It was supposed to be a casual game, but the Long March dungeon brought tears to everyone's eye

Then, the video reached its climax with bright sunshine.

Under a sheltered rock halfway up the mountain, Salted Fish Sauce "accidentally" shoveled away a patch of snow, revealing a century-old wild ginseng with its roots intact.

The barrage of comments exploded instantly, with the screen filled with "666" and "Holy crap".

Salted Fish Sauce smiled so much that his eyes narrowed into slits.

"See that? This is a hidden 'natural treasure' from the system!"

"As long as we feed it to Old Li, the cook, he won't die!"

At the end of the video, Lao Li, beaming with health, carrying a pot on his back, led his team, along with salted fish sauce, over the mountain pass.

Everyone survived.

In the comments section, ordinary players seemed to have found a lifeline.

"Awesome! I knew that old bastard Luo couldn't have made the game all dead ends; there were hidden perks!"

"I'm going to reroll for a good starter account! I have to get a consistently sunny day so I can dig up wild ginseng!"

"Hilarious! Aren't those madmen just complete idiots? They had to suffer there eating belts, while others got ginseng!"

……

After Kuang Ge and the others finished their live stream, in the virtual lounge, the words "That's for masochists" from the video were still echoing.

"Snapped!"

The energy drink can in Crazy Bro's hand was crushed by his hand, and brown liquid splattered all over the ground.

"Damn it!" Crazy Bro suddenly stood up. "When that bastard shoved that ginseng into Old Li's mouth, I wanted to run up the internet cable and beat him up!"

Hawkeye sat in the chair, his hands crossed under his chin, his face equally gloomy.

But he was calmer than Crazy Brother.

As a former professional player, he understands this "mechanism" all too well.

"He's exploiting a bug," Hawkeye said with a hint of disdain. "Or rather, he's using the system's random seeds to increase his chances."

"A 10% chance of a consistently sunny day, and a 10% chance of wild ginseng dropping."

"He restarted at least a hundred times to record this video."

"One hundred times..."

Ruan Ruan, who had been huddled in the corner, suddenly repeated the number while trembling.

"Restart a hundred times..." Ruan Ruan gritted her teeth and said in a trembling voice.

"In other words, before he could obtain that ginseng, the old squad leader would have to go through at least ninety-nine cycles."

Crazy Brother's body stiffened abruptly, and Hawkeye also fell silent.

Yes.

That's the difference between ordinary players and them.

In the eyes of Salty Fish Sauce, the old squad leader, Little Tiger, and Old Li are nothing more than a bunch of data composed of 0s and 1s.

No shipment? No problem, just click "Start Again".

The NPC who just froze to death while protecting the pot will be standing at the spawn point with a big smile on his face the next second.

In order to get good weather, players can even deliberately let NPCs die to refresh the so-called "perfect start".

but……

Kuang Ge closed his eyes.

The image of the old squad leader secretly giving Xiao Hu the only piece of dry rations in the mud swamp flashed through my mind.

An image comes to mind of Xiao Wu raising his hand above his head, refusing to let go even as he is swallowed by mud.

"The old squad leader said..." Kuang Ge suppressed his anger, "He said he always has dreams."

"He...always dreams."

"What if we went to hunt that damn wild ginseng too..."

Kuang Ge suddenly opened his eyes and slammed his fist on the table.

"How many nightmares must that old sergeant have?!"

"This is real historical difficulty. Could the people who walked this path back then save their game? Could they restart? Could they just not walk it because it's snowing or raining today?!"

"No wild ginseng! Only leather belts! Only grass roots! Only mud!"

Crazy Brother pointed at the "perfect completion" video on the screen, laughing in a fit of rage.

"Luck? To hell with luck!"

"The living rely on this path to walk!"

Crazy Brother jabbed his chest hard, at the spot where his heart was beating.

"It's all about life! It's about having guts!"

Silence fell again in the lounge, broken only by Kuang Ge's heavy breathing.

Hawkeye slowly stood up, walked to Madman's side, and patted him on the shoulder.

"That's right."

"To pass the game by luck is the greatest insult to this history."

"We can die, but we cannot die so frivolously."

"We...don't need wild ginseng like this."

"We have our old squad leader, and we have these legs, that's enough!"

……

The following day, night fell.

The night on the grass was moonless.

Only a few phosphorescent lights occasionally flashed in the distance, which were death signals released by decaying plants.

The group stopped on a slightly drier hill, and everyone huddled together, with Ruan Ruan surrounded in the middle.

At this point, Ruan Ruan was so feverish that she started talking nonsense.

Even though Kuang Ge had been carrying her on his back the whole time, and even though he had given her the only dry coat he had on him.

But the erosion caused by mud and water cannot be restored simply by logging back in.

"Cold...so cold..."

She curled up softly in a ball, her teeth chattering.

Kuang Ge secretly resented this old scoundrel Luo, who truly didn't treat them players like human beings.

"Hang in there, Ruanruan." Kuang Ge rubbed Ruanruan's cold hands. "It'll be alright when it's light, the sun will shine when it's light..."

But how long until dawn?

Even though the game compresses the time of night, it amplifies their sense of fatigue.

In this godforsaken place, every second feels incredibly long.

The surrounding soldiers were also silent, hunger and cold slowly eroding their will.

Little Tiger and Little Bean stared blankly into the void, unconsciously chewing on a bitter grass root.

Just then, a soft humming sound came out.

In her delirious feverish state, Ruan Ruan seemed to be trying to grasp something to fight against the boundless darkness and fear.

At first, the tune was somewhat erratic.

"...The wind blows...starlight falls..."

It's that song, "Star Watcher".

She was unconsciously singing that song, the hit song she had sung countless times in the live stream.

That's a song that belongs to that bustling world, a song about neon lights, coffee, and love.

However, after singing two lines, the voice stopped.

In this rotten, dead, and desolate place, those light and airy lyrics seem so pale and powerless.

It can't save people.

It doesn't even bring in a little bit of heat.

Ruanruan frowned in pain, seemingly desperately searching for another kind of power in her subconscious.

Another kind, harder, heavier, and more capable of shattering this darkness.

Sudden.

The tone has changed.

It's no longer that melodious falsetto, no longer that delicate vibrato.

It is a melody that carries a sob, yet is exceptionally resolute, and remains powerful even when off-key.

"Red soldiers...everyone must remember this..."

"The Three Main Rules of Discipline... The Eight Points for Attention..."