Chapter 1 The Dense Fog

In the thick fog, a group of people walked along the road, holding flashlights.

Cars, vans, buses, ambulances – all the vehicles on the street were stalled, and there wasn't a single person to be seen inside them.

A diner who knew something about car repair tinkered with them for a long time, but couldn't start even one.

According to this diner, all the car parts were there, and he couldn't find anything that was broken.

But they just wouldn't start, and he couldn't find the specific reason why.

Wei Linglan's drones also couldn't fly normally in the thick fog, but the single-soldier helmet-mounted telescope with thermal imaging searchlight function could still be used.

The infrared light scanned all the way, and found no living people other than the people from the restaurant,

not even living creatures like birds, stray cats, or dogs.

It was as if they were the only ones left in this city...

People whispered to each other, and Wei Linglan's parents, who were walking at the back of the group, hesitated for a long time, but finally couldn't help but ask their daughter in a low voice, "Linglan...what exactly is going on?"

Wei's father was an engineer, and Wei's mother was an interior designer. Both were highly educated, high-income individuals. Their comfortable family situation allowed them to support Wei Linglan in choosing the career she loved.

They never expected that after not seeing her for a few months,

their impression of their well-behaved and sensible daughter had changed to a "strong woman" who was holding a grenade launcher and bombarding rat monsters, and who had some inexplicable official background.

Moreover, the strange environment in front of them was completely contrary to their long-held worldview.

Li Ang, who was doing his job and earning his money, also followed Wei Linglan's parents' example and asked worriedly, "Yeah, Linglan, what exactly is going on?"

Wang Congshan, who was equally panicked, almost choked on the air. You're still acting at a time like this, I'm impressed.

Wang Congshan quietly pinched Li Ang in a corner where no one could see, but the latter didn't seem to feel any pain at all, and said anxiously with a frown,

"Linglan, you...have you been exposed to nuclear radiation? Will you grow any green, blue, or red scales? Will it affect our future children?"

...Bro, I only gave you two thousand, really, you don't have to try so hard.

Wei Linglan, feeling a headache and fever, gave a dry laugh, then straightened her face and continued walking while softly saying to her parents,

"Dad, Mom, I'm fine. Right now...I've been recruited by the government, you don't have to worry.

I can't explain the situation in detail right now. Just stay next to me, and I'll tell you when we get out of this fog."

Wei's father and mother looked at each other. Although they had countless questions, they could only bury them in their hearts.

After dismissing her parents, Wei Linglan couldn't help but sigh.

In fact, she wasn't completely ignorant of the current situation with the pervasive fog.

As an unscheduled member of the Special Affairs Bureau's Mobile Task Force, Wei Linglan's usual duties were training and patrolling the streets.

Training was easy to understand. The Special Affairs Bureau would provide training courses on basic skills for players who came to surrender, such as foreign languages, hand-to-hand combat, firearms shooting, car repair, and so on.

Right now, player qualifications were still very scarce. Each task force could be equipped with a complete team of experts to collect various data about the players,

assist players in cooperating with the scientific research team to conduct various experiments,

and guide players in training during their spare time.

In addition, the Special Affairs Bureau would also issue various standardized equipment and props,

encouraging players to fight each other with all their strength in specially made venues, under the premise of not causing death or disability, in order to collect data and exercise combat ability—

anyway, there was a dedicated medical team on standby 24 hours a day, and medical props from the Killing Game were available just in case.

The official agency was still very reliable. Whether it was the total amount of resources that could be mobilized, or the efficiency of time utilization, it was far stronger than lone wolf players.

With the support of the Special Affairs Bureau, Wei Linglan was able to quickly evolve from a mere literary youth into a warrior above the standard.

As for patrolling the streets—with the continuous advancement of the Killing Game, various bizarre events with serious hazards were also emerging one after another.

The best solution was to send mobile task forces to patrol the city constantly, discover abnormal events in advance, turn them into missions, and then solve them.

The Special Affairs Bureau not only had shared mission logs, but the higher-ups would also selectively issue some key secrets to field personnel.

Wei Linglan was very clear that small-scale fog phenomena had appeared in various parts of Yin City as early as a month ago.

A sewer worker claimed that his companion was swallowed by a cloud of fog in the sewer;

A homeless man reported that he heard screams and cries for help from a group of people in a foggy alley;

A group of fishermen went to the river to fish, and suddenly a thick fog filled the air. When the fog cleared, they found that a fisherman on an island in the center of the lake had disappeared. The search and rescue team came, but they couldn't find him, dead or alive.

The fog phenomenon had already attracted the high attention of the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau, and a professional team had been specially established to try to crack this anomaly.

"All previous reports indicated that the fog would only appear at night, how could it happen during the day today..."

Wei Linglan thought to herself, "And it swallowed so many people at once..."

All the investigation reports about the fog had no records of survivors.

Just as Wei Linglan was wondering why the system thought "Heshan Road 149" would be a safe place, there was a commotion in the front of the group.

A dense sound came from the fog,

"Da da da, da da da," like dozens of blades were stabbing the concrete road with their tips.

"Ugh ah!!"

A shrill roar came from the thick fog,

The crowd was restless, and the hands holding the flashlights trembled uncontrollably.

Wei Linglan was also a little nervous. Her infrared detector didn't show any abnormalities, but the hairs on her back stood on end.

The Chai heiress, who was standing at the front of the group, didn't change her expression and stood with her hands behind her back.

She could clearly feel a strong yin energy in the fog. It should be a large group of Dao Lao ghosts (a type of mountain demon), numbering around...thirty?

As time went on, that number continued to increase, forty, fifty...

The so-called Dao Lao ghosts, according to the historian Gan Bao of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in his "In Search of the Supernatural, Volume 12," are a kind of ghost that haunts the mountains of Linchuan.

They often appear with strong winds and heavy rain, and their voices are like the roars of living people. They can spray venom,

and the places that are sprayed with venom will swell up instantly, and kill people within half a day.

Troublesome....

Chai Cuiao restrained the impulse to turn her head and look at Li Ang, and subconsciously clenched her fists.

Ghosts can be roughly divided into two categories according to their degree of sanity.

The first category is fierce ghosts like Chai Cuiao, who are born from resentment and anger, have a clear sense of revenge, a clear target for revenge, and will actively look for substitutes.

If they live in a place with abundant yin energy, they might even embark on the path of cultivation and gradually become ghost kings.

The second category is ghosts that have been completely devoured by resentment. These ghosts not only have distorted forms, but also have a weak individual consciousness, and will only attack the living beings in their territory indiscriminately.

They're ugly, stupid, and have no future, but they're strong.

The Dao Lao ghosts around them belong to the second type.

Chai Cuiao had never seen Dao Lao ghosts after her death. She had only heard about them at the Feast of Demons. Dao Lao ghosts are divided into males and females, and only appear on a small scale in dark and humid places in the deep mountains.

How could such a large group of ghosts appear in the thick fog?

The many Dao Lao ghosts hidden in the fog surrounded the crowd, but did not attack. They were just silently accumulating in number, and constantly poking the ground back and forth with their blade-like arms and feet.

The sound of the blade tips touching the ground was as dense as raindrops, and low howls rose and fell one after another.

Wei Linglan's finger was steadily on the trigger of the grenade launcher, but her shoulders trembled slightly—having increased her Perception attribute to a high level, she could clearly feel the sense of oppression coming from the thick fog.

"This can't go on."

Chai Cuiao's face was tense. She really wanted to turn around and ask Li Ang loudly what to do.

Faced with the low-IQ, bloodthirsty and combative Dao Lao ghosts, even Li Ang would probably only be able to fight head-on, and wouldn't be able to use any fancy tricks.

So, should they start fighting on the spot, or break through and charge forward?

She was confident that she could cooperate with Li Ang to break through, but the people here...she probably couldn't save many.

Anyway, Li Ang would definitely save that little flirt named Wang first.

Tsk.

Suddenly, the Dao Lao ghost group stopped all sounds.

Da da da.

The blade tips lightly touched the ground, and a huge shadow slowly stepped forward, breaking through the fog.

It was a female Dao Lao ghost more than three meters tall. Her upper body was roughly humanoid,

with no eyes or nose, a high forehead, a mouth full of fangs, and the forearm parts of her two arms rapidly narrowed, turning into thick, sharp, bone-like long knives.

The skin of this female Dao Lao ghost was pale, and she was not wearing any clothes, but her upper body was covered with a layer of bone armor.

Her abdomen bulged high like an inflated balloon, as if she were pregnant,

while her lower body extended out like a scorpion, in a flattened shape, with three legs on each side that had also turned into bone-like long knives.

The overall shape was a bit like the Scorpion King. In addition to being ugly and deformed, there was also a bit of ferocious and brutal beauty.

"So strong..."

Chai Cuiao pursed her lips. She could clearly feel the terrifying aura of the other party. If this were in her previous life, it would be enough to call her a ghost king.

In particular, the two door-sized flat bone knives on the other party's arms looked very intimidating. Even if a main battle tank were driven over, she would probably be able to easily chop it into scrap.

Faced with the trembling crowd who didn't dare to breathe loudly, the Dao Lao Ghost Queen let her arms fall naturally, and the door-sized bone knives slammed into the ground, deeply embedded in the concrete surface.

What...is she thinking?

Why is she not fighting, and not retreating? What is the reason?

Li Ang, who could clearly see the Dao Lao ghost group with his cat eyes, took a deep breath. While pretending to be terrified and pulling Wang Congshan behind him,

he projected subtitles under Chai Cuiao's mask, "Next, listen to my command."

Chai Cuiao blinked silently, with her hands behind her back, pretending to be an aloof and detached expert.

Li Ang continued to project, "You have to calmly turn your head and shout at us, 'Who among you is a gynecological expert?'"