Chapter 131 Lull

Underground in the cave, the battle turned into a stalemate.

That Fire Ape's guerilla tactics were truly formidable. It moved up and down, as if walking on flat ground. Its leaps and bounds had no discernible pattern, making it unpredictable and swift, difficult to grasp. The entire cave space was its three-dimensional battlefield, while the terrain available to the players was limited.

If it weren't for Xiao Tan and Bei Ling both having firearms in hand, they would have likely been injured by the Fire Ape up close.

"This isn't good. We've used up a lot of bullets, but haven't done much real damage to that monster." Bei Ling said to Xiao Tan beside her, "Maybe it won't be worn down, but we'll run out of bullets first."

Xiao Tan was standing at an angle to her, guarding against the Fire Ape, which could suddenly attack from any direction or angle. Hearing this, he replied, "I have an idea."

"Speak," Bei Ling responded.

"I'll drink a supplement first to restore my health to full," Xiao Tan said, "Then I'll put away my gun and settle the score with it in close combat."

Bei Ling turned to look at him, "Don't need to fight to know it would win and you would lose, right?"

"It's okay, I've already seen it." Xiao Tan continued, "This guy's strongest point is speed, but its attack power is very average. Although being covered in flames is troublesome, thinking about it the other way...it doesn't mean its defense is strong. It just means that using close combat to fight it may incur some damage." As Xiao Tan spoke, he really put away the shotgun and took out his main melee weapon, the Damascus Short Sword.

"If I give up the gun and focus on close combat...I should be able to keep up with its speed," Xiao Tan added. "As long as I can touch it, I can use [Bee Sting] to drain its health. It's better than using bullets to wear it down."

"If you fight like this, I can't cooperate with you," Bei Ling said, "With my shooting skills, the hit rate against such a fast-moving target is less than 30%. Not to mention shooting while it's entangled with you, having to avoid you and hit it at the same time..."

"No need, I can handle it alone," Xiao Tan interrupted. "If I feel like I'm in danger of being killed, or if I really can't beat it, I'll run back here, then you can cover me and give me time to breathe and recover."

"Alright then, be careful..." Bei Ling really couldn't think of a better idea and had to let Xiao Tan try. After all, Bei Ling's own Combat specialization was only E-grade. When facing this kind of super-agile mini-boss, unless the team had a teammate with control skills to support her, she could only do stationary cover work.

"Okay, understood." As Xiao Tan replied, he drank a bottle of Survival Value supplement. Almost at the same time, the Fire Ape barked again, suddenly flashed out from behind a rock, and attacked again. This time the attack was close to Xiao Tan's side, giving him a chance to enter the battle.

Xiao Tan didn't directly take the monkey's fiery claws, but dodged to the side, barely avoiding the blow. As he brushed past the Fire Ape, he thrust the short sword forward, successfully grazing the monster's fur. The bleeding effect of his title skill [Bee Sting] was successfully attached and began to take effect from that second.

In fact... Xiao Tan's sentence "I should be able to keep up with its speed" was just being modest. After this test and observation, he was 90% sure that he could keep up with the speed, so he said the idea of solving the battle alone.

Xiao Tan deliberately showed weakness when speaking to Bei Ling, firstly because he considered Bei Ling's strong personality and wanted to take care of the other person's self-esteem; secondly, he also quite liked the feeling of being worried about.

"Aowu--" The Fire Ape seemed to become very angry after being hurt by the skill, and immediately roared, turned around and pounced on Xiao Tan again.

This monster deserved to be called an agility type. The stiffness after being attacked was extremely short, and the subsequent attack arrived instantly. It twisted its head, took a step forward, and thrust out both fists, another dangerous move. Not to mention... the Fire Ape's move vaguely had some meaning of a martial artist, with a very fierce momentum. The fiery wind whipped up by the fists was comparable to the palm wind of a martial arts master.

Faced with this surprise attack, Xiao Tan did not panic. He maintained his defensive stance and moved back a few steps, easily defusing the attack.

Xiao Tan has always been unhurried. Under normal circumstances, he is a very patient person. Unless he is frightened out of his mind by something he fears, he would rather not act without the right opportunity.

And if he does act, it means that the other party has revealed a flaw.

Although the Fire Ape was fierce and evil, it was still just a monster with limited intelligence. After being hurt by Xiao Tan, it attacked continuously but still missed. It suddenly became impatient, relying on its bestial nature, rushing up quickly and wildly waving its fiery claws.

Seeing it rushing forward, Xiao Tan advanced instead of retreating. He had seen that when the Fire Ape swung its claws, its abdomen would be exposed, so he bent his body and lunged diagonally, sweeping the short sword towards it. As he passed the Fire Ape, he not only cut it, but also added a second layer of the [Bee Sting] effect.

In these two rounds of engagement, Xiao Tan used 14% of his stamina value just for those two skills. Fortunately, the loss of survival value was minimal, only about 1% of health every two seconds when close to the Fire Ape. As long as he stayed about a meter away, the damage would disappear.

On the Fire Ape's side, although the damage received was not great, the bleeding effect had been stacked twice. As an agility-type Boss, its health was not high to begin with. When it was fighting earlier, it was grazed a few times by bullets and lost some health. Now, it had a two-minute bleeding effect attached, and it was clearly on the verge of defeat.

All Xiao Tan had to do was remain patient, and, while ensuring that he was not hit by a fatal attack, lure the Fire Ape to continue its mad assault, making the monster bleed faster.

But at this moment, unexpectedly, the Fire Ape suddenly abandoned Xiao Tan, turned abruptly, and charged towards Bei Ling.

This monster also saw that Xiao Tan's speed was not bad. Continuing to chase him would be futile. It would probably be worn down to death while the other party was fine, so it decided to make a desperate gamble, hoping to kill at least one of them.

Seeing the Fire Ape rushing towards her with a desperate momentum, Bei Ling naturally would not sit still and wait for death. She turned around and flashed into the corner between two giant rocks, and quickly retreated to the wall, so that the Fire Ape would only have one direction from which to attack her.

When the monster charged from that single angle, the bullets from Bei Ling's MP5 instantly poured out. Taking advantage of the terrain, almost six or seven out of every ten bullets hit the target.

After Bei Ling finished firing that clip, more than a dozen bullet holes had been added to the Fire Ape's body, and blood flowed from the wounds, but this did not stop its actions. Since it was fighting desperately, it would not stop because of this level of attack.

The Fire Ape let out a final miserable roar, and the ruby-like face lit up with red light. It spun around, and its long tail lashed out like a fiery whip. The ruby at the tip of its tail was like a red-hot iron cannonball, attacking Bei Ling's chest.

Bei Ling's position did restrict the angle from which the opponent could attack, but at the same time, it deprived her of room to maneuver. She did not expect that the monster would actually withstand the barrage of the submachine gun for a desperate attack. Had she known this, she should have switched out the sniper rifle. Although this was at a medium-short distance, using sniper rounds would have caused this monster to lose an arm or a leg, even if it wasn't killed outright.

Seeing that the tail was about to hit her, Bei Ling had no choice but to brace herself. She silently prayed in her heart that her survival value could withstand the heavy blow.

*Chi* A gust of hot wind brushed past Bei Ling's cheek.

The Fire Ape's attack actually missed...

Bei Ling stared with her big, watery eyes, looking in surprise at the unbelievable scene before her.

But she saw a cold glint protruding from the monkey's throat.

At this time, if one looked from behind the Fire Ape, one could see a figure wearing an assassin's outfit, standing close against the burning body. A steady, precise hand, despite the scorching heat of the flames, was still forcefully stabbing a short sword into the monster's cervical vertebrae, and exerting all its strength to pierce through it.

With a *thump*, the Fire Ape fell forward, and Bei Ling saw Xiao Tan behind the monster.

It turned out that when the monster swung its tail to attack, Xiao Tan had already killed his way to within an inch of its back. He didn't care about the damage caused by continuing to stick so close to the Fire Ape's body. In this second, he was simply like a cold-blooded butcher. Perhaps his medical knowledge flashed into his mind, or perhaps some kind of innate killing talent was awakened at this moment. Xiao Tan's eyes, in that instant, accurately and quickly captured the only point, the most lethal point of attack on the Fire Ape's body.

Having its cervical vertebrae cut off caused the Fire Ape's swung tail to be deflected, and, along with inertia, it happened to veer off just a moment before hitting Bei Ling.

"Hoo...hoooo...so hot, so hot..." As soon as the monster fell, Xiao Tan returned to his usual dazed look. His movements were as if he had been burned while eating a baked sweet potato. He tossed the short sword back and forth between his hands, because the short sword was conducting heat, so he couldn't hold it firmly at the moment.

Bei Ling walked forward, lowered her head to look at the monster's corpse, then raised her head, pointed the muzzle of her MP5 at Xiao Tan (because Bei Ling had attached the flashlight to the gun), and shined it on his face, saying, "I really didn't see it, but you're pretty reliable at the crucial moment."

"No, no... It's luck, good luck..." Xiao Tan was polite in his words, but he couldn't hide anything on his face. He smiled so brightly, and scratched the back of his head with one hand, almost shyly saying, "I'm not that good."

While the two were talking, the Fire Ape's body on the ground rapidly combusted into ashes, leaving only the red crystal at the end of its tail on the ground.

"This should be one of the two stone slabs," Xiao Tan said, and bent down to pick up the crystal.

Because monsters in Thriller Paradise don't drop equipment, even Xiao Tan knew that this thing was probably a quest item.

When he first touched it, the crystal was still quite hot. Xiao Tan almost couldn't hold it again, but after contacting the player's hand, the originally rhombus-shaped red crystal quickly turned into white light and changed its shape. When the white light dissipated, the red crystal became a comma-shaped jade, seemingly half of a Bagua.

[Name: Stone Tablet (Yang)]

[Type: Story-Related]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Function: Together with Stone Tablet (Yin), it can be embedded into the Bagua stone plate on the stone door to open the stone door]

[Can it be brought out of this script: No]

[Note: As a key, the shape and principle of this thing are very confusing]

After getting the Yang Stone Tablet, Xiao Tan and Bei Ling explored the cave for another circle to see if there was anything they had missed, so as not to have to backtrack later. As a result, they really gained something. In a gap in a stalactite, Bei Ling found a consumable item.

[Name: Rock Fragment Crystal]

[Type: Consumable]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Function: After use, restores 50% of the player's survival value, and increases the survival value recovery speed for a certain period of time]

[Can it be brought out of this script: Yes]

[Note: The recovery effect is not affected by the diminishing returns of survival value supplements]

This item should be a kind of compensation measure for players, just like the recovery items dropped after killing a Boss in some games. Obviously, the system also believes that killing this Fire Ape requires a certain price, either consuming blood or other resources. In short, it is unlikely to be solved easily.

However, for the two "rich people" present, this type of recovery consumable is never lacking. It's good to find them, but it doesn't matter if they can't be found. If they feel it is necessary, buying dozens or even hundreds of bottles of survival value supplements to carry with them wouldn't be a problem. If the inventory is not enough to hold them, they can just buy more inventory slots.

Bei Ling directly handed this [Rock Fragment Crystal] to Xiao Tan. After all, he contributed more to dealing with this Fire Ape. He not only drank supplements, but also burned a lot of health in order to save the beauty. Xiao Tan did not decline.

The two of them circled the cave roughly and then went back along the path they had come from. A few minutes later, they passed the crossroads again, and this time they entered the tunnel on the right side of the intersection.

This road was not long either. It seemed that the length was symmetrical to the tunnel on the opposite side. After five or six minutes, another cave appeared in front of them. This cave was not very large, and was oval in shape overall. The rocks on the four walls reflected a cyan-blue halo under the light. Almost the entire center of the cave was occupied by a pool of water, with only a ring of area around the edge of the cave available to stand on.

When the two stood by the pool, they could feel a chill sweeping over them. It was clear that the water temperature of the pool was extremely low. They scanned the cave with their lights, and did not find anything of value. It seemed that the Yin Stone Tablet must be at the bottom of the water...

Xiao Tan squatted down and used his finger to probe the surface of the water. As a result, he was immediately frozen and retracted his hand: "Wow...this must be the legendary zero-degree non-freezing..."

"I'll go," Bei Ling said, tying the flashlight to her clothes. Her special forces suit had many functions. There were buckle-like settings on the shoulders and outer thighs, which could fix various small objects.

"Hey...it's really cold," Xiao Tan reminded.

"It's okay." She dabbed some water on her face and neck, although her expression did not change, she was thinking in her heart: I'm freezing to death...

"You can't shoot underwater. If there is any danger, swim back immediately," Xiao Tan said with concern.

"I know..." she replied impatiently.

"How about this, if you haven't come up to breathe in three minutes..." Xiao Tan was interrupted before he could finish speaking.

"Don't nag!" Bei Ling glared at him, then took a deep breath, ran a few steps, and jumped into the water.

The cold pool water wrapped Bei Ling from head to toe. She endured the pain and barely opened her eyes, but her vision was still almost completely blurred. The light from the flashlight could only allow her to see a very limited distance. But she still gritted her teeth and swam vigorously towards the bottom of the pool.

Although Bei Ling usually looks like a very cheerful and happy girl, she is actually very stubborn and doesn't like to admit defeat, especially not wanting to lose to that idiot on the shore. She insisted on going into the water, just out of a willful idea: since you can get burned to save me, I can also endure some cold to get the item.

Generally speaking, a person wearing normal clothes can only tolerate a few minutes in zero-degree water. This is the amount of time they can survive while remaining still. In reality, due to limb numbness caused by the low temperature, loss of activity, or blind struggles due to fear...most people will drown before reaching their time limit.

It can be seen that Bei Ling's choice at this moment was extremely dangerous. Xiao Tan was also a doctor, and he knew something about this aspect, so he repeatedly reminded her with great concern, but she didn't appreciate it, but instead produced a feeling of being looked down upon.

Time passed slowly, and every second seemed incomparably long.

One minute...two minutes...

In the blink of an eye, it had been almost five minutes. Even someone who was a good swimmer would probably come up for air by now. Although drowning in the game will not cause fainting, survival value will still be reduced.

Xiao Tan couldn't wait any longer. He lay down on the shore, pressed the miner's hat on his head with one hand, supported the ground with the other, closed his eyes, and plunged his head into the water. He didn't know how far he could see by doing this, but he just wanted to try.

Unexpectedly, just as Xiao Tan opened his eyes in the water, Bei Ling happened to emerge from the water not far from him. Because Xiao Tan had put his entire head into the water, he didn't even hear the sound nearby.

Bei Ling climbed ashore rather embarrassedly. At this moment, the quest item had already been stored in her inventory. She also breathed a sigh of relief after landing.

She swept the hair on her forehead and face back, and turned to look at the idiot who had plunged his head into the water beside her, and couldn't help but smile.

As the saying goes, a lotus emerges from clear water, naturally free from artificial embellishment. At this moment, although Gu Xiaoling's face was pale from the cold, this made her complexion appear even more crystal clear and jade-like, delicate and beautiful. It was just a pity that Xiao Tan couldn't see that smiling face and those beautiful eyes.

A few seconds later, there was a splash, and Xiao Tan was kicked into the water. He came out of the water with a puzzled expression, and looked back at the shore, "Eh? When did you get behind me?"

"I found the stone slab, let's go," Bei Ling said, and turned and strode away.

"Huh? Then why did you kick me into the water?"

"Sigh...an incorrigible idiot." Bei Ling chuckled, ignored him, and went on her way.

"Hey! Wait for me!"