Ji Xun and Yi Xian walked around the village. This mountain village was tiny—one might even call it backward. There wasn’t even a basic electrical grid, and there was zero signal on their phones.
After making a full round, the two of them hadn’t discovered anything.
Some houses looked like they’d been abandoned for a long time, doors wide open, overgrown with weeds inside. The old wooden chairs looked like they were decades old.
The villagers all smiled and greeted them, warmly asking if they were here for a visit, even stuffing some food into their hands.
But by the end of it, they both felt something was off. The entire village gave off a strange vibe, but they couldn’t quite say what it was.
By sheer coincidence, just as they reached the village entrance, they ran into Qi Mai and Guangran, who were also out searching for clues.
The four came face-to-face, stood there silently for a moment, until Qi Mai finally spoke first: “Did you find anything? We can share information.”
Yi Xian crossed her arms and looked at him, letting out a tch: “Why should we? What if your info isn’t as useful as ours?”
Qi Mai didn’t even blink at her attitude. His tone didn’t change: “Or maybe your info just isn’t as good as ours.”
Truth be told, they hadn’t found any clues yet. If the other team had something better, then they’d be the ones gaining from the exchange.
Thinking of this, Ji Xun’s eyes gleamed. He pulled the corner of his mouth into a smile: “Alright then, let’s trade. What did you find?”
“Hold on.” Guangran suddenly spoke up. She tugged her coat a little tighter around herself, her tone calm and unhurried, “You go first.”
“Says who?” Ji Xun frowned, “What, you planning to keep quiet after we tell you everything?”
“Isn’t that what you’re trying to do?”
Guangran lifted her eyes to look at the two standing before her. A cold gleam flickered in her black pupils, “Don’t forget what you did in the last instance. You tricked one of our teammates, then turned around and sold them out, got them killed in that instance.”
Yi Xian snorted coldly at that: “Guangran, what’s that supposed to mean? It was either him or us. And you were there too—weren’t you the one who survived thanks to him? Now you’re playing the teammate loyalty card? If you really had the guts, you should’ve died with him back then.”
“If we had cooperated properly back then, maybe everyone could’ve made it out alive.” Guangran wasn’t buying her excuse. Her expression remained indifferent, her tone slow but cutting.
“And that’s exactly why your group has such bad audience popularity.”
Yi Xian cared the most about that. The moment Guangran called it out, her face flushed red with rage.
She sneered: “Go ahead and keep relying on your precious ‘peaceful’ cooperation to get through instances! Human nature is the most unpredictable thing. You really think this little team of yours is forever?”
This was the root of the conflict between Ji Xun’s group and Qi Mai’s group.
Ji Xun’s side believed that in instances, life and death were commonplace. Whether NPCs or players, they were all the same. Once someone lost their usefulness, there was no point in keeping them around. If you could toss them, toss them. Survival was the ultimate goal. Caring about morals would only get you killed.
Their method was fast—so they always topped the system’s rating scores.
But the price was a ruined audience reputation.
A small portion of viewers liked their ruthless efficiency, but other players had fans too. That kind of selfish behavior always drew backlash from the majority.
Qi Mai’s group was the complete opposite. They believed that if players worked together, anything could be overcome. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they’d never abandon a teammate.
They advocated for full-team clears whenever possible.
Everyone had their own skills—used well, they could complete the instance without injury.
The two groups were polar opposites and constantly clashed during instances.
Especially since Ji Xun’s group often had a “leader” figure who expected everyone to follow their orders.
Qi Mai’s side found that laughable—what era was this? Who still believed in that kind of authoritarian garbage? Regressive much?
And so, the four fell into another standoff. No one wanted to speak first.
Ji Xun and Yi Xian had no clues to offer, while Guangran and Qi Mai didn’t trust their character.
【Knew it. These two teams always clash when they meet.】
【Well, it’s Ji Xun’s crew’s fault for always being untrustworthy. They played themselves into having zero credibility.】
【One side values good, the other embraces evil.】
【Wasn’t Ji Xun’s team called… deva? A bunch of top-ranking players are from that team, right? Qi Mai’s is the simple one—peace.】
【Heard deva and peace were founded by the earliest batch of players. All ranked in the top 100. Pretty impressive.】
【Is Number One still in one of these teams?】
【That’s Number One we’re talking about… you think They’d waste time on any of these teams?】
【True. Do you guys even remember who Number One is?】
【That was ages ago. The system encrypted the top twenty rankings. Can’t see them now. Maybe some old-school viewers still remember—wonder if any are here.】
【So what, these guys are just gonna stare at each other all day? Drag it out till night and let that old man slaughter everyone?】
【LOL, maybe the ghost girl will start the killing first.】
Ji Xun clicked his tongue and sneered: “If you ask me, you found nothing, didn’t you? Just trying to bait us.”
He and Yi Xian had combed the whole village and seen nothing. No way these two had found something he hadn’t.
Guangran’s expression didn’t change: “Even if we did, we wouldn’t tell you.”
Qi Mai had been silent, but when Ji Xun said that, his face visibly stiffened.
Truth be told, Ji Xun wasn’t wrong—they hadn’t found anything either.
Just like Ji Xun and Yi Xian, Qi Mai and Guangran had searched the village thoroughly. They felt something was off, but couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
A familiar male voice suddenly rang out: “There are no middle-aged women in this village.”
All four turned toward the source of the voice.
Surprise flickered in all their eyes.
To them, Bo Jingmo was a lone-wolf player. Even if he had intel, he wouldn’t normally share it.
Yet here he was, offering up information on his own.
Hearing what he said, Guangran furrowed her brows, licked her dry lips, and slowly spoke: “Middle-aged women? That can’t be, I...”
She suddenly froze, her expression shifting drastically. She instinctively grabbed Qi Mai’s arm.
Qi Mai blinked, just about to ask what was wrong, when Guangran spoke in a low voice: “Qi Mai… along the way, did you see any older women?”
At that, all three of the others frowned. Then as if something clicked, their eyes widened.
Qi Mai thought hard, then said seriously: “No. We haven’t seen a single one.”
Forget middle-aged women—aside from Zhao Meng, they’d hardly seen any younger women either.
That’s when it finally hit them—what was wrong with the village.
Since entering, they hadn’t seen a single woman over a certain age.
Saying they were all at home working was way too much of a stretch.
In any normal village, you’d see women with children out and about. But this place was too quiet. No children, no women. Creepy as hell.
Bo Jingmo had walked over without them noticing. He held out his phone, showing them photos of suspicious houses in the village.
“I checked. Some of the doors are tightly shut. In rural areas, people usually don’t lock their doors so tightly during the day. Unless there’s something they’re hiding.”
His words made them all fall into thought. Guangran looked through the photos and nodded: “You’re right. This village is really off. I think the women might be the key. That ‘wife’ Zhao Xu mentioned earlier could be linked to this instance too.”
Bo Jingmo’s eyes flickered. He was about to say something else—
When suddenly, Zhao Meng’s panicked voice rang out from not far away: “Something’s wrong!!”
She came running, out of breath, face pale with terror, stammering as she pointed toward their lodgings:
“Your… your friend, is d-dead!”
Bo Jingmo’s pupils shrank, his gaze snapping toward the direction she pointed.
...Yu Li made her move?