Chapter 1 A Large Map

This underground cavern was a rather large map. The tunnels crisscrossed, intersecting in all directions, and there were many flags in the cave. There were three entrances in total, distributed in three hidden locations in Cangling Town. No matter which entrance you entered from, there was only one path to choose at first. However, after passing through some monster and trap checkpoints, the paths would increase, and various rewards were distributed in the middle or at the end of these paths.

The pool where Xiao Tan and Bei Ling fell, in theory, even players who couldn't swim could get ashore. The very center of the pool was deep, but the edges gradually became shallow. Even holding your breath and sinking to the bottom, then walking up along the bottom was possible, because the distance wasn't far. Moreover, even if the player ran out of air and choked on water, they wouldn't lose consciousness. Their survival value would just constantly decrease, and they would experience the feeling of drowning simulated by the system to a certain extent.

Continuing forward from the path beside the pool would inevitably lead to a plot involving a monster attack.

"It sounds like something's coming..." Listening to the strange noise ahead, Xiao Tan uttered another superfluous sentence.

"I was just about to ask you about that," Bei Ling replied. "There are no plants on these rock walls, but there's a lingering stench in the cave, which means some kind of animal is lurking here. And the first part of the path we walked had no smell, but it appeared when the tunnel widened here, which means the animal is likely to be very large and can only be active in this section." As she spoke, she took out an MP5 from her bag, attached her flashlight to the gun, aimed it at the darkness ahead, and prepared to fire at any moment.

"Then let's run!" Xiao Tan said. "Let's escape back to the narrower part of the tunnel; it won't be able to follow us there."

"And then what?" Bei Ling turned her head and asked. "There's only this one way to go. The pool might be safe for now, but we can't get out."

"Hmm... you're right." Xiao Tan also took out his Winchester shotgun and loaded it.

In fact, retreating would be a solution. Anyway, in the script, players didn't need to eat, drink, excrete, or sleep. As long as they weren't attacked by monsters, their survival wouldn't be threatened. When the sun set, if their teammates realized they hadn't returned to the inn, they would naturally come out to look for them.

However, Feng Bujue didn't know what Xiao Tan and Bei Ling had encountered. He couldn't have the concept of "these two are trapped in some underground pit." He was more likely to assume that the two had been captured by NPCs. Therefore, even if Feng Bujue and the others searched for the two in every room, they would only briefly check the empty rooms to see if anyone was there and might not discover the trapdoor in the remote empty room.

In short, Bei Ling judged that the strategy of retreating to the pool would most likely result in no one finding them until the end of the script.

"It's coming, very close..." Bei Ling said in a deep voice, staring at the darkness. Both she and Xiao Tan had an E-level in Investigation Specialization, but as a Shooting Specialization player, her visual ability was clearly superior to Xiao Tan's.

Hearing this, Xiao Tan also straightened his gun and prepared to shoot at the front.

Roar—

Another roar, mixed with a rumbling sound, and a giant monster the size of a car entered their field of vision.

The monster was huge, and it was difficult to see its full appearance up close. However, its skin shone with a sticky, slippery light under the light, revealing the outline of its back, which seemed to be a giant crocodile.

But the monster's head was slightly different from that of a crocodile, appearing closer to that of a canine, and the roar it emitted sounded like that of a bear.

Bang! The shotgun in Xiao Tan's hand had already fired. At a short to medium range, this should have been a fairly powerful attack, but at this moment, it failed to penetrate the monster's crocodile armor. At most, the pellets embedded themselves in the crevices of the crocodile's back, unable to injure its flesh.

Almost at the same time, Bei Ling's MP5 began to unleash its firepower. However, her attack was clearly more efficient and targeted. She aimed at the monster's eyes, firing in controlled bursts.

The giant crocodile also knew that being shot in the eyes would be extremely bad, so it opened its bloody maw, constantly shaking its head to dodge, and continued to advance.

"Retreat!" Bei Ling's single word was simple and clear.

Xiao Tan also understood, knowing that she wasn't saying "withdraw," but rather "fight and retreat." So, while shooting, he reloaded and retreated shoulder to shoulder with Bei Ling, attacking as they went.

The monster was attacked and, although not greatly damaged, couldn't be said to be completely unaffected. Moreover, in order to protect its eyes from attack, it constantly swung its head, which naturally affected its crawling speed.

The giant crocodile's speed faltered, and Xiao Tan and Bei Ling became even more at ease. Anyway, they both had ranged weapons in hand and plenty of ammunition. As long as they maintained a distance of more than five meters, they could exhaust the monster to death.

The monster's appearance was imposing, and it was quite terrifying as it forced its way forward in this narrow, dark environment. If players really ran away with their backs to it, the sense of urgency of being chased would be very strong. However, this monster wasn't actually considered strong in terms of its settings. It was even easier to deal with than the demon tree that Feng Bujue and Si Yu encountered on the mountain.

Its speed was average, and it became slower with slight suppression. Its defense was very high, but its weaknesses were unusually obvious and easily seen through and targeted by players. Its attack method was simple, a purely physical means, and its attack power might not be able to kill a player with one blow.

And most importantly, the surrounding environment had basically indicated how to deal with it. Players with only melee capabilities could choose to turn around and run away at full speed, and they would be safe once they reached a section that the monster couldn't chase through. As for players with ranged attack capabilities, there was no need to say more; they could use ranged weapons to delay its progress and kite it. Anyway, the tunnel was just this size, and the target was so big that it was harder to miss than to hit.

In fact, if they knew the flag in advance, it would be easier to choose to turn around and run away. Because the monster would eventually get stuck somewhere in the tunnel, completely losing its ability to move, and then it would be easy to kill.

This kind of guiding setting, which seemed to make the battle too easy, was actually reasonable from the system's point of view.

The system couldn't arrange a path that would definitely lead to death for players in hidden caves like this, which clearly contained some rewards or plot flags. If that were the case, it would be better to just design it so that players would fall to their deaths upon entering.

So, after players consumed two-thirds of their survival value and a certain amount of stamina upon entering, the subsequent battle would definitely not be too difficult, unless it was a nightmarish difficulty...

Roar—

Sure enough, with another roar, the two who had kited the monster for five minutes were quite depressed to find that... the monster, while chasing, had gotten itself stuck in a place where the rocks converged and couldn't move.