Chapter 318 [(*^▽^*)]

Lin Leyou nodded, "In other words, if we don't form teams, then we'll each do our own thing, and no one will give way to anyone else."

Although Huang Bing was unwilling, he still nodded. If Lin Leyou wasn't his teammate, he wouldn't have accepted her even if she came to help him when he was in dire straits.

Lin Leyou then realized that Huang Bing actually wanted to take him to this dungeon, and was definitely just trying to get his protective item.

"Then I agree. When do we enter the dungeon?"

He stood there, looking down at Jingu Village at the foot of the mountain. Of course, the villagers' houses were not against the foot of the mountain, but in the distance, and the houses were not too close to each other.

Huang Bing: "Since you've agreed, we can go in now."

Lin Leyou glanced at him subconsciously, "You're dressed like this?"

Huang Bing was puzzled. "What's wrong with me? Is it really that strange of me to dress like this?"

Lin Leyou glanced at his bright yellow suit and red sneakers again, and sighed, "It's not that strange... Alright, let's not talk about this. Since we can enter the dungeon now, let's go."

Huang Bing nodded, "Okay."

He took out a palm-sized piece of paper from his backpack, which emitted a faint golden light. There seemed to be some writing on it, but Lin Leyou couldn't see it clearly.

Huang Bing held the prop in one hand and pulled Lin Leyou's wrist with the other. Soon the prop disappeared, and nothing around them changed. Huang Bing was still holding Lin Leyou's wrist.

Lin Leyou soon noticed something different. Two of the villagers who had been moving around at the foot of the mountain and seemed completely oblivious to them appeared to have seen them and were waving at them.

At this moment, Lin Leyou suddenly realized that his and Huang Bing's clothes had changed. The clothes they had worn before were gone, and in their place were clothes similar to those worn by the villagers.

Lin Leyou had seen the clothing of some ethnic minorities in the real world, and they were somewhat similar, but not very similar. He looked down and saw that the pants were quite wide, with a pattern embroidered around the hem, a pattern he had never seen before.

As for the clothes, it's pretty much the same, except that the hem, collar, and cuffs have the same pattern, and there's an embroidered image of an unidentified animal on the back of the clothes.

Huang Bing then released his hand. "Did you receive any notification?"

Lin Leyou shook his head, "No, what's wrong? Did we fail to form a team? And it's just the two of us here, no one else is participating in the dungeon?"

Huang Bing frowned slightly. "The reason we haven't received any notifications is because we don't have enough participants."

Lin Leyou: "Didn't you say that those who come in first should form teams first? Why do we have to wait until everyone is full before we can form teams?"

Huang Bing said, "I don't know either. Although I participated once before, the rules were different each time."

While communicating with Huang Bing, Lin Leyou waved to the two villagers who were waving at him, indicating that he had seen them. The two villagers then smiled and continued walking forward.

Huang Bing: "Phew... There's nothing I can do but wait."

As a result, we waited for more than half an hour before the system notification finally arrived.

"System notification: Welcome Lin Leyou to Jingu Village. The difficulty of this instance mission is random, and the randomly selected mission this time is S-level!"

"Clearing the S-rank difficulty Golden Valley Village dungeon will reward you with 5 million points; failure will deduct 5 million points!"

Lin Leyou gasped. The S-level difficulty dungeon had a reward of millions of points, but the points deducted for failure were equal to the points awarded. The reward for success was equal to the points deducted for failure. Five million points was a painful blow to him!

Thankfully it wasn't SS-level. SS-level difficulty might offer tens of millions of points as a reward, but failure could result in the loss of hundreds of millions.

"System prompt: The resident's identity in Jingu Village is a 23-year-old villager who has just graduated from university and returned to the village. Please complete the task within one month. Failure to complete it within the time limit will be considered a failure."

"The system will not provide any prompts related to the task; please make your own progress."

"In the Jingu Village instance, villager Lin Leyou's teammate is... Xue Rui! Please find your own teammate and reunite with him."

"Hint: Defeating one challenger in this dungeon will earn you 100,000 points!"

Lin Leyou waited for a long time but didn't receive any further prompts from the system, so he asked directly, "Besides me, Xue Rui, and Huang Bing, where are the other participants?"

System: No comment.

Lin Leyou was taken aback. It seemed that this time the dungeon system would not tell the challengers how many other players there were, or even the number of other players.

Moreover, Huang Bing... If it weren't for Huang Bing bringing him in, he wouldn't have known Huang Bing's identity. He might have just thought Huang Bing was a villager NPC in this Golden Valley Village. Of course, he might have realized his true identity, but it would definitely not be as simple as it is now.

We can even deduce who Huang Bing's teammates are by observing who he contacts more frequently afterward.

Huang Bing took a few steps away from Lin Leyou, keeping a safe distance, then turned to look at Lin Leyou and said with a smile, "Hey, how about we don't fight here?"

Lin Leyou said, "That's what I was thinking too. Since that's the case... let's go back to the village. It's getting a bit late."

Huang Bing nodded, his gaze sweeping over the spot where he had just parked, but the car was no longer in sight. However, he had to admit that without the bright yellow suit and bright red running shoes, it looked much better.

The two strolled leisurely down the mountain, greeted some villagers along the way, and then returned to their home.

Lin Leyou's house is located in the southern part of the village. There are no other houses around, so it's all alone, but he likes it very much. He lives in this house alone.

The system has sent over the detailed settings for Lin Leyou's identity. Lin Leyou's identity is that of a pitiful person whose elderly family members have all passed away, and who is even an orphan.

Having just graduated from university, he didn't plan to stay in the big city to work, but instead returned to his hometown, intending to live the same life as his parents in the village.

Although he may seem somewhat unambitious, the villagers are very satisfied with his decision.

Although Lin Leyou and Huang Bing didn't say much, they both knew to keep each other's identities a secret, and they were both planning to find the other participants first.

What Huang Bing didn't know was that he and Xue Rui could communicate via mobile phone.

He carefully inspected the bungalow. Entering through the front door, there was a living room and dining room, and further ahead was the kitchen and the backyard.

To the left of the living room is the bedroom, and to the right is the storage area, such as for food.

The houses don't have a second floor; in fact, none of the houses in the entire village have a second floor. They are all single-story bungalows. On the snow-white exterior walls of the houses, there are some totem patterns that are unique to this village. To be honest, they look quite beautiful and mysterious.

Lin Leyou didn't close the door either. After all, it was still broad daylight, and she was at home. If someone closed the door before it got dark, there must be something wrong.

He sat on the recliner in the living room and openly took out his phone to send a message to Xue Rui.

"Where are we?"

Xue Rui replied instantly, "I'm located in the south of Jingu Village, house number 13."

Lin Leyou thought back for a moment, and realized that his house number was 12? Good heavens, Xue Rui's house was right next to his!

Lin Leyou thought for a moment and replied, "The system has already assigned identities to all participants, and it hasn't indicated what the mission is. We can't act rashly. My identity is that of a college graduate who has just returned to the village, so I shouldn't be very familiar with anyone in the village..."

Xue Rui replied, "I know that, don't worry, Brother Lin, I'll remember. But we can't completely cut off communication, can we?"

Lin Leyou pondered for a long time before telling Xue Rui about Huang Bing, but he didn't tell Xue Rui Huang Bing's name or appearance; he just told him that such a person existed.

"We tacitly agreed to keep each other's identities a secret, so I can't tell you who he is for the time being."

Xue Rui: "I understand, Brother Lin."

Lin Leyou said, "That's good. Don't worry, I'll get to know everyone else in the village by then, and of course I won't leave you out."

Xue Rui said, "That's good. But this way, many people will definitely doubt your identity. Killing a participant in this instance rewards you with 100,000 points, which is very tempting."

Lin Leyou blinked. It was indeed tempting for the players, but not so much for the residents. After all, it was just Lin Leyou himself with tens of millions of points.

Okay, even with so many points, he was still tempted by 100,000 points, let alone 5 million points. He had to complete this mission.

Lin Leyou quickly made a plan: he absolutely could not be too proactive in getting close to too many people in the village, as this would easily arouse suspicion from the participants hiding in the shadows.

Secondly... since the mission is to be completed, it must have happened in this village. Perhaps I don't even need to ask; this will happen on its own and become known to the whole village.

We can just go with the villagers to resolve this matter, and it won't attract any unnecessary attention.

He casually released ten mechanical spiders from his backpack, letting them hide in various important locations in the village, so that they could observe the situation in at least most of the village before he stopped.

Lin Leyou continued to reply to Xue Rui, "Then I won't have too much contact with the villagers, I'll just act according to my identity."

Xue Rui was relieved. "That's good."

Lin Leyou, "What is your identity?"

Xue Rui glanced at his parents who were busy in the kitchen. "I have parents at home. I'm eighteen years old this year. My parents dote on me very much and spoil me like a spoiled brat."

Lin Leyou's lips twitched. "This character design... is quite unique. Do you have any experience in this area?"