Chapter 299: Back Again?

Chen Xiaolian quickly made his way down from the clock tower. Just as he was stepping onto the street outside, he saw a figure running quickly toward his location in an unsteady manner. Looking at the silhouette of the figure, he was able to identify the figure as Qimu Xi.

Chen Xiaolian opened his mouth to greet her but she simply screamed loudly.

“Save me!”

It was only then did Chen Xiaolian notice the two figures chasing after Qimu Xi. Observing carefully, he saw that the first figure chasing after Qimu Xi was a ravenous wolf whose body had mostly decomposed.

Chen Xiaolian took one step forward and pulled out an assault rifle. Next, he knelt down and got into a shooting posture. He saw how the ravenous wolf was about to catch up to the exhausted Qimu Xi…

He roared loudly, “Get down!”

The shout startled Qimu Xi! When the exhausted Qimu Xi heard the shout, she suddenly found the courage to throw her body forward onto the ground instantly.

A sharp wind blasted past her back and she pulled both her hands to hold her head as she screamed again.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out loud and clear.

The ravenous wolf behind Qimu Xi was vaulting through the air when its head suddenly burst open. The momentum of the bullet caused the wolf’s body to flip in the air before falling to the side. Chen Xiaolian then pulled the bolt in an efficient manner before pulling the trigger once more!

Bang!

Another gunshot rang out and the second wolf that was slightly behind wailed out. Then, the wolf too, fell to the ground in a heap.

Chen Xiaolian held the assault rifle and strode forward.

Qimu Xi’s knees and elbows had been scraped by the ground. When she heard the wails of the wolves, she raised her head and saw that Chen Xiaolian was already standing before her with his hand stretched out toward her.

There was a complicated expression on the girl’s face and she hesitated a moment before accepting Chen Xiaolian’s hand, allowing him to pull her up.

“How are you?”

“… I… I’m fine,” replied Qimu Xi tearfully.

“You did very well,” Chen Xiaolian said with a gentle smile and his hand reached out to pat her short bob hair. “Let’s go.”

“Eh? Oh, yes!”

Qimu Xi turned around to look at the distant three-storey warehouse. “That place…”

“Just move. Don’t ask so much.” Chen Xiaolian kept moving forward without turning back.

Even so, Qimu Xi had a faint speculation that this fellow had set up some kind of trap – this trap was set up to screw someone over.

As for who was getting screwed over, someone like Qimu Xi was not able to figure it out.

As they quickly made their way out of a street, Chen Xiaolian kept checking their back. Seeing neither Dong Shi nor the Fallen Avenger behind him, he smiled to himself.

Perhaps it was due to the sound of the gunfire, but after running out from the street, they encountered several other ravenous wolves with decomposing bodies, which appeared one after another.

Chen Xiaolian showed no hesitation and he fired out in succession. They progressed forward, leaving only wolf corpses in their wake.

After making their way out of another street, Chen Xiaolian suddenly noticed a new system prompt in this personal system!

[System prompt: Number of local monsters killed: 10/10. Warm up phase complete, now entering complete mode. Unlocking region…merging the instance dungeon…]

Mm?

Warm up phase?

Chen Xiaolian was shocked at first. However, he was quick to regain his wits.

This warm up phase should be referring to Player mode, right?

In other words… the system thinks I am a Player?

Killing off ten monsters will complete the quest for this warm up phase?

The words ‘unlocking region’ caused Chen Xiaolian’s eyes to light up!

If he were to make a guess, those words meant… he would be able to leave this town?

As expected, a second prompt appeared.

[System prompt: Instance dungeon merging complete. Please move toward the coordinate specified in the radar to enter the next phase.]

A red dot appeared on the radar.

Chen Xiaolian identified the location of the red dot and saw that his luck was quite good. The location was less than 300 meters away from where he was presently at. He simply needed to move down the intersection and keep moving forward. The location was at the end of the town.

Chen Xiaolian felt his morale rising and he brought Qimu Xi along as he ran forward.

As they were running forward, they attracted more of the surrounding monsters toward them.

Chen Xiaolian had already used up several magazines on them. Qimu Xi ran with all her might in the front while he was right behind her, shooting at the wolves as he ran.

A large pack of ravenous wolves were chasing after them. The wolves competed against each other to dash forward as they chased Chen Xiaolian and Qimu Xi. Chen Xiaolian tossed a hand grenade over and the explosion was able to delay the wolves slightly.

Finally, they reached the edge of the town. The coordinate painted by the red dot was right before them and Chen Xiaolian pointed toward it. “Hurry over there!”

Qimu Xi dashed forward madly. As she was about to charge out of the town…

Bang!

The girl suddenly somersaulted backward to land on her buttocks. She had a dumbfounded expression on her face as she stared at the open road ahead of her.

“I… I…”

Chen Xiaolian was surprised as well. He asked, “What happened?”

“I was forced back,” answered a panicking Qimu Xi.

Chen Xiaolian turned around to fire out another barrage of bullets before shouting furiously, “Try again!”

Qimu Xi climbed up and stepped forward once more. However, she was quickly forced back again. “I can’t get out!”

Chen Xiaolian’s mind raced and he quickly recalled the key issue!

Kill ten monsters local to this region!

This was likely the warm up quest that had to be completed beforehand!

Chen Xiaolian had completed the quest. The number of ravenous wolves to fall by his hands certainly number above ten… however, this Qimu Xi had done no such thing!

Only those who had completed the warm up phase can leave this town?

After having figured that out, Chen Xiaolian ran to Qimu Xi’s side. He pulled her down into a crouching position and shoved an assault rifle into her hands. “Do you want to live or die?”

“I want to live ah!”

“If you want to live, then use this gun to kill those monsters! Hurry! Don’t hesitate!”

While he was saying that, Chen Xiaolian did not stop shooting. At the same time, he also tossed out another two grenades forward.

Two loud booming sounds rocked the air as two explosions went off in the middle of the street. The shockwave blasted several of the ravenous wolves to the sky.

Qimu Xi gritted her teeth, held the assault rifle tightly and tried to imitate Chen Xiaolian’s shooting posture. However, after firing two shots, she could not restrain herself from grunting out. The powerful recoil caused the butt of the rifle to strike her shoulder and she nearly fell to her back.

“Fool! Get into a crouching position!” Chen Xiaolian pressed Qimu Xi firmly to the ground and shoved two hand grenades into her hands. “See that group of wolves? Throw this at the point with the most wolves! Put your back into it!”

“Yes!”

Qimu Xi quickly threw the hand grenades with all her might – she did indeed throw them with sufficient amount of strength. However, Chen Xiaolian who witnessed her actions turned livid.

“Idiot! You did not pull out the pins!”

“Eh?” There was a confused look on Qimu Xi’s face and Chen Xiaolian did not know if he should laugh or cry. He said, “Watch me!”

Chen Xiaolian bit off the pin on a hand grenade and tossed it out. Then, he pressed Qimu Xi down the ground.

Another loud boom rang out as the hand grenade exploded.

“Did you see that?”

“… yes, I see.” There was panic on Qimu Xi’s face as she accepted another hand grenade.

This time, she did not make the same mistake. However, the position where the hand grenade landed was far worse. Not a single wolf died from the resulting explosion.

Chen Xiaolian rubbed his temple.

The two of them stayed at the edge of the town and continued killing off the monsters. Thankfully, Chen Xiaolian had a formidable amount of battle strength. He held onto a rifle in each hand as he provided covering fire to stop the wolves from getting near them.

After getting over the initial feelings of panic, Qimu Xi was finally able to kill off a sufficient number of monsters.

When Qimu Xi then received the system prompt, Chen Xiaolian did not hesitate to pull Qimu Xi out of the little town.

This time, they did not run into any form of interference.

The two of them made their way out of the little town. In but one breath, they covered a distance of over 50 meters and reached the wasteland. Turning around, Chen Xiaolian noticed that the amount of ravenous wolves pursuing them had grown even higher in number. He then summoned out another vehicle.

This was his last reserve vehicle.

The two of them got on the car and drove away quickly, shaking off the monsters behind them.

Through the rear view mirror, Chen Xiaolian could see that they were getting further away from the little town. He then breathed a sigh of relief.

“We finally managed to get away. And also that damned Lancelot.” Chen Xiaolian had both his hands on the steering wheel and said, “I wonder if that Dong Shi managed to survive… humph!”

Checking the radar, he saw that there was still a green dot in the town.

That dot meant that Culkin was still alive… additionally, he was still in the middle of a fight!

“He sure can take it,” said Chen Xiaolian with a sneer. “To think that he could hold this long after falling into the Fallen Avenger’s hands. As expected, he’s got quite the abilities!”

…

Culkin was dashing forward with every fibre of his being!

His figure flashed and he appeared in a street.

At present, Culkin was at an extremely miserable state. In fact, it may be fitting to say that he was in a tragic state!

From the way he ran, it was clear that he was forcing himself forward. He staggered as he pulled his left leg forward. His left calf had been torn, exposing flesh even as it bled. Even his bones were exposed! Additionally, scorch marks were evident on his person!

His chest was in an even worse state. The right side of his chest had been pierced through and his whole shirt was soaked in blood. And then there was his left hand. His left hand had been cut off from his elbow down!

The blood from the cut off area had inexplicably died up. No blood flowed out from the wound!

Thankfully, before he had gone off to kill his target, Culkin had stuck to his old habit of setting a spatial coordinate. It was thanks to this that he was able to barely get away from the monster’s pursuit.

Even so, he had failed to utterly shake off the monster. Whenever he turned his head, he would see the monster within his sights!

“Bastard! Bastard! If I make it out of here, I will definitely kill you!”

…

Chen Xiaolian was attempting to use the guild channel to contact Roddy.

However, he was still unable to send any message over.

He came to the realization that although he had left the little town, he was still within the Player mode region. He had yet to truly make it into the punishment instance dungeon.

Their car sped across the wasteland for a full two minutes when Chen Xiaolian abruptly stepped on the brakes!

Gazhi!

He stared at the shocking sight that lay before him.

Chen Xiaolian was utterly shocked!

Before him…

Lying before the road was a plot of houses.

Old wooden houses, streets… faint glow of lights could be seen in some of them…

That was clearly the little town!

The little town that he had escaped from!

But…

I had clearly left the little town! After that, I drove forward in a straight line!

So why… why did I end up coming back here again?