Her Palms Were Slick with Sweat
Bibi Dong lay beside him, her head turned as she watched Qin Chuan play. After watching for a while, she roughly understood the logic of the game.
"Cultivate for gold, upgrade the defenses, and hold off the Soul Beast outside," she summed up.
"Exactly," Qin Chuan said. "The Soul Beast on four-star difficulty is much stronger than on three-star. The door and turrets need to reach max level as soon as possible."
The Clown Dwarf's voice rang out in the corridor.
"The fifty-thousand-year Soul Beast, Nightmare Demon, has begun roaming."
Fifty thousand years.
Bibi Dong's heartbeat quickened.
The little screen on the wall lit up, showing the corridor.
A mass of black mist surged from the end of the corridor. It was a full size larger than the ten-thousand-year Nightmare Demon Xue Qinghe had seen last time. Two dark-red lights swayed deep within the mist, and with every step it took, another light tube went out.
It wandered slowly through the corridor. Whenever it passed a room, it paused for two breaths before moving on.
Qin Chuan frantically saved gold for upgrades. The door's HP had risen to 400, and the turret had reached level 3.
The Nightmare Demon made a circuit of the corridor and locked onto door 105.
It stood in front of the door. Two dark-red lights shone through the crack, swaying across the floor.
Bibi Dong could hear breathing outside. Heavy breathing, carrying a bloody stench, separated from her by just one door.
Boom!
The first blow.
The door's HP dropped from 400 to 200.
Two hundred HP in one hit. The fifty-thousand-year Nightmare Demon's attack power was several times that of the ten-thousand-year one.
Qin Chuan immediately repaired the door. 200 jumped back to 250.
Boom! The second blow. 250 dropped to 50.
Another repair. 50 jumped back to 100.
Boom! The third blow.
The door's HP bar plummeted wildly, about to cross the red line at zero. Once it hit zero, the door would shatter, and this round would end in failure!
At that instant, Qin Chuan pressed a button: emergency door repair. It cost double the gold to repair the door instantly.
Hum!
A brand-new door panel instantly formed in the frame. The door recovered most of its HP, firmly blocking the entrance.
The Nightmare Demon's claws struck the new panel just then. Unable to break into the room, it finally chose to leave.
Qin Chuan let out a long breath.
Bibi Dong still had his arm clenched in her hand, her palm slick with sweat.
Her heart was pounding so hard it nearly leaped out of her chest.
The turret was still firing automatically.
Blue bolts of light struck the Nightmare Demon one after another, blasting off clumps of black fragments.
But the Nightmare Demon had far too much HP. At fifty thousand years, its total HP was more than five times that of the ten-thousand-year one. The turret's damage was nowhere near enough.
It lingered outside the door for a moment before finally turning to leave.
From then on, Qin Chuan fell into a frantic rhythm of attack and defense.
Every time the Nightmare Demon came to batter the door, he walked a tightrope between gold and door repairs. The door's HP bounced up and down, dropping as low as 3 at one point.
Just 3 HP away from the door shattering.
At that instant, Bibi Dong's entire body went rigid, her back pressed tightly against the bedboard. Even her breathing stopped.
Qin Chuan's hand was astonishingly steady as he pressed the repair button. 3 jumped back to 53.
Bibi Dong exhaled and wiped her palm on the bedsheet.
In the latter half of the game, the Nightmare Demon advanced from fifty thousand years to eighty thousand.
The Eighty-Thousand-Year Nightmare Demon was another full size larger than the fifty-thousand-year one. Its black mist turned deep purple, and the two dark-red lights became two deathly white lights.
Its blows against the door grew even more terrifying, each one knocking off a fifth of the door's HP.
Qin Chuan's operating speed was pushed to its limit.
Upgrading the door, repairing it, upgrading the turret, firing manually-he switched back and forth between the four tasks, with no more than a breath between each action.
Bibi Dong lay beside him throughout, watching him play.
She had completely abandoned her reserve, curling up beside Qin Chuan with one hand clutching his sleeve and the other gripping a corner of the blanket.
Whenever the Nightmare Demon's pounding boomed against the door, she instinctively leaned closer to Qin Chuan.
She cursed herself several times inwardly.
A Level 97 Peak Douluo with Twin Martial Souls, a Pope who normally killed without batting an eye, was now this frightened by a game.
But there was nothing she could do. Her Soul Power was sealed away completely. Right now, she was just an ordinary person.
It was normal for an ordinary person to be afraid when facing a terrifying Soul Beast that kept battering the door.
She had no idea how much time passed.
At last, the final wave's Eighty-Thousand-Year Nightmare Demon had its HP depleted.
Its body began to fracture at the chest. Purple mist scattered, turning into ashes that drifted to the floor.
A ray of light shone through the window at the end of the corridor.
Dawn had come.
The Clown Dwarf's voice rang out.
"Congratulations, players, on successfully holding out until dawn! Haunted Dormitory cleared!"
"Distributing rewards..."
"Player Qin Chuan, Soul Power increased by 10%. Current level: 61."
"Player Bibi Dong, Soul Power increased by 10%. Current level: 98."
Bibi Dong's body jolted.
Level 98.
She had advanced from Level 97 to Level 98.
For her at Level 97, a 10% increase in Soul Power had burst straight through her bottleneck.
Bibi Dong sat up in bed. She closed her eyes and sensed the changes within her.
Level 98 Soul Power surged through her meridians, a full layer denser than before. She had not experienced this sense of fullness in almost five years.
She opened her eyes and turned to look at Qin Chuan.
Qin Chuan sat up too and flexed his wrists. After tapping the panel for over two hours, his fingers had grown a little stiff.
"Level 98." Bibi Dong's voice sounded a little unsteady. "I've reached level 98."
Qin Chuan smiled. "Congratulations, Sis Dongdong."
Bibi Dong let out a long breath.
She calculated inwardly. At her normal meditation pace, she might never have advanced from level 97 to level 98 in her lifetime. Now, one game, two hours, and it was done.
"Want to keep playing?" Qin Chuan asked.
Bibi Dong's eyes lit up.
But immediately afterward, she remembered the instant the door's HP had dropped to 3, and she still felt a little apprehensive.
Qin Chuan saw her conflict.
"Sis Dongdong, Otherworld Survival is thrilling, but it really is tense. How about switching to something more relaxing?"
"Switching to what?"
"Object Hide-and-Seek." Qin Chuan pointed to the door across the corridor. "Pure relaxation. No penalties, no Soul Beasts battering the door. You just turn into an object and hide for the other person to find. Cultivate while you play-easy and effective."
Bibi Dong thought for a moment, then nodded. "All right."
The two left the Otherworld Survival room and pushed open the door to Object Hide-and-Seek.
Qin Chuan activated Game Domain.
The instant the light spread, the room turned into a quaint courtyard. Pavilions and towers, flowers and trees, stone tables and stools-all appeared in perfect clarity.
Bibi Dong looked around, a flicker of novelty passing through her eyes.
Qin Chuan explained the rules.
The two would take turns being the Seeker and the Hider. The Hider would turn into an object and hide, while the Seeker searched with a Spray Soul Tool.
In the first round, Bibi Dong was the Hider.
She turned into a purple vase.
Bibi Dong stared at herself as a vase, stunned for two breaths. Then she heard Qin Chuan's voice calling from a distance. "Sis Dongdong, hurry and hide. The countdown has started."