The blizzard continued, and the sky grew increasingly darker.
It was only a matter of time before night fully fell.
Yet Lin Yu, who hadn't found a base or begun gathering firewood, remained calm.
After bidding farewell to Sister Hua earlier, he had headed north...
This meant he was now closer to the "item" Sister Hua had mentioned.
Most importantly, Lin Yu currently had the 'Soldier' class enhancement and held a map in hand. Even if he needed to find a base and gather firewood now, time was still ample.
But Lin Yu didn't want to waste the night.
Precisely because 'Chate' and the snow monsters appeared at night, he didn't want to delay.
But what if a player died beforehand?
Lin Yu suspected that given the difficulty of the Promotion Task, failure would likely be declared in such cases.
Hidden within his first Promotion Task was a critical challenge.
He had to race against time to meet everyone and successfully lie before any deaths occurred!
Though the information Sister Hua obtained about the [Black Oil Torch] was vague, Lin Yu could roughly guess its location by cross-referencing the map.
On the map, several kilometers due north of the base Sister Hua mentioned—which was northwest of Dolphin's previous location—
Lay a red-marked zone with high snow monster activity.
Without a map, Sister Hua would indeed have struggled to retrieve this item.
Fortunately, Lin Yu was now a Soldier and also possessed the [Guaranteed-Hit Revolver].
Though it had only one bullet, Lin Yu believed it would suffice.
Since the monster named 'Chate' was explicitly described as invincible,
It implied that ordinary "snow monsters" under Chate's rule could likely be killed.
With the Soldier's physical prowess and the revolver, taking one down shouldn't be an issue.
It'd be best to avoid encountering them altogether!
With this thought, Lin Yu quickened his pace, breaking into a full sprint across the snow.
Lin Yu realized he had entered the "red zone."
On the ground, beneath the fresh layers of snow swept up by the blizzard, appeared a trail of heavy footprints—compacted snow turned to ice.
The prints were three to four times larger than a human's, with distinct edges and only three toes.
These clearly didn't belong to any "human."
They undoubtedly belonged to...
Lin Yu exhaled sharply.
"Just looking at these footprints tells me this thing won't be easy to deal with," he muttered.
Any primate or primate-like creature larger and stronger than humans was inherently dangerous.
As the sky darkened further, the howling wind took on a mournful tone.
Lin Yu observed the direction of the footprints, then deliberately chose a perpendicular path.
"Hope I find that 'rock' soon."
He stepped over the prints, maintaining speed but lightening his footsteps.
Though unsure if snow monsters tracked by sound, caution never hurt.
Just as visibility began deteriorating noticeably, making Lin Yu consider abandoning the search—
A dark, protruding silhouette emerged faintly through the distant snowfall.
Its shape was unusually regular, resembling a boulder.
Despite traversing mountainous terrain, the Extreme Winter Mountain had been relatively flat, likely due to wind and snow erosion, with no prominent rocks—
Except for this sudden, massive outcrop.
Lin Yu hurried forward, reaching the boulder's side.
The rock appeared diagonally embedded in the ground, leaving an area beneath it with noticeably thinner snow cover.
Lin Yu stepped beneath it, shuffling his feet until he felt something solid.
Kneeling, he brushed away the snow and soon uncovered a torch forged from black metal.
The torch head was exquisitely crafted—far more intricate than Lin Yu expected—a hollow cylinder adorned with flame-like engravings.
Upon touching it, a prompt appeared:
[Black Oil Torch: A torch capable of burning in any environment, providing constant warmth and light. Effective at repelling fire-fearing monsters.]
[Note: Particularly effective against "snow monsters" in this game.]
Sister Hua had been truthful—the description matched her account almost verbatim.
Lin Yu bent to pick up the torch but found it stuck.
Recalling the sensation underfoot, he frowned and cleared more snow.
The torch was clutched in a frozen hand.
The fingers had fused with the torch's base, making it impossible to lift directly.
Fortunately, as a Soldier, Lin Yu had strength to spare.
With a sharp tug, a crisp snapping sound followed.
Several fingers broke off, which Lin Yu then peeled from the torch's base.
The pitch-black metal torch felt icy and smooth, almost painfully cold to hold.
Lin Yu scraped it against the rock, grinding away the remaining frozen skin fragments.
Next, he examined how to ignite it.
"Don't tell me I need my own fire starter..."
If so, that'd be rotten luck.
However, given the description mentioned "burns in any condition," the ignition method probably wasn't primitive.
Sure enough, Lin Yu soon discovered a thin seam at the torch's base.
It was nearly invisible, save for a few ice crystals lodged inside.
After brief inspection, he understood.
Rotating the black cylinder below the seam produced a faint *pop* from within the torch!
A white flash flickered through the hollow torch head, followed by...
Pale flames erupting silently from the top, casting a soft, cool glow that illuminated the surrounding blizzard.
The torch grew warm, radiating comforting heat into Lin Yu's hands.
Lin Yu was pleasantly surprised.
"What a gem! Really owe Sister Hua for this one!"
Then he glanced at the severed fingers.
"And thank you too, brother... though with such a handy torch, how'd you end up dead here?"
Curious to investigate the "cause of death" for his own safety, Lin Yu crouched with the torch and cleared the snow shrouding the corpse.
As the snow fell away, his expression sobered.
The cause of death remained unclear—no visible wounds, just a frostbitten, pallid face frozen in terror.
And this face... Lin Yu recognized it.
It was the burly man he'd met earlier.
Even the clothing matched exactly!
"Well, ain't this a fucking unexpected bonus," Lin Yu murmured, staring at the corpse.