in the hall-the one who’d cleared first.
The lock in his hand was taken by someone else.

“The numbers are right, but the lock’s rusted.” The other person exchanged for an Item, quickly ground it down, then felt along the lock and poured the powdered Item into the joint.

“This lock hasn’t been opened in years, and it’s been sitting somewhere really damp, so the rust’s jammed it up. Even with the correct answer, it might not open.”

He tugged on the lock again.

“Click.”

It popped open.

At the same time, the iron mesh that had always stood like a wall, refusing to budge, pulled back as well.

“You’re smart, but you’re missing a bit of basic life knowledge.”

–

The four Players hanging from the iron mesh were already reaching the limits of their stamina. The last one failed to catch his breath and almost slipped and fell from the swaying net.

At the very front, Sun Hai stared ahead. The iron mesh vanished into the Black Mist; he still couldn’t see an end.

His heart sank, but he still forced himself to encourage his teammates. “Stay focused! Climb up! We’re almost there!”

“There’s an exit up ahead? Hurry! Climb a bit higher!”

“Brother Hai! Look down there! At first the Monsters were just slamming into the net, but now they’re grabbing it and climbing up! They’re as smart as people!”

“Wait, is it just me, or did the net suddenly stop shaking?”

“The Monsters stopped!”

“Brother Hai! I see the other four Players-they, they’re standing together with the Monsters!”

Lu Li dragged the plastic bag in from outside the iron mesh. The moment he opened it, a musty, rain-damp smell wafted out.

He gave the bag a shake and dumped the contents onto the ground. The hard clatter they made was like a pile of rocks hitting the floor.

Round pellets quickly built into little mounds.

The Monsters, however, reacted as if they’d just smelled something delicious. They immediately abandoned their attack on the Players and swarmed over.

They shoved their heads desperately into the food. Their mouths, already split all the way back to their ears, stretched even wider as they scooped the food straight into their maws like excavators.

The four of them stood in the firelight and finally let themselves make some noise.

“When the lock wouldn’t open just now, what did you pour in there?” Lu Li watched the Monsters devour the food and couldn’t help asking the teenage boy who hadn’t said a word since helping them.

The boy held up a pencil. A thin narrow ring was looped around his ring finger. “Ground up a bit of pencil lead.”

Graphite could remove rust.

Pencils were one of the cheapest Items in the Shop.

Luo Jia Bai’s attention, however, was fixed on his ring. His expression shifted from puzzled to shocked.

“Are you Gu Yu Chu?”

The boy’s gaze instantly turned cold. “You know me?”

A teammate from some previous Instance, or an enemy?

Luo Jia Bai launched into speech, looking at him with genuine admiration as he explained to Lu Li, “It really is him! The Handcraft Master on the Forum-the one whose posts on secondary-processing Points Items always get featured!”

“He’s great at using the cheapest Points to exchange for Items, then assembling them himself and discovering new functions, making stuff that works just as well as high-Points Items!”

Luo Jia Bai added, “He’s super frugal! The cost of clearing an Instance for him is never more than two thousand Points! He saves up a ton of Points that way!”