As the time limit arrived and he opened his eyes again, Li Ang found himself still wearing the Bulletproof Vest and other gear he had entered with, standing in the middle of a jungle.
Looking up, the tranquil night sky was extremely clear. A round moon, encircled by a hazy halo, hung high, yet there were no stars to be seen. If not for a few wisps of ethereal clouds lazily drifting by, one might mistake the celestial dome for a static oil painting.
Under the cold moonlight, Li Ang scanned his surroundings. He appeared to be in a subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest. Orchids, mosses, and lichens grew on the ground, amidst dense, thriving shrubs and ferns. Besides common trees from the Fagaceae, Lauraceae, and Magnoliaceae families, there was also a species Li Ang couldn't recognize at all.
This tree had dark brown bark that flaked off in thin, scale-like pieces. Its branches spread nearly flat, bearing coarse, short needles, and its crown was tower-shaped, resembling the North American shortleaf pine. However, the trunk was extremely twisted and bizarre. Many trees even grew horizontally, their trunks on either side supporting them against the ground, with only the middle section and crown abruptly rising.
It was like... a living person crawling on the ground.
Li Ang's expression didn't change as he activated the Cat's Eye Special Effect; he saw no signs of humans hiding within these strange pines.
He didn't relax his vigilance, grasped the Triangular Bone Tipped Spear firmly, and poked a peculiar pine tree from a distance. After finding nothing unusual, he used the spear's blade to dig out a piece of bark and wood, scrutinizing it closely. There was no problem there either.
Li Ang packed the pine fragments into his backpack. He found that his cell phone had no signal, the walkie-talkie was full of static, the GPS device failed to function, and the drone mysteriously wouldn't start.
"There's something odd about this forest," Miss Chai said softly. "It gives me a bad feeling."
"Hmm." Li Ang nodded. He packed away the drone and other items, thinking quietly, Just like at Solitary Cold Temple, the System hasn't assigned me any special identity. That probably means I don't need to communicate with characters in this scripted world. Even if I did, they likely wouldn't care about my strange appearance.
The most crucial question is, where are my teammates?
This mission was supposed to be a team effort. Yet, from the moment he arrived until now, Li Ang hadn't found any trace of other living people. Even when straining his ears, he could only hear the Bug Buzz, bird calls, the wind's rustle, and the sounds of small rodents or insects crawling over piles of fallen leaves.
Players matched with Li Ang wouldn't differ much in level. At the very least, they would be players who understood most survival basics and possessed some combat ability. It was highly unlikely they would have been silently wiped out without a trace.
The only explanation is that the System didn't group us from the start but scattered us throughout the forest. The reason for this is probably simple: the dangers lurking here can't threaten a group of players, but they're certainly deadly for a lone individual...
RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE—
The dense sound of many paws trampling fallen leaves and kicking up dust resonated from deep within the forest. Without a second thought, Li Ang crouched down and swiftly removed the low-light infrared night vision goggles mounted on his helmet, peering through them into the jungle.
Li Ang clearly saw a group of creatures, neither human nor beast, rushing towards him from afar.
They were humanoid in shape, averaging around 1.5 meters tall. Their bodies were pale, hairless, and unclothed. With curved spines, they crawled swiftly on all fours. Their hands and feet were disproportionately large, and their fingernails extremely sharp.
Furthermore, their skulls protruded forward into a conical shape, and their faces vaguely bore human features. However, their eyes had degenerated into mere slits, and their noses were pointed. Their upper and lower lips were gone, revealing only gums and exposed, serrated, sharp fangs.
These monsters, numbering roughly a hundred, surrounded him from all directions, their state incredibly frenzied. As they ran, they panted like hounds, their breath visibly fogging in the low-light infrared night vision.
It was painfully obvious these creatures weren't rushing over to welcome him.
Observing them swarm and encircle him like a pack of wolves, Li Ang immediately decided—to run.
The System had assigned the task of hurrying to Williams Mansion, not standing here facing these monsters of unknown combat strength head-on.
Li Ang took a few steps forward, planted his Triangular Bone Tipped Spear into the ground, and launched himself upward like a pole vaulter. As he was about to land, he firmly kicked off the trunk of a tall tree, propelling himself even higher and clearing the canopy.
The wind rushed past his ears. In the distance, at the foot of a mountain, Li Ang clearly saw a clearing. Within it sat a large Victorian Manor.
The manor's architecture was incredibly vast and built in the Victorian style. Tall trees flanked it on both sides. At the front was a large, four-sectioned flowerbed, with a fountain featuring an Angel statue in its center.
As he was still descending, Li Ang's Dynamic Vision could only barely make out bright lights shining from the manor's main hall.
That must be the Williams Mansion the mission mentioned...
Li Ang bounded and leaped across the canopy branches. Below, the monsters surged like a tide, racing alongside him. Some of these aberrations reached out with their vast, palm-like hands to grasp tree trunks. They climbed swiftly, moving like agile monkeys as they swung and jumped forward.
These aberrations moved like a coordinated wolf pack, yet there was no apparent communication between them. In silence, they closed in from both sides, steadily tightening their encirclement around Li Ang.
"Can't you just stop chasing me? I don't have anything you want!"
Li Ang felt a touch of helplessness. Seeing one of the creatures swinging through the treetops lunging at him, he activated the Cat's Eye Special Effect, hoping to plunge it into an illusion.
The illusion had no effect on the aberration. The creature was completely undisturbed. Instead, it bared its fangs and extended its claws, aiming to rip Li Ang open from behind as he flew mid-air.
"Get lost."
With a thrust of his spear behind him, Li Ang, his attributes far exceeding those of a player of the same level and enhanced by the Ripple Breathing Method, pierced directly through the aberration's chest.
The spot Li Ang struck was roughly where a human's heart would be. Through his hand, he distinctly felt the sensation of breaking through ribs and puncturing the heart.
The aberration, impaled on the spear, was not completely dead. It struggled violently, its hands instinctively clawing at the shaft, trying to pull itself free.
Li Ang released Ripple Energy along the spear. The creature on the spear's blade let out a sharp, pitiful scream as wisps of black and white smoke rose from its wound.
A wraith? Or a negative Energy being?
Li Ang's feet didn't stop. He continued to leap and charge towards the mansion, flicking the spear in his hand to impale another lunging aberration. In mere moments, the spear shaft was laden with monster corpses. From afar, it looked as though he were holding a grotesque skewer, flying through the treetops.