Chapter 306: Admiration

Cheng Shuili listened silently from start to finish; seeing that Lao Da had no reaction, the others dared not act on their own.

The skeletal remains felt stranger and stranger as it spoke.

Players who come here shouldn't first stay silent for several minutes out of fear, then forget the time while listening to its narration, miss the peak, or be bewitched into helping it pull out the dagger, right?

Why does this group keep checking the time?

Just checking the time is fine, but what exactly does that perfunctory concern from the other side mean?

What's with that expression that says, "If it weren't for the reward, I wouldn't listen to you at all"?

Instance NPCs are still NPCs, okay?! Please show some respect for NPCs!

These are the skeletal remains' true thoughts; these words absolutely cannot be said to the players, so it can only mutter to itself.

Cheng Shuili had no idea what the skeletal remains was thinking, and its skull face showed nothing.

Cheng Shuili only felt that this guy's nonsense was a bit too much.

Is it really that hard to explain what happened here? Probably because this guy also mixed in too many personal emotions.

Cheng Shuili fell somewhat silent, but thinking that this guy's experience was likely true, she didn't say much more; he was practically a skeletal version of Xianglin's Wife.

"I'm so stupid... really, I only knew that doing this would get me targeted, but I never imagined that my only close friend, the person I trusted most, would choose to stab me in the back... I'm so stupid."

Cheng Shuili couldn't help shifting her posture and glancing at the time again; they needed to reserve half an hour to find Qianxun, so this guy's nonsense had better be kept to a minimum.

After a few more sentences, a panel suddenly popped up in front of Cheng Shuili and the others.

【The current squad has qualified to obtain the core reward! The core reward will be automatically issued to the squad's captain! If the captain dies, the core reward will be given to the player who killed the captain!】

Cheng Shuili patiently read through that passage, then fell silent.

This... this wouldn't also be a notification to all players in the instance, would it?

No, playing this kind of thing once is enough; doing it again would be boring.

Cheng Shuili lifted her head; the remaining few were all looking at her, obviously having received the reminder too. She felt helpless, shook her head, stood up, and stretched.

The remaining few immediately stood up, eyes fixed on Cheng Shuili, ready to strike wherever she pointed.

Actually, Cheng Shuili had guessed that this system prompt was probably received only by those few present.

If it were a temporary team, they'd probably have fallen into chaos by now.

But these few, Cheng Shuili absolutely trusts them.

The spectators suddenly stood up; the skeletal remains, still talking about its tragic experience, froze and asked, "Are you going to help me pull it out?"

Cheng Shuili chuckled lightly; she was in a decent mood, so she kindly replied, "We're leaving."

The skeletal remains' face had no flesh left, but its mouth was slightly open, looking rather vacant.

This was oddly human; even Jiang Tang couldn't resist commenting, "We're leaving, you just stay here."

The skeletal remains' lower jaw unconsciously opened and closed a few times, making a soft "click-click" sound; the two points of purple light flickered violently, revealing great confusion and... a hint of panic?

It seemed completely unprepared for this turn of events.

The story is over, the reward has been taken, and these people are leaving?

What about it? It's still nailed here!

"Wait... wait!"

Its voice grew more hoarse and urgent, even mixed with a sharp static, like a bad signal broadcast, crackling.

The hoarse, rasping sound was hard to listen to.

"You... can't leave! Help me! Pull it out! Please, relieve my suffering!"

It strained to lean forward, its white bone arms futilely reaching toward the doorway; the bone blade on its chest trembled slightly from the violent motion, emitting an unpleasant hum.

That posture actually looked rather pitiful and miserable.

But Cheng Shuili merely glanced at it one last time, her eyes showing no wavering, only pure calm.

Who knows what would happen if we helped it pull out the dagger; the Abyssal Ring also said not to listen to it, so Cheng Shuili certainly wouldn't risk danger just out of a bit of kindness.

She turned, without hesitation, and slipped sideways through the narrow door gap first.

The others followed closely behind.

As Jiang Tang passed the doorway, she even turned back to make a face at the skeletal remains, muttering, "Don't think you can fool us!"

As they stepped out of the ruins, there were still forty minutes until the next peak.

Cheng Shuili suddenly felt utterly at peace inside; though the instance wasn't fully over, this place deserved a comma.

From now on, we just need to proceed step by step and quietly wait for the instance to end.

On the way to the refuge, they encountered a few monsters, but with plenty of time, Cheng Shuili simply led her group on a detour.

When twenty minutes remained until the peak, Cheng Shuili and her group smoothly reached the refuge.

Here, besides Qianxun and her group, no strangers appeared.

It seems the team they fought in the warehouse has all been wiped out.

Too many have died along the way; Cheng Shuili certainly couldn't waste emotions on just these few.

After smoothly passing the peak, this instance can be considered over.

Before leading his three companions out, Qianxun deliberately glanced back, his eyes landing on Cheng Shuili, and he suddenly said, "I never expected the sole player announced server-wide to be a woman."

Cheng Shuili hadn't intended to say anything more to him, but hearing that she slowly turned her head, looked into his eyes, and asked, "What's so surprising about that?"

Qianxun paused, suddenly realizing that hidden in his earlier remark was a condescending judgment and the arrogant attitude of equating strength and excellence with masculinity.

That's exactly what annoyed Cheng Shuili.

After being rebuked like that, Qianxun's eyes cleared; he spoke sincerely in a low voice, "Sorry."

Cheng Shuili said nothing, merely giving a barely perceptible nod and withdrawing her gaze.

No need for further words.

Silence itself is a posture of accepting the apology while still drawing a line.

Qianxun secretly let out a sigh of relief, knowing that this page was now settled, but she no longer dared to say anything extra.

This person, he truly cannot afford to offend; his attitude toward her must be careful and cautious. The more you say, the more mistakes you make— that remark just now was something that shouldn't have been said.

Qianxun certainly wasn't that submissive from the start.

He had been probing, especially after the warehouse transaction. They're all players; being pressed down by someone always feels uncomfortable.

Qianxun, after finishing the transaction then, had the team members take the stuff and leave first, while he himself deliberately went back to the warehouse to observe for a while.