:What did Zheng Xun mean by that?
:No idea. Some kind of code?
:Come to think of it, this Xiao Wu doesn't look familiar. Never seen him before.
:Why would Xiao Jun bring him along? Is Songbird really that short on people?
:Who knows? Maybe they grabbed him at the last minute to fill a spot.
:Let's see if Erchui can do it this time. If he fails again, I'm going to lose it.
:Does Zheng Xun know what he's doing? He doesn't look all that strong.
:You must be new here?
:You can say Erchui has no brains, but you absolutely can't say he has no strength.
:Erchui: Thanks for speaking up for me.
:Hahahahaha.
Zheng Xun pushed open the door to the rooftop.
It was empty and moonless outside. Gusts of cold wind raised goosebumps on their skin.
As usual, Xiaoyin appeared as soon as they stepped onto the rooftop.
Once Xiaoyin had delivered her lines, it was the boss's turn to appear.
When he saw the hazy white figure, Zheng Xun released Little Red Riding Hood.
"Sister Hong, go keep an eye on her."
Before the boss Liang Queyin could make a move, the little girl beside her frightened her into stillness.
The girl's face was split into four flaps, a terrifying sight, and she carried a bloodstained cleaver.
Liang Queyin took two steps back and looked toward Zheng Xun, who stood nearby, as if asking for help.
There was actually a pitiful look on the boss's face.
But Zheng Xun was unmoved. He put on a stern face.
"Don't move. We'll do this in order. I'll deal with you last."
The boss tried to resist, but the cleaver in Little Red Riding Hood's hand flashed, chopping off one of its arms.
The White Tower's bosses and NPCs were also ranked. Someone like Sister Hong, who came from an S-rank or higher dungeon, had an innate advantage over those below S-rank.
Liang Queyin clutched her severed arm, feeling terribly aggrieved, but she didn't dare move.
Having settled that, Zheng Xun looked at the silent Xiaoyin.
"I want to enter the hidden side route."
Xiaoyin didn't react.
"I know who the hidden boss in there is," Zheng Xun continued. "It's you, isn't it?"
Xiaoyin, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly raised her head as if by reflex, only to lower it again.
"You and the boss hiding in the corridor should be two sides of the same entity. The first time anyone entered this dungeon, you couldn't control it properly, and that team fell into the hidden side route. Two people died and one went missing. Afterward, to avoid causing more tragedies, you did everything you could to stop other people from triggering the hidden route by accident."
Whether or not Xiaoyin responded, Zheng Xun went on talking.
"I was wrong," he said. "I thought everything in a dungeon was predetermined. An NPC was an NPC, a boss was a boss, and all they had to do was carry out fixed commands. I never imagined an NPC could have the awareness to protect players."
:NPCs can protect players?
:How is that possible?!
:No way. No matter how lifelike the White Tower's NPCs are, they're still programmed.
:Has Erchui gone crazy from running the dungeon too many times?
:If NPCs were given consciousness, the entire worldview of the White Tower would be turned upside down.
:This should just be a necessary condition for triggering the hidden side route, right? Something like "convince the NPC Xiaoyin."
Xiaoyin's hands clenched tightly into fists at her sides, and her body trembled faintly.
"Players, please defeat the boss 'Liang Queyin.'"
Zheng Xun glanced at Xiao Wu beside him out of the corner of his eye, then quietly looked away.
"There's still a girl trapped in that corridor. Her older brother is looking for her."
Xiao Wu looked up in surprise.
He'd thought Zheng Xun would reveal his identity outright. Before entering the rooftop, they had also reached a tacit agreement.
He had prepared himself to take on the responsibility he should have borne long ago.
But Zheng Xun hadn't done so.
"I can solve this," Zheng Xun said evenly, as relaxed and certain as if he were discussing the weather. "Just let me in, and I can solve it."
Xiaoyin raised her pale face, her dark eyes faintly glistening with moisture.
She didn't answer Zheng Xun, but her right foot took a small half-step back.
The world spun around them.
Multicolored patches almost filled their entire field of vision, and shrill, mocking laughter came from all around.
Zheng Xun wasn't afraid in the slightest. On the contrary, he let out a long breath.
Finally.
Xiao Wu was behind him to his right, beads of sweat forming on the tip of his nose.
Zheng Xun glanced back and saw him standing there unharmed, which surprised him a little.
The noise in this space, along with the colors and patterns on the walls, was a violent assault on players' sight and hearing.
An ordinary person would have passed out long ago, but Xiao Wu was still conscious. It seemed his strength was not to be underestimated either.
"Keep yourself safe," Zheng Xun said, raising his voice over the noise. "I'm going in."
"Okay."
After Xiao Wu responded, Zheng Xun produced his inflatable hammer and gripped it with both hands.
The hidden boss was on the floor ten steps away. Half its head was sticking out, its body buried beneath the writhing patterns. Its eyes narrowed to slits as it let out a strange, rasping laugh.
It sank into the floor.
It was starting.
When the boss appeared again, it was to Zheng Xun's left. He sent it flying with a swift swing of his hammer, but it attacked again from above.
Zheng Xun slid backward, dodging with ease.
He and the boss locked eyes.
The battle suddenly sped up, as if someone had pressed a fast-forward button. Attack and defense switched several times in an instant. Cracking thuds rang through the corridor, followed by the sound of glass shattering as photographs fell from the walls.
It was a blur.
:Holy crap! That's way too fast!
:My eyes are going to go blind.
:Is that a speed a human can reach?!
:Erchui already ran this stage seventy or eighty times. How can he still have that kind of explosive power?
:It's not just his explosive power... I suggest the association check whether Zheng Xun is even human. That's terrifying.
In the twenty hidden stages he had previously simulated, Zheng Xun had already mastered the essentials of the fight.
Apart from speed, there was nothing else.
Although the monster was good at hiding, it only appeared in the large eye patterns, a little like whack-a-mole.
Countless simulations had trained Zheng Xun's reaction speed to a near-monstrous level. In just three more minutes, he could bring the fight to a complete end.
Bang!
The boss suddenly changed targets and attacked Xiao Wu, who was standing nearby.
Zheng Xun spotted it at a glance, but he was a little too far away. His brows knitted tightly as he pulled his inflatable hammer out of the floor, where it had been driven deep, and rushed after it.
Clang!
A flash of white light passed, and the boss was knocked away by the force. It shrieked and melted into the wall.
A three-foot-long sword stood against the floor. As its blade turned upright, it revealed Xiao Wu's calm face.
:It's Juque!
:The Juque Sword? Wasn't that the weapon used by the late President Da Tao?
:Didn't they say it was passed down to the next president?
:Then who is this guy?
:He's Songbird's president, Tao Xueji!
Xiao Wu, or rather Tao Xueji, used Juque to support himself as he stood up.
There was no need for much discussion. Once their eyes met, the two understood how to divide the work ahead.
Zheng Xun took the front half of the corridor, and Tao Xueji took the back half. With help, their efficiency improved greatly, and the boss's health bar dropped rapidly.
"The boss is about to go berserk. Hold on."
Standing back-to-back with Tao Xueji, Zheng Xun gave him the warning.
The eye patterns around them suddenly began moving faster, and the noise grew higher and shriller. Purple light flared around the boss, and its body grew enormously large.
It opened its mouth wide, about to cry out.
Zheng Xun leaped off the floor and shoved his hammer into its mouth, flicking the switch to change modes.
Boom-
With a tremendous explosion, everything came to an end.