LWGP - Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Maze

Lin Guiwan was prepared. The tongue of flame struck her defensive aura, nullifying it. She retreated, surrounded by a swirling, scorching airflow.

Ahead, Xie Lu and Mei Qingshu moved forward to shield her. Xie Lu raised an ice shield, and snowflakes spread, using the ice and snow to drive back the heat and prevent them from being burned.

Mei Qingshu searched for the attacker, but before she could locate them, she heard a gunshot and the sound of a window shattering.

Turning her head, she saw that Wang Jiu had already raised her golden gun and fired at a window on the second floor of a building two hundred meters away.

The window shattered, splattering blood along the edge as a dark figure fell.

"They're the Alienated from the Research Institute. They've mastered special abilities, similar to superpowers," Xie Lu said with a glance, also drawing his gun. "One detonates energy, one directs flames, and there's one more!"

Before he could fire, bang! Another window shattered, and a second person's head erupted in blood.

That was it?

How could it be? The remaining unexploded cars in the area were suddenly manipulated, flying through the air to crash down upon them.

"Dodge!"

Bang! A vehicle slammed into the spot where Mei Qingshu had just been standing. As she dodged to the side, she swapped the crossbow in her hands for a gun with a longer range and aimed at a person hiding around the corner of a building diagonally ahead.

The target was hit, blood spraying from their shoulder, but they quickly ducked back around the corner.

"A native. Their defense is very strong. My shot barely broke through their armor."

Even though her damage was reduced, Mei Qingshu's attack was very powerful, second only to Wang Jiu and Xie Lu in the team. What's more, she had recently supplemented her abilities with an archer class's critical damage and ranged burn effects, making her attacks even deadlier. Logically, she should have been able to blast the target to pieces.

"They've mutated. Their armor is comparable to half that of a silver-grade mini-boss."

Everyone began reporting data so they could all get a clear picture of the situation. Wang Shu pinched his fingers, did a quick calculation, and his face immediately darkened—My attack can't break their defense again?!

This wretched world!

Dao Dao was also miserable: I can't break their defense either, just like this damn fatty.

Fortunately, they soon found targets whose defenses they could break.

There were people in the woods!

Except for Wang Jiu, everyone else dodged behind cover, aiming and firing at the various figures hiding around the crematorium. Behind them, numerous other teams, including those led by Luo Sheng and Yan Guanqi, had already begun to open fire.

With so many experts present, they quickly mopped up these enemies.

After examining the bodies.

Wang Shu felt a chill. "These people aren't normal."

Their skin color, physique, and appearance all had a mutated quality, as if they were the result of botched plastic surgery or had been born deformed.

Wang Jiu pried open one of the corpse's eyelids to examine the pupil. Her finger traced a mark on it. "It's an experimental mutation," she said. "This eyeball exploded at some point and was sewn back in."

Withdrawing her hand, she gripped her gun and looked at the main crematorium building ahead.

Night had fallen. The sky was pitch-black, and there was no light in the surroundings.

Her gaze was profound, even as she stared into the building, which was completely dark inside, without a single light on.

It was deep, quiet, and completely swallowed by the darkness.

The most terrifying part was that the sky was shrouded in a thick, gloomy mist, completely obscuring any starlight.

"It's so pitch-black, it's terrifying. A crematorium is scariest in the dark," Dao Dao said, stamping a trotter on the ground.

The moment she finished speaking, the surrounding streetlights—all the lights in the outer plaza and garden that covered the crematorium grounds—flickered on.

But why was the light from the lamps red?!

"This… this is somehow even more terrifying!" Wang Shu gasped, sucking in a cold breath.

"No, it can get even more terrifying."

Wang Jiu turned his face, forcing him to look at the building ahead.

In one of the central rooms, a light was on—a single point of red. A person stood before a large floor-to-ceiling window, their form revealed by the gloomy red light behind them. They were old and silent, their skin a reddish-black from horrific, scabbed-over burns.

Yet their gaze was cunning and cold.

It pierced straight to the heart.

"It's Zhang Shen." Xie Lu pressed his lips together. He really hadn't died.

Wang Jiu glanced over and also noticed that the man's left arm was mangled.

It matched.

Just then, some distance away, a dark figure used some unknown skill to leap onto the wall. They began to climb like a gecko, quickly approaching the seventh floor where the room was located.

"Master, someone's getting ahead of us. Should we go over there?" Wang Shu asked, seeing that the person was about to succeed.

Before Wang Jiu could answer, the person had already shattered the window with a fireball and leaped inside.

And then… there was nothing. Utter silence.

The light in the room just seemed to turn a deeper red, as if it were dripping blood.

Yan Guanqi and the others were alarmed and uncertain. The team that had sent the climber seemed to have fallen deathly silent, but they didn't discuss it with anyone here. Instead, they used the cover of darkness to enter the main building.

They didn't take the direct route up the wall.

"There's a problem with that room. Their teammate is most likely in trouble," Xie Lu analyzed shrewdly.

Wang Jiu raised an eyebrow and swapped out a magazine. "The invitation has been extended," she said. "Entry is legitimate."

With a click, she casually tossed the spent magazine into a nearby trash can.

She took the lead, approaching the main building. She, too, chose to take the normal route.

The Alienated who had attacked them earlier seemed to have retreated. The perimeter was quiet, and they met little resistance. The other players were likely wary of Wang Jiu's personality. Although they wanted to rely on her power to break through, they could also see that Wang Jiu was someone who only formed alliances for personal gain—and right now, she clearly had no need for them.

If they followed her rashly, there was no guarantee she wouldn't just kill them on a whim to farm resources.

Yan Guanqi considered this possibility carefully. He also felt that while the Nightmare Dungeon was extremely difficult, they should be able to handle the initial stages. If Wang Jiu were with them, it would be hard for them to farm resources.

So, they would split up.

However, it would be best for their teams to stick together.

This proposal was met with widespread agreement. Even without Wang Jiu, their combined strength was considerable. Furthermore, with the recognized leadership and integrity of Yan Guanqi and Xia Laoci, they should be able to handle the current situation.

However, Luo Sheng glanced at Li Chui and noticed that the guy had become much more low-key and quiet ever since being extorted by Wang Jiu.

But Luo Sheng knew him too well and realized…

Everyone reached a consensus. They gathered together and approached the main crematorium building from another path. The moment they stepped inside…

A System notification appeared: "Congratulations, you have successfully found the terrifying crematorium of the Mist Town Nightmare Dungeon. Here, you will find the true meaning of life."

When the System notification had suddenly appeared, everyone's hearts had leaped into their throats, afraid the Dog System would impose some new restriction.

"Thank goodness, it's just spouting nonsense, not imposing a restriction… Mmph." Wang Shu, whose mouth was suddenly covered by Liao Luo's hand, shot the latter a glare.

But just then, the System spoke again: "A certain fatty has reminded me. So, a quick P.S.: Because this place is permeated with the aura of death, your bodies have been affected. Your HP, which represents your life force, has been reduced by 50%."

Holy shit!

Stunned, Wang Shu suddenly felt the air turn frigid. He looked up to see the exceptionally good-looking members of his team, plus one pig, staring at him with expressions that were hard to put into words.

Especially Wang Jiu, whose finger lightly tapped the trigger of her gun.

Wang Shu's nearly two-hundred-jin delicate frame gave a violent shiver.

The other teams were in an uproar.

"Which damn fatty?"

"Who could possibly be fatter than Wang Jiu's beloved disciple, Fatty Wang? That damn fatty might be a Lucky Hand, but his mouth is incredibly toxic."

Amid a chorus of wails, everyone saw a bright, clean corridor ahead of them.

Where would it lead?

Meanwhile, Xie Lu and his group were pondering a deeper question: did the System's abrupt reduction of their HP mean that this nightmare was bound to contain powerful, Bloodthirsty creatures?

After all, the severed hand had already appeared back in the normal-difficulty version of this place.

After three dungeons, the fact that the resurrected Zhang Shen was a Bloodthirsty creature was all but confirmed.

Yet no one mentioned quitting.

"Why is this corridor so long and quiet? And there are no windows." As the group passed through the first corridor of the main building, everyone felt that something was off. It was a Nightmare Dungeon, after all. The silence only made it feel more eerie and terrifying.

After a while, they finally reached the end of the long, straight corridor. Three paths forked before them.

Wang Jiu and her team understood its purpose almost immediately—it was a maze.

"If this is a maze, then we're all just prey in a cage. He must have prepared plenty of mutated monsters for us," Xie Lu said, looking up and suddenly fixing his gaze on a spot on the ceiling.

He slashed upward with his sword, splitting open a section of the ceiling and revealing a perfectly camouflaged surveillance camera.

A camera wasn't surprising, but what was the object next to it?

"This panel isn't right." A heavy metal panel fell into Qiao Xuejing's hands. She turned it over, raising an eyebrow. She wasn't a tech specialist, but she knew that installing such things inside a building was a major undertaking that required a significant financial investment.

She handed it to Wang Jiu, who glanced at it a few times before passing it to Xie Lu. He understood immediately.

"It's an energy detector. Zhang Shen is treating us like lab rats," Xie Lu said, his expression grim. He was both angered by the man's audacity and alarmed by his methods.

"Probably another 'Tribal Chief' who has inside knowledge of the game," Qiao Xuejing said, thinking of the previous boss. She frowned, then glanced at Wang Jiu's face, and her pupils trembled slightly.

"Sister Lin!"

Just as she was about to act, Wang Jiu beat her to it, raising her gun and firing a shot to Lin Guiwan's left.

The bullet struck the wall, which was supposed to be plaster over a metal panel, but it instead sent a spray of thick blood splattering out.

Then, the corpse that had been shot was revealed, slumping off the wall and hitting the floor with a thud.

Lin Guiwan took a step back, her heart still pounding with lingering fear.

"Invisibility? Camouflage?"

She never would have imagined that a person had been "plastered" to the surface of the wall she had just walked past.

Her perception wasn't comprehensive enough.

Liao Luo also knew his own perception had been insufficient. His expression was grave. Was his assassin's talent useless here?

"A native environmental talent. His mutation is different from the others. They focused on superpowers, while his is purely a physical transformation."

Wang Jiu examined the creature's skin. "It's fused with chameleon genes."

Just as she said this, she suddenly frowned. The others likely realized it at the same time.

Before the corpse could explode, Qiao Xuejing threw out a sealed cage. The corridor was too narrow to dodge.

The corpse exploded inside the sealed cage. The cage trembled, but the poison gas released within was completely contained.

"It's the mist's poison gas." Qiao Xuejing still felt a lingering fear as she recalled the nausea, weakness, and hunger the gas induced.

"Such a well-hidden chameleon Alienated… If Master hadn't noticed… Fortunately, its individual strength wasn't that high."

Wang Shu picked up the dagger the creature had been holding and was examining it when he heard Lin Guiwan say softly, "The fact that it wasn't strong is what makes it the most troublesome."

Huh? Wang Shu and Dao Dao didn't understand.

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