Chapter 74: Bandit-Style Dungeon Run

As Lin Kuo stepped out of the painted scroll, his thoughts immediately turned to Sheng Wen. If Sheng Wen hasn’t come out yet… How can I protect the roster? He had a feeling Sheng Wen wouldn’t let him down—but since the roster held everyone’s lives in its pages, he couldn’t afford to be careless.

And indeed, Sheng Wen did not let him down. In fact, he gave Lin Kuo quite a pleasant surprise.

The moment Lin Kuo emerged, the courtyard’s outer wall seemed to tremble with surging winds. A powerful force yanked him forward, nearly tripping him. Instinctively, he flung out an arm for support to avoid crashing face-first into the ground.

His palm landed on solid muscle. Looking up, Lin Kuo found Sheng Wen’s eyes scanning over him intently, as though checking for injuries. Once he regained his balance, Lin Kuo quickly pulled his hand back.

But Sheng Wen caught it halfway, frowning.

“Your hand. What happened?”

“…Mm.”

When Cloud Mirror had revealed its true form, Lin Kuo’s fists had smashed through it as though pounding glass with bare hands. Naturally, his skin had been cut open by the shards. He explained it briefly:

“Beat someone up.”

To prove it, he opened his palm and revealed Cloud Mirror’s “eye”—a shard of mirror with sharp edges that had easily sliced him. His knuckles were streaked with blood. “It’s fine. Just a scratch.”

Sheng Wen took the eye without a word and tossed it to Guan Miao behind him.

It was then Lin Kuo realized everyone had already escaped the scroll. He must have been trapped inside far longer than he thought.

Lin Zhi spotted the blood on his brother’s hand and immediately went with Zhang Mengnan to fetch antiseptic from the courtyard.

Meanwhile, the players who had previously been stationed outside to block Lin Kuo all exchanged nervous glances. They seemed about to speak or move when they saw Lin Kuo return, but the moment Sheng Wen’s gaze swept over them, they all fell silent.

From their reactions, Lin Kuo could easily guess—Sheng Wen had beaten them again.

Sheng Wen turned to him. “Boyfriend. Hand me the roster.”

Lin Kuo passed it over. Sheng Wen extended a hand to Guo Huai next.

“Pen.”

Guo Huai hesitated. But when Sheng Wen clicked his tongue impatiently, he hurried to pass one over. Sheng Wen lowered his gaze.

“Who died?”

Everyone began speaking at once. Sheng Wen rapped the pen against the roster irritably.

“Pick a representative.”

Guo Huai stepped forward. But Sheng Wen didn’t even look at him—he pointed instead to Duan Qiu, who was puffed up like an angry blowfish.

“You.”

Duan Qiu clenched his fists. “…I—I don’t know them.”

Sheng Wen cast him a sidelong glance. “Your name’s Duan… Duan something.” He lowered his head, found the entry, and tapped it. “Duan Qiu.” He poised the pen as if to strike his name.

Memories of Jian Weiming’s brutal death flashed before Duan Qiu’s eyes. His face went pale. “W-wait. Let me think. I’ll remember!”

Sheng Wen smiled thinly. “Fine. But mind your attitude.”

Lin Kuo realized Sheng Wen was doing this on purpose. He wasn’t sure if Sheng Wen, who wasn’t the original initiator of the roster, could even strike names off—but before he could speak, Guan Miao tugged at his sleeve and shook his head slightly.

Standing beside him, Guan Miao explained quietly: Lin Kuo had been inside the scroll for almost a full day. During that time, Sheng Wen hadn’t let them eat, forcing them to guard the walls nonstop. Guo Huai and Duan Qiu had resisted and had been beaten several times until they yielded.

Afraid Lin Kuo might judge Sheng Wen’s methods too harshly, Guan Miao added softly, “Some people need to be handled this way. Honestly, I don’t think Sheng Wen’s wrong.”

Hearing that, Lin Kuo let out a quiet sigh of relief.

“What’s wrong?” Guan Miao asked.

“Nothing!” Lin Kuo said a little too quickly.

One by one, Sheng Wen crossed out the names of those reported dead. Before anyone could muster up fake gratitude, he tapped the pen against the roster again.

“Now then. Time to pay your protection fees.”

In the dungeon Hundred Ghosts Scroll, nothing was more precious than the ghosts’ eyes. His meaning was obvious.

Lin Kuo: “!”

If he was this shocked, the others were even more so. Those who had endured Sheng Wen’s intimidation for a full day finally burst out with complaints. Sheng Wen only leaned further into the role of villain, voice cold and mocking:

“I protected your lives. Is it unreasonable to ask for compensation?”

When no one replied, he raised the pen as if to strike another name.

“What, think I don’t dare?”

He smiled darkly. “Alright then, I’ll just pick a lucky volunteer at random…”

The way he scanned the roster was no different from a teacher calling names in class. Everyone reacted with far more panic than schoolchildren praying not to be called on. Finally, Wu Tingting blurted out:

“…These are the eyes of ‘Hashihime,’ ‘Qinglu Fire,’ and ‘Wild Temple Boy.’”

Frozen for a beat, she then ordered her team to hand over the rest of their collected eyes. Sheng Wen gestured at Guan Miao.

“Give them here.”

A wave of nostalgia washed over Guan Miao. Before the days they’d worked under the Main God system, this bandit-style approach to clearing dungeons had been their signature method. With a faint sigh, he stepped forward to act as Sheng Wen’s little brother once again, collecting the eyes from Wu Tingting’s group.

Lin Kuo could only stare, speechless. Then he looked at Duan Qiu and his people, who were seething silently but dared not speak. They had simply run into someone even more unreasonable than themselves, and there was nothing they could do—after all, Sheng Wen held all their lives in his hands.

Guo Huai gritted his teeth. “Sheng Wen, Wang Qing is dead. Our team’s eyes are all invalid. Even if we gave them to you, they’re useless.”

“Got it.”

As everyone exchanged uneasy looks, Sheng Wen elaborated calmly:

“Let me make it clear. I’m not unreasonable. For A-zone players, each of you owes me 10 pairs of eyes—no lower ranked than the top 30. For B-zone, 15 pairs—no lower than top 50. For C-zone, 20 pairs—no lower than top 80. Anyone here from the lower districts? Raise your hand.”

Someone did.

Sheng Wen’s gaze flicked over them. “Five pairs. Pick them from the bottom of the rankings yourselves.” His smile faded to something colder. “And I suggest you pay on time.”

Lin Kuo did a quick calculation in his head. With this setup, Sheng Wen didn’t even need to enter the scroll again. In at most a few days, he’d have every last ghost eye collected.

After this round of intimidation, Sheng Wen stopped bothering with the others. He pulled Lin Kuo along to eat, then back to their quarters.

Waiting outside was Zhang Yi. When he saw Lin Kuo, he held out several pairs of eyes.

“Debt repaid.”

Lin Kuo accepted them without fuss. He knew Zhang Yi was a man who hated owing favors. He had lived as “Zhang Yi” for the sake of repaying a ten-thousand-point debt; it was no surprise he’d repay this as well.

With that, Zhang Yi turned and left. He returned to his room, retrieved his own diary, then took out Zhou Mu’s as well. With nothing else to bind them, he tore a plastic bag into strips and tied the two books tightly together.

The landscape of Hundred Ghosts Scroll was beautiful—Zhang Yi had always thought so. Of the nearly thousand dungeons he’d endured, none had scenery quite like this. He walked outside the courtyard to where willow branches swayed gracefully in the breeze.

With scarred hands, he dug a shallow pit in the spring soil, just large enough to bury the two diaries. Stroking one book as though it were the face of a beloved, he whispered:

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t fulfill your wish. Your favor… I’ll never be able to repay.”

A single teardrop splashed onto the cover.

“You once asked me to think it over. I have. My answer is to keep living. I’ll walk on in your place until the day I leave this fortress.”

A breeze passed, drying the tear that had landed on the book. Zhang Yi let out a shaky laugh.

“Was that you? Does my answer please you? Then it’s good news, isn’t it?”

He laid the diaries in the pit carefully. “The scenery here is nice. Mu Mu is here too. I wish you two… a lifetime together, loving each other until the end.”

He slowly covered the pit with soil, then plucked a few flowers from nearby to lay atop the mound.

…

Back in his room, Lin Kuo found Lin Zhi had returned with alcohol. Without hesitation, Lin Zhi uncapped it and moved to pour it over Lin Kuo’s hand.

Lin Kuo looked at him, utterly speechless. “Lin Zhi… do you have bad grades because you’re reckless, or do you actually want me dead?”

“Brother! What are you saying!”

Guan Miao chuckled. “Alcohol’s only for surface cleaning. For deeper cuts, it’s not suitable.”

“Oh…” Lin Zhi muttered.

Sheng Wen examined Lin Kuo’s injury. The cut ran across his knuckles, clearly the result of striking something while clenched in a fist. His brows furrowed.

“Brother, what did you see inside the mirror?”

“Don’t ask.” Lin Kuo’s voice was flat.

Sheng Wen’s brow twitched. “…It wasn’t me, was it?”

Seeing Lin Kuo’s expression, Sheng Wen knew the answer and quickly changed the subject. “Jiang Sheng’s a little hurt.”

Before Lin Kuo could ask, he added, “It’ll be fine. Injuries in a dungeon don’t carry out.”

Guan Miao nodded. “That’s true. This copy should be ending soon anyway.”

Lin Kuo let out a long breath.

The next day, however, he got no rest at all. People kept arriving one after another to deliver their “protection fees.” Every time he shut the door, another knock came. By nightfall, he was exhausted.

When the system finally tallied their results, the numbers appeared:

Total collected eyes: 100 pairs.
Invalidated: 17 pairs.
Lin Kuo’s team: 83 valid pairs, 500 points.
Wu Tingting’s team: 0 pairs, 0 points.
Others: 0 points.

When the calculation ended, a mechanical voice rang overhead:

“Dungeon 《Hundred Ghosts Scroll》 complete. Results finalizing in ten seconds—”

Ten seconds later, a floating panel appeared:

Dungeon: 《Hundred Ghosts Scroll》
Difficulty: Unranked

Team Results:
Lin Kuo — First Place
Wu Tingting — Second Place
Wang Qing — (Deceased)

Rewards: Lin Kuo’s team earns 10,000 points. Distribution at initiator’s discretion.