Xu Zhou

[Beep beep, Fortune-Blessed Village, complete.]

[Player Yin Chao, level 16

HP 1150 + 50, stamina 1060 + 100, mental power 100, intelligence 95, item acquired: Speaking Tube (B-rank).]

[Congratulations, you have passed the trial.]

Back in the real world, Yin Chao found himself still in the corridor of the Special Ward.

Luo Lingyue and Mo Nan lay weakly on the floor.

They were covered in mud, looking utterly bedraggled.

Yin Chao crouched down and poked the only clean patch on Luo Lingyue's face.

"What happened to you?"

Luo Lingyue panted, looking as though she was about to collapse from exhaustion.

She struggled to speak. "Dead people... crawled... out of the ground... tried to kill me..."

Just as she finished the last word, a jumble of footsteps sounded from the end of the corridor. It sounded like three or four people.

Yin Chao made a snap decision. He patted Luo Lingyue's shoulder, his eyes full of resolve. "Wait for me. I'll come back to save you. I'm heading out first..."

He stood, but before he could take a step, someone at the end of the corridor called, "Yin Chao? Is that you?"

It was Bai Xu's voice.

Yin Chao answered, "It's me!"

Bai Xu and the others moved quickly, reaching them in just a few strides.

"Are you all right? What rank was the instance you entered? Are those two okay?"

Bai Xu seemed very anxious, firing off three questions the moment he spoke.

The people who had come with him each got to work. After examining the two on the floor, they reported, "Vice guild leader, they're fine. Just a little exhausted."

Bai Xu nodded, and the two were carried away on stretchers that had already been prepared.

Once they were gone, Bai Xu turned his gaze to Yin Chao and asked again, "What about you? Are you all right?"

Yin Chao shook his head and walked beside him through the dim corridor.

Their surroundings were quiet. All the patients who had been there before were gone.

Bai Xu seemed to pick up on Yin Chao's confusion and explained, "I've arranged for all the patients here to be moved to regular psychiatric hospitals. Fog Mountain Sanatorium belongs to the Bai family now."

What a classic domineering CEO moment. Yin Chao was a little dazzled by the power of money.

When they reached the ground floor, luxury cars filled the area outside Fog Mountain Sanatorium's gates.

Among the people there was someone he knew-Moon Shadow.

She greeted the two of them from a distance.

"Vice Guild Leader Bai, your people seem to be in pretty good spirits."

Moon Shadow looked Yin Chao up and down.

Bai Xu smiled. "Only Chao is doing a little better. The other two both collapsed. Things aren't looking good."

Faced with this exchange between two old foxes, Yin Chao had no intention of joining in.

But she addressed him directly, leaving him little choice. "Did you know? Long Zang was seriously injured, An Nian passed out from exhaustion, and Mad Dog from the Ares Guild died."

Yin Chao's eyes flew wide, and he looked at Moon Shadow in disbelief.

No wonder Bai Xu had asked him what rank the instance was as soon as he arrived.

"It was a B-rank instance, story-driven," Yin Chao replied.

Moon Shadow frowned, seemingly unable to make sense of it. She thanked him, then turned, got into her car, and left.

After the Miracle Guild's cars drove away, the area felt much emptier.

Yin Chao's sharp eyes spotted Fang Tang huddled in a corner, surrounded by several burly bodyguards.

Her head was lowered, hiding her expression, yet he could feel the immense sorrow enveloping her.

Bai Xu saw her too and sighed. "Instances can give people the power they've always dreamed of, but they can also cruelly erase a person's very existence."

He opened the car door beside him and took the driver's seat. "Let's go."

"Okay," Yin Chao replied.

The instant he turned, Fang Tang, who had been a hundred meters away, suddenly appeared with a small knife pressed against Yin Chao's throat.

"You knew all along, didn't you? You knew Lin Xue was the real boss of the instance, didn't you!"

She screamed, her knife hand trembling uncontrollably.

Yin Chao gently pushed her hand aside, and Fang Tang slumped weakly to the ground.

She tilted her head up, her eyes bloodshot and filled with vicious fury.

"So this is the real you," Yin Chao said without explanation. Then he ignored her, turned, and got into the car.

Unwilling to accept it, Fang Tang clenched the loose stones on the ground. But she had no strength left, and her consciousness was growing hazier.

At last, she passed out.

Xu Zhou, oh, Xu Zhou, why were you so stupid? You should have been the one to survive...

They had killed those Living Dead, only for them to rise again, then killed them again. It was as though they could regenerate endlessly, their sole purpose to wear the two of them down until they died there.

During one round, the two of them killed every last one of the Living Dead and sat panting on the ground, waiting for them to reassemble.

The player named Lin Xue suddenly appeared.

Fang Tang thought they could use her as bait. While the Living Dead were devouring her, they would have more time to rest.

But that woman actually attacked them when they weren't paying attention.

Sharp claws pierced her heart. The sensation of death felt so terribly real.

She lay in Xu Zhou's arms as dizziness overwhelmed her. Perhaps it was the lack of blood reaching her brain before death, or perhaps her blood pressure had risen. Her mind grew hazy, her ears rang, and the world began to fall silent.

She could only dimly make out Xu Zhou's mouth moving. Fang Tang, Fang Tang, Tangtang...

He was calling her name.

Fang Tang remembered the first time she met Xu Zhou. So people really did look back on their lives before they died?

That was her most precious... most precious memory.

A girl who stole for a living met a boy who fought as if his life meant nothing.

"Hey, you're pretty good at fighting. How about becoming my lackey?"

The girl curled her lips in a nasty smile, as though mocking the boy on the ground, his face bruised, swollen, and covered in blood.

He forced himself to his feet and knocked away the hand she offered him.

"Are you sure you won't consider it?" The girl refused to give up, listing her strengths as though pitching herself to him.

"I can steal, pick locks, and act. I'm really smart! You can be my sharp claws, and I'll be the brains behind your plans! How about it...?"

Xu Zhou ignored her and walked straight away.

He had been born in this small town and taken in by the casino's enforcers as a child. Ever since, he had been either beating someone up or getting beaten himself.

They said he fought without caring whether he lived or died, like a mad dog.

The sky over the town was always gray, and even the air carried a damp, musty smell. Xu Zhou thought that perhaps one day, somewhere, he too would become a moldy corpse.

That day came far too soon.

This time, the enforcers sent by their rivals were professionals, and Xu Zhou became a discarded pawn.

More than a dozen of them pinned him to the ground. They seemed to be laughing as they discussed how to make him die without a sound.

Xu Zhou felt no fear at all. He was even mocking himself. There's no need to go to all that trouble. Even if I died right in the street, it would still go unnoticed.

No one would remember him.