Chapter 18: Mysterious Thick Fog

Yang Linlin's heart turned cold.

She had thought that obtaining the class roster meant she was just one step away from surviving this hellishly difficult game level, but now she suddenly realized... she had underestimated the true difficulty of the level!

The real challenge lay in surviving the seventh day!

Yang Linlin sighed and smiled bitterly at her own foolishness.

She had indeed been naive to think that this difficult level could be cleared so easily.

Fortunately, today was only the first day, and they still had plenty of time.

Based on the current situation, as long as she followed Zhao Yi, her chances of survival were high!

After going through a series of dangers earlier, Yang Linlin had come to realize that Zhao Yi was the true leader on this journey!

By sticking close to Zhao Yi, not only could she potentially clear the level, but she might even achieve a decent score!

In the "Hell" game, a high score was extremely important!

Just in the early stages, opening the intermediate level store required a score of three S-rank or higher!

Without a score, no amount of points could buy goods from the intermediate store!

Having understood this, Yang Linlin felt somewhat relieved.

"In times of war, rely on allies!" She continued to carefully observe the possible black figures around her, clutching a handgun in her hand.

Although this handgun was far less powerful than the "Crusher" she had given Zhao Yi, having something in her hand gave her some peace of mind!

As starlight dimmed and moon shadows grew, a faint mist suddenly rose from an unknown source.

Gradually, it thickened.

The already dim visibility in the darkness was further reduced!

Yang Linlin keenly sensed that something was wrong and immediately said to Zhao Yi in the control room, "Zhao Yi... it's foggy!"

Zhao Yi looked up, his eyes flickering with countless lines of code, which were quickly erased in a short period of time.

He swiftly shut down the computer, reset the keyboard and mouse, and walked out of the control room, grabbing Yang Linlin's hand!

"Run!"

With Zhao Yi holding her hand, Yang Linlin dashed into the white fog!

By this point, the fog had become quite dense. Their line of sight was limited to around twenty meters and constantly shrinking!

Most terrifyingly, this mysterious fog was actually devouring Yang Linlin's mental strength!

She felt her mind becoming hazy, occasionally jolting awake. She quickly bit her tongue, enduring the pain and the taste of blood in her mouth, just enough to maintain her sanity!

In the live stream room:

"Oh damn! This fog has a Silent Hill vibe!"

"Is Pyramid Head going to show up swinging a big knife?"

"The fact that this fog is already consuming people's mental strength is terrifying enough, alright? It decreases by five or six points every minute, and no one can withstand that!"

"Why isn't Zhao Yi's mental strength dropping at all? Something's definitely off with this guy!"

...

"Is sanity plummeting so quickly?"

Seeing Yang Linlin's increasingly vacant eyes, Zhao Yi quickly made a decision and ran towards a tall water tower in the distance!

He had initially wanted to return to the dormitory, but now there was no time.

The ground floor of the water tower was locked with an iron gate.

Fortunately, Yang Linlin had given Zhao Yi a hunting rifle. He aimed the gun at the door handle of the water tower and fired a shot!

Entering the first floor of the water tower, Zhao Yi quickly closed the door and used some dusty wooden crates inside to block it!

Fortunately, the fog didn't seep inside.

Zhao Yi stood up and looked outside through the peephole.

The fog grew thicker, reducing people's visibility to five meters!

At the same time, data related to the dense fog appeared in Zhao Yi's view.

...

[Fog: Advanced Danger]

[Note: There are many strange things inside. If you don't want to encounter them, it is best to find a shelter quickly.]

...

As expected, there were unimaginable dangers within the fog!

Without the influence of the ghostly mist, Yang Linlin's mind began to recover. Her face was still pale, but her eyes had regained their luster.

"Thank you. You've saved my life again," Yang Linlin said gratefully to Zhao Yi, only to find that he had aimed his gun at her!

She was still trying to figure out what was going on when she heard Zhao Yi say, "Come out."

"I'll only say this once."

Yang Linlin was stunned for a moment, then heard a rustling sound coming from the darkness behind her!

Startled, she turned around and saw a disheveled man behind a pile of debris!

The man raised his hands in surrender, grinning from ear to ear.

"Don't...don't kill me, I'm not a bad person!"

...

[Person: Low-level danger]

[Note: Congratulations, you have found a living person in this haunted school! But there is no reward.]

...

Zhao Yi slowly lowered his gun and asked, "Who are you?"

The man smiled wryly and said, "It's a long story. This place is not safe. Let me take you to the basement."

Zhao Yi nodded slowly.

The man moved a large piece of brick under his feet, revealing a light underneath! The two followed him into the basement, and the man carefully covered the entrance before taking a deep breath.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Li Sheng, a mystery investigator from the original A City Police Department. Here's my ID."

Li Sheng handed his ID to Zhao Yi, and they exchanged some brief information.

"Are you alone?" 

Zhao Yi raised an eyebrow and gestured to the corner of the table lamp.

He rubbed his hands together.

No ash.

Li Sheng sat on a dilapidated sofa and sighed.

"Actually, about three months ago, we targeted the Stone Mountain University... where students and teachers disappeared mysteriously one after another, as if evaporating from the earth. A large number of personnel from the A City Police Department were sent to investigate, but they found nothing. Under various public pressures, the mayor had no choice but to come to us."

"After preparing for it, I brought my special mobile task force to this school to participate in the investigation, but I didn't expect to encounter strange things..."

Li Sheng recounted his experience slowly.

It turned out that the mobile task force they came to investigate with had a total of 27 people, but that day there happened to be fog in the school. Li Sheng and his team were attacked by terrifying unidentified creatures in the fog, fully armed, and they almost wiped out without even seeing their enemies! 

After the fog dissipated, they found that they couldn't leave the school at all. 

Outside the school gate was a terrifying fog!

The remaining seven of them could only survive in this eerie school!

"May I ask, what about your six teammates?" 

As Zhao Yi finished speaking, he saw Li Sheng's face turn ugly.

"They're dead."

Zhao Yi asked again, "According to your statement, you've been here for at least three months. What did you eat during normal times?"

Li Sheng's face became even uglier.

"Can we not talk about this?"

Zhao Yi was lost in thought.

At this moment, a strange sound suddenly came from above their heads.

Squeak-

Like a machine that had been abandoned for decades, it made a hoarse and mocking frictional sound.

Immediately after, there were dense and chaotic footsteps.

The three of them held their breaths and listened attentively to the footsteps overhead.

It was hard to imagine what kind of creature could make such creepy footsteps.

It wandered around for a long time before finally leaving.

"I only discovered this shelter not long ago, otherwise I would have died!" 

Li Sheng whispered to the two as he approached.

At this moment, a message suddenly popped up on their system.

[Player Zhen Tao has been assimilated into a copycat monster due to low spirit value.]

[Player Lu Bai has been attacked by an unidentified creature and died.]

[Congratulations to Player Zhao Yi and Yang Linlin for triggering the hidden mission - Investigate the truth behind Stone Mountain University!]

[Mission Reward: S rating 1.]