Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

Chapter 618 290: An Uneasy Christmas Eve (Part 3)

"Before that, you should go change your pants."

Wu Chang's True Self took over White Old K, while his main body moved to the long trading table where the goods were placed, grabbed two stacks of bills from a suitcase full of Federation Coins, and stuffed them into his pocket.

After handling the food expenses for the time being, he casually chose an ownerless car in the warehouse, and drove back to 26 Garden Street.

As he left the warehouse, he looked up at the sky and saw a full moon hanging high in the night sky.

What a nice weather.

With the problem of White Old K just resolved, and about to return to his cozy little home, Wu Chang gazed at the full moon with an unusual sense of peace.

But for ordinary players who hadn't even found a proper job, let alone a stable shelter, and hadn't even had dinner, they could only think of the white bun in a skewer set when they saw the mooncake in the sky.

Grumble~

The more they thought about it, the hungrier they became.

Under the bridge, three independent players who formed a temporary small group, wrapped themselves in discarded old blankets and gathered around a fire.

With their attributes decreased, the cold night wind was particularly biting, making it hard for them to withstand.

In the copy matching hall during the day, Lin Jiang's call, along with the cheer of the first following player, instantly motivated many players to enter the dungeon.

The three of them, caught up in the enthusiasm, mindlessly followed in.

It wasn't until the system prompt appeared that they realized they had entered an A-Level near out-of-control dungeon.

None of them had reached Level 30; among them, the highest-level Minstrel was only Level 28. An A-Level near out-of-control dungeon was too much for them.

The upside was that the dungeon's difficulty wasn't too high. They hadn't yet encountered enemies that absolutely crushed them in attributes, and strictly following the shared strategy's key points kept them out of danger so far.

The only trouble was that they were too restrained, and the job opportunities they could have gained were instead snagged by other bolder players while they hesitated to observe more.

After a whole busy day, they couldn't pick any of the highly evaluated good professions from the strategy and had to huddle under the bridge with a small blanket to tough out the night.

The next morning, the three planned to continue applying for jobs. This time, regardless of whether the job was good or bad, the priority was to get hired first.

They agreed on the night watch time and order, with the other two players resting first while the Minstrel kept watch during the first half of the night.

As time ticked by, reaching midnight, a gust of cold wind nearly extinguished their fire.

The Minstrel used his body to shield the wind while adding wood to the fire.

During movement, he suddenly felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck, as if something dangerous had locked onto him.

Thump, thump.

His heartbeat instantly became heavy, the fire in front of him split into two, generating a double image.

The splitting of his vision seemed to fracture his brain as well, and amid the intense pain, he noticed his Will had decreased by one, now showing as 5 (-1) on his attributes panel.

This was mentioned in the strategy, if one was without shelter, sleeping on the streets at night would result in a deduction of one Will.

However, in the Cursed Dungeon, the first three Will deductions can be recovered through medication or rest, provided that Will doesn't drop again within the next 24 hours, the deducted Will points will be restored.

The Minstrel wiped the cold sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, thankful that what he encountered was just a Will deduction.

The strategy mentioned several hazards of sleeping on the streets, among which Will deduction was called Silent Night, the luckiest outcome.

With even slightly less caution, one could suffer all kinds of attacks.

It was precisely to tackle nighttime attacks that the three Minstrels temporarily teamed up to keep warm together.

Fortunately, it was a Silent Night.

Just as the Minstrel was about to continue adding fuel to the fire, he suddenly noticed that when he looked at the bonfire, it still had a double image.

What's going on?

He looked carefully at the double image. As he focused, he finally realized what was happening.

It turned out that at the place where the bonfire burned, a crack had appeared in the world, as if something was emerging from the depths of the world.

The Minstrel chuckled with relief, thinking that it was just the world cracking. It gave him a fright; he thought his eyes had gone blurry.

Hehehe, hmm hmm, hahaha!

The Minstrel stared at the crack, his laughter growing increasingly wild, until it turned into madness.

Engrossed in laughter, he didn't notice that as he gazed directly at the world's fissure, his Will quickly dropped by -1, -1...

The Minstrel's laughter woke up his two sleeping companions, who were just about to ask what ailed him when they saw the Minstrel's upper body suddenly disappear, as if a giant monster had gobbled up his upper half directly.

Crunch.

The crisp sound of bones being chewed echoed under the bridge.

Just as they were about to flee, the Minstrel's corpse fixed their gaze like a magnet.

The next moment, both of them also started laughing uncontrollably.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Nearby, a few people overlooked the distant bridge, witnessing the entire process of the three players being devoured.

If Wu Chang were present, he would surely recognize that among those standing in the C position was none other than his target, Lin Jiang.

Lin Jiang observed the grim scene under the bridge and softly said to the people beside him:

"Let's move."