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

As Ruan Ruan uttered the words "Can I have a drink of water?", the suppressed groans inside the room were abruptly cut off.

The wind blew, and the dilapidated thatched roof seemed to groan.

Occasionally, a very faint groan could be heard coming from inside the room, like someone's mouth being covered.

Standing behind Ruan Ruan, Li Luoluo felt her hair stand on end from the eerie atmosphere.

She instinctively wanted to take a step forward and knock on the seemingly dilapidated wooden door.

"Don't move!"

Ruan Ruan suddenly turned around and grabbed Li Luoluo's wrist.

Li Luoluo was stunned and looked at her best friend in front of her.

Ruan Ruan's once delicate, fair face in the live stream, which would easily get red in her eyes if she was upset, has been covered in black ash.

But in her eyes, there was a sharpness that Li Luoluo found unfamiliar.

"What's wrong?" Li Luoluo asked in a low voice, her voice a little sore from being gripped. "How can we trigger the quest if we don't open the door?"

Li Luoluo, who knew little about "Red Expedition", was unaware that the game's missions were different from those in other games.

"This is not a mission."

She gently released her grip, her gaze fixed on the tightly closed wooden door, her voice so low it was almost carried away by the wind.

"Don't say anything, and stay away."

"Huh?" Li Luoluo's eyes widened as she pointed at herself. "Me? Stay away? Ruan Ruan, are you getting cocky...?"

"You smell too strong," Ruan Ruan interrupted Li Luoluo.

She glanced at Li Luoluo with a complicated expression. Although she was wearing a military uniform, she could not hide the rich woman's temperament that had been cultivated by her long-term privileged life.

"What's that smell? I just took a shower before entering the game!" Li Luoluo subconsciously sniffed her cuffs.

"The smell of rich people~" Ruan Ruan joked, then became serious.

"That kind of mentality of never having experienced hunger or cold, and feeling that the world is safe is too strong."

"And the two of us standing at the door, to them..."

Ruan Ruan glanced at the darkness that seemed to peek through the crack in the door.

"To them, they were no different from the thugs who came to steal their lives."

"Go hide behind that haystack. Don't make a sound or peek out unless I call you."

The soft tone left no room for argument.

It was so undeniable that Li Luoluo felt somewhat unfamiliar with it.

She just felt that Ruan Ruan was so serious, so very serious.

but……

"Okay, okay, I'll do as you say!"

"Well, that's what happens when you're the master who beat that grassland level~"

Li Luolu snorted, her words sharp and unforgiving.

His body, however, betrayed him. He crouched low and tiptoed to a rotten haystack a dozen meters away, where he squatted down.

Only Ruan Ruan remained in front of the door.

She didn't knock on the door again, nor did she try to push the rotten wooden board that could actually be kicked open with one foot.

She simply took a deep breath, turned around, with her back to the door, and sat down casually on the cold, muddy ground.

Completely unprepared.

"Don't be afraid, fellow villager." The soft voice was light and hoarse. "I'm not going in."

"I'm so tired from walking all this way, I'll just rest for a bit at your doorstep and get some shelter from the wind."

The room remained deathly silent.

But behind that dark crack in the door, a pair of terrified eyes were staring intently at Ruan Ruan's back.

That was the look in the eyes of the prey as it stared at the hunter.

If Ruan Ruan makes the slightest move, the people inside will not let her off easily, even if it means mutual destruction.

Time passed by in seconds and minutes.

The roar of the Dadu River echoed in the distance, like muffled thunder.

Fence, squatting behind the haystack, had legs that were numb.

She peered through the gaps in the dry grass at the slender figure in the distance.

In her memory, Ruan Ruan was the kind of girl who would cry for half a day in the live broadcast room seeking comfort even if her finger was cut by an A4 sheet of paper.

She's the spoiled brat who would whine and beg her nanny to feed stray cats, afraid of getting her dress dirty.

She's the streamer who sweetly makes a heart shape with her hands and calls someone "brother" whenever someone sends her the message "Supreme Tomato".

But now.

The figure in the military uniform, covered in mud and patched with ugly, centipede-like welts at the knees, looked so small and thin in this cold, dilapidated village.

Yet, inexplicably... it's like a mountain.

Just as Li Luoluo was lost in thought, that extremely suppressed groan came out of the room again.

This time it's clearer.

It was the sound of a child crying, accompanied by the delirium of someone with a high fever, a sound that tugged at the heartstrings.

Ruan Ruan's back stiffened for a moment.

She hesitated for a moment, then took off her pitifully shrunken medic's cloth bag, placed it on her lap, and opened it.

My bag was completely empty.

Besides a roll of yellowed gauze, there was only a small glass bottle about the size of a thumb, half-filled with murky liquid, and a handful of dried, blackened herbs.

"Damaged system..."

Ruan Ruan looked at the small amount of food and couldn't help but mutter a complaint in her mind.

These are her initial supplies when she enters this instance as a medic.

It's a lifesaver.

Ruan Ruan bit her lip.

According to normal game logic, at this point you should knock on the door, hold up the medicine, and "trade" with the NPC inside to exchange for information or favorability.

But Ruanruan didn't.

She thought of her old squad leader.

I remembered that young soldier who willingly let go and sank into the swamp so as not to burden his comrades.

If she were to use this small amount of medicine to "negotiate" at a time like this...

If the old squad leader found out, would he use his unbroken hand to slap her hard across the face?

Ruan Ruan smiled slightly and made a self-deprecating joke.

Then she resealed the bottle, picked up the handful of herbs, and slowly lay down on the ground.

Ruan Ruan moved like a thief, inching closer to the door crack, but not to push the door open.

Instead, he carefully stuffed the bottle of saline solution and the bundle of herbs into the hole under the door, which had been gnawed by rats.

Its movements were gentle, as if afraid of startling the butterflies.

"It doesn't sound good to the child."

Ruan Ruan spoke softly through the crack in the door.

"Use this salt water to wash the child's wound."

"If you chew that herb and apply it as a poultice, it might help bring down the fever."

After doing all this, Ruan Ruan immediately returned to her original position.

They even sat further away than before.

She had her back to the door, hugged her knees, buried her head in her arms, and remained motionless.

The wind kept blowing.

The fence behind the haystack was completely dumbfounded.

Her mouth dropped open, her mind filled with questions.

no……

They let him in just like that?

You don't want anything? You won't even let me through the door?

"Ruanruan, are you stupid...?" Li Luoluo muttered to herself.

For some reason, Li Luoluo suddenly felt a little sore in her nose.

She watched the figure huddled in the cold wind, stuffing the only supply into someone else's door crack.

That best friend who used to talk about a limited edition bag with her for three days straight seems to have died in that grassy video that Qin Lao posted.

The one who survived.

Although he was dressed in tattered clothes and covered in dust.

But... he's actually kind of handsome.

I don't know how much time passed.

It was only after a long time that Li Luoluo began to wonder if Ruan Ruan had fallen asleep.

"Squeak—"

The door bolt clicked.

The wooden door, which had been tightly closed for who knows how long, was finally opened a crack.