They're Hunting Them Down!

After dinner, Yuqing grew sleepy. She leaned against the tree trunk, listening to Shen Que and the others discuss their battle plan, and gradually fell asleep.

Hearing the girl's even breathing, Shen Que and the other two stopped talking.

"We can discuss the details tomorrow. We'll take turns keeping watch tonight," Shen Que said, lowering his voice. He took a folding cushion from his backpack and quietly laid it on the ground, then took out a thick blanket.

"I'll take the first watch, Shen Que can relieve me, and Ajiasi, you can take the last watch. How does that sound?"

"All right." Ajiasi nodded slightly.

Yuqing woke in the latter half of the night. After sleeping in soft beds these past few days, she wasn't quite used to sleeping outdoors. Her body ached a little, so she got up.

Shen Que had fallen asleep leaning against the tree trunk, his breathing steady. His gold-rimmed glasses had slipped down a little and rested on the tip of his nose, making him look a little less cool and aloof than usual and a little more boyish. Yuqing looked up and saw Xilaier sprawled asleep in the fork of the tree.

"Ajiasi," she called softly.

The young man immediately turned around, his wary gaze softening in an instant. Seeing it was her, he paused for a moment. "Why are you awake?"

"I'm not used to the hard cushion. I ache all over." Yuqing rubbed her lower back and sat down on a rock beside him. "It'll be dawn soon. I'll keep watch. You go get some sleep."

"No need." Ajiasi shook his head, keeping his voice low. "Get some more sleep. It's still early."

"I've slept enough." Yuqing shook her head, now fully awake. "I might as well make breakfast. It'll be ready when they wake up."

She stood up as she spoke and rummaged through her backpack for a small copper pot Mrs. Xiersen had insisted on giving her. She set it over the campfire and added some wood, making the flames flare up again. Then she took out the rabbit meat left over from yesterday, cut it into small pieces and tossed them in. She added a few jingjie berries she had picked along the way, sprinkled in some salt and seasonings, and put the lid on to let it simmer.

Soon, the rich aroma of meat wafted out.

The rabbit meat had stewed until tender, its aroma mingling with the distinctive, light sweetness of the jingjie berries. The scent carried far on the wind, especially tempting in the cold morning air.

Ajiasi sat on a rock, his nose twitching.

"Here." Yuqing filled a bowl with hot soup and handed it to Ajiasi, a faint smile on her lips.

Ajiasi's gaze lingered for a few seconds. Then he took the bowl and quickly lowered his head. "...Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Hm? What's that smell... It smells so good..." Xilaier's groggy voice came from the tree. He smacked his lips and sniffed, then suddenly opened his eyes and sat up in the fork of the tree. He looked down, and his eyes lit up. "Holy crap! There's breakfast?!"

He sprang down from the tree, landing so loudly that he woke Shen Que beside it.

Shen Que adjusted his glasses, still a little dazed from sleep. He paused when he smelled the aroma, then smiled. "Why are you up so early, Aili?"

"The ground was too hard. I'm not quite used to it, but it's fine. I'll adjust after a couple of days." Yuqing filled two more bowls of hot soup and handed them to Shen Que and Xilaier.

"I didn't think it through." Shen Que smiled helplessly. He had read in a guide that NPCs went on standby at night, but Aili's character had been written so perfectly. "Our next destination isn't far from a town. We can find an inn to rest at."

Most towns in the game were used to gather information and replenish supplies. The route they had chosen was relatively dangerous, so there were fewer towns along it.

"Okay..."

[Host! Bad news!]

[A large number of exotic beasts have been detected approaching from the northwest. Approximately thirty, mostly between level two and level three. Estimated arrival at camp in ten minutes!]

"What? That can't be right. With that much commotion, there's no way we wouldn't have noticed anything!" Yuqing was surprised. Even if Shen Que and Xilaier hadn't noticed, Ajiasi shouldn't have been completely unaware.

[I don't know. Maybe the game gave them some kind of stealth ability to catch players off guard?]

Yuqing: ...Wait, are you sure this is the newbie village?

She sprang to her feet and shouted, "There's a pack of exotic beasts! Northwest!"

"Aili, I didn't notice anything..." Xilaier was about to say it was impossible, but as a formally trained military academy student, he quickly noticed the unusual, faint tremors in the ground.

"About thirty." Ajiasi was already on his feet. He listened for two seconds, and his gaze beneath his hood suddenly sharpened like a blade. "At least ten are level four. The one leading them has an aura close to level five."

"Holy crap?!"

Xilaier's face went pale. He instantly remembered the Rock-Armored Beast in the newbie village that had kicked him around like a ball. One level-four beast was already more than they could handle, and now there were ten? With a leader close to level five?

"Oh, my heavens..." he wailed. "I can't even beat one level-four beast right now, and there are ten? Is this game targeting us or something? What do we do now?!"

"Run." Ajiasi didn't waste a word. He glanced around. Meeting them head-on would be suicide. If thirty exotic beasts surrounded them, there wouldn't be a scrap left of the four of them.

Besides, in the game, players could wait for resurrection armor after they died, but if an NPC died, the game would erase all of "Aili's" data. Even if the character "Aili" still existed, she would be the result of the data code being recalculated, and she would no longer be the Aili they knew now.

Shen Que had clearly realized this too. Sentinels were born to protect guides. All of them could die, but they couldn't let anything happen to Aili.

"Run south. There's a deep forest there, and mountains beyond it. I refuse to believe we can't shake them!" Shen Que frantically searched his memory of the map and finally found an escape route. "Follow me. I'll clear the way!"

"Xilaier, protect Aili. I'll bring up the rear!" Ajiasi scooped Yuqing up and pushed her into Xilaier's arms.

"Okay. Be careful!" Xilaier was big and strong, and even carrying Yuqing, he didn't slow down at all.

Before he finished speaking, the first exotic beast burst out of the woods to the northwest.

It was a giant wolf, gray-black from head to toe and three times the size of an ordinary wolf. Its fangs jutted out, and its eyes glowed an eerie red. It was a level-four Corrupted Species, a Shadow Wolf.

The second and third followed close behind... Exotic beasts poured out of the woods in a dense mass, like a black tide. Their roars shook leaves from the trees.

The four turned and charged south.

Xilaier ran in the middle with Yuqing in his arms, not slowing down in the slightest. He strode on his long legs, each step covering as much ground as two from an ordinary person, traversing the rugged mountain path as easily as level ground.

Yuqing lay against his shoulder and glanced back. Ajiasi was at the rear, his short blade flashing. The few exotic beasts that caught up had their throats slit as soon as they drew near. Their bodies fell to the ground, temporarily blocking the pack behind them.

The young man's black-clad figure darted through the pack. Every strike was extraordinarily precise, every cut fatal. Exotic beasts' blood splashed onto his hood, but he didn't even frown, like a precision killing machine.

But there were simply too many exotic beasts. Ajiasi killed quickly, but they pursued even faster, surging forward one after another like a tireless tide.

After they had run for about twenty minutes, a dense forest appeared ahead.

"Into the forest!" Shen Que ran in front, his sense of direction terrifyingly precise. He headed straight for places where the trees were thick and vines intertwined. "Follow me, and don't run off! I've seen this forest on the map. The terrain inside is complicated, with lots of natural narrow paths and pits!"

He called out directions as he ran. "Turn left! There's a patch of thorns ahead, go around to the right! Watch your step, there's a pit ahead!"

His instructions were fast and accurate, like a living map. Sure enough, the pack slowed down after charging into the forest. The beasts kept getting caught on trunks and vines and colliding with one another, and their formation immediately fell apart.

"We're almost at the mountain pass!" Shen Que pointed at the canyon ahead. "Get ready to rush in!"

The four charged into the canyon. Towering stone walls rose on either side, with a passage less than three meters wide between them. It was indeed a natural barrier.

Ajiasi was the last to rush into the canyon. He stabbed the nearest Shadow Wolf to death with a backhanded strike, and its body landed right across the entrance, temporarily blocking the pack behind it.

He hurried to catch up with the other three. His breathing beneath his hood was slightly rapid, and his coat was stained with plenty of blood, but he still stood straight, showing little sign of fatigue.

"Did we shake them?" Xilaier put Yuqing down and asked after catching his breath.

"Yeah, they can't get in." Ajiasi raised his hand and wiped the blood from his face.

The moment he finished speaking, two low roars came from deep within the canyon.

The sounds weren't loud, but they carried an overwhelming pressure that made even the stone walls tremble slightly.

The expressions of all four changed at once.

Two enormous figures came running from the other end of the canyon: a Frost Rabbit approaching level five and a level-four Mutant Leopard!

No way. No way!

They're hunting us down?