The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 265 Blood Sun (12)

This statement is actually a slight exaggeration, since they were so exhausted they could barely lift their ten fingers to reach their current level. It's understandable that their leveling speed will be slower afterward, right?

But right now, the key is to bring Yin Leng into the team.

"We distribute the purification crystals we obtain equally."

Old Gu's lips twitched. It turned out that Shen Zhaoming was so good at lying through his teeth; it really was supposed to be a split.

Therefore, Su Ninglong gave them the sacred artifact, and naturally all the purification crystals they obtained belonged to Su Ninglong.
Su Ninglong certainly had her own considerations in trying to win over Yin Leng.

Although his special ability does not focus on attack, its development and application in the field of support are very diverse, and its role is no less than that of Song Hu.

This team invitation immediately plunged Yin Leng into a brief silence.

He understood the slowness and difficulty of leveling up alone better than anyone else. After entering the game, he was betrayed by his teammates. They agreed to distribute the rewards equally, but because he was a support character, the others felt he wasn't contributing enough and went back on their word. Later, he joined a team with a good atmosphere, thinking he could finally settle down, but then one of the team members was overly corrupted, and he couldn't solve the problem. The team then used moral blackmail to force him to hand over purification crystals.

From then on, he struggled alone like a lone wolf. Although he was free, his efficiency was extremely low, and he often ended up with nothing but injuries and meager experience after a bitter battle.

The allure of a team is real: faster leveling speed, more stable resources, and the reassurance of having someone to look out for you during battles.

He raised his head and quietly scrutinized the three people in front of him.

Su Ninglong is known as the "leader of the Star Alliance" in the hunter community. This is not only due to her overwhelming strength among the new generation, but also because she has a well-known "little quirk": she mainly looks at two things when making friends: outstanding appearance and strong potential.

Those she includes in her social circle are all incredibly promising individuals.

What's most appealing is that this hunter, Su, is also a weapon refiner, and he's incredibly generous. When he's in a good mood, the sacred artifacts he casually gives away are enough to save an ordinary hunter decades of hard work.

Such a person is indeed unlikely to betray their teammates for a little bit of personal gain.

As for Shen Zhaoming, Yin Leng was not very familiar with him, but he had heard of him. He was a staff member of the research institute, and at a young age, he became a member of the management team. He was highly regarded by Ling Fei and was likely to become a key member of the research institute in the future.

If you really want to leave this game, joining this team will obviously have a much higher success rate than going it alone.

After weighing the options several times, he raised his eyes and said in a calm tone, "We can give it a try."

If this team is like the ones he encountered before, he can still choose to leave and retreat to his own corner.

"You won't regret joining." Old Gu smiled meaningfully.

Su Ninglong said, "We're going to level up now. We don't know when we'll be back. You need to rest or make other preparations."

There's no time limit for games, so Yin Leng decided to leave now to avoid wasting time.

"Wait a moment." Yin Leng took down the wooden sign from the stone table and replaced it with a new one, which read: "Those who venture out will bear the consequences themselves."

This cave was a temporary dwelling that Yin Leng had painstakingly prepared. There were no monster spawn points, so he could get a good night's sleep.

The place was too simple, so he had no regrets and carried everything he needed with him.

Hopefully, Su Ninglong and the others won't disappoint him.

Shortly after he left with Su Ninglong and her group.

A group of players arrived at the cave, looking quite menacing.

The venomous snake's effeminate face was more ferocious than ever before.

Upon seeing the crooked notice board on the stone table, a feeling of humiliation welled up inside him, and his eyes darkened to the point of being almost dripping with malice.

The players behind them didn't dare to breathe.

This could not possibly be a coincidence. Other players said that Yin Leng hadn't left the house for a whole month, yet he left just when Yin Leng came looking for him. This was blatant contempt!

They suspected that Yin Leng had received advance warning and fled.

“Some of you tipped them off beforehand.” The original hunter used a statement of fact; otherwise, how could a shut-in suddenly leave the safe haven he had created?

"No!" the surrounding players said in unison.

Someone said tremblingly, "We've all been marked by the boss; he can sense whether we've been here before."

"I have an alibi."

"Me too."

Nobody wants to take the blame for something they didn't do.

"Heh." Viper sneered through his teeth. He knew these people had never been here before, which only fueled his frustration. His knuckles clenched until they turned white. "Trying to put on airs with me? As long as you're in this game, you can't escape my grasp."

……

Yin Leng believed that he was agile and that his endurance and speed were second to none among his peers.

He looked ahead, leaving aside Lao Gu for the time being, since he knew "Blood Sun" inside and out; Su Ninglong could also be put aside for now, her strength was simply unreasonable.

But what about Shen Zhaoming? He remembered that this person should only be a researcher.

Shen Zhaoming and Lao Gu walked side by side at the front of the group. His pace seemed unhurried, but the route he chose was unusually tricky.

They always manage to dodge the monsters with ease the moment they pounce, or use a loose rock or a dangling cable for leverage. The whole process is smooth and effortless, as if they were just taking a leisurely stroll in their own backyard.

Yin Leng became increasingly alarmed as she looked.

What's the story behind this researcher surnamed Shen?

When it's traveling, it's like a human-shaped self-navigating system, always able to predict the future and plan a shortcut that's outrageously "comfortable".

Could something major have happened outside during the months he was missing?
So much so that even the people at the research institute had to act as hunters to clean up the contaminated area.

After a period of silence as she adjusted to the new environment, Yin Leng suddenly blurted out, "Hey."

When Su Ninglong turned to look at him, he casually asked, "When did you come in? Has anything major happened in the Star Alliance recently? Did you come here on a mission?" His tone unconsciously revealed a hint of eagerness. He was too eager to know what was happening outside. Having unexpectedly fallen into the game world and been holed up in that safe cave all day, almost completely isolated from the world, even his basic social skills seemed to be gradually atrophying.

Hearing Yin Leng's stiff yet inquisitive question, a hint of understanding flashed in Su Ninglong's eyes.

She followed his lead and replied, "If we calculate based on a 24-hour day, we've been here for about four or five days. How about you?"

“It’s been more than four months,” Yin Leng replied in a low voice.

"To be honest, we were a bit confused." Su Ninglong's tone changed naturally: "Because the number of people who went missing due to 'Blood Sun' was too large, the mission came in a hurry, and its origins had not yet been investigated. We were asked to enter first and deal with this contaminated area as soon as possible."

With just the right amount of doubt and sincerity on her face, she asked in return, "And how did you get into this polluted area?"

Yin Leng didn't think there was anything to hide.

"It was an accident; I didn't even know there was a game like Blood Sun."

"There's a contaminated area over at Gemini that's been there for a long time, but no one has cleaned it up. The latest intelligence we received is from two years ago. So the school asked me to investigate it, to see if the contaminated area has expanded, and to find out if there have been any new developments."

“I first visited the victims, a young couple. They were completely unconscious and in an isolation ward, barely alive and unable to communicate. After that, I visited the nearby streets to inquire about the house.”

Old Gu remained silent, Shen Zhaoming appeared to be deep in thought, while Su Ninglong thought of a question: the contaminated areas that require hunters to do intelligence work should all be four-star or higher, right?

How many high-pollution zones are recorded in Gemini? Several place names flashed through Su Ninglong's mind.

Yin Leng did not stop narrating:

"Almost everyone in that area has moved away, except for a few tenants or residents who can't easily move. When I asked these people about the house, none of them knew much about it. Coincidentally, just as I was about to leave, I saw a disheveled man covered in engine oil. As I was talking to him, he was about to play a game when a flash of blue light appeared, and I found myself here."

After listening to Yin Leng's account, Su Ninglong felt a strange sense of familiarity. She frowned slightly in thought. The answer seemed to be on the tip of her tongue, yet she couldn't quite grasp it. "What did that man look like?"

Yin Leng recalled, "He had a fairly ordinary appearance, but he ran a robot repair shop."

Su Ninglong immediately realized: "Is the contaminated area you investigated No. 3 Xingkui Street?"

The name made everyone stop in their tracks.

Just then, rain began to fall softly from the dark red sky of "Blood Sun." The rain made the whole world seem even more sticky and slippery. The light of the Blood Sun pierced through the rain curtain, making every drop of water appear like blood tears. The world seemed to be shrouded in a flowing, rust-red veil, creating a scene so eerie it was chilling.

This sudden rain of blood, coupled with the nightmarish name "No. 3 Xingkui Street," made everyone's mood even heavier and more depressed.

The Star Alliance has already raised the danger level of No. 3 Starsun Street to five stars, stipulating that only hunters of four stars or above can enter.

Five-star contaminated zones are taboo for all hunters. A zone rated at this danger level is usually accompanied by alarming death statistics; at least two four-star hunters must perish there to earn this rating.

The intelligence personnel sent to investigate were naturally carefully selected, and the level of secrecy was very high.

Because of this relationship, no one publicized Yin Leng's sudden disappearance.

At this moment, they finally arrived at the location where the materials might be refreshed.

Braving the increasingly dense, blood-red rain, the group anxiously searched for shelter.

There's almost no trace of a city here; it's more like a dilapidated village clinging to the edge of a city, long since abandoned. Visibility is extremely low in the rain, with scattered dark buildings standing like silent tombstones.

“The rain in the Blood Sun is corrosive.” Old Gu’s lips trembled slightly. The rain felt like being soaked in ice water. He crossed his arms and urged, “We can’t stay in the rain forever. We need to find somewhere to take shelter as soon as possible.”

Su Ninglong pointed to a relatively intact two-story building not far away. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a small shop. The rusty roller shutter door was rolled up at an angle, as if someone had tried to pry it open but failed. The eaves overhead were too narrow to keep out all the rain.

Old Gu stepped forward and tried to pry open the roller shutter door, but even with his strength, he couldn't lift it; the hinges were clearly jammed by something.

Just then, a putrid stench suddenly wafted through the air. Several oval-shaped dark figures appeared out of the rain, and with strange noises like prying open doors, they began to writhe and writh.

"What are those things?" Yin Leng whispered warily. These dark figures weren't originally here; they seemed to have emerged from beneath the wet ground, and their numbers were increasing.

Did they inadvertently wander into a special area they shouldn't have entered?

Looking back, even with his extensive knowledge from the game, Lao Gu was completely unable to comprehend what was happening before his eyes.

"This...this..." Old Gu was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to explain.

No matter how you look at it, it seems like he deliberately led everyone here.

Shen Zhaoming glanced at the dark figure in the rain, his expression turning serious: "These things have been affected by both erosion and spiritual pollution."

After Shen Zhaoming's data analysis and reminder, Lao Gu immediately recognized the origin of these monsters: "They are Corrupted Weavers! These monsters do not have a fixed level. They are humans who have been thoroughly corrupted and mutated. There are rumors that if a level 30 player is transformed into a Corrupted Weaver, their level may even exceed level 50."

"Their whereabouts are even more elusive than those of mind controllers, but this is the first time I've seen one in a black cocoon state." Old Gu wiped the cold sweat mixed with rain from his forehead, his voice trembling from the cold.

Fearing they might misunderstand his intentions, he quickly clarified: "I have indeed been here three times, but I have only encountered four types of monsters before: Blood Slaves, Blood Beasts, Blood Slave Masters, and Blood Beast Masters. I have never encountered these before."

Shen Zhaoming said calmly, "It was my suggestion to come here. Since I asked you to come along, I won't easily doubt you."

Old Gu was finally somewhat relieved.

After all, he had already offended the Viper and was unable to return to his own territory. Now, his only reliance was Su Ninglong's team.

"Brother Shen, you think of a way to open the door, I'll deal with them."

"No need to think of anything, the door is already open." Shen Zhaoming raised his hand and gently pulled, and the roller shutter door opened with a sound.

Old Gu watched this scene in shock, even beginning to doubt whether he hadn't used his full strength just now.

Shen Zhaoming was the first to bend down and crawl inside.

“I’m going to deal with them. You guys get ready, I’ll cripple them and then deliver them to you.” Su Ninglong was worried that these corrupted weavers would disappear after the rain stopped.

Just as Su Ninglong and her group were trying to improve their strength, Viper was leading his men to establish their authority everywhere.

He marked the players, eliminating all those who disobeyed orders, leaving only the "friendly forces" who were willing to cooperate to do his bidding and find Su Ninglong's location.