Wang Meng raised his shield, his expression tightening as he stepped forward. "Prepare for battle."
They had rested briefly on the way back, enough for both health and mana to recover to a usable level. The exhaustion from earlier had not fully faded, but it was no longer crippling.
Behind him, Lin Liyu, still clutching her staff, had been sulking only moments earlier. The mud caked over her clothes and face made her look pitiful rather than elegant, and she had been quietly lamenting the missed chance to add that mysterious expert as a friend.
"It must've been because I looked disgusting… covered in mud and all," she muttered, her voice trembling. "No wonder he didn't want to..."
Her words cut off abruptly.
The scene ahead snapped her fully back to reality.
More than ten Crawlers were swarming a six-person team. The fight was already over by the time Wang Meng's group arrived. The last screams hadn't even faded before the monsters finished their work, tearing through the players with brutal efficiency.
Lin Liyu instinctively tightened her grip on her staff. Her playful demeanour vanished, replaced by a pale seriousness.
At first, Wang Meng braced himself, ready to intercept the monsters the moment they turned their attention toward his team.
But something unexpected happened.
The Crawlers paused.
Their misshapen heads turned in unison, yellowed eyes fixing briefly on Wang Meng and the others. There was a moment of hesitation, subtle but unmistakable.
Then, as if having reached a silent conclusion, the Crawlers turned away.
Before leaving, they absorbed the untradeable lifespan scattered across the ground, dark energy flowing into their bodies with frightening speed. Though digestion took time, the absorption itself was nearly instantaneous.
Once finished, the group of Crawlers fled into the depths of the forest.
"They… ran?" someone whispered.
Wang Meng and the others stood frozen, disbelief etched across their faces.
These monsters were nothing like the mindless enemies they had imagined when entering the game. They assessed strength. They avoided danger. They hunted the weak and retreated from the strong.
Even more unsettling was their speed. While not comparable to the Swift Runner, the Crawlers were still fast enough that pursuit was impossible.
"If they choose to escape," Wang Meng said slowly, "we can't stop them."
Lin Liyu swallowed. "So they really know how to pick their targets…"
A chill ran through the group.
Their understanding of the God Forsaken Game deepened once more, and not in a comforting way. These monsters weren't resources waiting to be farmed; they were predators, cooperating with one another, stealing lifespan, and growing stronger because of it.
What they did with that stolen lifespan remained unknown.
But the implication alone was enough to make their scalps prickle.
Wang Meng didn't linger. "Let's move."
They hadn't gone far when they encountered another team—six players again. Three corpses lay scattered across the ground, while the remaining three fled desperately toward the town, five Crawlers in relentless pursuit.
Their movements were panicked, disorganised. They wouldn't last long.
"Arcane Orb!"
"Triple Shot!"
Two ranged attacks flew out from Wang Meng's team, each strike landing cleanly and blasting away a portion of the Crawlers' health. It wasn't much, but it was enough to draw attention.
"Surround them. Don't let them escape," Wang Meng ordered.
He charged forward, shield raised, and slammed into the ground with a heavy leap. The impact stunned all five Crawlers at once, locking them in place long enough for his teammates to follow up.
Scenes like this were unfolding all around Shell Town.
Monsters that players once assumed would be hunted for experience were now forming groups, coordinating, and turning the tables entirely. Players were dying not because they were careless, but because the rules themselves were far crueller than expected.
At the town's resurrection point, white light flashed incessantly.
Each revived player emerged with a darkened expression.
"We need Level 3 to return… I thought it would be easy."
"Even monsters form teams now. How are we supposed to level like this?"
"If we can't reach Level 3, are we just… stuck here?"
"Then what happens to our bodies in reality?"
Panic spread quickly.
Some suggested forming massive groups. Others immediately rejected the idea, recalling how a forty-person team had attracted a terrifying BOSS—one that wiped out most of them in a single attack.
Amid the chaos, someone noticed the leaderboard.
Shell Town — Level Rankings.
Shadow: Lv. 3.
The square went silent.
"He reached Level 3 already?"
"We can barely survive outside, and he's solo levelling?"
"That means he's doing everything alone… doesn't it?"
A sense of awe spread through the crowd. Fear remained, but now it was accompanied by something else.
Hope.
Not everyone felt that hope, though.
Li Zi, codename Ya Li, materialised in the square once more, her face ashen. This was her third resurrection. Her untradeable lifespan had plummeted from eighty years to ten.
Even if the numbers weren't fully understood yet, the pressure was crushing.
Her teammate beside her was trembling. "Li Zi… what do we do?"
They had barely killed four Crawlers total. Level 2 was nowhere in sight, let alone Level 3.
Ya Li clenched her fists.
Her gaze locked onto the leaderboard.
Shadow.
"Spread the word," she said quietly. "Ten million RMB. If Shadow helps me reach Level 3, I'll pay it."
Reality mattered more than pride.
The message spread through Shell Town like wildfire.
At the same time, Qin Feng was already moving.
After the Swift Runner fell, he continued hunting, eliminating more than ten Crawlers in the forest. Only after accumulating one final Evolution Point did he stop.
Greedy Hand evolved.
The moment the skill upgraded, a faint heat surged through his arm. The new effect became clear almost instantly, and Qin Feng's gaze sharpened.
There was now a chance for additional loot to increase in grade.
Not guaranteed, but no longer a fantasy, either.
If the evolution continued along this path, the implications were obvious.
A Bronze BOSS could drop Silver equipment.
A Silver BOSS might yield Platinum.
The balance of progression tilted ever so slightly, but decisively, in his favour.
Qin Feng exhaled slowly.
Deep within the forest, he already knew of a BOSS that had been hiding for some time, a treant-like creature saturated with stolen lifespan, digesting it in silence.
Soon, that Curser would advance.
And when it did, Qin Feng would be waiting.