Chapter 97: “Huff—— Huff…”

Chapter 97

"Haaah—haaah…"

By around 4:30 in the afternoon, the inky night sky had gradually unfurled over the snow-capped mountains, dotted with twinkling stars. Standing on the snow-covered high slope and looking up, it felt as though these stars were within arm's reach.

At the center of the campsite, the bonfire served as the most stable and warm light source in the area, casting a layer of warmth over the pure white, icy backdrop of the snowy terrain.

The flames swayed with the wind, stretching long and short shadows behind the three newly erected olive-drab tents nearby.

Eurus stood by the fire with her hands on her hips, letting out a long sigh. "It's already dark, and who knows when Scholar will wake up…"

"Looks like the three of us will have to take turns keeping watch tonight."

As she spoke, she glanced at Lena and Chen Hui. The former had just finished chewing on a hardtack biscuit with water, while the latter had just dragged the unconscious Scholar into the tent on the right and zipped him into a sleeping bag to prevent hypothermia.

Theoretically, an Ability user of this tier shouldn’t freeze that easily—but this was no ordinary mountain. Here, whether an Ability obeyed its master depended entirely on the roll of the dice!

It was only the first night of the dungeon, and the players weren’t crazy enough to risk Scholar’s life this soon.

Lena frowned, choking down the cold biscuit with difficulty before raising her hand. "Just arrange the watch shifts however you like. I don’t have any objections."

Chen Hui nodded as well. "Same here. Any time slot is fine."

He shot a glance at the NPC Zhang Ming, who was slouched nearby, and grumbled quietly, "Besides, we’ll all have to wake up every two hours to roll the dice anyway. There’s no way we’re getting a good night’s sleep."

"Can’t be helped. That’s just the dungeon rules," Eurus said with a shrug. "Of course, if you’d rather not sleep at all, you could just stay up all night. Ability users can go seven days and nights without rest if they have to."

Chen Hui was quick-tempered and rash, and his mind wasn’t as sharp as players like Scholar, but that didn’t mean he was a complete fool.

Scratching his head, he had enough self-awareness to admit, "I’d still rather get at least a little sleep. This mountain’s sapping our strength and concentration like crazy—who knows what’s coming?"

Not far away, Zhang Ming sat huddled on a folding chair, arms wrapped around himself.

After warming up by the fire for a while, some color had returned to his ashen face, and his vacant eyes gradually regained focus.

Catching snippets of Eurus and the others discussing "night watch," he mustered his energy, his lips—still pale—parting slowly as he joined the conversation. "Do you need my help? If you take on all this yourselves, won’t the pressure be too much?"

The three players exchanged glances before Eurus flashed a confident, reassuring smile and politely declined. "No need, Mr. Employer. You should just rest."

"Leave everything to us—after all, we’re professionals. We’ve had training and some survival experience in the wild. We don’t tire as easily as ordinary people."

Of course, this was all just empty pleasantries.

In truth, the players didn’t trust dungeon NPCs enough to hand over something as critical as night watch to Zhang Ming. It was better to let him sleep peacefully under their watchful eyes.

"Alright," Zhang Ming conceded, knowing his own condition was far from ideal. Even now, whenever he closed his eyes, the image of that boiling, grotesque head forced its way into his mind. He didn’t push himself, simply saying, "If you run into any trouble or need help with anything, feel free to wake me."

"Of course."

Eurus maintained her smile. Her naturally beautiful and approachable appearance, combined with the current situation, gave Zhang Ming an immense sense of security.

He lingered by the fire a while longer, drinking in its warmth but keeping a wary distance from the pot placed beside it.

It wasn’t until past 9 p.m., when sleepiness overtook him, that he finally retreated to the rightmost tent to sleep.

Originally, the three tents had been assigned for two people each: Scholar and Chen Hui on the far right, Yi Fengchu and his "old friend" Zhang Ming in the middle, and Lena and Eurus in the leftmost tent.

However, after setting up the tents, Yi Fengchu had amiably invited Zhang Ming to share his, even cheerfully suggesting they could "catch up and chat" through the night…

Zhang Ming: ?

They were virtual strangers—what was there to catch up on?

Besides, even being alone with Yi Fengchu for a short while made Zhang Ming’s heart race and cold sweat break out.

If he had to sleep in the same tent as the monster in his mind, wouldn’t that just give him a heart attack?

So Zhang Ming quickly refused, not daring to step anywhere near Yi Fengchu’s tent. Instead, he tossed his sleeping bag and belongings into Chen Hui and Scholar’s tent, settling for squeezing in with the two of them.

This suited the players just fine—they’d been worried about leaving the two NPCs alone together, unsure what might happen.

Now, with Zhang Ming voluntarily bunking with two players, it was easier to monitor his every move…

Under the players’ collective surveillance, not even a fly could approach Zhang Ming without their notice.

On one side, Zhang Ming shed his heavy coat, crawled into his sleeping bag, and closed his eyes.

On the other, the players settled on their watch schedule—

Eurus would take the first shift, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Lena and Chen Hui would pair up for the second shift, from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., combining wisdom and luck with raw strength.

As the clock neared 10 p.m., Lena and Chen Hui hurried back to their tent to sleep, leaving Eurus alone by the fire.

Suddenly, she caught the faint sound of footsteps behind her. Spinning around, she was surprised to see Yi Fengchu standing there.

This NPC had been staying in his tent until now—what was he doing here all of a sudden?

Eurus remained wary, but Yi Fengchu did nothing. He simply stood silently in front of the tent, the dancing firelight casting ever-shifting shadows across his face, accentuating his features with an unfathomable aura.

"You’re taking the first watch?" he asked abruptly, as if making small talk.

"...Yes."

"Ah, that’s good," he said with a faint smile before retreating into the tent, his voice languid. "The first half of the night will be peaceful."

Eurus felt a twinge of unease.

Why had he said that? Was it just reassurance that nothing would happen during her watch—or a hint that the second half might be different?

Stranger still, though Yi Fengchu had seemed to be looking at her, Eurus had the brief impression that his gaze had actually been fixed on the space above her head.

As if he were staring into a blank, unfathomable emptiness—one only he could decipher.

How strange.

A cold night wind gusted by, making Eurus shiver. Rubbing her arms, she suddenly understood the dread Zhang’s father had described in his notes.

It wasn’t fear of any specific person or thing—but rather, the terror of gazing into an unknown abyss. Humans had always been this way. Since ancient times, darkness had been hardwired into their DNA as a primal fear precisely because of the unseen, intangible unknowns lurking within it.

Only when groping through the darkness could one truly grasp their own insignificance—and the vast, eternal presence of the unknowable.

Eurus gazed absently at the fire, murmuring, "No ordinary man…"

There had been moments when Yi Fengchu’s presence felt more overwhelming than certain divine beings. She didn’t feel the usual fear of a dangerous creature—instead, it was as if she were a speck floating in infinite space, overwhelmed by powerlessness and the unknown.

Cupping her head in her hands, she groaned and raked her fingers through her hair in frustration. "This isn't good. With a being like him involved, this dungeon might veer far beyond what I anticipated…"

...

In the middle of the night, Zhang Ming woke up groggily, roused by the need to take a leak.

He turtled his head deeper into the sleeping bag, reluctant to go out in the dead of night for a piss break—after all, in many horror movies he'd seen, being alone at night usually meant bad news.

After keeping his eyes closed for a while, Zhang Ming couldn't fall back asleep. Instead, the urge grew stronger, forcing him to grudgingly crawl out of the sleeping bag and hastily sling on his coat.

In the adjacent sleeping bag, the scholar was still in a deep slumber, dried blood lingering under his nose, though his breathing had evened out, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.

Even though the scholar remained unconscious, his presence gave Zhang Ming a sense of security, making him feel he wasn't alone.

The glow of the campfire outside filtered through the tent flaps, gradually calming Zhang Ming's jangled nerves.

It wasn’t like he was the only one awake—someone was still on night watch… Surely nothing would happen if he just stepped out quickly to answer nature's call?

With that thought, Zhang Ming sleepily unzipped the tent and stepped outside—

He didn’t notice that the moment he stepped out, the tent behind him instantly transformed in color and style.

The scholar’s breathing suddenly vanished, and the tent, originally military green, turned a dingy gray. The entrance flap hung wide open, revealing an empty interior devoid of light, only the stale, mildewy odor of long-untouched dust wafting out.

Unaware of the uncanny change behind him, Zhang Ming continued forward. After just a few steps, the bright flames before him abruptly snuffed out, and the person who should have been on night watch, with their back to him, was gone without a trace.

...What was going on?

His brain short-circuited for a moment. Zhang Ming dazedly looked around. His eyes hadn’t adjusted to the sudden darkness, but he could still just barely discern—this didn’t seem to be their campsite.

Because there was no campfire, no companions, and no three sturdy, new tents.

There was only a single, ramshackle, unknown tent. As the night wind blew, its loose metal frame squeaked and moaned, emitting a skin-crawling noise, as if ghosts were murmuring along with the breeze.

"Eurus? Chen Hui?"

"Where are you? Can you hear me?..."

Zhang Ming’s teeth chattered uncontrollably. Trembling, he called out every name he could think of, even Yi Fengchu’s in the end.

But the place was barren and lifeless—no one answered him. Only the cold wind kept right on howling.

"What kind of hell is this... I was just at the campsite a moment ago. How did I suddenly end up here?"

Now wide awake with terror, Zhang Ming tightened his coat in the darkness, completely mystified by what was happening.

A sense of isolation, as if cut off from the world, swept through him. He stood rooted to the snowy spot, too terrified to move.

Just then, a faint scuffling noise emerged from somewhere behind him.

"Creak, creak-creak..."

"Huff—huff..."

The noise came from behind the tent—quiet, broken-up, but unmistakably human. Zhang Ming could make out the sound of footsteps sinking into the snow and labored breathing.

There was someone here! Could it be one of his companions?

It had to be, right?

Desperately convincing himself, Zhang Ming latched onto the idea that it must be one of his group—after all, there should only be the six of them in this snowy mountain area...

With a mix of excitement and nervousness, Zhang Ming cautiously circled around the creaky gray tent, peering forward with hopeful anticipation—

And then, he saw a dark, shadowy figure.

It had limbs and a head like a human, but its body was unnaturally elongated and sinuous, as if several thick snakes had been stitched together into one torso, crouching low to the ground in a half-squat, half-crawl.

In its hands, it cradled a stewed, pulpy head—one Zhang Ming recognized all too well. It was his father’s head, the same one that had appeared in the pot earlier.

Gnawing on the skull, it slurped up the liquefied eyeballs, its heavy breaths filled with gluttonous satisfaction:

"Huff—huff..."