Chapter 17
Chapter 017 Bad Taste
The sudden system notification left Ling Mo in a daze: “Is it ending now?”
“Yeah…” Xia Xinyan nodded, as if it were expected, “It’s about time; the difficulty will likely increase significantly from here on.”
Ling Mo pondered for a moment, feeling a bit confused: “We can’t trick them like we did before now, right?”
“Correct.”
“Then how did you know earlier that you could deceive them this way?”
“Because the game already provided a hint,” Xia Xinyan said with a faint smile.
“Realm of Divine Presence” not only cultivates players’ strength but more importantly teaches them how to handle danger and respond in emergencies. In some situations, this ability is more essential than pure strength.
In simpler terms, it teaches players how to exploit loopholes.
For instance, when the dungeon starts, the game’s hint states that the Protection Association will attack those they deem game participants. In other words, they haven’t yet figured out who on the island is participating in this live-action show—though it’s unlikely anyone would come to such a place for a vacation, but that’s just how the dungeon is set up; unreasonable or not, it has to make sense.
So, they could totally use this to avoid danger—this is advantageous for girls or players with more androgynous appearances; thus, one could say that character appearance does have some influence on the dungeon process.
However, if they don’t understand how to utilize their advantages, this point doesn’t matter much.
It’s worth noting that in the later stages of the dungeon, the game will forcibly close most loopholes, meaning the final phase will often still test the players’ hard skills. After all, relying solely on loopholes won’t cut it against invaders during a Cataclysm.
For instance, now, the Protection Association will attack all participants, cutting off their way of sneaking through; going forward, if they encounter someone from the Protection Association, one side will surely have to die.
Realizing this made Ling Mo a bit anxious: “Shouldn’t we keep a low profile then?”
“No,” Xia Xinyan looked at the map for a moment, “Let’s head to Flat Top Mountain; when we see the Protection Association, we’ll just kill them outright.”
Ling Mo was taken aback: “Isn’t that a bit reckless?”
“Isn’t that the fun of the game?” Xia Xinyan tilted her head slightly, “The mission rewards encourage us to hunt the Protection Association, and our weapons are quite strong now—don’t you think proactively attacking would be thrilling?”
Hearing this, Ling Mo glanced down at the rifle in his hands.
It seemed to really be the case.
Tch, how did he end up being less courageous than a girl?
Taking a deep breath, and picturing the potential gunfight scenarios, he hyped himself up in his head before nodding: “Alright, let’s charge in.”
This is the real gunfight scene he had dreamt of experiencing; if he acted like a coward now, he would be utterly useless, and he’d probably look down on himself.
After all, he thought he should still be pretty strong; although he had never played with real guns, he had been in the water balloon gun scene and played some live-action CS before, so he did have a bit of experience.
Seeing his determination, Xia Xinyan smiled at him.
Not bad, not bad. She was proud of him.
Not scared at all; just this trait likely put him ahead of two-thirds of the players.
Of course… maybe she was just egging him on.
But the outcome was the same, so it didn’t really matter.
The game system indicated that Flat Top Mountain was in the center of the island, quite close to their spawn point. Though it was called a mountain, it wasn’t very high, and climbing it would be easy. However, that area was overgrown with weeds, severely affecting visibility—a blessing and a curse.
Xia Xinyan’s plan was to clear the three supply points along the way before heading to Flat Top Mountain. Although one hour might not be enough, she didn’t plan to be punctual… Because based on her understanding of this game, it wouldn’t be so easy to clear the dungeon.
For Ling Mo, she just wanted him to experience stealth and gunfight vibes.
It’d be best to kill more NPCs and earn some points.
The first supply point wasn’t far from their location. Using the cover of the grass, they smoothly approached the vicinity of the supply point, where an open area held five girls in pink clothing, each wielding a rifle and sporting unfriendly expressions.
Hiding in the grass, Xia Xinyan observed for a moment before dragging Ling Mo down to lie flat beside her, then almost whispering in his ear: “Get ready; I’ll count to three, and we’ll shoot together.”
Her breath brushed against Ling Mo’s ear, making him involuntarily shudder before he forced himself to steady his gun and weakly replied, not showing much other reaction.
Seeing this, Xia Xinyan glanced at him, slightly surprised.
…Tch, is he already immune this fast?
—Fine, she admitted she was doing it on purpose.
Because watching this guy’s naive reactions was genuinely entertaining.
As for whether it was excessive or not… wasn’t Ling Mo just a past version of herself? It wasn’t overstepping to toy with him, right?
She discovered this somewhat malignant interest of hers.
Clearly, she had bottled it up for too long in her previous life…
After a brief internal rant, she didn’t waste time. She slowly lay next to Ling Mo, raised her gun, and aimed at the furthest girl: “Ready? Three, two, one… shoot!”
As soon as the words fell, both triggered their triggers nearly simultaneously, and Ling Mo’s reaction time was significantly quicker than Xia Xinyan’s, taking down four of them in just seconds, while Xia Xinyan managed to hit one.
After all enemies transformed into white light and vanished, they waited a moment to ensure no reinforcements were coming before carefully emerging from the grass. Ling Mo immediately went to check the supply box while Xia Xinyan stayed alert to their surroundings.
The supply box mostly contained firearms and ammunition, not much that would help them—mainly because they couldn’t carry it all; otherwise, Ling Mo would definitely take everything.
“Don’t feel sorry; there will be plenty more chances to try out these guns,” Xia Xinyan said beside him, noticing Ling Mo’s conflicted expression. “For now, just focus on clearing the dungeon; if you carry too much, you might find it hard to move.”
“I know…” Ling Mo regretfully touched one of the guns in the box, asking, “If the supplies aren’t useful, should we hit the other two supply points?”
“Of course,” Xia Xinyan nodded, “Just like before—your shooting skills were impressive.”
Flattered by the praise, Ling Mo smiled bashfully: “Ah… it was okay, I guess.”
Xia Xinyan sized him up for a moment before holstering her gun and walking ahead: “Alright, let’s go.”
She felt this guy was really easy to please; a casual compliment could keep him smiling for ages.
Not a bad thing; it would be better if he felt superior and took care of all the tasks ahead, saving her a ton of trouble.
