Xiao Hao's heart pounded uncontrollably, but he remained perfectly still.
Sweat ran from his nose onto his lips. He pressed them tightly together, yet still tasted a hint of salty bitterness.
"Stop hiding. I can see you..."
The voice sounded directly above Xiao Hao's head.
Only a thin layer of earth separated them.
Cold sweat drenched Xiao Hao, leaving him looking as though he had just been dragged out of the water.
In the pitch-black darkness, everything around him seemed to sprout countless eyes, all staring at him mockingly!
He knew it was an illusion, but the feeling of being watched was unnervingly vivid, as though something terrifying stood behind him, fixing its blood-red eyes on him!
His legs had gone numb from crouching, but Xiao Hao still didn't move.
The pressure kept mounting. His heart was practically in his throat.
There was no way he could escape.
Xiao Hao had to take a gamble!
Bet that it couldn't find him!
Everything fell silent.
Several minutes passed, yet they felt like centuries.
Sweat seeped from his forehead and suddenly trickled into his eyes. The whites of his eyes grew increasingly bloodshot, and the stinging pain ate away at his resolve.
Xiao Hao's hands trembled slightly despite himself, but he stubbornly held on. Even his breathing stayed shallow, for fear that the slightest sound would draw the ghost to him.
"Get out here!"
Hearing the ghost lose its temper, Xiao Hao actually felt relieved.
He'd won the gamble!
It hadn't found him!
A rumble rang out. Enraged, the ghost swept its scythe-like fingers through the earth and stone as easily as slicing tofu.
A large pit.
One swipe.
And it was filled in.
The rumbling drew closer and closer. Xiao Hao could only watch as his sole opening was buried.
The once-pitted ground had already become a flat expanse.
An unknown amount of time passed before the loose earth suddenly shifted.
A hand thrust up from underground!
It was Xiao Hao!
Covered in dirt and looking utterly bedraggled, Xiao Hao nevertheless broke into a grin.
Comments kept popping up before his eyes.
[He made it out alive!]
[That ghost definitely never imagined the streamer was hiding right under its feet!]
[He'd rather be buried alive than come out. This streamer is way too hard on himself.]
[Honestly, I've watched a lot of players, and he's the first one I've seen escape a ghost this way.]
[New players really suck, but this streamer has earned my respect.]
[Followed, just for how well he handles pressure.]
[If it were me, with a ghost drifting around right beside me, I definitely wouldn't be able to stop myself from running.]
He had planned to keep farming monsters, only to run into this mess.
Luckily, bonding with his guardian had improved his physical fitness considerably. Otherwise, he never would have managed to crawl out.
Xiao Hao wasn't in any shape to continue, so he had to return to the Coral Shell Room and rest for a while.
On the way back, he still remembered to open a few more treasure chests.
By now, Xiao Hao barely had to worry about finding food.
When he turned on the shower, Xiao Hao felt a little sticky. The shower water was actually seawater.
That made sense. If it were fresh water, there would be no need to get water from treasure chests.
Xiao Hao suddenly remembered the Water Purifier blueprint in the Synthesis House.
What raw materials didn't he have?
Synthesize!
Showering with water purified by the Water Purifier felt great!
After his shower, Xiao Hao lay on the bed and opened the forum, which he hadn't checked in quite a while. He could see the game panel floating in midair without having to hold up his phone.
He wanted to see how everyone else was doing. Perhaps another player had obtained soul-replenishing grass, which would spare him from facing the ghost.
Unfortunately, nobody had any.
There were even a few more competitors now.
Xiao Hao didn't dislike these competitors. He even felt a sense of shared suffering.
Only people with damaged souls needed soul-replenishing grass.
They were all unfortunate souls.
"Number 666: Help! Help me! My leg's broken! Please, everyone, give me a Blood Potion! Give me a Blood Potion!!!"
"Number 666: I'll trade food for it! Please, save me!"
Among all those players, Xiao Hao certainly wasn't the only one who had found Blood Potions, but nobody was willing to trade theirs.
Treasure chests were sure to contain food, but Blood Potions weren't guaranteed.
Even with tips from the comments, Xiao Hao had opened more than a dozen chests to obtain just four bottles.
Xiao Hao had gained plenty of experience opening treasure chests. They spawned in different places and only remained for about two hours. Miss that window, and they were gone.
The pleas for help were flooding the forum, yet nobody offered a Blood Potion. When Number 666 posted a picture of a huge assortment of snacks, Xiao Hao quickly recognized that piece of work.
The one whose bed was piled full of snacks.
It was only the second day of the survival game, and Blood Potions were still extremely scarce.
Players capable of obtaining Blood Potions generally didn't need to worry about food.
Many of the other players who had originally followed Number 666 were now saying that since death was inevitable anyway, all that food should be donated.
Number 666 was practically losing it, yet nobody was willing to trade. Instead, more and more people piled on the guilt.
Xiao Hao checked the Blood Potions in his inventory. He didn't have many, but he wasn't exactly short on them either.
If he wanted to, finding treasure chests wasn't difficult, so he had a reasonably steady supply of Blood Potions.
With that thought, Xiao Hao used the game panel's camera function to take a picture of his Blood Potions. It immediately brought all the forum's lurkers out of hiding.
"What do you want, boss?"
"I have iron blocks, coral, copper blocks, and gold blocks! Just please sell me a Blood Potion!"
"I have lumber, cotton, cloth, and all the materials for a Water Purifier! Please trade me a Blood Potion!"
The forum instantly exploded with messages, and friend-request notifications popped up like crazy.
"Number 666: Boss! I was wrong, boss! I'll give you all my snacks! My HP is almost at zero! Please!"
Apparently, Blood Potions were even rarer than he had imagined.
The demand was enormous.
Xiao Hao opened his inventory to check the supplies being offered on the forum, only to find that he had them all...
There didn't seem to be anything he needed.
Friend-request notifications were still popping up, so Xiao Hao simply blocked them.
He posted a request to buy soul-replenishing grass, but there was still none available.
It looked like he would have to gather it himself.
"Number 666: Bro, boss, please! I was wrong, really wrong! I'll give you all my snacks. Please save my life!"
"Number 666: Bro, a huge chunk of flesh got bitten out of my thigh, my bone is broken, and the bleeding won't stop! I'll never act so cocky again. Please take pity on me and save me..."
Sigh.
He couldn't let a whole bed's worth of snacks go to waste.
Xiao Hao accepted Number 666's friend request.
"You already had a whole bed full of snacks. Why would you go out looking for trouble?"
"I saw lots of people on the forum getting all sorts of things from treasure chests..."
So it was envy...
Still, venturing out despite having plenty of food took some guts. He had to give the kid that.
Seeing the snacks listed on the exchange, Xiao Hao wasted no words and traded a Blood Potion for them.
"Thank you, bro! Thank you, Dad! I can't thank you enough!"
Xiao Hao had no intention of accepting this new child...
He browsed the forum for a while but found no more useful information.
Xiao Hao set his status to offline, prompting a chorus of wails across the forum.
If someone died in the game, their avatar turned black again. Going offline turned it gray.
[Did you notice? A Peacock Mantis Shrimp appeared about a thousand meters away!]
[It really did! I saw it!]
[Peacock Mantis Shrimps are extremely rare wild monsters. With one around, you at least won't get instantly killed by a ghost in the teens.]
Seeing this, Xiao Hao couldn't sit still anymore.
It wasn't as though Xiao Hao had encountered no other wild monsters while exploring the seabed.
But not one of those monsters could withstand even a single basic attack from the ghost.
At last, the comments had told him about a suitable wild monster. Xiao Hao, who had been exhausted moments before, jolted fully awake.
What else was there to say?
Time to go!
Before you continue