Inside the tent.

The stove, its firewood crackling, warmed the tent, and a kettle of water was boiling on it.

Shi Jin poured out a glass of water and made a cup of milk: "Why didn't you wake me up?"

“If he’s not awake, I didn’t call him. Jiang Yi isn’t awake either.” Shehe wrapped himself in a blanket and lay down on the still-warm sofa.

"Are you tired? Why don't you take a nap too?"

"I'm not tired, just my legs are numb."

Sheh stretched out her legs, but half of her lower leg was hanging off the edge. She bent her legs and asked Shi Jinzhe curiously, "Aren't you uncomfortable sleeping like this?"

“It’s uncomfortable, but other positions are even more uncomfortable.” He sat down at Shekh’s feet and lifted her legs onto his own.

Shi Jinzhe touched her a few times; she wasn't cold, and she wasn't frozen. "You haven't slept for so long, you should get some sleep too."

“I went to sleep,” Shekh explained. “There’s a female ghost watching me from outside, so I felt safe and slept for a while.”

"Was it released by Jiang before he went to sleep?"

"No, it's a ghost controlled by Jiang Yinxue."

As soon as Shekh finished speaking, someone outside the tent asked, "Is it convenient for you to come in?"

"Come in."

Jiang Yi and Jiang Yinxue entered the house one after the other.

Seeing the two of them squeezed together on the same sofa, one lying down and the other sitting, Jiang Yi playfully spread his fingers to cover his eyes.

"Oh dear, we've come at a rather inopportune time."

Shekh thought the same thing: "Then you should leave."

"How heartless! I'm not leaving." Jiang Ling sat down directly opposite him. "I'm here on important business."

She released a ghost, which suddenly appeared in the tent filled with orange-red light, instantly transforming the cozy atmosphere into a horror movie.

"Someone's got their eyes on us. The good news is they've broken up, but the bad news is I know some high-level players in this area, and they're not easy to deal with."

Shi Jinzhe didn't understand. Was Jiang Yu's words missing a subject? It didn't make sense.

"Please be more comprehensive."

Jiang Ling rested his arms on the backrest and crossed his legs, adopting the posture of a big boss, but the words he spoke were anything but big boss.

“There’s a guy in that district named Fu Guanzai. His skills are… well, very versatile. He’s a bit like a magician, but much more advanced than the magicians with three-character cards. Magicians only use illusions, but he can actually conjure things up for real.”

How does it compare to you?

“He’s better than me.” Jiang sighed. “And he even found me. But the good news is that he split up with his teammates from the same district and didn’t come this way. Maybe he doesn’t want to start a conflict right now.”

"So amazing?" Shekh was wrapped in a blanket, only revealing the upper half of his face.

Jiang looked over and at first glance, it seemed as if she wasn't showing anything at all; her face and eyes were completely obscured.

"He's very skilled. The most important thing to do is to keep him away from you. This guy is an expert at stealing cards. Experienced players who know him will turn around and run away as soon as they see him."

Shi Jinzhe listened intently, pondering whether his skills could be stolen.

The "Life-Giving" skill card isn't obtained through normal means; it's his heart, so it shouldn't be stolen casually.

never mind…

Whether or not you can steal from this person, you still have to be wary of them.

The significance of being empowered to me goes far beyond just acquiring skills.

Shi Jinzhe asked, "What about the remaining people in their district?"

"We're almost there." Jiang Yi's empty eyes snapped back to reality. "Seven out of the nine people have arrived. We can go out to greet them now."

The cold wind howled, and the air seemed to freeze solid. The seven people walking in the cold wind felt colder and colder, and they could hear the crisp sound of ice breaking in their ears.

The chubby young man at the head of the group had a sore face from the cold, but the cold also confirmed his suspicion that there were advanced players using ice here.

Someone hunched their shoulders: "It's too cold."

"The coldness proves we were right. There are at most two high-level players here, but considering that each of the teams we've encountered in different zones has one high-level player, this should be the only one using ice."

One person walked at the back, pursing their lips in obvious dissatisfaction, muttering to themselves, "What if there are two of them?"

"Never mind how many people there are, it's agreed that if the card is lost, whoever catches it gets to keep it."

"Even when dreaming, one should be mindful of boundaries. We're all adults; let's be more realistic."

Upon hearing the unfamiliar female voice, the chubby young man immediately looked up: "Who?!"

"You're such a grandma." Jiang Ling stood on the ice, arms crossed, "Hurry up and kowtow to me."

The chubby young man stopped in his tracks. "You're the one who uses ice?"

"She is not."

Shi Jinzhe only wanted a quick victory. Jiang Yinxue's cold air was different from the cold air of winter; it was gloomy and made bones ache. He was afraid that Shehe would get cold.

A golden thread flew out and wrapped around the fat young man's wrist. He replied, "I don't have ice, but I do have someone who treats you without a license. Goodbye."

As soon as he finished speaking, the golden thread took away a person's life in an instant.

In a very dramatic turn of events, the fat young man arrived in a menacing manner, only to leave silently in less than a minute.

Aside from special beings like Shehe and Jiang Yinxue, ordinary players couldn't see the golden threads at all. In their eyes, it was as if Shi Jinzhe hadn't done anything; he just finished speaking and the person was gone with a "snap."

People are always afraid of things they don't understand. The opponent's first move put a lot of pressure on the remaining six people.

Little did they know that something even more terrifying was yet to come. Some people hesitated and regretted their decision, but when they turned around, they found a ghost standing right behind them, face to face, nose to nose.

The dislocated neck, the cracked corner of the mouth, and the everted eyeballs—each feature is enough to leave a lasting impression.

The man tried to comfort himself, thinking it was nothing, as if he had seen ghosts in dungeons before. Then he realized that his back was getting heavier and heavier, as if he was carrying something, and his waist was bent over.

Realizing something was wrong, he quickly asked the people around him for help.

The middle-aged woman next to him covered her mouth and shook her head in refusal. He was covered in several ghosts; this one really wouldn't do.

She took out a prop, put a protective shield on herself, and then the next second, a sword flew straight down from the sky.

The sword tip magnified in her pupils, a flash of light, and she quickly took a step back.

The middle-aged woman, who thought she had dodged the attack, hadn't even relaxed when her pupils suddenly widened. Behind her, a pair of pale hands gripped another sword, passed through her, and plunged it straight into the man behind her, pinning him to the felt.

With four out of the seven people gone, the remaining three immediately panicked.

Greed really does lead to bad things; I shouldn't have listened to that person's terrible advice!

The smell of blood seemed like a signal; the monsters, who no longer wanted to come to school, gathered again and stormed into the school in a mighty force.

The three were surrounded by enemies, exchanged glances, and decided to take a gamble and try to escape through the sky.

After picking up their teammates' dropped items, they found a shrinking item; with such strong winds, drifting away wouldn't be a problem.

After using the props, the three bodies shrank rapidly, and one of them even raised a protective net.

Under the gloomy sky, Jiang Yi was so cold that he went back to his tent first and squatted at the door to watch the show.

She also complained as she watched, "Jiang Yinxue's temperature drops passively every time she uses a skill, which is really inconvenient."

"It's really inconvenient." Shi Jin kept turning the array under his feet, afraid that Shehe would get cold.

The three people, blown by the wind, were completely unaware that the wind direction was being controlled by the ghosts on the ground, until they floated past the teaching building and their line of sight was above the walls, at which point a terrifying "Holy crap!" rang out from the air.

Why is there a snake on the roof?!

With such a large snake coiled up there, the three finally realized that they were already their meal.

It turns out that even after eight matches in the points-based system, they were still easily defeated.

Shekh ignored the pleas for mercy, flicked its tail, and flattened the building and the people inside.

After confirming that all seven members had been wiped out, she patted her tail and said, "It turns out that not everyone is as skilled as Yang Wenxin."

Shi Jinzhe wrapped her tail with a blanket, saying, "If I were at her level, I wouldn't live to see you."