Many people couldn't persevere and dropped out, either waiting for new games or returning to old games to stick it out.

As the second wave of game watches and the third wave of game watches were released, especially the massive distribution of the third batch, *Blue Ocean* flooded with a large amount of fresh blood.

Unfortunately, *Blue Ocean*'s ability to discourage players was too strong, coupled with the extremely harsh death penalty—character deletion upon death, starting all over—leading to a large outflow of old players as new players flowed in.

Back and forth, it finally showed a downward trend.

Now, the old players who can still persevere have something going for them.

And the new players are like gold being sifted from sand, with one batch leaving and another staying.

This phenomenon, reflected in the data-driven studio, means that the number of players lost is extremely large, the popularity is declining, representing that the game is not selling well, and it's time to consider changing to a new game.

Of course, this is the old-fashioned studio thinking. In Jing Yan's view, this game has the potential to grow long and big.

His Jing Yan Studio, which occupies a place in the game, even has the opportunity to rely on this game for retirement, making a living off one game until he dies.

As Jing Yan was thinking about this, the Weixin video call rang suddenly.

Scanning it, Jing Yan immediately answered.

"Hello."

On the other end of the video was the extra staff member he had sent out.

The reason for choosing a video call was naturally to confirm the person's identity.

After all, this is work, even if it's an extra staff member, it's necessary to confirm clearly.

"Boss Jing Yan, I found a place to hide and logged out of the game first. Before, in the game, in the underground stronghold, I already saw that [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul], it's very bizarre. Behind it are densely packed ghouls, at least fifteen ghouls with bloodstones embedded in their heads, all Blood-level ghouls!

But they are all honestly squeezed behind the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul], following the ghoul army, moving slowly, not daring to surpass the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul]."

"Very good, any other information? Tell me everything you saw."

As the extra staff member on the other end of the phone described, a picture appeared in Jing Yan's mind.

The [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul] walks at the very front, not fast, but not slow either. Each step is like shrinking the ground, teleporting a distance.

And behind the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul] are densely packed ghouls, like canned meat, filling the entire underground stronghold passage, ghouls squeezing ghouls together. Only when the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul] moves will they follow and keep up, but they absolutely dare not overstep, maintaining a relative distance.

It's as if the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul] is using its absolute superior strength to suppress all the ghouls, preventing them from acting rashly.

This made Jing Yan feel incredible.

That the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul] directly knocked away Fang Yue with an iron chain was already enough to shock him.

After all, since he met Fang Yue, he rarely saw Fang Yue suffer losses when facing ghouls, but he didn't get any advantage in the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul]'s hands, and even fled in embarrassment.

It seems that this [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul] really needs outside help to deal with it.

And that number, that density of ghouls… this is very abnormal.

Jing Yan frowned. According to this number, he even suspected whether the ghouls in the wild were also joining the ghoul army as the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul] moved.

Only in this way can the number of ghouls be explained. After all, there were not so many survivors in Qingluan Tower at that time. Even if they all turned into ghouls, it was impossible to reach this magnitude.

This is very terrifying. Qing Si County is probably doomed.

Jing Yan had the idea of running away again.

After a while, the other two extra staff members also made video calls one after another.

The first of these three was to confirm the ghoul situation, only responsible for this, because he was worried about the character's sudden death, so the task was divided very carefully.

The second was to determine the ghoul's location and distance, needing to estimate the distance between the ghouls and Qing Si County.

And the third person was responsible for calculating the ghoul's moving speed, through communication with the second person, distance calculation, using his position as a record, and calculating the ghoul army's forward speed.

In this way, Jing Yan obtained information about the number of ghouls, distance information, and marching speed information.

Combining the three pieces of information together, he could roughly understand the situation of the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul]'s army.

Three days, at the latest, three days later, the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul]'s ghoul army will reach Qing Si County!

"I understand the situation. I'll transfer your hard-earned money to your accounts later. You take the Qing Si horses and run on the ground, quickly find a way back to Qing Si County."

People can die, but the Qing Si horses must be brought back.

"Roger that!"

"Roger that!"

"Boss Jing Yan, I need more money."

The first two had no problems and had already hung up the video call.

When Jing Yan was communicating with the third person, he heard this sentence.

"More money?"

Jing Yan was stunned: "Your character died? The Qing Si horse is gone too?"

"Um… that's right, I ran slowly and was hit by the [Coffin-Pulling Ghoul]'s iron chain, along with the horse. Realizing it at the end, I felt like I should have been blasted into large pieces of bloody minced meat."

That person was a blond man with a face full of acne, a bit like someone from Myanmar.

"Okay…"

Jing Yan rubbed his temples with a headache.

He told them to be careful, but something still happened.

However, this was also one of the risks. Before entering the underground stronghold, both parties had agreed on it. Jing Yan didn't plan to go back on his word, but losing a batch of Qing Si horses, he would inevitably be nagged by You Sisi.

Understanding the risks is understanding the risks, but when Qing Si horses, which had been painstakingly cultivated at a huge cost, really had an accident, he would definitely complain.

"I will give you more money. After a day, if the new character enters the game and is still near Qing Si County, you can contact me. If you are not in Qing Si County, but in a farther place, report to me, and I'll see if there is any work I can arrange for you."

Extra staff members are non-official studio employees, similar to temporary workers.

They are pulled over when needed, and when not needed, they are naturally not paid, and no one cares what they do.

The extra employee on the other side was overjoyed when he heard that Jing Yan was indeed going to give money and not go back on his word.

"Thank you, Boss Jing Yan! Thank you, Jing…"

Bang!!

With a loud bang, the sound on the other end of the video call came to an abrupt halt.

The video camera was a blur of blood, with chunks of bloody flesh stuck on the camera, making it unclear what exactly happened on the other side.

As Jing Yan's eyes widened with a dazed expression, the camera's picture fell down.

In the spinning chaos, his pupils shrank violently.

In that instant, he saw clearly that it was the blond man who had just been talking to him, his body exploded into bloody minced meat, just like… the death he had mentioned in the game before!

Ah… ah! Ah!

With a thud, Jing Yan, in horror, widened his eyes, and his phone fell to the ground, shattering the screen.