26: Chapter 26: Damn, I got tricked by the system.

The world spun violently!

An Mumu stepped into thin air and almost fell.

The stench of rot and decay flooded into her nose.

Beneath her feet was chilling red gravel.

Before their eyes was an endless, viscous Black Sea, and a pale sun hung in the sky, resembling a dead man's eyeball.

What the hell kind of dungeon entrance was this!

"Damn, we've been played!"

Looking at the scene before her, An Mumu was so furious that she slammed the package in her hand onto the ground.

Su Xixi turned around swiftly, her gaze sweeping across the long beach and locking onto the silhouette of a massive hundred-meter-tall wooden building far in the distance.

It was Building 0.

"That's no dungeon teleportation at all. The son-of-a-bitch system is actually playing dirty!"

"Brother… Brother Qing, look behind us!"

Supported by two lacklings and having just spat out a mouthful of blood, Wang Qiang pointed behind them in terror.

That dim blue halo flickered twice before shattering into a sky full of light particles with a pop.

Their retreat was gone.

"We're done for…"

Wang Qiang and the three cannon fodder boys completely broke down, collapsing to the ground and wailing.

Lin Qing didn't say a word, directly buckling the dark silver crossbow onto his wrist.

Walking back was their only choice.

But right at that moment—

Gurgle… Gurgle…

The crimson beach beneath their feet rolled violently without warning!

A bloated, pale arm suddenly burst out from the sand, tightly grabbing a cannon fodder boy's ankle!

"Ah—!"

The boy let out a heart-wrenching scream, swinging an unranked fire axe downward!

The axe blade passed right through the arm without any obstruction.

Physical attack, ineffective!

The next second, his entire body was forcibly dragged into the sand, leaving even his screams cut off halfway.

The beach had completely come alive!

Semi-transparent humanoid spectral shadows crawled out from underground, densely packing the area and completely surrounding them!

The chilling dead aura dropped the surrounding temperature to freezing point.

"We can't hit them! These ghost things can't be hit!"

The remaining cannon fodder boys swung their weapons like madmen, only kicking up gusts of gloomy wind.

A headless spectral shadow pounced onto one of their backs, its illusory claws plunging directly into his chest and crushing his heart on the spot.

In less than ten seconds, only Wang Qiang and another boy were left, scared out of their wits and shrinking to the side of Lin Qing's feet, their pants soaked and warm.

"Physical immunity?"

Su Xixi clenched her teeth, reversing her grip on her short blade, and slashed fiercely at an oncoming spectral shadow!

Plop!

The short blade pierced right through the target, but it felt like slashing into empty air.

"Mengmeng, freeze!" An Mumu shouted anxiously.

Su Mengmeng immediately pushed out a blast of extreme cold airflow, but the bone-chilling cold air likewise passed right through the bodies of three water ghosts.

Elemental attacks were also greatly discounted!

Despair instantly enveloped everyone.

Just then, Lin Qing stepped forward, standing in front of everyone.

As he watched the ghosts surging in like a tide, his voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Open."

Hum—!

A circle of pale golden halo erupted and expanded from his center, instantly forming a ten-meter radius domain!

[Protecting the Crowd], activate!

The moment the aura enveloped them, a faint golden glow simultaneously surfaced on the bodies of the three women: Su Xixi, Su Mengmeng, and An Mumu.

The core trait of [Protecting the Crowd]: Touch Void.

Specifically cures all fancy tricks!

"Slash." Lin Qing spat out only a single word.

Su Xixi didn't ask at all; her body had already reacted before her brain, and she slashed down with her blade once more against that headless spectral shadow!

Splish!

A completely different tactile sensation came through, as if she had slashed into tough cowhide!

That headless spectral shadow let out a shrill shriek, actually being cleaved in half by her single strike, disintegrating on the spot into a ball of pure life energy that poured into Su Xixi's body!

Su Xixi's eyes lit up instantly.

"We can hit them!"

"Damn! This lady thought she was going to kick the bucket here today!" An Mumu roared excitedly.

With a thrust of her club, she pierced through the head of a crawling water ghost, directly blasting it into black fog!

Su Mengmeng's ice element also regained its dominance at this moment; icicles shot out, instantly freezing five fierce spirits firmly in place!

Watching this drastically changing scene, Wang Qiang's mouth opened wide enough to stuff an egg into it.

What the hell kind of monsters were this group? They could even hack physically immune ghost things like vegetables?!

The corners of Lin Qing's mouth hooked into a cold smile as he raised the dark silver crossbow.

Was this any desperate situation?

This fucking place was an experience farm tailor-made for him!

"Don't stop, keep grinding!"

Lin Qing pulled the trigger, and dark silver streams of light burst forth, never missing a target!

Every single arrow accurately pierced through a fierce spirit's skull, its armor-piercing effect tearing their bodies apart!

A steady stream of life energy poured into his body, and his experience bar began to jump frantically.

"Shrink the formation!" Lin Qing ordered in a deep voice, "Mengmeng crowd control, Xixi primary killer, Mumu rear guard! Wang Qiang, get your ass up if you don't want to die!"

The three women instantly formed a triangular formation, protecting Lin Qing in the center and forcefully carving a bloody path through the pitch-black tide of ghosts in the direction of Building 0!

Su Xixi went wild with killing, her blade light weaving into a net of death.

An Mumu swung her wooden club, smashing any fierce spirit attempting a sneak attack into fragments.

Su Mengmeng's frost laid out a frozen path of death beneath their feet.

Lin Qing's life energy soared all the way; with the twenty percent team commission and the crossbow's ultra-high firing rate, his life level was right on the threshold of the Good grade!

At the edge of the Black Sea, they forcefully carved out a vacuum zone through slaughter.

"Brother Qing, there are no more monsters ahead!" An Mumu wiped the black blood from her face, panting heavily.

A thousand meters ahead, the huge silhouette of Building 0 was already clearly visible.

Yet Lin Qing didn't relax in the slightest.

"Wait!" He suddenly raised his hand, his gaze turning sharply piercing.

The air fell dead silent in that instant.

The sound of rolling waves disappeared.

The sound of the wind disappeared.

Even their own breathing seemed to be choked off by an invisible giant hand.

The remaining fierce spirits on the beach, as if seeing some ultimate terror, let out silent shrieks and fled like madmen back into the ground and the sea!

The surroundings were so dead silent that only the heartbeats of the few people remained, pounding against their eardrums like beating drums.

A shudder capable of freezing the soul shot straight up Lin Qing's spine to his crown!

He abruptly turned his head, staring fixedly at the black ocean on the right.

On the originally calm sea surface, the viscous black water was slowly parting to both sides.

A… colossal entity that defied linguistic description was slowly rising from the seabed.

Merely sticking a corner out of the sea surface blocked half the sky!

Immediately following that—

Two giant pupils resembling blood moons opened within the black fog.

That gaze crossed a distance of ten thousand meters.

Icy, indifferent, and carrying a hint of mockery.

As if looking down upon a few overreaching ants.