The misty jungle

Even so, there was no hurry to go back and look for that female player just yet.

For now, he would get a general understanding of the entire instance first.

Lin Yuan directed Lilia to wander through the jungle for a while.

Compared with Skull Island, which he had experienced in his beginner instance, this island was much larger, and it was covered entirely in dense jungle.

Thick mist constantly drifted between the trees, making it impossible to see anything even a little farther away.

All these factors combined made the island feel utterly deserted, even with over a hundred players inside.

Lilia dragged the coffin around for a long time, yet aside from the group they had encountered at the entrance, they never saw another player.

Not only that, but there were no wild animals or insects in the jungle, let alone any transcendent creatures or eerie entities.

Apart from plants and mist, there seemed to be nothing here.

But Lin Yuan knew that was impossible, of course. The system had explicitly stated that they could only leave this instance after defeating the boss, which proved there had to be enemies here.

Lin Yuan was in no hurry. His primary purpose in coming here was to find rubber; everything else was incidental.

Yet even after Lilia had wandered through the jungle for ages, she had not found a single rubber tree.

As for using the Death Seed to summon an undead army to explore the island, Lin Yuan considered the idea for a while before rejecting it.

For one thing, the Death Seed was rather dangerous. He had only used it twice before, and it had already drained his life force once. Its negative effects seemed quite easy to trigger.

If taking it out this time immediately triggered the effect that summoned the Nether River, wouldn't that be a disaster?

For another, spreading out an undead army would inevitably bring it into contact with other players, and casualties on both sides would be difficult to avoid.

If players turned against Lin Yuan, he would show them no mercy. But taking the initiative to cause slaughter under these circumstances was not his style.

So Lilia would just have to put in a little extra effort and wander around some more. She did not have a stamina bar anyway.

It was just that...

"Lilia, haven't we been here before?"

"Huh? Have we? I can't tell."

"...You're lost again, aren't you?"

"Haha, Captain Insight figured it out! But the mist here is way too thick. It's hard not to get lost!"

This time, even Lin Yuan had to admit that Lilia had a point.

He wondered how the other teams were keeping their bearings.

After some thought, Lin Yuan decided to instruct Lilia to use the oldest method: marking the trees.

Unfortunately, he had still overestimated Lilia's intelligence.

"...You're back again. Isn't that the mark you made yourself on that tree?"

"It really is! That's amazing!"

"...You-wait! What's that?"

Lin Yuan suddenly noticed a splash of red on the ground a short distance away, starkly out of place amid the green trees and white mist.

It was a pool of blood.

The pool was fairly large. If it had come from a person, they were probably beyond saving.

But I can't be sure yet. Maybe it's blood left behind after a player killed some creature in the jungle.

As Lin Yuan pondered this, he suddenly saw Lilia crouch beside the blood and dip a finger into the still-warm liquid on the ground.

Her movements were fluid and elegant, and together with her Gothic dress and red eyes, it was hard not to think of the vampires of myth.

Is Lilia going to taste the blood? That makes sense. She is an eerie creature, after all...

The thought had barely occurred to Lin Yuan when he realized that the doll girl had not put her finger in her mouth.

Instead, she turned her hand over and wiped the blood onto the coffin.

Lin Yuan immediately thought of how he used to wipe boogers on the side of his desk as a child.

The nobility and elegance this doll girl occasionally displayed never lasted longer than an instant.

A moment later, the blood smeared on the coffin slowly seeped into its boards. Then the coffin spat out a faint light, which sank into the doll girl's body.

Lilia nodded.

"Human blood, fifteen minutes old. Forty-four years old, male, no transcendent powers."

That coffin of yours really is versatile!

Lin Yuan made the quip inwardly, then frowned.

"A human without transcendent powers. We can pretty much confirm it was a player."

"Who killed him? An enemy on the island, or... a teammate?"

Lilia had been here before and even left a mark. There had certainly been no enemies here at the time.

Besides, if it had been an outside enemy, where were the dead man's teammates?

After all, everyone other than him and Lilia was moving in teams.

"Did they get separated? Or was it really a teammate who did it?"

"But if it was a teammate, why go out of their way to take the body?"

At that thought, Lin Yuan noticed something else-

There was only this one pool of blood on the ground, with no bloody trail from a body being dragged.

Then how had the body been taken away?

Amid countless questions, Lin Yuan felt that this island was gradually revealing its sinister true face.

Unfortunately, Lin Yuan was no great detective, nor did he possess superhuman intelligence. After all his thinking, his final conclusion was still:

"Whatever it is, we'll give it a good fight when we run into it!"

Just then, a faint shout suddenly came from the distance.

"Stay back!"

The voice was rather shrill, yet strangely muffled at the same time.

It seemed as though the originally piercing voice had been blocked by the damp, heavy mist, which cut it off like a wall.

"Come on, Lilia. Let's go take a look!"

Lin Yuan gave the order immediately, and Lilia broke into a sprint, dragging the coffin behind her.

"Stay back!"

Bai Ling screamed with all her strength.

But the surrounding mist blocked the spread of sound like a wall, leaving her screams feeble.

"Bai Ling, what's wrong?" The young man beside her immediately stepped forward and asked with concern.

"There seems to be something wrong with your team member. We can offer help..." Ahead of Bai Ling's team, several Gray-Robed Men were walking toward them.

Draped in gray robes with hoods over their heads, these people were members of the Diving Club's team.

"Wait. Don't come any closer yet." Although Bai Ling's team leader had not sensed anything unusual, Bai Ling's aversion to these Gray-Robed Men and their approach made him feel that something was wrong.

The Gray-Robed Men actually stopped as told and raised their hands, their manner thoroughly sincere. "There's no need to be nervous. We mean no harm."

"As we just said, we encountered an eerie danger in the jungle. We've already lost several team members, and we still haven't managed to see that thing's true form."

"Since we happened to encounter your team, joining forces is naturally the safest course of action."

"If you have any concerns, we can also keep a certain distance. As long as we can see each other and lend one another support at critical moments, that will do."

"They're lying!" Bai Ling shouted shrilly.

"Your team member seems somewhat mentally unstable. I suggest you pay closer attention to her condition. If something has already affected her, it could be very dangerous," the nearest Gray-Robed Man said with concern.

Bai Ling's team leader turned and exchanged looks with the others, all of them seeing hesitation in one another's eyes.

Although Bai Ling was warning them like this, ultimately, they were only members of a temporary team.

At the moment, Bai Ling really did seem somewhat mentally unstable, while the other party was being extremely reasonable.

Looking at it that way, these Gray-Robed Men apparently... seemingly... perhaps... were not bad people?