Chapter 178. Demons and Monsters (2) King Kong Barbie and A Pile of Algae

     “Cough…”

     Ye Mo spat out a mouthful of blood. Using her mental energy, she retrieved two high-grade magic potions from her storage space on the ground – one to stop bleeding and one for healing – and swallowed them with difficulty.

     Indeed, the usually immediate effects of the potions were significantly weakened, even slower than her body’s natural healing ability on ordinary days. Fortunately, they still had some effect.

     Ye Mo drank several more magic potions and swallowed at least ten healing pills. She sprinkled some high-quality wound powder on herself and finally managed to stand up with difficulty, relying on the strength of her limbs.

     She didn’t continue treating her injuries or change her clothes, because these wounds were clearly related to the second closed beta test, and it was best to maintain her current state before entering it.

     Although Ye Mo’s face was expressionless, the erect and tense beast ears on her head betrayed the pain she was enduring. The hawk eye swooshed back to her, as if to comfort her.

     “Cough cough cough—”

     Ye Mo’s cough was still hoarse, but much better than the breath just now. She tied all three storage spaces to herself, dragged heavy steps to a corner of the space, and sat down halfway.

     The other survivors in the space were still unconscious. 

     There were a total of 30 survivors. All the survivors’ weapons or other equipment that could be concealed were on their bodies. Those that couldn’t be concealed were placed within their reach, and over 70% of these weapons were produced by Maria.

     Among the 15 survivors were plants and animals.  

     This included a leafy tree, a cluster of vines, a three-headed snake, a bizarre fish with two limbs, a purple fox, and others. The most familiar was a silver wolf, which Ye Mo had seen it before.  

     “Pushkin.”

     That Russian survivor.

     The King Cobra Intelligence Agency briefly shared information on the top 100 ranked survivors—particularly those with known identities—on the forum, with Pushkin’s profile being relatively detailed.  

     Pushkin’s first dungeon was a plague scenario, and his second was based on Eastern European mythology from his native Russia, where he successfully awakened his werewolf bloodline.

     The remaining 15 survivors were human. Clad in unfamiliar animal pelts, they were noticeably more robust than Earth’s humans—regardless of gender—with an average height exceeding three meters. Their muscular physiques exuded a primal, powerful beauty.  

     “Different races?” Ye Mo glanced at her own reflection. She was the only half-human, half-beast hybrid among them. At least Pushkin’s silver wolf form didn’t have this half-transformed state.  

     “Check the mission.”  

 

   【E-rank dungeon: 《Chi Mei Wang Liang》 (Demons and Monsters)

　　Main Quest 1: Survive for 100 days.

　　Main Quest 2: Rescue fellow beings (10000/10000)

　　Warm Reminder: Death in the dungeon means death in reality, failure of the main quest means death in reality.】

 

     It’s actually an E-rank instance – does it have the same level of danger as the World Tree dungeon?

     Chi Mei Wang Liang? (Demons and Monsters)

     Chi Mei Wang Liang is a general term for various supernatural creatures. Chi refers to mountain demons, Mei refers to tree spirits, and Wang Liang is related to water monsters and ghosts. Just hearing the name, it sounds like a Chinese-style instance.

     Fellow beings?

     Half-human, half-beast?

     Do they need to be rescued?

     Ye Mo was analyzing the dungeon task. After a while, Silver Wolf Pushkin woke up the second time, which meant that Bella and Ji Li, who were in the front, were not in this dungeon.

     Pushkin had obviously adapted to his silver wolf form. He turned over flexibly, stood upright, shook twice on the spot, and let out a short wolf howl.

     Glancing around, he quickly spotted Ye Mo, drenched in blood. Despite his furry face, his confusion was unmistakable—until his gaze lingered on her ears. Then, he spoke in human tongue: “Maria?”

     Ye Mo nodded in response, her voice hoarse, “Hello, Pushkin.”

     Although the two had met and had a brief exchange in the previous Jurassic dungeon, they were hardly acquainted—save for some cooperation in weapon trading between them.

     After the brief greeting, Pushkin transformed into his human form and checked the system tasks in place.

     Ye Mo used her strong curiosity to distract herself from the physical pain, wondering how the system convey the four characters “魑魅魍魉” (chi mei wang liang) into Russian in the other person’s mind.

     The third, fourth, and fifth survivors woke up one after another. It was difficult for each of them to ignore the half-human, half-beast who looked like she was about to die.

     These survivors were all from the top 100. They quickly recognized Maria by her colorful ears, just like Pushkin, and were also surprised by the chief survivor’s miserable state.

     Ye Mo: “…”

     It wasn’t until the sixth survivor woke up and exclaimed, “Sister Jing?”, that it was confirmed: this 3-meter tall “King kong barbie” with long black seaweed-like hair and unusually developed muscles was her friend Wang Xue.

     Wang Xue’s first words were: “Sister Jing, what happened to you?”

     Wang Xue’s second words were: “Sister Jing, your ears are so cute!”

     Ye Mo refused the wound medicine Wang Xue offered from her space bracelet, her gaze scaring away the concerned outstretched hand: “…Stop joking, look at the mission.”

     “Oh.”

 

  【E-rank Instance: 《Chi Mei Wang Liang》 (Demons and Monsters)

     Main Quest 1: Survive for 100 days.

     Main Quest 2: Rescue fellow beings (80/80)

     Warm Reminder: Death in the instance means death in reality, failure of the main quest means death in reality.】

 

     10000 versus 80?

     Fellow beings or fellow race?

     The comparison is a bit tragic.

     What surprised Wang Xue and Ye Mo was that not far from them was the 11th survivor: a clump of withered yellow algae on the ground.

     This clump, no, this ball of algae, when it woke up, was like being soaked in water, gradually spreading out and turning into a beautiful ink blue.

     When the algae had almost completely spread out, two white jade bracelets were revealed.

     Many survivors cast envious glances at it, because not every strong person could gather enough points to buy storage space, unless they were core members of large groups or national groups, as well as the three-person team of the chief survivor.

     The algae in front of them possessed two spatial bracelets – one for living beings, one for storage. There was only one possibility: it was one of the chief survivor’s three-person team.

     Lemon fruit on the lemon tree, under the lemon tree… they weren’t envious at all!

     Sure enough, the gloating voice of the strong and sturdy Wang Xue rang out: “Hahahaha, poor little Sheng Sheng(Hua Sheng/Watson), you don’t even have eyes, a nose, or a mouth this time, can you still talk?”

     Facts proved that the algae could.

     Watson’s algae wrap the spatial bracelets, but it could also clumsily differentiate into the shape of an eye and a mouth.

     That mouth opened and closed: “Can.”

     It was difficult for Watson to differentiate legs, but the algae was very light, and it could freely float around with the help of water, much more agile than the bouncing tree that was the 14th to awaken next door.

     “Can’t you transform into a human?”

     “No.”

     “…”

     For a moment, Ye Mo didn’t know if she was more pitiful, or if Watson was more pitiful.

     Perhaps she was more pitiful, because Watson had fewer tasks than Wang Xue. Besides the main mission of surviving for 100 days, he only had to save 30 of his own kind.

     Heavens knew how much effort Wat-Algae-son had put in to clearly explain that number!

     Watson was quite interested in himself, the strangely shaped survivors in the space, and the incurable wounds on Ye Mo. Among the three, he chose to study Ye Mo’s injuries.

     So, the survivors in the space could see a small clump of algae spraying blue mist towards Ye Mo. From this mist grew slightly lighter-colored algae, which revolved around Ye Mo, mainly analyzing her wounds.

     Wang Xue rubbed her messy seaweed hair. It was the first time in her life that she had such long hair. It was fresh and interesting: “What did you see?”

     Watson replied:  “These wounds are very messy. How to put it? There’s no particularly uniform weapon. Apart from punches and kicks, it’s like they were made by a berserk giant flailing around. They’re difficult to heal, not because something is added, but because something is missing.”

     Ye Mo understood his meaning. The reason these wounds were difficult to heal was because they lacked spiritual energy. As long as they were supplemented with medicine, spirit stones, crystal cores, etc., once absorbed, they would automatically recover.

     But what kind of enemy could inflict such wounds? Malevolent spirits? Watson should currently fall into the category of tree spirit monsters, right? Would they be opponents?

     The three’s discussion pretty much ended there.

     The remaining survivors in the space were also waking up one after another. However, after Watson, no other survivor would see Ye Mo’s beast ears. Now that her companions had been found, she could use illusion techniques to temporarily make the other survivors ignore them.

     Unless someone stared intently at her beast ears, or their mental power was within 100 points of Ye Mo’s, even if they knew, they would easily be influenced by her mental power and forget.

     Ye Mo was satisfied, her two ears tilting forward slightly in triumph, noticed only by Hawk Eye.

     Starting from the 25th, the awakened survivors are ranked after the top 100, and the remaining 5 are mostly ghosts and monsters.

     Now that all 31 survivors had more or less awakened, all those who awakened with magic-based abilities were plants and animals, while those who awakened with strength and speed abilities were all humans.

     Except for Ye Mo.

     The Spring and Autumn Dungeon provided Chinese survivors specializing in strength and speed with a clearer evolutionary path compared to other nations—unlike some countries where the magicians marginalized them. This is why the majority of strength/speed types in the global top 100 rankings are Chinese.  

     In addition, because Demons and Monsters were a feature of the Chinese dungeon, this dungeon had a majority of Chinese survivors, with 20 of them showing up, such as the former collaborators Li Si and Wang Wu.

     Deputy Director Li Si was human, and Wang Wu was an animal similar to an antelope.

     These weren’t the only two people from the Supernatural Investigation Bureau to appear, their team had the most members. The leader, Li Si, took the initiative to step forward and greet Ye Mo.

     The exchange between the two sides went relatively well, and they tacitly reached some agreements. It also allowed Ye Mo and her team to learn that starting from the 25th survivor, the only survivor mission was to survive for 100 days, which didn’t seem like an E-rank instance mission.

     The two sides communicated well and reached some agreements tacitly. It also let Ye Mo and others know that starting from the 25th place, the survivors’ mission is only to survive for 100 days, which is not like an E-level copy mission.

     Ye Mo also subtly gave Li Si some information through mental suggestion: she had experienced an E-rank instance, and in that E-rank instance, there were “gods,” the kind that could fly through the sky, escape into the earth, and command wind and rain. It was just that the god in the E-rank instance she experienced was already dead.

     Li Si struggled to process this information for a moment: “…”

     After the last two-headed snake woke up, it announced that it had only participated in one round of public testing and asked for everyone’s help. The others weren’t particularly cold, but no one agreed.

     Ten minutes later, all the survivors heard the system’s voice:

 

   【Demons and Monsters dungeon has been successfully deployed】.