“Could it have been running away?”
No sooner had the thought crossed Zhang Tinglei's mind than he immediately dismissed it.
“Impossible! How could a specter know I want to kill it, let alone that I have a means to repel it?”
“If that were the case, wouldn't this specter's intelligence be even higher than a human's?”
He simply did not believe a specter could be that clever.
“It must be due to some other unknown reason.”
He slowly shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.
“Whatever. First, I'll find some water, then stockpile some food.”
Meanwhile, by the bonfire on the mountain summit.
The blood mist that the specter body had transformed into after being repelled had already silently returned and hidden itself inside his living body.
Zuo Lin'an slowly opened his eyes. Gazing at the dancing flames of the bonfire before him, his mind drifted slightly.
He really hadn't expected this.
It was that simple!
Just like that, he was gone!
It turned out that a low-level specter dungeon boss was actually so fragile and defenseless when facing a truly high-level player.
Although he had indeed been cautious and vigilant when facing players before, he had always harbored a sense of superiority due to his unique nature as a Human-Specter Symbiont.
Deep down, he had even looked down on these players to some extent.
After all, he was an immortal specter with a special constitution, possessed a Death Rule, and even controlled the entire dungeon.
Even the main quest had been set by him.
The so-called players were merely playthings in the palm of his hand, stepping stones to make himself stronger.
But now...
Having been repelled so easily by a player for the first time, he finally realized that even if he was a specter, and no matter how unique he was, he was still just a One-Star dungeon boss.
A dungeon boss with only a single rule was truly... too easy to kill!
“How could I have thought that way before?”
“In the past, even when the supernatural world exerted the strength of its entire world to erode and assimilate other worlds, it would still occasionally fail. Where on earth did I, a mere One-Star dungeon boss, get my sense of superiority from...”
As expected, sometimes one had to die once to truly realize how weak they were.
He did his best to adjust his emotions and gradually calmed down.
Once his mind cleared, he began to analyze the situation from earlier.
Speaking of which, he still had some doubts.
Generally speaking, as long as a specter was in a concealed state, players could not attack it, nor could they land any hits on it.
Only players with the 【Spirit Vision】 talent could see through concealment and attack specters.
This was the exclusive privilege of 【Spirit Vision】.
But just now...
Zuo Lin'an slowly exhaled.
The moment this doubt surfaced, he thought of the answer.
He had overlooked a very important point earlier.
Earlier, he must have violated some rule set by Zhang Tinglei, which was equivalent to “committing a crime.”
Zhang Tinglei's talent could roughly be viewed as a specter with three rules. For Zuo Lin'an to be judged as “guilty” by him was equivalent to triggering a specter's rule.
Since a rule had been triggered, there would be a Death Lock.
He had been locked onto just now!
That was why Zhang Tinglei could precisely locate him and strike even while he was concealing his form!
Zuo Lin'an sighed inwardly.
To be honest, when that 【Heavenly Punishment Divine Fire】 landed on his body, he actually hadn't felt anything at all.
After all, his specter body had no sense of pain. At the time, he only felt his body gradually fade under the burning of the flames, eventually turning into a mass of gas.
In reality, it was a cloud of blood mist.
Furthermore, the blood mist was not controlled by his consciousness; it had automatically drifted back to his living body.
This feeling of being out of control was actually quite unpleasant.
However, what worried him most right now wasn't this, but rather that Third-Rate martial artist player from the Martial Alliance whom he had knocked unconscious and discarded somewhere.
The phone and other items were fine.
He had hidden them securely and muted them completely, so they wouldn't be discovered.
But that player was a completely different story.
Although he had concealed his form when plotting against the three Martial Alliance players, the one who survived had indeed witnessed the entire process.
If that player woke up, returned here, and told the other players what he had seen...
How was Zuo Lin'an supposed to pull off the same trick again to create another unsolvable specter?
After all, now that his specter body had been repelled, it would take a full three days to respawn.
And the time he was repelled was 1:20 AM.
This meant he wouldn't be able to do anything for the next three days.
Could he really expect his current living body to trek across mountains and ridges to kill players?
He couldn't even retrieve his phone.
How troublesome!
Then again, was it still safe for him to remain here?
When Zhang Tinglei and the others returned, would they make a move against him, a fake NPC?
No, that wasn't right.
They had no idea he was fake, so they certainly wouldn't kill him.
Thinking up to this point, Zuo Lin'an comforted himself inwardly.
It's fine. Even if they kill me, it doesn't matter.
Even if my living body is killed, it will respawn along with my specter body the moment it recovers. There's absolutely nothing to worry about.
He just felt that... continuing to stay on the mountain summit might not be very safe.
Earlier, Zhang Tinglei had used his talent on him.
A streak of divine fire had cut through the night sky, landing squarely on his specter body. While setting him ablaze, his concealment state had also been broken at that exact moment.
Which meant...
If Zhang Tinglei had been observant enough at that moment, there was a certain probability he would have noticed that the specter in the dungeon looked exactly like him, the native.
Zuo Lin'an was somewhat worried.
If Zhang Tinglei had indeed seen it, and he continued to stay here...
Once the other party returned...
Zuo Lin'an was a bit uncertain.
Ever since his specter body was repelled, he had been observing Zhang Tinglei through his God's-eye view.
But the other party showed no abnormal reactions.
In other words, there was a high probability he hadn't seen his face.
Still, some things couldn't be said with absolute certainty.
Perhaps he had seen it.
But because he only saw a blurry outline, he hadn't thought much of it. Once he returned to the summit and saw Zuo Lin'an again, he might instantly connect the dots!
Human memory could be incredibly mysterious like that sometimes.
Zuo Lin'an brainstormed, constantly pondering what he should do next.
In the end, he decided to just let it go.
His living body was just an ordinary human. Even if he wanted to leave, he probably wouldn't get very far.
Having reasoned it out, Zuo Lin'an stopped torturing his brain cells.
He continued to sit quietly, leaning against the withered tree, picking up twigs and tossing them into the bonfire.
He also cast a casual glance at Jin Qianwen, who was sitting nearby.
The old fellow had his eyes closed the entire time, seemingly conserving his energy.
Ever since those nine ordinary people had left earlier, he hadn't uttered a single word.
Zuo Lin'an had no intention of starting a conversation with him either. He slowly closed his eyes and resumed monitoring the status of the other players.
Liu Baixu and the other four women had stopped heading down the mountain. Instead, they had found a flat spot on the mountainside to rest, using the torches they carried to light a bonfire.
Meanwhile, the three men remained hidden in the dark, withered forest not far from them, covertly spying on them.
Rate on N.U.
