Timeline Player

"Kill that monster?" Chi Que stopped in his tracks. "What will you use to kill it?"

Although Wen Lu had previously repelled the shadowy figure once with her gun, repelling and killing are two completely different concepts.

Killing means having to confront them head-on.

However, on the other hand, if the player can actually defeat that shadowy figure, it will undoubtedly greatly expand the player's survival space.

Wen Lu gritted her teeth and pulled a thin rope from her collar. At the end of the rope was a dark red bead, about the size of a thumb, with fine cracks on its surface, faintly shimmering with firelight.

"This was given to me by the organization," she said. "It's an item dropped in a high-level dungeon, called a suppressor."

"What effect?" Chi Que asked, although he had a rough idea of ​​its effect from the name.

But this name... he suspected it was an internal code name.

"It can temporarily suppress the extraordinary power in the dungeon." Wen Lu clutched the bead. "But it doesn't last long, only a few tens of seconds."

Tens of seconds?

enough.

Chi Que was silent for a moment, then asked, "You have this, why didn't you use it before?"

"You think I don't want to?" Wen Lu said with a wry smile. "This thing is disposable, and it also has a side effect."

"What side effects?"

"A large amount of mental energy will be drained," Wen Lu said. "After it's used up, you'll lose your ability to move for a short period of time."

Chi Que understood.

She didn't use it before because it would cause her to lose her mobility, which would be tantamount to suicide without anyone's protection.

He nodded slowly, having made up his mind.

"There's something I need you to do." He looked up at Wen Lu, his eyes flashing with an ambiguous light.

......

Walking through the dimly lit corridor, Chi Que stepped into the underground warehouse and arrived at an inconspicuous corner.

He knocked a few times, opening a hidden compartment from which a large amount of white vapor poured out. He stepped back a few paces; even in the sub-zero temperatures, the vapor was still icy cold.

After the white mist completely dissipated, what appeared in front of him was a small bottle of dark green potion.

This was the medicine he had refined from ferns twenty years ago, which he had specially sealed away using equipment.

"Getting them to agree took quite a bit of effort," he shook his head, recalling twenty years ago.

After all, this was important equipment, and he had gone to great lengths to convince his team that the medicine was being preserved for scientific research.

Originally, the pool was intended to prevent possible madness, but now it has a more important use.

To be honest, Chi Que didn't expect it to actually last so long; the color just got a little darker.

"Perhaps it's thanks to the sub-zero temperatures here year-round." He didn't dwell on these thoughts and quickly left.

Besides this, he also needs a tranquilizer gun.

Fortunately, he knew where it might be.

Chi Que arrived at his room twenty years ago, where he could faintly hear Wen Lu's screams and angry curses in the distance.

It seems she has done a good job of the task assigned to her.

The door to the room was originally locked, but Chi Que casually slipped the key under the carpet.

This was an unintentional act, but it has made things convenient for him now.

"The most dangerous place is the safest place." Chi Que picked up the key and pushed open the door to his old room.

To his surprise, the layout of the room was not much different, except that it was covered in dust.

The first-aid kit was hidden under the bed.

As he searched, he glanced at the bed.

Chi Que paused in his movements.

wrong.

Why is there a noticeable dent at the foot of the bed, and almost no dust visible?

What kind of thing sleeps here all the time?

He suddenly raised his head.

The window was opened at some point.

A large, snow-white dog stared at him in the moonlight.

The dog has a distinct black vertical stripe between its eyebrows.

Chi Que was about to draw his gun almost instantly.

Although he had a tender moment with that little dog twenty years ago, the changes in logistics were still fresh in his mind. Who could guarantee that the behemoth in front of him wouldn't turn out like that?

Not to mention, not long ago, it was this same pack of vicious dogs that had relentlessly pursued them across the icy plains.

He was even prepared to be attacked first and then counterattack.

The anticipated annihilation did not occur.

The white dog bit his clothes but showed no intention of attacking; it dragged him toward the window with all its might.

Chi Que stumbled, barely managing to regain his balance. The dog seemed to be trying to take him somewhere.

After a moment's hesitation, he finally decided to follow.

The white dog walked proudly through the manor, but Chi Que clearly sensed a change in the atmosphere. The omnipresent wind and snow seemed to be shut out, and the earth was covered in silver, revealing the cold moonlight.

It was as if they were two different worlds.

At the intersection, a sled stood quietly, and three white dogs wagged their tails, their fur shimmering with silver light.

Chi Que understood instantly.

"Can you take me away from here?" he asked.

The white dog nodded and wagged its tail.

Chi Que glanced at the sled, then at the villa behind him, and smiled. "Thank you."

He stroked the white dog's head, and it let out a low whimper as if enjoying it, but then he stopped.

"I still have things I haven't finished," Chi Que said.

The white dog tilted its head, seemingly not understanding what he meant, but he knew that the white dog had accepted it.

Chi Que turned around, about to leave.

The white dog seemed to have thought of something, picked something up from the sled, and jogged over to hand it to Chi Que.

He took it and was immediately stunned.

That's a letter from a wage slave.

It's just a short sentence:

They saved me.

So that's what happened.

Chi Que instantly understood everything.

He had felt something was strange before. The system broadcasted the deaths of both the burly man and the student, but it never gave any notification for the first victim, the middle-aged office worker.

Moreover, according to Wen Lu, killing in dungeons needs to follow a certain pattern, so what did the office workers do?

So he never died in the first place.

But this raises a problem.

The number of people doesn't match.

The players who are still alive are Chi Que himself, Wen Lu, the girl, and the office worker who was saved by the dog.

Four people.

But the system says there are only three people left.

Contradiction?

Not contradictory.

"Twenty years ago, a cold wave claimed six lives, and their bodies still remain on that icy plain." Chi Que muttered to himself, realizing he had made a preconceived mistake, based on the initial prompt of the dungeon.

Just because the initial message of a dungeon says six people died, does that mean there are six players in the dungeon?

When did you say that?

Just because the number of people matched when they woke up?

"On the contrary, if I hadn't noticed the sixth person in the first place, that fake player wouldn't have been able to sneak in so easily..." Chi Que suddenly realized that he seemed to have unintentionally increased the difficulty.

Um...

Oh well, what's done is done.

There were only five players in this instance from beginning to end.

He finally came to a conclusion.

So here comes a new problem.

What exactly is that sixth person?