The long ladder

"Haven't you heard of us in the Molan Danger Zone? We went to Molan on a mission before." Qin Rang looked as though he was asking a sincere question, his foxlike eyes full of curiosity. "The people there couldn't have forgotten us that quickly, could they?"

Bai Yang waved his hands repeatedly and hurried to explain. "No, we haven't forgotten, we haven't. The Calamity Crossing Squad solved such a huge problem for us that year and stopped the Molan Danger Zone from spreading. We're all very grateful to you."

Tao Yuan glanced at the two of them and, for some reason, saw a pair of fox ears on each of their heads. One pair was black, the other white.

Sheng Qingqiao muttered, "Come to think of it, what a coincidence. The last time we helped your area, it was a large-scale Battle Royale instance too. And now we've run into another Battle Royale instance."

"Yeah, this is my first time entering a Battle Royale instance." Bai Yang sighed, looking troubled. "Just now, I was thinking I could watch the official livestream of this Battle Royale instance and get some experience. I didn't expect to end up here myself the next second."

"Huh? You didn't volunteer to enter this instance?" Sheng Qingqiao suddenly realized.

Bai Yang shook his head. "No. You know how people living in danger zones run into supernatural entities all the time. I opened my door after getting up this morning and found myself here. I waited a long time before the instance started."

"Instances can pick people like that?" Sheng Qingqiao scratched his brown hair, puzzled. "No wonder there were already so many people when we came in. So you all got here even earlier than we did."

"I'd heard that open instances were very random about picking people, but I didn't expect them to be this random." Tao Yuan changed the subject and asked Qin Rang, "I heard you ran into an instance like this when you were little?"

"Yeah." Qin Rang glanced at Bai Yang, who had pricked up his ears and was secretly listening to them, then changed the subject. "That doll you're holding is so old. Why do you still treasure it so much?"

Bai Yang tightened his grip on the doll and, without the slightest guard, revealed his trump card. "It's actually a supernatural object left behind after a supernatural entity died. It can protect me, so I brought it along. But it doesn't have much energy and can only deal with very low-level supernatural entities."

Tao Yuan was surprised. "You're pretty candid."

He looked like a somewhat weak ordinary person, so it was normal for him to deliberately conceal some of his actions. She wasn't interested in other people's secrets.

But he could talk so openly about such an important supernatural object. Was he really that naive and trusting? He had no sense at all!

Bai Yang smiled and tightened his fingers around the doll.

Tao Yuan softened her voice. "Still, next time, don't tell people about your supernatural object so easily. You have to be on guard against others, understand?"

Hearing the concern in Tao Yuan's voice, Bai Yang nodded earnestly, his dark eyes turning solemn. "I understand. Thank you."

The corner of Tao Yuan's eye twitched. The way he stared at her with such trusting eyes made her deeply uncomfortable. She was afraid that Bai Yang would tell her she was a good person the next second, and then this bunch of lousy friends would never let her live it down.

Fortunately, Bai Yang said nothing more and kept a safe distance from them.

A few minutes later, An Ying returned with his umbrella closed, his white hair slightly disheveled.

"There's no other way up, and climbing won't work either. The floors are separated from each other. I sensed the power of the rules."

"I didn't find any hints about the rules of this building either. I guess they might be on the top floor."

"Then it looks like this is our only way up." Qin Rang looked outside.

Bai Yang also stared at the long ladder outside the building. It rose floor after floor, clinging snugly to the outside wall without any support. No matter how he looked at it, something was wrong.

It couldn't have been part of the building originally. He was more inclined to believe that a supernatural entity had created it.

How could things possibly go smoothly when he was traveling with the protagonist? He had long been prepared for that, especially since every last one of these people was unlucky.

If he had their luck, he probably wouldn't have lived this long.

Fortunately, once he earned enough notoriety to complete the mission, he could leave the Protagonist Group and go his own way.

The five of them didn't hesitate for long before setting out. Bai Yang was protected in the middle by the other four, with Sheng Qingqiao and Qin Rang scouting ahead and Tao Yuan and An Ying behind him.

As they stepped onto the stairs one after another, the lights throughout the building suddenly went out without warning.

The instant darkness fell before his eyes, Bai Yang distinctly felt the auras of the four people around him turn fierce.

He blinked hard, and the doll in his arms blinked its hollow eyes as well.

They stopped where they were for a short while. The darkness was strange: not only had the lights gone out in the building beneath their feet, but their surroundings had also been plunged into darkness. They couldn't see a thing.

"...What kind of supernatural entity pulls this lights-out trick?" Sheng Qingqiao muttered. "I can't see anything. An entity could hold my hand right beside me and it still wouldn't scare me."

"...Could you say something that doesn't sound so creepy?" Tao Yuan grumbled.

Qin Rang's voice came from the darkness. "Keep going upstairs. Watch your step."

"Okay."

"I'm not okay," Bai Yang suddenly said. "I have night blindness. I can't see the stairs. Why don't you keep going, and I'll go back?"

Following his memory, Sheng Qingqiao felt his way over to him, grabbed his shoulder and held him firmly in place. Grinning, he said, "It's fine. I can't see either. We'll feel our way along—"

Before Sheng Qingqiao had finished speaking, a cold wind swept past from behind, and a sudden weight settled on his right shoulder.

It was as though someone's head had suddenly come down heavily on his shoulder. The wind that came with it made his whole body prickle, the sharp chin dug painfully into his bones, and one side of his body grew so cold it went numb.

"...Bai Yang, did you put your head on my shoulder...?" he asked, trembling.

Bai Yang's voice came from his left. "Huh? No?"

"Fuck! Then what the hell is on my shoulder?!" Sheng Qingqiao jumped three feet into the air, knocking Bai Yang backward. Fortunately, An Ying caught him with quick reflexes.

But Bai Yang soon sensed that something was wrong too. The back of his neck felt cold first, as though someone were lying against his back and blowing on his shoulder and neck.

"Whoo~"

As the cold air brushed over him, goosebumps rose all over his body, and he froze in place.

The heavy thing on his shoulder had no form. He reached back with a trembling hand and felt his fingertips pass through what seemed to be a mass of icy air.

This time, Bai Yang needed no urging. He let out a cry and ran up the stairs for his life.

An Ying instinctively reached out to grab Bai Yang, but the young man was as slippery as a loach, and he caught nothing but air.

Sheng Qingqiao was still trying to pull the supernatural entity off his shoulder when An Ying thrust his umbrella through its body from behind. But the energy on the tip of the umbrella dispersed on its own the moment it struck the entity.

The dispersed energy rushed straight at An Ying. He hurriedly retreated, and as the energy grazed his cheek, he caught a strong smell of blood.

"It's a formless supernatural entity. Physical attacks don't work. Run!" An Ying turned and followed Bai Yang at a sprint.

In the pitch darkness, all five of them ran extremely fast, as though they could see where they were going. Not one of them shoved another, missed a step, or fell.