Time passed little by little.
A second was usually very short.
But at that moment, it felt incredibly long to Chen Xu.
Chen Guoqing grew bolder and gave Chen Xu an encouraging look, which finally put him a little at ease.
Suddenly, a huge black rat crawled out of the shaft.
Yang Ling didn't use the Red Gold Crane Beak Hoe. Instead, he used the Thief-Catching Saber Technique and killed seven or eight Mine Rats in the blink of an eye.
Waves of cool Experience Points flowed into his body.
It was about as much as he gained from mining Red Gold Mine.
"It's working."
Yang Ling felt a little more confident.
At this rate, the Mine Rats wouldn't pose much of a threat to him.
He continued to swing his Official Saber.
The Experience Points immediately replenished his lost stamina.
This became all the more incredible as his strength improved.
"Doesn't he ever get tired?"
Chen Guoqing sighed in amazement.
He'd studied martial arts.
He knew that someone who could keep fighting for two or three minutes was already exceptional.
An ordinary person might be exhausted in just a few dozen seconds!
Before long, a pile of rat heads had accumulated in front of Yang Ling.
Chen Guoqing and Chen Xu had also managed to pick off plenty of Mine Rats along the way.
Gradually, they realized that their strength had somehow increased again.
They immediately knew they'd leveled up!
"Turns out sticking with Brother Yang really is the way to get ahead."
The warm current they felt when they leveled up eased their fatigue at once.
The two of them were full of energy and continued picking off the stragglers.
About an hour later.
With the last Mine Rat dead, the crisis was finally over.
"Brother Yang, you must've played a lot of games before. That trick for trapping monsters was seriously impressive."
Looking at the chaos before him, Chen Xu couldn't help but marvel.
In those circumstances, the three of them shouldn't have been able to handle the Mine Rats.
It was only because they'd trapped the monsters that they'd managed to deal with them so easily.
"Let's leave that for later. Pack up the rat heads and take them outside."
Yang Ling smiled. "Let the miners see them. It'll give them a little more confidence."
"Got it!"
Chen Xu immediately took off his shirt and started packing up the rat heads.
Before long, the three of them emerged from the Mine Shaft.
They dumped the rat heads on the ground.
The nearby miners came over at once. When they saw the heads, they recoiled in horror!
"Mine Rats!"
"So many Mine Rat heads!"
"Did Supervisor Yang and the others kill them? So they really went after those bastards!"
"Damn those Mine Rats! They killed one of my brothers. A whole swarm of them came at him, and in seconds, they'd eaten him down to his bones!"
One miner's eyes reddened as he stared at the rat heads, his face twisted with anger.
"Supervisor Yang, did you three kill all these Mine Rats?"
Fang Qingyang hurried over. When he saw the bodies, a look of surprise crossed his face.
"Perfect timing. Take care of these. We're heading back to wash up."
Yang Ling patted him on the shoulder, then left with the others.
Back at the house, Yang Ling had finished washing up. A strange-looking fellow was standing beside Chen Xu and Chen Guoqing, looking somewhat nervous and excited.
"Super... Supervisor Yang."
When the man saw Yang Ling approach, he hurriedly clasped his hands in greeting, stammering a little.
"Brother Yang, this is Wang Haodong. He's a Player like us, and he's been here for seven or eight days."
Chen Xu introduced him.
Wang Haodong looked at Yang Ling cautiously, still unable to believe his eyes.
Was the man standing before him really Yang Ling of the Iron Clothes Department, ranked seventh on the Divine Realm Rank List?
He could hardly believe that he'd encountered someone so important at his most desperate moment.
"Haodong, don't be nervous."
Yang Ling smiled. "We just want to ask you a few things."
Seeing how kindly Yang Ling spoke, Wang Haodong relaxed a little and hurriedly replied:
"Go ahead, Brother Yang."
"When you entered the game, do you know what was happening outside?"
"What was happening outside..."
Wang Haodong seemed to think it over before slowly answering:
"When I entered the game, word about the 'Divine Domain' had already spread everywhere.
"Some cults even appeared in different places, claiming that their churches had created the 'Divine Domain.'
"I saw on the news that those cults were cracked down on not long afterward.
"Then there's... so many people have gone missing that things are pretty chaotic in some places now. People are calling the police every day."
"So things are in chaos."
Chen Guoqing murmured to himself.
"Cults have appeared too?"
Yang Ling furrowed his brow.
"Right! There's something I don't know is true or not."
Wang Haodong suddenly said, "I saw people online saying that countries all over the world have sent special forces into the 'Divine Domain' to figure out what's going on here.
"If we run into them, we'll be saved!"
"I'm afraid not."
Chen Xu shook his head slightly. "Even if they come in here, they can't get out either. Food is already a problem in this place. They'll be struggling to survive themselves."
A wry smile appeared on Wang Haodong's face.
Actually, the Players in his group had already discussed it when they'd gathered together.
Most of them felt the same as Chen Xu. Only a small number still clung to a glimmer of hope.
They hoped the country could bring them home. They didn't want to be stuck here eating hard, stale flatbread and drinking icy water.
"Here's what we'll do. Go out again and gather all the Players."
Yang Ling said, "I have an announcement to make."
The three immediately left the courtyard.
While washing up, Yang Ling had already practiced the Vajra Mingwang Technique once.
Now he was hurrying to practice the Thief-Catching Saber Technique too.
About two hours later, the three of them had gathered the rest of the Players from the Ore Vein.
Before you continue