Qin Yu quickly jumped up the stairs, saw the two people, and hurriedly shouted: "Run!"
Lu Cai turned around and rushed upstairs. Judging from the noise, did Qin Yu disturb the lair of the skinning monster?
Zhao Yan followed closely, and they ran all the way up to the -1 floor and reached the top of the stairs.
"Go back to the elevator!" Qin Yu shouted from behind.
Lu Cai had no time to question and bumped out of the staircase door sideways.
A roaring sound came, and the face before him was half covered in tumors. Lu Cai simply raised his hand and knocked it over with a punch. Now that there were a large number of skinning monsters following behind him, there was no need to waste time with these tumorous mutants.
Zhao Yan, who was following closely behind her, did not dare to fight them with his fists. There was a burst of gunfire and bullets flew everywhere.
A rustling sound filled the air, pouring into the corridor from the stairwell. Lu Cai pried free a mutant that was tangling with him. Seeing that the tumor had already covered her palm, Lu Cai punched the zombie in the face through the tumor, then raised his hand and swung it away, pulling away the tender flesh clinging to her arm.
While dodging and rushing forward, Coach Lu used his employee card to swipe open the iron door of the locker room.
She slipped in sideways, followed closely by Zhao Yan, and finally Qin Yu rushed in and locked the iron door.
"Bang--"
There was a loud crash, followed by a continuous "bang bang" sound.
As Qin Yu entered the locker room, the elevator dinged. Seeing Qin Yu clutching a stack of documents, Lu Cai couldn't help but sigh. It was different following a high-level player. Before she could even figure out what she was thinking, they'd already completed their mission.
"Have you found the information?" Zhao Yan walked to the door and leaned against the iron gate.
Qin Yu looked at the information in his hand: "It's a little too easy, I feel uneasy——"
Lu Cai pointed outside the door and asked, "You call this place 'easy'?"
"Logically, once players get the 'information', they should look for an escape route—" Qin Yu cast his gaze towards the slowly opening elevator door. "If we hadn't been here before, would you have known there was an elevator going up?"
If you don't know the location of the elevator and are chased by a group of skinning monsters in the research institute, this is the real test of this "side story".
The three of them got on the elevator, and when the door closed, the iron door of the locker room was broken into by the tentacles one by one.
“But you fell outside the research institute, and Lu Cai was able to fight those tentacle mutants with his bare hands. Even the corrosive mucus was ineffective against her—” Zhao Yan turned his gaze to Lu Cai.
There was an unexpected incident in the "side plot".
Lu Cai felt Zhao Yan's inquiring gaze and guessed that Qin Yu was suspicious of her.
The elevator suddenly stopped and there was a squeaking sound under my feet.
"They are catching up." Qin Yu stared at the ground with a serious look.
Lu Cai also looked at his feet. Fortunately, the hole caused by the mucus had been repaired. Otherwise, a tentacle could have drilled through that hole, and the precarious elevator would have fallen straight down.
At this moment, there was a "creak" sound above my head and the elevator continued to go up.
A force pulled the elevator upwards. This force was different from Qin Yu's telekinesis. It carried a fresh and comfortable atmosphere, appearing cheerful and energetic.
Lu Cai cast his gaze towards Zhao Yan, who looked alert. The lively power emanated from him, but he was unable to analyze its properties.
The elevator stopped suddenly and the steel walls shook for a while.
Zhao Yan said: "We're here——"
But the elevator door was still closed, probably because of a malfunction.
Lu Cai walked forward, placed his palm against the elevator door, and ran his fingertips along the gap from top to bottom. Then he dug his fingertips into the elevator door, forcibly prying open the two solid metal doors.
She pushed the door open and saw the dangling emerald green vines, the pale green and white thorns on the vines clearly visible.
Outside the vines it was pitch black, and there was no light as expected.
The three of them looked at each other, it really couldn't be that simple.
Lu Cai drew out his dagger and was about to cut the vines when he was stopped by Zhao Yan.
"Ancestor, please show some mercy..." Zhao Yan blocked Lu Cai and waved his finger. Several vines blocking the doorway quickly retracted upwards.
"Your special ability..." Lu Cai raised an eyebrow, "is it growing flowers?"
Zhao Yan smiled and scratched his head, letting them go, and Qin Yu turned on the flashlight.
As the group exited the elevator, there was a rustling sound as the vines quickly retracted upwards, creaking and surging towards the top of the elevator. Without the support of the vines, the elevator plummeted downwards, and after a long moment, there was a loud crash.
The outer door of the elevator on the stone wall was wide open, with no sign of closing. The beam of light in Zhao Yan's hand shone on the door.
It's over! Lu Cai looked at the half-open door in a defensive posture. From the depths of the black hole came the sound of something rapidly climbing up.
"Be careful!" With Zhao Yan's urgent roar, the three of them erected a barrier around themselves. The lamppost swayed, and a tender red tentacle stretched out from the shadow of the mountain wall behind them and stabbed straight towards Qin Yu.
The tip of the tentacle hit the transparent barrier, and the barrier suddenly rippled like a calm water surface.
Qin Yu vomited blood.
Lu Cai looked at Qin Yu in surprise, only to see that her face was pale and withered, her eyes were deep and full of pain.
Vines emerged from behind them, passed over the overhead barrier, and rushed towards the tentacles. One red, one green, they collided and tangled. The tentacle's slime stained the vine's, and the emerald green plant bark and its individual spines began to rot and fall off.
The tentacles tightly wrapped around the vines until the mucus melted the vines apart. The vine branches and leaves that fell to the ground stretched out for the last time, and a double-petaled flower bloomed on the remaining branches.
The petals are white with red edges, layer upon layer, like a piece of pure white paper stained with blood. The red embellishes the edges of the petals, making them gorgeous and tempting.
Zhao Yan covered the black rose tattoo on his arm, his face gradually distorted, and cold sweat covered his forehead.
No, that tattoo was a black rose. What Zhao Yan was controlling was not a plant, but a climbing rose sealed in the tattoo on his arm.
"The slime of this tentacle can directly attack the body of the supernatural being." Lu Cai turned his head to look at the arrogantly waving tentacles, clenched his dagger, and took a step to leave the barrier.
"Wait a minute..." Qin Yu had wiped the blood from her mouth. She raised her hand and took out a dagger, pointing the handle towards Lu Cai, "Use this."
Zhao Yan opened his eyes wide and looked at the dagger Qin Yu handed over.
Lu Cai lowered his eyes to look at the dagger in Qin Yu's hand. The handle was lacquered black with delicate carvings on it. The blade was silver-white, and even in the dim light, one could see how sharp the blade was.
At this critical moment of life and death, she didn't hesitate to put back the blunt knife she had picked up and raised her hand to take the black-handled dagger.
"I'm giving you this dagger now--" Qin Yu said calmly.
Zhao Yan quickly said, "This is what you earned by spending all the reward points from the last dungeon!"
Lu Cai's hand paused. Lin Yong had said that all players needed to use points to redeem insurance time. She didn't know how many points were rewarded for a copy, but just by looking at the zombie disaster copy she was in, she knew that the dagger in her hand was very heavy.
"I'm giving it to you now. If I don't die and leave the institute, you have to return the dagger to me—" Qin Yu rolled his eyes at Zhao Yan and said to Lu Cai indifferently.
"I was scared to death—" Zhao Yan calmed down and looked up to see Lu Cai frowning slightly, probably not understanding what he meant.
He explained to Lu Cai: "When a player dies, their weapons and items will disappear along with them. You should take them first, just in case of an accident, so that they don't disappear when hitting a vital part—"
Lu Cai nodded, said "thank you" to Qin Yu, and walked out of the telekinetic barrier.
Without the firelight, only two faint beams of light remained, making the entire cave seem deep and eerie. The rustling sounds of crawling were followed by strange laughter. The tentacles that had stretched out from the darkness of the cave turned around, but did not immediately attack the girl.
“Hehehe——”
A burst of strange laughter burst out from the elevator door behind him that could not be closed, and the long tentacles in front of him gradually retracted into the shadow of the mountain wall.
Lu Cai frowned, intending to use a rotation battle to wear them out.
She turned around and gripped the black-handled dagger, and saw densely packed skinning monsters crawling on the telekinetic barrier, their slime-covered tentacles stabbing towards her.
She dodged and swung her arm, severing the meridians and muscles. The severed tentacle fell to the ground, turning into rotting flesh.
Props that cost money are just different. Lu Cai's eyes fell on the sharp blade, his eyes full of eagerness and envy.
Another gust of wind, and several tentacles attacked at once. She jumped to avoid them, but seeing them chasing her relentlessly, she leaned sideways, raised her hands to clamp down on several tentacles, and slashed with the dagger in the opposite direction, severing them horizontally like weeds.
Several skinned figures twitched, rolled off the barrier, and fell into the mud pile dying.
These flayers' tentacles won't regenerate!
Lu Cai was delighted. If he kept chopping and then chopping, it would be too unfair to repeat this cycle...
Since these skinning monsters can't regenerate, and it seems that the dead blood is the tentacles, it is much easier to deal with -
From a distance, Zhao Yan manipulated the vines to drive away the skinning monsters on the telekinetic barrier, and saw a half-smile on Lu Cai's pale and haggard face.
"Is she smiling?" Zhao Yan wasn't sure. "Do you think she's the boss of this dungeon?"
Qin Yu mobilized her mental power to repair the barrier. As the mucus increased, her mental power was traumatized, and something deeper in her consciousness was clamoring.
"You talked about the game with her." Qin Yu turned her eyes away from Lu Cai. Every time she looked at Lu Cai, she felt uneasy.
The rules are being broken. The KB game world has always been running based on the main system as the biggest rule, but the NPC in front of us is trying to break free from the rules of the game world.
Qin Yu hadn't been in the KB game world long, and this was only her third dungeon. The "insurance" rules set by the community alliance were a bottomless pit for defrauding players, and the so-called "points" were like worthless yet indispensable virtual currency.
After analyzing the three copies, she confirmed that the players were just carriers, and the real objects of the transaction were the player system, the main system, and the sub-system that managed the copy world.
The three-party system uses a "points system" to allow players to become mercenaries who work hard to transport a kind of "energy" that the players themselves are not aware of.
But Lu Cai seemed to have broken away from this system. She broke free from the constraints of the subsystem and exchanged information with the players.
But how did Lu Cai do it?
"She seems to know that the world she lives in is a game—" Zhao Yan said slowly, "I don't know either, but she is completely different from other NPCs..."
Chi Chi——
Zhao Yan exclaimed and quickly controlled the vines to extend towards Lu Cai.
Lu Cai pinched a tentacle that was stabbing at her chest. It looked like it wanted to crush her heart directly.
She raised her arm and thrust the blade vertically through the tentacle. She grabbed the handle and cut the tentacle in half like cutting an eel.
The tentacles twisted and shrank into a ball, and another skinned monster fell.
Just as Lu Cai was about to look away to deal with the next tentacle, he saw a strange-shaped piece of flesh wriggling out from a dark corner.
The tentacles on the piece of meat wrapped around the skinned monster's body, and the piece of meat squirmed closer. The tender red piece of meat, as soft as mud, covered the skinned monster's body. The soft meat wrapped around the body, crushing and kneading it.
Just like a giant python swallowing its prey, the surface of the meat protruded into irregular shapes, and as it squirmed and crushed, the meat retreated into the shadows.
Lu Cai was sure that he was not seeing things, so that piece of meat was the waste recycled from the dead skinned monster?
She raised her hand and chopped off a tentacle.
How can one be considered to have cleared the level? Lu Cai couldn't help but frown. These skinning monsters kept pouring out, and there was no end in sight if he kept killing them.
So what is the final boss?
Last time at the zoo, she killed the mutant spotted hyena zombie and entered the hyena cave before leaving the "side storyline".
There are two tasks this time:
1. Find the "information" mentioned by the person in charge; 2. Escort the information out of the institute.
Qin Yu found the information, and the rest was to escort them. They had already left the institute, so why were they still in the branch?
Because the game didn't detect their departure, their progress was hampered by an unknown creature! The fleshy tentacles guiding them to fight the skinning monsters were merely a diversion. The longer it dragged on, the more energy the players would lose, and the smaller their chances of survival.
Lu Cai frowned, she swung her dagger, chopped at the tentacles in front of her, stood still, and then rushed towards the corner where the meat ball had just disappeared.
Unfortunately, what they encountered was not a player who would suffer terribly if touched by the slime, but an NPC with unknown attributes!
The girl raised the dagger, jumped into the darkness, and stabbed it down.
There is nothing under my command.
Lu Cai was not surprised. She couldn't see everything around her and couldn't help but think, it would be great if she could have Qin Yu's telekinesis ability.
The crawling sound of the skinning monster was approaching, and Lu Cai avoided the attack by relying on his hearing and the fluctuations in the air.
Since the movements of the skinning monster can be detected by the five senses, why can't the meat be detected? Lu Cai pondered that in ghost stories, even ghosts are not completely without trace.
She opened her eyes wide, surveying the surrounding darkness. Since the system left traces, these monsters in the game must have left traces as well. The five senses are how humans perceive the world, but in this gaming realm, compared to the real world, there's an additional layer of digital identity.
There was a slight tug on the side of her left hand. The large red data in Lu Cai's consciousness trembled slightly, a sign that other data was attempting to invade and alter the arrangement of her consciousness.
Their malice towards her was stronger than she had imagined.
Holding the dagger, he turned and stabbed at the slightly moving data. The data flashed, as if trying to escape. Lu Cai got there first, and the dagger cut into the flesh.
There was a sharp sting in her back, but not the expected pain of ripping flesh. The tentacle hadn't penetrated her back, and the blood in her veins burned hot. Her right hand ached intensely, and the wound on her left shoulder felt like a knife shaving away at the surface of rotten flesh.
There was a swish of wind, and several tentacles exploded from the meat ball and stabbed towards Lu Cai.
Lu Cai pulled out the dagger and stabbed it again, pushing hard with his wrist and cutting a hole in the flesh.
Several tentacles wrapped around her, and she held the dagger tightly with both hands. A sticky chill slammed behind her. Several thin arms rushed over and hugged her tightly. The soft flesh beneath their hands undulated, rolling like waves, a bumpy movement.
The tender flesh rose, binding Lu Cai's hands. Slime stretched to her feet, and the skin tightly wrapped around her body screamed incessantly. She felt like she was trapped in a muddy swamp, the tender flesh rising continuously, giving her the illusion that she was sinking continuously.
"Ho ho ho—" The skinning monsters' cries gradually changed in tone, and two of them had already been submerged in the tender flesh.
Lu Cai drew his sword and slashed at the tender flesh, the resistance multiplying, mucus swirling, and the tumor spreading to his shoulder. She became increasingly certain that her judgment was correct. This operation was exactly the same as killing the boss in the zoo side quest. If there was a real comparison, it was probably because her skin was thicker and she didn't feel the pain.
Just as she was thinking, a soft breath passed through her nose, and a feeling of suffocation swept over her. She opened her eyes, and all around her was darkness. She could vaguely hear a few "Lu Cai".
The piece of flesh wrapped her completely.
"puff--"
The tentacle pierced through her chest, but she felt no pain at all. Blood flowed along the tentacle and merged into the flesh.
The soft flesh around her squeezed her and the already motionless flayed monsters around her, and her bones creaked under the pressure. Her wrist felt like it was about to break, but she refused to let go.
This dagger must be returned——
The feeling of suffocation made her head dizzy, and the flowing blood made the flesh fall into a state of frenzied excitement.
The pieces of flesh became tighter and tighter, the tentacles on the chest gradually withdrew, and the blood continued to flow.
Lu Cai was in a daze, his consciousness was in chaos.
......
[Ding Dong——]
[The side story "Dare to Enter the Mountain Castle" has been completed and is leaving...]
His body jolted violently, and Lu Cai woke up suddenly. The first thing he saw was the Chinese knot pendant dangling on the rearview mirror.
"You're finally awake—" The driver was Zhao Yan, who was stepping on the accelerator and speeding on the road.
Lu Cai turned around in confusion. This was the three-seater truck. She was sitting in the middle seat, fastened to the seat by a seat belt.
It comes out now?
Zhao Yan looked at her incredulous expression and laughed: "Don't let yourself be fooled. I finally managed to carry this person out—"
Qin Yu, who had his eyes closed to rest, also opened them: "Give me back the dagger."
Lu Cai looked down and saw that he was still holding the black-handled dagger in his right hand, but the blade was wrapped in a bandage.
"You didn't let go even when you were unconscious, and you kept picking it up and waving it from time to time. We were afraid of hurting anyone, so we tied it up." Zhao Yan explained. The car went around a curved bend, drove out of the highway, and stopped on a small dirt road on the side.
The sun is shining outside the window and the grass is green.
Lu Cai moved his arm and felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder and a dull stabbing pain in his chest.
Seeing her pause, I knew that her injuries had not healed.
Qin Yu turned his head and looked at her: "You are not a player, and we don't know why your injury has not healed..."
Lu Cai frowned and returned the black-handled dagger to Qin Yu, a little incredulous: "We're getting out just like that?"
"If they don't come out, you should stew them in a pot--" Zhao Yan laughed.
From what he said, what extraordinary thing had she done?
"You don't remember?" Qin Yu asked her tentatively.
Lu Cai turned to look at her, his eyes full of fatigue and confusion.
"You lost your memory after killing everyone?" Zhao Yan handed Lu Cai a bottle of mineral water. "What kind of character are you?"
Lu Cai took it and asked: "What did I do?"
Zhao Yan stared at Lu Cai for a long time before he was sure that she was not acting. He subconsciously raised his eyes to look at Qin Yu.
Lu Cai followed his gaze and looked at Qin Yu.
Qin Yu just stared at her for a long time before speaking: "Information needs to be exchanged."
Lu Cai laughed in his heart, using her information to get information from her.
Qin Yu did not pursue the matter relentlessly: "If you don't want to talk, then we won't talk about it. It's up to you to decide whether to leave or stay..."
It sounded good, but Lu Cai didn't take it seriously.
As expected, Qin Yu continued, "We will report your situation to the system administrator."
Cai Lu sat up suddenly, the seat belt tightened, his shoulders hurting, and he fell back into the cushion.
Looking at her distorted facial features, Qin Yu smiled and said, "Sure enough, she's not a serious NPC—"
Lu Cai was in so much pain that tears welled up in his eyes. You are the one who is not serious!
"Are you a virus program?" Zhao Yan asked her tentatively.
"I don't know as much as you do..." Lu Cai unbuckled his seat belt and rubbed his left shoulder. "My memory started from the day you robbed the supermarket..."
"Just because we told you that you lost your memory, you're trying to trick us with it?" Qin Yu said with a look of disbelief.
Lu Cai didn't care: "Someone once said that I have no memory because I have no past. I only exist on the day the disaster broke out..."
Qin Yu remained noncommittal: "Your physique, physical fitness, and awakening of consciousness are completely beyond the scope of NPCs."
"I don't know." Lu Cai was resolute. "I'm also trying to figure out the cause of my abnormality, but as you can see, the process isn't going smoothly." She couldn't be the one talking all the time. "So, what exactly happened in my branch at the research institute?"
Qin Yu just looked at her with a serious look, as if he was still trying to determine how much truth there was in Lu Cai's words.
Lu Cai shifted his position and sat in a more comfortable position. "After all, I'm helping you guys out as a forward. Besides, I have the right to know about my condition—"
Qin Yu retracted his gaze. What did Lu Cai do in the side story?
At that time, Lu Cai suddenly jumped into the darkness on one side. The light beam shifted, but it could not illuminate her figure.
"Lu Cai!" Zhao Yan shouted from the side. He sent the vine into the darkness, but the vine was cut in half.
The skinned monsters with tentacles rushed towards the direction where Lu Cai was hiding, in an endless stream and almost madly.
After a while, the skinning monster screamed and retreated, but was caught by the blood-red tentacles and dragged into the darkness.
There are even more terrifying mutant monsters inside!
Qin Yu released all his mental power to strengthen the barrier layer by layer, his eyes fixed on the silent darkness.
The skinning monster fled in all directions, and a tender red tentacle swung out from the darkness, hitting the stone wall, causing rocks to fall.
The smell of blood filled the air, and the tentacles that fell to the ground were lifeless.
A huge monster slowly moved out from the dark corner. Its muscles were as bright as blood, and its twisted outline outlined a distorted human figure. Seven or eight tentacles stretched out from different directions, and a tender red semicircular meat ball was embedded on one side. The tentacles on the tender red meat ball stuck to the surface of the huge meat block and stretched to the top of the blood-red meat block.
The two men shone their flashlights over it. Atop the tall, fleshy figure crouched a thin, frail girl. A tender, red tentacle pierced through her chest from behind.
Blood flowed down the powerless tentacles and dripped onto the huge wriggling piece of flesh.
The girl closed her eyes, unaware of the pain, her hand tightly gripping the black-handled dagger. Blood-red tentacles swept around, grabbing the skinned monster and dragging it back, finally sinking straight into the flesh, leaving only an extremely clear humanoid outline on the surface.
Qin Yu looked at the motionless girl on the piece of meat, and an idea flashed through his mind -
Lu Cai copied a monster that was more powerful than the side boss, and used the monster to kill the side story mechanism without any chance of fighting back.
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