Chapter 50: Sealed Test Site

Wine and food plentiful, host and guest enjoyed themselves fully.

"No need, I've become a penniless bum again—who would come looking for trouble for me?"

After politely declining the good intentions of the other team members, Ji Ming returned to the clinic.

According to the plan, they will enter the ruins to explore tomorrow; today they must make thorough preparations.

He then set a pot on the stove and boiled all the remaining ingredients into Rejuvenation Elixir.

He pried open another floor tile beneath the treatment bed and buried all the money that had been stolen.

"Squeak!"

Mouse Kid had slept in the drawer all day and was now full of energy.

Seeing it noisy, Ji Ming tossed a piece of bread from his packed food over, and it finally quieted down.

Probably hungry, it stood on the cabinet watching Ji Ming busy, gnawing on the bread with both hands.

Finally, he tamped the tile down with the back of his axe; seeing Mouse Kid still wanting more, he took another large piece from his pack.

But before giving it to him, he emphasized the point again.

"Keep your ears perked up—don't let outsiders sneak in unnoticed."

"If anything seems off, come call me right away, got it?"

"Squeak-squeak-squeak!"

The frantic little mouse was no longer the past simpleton, waving its claws and nodding wildly.

"Step by step, eat."

After reviewing today's gains and losses, Ji Ming freshened up and went to sleep early.

That said, he still instructed the system to set an extra alarm.

So that after every hour or two of sleep, he would get up to check everything.

He remained in a light sleep, ready to flee at any moment—quite the cunning… clever.

Finally, in the early hours of 2–3 a. m., Ji Ming returned to the real world once more, when the game screen was left on with the full map displayed.

He spotted a peculiar figure on a large tree nearby.

It was a person in black clothes and pants, with a fit physique, wearing a bronze leopard helmet.

At that moment he was concealed in the dense canopy, silently surveying the surroundings.

With such a conspicuous outfit, Ji Ming thought it would be hard not to know who he was.

Hunter.

They are the elite guards cultivated by the Fang Claw Family—few in number but of exceptionally high quality, ranking among the city's top combat forces.

Having such beings stationed there shows Boris still remembers his promise.

Perhaps although last night was chaotic, no one ended up entering the clinic, which may also be thanks to him.

Since someone was guarding, Ji Ming's heart eased a little.

After sleeping fitfully until dawn, refreshed, he dressed neatly and left early.

After tossing a line to the guards about going out to find medicine, he vanished into the wilderness.

But when he returned near the mountain pack, Ji Ming unintentionally found some yellow dung in the roadside grass.

This is……

A bad premonition rose in his heart, and he hurriedly checked the surroundings thoroughly.

The result—including the cave interior—indeed turned up much fresh wolf dung nearby.

Judging by the quantity, the demon wolves that spent the night nearby likely numbered a dozen or even twenty.

He couldn't help but feel relieved; fortunately he hadn't gambled yesterday afternoon.

Otherwise, he might have run straight into an enemy and ended up in his stomach.

After cleaning up the remaining disguise, Ji Ming quickly returned to work mode.

Swinging a shovel while drinking potion, he worked hard from morning until afternoon.

Finally, he swung a shovel that felt utterly wrong, landing soft and mushy.

Pulling out the shovel, he reached forward and felt a faint cold wind brushing his fingertips.

Ji Ming's heart jumped; he slammed down there twice, then quickly withdrew.

Soil pattered down, and the windy spot was indeed hammered into a small hole,

but strangely, beyond the hole it wasn't pitch black; instead, a faint light illuminated it.

Ji Ming waited patiently for a long time; after confirming no movement there, he applied a Breath Holding Talisman and crept closer.

Peering through the hole for a moment, Ji Ming saw that inside seemed to be a corridor.

The huge stone blocks forming the walls were covered in moss, while the vegetation in the cracks emitted a faint glow.

Seeing this, Ji Ming couldn't help but think of the Twilight Forest.

Could this really be an underground city?

Seeing no danger, he quickly widened the opening and slipped inside.

In the phosphorescent light, both sides of the silent corridor were empty, unknown how long it had been abandoned.

Ji Ming didn't rush to designate this place as a sealed test site; instead, he planned to first explore and inspect it.

After all, what lay before him was only a small part—who knew what the whole looked like?

If most of this underground space had collapsed into an inaccessible dead zone, then there would truly be nowhere to cry.

Surely they couldn't release a game themed around digging earth and moving mud, touting a hardworking civil engineering miner simulator.

By then the Feixin group would have something new to enjoy.

——There's a game in the VR equipment that uses cutting-edge tech to let players labor and transform. jpg

He smiled silently, and Ji Ming walked out in one direction.

But just after slipping a short distance and turning a corner, he heard faint footsteps nearby.

After checking the breath seal on his face, Ji Ming lifted his long-handled shovel and inched closer.

Hiding in the corner, he quietly stuck his head out and found that on a nearby open space stood several…

Green skin, brown shorts, long snout, big belly.

They were, unbelievably, the goblins that exist in almost every fantasy world!

But this group of goblins looked extremely off.

Although different works give goblins different settings.

Weakness and treachery, however, remain the unchanging theme.

Yet the goblins before him had red eyes, brimming with ferocity and bloodlust, or one could say an aura of zero intelligence.

Ji Ming moved closer again, opened the system, and began scanning.

Sure enough, they were several ferocious goblins infected by demonic aura.

The normal goblin's four attributes are: 【1, 2, 2, 1】.

The ferocious goblin's four attributes are: 【2, 2, 0, 0】.

Their health increased slightly, but at what cost?

Intelligence and charisma dropped straight to zero!

And even so, their first two stats are still far below those of Ji Ming now.

Compared with those monsters that routinely have two‑digit or even double‑digit prefixes, they're downright friendly!

After pondering for a moment, a somewhat excited Ji Ming decided to practice his skills.

When one of them became isolated, he quietly crept up.

He pulled a hand shovel from his chest and, with a "thud," struck its back of the head.

He slowly dragged it to a corner, rubbed his hands, and carefully inspected the goblin's body.

Its fur‑wrapped hide looked fresh, likely hunted recently.

Though its body seemed thin, it wasn't particularly unhealthy.

There was food, drink, and many other creatures present.

Thus it can be seen that this underground space likely has a relatively complete ecosystem,

One could even say that there may be other as‑yet undiscovered entrances for exchanging internal and external resources and personnel.

Hmm.

That does make it quite suitable as a closed‑beta testing site!

It seemed to hear Ji Ming's thoughts, and the system popped up a prompt at that moment.

【Congratulations, host, you have found a qualified closed‑beta testing site!】