The owners of those hands were hidden in the black mist, their true forms unseen.

 

Xing Ye, upon hearing about the “Take What You Can” ability, asked: “Does the ability affect only players or NPCs as well? Is it that after using the healing ability, for 24 hours you can’t be attacked? As long as you’ve used healing once, when you activate ‘Take What You Can,’ other players can’t harm you? And if the opponent hasn’t been hurt within an hour, does ‘Take What You Can’ still work?”

“My two abilities can only be used on players, so I really need someone to protect me,” Qian Daniu said. “‘Take What You Can’ only protects myself, but anyone I have healed once will be affected by this skill. The healing must be successful.”

Xing Ye looked at her for a moment and said, “You already used the healing skill today, right?”

Qian Daniu, having already witnessed the abilities of Yang Xiaomao and Cao Heihei, knowing she couldn’t fool them, nodded: “Yes, after using the skill, I purposely ‘accidentally’ hurt them to ensure the skill took effect.”

“How do you injure them without them realizing they’ve been healed?” Cao Qian asked involuntarily.

Qian Daniu, pleased that Cao Heihei didn’t guess this, explained proudly: “Even a fingernail scratch counts. That’s why I pretended to be scared and sided with them, grabbing Wang Si Pang and Qin Xiao’er. Children’s skin is very tender; a light scratch from my fingernail leaves a red mark. Such minor scratches heal quickly even without ability healing, so it’s hard for anyone to notice.”

Cao Qian looked at Qian Daniu in surprise: “You’re clever. You tell us these things?”

“You big shots already figured it out,” Qian Daniu said, “I’m a ‘take what you can’ type who can read others’ attitudes. Someone who casually uses a 10-point-per-minute skill—I figure as long as I behave and listen, he won’t kill me for no reason. My points are very few, just a drop in the bucket to the big shots.”

Cao Qian nodded secretly. Earlier, when she deliberately acted unfriendly toward Qian Daniu in front of Qin and Wang, she noticed Qian Daniu was actually cooperative—her intuition was correct.

Those who reach the advanced world generally have some survival skills.

“With this skill, as long as I stick with the boss, I don’t have to worry about being killed, and I can get through,” Qian Daniu added.

While speaking, another hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and grabbed Qian Daniu’s shoulder.

Standing right beside her, the hand pulled her. This time the arm did not avoid but also grabbed Cao Qian.

Cao Qian, strong, pulled Qian Daniu toward Xing Ye, but a dark hand grabbed Xing Ye as well. For a moment, they were surrounded by countless hands. Even Xing Ye’s hands were held down, unable to use the Repainting Brush.

Qian Daniu turned pale with fear. Countless hands held her, but she didn’t make a sound, firmly refusing to call out, fearing more monsters would be attracted.

They could see about two meters around, but for these hands, they only saw the hands; everything beyond was shrouded in a black mist, completely unclear.

Black mist...

Xing Ye, who was bitten on his neck, suddenly thinking of something, said to Cao Qian, “Overturn these guys, then we run.”

Cao Qian, with great strength, punched and knocked away the thing biting Xing Ye. Xing Ye took the chance to draw a QR code.

“Fist of Glory,” a QR code Cao Qian obtained after finishing the campus world, could transform into boxing gloves or fingerless gloves to increase her strength.

Wearing the gloves, her small body exerted great power. Her fists moved faster, the glowing gloves leaving countless after-images in the dark, pushing back the countless monsters.

After clearing a path, Cao Qian grabbed Yang Xiaomao and Qian Daniu one by one and ran.

She was annoyed at their slow pace, so she carried both of them on her shoulders. Her small shoulders bore a load far beyond her age as she dashed quickly toward the direction Xing Ye pointed.

Qian Daniu was tossed around on Cao Qian’s shoulder, almost vomiting.

Luckily, she had eaten little because she disliked the food at night, so her stomach wasn’t full, and she could endure it.

Countless arms tried to attack again, but Cao Qian, only about 1.2 meters tall, carrying two people and able to jump two meters high, kicked all hands reaching from the darkness away.

Xing Ye guided Cao Qian into a dilapidated house. The house was a rough earth structure with no locked door, so Cao Qian charged right inside.

“All right, you can put us down now,” Yang Xiaomao said, his face pale.

Seeing the creatures didn’t follow them in, Cao Qian set down Xing Ye and Qian Daniu. Qian Daniu immediately started dry heaving, saying between retches: “I’ve seen players with high stamina starting skills, but none as ruthless as you. You’re amazing.”

Cao Heihei said softly from the dark: “That’s probably because when they attacked monsters, they hesitated. Once fear creeps in, speed slows and attack power weakens.”

“Why not use other QR codes and initial skills?” Cao Qian asked Xing Ye.

Xing Ye said, “I just have a guess I want to verify.”

Qian Daniu: “...”

So many guesses, and they took risks to verify them? One brave and clever, one wise beyond measure, both advanced world rookies. It made her doubt she was a weak chicken!

“Have you verified it?” Cao Qian asked.

“Almost.”

Xing Ye searched the house and finally found a rope by the kang. He pulled it gently, and the dim bulb overhead lit up.

“What kind of light is this? Using a rope as a switch?” Qian Daniu asked.

“An old electric light. The switch isn’t built into the wall, so it’s controlled by a pull cord like this,” Xing Ye explained simply.

Though dim, the light was enough for them to see their appearances clearly.

Cao Qian was unharmed. Xing Ye and Qian Daniu had some bite marks here and there.

Qian Daniu felt guilty: “My skill still needs 10 hours before the 24-hour cooldown completes and I can heal again.”

“No problem,” Xing Ye said, “Those are minor wounds. We’ll be fine for now.”

Cao Qian asked, “Any new ideas?”

Xing Ye said, “The first time the hands in the dark attacked Qian Daniu, you intervened and they disappeared. The second time, with paper stand-ins stuck on us, when you saved Qian Daniu again, the hands attacked even more fiercely. This shows they only attack paper people, not living humans.

“At first, I didn’t stop them to confirm if they wanted to kill the paper people or just capture or injure them.

“Now, with the bite marks on my neck, I’m sure they want us dead. If Cao Heihei hadn’t saved me just now, they would have bitten my artery. No, for paper people, they probably bit through the paper on the neck.”

Qian Daniu also had bite marks on her neck. She nervously touched her neck, amazed at how Xing Ye could think of so many things in such a critical situation.

“What is this place? Why come here?” Cao Qian looked around the dilapidated house.

“This is my home,” Xing Ye said, “During the day, something very strange happened here.”

“What happened?” Qian Daniu asked.

Xing Ye briefly recounted Aunt Yang’s tragic experience, then said, “When Aunt Yang was inside the house, although she was desperate enough to want to kill me and then commit suicide, everything she did, thought, and felt completely matched her character—just a weak woman driven insane but still loving her children. However, when she stepped out of this house, into the sunlight, her whole demeanour became strange, as if… she was being controlled by something.

“I found it strange why there was such a big difference between inside and outside the house. And when I was attacked just now, I discovered something: those hands were all wrapped in a layer of black mist, making it impossible for us to see who was really attacking us. Why is that?

“So I connected this with the change between inside and outside the house, and it gave me an idea.”

Qian Daniu and Cao Qian listened quietly.

Xing Ye said, “Now let’s go out to the yard and see if those things can enter it. We’ll try to catch one of those things in the black mist and bring it into the house.”

Qian Daniu: “...”

Most people would just use skills and QR codes to massacre them.

Cao Qian said, “So just now on the road, you were running but didn’t hurt them, because you wanted to capture one alive.”

“Yes.”

After speaking, Xing Ye led Cao Qian outside. They told Qian Daniu to stay inside the house—after all, she was the healer and needed to stay in a safe spot. Also, if Xing Ye and Cao Qian got into danger, as long as Xing Ye stopped using the “Paper Substitute” ability, they won’t be attacked anymore, so it was better if those two go.

After they just stepped outside, those hands didn’t come inside, but once they stood in the yard, countless hands reached out from the darkness again.

Seeing the hands, Xing Ye, responsible for baiting the enemy, immediately retreated tactically. At this time, the 5-minute duration of “Fist of Glory” had just ended. Cao Qian opened her fingers wide, grabbing two hands—one in each hand—and charged back into the house.

Cao Qian was very strong, but at this moment, every step she took felt like a thousand pounds weighing her down—it was so difficult.

Luckily, it was still less forceful than the brain-eating demon Bai Xu.

Cao Qian gritted her teeth and pulled hard, forcibly dragging the creature from the darkness and throwing it inside the house.

At the same time, Cao Qian rushed into the room.

Qian Daniu had been waiting behind the door; once they came in, she immediately closed the door, blocking all the terrifying darkness outside.

After all this was done, the three of them finally looked down at what Cao Qian had dragged in—sure enough, it was two people.

No, two corpses.

The three children dragged them into the room, and under the dim light, they saw two elderly people who had already stopped breathing.

“What happened?” Qian Daniu collapsed onto the ground, staring at the horrific scene with her mind in a daze.

Xing Ye calmly looked at the two people, suddenly opened the window, tore off the “Paper Substitute” from his body, stuck his head out the window, and whispered, “Mom, are you there?”

After softly calling a few times, a hand reached out from the darkness and touched Xing Ye’s face.

Cao Qian seized the opportunity and pulled the owner of the hand through the window.

The owner of the hand had several knife wounds on his very thin body, with wide-open eyes that moved following Xing Ye’s head movements—this was Xing Ye’s mother, Aunt Yang.

 

Translator : DarNan