Chapter 26 Arms

"Among this group of people, it seems that I have the lowest level..."

Li Ang thought to himself, "If players indeed cannot harm each other in cooperative tasks, then meeting veterans is actually a good thing. At least I can get a lot of information."

Xing Hechou, relieved to see that everyone had shared their personal player information, smiled and said, "Good, mutual trust among team members is a fine start to completing the mission.

Let me introduce myself first: I've executed four standard missions and two script missions, specializing in close-range fighting and emergency medical treatment; just call me Old Xing."

With this leading example, Wanli Fengdao introduced himself, "I use a longsword and have some knowledge of martial arts, specializing in assassinations. You can call me Little Brother Dao."

Little Brother Dao.... Li Ang glanced at Wanli Fengdao's greasy middle-aged face with its sleazy beard and said nothing.

As if sensing Li Ang's peculiar gaze, Wanli Fengdao's mouth twitched, and he glared, saying, "What are you looking at? Got a problem calling me brother? I'm also a post-90s."

What?

Xing Hechou couldn't help but give Wanli Fengdao a double take, the monk widened his eyes in disbelief, and even the silent poker-faced woman cast a glance his way.

"I really am a post-90s," Wanli Fengdao reiterated hastily and anxiously, "It's just that my appearance is slightly more mature."

Slightly? Isn't that an overshoot by about 20 years? Say you're forty-two or three, and people would believe you.

Setting aside the Wanli Fengdao who was distressed about his appearance, the little monk put his palms together and said, "I am Hui Bin, with a bit of strength."

Stew pancake? I'm still soaking buns here.

Wanli Fengdao made a mental retort, looking at Hui Bin, whose face was gentle, with red lips and white teeth. His heart skipped a beat; he coughed and said, "So it turns out you're really a monk?"

"Genuine as they come," Hui Bin said with a smile. That perfectly timed smile and slightly upturned eyes made Wanli Fengdao feel a shiver down his spine, and he subconsciously turned his face away to look elsewhere.

This monk is toxic.

The poker-faced woman in night clothes said, "Liu Wu Dai, I use a bow."

Her voice was very pleasant, her tone very steady, straightforward and crisp, cold and emotionless.

When it was Li Ang's turn, he pushed the face-changing mask he was wearing and said,

"Hello, everyone. I'm a freelance mercenary known as Monkey King, practicing for two and a half years. I enjoy singing, dancing, rap. Speaking of Monkey King, this year's second half will see the grand filming of an African warlord's battleground blockbuster movie where I'll continue to play Monkey King Sun Wukong. Using the Monkey King's artistic image to strive to create a positive image. Culturally blossoming in two realms, promoting Chinese culture..."

Li Ang's words flowed like a torrent, talking on and on until Xing Hechou hurriedly interrupted, saying awkwardly, "Err... Brother Li, you don't need to say so much, just introduce your specialties."

Although no one would share all their true information, you're the first I've seen to blatantly brag like this.

God damn Monkey King.

"Oh, I see." Li Ang had prepared a lot of material for his self-introduction, and he was quite disappointed not to use it. He pouted and said, "My little finger is particularly long."

Having said that, Li Ang held out his hand, clenched his four fingers, and revealed his little finger.

Xing Hechou's eye twitched, "It's not that."

"My fourth toe on my left foot is particularly long," Li Ang was ready to take off his boots to prove his point.

Are you kidding me, kid?

Xing Hechou took a deep breath to stop Li Ang from taking off his boots, feeling his blood pressure index soaring, "It's not that either."

"Oh, my dick is particularly long."

"Please do not be vulgar, thank you, and why did you censor yourself with a mute sound effect?"

If it weren't for the Special Affairs Bureau's requirement that field personnel recruit civilian players whenever possible, Xing Hechou would probably have already used force to subdue this "companion," who he suspected to be a mental patient.

Li Ang's act of playing the fool wasn't just due to personal bad taste,

he also suspected that Xing Hechou, a veteran player whose actions resembled those of a military man and who could produce professional-level mechanical scouting records in minutes, had official backing. By making jokes, Li Ang took the opportunity to analyze Xing Hechou's behavior and gather intelligence.

"Hmm..." Li Ang frowned and pondered for a moment, "I can activate my Spiritual Sense to discern Spiritual Bodies, does that count as a special skill?"

"Oh?" Xing Hechou's eyes lit up, the special ability to activate spiritual energy vision was highly valued, both in the real world and in scripted missions.

"Yes, yes, yes," Xing Hechou said with a beaming smile, "With this ability, we could foresee supernatural elements in advance and avoid danger to a great extent."

As a professional soldier and an external agent of the Special Affairs Bureau, Xing Hechou indeed had the responsibility to recruit civilian players he encountered during cooperative missions. He had originally thought Li Ang was just a Lv3 newbie without much to contribute, but now it seemed that he had to change his strategy...

[Main mission has been updated, proceed to Solitary Cold Temple within ten minutes.]

The system notification rang in everyone's ears, Xing Hechou's expression changed slightly, "10 minutes? Who among you is good at scouting?"

"I am," Wanli Fengdao moved unhurriedly towards a big tree by the road, looked up at the tree top, took a light breath, and with a gentle step on the dirt road in his slippers,

he leaped into the air, his ten fingers as sharp as climbing picks, deeply embedding into the trunk.

Wood chips flew, and Wanli Fengdao, like an agile monkey, used his hands and feet to quickly climb to the top of the tree. After looking left and right, he slid down the trunk, patted the mud from his hands, and said calmly,

"If you walk about seven hundred meters west along this road, there is a broken temple at the foot of the mountain, which should be the mission location. Smoke is rising from behind the hills to the east, there might be an ancient village or something."

"A village?"

Xing Hechou nodded, took out a black portable case the size of a briefcase from his backpack slot.

He placed the case on the ground, turned the combination lock to open it, and inside were a silver-gray drone, high-capacity batteries, spare propellers, a tablet controller with a display screen, and other accessories.

Xing Hechou took out the silver-gray drone, balanced it on the ground, picked up the tablet-shaped controller, and operated the drone to take off until it disappeared into the clouds, invisible to the naked eye.

This highest-level player didn't avoid others from peering at his controller screen while operating the drone, openly sharing the screen view with everyone.

The overhead view from a high vantage point showed an ancient village located on a vast plain, with buildings of green-tiled roofs and low mud-brick houses surrounded by curling smoke. The village was bifurcated by a ribbon-like river running through it.

The village center was the focal point, with the cultivated land spreading outward, vast fields coming into view, reflecting the golden glow of the sunset.

An old man in a straw raincoat, a water buffalo on the narrow village paths, children with runny noses wearing old hemp clothes running amok, and Hua Country farmers wearing hemp tunics, trousers, headscarves, straw sandals, and carrying a hoe...

All these elements wove together to paint a picture of an ancient Hua Country village.

And to the north, one could vaguely make out the expanse of an ancient city.

The drone slowly made its way back, flying westwards along the path until it reached the foot of the mountain.

At the base of the mountain lay an open and flat field, with a dilapidated temple at its center; the considerable stretch of land to both sides and the rear of the temple was overgrown with weeds, but traces of past tilling were still discernible.

The temple wasn't large. The red brick walls outside were covered with peeling, mottled colorful paint, and green vines crept up from the base of the walls, wildly encroaching upon them.

The blue tiles on the roof were broken and covered with withered leaves.

In front of the temple lay a path paved with square bluestones, flanked by two rows of stone lantern poles. They were, however, long neglected and the lanterns filled with dust.

The vermilion door screen bore a wooden plaque with the characters "Solitary Cold Temple" inscribed in large letters.

The drone flew low over the temple, circling above Solitary Cold Temple, overlooking it from a height.

In the courtyard of Solitary Cold Temple stood a white bronze pagoda; to the left and right were the Bell Tower and Drum Tower, with Heavenly King Hall to the front, Daxiong Bao Hall and Scripture Library to the rear, and monks' quarters and dining halls symmetrically arranged on both sides of the central path. Tucked away at the very back were the Sutra Printing Room, storage areas, and a warehouse bearing the sign "Longevity Warehouse."

The sparrow may be small, but it has all the vital organs.

Limited by the scope of the scout operation, Xing Hechou silently maneuvered the drone back and placed it into the briefcase, only then did Wanli Fengdao, oblivious until now, hesitatingly say, "Um, Old Xing, didn't you have a drone? Why did you have me climb a tree to observe the surroundings just now?"

Xing Hechou didn't distrust Wanli Fengdao. He had used the drone firstly to confirm the surrounding terrain and features, and secondly to ascertain the precise historical period.

The well-built, square-faced man chuckled, "It's not that I didn't want to use the drone. If the background of our task is set in the modern era, it's not a big deal, but if it's in ancient times or an alternate world, it's very likely that we would encounter monsters, specters, and cultivators from classical strange tales.

Using the drone rashly could potentially draw the attention of these supernatural forces ahead of time, or even cause the task's plot to veer off in an unpredictable direction."

As an employee of the Special Affairs Bureau, Xing Hechou had seen plenty of records left by other players who had carried out tasks,

One naive newbie, while on a team mission set in the Tang dynasty, presented a laptop containing e-books like 'Zizhi Tongjian', 'A History of China's Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties in Cambridge', and 'A History of World Industrial and Agricultural Technology' to Emperor Tang Gaozong Li Zhi.

As a result, the plot spiraled out of control. Not only was that player executed for being regarded as a demon, but it also stirred the Transcendent cultivators hidden within the Tang Empire who, riding on countless flying swords, pursued the player's teammates across a thousand miles overnight.

For the moment, the Transcendent power of the Republic in the real world is not sufficient to interact with the "scripted world" that serves as scenery for the tasks. Even this interaction itself is considered potentially dangerous by the think tanks.

After all, no one wants to see a Tang Empire that has sprinted into the industrial age, sending out tens of thousands of steam punk-styled mechanical cultivators to make contact with the Republic in the real world...

Therefore, field agents of the Special Affairs Bureau must still prioritize their own safety, with exploration and interaction only coming second.

In tasks set in ancient times, ghosts and monsters could arise at any moment, and one must use modern technology with caution, minimizing its use as much as possible.

No one dared to test the System's ten-minute limit. Xing Hechou swiftly stowed away the drone and led the way to the Solitary Cold Temple at the foot of the mountain.

Although the drone had already scouted the area once, it was only when they approached closer that everyone could more clearly perceive the temple's state of desolation and decay, quiet and profound.

"This damned place could easily be used as a set for 'A Chinese Ghost Story'."

Wanli Fengdao stood on the bluestone path, swiping away the accumulated ash inside a stone lantern column, and sneered, "Who's going first?"

Xing Hechou glanced at the rest of the group. Liu Wu Dai, the icy beauty, hadn't said a word since their arrival. The young monk Hui Bin appeared timid and easily frightened. The young man wearing the Monkey King mask was too low-level and didn't seem reliable no matter how one looked at him.

Huh....

Xing Hechou glanced at Li Ang, "Can you tell if there's something wrong inside?"

Li Ang activated Cat's Eye, swept around with his Spiritual Sense a couple of times, and shook his head, "I didn't detect anything wrong, but I can't be sure there's no danger."

Xing Hechou nodded his head,

As everyone watched Old Xing step onto the green stone slabs, slowly making his way to the temple steps, they heard Li Ang say, "Wait a minute!"

Li Ang spoke quickly and urgently, his voice deep and serious, startling Wanli Fengdao, who drew his longsword, Liu Wu Dai, who pulled out his composite longbow, and Xing Hechou, who jumped back to his teammates like a falcon, tightly gripping his long halberd, and standing in front of Hui Bin.

The group held their weapons, standing back to back, surveying their surroundings, fearing an enemy might leap out from any corner.

They still remembered that Li Ang possessed Spiritual Sense and was the team's first line of defense against supernatural phenomena.

"Don't be so tense, guys." The person surrounded at the center, Li Ang, scratched his head, "I just saw Old Xing's shoelace had come undone, and I was just reminding him, that's all."

Couldn't you have said it a little more quietly?!

After the false alarm, everyone silently sheathed their weapons, no longer in the mood for a slow search, and simply followed Old Xing straight to the temple door.

In fact, Li Ang had clearly seen, as Xing Hechou approached, a bloodless, slender, and pale arm slowly stretch out from the plaque of the Solitary Cold Temple, naturally hanging down, as if to grab Xing Hechou's hair to lift him, yet no one else had any reaction to it.

After Li Ang called out a warning, the arm retracted back into the plaque, disappearing from sight—even with Li Ang using his eyes to activate Spiritual Sense, he could no longer see any trace of the Spiritual Body.

As the group reached the base of the plaque, just as Xing Hechou was about to push the vermilion doors to enter the temple, an extremely mournful and sorrowful cry of a woman emanated from within.

The woman's cry was sharp and clear as if right by one's ear, expressing the injustice of snow in June or harboring a grievance as vast as the heavens and earth—tragically woeful, sending shivers down the spine.

The foliage in the forest rustled sharply, a sinister wind blew, sweeping away all the fallen leaves from the bluestone slabs outside the temple, and the rusted door hinges emitted a sour "squeak" as the untouched vermilion doors slowly opened.

With the doors wide open, the five people under the Solitary Cold Temple plaque did not move an inch.

It was because the temple's interior structures had long been neglected, broken down, and eerily silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. There was not a hint of life in the temple, nor any sight of the source of the chilling cry from earlier.

In the Asian supernatural system, a Fierce Ghost without a physical form is always more terrifying than zombies that have shape and substance.

Zombies, after all, are just a matter of a round of fire bombardment,

But ghosts like Ju-On's Kayako, The Ring's Sadako, Red Aunt, and Old Corpse in the Mountain Village's Chu Renmei,

They create illusions, pass through walls, warp and alter time and space, and their thousand and one methods of attack make them incredibly difficult to predict and even more to eliminate.

"Should we use a drone to search again?" the Monk Hui Bin said softly.

"The 10-minute deadline is almost up, and the System said to 'head to the inside of the Solitary Cold Temple.'"

Li Ang shook his head, let out a weird laugh, pushed the door open, and entered. The others, without sheathing their weapons, followed closely behind.

[Main Quest has been updated: Survive for seven days inside the Solitary Cold Temple, without leaving more than 500 meters from the Solitary Cold Temple during the period.]