Chapter 17: Terrifying Monster

It wasn't easy to get Wang Qi into the safe house, and Song Jian was sweating from the effort.

"There, buddy, you're safe for now. When the game time ends, hurry up and exit the game," Song Jian wiped his sweat and said to Wang Qi, who was lying on the living room sofa.

"Thanks, bro. You saved my life," Wang Qi said gratefully.

After lying down for a while, Wang Qi propped himself up with his hands, changed to a more comfortable position, and looked around.

"Jian, this place you found is quite nice. Ordinary zombies would have a hard time attacking even if they discovered us..."

"But if we encounter the canine monster we just saw, I'm afraid it would be quite dangerous here."

Wang Qi spoke with lingering fear.

Compared to mutant zombies, mutant canine monsters were not only much stronger but also extremely fast, with astonishing jumping power. Although they only had half their attributes during the day, they could easily jump more than a person's height. If it were night and their body attributes recovered, they could probably easily jump from the ground to the roof of the first floor of the villa and then enter through the skylight.

Song Jian's heart sank. This was just a level three monster. If higher-leveled monsters appeared later, this villa wouldn't stand much of a chance.

"To survive, we must have a solid base," Song Jian thought.

"Alright, Ke'er, get ready to leave the game. Wang Qi, how much longer do you have before you can leave the game?" Song Jian asked.

"I just entered the game, so I have about ten more hours," Wang Qi said with a bitter smile.

"That's about the same as me. We can probably leave the game at the same time. But I'm going to go out and find some things now. Be careful on your own," Song Jian said, getting to his feet.

"Uncle, my time is up. My name is Li Ke'er, and I'm in the fourth grade at Star Hui Elementary School. My home is..." Ke'er was speaking when her figure slowly began to turn transparent. Although he could see her lips continue to move, he couldn't hear what she was saying anymore. It wasn't long before Ke'er's figure completely disappeared, as if she had never been there at all.

"Who the hell created this game? If I find out, I'm going to smash their company's windows..." Wang Qi said with an ugly expression.

With two broken legs, all he could do was lie on the shabby sofa for a long ten hours. If he breathed a little heavier, pain would shoot through his ribs. His gaming experience was terrible.

"Stay here and don't move. I'm going to leave," Song Jian said, then climbed the metal ladder and left the room.

After leaving the villa's courtyard and looking back, Song Jian thought, "I must build the villa's gate as soon as possible, otherwise this climbing up and down is too inconvenient."

However, Song Jian had no idea how to obtain the stone and wood needed. He didn't know where to find them.

"Perhaps I can buy them from the Apocalypse Supermarket..." Song Jian thought as he walked towards the neighboring houses. For a novice, the most urgent thing was to search for supplies.

Song Jian didn't dare to venture too deep into the residential area this time. If he encountered more than two mutant canines, he would likely be injured; if he encountered more than three, there was a high chance he would die.

Starting with the houses on both sides, he spent more than an hour searching four or five villas. Song Jian was sweating, but most of the items he discovered were low-quality "miscellaneous" items. Although these items had a low tier, they could be taken out of the game.

However, these items were so worthless that there was no need to bring them out of the game. The few pairs of gold bracelets in Song Jian's backpack could be sold for more money.

The only white-tier quality item he found was a military shovel. The blade of the shovel looked very sharp and seemed brand new. If no other weapons were available, the military shovel could also be considered a weapon, but its main use was for digging dirt.

After thinking about it for a long time, Song Jian decided to take it, thinking it might come in handy when building a safe house in the future.

Time went by quickly, and it was soon around eleven o'clock in the morning. The sun was directly overhead, the most yang-filled time of the day. The surrounding streets were silent, with no trace of monsters to be seen.

Just then, a vibration came from far away, and even the ground of the street where Song Jian was standing began to shake. The tremor was rhythmic, as if caused by a giant walking.

Looking back, Song Jian was dumbfounded. In the distance, beyond the elevated bridge, a huge skeleton over a hundred meters tall walked slowly through a dense fog. Its figure was hidden and visible within the fog, and purple-gold flames burned in its eye sockets.

Song Jian could only feel his entire body trembling. Just one glance filled his entire body with fear, making every cell in his body crawl. In front of such a terrifying monster, Song Jian had no courage to even try to escape. It was like encountering a natural enemy; he couldn't move at all.

His mind went blank, and he seemed to lose his soul.

After a long time, Song Jian finally woke up from his fear. The giant skeleton monster had disappeared into the fog, and the ground was calm again.

"It was so horrifying!" Song Jian wiped the cold sweat from his brow and muttered to himself, "This should be just the Novice Village in the game, right? How could such a terrifying monster appear here?"

Song Jian wondered what kind of weapons would be needed to injure such a horrifying monster. His pistol and double-barreled shotgun probably couldn't even penetrate its defenses.

"There were just question marks above its head. I couldn't see its level or name." It was only now that Song Jian realized the giant skeleton monster had had a string of pale-yellow question marks above its head earlier. Clearly, this monster was non-aggressive. The gap in strength between Song Jian and the monster was vast, and he couldn't gather any useful information.

It took Song Jian a long time to drive the shadow of the giant monster from his mind. For a while, he dared not recall the image of the monster.

Just then, a level three mutant canine appeared behind Song Jian. Its mouth was dripping with saliva as it slowly approached Song Jian, silent as a ghost.

When it was about five or six meters away, the mutant canine let out a low growl and suddenly charged at Song Jian.

Upon hearing the commotion behind him, Song Jian was startled and rolled to the side without turning around, dodging the attack. By the time he stood up, the mutant canine was only two or three meters away from him.

Gripping the baseball bat in his hand tightly, Song Jian fiercely swung it at the canine's head. With a thud, the bat hit the canine's scapula, and the canine let out a scream. Its right paw shot out and viciously clawed Song Jian's right rib, leaving a deep wound. In an instant, Song Jian felt a sharp pain in his rib, and blood slowly seeped out from the wound.

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