Chapter 20

Just as the darkness descended, the lonely girl let out a scream, and the lonely boy was also quite frightened. However, his girlfriend was still holding onto his arm, so he couldn't just start screaming too. He had to pretend to be calm and say to the lonely girl, "Don't be afraid, I'm here." But in reality, the level 7 lonely boy didn't even have a weapon to fight monsters, so he was barely able to protect himself.

He and the lonely girl had been playing the multiplayer training mode together since level 1. After reaching level 5, they entered a team survival mode but both died. However, the contribution he made was slightly greater than hers, so when other players cleared that scenario, he gained a bit more experience. Later, they tried the team survival mode again but still failed to clear it, resulting in both of them dying. Now, one was level 7 and the other was level 6, with no equipment or skills, and they had to fight monsters mainly with their hands.

At this point, many people would understand. The reason Long Ao Min was assigned to this team was also a deliberate arrangement by the system. Perhaps there were hundreds of players queuing at the same time, but why was it specifically this group of five? It was because the system, based on the performance of the lonely boy and the lonely girl, judged them to be weaker players.

To help them, the system added Long Ao Min, a level 10 and relatively strong player, to the team. At the same time, to maintain the overall difficulty, the system also added two players with lower levels but strong performance in clearing scenarios to lower the team's average level.

Thus, this group of five was formed, with a total level of 33, and an average level of 6.6... which matched the difficulty of a level 6-7 scenario.

To put it more simply, the system was giving the lonely boy and the lonely girl a chance to "hitch a ride" and hoped they could successfully clear a scenario to avoid dying too much and developing psychological trauma...

"What was that just now?" Long Ao Min said. He said it out of reflex, not really expecting anyone to give him an answer, but the situation was so scary that he felt anxious and wanted to ask for others' opinions.

To his surprise, Feng Bu Jue answered calmly and seriously, "There are three possibilities, I'll explain them to you later."

Wang Tan Zhi didn't shout this time, but his face was pale, and his voice was trembling, "Do... do we have to... do this? The subway... turning off the lights... is one thing... but in this dark and gloomy night... the lights can actually be turned off! Trying to scare us to death!"

"The scary thing is over there," Feng Bu Jue said expressionlessly, pointing in the direction behind Wang Tan Zhi.

Xiao Tan stiffened his neck and turned around, and Long Ao Min and the distant lonely boy and girl also saw what Feng Bu Jue was pointing at.

The last monster baby had climbed onto the roof of a bus and let out a fierce howl. Its appearance had changed; its skin turned black, its eyes glowed green, and its teeth became long, sharp fangs. Although its body size hadn't changed, its scythe-like hands and beast legs had grown nearly twice as long. Now, when the monster stood straight, it was almost 1.6 meters tall, and the range of its scythe-like arms was clearly longer than a human's arm span.

Wang Tan Zhi swallowed hard, looked at the fruit knife in his hand, and then at the monster's "arm scythe"... a sense of inferiority arose within him.

"It feels like it evolved after eating that strange sweet..." Feng Bu Jue said, holding a pipe wrench as he walked down from the car.

"I'll go in from the front and lure it down, and you guys attack it from the side when the time is right," Long Ao Min said as he moved forward. He couldn't joke around like Feng Bu Jue in such a situation.

Unfortunately, Long Ao Min's strategy didn't work. It was possible that the monster baby could understand the players' conversations, or its intelligence was set much higher than they imagined. The monster baby ignored Long Ao Min, bent its legs, and left two hoof marks on the bus roof as it leaped high into the air, drawing a parabolic arc. It flew over the three of them and pounced toward the lonely boy and girl, who were under a street lamp, about ten meters away.

At this moment, Long Ao Min really wanted to use that skill to rush over and help, but he was powerless. The skill he used to help Feng Bu Jue, "Lightning Charge," was a special ability granted by his title "Brave Charger," and it consumed 30% of his maximum stamina, with a cooldown of one hour.

Without going into the details of the "Title System," the only people who could save the lonely boy and girl were themselves.

As the monster baby descended from the sky, its scythe-like hands slashed diagonally at the two. The three people in the middle of the street ran toward them, but the monster baby, with its enhanced jumping ability, moved in the air in a way that players couldn't catch up with by walking.

"Run toward us! Lower your heads!" Feng Bu Jue shouted.

This was undoubtedly a command to the lonely boy and girl to take action, and it was a very correct response. If they retreated or dodged to the sides, at least one of them would be killed immediately when the monster baby landed. Standing still or trying to block the attack would likely result in a quicker death.

The only way for both to survive was to crouch and charge forward, getting as close as possible to Feng Bu Jue and the others in the few seconds it took for the monster to miss and turn around.

In such a life-or-death moment, a confident command was very effective, and those who were helpless and frightened often followed it without much thought. Indeed, the lonely boy, upon hearing the command, immediately pulled the lonely girl and charged forward, lowering their heads.

When the monster baby attacked from the air, the two just managed to slip under its feet and darted to its back. The scythe-like hands missed, and the monster baby, seemingly enraged, stomped its hooves and turned to chase them, closing the distance in just two seconds.

But the monster baby was very unlucky. A muscular man running in the opposite direction had already arrived, blocking the monster baby's path with a gray metal shield. The reinforced scythe-like arms swung rapidly, making continuous hissing sounds, but the attacks only sparked off the surface of the shield without leaving a scratch. The monster baby seemed to gradually slow down its attacks and reduce its strength.

【Name: Fragment of Ultron】

【Type: Armor】

【Quality: Fine】

【Defense: Strong】

【Attribute: Refraction】

【Special Effect: None】

【Equipment Requirements: Combat Proficiency E, Level 8】

【Note: This is a fragment left behind after a certain generation of Ultron was destroyed. Originally, it was only the size of a thumb. After being re-forged with secondary Adamantium alloy, it was made into this shield. It seems to be slightly stronger than other mass-produced shields of this type, but multiple experiments have shown no significant data to support this theory.】

The shield's attributes were very strong, and compared to Feng Bu Jue's pipe wrench, it could clearly play a greater role in the early stages of the game. The monster baby's attacks gradually stopped because it realized that continuing to slash would likely wear down its scythe-like hands.

The monster baby gave up on breaking through Long Ao Min's defense and tried to use its speed advantage to go around this tough obstacle and attack the others. However, it had wasted too much time, and a man wearing a black steel helmet and holding a fruit knife had quietly circled around to its back...

Because his weapon wasn't very effective and he was also quite timid, Wang Tan Zhi didn't dare to attack recklessly. He circled around a car and sneaked to the back of the monster baby, then raised his weapon and stabbed it directly into the monster baby's cervical vertebra. It's unclear whether this choice of attack, which could either kill or paralyze, was something learned from medical training.

A strange scream echoed, and black pus blood spurted out, splattering Wang Tan Zhi's face. The monster baby, however, was still not dead and tried to struggle.

At this moment, a pipe wrench stabbed in from the side, ruthlessly piercing the monster baby's left eye socket...