Chapter 174. Free Dungeon

     Wang Xue and Watson’s appearances perfectly matched their personalities; the former was sharp and assertive, the latter gentle and calm. Seeing them truly gave the virtual world a face.

     In contrast, Ye Mo appeared tonight with absolutely no makeup. She wore a black hooded t-shirt on her upper body, and after removing her black mask, if you didn’t look at her ink-black eyes, it would be difficult to associate her with the chief survivor.

     However, upon seeing those eyes, her beautiful outward appearance instantly lost its focus. This is also why Ye Mo often wears all sorts of glasses in real life.

     It’s not just to conceal that her nearsightedness has completely recovered.

     Wang Xue stepped forward first, giving Ye Mo a warm hug. Her naturally familiar personality was just like their first meeting in the zombie instance. “Sister Mo, I’ve been waiting for you for so long, I’m starving!”

     Watson also smiled slightly and said, “Ye Mo, finally we meet. It’s been quite a while.”

     Ye Mo replied, “Xueqin, Linsheng.”

     The three of them smiled similarly, then tacitly switched back to their names from the instance. Habit was one issue; calling each other this way could prevent accidentally slipping up one day and letting the name “Ye Mo” appear at the top of the survivors’ app.

     Hawk Eye floated out from Ye Mo’s forehead and circled above the three of them.

     For this meeting, Watson prepared a lavish seafood feast: braised shrimp, spicy crab, braised yellow croaker, salt and pepper mantis shrimp, salmon sashimi, hairy crabs, grilled oysters, papaya stew with snow frog, and more.

     Most of it was made recently by the hotel’s chefs, with a small portion prepared by Watson himself.

     At Wang Xue’s suggestion, they paired it with Huaguo (Chinese) yellow wine, including Shaoxing wine, Nu’er Hong (Daughter’s Red), Lanling wine, and sweet rice wine – everything was available. But the most eye-catching item was a small wine jar placed right in the center.

     This was Dukang wine, painstakingly brewed using an ancient recipe provided by Ye Mo, after Watson had gone through numerous failures, spent a lot of precious materials, and even purchased two types of plants from the system.

     An ancient poem says:

　　”How to dispel sorrow? Only with Dukang!”

     There were only 10 small jars in total, and since Dukang wine was a spiritual wine, stored in array devices rich in spiritual energy, its fragrance would only improve with age. Today was a special occasion, so Watson was willing to dig out this one jar from underground to serve as a celebratory drink for their meeting.

     As soon as the wine jar was opened, a rich aroma filled the air.

     This aroma wasn’t overpowering, but even amidst so much delicious food, people could still detect it. It was subtle yet enticing, like a gentle hook drawing out one’s appetite.

     “Good wine!”

     The three raised their glasses in celebration.

     Though the fine wine was limited, there was plenty of seafood.

     Wang Xue suddenly said, “If it’s not enough, there’s still plenty outside!”

     “That’s right, lively and kicking, as much as you want,” Ye Mo easily detached a crab shell. “I’ll be in charge of catching, Xiaoxue, you’re in charge of cleaning, and Watson, your cooking skills are the best.”

     Wang Xue refused, “Not OK.”

     Watson unhurriedly betrayed his teammate, “I have water-based abilities, so catching fish in the water is easy. Wang Xue’s cooking is also good; she even learned a hand at zhi during the pre-Qin period – cough, barbecue techniques. That skill is delicious and fast.”

     Wang Xue said, “No, no, no, Young Master Watson, who grew up eating seafood, knows it best.”

     Ye Mo remained calm and collected. When the two of them turned the target back to her, she readily agreed, as she could create food storage equipment from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States instance on the spot.

     Watson was curious, while Wang Xue choked up. That taste was worse than just taking a fasting pill and being done with it.

     …

     The trio’s seafood feast lasted at least 3 hours.

     Among them, Wang Xue and Ye Mo ate a lot, while Watson’s appetite was relatively smaller. This was because magic-based ability users could directly absorb spiritual energy from the air to maintain their body’s energy, reducing their need for food.

     They also drank quite a bit of wine, but the spiritual wine was limited, and the regular wine wasn’t enough to get them drunk.

     That night, Ye Mo stayed directly in the room Watson had already prepared for her. Never mind that tomorrow was Saturday and she didn’t have work, even if she did, with the spatial anchor point, traveling from Guangdong to Henan, even at a leisurely pace, would take less than 3 minutes – plenty of time.

     The next day was sunny and bright. The feeling of eating breakfast with her friends was quite nice, and the seaside scenery was truly beautiful. This kind of life had a sense of peaceful tranquility.

     Occasionally, they could even go out to sea.

     However, while Watson and Wang Xue went out on a yacht, Ye Mo, halfway through the journey, jumped into the sea. Her purpose of entering the sea was to take out the mountain giant hammer obtained from the World Tree copy.

     Wang Xue whistled: “Cool!”

     Before long, Ye Mo had submerged into the deep sea, over 5000 meters down.

     Upon seeing a dilapidated wooden shipwreck, her heart skipped a beat. She had initially thought it might trigger some kind of instance, but it turned out to be just a coincidence – it was just an ordinary shipwreck.

     Ye Mo : “The Mountain Giant’s iron hammer.”

     In an instant, the seabed rippled. The iron hammer before her was truly ordinary. Its stat bonuses weren’t significant, and while the material was harder, its ductility and malleability were poor. Its only remarkable feature was its immense size. The hammerhead resembled a mountain, and if the handle were golden, it might be mistaken for the legendary “Ruyi Jingu Bang”^[1]Ruyi Jingu Bang is the poetic name of a magical staff wielded by the immortal monkey Sun Wukong.

     If Jingwei ^[2]Jingwei is a bird in Chinese mythology, who was transformed from Yandi’s daughter Nüwa(This is not to be confused with the goddess Nüwa who created mankind and repaired the heavens). She is … Continue reading had used this to fill the sea, carrying tens of thousands more times, perhaps she might have seen the fruits of her labor.

     “The cost of smelting it would be too high, not worth it.”

     After putting the Mountain Giant’s iron hammer back into Thor’s Belt space, Ye Mo began to swim back up, her speed considerably slower than when she descended, as she took a moment to observe the marine life.

     Compared to the mainland, there were definitely more diverse species and a greater number of animals. It was a rare opportunity for training, much better than the little white mice at home.

     Ye Mo simply trained her mental power. She controlled the living organisms around herself. Now, she had no problem simultaneously controlling 100 ordinary animals, and the time limit only started to kick in when she exceeded that number.

    * Note: Mental power manipulation has less to do with whether something is a living organism and more to do with the brain’s capacity.

     Ye Mo could gather sharks, ribbonfish, and octopuses together, or have bioluminescent jellyfish light her way, illuminating the beautiful underwater scenes.

     However, when encountering mutated animals or plants, the number she could control and the duration of control decreased sharply. She believed this would be even more so when controlling humans.

     Due to the sheer scale, the number of mutated creatures in the ocean wasn’t small.

     Ye Mo encountered a mutated sea snake whose mutation was enhanced toxicity. It could kill almost any ordinary animal and possessed an unnatural bloodlust, its venom increasing in potency with each kill.

     The sea snake’s existence severely disrupted the ocean’s original balanced food chain.

     Ye Mo controlled it, guiding it upwards.

     Upon reaching the surface, she handed it over to Watson. Watson’s research involved gu, though he hadn’t achieved any particularly significant breakthroughs yet. For him, the mutated sea snake was definitely a good gift.

     Wang Xue really didn’t like ghosts or these cold-blooded animals. Her tall, 1.8-meter frame huddled in the corner of the yacht, watching Watson give the mutated sea snake a gentle, god-like smile as he ruthlessly drew its blood, more decisively than even when he was sleeping.

     Ye Mo: “Wait a minute.”

     Wang Xue cheered for Sister Jing’s gentleness in her heart, but heard Ye Mo: “Slow down, do an experiment, and see if it can escape my control.”

     “…”

     Wang Xue stayed away from these two “crazy people”. She was very kind and decided to play a percussion to express her emotions in this situation.

     By the way, Ye Mo had also brought Wang Xue quite a few gifts: lobster, oysters, tuna, crabs, squid, and so on. They could have grilled seafood tonight.

     No sharks though.

     Wang Xue’s mood instantly brightened, becoming very cheerful.

     As soon as they returned to shore, Ye Mo made on-the-spot improvements to Watson’s two yachts. Now, only the outer shell remained original; their attack and defense capabilities were both greatly enhanced.

     Even if they were unlucky enough to encounter the mutated sea snake in Watson’s possession, a single shot could blast a whole group of them.

     …

     Watson and Wang Xue also used the spatial anchor point to teleport repeatedly, arriving at Ye Mo’s house for a look.

     Bandit, seeing the suddenly appearing strangers for the first time, reacted by bravely charging straight forward. If it had been any faster, it might have lost its life.

     “This Bandit really has a distinctive look.”

     Wang Xue and Watson both knew the big black dog because Ye Mo had bought it many beast spirit pills, and they also knew it had mutated on its own, but it still didn’t seem very intelligent.

     Ye Mo helplessly ruffled her dog’s fur. “His strength, speed, and intelligence have all increased, but compared to other mutated animals, he doesn’t have any particularly outstanding skills, so I still don’t know what his mutation ability actually is.”

     Watson: “The most ordinary is also the most special?”

     Wang Xue: “At least his luck stat is off the charts.”

     “Woof woof woof woof!”  Bandit knew they were talking about him, holding his head high and chest out, waiting for praise with mysterious confidence..

     “……”

     There is nothing to visit in Ye Mo’s house, mainly the basement, but Watson and Wang Xue are not very interested in the mechanical equipment in the basement.

     After filling all the domestic spatial anchor points, Ye Mo’s life was similar to before, except that she spent about half of her after-work hours at Watson’s villa. 

     Bandit would occasionally go too, the beach had enough space for him to play and frolic.

     When important matters arose, Ye Mo would usually go to Watson’s place, where the three of them could gather to have face-to-face meetings and discussions.

     Like now.

     No one knew the total number of survivors participating in the next round of instances, but the registration for the Free dungeon’s 500,000 survivor slots was almost full…

     The online forum’s countdown was ticking.

     Among Watson, Wang Xue, and Ye Mo, Wang Xue decided to participate in this Free Dungeon.

     Of course, she brought over a hundred thousand group magic contract scrolls, enough to summon Ye Mo and Watson twice each, with one left over.

     “Be careful in everything.”

     “Safety first.”

     “Okay.”

     When only the last slot remained for the 500,000 survivors, almost all survivors opened their phone apps, waiting for the final participant. However, being the last survivor to join required courage.

     An hour later, the Free Dungeon finally filled all 500,000 survivor slots.

     In an instant, the Free Dungeon number on the app jumped to (0/1000000), meaning the next round of the Free Instance would be at the million-person level.

     But Ye Mo and Watson didn’t notice this because right before their eyes, Wang Xue vanished completely. The Free Dungeon was actually a direct entry Dungeon!