Chapter 280 The World of Destruction

The surroundings hadn’t changed; Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan remained in the same spot where they originally separated from the Fatty and his crew, but now the latter’s figures were nowhere to be seen.

Running into Monica and the others was a pleasant surprise—after all, this girl was an exception beyond the norm, and although they hadn’t seen her in action, there was a level of assurance.

It was akin to a nuclear bomb; ever since humanity invented it, its deterrent power far exceeded its actual functionality—it’s something you can live without, but really can’t be without.

—Okay, well, it seems Ling Mo has already used the bomb several times.

Now it appeared that the buildings in this ancient town weren’t protected by that mysterious force. After the fierce ghosts retreated, Ling Mo’s explosions could directly damage the structures, even churning the foundations.

If the fierce ghosts were buried below, Ling Mo’s actions were essentially akin to blowing up their ancestral home and uprooting their graves.

But after all, he was forced into a corner, so this could be considered justifiable defense.

Monica and the others navigated around the massive crater created by the explosion and regrouped with Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan. Murong Yue was the first to voice her doubts: “Did Ling Mo blow these houses up?”

“Yeah,” Ling Mo nodded. “We were targeted by the ghosts earlier; they should have the ability to create Ghost Realms. The buildings were quite sturdy before the Ghost Realm was destroyed.”

Murong Yue quietly stepped back a pace from Ling Mo.

She suddenly realized that some people might indeed be scarier than ghosts.

An Xiao didn’t think too much; she just found it quite fascinating: “This dungeon can actually be blown up… uh, that seems pretty nice.”

This meant they had a new way to break the situation—it’s not that the ghosts weren’t afraid of physical attacks, but rather, those attacks hadn’t yet reached a level strong enough to penetrate their defenses.

Perhaps an entire three thousand six hundred rotations of breath could directly send the ghosts back to the afterlife.

Xia Xinyan surveyed the area and asked, “Did you see anyone else before you arrived?”

“No,” An Xiao shook her head. “You two are the first… and second living people we’ve encountered.”

“Then did you two face any ghost attacks before coming here?” Ling Mo continued to inquire.

“No,” Murong Yue’s expression turned somewhat peculiar as she replied, “But we did encounter a ghost once… the kind that floats around in white clothes in the sky… but it didn’t attack us, just glared at us and then fled.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t have the Golden Ancestral Mirror?” Ling Mo subconsciously asked.

After all, their party was perhaps one of the few with only three members, making them weaker in terms of numbers compared to other teams from the get-go. If the game system took this into account, it wouldn’t be surprising if they skipped the first round of attacks.

However, Ling Mo seemed to have overestimated the game’s insipidity—

“I am the Golden Ancestral Mirror.” Monica pulled out her small mirror and waved it. “This thing is the primary target for those ghost attacks, right?”

Xia Xinyan understood: “Uh-huh, it seems your team is quite safe.”

“Why?” An Xiao subconsciously asked.

However, Xia Xinyan didn’t answer her question but instead switched to the main topic: “Before we were attacked, we ran into another small team and formed a temporary alliance. Zhang Dayi and the others should be with that team now, but we’re missing two teammates here, so we shouldn’t rule out that team having any ideas. Let’s find them as soon as possible.”

Ling Mo pulled out a walkie-talkie, trying to contact Fatty—this had become an essential communication tool since they entered the dungeon. However, this time, it didn’t work.

The walkie-talkie connected, but only a woman’s eerie wailing came through, a sound that seemed to carry some sort of mental influence, causing anyone that heard it to uncontrollably feel fear.

Sadly, the only one weak in mental strength here was Murong Yue.

She was originally deep in thought, gazing at Monica, but upon hearing that wail, she immediately fell into a daze.

Fortunately, Xia Xinyan quickly noticed this and hurriedly cut off the walkie-talkie connection, shaking Murong Yue back to reality.

Monica, watching from the side, couldn’t help but chuckle: “If you had been even a few seconds slower, she would’ve been possessed… tsk, the mental pollution in this world is serious; those with weaker mental fortitude should be extra cautious.”

Murong Yue took several seconds to come around, and then hurriedly pulled out a bottle of mental stabilizers from her spatial watch and injected herself.

The downside of physical enhancement abilities lay here—while they strengthened the body, they didn’t boost the brain, making one vulnerable against mental attacks.

Ling Mo noticed this and couldn’t help but ask, “Why weren’t we affected?”

“Because your abilities run on brain power,” Monica shot him a sideways glance. “Considering your brain’s strength, if it were to personify, it’d already be a muscle man punching through concrete. How could this level of mental pollution possibly affect you?”

Xia Xinyan: “…”

To be honest, there was no need for such a strange metaphor to explain the role of strong mental power.

After all, in terms of psychic strength, her succubus abilities that relied on such could be said to surpass Ling Mo’s quite significantly. According to Monica’s reasoning…

Tsk.

But Ling Mo understood that: “…that’s pretty good; a fortuitous gain. Alright, let’s find Zhang Dayi and the others. They probably haven’t gone too far.”

The attack they faced earlier was likely due to him possessing the Golden Mirror; while there was another in their group, it was probably unlikely they would split up their attacks simultaneously. Fatty and the others might have gone looking for them after noticing their absence.

But since he had caused such a big ruckus earlier and hadn’t attracted Fatty and the others, they likely faced some trouble as well.

As Ling Mo and the others searched for the others, they exchanged information during this brief moment of safety.

It’s worth noting that while Monica and her companions hadn’t encountered anyone else, they had found a Yin-Yang seal array eye. However, that eye was missing something, probably a disc-shaped item, which was likely what they needed for this main quest.

While Ling Mo was sharing his discovery with Murong Yue and the others, Xia Xinyan lagged a few steps behind and walked over to Monica.

She had a question she wanted to ask: “I’m curious, is this world a real one?”

Previously, Monica had told her that the early dungeons were created by the game and were essentially training grounds, but once players’ abilities had been honed, they would be sent as temporary workers to deal with problems in other worlds, which were mid to late-stage dungeons that were relatively real and much more challenging.

However, Xia Xinyan couldn’t discern whether this PvP-focused dungeon was truly real.

In response to that question, Monica didn’t keep her cards close to her chest: “All the dungeons in this competition are real worlds—though they are all already destroyed worlds.”