Chapter 528: Behind the Extra Pay (6/10, Autumn Subscription)

Many people couldn't stick with it and dropped out one after another—either waiting for a new game or going back to an old one to hold the line.

And with the second wave of Game Watches, the third wave, and especially the massive distribution of the third batch, a flood of fresh blood poured into *Blue Sea* once more.

Unfortunately, *Blue Sea*'s ability to drive players away was simply too strong. Combined with the brutally harsh death penalty—one death and the character is deleted, everything starts over—new players flowed in while, at the same time, large numbers of old players flowed out.

One in, one out, and by now, the decline had finally set in.

The old players who could still stick it out at this point all had something going for them.

As for the new players, like sand sifted by great waves, a batch left, a batch stayed.

This phenomenon, fed back to the studios that only cared about numbers, meant player attrition was enormous, popularity was dropping, and it was time to consider jumping ship to a new game like locusts.

Of course, that was old-school studio thinking. In Jing Yan's view, this game had the potential to be built up long-term and big.

His Jing Yan Studio, which held a place in the game, even had a chance to ride this game all the way into retirement—one game, played till death.

Just as Jing Yan was thinking this, a WeChat video call ringtone suddenly went off.

He glanced at it and picked up immediately.

"Hello."

On the other end of the video was an outsourced operative he had sent out.

The reason for choosing a video call was naturally to confirm it was really the person.

After all, this was work—even for outsourced personnel, identity had to be verified clearly.

"Boss Jing Yan, I found a place to hide and logged out of the game. Earlier, inside the game, in the Underground Stronghold, I already saw that 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】. It's very eerie. Behind it were densely packed wraiths—at least fifteen wraiths with Blood Stones embedded in their heads, all Blood-grade wraiths!

But they were all squeezed obediently behind the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】, following the wraith army, moving slowly, not daring to overtake the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】."

"Good. Any other intel? Tell me everything you saw."

As the outsourced operative on the other end described it, a picture formed in Jing Yan's mind.

The 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】 walked at the very front, not fast, not slow, each step seeming to shrink the earth and teleport it a distance.

And behind the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】, packed in like canned meat, were densely clustered wraiths, filling the entire Underground Stronghold passage, wraith squeezing against wraith. Only when the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】 moved did they move to follow, but they absolutely did not dare overstep, maintaining a relative distance.

It was as if the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】, with the absolute authority of a superior, suppressed all the wraiths from acting rashly.

This struck Jing Yan as incredible.

That 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】 had sent Fang Yue flying with a single iron chain, which was already shocking enough.

After all, since he had known Fang Yue, he had rarely seen Fang Yue come off worse against a wraith—yet here he had gained no advantage against the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】 and had to flee in disarray.

It looked like this 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】 really did need outside help to deal with.

And that quantity, that density of wraiths… that was very abnormal.

Jing Yan frowned deeply. At that number, he even half-suspected that the wraiths in the wild were also joining the wraith army one after another as the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】 moved.

Only that could explain a wraith army of that size. After all, the survivors of Qingluan Lou back then hadn't been that many to begin with—even if they all turned into wraiths, they couldn't possibly reach that order of magnitude.

This was terrifying. Qingsi County was probably in for more bad luck than good.

Jing Yan got the urge to run again.

Before long, the other two outsourced operatives also called in via video one after another.

Of these three, the first was tasked only with confirming the wraith situation—nothing else—because of the worry about characters dying suddenly, so the tasks were split very finely.

The second was to determine the wraiths' position and distance, needing to estimate the distance between the wraiths and Qingsi County.

The third was responsible for calculating the wraiths' movement speed. Through communication with the second person and the distance calculation, using his own position as a reference point, he would extrapolate the wraith army's advance speed.

With all that, Jing Yan obtained intel on the wraiths' numbers, distance, and marching speed.

The three pieces of intel combined gave him a general picture of the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】's army.

Three days—at the latest three days from now—the 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】's wraith army would reach Qingsi County!

"I've got the picture. I'll transfer your hazard pay to your accounts in a bit. Take the Qingsi Horses and run on the surface—find a way back to Qingsi County, fast."

People could die, but the Qingsi Horses had to be brought back.

"Copy!"

"Copy!"

"Boss Jing Yan, I need more money."

The first two had no issues and had already hung up the video call.

While Jing Yan was talking with the third person, he heard that line.

"More money?"

Jing Yan was taken aback: "Your character died? And the Qingsi Horse is gone too?"

"Uh… yeah. I ran too slow. The 【Coffin-Puller Wraith】 swung its iron chain and caught me and the horse together. At the very last moment of consciousness, I felt like I'd probably been smashed into a spray of blood and flesh."

The guy was a Huangmao, face full of pimples, with a faintly Burmese accent.

"Alright then…"

Jing Yan rubbed his temple with a headache.

He'd told them all to be careful, and still something had gone wrong.

But this was one of the risks—they'd discussed it before entering the Underground Stronghold. Jing Yan had no intention of welching; he just knew losing a batch of Qingsi Horses would earn him a few nagging remarks from You Sisi.

Understanding the risk was one thing; having a hugely expensive, carefully raised Qingsi Horse actually lost was bound to draw complaints.

"I'll pay you extra. Wait one day, then log a new character into the game. If you're still near Qingsi County, contact me. If you're somewhere farther away, report in, and I'll see if there's any work I can assign you."

Outsourced operatives were non-studio regular employees—basically temps.

When needed, they were pulled in and used; when not needed, they naturally weren't paid, and no one cared what they did.

The outsourced operative on the other end, hearing that Jing Yan really was going to pay and not welch, immediately bloomed with joy.

"Thanks, Boss Jing Yan! Thanks, Jing—"

Boom!!

With a violent explosion, the sound on the other end of the video call cut off abruptly.

The camera lens was a sheet of blood-red—chunks and fragments of fresh flesh stuck to it, making it impossible to see clearly what had happened on the other side.

Staring wide-eyed, his face blank with shock, Jing Yan watched as the camera's image tumbled downward.

As the world spun around him, his pupils contracted sharply.

In that instant, he saw clearly—it was Huangmao, who had just been talking with him, his body blown apart into a shower of flesh and blood, exactly like… the death scene from the game he had mentioned earlier!

Ah… ah! Ah!

With a sharp clatter, the terrified Jing Yan, eyes wide as saucers, dropped his phone to the floor, shattering the screen.

(End of Chapter)