Chapter 235 - 234: It’s Nothing

Chapter 235: Chapter 234: It’s Nothing

On a nameless street, only a single shop had its doors tightly shut.

Following Feng Ling’s instructions, Xu Yiming found a place to hide nearby. He chose a bedding store and ducked inside with Li Qing and the injured Cat Spider. After pulling down and locking the rolling shutter, he took out his phone and started a timer.

Feng Ling had told him to call her in twenty minutes. If she didn’t answer, it meant something had happened, and he needed to take Li Qing to find Crow and leave the Maze as soon as possible.

"Call in twenty minutes, call in twenty minutes..." Xu Yiming muttered, clutching his phone.

Li Qing sat in a corner with his head hung low, looking completely dejected.

Xu Yiming caught sight of him from the corner of his eye and walked over to comfort him. "Feng Ling will be fine. She’s so strong."

Li Qing gave a bitter smile. "Yeah, she’s so strong... If only I were that strong, too."

"Who wouldn’t want to be?" Xu Yiming sighed and sat down next to Li Qing. "Unfortunately, I’ll never get the chance. I can’t assimilate High-level Cards, so my Card Ability probably won’t get any better than this."

Li Qing remained silent.

He wasn’t dejected because of the strength or weakness of his Cards. He was just disheartened by his inability to decipher this Maze... and then his mood had plummeted, leaving him to lament his own weakness and incompetence.

As an administrator, he should have been providing Feng Ling with information, down to the smallest detail. But now, he couldn’t help at all. Although his teammate wouldn’t blame him or take it out on him, he was deeply disappointed in himself.

Li Qing harbored a grand dream, one that Feng Ling knew nothing about.

He didn’t just want to save the administrators from the game; he wanted to save all the players. To prevent widespread punishments when the system eventually returned to normal, he had to eliminate the Star Association and maintain the game’s balance.

But now, having encountered only the second Maze, he was already at his wit’s end. He really was still too weak.

’Feng Ling is so strong. She could save all of humanity. But I’m too weak. I can’t even save the people from my own world...’

Li Qing was lost in his own tragic, angsty drama.

Suddenly, a virtual screen lit up. A message from Crow came through the administrator network, asking about his progress in clearing the Maze.

’How ridiculous,’ Li Qing thought. ’As the administrator of this Maze, he can check what percentage of it has been explored, whether the safe house has been activated, if the Divine Statue has been used, and even how many treasure boxes have been opened. Why bother asking me about progress?’

In a foul mood, Li Qing told Crow that a player had gone missing in the Maze and that they had also lost contact with the hidden boss. The situation was extremely uncertain.

Crow: [Looks like even the hidden boss can’t conquer this Maze. Every player who enters disappears. Is our fate really just to be killed by players...? I want to go home so badly.]

Li Qing froze, then immediately shot back: [Other players have come in? What do you know?]

Crow: [Sorry for lying to you. I didn’t mean to deceive you all. I was afraid that if you knew, you wouldn’t be willing to enter my Maze. I want to log off so badly... I don’t want to die, I want to live...]

...

...

Li Qing shot to his feet!

Xu Yiming, who was beside him, jumped in fright. "What’s wrong?!" he exclaimed.

Li Qing didn’t say a word. He strode forward a few paces, then quickly turned back, his expression ghastly.

"S-say something! What’s wrong?" Xu Yiming was completely baffled by his reaction.

"Call Feng Ling, quickly!" Li Qing suddenly ordered.

"But Feng Ling said to wait twenty minutes..." Xu Yiming picked up his phone to check the time. "It’s only been just over eighteen minutes."

"Call her now!" Li Qing pressed closer to him, his expression exceptionally grave. "There’s something wrong with this Maze. I have to tell her immediately, or something might happen to her!"

’There isn’t much difference between eighteen and twenty minutes,’ Xu Yiming thought, so he dialed Feng Ling’s number.

After a long wait, there was no answer.

Sweat began to bead on Xu Yiming’s forehead as he kept glancing at Li Qing. "No one’s picking up..."

Li Qing’s expression was just as grim. His voice was tight as he said, "Call again!"

Xu Yiming dialed again. This time, it only rang twice before the call connected.

Hearing Feng Ling’s voice on the other end of the line, both Xu Yiming and Li Qing breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Feng Ling!" Xu Yiming’s words came out in a rush. "The Daoist said there’s something wrong with the Maze and that you should come back quickly! We’re in a bedding store. I left a water bottle by the door as a marker."

"Got it. We’re heading over now."

Feng Ling’s voice sounded perfectly calm; even hearing that there was a problem with the Maze didn’t seem to surprise her.

Xu Yiming could also faintly hear a little girl crying, whimpering about how much it hurt.

He couldn’t help but ask, "Is that Miao Miao crying? You found her? Is she okay? Is she hurt?"

A hint of cheerfulness entered Feng Ling’s tone. "Mhm, we found her. She’s fine. We can talk more when we get back."

The call ended.

"That’s great..." Xu Yiming let out a long sigh of relief, smiling at Li Qing. "Did you hear? Feng Ling is fine, and they found Miao Miao."

The tension in Li Qing’s expression eased as well.

It was the first piece of good news they’d had since entering the Maze.

Xu Yiming got up and moved to the rolling shutter, pressing his ear against it to listen for any outside noise. "I wonder if Feng Ling will be able to find us. All the pedestrian streets around here look the same. I hope she doesn’t get lost..."

"Don’t worry. She won’t get lost," Li Qing said.

He eagerly awaited her quick return.

...

Feng Ling didn’t keep them waiting for long.

Ten minutes later, the distinct sound of footsteps echoed from outside the rolling shutter.

Xu Yiming excitedly raised the rolling shutter. "Feng Ling, I—AAAAAAAHHH!!!"

Two figures, completely drenched in blood, suddenly came into view, startling Xu Yiming so badly that he staggered backward and fell flat on his butt.

His first thought was that a monster from the Maze had come to kill them.

Then, he saw Huangfu Miaomiao’s face peek out from behind the two blood-soaked figures, and only then did he manage to recognize Feng Ling and Zhengzheng.

"Oh my god, you nearly scared me to death..." Xu Yiming stammered, still sitting on the floor in a daze. "I thought you said she was fine! How did you end up like this?!"

Huangfu Miaomiao explained through her tears, "It was the mountain. That mountain can eat people. As soon as you get close, it sucks you in."

Her right foot and left leg had lost too much flesh and blood, and even her bones were damaged. Unable to walk normally, she could only use her Ghost Shadow Form for her lower body and wait for it to slowly recover over time.

Feng Ling turned to close the door. She grabbed the handle of the rolling shutter and pulled it down, leaving a horrifying, bloody handprint behind.

Xu Yiming watched in horror.

He didn’t even dare to look too long at Feng Ling’s face.

What kind of face was that...? There wasn’t a shred of skin left. Her eyeballs were embedded directly in the muscle tissue of her face, making her look like a bloody skull.

Feng Ling herself, however, was completely relaxed, a faint smile playing on her... face. "That mountain has all sorts of things inside. We dug the Little Skeleton out of the flesh, and we also dug out a treasure box. Once we’ve rested, I’m planning to go to the truck, grab a case of explosives, and blow that mountain to bits. I’m sure there’s plenty of other good stuff inside."

"Oh, right," she said, turning to Li Qing. "What’s the problem with the Maze?"