[Location: Dragon Bone Grassland Border]

A stalker from the adventure group [Pigeon] finished a pot of water with a lot of gulps, scratched his head and said:

"Captain, do you want to continue looking?"

They were one of the teams that accepted the guild's mission and came secretly to Dragon Bone Grassland for investigation.

This is an intelligence exploration adventure group composed almost entirely of stealth agents.

As for why almost?

Well, because the leader of this adventure group is a gold-level adventurer. As a barbarian, he has mastered the "no one survives" level of stealth technology.

All the stealth fighters admire him very much.

——After all, he is lurking in the shadows, being treated like a little chicken. When he is caught, you will also "praise" the captain's anti-stealth technology.

At this time, the middle-aged man with the adventure title "Colossus" was losing his temper:

"You'll be right if you trust me. There are definitely big fish in Dragon Bone Grassland! If we take this order, maybe we can go back to our hometown and get married!"

Next to the Colossus, a Mithril-level Lurker said expressionlessly, "Stop bragging, Captain. Three years, three years, and three years. We have been in the group for nine years, and you haven't even gotten married yet."

The Colossus kicked out without saying a word, and the stalker fell to the ground.

The faintly red eyes looked at him and said sullenly, "One of our team members went to the sewer to do an investigation mission. The person was gone and the body could not be found. We have to check what happened."

"That crazy bitch Alice said that giant prairie rats appeared in the sewers, but the guild didn't see any when they were cleaning. I'm afraid there must be something going on."

"Now the president and others are paying a lot of money to send people to investigate the grassland, so I think I have to come and take a look."

"At least we know how our brother in the group died, and we can give his parents an explanation."

"You can go back if you don't want to. I'll stay and investigate."

The Stalker lay on the ground, mumbling, "I don't disagree, it's just..."

Before he could finish his words, he frowned and lay down with his ears pressed to the ground, a strange expression on his face.

"Captain, there are strange noises underground."

He raised his head and looked at the colossus, only to find that the captain, who had been calm and composed, was now trembling slightly.

The steady tone that was as dull as a mountain but also made everyone feel at ease had begun to change.

"Why, why are there living dead here?"

"That's impossible. The Book of the Dead was destroyed by us!"

His title of Colossus comes from the battle against the remnants of the Mad King.

The Mad King burned the original copy of the New Book of the Dead himself.

Several people looked at each other.

Since the leader started to form the adventure group, this was the first time they saw their titled adventurer showing such a panicked expression.

He has always been the most reliable support in the team.

But now he is in a state of panic all day long, as if a disaster is about to happen.

They couldn't imagine why he had that expression.

"It's just as the rumors say. The Mad King's men are immortal."

“Now they’re back!”

"Come and seek revenge on me!"

The fear in his voice grew stronger and stronger, and suddenly he was roaring in anger.

The blood in his body suddenly surged to its maximum, his body grew taller, veins bulged on his bulging muscles, and one could vaguely see little mice wriggling inside them.

The grass not far away became withered and dead in the blink of an eye.

Accompanied by a strange sound of breaking through the ground, one after another of the living dead dressed as adventurers, with pale faces and even rotten bodies, broke out of the ground.

They had the same weird smile on their faces and walked towards the crowd in unison.

Everyone's face changed.

"The title adventurer "Battle Flag" who disappeared five years ago..."

"It is said that the A-ranked adventure group "Dragon Horn" left Unther 7 years ago..."

"There are also several Mithril adventurers who suddenly disappeared in the past few years..."

"Damn it, the number has exceeded one hundred!"

Suddenly, the colossus raised its head.

His body had turned into a lead-gray metallic texture, beads of sweat were dripping down his face, and his face was flushed red. He shouted to the members behind him: "Idiots, run!"

The stalkers fled into the shadows without hesitation, running hundreds of meters away in the blink of an eye.

The colossus did not retreat, but instead took a step forward and punched out.

The surging blood and energy were like surging waves, pressing down the hundreds of living dead, causing them to tumble in the shock waves.

But for some reason, he only trapped people but didn't kill them.

Even though the zombies were twisted into strange shapes, they still staggered on all fours and crawled towards the colossus.

"Captain, I'm here to help you!"

A dagger was like a dark lightning, tearing through the armor of "Battle Flag" with great force.

The next moment, several more dark lightning bolts formed a net, tearing the "battle flag" into pieces with the unstoppable force of shadow.

The escaping stealth fighters quickly left the battle and gathered around the colossus.

"It's so funny, don't you still need our help?!"

"Boss, hurry up, we will help you suppress it."

However, the expression on the Colossus's face was one of emotion and pain: "I told you to run away!"

The stealth fighter who was knocked down by the colossus just now snorted.

He is another gold-level adventurer in the group besides the Colossus, so how could he possibly retreat?

"My shadow assassination skills are perfect, and I am better at attacking than ordinary stealth players. It only takes a moment to rescue the leader, and then I can start shadow stealth and run away..."

The flashing knife light instantly stopped in mid-air.

A malice that was clear enough to affect the present world drowned him like cold sea water.

The stalker's face trembled slightly, his mouth opened, and he looked at this absurd scene in horror.

A huge, skinny figure wearing a clown mask appeared above the grassland at some point.

Its body was as shriveled as an old, rotten branch, and ropes were dangling from its clown mask.

Those ropes had struggling spirits hanging on them.

The wailing sounds from the spirits seemed to penetrate directly into their minds.

Then they saw eyeballs wriggling in the holes of the clown mask.

What kind of eyes are those...

He looked distracted and lifeless, looking at everyone with an eerie silence and stillness.

Everyone's breathing began to become rapid, and after a moment, a low pressure like drowning made them grab their necks in pain, completely unable to breathe.

Only then did they discover.

With them as the center, the entire sky had been shrouded in darkness without anyone noticing.

The alien in the clown mask was holding a huge cross in his hand.

The black rope hanging from the cross is connected to the living dead like a silk thread.

No... that's not a realm at all! That's the clown's stomach! They... have always been in the clown's stomach! It just shook the cross slightly, and the living dead torn apart by the stalkers were pieced back together as if time had gone backwards.

The zombies who stood up again twisted their necks together, staring at everyone with a weird smile on their pale and dead faces.

The attack of the Golden-level Stalker collapsed instantly, and he stood there motionless with a look of horror on his face:

"Oh my God!"

Suddenly, he heard his leader's desperate roar: "Spread the news, the King of the Living Dead under the Mad King's throne has returned from the underworld!"

With a loud bang, the Colossus used all its strength to strike, creating a hole in the spirit of the King of the Living Dead.

At the same time, the malicious intent that suppressed everyone was instantly removed a lot.

"Run! Don't look back!"

The stalkers didn't hesitate any longer and scattered into the shadows.

Seeing the team members running away, the Colossus paused.

His legs felt a little weak.

"I sent it. Why should I pretend to be the last one to come? I'm not married yet..."

"Xiao You, we are going to live and die together... What the hell?"

Before he had time to feel sad, he heard a gust of wind.

A blood-red meteor suddenly fell from the sky.

The tide of the living dead was dispersed in an instant.

The world seemed to slow down a lot at this moment, and the splashing slime drifted along an arc trajectory.

The sunlight streaming down from the sky turned every drop of slime into amber, reflecting the grassland below.

Withered grass, dissolved zombies, smashed holes...

And the gaping face of the Colossus.

"It seems like someone needs help?"

A steady voice sounded.

At this time, Louis, who had just used a slingshot to airdrop the shrunken Rimuru to the rescue, came over wearing heavy armor and walking on the light.

(End of this chapter)