CH 4

Under Lin Yan’s control, the crowd barely managed to suppress their fears and moved towards the warehouse. The atmosphere was stagnant as none of the players spoke, the shadow of death and fear lingered on for a long time.

The door to the warehouse was a heavy steel plate door, and the key was nowhere to be found.

Lin Yan pointed to the three remaining men, Xiao Lan, the flower-armed punk, and the lover boy, and said, “You three, find something to break down the door.”

The lover boy had a few moments of caution, “Is breaking the door considered a …… foul?”

On hearing this, everyone remembered the scene where the balding middle-aged man was swallowed up by the lift after three warnings and couldn’t help but feel a tingle in their heads, even the flower-armed gangster who had found a steel pipe and was ready to strike paused in his hand.

Lin Yan sniffed, his eyes fixed on him coldly: “I said I would only give you help if you cooperated with me. Don’t forget whose advice you relied on to get through the last round of choices!”

Meeting Lin Yan’s eyes, the lover boy couldn’t help but shrink. Now that they belonged under Lin Yan’s shelter, the seasoned veteran player would probably abandon him without hesitation if he lost his value. He looked at his girlfriend, gritted his teeth and turned to find his tools.

Xiao Lan pretended to look for his tools and turned away from the crowd while asking in a weak voice, ” Luo , do you know what the punishment is for breaking the scene.”

[As far as I know, destroying the scene will attract the boss’s attention and increase the risk of the player’s death. When the damage level exceeds 30%, the boss has a chance to strike directly at the player]

[Based on your current strength, I would say that such an act could be called – a death wish]

In Xiao Lan’s footsteps, black letters appear on the ground, with the word “death” boldly added.

Xiao Lan : “……” You are a very honest little fellow.

A little way forward, an overturned cupboard comes into view next to it.

Xiao Lan walked up and opened the cupboard door and rummaged around carefully. Suddenly he reached in and took a small box, a sly smile on his face, “Just don’t break it.”

Back in the direction of the crowd.

Lin Yan looked at Xiao Lan with empty hands and said in a stern tone, “Why don’t you take your tools? You three are responsible for everyone’s lives, do you want to make it impossible for everyone to get through?”

Only the short-haired girl who handed Xiao Lan the paper before glanced at Lin Yan with a complicated look and then lowered his head.

At this Xiao Lan smiled instead, “Since we all value our lives so much, how can we feel comfortable leaving it to three people who are not related to us, why don’t we all go together?”

And with that he looked around the group.

Those who met his eyes had a few moments of embarrassment and avoided his gaze. We all knew in our hearts that there was no telling what would happen if we smashed the door, and why would they want to do it themselves when they could stand on the moral high ground and push others to their deaths.

Lin Yan frowned, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, time is limited, so let’s not waste it on this stupid and dangerous act.” With that, Xiao Lan stood directly in front of the warehouse door and pulled out the paperclip in his pocket.

Lin Yan : “You want to pick the lock? The locks on the warehouse are not that easy to pick, don’t waste everyone’s time.”

“That’s right, and the lady guide didn’t say it would be a foul to smash the door.”

“I think he’s just afraid to go on.”

“Young people nowadays are getting worse and worse, in our time everyone was hardworking.”

Xiao Lan ignores this and reaches down to break one end of the paperclip straight and bend the front end slightly into a 90 degree turn. The folded paperclip is then inserted into the lock hole.

Three seconds later – there was a click and the door opened.

The air seemed to linger with the crunching sound of a cold slap mercilessly slapped repeatedly across a large face.

The crowd was shocked by this operation and their eyes were filled with emotions like “Damn it ……”, “Why are you so skilled”, “May I ask what you do for a living? ” and other emotions.

Xiao Lan stood up and pushed the warehouse door open straight away, then turned back to Lin Yan and asked, “What did you say?”

“……” Lin Yan held up his glasses and walked into the warehouse with a grim face without saying a word.

The warehouse is also poorly lit and dusty. The group continues to split up, with Xiao Lan choosing an unoccupied direction to explore alone in order to communicate with Luo.

Luo’s elegant and sinewy handwriting appears as follows.

[Has poverty, sir, led you to some ulterior part-time job at night?

Xiao Lan said, with a look of regret, “You don’t know what it’s like to lose your keys and decide whether it’s better to have your last two dollars to get a key or to buy noodles.

[…… is truly an inspirational story]

Xiao Lan smiled and moved on to look for clues.

The shelves in the warehouse were disorganised, with a lot of things of different categories all mixed together, barely looking tidy. There was also a thick layer of dust on them, which immediately tumbled into the air when they were slightly turned over, and it looked like the people who usually managed the warehouse were very inattentive.

When you think about it, it would be strange if the big brother Zhang Dong could take his work seriously.

I don’t know what the criteria for selecting a boss in Advent World are, but Sister Xiao, the shop assistant, seems to be more dedicated to her job than he is, and she is also very mean.

Suddenly a strong smell of blood came from ahead.

Xiao Lan quickly steps forward to check out a shopping cart that has somehow appeared in the warehouse with a person folded in it.

According to the size of the shopping cart, it is not really difficult to fit a person in. But what makes this scene uncomfortable is that the person is completely folded up, stacked like a towel in one regular layer, with no regard for whether the human body can reach that level.

Looking dressed as one of the three schoolgirls, with her head folded underneath, it was impossible to tell exactly who it was, and blood was currently dripping from the shopping cart.

Xiao Lan looked around carefully. The shelves had been moved, the boxes placed on top had been tossed about, and judging by the handprints on the dust, they were the hands of girls.

Presumably, the girl’s actions of rummaging through the shelves for clues triggered the death condition, and Xiao Lan, who was only a few shelves away from her but heard nothing, died without a sound.

“Wen Wen!” A girl’s cry of alarm rang out.

Xiao Lan turned her head and saw that it was the short-haired female student who had handed out the paper earlier. Her face was pale and she looked terrified. With three girls present together and now she was the only one left, no one could remain calm any longer.

The short-haired girl crouched on the ground in terror, both hands clutching her head and shaking, muttering something under her breath.

Xiao Lan was a little worried: “Are you okay?”

The short-haired girl kept her head down and did not respond.

Xiao Lan took two steps forward, only to find her shaking even more, and had no choice but to stop: “Relax, I’m not coming near you. Listen, she probably triggered the death condition by messing with the shelves, remember that if you want to live. As well as not destroying the scene, which also increases the risk of death.”

The short-haired girl didn’t look up, but still nodded slightly.

Xiao Lan left first. In a world where life and death are but a moment away, no one knows if they will die next for some inexplicable reason, and neither does Xiao Lan, who has to fight for her life.

Telling the short-haired girl the conditions of her death was a way of paying her back for the help she had given Xiao Lan earlier.

If this girl falls apart, even if she is saved this time, she will die at the next death crisis. I hope she can pull herself together, one can only save oneself.

Xiao Lan continued on, exploring several shelves in quick succession without finding anything.

As he passed near a shelf, that chilly feeling as if something was watching came back. He stopped and glanced around; there were large shadows at the bottom of each shelf, making it difficult to tell what was hiding inside.

So as not to alert something in the shadows, Xiao Lan unobtrusively writes on the envelope with her finger

[Luo, can you check the perimeter for me]

[At your service, sir]

The black shadow spreads out from the envelope, from Xiao Lan’s feet in all directions, not very far, only about two metres.

Xiao Lan moves slowly in tandem with Luo’s probing.

[here].

Luo has marked an arrow below one of the shelves.

Xiao Lan approaches the shelf, pretending to be looking for clues. The object inside is unexpectedly sensitive, and the moment it senses Xiao Lan’s approach, it dodges and tries to escape in another direction.

But a thick darkness merged into its shadow, slowing its movements, and it was kicked off by Xiao Lan, who arrived and rolled several times on the ground.

It is a blackened creature, the length of a cat, smooth and eyeless, with sharp nails on two human-like palms.

The monster waved its claws in anger, the cold light on those claws glinted and emitted a heart-pounding coldness, and one claw scratched deep marks into the concrete floor.

If a person were to be clawed, I’m afraid it would be more than just a matter of skin and flesh.

The creature, clearly invisible but precisely facing Xiao Lan, bared its teeth and came at him with a lightning-fast attack of sharp claws.

[Sir! Run and I’ll block–]

No sooner had Luo finished writing than he saw Xiao Lan darting a kick at the monster’s face, a move so skilled that he was a man full of stories.

It hit the wall with a loud bang and struggled for a few moments, but it didn’t move at all.

A system prompt appears, “You have killed Stalking Shadow.”

Xiao Lan stepped forward and picked up the monster’s corpse and looked at it, “This thing is called a subterranean shadow?”

Luo seems to have mixed emotions and the words are stuck.

[Yes, from what I remember, this is a monster that can hide in the shadows, spy or …… assassinate, and has a 97.6%+ chance of death for new players facing it]

Xiao Lan : “Is it …… that good? I just kicked it.”

[Perhaps your physique has been enhanced by the skill]

Xiao Lan now remembers his [Poverty Can’t Limit My Imagination], which seems to have a passive effect that enhances the player’s physical fitness based on the level of poverty, and wonders how far he’s gotten.

Will his style of painting turn into splitting bricks with his bare hands, breaking walls with his head and shattering boulders with his chest ……

Xiao Lan thought it was too ……

Because of the previous commotion, a cardboard box that had been left unattended fell from the shelf and the light bulbs inside pinged all over the floor, several of them hitting Xiao Lan and bouncing off him, shattering on the floor.

Then the system prompt appeared: “Destroying a scene prop has slightly attracted Zhang Dong’s attention.”

Xiao Lan : “……”

I can’t blame this on me! They fell on their own, and this is called porcelain, the kind that will make you an internet sensation in no time.

Xiao Lan turned his head and said, ” Luo , do you have something like a car recorder?”

[Please face reality, sir]

Another system prompt appeared immediately afterwards, “Poverty value increased by 0.01 million, Xiao Lan even poor is so shabby.”

Xiao Lan’s eyes lit up when he saw the line: “I have a bold idea.”

[Gold belt for murder and arson?

Xiao Lan : “Let’s be more euphemistic, we can call him – robbing the rich to help the poor method, robbing the boss’s rich to help my poor. Of course it has to be done after my fighting or escaping ability has improved, if I demolish the warehouse now to increase my poverty value, I might be hunted down by Zhang Dong to every corner of this world.”

I’ll be with you even in hell

Xiao Lan said, “Thanks, but can you have a little faith in me ……”

This sounds like the last words before a generous death.

The author has something to say.

Xiao Lan’s imagined future.

Luo: We are passing through your precious place today, but unfortunately we have run out of money, so I hope you can support us if you have money, or support us if you don’t!

Xiao Lan then performed a chest-thumping routine.

Folks: Yes!!! One more!