The more Zuo Lin'an read, the colder his heart grew.
【However, once the criteria are set, they cannot be changed or deleted. They can only be added to, and any new rules must absolutely not conflict with the existing ones. At most, there can be no more than three rules.】
【Well... how should I put this?】
【OP, I can only wish you the best of luck!】
【Of course! As a specter, being burned to death doesn't actually hurt.】
【Ask me how I know? Because I have experience.】
【Keep it up, OP! Take him down and help me get revenge! I don't have any Contribution points to post a bounty, so please forgive me, but giving you this intel should be enough, right?】
【Hehehe ^_^】
Zuo Lin'an's gaze landed on that final “hehehe” and the smiling emoticon. For a long while, he didn't know how to react. Was this guy gloating?
What the hell?
First, there was 【Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin】, and now there was 【Heavenly Punishment Divine Fire】.
This was simply leaving him no way to survive!
After agonizing over it, Zuo Lin'an could only sigh helplessly.
“Heavenly Punishment Divine Fire?”
“So... what exactly are the three rules that Zhang Tinglei defined?”
He felt completely speechless.
“Honestly, how is this even a talent? It's like carrying around a specter with three Death Rules.”
Of course, there were limitations.
Every time he used the Heavenly Punishment Divine Fire, he had to consume one-fifth of his life.
This meant he could only use it four times in a row. He had to leave at least one-fifth of his life and wait five days for it to recover before he could use it again.
“Sigh...”
“And this divine fire doesn't seem to target only specters.”
Meaning, even if he perfectly fused his living body and specter body, switching between the two would be useless.
As long as the divine fire descended upon him, he would inevitably be repelled.
“This is going to be tricky...”
“If only I could have brought my gold hairpin in here.”
“What a pity...”
Currently, he still couldn't use the gold hairpin inside his own dungeon.
It seemed he still needed to find ways to create more unsolvable specters to exchange for more Contribution points, so he could acquire his second rule as soon as possible and raise the dungeon difficulty to Two-Star.
With the gold hairpin, he would be much safer in the future.
“Forget it, there's no use thinking about this now.”
No matter how difficult it was, he had to find a way to kill them. Of course, it would be best if he could figure out exactly what three rules Zhang Tinglei had set for himself.
As he was lost in thought, a dusty, fluffy little creature appeared nearby. It quietly watched Zuo Lin'an, picking up a withered leaf with its two tiny paws and stuffing it into its mouth.
With every nibble, it would pause, its face twisting into a very human-like expression of disgust.
“This rabbit...”
Then again, it made sense.
The withered leaves here all carried a decaying odor; it would be a miracle if they tasted good.
But for a rabbit, the only things available to eat were withered leaves or dry grass.
Zuo Lin'an withdrew his gaze and looked back toward the neighboring mountaintop. A campfire was burning over there, illuminating the surroundings and providing him with a clear view.
He picked up his phone again to contact Feng Xingyun.
【Zuo Lin'an: What is the relationship between Zhang Tinglei and the Martial Alliance?】
Feng Xingyun thought for a moment after receiving the message before replying.
【Feng Xingyun: Zhang Tinglei is primarily a rebel leader and rarely deals with people from the Jianghu. Therefore, only General Zhong Cheng would openly show hostility toward him.】
【Feng Xingyun: But because Zhang Tinglei possesses Xiantian Rank strength, even if Zhong Cheng holds hostility toward him, he will likely suppress it for the time being.】
【Feng Xingyun: Zhong Cheng is a general of the western border, while the rebel organization Zhang Tinglei belongs to is entrenched in the northern border. The two have basically had no contact.】
【Feng Xingyun: However, I'm not entirely sure how things will play out. After all, this is a specter dungeon. But I suspect that as long as neither side actively looks for trouble with the other, they shouldn't clash.】
After all, all players knew that they shouldn't kill people in a specter dungeon.
But if pushed too far, no one could say for sure what would happen.
Zuo Lin'an hesitated.
In his opinion, the best course of action next would be to avoid both Zhang Tinglei and Jin Youwu, and focus primarily on the other players.
But he quickly realized something.
He didn't actually need to be in such a hurry. He could even wait for a few hours.
“Although I can make a move to kill someone on every hour, it's not like I absolutely have to. There is no time limit right now, so I can afford to wait a few hours.”
Taking time to prepare would only make the job easier.
Once these players realized the issue with food and water, conflicts would naturally arise—and they would be highly acute conflicts regarding survival!
That would be the real time for him to exert his power.
Zuo Lin'an's gaze shifted to the rabbit beside him.
Having thought of something, he reached out, grabbed the rabbit, held it in his arms, and gave it a rub.
“Rabbit, you're going to be very useful.”
When the players fell out over food, he would throw this rabbit to those who were starving and on their last legs.
They would definitely fight over it. It wouldn't even be surprising if someone got beaten to death.
“That's the plan. But one isn't enough; I need to catch at least three.”
And he couldn't catch wild chickens. They were too noisy when they squawked and would easily draw the players' attention. Catching rabbits was much safer.
Thus, Zuo Lin'an's specter body began catching rabbits in the dungeon.
“Hmm? Why don't I just hide all of them?”
The moment this thought popped up, he rejected it.
No!
He had to leave a certain amount of food for the players.
Food was the source of conflict.
Without a source, conflicts among the players wouldn't arise.
Instead, because there was no food at all, they would temporarily cast aside their past grudges and quickly unite.
Then, they would frantically search the dungeon for any trace of him, the specter, in order to eliminate him as quickly as possible, complete the main quest, and clear the dungeon to leave.
But with food, it would be different.
Those strong players with trump cards would draw a clear line between themselves and those irrelevant people they already disliked, simply because they had food to fall back on.
“I'm getting more and more devious...”
On the other side.
Zuo Lin'an casually grabbed a withered branch beside him and tossed it into the campfire in front of him.
The fire burned quietly, occasionally making faint crackling sounds.
He had previously thought the Jin family father and son would be the first to lose their patience and ask him, the only native in this dungeon, some questions. But to his surprise, the first to speak was... the bounty hunter, Zhou Shan.
Zhou Shan behaved as if he were completely unaware of the extremely hideous and savage scar on his face, curling his lips into a seemingly sincere smile.
“I am Zhou Shan, a crude man. May I ask how to address you, little brother?”
Zuo Lin'an turned to look at him. “I am An Lin.”
Although he was curious, he quickly figured it out.
Zhou Shan was a bounty hunter who didn't care about principles and would do anything for money, so he ought to be the most adept at communicating with people among this group.
“An Lin?”
Zhou Shan nodded slowly.
“Then do you know what place this is?”
Rate on N.U.
