Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

The bodyguard stood not far away, watching the young lady start muttering to herself again, and scratched his head in confusion.

Until the young lady turned around and looked at him coldly: "Let's go, it's time to fight."

The bodyguard paused for a moment, then nodded emphatically and turned to lead the way.

The first level was indeed safe. After walking for a full ten minutes, Cheng Cheng finally spotted the first monster.

That was a zombie.

It was wearing work clothes that were almost tattered to shreds, its skin was grayish-white and festering, its eyeballs were cloudy and detached, and it dragged a twisted leg as it staggered along.

Cheng Cheng raised his hand, and the sword of benevolence was drawn.

A flash of sword light.

The head rolled off, splattering putrid black blood.

The zombie's body stiffened for a moment before collapsing to the ground with a thud.

"Experience +2"

"Only two points?!" Cheng Cheng gritted his teeth. "Is this the only level of monsters in the dungeon, inferior to Xiao Wu's?"

"After all, this is just a homeless person's body that wasn't disposed of in time after death, and the monster that turned into a zombie doesn't have any special abilities," the bodyguard stepped forward and explained.

Cheng Cheng clicked his tongue and continued forward.

The second target was a semi-transparent gelatinous mass wriggling in the sewage pit, containing an undigested half-finger and an eyeball.

“Slime,” the bodyguard said quickly. “Not a natural creature. It’s formed from the rotting of a corpse, where fat, blood, and tissue fluid coalesce under the catalysis of abyssal magic, essentially giving life to an organic garbage dump.”

Cheng Cheng didn't even want to dirty his sword by killing it.

A third monster emerged from the shadows of the ceiling—a floating head covered in writhing disco balls, grinning maliciously as it lunged at Cheng Cheng.

“Flying Head Barbarian, also known as Sugar Apple.” The bodyguard parried with his sword, knocking it away. “The decapitated corpse’s head moves independently under the influence of magic. The white parts are maggots, and the red is putrid blood… Be careful, it can spread viruses.”

Cheng Cheng delivered the final blow, pinning the head to the wall.

"Experience +2"

"..."

Cheng Cheng looked at the experience bar, which had barely moved, and a wave of frustration washed over him.

Killing a rabbit gives you 30 points, while killing a zombie or a flying head only gives you 2 points... You get more experience points than just posting on the forum.

When will I ever get a yellow card, oh no, I mean, a gold card?

"Aren't there any monsters with higher experience levels?"

The bodyguard thought for a moment and said, "The closer you get to the edge of the settlement, the more fresh corpses there are, and the more zombies there are... but their strength is about the same. The real monsters are only found on the second floor and below."

Cheng Cheng took a deep breath.

Then... let's just keep increasing the numbers.

…………

Over the next twenty minutes, Cheng Cheng, accompanied by his bodyguards, charged towards the edge of the densely packed zombie horde. His sword, the Sword of Benevolence, flashed like a silver arc, often piercing through two or three targets with a single strike.

Sylvia's "Collector" talent is extremely efficient at this moment. When facing these low-health monsters, as long as she cuts their necks or chests with her sword, she can trigger an instant kill and clear their health bars.

"Experience +2" "Experience +2" "Experience +2"...

The prompts kept popping up, but the experience bar was still increasing slowly.

To advance to the next level, at this rate, you'd have to kill nearly a thousand zombies.

"Too slow..." Cheng Cheng frowned as he chopped down the fourth candied apple.

"Young Miss, your fighting style is too aggressive," the bodyguard couldn't help but remind her, swinging his sword to cleave aside the zombies that lunged at her from the side. "These low-level monsters may be weak, but they can be dangerous in large numbers, especially the flying-headed monsters; getting bitten by them will hurt a lot—"

Cheng Cheng dodged a head that was lunging at him, then smashed it with his other hand: "It's okay, I'm not afraid of pain."

Anyway, it's been blocked by the system.

"Young lady is truly a resolute warrior," the bodyguard couldn't help but remark.

Cheng Cheng shook his head: "In the history of Liyue, there are countless Thousand Rock Army soldiers who never retreated in a hundred battles. Even if the Yaksha have forgotten everything, they still fight desperately to save others. I am just learning from them."

Bodyguard: "...What do you mean?"

…………

After clearing another area, Cheng Cheng paused to catch his breath.

His gaze swept around and suddenly settled on a particularly dark cluster of tents to his right.

It was quieter there than anywhere else, with no groans of wanderers or signs of monsters roaming, but in the shadows of the tent, one could vaguely see a standing human silhouette with its back to him, swaying slightly.

"There's still one left to kill, wait a minute."

Cheng Cheng gave the order, then pushed off with his feet, his body shooting out like an arrow. The sword of benevolence drew a silver line in the dim light, piercing straight for his back!

"Ugh—!"

The zombie that was stabbed shuddered violently, then fell forward and crashed heavily into the sewage.

"Experience +5"

???

Is this an elite monster? Why is it giving so much experience all of a sudden?

Cheng Cheng was overjoyed, but then he heard a bodyguard's exclamation from behind him:

"Young lady! It's alive! It's a homeless person!"

Cheng Cheng was taken aback and looked down.

That was an orc.

With green skin and protruding fangs, he lay supine in the sewage, blood gushing from his chest, his arms covered in needle marks, and an empty syringe clutched in his hand.

Drug addict... This thing isn't dead yet, it's just high?

I thought the homeless people here were neutral units and that killing them wouldn't give me experience points, but it turns out they give more than zombies?

Cheng Cheng looked at the tents where the homeless people were gathered, his heart burning with urge, wishing he could immediately take action and slaughter all the homeless people here!

Oh, I meant a bankrupt homeless man, not a stray soldier.

He felt no guilt whatsoever for killing people in this game world, especially since the victims weren't even human.

With a sharp blade in hand, the urge to kill arose spontaneously. Just as Cheng Cheng hesitated whether doing so would lower Sylvia's favorability, a scream rang out from the tent beside him—

"Honey!"

The curtain was lifted, and a burly female orc stepped out, embracing the corpse on the ground, overcome with grief. She immediately erupted in fury: "Which bastard dared to kill—"

Upon seeing the killer's stunning beauty and luxurious attire, she stopped speaking abruptly, then smiled and asked, "You killed her?"

"Yeah, so what?"

“Young Miss—” the female orc drawled, “You’ve come to the dungeon to kill people for fun, you should know the rules, right?”

"rule?"

“This is my husband.” The female orc stood up, dusting off her hands. “Although he’s a good-for-nothing, he’s still a registered legal resident. The dungeon may be chaotic, but murder is a serious crime. You don’t want to be sent to the Inquisition’s prison by that ‘righteous Lord Vilette,’ do you?”

Cheng Cheng: "..."

You're going to tell my dad... about me?

Who dares to accuse me, the judge? I think you're tired of living.

However, Sylvia was already panicking: "Mr. Mambo! What do we do! We killed the wrong person, what if Father finds out..."

"Alright, alright, stop arguing," Cheng Cheng sighed, choosing the option that wouldn't lower Sylvia's favorability over silencing her. "How much do you want?"

The female orc's eyes lit up, and she held up two fingers: "Two thousand credits, cash. Hush money, plus body disposal fee."

Cheng Cheng looked at the bodyguard.

The bodyguard's face was ashen, clearly extremely displeased with this extortion, but he still took out his wallet from his pocket and counted out twenty 100-dollar credit bills.

The female orc snatched the money, examined the banknotes against the light to check their authenticity, then happily stuffed them into her bosom and bowed.

"Thank you, boss! You're so generous! You're so ruthless!"

Then, under the watchful eyes of Cheng Cheng and the bodyguard, she squatted back down next to the corpse and began to deftly peel off the leather armor.

"This leather armor is torn, but the tanning process is quite good; it can sell for fifty points..."

"Syringes can still be used after washing, but illegal clinics only offer three percent for them..."

"By the way, was the body sold to an illegal clinic or a butcher shop...?"

"You guys still eat meat?" Cheng Cheng raised an eyebrow.

"Of course! Chicken, beef, pork, fish... any kind of meat will sell. Orc meat has a high drug content, so selling it to addicts can make a lot of money!" The female orc hummed a cheerful tune. "Don't you humans eat your own kind?"

"No." Cheng Cheng shook his head, then thought of the United States in reality, "...at least I wouldn't. Killing someone is killing someone, but eating meat is too perverted."

"Oh? Then let me ask you, why is it that only humans can't be killed and eaten?" The female orc tilted her head. "If it's because you don't want to kill or cause suffering, then you need to consider all sentient beings with nervous systems... Or is there some reason for humans to receive special treatment?"

Cheng Cheng: "..."

"Oh, by the way, young lady, are you buying orc meat?" The female orc looked up to offer a discount.

Cheng Cheng: "..."

Cheng Cheng: "I don't eat beef."

"Huh? I wasn't asking about beef, I was asking about orc meat..."

Before the female orc could finish speaking, the Sword of Benevolence pierced her throat in an instant!

The orc was still puzzled. She slowly reached out her hand, as if to grab Cheng Cheng's sleeve, but lost all strength after raising it slightly, and fell down with blood spurting from her neck.

"Experience +5"

The air was deathly still.

"Mr. Mambo, why did you kill her?" In her mind's eye, Sylvia remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking, "Indiscriminate killing is wrong. We were already very sorry to her for accidentally killing her husband..."

"She reminds me of a monkey I know, kind of disgusting." Cheng Cheng sneered. "Besides, she's not even human, so killing her is no big deal."